**cross-posted to Ao3

DIGITAL RECOVERY

Chapter 1

System Obstruction

-Taichi-

obstruction (n.): a thing that impedes or prevents passage or progress; an obstacle or blockage.

Yagami Taichi was living an ordinary life. Fresh from university, he eased his way into a job at a high-tier financial corporation. He adjusted to wearing a suit and tie every day, and his boss liked him enough to let him keep his long, poufy hair to his desired length. He was okay with the 8-to-5 work week, and the pay was more than enough to make a living on his own, aside from letting his baby sister room with him.

Not one person let him walk down the halls of the office without greeting him. For a while, he was the happy-go-lucky, bright-eyed new guy-all the senior staff wanted to adopt him, others wanted to befriend him. A few of the ladies wanted to introduce him to their daughters. They all loved him, and he welcomed their company, both at work and socializing out on the town, even if some of them were his only friends.

Yagami Taichi was living an ordinary life, but he yearned for something more. He wanted more than just looking over stacks and stacks of papers to make sure the numbers were right, more than entering those numbers from paper to computer screen, pushing the same buttons with the same rapid click-clack sounds over and over. He was tired of watching the numbers filling the same lines and columns on the screen, and he almost thought to stare at his phone, or to bring a book, or to even close his eyes to dream while tapping the keyboard; anything that could keep his mind from going crazy.

It was one moment he so much as blinked, and the cursor on the screen stopped moving. Tai paused and tapped a key, and the cursor continued to blink, though remained in place.

Tap, he tried again. Tap. Tap.

When he tapped once more, the computer beeped, the tiny lights of the hard drive dimmed, and the screen wiped blank.

"What…" Taichi uttered under his breath, not believing his eyes. He had been entering this batch of data all week, and he was due to give it all to his boss before the end of the day. He jumped out of his chair, the stack of unreviewed files knocked over and spilling onto the floor. He pushed the power button on the hard drive that refused to turn on. He frantically searched around the monitor and storage, making sure the cords were plugged in correctly.

"Yagami-san!" exclaimed an assistant who had just passed by. She ran over, gathering the scattered papers beneath his desk. "What happened?!"

"I… I don't know—The computer just—"

A coworker next to Taichi's cubicle peered from his own, leaning back from his chair.

"Oh no, did it shut down on you?" the coworker asked. "That's a brand new computer too, strange for it to do that."

Taichi groaned and pushed the power button again—thankfully, the system lights glowed and he heard the sound of the computer powering up. The assistant and the coworker now joined him on either side. He held his breath, waiting in anticipation as the loading screens popped up and the desktop wallpaper appeared.

Upon clicking into the program, an error message popped up.

"'Program doesn't exist'?" said his coworker incredulously. "Oh, boy. You better get this to tech support. I'm sure boss will understand."

"All that work…" Taichi sighed and fell back into his chair, feeling as though the wind was knocked out of him. He looked over to the stack of papers the assistant just re-piled onto his desk, which he knew would take at least a week. The feeling of panic filled him, knowing that losing his work would push him back even more.

It was the same panic he felt from a dream, in which he was trapped in a cave. He was able to move, though bound to a wall by the chains on his wrists. It was too dim, too foggy to tell but there were others around him, all but two on the ground unconscious. One of them was a girl held up by the back of her shirt collar by another someone—something? —as she cried out Taichi's name. Taichi lunged forward toward them, desperately wanting to escape the chains, his screaming and shouting too muffled for him to understand, but his tears flying from the corners of his eyes. With a click, she fell limp, and that something dropped her to the ground.

That something—was it even human? —zoomed forward to Taichi, and he could see, very clearly, its eyes fiery, and its grin wide with malicious intent.

"You'll pay for this," Taichi heard himself utter with rage as he felt a cold bump under his neck on the left side, and heard a click that instantly turned everything to black.

"Yagami-san?"

Taichi blinked, and his view returned to his cubicle. The computer screen still showed the error message, and the assistant was still at his side, staring at him with concern. He must have blacked out again for a moment, like he always did with this dream, but explaining what happened to anyone would worry them even more. Taichi sighed, sitting up from slouching and rubbing the left side of his neck.

"I better start over, I suppose," he told her.

"I called tech support—they're already on their way," she said. "They'll give you a replacement for now, but they're going to try restoring this one. Something about 'Digital Recovery'."

"I appreciate your hard work," he replied, and she smiled and bowed before walking away. His mind drifted to that dream again. He first dreamt it in summer camp during middle school, but it didn't show up again until the end of high school. It came to him sometimes as he slept, and in some cases, in moments of high stress, which seemed to happen a lot more to him, lately.

Taichi was used to putting this recurring dream to the back of his mind for him to go on about his ordinary life; although the face of evil before him, with the anger in his pounding heart remained at the forefront.

It was a dream, right?