Shoto followed Neko through the narrow backstreets of the city, although the farther they traveled from the main roads, the less convinced he became that following the talking gray cat had been a particularly intelligent decision. The familiar sounds of traffic, pedestrians, and distant conversations gradually faded behind them until they were replaced by the occasional hiss of a passing vehicle several streets away and the quiet dripping of rainwater from rusted fire escapes. The alleyways became progressively narrower, with old brick walls rising on either side of them and creating the uncomfortable impression that the buildings were slowly closing around them, while a single flickering streetlight buzzed overhead and cast warped shadows across the wet concrete.
Neko continued walking without the slightest hesitation, his paws making almost no sound against the pavement as his gray tail swayed lazily behind him. Shoto, on the other hand, had already looked over his shoulder several times, and each glance only made his uneasiness worse because the route behind them no longer looked remotely familiar. The turns they had taken seemed to have erased any sense of direction he had possessed, leaving him with the growing suspicion that Neko had deliberately dragged him into the middle of nowhere.
After another minute of silence, Shoto finally slowed down and looked toward the cat with a deeply suspicious expression. "Um, are you absolutely sure we're going the right way? Because I feel like we've passed the same broken dumpster three times already, and I'm starting to think you're just making this up as we go."
Neko didn't even bother looking back as he continued forward. "Yes, I'm sure we're going the right way, and we're almost there, so stop worrying."
Shoto frowned and hurried to catch up with him. "That's what you said two turns ago."
Neko's ears twitched, but he offered no response.
Shoto stared at the back of the cat's head for several seconds before quietly muttering, "Sure my ass…"
"I heard that," Neko replied without turning around.
Shoto immediately straightened his posture and looked away. "I wasn't talking to you."
"You were walking directly behind me."
"I could've been talking to myself."
Neko's tail flicked once. "Then you should probably stop insulting yourself."
Shoto opened his mouth to argue, but Neko suddenly stopped, forcing him to halt as well. The change was so abrupt that Shoto nearly walked directly into him, and after catching himself, he looked past Neko toward the end of the alley.
An old metal door was set into the side of a deteriorating brick building, its surface covered in rust and patches of peeling paint. There were no windows surrounding it, no signs indicating what the building was used for, and no lights suggesting that anyone was occupying the structure. It looked so abandoned that Shoto was certain he would have walked past it without giving it a second glance if Neko hadn't deliberately brought him there.
Neko turned toward him and calmly gestured toward the entrance. "This is it."
Shoto stared at the door for several moments before looking back at Neko with disbelief. "This is it? This looks like the kind of place where people disappear and nobody ever finds their bodies."
Neko's expression remained completely serious. "Only if they're uninvited."
"That was somehow even less reassuring."
"It wasn't supposed to be reassuring."
Before Shoto could continue complaining, Neko nodded toward the handle. "Go on."
Shoto hesitated as he stared at the rusted metal, wondering for perhaps the tenth time whether he should simply turn around and leave. Unfortunately, curiosity and the knowledge that Neko would probably chase him down if he tried to escape eventually won the argument, so he slowly reached toward the handle and wrapped his fingers around the cold metal.
He pushed the door open.
Instead of producing the loud metallic screech he had expected, the door opened completely silently, revealing a brilliant white light beyond the threshold that immediately forced Shoto to narrow his eyes. He cautiously stepped through the entrance, and the moment he saw what was on the other side, he stopped so abruptly that Neko nearly walked into his leg.
The interior was nothing like the abandoned building outside.
An enormous underground chamber stretched out before him, so large that Shoto couldn't immediately determine where the walls ended. The circular room appeared to have been carved directly from dark stone, and countless intricate lines had been etched across the walls, floor, and massive support columns surrounding the chamber. A faint glow traveled through those markings in slow pulses, almost resembling veins carrying luminous blood through the stone, while suspended lights high above illuminated the room with a cold, unnatural brightness.
At the very center of the chamber stood an enormous circular table made from polished obsidian, its perfectly smooth surface reflecting the lights above like a black lake disturbed only by the slightest ripple.
People were seated around it.
Shoto's expression immediately changed as he began recognizing the faces waiting for him.
On one side of the table, Hikaru leaned back comfortably in his chair with his arms crossed, his glasses reflecting the overhead lights as his eyes immediately locked onto Shoto. There was no surprise in his expression, which made Shoto wonder how long everyone had been waiting for him. Sitting beside Hikaru was Ryuji, whose posture was noticeably more rigid, his jaw clenched and his shoulders tense as though he had already decided that whatever was about to happen was going to annoy him.
Yuumo rested her elbows on the table and interlaced her fingers beneath her chin while studying Shoto with an analytical gaze that made him feel like she was already examining every possible explanation for why he had been brought there. Ren was slouched lazily in his chair, appearing almost uninterested in the meeting, although the sharpness in his eyes made it obvious that he was paying attention to everything happening around him.
Tetsuya sat straight-backed beside him, his posture calm and controlled, while a faint smirk rested at the corner of his mouth. Hina sat beside Tetsuya, although unlike everyone else, she looked genuinely uncomfortable, keeping her hands tightly clasped together in her lap while occasionally glancing toward Shoto as if she wasn't sure whether she wanted to meet his eyes.
All of them turned toward him at once.
Shoto immediately felt the weight of their attention pressing against him, and his shoulders stiffened as he realized that every person in the room had been waiting for him to arrive. Before he could even process that fact, however, his attention was drawn toward the opposite side of the table.
Juxo sat there with his enormous arms folded across his chest, his relaxed posture doing little to hide the sense of restrained aggression that seemed to surround him. Suzie sat nearby with her back perfectly straight and her hands resting neatly on her knees, her sharp eyes following every movement Shoto made as though she were trying to determine whether he posed a threat.
Beside her sat Inamaru, who looked considerably calmer than everyone else, his fingers steepled together as he regarded Shoto with the composed expression of someone attending a formal negotiation rather than a meeting filled with people who had fought one another countless times.
Then Shoto's eyes moved toward the next person.
Ezekiel.
The tall, pale man sat perfectly still, and simply looking at him made Shoto feel uncomfortable in a way he couldn't properly explain. There was something unnatural about Ezekiel's presence, something that seemed to subtly distort the atmosphere around him, as though the air itself behaved differently in his immediate vicinity. His eyes possessed a faint glow, but his expression remained almost completely unreadable, resting somewhere between boredom and mild curiosity.
Kuro sat beside him with his hood pulled low over his face, one arm casually draped over the back of his chair as though he couldn't care less about the meeting. Despite his relaxed posture, however, his eyes remained fixed on Shoto, and that alone was enough to make Shoto feel as though the man had been silently studying him since the moment he entered.
Then Shoto noticed the older man sitting farther down the table.
He wore a long coat and dark sunglasses despite being indoors, with one leg crossed over the other while his fingers tapped slowly against the obsidian surface. His behavior seemed almost casual, but there was something about his presence that immediately made Shoto cautious. Unlike Ezekiel's strange supernatural pressure, this man's danger felt experienced and controlled, as though he had spent so long around dangerous situations that he no longer needed to display his strength.
Finally, Shoto's gaze reached the far end of the table.
His breathing caught when he recognized the person sitting there.
"…Zan-Xi."
His cousin sat comfortably with one arm resting against the back of his chair and the other draped casually across the edge of the table. His posture appeared relaxed, but his eyes sharpened immediately when Shoto entered, and for a brief moment something unreadable passed through his expression before disappearing behind a faint smile.
"Well," Zan-Xi said lightly, his voice carrying across the chamber, "took you long enough."
Shoto didn't know how to respond.
The silence that followed wasn't peaceful, because there was a deliberate tension behind it that made Shoto feel as though every person around the table was waiting for someone else to make the first mistake. The faint hum of the glowing runes continued throughout the chamber, but even that seemed insignificant compared with the pressure surrounding the table.
Neko eventually broke the silence by hopping down from the table and landing quietly beside Shoto. He began walking slowly around the chamber, his tail flicking lazily as he looked from one person to another before finally stopping beside Shoto.
"Since you're all staring holes through each other," Neko said, "I'll start by explaining why you're here."
He looked around the table before continuing in a much more serious tone. "This isn't another truce, it isn't an alliance, and it definitely isn't friendship, because most of you would probably try to kill each other again the moment this meeting ended if circumstances weren't forcing you into the same room."
Ryuji scoffed and leaned farther back in his chair. "Could've fooled me."
Neko glanced toward him. "It's a necessity, not a friendship agreement."
Zan-Xi leaned forward slightly and rested his chin against his knuckles while keeping his eyes on Shoto. "You're probably wondering why you're here, and you're probably wondering why everyone else has been gathered as well."
Shoto clenched his fists beneath the table. "I didn't agree to any of this, and I don't appreciate being dragged into another situation without anyone bothering to explain what the hell is happening."
Tetsuya finally spoke, his calm voice carrying a subtle warning beneath it. "You didn't have to agree, Shoto, because the moment Kazuki fell, the entire board shifted, and everyone involved became part of the same game whether they wanted to be or not."
Hina visibly flinched when Kazuki's name was mentioned, and Yuumo immediately leaned forward as though she had been waiting for someone to finally acknowledge the confusion surrounding everything that had happened.
"Okay, let's start there," Yuumo said, her eyes moving between the people around the table. "Because I'm pretty sure we're all getting tired of this chain of disasters. First it was you, then some Pharaoh appeared, then we ended up dealing with Zan-Xi, then Kazuki, and now Kyoya has somehow become involved, so I'd really like someone to explain why every answer we find somehow leads to another insane problem."
Ren frowned and scratched the side of his head. "Yeah, about that, does someone want to explain why an immortal psychopath suddenly became everyone's problem? Because I feel like that's something we should probably understand before somebody else starts destroying cities."
The older man wearing sunglasses chuckled softly, and the sound immediately drew everyone's attention toward him. He tilted his head slightly, allowing the overhead light to catch the edge of his glasses before he leaned forward and rested his elbows against the table.
"That's because Kyoya isn't the problem," he said calmly.
Ryuji stared at him with obvious irritation. "Excuse me?"
The man shrugged slightly. "I'm simply stating the obvious."
Hina pointed toward him with a confused expression. "Who is this smart-ass, anyway?"
Suzie interrupted before the man could respond, although her tone remained noticeably uncomfortable. "Are you saying Ayato is the real problem?"
The name struck Shoto harder than he expected.
His breathing stopped for a moment as memories he had tried to bury suddenly resurfaced, and the sight of his father's name hanging over the conversation immediately made the underground chamber feel colder. He remembered the Rune Gate, the strange experiments, the battles, the destruction, and the terrible moment when he had finally reunited with Ayato in space only for that reunion to become another fight between father and son.
Zan-Xi's expression remained serious as he looked toward Shoto.
"My uncle," he said quietly, "and Shoto's father."
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The silence that followed was heavier than the one before.
Hikaru eventually adjusted his glasses and broke it, his voice steady but grim as he began explaining what had happened over the previous months. "For months, we were dealing with abnormal events that seemed completely disconnected from one another, but the more evidence we gathered, the more obvious the pattern became. The world nearly froze, the Dragonprone appeared, the elemental swords became involved, and then everyone started fighting over those weapons and the Zamorak Sword."
Yuumo slowly nodded as she folded her arms. "Every trail we've followed eventually leads back to one source, which means we've been looking at separate disasters when we should have been looking at the person connecting them."
Shoto swallowed as he tried to process everything. "You're saying all of this, including Kyoya, the Rune Gate, and the Frost Archon, is connected to my father?"
"Not directly in every case," Neko answered, "but they're consequences of experiments that never truly stopped."
Shoto's hands began trembling.
His mind immediately filled with memories he didn't want to revisit, including Mizumi falling onto the wooden floor, blood spreading beneath her body, static swallowing his vision as the world around him disappeared, and the terrifying realization that he had killed the people responsible. He remembered reuniting with his father in space and the battle that followed, remembering how badly he had wanted answers only to discover that those answers came with even more questions.
For several moments, Shoto remained completely silent.
He didn't know what he was supposed to say.
The older man slowly pushed his chair backward and stood, and although the movement itself was ordinary, the atmosphere within the chamber seemed to change the instant he rose. Several people shifted their attention toward him, and Shoto instinctively watched as the man adjusted his coat before speaking.
"My name is Inoue," he said. "I'm Zan-Xi's butler, although that title doesn't fully describe what I actually do, because I also represent the people who spend their time cleaning up the messes your father leaves behind."
Ryuji muttered, "That's comforting."
Inoue ignored him completely and continued speaking as though he hadn't heard the comment. "Ayato Kazami is preparing to do something that he should never be allowed to accomplish, and the reason everyone in this room has been brought together is because the consequences of his actions will affect far more than any one of us."
Shoto slowly lifted his head.
Inoue's expression became more serious.
"The Rune Gate was never a myth, and it was never simply some ancient structure waiting for someone to discover it. It was a lock created to contain something, and the reason it could eventually be opened was because someone existed who could serve as its key."
Shoto's stomach tightened.
Inoue looked directly at him.
"And that person was you, Shoto."
Every eye in the room immediately turned toward him.
Shoto instinctively pushed himself backward, his chair scraping against the floor as he stared at Inoue in disbelief. "That's not possible. I didn't choose any of this, and I don't even understand why everyone keeps acting like I was supposed to be part of it."
Zan-Xi immediately spoke before anyone else could respond. "I know you didn't choose it, Shoto, and nobody is blaming you for being born into something you never asked for."
Juxo slammed one fist lightly against the table, the impact echoing through the chamber. "Maybe he didn't choose it, but every freak event we've dealt with lately somehow follows him, and that's something we can't ignore."
Tetsuya turned toward Shoto, his expression remaining unreadable. "Kyoya's immortality is another example, and if what we've learned is correct, then even that may have a connection to the same chain of events."
Hina's face became pale as she looked between them. "So if Ayato is still out there, then what exactly is he planning to do?"
Neko's eyes narrowed as he looked toward Shoto. "That's the reason we're here, because regardless of what anyone thinks about each other, there is one thing that everyone around this table should be able to agree on."
He paused briefly before continuing in a quiet but firm voice.
"We have to stop Ayato."
The words settled heavily over the room.
Shoto felt his chest tighten as rage, fear, guilt, and confusion tangled together inside him until he couldn't separate one emotion from another. Part of him wanted to reject everything they were saying because Ayato was still his father, and despite everything that had happened between them, that fact remained difficult to accept. Another part of him remembered Mizumi, the Rune Gate, the experiments, and the battle in space, making it impossible to pretend that his father was simply an innocent man caught in circumstances beyond his control.
Shoto lowered his gaze toward the obsidian table and remained silent for several moments before finally asking the question that had been weighing on him since the meeting began.
"…And what happens if I don't help you?"
Nobody answered immediately.
The silence stretched around the table as everyone considered the question, and Shoto could feel the tension returning to the room.
Zan-Xi eventually pushed his chair backward and stood, his expression remaining calm as he looked directly at Shoto.
"I'll stop him," he said, his voice steady enough that there was no uncertainty behind the words. "I'll stop Ayato with or without you, because whether you choose to stand beside us or walk away, I can't allow him to finish whatever he's preparing."
The room didn't erupt into arguments, and nobody reached for a weapon or raised their voice. Instead, everyone remained seated in silence while Zan-Xi's words settled over them, because there was something about the way he had spoken that made it clear he hadn't been threatening Shoto.
He had been making a promise.
Shoto stared at his cousin for a long moment, unable to determine whether that promise was meant to protect him or warn him, but somewhere deep within his chest, he realized that the meeting had never truly been about asking whether he wanted to become involved.
The meeting had been about what everyone would do once Ayato moved.
And whether Shoto was ready or not, the board had already begun shifting beneath his feet.