Rain poured heavily over the city, and yet, in front of an electronics store, there was a huge line of people waiting.
Most of them had umbrellas. Some were large and colorful, while others were small and cheap, barely covering the heads of the people holding them.
But everyone, one way or another, was trying to protect themselves from the downpour.
Everyone except a few.
And among those few was Lyon.
Lyon wore a large jacket, the waterproof kind that covered almost his entire body, with the hood pulled down to his forehead. That alone was not strange under the rain.
The strange part came after that.
Because under the hood, despite the fact that it was already nighttime and the sky was completely covered in clouds, he was wearing dark sunglasses and a face mask that covered half of his face.
The people around him glanced at him from time to time, wondering what kind of person wore sunglasses in the middle of such a storm.
But Lyon did not care in the slightest.
Because he was not there for just anything.
No.
He was there for the console.
The new console that was coming out today, that very night, and that was the only way to play the third part of the game he had been waiting years for.
But the line was not moving.
The damn line was not moving!
Lyon could feel the rain slipping through the collar of his jacket, cold and annoying, but not even that was going to make him move from his spot.
Because if he did not buy the console today...
'All my friends are going to spoil me,' Lyon thought, and a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran down his back.
He could already picture every single one of them sending him messages "by accident," casually telling him the ending or the most interesting parts like it was nothing.
'No. No, no, no...'
To him, that was worse than anything else in the world.
And right at that moment, inside his head, someone laughed.
A soft, teasing female laugh echoed in his mind as if the girl were standing right next to him.
"You are so dramatic..." the voice said, still laughing. "Seriously. 'A fate worse than death'? Over a video game?"
Lyon frowned.
'It is not 'a video game',' he answered in his mind, offended. 'It is THE video game.'
"Same thing," the voice said, still sounding amused. "Besides, if you are that worried about getting spoiled, there is a very easy solution, you know?"
'There is not.'
"Yes, there is," she insisted. "You look up one of those people playing it today. You watch the whole thing from start to finish. Done. Now no one can ruin anything for you because you already saw everything."
Lyon stayed silent for a second.
Then, almost without realizing it, he spoke in a low voice under his face mask.
"Watch SOMEONE ELSE play it?" he muttered, offended. "Are you insane? The whole point is that I play it! With my own hands!"
A woman standing in front of him in line glanced back at him, confused to see him talking to himself.
Lyon cleared his throat and lowered his gaze.
'Shut up,' he told the voice inside his head, this time without moving his lips. 'And just stick to playing in the mental world, will you? That is why I let you have that space.'
"I do not play in here," the voice replied, and for the first time, she sounded a little less relaxed. "I only rest."
'Same thing.'
"It is not the same thing," she said, amused. "And actually, I did not come out just to bother you, though that was a nice bonus."
Lyon raised an eyebrow beneath his sunglasses.
'Then what?'
The voice stayed silent for a moment.
And when she spoke again, her tone had changed completely.
"Get ready," she said, serious. "I feel something."
'What kind of something?'
"A beast," she answered. "It is coming from below. From very deep underground. And it is getting closer."
Lyon clicked his tongue.
'Do not say stupid things,' he thought, brushing it off. 'We are in the middle of the city, in front of a store. Nothing is going to come out of the...'
But he did not get to finish the sentence, because at that moment, the ground shook.
It was a light tremor at first.
Barely a movement that made the puddles at his feet ripple, but it was enough to make the entire line stop.
The conversations were cut off all at once. People started looking at the ground, then to the sides, wearing the kind of expression people made when they had no idea what was going on.
"Was that an earthquake?" someone asked.
"An earthquake?" another person said, more nervous.
The ground shook again, this time with more force, and the umbrellas started swaying as their owners lost their balance a little.
Some people let out small screams. Others took a step back, not knowing where to go.
And in the middle of all those frightened people, there was one person who was not frightened at all.
It was Lyon.
But not because he was calm.
No.
He was cursing.
'No,' he thought, clenching his fists inside the pockets of his jacket. 'No, no, no, no, NO.'
'Please.'
'Please let that damn thing not come out where I think it is going to come out.'
'Not today. NOT TODAY.'
"Well, I am sorry to tell you..." the voice inside his head said, with a calmness that felt unbearable at that moment, "but it is going to come out exactly where you think it is."
'No!'
Lyon let out a long, heavy sigh.
Around him, people had already started moving.
The tremor was getting stronger and stronger, and instinct won over the fear of losing their place in line. People began to move away, first walking quickly, then almost running, abandoning their spots without thinking twice.
Umbrellas bounced through the crowd.
Someone fell, and another person helped them up before continuing to run.
It was chaos.
And in the middle of that chaos, while everyone fled in the opposite direction, Lyon did the exact opposite.
He walked toward the store.
But before he could take the second step, his body began to change.
Fwump.
The jacket, which had fit him just fine before, suddenly started to look too big on him because his body was shrinking. His shoulders became narrower, his arms thinner, and his entire figure became a little smaller, a little more delicate.
But not everywhere.
Because while the rest of him became more slender, his chest did the exact opposite.
Fwap.
It grew.
Under the soaked jacket, his chest swelled until it formed two clear curves that had not been there before.
He had grown breasts!
And that was not all.
Frip.
His black hair, which had barely peeked out from under his hood, began to lose its color from the roots, turning pure white from end to end. It also grew, lengthening in a matter of seconds until it reached his shoulders, slipping out from under the jacket and getting instantly soaked under the rain.
When it was over, Lyon no longer had the body of a boy.
He had the body of a girl.
'Great,' Lyon thought, his inner voice dripping with sarcasm as he felt the jacket hanging loose from his shoulders. 'Just great.'
Fortunately, or unfortunately, with the earthquake shaking everything and people running for their lives, almost no one noticed what had just happened.
Almost.
Because a few people, the ones who happened to pass nearby, stopped and stared at him with wide eyes.
"Did you see that?!" one shouted, pointing at him with a trembling finger.
"That guy...! He turned into—!"
But the boy did not even turn his head to look at them. With the jacket now far too big, fluttering around him, he walked straight toward the entrance of the store.
The glass door was closed.
He did not care.
BAM.
With a single blow, the door shattered into pieces, and shards of glass fell onto the wet floor as he entered without slowing down.
Inside, there were still a few employees left.
They were frozen behind the counter, staring at the ceiling and the floor with panicked faces, not knowing whether to stay or run for their lives.
Lyon did not waste time.
"Everyone out!" he shouted, and although the voice that came out of his throat was now higher and more feminine, it carried so much authority that it echoed through the entire store. "If you do not want to die, run. NOW!"
The employees looked at him.
For a second, they hesitated.
But then one of them saw the shattered glass door behind him, the same door that had been whole and locked only seconds ago.
And that was enough.
"R-run!" one of them shouted.
"Do what he says!"
The few employees who remained did not need to be told twice. They jumped over the counter and ran toward the exit, avoiding the boy and the broken glass.
Lyon let them pass without moving, and then he saw him.
There, on the store floor, there was one more person.
A boy, a little younger than him, who had fallen to the ground and could not quite get back up. His leg was twisted awkwardly, and his face was pale with fear as he dragged himself backward with his hands.
The floor beneath him was starting to crack.
Crrrk.
Lyon clicked his tongue.
'Seriously?' he thought, annoyed.
But Lyon moved anyway.
In two strides, he crossed the store, crouched beside the fallen boy, and, without warning, lifted him from the floor. He carried him in one smooth motion, placing one arm under his legs and the other behind his back, holding him as if he weighed nothing, like a princess.
"W-wait, what—?!" the boy managed to say, completely red and confused.
Lyon did not answer him.
He simply turned around and walked quickly toward the exit.
And just in time.
Because behind him, the floor gave way.
CRAAASH.
The entire floor of the store collapsed all at once, sinking downward in a cloud of dust and debris. And from that giant hole, from the depths of the underground, something began to emerge.
"GROOOAAAR!!"
It was enormous.
A gigantic worm, with grayish, wet skin, a body as thick as a truck, and a round mouth filled with row after row of teeth that spun nonstop.
The monster rose among the remains of the store, knocking down shelves, walls, and everything in its path while releasing a roar that made the air tremble.
Outside, the few people still left on the street panicked.
"W-what is that?!"
"A monster! A MONSTER!"
"Where are the Hunters?! Where is the Hunters Association?! Someone call them!"
People screamed and ran in every direction while the worm continued emerging, growing larger and larger as it destroyed what little was still standing of the store.
Lyon, now outside, lowered the boy he had been carrying, carefully setting him down on the wet ground.
The boy remained seated there, trembling, staring at him with wide eyes.
He was terrified.
But then he took a proper look at the face of the person who had saved him, and noticed something.
That girl with white hair, the one who had shattered a glass door with a single punch and carried him out of a collapsing building...
She was not afraid.
Her face was completely calm, as if all of this were the most normal thing in the world.
"Y-you..." the boy stammered, swallowing hard. "Are you... are you a Hunter?"
Lyon, who had already started walking back toward the place where the monster was still destroying everything, did not even stop.
"No," he answered simply, without turning around.
And he kept moving step by step, approaching the giant worm roaring among the debris while the rain fell over his white hair and the soaked jacket fluttered behind him.
At that moment, Lyon had only one thought in his head.
One very clear thought.
Because of that thing.
Because of that damn worm that just had to show up today, right now, at the worst possible moment...
He was going to miss buying the console.
He was going to miss the game he had waited three years for.
He was going to be at the mercy of his friends' spoilers.
And because of all that, while he approached the monster with a calm face and clenched fists, Lyon could only think one thing:
He was going to kill this monster in the most brutal way possible.