"What is—?!"
Hoshimi Miyabi's eyes—usually still as deep water—snapped tight in an instant.
In her rapidly shrinking pupils, the transparent blade-shadow trembled violently, its frantic vibration reflected like a living thing.
A craving, born from the deepest layer of instinct, detonated inside her chest without warning—so fierce it nearly stole her breath.
She forced it down.
Miyabi drew in a slow breath, and her gaze returned to its usual calm—at least on the surface.
But her eyes could no longer pull away from that blade-shadow, not even for a heartbeat.
To a swordswoman, the blade is the extension of the body; the arc of a strike is the manifestation of the will.
Yet this hazy, incorporeal shadow in the box felt—somehow—more familiar than Wuwei in her own hands.
No. Not merely familiar.
It was something deeper, older.
As if it weren't an external object at all, but a missing piece of herself—a fissure in her essence crying out to be mended.
A raw, tidal urge surged up from the depths:
Take it. Absorb it. Fuse it into yourself. Become whole.
The blue-haired girl—Rin—watched her reaction closely.
At last, Rin spoke, her voice bright and lively.
"I asked you to come here in secret because I want to talk about some things. But those things…" She paused. "They're too unbelievable. If I just say them out loud, you probably won't trust me right away. So, to make it more convincing, I'm giving you this first."
She pointed at the box, the blade-shadow still humming inside.
"According to the group leader, all you need to do is crush it—and you can absorb it into your body."
Miyabi stayed silent.
Her fingers supported the open case steadily, her eyes fixed on the blade-shadow.
Rin's words entered her ears clearly, but Miyabi didn't move.
Not because she was refusing—
But because that instinctive hunger inside her was growing, swelling like a storm tide, harder and harder to suppress.
It screamed at her, pressed her, demanded she reach out now, shatter the light, and take it into herself.
The sensation was terrifyingly absolute:
I am incomplete. Only by taking this in can I become whole.
And it was precisely because the desire was so overwhelming—so close to overriding her reason—that Miyabi's vigilance sharpened instead of softening.
To her, power that couldn't be fully controlled was meaningless.
Worse than meaningless.
It was poison.
Ether corruption had forced her to kill her own mother. Wuwei itself required constant vigilance to restrain and wield.
And now her body wanted to bypass her will and merge with a strange, unknown blade-shadow?
Absolutely not.
The hand holding the case didn't tremble even slightly, yet behind that calm surface, instinct and discipline were locked in a brutal struggle.
Miyabi used pure, cold rationality to pin that surging desire to the ground.
Time passed in silence.
Two seconds.
Ten.
Thirty.
A full minute.
Rin's expression slowly shifted—from expectation to confusion. Her wide eyes filled with bafflement.
What is she doing? This doesn't feel like Miyabi at all…
Just then, a rich aroma—bone broth, hot oil, seared fat—flooded the tiny shop like a declaration.
Chef Chop set a huge black ceramic bowl down in front of Rin with a solid, satisfied thump.
"Sorry to keep you waiting! Your special black-bowl chashu ramen!"
"Wah! Thanks, Chef Chop!" Rin's attention snapped instantly to the steaming bowl, eyes shining. The confusion was shoved aside—temporarily—by hunger and fragrance.
Almost at the same time, Chef Chop placed a white bowl gently in front of Miyabi.
The soup was crystal clear. A few pale green chunks of honeydew floated on the surface, releasing a strange fragrance—sweet, yet faintly salted by the broth beneath.
"Here—your honeydew sweet soup ramen. Honestly…" He scratched his head with a smile that looked a little forced. "This is the first time I've ever tried making something like this. I've got no confidence. If it tastes bad, don't blame me."
Miyabi's nostrils flared—just barely.
The honeydew's clean sweetness, braided with the warm depth of bone broth, washed through her senses like a gentle current—
And in that instant, it scattered the blade-shadow's intoxicating pull.
No matter how alluring the light was, it couldn't compete with a real bowl of food—steaming, fragrant, present.
Miyabi wrenched free of the invisible grip.
Her gaze tore away from the violently trembling blade-shadow and locked onto the pale green soup and melon pieces as if she could see through the porcelain.
She exhaled silently, tension draining out of her shoulders.
Like someone drowning suddenly finding a floating plank, she stared at the honeydew ramen with single-minded focus, no longer sparing the blade-shadow a shred of attention.
Then she decided.
Her fingers closed the case with a firm click, sealing away the hum and glow.
She slid the small box back to Rin.
"We can talk properly afterward," Miyabi said, her voice returning to its usual cool steadiness—eyes still fixed on the bowl. "But this item stays with you for now. Until I fully understand what it is, I won't absorb it just because you say so."
Rin accepted the box, carefully pocketed it, and smiled.
She nodded once, crisp and decisive. "Fine. After we finish eating, come with me."
If it were ordinary business, Rin would've just talked here in Chef Chop's ramen shop.
She'd lived on Sixth Street for six years—working in the shadows as a Proxy—handling plenty of problems the authorities couldn't touch, skirting the gray zones.
The locals weren't stupid. Most had guessed something, but everyone maintained a delicate, mutual silence.
The ramen shop, the corner café—places like these were where Rin met intermediaries and agents.
Even if she said something explosive here, people would barely lift an eyelid.
But this time was different.
Rin dropped her head and slurped up a huge mouthful of noodles, chashu fat melting across her tongue.
What she needed to talk about was time reversal.
It was the Anti-Creator—
the Progenitor.
Truth that could shatter a worldview.
Truth that was too dangerous.
She couldn't drag Sixth Street's kind, ordinary neighbors into this.
Neither of them was the type to dawdle.
Miyabi lifted her chopsticks. Her movements were elegant—but efficient.
She tasted the honeydew ramen carefully. The melon's sweetness collided with the savory broth in a way that was unexpectedly harmonious.
She ate fast, yet her posture stayed composed.
Rin, meanwhile, demolished her bowl like a storm.
Soon, both bowls were empty.
Miyabi set down her chopsticks, hands resting on her knees. She bowed slightly toward Chef Chop, sincere.
"Excellent ramen. I'll come often from now on."
Chef Chop wiped the counter, let out a dry laugh, and scratched his head again. "Heh—glad you liked it, glad you liked it…"
Inside, he was still thinking: Honeydew soup ramen… that's still way too weird. This customer's taste is something else.
No extra chatter.
Rin paid, waved at Chef Chop, and led Miyabi out of the warm shop into Sixth Street's twilight.
They cut through alleyways and stopped in front of Rin's video store.
Rin unlocked the door smoothly, guiding Miyabi past shelves piled with discs, toward the back of the shop.
The space that once housed the massive HDD system had been converted into a reception room.
Two old sofas—one large, one small—faced each other with a low table between them. On the far wall, a huge screen occupied nearly the entire surface.
Rin gestured for Miyabi to sit, then sat opposite.
Rin took a deep breath.
She knew she couldn't dump everything at once—she'd only blow Miyabi's mind into static.
She looked into Miyabi's calm, water-clear eyes and began with the first core truth.
"First—I'm from the future."
Miyabi's expression didn't change, as if she'd merely been told the weather was fine today.
She met Rin's gaze and waited.
That composure made Rin silently praise her.
"And the proof…" Rin took out the small black box again and set it between them—still unopened. "Is that blade-shadow. It's a piece of your future 'soul.'"
"Soul?" Miyabi folded her arms and leaned back slightly, head tilting as she considered. Her eyes returned to the box, and that same sense of familiar incompleteness stirred again.
"It's astonishing," she said evenly. "But… it does feel strangely familiar. Like it could fill in something missing inside me. Perhaps 'soul' truly exists."
Rin froze for a beat—then realized her wording had misled Miyabi.
"No, no—wait!" Rin waved both hands quickly. "Not 'soul' like in poetry or ghost stories! I mean 'soul' as in… essence. The core. Like—"
Her brain scrambled for a metaphor Miyabi would instantly understand, then—
"I've got it! Like the honeydew in that honeydew sweet soup ramen you just ate! That kind of 'soul'—the defining core that gives the thing its unique meaning and flavor!"
Miyabi's eyes softened with understanding; her brow smoothed.
"Ah. That kind of 'soul.' Understood."
Rin nodded, relieved, and continued.
"In the future, we're very close friends—partners who fight together."
She watched Miyabi's face. Still calm.
Then Rin dropped the second bomb.
"And then I ran into… an opportunity. A way to reverse time. Before I chose to return to the past, I told you about it."
Miyabi remained impassive, like she was listening to a story that had nothing to do with her.
She looked at Rin with a faint distance. "I didn't expect you'd choose to tell me. I probably couldn't help much."
Rin's eyes turned sly.
"Well, I told you because we needed to solve a practical problem—asking future-you how to make present-you believe me immediately."
As she spoke, Rin produced another item from her coat pocket.
A small metal hairpin—antique in style, distinctively Hoshimi.
Miyabi's gaze landed on it, and for the first time her calm rippled.
This was why she'd come.
She reached out and took it. The touch was cold and familiar. She didn't even need to look closely—her fingertips traced the pattern and confirmed it instantly.
She lifted her hand and removed the one pinned in her own hair, placing the two side by side in her palm.
Identical.
Material, curvature—down to tiny scratches too subtle to be replicated.
Miyabi raised her eyes to Rin. The distance in her gaze vanished.
"I see. I believe you."
Rin smiled as if it was obvious.
"Just like future-you said. Even though we're strangers right now, if I bring this to you, you'll choose to believe me immediately."
Miyabi gave a small nod, voice firm and matter-of-fact.
"I trust my future self. Someone she trusts is, by definition, someone I can trust as well."
Rin's voice carried a faint, quiet warmth.
"Then—officially: I'm Rin."
At that moment, the massive screen on the wall suddenly rippled like water. The hard glass texture melted into liquid light—
And two figures stepped out, clear and solid, onto the floor.
The screen behind them stilled and became an ordinary display again.
The first was a mild-looking young man who spoke with a polite smile. "Hello, Ms. Miyabi. I'm Rin's older brother—Zhe."
The second spoke simply. "I'm Eisen. I'm the 'opportunity' Rin mentioned—the one who can reverse time."
The moment Eisen appeared, Miyabi's instincts—sharper than any blade—screamed alarms.
Not because she sensed overwhelming power—
But because she sensed nothing at all.
Untraceable. Unplaceable. Unreadable.
A gap in being itself.
When Eisen finished his plain introduction, Miyabi understood at once:
So this is the source of the time reversal.
Then the emotion that rose in her chest wasn't fear.
It was a pure, unstoppable, weapon-grade battle intent.
Her right hand moved almost on its own to grip the hilt at her waist.
Eisen looked at her familiar reaction and couldn't help a small laugh, shaking his head with helpless amusement.
"Still… exactly the same as before."
Rin moved faster.
She practically lunged, clamping a hand around Miyabi's wrist before she could draw.
"Miyabi! Don't challenge the group leader! In the future, you already did!"
Miyabi's body stiffened.
Her hand stopped on the hilt.
Future-me challenged him… in his past?
The time-dislocation hit like a sudden vertigo.
Seizing the moment, Rin forced Miyabi back down onto the sofa.
Then Rin took out the black box again—this time flipping it open without hesitation.
The violently trembling blade-shadow returned to the air, its hum filling the quiet room.
"Future-you didn't just challenge him," Rin said. "In that fight, you gained an incredibly deep realization."
Realization?
Miyabi's eyes fixed on the frantic blade-shadow again.
This time, her gaze wasn't only scrutiny and desire.
There was clarity.
Understanding.
So that's it.
The fierce familiarity. The hunger to fuse. The sensation of being incomplete—
It wasn't a seductive trap.
It was the distilled essence of something future-her had grasped after clashing with a being she could not measure.
All doubt, all resistance, dissolved.
She didn't need to hesitate.
She didn't need to suppress anything.
Because this was hers.
Her own.
So she moved without the slightest delay.
Her long fingers reached out and seized the vibrating blade-shadow.
Crack!
A crisp sound—like crystal shattering.
The trembling shadow broke into glittering motes, flowing like liquid starlight into her fingertips and vanishing beneath her skin.
The instant it disappeared—
HUM—!
The sound wasn't outside.
It detonated inside her consciousness, deep in the foundation of her being.
A blade-light—too brilliant, too sharp to be described—flashed across her inner sea, like a primordial strike cleaving open chaos itself.
It wasn't an image.
It wasn't a memory.
It was pure understanding.
A distilled truth of Sever—
A line of edge born from glimpsing the "real" beneath the world, the kind of edge that could attempt to cut what should not be cut.
Miyabi's body went rigid. Her eyes lost focus, as if her spirit had been pulled away and plunged into that impossible strike.
Time seemed to freeze for two or three seconds.
When her gaze returned, the storm inside had already settled.
Calm returned—deeper, quieter.
She inhaled slowly, then exhaled.
Then she looked at Eisen again.
The burning battle intent was gone.
She'd abandoned the thought of seeking instruction from him right now.
Because that future strike had already shown her a corner of the truth—an existence beyond matter, beyond energy, beyond even rules themselves.
And after the awe came clarity.
She could feel it precisely:
Even future-her—at that height, wielding everything she could draw from Wuwei—could at best create a ripple against that truth.
Maybe not even a ripple.
And present-her?
She didn't even yet possess the qualification to fully move the authority within Wuwei—let alone manifest that strike's true power.
Future-her had reached that place.
Present-her still had distance to climb.
Catching up to her future self wasn't impossible.
But right now, facing Eisen, any challenge would be like an ant trying to shake a mountain—meaningless, yielding nothing.
What she needed was digestion.
Sedimentation.
Step-by-step ascent along the path that single glimpse had pointed toward.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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