Morning arrived in the underground city, though "morning" was merely a setting on the massive artificial lighting grid that hummed above the streets. The city brightened, mimicking a natural dawn, and the citizens began to move about, their footsteps echoing through the metallic halls.
Inside Xiaolong's house, Sami rubbed her eyes and trudged downstairs to the living room. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were slightly bloodshot.
"Uff… I couldn't sleep properly because of all this overthinking," she muttered, pulling her sweater tighter around her.
Xiaolong was already there, sitting calmly on the sofa and sipping from a steaming mug of coffee. He looked fresh and alert. Seeing her, he gave a small nod. "Good morning, Sami."
"Good morning," Sami replied, her voice raspy. She sat down on the opposite sofa. "When did you even wake up?"
"It's been about two or three hours," Xiaolong replied casually.
Sami's jaw dropped. "Huh?! Waking up this early—what do you even do?"
Xiaolong took another sip. "I practice my Water Manipulation a bit. I'm still new, just like you guys. I haven't mastered it yet, so I need the extra time."
Sami sighed, leaning back into the cushions. "Oh, I see. We should start practicing seriously too."
As she spoke, a maid brought a fresh cup of coffee over to her. "Thanks," Sami whispered, the warmth of the mug feeling good against her palms.
A moment later, the sound of rhythmic footsteps came from the stairs. Takashi appeared, looking as stoic as ever, though his shirt was damp with sweat.
"Oh hey, Takashi. Good morning," Sami said.
"Good morning, Sami. Good morning, Xiaolong," Takashi replied, his voice steady. He sat down, and like clockwork, a maid provided him with coffee. He wasted no time. "So, Xiaolong, have you mastered your Phore yet?"
Xiaolong shook his head. "No, not yet. But I go outside every morning to practice."
Takashi took a sip and nodded. "Hmm. I saw you through the window."
Sami looked between the two of them, shocked. "Wait... you woke up that early too, Takashi?"
"Yeah," he replied calmly. "I was exercising in my room."
Sami gave an awkward, tired smile. "Oh… so I was the only one sleeping.
Xiaolong and Takashi shared a rare, small smile. "No, no," Takashi added. "You weren't alone. Kento is still sleeping.
Sami laughed softly. "Oh yeah, of course he is. That makes sense."
The peaceful morning was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Dr. Ishimiya walked in, followed closely by the Military Man.
"Yo, looks like everyone's here," the doctor said, adjusting his glasses.
"Hmm, not everyone, but yeah, almost," Xiaolong replied, glancing toward Kento's closed door upstairs.
The Military Man crossed his arms. "So Kento is still sleeping, huh."
"Yeah, that's right," Takashi confirmed.
Dr. Ishimiya sat down on a single sofa, his expression uncharacteristically grave. "So, how is everyone feeling? You all have Phore—do you feel anything different lately, by any chance?"
"No, nothing unusual," they replied almost in unison. "But we should start training soon."
The Military Man nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'll take you to the training ground soon. But first, listen to Dr. Ishimiya. This is important—about your friend Nitsuki."
The mention of Nitsuki's name acted like an electric shock. Sami sat bolt upright, her coffee nearly spilling. "Ni–Nitsuki?! How is he now? Did he wake up? Why didn't you bring him with you?"
Dr. Ishimiya's face darkened, and he looked at the floor for a second before meeting her eyes. "No, he hasn't woken up. But Nitsuki's case is… different. Something that wasn't clearly mentioned in the Soul Apocalypse book."
The air in the room grew cold. Everyone leaned in. "So what exactly is going on with Nitsuki?" Xiaolong asked.
Dr. Ishimiya spoke slowly, each word heavy with weight. "Nitsuki's consciousness is not in this world. His body is here, but his soul—his consciousness—is somewhere beyond Earth. In another dimension."
The room fell into a stunned silence. Sami gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "What?! Another dimension? What is actually happening?"
Takashi's fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white. "What the hell is happening to him? How did he end up in another dimension?"
"I don't know," Dr. Ishimiya admitted, shaking his head. "Maybe it has something to do with the stone Nitsuki touched. It reacted differently to him than it did to you."
"But how did you figure this out?" Xiaolong asked, his voice sharp with curiosity. "How can a medical doctor diagnose a soul being in another dimension?"
In response, Dr. Ishimiya stood up and pulled back his sleeve. He showed them a scar on his hand—a jagged, strange mark that seemed to shimmer slightly under the artificial lights.
"I didn't figure it out through machines," Dr. Ishimiya began to explain. "I figured it out because of this..."
Dr. Ishimiya looked at the young faces gathered in the living room. He sighed, the weight of the previous night still heavy on his shoulders. He adjusted his glasses and began to recount the events that led to his discovery.
The room faded as the group listened, transported into the doctor's memory...
The Flashback: Late Night in the Laboratory
The sterile white lights of the hospital wing hummed. Dr. Ishimiya stood over Nitsuki's still form, his brow furrowed in deep frustration. He had tried every standard medical procedure, but the boy remained locked in a state between life and death.
"This isn't working at all…" Ishimiya whispered to the empty room. "It's time to use one of my prepared drugs."
Taking a decisive breath, he picked Nitsuki up. The boy felt lighter than he should, as if his essence was already fading. He placed him into a transport vehicle and drove through the quiet underground streets to his private laboratory—a place where he kept his most experimental and powerful medicines.
After reaching the lab, he carefully laid Nitsuki down on a high-tech medical bed.
"You're not a normal patient, Nitsuki," Ishimiya murmured, his voice echoing in the metallic room. "Something unique is happening to you. That's why I had to bring you here."
He walked over to a heavy desk and took a small, ornate key from his pocket. With a sharp click, he unlocked a secret drawer beneath the table. Inside, resting in a padded case, were three specialized injections, glowing with a faint, ethereal blue light.
He selected one, prepped the needle, and took a deep breath. He pressed the needle into Nitsuki's arm and depressed the plunger.
"Now you should wake up, Nitsuki."
But something shocking happened.
The moment the drug entered Nitsuki's system, the boy's body arched. A violent, golden-white surge of energy—a massive shock—erupted from his skin.
"Ugh!" Dr. Ishimiya was thrown backward with terrifying force. He crashed into a metal cabinet and slumped to the floor, a searing pain radiating from his hand. He looked down; a jagged, raw scar had been burned into his palm.
"What just happened?" he gasped, struggling for air. "This drug was supposed to wake him up... but instead, it shocked me. It's like his body is actively defending itself."
As the doctor struggled to get back to his feet, the silence was shattered. Nitsuki—whose eyes were still closed, whose heart rate remained steady—suddenly spoke. But the voice wasn't his. It was heavy, ancient, and resonated through the very walls of the lab.
"Don't dare wake him up. He is about to get it."
After the words echoed, everything went deathly silent.
Dr. Ishimiya stared in absolute shock, his heart hammering against his ribs. "What the hell?!"
He rushed back to the bedside, peering closely at Nitsuki's face. The boy's lips hadn't even moved. "Speaking while unconscious is impossible... And what does 'he is about to get it' even mean?"
Realizing that this was far beyond conventional medicine, Ishimiya carried Nitsuki into his personal room inside the lab and laid him down gently. He knew he couldn't try again.
"No… waking him up right now would be wrong," he realized, his hands shaking. "I've never read anything like this in the Soul Apocalypse book. Taking unknown steps would be dangerous. Whatever is happening... I should let it happen."
He sank into a chair beside the bed, watching Nitsuki's rhythmic breathing.
What could this be? he thought. Is Nitsuki somewhere else? Is something happening to him there? Yes… that must be it. He's in another dimension, doing something there. Until that's finished, he can't wake up. Whenever I try to wake him, his body reacts violently and rejects it. But who spoke just now? And how did I hear it?
The weight of the mystery was too much to carry alone. He grabbed his phone and dialed Nanami, the Military Man.
"What's wrong, Dr. Ishimiya? It's so late at night," Nanami's groggy voice came through the line.
Ishimiya didn't hold back. "Hey, Nanami. I tried to wake Nitsuki using my special drug, but his body rejected it. I was hit by a shock and thrown back. And then… his mouth started speaking on its own. It said not to wake him up—he's about to get something."
The line was silent for a second before the sound of rustling sheets came through. Nanami had sat up. "That's weird. So what do you think is happening?"
"Maybe Nitsuki was sent to another dimension after touching the stone," Ishimiya replied.
"Who knows…" Nanami sighed. "For now, go to sleep. Let the night pass. Tomorrow morning, you and I will go tell his friends everything."
"Okay," Ishimiya said, exhausted. "I really should sleep, otherwise my head will explode from overthinking."
He ended the call. In his quarters, Nanami lay back down, staring at the ceiling before eventually drifting off. In the lab, Ishimiya sat in the chair beside Nitsuki, his head nodding until sleep finally claimed him as well.
The flashback ended, and the living room returned to focus. Sami was trembling, her hands clasped tightly together. Takashi was deathly still, his eyes fixed on the doctor's scar.
"That's how I found out about Nitsuki," Dr. Ishimiya concluded, his voice quiet.
The weight of Dr. Ishimiya's revelation hung heavy in the air. Sami's hands trembled as she clutched her coffee mug, her eyes searching the doctor's face for a glimmer of hope that he couldn't quite provide.
"What is happening to Nitsuki?" Sami asked, her voice tight with anxiety. "Is he fighting some kind of battle? Or is he... trying to achieve something?"
Takashi nodded slowly, his expression dark. "I feel the same way. It's like he's been pulled into a war we can't see."
"We can't say for sure," Dr. Ishimiya replied softly. "Only the future will tell what's really happening in that mind of his."
The silence that followed was thick with worry. Seeing his new allies sinking into despair, Xiaolong slammed his hand down on the table, not in anger, but with firm resolve.
"Anyway, believe in Nitsuki!" Xiaolong commanded. "He will wake up. Until then, make yourselves stronger so you can protect him when he does. Let's go train."
Sami took a deep breath and stood up, wiping her eyes. "Yeah, I understand. Let's train—but Kento isn't here."
Takashi was already moving toward the stairs. "Wait. I'll go wake him up."
Takashi pushed open Kento's door and stopped. The room was a disaster zone; Kento was sprawled across the bed in a position that defied human anatomy, snoring loudly.
"Hey… hey, Kento. Wake up," Takashi said, shaking the boy's shoulder.
Kento's eyes snapped open. He scrambled backward, nearly falling off the bed. "Huh?! What—what happened?! Did the world end already?!"
SMACK.
Takashi's hand connected with the back of Kento's head. "No, idiot. The world hasn't ended yet. Get up. We're going to training."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up," Kento grumbled, rubbing his head. "I was having such a good dream and you ruined it."
Takashi didn't budge, his gaze piercing. "This is not the time for dreams. We have to train."
Kento dragged himself out of bed, fixing his clothes with a defiant pout. He followed Takashi downstairs, muttering, "Yeah, let's go. I'll fight everyone one-on-one. I don't even need to warm up."
Takashi's face twisted into an expression of pure irritation, but he stayed silent as they reached the living room.
"Sleeping so much won't do," Nanami, the Military Man, barked. "If you want to be a real man, you need training."
"I can beat all of you," Kento snapped back, his arrogance returning. "You guys need morning training, not me."
SMACK.
Takashi hit him again. Kento finally went quiet, nursing his bruised ego.
Toward the Training Ground
The group headed outside and piled into Nanami's military vehicle. This time, Nanami took the wheel himself, with Dr. Ishimiya in the passenger seat.
"From today, training starts," Sami said, her voice filled with a new determination. "I'll try to master my Phore within a few days."
"Yeah," Xiaolong nodded. "We will too. We have to."
Nanami adjusted the rearview mirror, glancing at the doctor. "So, Ishimiya, are you coming with us to watch them, or should I drop you at your lab?"
"Of course I'll come!" Ishimiya said, his eyes bright with scientific curiosity. "I've already seen Water Manipulation—I want to see more types of Phore and understand their limits."
Nanami smiled slightly and hit the accelerator. "Alright then. Let's go."
The Dark Void
The scene shifts away from the metal city, away from the sunlight, into a place that shouldn't exist.
A pale, sickly moon hangs in a sky of infinite black. Below, the ground is a mirror—a vast, endless surface covered in shallow water that reaches just to the ankles. There is no wind. No sound. Only the ripples created by a single body.
Nitsuki lay in the water, his chest rising and falling slowly. His eyes fluttered open. He saw the moon, then the void.
"Where… where am I?"
He stood up, the water splashing softly against his skin. He scanned the horizon, but there was no horizon—only the darkness.
"Damn… where am I? There's nothing anywhere," Nitsuki whispered, panic beginning to rise in his throat. "I was so close to getting my Phore… I could've saved Takashi. But the moment I touched it—something happened."
The silence was heavy, pressing against his eardrums. He started walking, the "slap-slap" of his feet in the water the only thing proving he was still alive.
"This feels really uncomfortable… it's like this void is slowly swallowing me."
He kept moving, driven by a desperate need to find a door, a wall, anything. Then, he saw it. A single, perfect circular beam of light was shining down from the heavens, illuminating a spot in the distance.
"Huh? Where is that light coming from?" He hesitated, then adjusted his course. "Should I go there? ...Yeah, might as well. I'm not seeing anything else."
As Nitsuki stepped into the circle of light, the silence didn't just break—it shattered.
AUGH—!!
A deafening, metallic roar erupted from the sky. It wasn't a voice; it was the sound of reality tearing apart. Nitsuki collapsed to his knees, clutching his ears as his vision blurred.
"AUGHHHHHH!! This is too much! My ears are going to burst! I'm going to die—AHHHH!!"
He forced his eyes open and looked straight up.
Descending from the blackness above was a massive, cosmic sphere. It was beautiful and terrifying, shimmering with the colors of a dying star. It loomed larger and larger, threatening to crush the entire void—and Nitsuki with it.
"AUGHHHH! I'll die if that thing falls on me!"
The void trembled. The water beneath him began to boil. The presence was overwhelming, and Nitsuki realized that this wasn't just a dream. This was a reckoning.