The wind shifted.
It wasn't loud—just different. Colder. Heavier.
Matthew was the first to sit up. Sora stirred, blinking sleep from her eyes as she felt it too: the weight of presence.
Something—someone—was close.
No alarms had gone off.
No game announcement.
Just… a slow, deliberate sound of footsteps climbing the stairs to the roof.
Click. Click. Click.
They stood up in sync, silent. Sora gripped her broken pipe. Matthew's fists clenched.
And then—
A figure emerged from the stairwell shadow.
Wearing a cracked player wristband.
Long coat torn, blood dried at the collar. Hair tangled, face dirty—
—but the eyes…
Those eyes were the same.
"…Rin?" Sora whispered, disbelieving.
She didn't say anything at first.
Just stared at them with a tired half-smile, like a traveler who'd come back from a country no one believed existed.
Matthew didn't move.
Sora took a step forward.
"Rin—what the hell happened? You—" Her voice caught. "You left us."
"I know," Rin said softly. "But I didn't have a choice."
Matthew's voice was ice. "You made a choice."
Rin looked at him, then down at her wristband.
It was black.
Dead.
No light. No timer. No symbol.
Just static.
"I don't think I'm in the system anymore," she said. "I don't think I ever was."
Matthew's pulse quickened. "What does that mean?"
Rin stepped fully into the pale rooftop light.
"I think… I saw what's underneath Death Land."
Sora's breath caught. "What do you mean 'underneath'?"
"They didn't delete me after the betrayal game," Rin whispered. "They repurposed me."
She turned slowly, showing something burned into the back of her neck—a sigil. Not from any game they'd seen. Not from any card. But the King's mark.
"I wasn't eliminated," she said. "I was recruited."
Matthew backed up half a step.
"But I broke free," Rin added quickly. "I think. I'm not sure. I followed the only path that didn't lead to death—and it brought me back to you."
Sora stared at her. "Why now?"
Rin's eyes flicked to the sky.
That one star still hadn't moved.
"I think the next game is for all of us," she said.
Then came the buzz.
SPECIAL MATCH: BEGINNING
CARD TYPE: ???
PLAYERS: 3
And for the first time…
Matthew's wristband did not light up.
It froze.
Sora's blinked red.
Rin's remained black.
UNDEFINED GAME FORMAT DETECTED
WARNING: RULES HAVE BEEN ALTERED
They all looked at each other.
And the rooftop began to vanish.