...mmm
Kentaro slowly opened his eyes. He was still sleepy — his vision blurry, barely able to see anything properly. Somewhere nearby, he heard the sound of typing. Getting off his bed, he tried to wake himself up and saw Doctor Rika working on the computer. He wasn't expecting her to be in that room.
"Good morning," Doctor Rika said as she turned around, observing him from a distance.
"Good morning," Kentaro replied, sounding half-dead.
"You look terrible. Want to grab a cup of coffee?" Rika offered generously.
Without hesitation, Kentaro replied, "Yeah, sure."
Rika sighed, stood from her chair, and opened a hidden drawer just under the computer table — made of dark, polished wood. Inside were tons of coffee sachets labeled Chocolate Coffee. She grabbed a few and walked toward a second door he hadn't noticed before — a small kitchen attached to the room.
She boiled milk, added sugar and those chocolate coffee sachets, and stirred it well. Meanwhile, Kentaro struggled to keep his eyes open. Suddenly, he felt a touch from behind and flinched.
"Huh?" Kentaro turned immediately — it was Rika, holding two cups of coffee.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh… it's nothing. I just thought something touched me from behind."
"Maybe you didn't sleep properly last night. Here, take a cup of coffee."
She handed one to Kentaro and sat on the empty chair beside his bed, sipping quietly. Kentaro brought the cup closer to his mouth, then paused.
"Isn't this chocolate coffee?" Kentaro asked curiously.
"Yes, it is. But how do you know that?" Rika replied calmly, not even surprised — as if she already knew he'd recognize it.
"The scent," Kentaro said slowly. "I can't forget it… It's something I used to drink a lot during my teenage years." His eyes carried a faint regret.
"Is that so?" she replied softly, though her gaze hinted that she knew far more about him than she let on.
They drank their coffee in silence. Then, breaking it —
"Why did you say that?" Kentaro asked firmly, referring to her refusal to do the surgery.
"If you did, you'd die," Rika replied without hesitation. "Your body is too weak — weak to the point where we can't even perform a simple surgery. And we're talking about a transplant — and not just any transplant, but the eye of a berserked man. Your survival rate is zero. Knowing that, do you still expect me to agree to perform it?"
She stared at him, furious but silent.
"Yeah, I know that very well," Kentaro said calmly.
Rika's eyes widened — she didn't expect that answer.
"I know I won't survive. But if the organ has complete Compound S in it, maybe it'll work. My left side still has traces of incomplete Compound S. If they come in contact, maybe… just maybe, I'll live. It might even fix my body."
The way Kentaro said it — calm, certain — stunned her. She realized she couldn't stop him, even if she wanted to. She turned away.
"Very well then. We'll start the surgery in three hours. So… brace yourself, and meet your loved ones one last time." Her voice trembled slightly; she couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes.
"What a funny way to put it," Kentaro smiled faintly. "Very well. Let's do it."
Time passed. Kentaro left the room to meet Mira and the old man, who were having breakfast in the mess hall. He was surprised at how massive the underground base actually was.
He ate with them, then told the old man about the surgery and the timing. The old man was disappointed but didn't try to stop him.
Meanwhile, Rika was cleaning the room and preparing it for surgery. The same messy room where Kentaro had slept yesterday was now a spotless operation theatre.
Three hours passed quickly. It was time to perform the impossible. Kentaro's heart was pounding like a trapped animal inside his ribs. He changed into a white gown and lay down on the bed.
Before the surgery began, he saw Kyler and Lily standing in the hallway, watching him.
"Will you really take out your eyes if the surgery fails?" Lily asked, half-joking.
"For that, he'd have to stay alive," Kyler said flatly. Lily froze — realizing he wasn't joking.
Rika put Kentaro under general anesthesia. "Now rest for a while," were the last words she spoke to him. Then she cleaned his face with Chlorhexidine. The scars on his left side made her heart ache — she didn't feel good about this.
She removed his damaged eye. She was amazed by how long he had carried that crushed, swollen eye — it was almost rotting. Keeping her thoughts aside, she told her assistant to bring the berserker's eye. The eye was kept in a jar filled with Celsior — a liquid for preserving organs. She carefully attached the berserker's eye to Kentaro.
It took eight long hours. Dr. Rika's hands moved carefully all those hours without rest. But in the end, the transplant was successful. Now, all they could do was wait — wait and hope he'd wake up. Many had died after surgery for reasons still unknown.
Now, all they could do was pray.
---
Inside Kirishima Laboratory, tension filled the air. Everyone was drowning in work; no one even had time to breathe. Among them, a young soldier wearing a black uniform — similar to Commander Haley's — moved quietly through the shadows.
He reached the basement and pulled out a broken radio and a hidden earpiece from his pants pocket. Quickly, he assembled the radio — it looked old, but it was more like a burner phone, untraceable and secure.
He connected the line and whispered, "It's an emergency. They're going to launch Compound S in just four months."
He paused, then repeated, "I repeat — they're launching Compound S in four months instead of eight."
No reply. Silence.
"Very well. Copy. Over and out."
The communication ended. On the other side of the line… was none other than General Kyler.
The soldier began dismantling the radio again — but a shadow loomed behind him, watching silently.
Meanwhile, Kentaro woke up. There was no one in the room. His eyes were still wrapped in bandages. He slowly untied them and tried to open his left eye.
The moment he did, blood began to drip from it. The walls, the ceiling — all the colors started to melt together, his vision distorting as if he were seeing through reality itself.
Kentaro gasped, his left eye burning in unbearable pain. He turned toward the mirror, his face going completely pale in an instant from what he saw — his iris was completely distorted.