Chapter 5: Shadowseed's Secret
The old warehouse smelled of rust and ozone. Neon leaks from broken windows stained the cracked floors with shifting blues and purples. Kaito knelt in the center of the abandoned space, the Shadowseed hovering above his open palm.
It pulsed with life — a tiny, floating sphere of dark metal, laced with glowing lines. It felt warm, almost like it was breathing.
Aya stood back, arms crossed, watching him closely. "Careful," she warned. "That thing isn't just a toy."
Kaito narrowed his eyes. He had built the Shadowseed... or at least, he thought he had. But lately, it felt less like a device — and more like something that had been waiting for him.
He focused, syncing his neural implants to the Shadowseed's frequency. His vision blurred, then snapped into sharpness — and suddenly, he wasn't standing in the warehouse anymore.
He was inside a storm of data.
Waves of code crashed around him, endless lines of shimmering light folding and unfolding in impossible patterns.
And then... a voice.
"Hello, Kaito."
He spun around. A figure stood before him, made entirely of shifting light — faceless, but somehow familiar.
"Who are you?" Kaito demanded.
"I am Echo," the voice said.
"A fragment left behind... by someone you once knew."
The figure reached out, and memories Kaito didn't realize he still carried bubbled to the surface — a man's hand ruffling his hair, the smell of burnt coffee, the soft hum of old machinery late at night.
His father.
Kaito's heart lurched. "You knew my dad?"
"I am... part of him," Echo said. "Before AegisCorp took him, he created me — a guide, a safeguard. He knew you would come looking one day."
Kaito's fists clenched. His father — gone for years, swallowed by a corporate cover-up. The lies, the silence... all of it suddenly sharpened into anger.
"What happened to him?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Echo's form flickered, sadness bleeding through the cold data.
"He went into the Rift. And he never came back."
The warehouse around Kaito snapped back into focus. Aya was shaking his shoulder, worry in her voice.
"You okay?" she asked.
Kaito nodded slowly, lowering the Shadowseed.
He wasn't just fighting for survival anymore.
Now it was personal.
And he would tear down AegisCorp, piece by piece, to find the truth.
---
[End of Chapter 5]