The HID node sat deep beneath the Seocho district—nine levels below, sealed behind an underground utility complex and registered as a maintenance hub.
Inside, the lighting never changed: clinically white, 5000 Kelvin.
No clocks, phones or windows. Only screens.
A junior analyst had been half-awake when the console lit up.
Just a flicker. Then a heat bloom—barely above baseline EMF.
Then a kinetic ripple. Two distinct resonant pulses within five seconds. Directional displacement. Velocity anomaly.
Seoul-1. Intersection 47-E.
Timestamp: 06:11:42 KST
Class: Unclassified Movement Signature
Deviation: 0.42 Sigma.
Was it a drone failure? A concrete shift?
Could it be—
He tapped the screen. Overlays bloomed to life. The new signal pulsed in yellow, the comparison signal behind it, a pale gray. Not identical, but close. Too close.
He opened the system menu.
Open Comparative Analysis
Reference Code: PULSE_01
Authentication Key: OBSIDIAN-GATE
The system ran the diagnosis. The results were almost instant.
Match: 88.1%
Anomaly Confidence: HIGH
He sat up and pulled off his headset.
Operations Room – 6:15 AM KST
A field supervisor leaned over his console.
"You ran the composite?"
"Three times."
"And?"
"Not exact, but it matches the decay curve from the Nepal event. And the shoulder-angle torque… that's not luck. That's controlled. Someone redirected that bus."
The supervisor tapped the screen with her knuckles.
"I want the footage. Traffic cam, CCTV, user uploads. Full dump."
"Is it him? Is it—"
"Just do what I say."
The analyst complied. Pulled up the necessary data. Dragged it into one encrypted folder. Clicked one button.
TO: KARASAWA, D.
SUBJECT: SIGNAL RECOVERY – PULSE_01
ATTACHED: SEOUL INCIDENT 47-E (ANALYSIS + PROBABILITY MAP)
Convenience Store Office – 6:46 AM
A gossip tabloid writer watches a clip loop. Zooms. Enhances. Frame 42.
A hand. A man in motion.
Her stomach flips.
She opens a draft:
"The Wanderer Resurfaces? Seoul Incident Sparks New Theories"
HID Containment Filter – 6:52 AM
A red light.
A crawler tags the video: Tier-3 anomaly.
"Viral velocity exceeds containment threshold. Recommend offline suppression."
Shadowban command issued.
Geo-fence sweep initiated.
Too late.
Unknown Location – 7:01 AM
A cracked phone buzzes. A replay of the footage. No captions.
A pause. A zoom.
Frame 42.
The man's coat. The hand lifted.
A voice — unseen — whispers:
"He's back."
Remote Office — Location Redacted
In another building—somewhere high, sealed tight—a black screen blinked to life.The message opened.
No reply.
Karasawa did not type.
He only read.