The alarm screamed.Once.Then twice.A third piercing whine followed.A hand, slow and reluctant, crept from beneath the covers and fumbled across the nightstand.“Just five more minutes…”The hand searched for the phone.It found it.The alarm died.Silence settled.A few seconds ticked by.Then a voice, sharp and clear, boomed from outside the bedroom door.“AKIRA!”Akira’s eyes snapped open.“Huh?!”He sat bolt upright. His short, messy black hair stood at odd angles, a dark crown against the pale pillowcase. He blinked, grey eyes adjusting to the muted light filtering through his curtains. The faint smell of toasted bread already hung in the air, a familiar signal of morning.“You’ll be late for school!” his mother’s voice called again, closer now, her footsteps thudding lightly down the hall.Akira groaned, a low, guttural sound. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, feeling the cool wood floor against his bare feet. A quick glance at the digital clock on his phone confirmed her warning. 7:35 AM. He was cutting it close, as usual.He stretched, his muscles protesting with a satisfying crack. The room was a familiar mess: textbooks piled precariously on his desk, a discarded hoodie slung over his chair, an empty ramen cup beside his monitor. Chaos, but his chaos.He stood, grabbing a faded t-shirt from the floor and pulling it over his head. The fabric smelled faintly of laundry detergent and something uniquely *his*. He ran a hand through his unruly hair, knowing it was a lost cause until he doused it with water.A quick stop in the bathroom. The mirror showed him a familiar face: sharp jawline, a scattering of small moles, those intense grey eyes that often held a mischievous glint. Today, they held sleep. He splashed cold water on his face, trying to shock himself awake.Downstairs, the kitchen was bright. His mother, a small woman with hair neatly tied back, was bustling around the counter, packing a bento box. The scent of miso soup and grilled fish was strong.“Morning, sleepyhead,” she said, not looking up, but her tone was warm.“Morning, Mom.” Akira grabbed a bowl and poured himself some cereal from the box on the counter. The crunchy flakes tumbled into the milk with a soft hiss. He preferred cereal to miso soup in the mornings, a constant point of gentle contention.“Your friends will be waiting,” she reminded him, placing the finished bento into a cloth bag.“They can wait,” he mumbled, taking a large spoonful of cereal. “Builds character.”She finally looked at him, a small smile playing on her lips. “Or makes them annoyed. Ren sent you a message ten minutes ago, by the way.”Akira checked his phone. Three new messages. Two from Ren, one from Hana. He opened Ren’s first. *Dude, you alive? We’re leaving in five.*He typed a quick reply. *Just rolling out of bed, be there in ten.*“You really need to set your alarm earlier,” his mother sighed, but there was no real heat in it. She knew him too well.“Where’s Dad?” Akira asked, not seeing his father’s usual newspaper spread across the dining table.“Already at work. Early meeting.” She handed him the bento. “Don’t forget this. And don’t forget to study for that history test.”He took the bag. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He winked. “History is my favorite. All those dates and names, thrilling stuff.”She rolled her eyes. “Just go.”Akira grinned, grabbing his backpack from beside the door. The worn leather straps felt familiar against his shoulders. He gave his mother a quick, one-armed hug, then headed out. The cool morning air hit him, sharp and invigorating. The sun was just starting to climb, painting the sky in soft oranges and purples. It was a perfectly ordinary morning.---He jogged down the familiar suburban street, the asphalt still cool beneath his sneakers. Houses with neat gardens and closed curtains lined the route. A cat, sleek and black, darted across his path, disappearing behind a hedge. He checked his phone again. Ren’s last message: *We're almost at the usual corner. Don't make us late.*Akira picked up his pace. He rounded the corner, and there they were, a small cluster of figures by the old cherry tree. Hana, with her long, dark ponytail swaying as she tapped her foot impatiently. Ren, leaning against the tree trunk, scrolling through his phone. Sora, perched on a low garden wall, already absorbed in a manga. Kaito, taller and more athletic than the rest, was stretching his arms, probably already thinking about the morning's sports practice.“Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence,” Hana said, hands on her hips, a mock glare on her face. Her voice was usually bright, but it held an edge of playful annoyance this morning.“Fashionably late, as always,” Ren added, not even looking up from his screen.Akira just grinned, unbothered. “Someone’s gotta keep you guys on your toes. Imagine if we were all punctual. The world would be a much duller place.” He reached them, ruffling Hana’s hair as he passed.She swatted his hand away. “Hey! I just brushed that.”“Looks better messy anyway,” Akira retorted, sliding his backpack off one shoulder to adjust it. “Adds character.”Kaito pushed off the wall, stretching his shoulders. “We were starting to think you got swallowed by your bed again, Akira.”“Almost did,” Akira admitted, falling into step beside them as they started walking. The school was only a few blocks away. “The bed monster was particularly tenacious this morning. Required extreme tactical maneuvers to escape.”Sora looked up from his manga, a small, knowing smile on his face. “Or you just hit snooze five times.”“Details, details,” Akira waved a dismissive hand. “The important thing is, I’m here. Ready to enlighten your minds with my profound wisdom.”Ren finally put his phone away, tucking it into his pocket. “Or annoy us into submission. What’s the plan for after school? Hana wants to hit up that new cafe.”Hana nodded eagerly. “They have matcha lattes with actual cat art on the foam!”Akira pretended to shudder. “Cat art? My masculinity can’t handle such cuteness. Besides, I have history homework. Riveting stuff.” He glanced at Sora, who had already returned to his manga. “Sora, you coming?”Sora shrugged, still reading. “Maybe. Depends if I finish this volume.”Kaito clapped Akira on the shoulder. “You can always just come for an hour, Akira. Just one latte.”Akira considered it. He did like new places, even if he pretended otherwise. “Fine, but if I see one glittery unicorn on my drink, I’m blaming Hana.”Hana clapped her hands. “Excellent! See? He’s not completely heartless.”Their chatter filled the morning air, a comfortable symphony of inside jokes and lighthearted teasing. The path to school was worn smooth by countless footsteps over the years. The scent of blooming hydrangeas from a nearby garden mixed with the faint, metallic tang of the city in the distance. A few other students were also making their way, their laughter and conversations blending into the general hum of the waking town. Everything felt so normal, so solid. Unchanging.Akira glanced up at the sky. A clear, brilliant blue, with only a few wispy clouds. No hint of anything unusual. His friends were beside him, their easy camaraderie a comfortable blanket around him. This was his world. This was his life. He wouldn't trade it for anything. He thought about the history test again, the dates and names, the battles fought long ago. Those were stories. This was reality.---The school day passed in a blur of equations, historical figures, and the drone of teachers’ voices. Akira, despite his feigned disinterest, had paid enough attention in history class to confidently answer a few questions, much to Hana’s surprised amusement. Lunch was a chaotic affair in the cafeteria, everyone sharing bites of their bentos and complaining about the upcoming exams.After the final bell, the group gathered at their usual spot by the school gates. The afternoon sun was warm, casting long shadows across the pavement. Hana was still buzzing about the cafe, while Kaito was trying to convince Ren to join him for basketball practice. Sora was, predictably, halfway through another volume of manga, leaning against the cool brick wall.“So, the cafe. Who’s in?” Hana asked, eyes bright.“I’m in,” Kaito said immediately. “Might as well. Need to refuel.”Ren sighed. “Fine, but I’m not paying for your triple-shot espresso, Kaito.”Akira slung his backpack higher on his shoulder. “I still have to decide if my sensitive artistic soul can handle the cuteness overload.”He was about to launch into another joke when a flicker caught his eye. Just above the rooftops of the houses across the street. A shimmer, like heat haze rising from asphalt, but it wasn't hot. It was too high, too sharp. It seemed to distort the light around it, making the air ripple.“Did you guys see that?” Akira asked, his voice suddenly quiet, stripped of its usual bravado.Ren looked up from his phone, a frown creasing his brow. “See what?”Hana followed Akira’s gaze. “See what, Akira? The new billboard for the idol group? No, wait, that’s not new.”The distortion wavered, then solidified for a fraction of a second, revealing something else. A fleeting glimpse of impossible colours, not of this world, swirling within the shimmer. Like looking through a broken pane of glass at another dimension. Then it vanished, leaving only the mundane rooftops.“Nothing,” Akira mumbled, shaking his head. “Must have been the light.” He told himself it was just a trick of the eye, fatigue from the long school day. Yet a prickle of unease ran down his spine.Sora finally closed his manga, his grey eyes, usually soft behind his glasses, now narrowed slightly. “I thought I felt something strange earlier. A… vibration?”Kaito scoffed. “Probably just the subway, Sora. You get too absorbed in those fantasy books.”“No, it wasn’t like that,” Sora insisted, pushing his glasses up his nose. “It felt… deeper. Like the air itself was humming.”Akira remembered the faint metallic tang in the air earlier, stronger than usual. He dismissed it then, but now…Just as he was about to brush it off again, the ground beneath their feet trembled. Not a gentle rumble, but a sharp, sudden tremor that made the asphalt crack with a dry, splintering sound. The air filled with a low groan, like a massive unseen weight shifting.“Earthquake?!” Hana shrieked, stumbling backwards.“Get away from the building!” Kaito yelled, grabbing Hana’s arm and pulling her into the open space of the schoolyard.But this was no ordinary earthquake. The vibrations intensified, not shaking them side to side, but pulling at them, as if the very ground was being stretched thin. The sky, moments ago a clear blue, began to ripple. Not just a shimmer, but large, visible distortions, like water disturbed by a stone. The light shifted, turning from golden afternoon to an unsettling, sickly green, then a lurid purple, then back again.The sound grew, a high-pitched whine that grated on their teeth, followed by a deeper, guttural roar that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. It was the sound of reality tearing apart. Buildings across the street seemed to waver, their solid structures momentarily blurring, their edges softening into abstract shapes.“What is happening?!” Ren shouted, his voice laced with pure fear. His phone, which he’d dropped, lay on the ground, its screen flickering with impossible colours.Akira stared up at the sky, his heart hammering against his ribs. The shimmering above the rooftops had returned, not a small localized distortion, but a massive, expanding vortex of impossible light and swirling darkness. It was like a colossal eye opening in the heavens, an eye that looked down on their world with incomprehensible power.He saw it clearly now. The edges of the sky, the horizon itself, were beginning to crack. Fissures of pure energy, like lightning frozen in place, shot across the azure, spiderwebbing outwards. And from within the vortex, tendrils of raw, shimmering energy began to descend, reaching for the ground, for their town, for *them*.The wind picked up, unnatural and violent, tearing at their clothes, whipping their hair into their eyes. Dust and debris swirled around them. People screamed, their cries swallowed by the deafening roar. Akira instinctively reached out, grabbing Hana’s hand, then Ren’s. Kaito was already pulling Sora close, shielding him.He felt a strange, cold sensation washing over him, an agonizing pull that felt like his very essence was being stretched. It wasn’t just the ground trembling; it was everything. His vision blurred, the familiar street dissolving into a chaotic kaleidoscope of light and shadow. He could feel the world around him, his world, giving way.He squeezed Hana’s hand, his gaze fixed on the monstrous, growing maw in the sky. It wasn't just distortion. It was a doorway. And it was opening for them.

Chapter 1: Before Everything Changed