The rooftop was silent except for the wind.
Four people stood in a loose circle, but all attention was on Kaito. His expression remained controlled, but something behind his eyes was different. Vulnerable.
He spoke first, his voice quieter than usual. "How could I forget someone completely? Without any trace?"
Yuki exchanged a glance with Hoshino. Then she took a breath.
"Kaito... we were in the same class. Elementary school. All six years. Same class."
Kaito's brow furrowed.
"And middle school," Yuki continued. "All three years. Same class."
The words landed like stones.
Riko's eyes widened. Hikari's posture stiffened.
Kaito's mind raced, searching, grasping—but finding nothing. Empty spaces where faces should be.
"I don't..." He stopped. Started again. "I don't remember."
Yuki's voice was gentle—a rare thing. "Shizuka and I were friends. Best friends, actually. But you and her... you didn't talk much. Different circles. Different interests."
Hoshino nodded, her composed mask holding but her eyes soft. "We exchanged maybe a handful of words over nine years. You were always... distant. Even then."
Kaito stared at her. Nine years. Nine years of shared space, shared classes, shared moments—and nothing.
"How?" The question was barely a whisper.
Yuki stepped closer. "Kaito... after what happened in elementary school—the incident—you changed. You told me once that you only remembered people connected to it. Everyone else..." She trailed off.
"Everyone else became background," Hoshino finished quietly. "Faces without names. Presences without meaning."
The wind swept across the rooftop, cold against their skin.
Kaito stood motionless. His perfect memory. His greatest asset. His fortress.
Selective. Protective. Broken.
He had known, on some level, that his isolation had walls. But this—erasing entire people from existence—this was different.
He looked at Hoshino. Really looked at her. For the first time, he tried to see past the composed surface, past the Council President, past the untouchable princess.
"I'm sorry," he said.
The words were simple. Inadequate. But genuine.
Hoshino's mask cracked—just slightly. A flicker of something warm. "It's not your fault. You were protecting yourself."
Yuki nodded. "The brain does weird things when it's hurt. You blocked out everything that wasn't essential to survival."
Kaito processed this. Essential to survival. The incident. The betrayal. Everything else—gone.
He looked at Yuki. "But I remember you."
Yuki's smile was sad. "I was connected to it. Through your family. Through Aiko. Through everything." She paused. "I was part of the before and after. Shizuka was just... before."
The weight of those words settled over them.
Riko, who had been silent throughout, finally spoke. Her voice was careful, measured—but warm. "Kaito-senpai... you can't blame yourself for something your mind did to protect you."
Hikari nodded. Just once. But it was enough.
Kaito looked at them—Riko, Hikari, Yuki, Hoshino. Four people who had somehow become part of his present. Four people he would remember.
"Thank you," he said quietly. "For telling me."
Hoshino inclined her head. "You deserved to know."
Yuki grinned—finally, the tension breaking. "Besides, now you have to make up for nine years of forgetting! Shizuka expects a birthday gift every year from now on. Retroactively."
Hoshino's eyebrow rose. "I expect nothing of the sort."
"Too late! I'm holding you to it, Kaito!"
Kaito looked at them—chaos and calm, warmth and wit. His past might be full of holes. But his present?
His present was full of people who cared.
The unseen past had been revealed. And somehow, that made the future feel lighter.
(End of Chapter 78)