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A Painful Trigger
The wind blowing into the laboratory was cold.
Isshin's heartbeat made his own ears ring.
The girl stared at him still. Her blue eyes - sharp and bright at the same time. It felt like they were looking straight into his soul.
Something was wrong here.
For a moment, his vision blurred. For a moment, he couldn't see past events, and they seemed like a glitch in time.
Then—
Pain.
A sharp knife suddenly pierced through his skull.
"Ah... Ah—!"
He clutched his head, and fell to the ground.
Past events began to appear.
— A dark figure standing in the shadows.
— A blood-stained ground.
— The screams echoing in the night.
Ishin gasped, losing his balance and grabbing the table to steady himself.
What... who were those people? What happened there?
The girl came closer to Ishin, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You remember that happening, right?"
Ishin's breathing was uneven. His fingers dragged hard on the wood of the table.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
She didn't answer.
Instead - her fingers stretched forward.
Lightly, gently, she touched the pendant hanging around his neck as if she knew it well.
The moment she did -
A lost memory of his began to come back to him.
---
The forgotten past
Warm hands.
A soft touch, like fastening the silver chain around his neck.
A soft voice.
"My little star, you keep this close to you always."
His breath hitched.
His mother.
For a moment, the heat of the memory was overwhelming.
Then -
Suspicion crept in.
No...
His mother... his father...
They're gone.
They died in an accident.
Isn't that right?
---
A truth he couldn't accept
Ishin shook his head and swallowed.
"No... this can't be happening. My parents... they—"
The girl stared at Ishin silently.
"They were murdered."
He felt his body turn to stone.
His breath stopped.
The words echoed in his mind, convulsing inside him like a crashing wave.
"No, it can't be happening."
His voice trembled. Weak.
"You're lying."
The girl stared at him.
Then—she asked the question that shattered everything.
"If your parents died in an accident... then why do you remember seeing them die, and you remember being there?"
---
Awakening
Ishin's eyes widened. He panicked.
Suddenly—
Everything came back.
—His mother's voice screaming in terror.
—The flash of an old knife with blood on it.
—The walls spattered with blood.
—His father's dead body lying next to him.
—His own voice, screaming, pleading, watching helplessly.
Ishin was startled, his head throbbing with pain and fear.
He saw it.
He was there.
He always knew.
His legs were numb. He fell to the ground, his hands shaking.
"No... no... no... this isn't true... this can't be true..."
But the girl knelt beside him. Her voice was calm, but beneath it - there was something else.
Sadness.
"I told you, Ishin. You forgot everything."
Ishin shivered. His sweat was dripping.
His whole life felt like a lie.
---
The familiar name
The silence.
The weight of the truth crushed him.
His thoughts, his memories, were haunting him, his heart was beating fast - but still, he forced the words out.
"Who are you, what do you want?"
The girl stared at him for a long time.
Then, softly
"You can call me Rin."
The name surprised him because it was,
familiar.
Too familiar.
Ishin's lips moved, but the words didn't come out.
Because deep down
He knew.
This was the first time he had heard that name. No.
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