ECHOBURN

He woke up in his bed.

Soft sheets. Warm light. A window cracked open to the morning breeze. Birds chirped. His ceiling fan spun lazily overhead.

Aoto blinked at the ceiling.

"…What the hell?"

He sat up. 

His room looked… exactly like it always had. Same stack of dirty clothes. Same cracked mirror. Same note on the wall his sister left, telling him to please clean the damn dishes.

He swung his legs off the bed. Rubbed his eyes. The floor was cold beneath his feet.

"Okay," he whispered, "maybe it really was a dream."

He walked to the door and reached for the handle.

The moment he turned it, the light vanished.

Not dimmed — cut out. Like a trapdoor opened in the sky.

The hallway wasn't there.

Instead, a vast circular chamber stretched out in all directions, smooth black stone beneath his feet, red glyphs carved into the walls. It smelled like frozen ash. Something in the shadows moved when he looked away.

And standing at the far end — in a black coat this time — was Dog Ears.

Not smiling.

Not joking.

Just standing, arms folded, staring at Aoto with something that looked like regret.

Aoto stepped forward. "Where… where am I?"

Dog Ears sighed and tapped the floor with his foot. It echoed like steel. "Between."

"Between what?"

"Between the part where you get to be a person… and the part where the System decides what you are."

Aoto frowned. "No jokes this time?"

Dog Ears shook his head. "No jokes. No clipboard. I barely got permission to speak to you before it starts."

He walked closer, slower than usual. Like it hurt.

"Aoto," he said softly, "you were supposed to be nothing. A Zero. You weren't meant to wake the book. You weren't meant to exist in their calculations."

"Their?"

Dog Ears tilted his head toward the ceiling. The glyphs began to glow, forming lines of shifting code.

[CANDIDATE ACKNOWLEDGED][FORGING PROTOCOL LOADING...]

Dog Ears didn't look up.

"They're not gods. They're not demons. They're worse than that," he said. "They're perfect."

Aoto's mouth was dry. "Why me?"

"Because you broke their script. You weren't chosen, but you interfered. So now they want to see what happens when a mistake is given power."

He looked away.

"It's not fair. It's not even close to fair. But I can't stop it. Not anymore."

[FORGING CHAMBER UNLOCKED]

You are now bound to the TRIAL ECHO.Final class will be forged by survival and final enemy.Cycle Duration: 365 DaysDeaths: UnlimitedExits: None

Aoto's hands trembled. "So that's it? I get no say?"

Dog Ears stepped forward. Put a hand on his shoulder.

"If I could trade places, I would."

The glyphs expanded. The air burned with static. A door made of liquid light opened behind Aoto.

The voice returned — deeper than thought, mechanical and endless:

"ENTER."

Dog Ears didn't move.

"You have one year," he said. "One year to become something the System can't explain. Maybe then… maybe you'll change it."

The light pulled Aoto backward.

He reached out — not for the door — for Dog Ears.

But Dog Ears just whispered, "I'm sorry, kid."

Aoto was gone.