XCEL

The distortion in Kawarajima only grew worse. The strikes of the lightning and the blinding white rifts only became more frequent. Stone ground against stone, and stone split further stone; boulder-sized clumps of earth were jettisoned across the sky by those wild, arcing currents of psychic energy.

Many Rejected remained, dotted all around the archipelago. Their screams drowned out all else, mindlessly thrashing at anything that moved or came close. No concept of anything, the hollow monstrosities decimated everything that crossed the path of those awful, solitary eyes.

11:43

Meguru’s final Disaster Strike sent Rin flying. Clearing the gap between islands in seconds, Rin barrelled through a crowd of six Rejected, scattering them like bowling pins. He couldn’t suppress his cries; the magnified consequence Meguru had cursed him with sent pain shooting through his bones with every impact.

Rin tumbled uncontrollably until he slammed against a large uprooted tree trunk. Winded, he gasped and curled inwards. The aftershocks from the impact sent tremors through his legs. His right hand still hung limp, the fingers tingling. Bloodied bone protruded through the skin where Meguru had snapped his wrist. The lights were painful; his vision swam. His diaphragm ached with every breath. Rin tried again to stand. He needed to restore his flow. The pain was nothing.

The Rejected didn’t stay down for long; he could already hear their screams.

He needed to get up. He needed to fight.

The ground shook with the Rejected’s every step.

He needed to stabilise the distortion, or else…

Rin leant his head back against the tree.

He was so tired.

“Are you alright?!”

An unfamiliar female voice sent a rejuvenating spark through his nerves. A shiver electrified every inch of his skin. Rin felt slender hands grasp his shoulders, shaking him awake. Rin’s eyes shot open. A young woman crouched beside him; fair-skinned, with long, pale red hair. His sharpened eyesight saw everything, from the slight freckles on her cheeks to the heart-shaped birthmarks either side of her mouth. No sign of a third eye, either; This person was a civilian.

“You’re awake!” She held him by the chin. “You hit that tree really hard! Are you alright? What about your wrist?”

“I’ll live.” Rin moved her hands away. “What are you doing here? You need to get away, right now!”

The Rejected were approaching.

“I don’t know what’s going on!” Her eyes shook with panic. Her words came out a garbled mess. “Everything just happened all of a sudden; there was this lightning; those things surrounded me, then you came flying out of nowhere—”

“I’ll hear you out later.” Rin stood, moved her aside. “Hide somewhere! I’ll deal with them.”

She nodded and fled behind a rock. Rin faced the Rejected, a dull pit in his stomach. The monsters sharp fingers scratched deep gouges across their own skin. Not even they could bear to remain bound to the physical realm anymore.

“You don’t deserve this, none of you do.” Rin spun a frame in his left hand, and reconstructed Box Cutter. The sword looked even better than before; his technique grew more efficient every time. “Don’t know whether any pain I can inflict is worse than the hell you’re suffering right now, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it: your pain ends here.”

The Rejected neither understood nor cared what he had to say. They all converged on their new target at once. The first aimed a haymaker at his face. Rin constructed a shield frame on his right forearm and deflected the blow. Darting sideways, he slashed upwards, slicing off its arm at the elbow.

Crouching low, Rin drove an elbow strike into its sternum. The reject crumpled forward, stunned. Rin sliced downward through its neck. Discarding his sword, Rin focused his psychic energy outward.

Box Technique, Cocoon

囲箱技: 繭 Isōgi: Ken

A cube of glass shimmered. The construct sealed itself around two more Rejected. They let loose haunting screeches, hammering on the walls. Rin clenched his fist.

Crush

搾 Saku

The walls of the boxes contracted, slamming inwards. The awful cracking of bone and squelching of warped flesh nearly made Rin wince. The seething mass inside resisted, but Rin kept squeezing until the creatures had been reduced to a small fleshy cube. Grasping the cube, Rin tossed it over his shoulder.

The fourth reject charged from Rin’s right, catching him unawares. The raging behemoth flew into a devastating assault. Rin parried each one. With only one arm left to defend, however, he found himself forced back. A cry alerted him to the two remaining Rejected circling the rock the woman had chosen to hide behind. Stumbling back, she yelped and tripped over herself in a desperate attempt to make distance.

He’d be damned if he was going to let them harm her! This had nothing to do with her, but failing to follow through on his word would be an insult to his pride. He couldn’t let that happen. The indignation forcing a wave of heat under his skin. Steeling his resolve, he took deep breath. The reject didn’t let up its assault. Rin kept parrying, allowing that intangible essence to crystallise in his mind.

A state where he forwent all form, where he proceeded to exist within the world, not as merely part of it.

The true essence of his soul: a Flow.

Rin’s jaw slackened; his eyes, unfocusing. That intoxicating rush of stimuli flooded his mind, aligning itself with the rhythm of his movements. Time for the offensive. Reinforcing his left arm with psychic energy, the boy parried the next ferocious blow to his face outwards with an elbow block. Counter, a searing two-fingered jab directly into the creature’s eye. It howled and stumbled back. Rin’s fist sung with silent agony, as he drove a rapid flurry of blows into its face. Psychic energy crackled under his feet as he jumped, kicking off its chest into a backwards somersault. Pointing, Rin snapped his fingers. A cube frame carved itself around its head.

Capture

A clean rending of flesh. The reject’s headless corpse collapsed and began disintegrating, crushed under Rin’s foot as he booked it double-time towards his priority. He’d finally figured out remote decapitation. Suck it, Architect!

His flow was absolute. The colours were beautiful to Rin now. Those awful kaleidoscopic skies glimmered as he skated along arcs of crackling purple electricity towards the two remaining Rejected.

The woman shuffled back further still, but approached the island’s edge. Powerless, she still refused to avert her eyes from the threat. She retreated, but did not cower. In the lapsing time—in the midst of his flow—a surge of respect welled up in Rin’s chest. Forced into a situation she never asked for, thrown into a hostile, broken land: she had fought all this time for her own self-preservation. It was all too familiar. Even when cornered, she stared her demise in the face. Mirrored before Rin was his past self, an effigy of ignorance: a self that saw so little of the world, he might as well be blind. He had seen terrible things since, but if that self had not been saved, he would not be there now to save it in return.

His mother’s faith echoed as clear as that painful day.

“You’re going to build a better world and help so many. I just know it.”

Rin reconstructed Box Cutter. He’d seen terrible things, yes, but also the intrinsic beautiful of the world. He was glad he had opened his eyes after all.

Severance Planar: Blade

断面: 刃 Danmen: Yaiba

The edge stopped inches away from the woman’s face. The brilliant flash of that impossibly thin manifold cleaved the Rejected’s heads from their shoulders. The unwitting abominations disintegrated, their corrupted souls freed from that horrendous limbo.

That wasn’t all of them, unfortunately, but at least right now, they had earned themselves some calm. Rin closed his eyes and felt his flow subside. He stumbled, the blood leaving his head. The red-haired woman sat back, supporting herself with both arms. One leg was coiled, poised to kick off and make distance.

“Hey, look at me.” Rin stepped over the corpses, calm. He took a knee and reached forward. “Come to me, slowly.”

Telling the woman not to look behind her would only worsen the problem. The edge of this island was a hairline away from the void of warped space that promised a fate far worse than death.

He’d arrived too late to save so many. He would not let her fall.

She inched forward. Her quivering eyes locked with his and found solace, pupils dilating. Her chest rose and fell too quickly, shallow breaths pulled through a mouth, slightly ajar.

Soon, she’d made it a metre from the ledge.

“Can you stand?”

The woman rose on shaky legs.

Rin sighed in relief and turned away. “No idea how you survived this long,” he mumbled, “but I’ll get you out of here soon. It’s not safe. You need to get far away, at least until I figure out how to fix this.”

He looked around. Ruri still hadn’t returned. Their last exchange gave Rin the impression he’d make sure everyone was safe. That was good, that was how it should be. Rin looked up into the thundering sky. Just how was he going to fix this? The Architect had mentioned reconstructing the dimensional divide. Rin knew how to support an arch, a causeway, or, hell, even a skyscraper in the event of an earthquake; but how on earth was he meant to stabilise a dimensional anomaly?

His vexed thoughts triggered his familiar neurotic pacing. The woman exploited the lapse to seize his shoulders, turn his body about face, and kiss him square on the cheek.

The woman flung her arms around his shoulders, and held on for dear life. Her flood of silent tears stuck his shirt to his skin. Rin froze. Those familiar needles in their thousands pricked at every pore on his skin, breathing hastened. His body wouldn’t move. His cheek burned; the dark lipstick mark branded his skin like an iron. Her wracked sobs yanked his mind back into the present, a million and one gratitudes spilling from her lips.

The words came to him eventually, albeit in barely a mumble.

“What are you doing?”

The woman wailed into his shirt. “You saved my life!”

Rin abruptly returned to his senses. “Let me go!” Wrenching himself from her grasp, he stumbled back, a shiver echoing through his bones.

Unsupported, her knees buckled inwards. Rin reacted before his mind could tell him otherwise. Before she could fall, Rin dashed forward and gripped her by the shoulders. He opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat. Tracks of glistening tears dragged smudged mascara down her face like an oil spill. Rin looked at his shoulder, and saw a lot of her other makeup smudged into his hoodie.

The crying grated his nerves now. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Rin did the best he could.

“Calm down.”

His harsh tone cut through the sobs. Her eyes opened wide; her crying stopped immediately. The woman took a deep breath and composed herself. “I have no clue what you just did or how on earth you managed it, but thank you. I owe you my life.”

“Don’t say shit like that so casually, seriously.” Rin tutted and scratched the back of his neck. “Besides, I didn’t do it for your sake.”

“Then, why?” She reached for his hand.

“Don’t ask stupid questions.” Rin bit his lip and turned away. “It’s not safe here. We need to get you out.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s complicated. I’ll explain later.” Rin felt a pressure on his right arm, and looked to see her cradling his snapped wrist.

“This is awful! What happened to you?!” She looked in more pain than he did. “You’re really hurt!”

“I’ll be fine.” Adrenaline and psychic energy fortunately dulled the pain to a constant reminder. “Focus on keeping yourself alive. Let go of me, for crying out loud!” Rin yanked his arm away with a wince.

He couldn’t help but pay more attention to her, now he wasn’t overstimulated by her crying. She was taller than him, only just. Her light red hair was long and flowed down her back, with parts on either side plaited into braids that fell forward over her shoulders. A frilled white top lay under a brown leather jacket and sleek bell-bottomed trousers, torn and spattered with mud from all the chaos.

“What’s your name?”

“Aiko Yakuhin—and yours?”

“Not important.”

“That’s not fair!” Aiko protested. “You can’t just ask for someone’s name and then not return the favour!”

“Cry about it.”

“I want to know the name of the man who saved my life.”

The determination in her eyes took him by surprise. “Rinkaku Harigane.” He almost sounded impressed.

“Rin? Cute name.” She giggled, despite it all. “Thank you. I really mean it.”

“Give it a rest.” Rin rolled his eyes. “I already told you, I’m not interested in your thanks.”

“I don’t care.” Aiko’s brow furrowed. “I’m not going to let you forget it.”

“What a pain. Do as you want, then.” He held his hands behind his head a little. “Well? How did you manage to survive this long? You ain’t a psyche user, are you?”

She gave him a searching look. “Psyche? Are you asking if I’m psychic?”

“Thought as much,” Rin mumbled. “Guess it’s just a spot of dumb luck, then. Whatever god you prayed to, give them hell for sending me along to rescue you, you hear? I have enough on my plate as-is.”

Aiko laughed, and Rin felt a small grin tug at the corners of his mouth. He soon snapped himself out of it, however. If he had time to make quips, he had time to build.

“Can you run? I’m going to get you out of this Distortion.” Rin was already spinning a frame between the fingers of his left hand. Another subtle test. He couldn’t see a third eye, slit or otherwise, nor could he detect an abnormal psychic signature. Still, his neurotic paranoia wouldn’t rest until he’d made triply sure. Normal people couldn’t perceive the flow of psychic energy, only when he actualised his frames into real constructs. Rin focused in on the movement of her eyes. There was no reaction to his finger-spinning. Aiko Yakuhin definitely wasn’t a psyche user.

“How are we going to get out?” She asked. “There’s no way forward.”

“I’ll build one myself.” Rin stepped ahead of her. “Don’t believe me; just watch.”

Rin wasn’t going to let his lack of a right hand stop him. Accessing his mental template, he pulled the frame in several different directions, and reconstructed the familiar design. Once complete, he dragged the space apart between his fingers and his teeth, and cast it forth!

Golden Gates

黄金門橋 Ōgonmonkyō

A sudden wind swept the parkland. Thousands of empty polyhedra, all outlined in white, all connected, bridged the expanse. The shimmering glass surfaces glinted as forks of rainbow lightning electrified the sky. Metal would have ideally made for a better construction material, but given there was none around, and he was working with a time-crunch, a reinforced blank frame construct would have to do.

“No way.” Aiko’s jaw dropped, eyes alight with fascination. “This can’t be real. No way did you just construct a replica of the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge out of thin air!”

“You know it?” Rin turned around, an eyebrow raised.

“Are you kidding me?” Aiko’s gaze lit up like nothing he’d ever seen. “I did my Master’s thesis on it! Of course I do!”

“You’re a student?!”

“From Sapporo! I came here to study the monorail!”

Rin just clocked her accent, slightly northern. “What’s your field? Engineering?”

Before she could answer, their eyes met and exchanged information so succinctly, there was no better combination of words under this distorted sunless sky.

“Those aren’t the eyes of an engineer,” Rin corrected. “You’re in urban architecture.”

“That’s the tone of someone who knows.” Aiko nodded. “I knew there was something different about you.”

A magnified voice interrupted from above. “Well, ain’t this just touching? You two should get a room already!” Meguru Yoha soared through the air toward them.

Rin swore. They’d taken far too long.