Fate in Motion
The morning felt heavy.
Even before Ruko stepped out, the air had that strange stillness — the kind that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.
He stared at himself in the mirror again.
The same face, the same tired eyes. Nothing had changed, yet something inside him whispered that everything would.
He grabbed his jacket and headed out. His footsteps echoed down the quiet street — too quiet for a weekday. The sound of his shoes on the pavement was the only reminder that he was still here. Still alive.
A cat darted past, brushing against his leg before vanishing into an alley. Ruko stopped for a moment, glancing after it. "Heh… even that thing's got places to be," he said under his breath.
He passed the convenience store, the coffee stand, the traffic lights he'd waited at a thousand times. But today… it all felt off. Like the world itself was one second behind.
A faint static buzzed in his ear — that same energy again.
It crawled up his spine, making him mutter, "Bomboclot… not again."
He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to shake it off.
When he got to the main road, cars rushed by, horns blaring. He watched them for a moment — each one filled with people going somewhere, chasing something. It made him wonder if he'd ever found his own reason to move forward.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from his girlfriend.
He hesitated before opening it. Just a short text: We need to talk.
His chest sank. "Yeah… figures."
He started walking again, crossing the street as the light turned green.
Halfway across, the static flared in his ears again — a sharp pulse, like a warning. He froze.
Then —
SCREEEEECH.
The deafening sound of tires on wet asphalt tore through the air. A flash of metal. A blur of motion.
For a split second, everything slowed. He saw his girlfriend standing across the road, wide-eyed. And beside her — another man, holding her arm, pulling her back.
Ruko's pupils shrank. So that's how it is.
And then —
CRASH.
The world went white.
Silence.
When the light faded, Ruko was lying on the cold asphalt, while the driver at deaths door in his truck. He could see faces gathering — familiar, shocked, distant. His family, too — but they didn't move. They just stared.
No one ran to him. No one screamed.
Only the sound of the rain that had finally started to fall.
He tried to speak, but only a broken breath escaped.
"Guess… that's it then…"
His eyes slowly dimmed — but just before darkness took him, he heard a voice.
Soft. Echoing. Otherworldly.
> "Ruko Jizuko… your time here ends, but your true existence begins."
A faint glow surrounded him, and the rain stopped midair.
And then — nothing.