When Kazuya woke up, the only thing he saw was white. He tried to turn his head, but the pain stopped him.

"Where am I?" he wondered.

After a while, someone came into the room. He couldn't tell who, but he heard the movement of a door.

"Oh, you're awake. Let me call the doctor," a chirpy female voice was heard.

"Doctor? So I'm in a hospital."

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man in a white doctor's coat appeared in his vision. He gave Kazuya a checkup and affirmed that he was recovering nicely. Hearing this, the person next to the doctor cried out in joy.

"Thank goodness you're okay. Kazuya, I was so worried when I heard about the stabbing. Apparently, a serial killer has been rampant around your area."

Kazuya recognized this voice. It was his girlfriend, Risa. He didn't know how long he had been out, but she seemed to have seen better days. Her hair was all tangled, and her eyes were puffy pink. Her makeup is a mess. Everything about her seemed miserable.

But one thing about her statement stood out to him. Serial killer? He could have sworn that was a mantis. How could it have been a person? Could he have been hallucinating at that time? It would make sense. It's possible that the darkness and the pain made him imagine some things.

Kazuya put the thought away and focused on comforting Risa.

"It's okay. Aren't I fine?"

He gave her his signature smile, which seemed to work, as Risa started smiling as well.

Over the next few days, Risa would visit him and bring some fruits with her. She would cut them and slowly feed him as he could barely move. On this particular day, the doctor gave him another check and shared some good news.

"You should be able to be discharged soon. Your body is all healed. There might be some pain in your chest, but it should fade soon. Please try not to engage in any intense activities if possible."

"Thank you, doctor, but why do I feel otherwise? I can barely move."

The doctor chuckled when he heard this question.

"That's because you're wrapped in a cast. Your entire body."

"Oooohhhh. That makes sense now."

A few hours later, Kazuya was back in his rusty apartment. His movements were slightly awkward as there was some pain, but he trudged on. He considered taking some painkillers, but the doctor said that might cause some problems, as he had been heavily drugged in the few days he was hospitalized.

Kazuya reached into his pocket to retrieve the key to the room. Upon entering, he placed the groceries on the table and began preparing a meal for himself.

"Maybe I should have eaten out. No, that won't do. I need a hearty meal to help me recover. Though I do wonder how Risa's cooking tastes. So far, we've only been eating out, so I've never had the chance to taste her cooking. Now that I think about it, I don't even know where she lives. She's always been the one to walk me home. Maybe I should offer to walk with her sometime."

Kazuya began to realize how little he knew about his girlfriend and started considering how to change that. As Kazuya's mind wandered, his knife slipped and went toward his finger.

"OH NO!"

But before Kazuya could start panicking, the edge of the blade bounced right off his skin.

"..."

What just happened? He could have sworn he felt metal on his fingers. Maybe his mind was still playing tricks on him? Yeah, that must be the case. I'm still high on drugs after all. But as much as Kazuya tried to convince himself, a part of him said otherwise. He was in denial and he knew it.

This oddity was only accentuated by his meal. No matter how much he ate, he couldn't feel full. He had already gone through 3 days' worth of groceries. If anyone else had eaten as much as he had in one sitting, they would have felt severe discomfort. Yet all he was feeling was a stronger sensation of hunger. A hunger that was slowly growing and devouring him from the inside.

"No. This can't be happening."

He ran his fingers through his hair, gripping and pulling, praying that everything was just a nightmare. A nightmare induced by drugs. He wished that he would wake up and find himself back in the hospital. That everything was a result of his anxiety to be discharged, but the pain on his scalp told him otherwise.

This was reality. No matter how he tried to deny it, this was his reality now. As the hunger grew, his senses started sharpening. It was like his body was telling him that it was time. Time to hunt something. As for what, Kazuya had no idea. The hunger was getting to him. He decided to ignore the growing discomfort and hopped into bed. He curled up in a fetal position and tried to sleep. Sleep and forget about everything.

At least that's what he wanted. His body, though, had other plans. Blood started pumping, adrenaline started racing, and his muscles started contracting. The sound of his heartbeat was amplified countless times, and he started seeing red. The torment only got worse the more he tried to ignore everything.

As he was wallowing in his agony, he smelled a mouth-watering fragrance. This comforting scent soothed the pain in his body. He raised his head to get more of it. His mind became engrossed in this new experience, and his body acted on instinct. Before he knew it, he was running toward the source of the smell.

Within seconds, he stood before his fridge, gripping a package of steak. He roughly tore off the plastic and hungrily devoured the bloody meat. Moments later, he finished, and the intense craving lessened. It's still there, though more manageable now.

"Thank goodness Risa insisted on getting this. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what I would have done."

Then his eyes widened. Realization of what he had done started to sink in. He had devoured a bloody piece of raw meat. In an animalistic fashion more bestial than any carnivore, no less. Barely chewing and fully instinctual.

Kazuya lifted his head, catching a glimpse in the corner of his eyes of a red reflection in the mirror. Approaching, he realized his face was smeared with blood.

"What have I become?"

He washed his face robotically and returned to bed.

----------------------------------------

Days passed, and Kazuya noticed other changes in his body. Some good, some worrying. Let's start with the oldest news and work our way up. For one, he had developed an intense hunger for meat. Raw meat to be more specific.

The feeling of blood and flesh as they slid down his throat was revolting to think about, but his body relished the experience. It craved it. No, craving might not be the best word for the feeling. I think addiction describes it better. Yes, an addiction. A severe one at that.

It was like whenever he went a few hours without consuming it, he went into withdrawal. And it only got worse from there. The more he tried to suppress the trauma, the worse it got. There were a few times he also lost it and did something incomprehensible. Luckily, the symptoms were on the lighter side, so he was able to control himself in time.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

That then leads to his next change. His appetite has increased. If he tries to eat anything but raw meat, his hunger won't be satisfied. He can eat and eat, but he gets no satisfaction of fullness. Quite the opposite. The more he eats, the hungrier he gets.

It's like his body is trying to tell him to stop wasting time and eat something useful. This appetite also applies to his meals. He now needs to devour a large amount of meat per day to stave off the hunger. So much that it puts a huge strain on his budget.

He tries not to show this, but Risa seems to notice his discomfort.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just the chest pains are bothering me."

Then she gives him a gentle smile to encourage him to fight through it. He kind of feels guilty for lying to her like this, but he doesn't want to drag her into this mess. It has already turned his life upside down and he doesn't want to double the problems.

Another change he feels is the strength of his body. After some instances of crushing objects out of his control, he realizes his body has gained superhuman strength. Well, strength is not the only part of it. It's more like a superhuman body. Remember the kitchen knife that bounced off his finger?

Yeah, that's not the limit of his durability. In one daring experiment, he tried stabbing his stomach with everything he got and emerged unharmed. The only indication of his attempt was the white dot above his belly button, which soon disappeared.

That leads him to suspect that he also has hyper regeneration. Kazuya doesn't know the limits of this ability, but he does recover from exhaustion at a rapid pace. Of course, this also comes with a slight caveat. Every time he recovers from fatigue like this, he experiences a pang of hunger, forcing him to eat more. Kazuya suspects this is one of the causes of his endless hunger.

Beyond his physical changes, there are also his mental changes. Normally he's calm and easy-going, but lately, he notices that he's really irritable. It's like the smallest things cause him immense annoyance. There was one time someone accidentally bumped into him in public and he snapped and started shooting a stream of curses at the undeserving soul.

After that, there are times when people deliberately piss him off. When that happens, it's like a devil inside him starts talking. Whispers of making them disappear. That he should not put up with them and he should get that message across, no matter the cost.

They are beneath him so he should show them their place. Following that, there are also many thoughts of violence. Everything tempts him to enact those thoughts, but his rationality forces down these impulses.

These thoughts scare Kazuya. It scares him because he doesn't know what is happening to him. Are these thoughts really his deepest desires or are they put inside his head? He doesn't know what to believe anymore. Is he still the same Kazuya or has he become someone else? This lost sense of identity continued as he tried to return to his normal life, only to worsen with each chunk of meat that he swallowed whole.

Eventually, all of this got to him and he snaped. It happened when he was walking home from another grocery trip.

"No! Stop! Help!"

He heard a scream when he was walking by an alley. He looked in and noticed a group of thugs surrounding a girl around his age.

"Hey! Stop it," he runs in and shouts.

The thugs turn around and size him up. When they realize they're dealing with a scrawny teenager, they become aggressive.

"Who the hell are you? If you know what's good for you, you'll scram."

"I should be saying that to you. Who the hell are you? If you know what's good, you'll scram."

This is an unnaturally aggressive response from Kazuya. Even the thugs are taken aback by this response, but when they snap out of their daze, they become physical. One thug walks up to him and grabs Kazuya by the collar.

"Say that again. I dare you."

Kazuya gives him a side eye before looking at the other thugs.

"Well? Are you going to answer me?"

After a few more seconds of silence from Kazuya, the thug yelled again.

"Don't ignore me!"

The thug that's grabbing his collar becomes irked and punches Kazuya across the face. Feeling this sting, Kazuya reaches up and feels his face. It's quite an eerie sight for the thug. This person doesn't even turn his face back to him. He just feels his face while his head is turned to the side from the punch. The thug pushes down this unease and shakes his grip.

"Bastard, that should teach you to mind your own business."

But these weird actions did not register in Kazuya's ears. Instead, he turns to face the thug.

"You just punched me, didn't you?"

"Yeah. What are you going to do about it?"

The thug is starting to realize this person he's holding onto has some screws loose. He decides that he'll drop the kid and mind his business. It's just not worth getting tangled with such a person. As these thoughts run through his head, he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. He looks down and sees something horrifying. The kid's arm has turned into a blade and impaled him.

"What?"

The thug spat out blood as his eyes began to dim. Kazuya pushed aside the dying thug and turned to face the other thugs. Seeing this scene, the other people's knees start shaking.

"No. This can't be happening."

To the others, this seems like a scene straight out of a horror movie, only they are the victims.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

The girl screams. Hearing this, the thugs know it's time to scatter. Seconds later, only Kazuya remains, looking at his now-transformed arm.

"Did I do that?"

The shock of everything awakens his rationality again. But before he can think any deeper, he smells something amazing. The smell is unbelievable. It's the best thing he has ever smelled. His mouth starts watering and his teeth start sharpening. His body wants whatever this is.

Then he found the source of the smell. It's by his leg. The same place he had thrown the thug. He looks down in horror. Disgust swelled up in him as his morality berated him. But this morality was nothing in the face of his growing hunger.

"Should I take a bite? I'm sure it will be tasty."

Then he slaps himself.

"No, Kazuya. You can't."

"But think how good it smells. And look at all the flesh. If I eat this, I'm sure I can stave off the hunger once and for all."

Kazuya is tempted. This is more flesh than he has ever been able to afford. Or hunt. It's such a tempting sight yet his morals soon won the debate. That and with the help of approaching footsteps.

"What a waste," he mutters to himself as he flees the scene.

After he returns home, everything starts to sink in. Kazuya looks at his reflection in disbelief.

"Did I seriously consider cannibalism?"

He pushes his hair back and grips his head. It's not the cannibalism that bothers him. No. It's the fact that he's not even fazed by it. That's the thing that's bothering him. Just what has caused this change? Nothing makes sense anymore. His values are telling him that what he is doing is wrong, but his body doesn't care. It's like he's become a demon. And that scares him.

What Kazuya doesn't realize is that that is only the beginning. After that experience, something inside him awakens. He becomes more irritable, struggling to control himself every day. It's only a matter of time before he loses control. Eventually, he does.

He doesn't know how it happened, but when he realized what he is doing, he is in the middle of a fight. Not any regular fight, mind you, but a fight with another creature. An abomination that rivals the backstabbing mantis that started this whole mess. A giant Hercules beetle. As he is contemplating his situation, his body continues moving on its own.

He blocks a biting attack with one of his blade arms and pierces the carapace with the other. The wound looks terrible, but the insect doesn't seem bothered by it. Then Kazuya blanks out again. His short moment of rationality disappeared when his instincts take over.

----------------------------------------

Langeth carried a bag of groceries when his radar started pinging him. He shifted the paper bag to his left hand and reached into his inner jacket pocket, bringing out the device. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't pay any attention to this, but today was different. There was a red dot next to a yellow one. When he saw the red dot, he realized things had gotten serious and he needed to get involved. Looking at the position, he estimated it would take a few minutes to get there.

He looked around and quickly found a familiar face. Langeth approached them and explained his situation.

"Excuse me. Sorry to bother you, but can you bring these back to the Blue Cafe? Something urgent came up and I can't make it back."

The person looked at the stranger who approached him with this request. A few seconds later, realization dawned on him.

"Oh, you're the guy who helps out in the back of the cafe."

"That's me."

"Sure."

The person agreed as Langeth seemed to be in a hurry. Plus, he didn't mind helping out the cafe that served some of the best drinks in the area. It was a popular place after all.

"Thanks a lot. Tell the person you met me, and they should give you a free drink."

After settling that issue, he started running toward the two dots in the distance. As he was running, he realized the buzzing of the radar had changed. He pulled it out and saw the yellow dot had disappeared, leaving a red dot that was growing more crimson.

"Shit! I need to hurry."

Langeth decided that he couldn't afford to waste any more time running normally. He turned his head rapidly to search for a deserted area. Seconds later, he entered an alleyway. He took off his jacket and a wing burst out of his right side. His muscles tensed up, and newfound strength coursed through them.

This was his mutant transformation. Well, a partial one. Doing a full transformation would require too much energy to sustain, causing his body to go into starvation, a state with various nasty side effects. Langeth then leveraged the walls and his single wing to jump up the side of the buildings. For the rest of the journey, Langeth ran across rooftops and other places that were hard to notice.

In 2 minutes, he had reached the red dot that was flickering on his radar. When he jumped down, he noticed someone with blade arms and some carapace forming on the rest of the body. Laying beside the feet of this mutant was the body of a herculean beetle corruptor. The mutant turned to Langeth and roared.

Then it charged at him, ready to swing its arm blades. Langeth jumped back and tried to communicate.

"Calm down. I'm also a mutant."

*ROARRRRR*

The mutant's eyes started glowing red. Seeing this, Langeth let out a curse.

"Bloody hell! He's gone completely berserk!"