Chapter 6
THE CHOICE.
Aira didn't tell Ren what she had remembered.
Not yet.
They walked through the quiet streets without speaking much. The city around them continued as usual, completely unaware that two people were slowly being erased from it.
Aira kept looking at her wrist.
Three lines remained.
She wondered how many people had already forgotten her.
At the corner of a crowded street, a woman walked straight past her.
Aira recognized her immediately.
It was one of the café customers who came almost every morning.
The woman looked at Aira for a moment.
Then her expression became confused.
“Excuse me,” she said. “Do I know you?”
Aira's heart sank.
“You come to the café every morning.”
The woman smiled awkwardly.
“I don't think I do.”
She walked away.
Aira stood there silently.
Ren watched her.
“That was the first time, wasn't it?”
Aira nodded.
“Someone forgot me.”
Ren reached for her hand.
“I remember you.”
She looked at him.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Aira smiled faintly.
“Then don't forget.”
“I won't.”
They continued walking until they reached the old station.
The place looked different in daylight.
Smaller.
Older.
Almost harmless.
Aira had spent years passing by it without knowing what was beneath it.
Ren stopped near the entrance.
“There's something I need to tell you.”
Aira looked at him.
“What?”
“I remembered something too.”
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Ren took a breath.
“Your sister didn't disappear because she broke the Keeper's rules.”
Aira stared at him.
“Then why?”
“Because she tried to destroy the passage.”
Aira's heart tightened.
Ren continued.
“She knew what the Keeper was doing. She knew people were being forgotten. She tried to close the passage before it could take us.”
“Us?”
“You and me.”
Aira shook her head.
“But why us?”
Ren looked toward the station.
“Because we're connected to it.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
A faint sound came from beneath the station.
A train.
Aira froze.
There was no train scheduled.
The sound grew louder.
Ren grabbed her hand.
“Don't move.”
The ground beneath them trembled.
Then everything became silent again.
Aira looked toward the tracks.
There was no train.
But a door had appeared in the wall.
Neither of them had seen it before.
Aira approached slowly.
A small metal plate was attached to the door.
Two names were engraved into it.
AIRA MINASE
REN KISARAGI
Aira's heart pounded.
“This wasn't here before.”
Ren nodded.
The door opened by itself.
Beyond it was a staircase leading underground.
Aira looked at Ren.
“We shouldn't go down there.”
“I know.”
Neither of them moved.
Then Aira heard her sister's voice.
“Aira.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Ren heard it too.
The voice came from below.
“Please.”
Aira stepped toward the stairs.
Ren caught her hand.
“Don't.”
“My sister is down there.”
“You don't know that.”
“I heard her.”
“The Keeper could be using her voice.”
Aira looked at him.
“What if it's really her?”
Ren had no answer.
Aira squeezed his hand.
“We go together.”
He nodded.
They descended.
The air became colder with every step.
At the bottom was a long underground corridor.
Old photographs covered the walls.
Hundreds of them.
Maybe thousands.
People Aira had never seen.
Families.
Children.
Couples.
Friends.
Every photograph had something wrong with it.
Someone was missing.
A face was blurred.
A person had been erased from the image.
Ren stopped.
He recognized one.
“My father.”
Aira looked at the photograph.
Ren's father was standing beside a woman.
The woman's face had completely disappeared.
Ren touched the photograph.
“She was my mother.”
Aira looked at him.
“You never told me about her.”
“I barely remember her.”
He stared at the photograph.
“She disappeared when I was young.”
Aira understood then.
The Keeper hadn't only been watching them.
She had been watching their families for years.
They continued down the corridor.
At the end was a large room.
In the center stood an old train carriage.
It looked exactly like the train from the station.
The doors were open.
Aira's breathing became shallow.
Inside the carriage, someone was sitting by the window.
Aira took one step forward.
“Sis?”
The woman slowly turned.
Aira's heart broke.
It was her sister.
She looked exactly as Aira remembered her.
Aira ran toward her.
Ren grabbed her before she could enter the train.
“Wait!”
Aira struggled against him.
“Let me go!”
Her sister stood.
“Aira.”
Tears streamed down Aira's face.
“It's really you.”
Her sister smiled sadly.
“I've been waiting for you.”
Aira tried to step forward again.
Ren held her tightly.
Her sister looked at him.
“Thank you.”
Ren stared at her.
“For what?”
“For keeping her from entering.”
Aira froze.
Her sister's expression changed.
“Because the person sitting inside this train isn't me.”
The woman began to smile.
Her face slowly changed.
The features Aira knew disappeared.
The Keeper stood inside the carriage.
Aira stepped back.
The doors slammed shut.
The train began moving.
The Keeper looked through the window.
And behind her stood dozens of forgotten people.
Aira recognized some of their faces from the photographs.
People who had disappeared.
People the world had forgotten.
The train vanished into darkness.
Aira turned to Ren.
“What do we do now?”
Ren looked at the three remaining lines on her wrist.
“We find another way.”
Then he noticed something on the ground.
A small piece of paper.
He picked it up.
Aira read the words written on it.
Only one of you has to disappear.
She looked at Ren.
Neither of them spoke.
For the first time, the choice was no longer a mystery.
The Keeper had made it clear.
One of them could remain.
The other would be forgotten.
Aira slowly reached for Ren's hand.
“I already know what I'm going to choose.”
Ren looked at her.
“So do I.”
They both realized they had made the same decision.
Neither of them was willing to let the other disappear.