[Sakura Dimension – Day 3, 05:30 AM]
Aya dreamt of fireflies.
But when she woke, the glow didn't fade.
Tiny lights hovered above the lake surface—hundreds of them, orbiting each other like constellations drawn from memory. Not real. Not physical. But felt. Each one pulsed softly, carrying the emotional residue of a moment… a thought… a scar.
Kaito was already standing by the shore, arms folded, watching the lights drift.
"They're not just memories anymore," he said as she joined him. "They're simulations."
Aya frowned. "Simulations?"
He nodded. "The System's warning was clear. Event Two is called Mind Merge. That means everything we anchored… is about to be tested."
The lake rippled.
The sky cracked again—just once—and a column of light surged up from the lake center.
A platform of floating petals formed beneath it.
Then, a voice—clear and without echo.
> [System Directive: Anchor Stability Verification Sequence – Initiated]
Participants: All Awakeners
Format: Multi-Mind Simulation Trial
Rule: Your mind will merge with another. Survive. Understand. Return.
Random Pairing Begins…
Aya's eyes snapped to Kaito.
But before either could react, the world blinked.
[Kaito Yamada – Simulation Instance #1 – Unknown Location]
He gasped, stumbling forward into pitch black.
No light. No air. No ground. No sense of space or time. Just thoughts.
But they weren't his.
They rushed him—images, sounds, fragments of a life not his own.
A girl on a rooftop, looking down on a neon-soaked cityscape. A child sobbing into an empty rice bowl. A grandmother singing to sleep. A scream. A fire. A sharp crack—
Pain.
Then, a voice.
"You don't belong here."
Kaito turned.
A figure stood there. Barely visible. Female. Roughly his age. Eyes glowing with suspicion.
"I know you," she said, stepping closer. "You're the one who shouldn't be alive."
[Aya Shirogane – Simulation Instance #2 – Unknown Location]
Aya opened her eyes to snow.
Not just snow—an avalanche of it. Cold. Relentless. She clutched her arms to her chest as she spun around.
A battlefield.
Dozens of corpses buried beneath the frost. Blood blooming like crimson flowers in the snow. She heard coughing behind her and turned.
It was a boy—barely twelve—wounded, shivering, half-conscious.
"Please," he rasped. "Don't leave me…"
Aya fell to her knees beside him, instinct moving faster than logic.
Then the System whispered in her ear:
> [You are experiencing the memory of: Takeshi Hanada]
[Objective: Understand his core anchor]
Aya froze.
Takeshi?
This was his memory?
And then the boy's hand tightened around hers.
"Don't leave me," he repeated, but his voice morphed.
Deeper. Older.
"You will leave me," he snarled. "Just like she did."
Aya's eyes widened.
The snow erupted into fire.
[Back in Reality – Sakura Lake Edge, 06:45 AM]
Dev gasped awake, soaked in sweat. Meera crouched beside him, pale but conscious.
"Did you see it too?" he asked her.
She nodded slowly. "Your memory. That train station. The day your father left."
Dev didn't speak.
And Meera didn't push.
All around them, other duos were beginning to stir—some screaming, others sobbing. Many looked at each other with new eyes. Some with understanding. Others with terror.
Because in the merged realm… nothing could be hidden.
[System Update – Global Notification]
> [Simulation Completion: 26%]
Warning: Emotional Desync Detected
Pairings with high trauma divergence may collapse
Time Remaining: 42 Hours
[Simulation Instance – Kaito + Unknown Pair]
The girl lunged.
Kaito dodged, barely avoiding her psychic strike. It wasn't a power. It was raw emotion—weaponized grief, sharpened by betrayal.
"You're the mistake," she hissed. "I died in the first event. I felt my heart stop. Then I woke up—and the world felt wrong."
Kaito realized what she was.
"One of the revived," he muttered.
"Yes," she said. "And I remember something none of the others do."
She stepped forward, fingers splayed.
"I remember you. Standing in the dark. Breaking the law of death."
Kaito froze.
"I don't know how you did it," she whispered. "But I'll make you undo it."
And she struck again.
[Aya – Simulation Collapse Warning]
The battlefield had vanished.
Now she stood in a classroom, watching Takeshi as a boy stare blankly at the blackboard while other students whispered about him.
Aya could feel his shame. His isolation. The silent rage tucked inside each forced smile.
"Is this what shaped you?" she whispered.
Then his adult self appeared beside her, arms crossed.
"I don't need your pity."
She looked at him.
"No. But you needed someone."
He flinched.
And just like that—his memory flickered.
The snow returned.
But this time, there was a fire lit nearby.
Aya sat beside it.
Waiting.
Not saving him.
Just staying.
And the simulation stabilized.
[System Message – Simulation Anchor Accepted – Aya & Takeshi: 87% Synchronicity]
[Back to Kaito – 07:15 AM]
She had him pinned now.
Her voice was quieter.
"I remember my brother. He died saving me. But when I came back… he didn't."
Kaito looked up into her eyes. "And you hate me because I broke the rules?"
"I hate you," she whispered, "because I didn't get to choose."
Silence.
Then Kaito did something reckless.
He took her hand.
The memories rushed both ways now.
Her brother. Her death. Her awakening. Her return. Her guilt.
And then—
His.
The boy left behind.
The boy reborn.
The one who could see the death that shouldn't exist.
She gasped.
The simulation cracked around them.
But not from destruction.
From understanding.
[System Message – Simulation Anchor Accepted – Kaito & ???: 83% Synchronicity]
The world blinked—
And they were back.
[Sakura Camp – 08:00 AM]
The air was still.
People sat in stunned silence. Some hugging. Some unable to look their partners in the eye.
Aya walked toward Kaito.
He saw her and smiled faintly. "So… how was your dive?"
She didn't smile back.
Instead, she touched his cheek and whispered, "Don't you ever do that alone again."
He blinked. "Do what?"
"Carry everything."
He nodded slowly.
They stood like that, quiet in the chaos.
Then Aya glanced around.
"Kaito," she said, tone sharpening. "Where are the other revived?"
He turned—and his eyes widened.
The thirty-two Awakeners who had come back from the dead?
Gone.
Only their empty clothes remained, scattered around the lake like offerings.
The petals began to fall again.
Only this time—
They dissolved into static before reaching the ground.
---
End of Chapter 47