They gave me a cot in a corner of the outpost barracks, between a leaking ceiling and a wall covered in weapon racks. The mattress was thin, smelled vaguely like iron and sweat, and had definitely seen better days. But after everything that had happened, I sank into it like it was royalty-grade memory foam.
I didn't sleep, though.
Too much silence.
Too many thoughts.
That silver-haired girl's voice wouldn't leave me alone.
"You are a flaw." "This world has expelled you."
Who says something like that? I hadn't broken any rules. I went to class. I paid for my lunch. I didn't even cheat on my exams. Okay, maybe I copied Junpei's answers once, but that hardly warranted reality kicking me out like a used tissue.
I reached into my pocket. The paper they'd given me during assessment was still there. It looked ancient—fibrous, handwritten, and humming faintly with a warmth that didn't match the cold room. On it were looping characters I couldn't read, except for one thing scrawled at the bottom in a faint, familiar script:
Kaito Arashi: Identity—Unbound.
Unbound?
Before I could spiral further into confusion, the door creaked open.
Elira stepped in, unstrapping her spear and letting it lean against the wall.
"You're awake."
"Physically, sure."
She tossed me a roll of something flat and vaguely bread-like. "Ration. Tastes like regret but keeps you alive."
I bit into it and made a face. "You weren't kidding."
Elira sat on the edge of a crate. For a moment, she didn't say anything.
Then, "You're lucky, you know."
I raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure 'lucky' isn't how I'd describe today."
"You came through the Gate alone. That usually doesn't happen."
"What usually does?"
She looked at me seriously. "Things come through it. Monsters. Parasites. Sentient shadows. People who've been hollowed out. The Gate's not kind to travelers."
"Then why not just… I don't know. Close the Gate?"
"If we could, we would." Her voice was grim. "But it's part of the Riftline. It's not a door someone opened—it's a crack in the world. Like reality itself is... bleeding."
I shivered. "And me falling through it?"
She tilted her head. "That's new."
Before I could respond, the door slammed open again. A breathless boy, maybe a year younger than me, burst in. He wore glasses too big for his face and held a clipboard shaking in his hands.
"Cadet Elira! Commander Rhys says the scrying lens caught something moving near the southern ridge—very fast, no form, distortion-level red!"
Elira was already on her feet, strapping the spear to her back.
She turned to me. "You coming?"
My brain struggled to catch up. "What? Me?!"
"You want answers, right?" she said. "You fell through a Gate. That makes you a curiosity. But out there? That's the kind of thing that might be connected to you."
I hesitated. I was exhausted. I was confused. I was very possibly out of my mind.
But I still stood.
Because deep down, a part of me—the part that heard that weird, underwater bell—knew something was out there.
Something watching.
Something waiting.