Mission starts.
Haku was falling upside down. His hands tied by a rope.
His body twisted midair—controlled chaos—and he landed heel-first on the skull of an alien creature directly beneath him. The force of the impact cracked his shoulder. But the sickening snap of the thing's neck came first. A sharp, clean break. No hesitation. No mercy.
The creature's body twitched once, then went limp.
The timer had hit zero.
"Faster," he whispered.
Kaito, the little kid.
His thoughts locked in. Nothing else existed.
He sprinted through the mud—no, tore through it—the world reduced to blur and heartbeat. Still tied. Still burning.
Kaito. Only Kaito.
He leapt, smashing his forehead into the robot's face. Sparks burst. The robot staggered, its grip tightening.
Haku twisted, surged upward with a brutal knee into the clamp. It lurched.
One more—he flipped, both legs scissoring into its neck like an execution.
Metal cracked. Kaito dropped.
Haku caught him on his shoulder.
"MOMO! TAKE HIM!"
Still mid-motion, he turned and booted the shattered robot head like a cannonball.
It soared. It crashed into the reinforced glass above.
The enemy team jerked back, one of them shrieking as the sparking metal head embedded itself halfway through the protective panel.
"Faster."
Momo roared and caught Kaito, dragging him to safety.
Next. Mey.
Every step was pain.
His lungs begged for air. Vision blurring, sweat and blood mixed across his forehead. Limbs lead-heavy.
He reached the lake.
She was beneath the ice, fading.
He dropped to his knees.
Mey. Just beneath the ice. Her fingers curled. Motionless. Her eyes wide, emptying.
He slammed his fists down.
Once. The pain shot up his arms like lightning. Skin split.
Twice. Bone screamed. The surface didn't budge.
"BREAK!" he roared at the ice.
Nothing.
Again. Again. Again. Again.
His knuckles tore open. Blood spread like ink over glass.
He saw her. Her lips parted underwater. A last bubble escaping.
He couldn't hear anything. Not even his own screaming. Just the word looping inside him like a curse:
"Break, FASTER."
He hit it again.
A crack.
A whisper of hope.
He didn't stop. His fists now pulp, his lungs on fire, throat raw from shouting.
He slammed down with everything left. The ropes on his wrists—soaked in blood—snapped under the sheer force of his will, shredded from the torque of his breaking body.
Then—
CRACK.
SHATTER.
The ice exploded beneath him. Water surged.
He reached in, grabbed Mey's arm, pulled with everything left in his ruined muscles.
She burst out, coughing, gasping, blinking against the cold light.
He hauled her out with a soundless cry, still shaking, barely upright.
"MOMO!!" he screamed, voice shredding. "GET HER!!"
He didn't even look as she stumbled toward the red circle.
All that mattered—
Next. Lina and Mia.
He ran.
Everything ached. The air tore through his lungs like fire. His arms now free, his fingers twitching with raw pain.
Above—
He saw them. Tangled in thick webs, their small bodies still struggling.
Below—
A spider. Massive. Slithering through the brush like a nightmare. Its eyes glowed crimson. Venom dripping from its fangs. Eight legs moved with eerie grace.
It crept closer to the girls.
He moved.
He leapt.
It turned—too late.
Haku hit it mid-torso. It shrieked, legs flailing.
It tried to pull him in.
He bit.
He sank his teeth into one of its eyes. Black goo exploded into his mouth.
He didn't gag.
He kicked off its head and slammed his shoulder into the tree.
Once.
Twice.
SNAP.
Rope broken. Hands free.
He ripped a branch from the tree and jammed it into the spider's remaining eye. It convulsed.
Gone.
He climbed. Lina was calling for Mia, her voice cracking.
He slashed through the web. She fell into his arms.
Higher.
Mia. Paralyzed in fear.
Another spider. Fast.
He flipped from one branch to another, slamming his feet into the second spider mid-air. It crashed into its own web, stuck.
He grabbed Mia.
He dropped. Branches snapped. Leaves burst around them.
"MO—!"
Momo was there. Took them.
"FASTER."
Haruka.
She was pale. Breathing shallow. Poisoned.
He ran, again. Debris flying.
Another alien grabbed his ankle—he didn't even look.
He twisted, flipped, stomped its skull into mud and kept going.
He slid next to her. "Don't stop."
"I—I can't…"
"You will."
He carried her in both arms. Staggering. Gritting his teeth.
Momo and Mey ran up. Took her.
He coughed blood.
Last. Peter. Yuki. Sora.
Peter was being dragged—his body limp, one arm swaying uselessly. A towering robot clutched him like cargo. Efficient. Mechanical. Cold.
Further ahead—
The grandmothers, cornered. A grotesque creature, half-crab, half-human. Its mouth was wrong. Too wide. Smiling.
Its claws clacked like clock hands.
It enjoyed the hunt.
Above them, behind the reinforced glass—
The enemy team leaned forward.
"What the hell is that kid made of?" one whispered.
"Is he—bleeding from his eyes?"
"He should've collapsed already… Why is he still moving?"
No one had an answer.
Because Haku wasn't stopping.
He moved.
Straight for Peter. No hesitation. No strategy. Just speed and pain.
The robot turned, its optical sensor flashing red.
Too late.
Haku hit it like a bullet. Shoulder-first. Metal screamed as they slammed into the arena wall. Sparks erupted.
The robot reeled.
Haku ripped Peter's belt free mid-motion. Twisted it around the robot's neck seam—tighter, tighter. Sparks flew. Wires snapped. He pulled like his own life depended on it.
Snap.
The robot convulsed. Dead.
Peter gasped, blinking.
"Run."
No thanks. No time.
Haku was already gone.
Eyes locked on the crab-thing creeping toward the grandmothers.
It lunged—
Yuki stood in front of Sora. Brave. Shaking.
Haku got there first.
The crab-thing lunged. Yuki screamed.
Haku threw a rock straight into its jaw. It turned. Saw him. Charged.
He didn't dodge.
He ran straight at it, jumped—vaulted over—letting it follow him as he howled and waved. Away from them.
It skittered after him.
Then stopped.
He turned. Sora's cane—he grabbed it off the ground.
It leapt.
Haku met it mid-air, screaming, driving the cane through its mouth.
It collapsed.
He grabbed both grandmas.
Dragged them.
No grace. No pause. Just speed.
They entered the circle.
The barrier shimmered.
Safe.
Trial: Over.
The scoreboard flashed blank.
No stats. No numbers.
Just silence.
Haku collapsed.
Face down. Mud clinging to his skin. Steam rising off his back. His whole body trembling.
Timer: 17 seconds remaining.
Everyone stood inside the circle.
No one spoke.
Mey stared at his unmoving form, unable to blink. Momo's fists were clenched so tight his knuckles had turned white.
Kaito sat in the mud, eyes wide, lips parted. "What… what did he just do?"
Lina shook her head, stunned. "That wasn't real… That couldn't have been real."
Mia hugged her sister tight. "Is he… okay?"
The grandmothers said nothing.
Haruka cried quietly.
Even the enemy team behind the glass chamber had fallen completely silent.
One of them whispered, "What the fuck is that kid?"
The others just stared.
Not one of them laughed.
The timer hit zero.
A soft chime echoed.
Trial: Complete.
But the silence stayed.
Because something had changed.
No one said it aloud, but they all felt it.
They had just witnessed something impossible.
And his name was Haku.