They moved through the tunnels in tense, uneven strides. Frost clung to the pipes overhead, and the lights in the maintenance passage buzzed with quiet, flickering life. Each step echoed in the narrow space, boots crunching against ice-slick metal.

Akiko walked ahead, tail lashing in tight arcs behind her.

"You've got about five seconds to explain," Kess said, voice low but sharp. "Why don't you start with who, or what, you really are?"

Akiko didn't stop. Didn't even glance back. "I just needed you off my back," she said over her shoulder. "So I lied. Don't take it personally."

"Lied?" His teeth clicked together in frustration. "That's all you've got? That doesn't answer anything."

"Akiko," Raya said, stepping in beside her, her voice taut. "Maybe ease off."

"I'm fine," Akiko muttered.

Raya shot her a look. "You're being cornered by a guy we barely trust, in a freezing corridor full of bad memories. You're not fine. Just… don't let him get to you."

Akiko exhaled slowly through her nose. But she didn't stop walking.

Kess didn't blink. "Enough games. You've been tied to every anomaly since Ashara. Magic, corruption, none of it existed until you showed up. So I'll ask again: who are you, and what are you hiding?"

Akiko's fists clenched. Foxfire sparked faintly at her claws before she exhaled and forced it down.

That wasn't fair. Magic had already begun to bleed through, hadn't it? The cracks were showing long before the dragons, before Sifra, before Haven started hunting for monsters under every bed, and Karn thought every bed needed a monster.

But even as the thought crossed her mind, it twisted sour. Because she knew the truth: it was accelerating. Spreading. And she was the first ripple in the pond.

His words were calculated. Cold. But they scraped right past her defenses, prying into the guilt she kept buried beneath jokes and distractions.

"This has nothing to do with me," she snapped.

"Doesn't it?" Kess's tone was even. "You show up out of nowhere. Magic follows. Now people are dying. The ecosystem is warping. Creatures we can't explain. All of it. It traces back to you."

"Back off," she growled, ears flattening.

"Then tell me I'm wrong," he said, unwavering. "Prove that you're not the reason everything's falling apart."

The words hit like a punch to the chest. Her breath caught. Heat surged behind her eyes.

"Fine," she said, voice cracking into a shout. "You want the truth? I'm not from here. Not this universe. Not this system. Nothing."

The words echoed through the bay, raw and final.

Raya sucked in a breath, as if about to warn against revealing too much. But it was too late for that.

Akiko didn't look at her. Her eyes were locked on Kess, daring him to speak.

Kess blinked once, just once, his posture slipping.

"Another universe," he repeated, voice low.

"Yes," Akiko said bitterly. "And before you blame me for every problem in your rotten system, maybe remember: I didn't ask for this. I didn't want to be dragged away from my friends, my sister, my home. Dropped into a world where nothing makes sense."

Her voice wavered, but she pressed on, too far in to stop.

I didn't ask for this, she'd said.

But the words tasted sour even as they left her mouth.

Because once, just once, she had wished for something more. For escape. An easy solution to a life-or-death situation. But easy solutions hurt more than they helped. She'd learned that the hard way.

"And yeah. Maybe magic followed me. Maybe that's my fault. But I didn't ask to break anything. I didn't want to ruin anyone's life."

She didn't say the rest: I just wanted to survive.

Kess's gaze shifted. Narrowing, calculating. "So it started the moment you arrived," he said slowly. "You didn't just bring magic. You brought everything."

She flinched.

"That's not—" Her voice broke. She looked away, tail curling around her legs like armor.

"Akiko," Raya said gently. She stepped closer, resting a hand on her arm.

"You didn't mean for this to happen," she said. "It's not your fault."

Akiko shook her head. "Doesn't matter," she muttered. "It's happening anyway."

Kess exhaled, rubbing a hand across his mouth. "Intent doesn't erase impact," he said. But his voice had lost some of its edge. "The damage is done. What matters now is stopping it."

Akiko turned toward him again, eyes flaring with guilt and defiance. "You think I know how? I'm just trying to stay alive."

The silence that followed was thick with unspoken things.

Then Raya stepped between them fully, her voice crisp and final. "Enough. We can argue about blame later. Right now, people are dying. We need to move."

Akiko's jaw clenched. She didn't look at Kess. Didn't want to see judgment. Or worse, understanding.

"Whatever," she muttered. "You've got your answers."

She turned without waiting for a reply, boots splashing through shallow water as she stalked deeper into the bay. Her tail twitched behind her, agitation slipping through the cracks in her mask. Her tail lashed behind her in clipped, angry arcs

The air was cold. It bit into her arms and cheekbones, but she barely felt it. Rage burned hotter.

She didn't care about the chill. Or the shadows. Or the hiss of steam curling from the overhead valves.

She only cared about the echo of Kess's voice, still gnawing at her like rust along a blade.

It's your fault.

Her fists tightened. Foxfire glowed along her fingers, lighting the walls with jittery halos of blue.

She didn't ask for this.

Behind her, Kess moved with the deliberate calm of a man who refused to be rattled. His eyes flicked to each scratch in the wall, each warped pipe with the kind of scrutiny that made her want to lash out.

Raya's voice broke the tension. Soft. Grounding.

"Akiko, slow down. We need to stay together."

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Akiko exhaled hard. Let the glow dim. "I'm fine," she said. But it came out sharp, clipped.

"Clearly," Raya muttered, quickening her pace to stay alongside her.

The tunnel narrowed. Pipes loomed closer, their joints weeping steam. The roar of water overhead grew erratic, twitchy. Like something struggling to keep control of its breath.

Dark streaks lined the metal, claw marks scored into the steel, and patches of oil-black sludge smeared the floor in uneven trails.

Akiko didn't break stride.

The tunnel groaned. Metal flexed overhead.

"It's close," she said, ears twitching. Her gaze tracked a flicker of shadow above. A ripple through the pipes. Too fast to catch.

Raya stepped in close. "If Skadi's right, this thing won't give us a fair fight."

Akiko's claws reignited with a soft hiss. "Good," she said, her voice low. "I'm in the mood to make it bleed."

As if summoned, the tunnel screamed. A pressurized valve burst overhead, a geyser of scalding water shrieking down.

Akiko leapt back instinctively, her body already twisting. The torrent slammed into the floor she'd just vacated, sending up a plume of steam.

"Akiko!" Raya shouted.

Her voice cut through the hiss of boiling air, and then her hands moved, fast and precise.

A sharp pulse of light cracked through the haze. A golden shimmer formed midair, translucent and curved, catching the worst of the deluge just before it could reach Akiko's path. Water scattered against it, deflected in a hissing arc.

Akiko landed in a crouch behind the barrier, tail drenched but skin unburnt.

"I'm fine!" she shouted back, but her eyes were already up.

Raya ducked behind a support strut, both hands braced against the wall, concentration etched into every line of her face.

The pipes hissed. Something moved behind them. Something slow. Something heavy. Watching them.

A second jet exploded from the sidewall. This one colder, but faster. It slammed into the corridor, narrowly missing Raya as she dove to the side.

The air filled with steam. Thick. Blinding.

"It's playing with us," Akiko growled, tail bristling. "Coward."

The next blast came from the floor, a vertical jet that sent a steel grating clattering across the tunnel. Akiko spun, claws flaring, and sliced the stream in two. Magic hissed as it met boiling water, foxfire burning against pressure and mist.

Kess ducked behind another beam, his voice calm even as the storm built.

"It's not random. It's guiding us. Pressure control, directional targeting, it's herding."

"Yeah, I noticed!" Akiko shouted, leaping clear of a horizontal blast. "Thanks for the commentary."

The pipes rumbled. A low vibration, deep and hungry.

She felt it. The thing wasn't just watching. It had chosen her.

Good.

Her claws pulsed brighter. Tail curling low.

Let it come.

The steam thickened. Visibility dropped. Every sound sharpened. The groan of pipes. The splash of feet. The rush of water clawing for skin.

Akiko pressed forward, carving through the mist. Every step a challenge. Every hiss a dare. And the damned thing above them never stopped moving. Always just out of sight, like a storm that hadn't made up its mind where to strike. But she was ready. She wanted it close. Because fury was better than fear. And a fight, a real fight, was something she still knew how to win.

Kess's voice cut through the commotion. "We need to force it into the open. Right now, it's got every advantage."

"Great idea!" Akiko snapped, glaring at him. "Let me know when you figure out how to do that."

"Maybe stop charging ahead like a lunatic and listen!" he shot back.

"Enough!" Raya shouted, her voice slicing over the noise. "Focus on the creature, not each other!"

Akiko pressed her back to the wall, claws flickering with foxfire. The tunnel was slick with condensation, every surface weeping cold. Water dripped in slow, steady beats. Somewhere above, metal flexed with that same slithering weight. Still there. Still watching.

She closed her eyes. Just for a moment. The noise faded. Her breath slowed.

She pulled herself inward, past rage and instinct, into the core of her mind, where the flickering lights of her HUD resolved into something more familiar.

A white fox stood at the edge of her perception, its fur sleek and lightless, eyes narrowed like twin stars refracted through ice. It blinked once, slow, unhurried.

"Hey," Akiko whispered.

The fox cocked its head. Voice clear and flat inside her skull: "Query?"

"I need your help," she murmured. "It's too fast. I can't catch it alone."

Takuto regarded her in silence. His tail twitched. "Previous integration attempts ended in rejection."

She remembered. The chill. The dissonance. Her body moving with someone else's rhythm. Hers, but not.

"I know," she said through clenched teeth. "This is different. Just… take over. Reflexes. Targeting. That's it."

The fox didn't move. "Warning: Cognitive rejection remains a high probability. Neural pathways remain unstable. Symptoms may include—"

"I don't care!" Her voice cracked against the silence. "Just… just do it."

A pause.

Then the HUD shimmered, lines of glyphs reshaping into something sharp and clinical.

Request elevated privileges?

She hesitated. Then tapped: Yes.

The chill hit instantly. A bloom of cold that spread from the base of her skull outward, threading through her spine, her fingertips, her lungs. Her lungs cinched tight, muscles locking around a breath she couldn't release.

The voice returned, steady, mechanical.

"Integration initiated. Relax."

Akiko grit her teeth. But let go. Let it in.

The world changed. She didn't move, Takuto did. Her body leaned, shifted. Her ears twitched toward sound profiles she hadn't yet processed.

The HUD came alive. Projected motion. Pressure curve extrapolations. A breath before the creature moved, the system knew where it would be. It should've felt empowering. It felt hollow. Alien.

Her limbs answered commands that weren't hers. Her heartbeat slowed to match a rhythm that wasn't hers.

"Target identified," Takuto said, highlighting the pipe to her left. "Strike now."

Her body lunged. Her claws ignited in perfect time. The steel split as if it had always been meant to. Water exploded in a burst of hissing pressure, and the creature screamed. A wet, reptilian shriek that echoed off the walls.

Her HUD flared. "Target injured. Pursuit recommended."

Takuto released her in stages, cold retreating from frozen nerve endings. Akiko staggered back, chest rising and falling. The foxfire dimmed. Her hands were her own again, but they trembled.

She pressed one palm to the tunnel wall. The wet metal was slick. Real. She wasn't sure she'd felt anything during the strike. Not fear. Not rage. Not victory. Just silence.

"Yeah," she muttered, breath still shaking. "I noticed."

Behind her, Raya and Kess caught up, their footsteps splashing through shallow pools.

"What happened?" Raya asked, wide-eyed, scanning the torn pipe and the trail of dark fluid leading into the gloom.

"Hit it," Akiko said, flexing her fingers. Her claws flared with residual foxfire, sharper than usual, steadier. Her joints moved too smoothly, like her body had skipped a beat and come back with new instructions. "But it's not done yet. We're going to have to follow it."

Kess's gaze narrowed. "And how exactly did you pull that off?"

Akiko straightened. Her tail flicked once. The motion was automatic. Compensatory. And she hated that she didn't fully understand why.

"Trade secret," she muttered, the words flat in her mouth.

Raya gave her a quick, searching look, but didn't press.

Akiko didn't wait. She turned away before they could see how off-balance she really felt.

"Let's move," she called over her shoulder, reigniting her claws. They came alight instantly. Too fast.

The tunnels narrowed as they pressed on. The temperature dropped in layers, the damp warmth of the city's underbelly replaced by a dry, brittle chill. Pipes overhead groaned beneath frost-hardened pressure, and the ice spread across the walls in creeping veins.

Her claws flickered at her sides, casting restless shadows on the corridor walls.

Her tail moved with her, the motion a little too synced.

Akiko tried to shake off the tightness in her chest, but it didn't loosen.

Ahead, marks from the creature punctuated the gloom: long gouges in metal, trails of dark, oil-slick blood smeared along the curves of the pipeway. But the vibrations were harder to track now. The thing had slowed, gone quiet.

She blinked. No HUD cues. No AI voice. Just silence.

"This thing's led us halfway to nowhere," she muttered.

"Not nowhere," Kess said. He stopped beside a rounded section of corridor, where a frost-glazed viewport looked out into the icy wasteland beyond.

Akiko hesitated, then approached.

Beyond the glass, Zephara stretched in jagged white and endless shadow. The stars above burned cold and indifferent, and auroras shimmered in fractured ribbons across the sky. The planet's surface looked skeletal, peeled back and hollowed.

Akiko exhaled softly, condensation fogging the lower edge of the glass.

"We've passed the city limits," Raya said behind her. "These tunnels connect to the ice-mining rigs."

Kess nodded. "Flow station should be ahead."

Akiko didn't respond. She stared at her reflection in the window. Her face stared back. Ears sharp, eyes glowing faintly, claws still pulsing with residual foxfire.

But the shape wasn't quite right. Her posture was straighter. Her pupils too steady. The reflection didn't shift when she did. A half-second delay, like lag in a dream.

Her breath caught.

This wasn't the first time. In the Curator's realm, she'd seen something similar, something that wore her shape but carried it with different intent. Clinical. Distilled. Something honed by a hundred ruthless decisions.

Back then, Takuto had warned her: "Not all representations within it are sourced from us."

But this wasn't a simulation. This was real. This was Zephara. And this time, the excuses were thinner.

She'd let Takuto take control to make the shot. Just for a moment. Just enough to line it up, to act faster than she could on her own.

Her tail flicked, sharp and violent, the motion snapped her out of it. The reflection re-synced. Just glass.

She stepped back quickly.

Just nerves. Just aftermath.

But she still felt it. Lingering in her bones. In the way her fingers moved too efficiently. In the silence inside her head.

Raya and Kess were still talking. Debating where the creature might be heading. She half-heard Kess mention the flow station, water supply, breach potential.

Akiko's eyes stayed on the tunnel ahead.

"I don't care why it's running," she said, her voice low. "I just want to stop it."

Raya looked over at her, wary.

Akiko didn't meet her gaze.

She turned instead, her steps echoing down the corridor, leaving the warped reflection behind.

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