Riko barely had any time to process the warning before the orb suddenly constricted, the tendril crawling higher up his neck to choke the life out of him like some cold, pixelated vine. His body seized up once more; fingers flipped from twitch to twitch as the parasite burrowed deeper in. He clawed at the tendril, but his hands slipped straight through the glitching surface as if the creature weren't truly bound to reality at all.
The orb pulsed harder.
Brighter.
More insistent.
More hungry.
Riko's chest felt as though a magnet were wrenching something crucial from the depths inside him. The world sashayed in and out of focus, like his vision had become some sort of broken video player unable to replay a corrupted frame.
And then—
A shadow fell from above, its speed slicing the air with a low crack.
A hand clamped down on the back of Riko's jacket collar and hauled him backward with such force, he was ripped from the floor. Riko's breath caught in his lungs as he was hauled a number of meters across the unstable platform, the tendril snapping from his chest like a cut wire. The violent lurch jarred his ribs and cracked open a new seam of painful clarity in his senses.
Riko's body slid until he collided with a floating slab of code.
He coughed once, then again, a third time.
Cold static, which had pressed against his chest, began to fade, leaving patches of numbness in its wake.
He blinked hard to steady the spinning of his vision.
A silhouette stood between him and the orb.
Tall.
Steady
Unfazed,
Kaze.
He didn't look the slightest bit winded. His coat fluttered in the faint glitch breeze, as if the environment itself was afraid to touch him longer than a heartbeat. The reflected blue glow of the orb made his eyes gleam sharp and metallic.
"K—Kaze?" Riko rasped. "What—what are you— "
Kaze didn't turn his head.
He only let out a measured breath, his hands still at his sides.
"You almost let that thing rewrite half your chest," he said coolly.
Riko tried to sit up. His limbs shook like they'd been unplugged and reconnected too quickly.
"That… that thing attacked me!" Riko snapped, the hand shaking as she pointed her fingers at the pulsing orb. "It jumped on me like a vampire soccer ball!"
Kaze's eyebrow flicked up, just once-the most emotion he'd shown in hours.
"That 'vampire soccer ball'," he said, "copies data to forge enemies."
Riko blinked. "It WHAT?"
Kaze took a single step forward. The platform beneath him rippled in response, like the whole world was tensing in anticipation of his approach.
"They're called Replicative Glitch Orbs," he went on, his voice level yet soft. "Beings created to collect, mimic, and weaponize user information. They do not just drain you but steal your identity to create versions of you that exist only to kill the original.
Riko's stomach dropped. "So. like, evil Riko clones?"
"Not clones."
Kaze's head tilted slightly, following the unsteady movement of the orb.
"Refined predators. Simulations of your abilities pushed to the absolute limit."
"Okay," Riko wheezed, "so clones but worse."
Kaze ignored the quip, his attention riveted to the orb as it hovered indecisively, its glow flickering along with obvious unease at being torn from its prey. The tendril that had latched onto Riko hung limply, twitching like a dying nerve.
The orb didn't retreat.
It began to scan.
Riko felt it-not in a physical way, but somewhere deep in his chest, the same spot the tendril had burrowed toward. A tugging sensation echoed in the place where his Level Screen would normally appear if this world wasn't breaking every rule.
Kaze spotted this reaction straight away.
"You still feel it, don't you?"
Riko swallowed. "I-I don't know. Maybe. It's like something tapping my ribs from the inside." He rubbed his sternum nervously. "I feel like it took something."
Kaze gave a single, decisive shake of his head. "Not completely. I pulled you away before it could finish the extraction."
"That was it not finished?
Riko's voice cracked. "I thought it was trying to eat my soul!
Kaze's lips flattened into the thinnest of frowns. "Replicative orbs don't consume souls. They rewrite data patterns. It's worse.
"How is that worse?!"
"Because data can be copied endlessly.
Riko froze.
His breath hitched.
His pulse quickened.
He whispered, "So… it could make infinite versions of me?
Kaze didn't answer directly. Instead, he shifted his stance. His right hand rose slightly, fingers curling in a shape Riko recognized—combat-ready, but waiting for the exact millisecond to strike.
"Stay behind me," Kaze ordered.
Riko snorted weakly. "Yeah. No problem. Totally wasn't planning to fight the killer glitch egg alone."
Kaze didn't acknowledge the sarcasm. His focus sharpened as the orb completed its scan. Its light condensed into a colder, more intense glow. The air vibrated, static spreading along the ground like frost.
Riko swallowed hard. "It's doing something."
"I know," Kaze said softly.
The orb hovered now about a meter off the ground, quivering with unstable power. Data trails streamed off its surface like smoke. The shattered midsection, where the tendril had anchored itself, warped in and out in slow pulses as if the orb were breathing.
Then, something new happened.
Lines - thin, red, and sharp - began to form across the orb's outer shell. They were not quite cracks. Seams, more like it. The orb was adjusting its structure for… something.
Riko forced himself upright, leaning heavily on the floating data slab. His body still buzzed from the earlier drain, yet his mind was racing.
"Kaze," he whispered, "is it going to explode?
"No."
"Is it about to multiply?
"No."
Riko's voice squeaked. "Is it going to turn into something even worse than a parasite glitch ball?
Silence was enough of an answer from Kaze. The orb pulsed again—loud and bright, and Riko threw an arm over his eyes. Kaze didn't move, didn't blink, didn't even breathe wrong. He was watching a door open slow in front of him, waiting for whatever would step through. The seams grew deeper. Wider Radiating outward like cracks in glass. Then, in one sudden, sharp, violent jerk— A sound of digital bone snapping echoed through the void. But before Riko could react, the glow flared once more as— The orb cracked open from the inside.