Sudden Disruption

He was in a café not that far from Zenatori and Akari. It was quite small and had mostly been emptied.

The wooden tables had a nice glossy finish, and the counter showcased several menu items. Bagels, doughnuts, and other pastries were all lined up in a glass display case.

The barista vanished to the back and came back shortly after with another employee.
"Dude," he said to his coworker. "You gotta meet this guy! He's a regular and has to be the funniest guy I've met in a while."

"No way!" the coworker said. "Isn't he the principal of that school of syneji artists?"

"He is?" the barista said. "I didn't know that's how he looked."

"You got me," Hayoku grinned as he raised his arms.

"Dude, you have to let us get a photo!" he said. 

"Of course!"

Hayoku whipped out a peace sign with a bright smile. The two of them took the photo with him, and began to laugh together.

"If you don't mind me asking," the barista said. "What exactly brings you here tonight?" 

"Oh, I'm" His phone suddenly vibrated. "Sorry, let me get this."

Hayoku quickly stood up and checked his phone.
"Student: Naoko Akari. EMERGENCY." 

His smile had vanished.

He instantly tossed 3,000 yen from his wallet and dashed out of the store.

"What just happened?" the coworker said.

The barista looked down at the money on the table.

"His coffee was only 1,000 yen," the barista said.

Akari walked slowly into another room. She was in a similar factory to Zenatori, albeit much smaller. Shards of ice slowly dissipated on the body of a dead automorph.

Akari walked to its carcass and looked over it in disdain.

"You wretched beasts," she muttered in disgust.

Suddenly, her phone began to vibrate fiercely. She took it from her pocket and saw the notifications tab.

"Syneji regiments: Sakatoro Zenatori."

"Hm," she thought. "That's likely a signal."

A sudden strike thrashed her across the building and caused her to crash through the wall. She swung her arm through the air, and the dust quickly dispersed. She saw an eerie beast that looked similar to a human, but had no ears or a nose.

It had four eyes and white-reddish skin. It had several sets of spikes spread across its body, and its mouth unveiled several rows of teeth.

"So this must be the source of the weakened barrier. Given the fact that automorphs are graded just like syneji artists, and judging by the force of that strike, it's likely a C-division. This shouldn't be that hard. I wonder if I can try out my new move I've been working on."

She cracked her knuckles and stared down the beast.

"I'm going to make this fast," she said. "I don't have time to waste."

The monster jogged at her, but Akari instantly flew through the air and struck the beast so hard in the stomach that it bolted back through the wall.

The automorph crashed through sets of conveyor belts and assembly lines.

"Just as weak as I expected."

The beast emerged from the wreckage and jumped at Akari. She jumped back and evaded the blow. She finally reached her palm out.

"Kaigen Series: Frozen Stalactite!"

Six giant spikes of ice came from the ground and struck the automorph mid-air, leaving it suspended. Akari raced quickly toward it.

"Cutting the head off an automorph won't kill it, but my Frozen Stalactite left it immobilized. I'll have to damage it beyond regeneration. Unfortunately, I won't be able to kill it permanently, but I guess I'll try out this new move."

Akari flew to it and palmed its stomach.

"Kaigen Series, Absolute: Iceshower Hurricane!"

What followed was the grotesque monster's bones cracking. Its skin crackled under the pressure, and it turned white as the cold began to freeze it. The pressure released, and a frosty calm filled the room before a powerful wave of cold air quickly destroyed the area. The walls broke open, and the purple blood of the automorph splattered everywhere.

The floor crashed from above, and the building leveled. Dust and smoke momentarily filled the sky. Akari moved the rubble aside and looked for the body of the automorph, but realized it was erased.

"You disgusting creature," she said. "As a living organism, you will be wiped from existence, and I shall be your dead end," she wiped the blood off her cheek and left the devastated building to meet with Zenatori.

A trail of blood trickled from her nose, but she quickly wiped it off.

"I guess I still have things to learn."

Zenatori continued his fight with the automorph. He grabbed it by its neck and then slammed it into the wall. The power reverberated through the room, and cracks began to form on the walls.

The automorph grabbed Zenatori's arm and attempted to rip it off, but he hurled his arm through the air and slung the automorph across the room.

Zenatori's vision went dark again. He hurriedly looked around but was powerfully struck by the automorph. The automorph used its claws and swiftly struck him. He rapidly countered and thrashed the automorph across the room. He then rushed to intercept it, but he suddenly stumbled to the ground.

"Huh..?" he thought.

He looked down and saw a gaping slash on his abdomen. A red river seeped from Zenatori's stomach, and he felt something painful. The burning inflammation spread through his body. 

Zenatori's attention was diverted, and the automorph hit Zenatori with a blow so powerful that he crashed into the wall and formed a divot in it. The wall collapsed on Zenatori, and rubble scattered everywhere.

He managed himself through the sediment and was barely able to move. He only violently shook and coughed up blood. He saw his stomach and noticed a giant, thin cut across it.

"When did it even cut me? I didn't come here to die, so I need to get back up!"

He briefly remembered the entire reason he did this in the first place. It was to save his mom from poverty and become strong enough that they could live well off.

But it wasn't enough.

He put one hand on his knee and got himself up again. He stood off against the beast. He forced himself to raise his fist but fell to the ground again. His body couldn't handle the weight.

"What is this feeling..? I thought I would have a heroic death and be remembered. But now I'm going to die amounting to nothing. This can't be the end! My body won't get up! That's right... I'm still human, and like every human, I have limits. I was useless and weak, and now I will reap the consequences. I should've tried in my life a long time ago; instead, I end up useless, yet again. I feared amounting to nothing, and throughout my life I never took that feeling seriously, until the end came."

Zenatori's vision blurred, and his heart rate slowed. He could only see the outline of that monstrous humanoid figure in the distance. It was the incarnation of pure misery—the dead end to humanity.

Abruptly, a crash came from the other side of the room, and the force of the wind flew across the area, as the doors swung open. The young girl rushed to the scene and yelled.

"Kaigen Series: Frozen Stalactite!"

The automorph suddenly froze right in its tracks, getting entrapped by the power of Naoko Akari. She rushed over, and her eyes were as blue as the ice that formed on the automorph. Zenatori fluttered his eyes one last time.

"A-Akari..?" he swallowed the blood that gurgled in his mouth before his essence devolved into the dark.

It was darkness. The pits of eternity. He couldn't feel anything but felt everything.

"Am I dead..? Is this the afterlife? Wait, if I were dead, how am I thinking?"

Zenatori blinked and awoke in another world. He felt his body, and everything was still intact, including his uniform. He looked over the horizon and saw a spiraling pit of darkness, breaking into the boundless plane. He looked beneath him and saw a black field. Pure darkness leads to nothing but that spiral of eternity.

He patted around his body, and all his wounds were healed.

"What, is this..?"

A dark voice resonated in his mind.

"You are alive, Sakatoro Zenatori."

Zenatori sprang back and looked over timidly.

"Is that, God..? But it said I am alive?" he thought subtly.

"Your soul resonates, your physical body has yet to cease," the enigmatic voice said.

Zenatori could only keep his mouth open. This was clearly beyond his comprehension.

"So you know what I'm thinking? Where am I?" Zenatori yelled out internally.

It was silent. It was deafening. The voice finally called out.

"Divine Nirvana."

After hearing those words, Zenatori could only feel uneasy. Every time the being readied itself to speak, it always made the sounds of echoing souls.

"Then how do I get back home?" Zenatori thought.

"You ask too much of me, young lion. You have yet to falter."

"Young lion? What are you?" Zenatori thought as his mind began to fade. "Wait! What's happening? How did I get here?!"

In a near instant, Zenatori's vision flashed dark. He awoke yet again. Zenatori stood back up and felt throbbing in his head.

"What was I just thinking of? Was it a dream? It's already fuzzy. What even was that..."

He noticed Akari sitting against the wall next to him.

"It seems you've survived," she said.

Zenatori attempted to sit up, but was hit with a wave of deeply burrowing pain. There were small cuts on his lips, scratches all over his body, and the sealed slash on his stomach.

"Ahh-" he winced.

"Wait," he realized. "How did my wound already heal?"

He saw her worried face.

"It must've been Akari," he assessed.

The wounds still lingered, but he managed to sit up.

"Have you called Hayoku?"

Akari stood up.

"Yes," she said. "He's gonna be here in a minute-"

She paused. Zenatori had also felt that something wasn't right. 

A faint cracking sound came from above, and the ceiling tiles shuddered. Something broke through the ceiling and consequently crashed onto the floor. 

Dust and debris flew through the air, and chunks of concrete skidded across the floor. Akari instantly readied herself.
"I'm low on isotonic force now; hopefully, this isn't anything too strong."

"Father said he should be here," a young masculine voice called out.

Zenatori rose from his despair and stared in awe.

"What the world..?" Akari let out.

The figure was another automorph, but was perfectly capable of speech. To add on, it was far too human-like to be a regular automorph. It still had the reddish, hardened scales for its skin, but other than that, it had no other physical abnormalities.

Akari said to Zenatori.

"I checked its isotonic force. It has so much that it's hard for me to see it without overstimulating myself. Given the fact that it's perfectly capable of speech, it's very possible that it can manipulate isotonic force just like humans. We need to hurry out of here-"

Zenatori quickly stood up and prepared to make a break for it. Due to the smoke, it was possible the automorph still couldn't see the two.

The being suddenly chuckled.

"Don't even think about leaving. I'd kill you both in an instant."

The two froze. 

Zenatori shakingly repositioned himself, then let out a sigh.

"What is it you want?" he said.

The beast grinned.

"I want to see what makes you so special, boy." 

"Me?" Zenatori said.

"Yes, you," he remarked. "To be exact, I want to know why Father has such an infatuation with you?!"

"Uh... What?"

"I’ll tell you what. If you manage to hit me once, I’ll withdraw from this fight.”

"That’s unfair,” Akari said. “He only learned about isotonic force yesterday.”

"Huh? Well, that’s interesting. It doesn’t change my statement.”

Zenatori looked at Akari briefly, then got into a fighting stance.

“Perfect,” the automorph sneered. “Now...”

“Look out,” it said.