Inside a small convenience store, the overhead lights flicker eerily, dimming and brightening in a rhythmic hum. The shop owner, perched high on a ladder, struggles to replace the dead bulbs.
"What a bizarre night..." he mutters, pulling his jacket tighter around his chest. "Why is it so freezing? The forecast said it would be 19°C tonight, but it feels like it's -20°C in here..."
He lets out a heavy cough, screws in the final bulb, and sighs with relief. "Ah, finally done with the last one." He carefully climbs down the ladder and glances to his right.
Deep in the aisle, a boy stands in front of the shelves, examining some bananas. His long, messy black hair falls over his face, completely obscuring his eyes, and a pair of large headphones covers his ears.
The owner calls out sharply, "Hey, kid! Wrap it up! I want to close early; it's getting unnaturally cold in here!"
The boy doesn't flinch, completely lost in his music. The owner strides over and abruptly slaps a hand onto his right shoulder.
The boy flinches violently in pure panic. He recoils, instantly throwing his hands over his face as he lowers his head defensively. Trembling slightly, he pulls his headphones down to his neck, revealing his eyes behind a pair of glasses. Thick, dark circles bruise the skin beneath his eyes, mapping out weeks of absolute exhaustion.
"Y-yes, sir... what did you need?" he asks in a hushed, timid voice.
"I told you to hurry up because I'm closing the shop! Move it!" the owner barks.
"Right... I'll just grab what I need and head out immediately," the boy replies quietly, shrinking back.
He quickly gathers the bananas, a few apples, and some snacks, rushing to the counter to pay. The owner scans the items in rapid succession. "Alright, that's a total of ¥6.480. Cash or card?"
"Cash, sir," the boy whispers, handing over the money.
The owner slides the change across the counter, and the boy begins packing his groceries into plastic bags. But before he can even turn his back—
The massive glass storefront shatters into a million flying shards as a violent shockwave detonates through the shop.
Keal's body comes hurtling through the window, propelled by a terrifying, incomprehensible velocity. He breaches the perimeter and streaks inside, missing the boy by mere centimeters. The boy freezes in absolute shock, his fingers locked tight around his grocery bags. The owner drops to his knees, screaming at the top of his lungs in a mix of terror and blinding rage:
"Where the hell did you come from?! Look at what you did to my shop, you absolute lunatic?!"
Amidst the raining glass and billowing dust, Keal slowly begins to push himself up onto his feet...
"Sorry for wrecking your shop," Keal spat, coughing through the dust. "But right now, I'm kind of in a bad spot."
Before he could even finish his sentence, an invisible force slammed violently into his chest, launching him backward into the metal shelves. Groceries, tin cans, and shards of glass rained down around him. Keal struggled to his feet, wiping blood from his lip as his eyes darted around the ruined interior, desperate to locate his attacker.
"Zanryū!" Keal roared, his voice echoing off the cracked walls. "Stop hiding like a damn coward! Show your face and fight me head-on!"
In a split second, Zanryū manifested directly behind him. His fist, glowing with dense, crackling energy, drove straight into Keal's spine. The sheer force of the impact blasted Keal straight through the concrete wall, sending him crashing into the store's small restroom.
Zanryū smirked, stepping through the wreckage. "Oops. My bad."
He lunged forward, aiming a lethal, heavy kick at Keal's head. Keal jerked his head aside at the very last millisecond, causing Zanryū's boot to crash straight into the ceramic toilet bowl, shattering it into pieces. Seizing the opening, Keal grabbed Zanryū's trapped leg with both hands and forcefully hurled him back out into the main store.
Zanryū crashed heavily into the remaining shelves, obliterating what little merchandise was left.
The shop owner fell to his knees, tearing at his hair and screaming in absolute despair, "No, no, no! My life's work! My shop! What the hell are you lunatics doing?!"
Zanryū turned his head, casting a cold, arrogant sneer at the man. "Shut up, old man. I don't want to hear another word out of you. I can buy your pathetic little shop back with twice its value whenever I feel like it."
Near the counter, the exhausted boy stood completely frozen, paralyzed by shock, his knuckles white as he gripped his grocery bags, unable to comprehend the superhuman violence unfolding in front of him.
Keal threw a devastating punch toward Zanryū's jaw, but the air rippled, and Zanryū vanished into thin air once again, turning completely invisible.
"Damn it!" Keal cursed, spinning around blindly. "Fuck you and your 'Invisible Soul' ability!"
Without warning, Zanryū ambushed him out of the void with terrifying savagery, delivering a barrage of strikes that literally propelled Keal out through the broken storefront and onto the asphalt outside. Keal rolled across the street, taking heavy hits from every angle as the unseen adversary relentlessly battered him.
The civilians crowded on the streets gasped in absolute horror, backing away from the chaotic scene.
"What the hell is going on?!" a woman screamed, pointing at the asphalt. "That creepy guy is getting the living hell beaten out of him by something we can't even see!"
"What is happening to our city?!" another man panicked, looking up at the glowing perimeter. "What are these giant barriers?! Are we trapped inside?!"
Keal scrambled to his feet and bolted down the street, drawing the fight away from the immediate area. Spotting a red fire hydrant on the curb, he brought his boot down with a heavy, crushing strike, snapping the iron valve clean off.
A massive, high-pressure geyser of water erupted into the night sky, raining down violently across the concrete.
As the heavy water drenched the street, an unmistakable silhouette began to form in the downpour. Ripples broke through the curtain of water, and footprints pressed visibly into the puddles. Zanryū's movements were perfectly exposed.
Keal's bloodied grin widened. "Got you, motherfucker. Thanks for letting me finish this. Have a safe flight."
Channeling an immense wave of kinetic energy directly into his leg, Keal pivoted on his heel. His boot cut through the torrential spray at blinding speed, packing the full weight of a high-caliber detonation. He unleashed a devastating, colossal strike:
(GIGAS KICK)
The impact hit with the force of a localized bomb. Zanryū was blasted clean out of his invisibility, his body folding in half as he was thrown dozens of meters through the air. The raw kinetic shockwave followed him, carrying him directly into a tall residential building across the avenue.
When Zanryū's body collided with the structure, the concrete literally exploded.
The sheer force of the impact ripped a massive, jagged crater clean through the central core of the building. A massive, jagged crater has torn completely through the central core of the building, leaving a hollowed-out void that penetrates the concrete skeleton.
The edges of the gap are heavily fractured, with shattered drywall, pulverized bricks, and mangled steel rebar hanging exposed into the empty space. Debris rains down onto the streets below as the surrounding floors groan under the shifted weight.
Keal panted heavily, trying to catch his breath. "I've always been better than I was yesterday... But damn it, why does it always feel like my best isn't enough? That idiot has been my rival for years. He keeps trying, but he always fails."
He looked down at his trembling hands, his expression softening. "Once I'm done here, I need to go check on my grandmother. I miss her so much... I just hope she's okay. She lives in an area that's completely unfit for her."
Suddenly, the weather shifted violently.
The entire environment was instantly drenched in an intense, eerie crimson hue. The blood-red light dominated the sky, reflecting ominously off the concrete buildings and the wet asphalt. The atmosphere exuded a sense of pure apocalypse, an overwhelming threat, as if the heavens themselves were on fire or choked by heavy, menacing clouds. The air grew thick, stagnant, and perfectly still—turning Tokyo into a desolate, dystopian wasteland where the weather felt completely unnatural and deeply foreboding.
Keal shuddered, rubbing his arms. "What the hell just happened...? I don't feel good in this weather. Why?"
He turned his head to the right, and his voice died in his throat. He froze, completely paralyzed by shock.
The devil stood there.
Its skin was a dull, pale, ashen gray—devoid of any life, perfectly matching the suffocating darkness of the altered world. Its torso was grotesquely thin and warped. Across its abdomen yawned a horrific, open wound—a hollow cavity exposing a pitch-black abyss within its body. Its limbs were unnaturally long and skeletal; its arms hung all the way down to its feet, ending in elongated, hooked fingers. Its legs were equally stretched and spindly, somehow supporting its massive, disproportionate frame. The creature's head was small compared to its body, smooth and completely bald. Its face was a twisted nightmare, dominated by disproportionately large, unblinking eyes and a mouth stretched wide into a terrifying, jaw-splitting grin that bared rows of sharp teeth.
Right in front of them, the Devil tilted its head back and swallowed a child whole.
"What the..." Keal whispered, his blood running cold.
A few meters away on the sidewalk, the exhausted, black-haired boy with the glasses stood frozen, having stepped out of the ruined store to see the chaos. He stood in absolute, dead silence. He had witnessed everything
The Devil's Lullaby
Slowly turned its head, its grotesque, wide grin locking onto both Keal and the black-haired boy.