By: IMERPUS RELUR
--
Kai drew something he shouldn't have.
At first, it was just a sketch—idle lines in the corner of a textbook, done to kill time during yet another lecture that barely touched his attention. A shrine. Misty trees. Lanterns. A gate half-lost to memory.
He didn't remember drawing it before. But the lines came too naturally, like tracing something buried beneath his skin.
Then the paper shimmered.
For a moment, the ink seemed alive—rippling, glowing faintly with a light that didn't belong in the classroom. He blinked.
The classroom was gone.
---
He stood in a forest of silence. The trees matched his sketch exactly—down to the way the moss curled on stone lanterns and how the wind whispered between wooden arches. The shrine loomed ahead, ancient and waiting.
He knew this place.
Not from life. Not from dreams. But from a drawing he never meant to finish.
> [WORLD: Shrine of Lost Patterns]
Emotional Saturation: HIGH
Access Level: 1
The panel had appeared again—floating in front of him like glass pulled from code. Only this time, it felt sentient.
> [NEW MEMORY FRAGMENT DETECTED]
Play?
His finger hesitated over the prompt.
Then tapped: Yes.
---
A flicker.
He saw himself, younger—much younger—laughing wildly before a blank canvas. Behind him stood a woman, or maybe something holier, made of ink and light.
> "One day, you'll forget me. But I'll wait. In the first world you lose."
The vision vanished. Kai gasped as the memory released him, like surfacing from a deep ocean.
> [Shrine Resonance Detected]
Unlocking Layer View...
The shrine twisted—not physically, but spiritually. The world thinned. He saw beneath it: a lattice of symbols and emotional energy, glowing beneath every stone.
And in the center of the shrine?
A girl.
Half-drawn. Breathing.
She opened her eyes.
> "You came back," she said. "Finish what you started."