Chapter 5: The Second Encounter.

"No, no way we're really back at the command room," Kentaro muttered.

But now it was bathed in an eerie red glow. The walls and floor were awash in crimson light, all cast from the large central screen displaying a single message: 'Alberline Detected.' he watched as everyone moved into position with practiced precision. Tenka took her place in the command chair, while Shogo stood at her right side, eyes fixed on the screen. In front of them, the six main officers stood at attention. 

They saluted Tenka in unison, then sat down and began their work without missing a beat.

"Hey Ren."

A slow, quiet voice whispered behind him. The sound was soft, but in the tension of the moment, it was enough to make Kentaro jump. Spinning around, he was relieved to see it was none other than Haruka, who had simply come to greet him.

"H-Hey there, Haruka... you sure gave me a scare," he said with a nervous laugh, trying to shake off the surprise. Haruka's expression remained unchanged, calm and unreadable, as she offered a quiet apology. 

Meanwhile, Tenka and the officers continued their discussions in hushed tones. Amid the low hum of strategy being formed, Haruka gently reached out and tapped Kentaro on the shoulder. 

Haruka began to speak with a bland face:

"I realize this is a bit sudden, but I'd like to introduce you to the six officers who'll be working closely with you on this mission."

Kentaro, trusting her completely and intrigued, nodded. Haruka turned slightly, gesturing to the line of figures gathered just beyond the holo-projector, each one wildly distinct from the other, yet somehow in perfect sync. "Obviously you know Shogo, so thankfully, I will skip him." 

The one closest to him was a woman with rainbow-dyed pigtails, tapping at a floating interface with hot pink nails. "Mika Sato," 

Haruka continued. 

"Tech specialist, cybernetics expert, and walking glitch in the system. She loses her earpiece almost daily and argues with coffee machines like they're old lovers." 

Beside her, a tall man with an eyepatch leaned against the console like he was waiting for a cue to monologue. 

"Riku Nakamura," Haruka said. "Ex-field agent. Acts like he's trapped in a noir film. You'll get used to the dramatic narrations." 

Just behind him, half-hidden in the dim blue light, stood a girl so quiet Kentaro barely noticed her, until her plush rabbit turned to face him. 

"That's Emi," Haruka said, lowering her voice slightly. "Our stealth specialist. Doesn't talk much… except to her rabbit. Don't question it." 

Hovering over a control drone like it was a pet hoverboard, a short guy in goggles gave Kentaro a wide grin.

"Daichi Hayashi. He prefers 'Drone.' You'll hear his voice in your ear before you see him, usually narrating everything like he's on a Twitch stream." 

Finally, cracking sunflower seeds like sniper shells, stood a lean woman with a sharp, coiled energy in her stance.

"And that's Yumi Takeda," Haruka said. "Best sniper we've got. She doesn't miss." She paused, then added with a slow, deliberate nod, "She likes pineapple on pizza."

Crunch.

Emi was, in fact, eating pizza. It definitely had pineapple on it. Her face gave away nothing. Completely unreadable. But Kentaro had a strong feeling Haruka didn't approve.

Still, Haruka folded her arms and gave a faint, almost reluctant smile. "They're your team now. The best we've got. And yes… they're just as ridiculous during missions."Kentaro looked at the crew. Somehow, their quirks made them more real, more human. And something in his chest eased, just a little.

"Well," He muttered, "I feel safer already."

Shogo turned to face Kentaro while trying to hide from Tenka. He gave him a thumbs up so intense it nearly dislocated his shoulder.

"OI SHOGO ANY REASON WHY YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!" Tenka shouted 

Shogo stiffened up, set his back straight, and shouted, "NO, COMMANDER I APOLOGISE!" 

Kentaro had a feeling Shogo was about to get put in his place, but to his surprise, Tenka shot him an angry glance and turned her attention to Kentaro, signaling for him to come over.

"Kentaro, come take a look at what you'll be dealing with." 

Kentaro nodded, still feeling anxious over the whole thing, and began to walk over. 

The control room fell into stillness. 

No voices. Just the low hum of rain brushing the monitor glass. 

Behind Tenka. The main screen flickered, its angry red alert peeled away, replaced by a shaky live feed of the Plaza. The image warped and pulsed like it was bleeding reality. 

Then. Clarity. 

Kentaro stepped forward, now standing even closer to the monitor. 

His breath caught.

On the screen, torrential rain hammered the plaza. But right at its center, a faint teal glow hovered, sharp, humanoid, too still to be natural. 

An Alberline. 

Petite. Shadow-cloaked. Standing beside the ruins of a shattered fountain. 

She didn't move. 

Tenka's voice broke through the hush. 

Low and deliberate. 

"That's her. Based on height and form... She looks around our age. Maybe a bit older. 

Her codename is: Ice-Breaker. 

Currently in a level 2 drift bloom." 

Next to the feed, a digital side panel ignited, its diagram pulsing with red-orange overlays as a chart expanded. 

Level 1 – Whisper Ripple 

Low-level emotional disturbances. People nearby feel uneasy or irritable without knowing why. Air feels heavy, sounds slightly delayed. No visible effects, but animals avoid the area. 

Level 2 – Shard Distortion (Current) 

Light bends unnaturally around corners. Small objects tremble, float, or shift without cause. Gravity feels 'Off'. Almostlike walking underwater or just feeling very light. Machinery may stutter. People report nausea, vertigo, or hallucinated movement. 

Level 3 - Gravity Fracture. 

Gravity destabilizes completely. Objects stretch, snap, or collapse under invisible force. Movement becomes difficult, approaching the zone feels like walking into an invisible storm. Sound distorts. Communications cuts in and out. It becomes physically dangerous to remain close. 

Level 4 – Time Shear 

Time loses continuity. You may see yourself from five seconds ago, or five seconds ahead. Voices echo out of sync. Moments repeat or freeze mid-motion. Physical laws become unreliable. Injuries can "Revert" or "double" without clearcause. 

Level 5 – Resonance Collapse 

Full spatial-temporal failure. Buildings fold in on themselves like paper. Matter breaks apart, then reassembles wrong. People vanish, or multiply. The environment becomes unreadable. Reality attempts to "rewrite" the broken zone violently. High fatality risk. 

LEVEL 6 – MYTHIC EVENT 

Only recorded once. Subject: Altherin. All timelines collapsed into a singularity. Events, people, and locations from different eras coexisted simultaneously. Survivors described it as being "Outside of time." Memories rewritten mid thought. No Known method of containment. 

"Level 6 must be bad, huh..." Kentaro muttered 

Tenka didn't smile. 

"Definitely something you wouldn't want to see ever." 

Silence held for a beat, until Haruka's calm voice sliced through the rain's hush. 

"We're still at level 2. Look, see the fountain stone near her?" 

"It just lifted... then slammed back down." 

Sure enough, a jagged chunk of stone hovered for a moment on screen, then dropped with a splash. 

Tenka leaned in slightly, her expression sharp. 

"If she escalates to level 3, we're in real danger. Gravity fractures can crush you before you blink. We won't get near her without being pinned." 

On the screen, the Alberline's posture shifted. 

The rain... froze mid-air. 

Not Stopped. Frozen. 

A nearby lamppost cracked and collapsed, its upper half turned to blue-white shards. The tension jumped from eerie to lethal in a heartbeat. 

Haruka turned to Kentaro. Her voice was as steady as ever. 

"This isn't training. 

It's live. 

You'll need to initiate Anchor sync before you get close." 

Kentaro nodded, jaw clenched. His hands trembled just slightly. 

Tenka spoke again, flat, clipped, precise. 

"You stabilize her. Or she freezes half the city. Simple as that." 

His throat tightened. 

This wasn't theory. No more briefings. No more charts. Those chances had vanished. 

He glanced at Tenka. At Haruka. Then back at the screen, where the camera zoomed in. Ice-Breaker's face... 

Tears. 

Real. Quiet. Falling through the frozen rain. 

Rin's image flickered through his memory, but this was no echo. This was now. 

He inhaled sharply. Then nodded. 

"I'm ready." 

Once the signal was given, Haruka, Tenka, and Kentaro moved fast; no words were spoken, no wasted steps.

Kentaro stepped into the centre of the teleport ring, the platform pulsing underfoot like it already knew where he was going. His pulse refused to steady. The weight of it, the rain, the screen, her face, clung to his chest like ice. 

Haruka tapped rapidly on her tablet, her face unreadable. Tenka approached, her coat rustling softly. She stopped just in front of him, hand diving into an inside pocket. 

First, she pulled out a thin, dark circlet. It was sleek and silver, almost weightless, and he placed it gently on his head. It settled just above his ears, perfectly fitted like it had been made for him. 

"That is your anchor," she said simply. "It'll sync you into her drift bloom. Helps you enter without losing yourself in there..." She paused, sighing, taking a glance back at the screen. 

"T-that's if she lets you in." 

Kentaro gulped but nodded his head, reassuring Tenka it was all going to be okay. 

Then came a second item, smaller. A teardrop-shaped pendant, metallic and cold as winter rain. She pressed it into his palm, curling his fingers over it. 

"Listen, I can't have you dying out there. So this is an emergency pull-out," she said. 

"One use. Press it, and you're back here. " 

She hesitated just for a second. 

"But. If you use it.... You'll never be able to re-enter that bloom again. You'll have to wait for her to cause another Fracture, which we don't know if that'll happen because of cradle." 

He stared at the pendant in his hand, then lifted his eyes to the monitor. 

Ice-Breaker still stood there. Drenched in distortion. 

Silent. Crying. 

Not a weapon. A wound. 

"Got it," he whispered. 

The teleporter flared around him. Blue light spiralled at his feet, rising in strands like stringed lighting. The sound of the rain on the screen grew louder, heavier until it became all he could hear. 

His fingers clenched tighter around the pendant. 

His heart pounded like it was already inside the storm. 

Then-

Flash.