—
Tsukihana hovered inches above the fractured street, her obsidian robe flowing like smoke in the windless air. Around her, debris floated in slow spirals—time itself resisting her presence.
Hoshiro stepped forward, every movement deliberate. "You said we've tilted the world. What do you mean?"
Tsukihana's eyes shimmered. "You defeated a god, disrupted the flow of fate, and awakened fragments of time that were never meant to meet." She glanced toward the unconscious younger Hoshiro. "He is proof."
Kazuki shifted uncomfortably. "So… what, now you're the time police?"
"No." Her voice echoed. "I am Balance. When power leans too far—light or dark—I come to correct it."
Ayame narrowed her eyes. "And how do you correct it? By destroying us?"
"Not if you understand what comes next."
She waved a hand, and visions exploded in the sky above: alternate futures—one where Tokyo burned under syndicate control, one where Hoshiro became a tyrant, one where Ayame vanished completely. And then… one where all of them stood united against something far greater.
"You've opened a door," Tsukihana said. "But beyond it lies something even the gods fear."
Hoshiro's eyes glowed faintly beneath his mask. "Then tell us how to stop it."
She smiled, for the first time. "You don't. You *survive* it."
—
As the vision faded, a storm began to form—not of rain, but of time itself. The next arc was beginning.