"You don't know the weight of a world until someone you love starts to slip through it."
Scene 1 – Morning Fog, Heavy Air
May 20, 2011 – 6:12 AM – Hoshino Household
The morning air felt wrong. Heavy, like the house itself was holding its breath.
Soft golden light filtered through the living room curtains, casting long shadows across the floorboards. Dust danced lazily in the beams—like time itself had slowed to a crawl.
Souta sat curled up on the couch, knees hugged to his chest, the faint indent of a sleepless night carved under his eyes. Happy sat quietly in his lap, unmoving except for the occasional flick of a stitched ear when the breeze brushed in from the slightly cracked window.
He hadn't slept at all. Not really. Every time his eyes shut, Yoru was there—fractured and waiting, like a bad reflection in a dream that wasn't his.
"You're not my opposite. You're my shadow…"
That voice echoed even now.
Souta gripped Happy a little tighter, as if the bear could shield him from memory.
From the kitchen came the soft hum of Ai's voice—a familiar melody, wordless and warm. The sizzling of eggs, the subtle clink of bowls, and the comforting scent of miso soup drifted in. It should've felt safe.
But it didn't.
Because the normalcy only made the fear feel more out of place. More real.
Footsteps padded down the stairs.
Ruby entered, yawning loudly and rubbing one eye. Her long hair was tied back with a scrunchie that had seen better days. She dropped into a chair at the table, her head hitting the wood with a dramatic thud.
"You look like crap," she mumbled without looking up.
Souta blinked. "Morning to you too, onee-chan."
She glanced at him sideways and frowned. "No, like... actual, capital-C Crap. The kind with extra eye bags."
He gave her a hollow smile. "Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment."
Aqua followed shortly after, eyes sharper than usual, scanning the room like he already knew something was off. He didn't say anything at first, just quietly noted the tension in Souta's body.
Then—Ai entered.
Her expression was gentle but perceptive. She could feel it. Without a word, she placed the breakfast tray on the table, crouched beside Souta, and reached up to smooth his hair from his forehead.
"Didn't sleep again?" she asked, her voice feather-soft.
Souta shook his head silently.
Ai kissed the crown of his head and stood back up. "Then we're all skipping school today."
Ruby blinked. "Wait—what?"
"Just one day," Ai said, setting plates down with a bit more force than usual. "We've been through enough lately. I want a day with my kids. No alarms, no pressure, no pretending."
Aqua didn't argue. He sat down without a word.
Ruby looked around, then shrugged with mock defeat. "...If there's pancakes later, I'm in."
Ai smiled, just a little. "There will be pancakes."
Scene 2 – The Unseen Wound
9:33 AM – Backyard Garden
The backyard was still wet from morning dew. The grass soaked through the knees of Souta's pajama pants as he sat cross-legged under the small maple tree near the fence, drawing slow circles in the dirt with a stick.
The clouds above were thick, as if the sky, too, was waiting.
Happy sat beside him in the grass, his plush body propped against a small rock. His button eyes stared at the ground, silently listening.
"I keep thinking about it," Souta said suddenly. "Bringing you to life. Rewriting the world. Making things better. Was it really better?"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"You think I did wrong?"
The teddy bear didn't respond. Of course it didn't. But Souta imagined what it might say. He'd always been good at that—giving silence a voice.
"I'm scared," he confessed. "What if I'm hurting people without meaning to? What if… everything I fix just breaks something else?"
"You aren't hurting us."
Souta startled.
Aqua stood behind him, arms folded loosely, his face shadowed by the angle of the sun.
"You're trying to carry something too big," Aqua said, stepping closer. "Even gods fall under that kind of pressure. And you're…"
He paused.
Souta looked up, waiting.
"You're just my little brother."
Souta's throat tightened. "Exactly. I'm not a god. I don't even know what I am."
"You don't have to." Aqua sat beside him in the grass. "You don't need to be everything. You're already enough."
"But what if I fail?" Souta whispered.
Aqua smiled—soft and tired. "Then we fail together. That's how family works."
Souta didn't speak. He just looked down at the dirt.
But for the first time since waking, he breathed a little easier.
Scene 3 – Cracks in the Veil
2:01 PM – Shibuya Crossing
Elsewhere, far from the safe quiet of home, something shifted.
At first, it was nothing more than a shimmer—like heatwaves on asphalt. A ripple that danced high above the busiest crosswalk in Tokyo.
Most people didn't notice. They were too busy hurrying past one another, headphones in, phones raised, eyes blank.
But a few felt it.
A strange pressure under the skin. A metallic taste in the mouth. A cold wind that came from nowhere.
In an alley just behind a vending machine, a girl stood motionless.
Her hoodie was pulled low, concealing most of her face. But beneath the shadow of the hood, one thing gleamed: her left eye—or rather, the gear that replaced it. It ticked with mechanical precision, embedded in flesh like a parasite of time.
She whispered something.
"The Pact begins now."
Her voice was flat. Lifeless.
"The gods have turned their backs. The boy must fall."
And then she vanished—into a tear in the air that stitched itself closed behind her.
Scene 4 – Family Movie Night
9:12 PM – Hoshino Living Room
The lights were dim. The only glow came from the flickering TV screen, playing the soft pastel colors of an old anime opening theme.
They all sat huddled beneath a single oversized blanket on the couch. Ai in the center, one arm around Ruby, who was curled into her side, the other hand playing absently with Aqua's hair as he leaned against her shoulder. Souta sat in front, between Ai's legs, resting back against her chest, half-lulled by the steady beat of her heart.
Happy was nestled in Ruby's arms, as if even the bear needed comfort tonight.
The anime on-screen wasn't new. It was one of Souta's favorites. One where the hero saves the day with kindness instead of strength. He'd made them rewatch it at least four times before.
"Hey, Mama?" Souta asked, voice small.
"Hm?"
He didn't turn around.
"If I disappeared one day… would you cry?"
The question sucked the air out of the room.
Ai didn't answer immediately. She paused, like the words had physically hit her.
Then, slowly, she wrapped both arms around him and pulled him tighter, lowering her head so her chin touched his hair.
"I'd cry until there was nothing left inside me," she whispered.
"Then I'd go find you. Tear the world open if I had to."
"Even if the world said no?"
"Especially then."
Souta didn't say anything else.
But his hand clenched around the edge of the blanket like he never wanted to let go.
Scene 5 – The First Shatter
Midnight – Elsewhere
Far away, in a space that did not exist within the known world, Yoru stood before a door.
It wasn't made of wood or metal, but of emotion—its frame shaped like a broken heart, its surface etched with memories that bled like ink.
Behind it lay the First Fracture:A timeline where Ai had died. Where no one came to save her. Where Souta never spoke the words that changed everything.
A place of silence. Regret. Pain without voice.
Yoru placed his hand on the door.
And opened it.
The scream that followed wasn't human. It wasn't even sound.It was rejection made real. Grief weaponized.
It split through dimensions like thunder.
Back in the Hoshino household, Souta shot upright in bed, drenched in cold sweat, heart pounding.
"He's breaking the barriers," he gasped.
The dream had ended.
The war had not.
The final confrontation…
…was getting closer.