The world was… quiet.
Not the eerie, apocalyptic quiet of an aftermath, but a normal one. A human one. The kind where wind moved through the trees the way it always should've, and distant sirens weren't screams — they were just signals. Procedures. People doing their jobs.
Tokyo looked… almost unreal.
Colorful again. Stable. Whole.
Hydro stepped through reality with a muted *shffft*, the shadows stretching outward before folding into his body. Shadow Exchange dropped him onto a building rooftop — one of those mid-height office structures overlooking a wide plaza.
Down below, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police swarmed the ruins of the Nagashima Spa Land base. Dozens of officers. Specialized investigators. Drones humming through the air. Caution tape stretched across cracked pavement.
The officers looked stressed but grounded.
Human chaos — not monster chaos.
Hydro exhaled slowly, leaning on the railing.
He watched them walk around the crater — the crater where the corrupted portal once drilled into the sky. Now? Just a burn mark and confused investigators.
"…Good. Let them handle it." Hydro said, quiet, to himself.
He didn't move yet. Didn't speak. Didn't announce himself. He just let the world breathe without him for a minute. Maybe it deserved that.
Below, one officer kneeled and tapped shattered pavement.
"No radiation. No seismic activity. Just… something burned through here."
"We'll need the science unit. HQ wants a full report by morning."
"Sir! The witness statements still don't match. Some said monsters. Some said just lights."
"This whole thing's gonna be a nightmare for paperwork…"
Hydro smirked.
Yeah. This part of reality? It sucked, but it was normal.
He finally pushed himself away from the railing.
And then—
"HYDRO!"
A voice he knew.
Actually—several voices overlapping.
Hydro turned, and there they were.
Bea, Quinn, Atlarus, Terry, Kai, Yurei, Kristine, and Mina.
They weren't running toward him like he was some tragic hero who just returned from the dead. They were running the way friends run after losing track of someone in a crowded mall.
Real. Human. Relieved.
Kristine practically jumped to him first.
"Are you okay?? You just— disappeared!" Kristine said.
"Yeah… I'm good. Just… needed a second alone." Hydro answered.
Bea grabbed Hydro's shoulder, scanning his face like she always did — not gentle, not dramatic, just straightforward.
"So… is it finally over?" Bea said. "Yeah. It's done." Hydro responded.
She exhaled hard, like she'd been holding her breath for hours.
Yurei stepped next to him, bow slung on his back. "We saw the eclipse. And the lights. And the… whatever that was."
"Honestly? Same. I'm still processing." Hydro said.
Atlarus nudged him with an elbow, smirking. "You look like someone who just pulled an all-nighter at a con."
"Well, I pretty don't think it is." Hydro chuckled.
Mina, still piggybacked on Kristine, squinted at the investigation below.
"The police guys look super confused." Mina said.
"Pretty sure it's above their pay grade." Hydro responded.
Everyone stood beside him now, all of them leaning over the railing, watching the officers comb through rubble, analyze data, argue, and try piecing together something humanity wasn't meant to understand.
They weren't scared.
They weren't traumatized.
Just tired. Quiet in that "we survived something huge" way.
Bea crossed her arms. "They're gonna make so many theories about this…"
"Conspiracy YouTubers are gonna farm views for months." Kristine said.
"Bro, they're already typing their scripts." Terry said.
Hydro stayed silent.
He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't grim either.
He just… stared at normal life unfolding beneath a sky that had been broken hours earlier.
And for once, he didn't feel like an alien in his own world.
ONE WEEK LATER
Hydro sat on the edge of a low building, legs dangling over the side as he stared out at the city. Tokyo looked way too peaceful for what it had gone through. No weird lights, no monsters, no shadow armies sprinting down the streets. Just cars moving, people talking, trains rattling across tracks like nothing ever happened.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
He already knew who it was before he checked.
Only one person called him this early without blowing up his messages first.
He lifted the phone to his ear.
"Boss?"
A warm, familiar laugh crackled through the speaker. It wasn't forced; it wasn't worried—just that tired kind of laugh adults made after a long day.
"Hydro, kid… I just wanted to hear your voice. The news yesterday was insane. I know they're downplaying it, but still—had to check on you. You alright?"
Hydro leaned back on one arm, glancing at the sky. "I'm good. Tired as hell, but, y'know… alive."
His boss let out a hum, the thoughtful kind. "Good. That's good. You had me thinking you disappeared or something. After all that chaos, the city's been calling every studio asking for missing persons."
Hydro snorted. "Nah, I'm here. Just needed time to breathe."
Silence moved between them for a moment — not awkward, just quiet in a way that said his boss was processing everything too. Then Hydro's mind finally drifted to the thing that had been nagging at him all week.
"Hey… my pictures from Otakufest. Are they fine?"
He expected a lecture, maybe a panicked rant about corrupted files or broken SD cards. Instead, his boss's voice softened.
"They're solid, Hydro. Actually… they're better than solid. I don't know what you did, but these shots feel different." A pause. "Powerful. Like the energy of the whole event's still alive inside them."
Hydro blinked, eyes widening just slightly. "Wait, really?"
"Yeah," the boss said with a chuckle under his breath. "But here's the thing I don't get. You didn't send these pictures in. Not even one. So I gotta ask… why?"
Hydro rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't have a clean answer lined up or anything rehearsed. He looked out at the city again, watched the police drones scanning rooftops, watched the light bounce off the newly repaired tower in the distance.
"Maybe…" He hesitated, because the words felt heavier than usual. "Maybe these photos aren't just work stuff. I don't know. They feel like something the studio could show. Like… actually show. Not just dump into a client folder."
It was cheesy. Borderline embarrassing. But it was true.
On the other end, his boss let out a soft laugh — not mocking, just… proud. The kind of laugh that said, "Damn, this kid's growing."
"Well," the boss said, "if you're the one saying that, then they're worth more than I thought." More chatter echoed behind him — people asking for adjustments, the clicks of camera shutters, the distant chatter of a crowd. "I'd frame them myself if I wasn't swamped right now. Ever since the whole… incident… everyone wants photos again. Guess it made people appreciate life a little more."
Hydro smirked faintly. "Yeah. That's kinda good to hear."
"Mhm. Anyway, I won't keep you." His boss's voice grew clearer, closer to the mic. "I'm helping a few folks take pictures right now. Feels nice seeing people smile again." A breath. "Alright, kid. I'll be off now. See ya on the flip side."
Hydro felt something warm settle in his chest. Not dramatic warmth. Just… human.
"Yeah," he said softly. "See you."
He lowered the phone, letting it rest on his knee while he stared out over the recovering city. The sunlight reflected on buildings that had looked like death just days ago. People were already back on the sidewalks, talking, laughing, arguing about breakfast like the world hadn't almost ended.
And for once… Hydro didn't feel disconnected from all of it.
The photos he took might actually mean something.
The world survived.
His friends survived.
Everything was still standing.
He pocketed his phone and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, taking one long, steady breath.
The world folded inward for a split-second, shadows peeling apart like curtains in a windy doorway, and Hydro slipped through the gap. Shadow Exchange spat him out on the far edge of Nagashima Spa Land—right on the beach, the sand still cool from the early morning.
The whole event ground was buzzing again. Workers fixing banners, setting props back in place, booths being rebuilt, people carrying crates and laughing like nothing insane had happened the day before. Humanity was weird like that—they bounced back fast. Too fast sometimes.
Hydro dropped onto the sand with a soft whump, leaning back on his palms. People were out there again. Living like the world hadn't almost cracked open. That energy… kinda contagious.
He let out a breath and muttered under his breath.
"Hmmmm… Arbiter. I wonder if he had a backstory…"
A dude that powerful definitely did. Nobody wakes up like that for no reason. But Hydro wasn't sure he wanted the answer. Some things were better left in the fog.
Footsteps crunched in the sand behind him.
"Dude, finally!" Atlarus slid into his peripheral vision, dropping down beside him like she was claiming territory.
Terry flopped next to her. "Bro, we were literally hunting for you everywhere."
Kai and Bea came jogging over with Mina close behind, her little steps kicking up sand. Yurei and Nate weren't far either, dragging a cooler like they'd come for a picnic.
Hydro tilted his head toward them, a small smile tugging at his mouth. "Had to clear my head for a sec."
Mina reached him first and stopped right in front of him, staring like she was trying to figure out if he'd turned into dust or something. "You… okay? You kinda disappeared."
Hydro gently tapped her forehead with two fingers, then rested his hand on her head. "Yeah, I'm good. Promise."
Mina puffed her cheeks out. "You always say that."
"And I'm always right," he said, ruffling her hair until she squeaked.
The others plopped down in a loose circle around him, blocking the wind and half the sunrise.
Bea leaned forward first, squinting. "Okay but real talk—what even are your powers? Like, no joke, we've known you forever but we don't know the lore."
"Yeah," Kai added. "You kinda did some… anime DLC expansion stuff back there."
Hydro laughed under his breath. "It's not that deep. I trained under a Necromancer."
They all froze.
"…A necromancer," Atlarus repeated slowly.
"Like… skeleton dude with candles?" Terry added.
"Or like black-robed, chanting-in-Latin kinda necromancer?" Yurei said.
"It wasn't that dramatic," Hydro said, waving them off. "He taught me shadow stuff. Summoning, mobility, those weird constructs I make sometimes—"
"WAIT—" Bea cut in, hands shooting up. "The thing where you make stuff out of literal darkness?! You mean that's just part of the skill tree?!"
Hydro blinked. "Yeah? Shadow shaping is kinda fundamental."
The whole group erupted into chaos.
Atlarus actually yelled. "So it's like it's a side note on a grocery list!"
Kai faceplanted into the sand. "I thought you were just… super creative or something!"
Nate was staring at Hydro like he'd discovered fire. "Necromancer spec is crazy, dude."
Yurei shook his head in disbelief. "Man, I can't even fold laundry consistently and you out here creating weapons with your thoughts."
Mina scooted closer, eyes sparkling. "Can you make… a bunny? Out of shadows?"
Hydro flicked a tiny blob of shadow up from his palm, shaped it into a chubby little rabbit, and let it hop across her knee. She gasped so loud the workers nearby turned to look.
"OH MY GOSH IT'S CUTE."
"It's literally made of darkness???" Bea said. "Why is it cute??"
"It has no right to be cute," Terry agreed.
Hydro watched them melt down like kids who just saw fireworks for the first time, and honestly… it felt good. Warm. Their reactions were chaotic, but real. No fear. No judgment. Just vibes.
Kai eventually managed to breathe again. "Bro… you're ridiculous."
"Yeah, well, you're all dramatic," Hydro shot back.
Bea pointed at him. "And YOU are hiding whole skill branches like a DLC creator."
He just shrugged.
The morning sun climbed higher, painting gold across the water. The ocean waves were slow, almost lazy, like the whole world was trying to relax before the event kicked off again.
Atlarus nudged him with her shoulder. "You ready for this?"
Hydro looked out at the brightening horizon—the park, the ocean, the people rebuilding their world like it was nothing.
His powers, his past, the chaos… all of it could chill for now.
He smiled. Quiet. Confident.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm ready."