[Black screen]
"Memory cleanse complete. Subject stable. Glyph resistance: dormant.""Begin reintegration protocol: academic shell profile — ID: Renji Kurogane."
Valemont Academy – Morning Light – Year 2003, Spring Semester
Renji blinked into a sky that looked too clean.Like it had been scrubbed with bleach and silence.
The air was calm. Students laughed. Bells rang on time.Everything was... normal.
Too normal.
He sat on a bench, dressed in uniform, textbook in hand, hair neat.He didn't remember waking up.He didn't remember the path to class.
But here he was.
Classroom 1A – 8:10 AM
"Renji, pay attention," said Professor Marklen, voice steady.
Renji looked up from his notes.
The board showed a map of Old Europe.
Topic: "Symbolic Influence on Pre-Christian Architecture."
Nothing triggered.
The glyph in his palm was gone.
There were no hallucinations. No whispers.Only faint impressions, like someone had erased a paragraph from his life, and left a space where it used to be.
He sat in the second row now.
Liora wasn't next to him.
Nikolai didn't exist.
Room Null wasn't mentioned.
And Hana?
She passed him in the hallway at noon.Smiled.And didn't say a word.
He stared after her, confused.
Why did she seem familiar?
Why did it hurt to not remember?
Lunch – Cafetería – 12:36 PM
A boy spilled water on his notes.
Renji laughed it off.
Someone asked if he was going to the library later. He nodded.
Everything felt okay.
But "okay" felt… wrong.
Valemont Library – Section D – 2:00 PM
He found a book that shouldn't have been there.
No title. Just a blank spine.
He opened it.
Page one: blank.
Page two: blank.
Page three:
"You touched the door."
He blinked.
Turned the page.
It was gone. Blank again.
Later – Dormitory 3C – 7:00 PM
Renji sat by the window, watching birds fly in perfect loops.
He touched his wrist unconsciously.
There was no mark.
But his skin felt thinner than it should.
TP Remote Monitoring Facility – Level 5
Two agents watched his vitals.
"Memory integrity holding," said one.
"For now," said the other. "Subjects who touch the Codex tend to bleed through sooner or later."
"Let's hope he forgets hard enough."
They looked at the screen.
Renji sat in silence, blinking into nothing.