Chapter 2

The sun crept through the cracks in the blinds, casting long, thin streaks of light across the room. Rin woke up in his usual haze. The clock on his desk read 11:12 AM, though the time didn't matter much to him anymore. Not like it used to.

The stone still sat on his desk, unmoved from last night. He hadn't touched it since the strange symbols appeared, and somehow, even though he'd gone to bed and woken up, the air around the stone felt... different. Not heavier, but definitely changed. As though something was lurking beneath the surface, waiting.

Rin rubbed his eyes, sighing. The room felt stifling again. His head throbbed with the remnants of last night's disquiet. It was a feeling he couldn't shake, a constant nagging in the back of his mind.

He glanced over at the stone. He knew he should probably ignore it—maybe just toss it aside and let it gather dust with the other forgotten objects in the corner of his room. But something... something wouldn't let him.

I'm not a kid anymore, he thought, This isn't some weird dream. I'm not going to pretend like that didn't happen.

He wasn't sure why it was bothering him so much. His life was already empty enough. So why did he feel like the stone meant more than it should?

Sighing, he pushed his chair back and got up. The stone didn't glow like before. It didn't pulse with energy, and there was no faint hum in the air. It just sat there, cold and indifferent to his thoughts.

Rin picked it up again, his fingers hovering over the surface before closing around it. The same weird tingle shot through him, but it wasn't as strong as before. In fact, it almost felt... like it was expecting him to do something.

"Why?" he muttered aloud, staring at it. "Why does this thing feel like it's waiting for me?"

He turned it over in his hands, his eyes drifting back to the markings etched into its surface. Even now, they shimmered faintly, as though the stone was alive in some way.

The words from last night flashed in his mind, but they weren't just words. They were... concepts. Ideas. For a brief, strange moment, it felt like they made sense—like his mind was on the verge of understanding them.

But then, just as quickly, the sensation faded. His head felt heavy with frustration, and he set the stone down again, forcing himself to focus.

Something wasn't right. He knew it.

Rin ran a hand through his hair and stared out the window. His eyes were distant. The people in his neighborhood were just waking up, heading to work or school, living their lives. He felt detached from it all. Even the noise, the chatter of people moving through the world outside, felt like static. Nothing had meaning.

He wasn't sure why, but the stone seemed to remind him of that.

Suddenly, an overwhelming thought hit him. Was he even... normal? Had he been? Or had something else been pulling him all along?

Rin's fingers brushed against his palm where the stone had rested moments ago, and he felt that same fleeting sensation of being on the edge of something—a thought that was always out of reach, just a bit too distant to grasp.

Am I supposed to understand this? he wondered, feeling a flicker of something. What if this thing is tied to who I am?

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft, almost imperceptible shift in the air. It was subtle, like a shift in the wind or the faintest crack in the foundation of his understanding. And before he could process it, the stone... moved.

It didn't leap or fall. No. The stone shifted ever so slightly, just enough for him to feel it. A strange, low hum rose in his ears, and a pressure, small but undeniable, seemed to push against his chest.

Rin froze.

What was happening?

His fingers clenched around the stone, and it was as if his body moved on its own, a compulsion taking over. His eyes focused on the symbols etched into its surface. This time, they didn't shimmer. They shifted.

The letters warped. The lines rearranged, as though the stone itself was rearranging reality around him. The words transformed into something even more... cryptic.

Before he could fully comprehend it, the symbols blurred into shapes, patterns—a strange code that made no sense but felt strangely familiar. His mind was clouded. The hum in his ears grew louder.

Suddenly, a voice—low and resonating—ripped through his mind.

"The Tether has been chosen."

It wasn't a voice he heard out loud, but one that reverberated in the deepest part of his consciousness. A cold shiver ran down his spine. The words were clear, though he didn't understand their meaning.

Rin dropped the stone, almost instinctively. It fell to the desk with a faint thud, its light now gone.

The pressure in his chest lifted. The hum died.

But his hands still trembled as he stared at it. Something had changed.

Had something really changed? Or had it always been this way?

He felt... exposed. Like the weight of an invisible gaze was on him. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination or something else.

One thing was certain: The stone wasn't just an object. Not anymore.

Rin turned away, trying to push it out of his mind. He grabbed his bag, his stomach twisting with unease. School was just a few hours away, and he knew he had to face it—he couldn't let the strange happenings consume him. Not yet.

But as he stepped out of his room, something inside him whispered that the world was already beginning to shift around him.

And he hadn't even realized it yet.

---