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Chapter 3 - Chapter 3 - Echoes of the Past

The rain had settled into a steady rhythm, tapping on the roof like a metronome counting down to something inevitable.

Ren sat cross-legged in the center of the training room, the hum of the Resonant Order's machinery dim around him. Aira stood nearby, her silver gun resting on the floor.

> "Today, we're going deeper," she said.

"You won't just witness a memory. You'll live it. You'll feel it as if it were your own."

Ren swallowed hard. The last time he had entered a Reverie, the memory had nearly crushed him. He had felt the girl's fear, her pain, her longing… and yet he had done nothing. Could he endure it again?

> "I… I'm ready," he said, though the quiver in his voice betrayed him.

Aira nodded, placing her hand on his shoulder.

> "Focus on the echo. The spirit. Let it pull you, but do not lose yourself."

---

The world shifted. Concrete walls melted into soft sunlight and the scent of pine. Ren blinked and found himself standing on a hill overlooking a small village, far from Kagura City. The air was warm, almost too perfect, like a dream.

And then he saw her, a woman with kind eyes, carrying a child in her arms. She smiled, and in that smile, Ren felt an ache so deep he nearly collapsed.

> "Mom?" he whispered, his voice barely audible.

The memory didn't answer. Instead, it unfolded scenes of laughter at the dinner table, of wind chimes ringing in spring, of candlelight flickering over whispered bedtime stories.

And then the shadow arrived.

> Black clouds. The first drops of the rain.

A figure, tall, faceless, approaching the house.

Ren felt it before he saw it: the impending death, the pull of sorrow. He ran through the memory, but the scene followed him, unstoppable.

His mother screamed. The child, a younger version of himself, cried out. And in that scream, he heard it:

> "Ren… save us!"

The memory fractured, pulling him violently into the present. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath. His chest burned as if the memory had tattooed itself onto his heart.

Aira rushed to him.

> "You're okay," she said. But even she looked shaken.

"That memory… it was raw. You almost… resonated too much."

Ren looked up, tears mingling with the rain still dripping from his hair.

> "I… I can feel them," he said.

"Every Ethereal… every pain… it's all connected to me."

Aira knelt beside him, eyes softening.

> "It's not just you. That's why the Order exists. To stop these echoes from consuming the living. But…"

She hesitated.

"…sometimes I wonder if we're doing the right thing. If erasing their pain… erases them entirely."

Ren stared at her, feeling the weight of her doubt, a crack in the armor of the Order.

---

Later, in the quiet of the rooftop garden, Ren traced his finger over the rain-streaked glass of the Observation Deck.

> "Why did it happen?" he whispered.

"Why did they die?"

A voice answered, not hers, not anyone's. The girl from the first Ethereal memory appeared faintly, her form flickering like candlelight.

> "Because the world doesn't stop crying," she said.

"Because some sorrow refuses to rest. And you… you're the only one who can carry it without breaking."

Ren shivered. The weight of the city, of the rain, of countless lost souls, pressed against him.

And from the shadows, watching silently, Shouma Rindo smiled.

> "Ah… so he remembers. Perfect. Just perfect."

---

End of Chapter 3

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