THE QUIET TRESPASSER
Night in Vasena usually felt like an operating room.. quiet, sterile, and too controlled for coincidence. Tonight the air was heavier, as if the entire facility was holding its breath. Ryu sat upright on his bunk, eyes fixed on the ceiling corner where the room sensor had just flickered twice before going dark again.
NV materialized at the edge of his awareness, its tone flat but tighter than usual.
Echo Corruptor slipped in behind his thoughts, voice like glass scraping stone.
…Finally, it said. I thought they would take longer to grow a spine.
Ryu did not answer out loud. He smoothed his breathing and focused.
Show me.
NV cast a thin overlay across his inner vision. A smear of dark red energy hung in the air like acid vapor, barely there, more suggestion than shape. It was not a complete presence, not a full voice, not a defined pattern. It felt more like someone slowly knocking on the outer layer of his mind.
Echo Corruptor pressed closer, a cold weight at the back of his skull. If they can get in, it murmured, they can rip you open.
Not yet, Ryu thought. They are only looking for the lock.
The wall light dimmed a fraction, its glow thinned as though something invisible was drinking it down. NV's next update came sharper.
Echo Corruptor darkened, its presence narrowing to a blade. They are trying to merge, it said.
Ryu swung his legs off the bed and stood. A faint pressure prickled at the base of his skull ..not pain, more like a whisper heard from the end of a long corridor. He walked to the middle of the room, each step slow and deliberate, as if the floor had tripwires he alone could see.
Then the voice arrived.
Not NV.
Not Echo Corruptor.
A third voice. Soft. Thin. Cold in a way that had nothing to do with temperature, like someone who had been away from the world for a very long time.
"…Ryu…"
NV stiffened.
Echo Corruptor hissed.
And not your helpful friend, either.
The voice came again, a little clearer.
"…you are not alone…"
Ryu stayed silent. He knew answering would open a channel.
NV warned,
He kept his jaw locked, but the room's atmosphere shifted. The weak glow from the wall panel dulled further, shadows thickening in the corners as if something formless had curled into them. The voice slid across his thoughts with more definition.
"…I am looking… for my way back… through you…"
A faint scrape traced the back of his neck—not physical, but close enough to trigger instinct. Echo Corruptor grabbed at his consciousness, claws in the fabric of his focus.
Let me in, it snarled. I will tear them apart before they stick.
No. Ryu's reply was ice. You do not move unless I tell you.
The third voice changed. The lost, searching tone vanished. Something harder surfaced beneath it.
"…open…"
NV's output wavered.
Ryu inhaled slowly, then dropped into the mental stance Dr. Elara had drilled into him for shock events: compress awareness, center it, press outward. Only this time he did not use the technique to block panic. He used it like a heel grinding down on a hand reaching under the door.
Everything went still.
NV scanned for a full second.
Echo Corruptor let out a short, interested laugh.
You smothered them, it said. Crude, but effective.
Ryu sat back down and pressed his fingers to his temple.
It was not a full entity, he thought. They were probing.
NV compiled.
Echo Corruptor added, lower now.
But it is hungry.
Ryu closed his eyes.
He understood one thing very clearly: this was not the climax of anything. This was the opening move of a game he had not agreed to play.
The first hook of the night was barely in.
THE HIDDEN PRODIGIES REACT
The next morning, the dining hall buzzed louder than usual. Not because of the food or a new schedule, but because of a rumor. Rumors about yesterday's tactical simulation. Rumors about the updated rankings. Rumors about a name that had no business getting to the top that fast.
Ryu sat at his usual corner table, eating slowly, expression neutral. The sound around him was a swarm of quiet needles: the chatter of kids who solved military puzzles for fun but still loved gossip.
"That new kid's weird."
"He cleared the mid level sim without stopping once."
"No way that's just standard training."
"I heard he has a private mentor."
"No, I heard he's a problem child with fake numbers..."
Lyra slipped into the chair across from him, tray in hand. "You look paler than usual," she said, eyes narrowing.
"I am fine," Ryu replied, studying his plate more than the food on it.
"You are not fine if I can see it from two meters away," she shot back.
NV confirmed calmly.
Echo Corruptor drifted between them with a dry smile in its voice.
Tell her you are fine, it whispered. See if she believes you.
Ryu ignored both of them and took another bite.
The dining hall doors slid open.
Three figures entered.. the same three from the balcony above the arena. The Hidden Prodigies. They did not laugh. They did not gossip. They did not adjust their clothes, scan the room for status, or pretend not to care.
But when the white haired boy's eyes brushed across Ryu, something changed. Their steps slowed. It was subtle, a half beat difference, but it was enough.
The small girl tilted her head.
The tall boy's smile sharpened by a degree.
The white haired boy simply looked.
It was not how a person looked at another student. It was how someone stared at a line of code that should not compile.
Lyra felt a prickle run up her arms. "They are watching you," she murmured.
"I know," Ryu answered, still not turning in their direction.
"Why?"
Several answers flashed through his mind. Because they smelled a pattern. Because they recognized a weight they had only seen in adults. Because they were trained to notice anomalies, and he was an anomaly with a name tag.
What he said was simpler. "They probably think I am strange."
Lyra exhaled. "You are strange. Just… not in the way they think."
NV noted the strain in her tone.
Echo Corruptor hummed.
She cares, it said. Some part of you wants to care back.
Ryu chased that thought away.
The three Hidden Prodigies chose a table not far from theirs. They did not whisper or throw glances. They just sat, ate, and watched.
After a full minute, the white haired boy spoke, his voice low but clear enough to carry.
"If he survives until the Stage Two trials," he said, "I want to be the one to fight him."
The room's noise thinned. Not fully quiet, but pressed down.
Lyra's eyes snapped back to Ryu.
Ryu's face did not react.
NV slid a warning across his vision.
Echo Corruptor chuckled softly.
Finally, it said. A little fun.
That day, without any formal announcement or change to the schedule, a balance inside Vasena tipped. Three hidden talents who had never bothered to care about their peers had just chosen a subject.
Their subject was Ryu.
And that was not good news for anyone planning on a quiet year.
THE TRI NODE STIRS
After lunch came mental drills. The room was kept dark and cool, walls lined with data panels and silent machines. Here strength did not mean how hard you could hit, but how long you could hold your mind together under pressure.
Ryu lay back inside a metal capsule, sensors resting against his temples, the base of his neck, the center of his chest. Outside the glass, Lyra watched his feed on a tablet, eyes locked on the flowing lines.
Helvar stood at the main console. "Ready, Ryu?"
"Yes," he answered. His words fogged the inside of the capsule for a second before the circulation system pulled the air away.
"Begin," Helvar said.
The lid sealed.
Dark. Still. Cold.
NV lit up at once.
Echo Corruptor slid along the edges of his thoughts like smoke.
Again? it muttered.
The first wave hit... a standard set of machine generated patterns: sound pressure, mild visual distortions, small attempts at pulling his focus sideways. Ryu stepped through them without much effort. His heartbeat barely moved.
From outside, Helvar nodded. "Stable. No distortions."
"Like always," Lyra whispered, though there was less comfort in it than before.
The panel on the capsule's side flashed.
NV's tone jumped.
Echo Corruptor's grin cut through his mind.
Ah, it said. There you are.
The second presence seeped in. It did not smash into his mind like an attack. It flowed with the machine's signal, threading itself between the patterns the system was already feeding him. Not rough this time. Not frantic like last night. It had learned something and come back with a new rhythm.
The third voice came with it, clearer and more deliberate.
"…Ryu…"
"…let me… see…"
Ryu clenched his fists.
No.
NV threw up blocks. Echo tried to counterattack, but the newcomer slid out of each grip like fog. It did not feel strong enough to dominate him. It felt patient.
The lines on Ryu's neural graph spiked.
Lyra rose halfway from her chair. "Helvar, something's wrong."
He frowned at the screens. "The input is still within protocol…" He paused, eyes narrowing. "No. That pattern is not ours."
"You mean it is coming from inside him?" Lyra asked.
Not exactly.
It was coming through him.
NV screamed into his mind now.
Echo Corruptor dropped its lazy tone.
OUT, it snarled.
And for the first time, Ryu's consciousness slipped.
It was only one second.
One empty, lightless second.
But in Vasena, one second was enough to break people.
Outside, Lyra pressed both hands to the glass. "Ryu. Listen to me. You come back. Do you hear me? You come back."
From deep inside the noise, her voice cut through.
He caught it.
He surfaced.
Air rushed into his lungs as the capsule hissed open on its own. Ryu fell to one knee on the floor, breathing hard but fighting to smooth it out.
Helvar moved closer. "What was that?"
Ryu wiped sweat from his mouth with the back of his hand. "…It does not have a name yet," he said.
"Not a name?" Helvar asked. "What does that mean?"
"It is not complete." Ryu's gaze was unfocused for a moment, then sharpened again.
Lyra hugged the tablet against her chest. "Ryu… are you scared?"
He shook his head.
"No."
He was not lying. He was not allowed the luxury of fear; the architecture inside him did not give him much room for it. Fear was noise, and he already had too many voices.
When the systems reset and the capsule's utilities shut down, NV finally delivered its report.
Echo Corruptor spoke more seriously than usual.
If it keeps going, it said, it will not just copy you.
It will become you.
Ryu stared at the strand of hair hanging in front of his eyes, then brushed it aside.
Let it try, he thought.
NV went silent. Echo Corruptor paused.
Ryu stood, legs steady now.
Because I am not going to let it take anything.
Far away, faint as breath against glass, the third voice whispered one more time.
"…we will see…"
"…which of us breaks first…"
Later, when Ryu left the mental wing, Lyra fell into step behind him, still watching the way his shoulders moved, as if a fraction of tension would tell her how bad it really was. At the far end of the corridor, the three Hidden Prodigies were waiting. Not by accident. Not out of boredom. Not out of friendly curiosity.
The white haired boy stepped forward half a pace. His gaze locked onto Ryu's face, then drifted just a little higher, as if he were looking at something above his skin.
"Ryu Alverion," he said, voice flat and calm. "I want to know you better."
Lyra's jaw tightened. "Why?"
He did not look at her. "Because he," the boy said, still staring at Ryu, "is not alone."
Ryu went still. Not because of fear. Because the tone was wrong. It was the tone of someone who had seen a shadow behind a door that should have been solid.
Before Ryu could answer, the boy finished his thought.
"There are three of you," he said quietly.
Ryu's lungs forgot how to work for half a heartbeat.
Lyra whipped her head toward him.
NV flashed red.
Echo Corruptor laughed, low and delighted.
The game, it said, has finally started.