Guyver Armor: KAP-2

After an unknown amount of time, when Murakami Masaki recovered from the excruciating pain that felt like his forehead was being torn apart, the forest was deathly silent.

He struggled to his feet, supporting himself against the cold rock wall. As he emerged from the cave, the setting sun was slowly sinking behind the distant mountains, its afterglow painting the forest in an orange-red hue.

The scene was littered with twisted limbs and huge scorch marks, telling the story of the brutal battle that had taken place not long ago.

"Kano...hasn't he come back yet..." Murakami murmured the name, recalling Kano Tsubasa's words before he left, "I'll distract them, you retreat first," and his heart sank.

He forced down his worries, roughly determined the direction, and then stumbled towards the shrine's secret passage.

Perhaps it was the battle on the Kep II that wiped out all the Zerg soldiers present that had drawn Kronos's attention. He hadn't encountered a single pursuer along the way.

After walking for a full hour, amidst the exhausted panting of the village, the shrine hidden deep in the dense forest finally came into view.

He had just stepped into the entrance of the secret passage when a familiar voice came from the darkness: "Who's there?"

Immediately afterwards, a figure stood up from the shadows in the corner—it was Akira Fukamachi!

"Mr. Murakami! You're back!" Akira rushed forward, her gaze eagerly sweeping across the darkness behind Murakami, but she couldn't find the figure she was looking forward to. Her voice immediately dropped: "Kano...where's Mr. Kanno? Why didn't he come back with us?"

"On the way back, we were surrounded by Chronos's beastmen." Murakami's voice was filled with guilt: "Kano... to cover my escape, he lured away all the pursuers by himself."

Jing's face immediately filled with worry. The two exchanged a glance, slowly suppressing their anxiety, and used the communicator to contact the research department at the bottom of the ruins to inform them of the current situation.

Not long after, the sound of a railcar came from the other end of the passage again.

Upon entering the Relics Research Department at the bottom of the base, the joy of reunion instantly dispelled some of the somber atmosphere.

"Murakami, it's been a long time!" Director Oda Kiri walked up quickly, his face filled with nostalgia and relief. He had also been a researcher at the Kronos headquarters back in the day, and was an old acquaintance of Murakami.

"Yes, we parted ways five years ago, and since then we've only kept in touch through secret correspondence and haven't seen each other since." Murakami Masaki nodded slightly, his tone also carrying a hint of emotion.

The other members of the team also gathered around, asking with concern about what had happened on the way.

"Mr. Kamino, he..." someone asked cautiously.

"He even lured away the pursuers outside to cover for me." Murakami's voice lowered. "If I hadn't overused my thoughts and exposed my whereabouts, we wouldn't be in this predicament... Now, we can only trust him."

Everyone fell silent with worry. Oda Kiri was the first to come to his senses, patted Murakami on the shoulder, and introduced the team members one by one.

"This is Hayami Toshiaki, and this is Fujiwara..."

Just as everyone was gathered around the holographic sand table, discussing plans to venture deeper into the core area of ​​the ruins, Murakami Masaki, who was standing next to him, suddenly swayed and stumbled.

"Mr. Murakami?" Akira Fukamachi was the first to notice something was wrong and reached out to help him. But before she could finish speaking, Murakami fell straight backward.

Jing quickly caught him, her skin was icy cold to the touch. Looking up, she saw that Murakami's face was as pale as paper, and his breathing was so weak that it was almost imperceptible.

"What's wrong?" Oda Kiri rushed forward, placing his hand on Murakami's carotid artery. His brow furrowed instantly. "His pulse is extremely weak! Quick, prepare for vital sign checks, and get him straight to the incubation chamber!"

Chaos erupted at the scene as people frantically lifted Murakami Masaki and stuffed him into the testing equipment.

As time passed, Fukamachi Fumio, Segawa Mizuki, and others were unable to offer much help and were gradually persuaded to go and rest. Only the researchers, Fukamachi Akira, and Segawa Tetsuro, who refused to leave, remained at the scene.

Looking at Murakami Masaki lying flat inside the green glass culture chamber, Fukamachi Akira clenched her fists: "Kano-sensei is still out there, his life hanging in the balance, and now Murakami-san is like this... What are we going to do?"

Tetsuro couldn't help but look at Yoshio Odagiri: "Director, what exactly happened to Mr. Murakami's health... why did he suddenly faint?"

Oda Kirito was looking down at the test data on the screen when he looked up and quickly made a judgment: "It's physical overload caused by overuse of mental abilities."

He looked up at the two of them and explained, "He's probably been using his thought waves frequently lately, hasn't he?"

Akira Fukamachi suddenly remembered that since they met at the mountain pass, Masaki Murakami had been using his thought waves to help them scout out enemy positions and even control the beast soldiers, almost without stopping along the way.

"That's right! He's been helping us warn of enemies lurking in the shadows, and several times we've avoided ambushes thanks to his mental waves!"

"No wonder." Oda Kiri sighed, his tone grave. "He was merely a prototype for a Beast God General, and his physical capacity was inherently much weaker than that of a complete Beast God General. Frequent use of the Beast God General's abilities would cause irreversible damage to his mind and body!"

"Even his lifespan..." Oda Kiri swallowed the unspoken sentence and continued, "With this level of mental damage, we can only let him slowly repair himself in the incubation chamber. There's not much we can do."

He turned to his team members and ordered, "Immediately prepare a high-concentration gene repair agent and inject it into the culture chamber!"

"Also, speed things up. We must finish manufacturing two new sets of relic exploration equipment by tomorrow." He looked up in the direction of the relic spaceship. "While we're waiting for Mr. Jinno to return and Mr. Murakami to recover, we can't stop moving forward!"

The pale green repair fluid was slowly injected into the culture chamber, enveloping Murakami Masaki's exposed body. With the sound of machinery running, the culture chamber slowly stood up, suspended in the clear liquid, but Murakami's brows remained tightly furrowed, showing no sign of relaxation.

Meanwhile, in the 3-chome shopping street of Takeshiro Ward, N City, Tsubasa Kanno, whom everyone at the ruins base was concerned about, was leisurely sitting in one of the street-facing cafes.

Thanks to his consistently cautious actions, Kronos's database only contains an image of KEP-2 in his dark yellow suit; they have never seen what he looked like without the suit.

At this moment, Tsubasa Kamino has changed into a brand new casual outfit, which covers the scars on her arms and waist. It's as if she has returned to the life of an ordinary office worker in her previous life, blending in with the crowd in the store without standing out.

Outside the window, people come and go on the commercial street, creating a lively scene of everyday life, which seems like a completely different world from the bloody battle in the nearby mountains and forests.