Monday – Classroom 2-B
Kazuki blinks.
His hand is a toaster.
Wait.
No, not a toaster.A hand.
Back to normal.
He looks around.Students are frozen. Literally. Mid-blink. Chalk suspended in air.
Riku's voice echoes in his mind.
"It's starting."
Kazuki whispers, "The loop?"
"No. The breach."
And then the walls fold inward.
Meanwhile – Aya's Reality Check (And a Loud Alarm)
Aya's phone explodes.
Not literally. Just with ten Level-4 psychic breach alerts.
She stares at the screen.
"…Kazuki."
She grabs her coat.
Mutters: "If you're having a breakdown without me, I swear to coffee."
Inside the Glitch – Kazuki's Mind
He's not in class anymore.
He's in a corridor made of memories.Photos on the walls.Snippets of things that never happened but feel familiar.
A girl appears.
Not ARIEL.
Not anyone he's seen.
She's taller. Red eyes. Wearing the school uniform backwards.
Kazuki: "You're not real."
She smiles.Her teeth are piano keys.
"Neither are you. Not fully."
Kazuki stumbles back.
"What are you?"
She giggles.
"I'm your instability. Your anti-wish."
Admin HQ – Aiba & Riku Watching the Breach
Riku paces behind the monitor.
Aiba frowns.
"The breach created a recursive construct."
Riku: "That wasn't ARIEL?"
Aiba: "No. It's something new. Something born from all the versions of Kazuki that broke."
Pause.
"We call it: Null-Ariel."
Aya's Plan (Which Is Not a Plan, But She's Doing It Anyway)
Aya: "I'm going in."
Aiba: "You're not cleared for mind dives!"
Aya: "Cool. I don't remember asking."
She yanks the override headset onto her skull.
"Put me in his neural node. Direct dive."
Riku: "You could get stuck."
Aya: "Then bring snacks."
And she slams the start button.
Inside Kazuki's Mind – Corridor of False Lives
Kazuki's memories are unraveling.
He sees a version of himself as a soldier. A baker. A kid who never left home.
Null-Ariel walks beside him.
"These are all the yous who couldn't make it. Who wanted to stop hurting."
Kazuki: "I didn't want to die."
"But you didn't want to live like this either."
She opens a door.
Inside: Aya. But… she doesn't know him.
She walks past Kazuki like he's a stranger.
He falls to his knees.
Aya Arrives – And She's Pissed
Reality cracks. Aya steps in, glowing with psychic override energy and righteous fury.
"Okay. Which fake girl is hurting my roommate?"
Null-Ariel turns.
Smiles.
"You're not supposed to be here."
Aya: "Neither are you, Bluetooth Creepypasta Barbie."
Kazuki blinks. "…Aya?"
She kneels beside him.
"Hi. It's me. The real one. Not imaginary. Not constructed."
He chokes out: "I forgot you…"
She presses her forehead to his.
"Then remember this—you promised not to disappear on me."
His node glows.
Aya punches Null-Ariel in the face.
The Collapse
The corridor shatters.
Kazuki gasps awake—back in class.
Students are moving again. Time resumes.
Aya's beside him, holding his hand under the desk.
Everyone else is clueless.
She whispers, "You okay?"
Kazuki: "I think my toaster's normal again."
Aya: "Progress."
Final Scene – Debriefing with Aiba
Aiba sighs.
"So. Null-Ariel exists. It came from you."
Kazuki: "Cool. I gave birth to a piano-toothed girl who wants to unalive me in my dreams."
Aiba: "If we don't stabilize your psyche, it might happen again."
Aya: "Then let's stabilize it."
Aiba: "…With what?"
Kazuki: "Start with toast and the real Aya."
Aya: "I'm flattered, confused, and kind of hungry."