Zazm woke up slowly, his breath shallow and his body heavy. The ceiling above him was familiar—softly glowing with the faint bluish-purple of the Shadow Realm. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light, then pushed himself up slightly and looked around. He was in his room.
Silence filled the space, the kind of thick stillness that comes after a storm. He rubbed a hand against his temple, trying to piece together what happened. His thoughts were like shattered glass, jagged and scattered. There had been a mountain... the threads... Nova—
Before he could gather himself, the door slammed open, and Miwa burst in like a bolt of lightning.
"Zazm!! You're finally up!" she shouted, practically leaping onto the bed and wrapping her arms around him.
"What the hell—" Zazm groaned, still dizzy, but then more footsteps echoed from the hallway. One by one, the others entered the room—Jennie, Kiyomasa, Ai, Minos, and finally Myeong-hwa—each one with a look of relief etched into their faces.
Minos grinned and said, "Dude, we thought you were done for."
Zazm rubbed his eyes. "What... what's going on? How long was I out?" Then his thoughts snapped into clarity. He sat up straighter, his heart thumping. "Where's Nova?"
Just then, a calm voice answered from the door. "Tch. So this bitch finally wakes up."
Zazm looked toward the voice, and there stood Jahanox—now going by Nova—with his usual icy calm, but with a smirk curling his lips.
"One month," Nova said, walking in casually. "You've been out for a whole damn month. I, who was practically on the brink of death, got back up in three weeks. You? You just had to be dramatic, huh?"
Laughter rippled through the room as Zazm narrowed his eyes at him. "You cocky bastard," he muttered with a crooked grin. But that grin faded fast.
His eyes locked on Nova's left eye. And it wasn't the same.
The eye was now something... else entirely. Otherworldly. A mesmerizing, crystalline iris, deep indigo at its core, surrounded by rings of liquid starlight. Its edges seemed to ripple like the surface of a calm pond disturbed by moonlight. Faint, glowing particles drifted from the corners of the eye—tiny flecks of light like shattered fragments of a comet trail, twinkling as they fell and vanished.
It was beautiful. Ethereal. Alien.
"What... is that?" Zazm asked, stunned.
Minos crossed his arms and replied, "The stone. It completely merged with his eye. And apparently, it doesn't just look cool—it works better than the original."
Nova shrugged and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Honestly? I can see clearer now. It's like looking through dimensions. No static, no blur, just pure perception. So... thanks, I guess."
Zazm smiled, his voice dry. "Don't mention it."
Ai, who had been quiet until now, asked softly, "But... what happened to you, Zazm? Why were you unconscious so long?"
Zazm leaned back against the pillows, exhaling slowly. "Because I used all my threads. Every last one. And when there weren't enough threads in my body to keep me alive... it just shut down. Like a machine with no fuel. It took time for new ones to form. So... I guess I kind of came back from the dead too."
He let out a dry, tired laugh.
Everyone went silent for a moment, taking in the weight of what he said. Then Zazm pointed at Nova's eye.
"Okay, but seriously... why does that thing keep glowing like it's trying to make a fashion statement?"
Nova tilted his head. "No idea. It just leaks these glowing flakes. Like some kind of celestial dandruff."
Minos leaned in with an exaggerated squint. "It literally looks like a legendary skin from a gacha game. You know, the kind with a 0.01% drop rate."
Everyone burst out laughing.
Jennie, who had been quietly smiling in the corner, let out a soft giggle. Kiyomasa snorted. Even Ai cracked a small smile.
Nova just smirked. "Well, I decided to keep the particles. They look cool. And who knows? Maybe they'll come in handy someday."
The room filled with warmth and laughter—after weeks of fear and uncertainty, this moment felt surreal. Surrounded by friends, Zazm let himself finally relax.
Outside, the Shadow Realm pulsed with quiet energy, cradling the Catalysts in its fold. And above them, somewhere across infinite universes, threads shimmered—unseen, unbroken.
Zazm groaned as he sat up, still sore from the previous ordeal, but his body functional again. Around him, the others were sitting, stretching, sipping drinks, or half-dozing in the common hall of the Shadow Realm. The air was thick with the scent of fresh tea and the occasional crackle of fire from the hearth.
Zazm leaned forward. "So... what have you all been doing for the last month?"
Jennie blinked. "Um. Nothing... really."
"Yeah," Kiyomasa added, sipping juice. "Just trained a bit. Went out. Chilled a lot. You know, pretty much that."
Miwa lazily nodded, a mouthful of snacks muffling her, "Yuh. Mostly vibed."
Zazm gave a dry chuckle. "I see. Meanwhile, I've been lying half-dead."
He stood and stretched. "Well, enough rest. It's about time we move to our destination."
At that, silence blanketed the room.
Zazm turned away, already walking. "We commence multiversal travel now."
Their faces grew serious. Everyone got up, instinctively understanding the gravity of his tone. Zazm disappeared into the private wing. After a quick bath and change into a sleek obsidian outfit and walked toward the throne room.
The others were already waiting lined up in silence, eyes sharp with anticipation.
Kiyomasa broke the quiet. "You opening the portal here?"
Zazm shook his head. "No."
Ai tilted her head. "Then where?"
Zazm opened a glowing rift behind him with a flick of his hand. "Just follow me."
One by one, they stepped through the portal. The scenery around them shattered like glass and when it reformed, the air was cold, silent, and ancient.
What appeared before their eyes was a scene that defied belief.
A cosmic ledge. On one side, stars glittered like fireflies entire galaxies spinning, radiant nebulae blooming in the distance. It was beauty, clarity, and life.
But on the other side there was nothing.
No color. No shadow. No shape.
Just a blank, empty void.
Miwa took a tentative step forward, entranced, but her foot slipped off the edge. She shrieked Zazm lunged and grabbed her arm just in time.
"Don't move carelessly," he said, his voice deadly calm. "This place is not a joke."
Minos stepped forward, visibly unnerved. "What the hell is this creepy space?"
Zazm extended a finger toward the stars. "That's our universe—every planet, star, law, and life... right there."
He turned and pointed at the blackness. "And that... is Void."
Everyone went quiet.
Jennie stared, brows furrowed. "There's... nothing there."
Zazm nodded. "Exactly. Not even darkness, just the absence of anything. If we stepped into that... we wouldn't just die. We'd unexist."
Ai's voice was small. "Then where are we standing?"
Zazm's eyes sparkled. "The border. The place between existence and absolute nothingness. The edge of our universe and the mouth of the Void."
Jahanox narrowed his gaze. "Then why bring us somewhere so dangerous?"
Zazm took a deep breath. "You remember what I said before? That the Void has no time, no space?"
They nodded.
Zazm knelt and touched the translucent floor beneath them it shimmered in response like ripples through water.
"This space here... is far more complex than either. In the universe, things exist and follow laws. In the Void, nothing exists. Simple."
He looked up at them, eyes gleaming. "But this place? Everything and nothing exists. It's chaos incarnate.
Here, logic breaks. You could randomly become a fish. Or lose your entire body except your thoughts. Or get stuck in a loop of dying and waking. Anything you can imagine could happen here. And more."
Everyone was now visibly pale.
Kiyomasa looked shaken. "Why?!"
Zazm shrugged. "No idea. But this place is the reason Void hasn't consumed us. Something here... preserves the universe."
He turned toward the open space behind him. "And that's why we came. Because in this unstable chaos, paradoxically, it's easier to open a path between multiverses."
Miwa gulped. "That makes no sense."
Zazm grinned. "Exactly."
With a deep breath, he lifted both hands—and the space began to hum.
Every strand of his Nexus threads ignited, curling around him like ghostly white vines. A faint vibration rippled through the ground. Stars in the distance shimmered in strange hues. The Void side pulsated in silence.
He glanced back at the group—each one of them alert and ready.
"Brace yourselves," Zazm said. "This portal won't open in one place. We'll go beyond."
He closed his eyes.
The edge of all creation stirred.
The portal shimmered and buzzed faintly, threads of light stretching like yarns across an infinite loom. It wasn't instant—far from it. The edges glowed with potential, but the center remained hollow, resisting completion.
Jahanox narrowed his eyes, watching the swirling lights. "Is everything fine? It doesn't look like it's working."
Zazm shook his head, calm as ever. "It's working. Don't worry. It just needs time. Normally, when I open a portal, it's over a few hundred kilometers. But this—" He pointed into the empty dark beside them. "—this is trillions, maybe quadrillions of kilometers. We're spanning between entire universes. The threads of space take longer to bridge."
He dusted off the shimmering ground beneath them and sat down cross-legged. "While we wait, let me explain a few things."
Everyone gathered in a loose circle, some sitting, some standing, all tense.
"First," Zazm began, "we're not going somewhere crazy just yet. This is a controlled jump. We're going to the nearest universe. Let's call ours Universe A1, and theirs A2. Practically identical. Don't expect major differences—just some surface stuff."
"Like what?" Kiyomasa tilted his head, sitting with arms over his knees.
"Gender flips. Age tweaks. Speech pattern shifts. You might be a girl, you might be older or younger. Maybe you speak in old Shakespearean English. Who knows."
Myeong-hwa giggled, nudging Min-Seok. "Imagine if you're a chibi baby there!"
Min-Seok rolled his eyes but didn't deny the possibility. "Great. Just what I needed. Baby version of me running around."
Ai, ever serious, raised a hand slightly. "But… what if our counterparts also have powers? Wouldn't that be… dangerous?"
Zazm nodded slowly. "If they do, it means something's seriously wrong with the balance of their universe.
The odds are low—most likely they don't. But that's part of the reason we're going. If they don't have powers, it confirms the anomalies are just with us. If they do…"
"…Then we've got multiversal infestation," Jahanox finished grimly.
"In simple words if they have powers than we would have a huge problem because then the balance would be shacking." Zazm finished and crossed his arms.
Kiyomasa raised a hand halfway, unsure. "I mean, I've seen a lot of movies where meeting your other version causes explosions or paradoxes or giant purple villains. Are we… sure that's safe?"
Zazm gave a short chuckle. "Technically? You're right. It can be bad. But the multiverse is already so damaged, things like that aren't our biggest concern anymore. Still, we should avoid it if we can."
"Lay low," Jennie repeated softly. "Don't attract attention."
"Exactly," Zazm said. "We're not doing sightseeing. We find one version of us. Just one. Confirm if they have powers or not. We don't need to meet every Catalyst. That's risky."
Miwa floated slightly above the ground, arms crossed. "So we're just… ghosts in a world that doesn't know us?"
"More like shadows," Zazm said. "Which brings me to the real rules."
Everyone leaned in as the soft light of the forming portal flickered gently behind them.
"Rule one," Zazm said, holding up a finger.
"Always be prepared for the unexpected. This universe might be similar, but it's still not ours. Anything could happen. Be ready for the worse."
"Got it," Ai nodded firmly.
"Rule two," Zazm continued.
"Don't interfere. No matter what. If you see a crime, a fire, even a kid getting kidnapped do not stop it."
Jennie's breath caught. "What? But..."
"Jennie." Zazm met her eyes.
"I know how you are. But listen. You don't belong there. If you change something, you're altering that universe's fate. It could cause more damage than you think. Even if you save someone… you might doom a thousand more."
Jennie's face paled. She nodded slowly, clutching her hands tightly in her lap.
"Rule three," Zazm said more quietly. "If something goes wrong… if we get separated… we don't panic."
Everyone looked around uneasily.
"There's a real possibility that we'll arrive in different locations," he explained. "Maybe even different times.
I could arrive a week before Jahanox or a month after Ai. It's unpredictable, but not dangerous.
Your accessories thanks to Jahanox now have a locator function. You'll know everyone's exact coordinates, no matter the universe."
Jahanox nodded. "Just tap the inner ring twice. The map opens."
Myeong-hwa tapped hers playfully. "Like a cool multiverse GPS."
Min-Seok raised an eyebrow. "Let's hope it doesn't run out of battery."
Zazm snorted. "It runs on spatial currents, not power cells. Unless the universe stops existing, you're fine."
Everyone laughed a little at that—though it was nervous laughter, cautious in this liminal space between being and unbeing.
As the portal swirled brighter behind them, its edges beginning to stabilize, Zazm stood up and dusted off his cloak.
"Before we began, aren't we missing out on something?" Ai asked catching everyone's attention.
Zazm asked, "What does she mean?"
Ai puts her hand on her chin and speaks after a while, "you said you can't reverse the time of a single timeline yet, how'll you do that of several universes?"
Zazm looked at the universe stars flashing and then looked at the void and begun.
"You see I can create spaces on that thing, what we are calling void.
My plan is to create a space and spend time there honing my skills and mastering time manipulation.
I'll create fake timelines, ofcourse they would be empty just hollow shells of space but they'll be enough."
"So what you're planning is that you'll stay there for a decade of two mastering all that?"
Zazm shook his head, "If it's just decades there wouldn't have been such a need."
Ai and everyone was now in shock, Jennie asked him "So he means....?"
Zazm put his hands on his pockets and gave a slight nod, "Yeah probably a century or something."
Jahanox was silently listening as he asked, "When would you do that?"
"The problem is the mind, I can go there but what do you think would happen if I floated 100 years in a complete dark surrounding with no human interactions, no light, no sense of gravity, no air whatsoever?"
Ai eyes widened slightly, she quickly got up, "You'll go insane, not in that long but within an year at best."
"Exactly, that's why I can't go there yet....."
"What do you mean yet? There is no way you can go there and if you can there is no use in us going to another universe to began with." Ai argued with an angel voice.
"Don't worry just trust me."
He looked back at his friends, each of them illuminated by the faint glow of infinity and void. "We're not just hopping worlds for fun. This is our first real step. Into the unknown. Into the place where the answers might finally begin."
"And if it goes wrong?" Ai asked, voice calm but cold.
Zazm smiled slightly. "Then we'll adapt. Like we always do."
The portal flared to life.
One by one, the Catalysts stepped forward—toward the threshold between everything and nothing.
---
Jahanox's eyes fluttered open, sunlight piercing through his lashes. His back ached. The metal beneath him was oddly curved and narrow, and distant voices tugged at his attention.
"Hey, is he dead?"
"Nah, his chest is moving."
"He's breathing too slow to be dead. Maybe he's in a coma?"
Jahanox blinked. Five kids surrounded him like curious squirrels. The second his eyes fully opened, they all took a cautious step back. He sat up slowly, tousled black hair falling into his face, and looked around.
A park. Trees swayed lazily. The air smelled of grass and sugar. And he—he was lying on a slide.
He let out an awkward chuckle and lifted a hand. "Uh… hello?"
A girl in a pink skirt, no older than eight, stepped forward with her arms crossed. "Can you move, mister? You're sleeping on our slide."
Jahanox looked down, then behind him.
"…Ah."
He quickly scrambled off, brushing off his coat. "Sorry. My bad. Didn't mean to… block your slide."
The kids didn't look convinced.
A boy with a crooked cap stepped forward, sizing him up. "You got no manners, mister. Sleeping on a kids' slide like that."
Another girl with pigtails chimed in, squinting at him. "You're not even dressed like a homeless guy. Maybe you got kicked outta your house."
Jahanox frowned. "What?"
The smallest kid stepped right up to his knees, utterly fearless. "We're guessing. Either you're homeless, your parents kicked you out, or your girlfriend dumped you. Which is it?"
Jahanox blinked at them, baffled. "…What makes you think those are the only options?"
"'Cause," the girl in pink said, counting on her fingers, "only people who've hit rock bottom nap on playground slides."
He scratched the back of his head, thinking, 'Wait… aren't I technically homeless?'
Then he shook his head. 'No, no. I have an entire dimension to myself. That counts as property. Sort of.'
He smiled, suddenly aware of how insane he probably looked. "I was just tired, okay? My house is… uh… really far. So I took a nap here. Sorry about that."
The kids stared at him, unimpressed.
"To make up for it…" he began, brushing dust from his coat, "how about I treat you all to some ice cream?"
Instant shift.
"You're on!" shouted the cap-wearing boy.
"You better not be lying," said the smallest one, already tugging on his sleeve.
Jahanox chuckled, but a chill went down his spine. 'Wait… is the currency even the same here?'
Zazm's words from earlier echoed in his mind: "Yeah Yeah don't worry the currency would be same in the adjacent universe. I'm 90% sure."
Ninety Percent.
Jahanox's eye twitched. 'That bastard. If I pull out a card and it gets declined… these kids are definitely going to think I'm homeless.'
He forced a smile as the kids began dragging him toward the nearest ice cream stand.
'Please… for once… let Zazm be right about something.'
Jahanox stood at the edge of the playground, watching the kids disappear into the distance with their ice cream cones in hand. He raised a hand in farewell, then sighed, stretching his arms lazily above his head.
"Time to check the headcount…"
He reached up and covered his left eye with two fingers. His different coloured eyes has gave him quite an appearance, while his right eye was hazel his left eye was sort of dark voilet.
He covered his left eye with his hand and particles started flowing out of it again, the hand was there to hide them from people around.
Dots flickered into being. Seven. All accounted for.
A small smirk crept onto his face. "Huh. Everyone's here."
He launched himself forward in a burst of momentum, landing lightly on a rooftop before hopping to another. His coat flared behind him like a shadow as he traced the signature paths, following the invisible pull until he dropped down behind a small, tucked-away house in the city.
Sweden, apparently.
As he approached the entrance, voices and laughter spilled out onto the street. The moment he stepped through the door, all eyes turned to him.
"Jahanox!" Jennie was the first to spring up, beaming. "You finally made it!"
He raised a brow. "Looks like I'm the last one."
Ai offered him a polite nod, while Minos waved from the couch, sprawled out like he owned the place.
"Yo," Zazm said from the kitchen, balancing a pot of instant noodles in one hand. "Took your sweet time, didn't ya?"
"I woke up on a children's slide surrounded by a group of judgmental kids," Jahanox said, deadpan. "What do you think happened?"
Everyone chuckled.
Jennie held up a peace sign with both hands. "Anyway, we're all here now!"
Jahanox looked around, frowning slightly. "Wait… how did you guys manage without me? You wouldn't have been able to access the Shadow Realm if I wasn't here."
Zazm shrugged. "We weren't sure how long it would take for everyone to show up, so we just rented this place for a week."
"A house?" Jahanox echoed, incredulous. "You what?"
"We had to blend in somehow," Ai said calmly. "And Jennie found the listing online within twenty minutes."
"It has Wi-Fi," Miwa added cheerfully from the other room. "And a weird cat that keeps showing up at the window."
Jahanox ran a hand through his hair. "Unbelievable."
Zazm pointed his chopsticks at him. "What's unbelievable is where we landed. Jennie, Ai, and Minos ended up in Russia. Snowy but manageable. I got tossed onto the rim of an active volcano with Miwa "
"I melted my shoes, it was thanks to Zazm he telepored us instantly" Miwa interrupted, raising a hand.
".....and Kiyomasa," Zazm continued, "that poor soul landed in Antarctica."
"I saw penguins," Kiyomasa said proudly. "They were… majestic."
Jahanox blinked. "You survived in Antarctica?"
"I can control fire no big deal," Kiyomasa replied as he lit hits hand on fire.
Jahanox sighed. "I don't even know what to say."
"So," he asked finally, "where are we now?"
Jennie grinned, eyes lighting up. "Sweden! My homeland!"
She spun around and gestured dramatically toward the window. "And it's basically exactly the same."
Zazm nodded in agreement. "Expected. This universe is right next door to ours—Universe A2, if ours is A1.
Closest possible parallel. Not much difference except a few small things, it's even less than I expected."
Jahanox sat down, glancing around at the cozy interior. "Guess it could be worse."
"It was worse," Kiyomasa muttered.
Everyone laughed again.
Jahanox relaxed for the first time in days. For now, they were safe, reunited, and ready.
"Alright," he said, folding his arms. "So… what's next?"
Zazm stretched as he leaned against the windowsill, peering outside. "Since we're in Sweden, why not visit Jennie?"
Everyone looked at him.
"It's the smartest way to find out if our counterparts in this universe have powers or not," he continued.
Ai crossed her arms. "But what if their powers haven't awakened yet? Like us, back then?"
Zazm shrugged. "You're forgetting something important. I could see who had powers even before they awakened. Threads, remember?"
He glanced at the group.
"And if you haven't noticed yet… we're actually a year ahead in this timeline compared to ours. So that makes things easier."
Kiyomasa tapped his chin. "But if this is the future, and Jennie's here, doesn't that mean she won't awaken powers? Otherwise, she'd already be with us."
Zazm gave him a firm nod. "Exactly."
Then, with a clap, he got up. "Alright then, let's get ready to go visit her."
He was about to head out when Ai interrupted. "Wait. Instead of all of us rolling in like some weird gang, maybe just a few of us should go. Less attention."
Jahanox nodded. "Good idea. Smaller group, easier movement."
Zazm thought aloud. "Okay, so me and Ai—wait, or maybe I should take Kiyomasa?"
Kiyomasa immediately shook his head. "No thanks. Jennie and Jahanox should go."
Zazm blinked. "Huh? Why them?"
Kiyomasa shrugged. "Jennie already knows everything. And Jahanox can sense if someone has powers."
Jahanox nodded. "This eye of mine—" he tapped his violet eye— "has your threads, remember? I can't see them, not really, but I can… feel them. If someone has powers, I'll know."
Zazm's eyes widened. "Wait—you can feel the threads? Through that eye?"
Jahanox shook his head. "Not the actual threads. It's like a pull. A signal. Not exact, but enough."
Zazm relaxed. "Yeah, makes sense. My threads do resonate with latent powers, even if they're invisible."
He then turned to Kiyomasa, raising a brow. "Still… why shouldn't I go?"
Before Kiyomasa could answer, Miwa's voice echoed inside Zazm's head.
"Shut up and go with it."
Zazm blinked. "Why are you using telepathy? You're in the same room."
"Look around, genius," Miwa said, "and you'll get it."
Zazm glanced between Jennie and Jahanox—and it clicked.
"…You're trying to send them off together?"
"Jennie's not gonna make a move," Miwa muttered, "and Jahanox is as dense as a brick."
Zazm smiled slyly. "Fair."
He turned back to the group. "Actually, yeah—Jennie and Jahanox should go. I've got important work."
Jahanox narrowed his eyes. "More important than identifying powers?"
Ai, Kiyomasa, Miwa, and Minos tensed up.
Zazm didn't skip a beat. He strolled over and placed a hand on Jahanox's shoulder, the other on Jennie's.
He leaned in with a grin. "Listen… they're planning to leave Miwa and Minos alone."
He wiggled his eyebrows. "You know how it is."
Jennie flushed slightly. "Anything for the gang!"
Jahanox gave a solemn nod. "Duty accepted."
They left minutes later, walking off into the soft Swedish morning.
Ai leaned over to Kiyomasa. "Zazm's running a double game."
Kiyomasa smirked. "Two ships with one sail. Not bad."
Zazm stretched again. "Alright, let's go buy some essentials. We'll be staying here a while."
Minos raised an eyebrow. "Essentials?"
Miwa didn't miss a beat. "Yeah! Let's go shopping!"
"But are we really sure shouldn't we actually have sent Zazm?" Miwa asked skeptical.
Ai smirked and looked at Zazm, "You already know they don't have powers right?"
Zazm flatly said, "What makes her so sure?"
"Well can't you just see the threads of every living being and there is no way you wouldn't have looked for threads with powers already."
Zazm shrugged with a soft smile, "Yeah no one in this universe has powers means only we are unique in the entire multiverse."
Eventually, they all ended up at the mall, laughing and checking out stores.
But sometime later, Miwa turned and blinked.
"Wait… where's Zazm? And Ai? And Kiyomasa?"
Minos froze.
He looked around. Gone.
Then he clenched his jaw. "Those traitors."
Three smiling faces flashed through his mind. Zazm. Ai. Kiyomasa.
"They double-trapped us," he muttered. "Those snakes."
He reached for the ring to track them, but Miwa grabbed his hand.
"It'll glow. Too risky. Just… chill. Let's shop."
Minos took a deep breath, forcing a smile.
"Right. They're just… out. Nothing weird. Totally normal."
Miwa leaned closer. "You okay? You look like you're forcing that smile."
Minos looked away, eyes twitching. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."
Everyone assumed Zazm was just playing a double game. But Zazm wasn't that simple. He wasn't going to let things go that easily.
Kiyomasa and Ai were laughing, totally enjoying the situation.
"We have to do something, right?" Kiyomasa shrugged, a grin on his face.
Ai nodded. "We're just doing a good deed."
"Exactly," Zazm echoed, nodding sagely. "A very noble deed."
His eyes suddenly flicked to the side, catching a glimpse of a small gaming shop advertising a new 50-minute horror experience—a haunted house, maze, jumpscares, the whole deal. But the sign was clear: Only two people at a time.
Zazm's eyes lit up with mischief.
"Hey," he said casually, "check that out. Looks fun, right? You two should go in. I'll grab the tickets."
Ai and Kiyomasa glanced over. Neither of them noticed the "two-person limit" detail.
Kiyomasa hesitated. "Uh… I don't really do ghosts."
Ai winced. "Yeah, same, not my thing."
Zazm gave them an encouraging pat on the back. "C'mon, you'll be fine. I'll be there, we would have fun."
Reluctantly, the two of them walked toward the entrance. As they stood near the door, trying to mentally prepare themselves, Zazm disappeared inside to "buy tickets."
A moment later, the door creaked open on its own.
Before they could even question it, a sudden push from behind sent them stumbling inside.
"Wha—?!" Ai and Kiyomasa whirled around.
There stood Zazm, outside the door, waving at them with a wide grin on his face.
"Don't waste the tickets!" he called out. "And remember—this is a good deed!"
The door slammed shut.
Inside the haunted maze, the only sounds were flickering lights and the distant creaking of floorboards.
Ai deadpanned. "He actually did it."
Kiyomasa shivered. "I hate ghosts."
Ai sighed. "I hate being manipulated."
They looked at each other.
"…We're really gonna die in here, aren't we?"
Outside, Zazm pulled out his phone and casually snapped a picture of the entrance.
"For the memories," he said to himself, then strolled off like a man who had just delivered karma wrapped in chaos.
_______________________