Chapter 2: Shinjuku Disturbance
The wind carried me across the city, weaving through neon signs and above the crowded streets below. The System hummed faintly, like it was listening to something I couldn't yet understand. Every muscle in me tensed, every instinct screaming that tonight wouldn't be simple. I had hoped for quiet, for just another ordinary evening pretending to be human, but that hope was already a lie.
Shinjuku stretched before me like a tangled web of light and shadow. Somewhere in the maze of streets, an anomaly moved. Something alive, but not human. Not bound by my System, not bound by any rules I knew. My stomach twisted. I had faced dangers before, gods and mortals alike, but this… this was different.
I landed silently on a rooftop two blocks away from the disturbance. Concrete crunched under my boots, the city's pulse thrumming beneath me. I crouched, letting the System sync with my senses. Shadows flickered, elongated, twisted—but they were empty. Just the city breathing around me. Yet my gut told me it was there.
[Unknown Entity — Detected]
Proximity: Nearby
Threat Level: Undefined
Note: System cannot classify
I frowned. The System's silence was louder than anything it had ever said. That meant it was truly foreign. Something that shouldn't exist, yet did.
I remembered the warnings from years past, fragments of dreams and premonitions that always arrived when the world was about to shift. And now, one had manifested right in my city. The city that thought it was safe. That thought I was just another kid blending in.
From the corner of my eye, a shimmer—a distortion, like heat on asphalt—shifted the streetlights below. I leapt from the rooftop, riding the wind down. I wasn't fast for show. I was precise. Every movement calculated, every breath aligned with the pulse of the world around me.
As I landed, the figure revealed itself. Human-shaped, yes, but the edges were wrong. The way it moved, the way the shadows clung and recoiled—it was as if the city itself refused to let it exist. It wore a mask, and a long coat fluttered around its feet as it advanced. No System energy. No aura I could read. Just presence. Threat. Uncertainty.
"Show yourself," I called, my voice carrying more authority than I expected. The wind circled me, tense, as if it too wanted the answer.
The figure paused, tilted its head. Silence. Then it moved faster than anything humanly possible, a blur cutting toward me. I braced, System ready, but it didn't attack conventionally. Instead, it passed through the ground like a ripple, resurfacing behind a group of pedestrians who didn't even notice. And then it disappeared.
I scanned the area. The System whispered warnings now, but it could not predict, could not classify. I clenched my fists. This was beyond any fight I had prepared for.
I realized, suddenly, why it had appeared tonight. This wasn't random. It was drawn, somehow, to me. Or maybe it had been here all along, waiting for the right moment. For me to notice.
I swallowed. "Alright," I muttered. "You want a game? Let's play."
But I wasn't sure yet who was hunting whom, or if that even mattered anymore. The rules had changed. The city was no longer a stage—it was a trap, a puzzle. And I was in the middle, trying to decipher moves I couldn't see.
The night stretched ahead, long, deep, and unpredictable. I could feel it in my chest, the kind of tension that always came before everything changed.
And I knew one thing for certain: the first move had just been made.