The Boy Who Saw Broken Memories

The rain had fallen without pause for three days, washing the city of Canvas in a gray veil. Neon lights shimmered across wet streets, but Ren Akihara barely noticed them. He hurried home with his sketchbook tucked under one arm, wondering whether his mother had remembered to make dinner or whether she had once again become lost in old photo albums.

She always said memories were treasures.

Ren had never argued.

At least, not until tonight.

As he crossed the old railway bridge, a strange sensation crawled over his skin. Time itself seemed to hesitate. The sounds of traffic faded. Raindrops hung in the air like tiny glass beads.

Then he saw them.

Thousands of glowing rectangles floated around every person nearby.

Some shone bright gold.

Others flickered with cracks spreading across their surfaces.

"What... are those?" Ren whispered.

Before he could move closer, a cold voice echoed behind him.

"Beautiful, aren't they?"

Ren spun around.

A tall man stood beneath a black umbrella.

His long coat fluttered in the wind, but it was his face that stole Ren's breath.

There was no face.

Only a smooth white mask, blank as untouched manga paper. No eyes. No mouth. No expression.

Yet somehow Ren felt the man was staring directly into his soul.

The stranger raised one pale hand.

A glowing frame floated from an elderly woman walking nearby.

Inside the frame was a memory.

A little girl laughing.

A birthday cake.

A family singing together.

The masked man gently touched it.

The memory dissolved into white dust.

Across the street, the elderly woman stopped walking.

She looked around in confusion.

"...Who am I waiting for?"

Her daughter rushed toward her, tears already falling.

"Mom! It's me!"

The woman smiled politely.

"I'm sorry... have we met?"

Ren's heart pounded.

"What did you do?"

The masked figure tilted his head.

"I removed suffering."

"You erased her memory!"

"I erased the reason she would cry tomorrow."

Ren stepped forward.

"You monster."

For the first time, the masked man laughed.

It was soft.

Almost sad.

"You still believe memories make people human."

He lifted another hand.

Thousands of glowing Life Frames appeared across the night sky, stretching farther than Ren could see.

"One day, you will understand."

The bridge trembled violently.

Every frame shattered into brilliant white light.

Ren felt something tear inside his own mind.

Images flashed before his eyes.

A ruined city.

A broken clock tower.

A white mask lying in blood.

And his own voice whispering from somewhere far away.

"Forget everything."

The explosion threw Ren into darkness.

When he opened his eyes moments later, the bridge was empty.

The masked man had vanished.

Only one object remained on the rain-soaked ground.

A single blank sheet of paper.

Across its surface, black ink slowly spread by itself.

It formed five chilling words.

"I was once you, Ren."

End of Chapter 1..

......© Ruhan Ahmad.

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