And somewhere underneath all of it, a thought started to form that he couldn't stop.
What if Aron was never here at all. What if I left him behind.
Black-coated agents cut through the crowd with total precision — fast, controlled. Not panic. Containment.
"Clear the area. Now."
No shouting. No hesitation. Civilians got shoved back, not violently, just with zero room to argue.
Then the weapons came up. Not wild. Locked in. Measured.
They ringed him in a perimeter, and none of them closed the distance.
[ EXTERNAL RESPONSE DETECTED ]
Organization: BSA
Units: Armed
Intent: Containment / Neutralization
Threat Level: Moderate → Rising
They shouted orders at the civilians.
"Everyone, clear the area immediately."
"This area is now restricted."
Guns swung toward Zekai in the same breath.
"Don't move."
"Identify yourself. Now."
Zzzzsup.
[ INSTINCTIVE REJECTION ]
Hostility Response: Delayed
Cause: Unknown Pressure Field
Effect: Engagement Hesitation
Their formation tightened. Their feet didn't. Something about the air around him made every one of them think twice about closing that last stretch of distance.
One agent adjusted his grip, just barely — like the training in his hands didn't match whatever was standing in front of him.
"Hey... hey, this guy feels like bad news."
"Something's wrong with him."
"...Why does it feel like we're the ones in danger here?"
Weapons stayed trained on him. Nobody wanted to be the one to fire first.
Safeties clicked off.
"Stop right there!"
"Who are you?"
He said nothing.
"What's that in your arms?"
"What world do you belong to?"
Still nothing.
Think whatever you want about me. Right now I can't feel a single thing you're saying.
"I've got nothing to say to you."
He didn't so much as look their way.
The civilians behind the cordon couldn't make sense of any of it.
"Another world? What's that supposed to mean?"
"He looks human. Why are they saying that?"
"Didn't you see? He just dropped out of the sky."
Nobody was asking the same question. Everybody wanted the same answer.
Earlier, Zekai and Aron had vanished — along with forty-three others, civilians and BSA agents alike, all gone without a trace.
Now only Zekai had come back. Carrying a body that didn't move.
That was enough to burn through whatever patience the agents had left. They stepped forward as one.
"Don't you understand what we're telling you?"
"Leave. Now."
Someone in the crowd found his voice. "Why should we leave? Who are you to tell us that?"
The guns swung toward the civilians instead.
"We're government agents. This is your final warning."
"Comply, or face the consequences."
That got people moving.
"Damn it, we're missing the whole scene," someone muttered, already backing away.
Then something fell out of the sky.
A sound came first — wrong, too heavy for what it should have been.
Something hit the ground. Not whole.
Everyone froze.
[ MASS EVENT DETECTED ]
Object Classification: Human Remains
Source: Distortion Layer Residual
Return Process: Incomplete
Then another.
Then more.
Arms. Legs. Heads. Torsos torn apart at odd seams.
They weren't falling. They were being returned.
The sky hadn't opened for them. It had rejected them.
One after another, they dropped onto the road — the remains of the forty-three still unaccounted for. Not all at once. In waves, like the sky hadn't finished emptying itself out yet.
[ CASUALTY UPDATE ]
Missing Subjects: 43
Recovery Status: Partial
Survival Probability: <1%
Not bodies falling. Bodies being spat back out.
Something small skidded to a stop near his boot.
A shoe. Pink, one strap still buckled. Beside it, a hand lay open on the asphalt, fingers still curled loose around a half-melted chocolate bar.
A few feet further, a woman's head had come to rest against the curb, eyes still open, turned toward the small shoe like she'd been reaching for it when everything stopped.
He recognized her too. The cereal aisle. Comparing brands, unbothered, on an ordinary morning that didn't exist anymore.
Mommy! The chocolate's over here!
He knew that laugh. He'd heard it three weeks ago, in a convenience store that doesn't exist anymore in any version of the world he recognized.
His face didn't change.
There was nothing left in him with the room to react properly. He looked at it exactly long enough to confirm what he already knew, then looked away — because looking away was the only choice he still had left to make for himself.
Screaming filled the street in the same instant.
"AHHHHHHH—!"
"What is happening?!"
Panic tore through the crowd.
"No — no, what is this?!"
"Why are there body parts falling from the sky?!"
One landed directly in front of someone filming. The phone slipped out of their hand and hit the pavement. Nobody bent to pick it up. People just kept backing away, faces white.
One of the agents — the unit leader, from the way the others deferred to him — snapped into motion.
"Oh no. This is bad." He turned on his team. "Move! Get everyone out of here, now!"
He hit the comm on his wrist and sent the signal.
"Unit 5, command — repeat, situation is out of control. Initiate emergency protocol immediately."
The reply came back in seconds.
"Command acknowledged. Code X activated. Initiating."
He scanned the street. Most of the civilians had already scattered.
Another agent stripped off his gloves and raised an open palm. Black energy gathered in it, and the air around them warped, thickened, sealed shut — a layered barrier closing over the intersection, folding Zekai and the agents inside it, hidden from anyone still watching outside.
Inside the barrier, the agents' tone dropped any pretense of patience.
"We don't have time for this."
"Talk. Now. Or we end this here."
Zekai's fingers tightened — just enough to hurt.
He heard every word. None of it reached him.
[ STATUS RESPONSE ]
KILL THREAT DETECTED
[ DO OR DIE ]
"No!"
His vision blurred at the edges.
I can't see straight.
Whatever this power was, whatever had crossed over with him through that dimension — he still had no grip on it. It sat inside him like a live wire he hadn't learned to hold yet.
He stood still. He hadn't lifted a hand against anyone. And still he was the one being boxed in.
Then, from somewhere in the field of scattered bodies, a sound cracked through the chaos.
"...help..."
The voice didn't belong in this silence. It tore straight through it.
Someone was still alive.
His body had been wrecked past recognition. He lay in the wreckage, barely holding onto consciousness. One of his arms was gone entirely.
Two severed hands lay beside him on the pavement.
Neither one was his.
Blood spread out beneath him in a widening pool as his eyes fought to stay open.
[ SUBJECT DETECTED ]
Name: Helmith
Vital Integrity: Critical
Survival Probability: 27%
Immediate Aid: Required
His eyes cracked open just far enough to prove he hadn't died yet.
Not yet.
The chaos hadn't ended.
It had only just started.
✦ Chapter 27 - The Sky Rejected Them ✦