Chapter 93: Fragments Of A Friend

Kane stared at Rina, his relief quickly morphing into concern. Something was wrong.

Her usually vibrant complexion had drained to an unsettling pallor, making the dark circles under her eyes appear almost bruised.

When she looked at them, her gaze seemed to slide past rather than focus, as if she was seeing something else entirely.

"Rina, where have you been?" Kane stepped forward. "Ginsei said you disappeared two days ago."

She blinked slowly, like someone waking from a deep sleep.

"Two days?" Her voice carried a hollow quality that made Kane’s fox ears twitch with unease.

Cyrus moved closer, his crimson eyes studying Rina with clinical precision.

"We should discuss this somewhere private."

The elevator ride to the fifty-ninth floor passed in tense silence.

Rina stood unnaturally still, her hands folded in front of her, breathing so shallowly. Kane wondered if she was holding her breath.

Once inside Cyrus’s office, Kane closed the door behind them.

"Rina, what happened to you?" Kane searched her face for any trace of the sharp, competent woman he knew.

"You look like—"

"Like I’ve seen a ghost?" Rina’s laugh held no warmth.

"Yeah, exactly like—" Kane’s words died in his throat as Rina’s meaning hit him.

"I haven’t seen a ghost, Kane." Rina’s smile twisted into something that didn’t belong on her face.

"I am one."

Kane’s brain rejected the words entirely.

"That’s not—you’re sitting right here. You’re talking to me."

Rina held up her hand, and Kane watched in horrified fascination as her fingers became translucent, the office window visible through her palm.

"I’m caught between states. Too alive to die, too dead to live." She looked down at her hands.

Kane’s mouth opened, then closed.

"Rina, that’s... How is that even possible?"

"It was the synthetic binding agent." Rina’s voice carried the weight of regret. "I was running tests in my lab, trying to isolate the compound’s components."

She flexed her fingers, watching them flicker between solid and translucent.

"I thought I’d taken proper precautions, but something in the formula reacted with my spirit energy. The explosion knocked me unconscious, and when I woke up..." She gestured at herself helplessly.

Kane felt his stomach drop. "You’ve been like this for two days?"

"I can phase through walls, become incorporeal—but it’s unstable. My human half tries to anchor me here, while my spirit half keeps slipping away."

Cyrus’s crimson eyes sharpened with interest, his CEO mask sliding into place.

"Half-spirit?" His tone carried clinical curiosity.

Kane blinked, realizing he’d never mentioned Rina’s background to Cyrus.

With everything that had happened between them, it seemed like such an obvious detail to skip.

"Oh, right. Yeah, it’s...a long story."

"Summarize it." Cyrus’s voice carried the same authoritative tone he used in board meetings.

Kane glanced at Rina, who gave a tired nod.

"Rina was human until about five years ago. She got caught in a rogue spirit attack—a nasty one that nearly killed her." Kane’s voice softened with sympathy.

"The Bureau’s medical team saved her life, but the spirit’s energy had already started changing her on a cellular level."

Rina picked up the thread, her translucent fingers tracing patterns on the armrest.

"The transformation was incomplete. I retained my human consciousness and most of my human physiology but gained limited spirit abilities."

"What kind of spirit abilities exactly?" Cyrus asked.

"Enhanced healing, limited energy manipulation, and resistance to most spirit-based attacks."

Rina’s form flickered, becoming more solid for a moment before fading again.

"It made me perfect for forensics work. I could handle contaminated evidence that would be dangerous for full humans or full spirits."

Cyrus stepped closer, his analytical gaze never leaving Rina’s unstable form.

"But now the synthetic binding agent has destabilized your hybrid nature."

"Exactly." Rina’s voice carried bitter frustration.

"Whatever they created, it’s designed to disrupt spirit energy at a fundamental level. For someone like me, caught between two states..."

"It’s tearing you apart," Kane finished, horror creeping into his voice. "There has to be something we can do. The Bureau must have—"

"The Bureau doesn’t know." Rina’s interruption was sharp.

"And they can’t. If they discover what happened, they’ll classify me as a rogue spirit and contain me."

Kane shook his head, his amber eyes flashing with indignation.

"Rina, you’re overreacting. Commander Qi would never let that happen. He—"

"Kane." Rina’s voice cracked. "You know the BSA’s protocols better than anyone. Policy doesn’t bend for personal loyalty."

Kane’s protest died on his lips as the truth hit him.

Even Commander Qi, who’d recruited Rina personally, wouldn’t be able to override containment protocols for an unstable half-spirit.

"And there’s more, Kane." Rina’s voice cut through his protest like ice.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop, and Kane felt his fox ears flatten against his head again.

"The hooded figure you chased? That wasn’t entirely me."

Kane’s mouth opened and then snapped shut.

"What do you mean, not entirely?"

Rina’s form flickered more violently, her outline wavering like heat shimmer.

"When I became unstable, pieces of me started...breaking off. Fragments. Echoes. Shades. Whatever you want to call them."

She pressed her translucent palms against her temples.

"They act independently. Sometimes they’re hostile, lashing out at anyone who gets too close. Sometimes they lead me places I don’t want to go, following instincts I can’t control."

Cyrus stepped forward, his crimson eyes sharp with new understanding.

"How many fragments?"

"I don’t know." Rina’s voice cracked with exhaustion.

"They appear and disappear. The one Kane chased was probably trying to warn you about something, or maybe it was hunting you. I can’t tell anymore."

Kane felt the blood drain from his face.

"Hunting us? Rina, what is happening to you?"

"I don’t know." Rina’s voice broke, her form flickering more rapidly.

"That’s why I came to you, Kane. I trust you as a friend and as an investigator."

Her translucent fingers reached toward him, stopping just short of contact.

"We need to find a cure before I fade completely or..." She shuddered, her outline wavering like smoke.

"Or before something else takes control of what’s left of me."

Kane’s amber eyes widened with understanding and determination.

"The fragments aren’t just breaking off. They’re becoming something else entirely."

Rina nodded, her expression desperate.

"Help me, Kane. Before I become something that needs to be stopped."