The floor was slick with blood.

  The lifeless bodies of Sheichi's family lay scattered, their faces frozen in expressions of terror and pain.

  The warmth already fading from their skin.

  A strangled breath escaped Sheichi's throat. His chest tightened, his vision blurred.

  And then... something inside him snapped.

  "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!, I'll KILL YOU ALL!!!!, he roared.

  Blind, primal rage consumed him. His limbs moved before his mind could catch up, driven by sheer hatred.

  Then he lunged.

  His feet slammed against the wooden floorboards, He launched himself at the Hollowed coming toward him. His hands trembled as he gripped a table leg-the only weapon in reach. With a guttural scream, he swung it with all his strength.

  The jagged wood crushed through the skull of the Hollowed with a sickening CRACK, shards of rotting flesh splatted across the walls.

  Another Hollowed lunged at him, its gnashing teeth snapping inches from his face. Without thinking, Sheichi rammed the wooden stake through its throat, pinning it to the wall.

  It snarled and writhed violently, but he kept pressing-pushing the jagged wood deeper until the creature's frenzied thrashing slowed... and finally stopped.

  But there were more. Too many.

  They swarm on him.

  Gnashing teeth and rotting breath flooded his senses, he didn't flinch.

  Instead, he stared into the void.

  "Just end it..." The thought bled through his mind like a whisper. "I've lost everything... my family... my sister... there's nothing left."

  For a moment, he welcomed it-the thought of being torn apart.

  Maybe it would be easier than carrying the weight of his guilt.

  There was nothing left inside him.

  No fear.

  No hope.

  Only hatred.

  And then... it began.

  The virus that had slithered into his bloodstream from the Hollowed's claws now ignited in a violent storm. His entire body seized and arched, spasming with excruciating force.

  Bone-cracking sound as his spine contorted unnaturally, stretching and twisting. His muscles tore and reknit themselves, malformed shapes, growing sinewy and twisted.

  Veins blackened with corruption bulged across his skin, pulsing with the rhythm of something inhuman. His flesh split open along his arms and back, writhing with tendrils of black and crimson sinew as his body grotesquely expanded.

  Flesh peeled back from his fingers, leaving only bloodied, jagged talons in their place. His nails lengthened into curved, obsidian claws that gleamed with a wicked edge.

  His face contorted into a monstrous visage, the bones of his jaw elongating with a crunch. His teeth sharpened into jagged fangs, and his eyes-once warm and human-flooded with a malevolent blue glow, the irises burning with unrestrained hatred.

  Blackened veins spiderwebbed across his neck and face, merging into a twisted mask of rage. His hair, once dark and unkempt, turned black and white, wild and unrestrained, whipping around his face like a mane.

  The once-human man was no longer there.

  He was Hollowed.

  He was starving for vengeance.

  The Hollowed swarming him backed away, momentarily startled by the shift.

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  The first Hollowed that lunged at him.

  In a single fluid motion, Sheichi's claws ripped through its skull, splitting bone and brain matter in one savage swipe.

  Another lunged at his back.

  Without turning, Sheichi lashed out with a backward swipe, his claws slicing through its torso like paper. Guts and sinew spilled out, splattering the walls in a violent spray.

  The remaining Hollowed screeched and swarmed, but they were nothing more than meat before him.

  Sheichi descended upon them with primal savagery, slashing and tearing through their putrid flesh. His claws sank into their ribcages, wrenching out bones with a feral snarl.

  One Hollowed latched onto his arm, gnawing into his flesh.

  He didn't even flinch.

  He gripped the creature's jaw and ripped it apart at the seams, tearing its head in two with his bare hands.

  Blood geysered from the torn remains, showering his face.

  His claws raked through muscle and marrow, splattering the walls with gore.

  ---

  His breath came in ragged, snarling gasps.

  The Hollowed were piled in a heap of twitching, mangled corpses at his feet, limbs severed, torsos split open, heads crushed into nothing but pulped bone and brain.

  But he didn't stop.

  He couldn't.

  The rage wouldn't let him.

  His claws still tore through the corpses, ripping apart already lifeless husks, driven by a hunger for vengeance that had no target.

  The monstrous, Hollowed creature that was once Sheichi howled into the blood-soaked night-a savage, guttural wail that shook the windows and echoed through the house.

  His voice was no longer human.

  It was a feral, tortured roar, filled with agony and hatred, a sound that belonged to a creature that no longer knew sorrow-only wrath.

  His blackened claws still dripping with the thick, tar-like ichor of the creatures he had just slaughtered.

  The once-pristine walls of his family home were painted with blood, streaked with splashes of red and dark, viscous fluid.

  He stood there—staring at the pile of mutilated Hollowed bodies, his blood-streaked chest heaving with each breath.

  His sharp, inhuman claws twitched, and his vision flickered—his surroundings a haze of crimson.

  Then, his glowing blue eyes shifted—and landed on her.

  On Haruka.

  Her small, delicate frame lay motionless on the blood-soaked floor. Her limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, her once-bright eyes dimmed and vacant.

  Blood still trickled in slow, fading streams from the deep claw marks that had torn through her form. The warmth that once radiated from her was gone.

  Her body was still. Cold. Lifeless.

  Sheichi staggered forward, as he approached her. His breath rasped in his throat. His throat was dry, his mouth parched, and yet…

  The hunger gnawed at him.

  Primal. Merciless. Overpowering.

  The raw scent of blood was overwhelming. It clung to the air, saturating it, heavy and thick.

  He could taste it on his tongue—the coppery sweetness, cloying and maddening.

  His hands trembled as his body leaned forward, instinctively drawn toward her still form. His fingers twitched, his jagged claws aching with the urge to sink into flesh.

  His mouth parted slightly.

  A snarl caught in his throat.

  His vision blurred, but he could still see her slender neck—exposed and vulnerable. The beast within him stirred, driven by a single, insatiable craving. Flesh. Human flesh.

  His jaws ached, the phantom sensation of sinking his teeth into her already cold skin lurching through him.

  He shuddered.

  His claws slowly extended toward her—shaking, hesitant—fingers brushing against the blood-matted strands of her hair.

  His body moved on instinct. His hand clenched slightly, prepared to tear, to rip, to feast.

  For a fleeting moment, the monster in him almost took over.

  Almost.

  Then, he saw it—

  Her face.

  So still.

  So empty.

  Her lifeless eyes stared back at him, hollow and void, the playful sparkle forever gone.

  “Onii-chan… Pleasee…”

  The memory of her voice rang through his mind, piercing through the haze.

  Her trembling cry, her desperate plea, echoed through him—distant but sharp, clear as a blade cutting through fog.

  His eyes widened.

  His claws—mere inches from her body—froze.

  The grotesque hunger that had clouded his mind shattered like glass.

  A jagged breath tore from his throat as he ripped his hands away from her.

  Staggering backward, he clutched his head, his claws digging into his scalp.

  “What the hell am I doing?!” he screamed, his voice a fractured snarl.

  His body convulsed violently—his Hollowed form quaking and cracking as his limbs twisted and snapped, reversing the mutation.

  The blackened claws on his fingers splintered into brittle shards, falling away as his human skin resurfaced. His skin, still bloodied and torn, knitted back together with agonizing slowness.

  With a guttural scream, he collapsed to his knees, gasping and trembling. His once-lustrous black hair, streaked with Hollowed white, fell limply over his face.

  His breathing slowed, rasping unevenly.

  His hands—now human hands again—trembling. No longer claws, but trembling fingers that had almost desecrated the sister he once vowed to protect.

  Sheichi clutched her lifeless body, pulling her into his arms. His blood-soaked fingers tangled in her hair as he buried his face against her.

  “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I—”

  His voice cracked, raw and broken.

  Tears stained her bloodied face.

  But she did not move.

  She would never move again.

  ---

  A faint sound echoed through the house.

  Sheichi’s head snapped up, his eyes still damp with tears. His breath hitched in his throat.

  From the shadows of the room, a figure stumbled into view.

  A man—his features twisted, warped. His skin, once familiar, was now deathly pale, marred with black veins and patches of gray. His eyes were hollow pits of hunger, and his mouth was split unnaturally wide, smeared with drying blood.

  Sheichi’s breath caught in his throat.

  It was his father.

  The Hollowed husk of the man who once patted his shoulder with pride and spoke with warmth was now reduced to a mindless beast, barely clinging to the last scraps of humanity.

  Then, another figure dragged itself into the room.

  His mother.

  Her once-gentle face was twisted in grotesque agony, her eyes clouded with madness. Her frail hands—once so tender—were now twisted into sharp claws.

  He clutched Haruka’s limp body to his chest, trembling.

  “No… please… not you too…”

  But the Hollowed no longer knew who he was.

  They only knew the hunger.

  The creatures lunged—snarling, rabid.

  Sheichi’s eyes burned with fury. His trembling hands gently laid Haruka’s lifeless body on the floor.

  With a broken breath, he gripped the bloodied broken glass.

  His hands shook as he raised the broken glass.

  His father lunged first.

  Sheichi’s eyes hardened.

  He drove the sharp glass into his father’s chest.

  The creature howled, its scream splitting the air. The broken wood sank deep, but Sheichi didn’t stop. With a choked sob, he twisted the sharp glass, driving it deeper until the Hollowed form finally fell still.

  He stood there—panting, shaking, covered in blood.

  Then, his mother lunged.

  Sheichi barely had time to react.

  Her claws grazed his face, but he didn’t flinch.

  With a broken snarl, he drove the sharp glass into her throat.

  She gurgled once.

  And then she was gone.

  The house fell silent once more, save for Sheichi’s ragged, uneven breathing.

  He staggered backward, staring at their broken forms—his hands dripping with their blood.

  The people who once gave him life—

  He had now taken theirs.

  With a shuddering breath, he knelt beside Haruka, pulling her into his arms once more.

  The weight of the silence crushed him.

  The hollow ache in his chest was suffocating.

  His hands trembling, clutching her small frame as if she might somehow come back.

  But she didn’t.

  None of them would.

  He buried his face in her hair, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

  And as the bloodied remnants of his family lay around him, Sheichi—now fully human once more—was left alone in the quiet ruin of his home.