Nao didn't call it a training session.
He just said:
"Keep up. Or die confused."
Then he ran.
No warning. No warm-up. Just bolted straight out of the alley and into a crack in the air — a shimmer like heat over asphalt, pulsing faint blue.
I cursed and followed.
The moment I crossed the threshold, everything broke.
It was Tokyo. But not.
Buildings folded in half like origami cranes.
Streetlights floated upside-down, blinking in Morse code.
Vending machines were stacked into towers, their soda cans whispering.
A woman walked by with her face pixelated. Not censored — corrupted. Her arms glitched and reset every few seconds like someone was mashing the undo button on her existence.
This was a rift. A full one.
"Welcome to the edge," Nao shouted ahead of me. "The city's code is broken here — physics is optional!"
I dodged a floating truck — yes, floating — as it turned into a swarm of birds midair.
"WHAT IS THIS?!"
"Reality's garbage dump. Think of it like a memory file gone wrong. You gotta run smart through this place."
"How?!"
He skidded sideways on a wall — a vertical wall — and pointed to a flickering sign above a storefront that read:
[Stable Zones Detected: 3. RUN TO RESET]
So that was the game.
Find the stable zones. Run fast enough, and we reset the system.
Behind me, the rift began to ripple — a low growl echoing through the corrupted air.
And then I saw it.
A shadow without a source.
Like a man made of empty space — tall, long-limbed, its face shifting like a TV stuck between channels. It moved fast, but without sound. Every step it took left burn marks in the air.
"NAO—!" I screamed.
He looked back once. "Don't stop. It feeds on stillness!"
I ran harder than I ever had.
Through gravity-defying staircases. Across sideways alleyways. Over cracked roads that looped like Möbius strips. My shoes sparked, and my breath came in rapid bursts.
I could feel it behind me — that thing — close but not quite touching. Like a nightmare that hadn't decided if it wanted to be real yet.
My vision doubled. My body blurred. The air rippled around me with every step.
And then — ping — a sound like a chime hitting glass.
A glowing white doorway opened ahead.
The first stable zone.
I dove through it.
Everything went silent.
Like someone hit pause on the world.
I was standing in a version of Shibuya — untouched, perfect, but completely empty. The noise of the city replaced by distant wind.
Nao dropped in behind me seconds later, grinning.
"You're better than I thought."
I collapsed onto a bench.
"I almost died!"
He shrugged. "That's kind of the curriculum."
I stared at my hands — still faintly glowing from the run.
I could feel it now. The pull. Like the longer I ran, the more real I became. Like the universe needed me to move.
"…Why does it always chase us?"
Nao looked at me, dead serious now.
"Because you're a glitch now too.
And this world deletes things that don't belong."