He woke to white.
Ceiling. Walls. Lights.
All too bright.
Kai squinted and sat up slowly. The bed beneath him was stiff, the sheets too clean. He wasn't in the station anymore. He wasn't anywhere familiar.
The room was sterile, silent. A single metal door. A camera in the corner.
Detention.
Figures.
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. No wounds. No pain. Just that strange emptiness again—except now there was something else layered beneath it. A pulse. A whisper in his blood.
They're still there.
The swords.
Not in his hands, but inside him. Dormant. Waiting.
A sharp hiss cut the silence as the door slid open.
Three people entered.
The first was a tall woman in a black ARD uniform, hair pulled back in a tight braid, expression unreadable.
The second, a man with glasses in a lab coat holding a tablet, eyes wide with barely restrained curiosity.
The third was a teenage boy — maybe seventeen — with a massive sword strapped to his back, eyeing Kai like he was a loaded weapon.
The woman stepped forward.
"You're awake. Good."
Kai said nothing.
"I'm Commander Rane of the Awakened Response Division. This is Dr. Halse. And that's Tyren — one of our active field agents." She paused. "You've caused quite a stir."
Kai looked down. "Did I… hurt anyone?"
"No," Rane replied. "You saved someone. Several, actually. A lot of civilians would've died if you hadn't intervened."
Dr. Halse stepped in, eyes scanning Kai like he was a puzzle. "You manifested two soul weapons. That's unheard of. We've seen a few rare cases where someone can switch between different forms, but never… simultaneously."
Kai looked up slowly. "Is that… bad?"
Rane and Halse exchanged a look.
"It's dangerous," the doctor said. "Not just because of what it means for combat — but because we don't understand it. Most people can barely control one soul weapon but they are rare case's were people awaken two (Twin weapon's) with the same attributes and Aura.
Yours is different it clashes — light and darkness. Total opposites. The mental strain alone should've broken you."
Kai looked away. "Maybe it already did."
The silence hung heavy.
Tyren finally spoke, arms crossed. "Is he being locked up or recruited?"
"We haven't decided," Rane said.
Kai stood. "You don't have to do either. I didn't ask for this."
"No one ever does," she replied.
Halse cleared his throat. "We'd like to run some tests. Harmless ones. To understand what kind of anomaly you are. What kind of potential you have."
"I don't care about potential," Kai muttered. "I just want to be left alone."
"You're not going to get that," Rane said bluntly. "You've awakened something unique — and powerful. That makes you a target. Monsters. Rogue Awakened. Black-market soul hunters. You name it."
Tyren stepped closer. "You need training. Whether you like it or not."
Kai didn't respond. But deep down, he knew they were right.
And that he wasn't normal anymore.
He wasn't even sure he was human.