An empty, dimly lit subway station, covered in a thin mist. Being there felt like your body was underwater.
"What is this place?" said Muta, looking around.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the platform. Looked both ways."No trains coming…"
When he turned around, Muta saw someone sitting on a bench.
This person wore a wine-colored trench coat with black stripes, held tight by a wide belt. Metallic buttons shimmered under the faint light. Dark gloves, a high-neck shirt. His posture was stiff. In his hand, a cane — not for support, but like a weapon.
His skin was paper-white. His hair, silver and reflective. Purple lipstick.His eyes was complety white, but somehow seemed to see the past itself.
He looked furious. His face screamed it.
He pointed the cane at Muta."You're going to do me a favor," he said in a deep, calm voice that made Muta's whole body tense.
Muta felt fear, anger, sadness, and joy all at once. A chill ran down his spine. Almost like hypnotized, he nodded without saying a word.
"With the group that saved your life… you must go to Strabevield. You have one year," the man continued.
Muta wanted to ask. Wanted to understand. Who was this guy? Why was he asking that? What was this place? But he couldn't speak. He was frozen.
As if reading his mind, the man let out a calm, warm laugh — despite his furious expression.
"You'll get your answers in due time, kid."
He tapped the cane on the ground. A train appeared behind Muta.Before he could react, the man pointed the cane again. Muta was thrown inside the train, and it took off.
Muta woke up, gasping, like he'd dreamt of falling. He looked around. Everyone was sitting in front of him.
They weren't wearing swimsuits anymore.
Edwin was dressed in all black. A vest with simple details, a top hat between his horns, a pocket watch chain on his chest, and, surprisingly, gloves on those long, longer-than-normal fingers. He looked like a timekeeper.
Venus wore a black trench coat nearly touching the ground, split on the sides. Underneath, leather pants. Heavy matching boots, knives strapped to her left leg, and a pocket watch on the right.
Zoe wore a black cloak with two rows of buttons — stiff at the shoulders, loose everywhere else. Underneath, tight dark clothes. A beret on her head with a small watch on the front. Brown leather boots up to the knee. Simple outfit, but stylish as hell.
And Jack… was Jack. The most stylish of them all. Black and white shorts with raven prints, a white shirt that said "This is a cat" — with a raven picture underneath. Black sunglasses, each lens shaped like a raven's wing. Leather gloves that only covered half his hands. And, of course, a wristwatch.
"The Drip Quartet attacks out of nowhere," Muta thought.
He felt a bit nervous. Their appearances looked straight out of a novel. But he didn't panic. They had saved him.
"Thanks… for saving me from that…" Muta tried to speak, but froze when he remembered the creature. The size, the shape… just thinking about it gave him a headache. He felt a void.
"Actually, we wanted to apologize," said Jack, sounding guilty. "We knew that was going to happen, but when you asked who we were… we got carried away. If we hadn't, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"At least I'm alive! That's what matters. But… what do you mean, 'you knew that was going to happen'?"
"When the snap happened and everything turned black with those creatures… that's the Dark Hour. It happens every two days, at midnight. Since it's always bright here, we use watches to keep track. When the Midnight Hour hits, everything goes dark. And those… things appear. That's all we know," Jack explained.
"And that creature?"
"We've only seen it once, from a distance. A giant walking head… does whatever it wants. And we can't do anything about it," Jack lost enthusiasm as he spoke.
Everyone went quiet."How can something that big even exist?"
Zoe broke the silence."W-why iz yur rright eye w-weird? A-and what'd y-you do befowr?"
Everyone stared at Muta — including himself, since he had no clue what she was talking about.
"What do you mean?"
"Your eye… wasn't like that when you got here?" asked Venus.
"I don't get it."
Edwin pulled a mirror off the wall and handed it to him.
Muta saw it.Instead of a normal pupil in his right eye… there was a colorful "X". He looked confused.
"I can still see just fine."
"No idea how that happened. Before I got here, it was the same as the other one."
"And speaking of which… what is this place?"
"Well, this place is—" Jack began, but Zoe interrupted:
"N-no one kn-knows. We jusht kn-know th-that… everyone here w-was murdured b-before arrriving."
Silence.
"And how did you do that when you hit the ground? Is that a power of your kind?" Zoe asked, tilting her head.
"What?"
"You were falling. And when you hit the ground… it turned into jelly," said Jack.
Muta was speechless.
Zoe pointed."L-look! The couch is doin' the same!"
The couch was soft.Zoe jumped on it and got launched back.
Freaked out, Muta stood up."What is this??"
"You should be the one telling us," said Edwin. "You're the one causing it."
"But how??"
"No idea, dude."
Jack frowned."Could it be the eye?"
Everyone turned to him.
"He said the eye was normal. And judging by his reaction… this is the first time he's seeing this ability. Back where he came from… no one has powers, right?"
"True," said Muta. "Back there… this stuff's all fiction."
"I don't think the eye has anything to do with the power," he said, stomping his foot. The floor shifted between jelly and sticky.
"Maybe not…" said Edwin. "But without an origin for either… we can't rule it out."
"I don't think the eye's relate—" Venus started, but Zoe cut her off:
"I th-think it's the eye, yesh!" said Zoe, excited.
"It's gotta be the eye," added Jack and Edwin, right in Muta's face.
Venus was ignored.
"FINE," she said, raising her voice with restrained anger. "That's not why we're here!"
"She's right," said Jack, sitting back down.
"You need to understand: there's no going back home," he said, serious.
Muta went quiet. Part of him still wanted to believe there was a way.
"Like Zoe said… we all died before ending up here. I'm betting it's the same with you. Everyone who comes here died first."
"There are more people here?"
"Of course. Even entire cities."
"S-some as big as a planet!" said Zoe, excited.
"We better not start with those," said Edwin, laughing. "Muta'd die just from the shock."
"How do you know my name?"
Zoe poked his chest."It's written rright here, dumbie.""Oh…"
"Anyway," said Jack. "You'll need to learn to fight the small ones and run from the big ones. You got unlucky, man. That was the first colossal thing you saw."
"We saw that bastard once. One guy looked back while running. Froze. His eyes started bleeding. We don't know what happened after that — don't want to know," Venus shared.
"If you see that thing again, don't look at it," warned Edwin.
"Better get used to this stuff. If you freeze, it's over," said Jack.
Zoe clapped."Wh-while y-you were out f-for two daysh, w-we made a plann!"
"TWO DAYS!? And what plan?" Muta's eyes widened.
"You lost a lot of blood. That's why," said Venus.
Muta didn't want to believe he'd slept for two whole days.
"Ignorance is bliss," said Jack. "We'll never understand the scale of those things. And that's great. But get used to it: everything here is HUGE."
"The plan's simple," said Edwin. "We're heading to Strabevield. It'll take 11, 12 months. On foot. And once we get there… you'll see something… interesting."
Muta's eyes widened. Strabevield. The name. That man in the dream said it. He thought about saying something.
"I had a—" But he froze.
The man's voice echoed in his head:"If you tell them… everyone here dies."
"Had what?" asked Venus.
"A… bad feeling about that place," Muta said, trying to cover it up.
Edwin laughed."Did I scare you? My bad. It's just a big event with cute… giant animals. Nothing really scary."
"That's what you get for acting all mysterious," said Venus. "Poor guy."
Muta chuckled nervously.
Everyone went quiet for a moment. Silence filled the room.
In that silence, Muta thought about everything that had happened.He felt… empty. Sad. Everything was finally going right. After years of hard work, studying, grinding, sacrificing so much… he was finally building something. A future.
But now…That future was gone. Erased.Like it never even existed.
As if it was all just a dream that's never going to come true.
Now, he was being forced to live a new life.Against his will.In a place full of mystery. Cruel to those who don't adapt.