I wake up to the rhythmic beep-beep-beep of a heart monitor.

  For a brief, blissful moment, I think I’m in a hospital. Maybe all this insanity...

  the glowing...

  ...the kaiju battle...

  ...the alien fleet....

  ...maybe it was ALL just a fever dream...

  Then I open my eyes.

  Glass.

  Walls of glass surround me, floor to ceiling, forming a perfect cube. The only things in the room are a single cot, a small metal table, and a chair. Everything is spotless, sterile, and way too quiet.

  Beyond the glass, I see a group of people in white coats watching me. One of them, a woman with sharp eyes and jet-black hair pulled into a tight ponytail, notices I’m awake and nods to someone behind her.

  A soft mechanical hiss sounds from overhead, and a voice crackles through unseen speakers.

  “Good morning, Yuri.”

  I sit up fast, immediately regretting it as a dull ache spreads through my body. My limbs feel wrong—like I’m too big, too heavy, but still… me. My hands, legs and body all look normal again...but nothing feels right.

  Before I have time to think about it, a man steps forward.

  He’s older, thin, with a crisp gray suit beneath his lab coat and small round glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He gives me a polite smile, but it’s the kind that feels practiced.

  “I am Dr. Bao,” he says. “This is my colleague, Dr. Mina Lynn.”

  The woman - Dr. Lynn - folds her arms, expression unreadable.

  “You gave us quite a show.” Dr. Bao continues.

  I rub my face. “Where… am I?”

  “You’re in a secured observation facility beneath New Tokyo,” Bao says smoothly. “We brought you here after the battle.”

  “‘Brought me here?’” I repeat calmly. “You mean locked me up.”

  Dr. Bao doesn’t deny it.

  Dr. Lynn steps closer to the glass. “You have to understand, Yuri. The world saw what you did—what you became. People are thankful you stopped the invasion, but they’re also very much afraid of you.”

  I feel my chest tighten. Afraid?

  Dr. Bao clasps his hands together. “We don’t know what you are, how you became this way, or if you can even control it. We need to understand your limits. For your safety - but more importantly, for everyone else’s. Do you understand?”

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  I want to be angry. I should be angry.

  But I get it.

  I saw the fear in their faces before I passed out. The military, the soldiers, their fingers twitching over their triggers.

  People don’t know what to do with something that doesn’t fit into their version of reality.

  And right now? I don’t fit.

  I take a breath, clenching my fists before letting them go.

  “Fine. Test me. Figure out what I am...but when you do?” I stare right into Bao’s glasses, my voice low and steady. “You better not treat me like a monster.”

  Bao simply nods.

  The first test is simple.

  Dr. Lynn sits across from me, as close to the glass as she can get without actually being inside.

  She holds a tablet in her hands.

  The guards at each corner are subtle, but its clear they're

  “Let’s start with basics,” she says. “Name?”

  I raise an eyebrow. “You already know it.”

  She doesn’t react. “Humor me.”

  I sigh. “Yuri Takahashi.”

  “Age?”

  “Sixteen.”

  “Family?”

  Silence.

  I shift in my chair, arms crossed. “No one.”

  Dr. Lynn watches me carefully. “No one?”

  I exhale through my nose slowly.

  I am already regretting this.

  “My parents died two years ago. Car crash. I was supposed to go into the system, but…” I shrug. “No one ever came to get me."

  She looks at me - shocked - but trying to hide it. It's clear they aren't supposed to to me...not yet anyway...

  "So, I stayed in my building." I continued. "Got a job at the market downstairs, kept my head down. It was enough to live. Enough to sleep.”

  Lynn frowns slightly but doesn’t say anything. Just types something into her tablet.

  “Friends?” she asks.

  “Not really.”

  “Ambitions?”

  I let out a humorless laugh.

  “I don’t know. Make it through high school? Keep my job? Avoid dying?”

  “Reasonable.” She taps at her screen. “And now?”

  I hesitate.

  What do I want now?

  Because if my life was simple before, .

  The questioning continued for an hour. They asked me about everything from my thoughts on politics, to my favorite breakfast cereals. It became a blur...but before you knew it...it was time for the next set of tests.

  These tests involve activating my abilities...or trying to, at least.

  At first, I’m kind of excited about it.

  Maybe I can learn how to control whatever the hell I became!

  Maybe I can summon the power again, choose when to use it instead of waiting until my life depends on it.

  Turns out...

  ...it’s not that simple.

  Dr. Bao has me run through every method they can think of.

  Meditation.

  Concentration exercises.

  Emotional triggers.

  Physical stress tests.

  I throw punches at reinforced targets, but my fists stay normal.

  I try thinking about the kaiju fight, the power flowing through me, the understanding I felt in that moment - but I get nothing except a headache.

  Hours pass. Still nothing.

  At the end of the day, I slump into the chair in the middle of the test chamber.

  “Maybe I was just lucky,” I mutter. “One-time deal.”

  Bao adjusts his glasses, thoughtful.

  “No, I don’t think so. The energy we measured when you transformed was real—it’s inside you. But something is keeping it dormant.”

  Dr. Lynn watches me carefully. “Or someone.”

  Before I can ask what she means, the alarms blare...

  A deep red light floods the facility.

  The security doors slam shut.

  Dr. Bao and Dr. Lynn exchange worried glances.

  Then I hear it.

  Not from the speakers. Not from any intercom.

  Just like Ultrilotus.

  But this voice is different.

  Deeper. Stronger. Colder.

  “So you are the one who killed my father.”

  The world tilts.

  Images flash in my mind...

  ...an alien throne...

  ...a galaxy burning...

  ...a massive warship moving through space...

  And at the center of it...

  A figure, cloaked in shadows, eyes glowing like molten gold.

  His voice rumbles through my skull.

  “I am Hyper Space God Akunon, son of Ultrilotus. And I will see you buried beneath the ashes of your world.”

  I’m back in the containment room.

  My breath is ragged.

  My pulse pounds.

  Dr. Lynn grabs my shoulders.

  “Yuri—what’s wrong?!” he shouts.

  I look up, my mouth dry....I'm confused....

  “They’re coming,” I whisper. “They’re coming for me...and they're .”

  TO BE CONTINUED…