This chapter takes place the night of the Pulse, right after the Armed Agent scanned cyrus.
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The dorm was loud—doors slamming, people shouting, lights flickering like the building itself couldn't decide whether it was awake or dying.
Cyrus sat on the edge of his bed, still staring at the pen he'd lifted barely an inch.
Across the hallway, another door swung open.
Kaito stepped out, hair messy, hoodie half-zipped, eyes unfocused as if he'd just woken from a nightmare he still wasn't done dreaming.
"Kaito?" Cyrus asked quietly.
No answer.
Kaito blinked slowly, gripping the edge of the doorframe. His knuckles were white. His breathing was uneven—too sharp, too fast, like panic barely under control.
"You okay?" Cyrus pressed.
Kaito looked up.
And Cyrus saw it—
A flicker.
A distortion.
Like the hallway bent for half a second.
Kaito wasn't using his powers.
His powers were using him.
He squeezed his temples. "Everything is… wrong."
Cyrus stepped closer. "What happened?"
Kaito shut his eyes tight.
And that's when the illusion hit.
Not on Cyrus—
on Kaito himself.
His mind replayed the moment of the Pulse like a cracked mirror:
One second he was sitting alone, watching anime on his laptop.
The next—
The world folded.
Colors crawled off the walls.
Shapes twisted into people who weren't there.
Hands he didn't recognize reached toward him.
Whispers scraped the inside of his skull:
"Wake up, wake up, wake up—"
The illusion swallowed his room whole, drowning reality under hallucinations he couldn't shut off. Dozens of versions of himself stood around his bed, all whispering different fears.
And Kaito had screamed.
Not out loud—
inside.
He had clutched his head, falling to his knees as the hallucinations laughed, cried, morphed, split, and merged. He didn't know what was real, didn't know where the room ended or where his mind began.
Then—
A snap.
Everything vanished.
Back to silence.
Back to reality.
But every object he looked at now… shimmered slightly, like it might start lying again.
Kaito opened his eyes in the hallway and whispered:
"…I saw things that felt more real than you."
Cyrus swallowed. "Your mind created illusions?"
"No."
Kaito shook his head slowly.
"A part of me… became illusions."
The lights overhead buzzed.
Cyrus blinked.
Kaito's silhouette split for a heartbeat—
two of him, then one again.
Cyrus took a careful step forward. "Try to control it. Right now. Just… focus on me."
Kaito stared at him.
For a terrifying second, Cyrus's face blurred—
split—
shifted—
morphed into someone else—
Then snapped back.
Kaito staggered, breathing hard. "I don't know how."
"You will," Cyrus said instantly. "And I'll help."
Kaito exhaled, exhausted, leaning back against the wall.
Then he whispered something that stuck with Cyrus:
"I'm scared that if I lose focus… I'll lose myself."
Cyrus placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then don't lose focus. Simple."
Kaito let out a shaky laugh.
A real one.
"Yeah. Okay. If I hallucinate your face again just slap me or something."
"Deal."
Cyrus then said the words that unknowingly shaped their partnership:
"Powers or not—you're still you. My only family."
Kaito blinked, then nodded.
For the first time since the Pulse, the illusions went quiet.
After going through it Kaito somehow understood the illusions and got a hold of it. Kaito now had a feeling that he can control the illusions, not just a thought, but something like a second nature to his mind, but he was scared to test it.
Kaito asked "Hey Cyrus let's just keep this between us"
"Are you sure" Cyrus replied worried
"Yeah" Kaito said
And the two walked back into Cyrus's room—
both changed,
both unsteady,
both knowing the world outside was unraveling—