Chapter 40 — The Cracks on Our Side
The streets were emptying fast, panic racing ahead of Haruto, Aoi and Ryu far more efficiently than they could move through it. People shouted from pavements and apartment entrances, car horns blared as drivers tried to reverse away from the destruction, and somewhere nearby a shop alarm had begun screaming continuously because apparently even the end of ordinary life did not excuse unpaid merchandise. Haruto pushed against the fleeing crowd with Aoi close behind him and Ryu running at his side, reaching the corner just in time to see Cindermaw's enormous tail smash through the side of a building. Brick and concrete burst outward in a cloud of dust. Haruto reacted instinctively, pulling Aoi behind him as debris bounced across the road while his other hand raised the Resonance Linker. Its screen flickered madly, trying to maintain the Adult Aetherkin's signature through the interference surrounding the street. "Come on," Haruto muttered, moving around an overturned car. "It was right here—"
Cindermaw roared again, but the sound changed halfway through. What had been a deep, physical bellow became distant and warped, as though the creature had suddenly been dragged beneath deep water. Ryu stopped. "Haruto." Cindermaw's outline blurred. Heat still rolled from the beast's scales, but the red colour faded toward grey as the entire body became translucent. Aoi stared as the enormous saurian began disappearing piece by piece, not dissolving into the normal essence of a defeated Aetherkin but simply losing its connection to the world around it. "He's fading," Ryu said. Haruto ran another few steps toward the creature. "Wait!" It was a ridiculous thing to shout at a confused monster that had just demolished part of a street, but Cindermaw was also the only obvious clue they had to a route back. Ten heartbeats later, there was nothing left of him except scorch marks, shattered vehicles and the stunned silence of people who had just watched a giant beast cease to exist.
Aoi tightened her grip on Ryu's shoulder. "Why did he disappear?" Haruto did not answer immediately. He crouched near the point where Cindermaw had vanished and checked the Linker. Static crawled across the display, then gathered into an uneven pattern. A residual distortion remained in the air, too weak to see normally but obvious to the device. "There's something left," he murmured. "A trace." Ryu leaned over the screen. "A passage?" "Maybe." Haruto frowned. Luminel had explained that Aetherkin powerful enough to reach Apex stage could tear open dimensional boundaries under their own power. Cindermaw was only Adult. Whatever had brought him here had not been something he could have done naturally. "He didn't open this himself," Haruto said. "Something sent him through. Or pulled him." Aoi glanced at the empty street where the distortion lingered. "Like someone throwing him through a door and then shutting it." Haruto nodded slowly. That possibility was worse than an accident. If someone—or something—was manipulating the barrier deliberately, then Cindermaw might not have been lost. He might have been a test.
Haruto straightened, the Linker still humming faintly in his hand. "If they can push an Adult through, then the connection isn't completely closed." Ryu looked up at him. "Which means you might be able to go back." Haruto's expression hardened. "Exactly." The thought brought hope with it, but not comfort. If Adult Aetherkin could already be forced through unstable tears, what happened when something stronger found the same weakness? What happened when the cracks stopped closing?
For several minutes Haruto stood among the ruined street and considered something he had not wanted to consider before. Perhaps Shun had told him not to return because Haruto was safer here. Or perhaps that had only been part of it. Haruto looked around at the broken cars, scorched pavement and civilians being moved away by emergency workers. There was nobody else from their group here. No Renji. No Misaki. No Shun. No Daichi. No Airi. No Yuto. Only Haruto, Aoi and Ryu. If the dimensional damage worsened, Earth would have to face whatever came through without understanding what those creatures were or how their powers worked.
"What if this is why Shun told me to stay?" Haruto said quietly.
Aoi turned toward him. "What do you mean?"
"Maybe they don't just need me not to interfere over there." Haruto looked toward the skyline. "Maybe somebody needs to be here."
Ryu's ears shifted.
Haruto gestured toward the wreckage Cindermaw had left. "One Adult did this in minutes. If several appear at once, people here won't know what they're dealing with. Police won't know. The military won't know. They'll use whatever weapons they have, and even if those work, people will be standing around the monsters when they do it."
Aoi stared at the damaged building.
Haruto's jaw tightened. "I've spent more than a month fighting Aetherkin. At least I know what they're capable of."
He had barely finished when the ground trembled.
The first vibration was small.
The second was not.
Aoi grabbed Haruto's arm as the road shuddered beneath their shoes. Somewhere several blocks away came a deep grinding sound followed by the crash of breaking pavement. Dust rose above the rooftops.
Haruto's Linker screamed a warning.
A new reading appeared.
BURROWHORN — ADULT STAGE
Ryu's eyes widened. "Burrowing type."
A great spiral horn broke through the pavement in the distance. It rotated like a living drill, concrete exploding outward as a bulky, furred Aetherkin hauled itself from beneath the street. Massive claws tore through asphalt. Its long horn continued spinning as it shoved aside debris large enough to crush cars.
Aoi stared. "Another one?"
Haruto watched the Linker. Unlike Cindermaw's unstable reading, Burrowhorn's signature remained solid.
Fully present.
Ryu took a cautious step forward. "They dig tunnels."
Haruto looked from the creature to the distortion trembling faintly around it.
"Maybe that's why this one was sent."
Ryu frowned.
"To dig?"
"Or to make the weak point worse."
Aoi tugged Haruto's sleeve. "What do we do?"
For once Haruto did not immediately run toward the problem.
That was progress.
He looked at Ryu. Juvenile stage. Injured recently. No guarantee that forcing an evolution here would be wise. He looked at the civilians still fleeing through neighbouring streets. Then at Burrowhorn.
"I don't know if I can get back yet," he said. "But until I can, we stop anything that comes through from hurting people here."
Ryu nodded.
Haruto's fingers closed around the Resonance Linker.
"If I can't protect the other side right now, then I'll protect this one."
He started toward Burrowhorn.
By the time they reached the next street, there was no fight left to join.
Sirens filled the air. Dust obscured half the block, and rescue crews were already moving through the remains of a partially collapsed structure. Steel beams protruded from piles of broken concrete while smoke poured from somewhere beneath the rubble.
Burrowhorn stood near the crater it had created.
Then its body flickered.
Haruto stopped.
"No."
The Adult Aetherkin became translucent.
"Again?" Aoi whispered.
Haruto ran forward, but the creature was already disappearing. Within moments Burrowhorn vanished exactly as Cindermaw had, leaving devastation behind without any sign that it had chosen to depart.
Haruto remained at the edge of the emergency cordon, staring at the destroyed building.
People were trapped under there.
He knew it without anyone needing to tell him.
Aoi understood too.
"Haruto..."
He turned immediately and knelt in front of her, placing both hands on her shoulders. "Don't look."
Her eyes were wet.
"There are people—"
"I know."
He moved her away from the scene, keeping himself between Aoi and the worst of the wreckage until they reached a quieter side street. Ryu had already climbed into Haruto's backpack and remained hidden there, far too distinctive to risk being seen now that police and emergency services were everywhere.
"Is it gone?" Ryu whispered.
"For now."
Haruto's voice was flat.
Two Adult Aetherkin had appeared.
Both had caused destruction.
Both had vanished before anyone could understand why.
That was not random enough for his liking.
Then footsteps came from the other end of the alley.
Haruto looked up.
A woman and a man stood there.
The woman looked somewhere in her twenties, perhaps a little older, with short brown hair and the polished appearance of someone accustomed to offices, meetings and people listening when she spoke. Her expression was calm, but her eyes were far too attentive to be those of a curious passer-by.
The man beside her was taller and considerably broader, with a weathered face and a scar running down one cheek. His hands rested inside the pockets of a long coat. He did not look at the ruined building.
He looked at Haruto.
Haruto stepped in front of Aoi.
"Who are you?"
The woman gave him a small smile. "We're not here to hurt you."
The man grunted. "If that was what we wanted, we'd have started differently."
Haruto's eyes narrowed.
"That doesn't make me feel better."
"No," the woman admitted. "I suppose it wouldn't."
Her gaze shifted briefly toward Haruto's backpack.
Ryu went very still inside it.
"We need to talk about what happened here," she continued. "And about what you're carrying."
Haruto tightened his grip on the strap.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The scarred man gave a humourless laugh. "You were at both incident sites. The creatures appear, and somehow you're always nearby."
Haruto's stomach tightened.
The woman lifted one hand before the man could continue. "We're not here to expose you. But you need to understand something, Haruto Akiyama. People are beginning to notice. Aetherkin are no longer something that can be dismissed as rumours or isolated incidents."
Haruto went rigid.
"How do you know my name?"
The woman's expression lost some of its softness.
"Because we work for the government."
Haruto said nothing.
She reached inside her coat and removed a familiar-looking object.
A Resonance Linker.
Old.
Different in design from Haruto's.
And completely dead.
She held it in her palm.
"Long before your group was brought across, there were others."
Haruto stared at the device.
"Humans?"
"Bonded humans," she corrected. "People connected to Aetherkin, like you."
The scarred man finally spoke. "We were two of them."
Aoi stared.
Haruto looked at the lifeless Linker again.
"What happened to yours?"
"Shut down," the woman said. "Years ago. No response. No connection to our former partners. Nothing."
Haruto's hand instinctively moved closer to his own active Linker.
The woman's eyes noticed.
"That's why yours matters."
"You want it."
"The government wants to examine it."
Haruto took one step backward.
"No."
The scarred man's expression hardened.
The woman sighed. "Haruto, researchers cannot understand how an active Resonance Linker functions if you refuse to let them study one."
"I'll help."
"Then give it to us."
"No."
Haruto's answer came immediately.
"I said I'll help. I didn't say you could take it."
The woman's expression tightened.
The man shook his head.
"You're making this unnecessarily difficult."
"It's mine."
"It's a tool."
"It connects me to Ryu."
The scarred man's eyes flicked toward the backpack.
So he knew.
Haruto noticed.
That was when the man disappeared.
There was no warning.
No visible preparation.
One moment he stood beside the woman.
The next there was only displaced air.
Haruto spun.
The man was behind him.
And Aoi was in his grip.
One hand clamped around the back of her shirt and collar, lifting her partly from the ground.
"Haruto!"
Everything inside him stopped.
The man smiled without warmth.
"Now we're finished pretending."
Haruto's Resonance Linker began to glow.
The man noticed but did not release Aoi.
"Hand over the Linker."
His grip tightened.
"And the Virtue Sigil."
Aoi's eyes widened.
Haruto's blood went cold.
The man leaned slightly closer.
"Or your sister's neck breaks."
Haruto had fought monsters larger than buildings.
He had watched Eidon slaughter allies.
He had stood inside battlefields where attacks could erase a person so completely that not even essence remained.
None of those moments felt like this.
Aoi was right there.
Close enough to touch.
And he could not move quickly enough without risking the hand around her neck tightening.
"Haruto," she whispered.
His thoughts became useless noise.
The Resonance Linker pulsed harder.
A faint defensive shimmer appeared around Haruto himself, reacting to the threat.
Not Aoi.
Haruto understood immediately.
That was why they had not simply tried to steal it.
Whatever protection existed around an active bearer did not extend automatically to everyone nearby.
The scarred man knew that.
"Kari—" No. Haruto forced himself to focus. "Aoi. Don't move."
"I'm trying."
The man's smile widened.
"Smart girl."
Haruto took one slow step forward.
"I'm giving it to you."
Aoi looked at him sharply.
The man extended his free hand.
Then came a gunshot.
The sound ripped through the alley.
The scarred man jerked sideways.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
His grip loosened.
Aoi fell.
Haruto moved before thought returned.
He caught her and pulled her against his chest, turning his body between her and everything else.
The Resonance Linker blazed.
A golden barrier erupted around them.
The scarred man staggered backward, one hand clamped against his bleeding shoulder.
The woman stared toward wherever the shot had come from.
"Move!"
She ran.
The man swore and followed, but stopped at the alley entrance long enough to turn back toward Haruto.
"We'll come again."
Haruto stared at him through the shimmering barrier.
The man's expression had changed from confidence to hatred.
"Throw away the Linker if you want a normal life."
He glanced toward the glowing device.
"We won't kill you. We need you alive for it to remain useful."
Then he disappeared into the smoke and sirens.
Haruto remained on his knees.
Aoi's hands were clenched in his shirt.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Ryu burst from the backpack.
"Aoi!"
"I'm okay."
Ryu looked toward the direction the two strangers had fled.
His expression became unusually serious.
Haruto held Aoi tighter.
The dimensional breaches were bad enough.
Now people from his own world wanted the Linker, the Sigil and whatever power came with them.
Somewhere beyond reality, his friends were fighting Arachne and whatever else waited in the Aetherkin world.
Here, creatures were being pushed through unstable cracks.
And humans who had once possessed bonds of their own had begun hunting him.
Haruto looked down at the active Resonance Linker.
Its golden light reflected in Aoi's frightened eyes.
Whatever had begun when they were children had never truly ended.
They had simply forgotten it.
Now the whole world was starting to remember.