[center][h2][color=630460]Akio Haritama[/color][/h2][/center]

	The sun beat down on Akio Haritama as he made his way home from school, music blasting out of his earbuds and sweat forming on his forehead. Today was like any other, and he was looking forward to getting home and finishing [i]The Republic[/i], which was currently bouncing around his book bag as he jogged down the street. He took a deep breath in, and ran his arm against the top of his head, stopping any sweat from dripping down his face. This was typically Akio's favorite part of the day, as it gave him a chance to clear his mind and just turn off for a while.

	He was particularly caught off guard however, when the world around him began to darken and quickly turn pitch black, causing him to sharply exhale in shock, before his reality began to shine brighter than any light he’d ever seen. He closed and covered his eyes, wondering briefly, if he had suddenly died, perhaps from an aneurysm or some other horrible potentiality, and that if this was his brain’s way of experiencing its own end. He felt the ground below him contort, as if it was turning inside out, before he began to plummet through the air.

	As quickly as it happened, it stopped, and he felt his body sitting on the pavement. He opened his eyes, and quickly saw that the world around him was back to its proper state, but something was off. The city around him felt like everything had shifted or changed in some unperceivable way. He rose to his feet, and rubbed his temples, “[color=630460][b]Did I just have a seizure?[/b][/color]” He asked himself, trying to understand exactly what happened to him. He glanced around, and was shocked at what he saw further down the street.

	In front of him, the street quickly dipped off into a crater, rubble and debris littering the sidewalk and road. He coughed and staggered towards the destruction,[color=630460]”[b] Did a bomb go off? Is that what just happened?[/b]”[/color] He asked in horror as he saw buildings with large holes now blown through them, and at the epicenter of all of this, he perceived what somehow managed to become the strangest and most frightening thing he’d seen today.

	He saw a woman who he could only assume to be partaking in some unfathomable mixture of cosplay and domestic terrorism. He saw spiraling horns protruding from her head, and ears pointed like an elf’s. She was dressed like an Oni from the fairytales he was read as a child, and as he neared her, he saw that her pupils were slits, and her irises blood red. He stood, around 10 feet away from her, and called out.

	[color=630460]“[b]Um, excuse me, ma’am.[/b][/color]” He started, unsure of how safe this woman was, “[color=630460][b]D-did you cause this destruction? What the hell just happened?[/b][/color]” He asked, his skin crawling with an indiscernible miasma of fear and intrigue. His heart was pounding, his body in an exasperated state from the combination of things that had just happened.