Curses Unveiled, Awakenings Ignited

"What kind of sick joke is this?"

Riven came to a halt on the road as he caught sight of the police station.

Trembling, he stared at his phone's screen. He had just listened to Azrael's message.

"Damn it." He started running again toward the station. "Why, Kairo? Why didn't you tell us anything? Once this is over, I swear I'm going to beat the hell out of you!" he said, his voice strained and worried.

Riven and Kairo had been friends since childhood, ever since Kairo first moved to the city and joined the Kendo club.

His heart pounded with worry as he gripped his Bokken tightly while running. "How did we even get here? Why didn't you talk to me yesterday? I hate it when you do this," he kept thinking, his legs burning and his thoughts clouded by anger. "As soon as I find you, I'm going to let you have it. Then we'll fix this mess." He glanced around at the bleak landscape.

Tokyo's streets were deserted. Even at night, Tokyo was a city that never slept.

"There's too much silence. I don't like this," Riven thought.

"Oh come on, Riven, seriously? After everything that's happened, silence is normal now!"

Riven stopped in his tracks, tense, scanning his surroundings under the moonlight. "Who's there?!" he shouted, spinning around.

"Shhh! Don't make a sound if you want to live," growled an animalistic voice.

Riven was about to answer back when he heard footsteps. He instantly ducked behind a guardrail.

Three police officers with violet eyes and loaded service weapons moved past, patrolling like they were searching for someone.

He leaned back against the rail. His breath was short, and the adrenaline of danger surged through his body.

"First weird Kairo, then some voice whispering in my head, and now what the hell are these freaks out of a horror movie?"

"If you're gonna call me a voice, at least remember I told you my name is Gremit," the voice grumbled menacingly.

"Whatever you say, but it's not every day a voice talks to me without even showing itself," Riven whispered.

Gremit chuckled. "That's because you haven't accepted seeing me yet, idiot human."

"Hey, who are you calling an idiot?" Riven yelled.

The three officers turned and fired at the guardrail.

The noise stunned Riven for a moment, but adrenaline brought him back. He ran as fast as he could under enemy fire.

"I told you you were an idiot, but not this much of one!" Gremit roared in his mind.

"Yeah yeah, whatever!" Riven snapped through gritted teeth.

He leapt from the road onto a rooftop, safely away from the officers' line of fire. Riven smirked, flipping them the middle finger.

"F*** you, corrupt cops!"

But his triumph was short-lived—within moments, the three agents landed in front of him.

"Azrael wants you. We serve the Keeper of Oblivion," they said in unison.

"Looks like you'll be running again, champ," Gremit mocked.

Riven dashed away once more, agents chasing him across rooftops—unaware that a shadowy figure with scarlet glints was watching from afar, smiling.

---

The sound of footsteps echoed across the sheet metal rooftops, each leap a symphony of metallic clangs and ragged breaths. Riven dashed like a lightning bolt, dodging rusted antennas and old air conditioners, his heart pounding like a war drum.

"Okay, Gremit, if you've got any tricks up your sleeve, now would be a great time to show them!" he shouted between jumps.

"Aww, now you want your imaginary friend to save your ass? How pathetic," Gremit chuckled. "But since you insist..."

A metallic scraping sound, like claws grinding against steel, echoed in Riven's mind. And for a moment, he felt something surfacing from his side. A shape... as if something was trying to emerge from nothingness.

One of the agents fired. The shot grazed Riven's shoulder, scorching his jacket.

"You're about to be obliterated, human," snarled one of the corrupted, loading another round.

Riven landed awkwardly behind an old water tank and shouted,

"If you're gonna do something—DO IT NOW!"

A roar tore through the air.

And for a second, the world seemed to slow down.

From Riven's back, a shadow detached and materialized beside him. It was not human. A humanoid figure covered in black, scaly armor, with shadowy claws, golden draconic eyes, and majestic crimson wings.

It looked like a fusion of dragon and man.

Gremit revealed himself.

"Happy now?" he asked, licking one claw. "These bastards were starting to bore me."

The agents froze in shock. But the hesitation lasted only a moment.

"It's a Remembrance!" one shouted, but before he could aim, Gremit was already on him—slashing his face with a brutal claw swipe that tore flesh from skull.

The second agent, eyes glowing, fired at the creature, but the bullets bounced off its stone-hard scales.

Gremit pounced and landed on the second one, grabbing his throat with a clawed hand and snapping his neck with a crack.

He roared fiercely as he hurled the man's corpse off the rooftop.

Riven stood, jaw slack.

"You… you're real?"

"Bravo, Sherlock. Want a cookie?"

"But I've never… What the hell are you?" Riven demanded, pointing his bokken at the creature.

"Hey, if I wanted to kill you, I would've already." the draconic being said in a guttural voice, staring at him with disapproval.

"Anyway, allow me to introduce myself. I am Gremit, the Spirit of the Draconic Blade of Agony."

Riven couldn't believe it—but he had no choice.

An explosion lit up the rooftops. The third agent had opened fire.

Riven, by instinct, grabbed his bokken. And in that moment, the wooden blade was wrapped in a crimson aura.

Gremit turned, amused.

"Welcome to the club, human."

"Okay, I don't know who or what you are, but let's kick this guy's ass," said Riven, gripping his bokken, its aura flaring.

"Oh, with great pleasure," Gremit growled, ready to lunge at the corrupted officer.

Meanwhile, in one of the abandoned alleys of Tokyo's eastern district, Hayashi Seiji held his azure blade tightly, its edge reflecting the pale moonlight.

"I've never seen a creature like that before... It looked far more terrifying than most I've faced,"

he thought, sheathing the sword and continuing his walk toward the station.

Then a voice came from his belt—specifically, from one of his weapons.

"Of course not, Hayashi. That thing was half-human, half... beast. And it stank too!" croaked Twisty, with her usual tone of drunken sarcasm.

"You're always so poetic," Hayashi replied dryly.

"At least I don't pretend to have class while I kill. Say something, Elcrist!"

Elcrist, the elegant twin, spoke with a calm, British accent:

"Don't waste your breath, sister. That creature was a remnant, a husk. Someone transformed it... and it's different from the corrupted we've seen so far."

Hayashi frowned, eyes scanning biometric readings on his smartwatch for more anomalies.

"So someone's evolving them. The corrupted are changing... but how?"

Elcrist brought up a page on his watch, displaying Azrael's broadcast.

"I don't know... but your student's in serious trouble."

"Kairo…"

But before Seiji could say another word—

A guttural sound behind him.

Hayashi spun around, raising Elcrist.

From the shadows, something was forming. A tall figure, completely cloaked in black-violet robes, tentacles dripping darkness onto the pavement, razor teeth, clawed hands, and a single eye embedded in the center of its head.

"...What the hell is that thing?" whispered Twisty. "That's no experiment."

"I don't know, but it doesn't look thrilled to see us," Elcrist murmured.

"Wow, now you're making jokes too, Elcrist?" Twisty chuckled nervously.

Hayashi raised his twin pistols.

"Focus up, guys. We've got a Shadow."

The creature growled—then roared, charging straight toward him.

Hayashi opened fire. A barrage of perfectly calibrated shots struck the monster's joints, barely slowing it down.

"Twisty, cover fire. Elcrist, aim for vitals!"

"LET'S DANCE—I LOVE THIS!" shouted Twisty.

"Affirmative, Master Hayashi," replied Elcrist with graceful poise.

Hayashi slid under a rusted pipe, reloading mid-move as his pistols began to glow faintly with a bluish aura.

"You're not taking me down that easy, bastard. I'm Hayashi Seiji. And I protect my students."

Both pistols lit up, displaying a digital interface—charging two rounds.

"Twisty, Elcrist—now!" Hayashi shouted.

"Yes, Hayashi," Elcrist replied melodically.

"TIME TO RAISE SOME HELL, BABY!" Twisty yelled.

Energy condensed. Twisty and Elcrist channeled their power through the barrels as the Shadow lunged forward.

Hayashi drove both pistols into the creature's jaw—and pulled the trigger.

"Bang," Seiji whispered.

The twin bullets blasted, obliterating the Shadow's skull. The monster fell, disintegrating into nothingness.

Hayashi turned, ready to resume his path. But then… he felt something.

A whisper. A distant echo.

It wasn't coming from the streets.

Nor the sky.

It came… from inside Twisty.

"Hey… Hayashi?" Twisty said—for the first time—in a serious voice.

"Mh?"

Elcrist fell silent. She had sensed it too.

Twisty stammered, uneasy:

"There's something… inside me. Something that's waking up."

Hayashi froze. The display on his pistols went dark for a moment.

Then—a message appeared.

"Protocol E0-V | Unlocked: Code AZR-009 active. Imminent link."

Elcrist whispered coldly:

"...Azrael has already planted a fragment inside us."

"What do you mean?" Hayashi asked—

—but a wave of pain slammed into his skull.

A piercing, relentless pain.

And then, Seiji saw his smartwatch light up:

"Subject: Hayashi Seiji – Oblivion Curse in Progress – Memory Drift 1%"

In that moment—he understood.

Azrael was close.

Hayashi dropped to his knees, vision clouded.

And in the reflection of his smartwatch—he saw a white mask.

Azrael wasn't just watching him...

"He was already consuming him."

"Subject: Hayashi Seiji – Oblivion Curse in Progress – Memory Drift 8%"