Three nights after the eclipse dissolved, Kaito felt something shift.
Subtle.
Like a skipped heartbeat in the cosmos.
High above, the twin dark stars flickered out of sync for a fraction of a second.
No one else noticed.
But he did.
He ascended quietly into the upper atmosphere, stopping beneath the rotating remnants of the divided Origin.
The halves remained stable in orbit around his defined axis.
Yet between their rotation—
A ripple formed.
Thin.
Hairline.
A whisper of movement that did not belong.
"You divided me," a distant echo murmured—not as a voice, but as residual intention.
Kaito narrowed his gaze.
The Origin Shadow had been split and constrained.
But fragmentation carried consequence.
Energy seeks cohesion.
Pressure seeks release.
If even a fragment of will survived within the divided halves—
Then containment would require maintenance.
He extended his senses further.
And realized something unsettling.
The ripple was not internal.
It was external.
Something beyond the Boundary Stars had noticed the change.
And it was looking back.