The system did not ask permission.
It presented a requirement.
Kaito discovered this at 2:14 a.m., when the disk chimed with a tone he had not heard before—lower, heavier, resonant enough to make the glass on the table vibrate faintly.
He was awake, lying on the narrow bed of the safehouse, staring at the ceiling while the city hummed beneath him. Sleep had become conditional these past few days—something he negotiated for in fragments.
The disk's interface unfolded without waiting for a touch.
WORLD ACCESS: ARCADA
STATUS: UNSTABLE
RECOMMENDATION: ANCHOR DEPLOYMENT
Kaito sat up sharply. "Unstable how?"
Aya materialized at the foot of the bed, her avatar brighter than usual.
"Your prior access was facilitated via temporary spatial alignment," she said. "Continued interaction without stabilization increases failure probability."
"Failure meaning…?"
Aya did not soften her answer. "Loss of access. Partial transit. Or collapse during traversal."
Kaito swallowed. "And an anchor fixes that."
"Yes," Aya replied. "An anchor establishes a persistent spatial reference point between worlds."
"Permanent?"
Aya paused. "Semi-permanent. Anchors can be severed. However, doing so carries significant energetic and structural consequences."
Kaito rubbed his face. "So this is the point of no return."
"Correct," Aya said. "From a probabilistic standpoint."
The interface shifted.
ANCHOR DEPLOYMENT — REQUIREMENTS
• High-density energy source (minimum threshold unmet by terrestrial grids)
• Stable matter framework
• Authorized bearer presence
Kaito laughed softly, humorless. "You might as well say 'jump and hope.'"
Aya tilted her head. "You possess a Compact Energy Cell."
Kaito went still.
"That's not what it was meant for," he said.
Aya met his gaze. "It is what it was designed to allow."
Morning came too quickly.
Mina arrived with Liang less than an hour after Kaito sent the message. They listened in silence as he explained the system prompt, the instability warning, the requirements.
Liang's expression was grim. "You're talking about pinning two coordinate systems together," he said. "That's not engineering. That's metaphysics."
"It's applied metaphysics," Aya corrected.
Mina folded her arms. "If you do this, can it be hidden?"
Aya answered. "Initial deployment will produce detectable anomalies. Duration approximately eleven minutes."
"Enough time," Mina said, "for everyone watching to notice."
Kaito nodded. "Which means if we do it, we do it fast—and somewhere remote."
They chose Arcadia.
The irony was not lost on any of them.
The anchor would be deployed from the far side, where no Earth-based sensors could interfere, using Arcadian matter as the stabilizing framework. The Compact Energy Cell would serve as the bridge's ignition—its lattice uniquely suited to absorbing the stress.
Kaito stood at the edge of the temporary transit field, heart pounding.
"This time," he said, "I don't just visit."
Aya's voice was steady. "This time, you establish presence."
The world folded.
Arcadia received him like a held breath finally released.
The violet sky shimmered faintly as Kaito emerged onto warm, resilient soil. The biosphere responded instantly—flora shifting, energy signatures rippling outward as if announcing an arrival.
Aya's diagnostics scrolled rapidly.
"Environmental resonance detected," she said. "This world is compatible."
That alone was unsettling.
They worked quickly.
Liang directed placement of the matter framework, using Arcadian crystalline growths that responded to stress by reinforcing themselves. Kaito integrated the anchor core, hands steady despite the enormity of what he was doing.
"This is insane," Liang muttered. "Beautiful. But insane."
"Most thresholds are," Kaito replied.
When the Compact Energy Cell slid into its housing, the air changed.
Not with force—but with attention.
The world seemed to notice.
Energy flowed outward in concentric patterns, bending space subtly, like heat haze over stone. The anchor structure hummed, then sang—a low harmonic that resonated through Kaito's bones.
Aya's voice cut through the sound. "Anchor ignition sequence active. Structural coherence at eighty-six percent… ninety-one… ninety-six."
The sky darkened momentarily.
Then stabilized.
Kaito felt it then.
A connection.
Not a doorway—but a presence. A line drawn through reality, taut and waiting.
ANCHOR ESTABLISHED
WORLD LINK: ARCADA — EARTH
STATUS: STABLE
Kaito staggered back, breathless.
"It worked," he whispered.
"Yes," Aya said. "You now possess persistent access."
Liang stared at the structure, awe and dread warring in his expression. "Do you understand what you've done?"
Kaito nodded slowly. "I made Arcadia reachable."
"And Earth reachable from Arcadia," Mina added quietly.
They were silent for a long moment.
Then Aya spoke.
"External detection confirmed," she said. "Anomalous readings have been recorded across multiple terrestrial monitoring systems."
Mina exhaled sharply. "There it is."
Kaito closed his eyes.
This was it.
No more deniability. No more hypothetical futures.
A bridge now existed between worlds.
When they returned to Earth, the news had already begun to ripple.
Scientists argued over unexplained energy signatures. Defense analysts whispered about exotic phenomena. Markets trembled—not from knowledge, but from instinct.
The disk chimed one final time that day.
DAY 010 — SIGN-IN COMPLETE
MILESTONE ACHIEVED: WORLD ANCHOR
No reward followed.
Because the anchor was the reward.
Kaito stood by the window of the safehouse, watching the city lights flicker against the night.
Ten days ago, he had lived in one world.
Now he lived between two.
And the space between them belonged—at least for now—to him.