The world returned to me slowly, like sunlight bleeding through a fogged window. Pain lanced through my body, but it was tempered by a strange, almost alien warmth that seemed to emanate from somewhere inside me. I was lying in the ruins of a city street, the remnants of the beast sprawled across the asphalt like broken furniture. Its lifeless body twitched once, then fell completely still.
I staggered to my feet, though part of me—some fragment of what had overtaken me—was screaming in hunger for more destruction. The horn on my forehead had grown slightly, more pronounced than before, jutting upward like the prow of a ship slicing through a crimson ocean. My arms ached, my vision swam, and yet, I had survived. Somehow, the fragment had kept me alive.
"Jin! Status report!" Reo's voice sliced through the haze of adrenaline and bloodlust.
I turned to see him rushing toward me, his combat suit scorched from residual energy, yet entirely intact. Hana followed closely behind, her expression a mixture of worry and frustration. I wanted to explain, to tell them what had happened, but words failed me. The fragment inside me—it was not me. It was something older, something sharper, something that hungered for blood and power.
"Alive… barely," I croaked. My voice sounded alien even to my own ears.
Hana's eyes narrowed, scanning me from head to toe. "You're… different," she said carefully, not stepping too close. "Your resonance—it's off the charts. Eight percent is already extreme for a human. But this…" She gestured to my horn, which pulsed faintly with energy. "I've never seen anything like it."
The weight of her gaze pressed down on me. I wanted to laugh. Different? I wasn't just different—I was a vessel for something ancient and terrifying, and I had no idea how much control I truly had.
The Aftermath of the Battle
The city had been spared, technically, but the destruction left behind was staggering. Buildings were flattened, cars twisted into unrecognizable shapes, and streets were littered with debris. A few civilians had been caught in the initial chaos, though many had been evacuated thanks to the association's preemptive protocols. Still, the taste of destruction and power lingered like iron on my tongue, and I hated myself for feeling exhilarated by it.
Reo led me back to the association headquarters, keeping a careful distance as if I might snap at any moment. Hana, however, stayed at my side. She had always been stubborn, determined, and capable of grounding me—even when we were kids running through Sendai's abandoned temples, imagining we were slayers in a world much like this one.
"I need to know," she said quietly as we walked, "what happened out there. You can't just… turn into some monster and expect me to understand."
I clenched my fists. "I don't know. It—it's like something else was controlling me. I could feel it inside my head, guiding me… giving me strength. But I barely… I barely felt like myself."
Hana stopped walking and looked directly at me. Her silver-blue eyes were sharp, unflinching. "Then we'll figure it out. Together. But Jin… if you let that thing take over, even for a second, people could die."
Her words sank deep. I had seen power before, but this… this was something different. The fragment of Laplace that had fused with me was ancient, monstrous, and intelligent. It wasn't just raw strength—it was tactical, patient, and ruthless. Every move I made during the battle had been calculated, and yet, I had no memory of most of it.
Training for Control
Over the next few days, the association put me through a series of resonance and mental control tests. Reo, ever the patient instructor, attempted to measure my senjutsu output and see if I could separate my own energy from the fragment's. Hana, of course, was always at my side, pushing me while protecting me from overexertion.
The first exercise was simple in theory: channel your senjutsu into a small shard of demon core and ignite it. Most officers could barely maintain focus for more than a few seconds without overloading their bodies. I lifted the core, feeling the fragment stirring beneath my skin. My hands glowed faintly as energy poured into the shard—far more than it could handle. It shattered, scattering molten fragments across the floor.
Hana's eyes widened. "That's… impossible. You just—"
I shook my head, exhausted. "It's not me. I can't… control it."
Reo's expression was unreadable. "Then you need to learn, Jin. You will control it, or it will control you. The monster you faced—the one you killed—there are stronger ones out there. Much stronger. And if Laplace's fragment decides to awaken fully… we won't be able to stop it."
The weight of his words settled like a stone in my chest. I had been thinking about power, about fighting, about proving myself. But now, every thought carried a dangerous undercurrent: what if I'm not the one in control anymore?
Shadows of the Past
Even in the quiet moments, the fragment whispered. In the middle of the night, I would awaken to visions of the Haen Era, of Laplace's wars, of entire cities burning beneath his hand. I could feel his thoughts—strategic, cruel, brilliant—overlapping with my own. Sometimes, I would catch glimpses of him moving through my own memories, as if testing my reactions, learning my limits.
The other officers began to notice. Whispers followed me in the corridors: "Did you see Jin today? His aura… it's like a demon's." Some were scared. Some were curious. And some… watched me like a predator sizing up a rival. I realized then that being strong in the Slayers Association meant more than fighting monsters—it meant navigating fear, envy, and loyalty among humans who could match you in ambition, if not yet in skill.
Hana never wavered. She trained with me relentlessly, pushing me to integrate my power rather than resist it. Together, we learned the first fragile steps of harmonizing my senjutsu with Laplace's fragment. I could feel the horn's growth slow during training, the energy stabilizing just enough to let me function without falling into a berserk rampage. But the moment my focus wavered, the fragment's hunger surged back, and I knew that control was temporary—fragile, like holding water in your hands.
Rumors of a Greater Threat
While I struggled to master the fragment within me, intelligence reports arrived at the association: sightings of dragon-class monsters, special-rank anomalies, and unexplained energy surges reminiscent of the Haen Era. The council speculated that Laplace's fragments might not be entirely dormant, that residual energies from his existence could be stirring across Japan.
I couldn't tell them the truth. Not yet. I couldn't risk anyone knowing that a fragment of Laplace was inside me. And yet, a quiet dread settled over me: the first battle had only been a taste. The world had survived his reign once, but now… fragments of his essence were alive again.
And I, Jin Takasaki, was the vessel.