Ren stared silently at the silver pendant resting in his palm.
The moment his fingers tightened around it...
The world vanished.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
His heartbeat stopped for the briefest instant before surging back with violent force.
"...!"
His body swayed.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, everything returned to normal.
"...Ren?"
He blinked.
"Huh?"
Mellow tilted her head.
"You okay?"
"...Yeah."
His voice came out quieter than he expected.
Whatever had just happened had lasted less than a second.
Short enough that Mellow hadn't noticed anything.
Yet an indescribable feeling lingered deep inside his chest.
Unease.
Almost instinctive.
Without another word, Ren carefully wrapped the pendant back inside the faded cloth and placed it inside the iron box before taking a few steps backward.
Mellow crouched beside the box and picked it up instead.
She turned it over curiously, admiring the intricate engravings dancing beneath the warm evening light.
"It's beautiful," she murmured.
There was no strange reaction.
No dizziness.
No discomfort.
Nothing.
Ren frowned.
So... it's only affecting me?
The thought refused to leave his mind.
"I'll be right back," he muttered.
Mellow gave a distracted nod, her attention still fixed on the pendant.
Ren entered the bathroom and splashed cold water across his face.
Again.
And again.
The icy water slowly cleared the fog clouding his thoughts.
By the time he looked into the mirror, the suffocating pressure had mostly disappeared.
"...What was that?"
The reflection offered no answer.
---
That night...
Ren dreamed.
He stood upon a vast ocean locked beneath endless sheets of ice.
A freezing wind howled across the empty horizon.
Above him, the sky shimmered with curtains of pale blue light.
Far in the distance...
Something towered above the frozen sea.
It resembled a colossal tear in reality itself.
A rift stretching endlessly toward the heavens.
It pulsed faintly.
As though waiting.
Watching.
Calling.
Before Ren could move...
Everything dissolved into darkness.
---
Morning arrived.
Ren awoke with a start.
"...A dream?"
He rubbed his forehead.
For some reason...
He couldn't remember what it had been about.
Only a lingering sense of familiarity remained.
Something important had slipped through his fingers.
---
The days quietly passed.
Life settled into its usual rhythm.
Or at least...
It appeared to.
Night after night, Ren continued to dream.
Each morning, the details escaped him before he could grasp them.
All that remained was the same strange feeling.
As though somewhere in the far north...
Something was waiting.
---
One evening, Mellow arrived home carrying a thick stack of papers.
She dropped them onto the dining table with an exhausted sigh.
"Long day?"
Ren asked.
"The longest."
She collapsed into a chair before pulling several maps from the pile.
"I'm preparing a geological report."
Ren glanced over.
"For work?"
She nodded.
"The Japanese Oceanic Research Institute has been monitoring unusual geological disturbances near the North Pole for months now."
She tapped a red circle marked on one of the maps.
"The readings don't make sense."
"Magnetic fields fluctuate without warning."
"Ocean currents keep changing."
"And seismic activity is increasing in places where it shouldn't even exist."
"If my report is accepted..."
A small smile appeared on her face.
"I might finally earn a permanent researcher position."
Ren listened absentmindedly.
Until...
His eyes landed on the coordinates.
His breathing stopped.
"..."
The map.
Those waters.
The frozen coastline.
Every detail matched the place from his dreams.
Exactly.
His heartbeat echoed loudly inside his ears.
No...
That's impossible.
He had never traveled anywhere near the Arctic.
He had never even seen detailed maps of the region.
So why...
Why did it all feel so familiar?
For the first time in years...
His future no longer seemed uncertain.
He looked back at Mellow.
"...How do I become a geo-oceanic researcher?"
Silence.
Mellow blinked twice.
"...Excuse me?"
"I mean it."
"I want to work there."
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Are you feeling sick?"
"I'm serious."
"The same Ren who almost failed chemistry?"
"...That was one time."
"The same Ren who said office jobs were 'too much effort?'"
"...People change."
She stared at him for several long seconds before laughing.
"I never thought I'd live long enough to hear those words."
Ren only smiled.
He couldn't explain it.
Not yet.
But something deep inside him whispered that the answers he had searched for his entire life were hidden beneath those frozen seas.
And for the first time...
He knew exactly where he wanted to go.
---
Three years passed.
Ren Kurosawa was now twenty-one years old.
Against nearly everyone's expectations...
Including his own...
He had earned an internship at the Japanese Oceanic Research Institute.
Mellow, now a full-time researcher, had helped him more times than either of them cared to admit.
The siblings had long since settled into their apartment in Tokyo.
Their old countryside home remained untouched.
Yet one thing had never changed.
The dreams.
They still came.
Night after night.
Always the same frozen ocean.
Always the same towering rift.
And every morning...
The memories faded before he could fully remember them.
Only his growing obsession remained.
One evening, after returning from a nearby convenience store, Ren dropped onto the sofa and switched on the television.
Normally, he ignored the news.
Tonight was different.
"...Breaking News."
A reporter appeared on screen.
"Geological activity near the North Pole has intensified dramatically over the past several weeks. Following the latest satellite observations, the Japanese government has officially approved a large-scale scientific expedition to investigate the phenomenon."
Images of towering ice cliffs and violent storms filled the screen.
Ren leaned forward.
The coordinates flashed briefly.
The exact same location.
His pulse quickened.
The expedition would include senior researchers...
Engineers...
Military support...
And a limited number of interns selected through internal evaluations.
Ren's eyes never left the screen.
This is it.
My chance.
That evening, when Mellow returned home, she found Ren waiting by the door.
"...You want something."
"I need your help."
She sighed.
"I knew it."
"I have to get onto that expedition."
She folded her arms.
"Ren..."
"I'm serious."
"This isn't just curiosity anymore."
"I need to know what's waiting out there."
For the first time...
Mellow saw no hesitation in her brother's eyes.
Only unwavering determination.
And somewhere beyond the frozen horizon...
Something ancient stirred.