Chapter 1: When The World Froze

Prolouge:

I Remember first seeing her, it felt surreal, everything

around was frozen, like a blizzard had engulfed all of it, but instead of the icey exterior leaving it's mark,behind everything was still a pinkish colour and nothing had been damaged.

Her face, a face of pure unimaginable beauty, long

silver hair, her eyes narrowed as she was staring straight into my soul,

"Who are You... What are you?" I mumbled

"My name? It's Rin.. Just Rin" She said while giving me a look of killing intent.

After announcing her name to me, she put her hand out, and like some sort of manga or anime show light began to sparkle around her hand,

Before materializing into a gun.

I couldn't even respond to what i had just seen unfold in front of me. Rin Pointed the old wester style revolver gun at me and said these final words.

"Begone i know your one of them and I shal-"

She paused for a split second looking down with a regretful face before she lifting it back up.

"I shall Kill every last single one of you, Humans"

She paused again before finishing her sentence as if to almost doubt what she was about to say but nevertheless she said it. "Human" she said

that word as if she, wasn't one her self? But it was something that I did not have the luxury of thinking too long about, because in that split second of her

finishing that sentence, the sound of her gun clicking and then Bang...

Chapter 1:

When the World Froze.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* 

The door to a small college apartment rattled like it was about to fly off its hinges. 

"Kentaroooo! Wake up! You're gonna be late again!" 

Her voice was playful, but underneath the singsong tone was a threat. One sharpened by experience. 

Inside, Kentaro Takamiya groaned and rolled over, limbs tangled in his blanket like a human sushi roll. He slapped blindly at his alarm clock, squinting at the red numbers behind blurry vision. 

A couple of aggressive eye rubs later, the nightmare became real. 

"…It's 9:50?! HOLY—CRAP—I'M GONNA BE LATE!" 

He screamed like someone had just kicked the door down with a gun. 

And then he moved. 

He launched out of bed like it owed him money, crash-landed into his tiny bathroom, brushed his teeth in a furious blur, splashed water in his hair to part it down the middle, and gave his face a quick slap to wake him up fully. 

He grabbed his backpack from the wall hook, slung it over his shoulder, and bolted out the door without a second thought. 

It wasn't until he reached the front gate that Tenka's eyes went wide. 

Not annoyed. 

Not playful. 

Just stunned. 

And very, very red in the face. 

"…Kentaro?" she whispered. 

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? And jeez, why is it so cold? The sun's out." 

It wasn't cold. 

In fact, it was a perfect 17 degrees—a warm breeze drifting through their normally chilly city of Oshawa. 

Then came the breeze. 

That fateful gust of wind. 

Kentaro looked at her. She was avoiding eye contact, staring anywhere but him. 

Then he looked down. 

And again. 

And that's when his brain short-circuited. 

A car rolled by. An old man in the passenger seat leaned out the window and took a picture like Kentaro was Bigfoot on a morning jog. 

"…AHHHHHHHHHH WHAT?! HOW DID I FORGET?!" 

He turned and sprinted back to the apartment, realizing the cruel truth: 

In his blind panic to not be late for the first day of college… 

He'd forgotten to put on clothes. 

Aside from his boxers, Kentaro had run out in public wearing exactly nothing. 

Tenka covered her mouth with both hands, cheeks still flushed as she tried to stifle a laugh. She didn't quite succeed. 

Ten minutes later, Kentaro reappeared in a wrinkled white shirt and black jeans, trying to look like someone who hadn't just been publicly humiliated. 

He trudged toward her, defeated. 

"S-sorry you had to see that. But did you… I mean, you saw everything, right? That was real? I didn't dream that?" 

Tenka nodded once, then giggled. 

"You're lucky no one called the cops." 

Kentaro sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "Okay, but did you see that old guy take a photo? I'm probably trending on a local Facebook group right now." 

"You might be." 

Tenka stepped beside him, brushing back a strand of her long black hair. She stood at barely 5'2", with sharp red-brown eyes that almost looked black in daylight. The kind of quiet beauty that made her one of the "Top Ten" girls in their year, though she'd never admit it herself. 

To Kentaro, she was just Tenka. His childhood friend. The one who used to steal his pencils and fake cry when teachers got involved. 

Still, even he had to admit, she was different now. Calmer. Colder, maybe. But still her. 

"Honestly, Kentaro," she said, smirking. "I knew this was gonna happen." 

His smile dropped. "You really think that low of me?" 

She crouched slightly, met his gaze with a tilt of her head, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

"Even if you're the most useless person on the planet, I'll still be with you." 

The words hit harder than they should've. 

He'd heard her say similar things before. But never like that. 

There was something real behind it this time. 

They stared at each other for a second longer than necessary, then Tenka straightened up and turned to the sidewalk. 

"Let's go. We're late, but let's not miss the whole day." 

She started walking. 

Kentaro stood there a beat longer. 

Why did that line stick with him so much? 

He couldn't figure it out. 

But he shook the thought and jogged to catch up. 

As they walked side by side, the wind threading gently through the trees, the city unusually quiet for a weekday morning. 

Kentaro didn't speak. He just kept looking ahead, distracted by what Tenka had said earlier. 

"Even if you're the most useless, I'll still be with you." 

She'd said that before, tons of times, but something in her voice had shifted. Less teasing. Softer, maybe. He didn't know how to place it, but it lingered. Not in his mind, exactly, but somewhere beneath it. 

Then it happened. 

A ripple in the air, barely visible, like the shimmer of heat off asphalt. 

But the day was cool. And it wasn't heat. 

Just for a second, the space ahead of them folded. Like light bending through cracked glass. It pulsed, collapsed inward, and vanished. 

Gone. Just as fast as it came. 

Kentaro stopped walking. 

"...Did you see that?" he asked. 

Tenka didn't break stride. "See what?" 

"That shimmer. It was like the air... glitched or something." 

She finally glanced at him, her face calm as ever. 

"I didn't see anything." 

Her tone was casual. So normal it almost sounded rehearsed. 

Kentaro looked again, back at the empty patch of street, and rubbed his eyes like maybe it was just him. 

"Probably nothing," he muttered. 

But for the next few steps, neither of them spoke. 

And though Tenka's gaze was steady, her hand lingered at her side. 

Not on her bag. Not in her pocket. 

Over the ring she always wore. 

* 

When they arrived at their college they noticed something was off straight away, the hallway was too quiet. 

Kentaro and Tenka stood outside the lecture room, where the buzz of morning class should've spilled through the door. But there was no noise. No clatter of chairs, no muffled voice of Mr. Tachibana mid-lecture. Just silence. 

Kentaro leaned toward the slim glass panel cut into the door, peering through. 

Full house. 

Every seat was filled. 

But something wasn't right. 

"That's… strange," Kentaro muttered. 

Tenka tilted her head. "What is it? Why aren't we going in?" 

Her voice was low, confused but calm. 

Kentaro didn't answer right away. His mouth opened slightly, lips parting into a disbelieving half-whisper. 

"Tenka, uh… this might sound weird but… everyone's in their seats, and the crazy thing isn't that they're here." 

He squinted. 

"It's that they're not moving." 

He took a step back. 

Tenka raised an eyebrow, skeptical. But she moved past him and leaned into the glass. 

And froze. 

Inside, the professor stood mid-sentence, chalk hovering inches from the board. The students sat upright at their desks. All of them. Every single one. Not blinking. Not twitching. Not breathing. 

Like mannequins cast in place. 

Tenka's face didn't change, but her eyes narrowed slightly. 

"Turn around. We're not going in." 

She whispered it flat. No panic. Just finality. The kind that made you listen without thinking. 

"But," 

"Now, Kentaro." 

She didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to. 

Kentaro followed, heart thudding harder with each step. He didn't know why, but he didn't question it either. They moved down the hall, past two identical classroom doors, past a window with no view. 

Everything looked the same. Same paint. Same floor tiles. Same disorienting stillness, like walking through a perfectly looped photo. 

Kentaro's lungs were on fire by the time they stopped. He bent forward, hands on his knees, gasping. Two minutes of running, and he was ready to die. Meanwhile, Tenka stood next to him like she'd barely jogged. 

She looked at him. Not annoyed. Just disappointed. The kind of look that said, 

"Really? That's all you've got? 

Kentaro didn't respond. He didn't have the breath or the pride to pretend. 

Before he could speak, she'd already moved ahead. 

Another door. Another room. 

Tenka peered in. 

Same story. 

Students frozen. The professor caught mid-demonstration, a pen hanging motionless in the air, defying gravity. The whole room paused like a broken recording. 

She stepped back, hand resting against her chin. 

Kentaro finally caught up, breath ragged. 

"What's going on?" he panted. "You clearly know something, right? The way you've been acting, the way you pulled me back, what is this?" 

Tenka didn't flinch. 

"I don't know," she said, voice level. "I wish I did. This is… weird." 

She stared through the glass again, scanning the unmoving crowd. 

Kentaro's expression fell. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't that. It made the silence feel heavier. 

Finally catching his breath, he began to look inside of the classroom through the glass. 

It was then something tugged at him. A presence in the classroom, just past the first few rows. 

He leaned closer. 

Eyes darted from one student to the next. Every face frozen in a bland, unblinking pose, until one girl stood out. 

Or rather… didn't. 

Silver hair. 

Not dyed. Not bleached. Silver. 

Like melted moonlight poured over her scalp, framing her face in strands of light. It shimmered even beneath the harsh, flickering fluorescents. Her skin was pale, not sickly, but cold. Smooth like porcelain, like the air didn't touch her the same way it touched everyone else. 

Her eyes, what little he could see, were downcast, shaded by lashes, but there was something alive behind them. Something alert. Watching. 

The uniform fit her perfectly. Too perfectly. Pressed white shirt, not a wrinkle in sight. Black skirt aligned straight to the knees. Every button fastened. Every strand of hair tucked behind her ear with surgical precision. 

She didn't look like a student. 

She looked like a photograph. 

Kentaro stepped closer. 

Something about her distorted the space around her, like she was the center of gravity in the room. The desks, the walls, even the still air felt like it bent around her shape. 

Without thinking, his hand reached for the door. 

It opened with a soft click. 

"Ken, what are you doing?" Tenka snapped, turning around just in time to see the door parting. 

Her voice caught mid-sentence. 

Kentaro had already stepped through. 

And the girl with silver hair didn't move. 

But for a brief second. 

He swore her eyes flicked upward. 

And met his. 

Tenka rushed in behind him, her footsteps fast but silent. She didn't shout this time. Her voice wasn't calm either. It was tight, urgent, like the kind that comes when someone you care about is about to do something catastrophically stupid. 

"Kentaro, get back here. Now." 

But he wasn't listening. 

He kept moving, eyes fixed on the girl five rows up. The lecture hall dipped into descending stairs, each one creaking under his steps. He wasn't thinking clearly. Or maybe he wasn't thinking at all. 

He didn't know why he was walking toward her. 

Maybe it was instinct. 

Maybe it was curiosity. 

Maybe it was the pressure in the air, the kind that warned you something was wrong long before your brain caught up. 

The whole place felt like the inside of a forgotten dream. The kind that starts familiar and ends somewhere else entirely. 

Tenka didn't call out again. She just watched him move, her presence at his back like a thread pulled too tight. 

He reached the third row. 

That's when he felt it. 

A hand on his shirt, tight, trembling. 

He turned. 

Tenka's face wasn't blank anymore. 

It was pale. 

And worse, it was scared. 

Truly scared. 

He hadn't seen her like that in years. Tenka, who never flinched, who never raised her voice, now had her jaw clenched, her eyes wide, and her hand locked around his sleeve like it was the last thing tethering him to the world. 

"Out. Now. You stupid prick," she hissed, voice cracked with panic. "We're gonna get hurt. Or worse." 

Her words hit like a slap, and not just because of the tone. 

Because she meant them. 

Because Tenka never panicked. 

And this time, she was terrified. 

Kentaro nodded, throat dry. "Yeah… okay." 

He turned to follow her out. But something made him look back. Just once. 

Just for a final glance. 

At the girl who hadn't moved an inch. At the silver hair and porcelain skin and eyes like violets soaked in stormlight. 

She hadn't even stood up. 

But the air was still breaking. 

And then he noticed it. 

Her face, still downcast. Her eyes… not quite closed. 

Frozen. 

But not gone. 

Then, something shifted. 

He leaned closer. 

Not too far. Just enough. 

Enough for his breath to fog faintly on the glass. Enough for her to notice. 

Her lips were neutral, blank. 

But something sat beneath the surface. Not a smile. 

Satisfaction. 

A cold, awful pleasure, like she'd just solved an equation no one else understood. 

"Tenka," he breathed, "she just-" 

"LET'S MOVE, KENTARO!" 

Tenka's voice cracked into the silence like a whip. 

And then. 

The girl moved. 

Not a twitch. Not a flinch. 

Her eyes rose. 

And locked with his. 

His heart slammed into his ribs. He stumbled backward, reaching for Tenka's sleeve like a man clutching at gravity. 

"She just looked at me!" he gasped. "She moved, Tenka she moved!" 

Tenka's head whipped toward the silver-haired girl. She saw her too. Still seated. Still calm. But with something utterly wrong about her stillness. 

The corner of the girl's mouth curled, ever so slightly. 

Not a smile. 

A verdict. 

Tenka's body tensed. She gripped his wrist. 

"We're leaving," she whispered. "Now. Run." 

They bolted. 

The hallway ahead was still, the same pale walls, flickering lights, tiled floor. But something was wrong. 

The air was too thick. 

Too heavy. 

Like the world was holding its breath. 

Kentaro could feel it pressing against his skin, into his lungs, behind his eyes. 

Then, a sound. 

Not footsteps. Not alarms. 

A low hum. Like metal vibrating against metal. Inevitable. Final. 

And then. 

The corridor detonated. 

No fire. No flash. 

Just force. 

A rupture in the shape of sound. Space twisted. Gravity cracked. Kentaro's feet left the ground, but he never landed. 

He just... Stopped. 

Everything froze. 

No wind. No heat. No impact. 

Kentaro shielded his head, expecting pain, expecting to feel something crack or burn or shatter, but nothing came. 

When he dared to open one eye, the world had turned purple. 

Not natural. Not light through stained glass. 

Something else. 

The explosion was still there. Flames caught in mid-burst. Debris suspended like a photograph taken the instant before chaos unfolded. 

Time hadn't slowed. 

It had stopped. 

Tenka was standing in front of him, frozen mid-turn. Her scream locked in her throat, her eyes wide, a perfect statue of horror. 

"Tenka? TENKA! Hey! Can you hear me?!" 

He reached out, but something stopped him. 

Like a thin membrane, invisible, unbreakable, separated her from him. His fingers hovered an inch from her shoulder, but couldn't cross. 

He stepped back. 

His breathing grew shallow. 

Then he realized. 

They were back in the lecture hall. 

Back where this had started. 

Except now… 

It was silent. 

Utterly silent. 

And worse. 

She was gone. 

The silver-haired girl's seat was empty. 

Gone like she'd never existed. 

Then. 

A voice. 

"…That's a strange face to wear." 

A whisper, warm and quiet, brushed his right ear. 

Kentaro turned to ice. 

He felt her breath on his skin. Heard the shape of her smile in the syllables. 

He turned sharply, stumbling back, almost falling. 

And there she was. 

Behind him. 

The same silver-haired girl. 

Unmoving. Watching. Close. 

Too close. 

No footsteps. No warning. 

Like she had been there all along, waiting for him to realize it. 

As if the world had rearranged itself to put her in place 

"Hehehehe." 

The sound was soft, too soft. But it scraped the silence like a blade on glass. 

The silver-haired girl glided closer to Tenka's frozen frame. Her fingers curled under her chin, tracing the line of her neck with absentminded amusement… then lower places that made Kentaro's heart seize with a cocktail of panic and shame. 

"My, my, my, my, my… not frozen, are you?" 

Her head tilted, eyes narrowing with amusement. "Could it be… you're like me?" 

She never stopped staring at him. Never blinked. 

Kentaro stiffened. His mouth opened before his brain could stop it. 

"W-who are you?" 

His voice trembled. "A-and what are you? What do you mean I'm like you?" 

The fear was in every syllable, clinging to them like wet ash. He tried to sound strong. He didn't. 

And she knew it. 

Before he could even process her answer, she was there, right there, a finger's length from his face. Her movement hadn't been fast. it had been absolute. No motion, no blur. One blink and reality rearranged. 

She leaned in. Her breath brushed his skin. 

"You want to see what happens if I unfreeze her mouth… but not her lungs?" 

Kentaro jolted, eyes wide. 

His stomach turned. He understood what she meant. Too clearly. 

"N-no, what the hell is wrong with you?!" 

She didn't flinch. She only smiled. 

A little deeper this time. A little sharper. 

"Hehe… such a gentleman. A noble little human. You're... Delightful." 

She turned from him, humming as she circled Tenka. Her steps were too light, like the floor wasn't real beneath her feet. The distance between them stretched as Kentaro backed away instinctively, half-running down the stairs. Every step made the room feel thinner. More brittle. 

He reached the door. 

Tried to open it. 

But his hand hit empty air. 

A wall that wasn't there. 

His fingers stopped inches from the handle, as if space itself refused to let him touch it. 

He turned around. 

And of course. 

There she was. 

In the exact spot he'd just left. 

Walking forward. 

One step at a time. 

Slow. Beautiful. Horrifying. 

Every inch she closed only deepened the terror. Her face was elegant, sculpted like a dollmaker's finest work, but that smile? 

That wasn't human. 

That was a weapon. 

A smile designed to paralyze. 

Kentaro's back hit the wall. 

Cornered. 

Nothing left to do but speak. 

Not brave. 

Just tired. 

"If you're going to kill me… at least tell me your name." 

She stopped. 

Three feet away. 

That damn smile still playing on her lips. 

"My name?" she echoed softly. 

"It's Rin. Just Rin." 

She blinked slowly. Tilted her head. 

"And what am I…?" 

She let the question hang like a noose. 

"That's the funny part. No one knows. Not your scientists. Not your task forces with their shiny guns. You've tried to name us. Classify us. Kill us." 

Her voice darkened. Deeper. Quieter. Like a hymn to something long buried. 

"You call us aberrants. Refractions. Alberlines. But none of you understand what we really are. We weren't made. We weren't born. We were… left behind." 

She snapped her fingers. 

Reality didn't shatter, but it felt like it might. 

"We slipped through the cracks when your world broke. And now? You chase us like vermin. Because you're afraid." 

Kentaro's brain raced. None of it made sense. 

Scientists? Task forces? What the hell was she talking about? 

"You said they're hunting you, why? What are you?" 

His voice cracked with urgency. "Why do they want you dead?" 

For the first time, something flickered in her eyes. Her smile wavered, not gone, but softened. 

Like his words had struck a chord. 

Then, snap. 

Back to grin. 

Back to games. 

"Mmm… what were they called again?" She tapped her chin. 

"Project Broomsticks? Suit Squad 5? No, no, wait…" 

She snapped her fingers again. 

"Mecha-Mecha Squad. That's the one." 

She nodded proudly, as if she'd just named a cartoon show. 

Kentaro blinked. "What." 

"Yep." 

Rin grinned ear to ear. "Always stomping around in those little tin suits. Trying to catch shadows." 

He stared. 

"I-" 

He couldn't even find the words. 

She giggled again. It was worse than before. High-pitched. Asymmetrical. 

Then, her face dropped. 

Serious. 

Cold. 

She looked up. 

And said two words: 

"They're here." 

BOOM. 

The ceiling detonated. 

Not cracked. Not split. Obliterated. 

Chunks of debris rained down, shattering desks, silencing frozen students. Kentaro was thrown back by the shockwave. He hit the ground hard. His hands flew over his head, eyes shut tight. 

He looked up. 

And saw it. 

A jagged slab of concrete, easily two hundred pounds, was falling straight for him. 

"I'm gonna die," he whispered. "I'm actually gonna-" 

"Tenka…" 

Her name left his lips like a prayer. 

He braced for it. 

And then, nothing. 

Not impact. Not pain. Just… warmth. 

He cracked one eye open. 

And saw pink light. 

A shimmering field hovered above him, holding the rubble in place. 

A shield. 

A hand extended above his chest. 

Rin stood beside him. 

Hair glowing faintly in the pink aura. Her expression unreadable. 

But her eyes… locked on the stone above him. 

Focused. 

Controlled. 

He stared in disbelief. 

She saved him? 

"…This is a shield," he muttered. 

Barely a whisper. 

But even as the realization sank in, Kentaro knew this wasn't mercy. 

It wasn't affection. 

It was something worse. 

Rin didn't save him because she cared. 

She saved him… 

Because she wasn't done yet. 

Kentaro's breath caught as the slab above him, thick enough to flatten a truck crumbled to ash before touching down. Dust vaporized into light. The danger, dealt with, as easily as flicking away a candle. 

The world, once frozen, pulsed again. But Rin didn't move right away. She stood there, still as death, her side profile catching the remnants of pink light from her shield. 

Kentaro couldn't look away. 

She wasn't beautiful in the way magazines made people. She was beautiful like deep space. Distant. Cold. A mystery too vast to understand and too dangerous to approach. 

If he touched her, he was sure her skin would feel like silk pulled tight over something sharp. 

Her lips were drawn into a frown. Not the playful, eerie smirk from before. 

No, this was something else. 

And for the first time since they'd met, she looked… almost human. 

"What are you staring at?" she murmured. Her voice was low now. Flat. "Is there something wrong with your eyes?" 

Kentaro flinched, pulling his gaze away like a child caught peeking into a sacred temple. But before shame could swallow him, he turned back, forcing the words out. 

"You… you saved me. Thank you." 

He expected her to mock him. To flirt. To smile. 

She didn't. 

Instead, she stepped forward, her expression hardening. 

"I didn't save you," she said coldly. "You were just nearby." 

Her eyes lifted, staring through the new hole in the ceiling like she was waiting for something, or calculating how bad it could get. 

Her presence turned heavier by the second. 

Kentaro swallowed. 

"Are you… okay?" 

Stupid question. 

Rin didn't answer. Her head tilted slightly as she whispered something that chilled his spine. 

"Your friends are here," she said, quiet as mist. "The ones who want me dead." 

Kentaro blinked. 

"What? I don't, no! I don't know who they are! I swear I'm not-" 

He was yelling now, panic in every word. 

"I don't know anything about Mecha Squad or task forces or whatever! I don't even know what you are!" 

His voice cracked. Too high. Too honest. 

But Rin didn't soften. 

Her gaze shifted back to him, unreadable. Like a scientist inspecting a failed experiment. 

"Tch. Just like the rest of them," she muttered. "I thought maybe…" 

Her voice drifted. 

And then she looked at him, not with rage, but with something else. A quiet, slow sadness. One she didn't want him to see. But he saw it anyway. 

It was a face he had seen Tenka make many years ago. 

Without thinking, Kentaro stood up. His leg trembled, breath ragged, but his spine straightened. 

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said. "You're wrong about me." 

He meant every word. 

Rin said nothing. 

Then. 

She kicked him. 

Hard. 

He crumpled like paper. His back hit the cold floor, knocking the breath from his lungs. The pain radiated through him, sharp and bitter. 

But even through the haze, he looked up. Grimaced. Sat forward on shaking arms. 

"Please," he gasped. "Rin… I want to help you. I know that look. That's not anger. That's pain." 

Rin's smile returned. 

But it wasn't kind. 

"Oh?" she whispered. "You think you know me, now?" 

Her boots clicked as she stepped toward him. 

"You know nothing." 

Her voice dropped a full octave. The playfulness vanished. 

With a single motion, she lifted her hand. 

And reality responded. 

Light gathered, no, memory, shaped into metal. A revolver, old and black as coal, formed in her hand. Veins of silver pulsed along its surface like a heartbeat. 

It was real. 

More real than it had any right to be. 

A weapon born from emotion. 

From somewhere she shouldn't still remember. 

"Begone," she said softly, raising the gun. 

Kentaro didn't flinch. Couldn't. His body locked up, but his voice scraped its way out. 

"Why me?" he asked. "Why the hell are you pointing that at me? I want to help you, damn it!" 

The revolver didn't waver. 

But her eyes did. 

Just a flicker. A flash of regret. 

The crimson energy around the barrel swirled, thickening. Condensing. 

She didn't look angry anymore. 

She looked… tired. 

Like this wasn't her first time killing someone she didn't want to. 

Her finger twitched on the trigger. 

"Sav-" 

She never finished. 

Because sound itself split in two. 

A crack peeled through the sky, sharp and screeching like metal folding into itself. The roof shook. The air warped. 

Then, impact. 

Seven figures fell like meteors, encased in smoke and light, jetpack trails cutting fire through the classroom air. 

Their boots hit the ground with enough force to rattle the bones. 

Kentaro's ears rang. 

His vision blurred. 

Rin didn't blink. 

"Oh. Mecha-Mecha Squad," she deadpanned. "With jetpacks this time. Cute." 

Kentaro turned, half-dragging his body back toward cover. But they were surrounded. 

Men and women in half-armor stood around them in a loose circle. No insignia. No words. Just tech that pulsed with unnatural light. Their helmets covered their eyes. Their rifles locked in unison. 

Target: Rin. 

"Open fire!" 

Too late. 

A second pink barrier erupted around Rin and Kentaro, silencing the room like someone hit mute on the world. 

Bullets struck and vanished. 

Sound died. 

She turned to Kentaro, her expression unreadable once more. 

"Well then, Renny," she said. "Looks like we're out of time." 

He tried to get up. His leg gave out. Pain bloomed like fire. 

Didn't matter. 

He looked up. 

And saw the revolver again. 

Pointed at him. 

But now… she was smiling. 

Softly. 

As if saying goodbye. 

Not hate. 

Not regret. 

Something worse. 

Affection. 

"If you want answers," she said, "find me again." 

She winked. 

Then whispered something Kentaro wouldn't forget for the rest of his life. 

"Phase Step." 

And the world shattered.