The house had a peculiar warmth to it, more so now than when I first arrived.

A slow, creeping warmth that pushed against the walls as if it were trying to force me out. Outside, the cold settled over the village, each day biting more than the last, but in here, it was stifling.

It felt wrong, like the world was trying to tell me something. It was strange, to say the least.

Two weeks had passed since I found myself in this village—two weeks of rehabilitation, both physical and mental. Oldie, kept remarking how quickly I was healing, how fast I was returning to some semblance of normal. Her words were always positive, but her expression never changed—always that same old, wrinkled smile, one that had seen too much of the world to be easily swayed by hope.

But I could guess the truth. She was just trying to comfort me.

Sure, I wasn’t acting like a raving lunatic anymore—my mental state was recovering, and I no longer felt like a child trapped in madness. But something deeper was still broken. My memories hadn’t returned. Not in any meaningful way, at least. Bits and pieces of the world filtered back to me, like a puzzle slowly coming together, yet large sections of the picture were still missing. And what I could see made no sense.

The village, for example—every day it felt more and more primitive to me, like it belonged to an ancient era. Yet the few glimpses of the outside world that came back to me suggested something far more advanced.

It was like two different worlds were trying to fit together, and neither one made sense.

Still, I held on to one thing: my name. Jai Boone. That, at least, remained clear.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by a violent pounding on the door. The force of it reverberated through the walls, shaking me to my core. Groaning, I pushed myself out of bed, my muscles stiff from the cold, and fumbled into the cream-colored robes and soft gray clothes the villagers had given me. They were comfortable, sure, but not much protection against the elements. Pulling the hood over my head, I yanked open the door.

“Kentaro,” I said, my voice hoarse from sleep.

“Boone,” he spat, his jaw clenched tight.

He never called me by my first name, and from the look on his face, he had no intention of starting today. After his father had been laid up next to him, injured and vulnerable, Kentaro had unleashed a tirade of accusations at me. It didn’t matter that his father agreed to the fight and even lunged out first, in his mind, it was my fault.

Only after Oldie gave him a stern talking-to did he show me any semblance of respect. Not that it was real respect—it was just the appearance of it, enough to avoid getting chewed out again.

“It’s time. Let’s go.” He turned on his heel before I could say anything in response, leaving me no choice but to follow.

Our journey to the capital had been delayed for days now, ever since Kentaro had gotten injured. Was it my fault? Apparently. Still, I think he should have recovered quicker.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this trip, but I knew I didn’t have much choice. Staying in the village wasn’t an option.

We walked in silence through the village, the early morning light casting long shadows over the small huts and pathways. The villagers were beginning to stir, their eyes tracking us as we passed. Kentaro received respectful nods and quiet greetings; me, not so much. Their gazes were suspicious, guarded. They didn’t trust me. They tolerated me, sure, but I wasn’t one of them, and I never would be.

The village itself was nestled in a thicket of bushes and trees, a natural barrier that gave it an air of isolation. As we reached the outskirts, I saw a small group waiting for us.

Oldie stood at the front, her ever-present smile still plastered on her face. Beside her was Kentaro’s father, looking weak but determined. Kentaro’s lover, the village alchemist—whatever that meant—stood next to him, her eyes darting nervously between Kentaro and me. And then there was a fourth person, someone I hadn’t seen before. His gaze was intense, locked onto me with an unsettling focus.

Kentaro greeted his lover with a quick kiss and bowed deeply to the others. I nodded to Oldie, though I didn’t offer any words. There was no need. She was the only one here who I had any respect for. As for the others? Not so much.

“You all set?” Oldie’s voice broke the tension, her eyes shifting between Kentaro and me.

“Yes, ma'am,” Kentaro replied, standing at attention like a soldier preparing for battle.

“Good. I wish you both luck and success, contact us when you make it into the Academy.” Oldie smiled, though Kentaro’s father scoffed. He, much like his son, still disapproved of me, though also much like his son, was able to do jack-shit about it.

“Who’s he?” I asked, pointing at the stranger.

“I am the village’s protector,” he grunted, his voice dripping with contempt. “Azeem.”

His words were clipped, and his tone suggested that he didn’t care for me any more than Kentaro did. But before I could question him further, Oldie stepped in.

“Azeem will be your guide until you reach the capital,” she said, her voice firm. She shot Azeem a look, and for a brief moment, his expression softened. But it was fleeting, gone before I could really register it.

I wanted to argue. I didn’t trust Azeem any more than I trusted Kentaro, but the truth was, I had no idea how to get to the capital. If we were going to make it there in one piece, we needed a guide, and for better or worse, Azeem was it.

“Make me proud, Jai Boone,” Oldie said, her eyes locking onto mine. There was a weight to her words that I couldn’t quite place, but I nodded all the same.

“Kentaro Isayama,” she continued, turning to him.

Kentaro dropped to one knee, bowing so low it was almost embarrassing. When he rose again, he seemed even more rigid than before, his face a mask of determination. I still couldn’t understand his obsession with all this bowing and scraping. It was like he lived for these moments of submission, and it was unnerving.

Without another word, we turned and began our journey. The village quickly disappeared behind us as we entered the thick bushes and trees that marked the boundary of their world. For Kentaro, this was just the start of another mission. For me, it was something far more unsettling—an entrance into a world I barely recognized, but one that held the key to the past I was trying to reclaim.

⥁

“How the hell does this make any sense?” I snapped, my frustration boiling over as I threw my arms in the air.

“It makes sense today, idiot!” Kentaro shot back, his face red with anger. “Neither of us have one!”

“Of course I don’t have one! I was in prison, remember? What’s your excuse?” I glared at him, my hands balling into fists at my sides.

“I lived in a village off the outskirts of a terrorist-controlled city my entire life! Why do you think I don’t have one, genius?” He spat the words like they were venom, his eyes blazing.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Enough!” Azeem finally stepped in, shoving both of us apart with surprising force for someone who had been so quiet during the journey.

We had arrived at the main city in less than a day, thanks to an unbelievably fast spaceship hidden away in what I had assumed was a primitive village. The sheer contrast between the two worlds was staggering, but there was no time to dwell on that. The moment we set foot in the city, we were hit with a series of problems, starting with the academy.

Apparently for this academy, we had to take an exam to get in, which to be more precise gave us two problems. The first, was one that couldn’t be changed no matter how hard we tried, I hadn’t made it past the preliminary exams. Which truth be told I didn’t exactly understand, nor cared to think about.

The second and much more serious problem was that we had no way to get to the exam site. Turns out that we needed these little small screens called a Tenus–the screens everyone in the city had attached to their arms– that accessed a world wide web and some other important technical stuff , to send out a request picked up and taken to the site.

Neither Kentaro nor Azeem had a Tenus, which was idiotic in and of itself. How did they expect us to function here without it?

“How the hell did you get to the first exam?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes at Kentaro.

“The prelims?” he scoffed, clearly enjoying the fact that he knew more than I did.

“Grand-Elder lent me one to use. But…” He trailed off, his cheeks flushing red with embarrassment.

“But what?” I pressed, stepping closer to him.

“I broke it after I got into a fight with someone, okay?” His voice was defensive, and he turned away, clearly not proud of this particular moment.

“You broke it? And you didn’t think to get another one?” I could feel the blood rushing to my face, my fists clenching in frustration. “You spent all that time bowing and kissing up to the Grand-Elder, and you didn’t bother to ask for a replacement?”

“How the hell was I supposed to ask for another one after she took the risk to get that one for me? Do you know how stupid I would look?”

“You are stupid!” I barked, my frustration spilling out unchecked. I didn’t even know why I was this angry, but venting it out felt good. Or maybe it just felt necessary, like a fire burning inside me that needed to be let loose.

“Alright! Calm down!” Azeem’s voice boomed between us, forcing a wedge in the argument that was spiraling out of control.

But his command only added to the fire.

“Don’t tell me to calm down! How are we going to get there now?” I practically yelled, my voice trembling with a rage I didn’t fully understand. The need to shout, to push back, was like an itch I couldn’t scratch. The situation was spiraling, and I couldn’t hold it in.

Azeem returned me with a shout of his own. His roar echoed back at me. “We can buy one! If anyone questions anything, we can say you lost it!”

I flinched, the rawness of his voice sending a jolt through me. My eyes drifted down instinctively to my arm. A faded scar, shaped almost perfectly like the screen, ran along the length of my forearm. It was dull now, almost blending into my skin, but I could still feel it, the memory of what had once been there—a device that had been more than just tech. It was a part of me, something integral. And yet, it had been ripped away, leaving nothing but a hole in my mind and a deep unease in my chest.

A Tenus.

I knew I needed one again, to blend in, to function in this strange world. But getting one meant reconnecting with a past that felt like smoke slipping through my fingers—something lost, yet so important that the mere thought of it filled me with dread. I wasn’t ready for that. How could I be? It would be a constant reminder of everything I couldn’t remember, of everything I had once been and everything I had lost.

But I couldn’t afford to live in fear. I had to push forward. If I didn’t, I’d be stuck in this limbo forever.

“Fine,” I muttered through gritted teeth, “how do we do this?”

“Follow me,” Azeem grunted, already walking off with Kentaro in tow, both of them clearly done with the conversation. I had no choice but to follow, though the knot in my stomach grew tighter with each step.

The city was beyond anything I could’ve imagined. As we moved through the streets, the sheer magnitude of the place hit me like a shockwave. Buildings, no, towers, rose high into the sky—so tall they vanished into the clouds, defying any sense of reason. They glittered like they were made from glass, shimmering with an ethereal brilliance as the sun reflected off their seamless, transparent surfaces.

The whole skyline looked like it belonged in some dreamworld, one where walls were barely walls and everything felt open, exposed. Some buildings didn’t even seem real, like projections you could walk right through, yet they housed entire lives within their transparent floors.

It felt impossible. It felt wrong.

People moved around us like water flowing in a river, but it wasn’t just the crowd that overwhelmed me—it was the technology. The streets were alive with it. Hoverboards darted overhead, carrying kids not much older than toddlers.

They balanced effortlessly on the air, their laughter and shouts echoing through the wide streets, fearless as they zipped in and out of the crowds below. The boards, shimmering under the sunlight, responded to the slightest shift in their posture, like extensions of their bodies.

I stepped aside to avoid one board as it brushed past me, only to collide with a small girl walking the opposite direction. Or at least, I thought she was a girl.

The impact knocked me backward, hard enough to send me sprawling onto the cold pavement. The girl didn’t even flinch. She stood there, solid as a rock, her wide eyes studying me with mild amusement.

She couldn’t have been older than six or seven, but when my hand touched her, it was like touching a wall of steel. Her skin had a strange texture to it, soft but too firm, like it wasn’t quite skin at all.

Without so much as a word, she turned and floated away, her small feet barely touching the ground. The ease with which she moved was haunting.

I stood up, dusting myself off, my mind racing. The people around me—no one seemed normal. Not in the way I understood normal, at least.

Men and women passed by with glowing circuits snaking under their skin, their arms or legs replaced by mechanical limbs that looked more advanced than anything I’d ever seen. Some walked, some hovered, some flickered in and out of sight as if reality itself couldn’t hold them down. One guy strolled by, missing an arm entirely, yet in its place was a translucent, holographic limb that moved just as smoothly as flesh and bone.

Others were even stranger—a woman floated several inches above the ground, no visible tech attached to her body. It was like she was held up by invisible strings, a marionette controlled by forces I couldn’t see.

The city teemed with life and the overwhelming presence of technology, merging seamlessly with the people. They weren’t just wearing tech; they were tech.

I barely had time to process all of this when a massive man caught my eye. He was grotesquely large, but despite his bulk, he moved with grace—almost gliding through the crowd. His body, swollen with unnatural fat, didn’t slow him down. If anything, it seemed to enhance his movement. Whatever modifications he had—mechanical or genetic, I couldn’t tell—they were subtle but powerful.

High above us, floating holographic billboards projected ads that glowed in midair, impossible to miss. “Tamed Beasts! Tailored to your Dreams!” one ad declared, showing a person petting a sleek, panther-like creature with glowing fur and too many eyes.

Another ad flickered to life, showcasing a woman who drifted in slow motion, her body a complex lattice of wires, circuits, and glowing joints. She was barely human, more machine than flesh, yet she moved with such grace that it was hard not to stare. “Upgrade your lover,” the tagline read, flashing in bold letters, accompanied by a sultry wink. My breath caught in my throat.

This city. It was alien.

I tried to ground myself, but a sudden commotion snapped my attention back to the present.

Across the street, a group of law enforcement officers, clad in sleek, black armor that clung to their bodies like liquid metal, stormed through the crowd. They moved like a well-oiled machine, closing in on a man who was trying to flee. He had some kind of implant in his arm, glowing faintly, but it wasn’t enough to help him escape. In a matter of seconds, the officers subdued him with a blast of electricity, dropping him to the ground before dragging him away.

For a split second, I felt like I had seen all this before, experienced this scene. But it passed just as quickly as it had come, leaving me even more disoriented.

Azeem and Kentaro continued walking without acknowledging the chaos around us. They didn’t seem fazed by it—just another day in the city, I supposed. I followed, though my mind was still racing, barely keeping up with the whirlwind of sights and sounds.

They stopped abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk, causing a wave of annoyed pedestrians to push past us, grumbling under their breath. I sidestepped the crowd and forced my way between Azeem and Kentaro, irritated by their sudden halt.

“What?” I snapped, my frustration bubbling over again.

“We’re here,” Azeem said, though his voice lacked the confidence I had come to expect from him.

I turned my head, following his gaze, and my heart sank. Disappointment washed over me like a cold wave.

I couldn’t believe it. “What the hell is this?” I muttered, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

Before me stood the supposed solution to our problem—a small, run-down shop squeezed between two towering skyscrapers, its neon sign flickering weakly in the daylight. The storefront was cracked and grimy, the door barely hanging on its hinges. It looked like it hadn’t seen a customer in years.

This was where we were going to get a Tenus? This was our grand solution?