The sound that woke me up wasn't angels singing.
It was Frank—the platinum-shampoo idiot—shaking my desk.
"Hey, Alexs! Don't ignore me!" His voice drilled straight into my temple. "Tell me everything I need to conquer Hanako!"
I opened one eye. Blue-green hair falling into my vision, the world filtered through the lenses of my glasses. Yeah—glasses. Pale skin. School uniform. The smell of chalk and cheap deodorant.
This wasn't the dimensional void.
It was Classroom 3-B of Public High School Number 7.
The real world.
Or what's supposed to be real.
"I already told you no, Frank," I replied, going back to my math homework—the kind I'd never actually finish. "If you really want to conquer my stepsister, ask her out yourself. She's a teacher, not a princess locked in a tower."
Frank, with hair dyed so yellow it hurt to look at and that permanent idiot grin, puffed up like a toad.
"And why should I?! You live with her! You've gotta know stuff! Her likes, her schedule, her—"
"You have less than ten seconds to walk away," I said calmly.
A cold drop of sweat ran down my back.
An echo of another pain.
"Or what?" he challenged, grabbing my notebook.
Mistake.
I stood up.
It wasn't fast.
It wasn't flashy.
But something about my posture—the too-straight back, the gaze that passed through my red-tinted lenses and locked onto his—made the entire class, already sniffing out drama, fall silent.
"Frank…" a sugary voice said to my left.
Max.
The kind of guy who looked like he stepped out of a shoujo manga. Perfect smile. Perfect hair. My… "best friend," according to him.
"Leave Alexs alone. You know even if he wanted to, he couldn't help you."
"Oh look, his girlfriend to the rescue," a razor-sharp voice cut in.
Natsumi.
Max's twin sister. Just as perfect—twice as venomous.
"What are you doing here, Max? This isn't even your class."
"I came to see my little brother," she said, looking at me with disdain. "But instead I find him defending a guy he doesn't even like. Wasn't that your best friend, Frank?"
"Frank and I aren't friends anymore," Max sighed, like this was the most tedious drama imaginable. "And I do like Alexs. He's my new best friend. Right, Alexs?"
He slung an arm over my shoulder way too casually.
"No. And no."
I shrugged hard enough to knock his arm away, sending him tumbling to the floor in an overly dramatic fall.
"Here we go with the soap opera again," a deep voice commented.
Akira. A girl almost as tall as me, with an athletic build that made her uniform look like it was under constant stress.
"Same old story," another low voice added.
Carlos—Frank's muscular friend—stood by the door with his arms crossed. "No, Frank. I doubt it."
"Hey! Whose side are you on?!" Frank protested.
"Yours. But Alexs is my sister's best friend," Carlos said, jerking a thumb toward Akira.
"We are NOT best friends!" Akira and I shouted in unison—then immediately looked away.
I sighed.
Why did I always end up in the middle of this circus?
"This wouldn't be happening if you helped me," Frank insisted, like a broken record.
"I already told you I can't—"
CRASH!
The classroom door slammed open.
Everyone froze.
Even Frank went pale.
Standing in the doorway, wearing a professional dress that couldn't hide her youth and an expression cold enough to freeze the sun, was Hanako.
My stepsister.
Our literature teacher.
The woman Frank had lost what little sanity he had left over.
Her green eyes—so similar to mine, yet infinitely more severe—scanned the room and landed exactly where I knew they would.
"Alexs," she said, and the air thickened. "My office. Now. You too, Frank. Max, Akira, Carlos, Natsumi. All of you. Now."
The walk to her office felt like a silent parade of the condemned.
Frank shot me murderous glares.
Max tried to smile.
Akira walked with her head held high.
Carlos looked bored.
Natsumi was clearly enjoying the show.
Inside the office, Hanako's presence was overwhelming.
"This stupid rivalry ends now," she declared without preamble. "Your fights disrupt entire classes. Next time, there will be no warnings. Suspension. For all of you. Is that clear?"
Frank turned white as the wall.
"B-but he started it! It was Alexs!"
"What?! You were the one who—"
"ENOUGH!"
Hanako's shout silenced us.
And at that exact moment…
The world shook.
Not a normal tremor.
It felt like the entire building had been grabbed by a giant hand and shaken violently. Books fell from shelves. The lights flickered.
"W-what was that?" Akira asked, gripping the desk.
Carlos ran to the window. His usually calm face twisted in pure disbelief.
"Outside…" He swallowed. "It's completely dark. It's not night. It's… nothing."
A chill ran down my spine—nothing to do with the AC.
An echo.
A memory of the void.
"Everyone, now! Emergency exit!" Hanako ordered, her voice firm but barely hiding a tremor.
Frank, panicking, bolted first into the hallway. He opened the office door—
And screamed.
Because there was no hallway.
No floor.
Only an infinite black abyss stretching beyond sight.
Frank staggered toward the edge, and for a moment, I saw gravity—or the lack of it—claim him.
I moved.
No thought. Just instinct. The same instinct that once hurled me toward a dying portal.
I grabbed his backpack strap and yanked him back, sending him crashing onto the office floor.
"W-what… what the hell?!" Frank gasped, staring at the void in horror.
"I should've let you fall," I muttered, unable to look away.
I wasn't afraid.
I recognized it.
It was just like my dreams.
Like those memories that couldn't be real.
"Alexs… are you okay?" Hanako asked, stepping closer. Her concern was genuine—and for some reason, that hurt more than the void itself.
"No," I sighed, as a terrible understanding formed in my mind. "I don't think so."
Then the light changed.
From the ceiling, strands of golden light began to drip down—warm and dense like liquid honey.
From the floor, between our shadows, a blood-red glow surged upward, pulsing and malignant.
Both lights rose, forming slow-spinning columns, as if scanning the room.
Then they stopped.
And bowed.
Toward me.
A sharp buzzing filled the air—the same sound I'd heard right before everything ended last time.
Hanako. Frank. Max. Akira. Carlos. Natsumi.
Their faces froze in terror and awe.
And in the middle of that chaos, with otherworldly lights dancing around me, a single word echoed deep within my soul—the voice of a dying warrior I once was…
Or was meant to be.
"Here we go again."