For what felt like forever, all Kentaro could see was white.
Light flashed, then vanished. The roar of teleport energy dropped into complete silence.
His feet hit something solid.
The moment stretched.
He blinked, eyes adjusting to a cold, endless blur. Breathe shallow. Limbs numb. The Anchor circlet on his head pulsed with a low, throbbing that vibrated in his skull.
Then, clarity snapped in.
The plaza.
But not his plaza. It looked nothing like the plaza he remembered.
The world around him was a twisted reflection, a bloom, and Kentaro had stepped right into its fractured heart.
Frozen rain hung suspended midair, sharp as glass. The concrete shimmered like blue ice, laced with veins of cracking light. Buildings warped in impossible ways like forgotten memories. Every sound was wrong; his own breath echoed five seconds late, his heartbeat looped and overlapped.
Even his shadow looked off. Wrong shape. Wrong time.
The Anchor circlet screamed in his ear, a pure, high note that rose and fell like a warning bell.
"Crap..." Kentaro whispered, clutching the side of his head. "This is a level 2?"
He staggered forward, his boots crunching over brittle frost. The Plaza was empty, eerily so. Ice covered everything.
But there was still no sign of Ice-Breaker.
At least not yet.
He moved with care, entering the frostbitten corridor, where the plaza opened up, surrounding the area were loads of shops, and in the middle, near the front door, were two escalators, the same space where he and Tenka used to hang out after school. Where they'd laughed. Shared food. Watched Festival dancers pass by.
Now it was dead. Frozen. Silent.
Until.
There.
Just ahead, between the twin escalators, she stood.
Ice-Breaker.
His second-ever encounter with an Alberline.
She looked small. Not fragile. Not helpless. Just... Detached.
Cloaked in blue frost. Shoulders trembling. Head down. A soft whimper carried through the air like a broken violin note.
She was crying.
They were real tears. But they floated around her, suspended, locked in along with the rest of the building.
Kentaro stepped forward, pulse climbing.
"H-hey..." he said quietly. "What's your na-"
But before he could finish his sentence, pain slammed into him like a migraine from hell, almost like someone threw a spike at the centre of his skull.
He dropped to one knee, clutching his head. Blood pooled in his vision. His Anchor circlet flared red hot.
Each step closer made the pressure worse, like his own memories were being torn out of him and shredded.
He stumbled back two steps in reflex to get away from the pain. And to his surprise, the pain faded immediately.
"Is this some kind of mental barrier...?" He hissed, panting, trying to centre himself.
Then.
Her voice.
"W-who... are you?"
"W-who... are you?" The voice repeated
So quiet. So fragile.
So heavy with fear.
He looked up
Her lips barely moved. Her eyes never met his.
Still, he forced out words, voice shaking.
"I'm.... Kent-"
He didn't finish.
Searing cold wrapped around his left hand.
His eyes widened in fear as he screamed.
Frost raced up his arm like liquid metal, turning skin to cracking blue glass.
"PLEASE! I'm not here to hurt you!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the Plaza.
But the Alberline didn't flinch; it was clear she didn't trust a single word that came out of his mouth.
"Your lying" She whispered. Then Louder.
"You're all liars. You want me gone." Her voice echoed back.
Her voice deepened, losing its softness and innocence. It became inhuman, a distorted echo resonating from the ice itself.
"You're with those humans, aren't you? You want me dead, know you do!"
Kentaro reflexively slammed his arm against a pillar, shattering shards of ice. Pain from the frostbite stung his skin, but he didn't care. His eyes were locked on her.
"I'm not! I swear, I came here to help you!" He shouted.
As his words echoed through the plaza, she finally looked up, deciding to meet his gaze, but Kentaro instantly saw her eyes; they were hollow and shimmering like frozen moons.
There was silence as Kentaro's eyes widened from sheer shock; her eyes didn't match her beauty.
"Go, go away," She said coldly.
"If you value your life."
"NGH!"
With a flick of her wrist, a cyclone of frozen wind tore down the building like a cannon blast. It struck Kentaro with full force, launching him backwards and straight out the front door.
He crashed onto the icy pavement, tumbling like a rag doll and scraping against the concrete.
He lay there for a moment, breathless.
"Tch… That… hurt…"
Ice clung to his jacket. Blood pooled in his mouth. He wiped it away with a shaky laugh.
Then.
BBZZT
"KEN! Are you all right?"
Tenka's voice in his ear, firm, sharp, but layered with concern.
He sucked in air. "Still here. Slightly airborne. With minor bruises."
The comm crackled, Haruka's voice filtered in next.
"We saw everything. Drone visuals confirmed: physical rejection and memory feedback. Her Bloom is defensive-first. You're lucky you didn't get shattered."
Kentaro spat onto the ground, shaking the last frost from his collar.
"Yeah. Felt like getting hit with a snowplough made of knives."
Tenka cut in.
"Listen, Ken. You must remember, she's scared. Every Alberline we've made contact with has already been attacked by Cradle or has a bad experience with humans. Their entire view of humans is twisted."
"Understood. But then how do I get through to her? If i can't get close? he asked, staring at the frozen doors, still pulsing faint blue.
Tenka paused.
In front of her in the command room, everything was all red, the lights flickering feeds.
Tension clung to the air like frostbite.
Onscreen, ice-breaker remained hunched beneath the escalators, silent and shaking. Her tears floated upward in slow spirals. Kentaro, still outside, Knelt just past the threshold, one foot in the cold, one eye on the storm.
"We need Ideas now, people!" Tenka's voice cut through the room.
"She's unstable, he's bruised, and we are running out of time"
Shogo raised a hand immediately, far too confident.
"Okay, okay, okay, hear me out," he said, already way too excited. "What if we, like… catapulted Kentaro back in from above?" He paused, giving the crew a false sense that he was finished, but there was one minor detail he deliberately dragged out.
"But he'll be completely naked," he finished, scratching his chin.
After his words echoed throughout the command room, there was dead silence.
Shogo's eyebrow twitched; he clearly saw the disgusted faces he was getting from his fellow crewmates. "I mean, think about it. She wouldn't expect a guy flying at her, right? And the whole no-clothes thing? Total distraction. It'll buy us time. I'm not wrong, am I?" he said with a nervous chuckle trying to justify his 'grand' idea.
Everyone stared.
Somewhere in the room, a pen slipped from someone's hand and hit the floor with a soft clack.
Yumi didn't even look up from her console.
"Shogo. That's not a strategy. That's, That's."
She couldn't finish the sentence because of the stupidity of the idea.
Drone (Daichi) Chuckled.
"I mean... It'd be cool. Just not survivable.
Shogo, sensing his plan had been rejected and beaten to the ground, muttered:
"Okay, damn, everyone is too sensitive."
Haruka stepped in quickly before Tenka could react and kick Shogo's ass.
"What we know is that she reacts to verbal input with hostility, but she didn't freeze him immediately on sight. If you think about it, she could have killed him there and then, so maybe if we keep things non-verbal,"
Yumi cut in, soft but clear:
"She's terrified. She thinks any touch is an attack. We need a way to break through without looking like a threat."
Riku, arms folded tight.
"The only thing that's gonna break her trance is emotional shock. We need to snap her out of the loop she's caught in."
Yumi nodded.
"She's not just breaking down, she's looping. Same pattern of tears, same posture. Her trauma's feeding the bloom."
Tenka paced slowly behind the projector.
"What if..." she murmured. "What if he doesn't sync with her?"
The room paused.
"What if she syncs with him?"
Haruka blinked
"You mean, transfer the anchor?"
Tenka turned toward the screen.
"Exactly. He's wearing it. But it's not working. She's rejecting every signal. So give her the anchor. Let her feel what he's feeling. Let her choose to connect."
Drone, eyes widening.
"That'd reverse the sync. We've never done that before."
Yumi crunched her sunflower seed.
"Because no one's been crazy enough to get that close to an Alberline."
Tenka chimes in.
"He doesn't need to be close right away. Just enough to place the anchor. The touch completes the loop."
Riku leaned in.
"And how does he survive long enough to make the handoff? Considering one flick of her wrist caused a great deal of damage"
Tenka turned back to the team.
"We're going to test the route. Controlled re-entry. A calm walk-in isn't working clearly. So we try it differently.
Yumi raised an eyebrow.
"Please Commander define 'differently'
Tenka looked toward the exit hatch.
Then down to Kentaro on the screen.
"We swing him back in.
But not Shogo-style."
Shogo immediately perked up, clearly offended.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
Tenka smirked slightly.
"It means with timing, not chaos."
She nodded once, and as if it had been rehearsed, Haruka stepped forward, her tablet glowing faintly under her arm.
"We've been monitoring her movement patterns. They're not random."
She tapped the screen once, and freeze-frame footage looped on the projector.
"Each time she attacks or lashes out, there's a pause afterwards.
Like a recharge phase. A low-state window."
Shogo, squinting:
"Recharge? So… she's a phone?"
"No, idiot," Yumi snapped. "She's traumatised. That's her version of breathing."
Haruka continued, unbothered.
"It's roughly five to ten seconds each time. Not long, but enough.
If we sync Kentaro's entry right after one of her outbursts, she'll be at her weakest. Least reactive. Least afraid."
She paused.
"But we'll still need speed. Or we get another ice cannon to the chest."
Riku nodded, arms crossed.
"We cut the distance first. Put him just outside strike range. Then drop him in with momentum."
Drone stood up, his face lit up.
"I've got a drone with a mini sling attachment. Not enough to launch him high into the sky, but it can push him forward fast if he's already moving."
Yumi's face flat, not impressed by the idea presented.
"So... We're literally pushing our anchor into a time bomb"
"Better than yeeting him like a projectile," Drone muttered while glancing at Shogo.
Tenka pointed towards the plaza feed.
"We keep him low, silent, and we time it to the heartbeat. He enters as she exhales."
She looked at Kentaro's cam feed. He stood just past the threshold, tension coiled, eyes locked on the frozen doors.
"Ken. Ready for round two?"
His voice came through the comms, breath sharp, but there was a hint of nervousness.
"I was born ready."
He paused, letting out a massive sigh
"J-just please don't use Shogo's idea" He said dejectedly, anticipating them to use his idea.
"HEY!, WHAT'S WRONG WITH MINE? IT'S GENIUS!" Shogo protested by stamping on the floor.
Tenka smiled faintly, a rare moment of softness cutting through the tension.
"Don't worry, I'd never do that to you," she said, giggling slightly.
Then, she went back to commander mode.
"Let's move. Kentaro, follow our lead...."
"YES, MA'AM!" Kentaro barked, his mentality in full soldier mode as he jogged toward the frozen door with the confidence of a man who didn't know yet what his life had in store from him.
But just before his hand could reach the frosted handle, he froze, not from the cold or the Alberline's aura.... But because something buzzed above him.
A drone. A single drone.
His spine locked.
Until Tenka's voice came through the comm:
"Kentaro, that's Drone's unit. He's lowering a rope. I need you to grab it. We'll use it to drop you in close.
There was a pause.
"But brace yourself."
Kentaro looked up just in time for the rope to gently slap him in the face.
"Ow... Okay, this is starting to feel like on of Shogo's plans."
Drone chimed in, full of confidence.
"Don't worry my man Ken.
Unlike Mr Dingbat Shogo, you won't be forty feet in the air screaming for your mother.
He paused, and a light smirk appeared on his face.
"You'll only be... like, five at most."
Kentaro squinted, grabbing the rope.
"Why does that still sound life-threatening?!"
He got no response.
Nevertheless, he held on, pushing his doubts to the back of his mind.
The drone began to drift backwards, slowly lifting him off the ground, prepping for momentum.
His grip tightened. His doubt increased. His soul started writing its will.
"J-just drone, please don't launch me straight into a wall or a support beam or an escalator or-"
No one answered.
And then the drone stopped mid-air.
And then...
WHOOOM!
The drone shot forward like a fired cannonball.
Kentaro screamed like a civilian in the middle of a cursed episode.
The wind slapped his face. His legs kicked. The door grew closer.
"WAIT-WAIT, THE DOOR'S STILL CLOS-"
The sound of the door being smashed into was loud, as Kentaro blasted through the door like a human missile, spraying ice and shards across the entrance.
"SUCCESS!" Yumi shouted, punching the air like she had just won the World Cup.
"Hold up," Shogo muttered, squinting at the screen.
Does anyone... know how he's gonna stop?" He asked tilting his head slightly.
Haruka went silent.
Tenka paled.
Then came in the realisation.
"...OH SHIII-"