Kazuki adjusted the strap of his bag for the third time in as many minutes and let out a slow breath as he stared down the empty street.

  Early October sunlight came through the trees along the road. "Perfect weather."

  "God, please let everything be perfect. I don't want some embarrassing moment on my first day at this new school. I'm not asking for much, just a normal wish that I won't be the weird transfer kid who eats lunch alone."

  Kazuki went over his introduction like seventeen times last night. He had to keep it Friendly, but not too eager.

  The kind of vibe that says "yeah, I'm cool to hang with" without basically begging "please be my friend, I'm dying of loneliness here."

  Kazuki couldn't let what happened at his old school repeat itself.

  Just thinking about it made him want to crawl into a hole and die from embarrassment.

  That's why everything had to be perfect today. There was no room for mistakes, not even one.

  Because if he screwed this up? Another whole year of being a total loner. No way he could survive that again.

  The bus was coming in eight minutes. He checked his phone. Still 7:12 AM.

  Kazuki took a breath and let his shoulders drop. Kazuki looked around.

  The neighborhood was dead quiet like, weirdly quiet.

  No dog walkers. No joggers in their obnoxious neon gear with earbuds blasting music. Just him, that creepy swaying bus sign, and some distant sound of—

  Wait. Humming?

  Kazuki's eyes opened.

  The sound was faint at first—like a lightbulb buzzing on its last legs, but it kept getting louder.

  It vibrated through his chest in this gross way that made his teeth ache. Then the temperature just... dropped.

  One second it was a perfectly nice autumn morning. The next, his breath was coming out in visible puffs, and goosebumps were exploding all over his arms.

  That warm breeze from like two seconds ago? Gone. Replaced by a cold so sharp it felt like tiny needles stabbing his skin.

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  He spun around, trying to find where the hell that sound was coming from.

  The street behind him looked normal enough, houses with their curtains still shut, mailboxes lined up.

  Nothing weird.

  But the humming kept getting louder. And then he saw it.

  The pavement rippled.

  Actual waves spread out from a spot maybe ten feet in front of him, warping the asphalt, the painted lines, even the freaking air itself.

  Kazuki stumbled back. His bag slipped off his shoulder and crashed to the ground. The colors inverted.

  For one seriously messed-up second, the world flashed into some kind of negative photo.

  Trees turned white against a pitch-black sky, the yellow bus stop sign went purple, and his hands looked like he'd dunked them in ink.

  Then everything snapped back to normal. Except it wasn't normal at all.

  The edges of everything stretched like rubber bands, pulling out in ways that shouldn't be physically possible before snapping back with a crack that made Kazuki flinch hard.

  "What the—"

  A vortex formed.

  It wasn't all dramatic at first. Just this circular distortion hovering above the pavement, about the size of a dinner plate, swirling with these bands of light and shadow that moved on their own.

  But then it started growing. Slowly at first, then faster, expanding in spirals that seemed to fold space in on itself.

  The center wasn't bright or dark—it was nothing.

  Like, an actual void that physically hurt to look at because his eyes kept trying to focus on something that just... wasn't there.

  The pull started gentle.

  Just a light tug on his clothes.

  A weird pressure against his skin.

  Then it got stronger, and suddenly Kazuki felt his feet sliding forward across the pavement.

  The ground beneath him was slick as ice, offering zero grip no matter how hard he dug his heels in.

  "What is happening—"

  He lunged for the bus stop bench, fingers wrapping desperately around the metal armrest. The vortex pulled at him like some invisible giant hand.

  His arms were shaking so bad they might as well have been vibrating.

  The humming had turned into a full-on roar, drowning out his own panicked breathing.

  Hold on. Just hold on. Don't let go.

  His phone slipped out of his pocket.

  He could only watch as it tumbled toward the vortex in slow motion. The moment it touched that swirling edge, it just... stopped existing.

  One second it was there, the next it straight-up wasn't.

  “WHAT THE FUCK.”

  That thing was going to swallow him whole, and nobody would ever know. His parents would file a missing person report.

  The school would mark him absent on the first day.

  Maybe someone would find his bag lying here and wonder whatever happened to that transfer student who never even showed up.

  "HELP!" His voice cracked and broke. "SOMEONE—ANYONE—PLEASE!"

  But he already knew the truth.

  He'd chosen this bus stop specifically because it was quiet. Because he'd wanted a few peaceful minutes before dealing with a whole new school full of strangers.

  His grip slipped.

  The bench's metal was freezing cold and way too smooth.

  His palms were drenched in sweat.His fingers were going completely numb.

  Through his blurred vision, he could see a bus turning the corner way down the street, its yellow paint bright and cheerful against the morning sky.

  His hands gave out. “AHAAA.”

  The vortex swallowed him whole.