The dimensional portal spat them out, sending both Akira and Aiyana tumbling through the air before they crashed into what felt like a wall of vegetation. Vines, leaves, and flowers exploded around them as they hit the jungle.
"Ow, ow, OW!" Aiyana yelped as they bounced off increasingly larger branches, her buckskin clothing catching on thorns and her feathers scattering.
Akira tried to control their descent, his qi flaring instinctively to cushion their fall, but his three energy systems were still chaotic from the emotional overload. Instead of a controlled landing, his power sent them spinning sideways into a massive tree trunk.
THUD.
They hit the forest in a tangle of limbs, covered in leaves, dirt, and what Akira really hoped wasn't some kind of exotic jungle sap. The sounds of the portal closing echoed above them.
For a moment, they just lay there, breathing hard and trying to process what had just happened.
"Well," Aiyana said, spitting out a mouthful of moss, "that was definitely not how I planned to spend my afternoon."
Akira rolled over onto his back, staring up at the canopy above them. Guilt crashed over him, heavier than any of the spiritual energies he carried. He'd done it again. Lost control, opened a portal, and this time he'd dragged Aiyana into it.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean to... I lost control and now you're..." He gestured around them. "I don't even know where we are. I might have just trapped us in some other dimension entirely."
Aiyana sat up slowly, pulling twigs out of her hair and examining a small cut on her arm. She looked at him for a long moment, taking in his expression, the way his shoulders had curved inward.
Then she did something he didn't expect.
She hugged him.
"Hey," she said softly, her arms tight around his shoulders. "It's perfectly fine. You don't gotta worry about this, okay? We'll get through this together."
Akira felt something in his chest. "But I-"
"But nothing," Aiyana interrupted, pulling back to look at him directly. "You think I jumped into that portal by accident? I chose to come with you. And you know what? I'm glad I did."
"How can you be glad?" Akira asked genuinely bewildered. "I just accidentally dragged you into some random jungle!"
Aiyana's smiled. "Because this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. With you. It's almost like we were destined to meet each other, don't you think? The connection we have... it's not normal, Akira. It's special."
The words hit him with surprising force. She was right. From the moment he'd crashed into that tree near her village, something had clicked between them...
"I've never felt connected to anyone like this before," he admitted.
"Same," she said, her expression growing serious. "And I've lived my whole life surrounded by people who understand spiritual connections. What we have... it's deeper than training partners, deeper than friendship. It's like our spirits recognize each other."
After they untangled themselves from the debris and made sure neither of them had any serious injuries, they began to explore their surroundings. The forest was unlike anything either of them had encountered before.
"This vegetation..." Aiyana said, examining a flower that seemed to glow with its own inner light. "I've never seen anything like it. And the spiritual energy here is incredible."
Akira nodded, extending his senses to feel the ambient qi flow. The jungle pulsed with life force, but it felt different from the energies he was used to.
"The patterns are different too," he said. "Back home, qi flows in predictable patterns, following established channels. Here, it's more like... like the energy itself is alive and making conscious choices about where to go."
As they climbed, the jungle began to thin slightly, allowing them glimpses of the broader landscape beyond.
What they saw made them both stop and stare.
Spread out below them was a large valley. Stone pyramids rose from the jungle floor, their surfaces covered in intricate carvings.
"Holy shit," Aiyana said. "Where the hell are we?"
Akira's eyes widened as he took in the architectural style, the way the pyramids were positioned, the familiar patterns in the stone carvings. "I think... I think we're in South America. Pre-Columbian South America."
"You mean like, Inca? Aztec?"
"Maybe. Or something even older." Akira pointed to the ruins below. "Look at how the buildings are arranged. See how they're positioned to channel the natural energy flows?"
As they stood there taking in the scope of the ancient city, Aiyana turned to him with a serious expression.
"Akira," she said quietly, "I need to ask you something, and I need you to be completely honest with me."
He nodded, bracing himself.
"What are you? What... actually are you? I mean, I know you're a convergent, and I know you carry multiple spiritual traditions, but there's something else, isn't there? Something you haven't told me."
Akira was quiet for a long moment, looking out over the valley. Part of him wanted to deflect, to give her the same partial explanations he'd been giving everyone else. But Aiyana... She deserved the truth.
All of it.
"My grandmother used to tell me stories," he began slowly. "Stories about the time before the mythological realms were separated, when gods from different pantheons walked the same earth and the barriers between spiritual systems were thin."
Aiyana settled beside him.
"She said that in those days, there were beings called Primordial Convergents. The first entities to embody multiple mythological traditions, created during the dawn age when the divine realms were still forming. They were living bridges between incompatible systems, and their existence allowed for communication and cooperation between pantheons that should have been enemies."
"But something went wrong," Aiyana guessed.
Akira nodded. "The Primordials were too powerful. Their ability to channel multiple divine systems simultaneously made them threats to the established order. Some of them went mad from the conflicting energies. Others started trying to reshape reality according to their own vision of how the cosmos should work."
He paused.
"So the gods made a pact. They separated the mythological realms, established barriers between different spiritual systems, and the Primordial Convergents were... removed. Sealed away, banished to the spaces between worlds, or simply erased from existence."
"But not all of them," Aiyana said, beginning to understand.
"No. Some survived. Went into hiding, or exile, or deep meditation. And my grandmother... she believed that one of them was still out there. Still alive, still maintaining the old connections between realms."
Akira turned to face her. "She called this entity Hindu. Not the religion, but the being who first embodied the convergence of multiple spiritual traditions. The first Primordial Convergent, the one who taught the early gods how to coexist."
"And you think you're connected to this Hindu?"
"I don't think. I know. The convergents I met, the ones who said my specific combination of bloodlines was prophesied never to merge? They were right. Hindu arranged for my parents to meet, influenced their choices, guided events so that I would be born carrying the exact spiritual signature needed to reestablish contact."
Aiyana was quiet for a moment, processing the implications.
"So you're not just a convergent," she said. "You're a key. A living key designed to unlock communication with a being who's been hidden for millennia."
"Yeah. And apparently, I'm also a walking weapon of mass destruction if I can't learn to control it properly."
"But you're also potentially the solution to conflicts that have been raging between pantheons for thousands of years," Aiyana pointed out. "That's... that's incredible, Akira. Terrifying, but incredible."
Her acceptance, her lack of fear or judgment, made something tight in Akira's chest finally relax completely.
"You're not afraid of me?" he asked.
"Afraid of you? Are you kidding?" Aiyana grinned. "I'm dating the most important figure in the history of the multiverse."
"Dating?" Akira blinked. "When did we start dating?"
"Oh, we're totally dating," Aiyana said. "I jumped through a dimensional portal with you. That's like, the ultimate relationship commitment."
Their moment of lightness was interrupted by a distant sound that made both of them tense. Multiple entities moving.
"Chen," Akira said. "He found us."
"How is that even possible?" Aiyana asked. "We're in a different time period!"
"Dimensional tracking," Akira replied, his spiritual senses extending outward to confirm what he already knew. "If you know someone's specific energy signature, you can follow them through portals. And Chen has been studying my qi patterns for years."
The sounds were getting closer.
"They're going to try to surround us. Force us into a defensive position where we can't escape."
Akira nodded, his mind racing. They could try to fight, but Chen's shinobi were trained professionals. They could run deeper into the jungle, but in unfamiliar terrain against expert trackers, their chances weren't good.
But there was a third option.
"Aiyana," he said urgently, "I need to get to Hindu. It's the only way this ends. Hindu is the only one who can tell me what I'm supposed to do, how to control these powers properly, how to fulfill whatever purpose I was designed for."
"Okay," she said immediately. "How do we find this Hindu?"
"I don't know," Akira said. "But I think... I think Hindu will find me. If I can achieve another convergent synchronization. But permanently this time."
"That's a pretty big 'if,'" Aiyana pointed out.
"I know." He looked at her meaningfully. "I won't be doing it alone."