Chapter 5: Echoes from the Origin Cradle
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Location: Highway Route 16 – En Route to Sector E – 7:25 AM
The sky was still wrapped in a soft gray, like a blanket too heavy to be lifted. Morning crept in quietly, its light cold and hesitant. The horizon was a smear of silver, blurred by mist, as the world held its breath between night and day. A low growl echoed along the silent highway as Arata's black motorbike sliced through the fog like a shadow in motion.
Yuiri clung tightly to his back, her arms locked around his waist. Her cheek rested against his shoulder blade, but her eyes remained open, unmoving. She wasn't afraid of the road or the speed. She wasn't even afraid of what lay ahead. What gnawed at her was what lay behind them—the truth she had just discovered, and the hole it had carved into everything she thought she was.
Her mind had replayed Arata's words a hundred times since they had left the warehouse. Her memories, her past, her family—all artificial. Synthetic thoughts crafted in a lab. Everything she had believed, every smile, every tear, was built—not lived. And yet, she felt them. So deeply it hurt.
The road stretched on like a vein into the unknown. Trees rose on either side, tall and still. Birds did not sing. Even the wind seemed to avoid this path.
Arata finally spoke, his voice cutting gently through the stillness. "Are you cold?"
Yuiri shook her head, her voice soft. "Not really. Just... trying to prepare myself."
He gave a slight nod, barely noticeable under his helmet. "There's only so much preparation one can do when they're walking into the birthplace of their own existence."
Yuiri gave a small, bitter smile. "That's one way to put it."
They didn't speak after that. Words, they both knew, wouldn't be enough today.
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Location: Sector E Outskirts – Forest Entry Point – 8:03 AM
The asphalt road ended abruptly, dissolving into gravel and then into cracked stone. In front of them stood a forest, dark and overgrown, stretching like a wall into the unknown. The trees here were older than any Yuiri had seen—gnarled and twisted, their bark stained with age and moss. There was a hush here, unnatural in its consistency, like the forest had secrets it refused to speak.
They parked the bike behind a thicket and began walking.
Yuiri followed closely, her boots crunching quietly over fallen leaves. As they delved deeper, she began to notice oddities among the natural landscape: metallic rods buried among the roots, blinking sensors hidden behind vines, broken panels half-sunk in the earth.
"It's like something's watching us," she whispered.
Arata didn't turn. "It is. This whole place used to be under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. Most of it should be offline... but I wouldn't bet on all of it."
"Did you come here before?"
He hesitated. "Only once. But I never got past the outer ring. This time, we're going straight into the heart."
Yuiri's hand brushed against a strange plant that felt more like plastic than leaf. She shivered.
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Underground Facility Entrance – 8:21 AM
After nearly twenty minutes of silent trekking, they reached a clearing choked with weeds and vines. In the center stood what looked like an old stone circle, overgrown and half-buried in the soil.
Arata crouched beside it, brushing away the moss until he found a panel beneath. He pressed his palm against the cold surface.
There was a low hum. Lights sparked from beneath, tracing a pattern across the ground. A mechanical click echoed, and the earth rumbled.
Before their eyes, a section of the ground slowly retracted, revealing a spiral staircase leading deep into darkness.
Yuiri stepped back instinctively. The air from below was cold and stale, like the breath of something long dead.
"Is this safe?" she asked.
"No," Arata said, stepping onto the first step. "But it's necessary."
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Location: Sector E – Memory Lab Complex – 8:36 AM
The descent took several minutes. The staircase walls were lined with faintly glowing tubes and wires, many of them flickering or sparking as they passed. The air grew denser the deeper they went, heavy with the scent of rust, old chemicals, and something that smelled faintly... synthetic.
Finally, they emerged into a vast underground chamber. The ceiling arched high above them, hidden in shadow. Rows upon rows of glass pods lined the walls, most shattered, some blackened by fire, others coated in frost.
Yuiri walked forward slowly, her eyes wide with disbelief and recognition she didn't understand.
Monitors on the walls displayed broken data streams. Some screens still pulsed with error codes. There were signs of chaos—destruction that seemed neither accidental nor old. As if someone had tried to bury this place, but not too thoroughly.
Arata moved toward a control console. "It's worse than I thought. They didn't just shut this place down. They tried to erase it."
Yuiri stood in front of a particular pod, her breath catching. Her fingers traced the label on the glass—"YU-7."
Her own designation.
"This is mine. This... this is where I was."
Arata approached her side. "You were kept here for two years. You were the only one who survived the full sequence. The others... didn't make it."
Yuiri looked at the pod, the glass cold under her fingertips. "Why? Why me? Why did I live when they didn't?"
"No one ever figured that out," Arata said quietly. "You adapted. Your brain accepted the memories. You didn't break."
"So I'm just lucky?"
"You're unique. You're the only success in a project full of failures. That doesn't make you fake—it makes you free."
She turned to him, her expression unreadable. "But I don't feel free. I feel like a lie."
Arata's voice softened. "Then we'll find the truth. Together."
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Warning Triggered – 8:52 AM
A sudden alarm buzzed—a dull, red pulse flashing on one of the wall panels.
Arata turned instantly, eyes narrowing. "Someone just triggered an active security layer. We're not alone."
Yuiri backed toward the center of the chamber. "What do we do?"
Arata drew his weapon and moved to shield her. "Get behind me. Stay low."
Footsteps echoed through the metallic hallway. Not one, but two. Then shadows emerged from the far end of the chamber.
Two individuals in dark tactical armor, red symbols stitched across their shoulders. Not traditional NOKRA agents—but something more elite. More dangerous.
"Target located," one of them said, voice filtered through a mask.
The other tilted his head. "Welcome home, YU-7."
Yuiri froze.
Arata fired the first shot, grazing one attacker's helmet. The room erupted into motion.
The first man ducked, rolling behind a broken console. The second charged forward with a blade glowing bright blue.
Arata blocked with his arm and twisted, but the blade sliced his side. He staggered.
Yuiri screamed and lunged forward, grabbing a metal rod and swinging with all her strength.
The rod hit the attacker's arm, throwing off his balance.
Arata used the moment to fire again. The shot hit home.
One agent fell.
The second looked at them both, then retreated into the shadows.
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Aftermath – 9:13 AM
Yuiri knelt beside Arata, wrapping cloth around his bleeding side. Her hands were shaking.
"You said this place was abandoned."
"It was. Which means someone reactivated it."
"Who would do that? And why?"
Arata looked up at the ceiling, where the lights flickered like dying stars.
"Someone who doesn't want the past to stay buried. Someone who's been waiting for us."
He pulled a small, damaged data chip from the console.
"And I think... they've been watching you. All along."
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Chapter 6 ends.