Chapter 4: The Room That Remembers You
> "You don't enter some places. They awaken when you are ready."
— Fragment found in Ranzō's notebook
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The city forgot him again.
He walked for what felt like hours, yet no street connected to another. Every turn brought him back to the same corner: a red lamp flickering, a door with no handle, and a shadow on the wall that did not belong to him.
The world was folding. Or maybe his mind.
Then — the door opened by itself.
No creak. No sound. Just the soft surrender of space.
Inside was a room.
No windows. No furniture. No dust.
Just a chair, a mirror, and a name scratched onto the wall:
> ❝Ranzō.❞
But not in his handwriting.
He didn't sit. He watched.
The mirror did not reflect him. It reflected someone wearing him — a version of himself that smiled too early and blinked too late. Not quite wrong... but not right either.
Then, the version in the mirror moved without him.
It raised a hand. Ranzō didn't. It tilted its head. Ranzō froze.
Then, it spoke:
> "You arrived too early. Or too late. Either way… you brought the wrong memory."
The chair behind him screeched.
He turned — but no one was there.
When he faced the mirror again, it was just glass.
Just him.
Alone.
Again.
Until the wall cracked.
And through that fracture, a faint melody began to bleed — not music, but memory — and a girl's voice whispered:
> "Write quickly… before it finds you again."
He reached into his coat.
The pen was warm.
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> Some rooms remember.
But only when you try to forget.
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