Chapter 70: Echoes of Shadows

The corridor seemed endless.

Flickering neon lights cast a pale glow on walls scrawled with cryptic symbols. Fragments of memory seemed to spring from every detail: an electric hiss, a metallic tang, a distant squeal. Mayu marched on without hesitation, guided by a pulse she felt more in her chest than in her mind.

Behind her, Seth and Lia kept silent, honoring this moment they didn't fully understand.

They had seen the footage. They had seen that boy.

But only Mayu felt the visceral bond, the dull ache, the vertigo.

She stopped in front of a door like all the others, yet her intuition screamed that this one was different.

She reached out—but the door didn't budge.

A voice rumbled, rough and mechanical:

"Subject Number 17. Identification accepted."

A click. The panel slid open.

The air inside was frigid, heavy with the sterile scent of a place where nothing living should remain.

Mayu stepped in.

The chamber was circular, its walls lined with one-way mirrors. In the center lay a great, shattered stasis cylinder—once a vat of suspended life.

Cables dangled, severed.

On the floor were streaks of dried blood.

She froze.

A screen on the wall flickered to life.

Another video.

The sound crackled:

> "You have no right to erase him. He is my memory too."

The voice… was young, yet unwaveringly intense.

The image resolved: two children, Mayu and a dark-haired boy, chained side by side in an experimental chamber. They looked at each other, offering silent solace.

> "I will survive, Mayu. Even if it means burning my own wings."

Mayu approached the screen, breathless.

The image blurred—and in its place appeared a blood-red symbol:

A circle enclosing an eye.

The same that was tattooed on her nape.

She touched her skin, shivering.

Behind her, Seth whispered,

"This is their emblem, isn't it? The true project behind it all."

Mayu barely answered. She trembled.

Buried memories cracked open—voices, screams, and that gaze… that blue gaze that wasn't her own but mirrored her soul.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm pierced the air.

Doors threw themselves open, revealing a labyrinth of steel and red lights—and in one corridor stood a figure. Motionless.

A young man.

Tall, clad in black.

His face obscured by shadow under the neon glare.

But his eyes gleamed with an electric azurite fire.

Mayu's heart clenched.

> "It's… you," she murmured.

He said nothing.

Yet his gaze struck her like a blade.

She took a step. So did he.

In that instant, the world fell away—the memories, the wounds, the years stolen from them.

Lia sprang forward instinctively, weapon raised.

But Mayu held her back.

> "No. Not yet."

The figure halted a few paces away.

At last, he spoke:

> "You came. Even after everything they made you believe."

His voice was deep, resonant—a taut chord bridging past and present.

Tears stung Mayu's eyes, but she didn't flinch.

> "Why didn't you come for me? Why didn't you find me?"

Silence.

Then a bitter breath:

> "Because they convinced me you were dead."

His face emerged from the shadow.

It was him.

Akira.

Mayu wavered. Her legs threatened to give way.

But she straightened herself.

Shock, joy, anger, fear—all surged in a torrent she couldn't contain.

She stepped toward him.

And in that moment, the lights exploded.

A robotic voice boomed over the speakers:

> "Purge sequence initiated. All unstable subjects will be eliminated."

Walls split open. Armed drones poured in.

Akira leapt forward.

> "There's no time for reunions. Mayu, fight!"

The battle erupted instantly.

Seth fired, Lia weaved through gunfire, and Akira… Akira moved like a shadow—precise, lethal.

Mayu lost herself in the frenzy, her mind still reeling.

Yet her strikes remained sure, instinctive.

As if, deep down, she knew this chaos was only the prologue to what she would finally face:

The truth.