I woke up before the sun. My room was cold. Not because of the weather but because of the residue from the Queen. When you use the cards they leave a part of themselves behind. Yuki-Onna's power is beautiful but it is the beauty of a frozen grave. My joints felt stiff and my skin had a deathly pale tint that didn't go away even after a hot shower.
I sat on the edge of my bed and looked at the deck on my nightstand. The Ace of Spades was still dark, humming with the trapped energy of the shadow hound. I touched the Queen of Hearts. She felt like a piece of dry ice. I had used her too early. My body wasn't ready for that level of fusion.
I looked at my phone. There were no messages from Hana. Usually she sent a good morning text or a picture of her breakfast. Today there was nothing. The silence of the phone was louder than the noise of the city outside.
I dressed in my school uniform and made sure the deck was secure in my inner pocket. I didn't want to go to school. I wanted to disappear into the Forgotten Quarter and hunt rifts until I was too tired to think. But if I stopped going to school my world would collapse. And I was fighting to keep that world intact.
I walked to the station. The morning commute in Neo Akatsuki was a sea of gray suits and tired eyes. No one looked at me. No one noticed the faint blue glow that sometimes flickered in my pupils when I blinked. I liked it that way.
When I reached the classroom Ryota was already there. He was trying to balance a pencil on his nose while Jin watched him with an expression of pure boredom.
"Kaito! My man!" Ryota shouted. The pencil fell to the floor. "You look like you died and forgot to lie down. What happened last night? Did you spend all night studying for the history quiz?"
"Didn't sleep," I said. It was the truth.
Jin leaned back in his chair and his eyes narrowed. "Hana isn't here yet. She's never late. Did something happen after you guys left the park?"
I walked to my desk and sat down. I opened my notebook. I didn't want to look at Jin. He was too good at reading faces.
"Weather was bad," I said.
Jin raised an eyebrow. "Bad weather? Kaito, it was a clear night. Not a cloud in the sky. Though I did hear some weird reports about a localized frost in the Hanami District. Some grocery store had its front window cracked by thermal shock. Sound familiar?"
I felt the deck in my pocket pulse. A warning. Jin was digging too deep.
"Coincidence," I said.
Before Jin could push further the door opened. Hana walked in. She wasn't her usual self. Her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and she was wearing her sweater even though the room was warm. She didn't look at us. She walked straight to her desk and sat down.
Ryota waved. "Hey, Hana! Ready for the quiz? I'm thinking of using my guessing strategy."
Hana didn't laugh. She didn't even turn around. "I'm a little tired, Ryota. Sorry."
The silence that followed was suffocating. Ryota looked at Jin, confused. Jin looked at me with hard eyes. I looked at the back of Hana's head. I wanted to stand up, go to her, and tell her that everything was fine. But it wasn't. And I was the reason why.
The morning classes passed in a blur. I couldn't focus on the lectures. My mind kept replaying the fear in Hana's eyes. Every time she moved I expected her to look at me but she stayed perfectly still.
During the break I followed her to the rooftop. I knew she would go there. She needed air.
She was standing by the railing, the same place we had sat yesterday. The wind was blowing her hair across her face. She didn't turn around when I opened the door.
"Go away, Kaito," she said. Her voice was flat.
I didn't go away. I walked until I was a few feet behind her. "Hana."
She turned around. Her eyes were red. She had been crying. "What was that thing, Kaito? Really. Don't tell me it was a pressure drop. I saw it. It had claws. It had... it didn't have eyes. And you. You changed."
I gripped the railing. The metal felt cold but not as cold as my heart. "I can't tell you."
"Why?" She stepped closer and her voice rose. "We've been friends since we were kids. You've always been quiet and I was fine with that. I thought I understood you. But yesterday... that wasn't you. It was like something else was wearing your skin."
I looked down at the city. "It's dangerous."
"What's dangerous? Knowing the truth? Or being near you?"
The words cut deep. I deserved them but that didn't make it easier. "Both."
"I saw the ice, Kaito," she whispered. Her voice was trembling again. "I saw you kill it. You didn't even look scared. You looked... used to it. How long has this been going on? What are those cards you always carry?"
I reached into my pocket. I thought about showing her. I thought about summoning Ember, the spirit of fire. Ember was small and friendly. Maybe if she saw something that wasn't a monster she wouldn't be so afraid.
But as I touched the deck a sharp pain shot through my head. It was a psychic scream.
I staggered back and clutched my temples. It felt like a needle was being driven into my brain.
"Kaito? What is it?" Hana asked. Her anger was instantly replaced by worry. She moved toward me and reached out.
"Don't!" I shouted.
I looked past her toward the Eclipse Tower in the center of the city. The massive glass skyscraper was a symbol of Neo Akatsuki's wealth and power. But something was wrong with it.
For a split second the tower flickered.
It wasn't a trick of the light. It was like a digital glitch in a video game. The top half of the building shifted three feet to the left, turned into a mess of jagged geometric shapes, and then snapped back into place.
Then it happened again. The sky around the tower turned a sickly shade of green and the clouds began to move in reverse.
"Look," I said and pointed.
Hana turned and gasped. "What's happening to the tower? Is it an earthquake?"
"No," I said. This wasn't a rift. A rift was a hole. This was something else. This was reality being rewritten.
The Architect.
I hadn't seen his work in person before but the texts I had found in the Forgotten Quarter described him. He didn't just send monsters. He treated the world like a faulty program that needed to be fixed.
I felt a presence behind us. It wasn't Hana.
I turned around. Standing near the rooftop door was a figure that shouldn't have been there. It looked like a man in a perfectly tailored white suit. But his face was blank. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Just a smooth surface of polished chrome. He was holding a tablet that looked like it was made of light.
He wasn't a monster. He was a construct.
"Anomaly detected," a voice said. It didn't come from the man. It seemed to vibrate out of the air itself. "Subject Kaito Ashen. Variable identified as The Silent King. Initiating observation protocol."
Hana backed away. Her back hit the railing. "Kaito, what is that?"
I pulled the deck out. I didn't care about the cost anymore. "Get inside, Hana. Now!"
"But..."
"Go!" I roared.
She didn't argue this time. She ran for the door and dodged the chrome man. He didn't try to stop her. He didn't even move. He just watched me with his blank reflective face.
I pulled a card. The Jack of Clubs. Akira, the Ghost Samurai.
I flicked the card. It didn't turn into a man. It turned into a long curved katana made of black light. I caught the hilt and felt the warrior's spirit flow into my arms. My muscles tensed and my vision became sharp.
"Who sent you?" I asked. I knew the answer but I wanted to see if the thing could talk.
"The Architect seeks data," the voice said. "Your existence is a flaw in the design. You use ancient spirits to patch a broken world. We wish to see how much strain the system can take before it crashes."
The chrome man raised his hand. The floor of the rooftop began to change. The concrete turned into a grid of glowing lines. Suddenly the gravity shifted. I felt like I was being pulled toward the side of the building instead of the ground.
I slammed my sword into the roof to anchor myself. The Ghost Samurai's blade bit deep into the reality of the construct's grid.
"Analysis: High resistance," the voice said.
The man in white moved. He didn't walk. He glided. He was fast, faster than the Frost Creeper. He swung his tablet like a weapon and a wave of compressed air hit me and threw me back toward the edge of the roof.
I flipped in the air and used the samurai's grace to land on my feet. I didn't wait for his next move. I charged.
I swung the black blade. The chrome man raised his arm to block. The sword should have cut through him but when it hit his skin it made a sound like a hammer hitting an anvil. Sparks of blue data flew into the air.
"Combat data recorded," the voice said. "Adjusting parameters."
The man's arm transformed. The white fabric of his suit merged with his skin and turned into a jagged mechanical blade. He slashed at my chest. I barely parried the blow. The force of it vibrated through my bones.
He was stronger than any Common or Rare I had fought. This was a creation of a Divine level entity.
I needed more power. I reached for the deck with my free hand but the chrome man was relentless. He stayed in my guard. His movements were precise and logical. He didn't have emotions. He didn't have a rhythm. He was just a series of perfect strikes.
I saw an opening. I dropped the sword and grabbed his wrist.
"Fusion," I whispered.
I didn't call a card. I pulled the energy directly from the deck into my hand. A burst of raw unfiltered power exploded between us. The chrome man was blown back. His white suit was singing at the edges.
I stood there breathing hard. My hand was burnt. The skin was red and peeling. Using raw energy without a card medium was stupid. It was like trying to hold fire with your bare hands.
"Warning: Subject is erratic," the voice said. "System integrity at ninety percent. Continuing observation."
"Kaito!"
I looked back. The door to the roof was jammed. Hana was there pulling at the handle but Jin was with her now. He was staring at the chrome man. His face was a mask of shock and calculation. He wasn't running. He was watching.
He saw the sword. He saw the blast. He saw everything.
The secret was dead.
The chrome man looked at Jin and Hana. "Witnesses detected. Cleanup protocol suggested."
"No!" I shouted.
I reached into the deck and pulled the Ace of Spades. The shadow hound. It was a low level card but I didn't need it to win. I needed it to distract.
"Go, Kuro!" I shouted.
Kuro appeared. Not as a warrior but as a swarm of black crows. They dived at the chrome man and pecked at his reflective face and obscured his vision.
"How annoying," Kuro's voice echoed in my head. "A toy made of tin? You're really moving up in the world, Master."
"Keep him busy!" I commanded.
I ran to the door. I grabbed the handle and pulled. It was locked by the Architect's grid. I raised my glowing hand and pressed it against the lock. The blue energy hissed as it ate through the digital barrier.
The door swung open. I grabbed Jin and Hana by their shirts and pulled them into the stairwell.
"Run," I said. "Go to the basement. Don't stop."
"Kaito, what is that thing?" Jin asked. He wasn't panicked. He was intense. He looked like he wanted to stay and study the chrome man.
"A machine," I said. "It wants me, not you. Just go!"
"We're not leaving you!" Hana cried.
I looked at her. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide with terror. But she was holding onto my arm. She was still there.
"I'll find you," I said. I pushed them toward the stairs. "I promise."
I slammed the door shut and turned back to the roof.
Kuro's crows were being swatted out of the sky. The chrome man was standing in the center of the rooftop. His body was glowing with a soft white light. The glitching tower in the distance was getting worse. The sky was now a dark bruised violet.
"Observation complete," the voice said. "The Silent King is compromised by emotional attachments. Strategy: Target the variables."
The chrome man pointed his blade at the door behind me.
I felt a cold rage rising in my chest. It was a different kind of power. It didn't come from the cards. It came from me.
I walked toward him. The deck in my pocket was vibrating so hard it felt like it was going to burst. I didn't pull a card. I opened the entire deck.
Fifty two cards flew into the air and circled me like a whirlwind. The air began to crackle with lightning.
"You want data?" I asked. My voice was low and vibrating with the power of a dozen different spirits. "I'll give you data."
I reached into the whirlwind and grabbed the King of Spades. This was a card I had never used. It was too dangerous. It was Atlas, the Carrier of Worlds.
The moment my fingers touched the card the rooftop groaned. The weight of the world seemed to settle on my shoulders. The concrete under my feet shattered.
The chrome man paused. For the first time his movements weren't perfect. He hesitated.
"Warning," the voice said. Its tone changed for the first time. It sounded almost... worried. "Energy levels exceeding safety limits. Reality collapse imminent."
"Good," I said.
I swung my hand forward and the weight of Atlas smashed into the chrome man. He didn't fly back. He was simply crushed into the roof. His metal body folded like paper. The grid of glowing lines on the floor shattered like glass.
The glitching tower in the distance stopped flickering. The sky returned to its normal color.
The cards fell to the ground, scattered and silent.
I fell to my knees. My heart was thumping against my ribs like a trapped bird. My vision was swimming in black spots. I looked at the spot where the chrome man had been. There was nothing left but a smear of silver liquid and a broken glass tablet.
I had won. But I felt like I had lost.
I heard footsteps in the stairwell. The door opened slowly.
Jin walked out first. He looked at the shattered roof. He looked at the silver liquid. Then he looked at me sitting in the middle of a circle of playing cards.
Hana was behind him. She didn't say anything. She just looked at the cards.
I picked up the King of Spades. The image on the card was of a giant holding a crumbling mountain. It looked exactly how I felt.
I looked at my friends. The silence between us wasn't comfortable anymore. It was a chasm.
"I think," Jin said. His voice was remarkably steady. "That you have some explaining to do, Kaito."
I looked at Hana. She wasn't crying anymore. She was just staring at me as if seeing me for the very first time.
"I'm sorry," I said. It was the only word I had left.
The Silent King had revealed his throne. And the world would never be the same.