Kaito understood them now. In Elysium, he was a hero. He was beloved. A digital oracle had even prophesied that he was the “Threadmender,” destined to repair the Great Loom of Existence. It was ridiculous, tropey, adolescent nonsense. And he believed it with every shattered fiber of his being.

“Log me out,” he whispered.

He ran until his virtual lungs burned, until the market gave way to a field of silver grass, until he collapsed laughing under a tree whose leaves were made of glowing data-streams. For the first time since the accident, he cried—not from sadness, but from a joy so fierce it felt like dying.