“Zero. Zero? I-I need to find Zero.”

Alexander stood frozen in disbelief. His thoughts collided and blurred, one after another, until they became too heavy to carry. Exhaustion weighed down on him, a bone-deep fatigue that made him long for nothing more than rest.

Not even a full day had passed, yet his entire life had already been torn apart. He had stood before the almighty being known as Beyond and in a single moment, it had taken his father away as punishment for abusing his gifts.

Now, with the silence closing in around him, only one question remained—what was he supposed to do now?

“All he wanted to do was protect us…Us?...Tujitou!”

He turned around, only to be met by the sight of the lake raging beneath him, the water boiling violently from the heat Tujitou was emitting. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now the sound consumed everything—the relentless roar of bubbling water, the sharp hiss of steam tearing through the air.

“What can I do?” became the only thought left in his mind.

‘I need to get him out first.’

Alexander walked closer to the lake. With every step, the heat intensified, pressing against his skin like an invisible force. When he reached the edge, the air itself seemed to shimmer. He couldn’t see Tujitou clearly, but the violent boiling of the water gave him a rough sense of where he lay.

A burst of steam shot upward, scorching his arm. The pain was immediate and searing, but he couldn’t allow himself to hesitate now. Gritting his teeth, he pushed through the agony and leapt into the lake.

He was being boiled alive. No words could truly describe the pain tearing through his body, but a single thought burned brighter than it all—*I need to protect my little brother.*

Driven by that resolve, Alexander swam forward. The closer he came, the more unbearable the heat became, each stroke feeling heavier than the last. After what felt like hours, his hands finally found the cocoon. He wrapped his fingers around it, refusing to let go.

‘Good. Now all I have to do is swim up.’

A wave of relief washed over Alexander when his hands closed around Tujitou. But the moment he tried to swim back up, he realized it was far more difficult than the descent. Every movement felt sluggish, as if heavy weights had been fastened to his legs, dragging him down.

It wasn’t Tujitou who was too heavy—it was his own body, slowly betraying him. His resolve burned fiercely, screaming at him to protect Tujitou at any cost, but his muscles trembled and weakened under the unbearable strain.

With each desperate attempt to push upward, his strength slipped further away. His vision blurred, his thoughts fractured, and his consciousness slowly faded into darkness.

His grip loosened.

Tujitou slipped from his hands as Alexander’s body drifted upward, floating helplessly toward the surface of the lake.

“Tragic.”, a monkey hung from a tree branch, watching the scene unfold.

“But it did tell you to just run away.”

It dropped to the ground, pulled Alexander from the lake and laid him down far away from the lake.

“This is the best I can do for trying to save him. May you rest in peace.”

The monkey walked back toward the lake and swung his arm. The air screamed as if a hurricane had been unleashed, ripping the water from the lake and hurling it skyward in a roaring torrent. In a heartbeat, the lake was stripped bare.

When the chaos finally faded, nothing remained but scorched stone and steam—and Tujitou, lying alone at the bottom of the emptied lake.

“Now, my old friend. What have they done to you?”