There are places in the world that were never meant to be found.
Not by us.
Not by anyone.
Places that bleed through the cracks of reality when no one's looking—when the world is too tired to hold itself together. Places where light forgets how to shine, and silence becomes something alive.
This story begins at the edge of one of those cracks.
It starts in a city that doesn't care who you are. A city where the forgotten live stacked on top of each other like broken furniture. Where ghosts aren't made of sheets and chains, but of hunger, regret, and things left unsaid.
It starts with a boy named Ren.
Seventeen. Alone. Hollow in all the ways that matter.
He wasn't looking for answers.
He wasn't searching for meaning.
He just wanted to stop existing.
But fate doesn't always wait for permission.
One night—on a rooftop where he planned to leave everything behind—he saw something. Not a miracle. Not salvation.
An explosion.
No fire.
No sound.
Just darkness. Alive. Expanding.
And from that black ripple in the sky, something came through.
A portal? A wound? A door?
Even Ren couldn't say. All he knew was this: the world had changed.
And whatever stepped into it from that shadow…it noticed him.