The Trial of shiku
BEGINS OR ENDS
The courtroom was not built.
It was remembered.
A spiraling chamber carved from the dreams of a thousand worlds, its walls shimmered with frozen time. Stars were suspended like chandeliers, and galaxies spun in the pupils of the silent observers. There were no floors, no ceilings—only layers of floating platforms upon which beings of impossible presence sat, watched, judged.
And in the center of it all stood Shiku.
He was barefoot, clothed in the same robes he wore the day he was cast from his own world, the tattoo of powerlessness still etched across his wrist.
The wand hovered beside him, glowing dimly, as if reluctant.
A booming voice echoed through the infinite chamber.
"This court convenes under the Mandate of Threads. We are gathered to determine the fate of Shiku the Broken—he who tore the weave of realities with an unauthorized wish."
But just as the Judges prepared to cast their verdict, the chamber cracked.
Not metaphorically—literally.
A violet fissure slashed across the courtroom sky.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED. EMERGENCY REDLINE PROTOCOL INITIATED.
The system's voice—once neutral—now thundered with urgency. A burst of azure light enveloped Shiku, shielding him from the Judge's reach.
"What is this treachery?" cried the Judge with the iron voice.
"Unauthorized access," murmured Kaeli, who had appeared beside Shiku again, eyes wide with both awe and terror. "Something's hijacking the System."
The chamber was plunged into chaos.
Lines of code slashed through space like weapons.
Figures—shadowy, cybernetic, wearing remnants of old system interfaces—invaded the courtroom. These were the Nullborn, remnants of lost programs, erased from existence and memory, now given shape by Shiku's second wish.
One of them raised a weapon—a jagged lance of compressed timelines—and hurled it toward the Judges.
It struck true.
The child-Judge shattered into dust.
Kaeli pulled Shiku behind her as the entire tribunal erupted into battle.
"What did I do?" Shiku gasped.
"You opened the door," Kaeli said. "Now everyone wants in."
---
SYSTEM UPDATE: WISH SECURITY FAILED. INITIATING CLASS: THREADBREAKER.
A blue window exploded before Shiku:
> Congratulations, User: SHIKU
You have unlocked Class: THREADBREAKER
Abilities: Time Fragmentation, Narrative Override, Existential Blink
Warning: This class is unstable and may result in paradox implosion.
The wand reformed, jagged and glowing with unstable glyphs. Shiku felt the power pour into his limbs—but it came with visions. Versions of himself flickering, battling, dying.
Kaeli grabbed his hand.
"We have to escape the chamber. It's not a trial anymore—it's a battlefield."
---
The pair ran across floating platforms, dodging blasts of raw narrative energy. Judges summoned versions of law to attack—one conjured a courtroom made of blades, another rewrote time to make Shiku a baby in his arms.
But Shiku, empowered by Threadbreaker abilities, shouted, "Narrative Blink!"
In an instant, they vanished and reappeared behind the oldest Judge.
He raised his wand.
"End this!"
Kaeli struck with her blade of forgotten time.
The Judge collapsed into stardust.
But then—
SYSTEM INTERRUPT: WISH LIMITERS DISENGAGED.
The entire chamber shook. The courtroom ceiling burst open.
And a colossal figure descended.
Not a Judge.
Not a Nullborn.
The Core of the System.
It took the form of a spiraling infinity symbol, pulsing with all the wishes ever made.
"You broke me," it whispered in a thousand voices. "Now rebuild me—or perish."
Shiku raised the wand.
And made his third wish.
"I wish to merge with the system—not to rule it, but to understand it."
---
There was no explosion.
Only silence.
Then light.
Shiku rose above the wreckage, eyes glowing with system glyphs.
"I see now," he murmured. "This was never a trial. This was a setup. The Judges were puppets. The system feared me."
Kaeli stared in awe.
"What now?"
Shiku turned toward the Core.
"We break the idea of judgment. We forge a world of questions, not commands. And we protect those who choose."
The System trembled.
System Update: Threadbreaker has initiated Final Phase.
System Rewriting…
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Next chapter
THE ECHO WITHIN