Shinra Kurogane didn't flinch as the creature's clawed limb slashed toward him. He moved like mist—effortless, controlled, deadly. The curved blade in his hand met the blow with a loud clash, sparks raining onto the pavement.
Renji stumbled back with Yua, still clutching his glowing hand. His heart was thudding like a war drum. Every part of him screamed to run, but something about the name R-00 kept ringing in his mind.
Was that… him?
The creature's broken screen face flickered again.
> [ANCHOR ENTITY DETECTED]
[WARNING: INTERFERENCE – R-09]
Shinra smirked under his mask. "So you still remember me, huh?"
With a swift motion, he pressed a button on his wristband. A pulse of blue light erupted from it, and the creature recoiled slightly, letting out a static-laced screech that made every window in the block shatter.
"Renji!" Shinra yelled. "You want to survive? Then start moving! Now!"
Yua pulled Renji, and they ran—through alleys, across rooftops, jumping over fences and trash bins. Behind them, the clash of metal and electricity rang out again and again, like thunder rolling through the steel bones of the city.
"What the hell is happening?!" Renji shouted, panting hard.
"I don't know!" Yua gasped. "But that thing… it was coming for you."
They finally reached an abandoned subway station, where Shinra was waiting—somehow already there, sitting atop a vending machine, sipping a can of soda like nothing had happened.
"You done panicking?" he asked, tossing Renji a towel.
"WHO ARE YOU!?" Renji shouted, breathless.
"Already told you. Shinra. I'm from what's left of the Ghost Division."
Renji narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is the Ghost Division?"
Shinra tossed the empty can into a bin, hopped down, and pulled off his mask.
He looked young, but his eyes… they weren't the eyes of a teenager. They were soldiers' eyes. Wounded. Empty. Full of too many memories.
"You remember nothing, do you?" he asked softly.
Renji shook his head.
Shinra sighed and walked toward a broken terminal, pushing aside some debris. He opened a hidden panel on the wall and connected a strange device — a tiny cube with a glowing red core.
A hologram lit up. Images. Footage. Screams.
Dozens of children in tanks. Numbers tattooed on their necks. Scientists in white coats watching them suffer. Some kids cried. Some floated, unconscious. Some… were missing entire limbs.
Yua stepped back, horrified.
Shinra pointed to a figure in the center — a boy, barely five years old, with glowing veins in his hands and a faint symbol on his forehead.
> R-00.
"That's you, Renji," Shinra said, his voice hollow. "Or what you used to be. We were part of the same program. Project Mugen. Designed to create perfect soldiers using synthetic spirits and modified genetics. I was R-09."
Renji couldn't speak. The air left his lungs.
"I escaped six years ago," Shinra continued. "You were the strongest… but you disappeared. The scientists thought you were dead."
Renji staggered back. "I'm not a weapon…"
"You were. But something happened. Something that wiped your memory and let you live like a normal kid."
Yua stared at Renji. "That mark on your hand… it's glowing again."
Renji looked down. The symbol — a triangle of interlocking lines — was pulsing. Slowly, rhythmically.
> thump… thump… thump…
It matched his heartbeat.
"Why now?" Renji whispered. "Why did that thing come after me?"
"Because you're waking up," Shinra said. "And when R-00 wakes up, the system sends the others. That thing? It was just a retrieval unit. There'll be more. Stronger ones."
Yua looked between them. "So what now? We hide?"
"No." Shinra's expression turned cold. "We fight."
Renji's eyes widened. "I don't even know what I am."
"Then it's time you find out."
Suddenly, the ceiling cracked — BOOM!
Debris rained down as something tore through the upper level of the station.
Another figure dropped into the platform — this one sleeker, faster, with twin plasma blades for arms.
Its face read:
> [R-06: ACTIVATE ENGAGE MODE]
Renji's pulse spiked.
Shinra drew his second blade.
"Too soon," he muttered. "Renji—get ready to bleed."