The first thing I heard was beeping.
Slow.
Consistent.
Annoying.
I kept my eyes closed and tried to figure out where I was without moving. The last thing I remembered clearly was the helicopter, a medic telling me to stop talking, and my sword being placed beside the stretcher after nearly freezing a soldier's hand off.
After that, everything became fragments.
White lights.
Voices.
Someone cutting my jacket.
A needle.
Then nothing.
The beeping continued.
Hospital.
Probably.
I tried moving my left hand.
Nothing happened.
My eyes opened immediately.
White ceiling.
White walls.
Dim lights.
I looked down.
My left arm was wrapped from the fingertips to above the elbow, resting inside some kind of medical brace. Several thin tubes ran beneath the bandages, connected to a machine beside the bed.
I stared at it.
"Move."
Nothing.
My stomach tightened.
I tried again.
My index finger twitched.
Barely.
I released a breath.
"Okay."
Not gone.
Just useless.
That was considerably better than gone.
I tried sitting up.
Pain spread across my chest before I'd moved three inches.
"Nope."
I dropped back against the pillow.
My ribs felt like someone had replaced them with broken glass. My right shoulder was strapped in place, my side was heavily bandaged, and judging from the tightness around my torso, somebody had wrapped half my body while I was unconscious.
I looked toward the window.
Morning sunlight spilled through reinforced glass.
Morning?
How long had I been asleep?
I searched for a clock.
There wasn't one.
Of course there wasn't.
There was, however, a television mounted on the wall.
The screen was muted.
I stared at it.
Then stared harder.
My face was on it.
"…What?"
A news anchor sat beside an enormous picture of me standing in the snow with the ice sword.
The headline beneath it read:
THE BOY WHO SURVIVED
I blinked.
"No."
Another graphic appeared.
KAI SKYLINE: HERO OR SOMETHING MORE?
"No."
Footage played.
Me running toward Ygros.
The camera switched to the moment I froze its arm.
Then Ygros walking away.
Then me collapsing.
A second headline appeared.
FIRST APOCALYPSE REPELLED
I slowly sank deeper into the pillow.
"No, no, no."
The door opened.
A nurse walked in carrying a tablet.
She stopped when she saw me awake.
"Oh."
I pointed at the television.
"Turn that off."
She smiled.
"Good morning."
"Television."
"How are you feeling?"
"Famous."
Her smile widened.
"Unfortunately."
"Turn it off."
She tapped something on the wall.
The screen went black.
I relaxed.
"Thank you."
She approached the bed and began checking the machines.
"How long?"
"Thirty-six hours."
I looked at her.
"I slept for a day and a half?"
"You were sedated for part of it."
"Why?"
"Because you kept waking up."
I frowned.
"I don't remember that."
"You weren't particularly coherent."
"What did I say?"
She hesitated.
That was concerning.
"What did I say?"
"You threatened a doctor."
I stared.
"Why?"
"He tried to take your sword."
"…Reasonable."
"He disagreed."
"Where is it?"
"Secure storage."
My eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
"Mr. Skyline."
"That's not an answer."
"Your weapon is safe."
"That's also not an answer."
She sighed and checked the monitor attached to my left arm.
"You suffered severe hypothermia, four fractured ribs, a dislocated right shoulder, extensive bruising, multiple lacerations, a mild concussion, and damage to the nerves in your left arm."
I stopped thinking about the sword.
"Nerve damage?"
"Temporary, we believe."
"We believe?"
"Your body was exposed to temperatures that should have caused significantly more tissue damage. We're still trying to understand why it didn't."
I looked at the bandages.
"How temporary?"
"Your fingers are moving?"
"One."
"That's good."
"How temporary?"
She finally looked at me.
"We don't know."
That answer sat heavier than I expected.
I stared at my arm.
The sword had warned me.
I knew that now.
Every pulse.
Every increase in resistance.
I'd understood exactly what the technique required, and I'd used it anyway.
One hundred percent mastery.
Zero percent common sense.
Great combination.
"Can I still use a sword?"
The nurse gave me a look.
"You're asking whether you can use a sword?"
"Yes."
"You woke up two minutes ago."
"Three."
"Your shoulder was dislocated."
"Other arm."
"Your other arm has nerve damage."
"So that's a maybe."
She stared at me for several seconds.
"I understand why the doctors dislike you."
"See? Famous."
The door opened again.
A man in a dark suit entered.
Then another.
Government.
I recognized that immediately.
The nurse glanced toward them.
"Five minutes."
The first man nodded.
She looked at me.
"Rest."
"I've been resting for thirty-six hours."
"Do more."
She left.
The suited man waited for the door to close.
"Mr. Skyline."
"Apparently."
He didn't react.
Professional.
Boring.
"My name is Agent Mercer. I'm with the Office of Enhanced Security."
"That sounds made up."
"It isn't."
"Sounds made up."
He placed a tablet on the table beside me.
"President Cross would like to speak with you once you're medically cleared."
"Am I in trouble?"
"No."
"Then I don't want to speak to the president."
That finally got a reaction.
Small.
But there.
"Most people don't respond that way."
"Most people weren't punched through a mountain yesterday."
"Day before yesterday."
"See? Brain damage."
Mercer ignored that.
"We need to discuss what happened with Ygros."
My smile faded.
There it was.
I looked toward the black television.
"What do you think happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us."
"It tried to kill me."
Mercer watched me carefully.
I watched him back.
The lie wasn't technically clean.
Ygros had attacked me.
It had hurt me.
It had nearly frozen me indirectly by forcing me to use more power.
But by the end…
I knew.
That thing could have killed me.
More than once.
It chose not to.
I wasn't giving the government that information yet.
Not until I understood why.
Mercer pulled a chair closer.
"Did it communicate with you?"
My expression didn't change.
"Communicate?"
"Several moments during the battle suggested you were responding to something we couldn't detect."
Damn cameras.
"I talk during fights."
"We noticed."
"I also talk when I'm alone."
"We noticed that too."
"Then we've solved it."
Mercer didn't smile.
"Did Ygros speak to you?"
I thought of one word.
Kita.
Then everything that followed.
My stomach tightened.
"No."
The lie came easier that time.
Mercer studied me.
I gave him nothing.
Eventually he nodded.
"Did you know Ygros before the operation?"
"No."
"Did you know what an Apocalypse was?"
"Same as everyone else."
"How did you freeze its arm?"
I looked at my bandaged hand.
"Bad decision-making."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
He waited.
I sighed.
"The sword has techniques. I used one."
"That technique froze several square miles."
"Yeah."
"And nearly killed you."
"Also yeah."
"Can you do it again?"
I looked at him.
"Probably."
Mercer's expression changed slightly.
I continued.
"Would I survive doing it again?"
Silence.
"Different question."
That answer seemed to interest him more than anything else I'd said.
He picked up the tablet.
"One more."
"Sure."
"Why did Ygros leave?"
I stared at him.
For once, I didn't have to lie.
"I don't know."
By noon, I discovered three things.
First, hospital food was terrible even in secret government hospitals.
Second, somebody had confiscated my phone.
Third, the entire planet had apparently lost its mind.
Agent Mercer eventually gave me access to a tablet with restricted internet.
Huge mistake.
I searched my name.
There were already millions of results.
WHO IS KAI SKYLINE?
MYSTERY TEEN HERO SURVIVES YGROS
SHOULD KAI SKYLINE RECEIVE IMMEDIATE S-RANK STATUS?
THE ICE SWORD: WHAT WE KNOW
KAI SKYLINE COMPILATION - ALL BATTLE MOMENTS
I stared at that one.
"Compilation?"
It had forty-three million views.
"What the hell?"
Another video showed someone analyzing my footwork frame by frame.
Another claimed I was secretly thirty-seven years old.
One claimed I was a government-created artificial human.
Another claimed I'd come from space.
I stopped scrolling.
"Space?"
Apparently, some people thought my lack of public records meant I wasn't human.
I looked at my bandaged body.
"Honestly, I'd expect better construction."
A knock came from the door.
"Come in."
The door opened.
Several people entered.
I recognized every one of them.
My heart stopped.
Benny walked in first.
Green hair.
Same stupid face.
Older than the boy I remembered.
Different.
But Benny.
Behind him came Frank, Paul, Emi, Beth, Kenya, Toma, Montiro and…
Threya.
My fingers tightened against the blanket.
For a moment, the hospital disappeared.
I wasn't Kai Skyline.
I was fourteen again.
School hallways.
Training rooms.
Arguments.
Lunch.
Benny laughing too loudly.
Threya sitting beside me.
Then ice.
Years of nothing.
I forced the memories down.
Not now.
Benny grinned.
"You're alive."
I looked at him.
"Disappointing, isn't it?"
His grin widened.
"Oh, I like him."
Frank sighed.
"You've known him for four seconds."
"Enough."
Paul moved around Benny.
"That was insane."
"Thank you."
"No, seriously. Completely insane."
"Less flattering."
"You froze Ygros's whole arm!"
"Then nearly froze myself."
Paul paused.
"Still cool."
Emi smacked the back of his head.
"Ow!"
"Read the room."
"I am reading the room."
"Read better."
I laughed before I could stop myself.
It hurt.
I grabbed my ribs.
"Don't make me laugh."
Benny immediately pointed at Paul.
"You heard him. Shut up."
"You're the loudest person here."
"That's irrelevant."
Some things hadn't changed.
That hurt more than my ribs.
Threya stood near the back of the group.
She looked tired.
Not physically.
Something else.
Her eyes met mine briefly.
I looked away first.
Careful.
Kai Skyline didn't know her.
Kai Skyline didn't know any of them.
Frank stepped forward.
"I'm Frank."
"I know."
Silence.
Idiot.
I corrected quickly.
"You're Flag-Bearers. Everybody knows."
Frank nodded.
Smooth enough.
Benny pointed around.
"Then introductions are pointless."
Beth spoke without looking away from me.
"Not necessarily."
Of course she would be difficult.
Her eyes were exactly as uncomfortable as I remembered.
Maybe worse.
Mental powers.
I immediately wondered if she could read me.
The thought must've shown somewhere because she raised an eyebrow.
"I don't read minds without permission."
I relaxed slightly.
"Good policy."
"Usually."
That did not help.
Emi moved closer to the bed.
She wasn't looking at my face.
She was looking at my hands.
"Who trained you?"
Direct.
Very Emi.
"Lots of people."
"Names?"
"Forgot them."
Her expression flattened.
"You forgot the people who taught you swordsmanship?"
"Bad memory."
"You redirected an attack from Ygros."
"Good muscle memory."
Benny covered a laugh with a cough.
Emi glared at him.
Then back at me.
"Your technique doesn't match any recognized school I've studied."
That caught my attention.
"You study sword schools?"
"I'm a lance specialist."
"That's not a sword."
Her eyebrow twitched.
Benny lost the fight and laughed.
Emi ignored him.
"Weapon disciplines overlap."
"Fair."
She crossed her arms.
"Your footwork changed repeatedly during the battle. So did your grip, posture and dominant hand."
"Had to."
"Most people can't."
I shrugged.
Pain.
Bad idea.
"Most people aren't stupid enough to fight Ygros."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting."
For a second, I thought she'd get angry.
Instead, she smiled.
Small.
Competitive.
"I'll figure it out."
I believed her.
That was worrying.
Paul pulled a chair toward the bed.
"So are you S-rank now?"
"No."
"People think you should be."
"People think I'm from space."
Benny blinked.
"You saw that?"
"Unfortunately."
"I voted alien."
I stared at him.
He smiled.
I smiled back.
It happened naturally.
Too naturally.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Something passed across Benny's expression.
Not recognition.
Nothing that dramatic.
Just a strange pause, like he'd walked into a room and forgotten why.
Then Paul started talking again and the moment disappeared.
Good.
Better that way.
Kenya approached next.
A small spiritual fox appeared near her ankle.
Blue-white.
Its ears flattened when it looked at me.
I stared.
The fox stared back.
Then its attention shifted toward the empty corner of the room.
My sword wasn't there.
Still, the fox's fur rose.
Kenya noticed.
Interesting.
"Does it always do that?" I asked.
"No."
She crouched beside the spirit.
"Actually, it almost never does."
The fox looked back at me.
Then disappeared.
Kenya frowned.
I filed that away.
Another problem for another day.
Montiro leaned against the wall.
"You know the government is going to hate you now."
"They already do."
"No, right now they're irritated."
"What's the difference?"
"Wait until reporters start asking why an unranked teenager performed better against Ygros than every ranked hero they had available."
Frank looked toward him.
"That's not fair."
"Didn't say it was."
Montiro looked back at me.
"But it's coming."
I hadn't thought about that.
Hero rankings.
Agencies.
Sponsors.
National teams.
Careers built around being the strongest.
And now Kai Skyline had appeared from nowhere.
Great.
Apparently surviving Ygros wasn't enough trouble.
Toma had remained quiet until then.
He looked at my arm.
"Does it hurt?"
"Can't feel most of it."
Everyone became slightly less cheerful.
I lifted my index finger.
It moved.
Barely.
"But I can do that."
Toma nodded.
"Nice."
"Thank you."
"Very impressive finger."
"Best in the country."
"Definitely S-rank finger."
Benny started laughing.
Even Frank cracked a smile.
Then Threya finally stepped forward.
The room felt smaller.
"Can I ask you something?"
I looked at her.
"Sure."
"Why did you go?"
I knew exactly what she meant.
Nobody joked.
Threya continued.
"You knew what Ygros had done. You knew nobody understood what it was. You didn't even have a hero rank."
Her voice wasn't accusing.
That somehow made it harder.
"Why agree to fight it?"
I looked down at my bandaged hand.
There were several answers.
Because I needed the government.
Because I needed Kai Skyline to exist.
Because I'd spent years trapped inside ice while the world moved without me.
Because somewhere deep inside, I'd needed to know what I could actually do.
None of those answers felt right.
So I gave her the simplest one.
"Someone had to."
Threya stared at me.
I regretted it immediately.
Too heroic.
Too dramatic.
Not me.
I added:
"And apparently everyone smarter than me said no."
Benny laughed.
The tension broke.
Threya smiled.
Small.
But real.
I hadn't seen that smile in years.
I looked toward the window before my face betrayed me.
The visit lasted another twenty minutes.
Paul asked too many questions.
Emi asked better questions, which was worse.
Benny stole part of my lunch despite being told it was hospital food.
He regretted it.
Frank apologized for Benny.
Benny told him to stop damaging his reputation.
For a little while, it felt almost normal.
Not the old normal.
Something new.
That mattered.
Eventually a security officer appeared and told them visiting time was over.
Paul complained.
The security officer didn't care.
As they filed out, Benny stopped at the door.
"Hey."
I looked over.
"We're probably going to see you again."
"Threat?"
"Promise."
"That's worse."
He grinned.
Then left.
Threya was last.
She paused near the doorway.
I tried not to look nervous.
"Get better, Kai."
Kai.
The name hurt.
I smiled anyway.
"Planning on it."
She left.
The door closed.
Silence returned.
I stared at it for a long time.
Then leaned my head back.
"That sucked."
It hadn't.
That was the problem.
Three floors beneath my room, President Evelyn Cross stood inside a secure conference chamber.
Kai Skyline's face covered half the wall.
Beside it were numbers.
Search trends.
Public approval.
Media mentions.
Hero ranking speculation.
International requests.
Agency inquiries.
One analyst changed the slide.
GLOBAL NAME RECOGNITION: 78%
Evelyn stared.
"Seventy-eight?"
"In surveyed connected regions."
"He became globally recognizable in thirty-six hours."
"Yes, ma'am."
Another slide.
Videos.
Merchandise.
Fan pages.
Unauthorized shirts.
Someone had already made a plush version of Kai holding an ice sword.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"How?"
The analyst hesitated.
"The plush?"
"Everything."
"People were terrified."
The room quieted.
The analyst continued.
"Ygros appeared unstoppable. Conventional military responses failed to meaningfully slow it. Then a seventeen-year-old appeared, survived direct combat, visibly damaged it and remained alive when it left."
"That's not what happened."
The analyst looked at her.
"It's what people saw."
Evelyn stared at the battle footage.
There it was.
The problem.
Perception.
Truth.
Two different things.
"What are the ranking organizations saying?"
"Several international bodies are requesting immediate evaluation. Some want provisional S-rank status."
The general from the operation scoffed.
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because surviving one battle doesn't make someone S-rank."
"He froze an Apocalypse."
"For several seconds."
"Longer than anyone else."
"Still not S-rank."
Evelyn raised a hand.
The argument stopped.
"He's unranked."
"Currently."
"Keep him unranked."
Several people looked at her.
The general nodded.
"Agreed."
An analyst frowned.
"That'll create more questions."
"Everything creates questions."
Evelyn looked toward another screen.
A map.
Search zones covered the region surrounding the battlefield.
"Ygros."
The room became serious again.
"No confirmed sightings."
"Satellites?"
"Nothing."
"Energy signatures?"
"Nothing matching previous readings."
"Movement?"
"No."
Evelyn stared at the map.
A thirty-foot creature had walked away from the most monitored place on Earth.
Then vanished.
"Expand the search."
"We already have."
"Expand it again."
"Into Canada?"
"Everywhere."
The analyst nodded.
Evelyn looked back toward Kai's image.
The boy was becoming a symbol.
Symbols were useful.
Symbols were also dangerous.
Especially when nobody knew what they really were.
"Keep security around him."
The general glanced over.
"Protective?"
Evelyn paused.
"Both."
My sword came back that evening.
Two security officers carried the case into my room.
Neither looked happy about it.
One placed the black case on the table.
"Your weapon."
I smiled.
"Missed you too."
"Sign here."
I signed.
He handed me the tablet.
Then both men left remarkably quickly.
I stared after them.
"Friendly."
The case sat there.
Something felt different.
I couldn't explain it.
I got out of bed.
Badly.
My legs worked, but every step pulled at my ribs. I dragged the IV stand beside me and shuffled toward the table like the world's youngest elderly man.
I opened the case.
The ice sword rested inside.
Quiet.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
I reached toward it.
Stopped.
The nurse's voice appeared in my head.
Nerve damage.
I should probably wait.
I touched it anyway.
Cold entered my fingers.
Not painful.
Familiar.
The sword pulsed.
Once.
"Hey."
Another pulse.
"Almost killed me."
Nothing.
"Oh, now you're quiet."
I lifted the blade carefully.
My left hand couldn't support the weight properly, so I rested it across the case.
That's when I saw it.
A mark.
Near the center of the blade.
Thin.
Black.
I frowned.
"What is that?"
It hadn't been there before.
I knew every detail of this sword.
Every scratch.
Every imperfection.
Every microscopic difference in the edge.
This was new.
The black mark wasn't a crack.
It looked almost like something had been burned beneath the surface of the ice-blue metal.
I touched it.
The hospital disappeared.
Darkness.
For less than a second, I saw something.
Six red eyes.
Not Ygros.
Not exactly.
An impression.
Pressure.
A mountain splitting.
A claw.
Then movement.
A pattern.
My hand jerked away.
The hospital returned.
I stumbled backward.
The sword clattered against the case.
My heart raced.
"What…"
I stared at the blade.
The black mark remained.
I slowly approached again.
"No."
The sword pulsed.
"Nope."
Another pulse.
"Absolutely not."
I closed the case.
The sword pulsed from inside.
"We're dealing with that tomorrow."
I shuffled back toward the bed.
Halfway there, I stopped.
Something bothered me.
I looked at the case.
During the fight, I'd learned Ygros's movements.
Its attacks.
Its timing.
Its patterns.
But that had been me.
Hadn't it?
I remembered the sword moving on its own.
Attacking Ygros when it reached toward it.
The mark hadn't existed before the battle.
I stared at the case.
A strange possibility entered my mind.
I didn't like it.
I really didn't like it.
Maybe I'd been thinking about my swords incorrectly this entire time.
Maybe I wasn't the only one learning.
I looked down at my bandaged hand.
Ygros had spent the battle studying me.
Studying my reactions.
My swordsmanship.
My limits.
But perhaps something had been studying Ygros too.
The case pulsed once.
I swallowed.
"That's going to become a problem, isn't it?"
Another pulse.
I sighed.
"Of course."
Outside the reinforced hospital window, the city continued as if nothing had changed.
Cars moved.
Lights flickered.
People walked beneath enormous screens showing footage of Kai Skyline standing against Ygros.
Humanity had found its newest hero.
The government had found its newest mystery.
And inside a hospital room nobody knew existed, a sword rested inside a black case with a mark it hadn't possessed two days earlier.
Somewhere else, beyond satellites, cameras and human detection, something moved through the darkness.
Not attacking.
Not retreating.
Simply moving.
And for the first time since the battle ended, the black mark on my sword pulsed back.