The ship rumbled through the sky, the faint whir of engines drowned out by the chaotic symphony of yelling, beeping alarms, and the grainy voice of a news anchor blaring from the old screen bolted to the cabin wall.
"—still unclear where these creatures came from, but Tokyo is under full-scale attack. Citizens are advised to evacuate immediately—oh my god—Masaru, zoom in—!"
The camera shook, now showing a nightmarish landscape: beasts of scale and shadow tearing through buildings, clawing at fleeing civilians, tendrils and wings blotting out the sun. Smoke spiraled into the sky like rising ghosts.
Inside the ship—panic.
"What the hell were you thinkin', huh?!"
Andre's voice boomed. His dark eyes flashed with fire as he jabbed a finger at Jingli Yue across the narrow cockpit.
"You just let him walk off like it was nothin'? And now we gotta save him! You got anythin' to say for yourself, or you just gonna keep sittin' there like some goddamn marble statue?!"
Jingli Yue didn't flinch. Her voice was smooth and cool—the kind of cold that cut quietly.
"Ren made his decision. He asked us not to follow or interfere. He said it had to be him. I respected that."
Andre stared at her, wide-eyed, as if she'd just grown a second head.
"He's a kid, Yue! A kid who's carryin' too damn much on his shoulders!"
His voice caught for a second, the words snagging on something raw.
Jingli's expression cracked, just slightly. Her gaze lowered—not in shame, but in memory. And when she spoke again, her voice was softer. Sadder.
"It wasn't just resolve. It was the fire in his eyes."
She paused.
"Just like his—"
And then—
"SHUT UUUUP!"
Bonk's voice cracked through the room like a whip. The tiny koala pilot, perched atop his custom seat with a booster cushion, was flushed with irritation. His little paws yanked the control yoke, keeping the ship steady as turbulence rocked the fuselage.
"I'm tryin' to fly this metal coffin, and y'all wanna throw hands right now?! Look at Yui—y'all are scarin' the kid!"
All eyes briefly shifted.
In the corner of the cockpit, Little Yui sat curled against the wall, knees hugged tightly to her chest. Her wide eyes shimmered, reflecting the chaos on the screen. She didn't say a word—didn't cry, didn't move. Just watched, silent as a ghost.
The ship crested over a final cloud bank.
And then everyone saw it.
Tokyo.
It was being destroyed.
Buildings crumbled in real time, towers collapsing like wet sandcastles. Fires raged in every district, casting a hellish glow over the skyline. Flying creatures circled like vultures, shrieking, diving, snatching. Ground monsters—towering, horned, tentacled, chittering—rampaged through the streets, hurling cars like toys and rending through crowds like paper.
The news anchor's voice stammered from the speaker, trying to hold together a broadcast even as the footage tilted into pure carnage.
"—this is… this is real, people. We—oh god—"
Silence fell in the cabin, thick and heavy.
Andre's breath caught in his throat. Even Yue, ever composed, narrowed her eyes slightly, lips parting in a rare display of shock.
Bonk adjusted the controls, jaw set tight.
"Strap in. We're goin' in hot."
The engines screamed as the ship dove, cutting through smoke and debris.
"Andre!" Bonk shouted. "Get your ass in the gun pit! We got fliers all over!"
"Say less!" Andre barked, already sprinting toward the rear hatch.
He pulled the release lever and dropped into the belly turret. Fingers dancing over the console, the twin cannons whirred to life with a satisfying hum, and the targeting HUD flickered on—bathing his face in a crimson glow.
The ship jolted violently as something massive streaked past the windshield.
Bonk banked hard, paws gripping the yoke like a lifeline.
"Mother of—dammit, that thing's got more wings than a goddamn buffet!"
"Jingli!" he snapped, eyes darting to the sensor readouts. "That essence source Ren told you to track—still in that tower building?!"
Jingli stood calmly behind him, coat billowing slightly from the draft, eyes locked on her scanner.
"No. It's gone," she said smoothly, without even looking up. "But there's a new essence source there. Same spike HQ detected. It's bigger now. Much bigger."
Bonk hissed through his teeth.
"Fan-fuckin'-tastic."
"So what, we're flyin' straight into the damn eye of the storm?" Andre's voice came through the intercom, punctuated by a sudden THUM-THUM-THUM as he laid into a winged beast with the cannons.
"We gotta go in there," Bonk muttered, threading a path between wreckage and monster silhouettes. "To save the kids—and probably finish this damn thing before Tokyo's just a memory."
A bone-rattling shriek cut the air. A swarm of fliers burst from behind a burning office tower—eyes glowing, wings like serrated blades.
"Contacts incoming!" Jingli called.
"No shit!" Andre barked. "They're all over me! I got wings up the ass out here!"
His guns thundered in rapid bursts, lighting the underbelly of the ship in pulses of red and orange. One creature exploded in a shower of black gore, its carcass raining down on a shattered freeway.
Bonk swerved between two collapsing buildings, tilting the ship nearly vertical.
"GODDAMN IT, I did not go to pilot school for this!"
"I'm rerouting power to the shields," Jingli said, fingers gliding over the console like a concert pianist under pressure.
"Got your left wing clear, Bonk!" Andre whooped. "I'm makin' a hole—go go go!"
The ship jolted—BOOM—as something slammed into the port side. Alarms screamed.
"Port engine's hit!" Bonk shouted. "We're burnin', I can't keep her level!"
Jingli grabbed a side rail. "Stabilizers are failing. Divert power or we're going down!"
"We're goin' down anyway!" Bonk yelled, slamming a fist into the dash.
He twisted toward the back without taking his paws off the yoke.
"Yui! Strap in tight and hold on to your belt!"
In the back row, Little Yui sat pale and silent, her knuckles white as she clutched her seatbelt. Her wide eyes didn't blink. She didn't speak. She just held on—tight.
The ship clipped a skyscraper. The left wing tore free in a shriek of steel.
Outside, the world blurred—fire, metal, monsters screaming past.
"Hold on to somethin'!" Andre roared, still firing as the ground rushed up at them.
The hull tore through a rooftop garden, clipped a monorail column, and finally SLAMMED belly-first into the remains of the elevated station. Steel buckled. Glass exploded. The ship skidded, flipped—once, twice—then crashed to a violent, grinding stop.
Silence.
Smoke curled through the cracked interior. Panels sparked. Steam hissed from ruptured pipes.
Andre burst through the scorched deck door.
"Everyone alive?!"
Bonk groaned from his seat, still gripping the yoke with white-knuckled paws.
"Ughhh… that's comin' outta my paycheck."
"I believe so," Jingli said coolly, brushing soot from her shoulder. "Though I'd prefer not to repeat that."
Bonk blinked at the flickering, sparking ceiling.
"Yeah? Well, let's hope we don't have to—'cause we're officially in monster town."
Andre scanned the wreckage, then spotted Yui in the back—still strapped in, unmoving.
He rushed over and crouched beside her.
"Hey… kiddo. You okay?"
Yui blinked slowly and nodded once, her small hands still gripping the belt.
Relieved, Andre ruffled her hair gently, then stood up.
"Bonk—stay with her."
Then he turned to Jingli and gestured for her to follow him toward a broken service corridor off the deck, out of Yui's earshot. Bonk shot him a glance, then nodded and stayed beside her, mumbling softly to fill the space.
Andre spoke low, once they were clear.
"We have to make our way to that tower. Fight through whatever's between us and it. Save whoever's still breathin', find the source of this mess, and finish the job—and we get those kids out alive."
Bonk peeked from the cockpit doorway.
"Y'all makin' that sound real simple."
"It's not simple," Jingli said, tapping her wrist console. "But it's necessary. The anomaly Ren tracked—it's taken root in the Shibuya Sky Tower. There's a tree now. Massive. Spanning the skyline."
Andre raised an eyebrow. "A tree?"
"Not natural," she replied, tone clipped. "It's probably the source of the essence spike and the reason people are transforming into monsters so rapidly."
"Well, good thing us essence users don't transform, huh?" Andre said.
Bonk crossed his arms. "That tree's big. I saw it from the air—pierces the clouds."
Andre didn't flinch. He walked to the weapons locker, kicked it open, and slung two battered shotguns onto his back. Loaded his belt. Checked his sidearm.
CHUNK.
He racked a shell and turned to the team.
"Me and Yue are goin'. Bonk—you're stayin' here with Yui."
Jingli nodded, already checking her drone system.
Bonk's eyes narrowed. "You're leavin' me here?"
Andre placed a firm hand on his fuzzy shoulder.
"Ain't 'cause I don't trust you. It's 'cause out there? It's hell. You ain't gonna do much in that furball body but get stomped."
"You tryna say I'm useless?"
"I'm sayin' you're the only one who can hold this wreck together—and protect her—'til we're back. Someone's gotta patch the ship and get her out if we don't come back."
Bonk looked like he wanted to argue. Then he snarled, yanked a comically massive war hammer from behind the pilot seat—nearly twice his height, covered in monster blood and bite marks.
He hoisted it like a warning.
Andre blinked. "You swingin' that thing at me, or the monsters?"
Bonk grumbled and slammed the hammer back into its holster with a heavy CLUNK.
"Fine. But if this ship gets eaten, I'm hauntin' you in your sleep."
"I'd expect nothin' less."
Jingli stepped to the main hatch, tightening her gloves.
"Time to move."
Andre cocked one shotgun, cracked his neck.
"Let's make some noise."
The hatch opened with a groan and a hiss, revealing a Tokyo street choked in flame, ash, and monster shadows. The two stepped out—blades and guns ready.
And above it all, like a thorned crown against the storm-red sky, loomed the twisted, pulsing tree—wrapped around Shibuya Sky Tower. Massive. Alien. Alive.
Bonk watched them vanish into the smoke. He sighed, slid back into the chair beside Yui, and muttered:
"Y'all better not die out there. I just mopped the floors."