Pain.
And then… clarity.
My eyes snapped open. I wasn't lying in the canal anymore—I was standing. Sort of. More like swaying in place, my limbs trembling like I just bench-pressed the entire school building.
Everything felt... weird. My skin tingled. My heart thudded like it had a bass boost. My breath came out in small white clouds, even though it wasn't cold.
And then, I saw them.
Three cloaked figures, all in black. Their eyes glowed like coals, and long, sickle-shaped weapons gleamed under their robes.
Cool if you're in a dark fantasy anime. Terrifying if you're the guy they're sprinting toward.
"Target confirmed," one of them said in a voice like metal scraping bone. "Residual fusion signature detected. Host is unstable."
"Terminate the creature. Dispose of the host," said another.
Terminate?
"Okay, cool, I'm hallucinating again," I muttered. "Probably passed out eating expired noodles."
"You're not hallucinating, dumbass," said a voice inside my head—strained, hoarse, like he was forcing the words through pain. "Those are Hunters. They track down hybrids like me. Like us now."
I blinked. "You're... still in my head?"
"Of course. We're bonded. Congratulations. Your social life is over. Also, we're about to die."
One of the Hunters raised his weapon.
"MOVE!"
My body jerked to the side as a beam of crimson light seared through where I'd just been standing.
"AHHHHHH! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MOVE COOL YET!" I screamed, stumbling into a wall.
"O-Okay, okay, I got you. We're... syncing. Just... ngh, just relax and let me drive for a sec..."
His voice cracked as he said that—shaky, strained, barely holding on.
"Wait, you can drive my body?!"
"Temporary override, b-baby. Let's see what these losers are made of..."
Suddenly, I felt it. The air warped around me. My shadow stretched unnaturally long. Veins of glowing light pulsed across my arms like neon tattoos, and something snapped inside me—a surge, like biting into a lightning bolt.
My legs shifted, muscle tightening unnaturally. Black tendrils coiled around my arms and hardened into clawed gauntlets. My eyes burned with green fire, and when I looked at my reflection in a shattered mirror across the canal—
I didn't see me.
I saw something terrifying. Something cool as hell.
"Ohhhhhh crap. I look badass."
"Focus, showpiece. Incoming!"
A Hunter lunged at me with a blade crackling in red electricity. My body turned and parried instinctively, claws clashing with metal. Sparks flew.
"Wait, I just parried?! I CAN'T EVEN DODGE IN VIDEO GAMES!"
"You're welcome... ngh... Now... punch him—p-punch him hard."
"I don't know how to punch!"
"Yes, you do! Just pretend he insulted your taste in anime!"
With a completely unintentional war cry, I swung wildly. My clawed fist connected with the Hunter's helmet—and the guy flew back like a sack of bricks, slamming into a pole with a metallic BONG!
The other two froze.
So did I.
"…Did I just kill him?" I asked in a whisper.
"Nah. Just gave him a reason... to rethink his career choices."
The other two rushed me at once.
"L-Left! Duck! Backflip! No, don't actually—too late!"
Even while shouting instructions, his voice wheezed like each breath was fire.
I flipped.
Somehow. It was clumsy, weird, and I think I pulled a muscle in six different timelines—but I landed on my feet.
Kind of.
Sort of.
Okay, I tripped on a soda can, fell sideways, and rolled behind a trash bin.
"Smooth," I mumbled.
"It's... part of the plan. Surprise attack. Let's go—!"
I stood—correction, leapt—out of hiding, my hands pulsing with dark energy. I swung both arms forward, and waves of black flame tore across the canal.
The hunters jumped to dodge—but one wasn't fast enough. The flames struck his chest and sent him spinning mid-air.
The last one backed off, visor cracked.
"Retreat. Host sync exceeds expectation. Recalibrate."
They vanished in a blink. Literally.
Gone.
Silence returned to the canal, except for my wheezing.
"D-Did we win?" I asked.
"Technically? Yes."
"Technically?!"
"You didn't die. That's a win in my book..."
I stood there, panting, feeling like a vending machine that just dispensed all the drinks at once.
And then I looked down.
The creature—the black dragon-fox thing—was lying in my arms now. Smaller again. Breathing softly.
"You did good, boy," it whispered in my head, the voice barely a rasp, "Told you we'd survive..."
I gave a weak laugh. "We're going to need a name for whatever this is."
"You already have one."
"…What?"
"We're Gluttons now. That's what your kind are called. And we just made our first kill."
I gulped. "K-Kill?!"
"Okay, okay—knockout. Let's go with that. But I..am..h- hungry..now..."
His voice faded out mid-sentence.
And then—he snored.
Right there in my arms.
I stared down at him, completely dumbfounded.
"…Are you seriously sleeping? After all that??"
No answer.
Only snoring.
"Of course. Yeah. That makes sense. Sure," I grumbled. "I just fused with a half-dead shadow beast, fought glowing-eyed grim reapers, and now I'm carrying a sleeping monster baby that lives in my chest." I sighed, "Well, this guy is wounded and all. He must be tired, I need to treat him up."
I turned around and started walking home.
"Totally normal Monday night. Yup. Nothing to see here. Next thing you know, I'll find out my toaster is a demon and my dog's a wizard."
But little did I know, this called boring and plain life of mine, has just only started getting wild.
Really, this author sure does know how to make a person's life complicated.
---
Above them, perched on a rooftop like a shadow bathed in moonlight, a figure stood watching.
A girl. About his age. Long white hair tied in twin ribbons. School uniform skirt fluttering in the wind. A strange black choker glinting around her neck. And a white unknown creature on her shoulder.
Her crimson eyes watched the canal below as the boy stumbled away, half-carrying, half-dragging the dragon-fox creature up the slope.
She smirked.
"Found you," she whispered.