Chapter 1
(Anime story Btw)
THE ALPHA DOME
SCENE STARTS
EXT. THE ALPHA DOME - FOREST CLEARING - DAY
A sky that shouldn't exist. Purple and orange swirl together like a bruise healing wrong.
GENERAL NATSUMI (37, tired eyes in a body that suddenly isn't tired anymore) stands over the body of an ORANGE DRAGON. Medium-sized. Still twitching.
His chest heaves. His knuckles are bloody. But he's smiling.
NATSUMI
(panting)
Did you see that? No one saw that. But I did that.
He looks at his own hands. Turns them over. Flexes.
NATSUMI (CONT'D)
I did that.
He wants to laugh. He wants to cry. He's not sure which one would be more pathetic. So he just stands there, breathing, feeling good for the first time in—decades? Ever?
Then he hears it.
A SCREAM. Distant. Female.
Then another.
VOICE (O.S.)
Please! Someone—please!
Natsumi's smile disappears.
He runs.
EXT. ALPHA DOME - RUINED COURTYARD - CONTINUOUS
He moves faster than he's ever moved in either life. Trees blur. His lungs don't burn. His legs don't ache.
He bursts through a crumbling stone archway into a courtyard that once held something beautiful. Now it's just rubble and shadows.
And a girl.
MINA KUIYTO MINASAKI (22, hollow cheeks, expensive clothes turned to rags) is pinned against a broken pillar. A MAN (40s, massive, dead eyes) holds a sharpened piece of metal to her throat.
She's not crying. She's past crying.
MAN
Stop squirming. Makes it messy.
Natsumi doesn't think. He moves.
One punch. That's all it takes. The man drops like a bag of stones.
Natsumi stands over him, fist still extended, shock flickering across his face.
NATSUMI
Oh. That worked.
Mina stares at him. Not gratitude. Not relief. Just blank exhaustion.
MINA
Are you... are you with them?
NATSUMI
What? No. No, I'm with— I'm not with anyone. I just— I heard you screaming.
MINA
So you ran toward it?
NATSUMI
Yeah. Stupid, right?
She doesn't answer. She slides down the pillar, sits on the ground, and puts her head in her hands.
Natsumi tries to stand heroically. Puffs his chest out a little. Opens his mouth to say something cool.
Then he really looks at her.
And his heart stops.
NATSUMI (CONT'D)
(under his breath)
No.
Mina. Kuiiyto Minasaki.
Same sharp jaw. Same dark hair, though it's matted now. Same eyes that used to look through him like he was glass.
She was in his college class. Ten years ago. Back when he still tried. Back when he still believed people could be good.
She wasn't.
She laughed at him in the hallway. Mocked his clothes in the cafeteria. Once, she dumped a drink on his laptop because he "looked like he needed a shower."
He never forgot a single second of it.
And she doesn't remember him at all.
Mina looks up. Sees him staring.
MINA
What?
NATSUMI
Nothing. I just— you look familiar.
MINA
I doubt that.
NATSUMI
Yeah. Probably not.
He swallows the rest. All of it. The names he wants to call her. The questions he wants to scream. Why? Why were you so cruel? Did I do something? Was I that easy to destroy?
None of it matters now. She's sitting in rubble. He just saved her life.
NATSUMI (CONT'D)
(softer)
What's someone like you doing in a place like this?
MINA
Someone like me?
NATSUMI
I mean— pretty. You're pretty. And you seem... you know. Normal. Before all this.
Mina laughs. It's not a happy sound.
MINA
Normal. Right.
She pulls her knees to her chest. Looks at the dead dragon in the distance. The body of the man Natsumi knocked out.
MINA (CONT'D)
My life was a mess before I got here. A complete disaster.
NATSUMI
How bad?
MINA
Bad enough that I don't even miss it.
She pauses. Picks at a thread on her sleeve.
MINA (CONT'D)
I had everything. Good school. Rich parents. Brains. And I threw it all away for pills. Then powder. Then whatever I could find.
Natsumi doesn't speak. He just listens.
MINA (CONT'D)
Lost my scholarship. Lost my friends. Lost my apartment. Lost my mind, probably. Last thing I remember, I was in an alley behind a club. I don't even know what I took. Then I woke up here.
She looks at him. Her eyes are wet but she's not crying.
MINA (CONT'D)
So that's what someone like me is doing here. I ruined myself before this place got the chance.
Silence.
Natsumi feels something twist in his chest. Something ugly.
Relief.
He hates it. Hates himself for it. Because Mina Minasaki—the girl who made his life a living hell—is sitting here broken and humbled and forgotten.
And part of him is glad.
NATSUMI
(quietly)
I'm sorry. That sounds... horrible.
MINA
Don't be. I earned it.
NATSUMI
Nobody earns that.
MINA
You don't know me.
NATSUMI
No. I don't.
A lie. The biggest lie he's told in years.
He crouches down to her level. Looks her in the eye.
NATSUMI (CONT'D)
But I know this place. A little. And you won't last a day alone.
MINA
What's that supposed to mean?
NATSUMI
It means— let me help you. Protect you. Until you figure things out.
MINA
Why?
NATSUMI
Why not?
MINA
That's not an answer.
NATSUMI
It's the only one I have.
She studies him. Tries to find the angle. The lie. But he just looks tired. Kind, even. It confuses her.
MINA
You're weird.
NATSUMI
I know.
MINA
You don't even know my name.
Natsumi almost slips. The name is right there on his tongue. Mina. Kuiiyto Minasaki. You sat two rows ahead of me in Professor Hattori's Econ class. You wore a red sweater the day you called me a freak. You laughed when I dropped my books.
He bites it back.
NATSUMI
So tell me.
She hesitates. Then, slowly—
MINA
Mina. Just Mina.
He smiles. Not a big smile. Not a hero smile. Just a small, real one.
NATSUMI
Nice to meet you, Just Mina. I'm Natsumi.
MINA
No last name?
NATSUMI
Not anymore.
She almost smiles back. Almost.
Mina stands up. Brushes dirt off her ruined clothes. Looks at the unconscious man, then at Natsumi.
MINA
You really think you can keep me safe?
NATSUMI
I think I can try.
MINA
That's not very reassuring.
NATSUMI
Good. You shouldn't feel too safe here. But you shouldn't feel alone either.
She nods. Once. It's not trust. Not yet. But it's something.
Natsumi looks at her—this ghost from his past, this tormentor who doesn't remember him, this broken girl who has no idea who she's asking for help.
And he smiles again.
Because twenty minutes ago, he was a nobody fighting a dragon alone. And now?
Now everything is different.
One moment. That's all it takes. One stupid, impossible, terrifying moment.
He offers his hand. She stares at it.
MINA
If you try anything—
NATSUMI
I won't.
MINA
I'll kill you myself.
NATSUMI
I know.
She takes his hand.
And somewhere in the distance, the Alpha Dome growls.
SCENE END
