The wall of metal plates hummed.
Lights blinked. Small gears spun behind the wall. The ticking sound grew louder, like a clock getting angry.
Haruto stood still. He held the fake badge Sera gave him. His fingers were cold.
"Just walk through," she said.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Haruto looked at the Gate again. The plates glowed. Names flickered in and out. They didn't stay still. Some changed every second, as if time was slipping through them.
He took a deep breath.
Then stepped forward.
The moment he passed through the arch, the lights stopped blinking. The ticking paused.
Then, a deep sound filled the air.
CLUNK.
A panel opened from the wall.
A long metal arm slid out. At the end was a glass eye. It looked right at him.
Sera didn't move.
The eye scanned him from head to toe.
Haruto's heart thumped in his chest. His legs felt weak.
The eye beeped once. Then again.
Then it spoke.
"Unknown designation. Searching memory..."
Haruto held the badge tighter.
"Subject matched. File found: Kazen the Shade."
His breath caught.
Kazen.The killer.That was the name of this body.
The wall went quiet.
Then—CLUNK.The arm slid back into the machine.
"Name verified. Welcome back, Kazen."
Sera's eyes widened.
"…That name was deleted years ago," she whispered. "They erased it."
Haruto's throat felt dry. "Guess I brought it back."
Sera looked at him differently now. Her playful grin was gone. Her eyes were cold.
"You're not just new," she said. "You're wrong."
He didn't answer.
Because inside his head, something had started ticking.
A memory.
A voice.
"You can't kill time," it whispered. "But you can hold it still."
Haruto grabbed his chest. The ticking sound was coming from inside him now.
Tick.Tick.Tick.
Something in this world had opened its eyes.
And it saw him.