The stinging scent of antiseptic was the first thing to hit Faiz's senses, long before he even opened his eyes. His head felt impossibly heavy, as if a block of solid concrete were pressing down on his skull. His last memories were a fragmented blur of blood, pure rage, the echoing laughter of D.Faiz, and the sickening crunch of Yori being slammed into the arena floor.
Slowly, Faiz forced his eyelids open. The blinding glare of white neon lights made him wince.
He wasn't in his apartment, and he certainly wasn't in the ruined underground arena. This was a sterile white room—a medical isolation ward. There were no windows, only a heavy steel door and the rhythmic beeping of medical monitors next to his bed.
"The Princess finally wakes up."
The voice came from the corner of the room. Faiz turned his head, his neck stiff. Standing there, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, was Fuse Saki. She had swapped her combat gear for a casual blouse under a white lab coat, but the suffocating, intimidating aura she carried hadn't diminished in the slightest.
"How long was I out?" Faiz asked, his voice raspy. He tried to sit up. His entire body ached, but strangely, the sharp, agonizing pain of a life-or-death battle was completely gone.
"Two days," Saki replied casually, strolling closer to his bed. "Our medical team was baffled. Your injuries... they healed at a rate that is biologically impossible for a baseline human. Yet, your cellular structure shows no signs of permanent Akuma mutation like the rest of us Hunters. You are quite the puzzle, Faiz Adriansah."
Faiz scoffed, massaging his temples. "I'm a biology researcher, Saki. My body is my own private laboratory."
"Don't lie to me." Saki's gaze sharpened instantly, her friendly smile vanishing without a trace. "Yori is a Vice-Captain. Her body is as hard as diamond when she uses Saxum. But you... you shattered her defense with your bare hands. And that aura. That eye..."
Saki leaned in, her face just inches from his. "Who—or what—is inside you?"
Faiz stayed silent, meeting her probing stare. Deep within the recesses of his mind, he could feel D.Faiz sleeping but vigilant, like a gorged beast waiting in the shadows.
"That is none of your business," Faiz replied coldly. "I came here to research Akuma. Not to be your test subject."
Saki let out a soft chuckle, though there was zero humor in it. "Stubborn. I like that. But you're forgetting where you are, Faiz. This is the 5th Division Headquarters. And I..."
SWISH!
Without a fraction of a second's warning, Saki flicked her wrist. A transparent blade of kinetic energy—her Kiru technique—formed at her fingertips. It sliced the air a millimeter past Faiz's neck, neatly cleaving the pillow he had just been resting on cleanly in half.
The hair on the back of Faiz's neck stood on end.
"...I am the person who could sever your head before you even blink," Saki whispered. "Now, activate it. Show me the power of 'The Half-Crazy Human.' I want to see it with my own eyes in a controlled environment."
"I refuse," Faiz shot back, his eyes locked onto hers. "I can't just control it on a whim. And I have no intention of destroying this room."
"Oh, don't worry about the room. These walls are lined with a titanium alloy mixed with Fortress-type Akuma cells. As for your control..." Saki took a step back and raised her hand high. A pale blue aura ignited around her right arm, far denser and sharper than anything she had used in the forest.
"If you don't bring it out to protect yourself, you will die here. Simple as that."
Faiz's eyes went wide. "Are you out of your mind?! I just woke up!"
"Survival instincts are the best triggers!"
Saki swung her arm down. Kiru: Vertical Cleave.
It wasn't a bluff. The attack was lethal. Faiz could see the violent distortion in the air hurtling toward him. His brain screamed in panic. Adrenaline flooded his nervous system.
(D.Faiz: "Lend me your body again, Weakling!")
The voice echoed from within. Faiz's left eye flared with agonizing heat. The world slowed to a crawl. The fear evaporated, instantly replaced by a boiling, chaotic rage that burned from his chest to his fingertips.
"RAAAGHHH!"
Faiz roared, launching himself off the bed just as Saki's invisible blade annihilated the mattress, carving a clean trench into the solid concrete floor beneath it. Faiz landed in the corner of the room, panting heavily. But his posture had changed. He wasn't standing like a rigid academic anymore. He was hunched, feral, ready to pounce.
When he looked up, Saki was grinning from ear to ear.
Faiz's left eye had transformed. The pupil was a slit, the iris a blazing blood-red, and the sclera pitch black. Dark, jagged veins pulsed at his temple.
"Excellent..." Saki murmured. "There it is."
Faiz—or the entity currently sharing his consciousness—didn't bother talking. He lunged. His speed was explosive, the floor cracking under the sheer kinetic force of his takeoff. He was no longer a researcher; he was a living projectile.
He threw a devastating right hook aimed straight at Saki's face.
But Saki was the Captain of the 5th Division. Her combat experience eclipsed his feral instincts. With a minimalist tilt of her head, she let Faiz's fist breeze past her cheek, the wind pressure alone violently tossing her hair.
"Too wide," Saki critiqued.
She pivoted, sweeping Faiz's legs out from under him. Before he could hit the ground, she unleashed a horizontal Kiru slash straight at his exposed chest, using thirty percent of her maximum output.
CLANG!
The attack connected dead-on. Faiz was blown backward, slamming into the reinforced steel wall with a deafening crash.
"Get up," Saki ordered. "I know that wasn't enough to kill you."
Right on cue, Faiz slowly pushed himself out of the dented steel. His hospital gown had been shredded to pieces across his chest, exposing his bare skin.
Saki narrowed her eyes, observing the point of impact. "This is..."
There was no blood.
A slash that could cut through solid steel should have cleaved a normal human down to the ribcage. But on Faiz's chest, there was only a thin, white scratch. His skin wasn't regenerating—it had simply refused to be cut in the first place.
"Invulnerability..." Saki breathed, her eyes shining with scientific fascination. "It's not hyper-regeneration like a Beast-type Akuma. Your molecular density drastically increases when this mode is active. It's like you're wearing an invisible suit of armor."
Faiz didn't care about her analysis. He charged again, far more brutal this time. He ripped a broken steel IV pole from the rubble and hurled it like a javelin. Saki deflected it with a flick of her wrist, dicing the metal into scrap in mid-air.
Faiz closed the distance, swiping at Saki's throat, but she moved like a ghost, gracefully dancing around his savage flurry.
"You're strong, Faiz. Unbelievably strong," Saki said, backflipping off a wall to avoid a sweeping kick. "But your technique is absolute garbage. You fight like a street thug who was just handed the power of a god."
She raised both hands. "Kiru: Omnidirectional Barrage."
Dozens of invisible wind blades descended upon Faiz. He crossed his arms over his head.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
It didn't sound like flesh being sliced; it sounded like swords striking an anvil. Faiz was pushed back with every hit, his hospital pants reduced to tatters.
He still felt pain, of course. The invulnerability didn't negate kinetic transfer. His bones rattled, and his muscles screamed from the impacts, deep purple bruises already blossoming across his skin.
(D.Faiz: "Crush her! Tear her apart!")
"SHUT UP!" Faiz suddenly screamed, his voice a distorted overlap of his own and D.Faiz's raspy growl.
He stopped dead in his tracks. His right hand violently gripped his trembling left arm, as if he were physically restraining himself. His left eye flickered violently, the blood-red color fading to dark brown, then snapping back to red as the two minds warred for dominance.
Saki lowered her hands, her blue aura dissipating as she watched the internal struggle.
"Faiz?" she called out softly.
Faiz dropped to his knees, gasping for air. Cold sweat poured down his face. "Enough... Saki. That's enough."
Slowly, the red light in his eye faded entirely. The suffocating, murderous intent that had filled the room vanished, instantly replaced by a wave of crushing exhaustion. Faiz planted both hands on the floor, trying to catch his breath.
"Incredible," Saki said, her tone now filled with genuine awe. "You managed to forcibly retake control mid-transformation. Usually, a subject with a mutation that potent loses their mind permanently if it's forcefully triggered."
She walked over and offered him a hand.
Faiz stared at it for a second, then swatted it away gently, forcing himself to stand on his own shaking legs. "I am not your lab rat, Saki. Don't ever do that again."
"Sorry, sorry. But I needed empirical data, right? Just like you," Saki smirked, throwing his own words from the car ride right back at him. "But the results were highly satisfactory. You have terrifying potential, Faiz. It would be a total waste to keep you locked behind a microscope."
She walked toward the heavy steel door, gesturing for him to follow. "Come on. I have something to show you. Consider this the official Headquarters tour."
Faiz grabbed a relatively intact piece of his ruined shirt to drape over his shoulders, limping after her. His mind was racing. He had just realized something huge: The Half-Crazy mode gave him near-immunity to bladed weapons. That was vital new data. As a biologist, he was equal parts horrified and utterly fascinated by his own anatomy.
They stepped out of the medical ward into a wide, metallic corridor. The subterranean 5th Division Headquarters was vastly larger than Faiz had anticipated. Personnel in black tactical uniforms hurried past, carrying thick dossiers or strange, heavily modified weaponry.
A few of them stopped in their tracks, staring at Faiz with a mix of awe, fear, and suspicion. Gossip about the rookie who had hospitalized a Vice-Captain had clearly made its rounds.
"Faiz-kun!"
A soft voice broke through the murmurs. Jogging down the hall from the cafeteria was Osada Yuki, balancing a tray with a bottle of water and some wrapped bread.
"Thank goodness you're awake!" Yuki beamed, her relief palpable. "I was so worried when the medical team brought you in completely covered in blood! How are you feeling?" She offered him the water. "Here, you must be dehydrated."
Faiz stared at her blankly. He wasn't used to this kind of bubbly friendliness, especially not in a subterranean base full of monster assassins. Still, his throat was painfully dry.
"Thanks," he muttered, taking the bottle and downing it in three massive gulps.
"You're welcome!" Yuki smiled, though her expression quickly shifted to nervousness. "Oh, by the way... um, be careful. Yori-san just got discharged from the recovery ward too."
Before Faiz could even process the warning, a familiar, heavy presence approached from the end of the hall. Igarashi Yori was walking toward them. Her right arm—the one she had used to pummel him—was wrapped in a thick, heavy cast. Several dark bruises still mottled her face.
Yori stopped dead when she saw Faiz.
The corridor instantly fell dead silent. The other Division 5 members quickly plastered themselves against the walls, desperately trying not to get caught in the crossfire between the two monsters.
Faiz met Yori's gaze dead-on. There was no fear in his eyes, just a cold, analytical stare. He waited for the screaming, or the inevitable sucker punch.
Yori ground her teeth together, her jaw muscles twitching. Pure, unadulterated resentment burned in her eyes. But she didn't swing. With a harsh click of her tongue, she violently averted her gaze and stormed past him, intentionally slamming her uninjured shoulder hard into Faiz's chest as she walked by.
Faiz didn't budge a single inch from the impact.
"She's still throwing a tantrum. Natural, I suppose," Saki commented lazily, as if watching a toddler stomp away. "Her pride as a Vice-Captain was pulverized by a 'newbie' who isn't even an official Hunter. You'll have to forgive her ego; it's as dense as her rocks."
"I don't care about her ego," Faiz replied, tossing the empty water bottle into a nearby bin. "As long as she stays out of my way, I won't have to break her other arm."
Yuki let out a highly stressed, awkward laugh. "A-Ahaha... Faiz-kun is certainly... blunt."
"Come along, Faiz. To my office," Saki instructed.
They left Yuki behind and took an elevator to the top floor of the bunker. Saki's office was a stark contrast to the sterile halls; it was a sprawling mess of scattered classified documents, glowing monitors displaying maps of Yokohama, and a massive mahogany desk.
Saki threw herself into her oversized leather chair and tossed a sleek black box onto the desk.
"What's this?" Faiz asked.
"Open it."
Faiz popped the lid. Inside sat a heavy black metal ID card etched with a gold chip, a silver badge depicting a wolf clutching a sword—the emblem of the 5th Division—and a set of apartment keys.
He picked up the ID card.
NAME: FAIZ ADRIANSAH
RANK: SPECIAL RESEARCHER & C-CLASS AKUMA HUNTER
DIVISION: 5 (TACTICAL SPECIALTIES)
Faiz frowned. "Akuma Hunter? The original agreement was that I would strictly be a field observer."
"Situations change, Mr. Scientist," Saki said, leaning back and steepling her fingers. "First of all, you've already demonstrated combat output on par with a Vice-Captain. Letting a tactical asset like you sit on the bench is bureaucratic stupidity."
She picked up a sealed folder and slid it across the desk.
"Second, and more importantly... Tadulako University and the Japanese Research Institute have reached a consensus. The Akuma genetics inside your body are an extremely dangerous anomaly. If left unsupervised, the Japanese government will officially classify you as a 'Hazardous Akuma.' That comes with an immediate execution order, or life in a black-site isolation cell."
Faiz's eyes narrowed dangerously. "So, this is a threat."
"No. It's a mutually beneficial partnership." Saki offered a sly smile. "As a registered Akuma Hunter under my jurisdiction, you are protected. Furthermore... you gain Level 4 Clearance. Do you know what that means?"
Faiz froze.
Level 4 Clearance. In the academic circles he had researched before coming to Japan, that was the holy grail. It meant unrestricted access to the classified archives detailing the origins of the Akuma, high-tier tissue samples, and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities that civilian scientists couldn't even dream of.
It was absolute paradise for a mad scientist.
Saki watched the hesitation in his eyes melt away. "You want to study the Akuma, right? You want to know why they appeared. How they mutate human DNA. And most importantly... you want to figure out exactly what 'D.Faiz' really is. Am I wrong?"
Faiz stared at the black ID card in his hand. He remembered why he had crossed the ocean in the first place. Knowledge. The truth. And to reach the absolute pinnacle of that truth, he needed subjects, raw data, and unlimited resources.
Becoming a Hunter meant he would be on the bleeding edge of the war. He would watch the Akuma evolve in real-time, face to face, not through a microscope lens. The risk was his life, but to a man who had already 'died' once, his life was cheap currency.
Faiz snapped the box shut and shoved it into the pocket of his torn pants.
"When do I start?" he asked coldly.
Saki threw her head back and laughed, the sound echoing off the walls. "That's the spirit! Welcome to the 5th Division, Faiz Adriansah. Hell just got a brand new demon."
She stood up, walking over to the glowing map of Yokohama.
"Take the rest of the day to rest. Tomorrow, your real hell begins. You might be durable, but your technique is trash. I'm going to train you until you cough up blood, or until you can manage to land a hit on me without relying on your crazy alter-ego."
Faiz turned toward the door. Just as his hand touched the handle, he paused, glancing back over his shoulder.
"Saki."
"Hm?"
"Thanks. For not killing me when I lost control."
Saki smiled—a genuine one this time, completely devoid of her usual killing intent. "Don't flatter yourself. I just didn't want to break my shiny new toy."
Faiz let out a quiet scoff, a faint, almost imperceptible smirk touching his lips as he stepped out into the hall.
Walking alone through the quiet, metallic corridor, Faiz raised his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists.
(D.Faiz: "You sold our soul to that sly woman, Faiz...") the voice mocked.
"Shut up," Faiz muttered under his breath, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. "We didn't sell our soul. We just bought a VIP ticket to the main show."
Faiz Adriansah, the biology grad from Palu, was now officially a monster hunter in a foreign land.
And his true research had only just begun.