Kairi didn't return to work right away. He sat still in front of the screen, his gaze fixed yet unfocused, because what had just happened wasn't something he could simply dismiss as a misunderstanding.
If Sato didn't exist, then what were all those memories he had? Were they just illusions, or something that had once happened but no longer belonged to this timeline?
He took a slow breath and turned back to his computer, his fingers moving faster than usual, as if trying to catch up to a thought that was about to slip away.
The search bar appeared.
"Sato Mitsuhiro."
He pressed Enter.
No results.
Kairi frowned and tried again, this time in his email. Then the internal system. Folder after folder, thread after thread, he checked everything carefully, but there was nothing—no emails, no conversations, no attachments, not even the smallest trace suggesting that name had ever existed.
He moved on to the company's personnel system, searching through employee lists, departments, joining dates, even archived data, yet the result remained the same. Nothing. Not a single gap. Not a single sign of deletion. Everything was too complete—disturbingly complete—as if "Sato Mitsuhiro" had never existed to begin with.
Kairi stopped typing.
A cold sensation ran down his spine.
If Sato Mitsuhiro had never existed… then whose memories were those?
He leaned back in his chair, his eyes darkening for a moment before suddenly turning back to his personal computer, as if a missing piece had just clicked into place.
"Links Star."
He typed.
Enter.
A file appeared almost instantly.
Kairi froze.
He didn't remember creating it. He didn't remember saving it. And yet, it was there—undeniable.
He opened it.
A design document filled the screen, detailed and complete, from the core concept to the system structure. Every line felt eerily familiar, not because he had seen it before, but because it felt like something he himself had written.
Kairi skimmed through it quickly, his heartbeat gradually rising, not from panic, but from realization.
"…that's impossible…"
he muttered, though this time there was no denial in his voice, only the quiet process of connecting everything together.
Sato. Links Star. Memories. The previous timeline.
Everything began to align.
If Sato Mitsuhiro didn't exist in this timeline, yet Links Star still did, then there was only one possible conclusion.
Kairi stared at the screen, his eyes growing clearer.
"…it was me. I was the one who created it."
The words came out slowly, as if he was confirming the truth to himself.
Sato Mitsuhiro was never the creator of Links Star.
Never.
He was only someone who knew about it.
A Time Breaker.
Someone who had existed in another timeline, who had returned with memories, with knowledge, and used all of that to move one step ahead of Kairi.
Not to create.
But to take it.
Kairi clenched his hand slightly.
In the previous timeline, he wasn't the one who started it, wasn't the one who led, wasn't the one remembered, because Sato had appeared earlier, faster, more precise, and Kairi had been pushed into his shadow without even realizing it.
But this time was different.
There was no Sato.
No one to suggest.
No one to guide.
And no one to steal it.
Kairi looked back at the "Links Star" file on the screen, his gaze lowering, but no longer wavering.
"…so this is my real starting point."
he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.
Not memory.
Not Sato.
But himself.
A silence followed.
Then another thought surfaced, slower, heavier.
If Sato had disappeared from this timeline… then what had happened to him?
Had he never existed?
Or—
was he somewhere out there, beyond what Kairi could see?
Kairi didn't have an answer.
But this time, he wasn't confused anymore.
There was only one clear truth left.
This timeline had changed.
And for the first time—
he was the one ahead.