When he opened his eyes, there were two skies. No. Looking closer, what was floating wasn't the sky. It was a building. The wreckage of a half-destroyed building hung suspended in midair, defying gravity. Kirishima Kai lay on his back, staring at it for a while. Until just moments ago, he'd been on his way to school. White shirt pressed, black slacks on, just another ordinary morning. He'd been walking toward the station when suddenly a white light engulfed his entire body. It wasn't hot or cold. Just blindingly bright. And then. He was here. Kai slowly pushed himself up. His whole body ached. His back and lower back especially. But nothing felt broken. His clothes were dirty, but not torn. He looked around. He was under an elevated highway. Thick concrete pillars ran overhead. At his feet, shattered asphalt and iron beam debris scattered everywhere. English graffiti covered the pillar walls. The road surface bore scorch marks in countless places—as if something had exploded or melted. And about ten meters ahead, something massive lay sprawled. It was roughly five meters long. A gigantic creature's corpse, its entire body covered in blackened chitin. Six arms splayed across the ground, unmoving. Its eye-like parts had turned milky white, and a foul stench drifted from it. Kai stared at the corpse for a while. *(I think I've seen this in manga.)* But he quickly pushed that thought away. That couldn't be right. First, assess the situation. Looking up at the sky, the floating debris was still there. Concrete and iron beams hung at scattered angles in the air. A bird flew through the gaps without hesitation. He read the visible signs. English. All of it was English. Not a single Japanese character anywhere. A traffic light was visible in the distance. CHICAGO "...No way." The words came out. He hadn't even realized he was speaking. Saying it aloud made it feel more real. This was Chicago. Chicago, America. But not the Chicago Kai knew. A Chicago where monster corpses lay on the streets and buildings floated in the sky. Such a place didn't exist in reality. At least, not in the world Kai came from. Then a shadow fell from above. He dove sideways on instinct. A heavy thud shook the ground. Something massive had crashed down where Kai had been standing moments before. He turned to see a chitin creature slightly larger than the corpse from before, now standing there. It must have fallen from the elevated highway above. Its six arms spread wide, staring at Kai. Its eye-like parts fixed directly on him. *(I dove sideways?)* Kai looked at his feet. He was standing higher than where he'd been before. Somehow, higher than the surrounding area. A rooftop. He was standing on the roof of a three-story building. The distance from that underpass to here was over twenty meters. "[scared]...What?" As he muttered, the chitin creature smashed through the rooftop wall with its arm and charged at him. His legs moved on reflex. He stepped on debris and shifted sideways. The creature's arm gouged the floor where Kai had been standing. Concrete turned to powder and scattered. An iron beam lay nearby. About two meters long, dented and weathered. Kai grabbed it with one hand. It was light. Normally, it would take two grown adults to move something this heavy. But it felt like paper. He lifted it effortlessly with one hand. The chitin creature swung its next arm. Kai swung the beam sideways. A dull sound. The creature's head flew to the side. Its chitin shattered, flesh and body fluid spraying. The monster collapsed slowly. The floor trembled. Kai's hand was shaking. The sensation of impact lingered in his palm. Disgusting. He dropped the beam and crouched down. His breathing was ragged. His head spun. He stayed like that for a while, dazed. Once his breathing steadied, he slowly stood and looked down at the street. There were people. Walking normally. Avoiding parked cars, passing by the monster corpse, carrying bags of food in their hands, walking normally. One person glanced at him, then quickly looked away and kept walking. They weren't surprised. Even with a monster corpse lying around, even with buildings floating in the sky, they weren't surprised. Because it was normal. In this world, this was normal. *(In this world.)* The phrase repeated in his mind. This world. A parallel Earth. An Earth where superhumans had existed for forty years. Kai looked at his palm. The blood vessels in his left arm seemed to glow faintly. He squinted, thinking it was an illusion, but there was definitely something glowing faintly blue-white beneath his skin. What is this? It's my own body, but what is this? The burn scar on his left shoulder throbbed slightly. An old scar from his childhood in the original world. But now it felt warm, tingling. *(Calm down. Think calmly.)* Kai sat down at the edge of the rooftop, hugging his knees. Wind blew, and the smell of coffee drifted from somewhere. That scent of everyday life somehow made his current situation feel even more surreal. Let him organize his thoughts. This was Chicago. Not the Chicago Kai knew, but the Chicago of a parallel Earth where superhumans existed. A city of about 2.7 million people. Monster attacks were everyday occurrences, and no one was surprised by buildings floating in the sky. And Kai had read about this world before. Not in manga. There was a proper term for it. Invincible. An American comic. He'd read the translated version long ago. A superhero story. Omni-Man, Earth's strongest hero. His son, the young Mark Grayson. A teenage hero who'd just started operating under the codename Invincible. And this world had the GDA. The Global Defense Agency. A government organization that managed superhumans and responded to superhuman-related threats. They monitored superhuman activity across the entire world. Kai slowly expanded this fact in his mind. The GDA was watching. If an unregistered superhuman became active, they would detect it. What Kai had just done was surely being observed. And worse, Kai knew about this world. He knew the future. What terrible events awaited. Who would hurt whom. That knowledge was in his head. Suddenly, that terrified him. Knowledge made it terrifying. Because he knew, he couldn't escape. "[whispers]...This can't be real." He flicked a small stone lying on the rooftop edge. It flew farther than expected, hitting the wall of the adjacent building and leaving a small hole in the concrete. He had power. He didn't know why, but he had power. He could fly. He had superhuman strength. He could swing iron beams with one hand. But he couldn't control it. He had no idea how much force to use. He'd only defeated that monster because he didn't know how to hold back and went all out. If the opponent had been human, the thought made his spine go cold. While he was thinking, he heard something moving in the distance. A low, rumbling sound. Like an earthquake. Kai stood up and looked toward the sound. Something was crawling out from behind the buildings. Not one. Two. Larger than the individual he'd just defeated. Nearly twenty meters long. Each of its six arms had hooked claws. They dragged across the road surface, advancing slowly but steadily. The people on the street noticed. Screams erupted. People ran. An adult carrying a child dove into an alley. A car screeched to a halt, the driver tumbling out. Kai considered which direction to run. Where to? He didn't know how to get back. He had no way to return to Japan. No acquaintances here. No one in Chicago he knew. No money. Nothing to prove his existence in this world. All he had was this power. A power he barely understood, couldn't control, didn't know if he was using correctly. Kai stared at his own fists. The blood vessels glowed. Faintly, but definitely. He was scared. To be honest, he was terrified. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know what was happening. He didn't know the nature of this power. Everything was unknown, and he'd been thrown into an impossible situation. But. A scream. A child's voice. The mother who'd tried to escape into the alley had stumbled, falling with her small daughter. The monster was approaching. No one was going to help. Everyone was too busy running. Kai stood on the debris. His legs were shaking, but he pushed off the ground. He flew. Without control, his trajectory wasn't straight. He hit a building wall with his shoulder, corrected course, and still managed to land in front of the two creatures. The impact cracked the asphalt. Both monsters stopped and looked at Kai. Kai steadied his breathing. He didn't even fully understand what he was doing. There was no cool reason, no sense of justice. He simply couldn't watch people get eaten by monsters right in front of him. That was all. The first creature swung its arm down. Kai dove into the gap between its arms and drove his fist up under its jaw. No restraint, full force. The monster's head rotated, and it crashed into the building wall behind it. A massive hole opened in the wall, and the creature disappeared into the building. The second creature swung its arm down from behind. Kai tried to fly away to avoid it. But his control failed, and he flew diagonally upward instead of straight up. He crashed into the wall across the alley and fell into a pile of rubble. It hurt. His shoulder and back throbbed intensely. But nothing was broken. His body was tough. Surprisingly tough. He stood up. An iron beam lay nearby. He picked it up again. The second creature approached. Kai ran straight at it. He swung the beam with all his might at the monster's head. Twice. Three times. Cracks appeared in the chitin. On the fourth swing, it caved in with a sickening crunch. The creature collapsed. Silence fell. Kai stood breathing heavily. His knees were shaking—not from exhaustion, but probably from adrenaline. He went to check on the first one. It was still in the building, unmoving. Looking around, the mother and daughter from the alley were peeking out from the entrance. His eyes met the little girl's. Without a word, she quickly hid behind her mother. Kai said nothing. English was the only language that would work anyway. And what could he say? Hello, I'm a high school student from Japan, I don't know why I'm here, and somehow I can kill monsters—he couldn't say that. He dropped the beam. He sat down on the cracked asphalt. Looking up at the sky, the building debris still floated there. A bird flew lazily through the air. Somewhere, a car horn honked. The city continued moving quietly. *(The GDA might be watching.)* The thought suddenly surfaced. A memory triggered by his knowledge of the comics. The GDA monitored superhuman activity on a global scale. If an unregistered superhuman became active, they would sense it. When Kai had been transported here, there must have been some kind of energy reaction. This battle might be recorded somewhere. If he was now a surveillance target. Kai leaned against the collapsed building wall. The blood vessels in his left arm still glowed faintly. He didn't know why they glowed. He didn't know where this power came from. The thought that someone might have intentionally given it to him still nagged at the back of his mind. But he didn't have the mental space to consider that now. First, where would he be tonight? That was all he thought about. Dusk was approaching over Chicago's sky. The sky was beginning to turn orange. In that color, the floating building debris became black silhouettes. He didn't think it was beautiful. It was just an unfamiliar sky. Kirishima Kai sat alone in the ruins of Chicago, a city he'd never known.