The dust hadn't even settled from the moon's remains when everything stopped again, not time, not motion, but momentum. The air thickened as reality flexed inward.
"Enough," Aoikishi said, arms crossed, his calm voice slicing through the aftershock. His long coat fluttered despite the vacuum. Between Access Denied and Kaosu, his figure was immovable. "You've both made quite the mess."
Kaosu blinked, arm still mid-punch, sweat rolling from his brow. "Who the hell are you?" Aoikishi turned to him, calm as ever. "I'm Aoikishi. Your options are, keep breaking moons like a deranged meteorite, or actually do something meaningful for once."
Access Denied floated upside down, spinning slowly, one eye half-open. "I vote for meaningful. Moons hurt." Kaosu scoffed, brushing asteroid dust from his jacket. "Tch. Says the guy who eats bread during invasions." Access denied replied, "I eat when I'm nervous." Kousu said in annoyance,"You're always eating."
Aoikishi raised a finger, and a shimmering ACT emblem appeared in midair, a fractured ring wrapped in binary flame. "You two are officially the first members of the ACT Faction Anti Chaotic Faction. We're going to take down Karma, Kaosu's loving kin."
Kaosu's eye twitched. "Don't call him that." Aokishi replied,"I mean, biologically—". Kousu cut him off again,"I said don't." Aoikishi grinned, "Good, we're already bonding."
He turned serious. "The best way to win this war is by locating something called the Terminal, It's a meta-point, a keystone in the root code of reality. Anyone who reaches it can do anything they desire, and beat anyone they desire with a simple command."
Access Denied blinked. "…So like, admin access?" Aokishi nodded,"Exactly." "But it's locked behind layers of corrupted protocols with fragments scattered, Glitched Relics." "To find these relics we first must locate glitched artifacts, and or glitched fragments. Aoikishi gestured in the air, displaying holograms, a shattered boot, a half-loaded launcher, and something resembling a corrupted compass.
"But here's the catch," Aoikishi added. "To even understand how to use them, we need someone who can read glitched language. It's not just code, it's broken meaning, patterns in the error, logic lost in translation."
Access Denied munched a stardust cracker. "Yeah we're doomed, that sounds, actually horrible." Aokishi replied," Forget beating karma, how did you just make a snack appear out of nowhere?" Access chews," When I'm hungry I find ways to feed myself." Aokishi replies disappointedly," I see…
Kaosu folded his arms. "So we're artifact hunting. Great. This better not involve puzzles." "It involves death puzzles," Aoikishi said. "So yes." With a twist of his fingers, a swirling portal opened, iridescent static and corrupted geometry folding over itself. "Come on, I have a lead on where a glitched artifact can be.
They stepped into a fractured plain, warped by energy and silence. A giant tilting tower stood. Glitched winds distorted space around them. In the distance, a shimmer, a figure.
She phased through a crumbling wall like liquid light and her walk was silent. Her outline flickered. She held an artifact the Launchpad, leaking unstable glitched energy. It pulsed in her hands like it didn't want to exist.
Access Denied tilted his head. "Uh, I think your wall has collision issues." She paused mid-step. Slowly turned. Her voice was soft but edged like static. "You can… see me?" Kaosu raised an eyebrow. "Do we look blind to you?"
Aoikishi took a step forward, arms raised in diplomacy. "We need that artifact. Could you hand it over peacefully?" She stared, eyes unreadable. "And what if I don't?"
Aoikishi's expression didn't change. With a flick of his wrist, the area locked down a shimmering prison made of single-sided portals enclosed them. It was essentially inescapable. Even phase travel bent around it.
"Then please," he said with a soft smile, "make yourself comfortable. This might take a while." She examined the walls, and didn't flinch, her voice almost melancholic. "My name is Yamiya Miekō. Though, some have called me the Glitched Child."
Aoikishi blinked. "That name… means absolutely nothing, yet the weight carried by the presence of the name means something." "I've studied names, timelines, even the deleted branches of reality. I've never heard of your name."
Yamiya smiled faintly. "I don't think I'm supposed to exist." Access Denied sat cross-legged,"Relatable." Kaosu muttered, "I'm starting to attract weirdos."
Yamiya looked down at the artifact in her hand. "This, I don't remember where I got it. I hardly remember anything anymore. My dimension was… deleted. Everyone gone, red bits—0s and 1s—rained down like fire. I was just a child."
Aoikishi's smile faded. Content Deleted. He remembered the plot freeze, the way deletion functioned outside time. "You're… fading slowly?" he asked. She nodded. "Not just from memory. From existence. But for some reason, it's taking longer for me. I think… something tried to stop it."
"Maybe the system override," Aoikishi murmured. Yamiya turned to him. "I can phase through anything. And sometimes, I make the world… lag." Access Denied raised a finger. "So… if you walk into a wall, the wall apologizes?" She blinked. "More like the wall… reboots."
Aoikishi scanned her aura. "You're not just surviving… you're mutating. Your essence is glitch."She met his eyes. "I also know how to read glitched language. I was raised in it. Taught to piece broken patterns together. I don't know why. Maybe someone knew this would happen." Aoikishi stood still, jaw tight. "That changes everything."
Kaosu looked skeptical. "You sure we can trust glitch-girl?" Yamiya turned to him,"trust is a luxury. But if you're going after the god of chaos I want in." Aoikishi nodded. "Then welcome to the ACT Faction."