The Chiba field headquarters was a powder keg of stress and political tension. Kenji ignored the panic and sequestered himself in a corner of the main engineering bay, using the noise as cover.
He was working with the high-grade titanium alloys Volkov had provided. His goal wasn't a crude weapon like the Siberian "Structural Bomb," but a single, surgically precise tool. If he failed here, the resulting explosion would not only obliterate the Rift but likely take Sanae Kinoshita and the entire coastal region with it.
He used his Gattai power under a heavy welding mask, which masked the sinister purple flash of the Yami-ishi. He wasn't fusing scrap; he was using the Null-Stone as a micro-tool, condensing the titanium into a needle-like spike barely thicker than a finger, but nearly five feet long.
The final product was the Shintei Pick (True Stability Pick)—a weapon of pure, cold logic. It was designed to pierce the Rift's chaotic energy and inject a stabilizing field that would collapse the portal harmlessly.
Kenji's plan was simple, reckless, and brilliant: Sanae was going to hit the Rift with maximum Kesshō energy to close it. Kenji knew the Kyojin had positioned their Rift to absorb and weaponize pure Aether energy. He had to hit the Rift with the Shintei Pick just before Sanae's blast hit, essentially giving the portal indigestion before it could eat the Sentinels' power.
The Rift Activation
Just before dawn, the comms room erupted.
"Alert! Rift signature going critical! Forward team, pull back!"
The Kuro-Shogun was accelerating the timeline. The small, unstable atmospheric tear in the Chiba coastline—the Rift—began to expand, twisting the sky into a sickening swirl of purple and black.
Sanae Kinoshita, leading the A-Rank team, immediately countermanded the order. "Negative. We hit it now while it's still forming! Full Kesshō discharge in five minutes!"
Kenji, already geared up in his dark, functional uniform, grabbed the Shintei Pick—now fused securely to his right gauntlet—and raced toward the loading bay.
Akari Hoshina met him, her face tight with professional fury. "Ikeda! Your job is structural analysis only! Sanae is engaging! You are not authorized to deploy!"
"Your analysis is wrong, Hoshina-san," Kenji snapped, already climbing into a support drone vehicle. "The Rift is unstable because it's absorbing energy, not releasing it. Sanae's Kesshō blast will just be absorbed and redirected into a massive coastal explosion. I'm going in to stabilize the core."
"You are going to expose yourself and risk the mission!" Akari warned.
"No," Kenji said, strapping himself in. "I'm going to save your mission, save your precious A-Rank, and save ten thousand civilians. My method is necessary. Tell Volkov he owes me."
Infiltration and The Scrapper's Timing
Kenji piloted the fast, low-profile drone vehicle to the edge of the exclusion zone. From there, he proceeded on foot, using the shifting energy currents of the forming Rift to mask his movements.
He saw Sanae and her squad below him, positioned on the coastal highway. They were preparing the final charge—a beautiful, massive accumulation of pure Kesshō energy, ready to be unleashed.
Kenji found his spot—a small, unstable hill overlooking the core of the Rift. The air was thick and electrical, vibrating with the Kyojin's chaotic power.
His comms crackled with the final countdown: "One minute to primary discharge!"
Kenji looked at the Rift. It was a chaotic, beautiful disaster—a shimmering vortex of unstable energy. He could feel the pulse of the Yami-ishi inside it, greedy and massive. His own corrupted core pulsed in response.
He pulled the Shintei Pick free from his gauntlet. The titanium needle felt cold, heavy, and perfect. He had to hit a precise energy node at the Rift's center—a target the size of a teacup, shrouded by a hurricane of power.
"Thirty seconds to discharge!"
Kenji focused entirely on the Rift, letting Kesshō Insight sharpen his vision until the turbulent energy field resolved into a clear map of currents and nodes. He saw the weak point.
He charged the Shintei Pick, not with pure energy, but with a highly controlled Null-Stone field, designed to disrupt, not destroy.
"Ten seconds!"
Kenji launched himself forward in a silent sprint, his dark uniform blending with the chaos. He ignored the pain in his fused arm, pushing every ounce of focus into the attack.
"Five! Four!"
Kenji reached the Rift's edge, bracing against the tearing wind.
"Three!"
He plunged the Shintei Pick deep into the vortex, aiming for the core node. The contact was agonizing, surging raw, chaotic energy through his arm. He screamed, his voice silent against the roar of the Rift.
The Null-Stone field in the pick did its work instantly, sending a wave of structural chaos through the Rift's energy.
"Two! One! DISCHARGE!"
The Silent Victory
Sanae Kinoshita's massive Kesshō blast hit the Rift one second after Kenji's Shintei Pick found its mark.
Instead of being absorbed and redirected, the destabilized Rift core rejected the massive influx of energy. The portal didn't explode; it imploded.
There was a deafening, vacuum-like WHOOSH as the reality tear sealed itself. The vortex vanished, and the turbulent sky snapped back to a clear, cold dawn. The ground stopped shaking.
Sanae and her team stood frozen, their eyes wide. They had succeeded. They had closed the Rift with pure Kesshō power. It was a flawless victory, entirely credited to the Kōrin Assembly.
Kenji, utterly spent, pulled the Shintei Pick back, stumbling into the shadows. He had to vanish before they saw him.
A loud, furious voice cut through the comms. Commander Masato Aoi. "Kinoshita! Report! What was that anomaly? Your readings show a momentary spike of a Yami-ishi compound right before the closure!"
Sanae, looking at the spot where the Rift had been, spoke into her comms, her voice shaking slightly. "Negative, Commander. We detected a rejection of chaotic elements, followed by full Kesshō closure. The stability is perfect. We succeeded using pure Aether energy."
She was lying. Kenji knew she had felt the momentary chaos of the Null-Stone. But she chose to cover for him, protecting his secret to preserve the public image of their victory.
Kenji had saved her life, and in return, she had chosen to protect his lie.
He looked down at the Shintei Pick—the titanium needle was blackened and scarred, but intact. He was a fugitive king, his throne built on the lies and secrets of the very people he saved.
He melted back into the rising light of the city, his mission complete. The Chiba coastline was safe.