The morning didn't start with coffee. And not even with an alarm clock.
It started with a video call that made my phone seem like it was about to detonate on the nightstand. The screen displayed the name: "Star (Ai)".
I sleepily swiped my finger across the screen, squinting from the brightness. — "Mgh... Listening."
— "Good morning, Gojo-kun!" — Ai Hoshino's face filled the entire screen.
She was already in full stage makeup, and in the background, people with equipment cases and stands were flashing by.
— "Have you and Marin-chan left yet?"
I blinked, trying to focus the Six Eyes. My brain, working at 10% capacity, refused to comprehend what was happening.
— "Left? Where to? We were planning to come to you at noon to take measurements for the fitting..."
— "Measurements?" — Ai tilted her head cutely, and her signature star-eyes blinked. — "Why measurements? You are bringing the finished costume! The soundcheck is in two hours. Staff entrance is through the back door, password is «Strawberry Parfait»!"
Silence hung in the room. Such a thick silence that you could cut it with a cake knife.
Marin, who was sleeping on the adjacent sofa hugging a roll of fabric (like a koala with eucalyptus), opened one eye slightly.
— "Ai," — my voice became treacherously calm. — "The concert... is when?"
— "Today!" — she announced joyfully, making a "V" sign with her fingers. — "At the Budokan! At 18:00! Didn't I send you the schedule?"
— "No," — Marin and I exhaled in unison.
— "Oops..." — Ai covered her mouth with her palm and stuck her tongue out in her signature «Tehe!» — "So-o-orry! I think I sent it to the «Ramen Lovers» chat instead of you guys! But you made it in time, right? You're geniuses! Waiting for you!"
The screen went dark. She disconnected.
Marin and I slowly, like two rusty robots, turned our heads toward each other. In her pink eyes, I saw a horror that even victims of S-rank curses never dreamed of.
— "Today..." — Marin whispered.
— "Two hours until the soundcheck," — I added, looking at the clock.
— "I ONLY HAVE THE FRONT PLATE READY!!!"
Marin shrieked so loudly that the mannequin fell off the shelf. She rushed around the room, grabbing threads, scissors, and glue all at once, resembling a hurricane in a fabric store.
— "It's impossible! Physically! Sakamoto's threads must be woven manually! I won't have time to do the back! I won't have time to do the side fastenings! Gojo-kun, we're dead! We let Ai-chan down! This is a disgrace! Seppuku! Only a ritual seppuku with scissors will wash away this shame!"
I intercepted her hand with the scissors and shook her by the shoulders. — "Stop panicking! Breathe!"
— "But we won't make it in time!" — there were tears in her eyes. — "There will only be an «armor-bra» for her chest! The back is bare! The sides are bare! If she gets hit there... She's a human, Gojo-kun!"
I looked at the unfinished corset on the table. The fabric, stitched with Sakamoto's threads, glowed with faint mana. It will protect the heart. That's the main thing.
As for the rest...
— "It means," — I put on my glasses and smirked my most confident (and most deceitful at this moment) smirk, — "I will be her back."
Marin froze, sniffling. — "What?"
— "Sew whatever you have time for. To hell with the back. To hell with the sides. Secure the front plate so it doesn't fall off during the dance. I'm taking care of everything else. I will be her shield today. Not a single attack will touch her from behind while I'm breathing."
I grabbed my "Ogre" jacket. — "Get ready, Cinderella. We're going to the ball. And it looks like we'll have to improvise big time."
The Budokan was buzzing. It wasn't just a sound. It was a physical vibration consisting of the screams of fifty thousand people, the bass of huge speakers, and pure, unfiltered hysteria.
I stood in the right wing, arms crossed over my chest. I was wearing that very "Ogre" costume: a dark blue jacket with a high collar hiding half of my face, and a blindfold.
To the security, I looked like a weird stage worker. To my Six Eyes, I was the only sighted person in an ocean of the blind.
Ai was there, in the center of the light. Hidden under her stage dress was the unfinished corset that Marin had been sewing with shaking hands right in the taxi. It protected her heart. Her back was exposed.
— "The soundcheck went clean," — Marin's voice trembled in my earpiece. She was sitting in the technical booth, controlling the lights. — "But, Gojo-kun... the equipment is acting weird. The microphones are feeding back, even though everything is shielded, the lights are flickering on their own. And... I have goosebumps. It suddenly got so cold here, even though the spotlights are blasting at full power. I... I'm scared."
— "Don't be afraid," — I adjusted the blindfold, scanning the hall.
To me, these "glitches" looked like clouds of black smoke rising from the crowd.
— "It's just nerves and bad wiring. I'm here."
The lights went out. The hall exploded with a roar. A spotlight beam hit the center of the stage. Ai smiled, and I saw reality itself waver around her. She began to sing.
But my eyes saw something else.
In the third row of the VIP box sat a man. More precisely, a shell. His aura was broken, twisted. And inside him sat an It.
[ ⚠ Sync System: Threat analysis complete. ]
[ Object: Hybrid (Cursed Spirit + Demon Possession). ]
[ Class: Special (Unregistered). ]
[ Warning: Trace of foreign mana detected. ]
[ Signature: "Control". Probability of Public Safety Bureau (Division 4) involvement — 88%. ]
[ Advice: This is a test. Someone sicked the dog to see who would protect the bone. ]
— "Makima?.." — I whispered, looking at the system window.
A chill ran down my spine that even Special Grade curses couldn't cause. Public Safety Bureau? Here? I knew this world was a crossover. But I hoped that at least this bitch stayed in her own manga.
If Makima is here... it means the difficulty level just went from "Hard" to "Hell".
At that moment, the man in the VIP box stood up. His body tore apart from the inside. Without blood — just black sludge and feathers.
A monster burst out. It was a grotesque creature: a mix of a praying mantis and an angel with blade-wings. It didn't growl. It simply vanished in a dash.
Target: Ai Hoshino.
The crowd didn't even realize it. To them, it was just a black blur, a visual defect from the bright light.
Ai saw it. Her eyes widened, the hand holding the microphone trembled. The prey instinct. In this mana-saturated world, even an ordinary person feels the breath of death when it stands a step away.
«No. Not on my watch.»
I stepped.
[ Technique: Shunpo (Flash Step) ]
I materialized between Ai and the monster exactly a split second before the strike. The creature's blade, capable of slicing steel, crashed into an invisible barrier a centimeter from my nose.
BAM!
The sound of the impact coincided with the first drum beat in the song. Ai froze, staring at my back. I stood relaxed, one hand in my pocket, the other extended forward.
— "Sing!" — I barked without turning around. My voice, amplified by mana, hit right into her ears. — "If you stop, they'll panic! SING!"
Ai, a professional liar and stage genius, did the impossible. She swallowed her scream of terror and turned it into a high note.
— "I'm here to shine for you!.."
The monster bounced back, hanging onto the stage structures above. Its multifaceted eyes rotated, not understanding why the prey was still alive.
— "Hey, ugly," — I raised my head. — "You're ruining the show."
The creature hissed and leaped from above. I didn't block. I started to move.
It didn't look like a fight. It was choreography. I dodged left, letting the claws pass a millimeter from my shoulder. Ai took a step to the right, continuing her dance. We slipped past each other like partners in a waltz.
— "WOW!" — the crowd roared. — "IS THAT A HOLOGRAM?! IS IT A NEW VILLAIN?!"
The monster was fast. Very fast. It attacked with a series of strikes, trying to reach Ai. But I was everywhere.
[ Body Reinforcement: Blue ]
I glided across the stage, leaving a trail of blue sparks behind me. A strike from the right — I deflect it with my palm. A strike from the left — I duck, and the claw slices the air above Ai's head.
Ai got into the groove. She understood the rules of the game. She sang more aggressively, her movements became sharp. She used me as a shield, hiding behind my back and popping out from the other side.
We became a single mechanism. The battle turned into a performance.
— "Gojo-kun!" — Marin shouted in my ear. — "The drop! The song's drop is coming up! I need a visual accent!"
— "Copy that."
The monster, infuriated by its inability to reach the prey, opened its maw. A sphere of dense, filthy energy began to form there.
— "Ai, duck!" — I commanded.
Ai dropped to her knees, sliding across the floor in the final pose of the dance. The monster fired a beam of darkness.
I unlocked one technique.
[ Cursed Technique Amplification: Blue ]
I created a tiny gravitational point right in the beam's path. The monster's beam was sucked inside, spun around, and... I snapped my fingers, changing the polarity.
An explosion of mana scattered into thousands of sapphire butterflies. The hall gasped. The spotlights reflected off these particles, creating a star shower effect right on the stage.
— "Finale, Satoru!" — Ai yelled, forgetting about formalities. — "Finish him off!"
The music built up. The drums beat like crazy. The monster launched into a final, suicidal attack.
I exhaled. «Well then. Let's show them magic.»
I extended two fingers. Concentrate mana. Compress it to a singularity point. And then add positive energy.
[ Cursed Technique Reversal: Red ]
A small crimson star ignited on the tip of my finger. It was the size of a cherry, but weighed like a truck. The monster was a meter away.
I fired.
BOOM!
The crimson flash hit the monster in the chest. But I directed the force vector not to pierce, but to disperse. The curse's body couldn't withstand the pressure of pure mana. It was torn into millions of glowing particles.
The shockwave went upward, triggering the confetti cannons rigged under the ceiling. A rain of golden confetti rained down on the audience, mixed with the vanishing remains of the monster.
To them, it looked as if the villain had been defeated by the power of music and turned into light.
The music cut off on a high note. Ai stood in the center, arms spread, breathing heavily. I stood behind her back, in the shadows, adjusting my slipped blindfold.
A second of absolute silence. And then the Budokan collapsed under the weight of an ovation.
— "AAAAAAA!!!" — "THAT WAS LEGENDARY!!!" — "THAT MASKED DANCER! WHO IS HE?!"
Ai turned to me. Sweat ran down her face, her makeup smeared slightly, but she was shining. She turned off her microphone and whispered just with her lips: — "You're a psycho."
I smirked under the collar of my jacket. — "I'm your bodyguard, dummy."
I took a step back, dissolving into the darkness of the wings before the cameras could get a close-up.
I collapsed onto an equipment crate in the dark technical corridor. My heart was pounding like crazy. Mana was at zero. The Six Eyes hurt as if someone had poured crushed glass into my brain.
[ 🏆 Sync System: QUEST COMPLETED ]
[ Style Rating: SSS. ]
[ Achievement Unlocked: "Phantom of the Stage". ]
[ Reputation: Makima (Control Devil) has taken an interest in you. ]
[ Bonus: Ai Hoshino now considers you her personal hero (Trust Level: Maximum). ]
— "Alive..." — I exhaled, pulling off the blindfold. — "And she's alive."
— "You were..." — Marin ran out of the technical booth.
She was crying, smearing her mascara, and immediately threw her arms around my neck, nearly knocking me off the crate.
— "You were amazing! Gojo-kun, you shined! That was better than any anime! We saved her! We really saved her!"
I wanted to reply with something sarcastic, like "of course, I'm a genius", but the words stuck in my throat. I patted her on the back, feeling the adrenaline fading.
— "Hush, cosplayer. You're going to strangle me."
But then I saw Him.
My Six Eyes, even working on minimum power, caught a movement in the dark. A foreign aura. Weak, but chaotic.
Reflexes kicked in faster than thought. I sharply spun Marin around, shoving her behind my back, and thrust my hand forward, ready to strike with the remnants of my cursed energy.
— "Who's there?!" — I barked into the darkness of the corridor.
A figure stumbled out of the shadows. Dyed blonde hair. Baggy pants. A face wet with tears and snot. He looked pathetic. He could barely move his legs, as if carrying the weight of the entire world on his shoulders.
— "Hey..." — Marin's voice trembled behind my shoulder. — "Who are you? Security?"
The guy didn't answer. He took another step and collapsed to his knees, unable to stand. He crawled towards me, looking up with his empty, burnt-out eyes.
Takemichi Hanagaki.
I didn't attack. I saw that he wasn't dangerous. There was no bloodlust in him — only despair. He crawled right up close and clung to my pant leg, gripping the fabric with whitened fingers.
— "You..." — he wheezed, gasping for air. — "In the 147th timeline, Ai died today. In the 203rd as well. Everywhere. Ai's death is the trigger. It's the beginning of the end of the world."
Marin peeked out from behind my back, frowning. — "What is he muttering about? Gojo-kun, is he drunk? Or a fan?"
— "No," — I answered quietly, keeping my eyes on the guy. — "He's not drunk."
Takemichi looked up at me. — "But today... you saved her. The script broke. The future... has vanished. I can't see it anymore. Darkness."
— "Hey!" — Marin stomped her foot indignantly. — "Let go of him right now! You'll ruin his costume! And anyway, what nonsense are you spouting about Ai-chan's death?! We saved her, got it?!"
Takemichi paid no attention to her. He only looked at me, like a believer at an icon that suddenly started cursing.
— "You are an error," — he whispered, tugging at my pant leg. — "A glitch in the Matrix. You shouldn't be here."
I sighed, feeling my eyelid twitch. Bending down sharply, I grabbed him by the arms and jerked him to his feet, pinning him against the wall.
Makima. The Public Safety Bureau. Mutant stalkers. And now this. The main character of a time-travel manga who decided to throw a tantrum in my dressing room.
— "As if the Control Devil and mana problems weren't enough..." — I hissed in his face. — "Now time travelers too? Seriously? What the hell? Did this world decide to gather all catastrophes into one single fucking bouquet?"
A blue window immediately popped up before my eyes.
[ 🎰 Sync System: Congratulations, Host! ]
[ You have collected: "Apocalypse Bingo". ]
[ Current genres of your life: Action, Mystery, Horror, Psychological Drama. ]
[ Advice: Try not to go crazy. Although... that would be fun. ]
I swiped the notification away with my free hand.
— "Call me Satoru," — I loosened my grip slightly but didn't let him go. — "And stop whining, your sight makes me sick."
— "Gojo-kun..." — Marin carefully touched my shoulder, looking at us with concern. — "Do you know him? What is he talking about? What «future»?"
I looked at Marin, then at Takemichi. — "It's a long story, Marin. And I'm afraid we'll have to hear it out."
I shook the guy again. — "We need to talk, «Prophet». Right now. You're going to tell me everything. What kind of future did you see? Why was Ai supposed to die? And, most importantly... what the hell are you even doing here if you're supposed to be saving your girlfriend in the past?"