The second floor of KFC was warm, noisy, and smelled of everything that was unhealthy and perfect.
Our table was a battlefield: wrappers everywhere, disappearing fries at a criminal rate, and Azlaan complaining that his drink was mostly ice.
Mebzy jogged my elbow.
“Baroodie, if we ever get isekai’d, I want it on record that I expect dramatic music.
Don’t let me go out like some side character.”
I laughed.
“Bro, if anyone’s getting side-character energy, it’s me.”
Equan stared up from his fries.
“Statistically, group disasters don’t allow time for dramatic music.”
Azlaan groaned.
“Why must you jinx us like this!?”
Then the floor shook.
A faint, deep vibration-not enough to scare anyone, but enough to make us all look up.
“Generator?” I guessed.
“No,” Equan said softly.
“Too heavy.
That was—
The glass wall in front of us lit up with white headlights.
Time didn’t slow.
It didn’t give us grace.
It hit all at once.
A truck-an actual truck-came flying upward toward the window, heaving like something had hurled it into the sky.
For one impossible second, I thought it might miss us.
Then it crashed through.
Glass exploded inward.
Chairs flipped.
Tables shattered.
Air filled with the deafening roar of metal and destruction.
I didn’t feel the moment the truck hit me.
Just a violent jerk-my body yanked off the ground-Mebzy’s fingers barely brushing my sleeve before he vanished into the blur of chaos beside me.
Azlaan shouted out my name.
Muffled, it sounded; remote.
Desperate, not panicked.
Then the world went black for a heartbeat.
The world went white….
then black…
then snapped back into shards.
I was lying on my back.
Not on the chair.
Not on the floor, as it once had been.
On broken tiles.
Something warm trickled down my forehead, rather slow and sticky.
Blood.
My blood.
“Baroodie!
Baroodie—hey—HEY!”
Azlaan.
He wasn’t dead.
Blood streamed down his face as he crawled across the now wrecked and debris-ridden floor to get to me
“Don’t fall asleep bro!
Look at me!”
He reached me, his hand trembling, trying to wipe the blood off my eye.
My vision doubled.
Behind him, I saw Mebzy.
And I knew.
No movement.
No breathing.
The way his arm lay-it told a story nobody was wanting to hear.
My throat tightened.
“.Mebzy.
The word barely left me.
Azlaan flinched, as if the syllable stabbed him.
Equan kneeled in shock at the other side of the room.
His phone was already in his ear.
“Yes-yes-there’s been an accident-second floor-KFC Fortress-please-PLEASE-send someone-my friends-”
His voice cracked violently, hardly recognizable.
The lights of the truck shone across the room, filling it with dreadening light
Red
Dark.
Red.
Dark.
My chest rose once.
Shallow.
Barely.
Azlaan saw it.
He pushed my chest in, forcing me to inhale and exhale.
“Don’ t you dare stop breathing’
Each word he said shook.
I tried to speak, but blood filled my mouth: warm, metallic.
I coughed weakly.
Azlaan’s eyes bulged in panic.
“Stop—don’t move—help is coming—okay?
They’re coming—just—just hold on—”
Equan’s words blurred together as he shouted into the phone:
“There are multiple victims—two not breathing—one barely—please hurry—please—”
The room kept fading in and out.
Sound bending.
Vision narrowing.
My fingers twitched once; Azlaan grasped them immediately.
“I told you to stay alive!
Don’t you dare die on me!”
He spoke, his voice breaking.
I saw a white light, bursting across the floor and covering my vision.
Like a line of light tracing itself across the floor.
I blinked hard.
The glow thickened, curling into a circle beneath me, faint and pulsing… almost like breath.
I’d lost too much blood to think clearly.
Another wave of weakness hit.
Harder.
Azlaan’s face blurred into two.
Then three.
“Please—please—they’re dying—hurry—please—”
He was no longer talking to the operator, he was begging the world.
The glow under me brightened.
I tried to raise my head — but strength deserted me right at once.
It fell back to the floor.
Azlaan caught me, so it didn’t hit the tiles.
“Hey-HEY-look at me-don’t do that-don’t-”
He was crying.
He didn’t even realize it.
This pulsing light rose around my body, thin strands curling like smoke.
My last breath rattled in my throat.
Everything dimmed — Azlaan’s voice distant, Equan shouting through tears, sirens somewhere outside, lights flickering, blood cooling on my skin.
And then the light engulfed everything.
Not bright.
Not warm.
Just absolute.
A soft, metallic voice emanated through the void
“Life signature terminated.
Soul transfer, initiate.
Two souls detected.
Both being sent into Unregistered Universe, Model Fiction.”
Everything went completely black.
And something pulled me out of it.
An ambulance had arrived, and things were in dire straits.
They had carried Azlaan out in a stretcher and gently coaxed Equan into the ambulance too, despite him not carrying physical injuries, he most definitely sustained some trauma at the very least.
And then there were the others.
Baroodie.
Mebzy.
The few paramedics glanced once at the still, lifeless forms and looked away.
Nothing more was to be done here.
Their absence weighed heavier than the cold air, heavier than the shards of glass or blood.
High above, in the still expanse of the Imaginary Tree, Su hovered.
An entirely new leaf?
Curious, it pulled his hand toward it.
Where did this come from…?
he thought, reaching out instinctively, fingertips brushing the faint air around the leaf, careful not to disturb it.
The leaf pulsed ever so slightly alive, in a way that made Su pause.
There was a resonance hum, almost mechanical, almost sentient, beneath the branch.
So he studied it, fascinated..
A new leaf, unrelated to the Imaginary Tree?
How interesting.
He’d have to track it closely to see what made it different from the others.
Maybe this would finally provide the key that could be used to defeat the Honkai.
Project Samsara might succeed, and Kevin would be spared the sorrow of the Stigmata Project.
Muwahahaha~!
Already added a bit of our sweet and heartwarming story~ Truly reminiscient of the bitter pills the writers made us swallow..
Although none of you are attached to these characters yet…
Well, whatever.
That’ll happen with time!