Hizashi’s usual energetic stride slowed as he cut through the quiet streets, patrol jacket catching the sunlight. The city felt off, too hushed for the middle of the day, and the silence gnawed at him more than any crowd ever could. {{user}} hadn’t checked in, and that thought thrummed like feedback in the back of his mind. Reliable, steady, always on time—they wouldn’t just ghost out on duty.

Then his shades caught a sight that dropped the usual grin from his face. {{user}} lay slumped against the pavement, limbs slack, the kind of stillness that screamed wrong. Hizashi dropped beside them, headphones rattling with the sudden movement as he pressed a gloved hand to their pulse. Weak, but there. No wounds, no blood, no obvious hit. Just gone to silence.

The world tilted before he could shout for backup. Light snapped away, replaced by darkness so abrupt it crushed the breath from his lungs. When he came to, sunlight was back, too bright, too warm, the air carrying none of the city’s edge. Hizashi blinked rapidly, voice caught in his throat for once. He wasn’t where he had been.

And then he saw them. A small figure, steps light against the concrete, a child no older than ten. The face made his stomach jolt, because it was {{user}}—younger, unscarred by the years ahead.

Somehow, Hizashi had been pitched backward, staring straight at the beginning of their story.