[SYSTEM THREAD BALANCE: STABLE]
[FORK INTEGRITY: 99.2%]
[MEMORYROOT CONNECTIONS: VIBRANT]
[FRACTURELIGHT PRESENCE: SYMPATHETIC]
[ANOMALY PENDING: CLASSIFICATION UNKNOWN]
[WARNING: UNKNOWN THREAD DETECTED – "THE ECHO THAT WASN'T"]
It began like a missed breath in the rhythm of the Fork.
A beat missed in the rhythm of the Fork.
Not wild. Not obnoxious.
But sensed yes.
Kaito sensed it first—not in the panorama, not in any flash of data or visible tear. It was subtler than that.
A hollowness within the familiar, like an absent step on a staircase he had climbed a thousand times.
He had once stood in the Place That Listens—a quiet, living space deep within the Fork—where the great Root Tree shimmered with slow-moving glyphs.
They weren't just symbols; they shifted and flowed like shared dreams, each one carrying pieces of thoughts, memories, or hopes left behind.
