Zhu Zhuqing jolted upright in her bed, chest heaving, breath caught between dream and waking. Moonlight poured through the window, silvering the wooden floor and casting long shadows across her room in Shrek Academy. Yet her heart still beat in the strange rhythm of another world. She able to catch a glimpse of the light of a sigil that disappear into her chest. If Li wei was here he will shout Kamen Rider Shinobi.
That dream again.
She pressed her hand to her temple, trembling. She remembered it in vivid detail: the endless plane of water under her bare feet, the sky filled with symbols resembling Rider emblems, and spirit beasts made of mist watching from afar. Time itself felt meaningless there—clockless pendulums swung in the void, and fractured mirrors hovered midair like memories torn apart.
Most of all, she remembered the figure.
Clad in silent purple. A Rider. Mysterious, unfamiliar. He hadn't spoken a word, yet she understood him. He had guided her—toward a door suspended in fog.
A door she never got to open.
Who was that...? What is this dream?
She couldn't shake the feeling that it was more than a mere dream. It felt like the man tried to said something to her
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Later that morning, Zhu Zhuqing sat beneath the shade of a gnarled pine tree in the outer courtyard. Ning Rongrong, Xiao Wu and Meng Yiran sat beside her, half-finished fruit and bread on the table in front of them. Breakfast had lost its taste.
"You're seriously telling me... you saw a man in purple armor in your dream?" Ning Rongrong asked, brows raised. "And he didn't say a word?"
Zhu Zhuqing nodded. "But I… understood what he want to say. Somehow. He pointed to a door. I was about to open it when I woke up."
Xiao Wu's eyes widened slightly at the description, and she lowered the half-eaten steamed bun in her hand.
"That sounds… familiar," she murmured.
Zhu Zhuqing turned sharply. "You've seen him too?"
"I don't know if it was the same one," Xiao Wu said slowly. "But I had a dream like that once, back when we were coming back from Star Dou forest. There was this… place. Like what you said—water everywhere, sky full of strange stars, ticking sounds that never stopped."
"And someone was there?" Ning prompted.
Xiao Wu nodded. "A Rider in half red and blue. He say something then he looked at me. It was like… he was testing me. Or preparing me."
Zhu Zhuqing felt the chill spread through her limbs.
"You never told anyone?" she asked.
Xiao Wu shook her head. "It felt too strange. Like it would vanish if I tried to explain it. And then, there something else that said about something choosing me." Xiao Wu do not want to say that, the moment she woke up she thought about Li Wei at the time. It will be totally embarrassing.
"Now that I thought about it, it happen right after that Veil Envoy appear."
The table fell silent at the mention of his name.
Zhu Zhuqing looked down at her lap, fists clenched. "Do you think it has something to do with him?"
"He hasn't been at the academy for a month," Ning Rongrong said softly. "Not since the last time after that attack from Veil Envoy. He almost died that day."
"Do you think that he died?" Meng Yiran asking them. She still remember how grave of the wound that Li Wei had at the times. They were stun to silence looking at him, in that moment the old man take Li Wei away from there.
Hearing that the mood of the group fall a little.
No one spoke. The memory of that day weighed heavy over them all.
There had been no word. No letters. No messages. Just silence.
The fact that Li Wei had simply vanished after that moment, with his fate uncertain, only deepened the unease clawing at Zhu Zhuqing's chest.
But then… what was that dream?
A foreign light entering her chest. The figure of Shinobi. The door waiting to be opened.
Could it be connected?
No… It's not just coincidence, she thought. That light… I felt it. Something was planted in me.
But for what purpose?
And more importantly—was it Li Wei who sent it?
She didn't know.
All she knew was that the Rider hadn't chosen her without reason.
Spirit Hall mission. Some say he's training with Dugu Bo. Others say he's hiding after reaching Rank 50."
Zhu Zhuqing exhaled slowly. If he were here... maybe he could explain this.
"But how would I even be connected to it?" she muttered. "I didn't touch anything strange. I didn't manage to do anything after the Star Dou forest and I haven't seen Li Wei since that night."
She stopped, remembering the night of the Veil Envoy attack. She hadn't seen Li Wei since then.
Xiao Wu looked thoughtful. "Sometimes... bonds don't need touch. Maybe something passed to you. Maybe it was meant for you all along."
"That makes no sense," Zhu Zhuqing whispered, but even she didn't believe her own words. Her instincts screamed otherwise.
She had felt something. A tingle deep in her soul, like a foreign power stirring quietly. It wasn't her own spirit. It was something left behind. Sleeping. Watching.
Waiting.
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That night, Zhu Zhuqing sat cross-legged on her bed, eyes closed, breathing steady. She tried to center herself as Li Wei thought her before. Using the meditation method.
But instead of calm, she was pulled inward.
Again, she stood barefoot upon the endless water. Again, fractured mirrors reflected moments she couldn't recall. And there—again—stood the Rider in purple.
He said nothing.
But this time, she did.
"Why me?" she whispered.
No answer. Just the low ticking in the void and the silent nod from the Rider.
He turned, pointing once more toward the suspended wooden door in the distance—closer than before. But this times the Rider turn toward her and shake the head left to right.
She understand what the Rider want to tell her. It's not the time yet. Go back.
Even if she understand that, she was to know what behind the door. So she took a step.
Like last time she fall downward. This is the last time, let us meet again in the future.
And awoke.
Her breath caught. Sweat clung to her neck. But her heart… was still beating in that strange, foreign rhythm.
The light of the sigil no longer showing it's brightness as it dim down. Sleeping until the time for it's to awaken reach.