Inside the anomaly loop, time cracked.
Hiragi stood in the middle of a street that repeated every ten seconds. Airi's voice crackled through the comm—but distorted.
"—ra…gi…don't…move—ERROR—"
Then silence.
Ahead, shadows twisted into human shapes.
No eyes. No mouths.
Just screams carved into their chests.
"Glitch ghosts."
Remnants of souls trapped between death and data.
Not truly alive. Not truly dead.
Hiragi stepped forward—Void Knife pulsing.
One ghost lunged. He slashed—only for the blade to pass through.
"I can't kill them?"
He looked at his reflection in a broken glass shard on the ground.
For a second…
He saw two Hiragis.
One standing.
One kneeling—eyes hollow, face cracked.
"This world's been duplicating my soul…"
A voice echoed in the glitched air.
"When you entered Eden's subconscious, you left behind your soulprint."
It was Ishigami, calm and unreadable as ever, appearing beside him in the loop—his coat flapping, eyes shining cold.
"What you fight now isn't just code. It's… you. The parts you left behind."
Hiragi clenched his jaw.
"Then I'll reclaim it."
He raised the Void Knife, now glowing blue.
And slashed not at the ghosts—
…but at his own shadow.
The world blinked.
A howl split the dimension open.
The ghosts screamed, dissolved, scattered like ash.
Ishigami stepped forward.
"That was only one piece."
"How many more?"
Ishigami looked up at the fractured sky.
"Ten thousand."
Hiragi smirked bitterly.
"Then I'll erase them all."