The monastery is silent.
Not peaceful.
Empty.
The monks are gone.
Not dead.
Not missing.
Just… forgotten.
Adam walks the halls alone.
The Sutra on his back pulses with verses he didn't write. They twist and shimmer, reacting to something beyond the walls. He reads one aloud:
"The blind god bends space. The cursed child breaks time. The archivist remembers."
He doesn't know what it means.
But he knows where to go.
The City of Glass
Sora lives in a foster home built from steel and sorrow. He's blind, but he sees more than anyone. He's started noticing things—buildings that flicker, people who forget their own names, shadows that don't belong.
He tells his caretaker.
She forgets he spoke.
He tells his teacher.
The teacher forgets he exists.
Sora laughs.
"I guess I'm not supposed to be here."
That night, he dreams of a man with silver hair and a blindfold.
He wakes with a headache.
And a name.
"Gojo."
Adam arrives in the city.
He follows the Sutra's pull.
It leads him to a collapsed building.
Inside, Sora is shielding a child from falling debris—with no cursed energy, no technique, just instinct.
Adam watches.
Space bends around Sora.
The debris floats.
Time slows.
The child escapes.
Sora collapses.
Adam catches him.
"You're not supposed to be here," Sora whispers.
"Neither are you," Adam replies.
The Sutra glows.
A new verse appears:
"The blind god awakens."
The Reaper Moves
Far away, in the slums, Riku draws a sigil in blood.
It screams.
The villagers vanish.
Not die.
Vanish.
Riku watches.
He doesn't cry.
He just whispers:
"I remember hunger."
The Reaper watches.
It begins to move.
Not toward Riku.
Toward the Sutra.
Toward Adam.
Toward memory.
The Pact Begins
Adam and Sora sit in a quiet room.
Sora asks questions.
Adam answers with riddles.
They both feel it.
A pull.
A bond.
Not friendship.
Not fate.
Something older.
"I think I used to be someone," Sora says.
"You were," Adam replies. "You still are."
The Sutra pulses.
A final verse appears:
"The pact begins. The silence breaks. The king remembers."
Adam looks toward the horizon.
Riku is waiting.
And the Reaper is coming.