Always pairs.
He remembered...
The laboratory.
The ruined city.
The memories.
People disappearing.
Again.
---
Munnu immediately barked orders.
"Search teams."
"No one goes alone."
"If they're hurt—we bring them back."
"If someone took them..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't need to.
---
Kai found himself paired with Munnu.
The two walked through endless sand.
Only footprints disturbed the dunes.
Fresh ones.
Munnu crouched.
"...Two people."
Kai knelt beside him.
"You can read footprints?"
"I've lived here my whole life."
He pointed.
"They weren't running."
"They were walking."
Kai nodded.
Then...
The footprints stopped.
Just...
Stopped.
As though the two men had vanished into thin air.
Munnu slowly stood.
"...No."
His voice became quieter.
"They didn't disappear."
Kai looked around.
Nothing.
Just sand.
Wind.
Silence.
Then—
Kai felt it.
That same sensation.
The one from the Forest.
The laboratory.
The false archive.
Like invisible threads pulling somewhere beneath the ground.