Chapter 2; Shattered Real!ty — Dust! 『 2 』

“UGH!?” I winced, clutching my chest.

Why… why does time have to unfreeze now of all the times?

“Sir, please come back! It’s for your own good!”

I heard the staff shouting behind me, their voices urgent and demanding.

I barely dodged a nurse carrying an emergency bed, sliding past it with all the grace of a wet noodle.

My heart pounded like a war drum, and my breathing was so rough it sounded like I was gasping for my last moments.

“Crap, I can’t run for long!” My voice cracked as my legs wobbled beneath me.

My frail body was failing me, as it always did.

Why couldn’t I be like those protagonists in anime, dashing heroically with perfect form? No, instead, I had to be the one who couldn’t jog ten meters without feeling like my heart was about to burst. And don’t get me started on my appearance. A

s much as I loathed to admit it, I was petite, delicate, and—ugh—cute—

Wait. I don't have time for this..

“Focus, Natsumi! You’re being chased by medical staff with needles!” I reminded myself.

“Haaaaa… haaaaa… haaaahaaa—" My breath gave out, and I stumbled, collapsing onto the cold floor. My chest felt like it was on fire, and my pulse was racing so fast it hurt.

“Great,” I muttered between gasps. “I’m going to die from a heart attack. Not even a dramatic one. Just… here… in the middle of a frozen hospital.”

I forced myself to stand, only to realize time had frozen again. Everything—everyone—was stuck mid-motion. A nurse was frozen mid-step, her expression panicked. A clipboard dangled precariously in the air.

“Ha…” I breathed a sigh of relief. But then, “Cough… Cough… Cough!”

My body betrayed me again, wracking itself with harsh, unrelenting coughs. I bent over, taking deep breaths in a desperate attempt to calm my racing heart and burning lungs.

“Damn it…” I muttered weakly, wiping the sweat from my brow.

But then I froze, realization dawning on me. Why the hell did I even come here in the first place?

I racked my brain, trying to piece together how I’d ended up in this place, surrounded by frozen doctors and nurses. I was originally heading to the Vetaback headquarters to investigate that weird message, wasn’t I?

But now… now there was a blank spot in my memory.

No matter how hard I tried to remember, my mind hit a wall, and my head throbbed painfully when I pushed against it.

“Okay, calm down, Natsumi,” I whispered to myself, pacing in the eerie silence. “Pathetic things like this could never affect me. Memory loss? Appearing in a strange place I’ve never been before? Strange… very strange…”

I stopped and crossed my arms dramatically, tilting my head as if contemplating a great mystery.

“The only viable possibilities that come to mind are the 『 Time Lapse 』 theory and 『 Possession 』. 『 Time Lapse 』 is out of the question since I just its made up by me…” I frowned deeply, my hand resting on my chin. “So that leaves Possession.”

I gasped suddenly, my eyes widening. “Of course! A dark, sinister spirit must have taken over my body! But why me? Could it be my innate power, my unparalleled charm, that made me the perfect vessel? Hmph, such audacity!”

I clenched my fist, shaking it in the air dramatically before faltering. “Wait… no, that’s ridiculous…”

My face flushed red. “Ah, what am I saying!?”

Still, the unease lingered.

Why couldn’t I remember anything?

Why was time freezing and unfreezing at random?

My paranoia spiked again as I glanced around, half-expecting some malevolent force to jump out of the shadows.

With a sigh, I pushed forward, walking cautiously through the frozen hospital halls.

My goal was to leave this place and return to my investigation. Whatever had happened to me—whatever was happening—it wasn’t over yet.

And I wasn’t going to let it defeat me. Not when I had a mission.

Not when I was the only one who could solve this mystery.

As I steadied myself, still shaking from the ordeal, I glanced at my smartwatch.

A faint glow pulsed on its screen. Ceil. She would know what was going on.

"Ceil," I whispered, voice trembling but laced with feigned confidence. “Activate. What’s our situation?”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the screen flickered, and Ceil’s usual cheerful voice broke through, but there was something… off about it.

[^-^ Oh… Master? Is that you?]

Her tone sounded uncertain, almost hesitant. That was weird. Ceil was an AI I built myself—she never hesitated.

“Of course, it’s me!” I snapped, though my voice cracked slightly. “Who else would it be? What’s going on? Am i getting possessed?Wh—”

[:/ Master… I… don’t know.] Her voice wavered, a strange mechanical hum in the background. [I… I wasn’t… functioning. I was… disabled.]

“What? Disabled?” I froze, staring at the screen in disbelief. “That’s impossible. No one knows about you except me! I designed you. I programmed you. How could you be disabled unless—”

[Unless someone else tampered with me.]

The air around me felt heavier, like a weight pressing down on my chest. “That’s absurd! No one could tamper with you. You’re offline. You don’t even run on external servers!” My voice grew louder, more defensive.

[°_° Master… I’m scared.]

Hearing those words—words I never programmed her to say—sent chills down my spine. “You’re scared? Don’t be ridiculous,” I muttered, trying to suppress the lump forming in my throat. “You’re just an AI. You can’t feel Emoti—....”

But... What if she could...

Without another word and thought, I shut off the smartwatch and stormed out of the hospital.

The eerily frozen world greeted me again, silent and still.

The streets were lifeless, cars locked mid-motion, pedestrians frozen in time. A paper cup hovered mid-air, spilling its contents in a perfect arc.

I walked briskly, trying to shake off the paranoia creeping up my spine.

My hands were balled into fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms. “This is fine,” I muttered to myself, my voice echoing in the empty street. “I’m not scared. I’m just… annoyed! Yeah, that’s it. Annoyed!”

I stopped suddenly, my body rigid. Something was behind me.

I could feel it. That cold, suffocating sensation of being watched. My heart raced, and my throat tightened. Slowly, I turned around.

Nothing.

The street was empty, as frozen and lifeless as ever. I forced a laugh, though it came out shaky. “Hah! See? Nothing’s there. I knew it. I wasn’t scared. Not at all!”

But as I turned back and began walking, the feeling didn’t go away. My skin prickled with every step, the weight of unseen eyes pressing down on me.

The sound of my own footsteps felt deafening.

In a world where time is frozen, and you’re the only one who can move,

it’s terrifying...

Terrifying because you don’t know who—or what—might also be there.

What if I wasn’t alone?

What if something else lived here, in this frozen world? Something I couldn’t see? Something waiting for me to let my guard down?

I clenched my fists tighter, biting my lip until it hurt. “Tch. Stop being ridiculous.. There’s no such thing as monsters,” I whispered, my voice shaking.

“Even if there was, they wouldn’t dare mess with someone like me!”

My legs carried me forward, step by hesitant step, but my mind raced with thoughts I couldn’t control.

The silence around me felt suffocating, pressing in like a physical force.

I stopped again and looked around, scanning the frozen world for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

But that didn’t stop the fear.

“Damn it,” I muttered, hugging myself tightly as I quickened my pace. “Why does it have to be like this? Why do I have to be the only one moving? I didn’t ask for this!” My voice cracked, the words tumbling out before I could stop them.

I'm not scared. I'm not scared.I'm not sc—

“Kowai....”[modern_footnote]Scare[/modern_footnote]

I'm not scared...I'm not scared

I stood motionless on the icy pavement, staring at the world that refused to move. Snowflakes hung midair, glittering like suspended diamonds, and the silence was deafening.

My chest felt heavy, an invisible pressure pressing against me.

What is this feeling? Loneliness?

“Ridiculous,” I muttered under my breath, brushing the thought away as if it were a pesky fly. “I am the great Natsumi Tohka. A sorcerer of unparalleled power. I don’t feel… things like that.”

Talking to myself....

I stared at the frozen figure of a man standing in the middle of the street, his hand halfway to his face as if caught mid-sneeze.

His expression was locked in a strange, lifeless grimace, his eyes void of life.

“What would happen if I touched him?” I murmured to myself, my voice barely audible over the silence. I wasn’t scared, of course. No way. It was curiosity. Pure and innocent curiosity.

I reached out tentatively, my fingers trembling slightly—but only because of the cold. Definitely not fear. My fingertips brushed his arm.

And then he moved.

At first, it was subtle. His body twitched, his head jerked unnaturally, like a puppet being yanked by invisible strings. I stumbled back, my breath catching in my throat. “W-what the—”

The man’s face began to twist and distort, his mouth stretching into an unnatural scream. His body convulsed, his limbs bending at impossible angles, and his eyes rolled back into his head.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Then, as abruptly as it started, he stopped.

Frozen.... again.

I stared at him, my chest heaving as if I had just sprinted a mile.

My fingers tingled, the sensation of his twisted form lingering like a phantom.

“What… the hell… was that?” My voice trembled, and I hated it. “Tch. Useless mortal. Couldn’t even handle the power of my touch,” I said, trying to mask the lump in my throat with a smirk. But the smirk faded almost instantly, replaced by a wave of nausea.

I took a shaky step back, my eyes glued to the man’s frozen figure. “Don’t touch anyone,” I muttered to myself, gripping my wrist to stop my hand from trembling. “Just… don’t.”

I wandered aimlessly after that, avoiding the frozen figures at all costs. The silence felt heavier now, pressing against my skin like icy needles. My mind raced with possibilities, each one darker than the last.

But then I saw her.

Talking to... myself..

A girl about my age sat on a bench in the park, her legs crossed and a mischievous smile on her face. She wasn’t frozen. She was… moving.

“What the hell?!” I blurted out, staring at her in disbelief. “Your moving?”

“Moving? Yeah,I'm moving all humans move.”

”Ah. And if your talking about ‘moving’ then,” she said with a smirk, tilting her head. “You’re not too bad at noticing things, huh?”

Her tone was casual, almost teasing, and it irritated me more than it should have. “Hmph. Of course I noticed. You’re in the presence of a powerful sorcerer, after all,” I said, crossing my arms. “So… who are you?”

She shrugged. “I’m Ayane. Been wandering around here for a while now. You?”

“Natsumi... Natsumi Tohka,” I said cautiously, narrowing my eyes at her. “And I don’t wander. I… investigate.”

“Right,” she said, her smirk widening. “Well, Natsumi, welcome to the club. Looks like we’re the only ones who can move around here.”

I scoffed. “Don’t lump me in with you. I’m not ‘joining’ anything.”

But she just laughed, and something about the sound made the weight on my chest feel a little lighter.

Over the next few days—or what felt like days—I met others like her. A boy named Kaoru, who was always fiddling with gadgets and muttering to himself. A quiet girl named Shiori, who seemed to know more about this frozen world than she let on.

It was… strange. Unsettling, even. But they were there. Moving. Talking. Laughing.

And yet, sometimes, when I looked at them out of the corner of my eye, their edges blurred, their voices distorted. But when I blinked, they were normal again, smiling and alive.

It wasn’t scary. Not at all.

I wasn’t scared.

I found myself wandering again, this time alongside Ayane. She walked with a lazy confidence, her hands tucked into her hoodie pockets as if the frozen world around us was nothing out of the ordinary.

Kaoru trailed behind, mumbling about his latest contraption, while Shiori stayed to the side, her eyes darting around as though she could see something the rest of us couldn’t.

The air felt different today—thicker, like it was heavy with something unseen.

I didn’t say anything, but I noticed Ayane glance up at the sky, her smirk faltering for just a moment.

“Do you feel that?” she asked casually, her voice quieter than usual.

“Feel what?” I snapped, not because I was nervous—of course not—but because her tone unsettled me. “It’s just the same frozen nonsense we’ve been wandering through for days. Maybe you’re imagining things.”

Kaoru stopped in his tracks, his head tilting slightly. “No… she’s right. Something’s… shifting.”

I hated that he agreed with her. Hated that my chest tightened at their words, even though I’d never admit it. “Tch. Probably just some spatial distortion. Nothing I can’t handle,” I said, waving a hand dismissively.

But as I spoke, the air grew colder, and an unsettling hum began to vibrate through the ground.

Shiori suddenly grabbed my arm, her usually calm eyes wide with fear. “Natsumi… we need to move. Now.”

Before I could respond, the sky cracked open.

Not like the mirror-like fractures I’d seen before—this was different.

This was alive. Tendrils of shadowy light spilled from the crack, writhing and twisting like living things.

The ground trembled, and the frozen figures around us began to distort, their forms warping into grotesque shapes before crumbling to ash.

From the rift in the sky, something began to emerge.

At first, it was just a mass of shadows, an unformed thing that defied comprehension.

But as it descended, it began to take shape—a towering, serpentine creature with countless eyes that blinked in unnatural patterns.

Its body shimmered with a dark, oily texture, and its very presence seemed to warp reality around it.

“What the hell is that?!” Ayane shouted, her usual composure cracking.

“Stay back!” I yelled, stepping forward. My heart raced, my hands trembling—but not from fear. No, this was excitement.

Finally, something worthy of my power. “Behold, the great Natsumi will vanquish this beast!”

As if responding to my words, a weight suddenly appeared in my right hand.

I looked down to find a sword—long, ornate, and pulsating with a faint, bluish light.

I didn’t question it.

Is the only way..

Of course, the universe would grant me a weapon befitting my greatness.

I charged at the creature, the sword feeling impossibly light in my grip.

The monster roared, a sound that shook the very fabric of the frozen world, but I didn’t falter.

I leaped into the air, the blade slicing through its oily flesh with an ease that surprised even me.

The beast writhed and screamed, but I kept slashing, driven by a mixture of adrenaline and an unshakable belief in my own invincibility.

With a final, triumphant swing, I plunged the sword into what I assumed was its heart.

The creature let out a deafening roar before disintegrating into a burst of light, leaving behind only silence.

I landed gracefully—well, mostly—and turned to face the others, expecting awe and gratitude. “See? Nothing to it.”

But their expressions weren’t what I expected. Ayane was smirking, but it was different this time—colder, sharper. Kaoru and Shiori stood behind her, their faces unreadable.

“What’s with the looks?” I asked, my voice wavering slightly. “I just saved all of you.”

Ayane stepped forward, her smirk widening. “Yeah, you did. Thanks for that.”

Before I could react, I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back. I staggered forward, the sword slipping from my grip as I turned to see Kaoru holding a dagger, his eyes glinting with something I couldn’t place.

“W-what are you doing?!” I gasped, clutching my side as blood seeped through my fingers.

Shiori stepped closer, her expression cold. “You’re too dangerous, Natsumi. Too unpredictable.”

Ayane knelt beside me, her smirk now a twisted grin. “Don’t take it personally. You were just… in the way.”

I tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. My vision blurred, and the last thing I saw was their faces—unmoving, emotionless, frozen.

I blinked and opened my eyes.

Everything is dark...no one is present..

I closed and opened my eyes again, and the first thing I noticed was that the stabbing pain in my back was gone.

My hands instinctively reached for the wound, but there was nothing—no blood, no tear in my shirt, nothing.

I looked up to see them—Ayane, Kaoru, and Shiori—standing over me, their forms flickering and becoming translucent.

Ayane crouched down, her smirk softer now, almost pitying. “Like I said, don’t take it seriously. It was all part of your imagination.” Her voice echoed unnaturally, layered, as though it didn’t belong in the world.

And then, they began to fade.

“I know that already…” I spat, forcing myself to my feet even though my legs wobbled. “Don’t… You don’t need to tell me that!”

I... can stay sane..

“You think you know what’s real and what’s fake?” Kaoru’s voice came from somewhere, but his body was no longer there.

“Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t,” Shiori added, her tone distant, disembodied.

I clenched my fists, glaring at the empty space where they’d been. “Shut up! You think I don’t know?! Of course, I know what’s real and what’s fake!” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care.

“Maybe you do,” another voice replied—different this time. Calm, almost melodic.

I whipped around to see a girl standing before me. She was my height, her long silver hair cascading in neat braids on either side of her face. Her eyes were a deep, unnatural purple, and she wore a pristine high school uniform that seemed untouched by the frozen world around us.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded, my voice sharp, though my heart raced faster with every word.

She tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable. “Who do you imagine me to be?”

“Shut up! Why do you talk like you’re real, anyway?!” I snapped, stepping back. “You’re not. You can’t be.”

“I don’t. That’s just how you imagine me,” she said, her voice unbothered, each word hanging in the still air.

“Go away,” I said through gritted teeth, but my voice wavered, betraying me.

She paused, her gaze softening. “Wakatta[modern_footnote]Okay[/modern_footnote],” she said simply, and just like that, she disappeared into nothingness, leaving behind only silence.

I stood there, shaking. “I know they’re made up,” I muttered to myself. “I know they’re delusions. But…” My voice caught in my throat as I clenched my fists harder, nails digging into my palms. “Why can’t I tell the difference anymore?”

I blinked—and the world shifted.

One moment, I was standing in the middle of the empty street, and the next, I was inside my house. No transition, no sense of movement.

Just a sudden, jarring shift. My heart pounded as I looked around at the familiar walls of my living room.

“Eh....? But I was just… outside?”

My voice sounded small in the stillness.

I blinked again.

Now, I was standing in the middle of a supermarket. The fluorescent lights hummed faintly, and frozen figures of shoppers lined the aisles.

But they weren’t entirely still—each person moved in microseconds, their gestures stuttering like a glitch in a video.

I stepped back, heart racing, unable to shake the feeling that they were watching me despite their fragmented movements.

“Huh?” The word barely escaped my lips before the world shifted again.

I blinked—and now I was sitting at my desk, staring at a computer screen.

Code scrolled across it, lines and lines of text I didn’t recognize but somehow felt familiar. My hands were on the keyboard, typing furiously, but I wasn’t controlling them.

“What is this?” I whispered, pulling my hands away from the keyboard.

I closed my eyes, willing myself to escape the relentless disarray of my mind. When I opened them, I was lying on a bed. It was my bed, I think. My blanket was draped over me, and I could hear faint whispers of wind brushing against the window.

Sleeping... or pretending to.

I closed my eyes again, taking a deep breath.

When I opened them, I was standing in the kitchen. My hand gripped a knife tightly, the cold steel pressing against my neck. My reflection stared back at me in the glossy surface of the microwave.

“What—?” I gasped, dropping the knife. It clattered onto the floor, breaking the silence.

I closed my eyes, desperately trying to steady my breathing.

When I opened them, I was back in front of my computer. The screen was glowing with the same ominous message from weeks ago.

「Type your wish」

[Submit]

It was the same interface I had seen when I played Vetaback.

“Why is this here?! Why now?!” My voice trembled as I reached for the keyboard. But before my fingers could touch it, the screen flickered, and my vision went black.

When it returned, I was sitting on a park bench, staring at the sunset. The colors of the sky bled into each other—fiery red, burnt orange, and eerie purple. The stillness around me felt unnatural, like the world itself had stopped breathing.

I blinked, and suddenly, I was at my middle school.

The halls were empty, silent except for the faint echo of my younger self lamenting my parents’ absence, trying to soothe Yuki’s tears.

The next moment, I was in high school, sitting at my desk, staring at the blackboard. The teacher droned on about something unimportant, and the words blurred together. My palms felt clammy.

I stood up, panicked.

“Tohka... What’s wrong!?” the teacher’s voice boomed, startling me.

“Ah... tea—”

Before I could finish, the classroom vanished.

I was on another bench, a girl sitting beside me.

“—cher...”

The girl gave me a confused look. “Teacher? You have a crush on your teacher?”

I recognized this moment. It was from high school. A failed confession.

“No!” I snapped, but the scene shifted again before I could dwell on it.

“Natsumi-sama, do you refuse to partner with us?”

I was in a meeting, surrounded by people I vaguely remembered. This was my third year of high school, making a deal I’d long since regretted.

“Crap... no...”

The scene changed again, flashing erratically.

“You got it wrong!” I shouted, standing before a girl in my second year of middle school.

“...What exactly do I have wrong?” she asked, her voice echoing unnaturally.

“Nothing!” I barked, but I wasn’t there anymore.

I stood atop Tokyo Tower. The iron railing beneath my hands was rusted, corroded with time. The frozen world stretched out before me, lifeless, unmoving.

The red sun loomed impossibly large in the sky, bleeding into the horizon.

“Guess I’ve returned,” I murmured, the words escaping before I could stop them.

And then I saw it.

The sky fractured, splitting into jagged shards. Something enormous moved within the sun, its silhouette twisting unnaturally, limbs stretching in ways that defied physics. Its glowing eyes locked onto me, piercing through the frozen world.

I felt my stomach drop.

“Or not...” I whispered, gripping the railing until my knuckles turned white.

I blinked again.

I was in space, floating aimlessly, the vast emptiness pressing down on my consciousness. Stars surrounded me, shimmering against the cold void.

“Where am I now?!” I screamed, my voice swallowed by the silence.

I blinked again.

The stars disappeared, replaced by a primitive landscape. Towering stone structures and wild vegetation surrounded me. People dressed in animal skins moved in the distance, their grunts and chants echoing through the prehistoric world.

“What the hell is going on?!” I shouted, but my voice barely registered.

I blinked again.

Suddenly, I was in a futuristic city. Towering skyscrapers lined with neon lights reached the heavens. Hovercars zipped past, leaving trails of light in their wake. The hum of advanced technology filled the air, and holograms danced in the streets.

It was overwhelming, but before I could process anything, it all began to dissolve.

The buildings crumbled, turning to ash. The vibrant lights dimmed, fading into a dull gray. I gasped as everything—everything—was reduced to dust.

The ground vanished beneath me. The planet itself disintegrated, leaving me alone, floating in the vastness of space.

All that remained was a giant blue star, its light pulsing like a heartbeat.

I stared, captivated by its brilliance, until it began to shift. The blue turned darker, collapsing in on itself, twisting and bending until it became a black hole.

“No... no, no, no!”

The gravitational pull seized me, dragging me toward the void. My body stretched unnaturally, and I felt like I was being torn apart at the seams.

“My mind—it's breaking apart!” I screamed, clutching my head as my vision distorted.

The black hole consumed me, swallowing my very existence.

And then...

I was back in my room.

I gasped for air, sitting upright on my bed. My hands trembled as I looked around. Everything seemed... normal. The familiar clutter of my desk, the posters on the wall, the faint hum of my computer.

I stumbled to the window and looked outside.

The world was still frozen. People stood motionless in the streets, cars stuck in mid-motion, the sky eerily still.

“Guess it really is... the time lapse,” I muttered to myself, laughing bitterly.

I opened my computer and pulled up an old document I’d written, a theory I called the “time lapse.”

「The time lapse between the south and north is not so different, the rotational speed, the axis, the equator, the mental health makes up the ‘time lapse.’」

『Time lapse:

A phenomenon that happens when the mentality of a person starts to "break." The soul in the body coexists with the mentality. If (a) it breaks, then there happens a phenomenon...』

I stopped reading.

“Nah... it’s just my delusion,” I whispered, closing the file.

I opened my eyes again.

“My head hurts...” I groaned, rubbing my temples.

“Oni-chan, wake up,” a voice called gently.

I froze.

Yuki’s voice.

I looked up, and there he was, standing at the foot of my bed, grinning.

“It’s morning,” he added.

I blinked, disoriented. My room felt... smaller.

I stepped through the door and into the kitchen. It was cramped, familiar in a way that hurt.

My mother stood at the stove, making breakfast, while my dad sat at the table reading a newspaper.

I froze in the doorway, my pupils dilating. Tears welled up in my eyes, spilling down my cheeks.

“Natsumi? What’s wrong?” my mother asked, startled.

I didn’t respond. I rushed forward and hugged her tightly, burying my face in her shoulder.

She hesitated for a moment before patting my back reassuringly.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

“I had a scary dream...” my voice cracked.

“Natsumi-kun, men don’t cry,” my dad said from the table, his voice gruff but teasing.

“Shut up,” my mother snapped at him, glaring.

I held onto her for a moment longer, trembling.

My family wasn’t broken. I was still in high school.

Maybe..

it... was all just a dream...