Usagi 1

The road buckles beneath the Guardians. Stone swallows Usagi, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and five survivors, dropping them into a circular arena ringed by black, windowless walls.

Mars lies unconscious and bloodied between Jupiter and Venus. The five strangers form a trembling line: a gaunt middle-aged fisherman, a young woman in a torn yellow coat, an elderly man with a cane, a broad young adult man, and a pale teenage boy.

Fresh names carve themselves into the arena floor where the dead captive and older woman should stand. The broken revolver remains clenched in Usagi’s wounded hand.

The sealed arches answer with the same words. Panic breaks the survivors apart, and the arena’s compulsion drives them toward one another as though the stone itself commands the struggle.

Jupiter shoves the broad young man away from Mars while Venus shields the unconscious Guardian. The fisherman raises a fallen length of iron, and the first desperate clash begins.

Across the floor, the carved names darken one by one. The pale boy stares at Usagi, frozen amid the gathering violence, while every arch waits for the next name.

The pale teenage boy lifts both hands, his face bloodless beneath uneven dark hair. Around him, the survivors hesitate as the revolver rises toward the arena’s circling bodies.

Usagi fires. The report ricochets between the sealed arches, and the boy drops out of sight as the arena answers with another gunshot.

She turns through the ring, firing into the gaunt middle-aged fisherman, the young woman in a torn yellow coat, the elderly man with a cane, and the broad young adult man. Each shot ends a struggle before it can continue.

Jupiter and Venus fall beside Mars. The unconscious Guardian never wakes, while the remaining bodies become still beneath the black walls.

The revolver clicks empty in Usagi’s wounded hand. Smoke thins above the arena, carrying the last echoes into the sealed arches.

The carved names flare together, then vanish. In their place, the stone floor writes one sentence: ONE REMAINS. A hidden lock turns somewhere below.