Reiji was sitting on a bench in front of a small shopping area, holding a cold soda in one hand and a paper-wrapped roll in the other. Rain fell steadily over the city, unusual for that ti of year. It wasn't a violent storm yet, but it was intense enough to keep the streets emptier than usual and force most people to move quickly between rooftops and umbrellas.
The sound of raindrops hitting the damp pavent, the lights reflecting off the wet asphalt, and the steam rising from the manholes gave the place a muted, gray atmosphere. The shops were still open, but there was less foot traffic. Nobody wanted to stay out in the rain longer than necessary.
For Reiji, it was perfect.
His black-dyed hair was slightly damp, combed forward to cover part of his gaze, while his brown contact lenses erased any recognizable features. Over that, he wore a dark, waterproof jacket—thicker than usual—partially open over casual clothes.
He blended in perfectly.
'It would have been great if this can had so blood on it...'
His eyes scanned the street again. He wasn't looking at the place.
He was looking at a specific spot.
Across the avenue, in front of a convenience store lit by white neon lights, two n were talking under the shop's small awning. They stood close enough to hide what they were doing between their bodies, using the rain and the light traffic as natural cover.
One of them was holding a small glass vial.
There was sothing wrong about the green liquid inside. Even from that distance, it seed to vibrate slightly, as if it had its own energy compressed within the container.
'It seems the information was correct…'
The Commission had given him information about a possible exchange related to the organization he'd been tracking for weeks—just the ti and place. He'd had to figure out the rest on his own.
He finished the bread without rushing, drank the last sip of soda, and tossed both containers into a nearby tal trash can before standing up casually. His pace didn't change as he crossed the street.
The rain pelted his clothes as he made his way through scattered pedestrians and vehicles that kicked up small sprays of water as they passed. As he drew closer, the details of both n beca clearer.
The older man had white hair, a shrewd smile, and a relaxed posture that stood in stark contrast to what he was handing over. He fiddled with an unlit cigarette between his fingers while gesturing with his hands, explaining sothing enthusiastically.
The younger man received the vial with obvious interest.
The younger man's body showed small bony structures protruding irregularly from his back and part of his forehead. They weren't major deformities, but they were enough to notice that his Quirk was likely related to his body structure.
Reiji narrowed his eyes slightly and activated his Quirk internally, redirecting blood flow to specific areas of his brain and ears to amplify his hearing.
The effect hit imdiately—but not how he expected
Rain hamred every surface around him, interfered with the conversation taking place right before his eyes.
The young man raised the vial before his eyes, observing the green liquid with obvious curiosity. The gray-haired man said sothing quickly and held out a hand, as if trying to explain specific instructions.
Then the younger man opened the vial.
Reiji quickened his pace just a little.
Sothing felt off. The older man suddenly tensed at his companion's movent.
Finally, without warning, the boy raised the vial and swallowed the entire contents in one gulp, as if it were a simple glass of cheap alcohol.
The white-haired man reacted too late.
"What are you doing, you idiot?!"
The white-haired man tried to stop the boy, but there was nothing left to do.
The vial was empty.
Reiji's entire body tensed.
From the other man's reaction, he realized that it wasn't ant to be consud like that. Or perhaps it wasn't ant to be consud at all.
The young man collapsed to his knees and scread.
Convulsions tore through his body almost instantly. His veins began to darken beneath his skin as his muscles swelled grotesquely. The sound of bones shifting beneath wet flesh mingled with the rain and the screams of nearby civilians.
His skin tore, his torso swelled, and the bony structures protruding from his body grew violently, spreading like irregular plates that began to cover his arms, back, and neck.
His eyes vanished, replaced by a silver iris floating in completely black sockets.
People finally snapped out of their shock; after the initial shock, fear set in, and finally panic at the sight of such an unusual scene.
Several people dropped their umbrellas to the ground as they backed away screaming. Others tried to record the scene until the creature roared in pain and smashed the store's display window with a single movent.
Chaos erupted imdiately.
Reiji, however, barely turned his gaze toward the gray-haired man who was beginning to slip away into the crowd, taking advantage of the chaos.
'I can't let him get away…'
The heroes would likely be able to subdue the creature sooner or later. But losing the shopkeeper ant losing one of the few direct connections he had to the entire investigation.
It was as illegal as it was problematic to use his Quirk in public, even if it was to help. And in the rain, with caras, police, and civilians all around, any mistake could end up becoming a disaster for him.
He took just one step toward the man when he heard glass shattering again.
The creature burst out from inside the store, dragging entire shelves and smashing through part of the main fra before crashing heavily onto the wet street. The bony mass covering its body continued to grow irregularly as muscles and tendons twisted beneath the skin as if trying to forcibly reorganize themselves.
There was no control in its movents.
The rain pounded constantly against its deford body, mixing with blood and bone fragnts as the monster roared at nothing in particular.
Panic had now spread throughout the area. People bumping into one another, cars skidding to a halt on the wet pavent, abandoned umbrellas, crying children.
This was way beyond a normal attack now.
Reiji didn't move imdiately. He assessed the situation quickly.
The gray-haired man would escape. But his face was already etched into his mory. Following him now ant completely abandoning all the civilians around him.
And then the creature roared again.
With a completely uncontrolled movent, it struck a nearby lamppost, splitting it in half with relative ease. Sparks flew in the rain as the entire structure began to collapse directly toward a woman shielding a baby against her chest.
She hadn't even seen it fall.
Reiji changed direction abruptly. Everything around him seed to slow down. The damp wind cut through his soaked clothes, and the constant roar of the water drowned out so of the screams around him.
He knew full well that intervening went directly against what he needed to do there. He couldn't use his blood Quirk in plain sight. Not in front of civilians. Not in front of caras. Not in a city where his identity had to remain completely clean.
But two lives were in danger.
And he couldn't just let them die
"Get down!" he shouted as he ran.
The woman reacted at the sound of his voice. She looked up just as the lamppost, still spitting sparks in the rain, crashed down right on top of her. She barely managed to duck, shielding the baby against her chest before the impact.
Reiji arrived a split second earlier.
His body tensed completely as he activated his Quirk beneath his wet clothes. Blood surged through his body hardening beneath his skin like invisible armor. His hands caught the pole just inches from crushing the woman and the child.
The impact shot through both his arms up to his shoulders.
His boots skidded across the pavent before he steadied himself
He clenched his teeth tightly.
He'd lifted heavy weights before. Bars, tal structures, constant training with his regeneration pushing his muscles to their limits. But this was different. The dead weight of the pole, the water pooled on the structure, and the awkward position caused his wrists to creak imdiately under the pressure.
Regeneration kicked in instantly.
"Move…" he said with difficulty.
The woman finally snapped out of it. She crawled backward with the baby in her arms while the pole continued to shake in Reiji's hands.
As soon as they were both out of danger, he turned his body and flung the structure to the side of the avenue. The pole crashed onto the pavent, partially crushing it as sparks of electricity exploded in the rain.
A sigh escaped his lips.
He could feel the muscles in his arms and shoulders rapidly repairing themselves beneath his soaked clothes as the familiar sensation began to grow slowly behind his fangs.
His gaze returned to the creature.
It seed to be calming down.
Or at least stopping its indiscriminate destruction.
'I need to get out of here...'
Although he hadn't openly displayed his Quirk, it was still far too strange. A civilian holding up a pole of that size in the rain while surviving an attack from that creature wasn't exactly sothing easy to ignore.
Then there were the caras. There were always caras. The rain reduced the risk of people recording, but it was never zero.
The problem was that the beast reacted too.
Its head turned slowly.
The silver iris locked directly onto Reiji.
The rain washed away so of the sll of blood… But not completely.
The monster roared.
And lunged straight at him.
Reiji barely had ti to brace himself before the impact. He planted both feet against the wet ground and hardened a thick layer of blood beneath the skin of his arms. The first punch struck his forearms with absurd force.
The sleeves of his coat exploded instantly.
The skin beneath darkened violently from the recoil of the blow as the impact partially drove his feet into the pavent.
The creature's physical strength was monstrous.
The second blow ca imdiately.
The bone-covered arm struck his torso directly and sent him flying several ters through the rain. Reiji crashed through the window of an electronics store, entangled in broken glass and tal fras. The glass exploded around him as his body bounced violently against the floor inside the store.
He felt his ribs crack.
Blood rose in his throat.
Pain exploded throughout his body.
But the mother and the baby were still alive.
The creature advanced slowly toward Reiji in the torrential rain, letting out distorted roars as it watched the boy get back up again amid broken glass and blood.
One of his contact lenses had been lost in the impact, revealing one of Reiji's orange eyes.
Reiji noticed it imdiately and kept that side of his face partially covered as he staggered to his feet. His clothes were visibly torn, and various parts of his body seed to have scrapes that were healing slowly.
'I have to get out of here...'
Even after such a blow, his mind continued to function just as before.
The fact that he didn't lose his mind over his past life was enough to demonstrate Reiji's ntal fortitude in dealing with the pain and stress of the situation.
He sat up slowly as he felt the tissues regenerating beneath his skin. Rainwater stread constantly down his face, mixing with the blood seeping from the corner of his lips.
In the distance, sirens began to sound.
The heroes were coming.
The creature approached slowly this ti, clearly guided by the tallic scent that continued to emanate from Reiji even in the midst of the storm.
If Reiji wanted to escape… He needed to get rid of the creature.
Reiji activated his Quirk again with greater force, creating a much thicker layer of hardened blood beneath all his clothes. The intensified scent caused the creature to fix its focus entirely on him once more.
It wasn't particularly fast.
But it was brutally strong.
When it was close enough, Reiji shifted his body slightly to one side, causing the creature to misjudge his movent. He seized the mont to spin and slide past it on the wet pavent.
And then he felt the pain.
A brutal stab pierced his thigh, rendering any attempt to move futile and leaving him instantly immobilized.
When he looked down, a bone had grown from the side of the creature's arm, piercing his leg completely.
Reiji clicked his tongue in annoyance and pain as the rain continued to fall on both of them.
The creature spun violently toward Reiji, raising its arm covered in bony plates to slam him directly into the ground. The bone embedded in his leg kept him completely immobilized as the pain shot through his entire leg like fire.
He barely had ti to react to the sudden movent.
He clenched his teeth and aggressively activated his Quirk internally, accelerating the blood flow throughout his body at the sa ti. His muscles tensed beneath his wet clothes as the hardened blood reinforced his arms, ribs, and shoulders from beneath the skin.
Then, he spread the blood even further across the outer surface of his body, creating a layer of concentrated blood on his arms and shoulders to try to withstand the attack.
The side effect ca imdiately. An unpleasant urge behind his fangs.
He had no ti to think about it, as the blow landed the very next mont.
Reiji's resistance collapsed almost instantly. The impact shattered part of the hardened blood and hurled him violently against the wet pavent. He felt sothing break inside his body again as blood poured from his mouth, just as it did from the many other wounds inflicted.
Even with regeneration… The damage was outpacing his recovery.
The creature roared again.
The sll of blood was agitating it even more.
"Shit..."
The sirens were already too close.
Police vehicles began entering the avenue as officers evacuated civilians in the rain. Further back, figures moving between buildings clearly signaled the arrival of heroes.
The situation was coming to an end.
And that was worse for him.
He couldn't stay to explain anything. Not with fake clothes, dyed hair, altered glasses, and a body regenerating after taking blows impossible for a normal student.
Just as the creature prepared to pounce on him again, a gunshot rang out amid the storm.
The bullet struck the monster's bony plates without causing any real harm.
But it did divert its attention.
"Leave the boy alone!"
The police had finally intervened.
The creature roared at them as more gunshots began to ring out all along the street.
Reiji seized that exact mont, grabbed the bone piercing his leg, and yanked it violently outward using all the strength his Quirk could muster. The bone tore through the flesh as warm blood spilled onto the ground and was imdiately swept away by the rainwater into the sewers.
The beast, drawn by the blood and distracted by the gunfire, fell into a montary state of confusion.
Reiji stood up with excruciating pain shooting through his leg. The torn-out bone had left an irregular hole in his thigh, and although his body's regenerative abilities were already trying to close the damaged tissue, the process was far from instantaneous, especially considering that this wasn't the only wound his body had sustained.
Every step sent a searing jolt up to his hip, forcing him to shift his body weight as the rain continued to pour down heavily across the entire avenue.
The pain was constant; not only did walking, breathing, and using his arm burn intensely, but had he not endured far worse in his previous life, he would likely have fainted long ago.
He turned toward a side exit of the store just as another shot echoed through the roar of the storm and managed to catch the monster's attention again. At the sa ti, several heroes landed or rappelled down from nearby buildings, quickly spreading out around the devastated area.
"It has a super-strength Quirk and a defensive bone structure! Keep your distance until we immobilize it!" One of the heroes shouted as soon as he assessed the situation.
The professionals understood the danger almost instantly. So managed to notice Reiji, covered in blood and leaning partially against the store's shattered wall, but to the heroes, Reiji was still just another injured civilian. There were more urgent priorities. The creature was still fighting, and the chaos was not yet under control.
A female police officer was the first to approach Reiji in the rain, making her way through debris and damaged vehicles.
"You, wait! You're injured!"
When the woman's hand grabbed his arm, Reiji paused for just a second.
The mont their eyes t, the officer tensed imdiately.
Reiji's frenzied, lifeless gaze drifted involuntarily down to the woman's neck, fixating on the prominent veins there.
The extre use of his Quirk had pushed him too far; his mind was fractured by the need to find a source of blood soon and to escape the place. If it weren't for his injuries bringing him back to his senses, he would have attacked soone.
"I'm fine…" he muttered, looking away with effort.
His voice ca out rougher than usual as he tried to hide his face.
The rain helped quite a bit. The water darkened his clothes, hid so of the bloodstains, and distorted his features beneath the dyed hair that fell plastered against his face. Added to that was the general chaos of the scene. People screaming. Heroes moving about. Patrol cars arriving. Broken glass. Sirens.
But even so… The police were still trying to restrain him.
"You need dical attention, you can't—"
Another brutal roar interrupted everything. The creature slamd into a police vehicle as one of the heroes tried to hold it back head-on. The impact sent debris and water flying across the avenue, forcing several officers to retreat.
Everyone's attention automatically shifted to the fight.
And Reiji took advantage of that exact mont.
He slowly pulled his arm free from the officer's grip and continued walking with difficulty through the evacuating crowd, blending in with other injured people and civilians who were also being directed away from the main area.
His breathing was still heavy, and the pain in his leg threatened to make him lose his balance at any mont, but he kept a steady pace as he moved forward in the rain.
Two more police officers saw him pass by. One even raised his hand to stop him.
But right behind them, a burst of fire lit up the avenue as another hero launched a direct attack on the creature. Chaos once again swallowed up everyone's attention.
Reiji then turned onto a side street.
And only then did he pick up the pace.
His footsteps echoed on the wet pavent as he made his way through narrow alleys cramd with parked bicycles, trash cans, and outdoor pipes typical of Musutafu's oldest comrcial districts.
He pressed on, unconcerned that he could barely stand as rainwater fell from the rooftops, forming small, dirty cascades that pelted his shoulders.
Behind him, he could still hear voices. They were looking for him.
Not because they suspected him. But because he was a seriously injured civilian disappearing from a disaster scene.
That was still a problem.
His leg gave out for a mont as he turned sharply into another alley and had to lean against a damp wall covered in mold and torn-down posters. The regeneration was still working, but it was consuming too much energy while keeping the altered blood flow active.
And the craving for blood was getting worse.
Much worse.
Every person who passed by left a scent that was all too clear, even in the rain.
Reiji clenched his teeth tightly and kept moving forward until he finally found what he was looking for.
A side drainage grate.
It wasn't a clean entrance like in the movies. Nor was it a huge, walkable tunnel. It was a narrow structure embedded next to the back wall of a comrcial building, partially hidden behind soaked trash bags and damp boxes warped by water. Japan's urban drainage system was designed primarily for rainwater runoff and technical maintenance, not for people to walk through comfortably.
Still… It was enough.
He crouched down with difficulty and pulled on the rusty tal grate. The tal barely budged at first, jamd by accumulated gri, mud, and debris washed down by years of rain. He had to use real force to pry it loose as the pain in his leg flared up again.
Then he heard voices approaching from the main street.
"Check the alleys! The injured boy couldn't have gone far!"
"Damn..."
He didn't have ti.
He finally pushed the grate aside, and a damp, rotten, tallic sll imdiately rose from below. Running dirty water. Mold. Rust. Decaying trash.
Without a second thought, he climbed down.
The fall was much worse than he'd expected. There was no functional staircase, only slippery tal supports embedded in the concrete wall. His injured foot slipped as he tried to brace himself, and he ended up falling straight into the drainage channel.
The dirty water ca up almost to his knees. The impact drew a sharp gasp from him.
The tunnel was narrow, damp, and stifling. There was barely enough room to walk upright. Pipes covered in condensation ran along the walls, and the water carried trash, mud, and urban waste through the central channel. The sll was horrible even for soone accustod to laboratories and blood.
Above, hurried footsteps passed near the hatch. Flashlights partially illuminated the slits.
But no one looked down.
Reiji remained completely still for several seconds, pressing one hand against the wet wall as he tried to steady his breathing. The sll constantly brought him back to reality, making him forget his thirst for blood just a little.
The tunnel wasn't lit by anything, leaving him in complete darkness. He checked one of his pockets and pulled out his phone; when he turned on the screen, he noticed it was cracked in too many places but not enough to stop it from working.
It had more than half a battery charge left, so he turned on the flashlight and scanned the tunnel. He now had a way to get around; with any luck, he'd reach a spot close to his ho...
He clenched his teeth tightly and began hobbling forward through the drainage tunnel, gradually moving away from the noise above ground before anyone decided to really expand the search.
***
This chapter ended up way longer than I expected. I honestly even considered splitting it into multiple chapters. But in the end, I decided not to, since I had already cut the following and final scene. I'll give that particular scene much more focus in the next chapter, so you can fully experience everything Reiji went through.
Also, I've been reading the comnts, and apparently, my translation hasn't improved that much. So for this chapter, since it's a major turning point, I tried to learn a bit more English to make the translation more faithful to what I originally wrote in Spanish (my native language).
Still, I honestly have no idea whether I handled the situation well or not.
I don't usually interact with you guys much, but I think this chapter deserves it, so I wanted to ask what you thought about it and whether the translation felt good. Depending on how much better this translation was compared to previous chapters, I'll probably go back and edit every chapter one by one to fix all the pronoun and subject issues (which is basically all of them lmao).
Truthfully, I didn't have many things clear about this chapter until it started raining in my city and suddenly everything clicked in my head. That's why the whole scene happens during the rain. I don't want Reiji's lucky escape to beco a recurring thing, but I genuinely couldn't find another way around it.
Anyway, thank you very much for taking the ti to read this 4,000-word chapter, and especially this small monologue from .
See you in another chapter whenever I have sothing else to say.
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