Hikari Raiden's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

Hikari didn't go back to the training center that night. She couldn't face the looks, the questions about where she'd been. Instead she found a fire escape three blocks from the marketplace and sat there until the city lights blurred together. She woke to her communicator buzzing against her hip. Multiple alerts. The same creatures — but the sensor readings didn't make sense. Each one showed twice the mass from yesterday. Hikari scrambled down the fire escape and ran toward the nearest ping. She turned a corner and froze. The creature stood in the middle of an intersection, easily the size of a delivery truck now, its emerald scales catching the early light. It wasn't glowing softly anymore. It pulsed with energy, and when it turned its massive head toward her, she saw intelligence in those eyes. This wasn't something she could zap by accident. This was something that could kill her. She raised her hand anyway, lightning crackling up her arm, but her fingers wouldn't release it. The creature watched her, waiting, and she realized with cold certainty that it remembered her from yesterday. It knew she'd made it stronger. Her communicator buzzed again — Sakura's name on the screen. Hikari hit the button. "I found one," she said, her voice steady even as her hands shook. "I'm not engaging. Sending you the location now." The creature tilted its head, then turned and walked away between two buildings, each footstep cracking the pavement. Hikari stayed exactly where she was until Sakura arrived three minutes later. She'd finally learned what readiness actually meant.