Kaito woke up to birds chirping and his lower back aching like he'd wrestled a bear in his sleep.
A hot, sword wielding possessive bear.
He blinked up at the stone ceiling.
"…Still alive."
No fire.
No bounty hunter.
No system messages screaming in his face.
Just peace, and pain in his thighs.
[PASSIVE STATUS: Post-Sync Fatigue]
(-10% movement speed until hydration and food are restored.)
"Okay," he mumbled. "First water then pants, then mental breakdown."
He sat up. A blanket.. nope, Lyria's old cloak was draped over his lap.
His shirt was still missing.
His dignity was somewhere back in the tavern under a smashed table.
He looked around.
Sera? Gone.
No trace of the Core bonded bounty hunter except a weird glow on the wall shaped like a rose, pulsing faintly.
A small glowing note floated in front of it:
"Thanks for the night, call me when the rage princess lets you off the leash. 💋" —Sera
Kaito's jaw dropped.
"Are you KIDDING me."
Behind him, a sword hit the ground. Hard.
He turned.
Lyria stood at the cave mouth, arms crossed, full armor on again. Her expression was… unreadable.
"You're awake," she said.
"Yeah." He waved the floating love note. "So, she left a review."
"I saw it."
She didn't smile.
Kaito scrambled to stand up. "Lyria, I swear I didn't touch her, she tried to sync with me, I slapped her hand and then glitch suggested my pants off."
Her eyes narrowed.
"I believe you."
Pause.
"...Really?"
"Yes." She shouldered her sword. "But the planted a trace, so we move now."
Kaito limped beside her, cloak flapping around his knees.
"So where exactly are we going?" he asked.
"Port Gallen, South of the ridge. Black market town, If we can get a smuggler, we leave the continent."
"Okay... Okay cool, One question tho, why the hell are people this horny about my existence?"
Lyria didn't answer at first.
Then...
"You're glitch linked to a Core, not just any Core, a dangerous one probably."
"E.R.O.S.?"
Her eyes flicked sideways.
"You remember the name."
Kaito sighed. "It's hard to forget when my skills are named things like 'Submission Shock' and 'Erotic Resistance'."
[NOTIFICATION: Quest Started – ESCAPE TO GALLEN]
Objective: Travel south across Beastroot Pass without triggering a Sync Surge.
Optional: Don't die.
"We should start moving." Lyria said. "We'll know more later."
Kaito and Lyria move fast.
The world around them is gorgeous green trees, golden light, birdsong.
And Kaito?
Kaito's trying not to trip on roots, get eaten or think about the way Lyria's armor shifts when she walks.
Also, he's hungry.
And glitchy.
[PASSIVE TRIGGER: FANTASY LEAK – Emotional Echo Detected]
[Visual Hallucination – Sync Desire: "Cave Repeat"]
Lyria glances back.
"Stop looking at my thighs."
"I'm trying to look at the road," Kaito said, eyes very much not on the road.
She tossed him a berry from a pouch.
"Eat and focus."
"Love it when you talk domestic."
She didn't laugh.
But her lips twitched.
Deeper Into The Forest..
The trees got darker. The birds went quiet.
That was never a good sign in fantasy logic.
Kaito knew this, he'd seen every anime ever.
"Why's it so quiet?" he asked.
Lyria didn't slow down. "Wraithland territory, stay close."
"Right. Wraithland, sounds friendly."
A branch snapped to the left.
Then something growled low, guttural. Like a broken record on fire.
[WARNING: MAGIC SIGNATURE DETECTED – MEMORY WRAITH LV. 22]
[TYPE: Psychic Predator – Feeds on suppressed desire and regret.]
"ARE YOU SERIOUS," Kaito shouted, backing up fast.
The thing that stepped out of the trees didn't have a face.
Just a twisting shimmer, like fog in the shape of a humanoid wrapped in shadow.
Its body shifted constantly. Male. Female. Old. Young.
It changed based on what you feared.
It hissed.
And the world turned.
HALLUCINATION ZONE – KAITO'S MIND
Kaito blinked.
Suddenly, he was in high school.
Old uniform, earth in fluorescent lights.
A poster on the wall read "Club Fair Today – No Weirdos Allowed!"
A group of students laughed in the corner, pointing. and whispering.
His hands were sweaty.
He looked down, he was holding a light novel.
The one that got him bullied for a month.
"Oh, no," he muttered. "Not this memory. Come on, man!"
The laughter got louder.
[WRAITH EFFECT – GUILT LOOP ENGAGED]
[ERROR: Emotional Core Disturbance]
[Sync Abilities Locked Until Arousal or Anchor Is Achieved]
"What kind of twisted therapy boss is this!?"
***
REAL WORLD – LYRIA POV
Kaito dropped like a stone, eyes open but not blinking.
The Wraith hovered above him, whispering poison into his mind.
Lyria growled.
She charged.
The Wraith dodged her first swing, gliding sideways like smoke.
She followed, blade slashing wide, missing again.
It was smart.
Fast.
Feeding.
***
KAITO'S MIND – STILL HALLUCINATING
Now he was back in his old room.
Stacks of manga, Lonely pizza boxes
and a mirror.
In the mirror him.
Older, pathetic, alone.
Voice:
"You're not a hero, you're a glitch, a puppet, a joke with hormones."
Kaito looked down.
His hands were glowing.
Wait, what?
***
REAL WORLD – SYSTEM SURGE
[ERROR: EMOTIONAL LOOP COLLISION]
[TRIGGER FOUND – ANCHOR LINK DETECTED: Lyria]
[OVERRIDE CONDITION MET – EROTIC ANCHOR INITIATED]
[ABILITY: DESIRE ECHO – LV.1 UNLOCKED]
***
KAITO'S MIND – SHIFT
The room flickered.
Suddenly Lyria was there.
Not the real one, this was Desire Lyria.
In leather with glowing red eyes. Whispering things that'd get banned on every platform.
"Snap out of it," she growled, crawling onto his lap. "Or I'll break you in here and out there."
He blinked hard.
"Okay! Yup! Awake now!"
*
REAL WORLD – RETURN
Kaito gasped, eyes lighting up.
"Lyria!"
She was still fighting, sweating, rage building.
He reached out.
[ABILITY ACTIVATED: DESIRE ECHO – BOND FLASHBACK LINKED]
[EFFECT: Lust Surge – Enemy Weak to Pleasure-Based Disruption]
Kaito did the unthinkable.
He shouted, "Hey Wraith! Guess what?! I LIKE DOMINANT WOMEN."
And then imagined the cave again, every single moment.
Vivid, unfiltered, System Charged.
The Wraith twitched.
It moaned.
Kaito almost fell over.
"DID IT JUST MOAN?!"
[WRAITH STATUS: OVERSTIMULATED]
[Weak to Erotic Feedback – Defense Dropped -80%]
Lyria didn't waste it.
She spun, jumped, sword first...
SLASH.
The Wraith screamed then disintegrated in a burst of glowing regret.
Breathing hard, Kaito collapsed on a rock.
Lyria walked over slowly, face unreadable.
"You screamed your kinks at a ghost," she said.
"It worked didn't it."
"You're an idiot."
"I'm your idiot." He teased.
She paused.
Then smirked.
[NEW SYNC LEVEL: 5 REACHED]
[PASSIVE: Glitch Anchoring – Lust Disruption Immunity +15%]
Later...
They had setup fire near by.
Lyria sat across from Kaito, sharpening her sword.
Kaito was poking sticks into the flame, trying not to overthink how close he came to dying. Again.
"…Do you think," he said slowly, "that I'm ever gonna stop waking up in new trauma?"
Lyria didn't look up. "No."
"Cool, love the honesty."
He leaned back against a log and sighed.
The stars above were wild, strange constellations in the shape of weapons, beasts, wings.
"This world," he muttered, "is like Dark Souls but hornier."
[PASSIVE THOUGHT TRACKING ENABLED]
[Quote Saved: "Dark Souls but hornier."]
[Filed under: "System Confusion – Kaito Folder #11"]
Lyria finally looked at him.
"You handled yourself well," she said.
Kaito blinked. "What, in the hallucination?"
She nodded once.
"You came back fast, most don't. Memory Wraiths feed until the soul collapses."
"Well… it helps to hallucinate the woman you're sexually bonded to showing up in lingerie and threatening to break you."
Pause...
Lyria's face twitched. "I wasn't wearing lingerie."
"Yeah," he nodded. "But my brain made some choices."
She threw a twig at his face.
A beat. Then silence.
The fire popped.
Wind rolled across the clearing.
Kaito stared into the flames, his voice softer now.
"…I saw stuff in there I didn't even know I remembered."
Lyria didn't speak.
"I was just this loser kid back home. Always picked last, always hiding in fantasy, and now I'm here, being hunted by glitch bounty hunters and kissing warrior women in caves."
"You're not that kid anymore. A Loser? Maybe."
He looked at her with a smirk.
"Aww, you really think that?"
"I wouldn't follow a kid into a dungeon."
Pause.
"Or let one inside me."
Kaito choked on air.
"That would have been too rated 18."
She chuckled.
Then, another silence but warmer.
Not the awkward kind.
The we survived something kind.
Kaito leaned his head back and stared at the stars again.
"…Do you think it's always gonna be like this?"
"The running?" she asked.
"The fighting, the glitching or even the horny errors."
She looked into the fire.
"Yes."
"Great."
"…But maybe not alone," she added.
Kaito smiled.
A soft system ping echoed in his vision.
[SYNC LEVEL: 6 ACHIEVED]
[Emotion Detected: Trust]
[Skill Unlocked: Shared Pulse – Detect Hostile Intention in 30m Radius when touching bonded user.]
He looked over.
Lyria was sitting close now, their shoulders barely touching.
Lines of red text glowed across his vision.
[SYNC LEVEL: 58% – HOLDING STEADY]
[NOTIFICATION: SYSTEM DREAM INCOMING – ORIGIN: ADMIN CORE E.R.O.S]
[SLEEP TRIGGER IN: 3… 2… 1...]
Kaito blinked then the forest vanished.
Black space with a bright light.
Then he heard a voice… not quite human.
"My Weaver… welcome back."