The air didn't taste like the city anymore. It tasted like high-altitude oxygen—crisp, thin, and far too clean.
Fuen lay on his back, his body feeling like it had been put through a meat grinder. His throat was a desert, cracked and stinging.
"Water..." he croaked, his voice barely a whisper. "Just... a glass of water. Or a puddle. I'm not picky."
He forced his eyes open, but the world was a blinding explosion of white. It was as if the sun had decided to retire here, resting its heavy, golden weight on every surface. Everything shimmered. Everything was pristine marble.
"Is this... heaven?" Fuen wondered. A small, bitter spark of his usual self flickered in his mind. If this is heaven, I have a long list of complaints for the guy in charge. Starting with the lack of a welcoming committee and the back pain.
As his vision cleared, two shadows fell over him, blocking out the intense light.
Fuen let out a strangled yelp, scrambling backward on the slick floor. "Ah! Blue... Blue gods?"
Standing over him were two towering figures. They weren't just tall; they were massive, with skin the color of a deep ocean trench and eyes that glowed like neon tubes. They wore white and silver uniforms that looked more like liquid metal than cloth.
Floating just inches above Fuen's chest was a translucent, glowing bar. It looked like a video game UI, but it was pulsing with an angry red light.
"Look at this," one of the blue giants said, his voice sounding like two boulders grinding together. He pointed a thick finger at the floating bar. "Species: Human. Origin: The Gray Realm."
The second one sighed, a sound of pure, professional annoyance. "Ugh. Humans. Messy, loud, and they leak fluids everywhere. I don't like them."
"Wait, what?" Fuen squinted at the floating bar. The words were blurry, but one word was larger than the others, blinking in a harsh, jagged font.
[ STATUS: TRASH ]
Fuen blinked. "Trash? Hey, I might be homeless, but calling me trash is a bit—"
"Quiet, Null," the first guard barked. He didn't look angry; he looked bored, which was somehow worse. "Look at the Pulse reading. 0.001%. How did this lowly thing even survive the pressure of the Star-Floors?"
"Doesn't matter," the second one said, reaching down with a hand the size of Fuen's torso. "It's an illegal portal jump. Another day, another heap of hardship for us. Get up, Human. You're in the custody of the Ordinal Constabulary."
Fuen was hoisted into the air by his collar as if he weighed nothing. His feet dangled a good two feet off the shiny marble floor.
"Custody? Wait!" Fuen grabbed his pocket, feeling the hard, jagged edge of the broken mirror. It was still there. "I just found a mirror! I'm not a criminal, I'm just... a guy who took a really bad nap!"
"Save it for the Archons," the guard said, beginning to march down the hall.
Fuen looked over the guard's shoulder. The "heaven" he thought he saw was actually a sprawling, terrifyingly beautiful city of glass and light. Massive ships floated through the air, and bridges made of pure energy connected white towers that touched the stars.
He was in Aethryx. And according to the glowing sign above his head, he was the lowest thing in the universe.
"Well," Fuen whispered to himself, his heart hammering against his ribs. "At least people are finally noticing me. Even if they are calling me garbage."
The "cage" they threw me into was, ironically, nicer than any apartment I'd ever seen in Tokyo. The bars were made of humming white light, and the floor was polished silver. The only problem? It was too bright. In Aethryx, even the shadows seemed to glow. There was no chance of taking another nap here.
"Hey! Blue guys!" I shouted, gripping the light-bars. My palms tingled with a soft electric shock. "What's the plan? Am I getting a lawyer, or is this where the 'getting eaten' part starts?"
The guards ignored me, talking to each other as if I were a piece of furniture that had started making noise.
"You picked the worst time for a jump, human," one of them said, checking a glowing device on his wrist. He called himself a member of the Ordinal Constabulary—the police of this glittering nightmare.
"What do you think the Archons will do with this one?" the taller guard asked, gesturing toward me with a thumb.
The other one shrugged, his blue skin shimmering. "Sent back to the Gray Realm. Or death. The usual for Null-ranks."
They both burst into a loud, booming laugh, like death was just a punchline to a joke.
"If they discard him, I'm claiming him," the first one chuckled. "I need a new practice pet for the shooting range. My aim has been off lately."
"Please," the other scoffed. "Your shooting is so bad he wouldn't even last a day. You'd miss his vitals and just make a mess."
They laughed again. It wasn't funny to me.
"I'm standing right here!" I yelled. "And for the record, I make a terrible pet. I'm not house-trained!"
They didn't listen. One of them finally looked at me, his glowing eyes cold. "We are bringing your ass to the Ordeal of Justice. The High Law will decide what to do with a criminal like you."
A criminal, I thought, leaning back against the silver wall. Wow. I went from a nobody to an interdimensional criminal in under an hour. Talk about a promotion.
A few minutes later, the cage began to move, floating through the air like a glass elevator. That's when I saw it. The world outside the station.
My breath caught in my throat. It was a world humans couldn't even dream of. The colors were so bright they felt like they were vibrating. Buildings that looked like royal palaces mixed with futuristic towers floated among the clouds. Huge, shimmering bridges of light arched across the sky, and below them, the city stretched on forever, glowing with a golden energy.
People were everywhere. But they weren't like the tired, slumped-over crowds in Shinjuku. These people walked with a terrifying confidence. They wore heroic attire—capes of starlight, armor of glass, silks that changed color with the wind.
I saw aliens with multiple limbs, beasts that walked like men, and beings made of pure shadow. It was magical. It was unimaginable. And suddenly, the thought of that cold, quiet house in Tokyo felt like a lead weight in my stomach.
I didn't want to go back.
Watching the majesty of Aethryx made me feel something I hadn't felt in sixteen years: Greed. I wanted to be part of this. I wanted to walk those light-bridges, not watch them from a cage.
I gripped the broken mirror in my pocket, the sharp edge digging into my leg.
"Okay," I whispered to the empty air of my cell. "Even if today is my last day... I'm staying here. I'm not going back to being a ghost."