The room was cold.
Not Halcyon cold, not clinical, professional, filled with familiar faces and high-tech hums that somehow still felt safe.
This was something else.
The air carried a hum, yes… but it wasn't friendly. It was calculating. The lights above her buzzed like insects, sterile and merciless, pouring white light straight into her face. Her wrists were bound to cold metal. Her ankles, too.
Serica couldn't move.
And she wasn't alone.
Distant voices echoed through the sterile space, male and female, clipped and clinical. Not speaking to her, but about her.
"Subject conscious. Stable vitals."
"Good. Stabilize her further, corruption rate drops if the mind resists."
Corruption?
Her heart skipped.
That voice. The one giving orders. It wasn't unfamiliar; it was warped, distorted under some kind of filter. But she knewit. Knew the rhythm behind the mask.
Then her vision sharpened, the white blur resolving into form.
And there he was.
Kestrel.
The fake photographer.
But this time, there was no mask of awkwardness. No false warmth. His uniform wasn't casual. It was tactical, black Armor woven with a sleek underlay, a single sigil of a sharp descending fang on his chest.
He wore glasses. The same ones. He adjusted them slowly, as if mocking her confusion.
She blinked at him, voice raw.
"Wh–who are you?"
He didn't answer right away. Just stared, not with menace, but with pity. The kind of pity reserved for things that were broken.
Then finally:
"You, Ice-Breaker… should consider this an honour. You've been selected for today's trial. A gift from the Spire."
Serica's chest tightened. "Gift?!"
She thrashed once in the chair, not that it moved.
Her voice cracked.
"You think strapping me to a chair like some caged animal is a GIFT?!"
The room went silent after that.
Kestrel stared at her. His mouth twitched, like he wanted to smirk.
Then he leaned in close, just enough that she could feel his breath.
"It's not about you, girl. It's about what's inside you."
She froze.
Then he turned his back, walking to a console behind the surgical bed. Her eyes scanned the room, but it was no use. Reinforced walls. Bio-seals. She was deep underground, wherever this was.
Her breathing hitched. Not from pain. From something worse.
Fear.
Kentaro…
Her mind reached for him like a lifeline. Like his name alone might cut through the metal.
The boy who made her laugh again. The idiot who promised to stay.
The one who said she wasn't a weapon.
Her voice fell to a whisper.
"Ken… please… save me…"
But no one listened.
Not the men in black. Not the Spire.
And not the tears she shed beneath the humming white lights.
"Sir, the process is proceeding smoothly."
Kestrel's voice was calm, efficient, but there was something beneath it. A tremor of pride. The kind of pride that only came from knowing your performance had been noticed.
Even though he was deep underground in a forgotten base, his voice carried across secure channels, traveling thousands of miles through encrypted tech to a skyscraper piercing Tokyo's skyline.
And there, in a lavish glass-panelled office high above Main Street… he was heard.
"Good, Kestrel," came the response. Smooth. Cold. Confident.
"It seems I chose correctly."
The voice belonged to Reiden Vale, head of Spire and mastermind behind the operation. His chair was turned away from the window, facing the glowing holograms of live feeds across the room.
When Kestrel heard that praise, his eyes lit up. Just for a second, that was all he needed.
"Thank you, sir. I'll ensure we proceed without error."
Behind Reiden stood a woman, sharp black suit, high heels that barely made a sound. Velza Cain, his assistant. She held a thick book clutched to her chest, fingers drumming softly against the worn leather binding.
She leaned closer.
"I take it that's good news?"
Her tone was sly, like someone who already knew the answer.
Reiden didn't turn. Just smiled.
A thin-lipped, wolfish thing. A smile that belonged to a man who had spent nearly a decade constructing a plan so elaborate, so cruel, that only now was the first ripple being felt.
And it was because of the first Alberline he'd seen that this whole decade-long trip had started...
"Yes, Velza," he said quietly.
"It's almost time. Once the corruption takes root inside the girl, we won't need to lift a finger. The war will start itself."
He laughed then.
Not loud.
But dark.
A bubbling amusement laced with poison.
Velza tilted her head and smiled faintly.
"As expected of you."
A new voice cut through the comms on Reiden's desk.
"Sir," one of the lab techs said. "Implantation device is ready."
Reiden's fingers laced together. He breathed in deeply, as if absorbing the moment.
Then whispered:
"Do it."
In the lab.
Kestrel turned, lifting a single gloved hand. No words needed. The command had been given.
Serica thrashed in the chair.
Her muscles screamed. Her throat was raw. The metal cuffs didn't budge. Her power, her strength, all of it was locked away by whatever nullifier they had built into the chair.
"No-no, please, don't-"
But they weren't listening.
Two armoured figures stepped forward. One was carrying a small, sleek device in her hand, rectangular, obsidian black, with glowing purple lines running across it like a cracked heart.
It looked too much like Kentaro's gear. But darker. Wrong.
"Begin fusion protocol," the woman in Armor said flatly.
Serica's eyes widened.
She shook her head violently, whipping it side to side, trying to move anything, but a second soldier grabbed her jaw, forcing her face upright.
"No. Stop. Do n't-don't touch me-!"
The armoured woman stepped forward. Serica could hear her own heartbeat pounding, deafening in her ears. Her vision blurred at the edges.
The device inched closer.
Time slowed.
In that instant, Serica wasn't the Ice-Breaker.
She wasn't a soldier. Or a target. Or a potential weapon.
She was just a girl.
Terrified. Alone.
And all she could do was whisper.
"Kentaro… please…"
Her voice broke.
"Please… save me…"
Click.
The device connected.
A pulse of black-purple energy flickered through the lights above.
And Serica's scream was the last thing heard before the screen faded to white.
And it was at this point that Serica wasn't herself anymore.
Will Kentaro save her?
How will he deal with Tengen and Kira?
How will this mysterious Alberline react?
Who is the Mysterious Alberline?
All these plus more questions will be answered in the next Chapter of Fracture Bloom!