The window screen was the steel-blue of 4 AM, and the young man, waking from his stupor, awkwardly rolled over, his cervical spine cracking like dry branches.
Togawa Fuuki had always considered himself an excellent anti-all-nighter.
Maintaining his body in optimal condition through powerful self-control brought great mental satisfaction, like controlling his own destiny.
But even he, adorned with countless anti-all-nighter champion gold medals, broke his rule on his first day at the Togawa Family.
Last night, Fuuki, intending to sleep soundly, accidentally noticed something unusual about the meteorite fragment and immediately sprang from his bed to carefully analyze the strange crystal.
When he discovered that the fragment produced a resonance upon contact with an old scar on his palm, Fuuki was completely unable to sleep.
He spent the night contacting his informants outside the Togawa Family, restarting the investigation into the plane crash two years prior.
Upon investigation, the problem became evident.
No records related to that plane crash could be found on TV programs, offline newspapers, online self-media, or major forums.
Instead, there was an unprecedented spectacular lunar eclipse, with recorded footage garnering tens of millions of views on video websites.
And in the bullet comments and comment sections, there were constant descriptions of a meteor shower seen that night.
According to the most liked comment, that night, while watching the moon with her friends, she personally saw the giant jade disc shatter in the middle, followed by a river of countless twinkling light points pouring down like heavy rain.
Naturally, the comment section was full of question marks, with people mocking the original poster for fantasizing again, asking if she was a chuunibyou kid sister who watched too much anime.
Of course, many also claimed to have seen strange phenomena, though not as detailed as the original poster's description, but it seemed to be true.
As more and more people commented, the replies under that layer suddenly turned into a battlefield for internet trolls. Irascible individuals, each holding their own views, began attacking each other, dragging many innocent bystanders into a small war of words.
Eventually, the original poster, with a pink lotus avatar, closed the comment section and posted a hand-drawn "mea culpa" in her personal space.
The content was roughly: a little pink person picked a flower, happily took it to share with a stranger, but was scolded back very harshly.
Immediately after, the little pink person cried loudly, apologizing while tearfully saying, "I just wanted to show you the flower!"
Perhaps because of the cute art style of this short comic and the infectious crying of the little person at the end, the dispute gradually subsided.
At first glance, this small Mandela Effect seemed to be just a minor farce caused by different perspectives of viewing the lunar eclipse, and after several professional astronomy bloggers provided scientific explanations, everyone quickly accepted this result.
As a survivor of that disaster, Togawa Fuuki absolutely did not believe that the [lunar eclipse] and [meteor shower] were ordinary astronomical phenomena, nor would he doubt that his memory was disordered.
However, as news of [no results from investigation] came from various information channels, Fuuki had to admit that the investigation had hit a dead end.
"No, there's still a way out."
"Wakaba Mutsumi, the girl who gave me the meteorite fragment."
"And, myself!"
Looking at the palm of his right hand, the arrow-shaped scar had faded with time, but the hell and heaven in his memory became increasingly clear.
The young man grabbed the crystal and pierced his palm!
The old scar bled anew, and the crystal, as if a vessel, filled with blood at a visible rate.
As iridescent rays refracted from the crystal, several fragmented images flashed before Fuuki's eyes.
He saw a strange man wandering the streets; whenever he stopped, a nearby building was immediately swallowed by writhing lava, and in a few breaths, it became a twisted, soaring relic burning with embers.
He saw several figures gathered around a coffee table covered with maps in a dimly lit room, discussing something, marking something on the maps with a red pen.
He saw Wakaba Mutsumi, that girl, move into the Togawa Family, her room right next to his.
The figure of White Snake suddenly emerged from the gaps in the light beams, its flickering phantom gradually solidifying into a physical entity, extending a hand wrapped in pale bandages, and pulling Fuuki out.
The memory of last night stopped at that moment.
============
With a heavy head, the young man rubbed his temples while struggling to reach for his constantly vibrating phone on the nightstand.
The sender was his informant assigned to investigate Wakaba Mutsumi; he remembered that the person was a fervent fan of Mutsumi's mother, Mori Minami. To brush past her every day, he had even spent a fortune to move near the Wakaba Family.
Such a heaven-defying and proactive person naturally caught Fuuki's attention. Before coming to the Togawa Family, he had arranged to meet him through telecommunication fraud and implanted several command discs deep into his mind.
He also provided him with several backup command discs titled [Mori Minami's Beautiful Bloopers,] which were actually continuations of the command. Every now and then, he would take them out, kiss them, and 'appreciate' them, thereby renewing this unrewarded work.
Opening the chat box, long paragraphs of text mixed with images poured out, making the already unwell young man frown.
After simple extraction, the following information could be obtained:
Wakaba Mutsumi's next-door neighbor suffered an arson, the entire family perished, all property was destroyed, the house was burned by high temperatures, and the remains resembled a twisted tower.
The police had arrived at the scene shortly before, identifying the culprit as the mysterious arsonist who had been frequently committing crimes recently.
Before the culprit was apprehended, the Wakaba Family decided to temporarily move out of this residence.
"The development of events is so similar to what I saw last night..."
"Wakaba Mutsumi's parents don't usually come home because of work, and she will most likely stay at the Togawa Family."
"It seems this meteorite fragment has the ability to glimpse parts of the future."
"But will this future change due to spontaneous actions?"
"Or... is it fate?"
"What can be confirmed at present is that the meteorite fragment is connected to the plane crash two years ago and the Stand, and this truth is known only to a few people."
"And most importantly, that 'arsonist' possesses some kind of ability!"
"Stand!"
Disregarding his physical condition, Fuuki instructed his Stand to send commands to other informants via phone while getting dressed to go out.
"Finally, it appeared, this world also has Stand Users!"
"Is it an individual acting alone? No, it must be a formed group, an organization! And with premeditation in this city of 37 million people, Tokyo!"
Fuuki never thought that he, possessing a Stand, was special, and had long ago planted pawns around him to deal with emergencies.
He used [identity,] [social connections,] [knowledge,] and even [faith.] But when this moment truly arrived, a sense of unease still crept into his heart.
His heart yearned for something, and this yearning seemed not to belong solely to him, but also contained a certain obsession from someone from another world.
Yearning for [peace of mind.]
The voice in his heart spoke out the answer for him.
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