[Sakura Dimension – Day 3, 08:30 AM]
"What do you mean… they're gone?"
Aya's voice was sharp, but under it—fear. Real, creeping fear.
Kaito crouched beside the nearest pile of clothing. A scarf, still warm. Boots placed neatly as if the wearer had simply stepped out for a walk. A badge hung off a half-buttoned jacket:
[Reina Ito | Rank: S | Partner: Takeshi Hanada]
He lifted it slowly.
"No burn marks. No blood. No signs of dimensional shift," he muttered.
Dev stepped up beside them, face tight with barely contained fury. "I was talking to Anjali fifteen minutes ago. She said she was feeling fine. Her anchor held. She remembered the day her son was born."
Meera's voice trembled. "She never had a son…"
They all froze.
Aya turned. "What did you say?"
Meera looked pale. "Anjali. She never… had children. I read her bio in the Awakener registry. She was eighteen when she died."
Silence.
Kaito slowly stood up. "Then what she remembered wasn't hers."
[System Alert – Private: Aya Shirogane]
[WARNING: False Anchors Detected in Simulation Layer]
Consequence: Data Purge Protocol Triggered
Affected Units: 32
Reason: Temporal Memory Conflict – Anchor Memory Fabricated
Directive: Observation Only. Do Not Interfere.
Aya read the message three times.
Then showed it to Kaito.
He swore under his breath. "They were never supposed to come back."
"They were ghosts," Aya whispered.
"No," Meera said behind them, voice distant. "They were echoes pretending to be alive."
[Sakura Command Tent – 09:15 AM]
The survivors sat in silence, shaken. Forty-nine of them remained now. And not a single one trusted what they saw.
Kiko Amamiya stood at the front, addressing everyone.
"I believe the System didn't bring back those thirty-two intentionally. Kaito's interference—his wish—forced a localized resurrection. The Sakura Dimension interpreted it as a valid command. But their anchors weren't stable."
She tapped on the map hovering midair: a model of the mindscape layered over the real dimension. Threads of light stretched between individuals—duos, memories, connections.
"The resurrected weren't people anymore. They were simulations, like test data copied from corrupted files. Once the Mind Merge started, the System ran a cleanup. Anything with false data… got deleted."
A beat passed.
"Deleted?" Takeshi echoed. "That's what we're calling it now?"
Kiko didn't blink. "Would you prefer erased from existence?"
No one answered.
Aya exhaled slowly. "How many of us were paired with them during the simulation?"
Seven hands went up.
"Are you… still anchored?" she asked carefully.
Reina stepped forward. Her hand trembled, but her voice didn't. "Yes. But I feel like someone poured someone else's memories into my brain. Like… I remember teaching a kid to tie his shoes. I've never even held a child."
Aya looked at Kaito.
He nodded.
"This isn't over."
[System Message – Global Broadcast]
[Event Two: Mind Merge Simulation – Phase Two Begins]
Participants: Remaining 49 Awakeners
Objective: Locate Dimensional Faults and Repair Memory Fractures
Countdown: 36 Hours
Reward: Class Upgrade Opportunity / Permanent Stat Boost
Warning: Unanchored Individuals Will Begin Dissolving from Existence
The message hit like a hammer.
"Wait—dissolving?" Reina shouted. "That's a real thing?!"
Kiko clenched her jaw. "It means what it says. If your identity isn't locked by the end of this phase… you'll fade. Like corrupted data. We all will."
[Kaito + Aya – Sakura Ridge – 10:10 AM]
"I think I understand what the System wants now," Kaito said as he gazed over the lake.
Aya stood beside him, arms crossed.
"It's not just about surviving. It's about defining who we are. The System is cleaning up anomalies—and right now, that includes anyone uncertain about their identity."
Aya's brow furrowed. "That's cruel."
"It's logical."
"That doesn't make it right."
They stood in silence.
Then Aya said something he didn't expect.
"I'm scared I won't anchor again."
Kaito blinked. "Why?"
"I saw things in that simulation… about myself. Things I buried. I smiled while someone was dying, Kaito. Not because I wanted to—but because I was told to. Because I thought that was strength."
She swallowed hard.
"What if… that's who I really am?"
He reached out and gently took her hand.
"Then I'll remind you of who you were when you smiled and gave a strange boy a lunchbox on his first day of school."
Aya didn't answer.
She just nodded—and didn't let go of his hand.
[Valley of Thought – 12:00 PM]
Dev and Meera stood atop a cliff, staring down into the shimmering valley where memory threads crossed like spider silk.
"Do you think our anchor will hold?" Meera asked quietly.
Dev nodded. "I think it already did."
She smiled faintly. "Then let's do what we always do."
"Jump before we think?"
"Exactly."
And they leapt into the fracture zone.
Their bodies dissolved into streams of light—descending toward memory roots that writhed like snakes across the mindscape.
[System Log – Internal Note // Not Visible to Awakeners]
[Unknown Entity Detected – Anchor Consistency: 0%]
[Subject: Kaito Yamada]
[Rank: Undefined]
[Observation Priority: MAXIMUM]
[Prediction: Possible Origin Point of Dimensional Disruption]
[Action: Monitor but do not interfere. Entity may be key to system rewrite.]
[Sakura Ridge – That Night – 21:00 PM]
Kaito sat alone, eyes scanning the new constellations above.
Aya joined him, this time holding two cups of warm tea.
"One for the ghost boy," she teased gently, handing him one.
He took it with a chuckle. "Thanks."
"I asked the System something," she said quietly. "About us."
He looked at her.
"It said we weren't paired by mistake."
Kaito stiffened.
"What?"
Aya's voice softened. "It said… 'Error does not always mean wrong.'"
They didn't speak again for a long time.
But they watched the petals fall.
And this time, they didn't burn.
They drifted.
Softly.
Like memories that had chosen to stay.
---
End of Chapter 48