The tactical van's tires screeched against rain-slicked asphalt as it fishtailed around a burning police barricade. Nakato gripped the overhead strap, his knuckles bleaching white as the vehicle mounted the sidewalk to avoid a collapsed billboard. Through the reinforced windows, downtown Shinjuku burned with unnatural black flames that slithered up buildings like living serpents, their smoke coiling into the stormclouds above.
"Thermal shows the Titan's reached Stage Three metamorphosis!" Daisuke shouted over the roaring engine, his glasses reflecting the holographic display floating between his hands. The blue light made his already-pale face look ghostly.
Hinako tightened her dagger harness with a violent tug. "English, nerd!"
"It's turning into a walking extinction event!" Ryujin growled from the driver's seat. His golden eyes found Nakato's in the rearview mirror. "You feel that heat in your veins yet, kid?"
Nakato didn't answer. The Stylus Regulator clamped around his wrist pulsed like a second heartbeat, its crimson sensors flashing warnings as his blood temperature spiked. Every breath tasted like scorched metal, every blink left afterimages of flames behind his eyelids. The alleyway fight had been nothing—this was like standing at the epicenter of a volcano.
The van plowed through a debris field, sending empty cars screeching aside like toys. As they rounded the final corner, the Titan came into full view—and Nakato's stomach dropped into his boots.
Three stories tall and armored in jagged black plating, the monstrosity stood at the center of the government plaza, its six segmented legs stabbing through concrete and steel alike. Where a head should have been, three concentric rings of teeth gnashed hungrily, dripping saliva that ate through pavement like acid. But most horrifying was the symbol glowing malevolently on its chest—a black sun pierced by nine spears.
The same symbol from his parents' note.
"Formation Delta!" Ryujin barked as the van screeched to a halt. His cleaver sword slid from its sheath with a sound like a guillotine dropping. "Hinako, flank left! Daisuke, barriers! Nakato—"
The Titan's scream liquefied the air. Nakato barely registered Daisuke slamming his palms together before a blue energy dome erupted around them—just in time to intercept a volley of molten shrapnel from the Beast's back vents. The impacts sent spiderweb cracks racing across the barrier.
Hinako was already moving, her boots kicking up sprays of rainwater as she zigzagged toward the Titan. Her daggers left glowing trails in the air as she carved destabilizing runes into its armored legs. "Weak spot's at the third spinal joint! Nakato, light it up!"
Nakato's body moved before his brain could protest. The regulator screamed as black fire exploded from his palms, the recoil launching him into the air like a missile. The heat should have vaporized flesh and bone, but instead it felt like coming home—like his cells had been waiting eighteen years for this moment.
The Titan sensed the threat. Its barbed tail whipped around with terrifying precision—
"DOWN!"
Something collided with Nakato's ribs, tackling him clear as the tail smashed through concrete where he'd been. They hit the rooftop hard, Hinako's elbow digging into his diaphragm.
"Try not to die before the fun starts," she growled, rolling off him. Her left sleeve hung in tatters, revealing a gash that wept black-tinged blood.
The building shook violently. Nakato looked up to see the Titan's maw widening above them, its rings of teeth spinning faster, closer—
**BOOM.**
Silver lightning intercepted the attack. Ryujin's sword met the Titan's teeth in a shockwave that shattered every intact window in a three-block radius. The veteran hunter strained against the beast's strength, his boots grinding through rooftop gravel.
"Enough warmups!" Ryujin tossed Nakato a glowing crimson vial. "Drink it!"
Nakato caught the vial instinctively. The liquid inside pulsed like a living thing, casting hellish reflections across his face.
"That's Blood Crest serum," Daisuke panted through the comms. "It'll triple your Style's output but—"
"It'll cook you from the inside out in twenty minutes," Ryujin finished grimly. The Titan's claws scraped against his sword with a sound that set Nakato's teeth on edge. "Unless you end this first."
The Titan's body began pulsing with unstable energy. Buildings trembled as seismic cracks raced through the plaza.
Daisuke's voice turned shrill. "It's overloading! If that thing detonates—"
Nakato unstoppered the vial and drank.
Fire.
Not just in his hands—his entire nervous system became a fusion reactor. His vision whited out, then resolved into hyper-clarity. He could see the individual platelets in Hinako's bleeding arm, count the fractures propagating through Daisuke's failing barrier. The Titan's movements slowed to a crawl as his enhanced perception processed every variable at once.
There was no fear. No hesitation. Only the mission.
Nakato moved.
Flames jetted from his palms like afterburners as he scaled the Titan's thrashing form. The creature's claws swiped at him in slow motion, each miss gouging craters in its own armor. Five stories up, the weak point pulsed—a glowing red fissure between plates that steamed in the rain.
Nakato's right arm ignited in a swirling vortex of black and crimson fire. The heat warped reality itself, bending light around his fist as he reared back.
"PYRE FALCON!"
The punch landed with the force of a meteor strike. For one terrifying second, Nakato felt his fist sinking into something warm and wet and far too organic—then the world exploded.
Light.
Heat.
Silence.
Nakato came to on his knees in a smoldering crater. The Titan was gone, reduced to ash that fell like black snow across Shinjuku. His regulator lay in pieces around him, its sensors melted to slag.
Then the pain hit.
Every nerve ending screamed as the serum's price came due. Nakato collapsed onto his back, his spine arching as his organs staged a mutiny. Distantly, he heard Hinako screaming for a medic, felt Ryujin's calloused hands pressing against his sternum.
Golden light flared—a warmth completely alien to Nakato's own fire. The pain receded just enough for him to drag in a shuddering breath.
Ryujin's face swam into view, his expression unreadable. "Don't thank me yet." He held up a charred fragment of the Titan's armor—one bearing the Kage Corps insignia beneath layers of corruption. "This wasn't summoned. It was manufactured."
Daisuke limped over, his tablet displaying a DNA analysis. "And get this—traces of Shadowborn genetic manipulation. Project 'Phoenix.'" His voice dropped to a whisper. "Primary donor: Dr. Akira Mazui."
Nakato's blood turned to ice. His father's name.
Before anyone could react, a Kage Corps medic skidded to a stop beside them, clutching a sealed envelope. "For Nakato Mazui. Recovered from the government building's ruins."
The paper inside bore two lines in painfully familiar handwriting:
*"If you're reading this, they've found you.*
*"Your fire isn't a curse—it's the only thing that can stop what's coming."*
No signature. Just another piece of the puzzle slipping into place.
As dawn broke over the smoldering ruins, Nakato's remaining wristband sensor beeped once, displaying a notification that sent a fresh wave of dread through him:
**[BLOOD CREST ORIGIN DETECTED: 99.8% MATCH - MAZUI BLOODLINE]**
Somewhere in Tokyo, the Eclipse Cult was regrouping.
And Nakato's flames burned hungrier than ever.