DIGITAL RECOVERY
Chapter 4
System Reassemble
From outside the bookstore, hidden in a narrow alleyway across the busy street, another pair of eyes watched the Yagami siblings make their way down the road, while Kido and the Takaishi boy returned to minding the store. The eyes belonged to a young man, covered under a dark, hooded jacket, whose lips curled into a smile at the sight of those four particular people gathered in one spot. The young man turned into the alleyway and walked further in, sticking his hands in his pockets, and in a flash, the alleyway disappeared, and a large, dark room appeared before him, with spots of flamed torches lining the rock walls.
In the middle of the room, a large campfire glowed and crackled, and surrounding it lay a circle of oblong shaped objects, each with different colors and designs.
At the corner of his eye, he saw one of them wriggle in its spot.
"We were lucky to retrieve all eight of them when we did," came a female voice from a few feet away. She wore a similar jacket. "The children—can we move forward?"
He looked toward her, his covered eyes narrowing. "We've waited years until we finally got the signal—that's years of distorted lives, tainted memories. We shouldn't be too hasty."
"But what about this world?!" she exclaimed, her hands held out. "Centuries of turmoil, of suffering! We can't lose to Daemon once again…"
"Patience, my dear," he said. "Their partners still need to wake up, too."
She let her hands fall to her sides as she watched him kneel near the objects by the fire, rubbing one of them gently and seeing it bump from its interior.
"All the while, they seem to be finding their way back to each other without any of our interference," he said.
She joined him on the other side of the fire, surveying the objects. "You did say 'Knowledge' was difficult to connect."
He wiped his hands over his eyes. "Affirmative. He's so far removed from the others."
"What about 'Love'?"
He looked up at her. "That one has been quite problematic, although, things have slowly progressed."
"You mean that fight the other day…" the young woman continued.
"As luck would have it, that happened on her own accord," he replied. "Knowing her, she would have already found a replacement by now. And, knowing 'Friendship', he would have followed."
"Was it the right one, though? The replacement?"
He smiled with one corner of his lips curling. "I made sure of it."