🎀 Chronobridge: Beyond Time and Destiny 🎀

Chapter 0:Prologue: The Alley Contract

Akihabara at night.

The bustling crowds that once overflowed the electric town had long faded, leaving only the lingering glow of neon lights reflected on the wet asphalt.

From the back door of the maid café Étoile, a young man, Rihito Amagi, stepped outside.

His uniform shirt was wrinkled, his worn tote bag slung over one shoulder.

In his hand, a paper bag carried a single cold burger destined for the trash.

His breath rose in white mist, mixing with the damp air and the steady hum of a vending machine’s fan.

Rihito shut his smartphone and began walking down the silent alley.

Then he saw it.

A small shadow lingered beside a trash can between the buildings.

—A black cat.

Its eyes, sunk deep in the dark, gleamed red like electronic sparks, deeper than the night itself.

When its gaze met Rihito’s, the cat did not flee. It stared back, unblinking.

“…You’re alone too, huh.”

There was no reply. Yet somehow, the creature’s form seemed achingly forlorn.

Rihito reached into the bag, split the burger bun in half, and placed it before the cat.

For a long moment it only watched. Then, silently, it took a bite.

Across its back, pale blue particles shimmered faintly.

As if it were cloaked in a Digital Mist.

Rihito narrowed his eyes.

“…Did you just glow?”

For an instant, the cat’s outline glimmered softly.

And in the next heartbeat, it vanished—dissolving into the night air.

A voice rang out.

“Do you accept the contract?”

It drifted like wind from above, carrying an uncanny resonance.

Without knowing why, Rihito nodded. It felt inevitable.

The black cat narrowed its eyes, fading into the darkness.

And upon Rihito’s fate, an unseen mark was engraved.

That night, in the corner of his room, the power lamp of an old PC flickered red.

As though the cat’s eyes had taken root there—watching still.

Thank you for reading ✨

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