AN OLD SHIP bobbed gently on the waves in the dark of night. It didn't sail forward, nor did it drift away; it simply moved in place. All around it, the ocean stretched endlessly to the horizon. With no land in sight, the ship showed no fear of staying in the same spot.

On its deck, silence reigned. There was no chatter, no noise—none of the usual commotion from the two men who typically stirred up trouble. Like weary chicks, the ship's inhabitants had finally succumbed to exhaustion. They lay asleep, embraced by the warmth of the sea.

A young man with jet-black hair slept soundly. Shedding the heavy clothing he usually wore, he lay in his favorite brown trousers, still clinging to his legs. Oddly enough, his left hand gripped a shotgun tightly. Instead of a pillow or a bolster, Makka chose to cradle a long-barreled rifle as he slept.

Beside him, on Makka's right, another man with golden-brown hair also lay in deep slumber. Almost entirely bare, Taiga wore only a pair of shorts. If Makka hadn't scolded him, he might have slept completely naked, shamelessly indulging in his old habits from the United States. Despite his origins in A-Capital, some habits from America clung stubbornly to him.

But unlike Makka, with his serene blue eyes shut in peaceful rest, Taiga's sleep was restless. His eyes moved rapidly beneath closed lids. No matter how calm he appeared outwardly, the quick flicker of his eyeballs betrayed the dream playing out behind them. Taiga was dreaming. Whatever the dream was, it had the power to make the muscular man break out in a cold sweat.

Taiga, come home!

***

"FATHER!"

Taiga woke from a nightmare—a haunting memory of the massacre a year ago.

His voice tore through the darkness, a desperate scream calling out for his father. He didn't care about his shredded vocal cords or the blood pooling in his mouth; he just screamed and screamed.

Bound tightly in the center of a public square, Taiga sat among thousands of captives. Around them, buildings blazed red, devoured by flames. Sirens wailed through the streets, competing with the anguished cries of the masses, drowning even Taiga's frantic yells.

The soldiers were everywhere, dragging people to the heart of the square. No one listened to Taiga's pleas for escape. Clad in camouflaged uniforms, the men hauled their captives like hunted animals. Those who resisted were shot dead on the spot, their lifeless bodies discarded like refuse.

To the soldiers, the captives weren't people. To them, MESS weren't human.

From the sea of trembling, despairing souls, a man stepped forward. His presence silenced the chaos like magic. His golden hair and piercing eyes glinted in the fiery glow. The man's voice sliced through the stillness:

"MESS are pests to mankind!"

The soldiers erupted in a chorus of cheers, thrusting their weapons high into the air. They celebrated as if victory had already been won.

"I will make A-Capital a paradise for humans!" the man declared, his voice ringing with conviction. "These pests will be wiped from this holy land!"

Taiga clenched his fists, his green eyes darting in anger and helplessness. His sweat-soaked body trembled as the man raised a fresh trophy high for all to see—the severed head of humanity's last president.

The soldiers cheered louder, drunk on triumph, while Taiga's blood boiled. His anger turned to despair as his surroundings dissolved into chaos.

"Boss Taiga, let's end this together!"

A silver-eyed MESS crouched beside him, their voice trembling yet resolute. Despite their words, their gaze spoke of escape, not surrender. They urged Taiga to run, to live, to fight.

"You're insane! You'll die for nothing!" Taiga roared back, rejecting the idea.

The silver-eyed MESS cast their gaze downward, disappointment evident in their posture. But even in their despair, determination burned in their expression.

"Still, you won't die, Boss Taiga," they whispered.

Their words planted a seed of hope in Taiga's heart, shifting his despair into a simmering resolve.

"Leave A-Capital," the silver-eyed MESS urged. "Gather your forces and destroy that golden-haired man!"

Taiga's chest heaved as their words lit a fire in his soul. His rage transformed into purpose—not just for revenge, but for justice. Justice for his father, whom he had once hated. Justice for his mother, who had shown him unconditional love. Justice for the MESS, a people who never asked to be born.

"Shake A-Capital to its core!" Taiga declared, his voice resolute.

The silver-eyed MESS nodded, their resolve solidifying. They took a deep breath, then unleashed their power.

"Gate of life and death, open!"

Their eyes turned a stormy gray as the air darkened. A suffocating storm spread across A-Capital, engulfing the soldiers' cheers with chilling screams. Chaos erupted as spectral energy tore through the city, driving both humans and MESS into a frenzy of destruction and escape.

Amid the mayhem, Taiga bolted. His body moved with inhuman speed as he dodged glowing rifts slicing through the air, ripping apart everything in their path. But his focus remained singular: his mother.

He reached the red-brick apartment building where she lived and stormed inside, his heart pounding with hope. But his hope shattered when he found her severed head on the blood-soaked floor.

"MOTHER!"

Taiga's scream reverberated through the city. Grief consumed him as he slammed his head against the ground repeatedly, blood pouring from his wounds.

"You idiot, stop!"

A deep voice snapped Taiga from his frenzy. A dark-skinned man yanked Taiga by his golden-brown hair, forcing him upright.

"I'm the one who killed her," the man said coldly.

Taiga froze, his eyes vacant.

The man continued, "I won't let you die. You're too important. I know who you are, Taiga. You're Leviathan's son."

The revelation ignited a storm of emotion in Taiga—rage, denial, fear. He thrashed violently, but the man held him firm.

"Listen, boy," the man hissed, pulling out a syringe. "This will make you mine.

"Taiga, come home!"

"No! Stop! You bastard!" Taiga screamed, but the needle plunged into his skin.

As the liquid coursed through his veins, Taiga's body convulsed violently. His muscles swelled grotesquely, his form expanding into a monstrous being that towered over A-Capital.

Consumed by fury, the beast that was once Taiga rampaged, leveling everything in its path. Nothing could stop him—not even the glowing rifts that once tore MESS to shreds.

"Father," Taiga thought, his mind slipping into darkness. "I couldn't save Mother. But now I understand why you destroyed continents fifty years ago. This world doesn't deserve us."

With a deafening roar, Taiga unleashed his wrath. A-Capital burned in his wake. The monstrous form that mirrored Leviathan's legendary might had only one purpose: vengeance.

When he finally collapsed in exhaustion, he awoke aboard a decrepit ship, adrift in an endless ocean.

And that voice called to him again.

Taiga, come home.

***