"Ikki..."

I stirred, my hand flying to the back of my neck where something cold had touched me, but found nothing.

"Ikki!"

Sunlight, thick and real, pressed against my eyelids.

"Yo, wake up loser! We're going to be late!"

My eyes cracked open. The ceiling was familiar. Smooth plaster, the smell of a recent paint job. A ceiling fan spun with a quiet, rhythmic whir that I hadn't heard in years, its blades cutting through the late-morning sun that slanted through a window with clean, intact glass.

Izumi frowned, cupping her cheeks with her hands as she stared at me from the side of my bed. Her pajamas were pink with little cartoon cats on them. She was a good foot shorter than me, but she stood like she was twice my size, radiating pure impatience.

"We're going to be late!" she said, giving me a light punch on the shoulder. "I didn't slave over a hot stove making pancakes for you to just laze around all morning!"

"Pancakes?"

Pancakes were special. Pancakes were for birthdays, or when we got a big windfall and could afford the good mix that didn't taste like chalk and cardboard.

"Duh," Izumi said, rolling her eyes. "Now get up. Before I eat your share."

She turned and stomped out of my room, her footsteps loud and unapologetic on the hardwood floors. I sat up slowly, my head feeling… clear. Like I'd gotten the best night of sleep in my entire life. No phantom aches, no underlying tension. Just… quiet.

My gaze fell on the desk pushed against the far wall.

It wasn't the scavenged slab of metal I'd built my first radio on. It was a proper wooden desk, the kind you'd see in a catalog. The surface was neat, but not sterile. A sleep laptop with round edges was closed in the center, a few textbooks stacked neatly to the side. But it was the cabinet above it that caught my breath.

A shelf. A proper shelf, stained a dark oak, lined with trophies and medals.

A first-place ribbon from a robotics competition. A fourth grade spelling bee medal, tarnished with time. A photo of me next to it, no older than ten, in a singlet, with one arm raised in victory. I was missing a tooth.

But what really caught my eye was the row of silver and gold medals. Math Olympiad. Regional, then national.

I could feel their weight in my memory, the pride I felt seeing my parents' faces, the long nights spent poring over textbooks and practice problems under the dim glow of a desk lamp.

I felt a headache coming on.

Izumi.

My sister.

My little sister.

...Was wearing pink?

The pajamas were a soft, pastel pink, with cartoon cats chasing balls of yarn.

Izumi hated pink. She called it the 'color of surrender'.

I blinked, trying to reconcile the image in front of me with the sister I knew. Then, I shook my head and chuckled.

She was growing up. People changed. Maybe she was just growing out of her rowdy 'tomboy' phase.

I grinned, shaking my head while shifting out of bed. But the second my feet landed on the rub, I paused.

I couldn't put my finger no it, but it felt... off. It was soft and warm to the touch, and I could tell from the texture that it was made of wool.

It was wool. It was a rug.

I blinked. A strange sense of deja vu came over me, and I furrowed my brow as I glanced back at the trophy case.

There was a wrestling trophy there.

I frowned as the memory came back to me.

My father was a great wrestler in his youth, and he'd taught me a lot over the years. The memory felt as real as the floor beneath me.

And then there was the Math Olympiad. The national. The look of pride on my mother's face as they hung the medal around my neck.

I shook my head and pushed the thoughts away as I quickly got dressed in a simple black V-neck shirt and my favorite olive cargo pants. Then, I made my way out of my room and into the hallway. The floorboards creaked under my weight, a sound that felt like home.

The air was thick with the scent of coffee and bacon. A warmth spread through my chest, a feeling of safety and love that I hadn't felt in a long, long time. It felt right. It felt like I belonged.

"Morning, champ. I was starting to think we were going to have to start without you," my father said, turning from the stove with a smile. His baritone was a familiar rumble, but the smile… that was the part that caught in my throat.

There was an easy, open expression, crinkling the corners of his eyes. It reached all the way to the laugh lines around his mouth.

I stared for a good four or five seconds.

It wasn't that he never smiled. Not exactly. It was that his smiles were usually small, functional things. A quick upward twitch when Izumi made a particularly dumb joke. A weary, wry twist of his lips when he'd managed to MacGyver another alternator back to life. They were the smiles of a man who had forgotten how to do it properly, a reflex he was slowly unlearning.

I shook my head to clear the memory, the ghost of a quieter man.

"Took me a minute to wake up," I said, my voice still thick with sleep.

He chuckled, a deep, rolling sound that vibrated in the floorboards. "Well, you're here now. That's what matters."

He was wearing a company polo shirt, a logo stitched over his heart: "Songbird Consortium." The Terrans had opened up shop in a big way after the world stabilized, and Dad, with his uncanny knack for understanding machinery from both sides of the portals, had been one of the first people they snatched up.

He yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "Big day," he said. "Big day indeed."

Then he let out a full-bellied laugh, and the sound of it was so bright and loud that it almost made my teeth ache.

Izumi snickered, stabbing at a plate of eggs with her fork. "You're so dramatic," she said, her mouth full of food. "It's just a promotion. Uncle Zamir always liked you."

"That he did, sweetpea," he said, ruffling her hair with one of his large, meaty hands. "That he did."

She squirmed away, grumbling. But she smiled the whole way.

"But yeah," he said, turning back to the stove. "I got back to Aleksei last night. Formally accepted the promotion. Chief Systems Integration Specialist. Try saying that five times fast."

He turned back to the stove and expertly flipped a pancake. The scent of butter and sugar filled the air, and my stomach rumbled in response.

"And now Mr. and Mrs. Hinokawa are going to want to celebrate properly," he said, sliding the pancake onto a plate. "So I hope you're ready for a long night of Elio trying to prove he's still young enough to beat us all at bowling. And Aunt Jenny eating all the guacamole."

Izumi giggled. "Stella and her siblings are so excited to see you, by the way," she said, looking at me. "They said you haven't been over in forever."

I smiled faintly. The Hinokawas were good people.

"Tell them I said hi," I said. "I'll try and stop by after I finish my homework."

"Boo," she said, sticking her tongue out. "You're no fun."

Dad chuckled, placing a plate of pancakes in front of me. "That's my boy. Eat up, champ. We've got big day ahead of us."

I picked up my fork, the weight of it feeling both familiar and alien in my hand.

He took a seat at the head of the table and began to dig into his own food. I watched as he and Izumi fell into an easy, comfortable rhythm, their banter flowing like a well-rehearsed song.

But something was still off. It was on the tip of my tongue. It was an itch I couldn't scratch.

I glanced around the room, my eyes scanning for the source of my unease.

I couldn't exactly remember the dream I had last night, but it was so vivid and emotional that it left me with a lingering sense of melancholy.

And then, my gaze fell on the empty chair at the table.

The one next to me.

It was perfectly polished. And a placemat was set in front of it. A fork, a knife, a napkin folded into a neat triangle.

But the chair was empty.

I blinked, a frown forming on my face.

"Anyway, where's Mom? She's going to be late for her own celebration," Izumi said, her voice full of mock seriousness.

Dad didn't even look up from his plate, chuckling. "She went out early. Some kind of errand for the library committee, I think. Said she'd be back before the party."

"Again?" Izumi rolled her eyes. "She's always got something going on."

"She's a pillar of the community, kiddo. What can I say?" Dad winked, then cut a huge piece of syrup-drenched pancake. "Now, less about your mother's social calendar, more about you. How's it feel getting accepted into half the specialized high schools in the city at once? Your old man's chest is about to burst."

Izumi beamed, puffing out her own chest. "Hey, I couldn't have done it by myself." Her fork paused mid-air as she shot a look in my direction, crinkling her nose. "I mean, the amount of grief I got from my tutor probably helped a little."

I paused, feeling a weird lurch in my stomach, like I'd just tripped on an uneven step I hadn't seen.

Izumi was bright, quick on her feet, but schoolwork was a chore. Tutoring her was always-

…always…

The memory was there. It felt solid. I remembered sitting with her at this very table, my fingers smudged with graphite from untangling her algebra homework. I remembered her frustration, the way she'd tap her pencil on the table when she was stuck, the triumphant grin and whooping when she finally got it. It was real.

But it felt… thin. Like a photograph with all the color leeched out.

"You're a menace," I said, forcing a smile. "All that work and you still complained about it."

"Complaining is how you know you're learning," she declared with the unshakeable confidence of a twelve-year-old who knows everything. "Besides, it wasn't that bad. You're way less annoying than Mr. Davison."

She took a huge bite of her pancake stack, talking with her mouth full. "The siblings are all trying to decide where we'll all end up together. Stella keeps pushing for Stuy to catch you before you graduate, but I think Sienna's leaning toward Bronx Sci with me."

Izumi grinned, leaning in. "You know, I know you know the big sis has the biggest crush in the world on you. Don't think I don't see the way she looks at you when she thinks I'm not looking."

Izumi's teasing washed over me, a familiar, easy rhythm. But the names were tripping alarms in my head. Sirius. His sisters. My best friends. Of course.

Only…

My head throbbed, a dull, persistent ache behind my right eye. The image of Sirius's face flickered, then blurred. Jenny Situ and Elio Hinokawa. Practically blood and family to me. I could picture their house up the street, the way it always smelled like jasmine and old books.

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My brain was trying to build the house, but some of the 2x4s felt like smoke.

My father's laugh pulled me back. "She's not wrong, Ikki. That girl looks at you like you hung the moon." He leaned back, folding his arms. "I have to say, she takes after her mother that way. She and Elio have always been all-in, hearts on their sleeves for everyone in their lives."

Jenny. A warmth bloomed in my chest, chasing away the headache. Auntie Jenny. You couldn't be around her for five minutes without feeling like you were the most important person in the world. She radiated a kindness so fierce it felt like a shield. Even while touching on forty, she had a sparkle in her eyes that screamed childlike wonder.

Izumi snorted, spraying a few crumbs. "All-in? Dad, you say that now, but wait until you see what Stella's cooked up for her birthday ceremony next week. Or her 'coming-of-age' as she calls it. She's got a whole 'crowning ritual' planned. She's trying to decide between 'Stellaria, the Void-Walker of the Seventh Heaven' and 'Stella, the Star-Blade Reborn.' Heck she's even started looking at moons like Callisto and Eris and constellations for inspiration."

My father let out a deep, booming laugh. "She's a firecracker, that one. Just like her mother." He shook his head, a fond smile on his face.

Izumi grinned, her eyes dancing. "She's got diagrams. She tried to explain them to me. It was a lot of talk about 'axis mundi' and 'shadow realms.' And she keeps going on about how 'The Age of Man is Ending and the Era of the Star-Maiden is Nigh'." She deepened her voice, trying to sound ominous and dramatic. "It's very dramatic. Very… Stelle."

My father chuckled, cutting into his own pancake. "You two have the most vivid imaginations, you know that? I tell you, that girl is going to be one hell of a screenplay writer when she grows up. Or maybe a professional D&D GM."

Izumi giggled. "Don't let her hear you say that. She'll spend the next hour trying to explain to you the fundamental differences between 'The Star-Blade Reborn' and a 'half-elf ranger with a +2 longsword'."

My father took a bite of his food, chewing thoughtfully. "Well, whatever she decides to do, she'll do it with style." He looked at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "And you, my boy. Handling two more little sisters in addition to this one? I don't know how you do it."

I felt a strange warmth in my chest at that. A sense of pride, of belonging. But it was tinged with a weird sense of… confusion. Like I was watching a movie of my own life.

Izumi snorted. "Please. He's not 'handling' us. We're handling him. Without me, he'd probably spend all his time in his room, tinkering with those weird little gizmos of his."

My father raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yes, it is so," Izumi said, puffing out her chest. "And Sirius is the only one who can get him to actually go outside and do something fun. Otherwise, he'd just stay cooped up in his room, reading books and building robots."

"I do not," I said, a little too quickly.

Izumi rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh. Sure. That's why you spent the entire summer vacation last year building that ridiculously complicated drone that couldn't even fly straight."

"It flew," I said, a little defensively.

"It flew into a tree," she shot back. "And then it got stuck there for a week."

"It was a test flight. A successful test flight," I said, trying to keep a straight face. "It was designed to test the structural integrity of the tree."

My father chuckled, shaking his head. "You two are something else, you know that?"

He took a sip of his coffee, his gaze drifting to the empty chair beside me.

"In any case, I'll come pick you two up from their house tonight for dinner, we're going to have to get going." he said. "Your mother texted me a few minutes ago, she's going to be running late. She said she'll meet us there."

"Alright," Izumi said. "Let's just hope Stella doesn't try to sacrifice me to some ancient star god today."

My father laughed, shaking his head. "Alright, you two, finish up. I told Elio you two would be over in twenty minutes, and I will not have you keeping the Hinokawas waiting. They're doing us a huge favor taking you two on such short notice."

Izumi groaned. "Daaad. It's not a 'favor'. We're just hanging out."

"It's a favor," Dad said, his voice firm but warm. "I've got to go in for a few hours to get the paperwork sorted for the new position. And I want you two out of the house for the party prep. Plus," he added, a glint in his eye, "Jenny's making her tiramisu amongst other things."

Izumi's eyes lit up. "Okay, fine. Twenty minutes. But if we're late, I'm blaming you."

"You're always blaming me," I shot back.

"Because it's usually your fault," she retorted, sticking her tongue out.

Dad just chuckled, pushing his chair back from the table. "Alright, I'm off. I'll see you two later. And please," he said, looking at Izumi, "try not to start any inter-dimensional incidents today."

Izumi grinned. "No promises."

He ruffled her hair one last time, then walked over to me, clapping a heavy hand on my shoulder. "You too, champ. Try to keep up."

Dad smiled, and for a moment, I was a little kid again, looking up at my dad, the strongest man in the world. It felt good. It felt right.

And then, he was gone.

Izumi and I stood in the quiet kitchen for a moment, the only sound the hum of the refrigerator. I could hear the distant sound of a lawnmower, the chirping of birds.

Peaceful. The word came to me, unbidden. It was so quiet it was almost unnerving and I didn't know why.

Izumi broke the silence. "Well, come on, slowpoke. We've got a date with a divine dessert."

"Divine dessert? Now I know Stella's been getting to you," I said, grabbing my keys from the hook by the door. "Let's go."

Izumi was already out the door, her shoes skidding on the pavement as she took off at a dead run.

"Hey!" I shouted, jogging after her as I grabbed a blue hoodie and tossed it on. "No fair!"

She just laughed, her voice echoing in the quiet morning air.

Bayside. The suburbs.

The lawns were green and perfectly manicured, the sidewalks clean and free of cracks. The houses were all neatly spaced, with porches and flower boxes.

Bayside's Bell Boulevard was a bustling hub of activity. The sounds of traffic, the chatter of people, the smell of food from the restaurants, it was all a familiar, comforting cacophony.

Izumi had changed out of her pink pajamas into an orange sweatshirt and a pair of dark-wash jeans that were just a little too clean to be hers. She'd even swapped her usual scuffed-up sneakers for a pair of pristine white Nikes that still had that new-shoe smell.

Izumi was wearing a necklace.

A simple silver chain with a small, heart-shaped locket. She kept fiddling with it, her fingers tracing the familiar shape over and over again. It was a nervous habit I recognized, but the locket itself was new. It was a gift from Mom. For her birthday. A memory bloomed in my mind, warm and bright: Mom and Dad in the kitchen late at night, wrapping presents, whispering and laughing.

Izumi caught me looking. "What?" she said, her hands flying to her sides as if she'd been caught stealing cookies from the jar. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You just... that necklace looks nice on you."

Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink. "Shut up," she mumbled, turning away from me. "I mean, Mom gave it to me, so…"

"It suits you," I said, my voice soft. "Really."

She didn't say anything, just started walking a little faster, her hair bouncing in a neat, tidy ponytail.

Izumi was wearing makeup. Not a lot, just a little bit of mascara and a touch of lip gloss. It was subtle, but it was there. It made her look older, more mature.

And something in my gut twisted again, a knot of confusion I couldn't quite untangle.

The sidewalk here was smooth, clean. And it felt like it was too smooth. I kept scanning the edges, the tree lawns, looking for the familiar tripping hazards. Everything looked the way it normally would.

Izumi turned to look at me, her head tilted to the side. "What's with you? You've been staring at everything like you've never seen a sidewalk before."

"It's nothing," I said, shaking my head. "Just... thinking."

"Well, think faster," she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Last one there has to tell Stella's parents about her latest 'divine ascension' ceremony."

She skipped and spun around, like she was about to pick up her pace only to slam straight into a girl that wasn't there a second ago.

"Oof!" Izumi grunted, losing her balance and stumbling back a step. "Watch it!"

The girl she bumped into let out a small, startled squeak, stumbling back herself. She was about Izumi's age, with dark blue hair that hung messily around her face, framing almond eyes the color of a pale, hazy lavender. She looked frail, her shoulders hunched as if she were trying to make herself smaller, to take up less space in the world.

"I-I'm so sorry," she stammered, her voice barely a whisper. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's fine," Izumi said, her usual brashness softened by a flicker of surprise. And the second I took in the girl, a strange, cold feeling washed over me.

It wasn't the way she looked, though she had an unnerving stillness to her, a fragility that felt out of place on a bright, sunny street in Bayside. It was the way the world seemed to bend around her. The sunlight seemed to avoid her, leaving her in a small, subtle patch of shade that wasn't there before. The sounds of the street, the distant lawnmower, the chirping of the birds, it all seemed to fade away, replaced by a low, humming silence that emanated from her.

She was a void in the middle of a vibrant, sunny day.

And she was staring at me.

Her lavender eyes, wide and anxious, were locked on my face, ignoring Izumi completely. It was a look of profound, heart-stopping recognition, but it wasn't the look of someone seeing a friend. What it was, I wasn't too sure of.

"Oh hey. You're a Terran!" Izumi said, her usual bravado returning as she blinked at the girl. "Cool. I'm Izumi. This is my brother, Ikki. We're from these parts."

The girl didn't answer Izumi. Her eyes stayed on me, that strange, unnerving focus unwavering. She took a small, hesitant step back, her gaze flicking down to the pristine, perfect sidewalk, then back up to my face.

"I... Where is this?" she whispered, her voice so faint I could barely hear her over the street noise.

"Huh?" Izumi said, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Queens. You know. New York City? Are you lost or something?"

The girl flinched at the sound of Izumi's voice, her shoulders hunching even further. I looked down and noticed it then: her clothes. They were a simple, drab gray, the fabric thick and coarse, like a uniform of some kind.

It looked like a prisoner's jumpsuit. Or someone who'd been committed to an institution. There were no buttons or zippers, just a rough seam that ran down the front. It was stained and frayed at the cuffs, and it looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks - but she didn't smell like it.

Izumi, ever the observant one, missed it completely. But I didn't.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Izumi said, her voice filled with a genuine, unguarded curiosity.

My stomach tightened, a cold knot of unease forming in my gut.

But the feeling was gone as quickly as it came.

"I don't... I don't know," she said, her voice trembling. "I just... woke up here."

Izumi's teasing smirk faltered, replaced by a flicker of concern. "Woke up here? Like, ya fell asleep or something?"

The girl shook her head, her dark blue hair swaying around her face. "No. I was... somewhere else. It was cold. And dark. And there was... it's always like this. One place after another. I'm trying to find them but I... but they aren't here."

Tears welled up in her eyes, shimmering in the pale sunlight. She looked at me, her gaze pleading.

"Hey listen here," Izumi said, her voice a little too loud, a little too bright. "You're probably just confused, you know? Maybe you hit your head or something. Do you need us to call someone? Your parents? A police officer?"

She reached out, her hand hovering over the girl's shoulder, hesitating.

The girl flinched away, biting her lip. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No, forget about it." She took a deep breath and let out a shuddering sigh. "I'm sorry for running into you like that."

She backed away, her eyes still fixed on my face, falling into a neutral and unreadable expression.

"Hey! Wait!" Izumi called out, causing her to stop in her tracks.

She turned around slowly.

"Look. If you're lost or something, you can come with us. We're just going to a friend's house. The Hinokawas. They're really nice. And my parents are pretty established in the community. They're super good at finding things. And people. Sometimes," she said, her voice trailing off.

The girl's gaze flicked to Izumi, a flicker of something unreadable in her lavender eyes. "Hinokawa? Here? In... in Queens?"

"Yeah," I said, finding my voice. "Elio and Jenny Hinokawa. They live just up the street."

And as I said their names, a strange, distant look came over the girl's face. It was a look of recognition, but it was mixed with a deep, aching sadness.

"No. He would just be another echo..." she muttered. It should've been too quiet to hear, but the air carried it to me like a whisper.

Then, louder, she said, "That's kind of you. But I'm... I'm fine. I'm just a little disoriented. I'll find my way."

Before I could say anything else, the door to the pastry shop next to us swung open with a cheerful chime, and a woman walked out, carrying a large white box tied with a red ribbon. She was wearing a pink hoodie with a bunny-eared hood and jeans, her dark hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. She looked to be in her mid twenties, maybe thirty, and she had a warm, friendly smile that could light up a room.

If I had to be honest with myself, she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen.

But when I looked at her, something inside me went cold. A cold that had nothing to do with the girl in the gray jumpsuit.

It was a feeling of deja vu, so intense it was almost painful. A flash of pink ribbons and a heart-tipped wand, the scent of strawberries and sugar. Strong yet gentle arms holding my small body while the world around me burned. A desperate, whispered promise.

"We'll find them. We always find our little ones."

It was a memory so vivid it felt like it was happening right now.

Then it was gone. Just like that.

A wave of vertigo hit me so hard I had to put a hand on the wall to steady myself. I felt a strange sense of loss for a woman I'd never seen before in my life.

"Hey! Ikki! You okay?" Izumi asked, her voice full of concern.

I took a deep breath, the world swimming back into focus. The woman in the pink hoodie was looking at me, her head tilted to the side, her smile replaced by a look of gentle concern.

"Ikki? Sweetie, you look like you've seen a ghost," she said, her voice a soft, melodic hum.

"Y-Yeah. Sorry, I had a weird dream last night. Got eaten by a monster in a mirror or something," I said, trying to make a joke.

Jenny giggled, a sound like wind chimes. "Oh, you poor thing. That sounds just awful."

She turned her attention to Izumi and the strange girl in the gray jumpsuit.

"Aunt Jenny!" Izumi shouted, her face lighting up. "What are you doing here? I thought you were getting ready for the party!"

Jenny looked up, her smile widening as she saw us. "Izumi! Ikki! Just picking up the finishing touches. Elio insisted on getting the macarons from this place. He says it's the best in the city."

She winked at Izumi, but her eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly when she saw the girl in the gray jumpsuit. Her gaze was sharp, analytical, a stark contrast to her bubbly demeanor.

"Who's your friend?" she asked, her voice light, but her eyes were serious.

"We're not sure," Izumi said, shrugging. "We just bumped into her. She's a little lost, I think."

Jenny's smile didn't waver, but I saw her shift her weight slightly, her body moving into a more defensive posture. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but it was there.

The girl in the gray jumpsuit looked at Jenny, and for the first time, a flicker of something other than fear or confusion crossed her face.

"Are you... lost?" Jenny asked, her voice soft, gentle. "It's okay. We can help you. What's your name?"

The girl hesitated, her eyes flicking between Jenny and me. She took a deep breath, and when she spoke, her voice was a little stronger, a little more certain.

"Su Yin," she said.

Jenny's friendly expression didn't change, but her eyes held a different kind of light now.

"Su Yin..." she repeated, testing the name on her tongue. "That's a pretty name. It's nice to meet you, Su Yin."

Jenny took a step forward, her movements fluid and graceful. "You must be freezing in that. Why don't you come inside with me? We can get you something warm to drink, and maybe make a phone call for you."

She reached out, her hand hovering just above Su Yin's arm, ready to guide her.

But Su Yin flinched away, a wave of pure, unadulterated terror washing over her face. Her eyes landed on Jenny's necklace, a dark blue locket shaped like a nightingale with a single, tiny star sapphire in its center. The world seemed to tilt on its axis.

"Su Yin?" Jenny asked, her voice still gentle, but her eyes were sharp, focused. She seemed genuinely confused by the reaction.

"Hey! Hey! It's okay," Izumi said, stepping between them. She held her hands up, a gesture of peace.

Something inside her broke.

"S-Stay away from me!" she whispered, her voice trembling with a fear that went deeper than the confusion of a lost girl.

It was a primal, bone-chilling terror.

"Whoa, hey, it's okay. She's just trying to help!" she said, taking a half-step toward Su Yin.

But it was too late.

"STAY AWAY!"

Everything happened in an instant.

The air around Su Yin shimmered and warped, the light from the sun bending around her as if she were a black hole. The colors of the world bled together, melting into a swirling vortex of twilight hues - deep purples, soft pinks, and brilliant oranges.

I could only stare in horror as the temperature plummeted, and an eruption of crystals, sharp as diamonds and glinting with an inner, otherworldly light, exploded outwards from her body.

They weren't just crystals; they looked like fragments of a dying star, shards of a broken twilight, and they were aimed directly at my sister.

There was no time to think. No time to react. The world seemed to slow down, the sound of Izumi's gasp stretching into an eternity.

And then, the world was enveloped in an explosion of pink hues.

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