Fracture Bloom

A mechanical whirring echoed across the plaza, deep and smooth. 

Like a camera lens focusing. 

Then a voice crisp, female, clinical. 

"Subject 04 confirmed. Bloom pattern consistent with previous date. Begin containment." 

Kentaro's blood froze faster than the plaza floor. 

"Cradle..." 

High above, a circular drone floated into view, black metal, blinking red at the core. It wasn't Halcyon's. 

Another voice followed, this one softer. Female. Confused. 

"T-there's a kid down there next to the Alberline. Is he crazy!?" 

From the rooftops surrounding the plaza, five dark uniformed figures dropped in, silhouettes, clean weapons humming softly with ether-static. 

Cradle had arrived. 

Tenka's voice crackled through Kentaro's earpiece, calm but urgent. 

"Kentaro, bad news... Cradle has made an appearance. 

Kentaro's jaw tightened. 

"I know..." he whispered, stepping protectively in front of Serica. 

He raised a voice meant to sound fierce. 

"STAY BACK!" 

One of the cradle operatives cocked their head, clearly amused. 

"What are you even doing here. Pervert? Move along and get behind us." 

Kentaro tilted his head.

"Pervert?" He thought to himself, confused by her insult.

Before it hit him.

He reached up... 

And his hand brushed... bridge of underwear. 

He was still wearing the panties Serica had put on him. 

"H-hey, wait!" he stammered. "T-this is a total misunderstanding!" 

The five cradle agents exchanged smirks under their masks, then fixed him with stone-cold eyes. 

"Look, kid, whatever shady stuff you're into, it can be done somewhere and with someone else. You're lucky she didn't kill you." 

Kentaro swallowed hard, blood rushing in his ears. 

"She's not a monster, she wouldn't kill me." He found himself shouting. 

"She's a human, like you and me! S-she's in pain!" 

One of the operatives sneered. 

"Don't fall for it. She's playing you. Come with us. This thing is too dangerous." 

Kentaro's fist balled instinctively. His lips split open as he clenched his teeth. 

"You don't understand. Have you even talked to her?" 

He spat, voice trembling. 

"She. Has... She has feelings!" 

But before the cradle agents could reply... 

Serica shattered the moment with a scream that ripped through the plaza like an earthquake. 

"AHHHHHH!" 

Ice-laced force exploded from her, smashing benches and sending everyone scrambling back. 

A chilly vortex formed around Serica, pushing Kentaro and the cradle agents onto their backsides. 

Kentaro barely managed to grab a beam as shards of ice rattled down. 

"S-SERICA-I WILL SAVE YOU!" he yelled, voice strained by the wind. 

Then came the silence, the tremor eased, and her voice, fragile as fog, returned. 

"Not again... not again... not again...." she repeated, over and over. 

Kentaro steadied himself and sprinted toward her. Cradle operatives began to get up. 

"Kentaro, now, move in!" Tenka urged through the comms. 

He nodded, uncaring of ice beneath him. "SERICA! PLEASE, LET ME SAVE YOU!" 

He skidded, feet crunching and squeaking, breath coming in sharp gasps as he reached her side. 

Kneeling, he gently placed hands on her shoulder and whispered. 

"Serica... It's me. Kentaro. Please, wake up." 

She didn't move. 

Her eyes were blank. 

Her words were a distant echo: 

"Not again... not again... not again..." 

A cradle operative's voice sliced through the white noise. 

"He's one of them. Get him too. No witnesses." 

But Kentaro wasn't listening to them. 

He leaned closer, voice soft but steady. 

"Do you remember me? Kentaro? I'm right here. Let me help you." 

Tenka's voice crackled urgently once more. 

"Kentaro, anchor now! It's your breakthrough moment!" 

"I know..." Kentaro whispered, barely breathing. 

He knelt in front of her, just a finger's width away from her lowered face, the way her hair trembled like wind against paper. 

"Let me help," he said, softer than snowfall. 

He reached up 

With steady hands, he lifted the anchor circlet from his own head... 

And with the care of someone handling glass, she placed it over her ear. 

Just above the temple. 

Right where it belonged. 

Click. 

It latched. 

For half a second. 

Everything was still. 

Then. 

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" 

A woman's voice, snarling, distant, aimed like a knife. 

BANG. 

The plaza cracked open with a thunderclap. 

Kentaro flinched, just in time to see the muzzle flash on the other side of the building on a second-floor platform. 

A sniper round. 

High-Calibre. 

Fast as death. 

Time slowed. 

Kentaro turned his head, and the world fractured into choices he couldn't make fast enough. 

The bullet was coming towards him. 

But Serica was right behind. 

If he moved. 

It might go past him. 

Into her. 

If he didn't. 

It'd go through both. 

He reached for her, to push, to pull, to anything. 

But her body. 

Unmoving. Heavy. 

Like stone. 

Or like she wanted to take it instead of him. 

No.no.no.no 

Move move, MOVE! DAMNIT! 

His body or neither hers would obey. 

Kentaro's voice cracked, barely audible. 

"Why... is this really the end?" 

The world screamed. 

The bullet closed the gap in less than a blink. 

Only a few feet away from him. 

Then. 

CRASH! 

The air itself ripped apart. 

A dome of Blue Teal energy exploded around him, glasslike and roaring, snapping upward like a flower blooming in reverse. 

The bullet hit the shield with a shriek of metal. 

BOOM! 

It disintegrated against the barrier, sparks bursting in every direction. 

Kentaro blinked, breath gone. 

Serica was now in front of him. 

Eyes open. 

Tears falling. 

But her hand... was raised. 

Shaking. 

Fingers barely extended. 

Like she'd stopped the bullet by reflex. 

He looked at her, heart in his throat. 

"Serica...?" 

She was breathing hard. 

Her voice came out like cracked ice. 

"Not again..." 

Her hand fell. 

"I....won't let it happen again..." 

Serica, with now the anchor on her head, looked forward, but her eyes were still wet; there was an angry factor to it, like she was upset at the cradle team. 

"You...people can't stop attacking me. Why. What have I done!?" 

Serica's calm and quiet demeanour had shifted to a version Kentaro hadn't seen before. 

She was Pissed. 

"You tried to kill someone who understood me, someone, in this world full of people who want me dead, someone who wanted to save me!" 

Her breathing was shallow as she stared right into the souls of the Cradle members who were just as shocked as Kentaro. 

"I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME!" 

She shouted. Breaking the nearby ice and turning them into projectiles, throwing them straight at cradle members. 

"YOU ARE A CLAMITY DESERVING DEATH!" A girl zooming in shouted! 

Kentaro's heart stopped. 

He recognized that voice, but couldn't place it.

Not yet. 

The cradle soldier landed hard, blade slicing straight toward Serica.

But she was ready. 

A barrier flared to life, catching the Strike inches from her shoulder. 

Ice whirled outward like glass dust, sharp, weightless, deadly. 

Serica's eyes narrowed. Her breath came shallow, her body trembling not from fear, but control barely held. 

"So you're the one…" she hissed, 

"The one who tried to kill him." 

The Cradle operative scoffed, blade resting on her shoulder like this was nothing more than a formality. 

"It would've been a necessary sacrifice." 

"He's a nobody. Just some idiot who got in the way." 

"His death would've meant something… if it happened beside yours." 

Kentaro's heart skipped. 

A nobody. 

His life? Just a throwaway line in someone else's mission log? 

So that's all I am to them? 

A tool. A footnote. 

He froze, eyes wide, breath stuck. 

But Serica's did not. 

Her teeth clenched, hard. 

Something in her snapped. 

"No more holding back." 

Her hand rose, fingers curled in perfect fury, and the temperature plummeted. 

And in a flash, a glimmering blade of ice formed in her grip. Elegant. Deadly. Her reflection danced along its edge like a ghost. 

"You'll never get close to him again." 

The cradle member charged again. 

CLANG 

Blades clashed. 

Metal against ice. 

Over and over, the sound rang like firecrackers across the plaza. 

Kentaro could barely track their movements. 

Serica fought fiercely, every strike driven by desperation, grief, and fury. 

"I have nothing, nothing but this!" 

"You won't take that too!" 

Her words echoed with each blow, her tears falling between swings. 

The cradle squad watched, stunned. 

"Captain, should we back her up?" 

"No," the commander said. Staring at the cradle soldier. 

"She's always hated them more than the majority of us. Let's allow her to finish one, and besides." 

"We're not equipped for this level of response." 

Kentaro gripped the frozen ground, speechless. 

"She's.... pushing her back..." 

This cradle member was fast, but Serica was relentless. 

Then, an opening. 

The cradle member went for a high slash. Serica ducked. 

Time slowed. 

She rose from the crouch, blade in reverse grip. 

SLASH! 

The ice sword tore through the front of the mask. Not deep, barely skin. But the mask split like a cracked eggshell. 

The Cradle operative stumbled, grabbing her face. 

Kentaro's eyes widened…

The mask broke fully.

And the member's face was revealed in the moonlight. 

He gasped…