Two weeks later. Real world. Aki sits in a wheelchair near the hospital window, sunlight pouring in. Bandages on his arms. His sketchbook rests on his lap, untouched.
Doctor (offscreen):
"Coma patients usually don't regain coordination this fast. It's like... his brain never stopped training."
---
Yumi enters, carrying two drinks. She sets one beside him, watching him in silence.
Yumi:
"You haven't drawn since you woke up."
Aki (quietly):
"I'm scared to. What if the lines start moving again?"
Yumi:
"Then we deal with it together."
Aki gives a faint smile.
---
Later that night. Aki lies in his bed, eyes open. He hears faint whispers—Yūgen voices, buried deep.
Whisper:
"Spiral… not closed… incomplete…"
He jolts upright. Looks at his hand. The rune... still faintly glowing.
---
Cut to Rei, somewhere deep in Yūgen. She stands before a frozen version of Aki's last battle. Time has stopped.
Rei (thinking):
"He made it out. But this world didn't collapse. It paused."
A deep rumble. The sky bleeds code. The Enforcer reforms from black dust, broken mask still on.
Enforcer (coldly):
"The Seeker left… but the Core remained."
---
Back to the real world. Aki sketches again, slowly. Carefully. He draws Rei's face—sharp, focused. He stares at it.
Aki:
"…I miss you."
Suddenly, his pencil moves on its own. The page shifts. A new image appears: a gate. Spiral-shaped.
---
Cut to Yumi's apartment. She's asleep. The symbol on her wrist glows. Her eyes snap open.
Yumi (whispers):
"It's not over."
---
The next day. Aki stands at the park, sun shining. Children run around him. But the world glitches—just for a moment. A nearby bench flickers. A tree vibrates unnaturally.
Aki (thinking):
"Something followed me out."
---
That night. Aki receives a message on his phone. Unknown number.
> "Yūgen is reopening. Entry point: Spiral 0."
> "You're still the key."
Aki's hand tightens around the phone. The sky outside flickers again. One star above pulses red.
---
Final shot: Kael inside the frozen Yūgen Realm. He walks alone through the ruins, whispering to himself.
Kael:
"Seeker… don't take too long. We're running out of reality."
Night. Aki stands at his apartment window. Streetlights flicker outside. He holds his sketchbook close, staring at the last drawing—"Spiral 0." A swirling gate surrounded by collapsing stars.
Aki (thinking):
"I was supposed to wake up. Start over. Be normal again."
"But the world didn't reset. It followed me."
---
Cut to Yumi at her desk, researching. Papers with runes, hospital records, and photos of others in comas—similar symbols on their bodies.
Yumi (muttering):
"They were all 'connected.' All dreamers. Just like him…"
A photo of a girl appears—Rei. In the background: an older lab facility labeled: "Yūgen Project – Phase 0."
---
Yūgen Realm. Frozen time. Rei and Kael stand atop a stone archway. Below them, the remnants of the Spiral Gate flicker with sparks of static.
Rei:
"He's awake. But the Gate hasn't closed."
Kael:
"Because part of him never left."
Rei:
"Then he'll come back. He always does."
---
Real world. Aki walks alone down an empty road. Time skips—his shadow shifts, trees flicker. He blinks and suddenly stands inside an empty subway car.
Aki:
"What the hell—?"
A voice over the intercom: distorted, echoing.
Voice:
"Welcome back, Seeker. This carriage runs straight to Spiral 0."
"Tickets are memories. Payment is pain."
Doors slam shut. The train begins to move. Outside the windows: stars, not tunnels.
---
Yumi wakes from a nightmare, gasping. Her arm burns. She pulls up her sleeve—one of the runes is now fully lit.
Yumi (panicked):
"It's starting. He's inside again."
---
Subway car. Lights flicker. Across from Aki—himself. Another version. Dark eyes. No mouth. It stares.
Dark Aki:
"You left me here. Alone."
Aki backs away. The thing lunges. Suddenly—
A white blast crashes through the window. Rei leaps in, hair flowing, eyes glowing with sigils.
Rei:
"You were supposed to wait."
Aki (breathing hard):
"You're… real?"
Rei:
"Close enough."
---
They jump off the train mid-movement, landing in Spiral 0: a void stitched together with fragments of all previous realms. Desert. Tower. Temple. Everything is breaking down.
Kael appears, arm in a sling.
"You're back just in time. The Heart's tearing open again—and something's coming through this time."
Aki:
"What is?"
A shadow stretches across the broken realm. An enormous, ancient being emerges—neither Architect nor Enforcer. A cracked porcelain face, thousands of black wings, static breath.
Kael:
"That. That's what the Architects sealed away before they made Yūgen."
---
Rei turns to Aki.
Rei:
"If you leave now, you stay normal. But if you fight…"
She pauses.
"There's no going back. Ever."
Aki (looking up at the monster):
"I didn't come back to run."
---
He opens his sketchbook. Pages flip wildly. Symbols burst from it, wrapping around him. Armor forms—ink, memory, light. He steps forward, staff forming again.
Aki:
"This time, I redraw the end."
---
The creature opens its mouth. Screams echo through broken time.