appears in jagged white letters.

First credit: “Kohtaro Minami… is no longer human.”

Kohtaro doesn’t think. His body moves like a programmed weapon.

Kohtaro walks, his transformation faded, wearing torn jeans and a bloody T-shirt. He looks human. He feels like a bomb.

Age 7. Nobuhiko falling off a swing. Kohtaro catching him. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” “Idiot. I’m older.” “Then protect me back.”

Under the skin, faint black lines pulse—like circuitry, like veins, like a countdown.

He leaps—forty feet straight up, through a stone ceiling—and lands behind the creature. One punch caves in its carapace. The spider screams in three voices.