Time shattered into fragments.
I sank into an abyssal unconsciousness.
Then I woke.
I remember a white room.
Maia lying on a gurney beside me, bound with nanometals.
I was in the same condition.
Excruciating pain throbbed through my body.
Nanometal shocks.
"You decided to wake up?"
Her voice, though weak, still sounded audacious.
A muffled laugh escaped me.
"Ah, chica…"
My voice sounded strange in the room.
A gag tightened my jaw.
"What kind of mierda is this?"
I looked at her.
Her face was uncovered.
"Why am I the only one wearing this thing?"
Maia gave a slight smile.
"You only knew how to curse at them.
That was the only way to stop your mouth.
Until now."
"These cabróns think this shit is going to silence el monstruo?
They're very mistaken."
"I know."
I paused, a little surprised.
Smiled at my own naivety.
Of course.
I was watching her.
And she was watching me too.
Even when we tried to suffocate our own souls, deep down, it felt like a gaze could touch it — cross through every defense.
"How long?"
"Two moons."
Two moons later
Everything went dark, except for a weak emergency light blinking in the corridor.
The guards' screams started echoing from the 16th underground level, known as The Abyss.
TCHK TCHK
I heard several clicks.
The nanometals came loose.
Her doing.
How?
No idea.
Maia moved first.
Our torn, bloodstained white clothes became nothing compared to the black corridor we crossed.
The smell was a putrid miasma of shit. Blood. Something profane.
It clung to the skin and turned the stomach.
What I saw there, chica?
A sample of hell.
You've been to Vermina, the Matriarch's side?
Yeah.
That place… managed to equal it.
Prisoners lay on gurneys in transparent rooms, their grotesque organs exposed and connected to nanoprosthetics.
One guy looked like he'd stepped out of a horror movie.
His swollen brain pulsed as if trying to escape his skull.
Organic tentacles stretched out, stitched to the machine with cables.
His bulging eyes followed us.
Pleading.
Silent words.
But I understood.
I, Denden, el monstruo, felt a chill run down my spine.
The worst part?
They were alive, chica.
That was more than a prison.
It was an altar of eternal suffering.
One of the greatest profanations I have ever witnessed.
We took the elevator to the upper levels.
"We have ten minutes," Maia warned.
There was a room on the ground floor full of weapons, and there it was, glowing as if calling me.
The bazooka.
My trump card.
And, of course, Rompe-culos, burning with hunger.
"These cabróns are going to regret messing with Denden, el increíble."
Maia smiled and grabbed a rifle.
At the entrance, the guards were waiting, ready.
The blood show began.
No one is a match for me.
No one escapes my madness.
I break through any defense, chica.
They had the pleasure of seeing that up close.
And we weren't alone.
In the middle of my frenzy, one mierda came up behind me.
When I turned, he was already on the floor with a hole in his forehead.
Kiara was covering us.
My laughter rose louder than the gunfire.
"You fucked-up bastards!
You're nothing to nosotros, montón de mierda!"
We reached the outer zone.
More guards were coming.
"We have to go. Kiara is waiting," Maia said, pointing to a platform.
Kiara's car was descending.
The outer gates were almost closed.
We ran and crossed through.
Of course, there were debts to be collected.
Especially after what they had done to us.
Especially after what I had seen.
The gate was closing.
Seconds.
I aimed.
Breathed.
My finger squeezed the trigger.
FWOOSH
The projectile cut through the air like a comet.
Half a second.
Silence.
BOOOOOM!
The world shook with the fury of an ancient dragon.
Flames rose like columns of war.
Night turned into day.
And hell descended upon Fuchū.
The unbreakable fortress burned in the inferno it had created itself.
A blaze of chaos.
My eyes shone with the orange flashes.
"Let's go."
Maia got in the car.
I jumped in right after her.
We made history there!
The whole world found out, even though I carried both the glory and the burden of the fame alone.
Maia and Kiara erased every trace of their involvement.
But our name remained stitched into the fabric of that impossible prison.
Fuchū's first great failure.
It would never be the same.
Kiara was waiting for us.
Yasu too.
The world…
Well, the world had better brace itself. Because we were coming.
At that moment, with blood and soot sticking to our skin, all we felt was one absolute truth:
WE HAD SURVIVED.
We met Kiara four kilometers away.
She joined us.
We returned to Yasu's house and got out of the car.
The cost exacted by pressure and adrenaline was high.
The body gave in.
Pain. Exhaustion.
Everything came like an inevitable avalanche.
First Maia.
She coughed and vomited blood.
Then me, though my hand still clutched Rompe-culos.
It was as if we had finally been given permission to collapse.
Kiara and Yasu treated our injuries.
The old woman used healing techniques both ancient and modern.
She helped us recover faster.
Wrapped us head to toe in nanobandages.
The nanites rebuilt our damaged tissue.
"When I helped rebuild Fuchū, I ignored the dark intentions behind such sinister purposes," Yasu murmured.
She brought us a tray of rice porridge.
According to her, a light meal, recommended for people whose organs had been badly injured.
During the selunia
We were almost healed.
Ready to get in the car and get the hell out of there.
Yasu stopped us.
She bowed deeply.
"Otsukaresama deshita."
Her gratitude was profound.
We bowed back.
"Before you go, someone wishes to see you."
The damned Kotaro appeared and walked toward us.
His face still carried arrogance.
But his tail?
Tucked between his legs.
He bowed.
"Arigatō."
Before he could rise—
PLAC!
Yasu smacked him on the head.
He clenched his fists.
"Forgive my actions.
My sincerest apologies."
He glared at us.
I smiled.
Wide.
Enjoyed every second of it.
Yasu stepped toward Maia.
Placed a device in her hands.
"Here is what I told you about."
She winked, smiling.
Probably the recipes.
Maia smiled with her eyes and slipped it into her pocket.
Kiara looked at her sideways.
Holding back a smile.
We got into the car and returned to São Paulo.