World Trigger: Accelerated Perception

It was Sunday. Quiet, dull, and gray.

Ren didn't mind. Weekends blurred into weekdays when you had no one to spend them with. His apartment was silent, save for the gentle tap of rain on the windows and the ticking of a battered wall clock.

6:42 AM. He'd been awake since five.

Sleep never lasted long for him—not with a brain that refused to slow down. The moment he stirred, his mind jumped ahead—dissecting the flicker of shadows, the creak of pipes, the distant sounds outside.

He dressed slowly, pulling on his hoodie and slinging his worn backpack over one shoulder. Not because he needed it, but because it felt normal. He had no destination in mind, only a vague craving for something warm.

The bagel shop near First Mikado Middle always opened early. He went there sometimes, sat in the corner with miso soup and rice.

7:20 AM – Streets of Mikado City

The city was half-awake.

A few delivery trucks rumbled past. Shopkeepers swept their storefronts. An old couple walked their dog. To them, the day had just started.

To Ren, everything already felt late.

The strange feeling from the day before hadn't gone away—it had grown. It lingered in the cracks of the sidewalks, in the space between footsteps, in the way the morning air felt too still. He didn't know what to call it. An itch in his instincts? A warning?

As he entered the bagel shop, something twitched at the edge of his perception.

Not sound. Not motion. Something deeper—like pressure folding in on itself.

He froze.

A split second later, the sky tore open.

A sound like thunder cracked above him—but it wasn't like any storm he'd ever heard. It was hollow. Artificial. A black rift had opened in the air, twisting violently, like the sky itself was unraveling.

Out of it dropped... something.

Massive. Angular. Wrong.

It landed half a block away with an earth-shaking crash—an armored, six-legged thing that shimmered faintly, as if the world around it struggled to render it properly. Its eyes—or whatever sensors it had—glowed a cold blue.

Ren couldn't breathe.

Time slowed even further.

People screamed. One car swerved and slammed into a pole. Another braked too late. The world became chaos in slow motion.

But Ren stood still. Frozen in fear—but highly focused. Every detail unfolded like frames in a film. The creature scanned its surroundings, searching for something. As it turned toward the bagel shop, it seemed to find it.

Another black portal opened. Then another.

They split the sky like open wounds, and more shapes began falling through—larger ones, mostly white, rodent-like in shape: fast and twitchy. One began shooting beams from its eyes.

People ran. Screamed. The air filled with dust and static.

The spider-like creature attacked the shop. A couple frozen in fear stood at the front window—slashed in half in an instant.

What is this?Why here? Why now?

He'd seen sci-fi. He'd watched anime. But this was real—and he had no frame of reference. No one ever said anything about invaders from the sky or glowing monsters that shattered pavement.

And no one—not police, not military, not emergency responders—was showing up.

Ren's POV

I have to do something. There's a young girl with that couple—looks 8 or 10.

I dive.

Wood rains down like snow as the spider-thing's limb slices through the bagel shop's table—where the girl was.

But I reach her.

She's shaking, eyes wide and silent. I grab her around the middle and pull her close, tucking her head against my chest.

Then I roll.

A second slash tears through the floor tiles where we just were. Tables flip. Chairs scatter. The air smells like ozone and burning metal.

The girl sobs—barely a sound. I stay low, my heart pounding so hard I swear it's louder than the chaos outside.

We scramble behind the counter just as another blast of heat—maybe a weapon, maybe just friction—shrieks through the shop. The ceiling buckles. Sparks rain down.

What is this?Why here? Why now?

My thoughts keep trying to ask questions, but I don't have time for answers. All I know is—this thing isn't moving randomly. It's looking. Scanning. Hunting.

It pauses—right in front of the window, its blue eyes flashing.

Did it see us?

I press the girl closer, trying to make us small. Invisible.

A new sound cuts through the air—high-pitched and whining. Another portal opens in the sky, bigger this time. Whatever's coming through is massive. I can't see it clearly, but the ground groans beneath its landing.

I grab the girl again—she's crying—as the spider-thing seems to signal the behemoth and starts chasing us.

With her on my back, I slip into an alley and climb up the wall. I need to keep her safe—at least her.

7:23 AM – Rooftop, Three Blocks Away

Ren made his way up, breath tight in his chest. He didn't have a plan. Just the need to see.

From the rooftop, Mikado City was changing.

Black rifts hung like storm clouds. The creatures—some towering, others skittering—spread out. One was tearing into a vending machine. Another slammed through the side of a parked van. But there was no blood. No hunger. They weren't feeding—they were searching.

For what?

Then he saw something stranger.

As one of the beasts stepped near a fleeing man, the man staggered... then collapsed. Not from injury. Just—drained. Like his strength had been pulled from his body in an instant.

Ren's eyes narrowed.

Something's being taken from people.Like before—but now, all of it.It looks like... a yellow cube.

It's not food. It's not air. It's something else...

Then, a flicker.

A medium-sized shape darted from an alley—two blades in hand. A young adult. No uniform. No armor. But his weapon glowed—and in a blink, he killed two spider-like creatures.

He struck. They shrieked—bursting into fragments of glowing dust.

Ren blinked.

What was that?That blade... it wasn't metal.It looked like energy?

He didn't know the word. It had never entered his vocabulary. But his instincts gave it shape. Something unnatural. Something tied to the invaders—and maybe to his weapon too.

Before Ren could call out, the man vanished down the alley—fast and precise. Not military. Not police. Something new.

Back on the Rooftop

Ren stood still.

No one knew what was going on. The news hadn't caught up. There were no sirens. No warnings. Just chaos.

And Ren—he was the only one standing calmly in the middle of it.

Because while the world fell apart around him,his mind was already adapting.

Faster than it should.Faster than he understood.