Time: 8:03 PM – Subterranean Descent Route Theta-9
The hatch groaned like something alive.
Ryoji forced it open with both hands, the steel grinding against stone as dust fell like ash. The entrance yawned before them—a slanted corridor plunging into blackness. No lights. No power. Just the stale scent of time left to rot in silence.
"Ghostline's spine ends here," Marek said behind him, checking a fractured handheld. "Beyond this, we're in Division Depths. No network, no maps, no certainty."
"Sounds like home," Ryoji muttered.
He stepped in first.
The others followed—Aiko close behind, her Seal flickering in pale pulses. Miura lingered at the hatch, fingers dancing across a makeshift lockpad, sealing the entrance behind them.
"If this goes bad," she said, "we don't get a second chance."
"Did we ever?" Ryoji didn't look back.
The corridor sloped downward—walls ribbed with collapsed conduit pipes, warnings half-erased by corrosion. Every few meters, emergency stencils flared under their flashlights:
SEED ENTRY DENIED.
MIND-FIELD ZONE.
RECALL PROTOCOL: NULL.
Aiko shivered as they passed one marked:
G0-Z // PSYCHOGENIC VENT ZONE – AUTHORIZATION: DECEASED
The air thickened. Ryoji's pace never slowed.
8:11 PM
They reached the first rupture point—an old checkpoint station melted from the inside. Holosignage blinked in a broken loop: "NO CONSCIOUS AGENTS BEYOND THIS LINE."
Ryoji tilted his head. Something about the words rang familiar, like an old memory scabbed over.
"Step aside," he said.
He reached toward the gate panel, hand shaking—but not from fear.
The override symbol etched into the control console wasn't just recognizable.
He remembered writing it.
His palm met the panel. Sparks danced—and the gate cracked open with a wheeze of ancient hydraulics.
Aiko stared at him. "You've been here before."
"I was made to survive here," he said quietly.
8:19 PM – Sublevel G0-Z
The pressure changed.
Air grew electric. Static shimmered across the walls. Memory echoes began to surface—ghost-imprints left behind by neural trauma. Flashes of people screaming, drills buzzing, names being erased in real time. None of it linear. Just fragments of Division's buried sins.
Marek swore under his breath. "They didn't shut this place down. They buried it alive."
Aiko faltered. Her Seal lit like a pulse bomb.
She dropped to her knees.
Flash.
A hallway. Childhood echoes. Clean walls. Synthetic light.
She stood alone in a glass chamber—the Seed Training Vault. No Ryoji. No Miura. Just her reflection.
Except the mirror moved.
The girl in the glass tilted her head and spoke:
"You were never supposed to remember this."
Ryoji reacted without thinking. He grabbed a sparking conduit, yanked it free, and slammed it against the wall node glowing beside her.
SNAP.
The memory shattered like ice.
Aiko gasped, blinking hard. "You pulled me back."
"You pulled me first," he answered.
8:32 PM – Central Neuro-Cistern
The floor gave way to a chamber—round, metallic, ribbed like a machine's lung. A massive door stood at its center, black and seamless, with no handle. Just a faint red glow tracing its edge.
Marek approached the wall, brushing off dust. "Zerocrypt node," he muttered. "Division's last vault format. Experimental kill-switch data. Whatever's in there—they didn't want it found."
Ryoji stepped closer to the door.
The light pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then brighter.
A whisper leaked from behind the steel.
Not Aiko's name.
His.
But not "Takeshi Ryoji."
"Protocol: Revenant. Host Confirmed."
He froze.
Marek spun toward him, eyes wide.
"What the hell does that mean?"
Ryoji didn't answer.
His hand lifted—without conscious thought—and reached for the edge of the black door.
And somewhere deep below them…
Something stirred.
To be continued in Chapter 58...