The sky was stained gray. Rain whispered against the rooftops of Tokyo as lightning crawled like veins through the sky. At 16, Kazuki Tanaka sat at the back of the class—quiet, distant, almost invisible. He wasn't the kind of guy people noticed. Not the class president. Not the star athlete. Not the boy girls giggled over. He was just… there.
Only his mother and father ever really saw him.
That rainy Monday began like any other. His school was preparing for a science excursion—one of those "fun learning" days teachers liked to pretend were exciting. But for Kazuki, it meant silence, more walking, and pretending not to exist.
The class arrived at an old research facility turned into a museum. Decades ago, it was a hidden government lab—shut down after an unexplained explosion beneath its foundation. Now, it was just another relic for bored teenagers.
Kazuki wandered off on his own, following a hallway most students ignored. A flickering sign read: "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY." Curious and numb to risk, he pushed through the door.
The hallway smelled like dust, burnt metal, and electricity. Below the floor, faint humming echoed upward. Something was still alive in this place.
He didn't mean to fall.
The floor panel cracked under his foot. He plunged through darkness and landed hard inside a hidden underground lab. And there, through broken glass and buzzing wires, he saw it—something glowing, pulsing with white-blue lightning, suspended in a containment chamber. It wasn't armor. It wasn't machinery.
It was a suit. Alive. Breathing. Watching.
Elsewhere in the lab…
Two scientists stood before a rusted console.
"We were fools to make it," said the older one. "It's not a suit. It's a parasite. It chooses its host."
"And we made it too well," the younger whispered. "Faster than light. Smarter than anything. It absorbs time. It doesn't obey physics. And it's corrupted."
They turned to the camera. A flickering monitor showed Kazuki below.
"It's found him."
Kazuki touched the glass.
The lights surged. Thunder cracked above. A pulse of lightning surged downward, tearing through the facility like a scream. The glass shattered.
The suit launched forward like a beast unchained—latching onto Kazuki's chest, wrapping around his arms, spine, and skull. He tried to scream, but the electricity stole his breath.
He didn't black out.
He saw everything.
The lab. The sky. The world. And something else—a light behind him. A white flash that flickered in every shadow. Watching. Moving just as he moved. A presence he couldn't describe.
The suit had merged with his nerves, muscles, and thoughts. He wasn't just wearing it.
He was it.
Later that night
Kazuki lay in his bed, the rain still beating against his window. But he could hear it clearer than ever—every drop, every wind gust, even the crickets two blocks away. His heart beat in sync with the lightning.
And in the mirror… his eyes were different.
Something behind them now watched back.
Weeks passed.
He could run faster than sight. Phase through objects. Heal from broken bones in seconds. But with each use of his speed, a voice whispered louder inside him.
Not a voice exactly.
A presence.
It knew everything. It was him. But not quite.
In his dreams, he saw it—a white blur, humanoid in shape, always standing just behind him. Never moving. Never attacking. But watching.
It felt… familiar.
And worse—sometimes, when he moved too fast, he caught a glimpse of it over his shoulder. Real. Silent.
Back at school, everything changed.
Kazuki was no longer invisible. One day, while walking past the gym, a girl accidentally dropped her books in front of him. He bent down to help.
"Thanks," she said, smiling.
That was the first time he saw her—Aeva Lin. New student. Sharp eyes. Confident but kind. Her laugh felt like sunlight in a thunderstorm. And though they barely knew each other, she started talking to him every day.
He didn't understand why.
But he liked it.
But peace doesn't last.
News reports began flooding in. People killed in the blink of an eye. Footage corrupted beyond repair. Whispers of beings appearing from nowhere—ones that could stop time, bend reality, or tear through dimensions.
And one day, Kazuki found a message carved into his wall. Letters scorched in:
"YOU STOLE FROM US."
He spun. Nothing. But the white blur was there again—just in the corner of his eye. And this time, it moved.
He turned around, heart hammering, and…
Gone.
Episode climax
One night, Kazuki ran.
He wanted answers. He raced to the ruins of the lab. What he found wasn't just wires and dust.
It was a person—no, a thing.
A man in a black suit with burning eyes of lightning. His face hidden by a terrifying mask—more brutal than Zoom's, with jagged lines and smoke-like darkness spiraling from its edges.
The figure tilted its head.
Kazuki froze.
The figure moved—instantly in front of him.
Then whispered:
"You're not fast enough… yet."
It ran.
Kazuki chased it—through cities, through storms, even across oceans. But no matter how fast he moved, the figure stayed ahead. Like a shadow he couldn't catch.
Then it vanished.
And Kazuki stood alone.
Defeated.
For now.
Final scene
At home, Kazuki sat quietly. His parents downstairs. Aeva texting him, asking if he was okay.
He didn't reply.
The mirror across the room flickered.
And in it, just for a second—his reflection moved slower than him.
He wasn't alone.
[To Be Continued…]