(Theme: The Scientist's New World)
Consciousness clawed its way back like a man breaking the surface after drowning. Pain hit first — the deep, grinding ache of broken ribs pulling at every breath.
Kaito groaned. A soft, cold blue glow swept over him.
BZZT... BZZT...
A drone hovered above his chest, its thin metal limbs weaving bandages that glistened like mercury. Each one tightened with his inhale, pressing against the bruised bone.
He blinked, vision swimming. The tent's ceiling rippled above him, canvas dark with moisture and soot.
Where... am I? The scent of burnt ozone, blood, and wet earth filled his lungs. A tent. A camp, maybe... their camp. That girl's camp.
Outside the canvas, he caught glimpses — soldiers moving, armor flickering at the edges like bad holograms. Strange tools floated, weapons folded themselves into impossible shapes. The air thrummed with a subsonic hum that set his teeth on edge.
Sweat slicked his brow.
This isn't Earth tech. Nothing I know. Where the hell am I?
He lifted trembling hands, turning them toward his eyes. Smooth. The claw marks from before — gone without a trace.
His mind scrambled to catch up.
GLITCH.— A lab's cold hum. Mary's hand on a fossil slab. "They found it, Kaito... the eye!" Her smile, strained. A golden eye snapped open beneath the glass — and everything drowned in white.
Kaito jerked back to the now, heart thudding. Did it vomit me here?
That girl... what was her name? Akari. Right. A soldier yelled it — Captain Akari.
The flap of the tent rustled. Harsh jungle light spilled through, making him squint.
A silhouette filled the entrance.
She stepped inside — black armor hugging her like a second skin, still scarred and scorched from battle. Cracked black horns framed her head, and those golden eyes — molten, sharp, watching.
Kaito froze under her gaze, every nerve on edge.
She crossed her arms, weight shifting slightly. "You're awake."
Her voice was low, steady. Commanding, but not harsh. Beneath it… was that relief? Or just calculation?
Kaito's throat felt dry as dust.
"You... saved me," he said, voice hoarse.
She didn't answer right away. Her eyes flicked to the drone as it made a final pass. The scanner beeped.
"Accelerated healing. No draconic markers..." the medic muttered nearby, half to themselves. The screen pulsed crimson:
[ STEM CELL ACTIVITY: 780% BASELINE ]
"…cells eating themselves to rebuild."
Kaito's heart skipped. Optimized? Or decaying?
The drone hissed, retracting.
Kaito struggled to sit up, ribs pulling. "Where's the dragon? Are we safe?"
Akari's gaze darkened, as if shadows crossed her memory. "Safe? No. It left. But it's not gone."
She didn't look at him. She stared past the tent's slit — to the jungle, where the memory of heat and claws lingered.
Kaito shifted, taking in more. Outside, a soldier leapt thirty feet as if gravity forgot him. A ration cube floated down like it fell through syrup.
Gravity's lighter. Explains some of it... but not that dread.
He caught the glint of weapons on a nearby rack — plasma and steel side-by-side, the old and the impossible mingled.
He forced out the words: "Where is this place?"
Akari tilted her head. "Far from where you came from. That's all you need to know."
A long silence hung.
Finally, she added, quieter, "You shouldn't be here."
Kaito didn't reply. He followed as she turned and stepped toward the weaponry — drawn by instinct or habit, he wasn't sure.
He paused by a rack. His fingers hovered over a blade, its edge shimmering like fractured light.
"You don't want to touch that," Akari warned.
"What is it?"
"Dragonsteel." She eyed him. "Not something for soft-worlders."
Kaito stared at the weapon's impossible geometry. His mind, always dissecting, tried to fit it into known science — and failed.
Not science. Not myth. Something else.
He dropped his hand, exhaling.
Akari's gaze softened a hair. "You have a name?"
"Kaito."
She nodded once. "Akari."
The briefest smile ghosted her face — there, then gone.
Outside, the jungle stirred with new sounds. A horn blared — sharp, urgent.
Akari snapped back to full soldier mode. "We move in ten. Gear up or stay behind."
She tossed him a harness, black and scorched.
Kaito caught it, heart pounding.
Above — unseen — the canopy's gloom hid watching eyes. Purple, unblinking. The figure tracked every motion below — studying the dragon's trail, Akari's posture, Kaito's confusion.
But its true focus… was only on the coming disaster and Akari.
ORION'S NOTE: "oh anatomist~ let's see does the shady spectator would meet our beloved MC or the MC will get into another trouble stay tuned for next chapter... :D"