(Please listen to soundtrack song "Hidden Things By Kohta Yamamoto" while reading this chapter for more intense feeling.)
X Tower loomed over the city like a silent giant.
At night, it felt completely different from the lively landmark it was during the day. No lights. No crowds. No sound of Beyblades clashing. Just an empty structure stretching into the sky, its glass and steel reflecting the pale moonlight.
Axamu stopped at the entrance.
"…Strange..." he muttered, eyes narrowing, "Why..."
Shirayuki instinctively moved closer to him, lightly gripping the edge of his sleeve.
"There's no one here…" she whispered.
Axamu nodded slowly.
Too quiet.
X Tower is never like this.
A faint unease settled in his chest, heavier with each step forward.
What is this feeling…
Bad. Very bad.
They entered the tower.
The moment they crossed the threshold, darkness swallowed them. The massive interior was completely unlit—no electricity, no emergency lights, nothing. The air felt cold and still, as if the tower itself had been abandoned for years.
Axamu glanced around.
"…No power," he said under his breath.
"No guards either."
His footsteps echoed unnaturally loud as they moved deeper inside. Every sound felt amplified, every shadow stretched too long. Shirayuki stayed close behind him, her eyes darting around nervously.
Is there really no one here? Axamu thought.
Then—
A presence.
Axamu stopped abruptly.
Shirayuki nearly bumped into his back. "Axamu…?"
He slowly raised his head, eyes fixed on the center of the tower.
Someone was there.
At first, it was only a silhouette—standing completely still, wrapped in darkness. The lack of light made it impossible to see any details, but the figure's presence alone was overwhelming.
The air felt heavier.
Then the clouds shifted.
Moonlight poured through the high glass ceiling, illuminating the center of the tower just enough.
The figure stepped forward.
A mask—smooth, dark, and unfamiliar. A form that felt both human and something else entirely. The faint reflection of moonlight revealed a symbol that made Axamu's breath catch.
Kamen…?
But not X.
Not anyone he recognized.
"…So," a calm, distorted voice echoed through the tower, "you're the one who Fate brought here."
Axamu's eyes widened slightly.
Kamen 0.
The name surfaced in his mind like a warning bell.
The figure stood motionless beneath the moonlight, watching them—watching him.
The tower remained silent.
And the night held its breath.
---
The moonlight cut through the darkness like a blade.
Axamu took a slow step forward, shielding Shirayuki slightly behind him, his voice low but firm.
"How do you know about that?"
The figure wearing Kamen 0's mask tilted its head.
"How?" it repeated softly.
"Because—"
The air glitched.
Reality itself seemed to stutter.
Kamen 0's body distorted, flickering like a broken screen. His outline warped, fragments of darkness tearing away and reassembling. The mask cracked—not physically, but visually—as if its existence was failing to stay stable.
Then—
A smile.
Not a human one.
A wide, unnatural grin flickered across the glitching face beneath the mask, appearing and disappearing in fragments, stretched and broken in ways no face should move.
Shirayuki gasped sharply.
Axamu felt his spine freeze.
The pressure was suffocating. His instincts screamed danger, his body trembling despite his effort to stay still.
"I am not a character," the glitching figure said calmly, voice overlapping itself,
"and I am not a person from this world."
The smile twitched.
Axamu's breath hitched, cold fear crawling up his throat.
"What are you—"
"Ah, ah."
The figure cut him off mid-sentence.
"For now," it said lightly, "no one else needs to hear what we're about to talk about."
Snap.
The sound was soft. Casual.
Shirayuki's body suddenly went limp.
"Shirayuki—!"
Axamu caught her instantly before she hit the floor, panic flashing across his face as he pulled her into his arms.
"Shirayuki! Hey—wake up!"
He looked up sharply, fury blazing in his eyes.
"What did you do to her?!"
The glitching figure waved a hand dismissively.
"Relax. I merely made her faint."
"This conversation isn't meant for a character of this world to hear."
Axamu slowly stood, holding Shirayuki protectively, his expression dark—dangerously so.
His eyes weren't just angry.
They were hostile.
The figure let out a distorted chuckle.
"Ooh~ don't look at me like that. How scary."
Then it leaned forward slightly.
"And you've been mistaken about one thing."
Its form stabilized just enough to resemble Kamen 0 again—though the glitches still crawled beneath the surface.
"You keep having though that i am Kamen 0."
"But I'm not him~"
Axamu said nothing.
He only stared.
"Kamen 0," the figure continued, voice amused,
"is an existence that already belongs to this world."
The grin widened.
"But I'm not him."
Silence swallowed the tower.
Axamu's grip tightened around Shirayuki.
The glitching man stepped closer, moonlight sliding unnaturally across his shifting form.
"For now," it said softly, almost kindly,
"you understand, right?"
Its eyes—fragmented, mismatched—locked onto Axamu's.
"That you are not something that should exist in this world."
The smile returned.
"And that you are not a character of this world either."
Axamu didn't flinch.
He didn't speak.
He only stared back—eyes burning with anger, fear, and something far deeper.
The tower trembled silently, as if reality itself was listening.
---
(At this moment, please listen to soundtrack song "D_Truth_R By Kohta Yamamoto" while reading this chapter for more intense feeling.)
Axamu's voice came out low and strained.
"…What are you?"
Carefully—slowly—he lowered Shirayuki to the cold floor, making sure her head rested safely. His movements were gentle, but his eyes never left the glitching figure.
Then his voice hardened.
"After you stole everyone's memories before," Axamu said, teeth clenched,
"now you want to take my important person too?"
The glitching man froze for a moment.
Then—
Laughter echoed through the dark tower.
"Important person?" it repeated, voice layered and distorted.
"That character?"
Its smile stretched wider, tearing unnaturally across its face.
"Even though you yourself thought about using her," it continued mockingly,
"and yet you call her important?"
The laughter grew sharper.
"You are twisted."
The glitches around its body intensified, fragments of light and shadow peeling off like broken frames.
"What you believe," the figure went on,
"and what you truly feel… are completely conflicted."
Axamu's fist trembled.
"Shut up."
His voice cracked the silence like a blade.
Then, firmly:
"What do you want from me?"
The glitching man tilted its head, as if amused.
"Before asking what I want from you," it said lightly,
"don't you want to know who I am~?"
Axamu didn't answer.
The figure leaned closer.
"No—more accurately," it corrected itself,
"who we are~"
"…What?"
Axamu's eyes widened.
That single word echoed in his mind.
We.
Not I.
The glitching man chuckled softly, as if pleased.
"I know what you're thinking," it said, voice overlapping itself.
"And I'm here to tell you the T₹ut£h."
The glitches intensified again—its body tearing and reforming, that inhuman smile flickering in and out of existence.
"We are Watchers~."
Axamu swallowed.
"…Watchers?"
"Yes. Watchers," the figure replied smoothly.
"System. Quests. Glitches."
Its eyes gleamed unnaturally.
"All of them… are us."
Axamu's breath hitched.
"…Even the system?"
The smile widened—wrong, too wide.
"Of course."
Then, with chilling delight, it spoke the words that shattered everything.
"We are the Watchers of this Beyblade X anime."
The world seemed to tilt.
Axamu's body stiffened, his vision blurring as the meaning crushed down on him. His mind raced, trying—and failing—to reject what he'd just heard.
Anime.
Watchers.
System.
All of it.
"…Huh…?"
The word slipped out weakly.
The glitching man only smiled, its form flickering like a god watching a story unfold from the outside, while the tower stood silent—bearing witness to a truth that should never have been spoken.