Tokyo : Morning After
The city looked calm again.
But it was the wrong kind of calm the kind that comes before the world remembers it's still breaking.
Kazuki walked through Shibuya with his hoodie up.
He wasn't running anymore. Just walking. Watching the people around him unaware of how close they'd come to being erased.
Aeva's message still buzzed in his pocket.
He hadn't replied.
Not because he didn't want to.
But because every time he tried to type, the letters on the screen flickered like reality itself was glitching.
He stopped near a crossing.
Hundreds of people walked past, all in rhythm.
Except one.
A man stood across the street.
Tall. Pale. Wearing a dark coat.
Their eyes met for a moment and in that instant, Kazuki felt it.
A frequency.
A vibration.
Not speed. Not energy. Something deeper.
The man smiled.
Then vanished.
Kazuki blinked.
He wasn't sure if it really happened.
But his heart said yes.
Aeva's Apartment
She hadn't slept.
The city lights outside her window looked too still, too bright.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw flashes Kazuki fighting the Host, the white void, the crack in the sky.
Her phone rang.
Private number.
She hesitated before answering.
"Hello?"
The voice on the other end was calm, distorted.
"Aeva Lin. You've seen the breach."
"Who is this?"
"Not important. Listen carefully."
"The boy isn't the only one changing."
She froze.
"What are you talking about?"
"Check your wrist."
She looked down.
Her pulse was glowing faintly gold.
Just like Kazuki's lightning.
"No…" she whispered.
"You've been linked since the rooftop. His energy marked you. The Collapse will start through both of you."
The call ended.
Aeva dropped the phone, her breathing quick.
Outside, thunder rolled though the sky was clear.
Underground Drexon's Base
Monitors lined the walls, each showing fragments of Tokyo.
Buildings. Subways. Power grids.
And across them, the same red spiral began to spread again this time slower, deliberate.
Drexon stood in the center, his coat half torn, his mechanical spine pulsing with red light.
"Phase 2 failed," one Echo said.
"No," Drexon replied. "It succeeded more than you realize."
He turned toward the core chamber.
Inside, the shattered remains of the Final Host floated in liquid metal.
Its eyes flickered weakly.
"He resisted the merge," the Echo continued. "The synchronization broke."
Drexon smiled faintly.
"Then he did exactly what I needed."
He pressed his hand to the console.
A hologram of Kazuki appeared energy readings unstable, human code fluctuating.
"Do you see?" Drexon whispered. "He's not human anymore. He's the first fracture. And every fracture spreads."
He walked past the monitors.
"Begin Phase 3."
The city lights dimmed.
-
Tokyo : Later That Day
Kazuki sat in an abandoned subway car.
He hadn't gone home.
Couldn't.
Every surface he touched sparked faintly.
Every reflection seemed a millisecond late.
He wasn't sure if it was his power…
Or the world.
He stared at his hands.
"Am I even me anymore?" he muttered.
Then a flicker in the glass across from him.
His reflection blinked… out of sync.
"No," the reflection said.
"You're what's left."
Kazuki froze.
"What are you?"
"The part that runs when you stop."
Then the glass cracked like spiderweb lines crawling outward.
The reflection smiled.
And whispered:
"The Collapse has begun."
Meanwhile : Aeva
She was running through Shinjuku, trying to find him.
Every screen she passed glitched with static and symbols.
Her wrist burned gold.
When she reached the old subway entrance, the ground trembled.
The air thickened.
She stepped inside and the lights above flickered out.
"Kazuki?" she called softly.
The answer came as a whisper.
"He's below."
She turned and there he was.
Drexon. "What do you want from him?" she demanded.
"Nothing," Drexon said calmly. "What I want is already inside him."
He started walking toward her.
The air warped with each step.
You think he's the hero?" Drexon continued.
"He's the glitch that breaks the timeline."
Aeva's hands glowed.
"Stay back."
"You can't stop what's already falling."
Lightning burst around her, gold and blue colliding.
She shot forward, energy slamming into Drexon's chest but he didn't fall.
Instead, he caught the light with his bare hand.
"Impressive," he said.
"But you don't understand. You're linked to him. You're his anchor. And when he collapses, you go with him."
Aeva's heartbeat thundered.
>"You're lying."
"Am I?"
He released her energy, letting it explode harmlessly into the walls.
"Find him, then. Ask him what he saw in the void."
And with that, Drexon vanished.
Subway Core Beneath the City
Kazuki stood in front of the main tunnel the walls flickering between real and unreal.
Every sound echoed twice.
He could feel Aeva's presence above, faint and scared.
He wanted to go to her.
But his body… it wasn't listening right.
The suit pulsed.
"Warning," it whispered. "Temporal instability detected."
"Tell me something I don't know," he muttered.
Then the ground split.
Cracks of light raced along the floor, spreading outward in fractal patterns.
Everywhere they touched, the world dissolved.
He backed away but there was nowhere left to go.
A voice whispered behind him.
"You can't run from your own frequency."
He turned and saw his reflection again, stepping out of the broken glass.
This time, it wasn't static.
It was him.
But older.
Faster.
Colder.
"Who are you?" Kazuki asked, breath uneven.
"The result," the reflection said. "Of what you become when you stop pretending to be human."
Kazuki shook his head.
"I'm nothing like you."
The reflection smiled faintly.
"That's what I said too."
Then it lunged.
The tunnel exploded with light.
Aeva : Outside
She saw the explosion from blocks away.
The street cracked open.
A pillar of blue lightning tore through the air, reaching the clouds.
Aeva's eyes widened.
"Kazuki…"
She ran toward it.
Beneath the City : The Fight
Kazuki and his future self collided at impossible speed.
Blue and silver lightning danced through the tunnels.
Every punch shook the ground.
Every kick bent the walls.
Kazuki was strong but the other one was faster.
Sharper.
Perfect.
"You can't win," the future self said.
"I already know every move you'll make."
"Then maybe I'll surprise you."
Kazuki shifted running not through space, but through time.
He appeared behind the future self, striking hard.
The impact cracked the tunnel apart.
For a moment, it looked like victory.
Until the future self smiled.
"Good. You're learning."
He vanished again this time inside the lightning.
And Kazuki realized something horrifying.
The Collapse wasn't about destroying the world.
It was about merging every version of him into one.
Final Scene : Above Tokyo
The lightning reached the sky.
The red spiral returned but this time mixed with blue and gold.
From above, Drexon watched, standing on the tower's edge.
"Phase 3 complete," he murmured.
"Now… let the timelines bleed."
The clouds tore open.
And from the light, hundreds of shadows began to fall each one running at impossible speed.
Each one wearing a different version of the suit.
Each one a Kazuki.