The fire's glow flickered over Majiku's face as he huddled inside the iron cage.
bruised, bleeding, and trembling. Every thump of his heart echoed across the empty plains of Eien. As though the world itself had grown silent to bear witness to his suffering. Ryn stood outside the bars, his silhouette stark against the flickering light. There was no hurry, no rush. Just the calm, deliberate presence of a kid at the edge of his own darkness.
"Do you know why I did this?" Ryn's voice was low, almost conversational, but it carried the weight of ice and stone. "Why I trapped you here, little one?"
Majiku's voice trembled as he tried to speak through cracked lips. "Because… because you hate us?"
Ryn chuckled softly, a sound that carried no warmth. "Hate? No, child. Hate implies clarity, choice. I… I don't hate. I understand. I act. I survive. I exist."
He crouched slightly, looking down at Majiku through the bars. "But you… you'll see why. You'll understand. And maybe, just maybe, you'll see that what I do isn't about you at all. It's about… me. My story."
Majiku's fists clenched. "Story? You're hurting people!"
"Exactly," Ryn said simply. "And here's the irony: you can't leave. You can't log off. Not yet. Not until my story has been told. Until you feel it. Until you understand the weight of a life crushed beneath itself."
Majiku's stomach churned. "I… I don't understand anything yet!"
Ryn smiled again — this time, it was cruel, but tinged with something painfully human. "That's because you're safe, little one. You've never been truly unsafe. Not like me. Not like… her. And this cage will prevent from you from logging off and stopping my plans. Little one."
He straightened, pacing slowly around the cage as if walking could trace the patterns of his own guilt. "My life… it began with mistakes. Small ones. Insignificant. Or so I thought."
Majiku's eyes followed him, every movement terrifying in its calm precision. "Mistakes…?"
Ryn stopped. The light from the fire caught the edge of his face, casting deep shadows that made his features sharp, jagged. "I was a bully," he said, voice trembling for the first time. "In school. A terrible one. There was a kid — Mina Haku. She transferred to my elementary school. Poor child. Fragile. Quiet. Everything I wasn't."
He shook his head, staring into the flames as though they might show him another life. "I tormented her. I made her life miserable. Every day. Every word. Every action. And then… she left. Just like that. And I… was left alone. Ostracized. My friends abandoned me, teachers ignored me, parents disappointed. And I… remembered it all."
Majiku could barely speak. "You… that's why—"
"Why I am here?" Ryn finished for him. "Yes. Yes, it all starts there. That guilt. That rage. That feeling of worthlessness. Mina's departure shattered me. And I deserved it. Oh, how I deserved it."
He turned, pacing closer, his steps measured and heavy. "Years passed. I grew. Physically, mentally… but I couldn't escape. I haunted myself with every misstep. Every failure. Every sin. I wanted… I needed to die. I thought if I ended myself, maybe that would be penance enough. But even that… even that was denied me. Thus you ready to hear the next part of this tale that I might as well tell anyways, because Eien will be gone anyways. Which means we'll speak again."
Majiku swallowed hard, trembling. "Then why… why are you hurting me?"
Ryn's eyes softened for a heartbeat. "Because this is survival, Majiku. Survival in the only way I know. I was cornered once. Betrayed by the world itself. And I survived. But I learned something. Pain… despair… guilt… they can be harnessed. They can be made… real."
He knelt beside the cage, resting a hand against the cold metal. "Do you see this cage? You're trapped inside, aren't you? You can't log off. Not because I want to hurt you. Not entirely. But because despair is a fuel. Eien… this world… it obeys the energy of human emotion. Anguish. Fear. Regret. And my life? My story? It's nothing but that. Every step of my path, every moment of suffering — it's the very essence of this trap."
Majiku's voice was barely audible. "You… you made this? With… your pain?"
"Yes," Ryn whispered, eyes glinting in the firelight. "I made this cage. Your suffering powers it. The longer you remain here, the more energy I gain. And the more energy I gain, the closer I am to… everything I've ever wanted. To destroy the world that destroyed me. Eien!"
Majiku's mind raced. "You… you want to destroy Eien? But… why hurt us?"
Ryn laughed, bitter and hollow. "Because I need you. You, your friends, your team… they are the conduits. The Misty Thre, isn't that what they called themselves? I only needed the three of them including you. But you — the kid with the stubborn heart — you're… too important. Too innocent. Too… alive. And that… that fuels my power the most. Which will truly allow me truly over power the limits of Eien. And maybe even destroy... THIS PITIFUL WORLD!"
Majiku's eyes widened, tears streaming. "But… if you hurt us, we could die! Real death!"
Ryn shrugged, almost nonchalant. "I… don't care anymore. This world has rejected me enough. My existence has been punished enough. You? You're just part of the calculus."
He stood, pacing slowly again. "But if you must know… the truth of why I am this way… it begins long before Eien. Long before the Misty Four. It begins with Mina Haku."
Majiku's stomach twisted. "Mina…?"
Ryn's voice softened, haunted. "Yes. The kid I tormented in my younger years. I hurt her so badly… her lungs, her voice, her life… she could barely speak afterward. And I… I tried to make amends years later. I sought her out. Tried to teach her words again. Tried to… repair the damage I'd done. And she… she turned on me. Invited me to the rooftop… and then… she almost killed me. And in that moment… in the chaos… Eien entered the picture."
Ryn paused, letting the memory hang. "Her father… your father's friend… the one who created this world. The headset. The game. She used it, after trying to use me as subject to make her father proud. And she chose me because she felt no bit of sorrow for me. I entered. The roof… we fell. And Eien… it did something unimaginable. My soul, my life, my body… restored. Alive, when I shouldn't have been. And I was blamed… arrested… humiliated. Everything I knew… everything I was… stripped away. And I… survived. My death as the thing to cause it. All because she invited me to rooftop and tricked me and basically got us both killed by pushing me onto the broken railing to hard. Despite me telling her stop non-stop. Not to continue pushing us backwards."
Majiku's body shook inside the cage. "You… lived… but she… she… died?"
"Yes," Ryn whispered, staring at the flames as if they were accusing him. "And it was both are faults. I can't… I can't untangle it. And Eien… Eien made it worse. Made me powerless, trapped. But also… made me see the truth. That life… life is fragile. That despair… can become strength… if you only allow it."
Majiku's hands shook. "But… you… used that despair… to hurt others."
Ryn's lips curled into a sad, hollow smile. "I am the sum of all the pain I have endured. Every injustice. Every cruelty. Every lie. And now… you. Your team. The Misty Four. You are the only path I have to channel it, to make it matter, to destroy the system that destroyed me."
He leaned closer to the bars, whispering. "And you will sit there. Trapped. Watching. Because nothing… nothing… deserves to survive unscathed. Not me. Not Eien. Not the world. And certainly… not you."
Majiku's vision blurred. "Why… why do you hate yourself so much?"
Ryn's eyes flickered with something almost human — regret, perhaps even sorrow. "Because I know the truth of my failures. I see them every day. And yet… I live. And I am still blamed. Still punished. And the only way to survive that… is to claim power wherever it can be taken. Even if that power comes from the suffering of innocents. Including… you."
He straightened, stepping away from the cage, his shadow stretching long and ominous across the digital landscape. "I log off now. I leave you here. To starve. To suffer. To feel powerless. And in doing so, I… finally exist for myself."
Majiku's voice broke as tears streamed down his face. "You… you're… insane!"
Ryn's laughter carried softly through the air. "Perhaps. But I am alive. And that… is enough. For now."
And then he disappeared.
Majiku's sobs echoed through the cage, mingling with the crackling fire. Every memory of the Misty Four, every fleeting moment of hope, seemed to collapse into despair. He felt powerless. Alone. Abandoned.
And yet… deep inside, a flicker of resolve ignited.
He had seen the truth. He had seen the depth of Ryn's pain, his twisted logic, and his human frailty. And though it terrified him, he understood one thing clearly: he could not let this stand.
Not for Ryn. Not for Eien. Not for the countless lives that might yet be consumed by the despair Ryn wielded so recklessly.
Majiku drew a shaky breath, his hands gripping the cold bars. "I… will save him," he whispered to the shadows, to the fire, to the world itself. "Even if it kills me. Even if… I die trying."
The cage was dark, the night silent. But somewhere deep in the digital wind, the whisper of determination stirred.
And in that moment, the battle had truly begun — not for survival, not for revenge, but for the soul of a kid who refused to give up, even as the world around him seemed determined to break him.
End of Episode 11: "The Cage of Guilt"