As soon as roll call ended, Akuma slipped out of his chair and mentioned something about needing to go to the restroom. The teacher barely acknowledged him with a nod, casually continuing with the lesson.

  He’d originally planned on sticking around for lunch but found himself once again cutting class. His shoulders felt lighter with each step away from classroom E4. Naturally, he has something much different in mind than the bathroom.

  A few hours later, after Akuma had already left the social cage, lunch started. As for Alice, she was on a mission.

  The cafeteria hummed with the usual lunchtime chaos, but her eyes scanned restlessly for our protagonist. After fifteen minutes of searching, she approached a group of students from Akuma's homeroom.

  “Have you seen Akuma?” she asked, trying to sound casual. She wanted to make it seem like she needed him for something school related.

  The boy she addressed exchanged glances with his friends.

  “Pretty sure he slipped out right after roll call again. Probably halfway across the city by now.”

  Alice sighed, her shoulders dropping slightly.

  “Of course he did.”

  “What's their problem anyway?” Akuma muttered as he kicked a pebble across the sidewalk, his hands jammed deep in his pockets. “Not once have I ever hit someone unless it was self-defense. And yet they act as if I'm some wild animal that just kills anything I look at.”

  He scuffed his shoe against the pavement, his frustration bubbling with each step.

  “I mean, seriously. They treat me worse than the actual delinquents who smoke, drink, and bully other students out of their lunch money! Even the people I've saved from bullies treat me like shit!”

  The weight of frustration pressed against his chest, making each breath a chore.

  He needed something, anything to ease this feeling before it consumed him. No… There was only one thing he needed right now…

  Food.

  That was the answer. Either that or slipping into an alley and kicking the ass of whoever had the misfortune of being there. What am I saying, he wasn't that kind of person anymore. At least, he was trying not to be.

  He rounded the corner and spotted his safe haven.

  “Burger Queen”.

  A small, unassuming diner that had become his refuge over the past year. The neon sign flickered intermittently, as if mirroring his wavering mood.

  As he stepped through the door, the familiar symphony of sizzling patties and the sweet scent of fried potatoes enveloped his senses, instantly soothing his frayed nerves. The bell above the door chimed, announcing his arrival, but none of the staff looked up. They could tell it was him just from the usual, almost routine-like time he came in. Not to mention the sudden shift in the air.

  He approached the counter where a bored-looking cashier waited.

  “The usual?” she asked, already punching in his order.

  “You know it. The Nerd Burger combo.” he confirmed with a nod.

  The Nerd Burger wasn't just a meal to him, it was comfort food that transported him back to simpler times. A time when his only concerns were training on wooden dummies and getting his face dragged through the mud by his father. A time before high school.

  Five minutes later, he sat in his usual corner booth, away from the windows and the family tables.

  The first bite of the burger was pure bliss, a perfect harmony of salt, fat, and umami that exploded across his taste buds. For a brief moment, the judgmental stares and the whispers that haunted him like persistent shadows faded into background noise.

  He reached for his soda only to find the cup empty. Glancing to his side, he saw the pesky apparition, his small lips stained with the obvious hint of cola.

  Realizing that Akuma was on to him, it grinned mischievously.

  “Seriously?” Akuma grumbled. “Even as a hallucination, you're still annoying.”

  The apparition simply shrugged. Then its form rippled like water disturbed by a gentle breeze as it faded from his sight.

  But again. The boy—Akuma Tiryns—was already used to it.

  Akuma polished off the rest of his meal in a blissful silence.

  “Oh yeah. That hit the spot.” he murmured, patting his stomach. “I want another, but better not. Never know when someone might suddenly punch me in the gut.”

  As he gathered his trash, a disturbing sensation crept up his spine. Something wasn’t quite right.

  “It’s strange…” he muttered to himself. “That definitely hit the spot. And I'm calm now… So why do I have this uneasy feeling? It's as if my body can sense some kind of danger approaching...”

  He shook his head, dismissing the thought.

  “Nah, I must be overthinking it.”

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  With that, he left the diner, letting the wind carry his feet.

  It was a hard-fought battle, but Alice had made her decision halfway through history class.

  Finding Akuma was more important than learning about World War II. It’s not as if Akuma skipping class was some rare oddity. Truth be told, there was no real reason for her to go find him. But something about today felt different. An urgency she couldn't quite explain pushed her forward as she slipped out a side door during a bathroom break.

  Her past knowledge led her to check Burger Queen first. She remembered Akuma rambling on about the place one time, keeping her up until two in the morning.

  The entrance of the diner came into view as she rounded the corner. Along with it, him. His hands rested in his pockets, and he had that same old slouched posture that somehow still managed to look confident.

  She exhaled a breath of relief.

  “Akuma–!”

  KABOOM!

  The world shattered before his name could fully leave her lips.

  The explosion ripped through Burger Queen with devastating force, transforming the quaint diner into a fireball of twisted metal and shattered glass in an instant. The shockwave knocked Alice off her feet, sending her sprawling onto the pavement as debris rained down around her. The ground rumbled beneath her, and a cloud of dust and smoke billowed into the sky like a malevolent storm.

  Pain shot through her leg as something heavy pinned it to the ground. Through the haze of dust and shock, she could see a sizeable chunk of concrete trapping her right leg.

  Panic erupted all around as people scattered in every direction, their screams creating a dissonant chorus of despair.

  Akuma was swept up in the tide of fleeing civilians, his footsteps automatically matching the frantic rhythm of those around him. But as he ran, a thought gnawed at the back of his mind. There was something off about the explosion. It felt too precise and controlled. It’s not like he was that far from the restaurant when it exploded, so why wasn’t he blown away or anything?

  Curiosity piqued, he turned back toward the devastation, trying to make sense of the chaos.

  That's when he spotted her through the settling dust. That unmistakable pink hair now matted with grime and blood.

  “Alice?!”

  His heart seized in his chest.

  “W-What the hell is she doing here? Shouldn't she be in class right now?”

  Depravity gripped him as he noticed her leg trapped beneath the debris. She wasn't the only victim caught in the destruction, but she was the only one his eyes were drawn to.

  For a moment, his body tensed, preparing to rush to her rescue. That’s when an unnatural chill slithered across his skin, causing the hairs on his arms to stand alert. Something moved at the periphery of his vision...

  Something that shouldn't exist in this world.

  Atop the smoldering ruins of Burger Queen stood a creature of nightmares.

  What stood there was a grotesque combination of obsidian skin and pulsating crimson streaks that seemed to erupt like volcanoes. Its lanky body easily towered three meters and its small head housed rows of sharp fangs, visible through what could only be described as a perpetual grin.

  Akuma's thoughts screamed.

  (What... the hell is that...? T-That's not an animal. That's not anything from this world.)

  In the next heartbeat, the creature's jaw unhinged with a sickening crack, and a beam of concentrated crimson light erupted from inside.

  The blast struck a nearby office building, vaporizing concrete and steel as if they were made of paper. The structure collapsed in on itself, sending another wave of panic through the streets.

  Akuma knew right away… This monstrosity was the source of the initial explosion. The reason why Alice was in such a dire situation.

  Before he realized it, his feet began moving. Except, in the wrong direction.

  He turned and ran with the crowd, his survival instinct overriding everything else. Fight or flight had kicked in, and against something like that, there was only one sensible choice.

  His thoughts raced as rapidly as the pulse in his chest.

  (I'm sorry, Alice. I wanted to save you, I really did. But there's no way in hell I can beat that thing... Forgive me. No, what am I even saying? What's there to forgive? I-It's not my fault. Why would anyone blame me for running? I'm just minding my business, yeah. Her dying isn't my fault.)

  The justifications tumbled through his mind like a desperate prayer.

  (In the first place, it's not like I'll be rewarded for doing good deeds! In this world, good deeds get you nothing. That's an underlining fact! Sometimes you're better off doing the wrong thing. That's why people follow the crowd. Right now, the wrong thing to do is what's best for me...)

  But even as he fled, memories of Alice invaded his mind.

  Her smile, her laugh, the way she defended him in the hallway, how she looked at him like he was worth something.

  (So why?! Why am I remembering her?!)

  A sharp pain from the back of his head interrupted his spiraling thoughts. A piece of shrapnel, most likely propelled by a panicked footstep, had embedded itself in his scalp.

  Blood immediately began trickling down his neck, warm and viscous.

  As the pain spread through his skull, a memory surfaced. A memory that always seemed to show itself anytime he saw someone in danger.

  It was of a woman from his childhood. Her face was blurred, and her features were indistinct. He couldn't recall who she was, only how important she had been to him. And the words she said to him that day.

  “It isn't right to hate humans, Akuma…” she had told him, her voice gentle yet firm. “If someone doesn't help you, it's only because they're looking out for themselves. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But... if you hate people for being neutral that much, then prove to me that you're any different. Prove to me that you can do a good deed even if it doesn't reward you.”

  In that moment, his right foot froze mid-stride, as if anchored to the earth by an invisible hand. His body screamed to keep running, to do anything it took to survive. But his feet refused the command.

  But why? Why was he hesitating?

  He wasn't a hero.

  He wasn't a savior.

  Those didn't exist in this world, that's what he'd always told himself!

  So why was he now turning back? Why was he pivoting against the flow of the crowd, against the current of his survival instinct? Why was he sprinting toward certain danger, toward the girl who had somehow become his reason to exist?

  The creature's attention fixed on Alice. Perhaps it sensed her fear, or maybe it was drawn to her desperate attempts to free herself. Whatever the reason, the monster's jaw began to unhinge once more, crimson light gathering between its fangs and crackling with malevolent intent.

  Alice's heart pounded against her ribcage as she watched death slowly approach. Her frantic efforts to dislodge the concrete slab had only succeeded in scratching her hands and peeling back her fingernails.

  Having seen the destructive power of the beam, she knew what was coming.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Then, in what she believed to be her final moments, she offered a single, selfless prayer.

  “God... I don't care if you want to take me. Just please... save these people.”

  KABOOM!

  The sound was deafening, the shockwave powerful enough to rattle her bones. She felt the heat of the blast wash over her, a thin layer of her skin turning red.

  And yet... there was no pain.

  “No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to run away from these things…” a familiar voice said above her, strained but steady. “Honestly... why am I like this?”

  Her eyes shrugged open to behold a sight both unexpected and yet what she most hoped for. He stood between her and the monster, his uniform singed and smoking at the edges, but his guard unwavering. He had intercepted the blast somehow, taking the brunt of its destructive force with his arms.

  In that moment, bathed in the scorching heat of the blast, she saw him clearly for what he truly was. The real him hidden beneath the gruff exterior and practiced indifference. She saw the boy she had always believed to be genuinely kind. Sure, he acted like he didn't care at times, but she knew him well enough to recognize it as the armor he wore to protect himself from a world that had never understood him.

  Within this cruel and unforgiving world, he is the only person she knows that will run toward danger simply to save someone else. He is...

  A true hero.