3 Chapters
Kazuya Kamado's dream is rebuilding the burned-down community center where they first transformed.
Kazuya stood in the ash where the community center used to be, watching the yellow bulldozer roll up to the curb. The driver climbed down with a clipboard and a bored expression. He had until end of business today to show rebuild plans, or the city would clear the lot. Kazuya pulled the blueprint from his messenger bag and unrolled it across the hood of the contractor's truck. The paper was pristine, professionally drawn, complete with elevation sketches and room dimensions. He'd paid for it with money he didn't have, rushed the order through an architect who owed him a favor from three years back. The contractor studied it for a long moment, running his finger along the detail work. Then he nodded, marked something on his clipboard, and climbed back into the bulldozer to drive away. The lot was safe. Kazuya folded the blueprint carefully and tucked it back into his bag. He looked at the ash around his feet, still faintly warm beneath the morning sun. The drawing showed a three-story building with curved eaves and wide windows, a place that honored what had been here before. Now he just had to figure out how to turn expensive paper into actual walls and doors. His right hand sparked once, a flicker of orange that died before it could become flame. He closed his fist and started walking.
Kazuya spent three days calling everyone who might have money. None of them called back. He sat in his apartment with the blueprint spread across his kitchen table, doing math that refused to add up. The building would cost more than he'd saved in ten years of hero work. On the fourth morning, a woman in a pressed suit appeared at his door with a briefcase and a proposal. She represented a development company that had seen his approved plans. They'd cover the full cost and provide a construction crew ready to start immediately. Kazuya unrolled the blueprint on his coffee table, showed her the curved eaves and the wide windows, the three stories that matched what had been there before. She nodded politely and pulled out her own drawing. Two stories instead of three. Standard materials instead of custom work. Concrete where his plans showed wood. She tapped the paper with her pen. This version could break ground next week. His version would take six months just to source materials, and by then the approval might expire. Kazuya looked at her simplified building, then at his blueprint. The new design would stand on the right lot, serve the same basic function. It just wouldn't be the place he remembered. His hand didn't spark at all as he signed her contract. The woman smiled, packed up her briefcase, and promised him a groundbreaking ceremony by Friday.
The construction company called at midnight. Something had broken through the lot surface from below. Kazuya drove across the city with his windows down, watching for smoke or fire that never appeared. When he arrived, the crew's floodlights lit up a hole in the pavement where the foundation trench should have been. A massive creature stood in the crater, fur matted with dirt and concrete dust. Its claws were each the size of a car, and it turned toward the lights with a low rumble that Kazuya felt in his chest. The foreman was already on his phone with someone, probably the police. Kazuya stepped past the safety tape and raised his hand. His palm flickered orange for half a second, then went dark. The creature sniffed the air, swung its head toward him, and settled back on its haunches. It didn't attack. It just sat there in the hole it had made, blocking the foundation that should have been poured tomorrow. The foreman ended his call and walked over, clipboard in hand. Construction was suspended until the site was cleared. No timeline on when that might be. Kazuya stood at the edge of the crater and watched the creature scratch at the exposed earth where the old community center's foundation still remained buried. It wasn't destroying anything. It was digging for something specific, something that had been underground for ten years.
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