The room was silent.
Not the comfortable silence that came from sharing space with people you trusted, but the kind that gnawed at the edges of your nerves. Kentaro sat there, his body stiff, his breath unsteady. Across from him, three pairs of eyes blinked back at him, Serica, Yura, and Aria, all beautiful, all familiar, and yet… Utterly foreign.
Their stares were vacant, like freshly written pages stripped of ink.
Kentaro swallowed hard. His hands trembled under the table, hidden from view, but his eyes stayed fixed on them. They were narrowed as though glaring, but deep inside, fear and uncertainty swirled like a storm.
"All I know is… I live here."
The first to speak was Serica. Her soft voice cracked faintly, but the way she said it was as though she was reciting something half-remembered, a fact she couldn't prove but somehow believed.
Kentaro's eyes widened slightly. His heart lurched.
