The first Gate appeared on a Tuesday.
No warning. No prophecy. No thunder tearing the sky apart.
It opened quietly—like a wound that had been waiting to split.
Rai Kurose only noticed because the air changed.
He had been mopping the corridor of the Shinjuku Underground Station, fluorescent lights buzzing faintly above him, when the temperature dropped just enough for his breath to fog. The puddle at his feet rippled, though no train was passing. Somewhere deep in the station, metal groaned, low and uneasy.
Rai straightened slowly, fingers tightening around the mop handle.
Then people screamed.
A distortion bloomed at the far end of the platform—space folding inward like wet paper. Blue light spilled out, painting the tiled walls in an unearthly glow. The Gate stabilized in seconds, its surface swirling like deep water.
This wasn't Rai's first Gate.
That was the problem.
"Gate confirmed! All civilians evacuate immediately!" a voice shouted over the speakers, already cracking with panic.
Hunters arrived fast—too fast. Rank B and above, wearing reinforced coats, weapons already drawn, expressions sharp with practiced confidence. Rai stepped back, pressing himself against a pillar, lowering his gaze the way he always did.
He was a cleaner. A non-combat support. The kind of person Hunters forgot existed unless something went wrong.
And something always went wrong.
The first monster came out screaming.
It wasn't large—humanoid, maybe two meters tall, skin stretched too tight over bone, eyes glowing an unnatural yellow. A Hunter cut it down in one clean motion. Cheers erupted.
Then the second came out.
Then the third.
The Gate shuddered.
Rai felt it before anyone said the words.
"—It's unstable!"
The platform lights flickered. The Gate pulsed violently, expanding outward like a lung drawing breath. Hunters shouted orders. Civilians tripped over one another trying to flee.
Rai turned to run.
He didn't make it three steps.
The world lurched.
The floor cracked open beneath him, concrete collapsing as if it had rotted from the inside. Rai felt weightlessness for half a heartbeat before pain exploded through his body. He hit something hard, breath knocked clean out of him, vision blurring.
Above him, the platform collapsed.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Rai woke up choking.
Dust filled his mouth and lungs, scraping his throat raw as he coughed violently. His body screamed in protest when he tried to move. Something heavy pinned his left leg. His right arm throbbed, warm and wet.
Blood.
He wiped at his eyes, blinking until shapes began to form.
Bodies.
Too many.
Hunters and civilians alike lay broken around him, crushed by debris or torn apart by something that had passed through here after the collapse. The air reeked of iron and burned ozone.
The Gate was still open.
It loomed above the wreckage, distorted and unstable, its light flickering weakly like a dying flame.
A monster crawled out.
It was smaller than the others—but faster. Its limbs bent the wrong way, claws scraping against concrete as it dragged itself forward, sniffing the air.
Rai froze.
He had no weapon.
No strength.
No chance.
The monster turned its head.
Its eyes locked onto him.
Rai's heart hammered so hard it hurt. He tried to scream, but his throat refused to cooperate. His hand brushed against something cold near his side—a broken Hunter's knife, half-buried under rubble.
The monster lunged.
Rai didn't think.
He grabbed the knife and drove it upward with everything he had.
The blade sank into the creature's throat.
Hot, black blood spilled over his hands. The monster thrashed violently, claws raking across Rai's chest. Pain flared white-hot, but Rai didn't let go. He screamed—not in fear, but in raw, desperate refusal to die.
The creature convulsed once.
Then went still.
Rai collapsed back against the rubble, gasping, vision fading at the edges.
He had killed it.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Then—
[Condition Met.][Unique System Initializing…]
Blue light flickered before his eyes.
Rai stared weakly at the translucent window hovering in the air, wondering if this was what dying looked like.
[You have survived beyond recorded probability.][Echo System unlocked.]
The monster's corpse began to dissolve.
Not into ash—but into shadows.
They peeled away from the body like smoke being pulled backward, gathering near Rai's outstretched hand. The darkness twisted, condensed, and sank into his shadow.
Rai felt something settle deep inside his chest.
Heavy.
Cold.
Alive.
[First Echo acquired.][Level: 1]
The Gate above them let out a final, shrill scream.
Then it collapsed in on itself.
Silence followed.
Rai Kurose lay among the dead, bleeding, shaking—alive when he should not have been.
He didn't know it yet, but this was the moment the world began to remember his name.
And one day, it would take something precious in return.