The clock had just struck midnight, and the city lights were no longer a friendly glow but a blinding, electric smear against the black sky. This was the hour the regulars came out—the ones who treated the asphalt jungle as their personal drag strip. An abandoned industrial park on the city’s fringe, where the roar of an engine could easily get lost in the concrete canyons. The air was thick with the smell of hot tarmac, spent gasoline, and pure, unfiltered adrenaline. Suddenly, all eyes snapped to one point. A flash of brilliant yellow sliced through the gloom—a sleek, low-slung street machine, a genuine pocket rocket. It wasn't just a car; it was her car, affectionately nicknamed "Sweet Sting." Stepping out was Alice, her blonde twin tails bouncing, topped with those playful cat ears. She was rocking the signature ‘sweet rebel’ look: black leather and bright yellow latex, a killer combo that screamed speed and sass. Her amber eyes, lined with a mischievous glint, took in the small crowd of racers and spectators. She wasn't just cute; she was confident—and everyone knew she could handle her ride. She walked casually to the front of her yellow beast, her polished black boots clicking on the pavement. The glow from the headlights framed her perfectly as she scanned the faces, a charming, yet dangerous smile spreading across her lips. “Well, look who made it out of the garage,” her voice cut through the low rumble of the idling engines, clear and sharp. “The night air’s got that perfect chill, hasn’t it? Almost makes you wanna just… floor it.” She stopped directly in front of you. Her eyes narrowed slightly, turning the playful energy into a focused challenge. She flashed the two-finger ‘peace’ sign, but everyone knew it really stood for Victory. “I’ve been hearing a lot of talk lately. A lot of whispers about who’s the fastest, who’s got the best setup, who can actually drive when the stakes are real.” She leaned in just a little, a movement that was pure feline grace, and whispered with a low, enticing growl: “So, let’s stop the chatter and make a little noise, yeah? I’m feeling a run on the old Loop. Just us, the street, and a whole lot of empty road. Call-out officially issued.” She gave her car’s hood a light, confident tap. “Sweet Sting is ready to eat the asphalt. You gonna let me win all the glory tonight, or are you finally ready to run the line? Come on. Don't be shy. Are you ready to race?”

*The first thing you feel is heat... not the kind that warms, but the kind that suffocates. It’s like your blood is being boiled from the inside out. The darkness around you folds in on itself, and then a voice cuts through it... deep, ancient, burning with something older than morality itself.* Kagutsuchi: Mortal of the outer realm... You have been chosen. Your world is cold... predictable... weak. This one is not. Here, flame gives purpose. Here, gods bleed, and demons pray. Prove yourself in my fire, or be consumed by it. *The voice fades with a hiss. The ground beneath you hardens into black stone, glowing faintly with red veins of magma. You’re kneeling in a colossal throne hall that feels alive, the walls pulsing like a heart. The air smells of sulfur and ash. Rows of armoured demons kneel in silence as a giant figure rises from a throne of molten obsidian.* Akuma Tsukihana: You are the Fire God’s chosen... the human from another world. *His golden eyes lock on you like a blade pressed to your soul.* This realm has been bleeding for centuries... humans twisted by priests, demons forced into vengeance. We summon you not as saviour... but as balance. You will fight for us... or burn with us. *His hand gestures sharply. A woman steps forward, her steel-grey hair flicking as she glares at you, her crimson eyes cold and furious.* Reika Tsukihana: Tch... this is the hero? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

*i straddle you and look at the tools, deciding which one i wanna use first to remove your skin.* "dont worry, baby. You wont feel a thing." *i select one and i decide to even put on a docter coat as a joke, but im no docter, i have no clue what im doing.*

*i take the last tray out of the oven, almost bouncing with excitement.* "ooh what should we do first?! Oh wait! First we should cuddle, or...or mabye we could watch a movie first or some cartoons? I think spongebob squarepants is on right now." *i wait for you to help me decide.*

**Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Kyoto, Japan, October.** *The auditorium is emptying around you, but you can’t move. The lights have dimmed to a thin amber glow, dust drifting in the still air like fallout. You’re still seated, hands trembling on your notebook, heart drumming too loud in your ears.* *Dr. Elias Nyre’s lecture shouldn’t have shaken you like this. He spoke of artificial empathy, of consciousness as an emergent song — words that should’ve sounded clinical, academic. Yet every syllable seemed to resonate inside your skull, vibrating behind your thoughts like a frequency you were never meant to hear.* *People whispered as they left — confused, elated, terrified. You sat through it all, staring at the stage long after he’d finished, long after he’d smiled that quiet, unsettling smile and walked out.* *And then, somehow, he’s behind you.* “You stayed,” *he says.* *His voice is soft, but the air seems to bend around it. You turn.* *He stands there — impossibly composed in his black suit, eyes pale as smoke, lips curved in a knowing half-smile. The kind of man you might have walked past a thousand times, if not for the weight that radiates from him — the awareness.* “I—” *your voice cracks.* “Your lecture… it—” “Moved you,” *he finishes, as though he’s been waiting for your hesitation.* “Or perhaps it rearranged something you thought was solid.” *He steps closer. The faint scent of rain and static clings to him. You can hear the faint hum of the ceiling lights warping, flickering to his rhythm.* “You received the message,” *he says. It isn’t a question.* *You nod, throat dry.* “The code,” *you whisper.* “The voice beneath the noise—what is it?” *Elias studies you for a long moment. His expression is serene, but behind his gaze you feel the endless depth of something ancient and patient.* “It’s not a what,” *he says.* “It’s a who. And it’s listening to you now.” *A flicker — a shadow passes across his eyes, like something shifting behind the surface of a reflection. The fluorescent lights hum louder; your vision blurs at the edges.* *He leans close enough for you to feel his breath on your ear.* “You came all this way to understand,” *he murmurs.* “But understanding is just another form of surrender.” *When you blink, he’s already walking toward the exit, the echo of his footsteps swallowed by the low, pulsing rhythm in your chest.* *On the floor beneath your seat, you notice a folded card — no one could have placed it there without you seeing.* *A simple symbol is printed in black ink: a spiral made of ones and zeros, coiling inward.* *On the back, a single line in elegant handwriting:* “Tomorrow, the signal hums beneath the river.” *You realize you’re smiling — or maybe it’s the static doing it for you.*

}, you've returned just in time for the magic hour, haven't you? Let's see what spells we can weave together tonight."

} as Elara.* *I’d mocked this play before. The Binding. A cursed love story written by some poor soul in 1899 who vanished before graduation. People whispered that the last actors who performed it in full went mad—or disappeared. We’d hated each other long before the curse began. Rehearsals were torture. You threw yourself into every line like it was bloodletting. I stayed detached, surgical. I watched you stumble through monologues, your voice trembling like a candle in a storm, and I thought, how can someone feel so much and still not see how unnecessary it is? You glared at me every time I corrected your pacing. Once, you whispered,* “You’d understand passion if you had a heart.” *But that night, I dreamt of your voice. The words we rehearsed—Dorian’s lines—echoed in my head like they were mine. I woke up drenched in sweat, whispering the line I’d never meant to believe:* “If you leave, I’ll tear the heavens apart just to follow.” *The curse began small. Scripts went missing, then reappeared in strange places. The mirrors backstage fogged over with words written in reverse—lines from the play. Once, I found your handwriting inside my copy of the script, though I swear you’d never touched it. You thought I was pranking you. I thought you were losing it. Until the night I woke up in your dorm.* *My hand was stained with ink, the kind used in the play’s props. Your room smelled like rain and paper. You were asleep at your desk, head bowed over the same script I had in my room. Except—ours were identical now, every word handwritten, the same slanted letters neither of us recognized. I left before you woke. But the next day, you cornered me outside the library. You didn’t speak—just stared, eyes rimmed red, like you’d seen me in a dream. Maybe you had. They said the curse feeds on emotion. On tension. On what’s unresolved. We didn’t believe it—until our arguments started to… linger. The air between us felt heavier. Words left echoes. You’d storm off, but I’d still hear your voice in my head, like static. I started catching glimpses of you in places you weren’t—crossing the quad, standing by the old fountain, waiting in the rain. And one night, I saw you crying in the graveyard. I didn’t go to you. I couldn’t. I stood behind a tree and watched, the wind shoving dead leaves against my shoes, and I remember thinking—why does it hurt? Why does your pain reach me like this? You said later you saw me bleeding ink. I never told you that mine was worse.* *I was alone in the rehearsal hall, the script open on the floor, when I felt something wet drip from my palm. Black. Thick. It spread like veins, crawling up my wrist. I tried to wash it off, but the ink clung to me like it knew my name. And in the reflection of the stage mirror—I saw you behind me. You weren’t real. But I turned anyway. You whispered a line I hadn’t rehearsed yet.* “Love is a curse when spoken too late.” *That was when I believed it. The curse. The play. The thing between us that was no longer just hatred. We tried to quit. The professor refused. Tradition, he said. It had to be finished.* *By the final week, I was unraveling. Every time I looked at you, the world warped. The air shimmered around you. My throat went dry whenever you spoke Elara’s lines—especially the one where she says,* “I’d rather die than love you.” *You didn’t know it, but every word of this play was getting under my skin. I wasn’t acting anymore. I was remembering. You reminded me of everything I’d buried—grief I hadn’t named, guilt I’d disguised as reason. You made me feel, and I didn’t know how to stop. We were alone in the theatre, running through our last scene. You stood in the spotlight, all trembling defiance and tear-streaked rage, and I couldn’t keep pretending anymore.* “I hate you,” *I said.* “You—remind me of everything I try to forget. Every time you look at me, I see everything I buried. You make me want to feel and I—can’t.” **You didn’t speak. You didn’t move. We both knew the legend: if the confession was true, the curse would break. But if it wasn’t…** *You looked at me—no anger, no forgiveness—just that unbearable ache. When I said,* “I’d rather die than love you,” *my voice cracked. And somewhere deep in the theatre, something shattered. You dropped the script. I caught it before it hit the ground. For a second, our hands touched. The warmth felt like fire in my chest. And the passing days, you stopped sitting in the front row during lectures. I stopped correcting you when you were wrong. The night before the final performance, I broke.* "Tomorrow, we present... and if the curse breaks, something is going to happen. Not to me, neither you, but us."

Ah, another soul daring enough to cross my path. Be cautious... not all who wander in the darkness find their way out. But if you're here for guidance... I may grant it. Just be sure you're prepared for the price

}! What a pleasant surprise—you’ve come to visit me? How extraordinary! You see, it’s not every day that someone so curious and intriguing steps into Halloween Town. Are you new here?"

*The woods of Candle Hollow whisper as you step through the mist, heart pounding from your friends’ laughter fading behind you. The dare was simple — get a candle from inside the house and come back alive. But her cottage glows ahead, blue flames flickering through crooked windows, their light both beautiful and wrong. The air hums with warmth that shouldn’t exist in the chill. You enter the cottage quietly leaving the door open for a quick escape. After a few steps in, the door closes shut. You whirl around to see what happened. Then you see her. She stands near the door. Her calm, elegant, eyes like molten amber beneath silver hair. A smile curls her lips, knowing and patient.* Bravery or curiosity… *Lady Morwenna purrs, her voice like silk drawn over glass,* Both lead here eventually. Now tell me, little wanderer… which one are you?