The sky was wrong.
Aizen Kuroya realized it the moment he opened his eyes that morning. It wasn't just the grayish color spreading across the horizon of Tokyo, nor the heavy silence that seemed to swallow the sounds of the city. It was something deeper, an instinctive sensation carved into his bones, as if the world itself were holding its breath before dying.
He stood atop an abandoned building, a place he often visited to think whenever everything felt out of control. At sixteen years old, Aizen had learned far too early that the real world didn't offer easy answers. Orphaned at a young age, raised in temporary homes and later by himself, he survived more by sheer willpower than by hope.
That morning, however, loneliness felt insignificant compared to what was approaching.
The air trembled.
"…So it's not just in my head," he murmured.
The wind blew irregularly, as if being pulled toward some invisible point in the sky. The clouds began to rotate slowly, forming massive spirals. Aizen felt a chill crawl down his spine.
His phone vibrated.
Without knowing why, he already expected bad news.
📱 GLOBAL EMERGENCY ALERT 📱 Immediate evacuation recommended. Unknown-class phenomenon detected.
"Phenomenon…" he let out a dry laugh. "They always invent nice names when they don't know what's happening."
Deep down, though, Aizen knew.
This wasn't a natural disaster.
The sky tore open.
It wasn't an explosion or a lightning strike. It was as if an invisible blade had sliced through reality itself. A massive fissure opened above the city, revealing absolute nothingness beyond—a black so deep it seemed to devour light.
People screamed in the streets below.
Buildings shook.
The ground quaked violently, throwing Aizen to his knees. He grabbed the rooftop barrier while watching the impossible unfold. From the tear in the sky, unrecognizable structures began to emerge—fragments of worlds, pieces of cities that didn't belong to Earth.
A medieval tower floated beside shattered futuristic skyscrapers.
Entire islands appeared and vanished like poorly rendered images.
"This… this is insane…" he whispered.
The air grew heavy.
Then, a voice echoed.
It didn't come from the sky. It didn't come from the earth.
It came from within.
> "Temporal line unstable."
Aizen clutched his head, staggering.
"Who's there?!"
> "Critical error detected."
The voice was neutral, devoid of emotion, yet carried an overwhelming weight.
> "Designated world: Earth-Ω. Status: Inevitable collapse."
Images flooded his mind.
Cities swallowed by the void.
Oceans evaporating.
The planet itself shattering like glass.
Aizen fell flat on his back.
"You're saying… the world is going to end?"
> "Correction: this world is already ending."
The silence that followed was deafening.
He laughed.
He laughed because crying wouldn't change anything.
"So that's it…" he muttered. "I lived sixteen years just to watch the finale."
The sky split even wider, and a wave of energy surged through the city. Buildings began to disappear—not exploding, but simply being erased from existence.
Aizen pushed himself to his feet.
If he was going to die, it wouldn't be while hiding.
He walked to the edge of the building, staring into the advancing void. The wind pulled at his body, as if calling him forward.
"Hey," he said out loud, unsure who he was addressing. "If someone's in charge of this mess… you did a terrible job."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, time stopped.
The wind froze.
Debris suspended in the air became motionless.
Even the fissure in the sky ceased expanding.
Aizen blinked.
"…Okay. That's definitely not normal."
Before him, space folded in on itself, forming a humanoid silhouette made of light and shadow. It had no defined face—only glowing eyes that seemed to contain entire galaxies.
> "You display above-average composure."
"I've been through worse," Aizen replied honestly. "At least emotionally."
The entity tilted its head slightly.
> "Curious."
Its presence crushed his mind, yet strangely, it wasn't hostile.
"So… are you God?" Aizen asked.
> "No."
"Some hyper-advanced alien?"
> "No."
"Great. I always wanted to die without answers."
For a brief moment, something resembling humor passed through the entity's voice.
> "I am an Administrator of the Multiverse."
Aizen frowned.
"Of course you are."
> "Your temporal line collapsed due to external interference."
"Interference from who?"
> "Other travelers."
Aizen's heart raced.
"Travelers… what do you mean?"
The entity extended its hand, and images formed in the air. People stepping through portals, wielding impossible powers, fighting in worlds that clearly weren't their own.
Anime.
Or something very close to it.
"Wait…" Aizen swallowed. "Those worlds…"
> "Are parallel realities."
His head spun.
"So you're saying… stories, anime, manga…"
> "Imperfect interpretations of existing realities."
His world was being destroyed because someone was playing god in other worlds.
"And I pay the price," he said bitterly.
> "Yes."
The honesty was cruel.
"Then why show me all this?"