Chapter 402: The World is Now Shipping You
The live chat scrolled too fast to read, but certain phrases repeated.
ship them so hard
soone check if they’re dating pls
the way he looked at her in that photo tho
ngl kinda jealous of both of them
The blonde host grinned at the cara. "Well, viewers, what do you think? Are Celeste and Satori just friends who keep nearly dying together? Or is there sothing more going on?"
The poll results ca in within seconds.
87% voted for "definitely sothing more."
On SnapGram, Akari Miyamoto posted a photo of the common room at Onyx House.
The image showed Jai flexing in the background while Marco tried to wake Juan from his nap. Hikari occupied half the fra, grinning at the cara with a protein shake in one hand.
The caption read: when your guildmates survive literal hell but you’re stuck on campus doing howork. proud of our disaster squad tho. @satori_nakano better not die before I get my turn to kick his ass.
The post received 47,000 likes in the first hour.
The comnts section beca a warzone.
is no one gonna talk about "my turn"???
akari wants that stray dog confird
celeste has entered the chat
celeste has left the chat
celeste has destroyed the chat with ice
Hikari replied to her sister’s post with a photo of herself doing a handstand.
big sis is just mad satori didn’t take HER into the death dinsion. also I can do this for three minutes now. new record.
The conspiracy forums went absolutely feral.
The Black Gate Files posted an ergency update titled "THE VANCE CONNECTION: FOLLOW THE BODIES."
The anonymous author had compiled a tiline.
TWO MONTHS AGO: Satori Nakano, registered Zero, manifests late with unique Aspect. VHC flags him for Level 7 Protocol evaluation. Reason: unknown.
SIX WEEKS AGO: Nakano publicly humiliates Julian Valerius at VHC Gala. Gains viral fa. Becos trending topic.
THREE WEEKS AGO: Sunken Necropolis incident. A-Rank Anomaly appears in C-Rank training Gate. Two Sentinels die. Celeste Vance nearly dies. Satori Nakano saves her. VHC investigation concludes with "natural mana fluctuation." Case closed.
YESTERDAY: Black Gate scenario. Celeste Vance and Satori Nakano trapped together. Both survive. VHC investigation pending.
The author’s analysis followed.
Pattern recognition is my specialty. This is not random. Soone with access to VHC Gate clearance protocols is manipulating student assignnts. Soone knew Celeste would be in both Gates. And soone knew Nakano would be there too.
The question is: Are they trying to kill Celeste? Or are they trying to see what Nakano can do under pressure?
Either answer is terrifying.
The post received 892 comnts in twenty minutes.
Most agreed with the analysis.
So suggested alien involvent.
One insisted it was all a reality show and none of it was real.
Jacob Williams, reading from his room at Onyx House, saved the entire thread to his encrypted archive.
In President Vance’s office at VHC Central, Seraphina sat at her desk reading the sa reports her subordinates had compiled.
Her expression revealed nothing.
Mada President’s white hair fell in perfect waves around her shoulders. Her crystalline blue eyes scanned each docunt with the kind of focus that made lesser people confess to cris they hadn’t committed just to escape her attention.
The door opened without a knock.
Commander Graves walked in, still wearing her field gear from the Sector 7 response.
"Mada President."
"Sit."
Graves sat.
Seraphina set down the report she’d been reading and folded her hands on the desk. "Your assessnt."
"The students survived a Black Gate that shouldn’t exist. Gate transformations don’t happen spontaneously. Soone changed it from the inside."
"Your evidence?"
"Energy signature analysis. The Gate’s taphysical profile shifted approximately four hours after initial formation. That’s not natural variance. That’s intervention."
"Suspects?"
"Anyone with S-Rank spatial manipulation or reality warping capabilities. Anyone with access to Gate modification tech. Anyone who wants your sister dead."
Seraphina’s expression didn’t change, but the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
"Continue."
"Nakano’s the wild card. His combat recorder was damaged during the incident, so we only have partial footage. What we do have shows him fighting things that shouldn’t exist in a C-Rank environnt. Fire elentals. So kind of root monster. The footage cuts out before the boss encounter."
"And my sister?"
"Celeste displayed power output consistent with low A-Rank during the escape. She froze an entire chamber. She created multiple ice bridges. She nearly killed herself from mana exhaustion keeping Nakano alive."
Seraphina’s fingers tapped once against the desk. "Recomndations?"
"Pull Celeste from field assignnts. Reassign her to administrative observation until we identify the threat. Increase her security detail. And—"
"And?"
Graves hesitated. "Keep Nakano close to her."
"Explain."
"He’s kept her alive twice now. Whatever he is, whoever trained him, whatever’s really going on with his Aspect, he’s effective. The Arborist was an S-Rank equivalent entity, and he killed it with a baseball bat and a knife."
"Your report suggests he had help."
"He had Celeste. And plants, apparently. The botanical samples we recovered from his clothing suggest that." Graves paused. "Ma’am, I’ve been doing this job for twenty years. I’ve never seen anything like him."
Seraphina stood and walked to the window overlooking New Vein City.
The skyline glittered beneath her, a monunt to everything she’d built from the ashes of the Rupture.
"Satori Nakano," she said quietly, "is either the luckiest boy alive or the most dangerous asset currently operating outside my control."
"Which do you believe?"
"I believe in patterns, Commander. And the pattern suggests that every ti my sister is in danger, he appears. Every ti he appears, impossible things happen." She turned back to face Graves. "I believe in being prepared for both possibilities."
"aning?"
"aning we watch him. Closely. If he’s genuine, we cultivate that loyalty. If he’s a threat?"
Seraphina didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
Graves nodded once and stood. "Understood, Mada President."
After Graves left, Seraphina returned to her desk and pulled up a file labeled NAKANO, SATORI - CLASSIFIED.
The boy’s face stared out from the ID photo, his red hair wild and his eyes carrying that infuriating mix of intelligence and defiance.
"What are you?" she murmured to the empty office. "And why does the universe keep putting you in my sister’s path?"
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END OF VOLU FOUR: WHITE ROOTS RED CROWN
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