The sky over Tokyo was gray, but Ren didn't care.
Kenji was back.
It still didn't feel real. Even after the doctors confirmed his vitals. Even after the specialists examined him. Even after his mother cried through three cups of tea while calling relatives. They went back to the hospital as Ren sat beside him at the hospital the entire night, refusing to move.
Kenji looked different. A little thinner. Paler. But his eyes… they were the same. Alive. Present.
And full of memory.
"Do you remember… everything?" Ren asked, voice low.
Kenji nodded. "All of it. The vault. The pod. The Hunters. Konran. Everything."
He turned his hand over, watching how it moved.
"I couldn't feel my body, but I knew I was somewhere. And I heard you. All the time."
Ren stared.
"You talked to me in the vault," Kenji said. "I think it kept me sane."
Ren's voice cracked. "I didn't know if you could hear me."
"I did." He grinned. "You never shut up."
They both laughed—and then fell into silence.
It was a silence that didn't hurt anymore.
---
Back at Ren's apartment, the mood was different.
Lighter.
Kenji sat on the couch in clean clothes, fresh from the hospital. Ren handed him a soda and slumped down beside him.
On the table was his VR headset.
Still unplugged.
Kenji eyed it.
"I don't think I'm ready to go back in."
Ren nodded. "Me neither."
Not yet.
They'd built something in there. But it almost destroyed them. The memories were too fresh.
Kenji leaned back. "What about Konran?"
"They're done," Ren said. "At least in the game. But there's more."
He opened his laptop and brought up articles. Screenshots. Forum posts. Reports.
Konran Industries, it turned out, was real—a front for an experimental tech agency that had long been using VR development as a cover. No one had ever tied it together before. Not until the system logs and files Ren and Kenji exposed went public.
Now, there were lawsuits.
Investigations.
Talk shows.
But something still didn't sit right.
Kenji saw it in Ren's eyes. "You don't think it's over, do you?"
Ren shook his head slowly. "Someone built that game. Someone approved Project Synapse. And whoever that person is... they're still out there."
Kenji stared out the window.
"Ito Konran."