The first thing Ren felt was the heat.
It radiated from beneath his skin like something alive, something coiled and vast, flexing just under the surface. His fingers twitched. The carpet under him smoked. His heartbeat was a war drum, his breathing shallow, fractured, like his lungs couldn't decide which world they belonged to.
Then came the voices.
"Target is resisting—activate suppression measures!"
The agents surged through the broken windows like shadows made of steel. Their movements were clean, practiced. Their armor reflected the flickering light from the half-glitched transformation crawling over Ren's skin.
He didn't have time to think.
Instinct moved first.
The energy exploded outward from him like a living scream. The shockwave flattened the walls and cracked the floor tiles. One agent was flung across the room like a ragdoll, hitting the far wall with a crunch of armor and bone. The others shifted formation, unfazed.
Behind the couch, Koji yelped, "DUDE! YOUR APARTMENT—!"
Ren's reply was a strangled sound between a growl and a gasp. His right arm had fully transformed now — metallic and alien, pulsing with lines of fractal light. His body glitched between forms, trapped in a tug-of-war between what he was and what he was becoming.
"I SAID I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
His voice echoed with something else layered beneath it. Not human. Not entirely.
Another agent raised a weapon — not a gun, something bulkier, humming with cold light. "Initiating stun—"
But Ren was already gone.
He moved like a fault line tearing open. One blink and he was across the room. The next, directly behind the agent.
One kick — more like a meteor strike than a martial arts move — sent the weapon clattering down the hallway in a shower of sparks.
"Control, he's adapting—Gairex Phase One confirmed! This is not a civilian anymore!"
There was a pause.
Then a voice crackled through their comms, flat and cold:
"Execute Protocol Zero."
Outside — 10:04 a.m.
The sky above the apartment turned mechanical.
Drones swarmed from nowhere, cloaked until now, blinking to life with ominous red eyes. Pedestrians screamed and scattered, unaware of what they were seeing — only that something wrong had arrived.
Far below, in a narrow alley cloaked in shadow, two figures in lab coats watched from behind a van's tinted windows.
"…It's awake," the younger one whispered.
"No," the elder said softly. "It's evolving."
Inside — Forty-Seven Seconds Later
Smoke hung in the air like battlefield mist.
Ren stood in the center of it, barely breathing. The apartment was unrecognizable — wrecked walls, glowing debris, agents unconscious or worse. Some were suspended in midair by crystallized tendrils that shimmered like stars. It wasn't ice. It wasn't metal. It was... alien.
Koji peeked from behind what remained of the couch.
"Ren?! You alive?"
Ren didn't turn right away.
His left eye — the one that wasn't fully human anymore — flared like a dying star.
"We need to go," he said simply.
Cue: The Chase Begins
The moment their feet hit the alley, it was like crossing into a warzone.
Spotlights snapped on.
Drones locked on to their heat signatures.
A massive hovercraft howled into view overhead, its hull gleaming black and red. Its side doors opened, revealing armed agents ready to drop.
A voice, cold and amplified, echoed across the city:
"Ren Hoshino. You are now classified as a Level X Biohazard. Surrender peacefully… or be terminated."
Ren glanced at Koji, half-amused, half-desperate.
"…You brought your scooter, right?"
Koji, panting, nodded. "Never leave home without it."
"Cool. We're stealing it."
Cue: Motorcycle Escape Scene
The electric scooter shot down the alley like a bullet from the gods.
Ren hung off the side, half-armored, firing off unstable blasts of cosmic light with his glowing arm. Each pulse warped the air, sent drones crashing into billboards and power lines. Koji screamed like a man possessed.
Plasma bolts rained down behind them. Concrete exploded. Traffic panicked.
Phones came out. Cameras caught everything.
In under ten minutes, hashtags started trending:
#BoyWithLaserArm
#TokyoGoesFullKaiju
#UniqueUnleashed
Somewhere Else — Much, Much Colder
In a subterranean chamber lit only by data screens and containment tubes, a man watched the footage.
Not tall. Not imposing.
But still dangerous.
His coat was long, tattered, and covered in old burn marks. His eyes reflected the screen's blue light without blinking.
He smiled.
"…So. The Unique awakens."
Behind him, something shifted inside a massive tank — a figure, humanoid but not. Wrapped in wires. Floating in crystal-blue liquid.
Its eyes were already open.
End of Chapter 4