It started at night. At the edge of an old parking lot, behind Saint Veil’s Orphanage—the kind of place people forgot existed until something went wrong.
Concrete, cracked and moss-covered. Faint white lines drawn by long-departed children. Flickering lamp overhead.
And then… a new grid appeared. A Fresh. chalked in bright neon pink and blue. The kind that shouldn’t glow.
It was a hopscotch pattern—ten squares. But instead of ending at the number 10, it kept going.
**11 ...12...13...14....so forth**
The first to find it was a boy named Jacob.
Eight years old.
He’d just snuck out with a flashlight, hoping to rescue his stuffed dragon from the dumpster. The other kids teased him, but it was all he had left from his brother—lost in a fire two years ago.
He found the toy.Then the chalk.
A voice whispered from the concrete:
“Jump with me.”
And he did.
One hop. Then another. Then he vanished.
Meanwhile – Sanctuary Briefing Hall
A beacon flared crimson across the main grid.
The word Hopscotch appeared in cursed glyphs.
Maya stood, frowning. “We marked that grid weeks ago. It wasn’t active.”
“It wasn’t finished,” said Tenchi.
Riku’s goggles glowed. “Wait… Is Elise on standby?”
“Yes,” Maya nodded. “Bring her.”
Part II – The Crystal Harbinger Arrives
The air above Saint Veil’s was thick with fog.
Not natural fog—this one shimmered faintly with colors that shifted between sadness and silence.
Tenchi crouched beside the chalked numbers.
“Still fresh,” he muttered. “Whatever drew the grid, it’s still inside the layer.”
Maya looked around. “No signs of Jacob.”
“He’s in,” said a soft voice behind them. “But not lost. Not yet.”
They turned as the fog parted—and she stepped through it.
Elise.
She moved like moonlight.
Long silver-white hair trailing behind her like silk.
Her pale blue eyes didn’t blink—they glimmered.
Each step she took across the asphalt left a faint crystal print that faded seconds later.
She wore a stylized field coat, ornamented with pale blue glass along the sleeves and shoulders.
A glowing charm spun slowly in her palm—like a frozen snowflake caught in perpetual motion.
[INTRODUCING: ELISE – THE CRYSTAL HARBINGER]
“Stillness in sorrow. Mercy in frost.”
Her Spark: Crystabind – a cursed sealing technique that converts grief into crystal, freezing spiritual echoes before they collapse.
Once known as the girl who froze an entire haunted lake.
Once feared for sealing her own mother’s curse inside her chest.
Now an S-Rank Game Ender.
Elise walks where others shatter.
Maya offered a nod. “We need you to trace the link to the boy.”
Elise knelt beside the grid.
“Someone jumped here recently. A child. Spirit’s still warm. But the grid…” she paused, “...is inverted.”
Riku’s voice crackled over comms: “Inverted?”
“Yes,” Elise said. “The game doesn’t lead forward. It leads down. Into grief. The farther you go… the deeper you fall.”
She stood.
“I’ll need backup if I go in.”
Tenchi stepped forward, blade already sheathed at his hip.
“I’m coming with you.”
Maya nodded. “Then I’ll stay out here and keep the signal open.”
Elise reached into her sleeve and pulled out a crystal shard, handing it to Maya.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“If it glows black... we’ve reached the point of no return.” She spoked softly.
The two of them stepped onto the grid. As soon as Elise’s foot touched square one—the world shattered.
Part III – The Grief Grid
Square One.
Asphalt cracked like thin glass beneath their feet.
Colors drained from the world. The sky turned gray. Trees melted into silhouettes.
Tenchi gripped his blade tighter.
Beside him, Elise walked without flinching.
She reached square two—and the number flashed beneath her foot.
Her reflection didn’t match her.
It showed a younger Elise—no older than nine—crouched in a snowy courtyard.
In the reflection, she was cradling a girl.
Eyes closed.
Chest still.
Skin already cold.
Tenchi turned to her.
“Elise—”
“She was my sister,” Elise whispered, eyes never leaving the ghostly vision. “Caught in the curse that was meant for me.”
The image vanished.
Square three glowed.
They kept moving.
Square Four.
Tenchi stepped onto it—and the fog twisted into a broken apartment hallway.
A door swung open.
Inside, a younger version of him stood alone, shaking, fists bruised and voice cracking.
“Don’t make me stay!” the younger Tenchi cried.
From the shadows came a reply.
“Your brother already went in. So will you.”
Tenchi didn’t speak.
He just breathed.
And walked forward.
Elise whispered, “This place turns echoes into traps. If we stay too long... they’ll break us.”
“Then we move fast,” Tenchi said.
Square Seven.
They found Jacob.
Curled in the center of the chalk, arms around his dragon plush, eyes shut tight.
But he wasn’t alone.
A shadow figure squatted beside him—its long fingers drawing chalk lines over and over again.
It whispered:
“You made it to square eight. Well done.”
“Now choose: stay… or keep hopping.”
Elise stepped forward, raising her charm. It pulsed violently.
“That’s the anchor,” she said. “It’s disguised as a child’s memory.”
Tenchi nodded. “Can you freeze it?”
“I can bind it.”
She drew a ring of sigils in the air with her finger.
They hovered—glowing with light, humming with grief.
But before she could finish the seal—
Jacob screamed.
His eyes flew open.
And the chalk line beneath him stretched endlessly.
The entire hopscotch grid tilted forward like a seesaw.
Tenchi grabbed Jacob.
Elise reached for both of them—
And the three were pulled into the final square: Square Infinity.
Part IV – The Square That Shouldn’t Exist
The fall wasn’t a drop.
It was a drift—slow, heavy, like falling through water made of memory.
The three of them landed on a surface that wasn’t solid, but wasn’t air either.
It looked like chalk.
Endless chalk.
Stretching in all directions.
Layered grids spiraling outward.
Every square pulsed with names—dozens, hundreds, thousands.
Each name was a child.
And most had a line through them.
Jacob’s name flickered beneath his feet.
Still unmarked.
But the grid was trying.
From the center rose a figure—not a creature, but an emotion.
It had no face.
It was made entirely of grief.
Childhood regrets. Forgotten birthdays. Empty shoes by the door.
The air turned heavy with the scent of melted crayons and hospital rooms.
Tenchi stepped in front of Jacob.
His blade sparked, humming with rage.
“This ends here,” he growled.
But the spirit turned to him—and changed.
Its form reshaped into Hiroshi.
Bleeding.
Smiling.
“You’ll fail again,” it whispered.
“Just like before.”
Tenchi’s hands shook.
Elise grabbed his arm.
“Don’t look at it.”
Her voice was calm. Focused.
“It’s using guilt as a shackle. You know what this is.”
Tenchi steadied his grip.
“You’re right.”
He stepped forward—and slashed downward.
The illusion shattered.
The spirit screamed.
And the chalk lines began to crumble.
But the name Jacob remained.
Still pulsing.
Still marked for absorption.
“I need ten seconds,” Elise said. “To cast the full bind.”
“You’ve got five,” Tenchi muttered.
Elise nodded. Her charm began to spin in the air—splitting into six shards, orbiting her like frozen stars.
She whispered:
“Crystal Technique – Forbidden Ring: The Mirror of Regret.”
The temperature dropped instantly.
Even the chalk froze.
Everything slowed—like the moment before a tear falls.
The spirit lunged.
Tenchi met it mid-air, his blade clashing against its massless form, shouting:
“You’re not sorrow. You’re just what we left behind.”
He drove the blade deep.
Elise’s seal completed.
The shards exploded outward, forming a ring around Jacob and the final square.
“CRYSTABIND – STASIS COMPLETE.”
The chalk cracked.
The name Jacob stopped flickering.
And everything went still.
Part V – The Frozen Tear
The grief spirit began to unravel, its mask splitting into weeping faces. But it wasn’t finished.
It let out a low, ear-splitting scream, and from its shadow erupted arms made of chalk, twisted and jagged, covered in fractured numbers.
“I AM THE REGRET YOU LOCKED AWAY.”
The Layer shifted violently, throwing Jacob to the side.
Tenchi gritted his teeth, shielding the boy with one arm. “Elise, take him—this one’s mine.”
Elise caught Jacob in a crystal seal dome, nodding without a word.
Tenchi stood tall, coat flaring, eyes narrowed
He stepped forward into the floating grid, his blade sparking with layered glyphs. The spirit lunged.
“Come then,” Tenchi whispered.
“Let’s rewrite your ending.”
Tenchi enters into full combat.
Skill 1: Phantom Step
In a flash, Tenchi vanished, reappearing behind the grief spirit in a burst of afterimages.
He slashed once, twice—clean horizontal strikes that carved symbols into the air.
Skill 2: Cross Fang Severance
A twin-blade arc of void energy collided with the spirit’s chalk arms, severing two in a burst of smoke and dust.
The spirit screamed, then exploded into a dozen mirrors, each reflecting a younger version of Tenchi crying, screaming, breaking.
“YOU LET THEM DIE.”
Tenchi closed his eyes.
Then opened them—his gaze razor-sharp.
“That was then.”
Skill 3: Reversal Edge – Form Two: Night Fang
He spun his blade in a circle above him, then drove it downward with both hands. The mirrors shattered in a storm of glass and grief.
The spirit reformed behind him and launched a black tendril toward his back.
Skill 4: Void Veil Counter
Tenchi’s blade caught the tendril mid-flight. It shimmered, absorbed, and reversed the attack back at the spirit in a void chain spike.
The spirit staggered.
Shouting, "ENOUGH!"
It roared—and the sky cracked.
A vortex formed above the chalk plane—dark, endless, and roaring.
The grief spirit ascended into it, pulling the Layer itself with it.
“IF I FALL—YOU FALL FOREVER!
The ground beneath Tenchi collapsed. Jacob screamed from inside the crystal dome.
But Tenchi was already moving.
He leapt from floating chalk square to square, then lunged upward at the falling core of the spirit.
Skill 5: Severance Fang: Full Eclipse
He held his blade parallel to his body, spirit energy flooding through his veins, eyes glowing faint silver.
He thrust upward—the slash shaped like a blade of moonlight—and pierced straight through the core of the spirit.
Everything went still.
The grief spirit let out a silent scream as its form began collapsing from within.
But it had one last trick.
“THEN BE ERASED WITH ME!”
It detonated—releasing a final burst of raw cursed energy that twisted the entire Layer into a void spiral.
The world began to fold in on itself.
There was no exit.
Not even Tenchi’s abilities could sever the curse in time.
And then—
Elise stepped forward.
Her charm shards floated around her in full bloom.
She placed a single hand on the air and whispered:
“Forbidden Ice Seal –Tenth Circle: Frozen World’s End.”
The vortex stopped.
The cursed explosion paused.
The Layer began to freeze from the edges inward—crystallizing grief, regret, and corrupted energy in one massive web of frost.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
Elise fell to one knee, blood at the edge of her lips.
The seal held.
And the spirit finally crumbled—trapped in its own grief, never to return.
Tenchi caught Elise before she could collapse.
Her body trembled, cold to the touch.
She looked up at him with half-lidded eyes.
“We… won.”
And then she passed out.
The Layer shattered.
Outside the Layer, Maya watched as Elise’s backup shard dimmed, then flared with blue.
“Layer breach successful. Anchor sealed. Vital signs… weak but stable.”
She exhaled.
Then looked at the shard again.
A second glow appeared.
Red. Sharp.
The symbol of a new game etched itself into the crystal’s surface.
"Mother, May I?"
Back at Sanctuary HQ, Jacob was wrapped in a thermal blanket, dragon plush clutched in his arms.
He looked at Maya and whispered:
“The chalk said I could stay… forever.”
he knelt beside him.
“You came back.”
He nodded.
“But there are others… stuck in other numbers.”
In the infirmary wing, Elise lay unconscious, hands cold as ice.
Tenchi sat beside her.
Her fingers twitched slightly.
He didn’t speak.
But he stayed.
FIELD REPORT — ENTRY #06
? Game: Hopscotch
? Entity: Grief Construct (Chalkborn Echo – Layer ∞)
? Anchor: Inverted chalk grid, bound to forgotten children
? Survivors: 3 (Jacob, Tenchi, Elise – stabilized)
? Status: Game Terminated
? Notes:
-
Each square functioned as a grief echo trap.
-
Anchor revealed names of other potential victims—pending analysis.
-
Elise used a forbidden Crystabind variant: Mirror of Regret. Recovery status: Ongoing.
-
Warning: Another game activated immediately post-seal.
-
Glyph reads: “Mother, May I?”
Maya’s Note: “They’re coming faster. One falls… another rises. This isn’t random. It’s a countdown.”
Tenchi’s Note: “She paid the price to save one. We won’t let it be for nothing.”