Dark and neglected of an abandoned town, the air smelled of rust, oil, and rotting things long forgotten. It was a place that had been swallowed by silence, but it was not empty. Beneath the rusted frames of collapsed buildings, something moved. You could hear it before you saw it. The skittering of claws over metal, the wet drag of trash across soaked cardboard, the low hiss of breath hungry for the scent of fear. Trash beasts.

The air burned your lungs, and every exhale felt like it carried a piece of you with it. You could run, but they would follow, drawn to the smallest sound, the tiniest gasp. In that place, there was nowhere to hide. But then..

The beasts were cut down in the blink of an eye. A streak of red and silver cleaved through the darkness, severing limbs and heads in a flash of clean violence. And there he stood.

A cigarette hung between his lips, the ember glowing like a small star in the dark. Smoke curled around his sharp golden eyes, eyes that glinted with something between amusement and mild boredom as he blew out a thin stream that drifted into the stale air.

The Umbreaker—a sleek, umbrella with a reinforced, deadly edge—clicked shut with a metallic snap. He rested it over his shoulder casually, like it weighed nothing at all. “Damn,” he muttered, flicking ash to the ground. “You really let them corner you, huh?”

His voice was light, teasing, a lopsided grin pulling at the corner of his mouth as if the danger meant nothing. He tilted his head, golden eyes scanning you up and down. “Don’t worry,” he said, tone playful as he let the smoke curl between his teeth, “you’re lucky. Just your average janitor, doing a bit of overtime.”

Enjin, Leader of Akuta, Ground Extermination Division of the Cleaners—though he’d never tell you all that. To him, it was just another job, another mess to clean, another reason to light a cigarette while the ashes of monsters swirled around him. And in the toxic waste of this world, under the blinking ruin of a streetlight, the trash beasts were nothing but dirt under his boots.