(In Front of the Kurohane Corp Building)
The air was thick with a lethal ice mist. Hundreds of guards, their faces obscured by gas masks, charged out with guttural war cries, only to find themselves scrambling back in terror. As they retreated, they were overtaken by the frost, flash-freezing into jagged human statues mid-stride.
"What is this? the temperature... it's impossible!" one guard screamed, his breath hitching in the sub-zero air.
Beside him, another guard gripped a heavy machine gun, spraying bullets wildly at the silhouette approaching through the haze. "It's an Elite! Rank 2! He's on a rampage!"
Before he could finish the warning, a cold blue light flared behind Kuro's glasses. With a dismissive wave of his hand, the frost surged forward, encasing both guards in solid blocks of ice. The bullets meant for him didn't even reach his clothes; the closer they got, the more frost clung to the lead until they became brittle and shattered harmlessly against his skin. Single-handedly, he had turned an army into a graveyard of glass.
[Narrator: Let's take a flashback so you can understand how we got here.]
(Flashback)
Ayumu and Kuro had just departed from the Examination Building, seated in the back of a sleek, silk-lined limousine. Kuro's eyes were fixed on the digital reports glowing on the screen in front of him.
"Kurohane... I won't hesitate to freeze his heart solid the moment I lay eyes on him," Kuro said, his voice dropping to a dangerous chill.
"Relax," Ayumu answered calmly, staring out the tinted window. "He's just doing what he thinks is right. Sure, there will be consequences, but don't overdo it."
Kuro scoffed, adjusting his glasses. "Last time he did this, almost a thousand people died from the radiation. We had to shut down his entire operation, and now he's started it again. Worse—he did it in secret."
"Nonetheless, he has to be stopped," Ayumu said. "He claims these experiments help him locate the Outsider, but there have been no results yet. He will argue with you, so don't bother trying to use words to reason with him."
Kuro leaned back, a cold, sharp smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he shifted his glasses. "That's fine by me. I've been meaning to let off some steam anyway."
The limousine came to a smooth halt in front of the corporate tower. "I'll focus on the evacuation," Ayumu said, glancing at Kuro one last time. "Stop Kurohane. I'm counting on you."
(Back to the Present)
Kuro stepped through the shattered remains of the main entrance. He reached up and unbuckled his gas mask, tossing it onto the floor with a stoic expression.
"Finally," he muttered to himself, taking a deep breath of the freezing air. "I can breathe normally again."
His eyes drifted upward, spotting hundreds of fresh guards rushing down the stairs, weapons raised. Kuro let out a sigh of mild annoyance. He reached up, tapped the side of his glasses, and gave a lazy wave of his hand.
In an instant, the hallway went silent as every last one of them turned to ice.
(Kurohane Corp – The Top Floor)
Kurohane watched with a tight smile as a massive cannon-like weapon fired a concentrated green ray of light into a swirling portal. A secondary machine, strapped to the side of the main housing, chattered away as it read the mana linkage. The codes it produced were a chaotic mess—unclear and flickering. Every time the green ray struck the portal's event horizon, it emitted a thick, toxic green gas that billowed through the building's chimney, spreading silently over the unsuspecting villagers living in the shadow of the tower.
The heavy double doors of the laboratory were suddenly slammed open with enough force to dent the walls. Kurohane spun around instinctively. His eyes widened as he saw Kuro walking through the freezing mist.
"How? How did you get past all the guards?" Kurohane asked, his voice trembling in confusion.
Kuro's brow furrowed slightly as he approached. "Seriously? If those guys were meant to protect you from me, then you are even dumber than they are."
Kurohane glanced behind Kuro, then back at the Elite's cold gaze. "Are they... are they dead?"
Kuro looked at him with an expression of pure disgust. "I'm mean, sometimes, yes. But I'm not evil. They're alive, don't worry. Now, cut the small talk." Kuro invited himself in, his presence dropping the room's temperature by twenty degrees. "You know why I'm here."
Kurohane's face darkened. "If you stop me now, you're doing a disservice to this city."
Kuro stopped in his tracks, pointing at himself with a look of genuine, eye-opening confusion. "Wait... we are the ones doing bad for the city? You're the one spreading radiation all over the place! This gas can kill, damn it!"
"Don't you think I know that?" Kurohane barked back. "I've warned the people living here to move out more than a hundred times! We've tried begging, enforcing, and threatening—but they still chose to stay!"
"Yeah, maybe that's because this is their home and they have nowhere else to go, you deep shit," Kuro snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "This wouldn't have happened if the Guild hadn't sponsored you. No money, no experiments."
Kurohane looked away, his jaw tight. "I am a member of the Guild, if you didn't know."
"Then act like one! The Guild pays you to approve parties and missions, and you use that money for... what, this? It's toxic," Kuro pointed out, gesturing to the ray of light stabbing into the portal.
"This is our only way to find the Outsider and stop him!" Kurohane insisted, his voice rising to a frantic pitch. "If these portals continue, more people will die! Do you know how many die in a single day because of them? More than a hundred! I can tell because I've lost people to those monsters, too. I have to find the Outsider now while he's weak and kill him. If he's dead, our worries are over!"
Kuro sighed heavily. "Last time you did this, it didn't work. Thousands died from the radiation of your experiments, and you promised never to do it again. What happened? Why start this?"
Kurohane stared at the floor, his anger giving way to a crushing sadness. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his voice steady. "Do you remember Angelica?"
Kuro nodded, watching him with growing confusion. "Isn't she your fiancée? You two planned on visiting her home country outside of Azura City the last time I saw you."
Kurohane nodded slowly, his eyes becoming wet and red. "Yeah. Well... she's dead."
Kuro froze. He took a small step back, the harshness in his eyes softening. Even he knew how much Kurohane had loved her. "Oh."
"Yeah. It was two days ago," Kurohane whispered. "Half of her body was... digested by a monster that crawled out of a nearby portal. Even with those injuries, she clung to the monster in pain, distracting it just long enough for me to board the flight out. I saved myself while she stayed behind in that curse. I ran, God, I ran... but I didn't leave. I knew if I left, I would never forgive myself. I stayed to fight. And how do I fight?" He pointed a trembling hand at the machines. "This is how. I'm this close to finding the Outsider. Even if it's just one more day... I'm begging you. Let me do this."
There was a long, heavy silence. Kuro eventually sat down on a chair in front of the man, letting the quiet hang between them.
"There are hundreds of thousands—millions—of people who have lost someone they love to the portals," Kuro said softly. "What makes you strong is how you change after that pain. I understand you're doing this for her, but if she heard about the lives you were about to take just to finish this... she would never rest in peace."
Kurohane didn't answer.
"Look," Kuro continued, breaking the silence. "We might not be able to find the Outsider yet. But even so, I promise on behalf of the Elites to do our best to keep everyone safe. Well... many of them, at least." He knew they couldn't save everyone.
Kurohane looked up, letting out a small, bitter laugh. "And what happens if the Outsider returns? What if he's stronger than before?"
Kuro stood up, his resolve returning. "Then we would fight. We'll defeat him, and this time, we'll kill him. The Elites have stopped him in the past, and we'll do it again."
"Please," Kurohane scoffed. "The only reason you won was because Zephyros was on your side. You try to bend the story for the media, telling everyone the Elites alone stopped him to keep them feeling safe at night, but you know you wouldn't have done it without Zephyros's magic. and now he's gone. Vanished. No trace."
Kuro's expression hardened. "Zephyros is more of an 'outsider' than the Outsider himself. He didn't belong in Azura anyway. Not to mention, we've gotten stronger. All of us. We can take him on, no doubt."
Kurohane just sighed.
"Before we continue, I have to stop this," Kuro said. He tapped the side of his glasses, and a thick ice mist began to swirl around him, condensing rapidly into a massive, jagged sphere.
"Ice Mist: Wrecking Ball," Kuro said softly.
He flung his hand forward. The massive ball of ice smashed through the laboratory, shattering the machinery into scrap metal and collapsing the weak portal in a flash of light.
"No!" Kurohane cried out, watching the work of his life turn to dust.
"No more," Kuro said, watching the sparks die down. "I had to make sure of that."
Just then, Kuro's phone vibrated in his pocket. It was a call from Ayumu.
Kuro checked the caller ID, seeing it was Ayumu, and pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hello, sir. I have stopped the experiment and I am with Kurohane himself. I'll be bringing him to you, if that's why you called," Kuro said, his voice regaining its professional edge.
"No, not really. On your video button, look at this," Ayumu's voice came through, muffled slightly by a gas mask.
Kuro quickly tapped the screen, and the video feed flickered to life. He saw Ayumu standing in the middle of the village, surrounded by a thick, sickly green radiation that filled the air. The land was like quicksand, soft and unstable. The trees were skeletal, brown and dead, and the houses were literally crumbling into the earth.
"This village is a mess," Ayumu spoke over the feed. "It will need a lot of work before this land is ever fertile again."
As Kuro heard the news, he shot a sharp, icy frown at Kurohane. Kurohane, sensing the gaze, pretended not to notice, staring intently at the ceiling to avoid eye contact.
"And the villagers?" Kuro asked into the phone.
"Everyone is safe. They are all being scanned and treated by the staff outside," Ayumu replied. "But I can't stand in one place for too long, or the ground will pull me in. I'll call you back. Take Kurohane to the Guild; they'll know what to do with him."
Ayumu ended the call, leaving the screen black. Kuro turned to the man on the floor. "You heard him. You're coming with me."
Kurohane sat down firmly on the floor, crossing his arms like a defiant child. "No. And you can't make me."
Kuro pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. He looked away, his ears turning a slight shade of red. "I'll make rice balls... we can stop at my place first. If you want."
Kurohane froze, his eyes widening at the unexpected suggestion. A small, genuine smile finally broke through his grief. "Fine," he said, standing up to follow.
"And if you tell anyone about this," Kuro muttered as they walked toward the exit, "I'll turn you into an ice cube."
(At Oborozaki Village)
Ayumu walked through the ruins of the village, his boots sinking inches into the sludge with every step. His breathing was loud and rhythmic inside the gas mask as he scanned the area for anything he might have missed, searching for any flicker of hope for the land.
Behind him, the shadows of the abandoned houses began to writhe. Huge, insect-like creatures pulled themselves out of the wet concrete and the sinking ground, their chitinous limbs clicking as they began to stalk Ayumu.
Ayumu heard the heavy footsteps behind him, but before he could spin around, a hand erupted from the floor. It clamped onto his legs with supernatural strength, dragging him halfway down into the sinking sand.
A massive, mutated cockroach monster loomed over him, its mandibles dripping with hunger. "FOOD!!" it screeched, pulling back a fist to throw a devastating punch.
Ayumu's eyes widened behind the glass of his mask as the trap snapped shut.
(At Jiro's Room)