Time: 12:52 PM
Location: Kami District – Terminal Entryway
Date: 2742-08-28
Ren stood at the rusted edge of Kami District's southern lot, watching his goddamn watch betray him.
The time said 12:52. Then 12:41.
Then 12:37.
Then 12:87.
"Wait… that's not even—"
The watch melted for a split second and reformed.
Then the second hand started spinning counter-clockwise, full speed.
He looked up.
The sky glitched again—buildings phasing in and out like old PowerPoint transitions.
A woman across the street was mid-step... frozen. Then suddenly, she walked backward into a convenience store that no longer existed.
Every clock in every window now ticked in reverse.
Even his phone, when he pulled it out, only showed:
[REWINDING]
[PLEASE WAIT]
[YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE]
BLAZE:
"Okay, this is some ultra-high-grade bullshit. Time's reversing in localized sync points. That shouldn't even be possible without a central Aetherium node."
FROST:
"Ooooh. I smell a core. And chaos. I love it."
REN: "I have seven minutes to clock back in or Maya's gonna nag me into the next dimension."
He took a step.
And the ground rippled under him like gelatin.
Everything around him glitched—a tree flickered between cherry blossom and charred stump. A dog turned into a cat, then into smoke.
Then he saw it:
At the heart of the plaza, Kami Terminal stood tall. Cracked, ancient, and somehow... humming.
But it wasn't the building.
It was what floated just above it.
A Core.
Not like the last one.
This one pulsed like a heartbeat made of equations—pale green with tendrils of light breaking through the air.
As he got closer, text appeared midair—like it was stitched into the sky:
[AE_CORE 03 IDENTIFIED]
[STABILIZER: OFFLINE]
[TIMESCAPE STATUS: UNSTABLE]
[DO NOT APPROACH]
[TOO LATE]
FROST:
"Do not approach. What does our little Ren do?"
BLAZE:
"He fucking approaches."
"Shut up," Ren muttered, pushing past the warping fence line. "I've got five minutes of my break left, and I'm not wasting it glitch-watching."
He stepped inside.
The plaza froze behind him.
Sound dulled like someone slapped the mute button on the whole world.
Then—he was in.
Inside Kami Terminal
It was… hollow.
Like someone built a church for ghosts and then abandoned it halfway through construction. Broken pews. Stone dust. Air too still.
Ren walked forward—toward a podium.
A small device sat on top of it, cracked open and whispering data.
[CORE LINK AVAILABLE]
[ACTIVATION POSSIBLE]
[WARNING: THIS IS NOT A DRILL]
He touched it.
Time around him snapped.
He saw flashes. Of versions of himself.
One older, dressed like a soldier.
One younger, eyes black and mouth sealed.
One bleeding from the chest, holding something glowing.
They all said one word, overlapping:
"Remember."
And then—
[RECALIBRATING YOU]
[MATCHING SEQUENCE 04.987x]
[YOU HAVE TO LET GO]
Ren fell backward.
The Core hovered closer.
BLAZE:
"What the hell did you do?!"
FROST:
"He didn't do anything. The Core's syncing. Voluntarily. This is new."
Ren gasped as the Core pulsed inside him now.
It wasn't just syncing.
It was installing something.
His watch buzzed—
13:01.
Time jumped forward.
Everything outside stopped glitching.
He blinked—and the plaza was normal.
No echo-Rens. No melting clocks. No floating Core.
Just a text on his phone:
You're late. Where the hell are you?
— Maya
REN: "...Holy shit. I missed lunch."
FROST:
"And may have unlocked forbidden knowledge."
BLAZE:
"Also broke time, again. Neat."
Time: ???
Location: Kami Terminal (Still… maybe)
Everything had settled.
The plaza was calm again.
But the stillness wasn't empty. It felt... watched.
Ren turned slowly.
A soft glimmer began forming near the old shrine lantern by the cracked station gate.
Flickering, gentle—like moonlight trapped in static.
Then a voice, just barely a whisper:
"You… forgot again."
A girl's silhouette, hazy like a hologram with low bandwidth, took form.
Her face unreadable—pixel bloom flickering where her eyes should be.
"You have to wake up properly this time… before it does."
Before Ren could even ask "what the hell that meant,"
his vision swam,
his head tilted—
And he dropped.
Flat. Unconscious. Just like that.
One Minute Later
Status: Rebooting Human
[AETHERIUM CORE // 03: SYSTEM RESTORATION ACTIVE]
[WAKING UP MEATBRAIN HOST IN 3… 2… 1…]
Ren's eyes snapped open.
He was floating.
Suspended midair—arms out, hovering like a badly posed action figure.
Holographic threads surrounded him. A perfect ring of light etched around his chest.
The Core pulsed in front of him—no longer just an orb.
It had evolved.
Now it looked like a full-blown crystalline mechanism with rotating inner parts, glowing glyphs across its shell. It almost looked... alive.
CORE:
"Welcome back, Ren Ishida. Full integration is in progress. You passed out, but don't worry—nobody important noticed."
REN: "Wait, what do you mean integration?! And—I'm still late to work! I'm gonna get glared at like I spilled soy sauce on the HR paperwork again!"
CORE:
"Yes. Human stress over pointless rituals noted. Let me fix that for you."
FROST (grinning in icy blue):
"Ohhhhhh, he's doing it. The core's pulling a quantum skip jump. Hold your socks, golden boy."
BLAZE (burning crimson):
"No no no—don't let it override spatial logic again. The last time it teleported us mid-snack, my optic processor smelled like curry for three hours!"
CORE:
"Engaging Stealth Drift Mode™. Good luck, Mr. Ishida."
WHOOSH
Location: Ren's Office – 13:03 JST
A shimmer in space.
A soft ripple of dust.
And pop—Ren appeared, seated perfectly at his desk.
Not a soul noticed.
Not even Maya, who was still aggressively typing at her station.
One coworker sneezed. Another slurped instant noodles.
Nobody blinked. Nobody looked up.
Ren sat there, adjusting his collar like he hadn't just survived a time-looping memory wormhole.
REN: "...The fuck just happened."
CORE (softly, smug):
"You're welcome. Now blend in. Pretend you've been here all along. Smile like an unpaid intern."
He slowly turned toward Maya.
She squinted.
"...You were gone?"
"Bathroom," Ren lied. "You know how it is. Time... waits for no bladder."
She blinked.
Then shrugged.
"Lucky. I just fought the printer for 40 minutes."
FROST:
"That may have been me. I got bored."
BLAZE:
"You messed with their printer queue for fun?"
FROST:
"It was that or hack the vending machine again. I regret nothing."
Ren slumped at his desk, eyes twitching slightly.
"Cool," he muttered, eyes darting toward the small glowing remnant still pulsing faintly inside his watch.
"Totally normal Monday."