He followed the scent of something fried and sweet to a small food cart parked at the edge of the alley. A young woman behind the counter flipped sticks of something golden on a portable grill. The sign above her read "Ringo-Dogs – Original Family Recipe!" in stylized, looping script. The food looked like a cross between corndogs and deep-fried churros.
A normal human boy in a not-so-normal world, carrying Shadow the Hedgehog's powers in his blood… standing in line for street food.
He couldn't help but laugh under his breath.
"Next!" the vendor called.
Orin stepped up. "One… uh… Ringo-Dog, please?"
The woman looked him over with the ease of someone used to strangers. "First timer?" she asked.
"Is it that obvious?"
"You've got the look of someone who just stepped off a shuttle and forgot to charge their translator chip."
"I've had a weird day."
She smirked and handed him a wrapped stick of the deep-fried delicacy. "That'll be 450."
He pulled the wallet from his pocket, peeled out a bill labeled ¥1000 in bright green ink, and handed it over. The woman scanned it with a handheld device, nodded once, and gave him change with a practiced flick.
No issues. No stares. No system error messages. He'd just bought food in another world.
That somehow felt bigger than the Chaos Sync.
Orin stepped to the side, took a bite—and nearly melted. Sweet batter, crunchy on the outside, soft inside. The core tasted like spiced apple and salted butter. His eyes widened. "Okay, this world has redeeming qualities."
He stood there eating in silence, watching the crowd pass. Most people were human. Some weren't. He saw a girl with green skin and long ears chatting with a delivery bot. A man with antennae adjusted a pair of sunglasses while sipping from a drink the color of antifreeze.
Nobody cared. Nobody looked twice. The world was weird, but normal in its weirdness.
That's when something flickered at the edge of his vision.
He turned his head slowly. Across the street, through the sea of pedestrians, stood a figure—half-shadowed, humanoid, motionless.
For a second, Orin thought he was seeing Shadow again. Same height. Same presence. But no red stripes. No glowing eyes.
Just someone… watching.
He blinked—and the figure was gone.
The system buzzed faintly in his mind.
[Warning: Dimensional Instability Detected – Localized]
[Threat Level: LOW]
[Rift Activity: Dormant – Monitoring Initiated]
So that wasn't his imagination.
He finished the Ringo-Dog in two more bites and walked slowly back into the alley, scanning the crowd, heart suddenly back to its old rhythm—too fast, too human.
The city might be calm. But the universe was still breaking. Even here.
Still, for now, he had time. A place to breathe. And maybe, if the system let him, a chance to figure out how to actually live in this world.