Chapter 25 — What Can Be Carried

Hope arrives in cardboard.

After the chaos at school and a brief afternoon of forced normalcy, Tuesday brings a different kind of pressure. The hallways are quiet. Natsume is absent. No punishment comes. No explanation follows. Riku knows enough now to understand that silence can be a pattern too.

Then the boxes arrive.

Medicine, nutrition support, waterproof bags, notebooks, labels, wraps, instructions, and supplies for Liora turn Emiko’s careful planning into something Sara can touch. Something that can be packed. Something that can be carried.

But help in Riku’s world comes with records, names, doors, and danger. When a prescription package arrives under the name Jane Doe, Sara is forced to confront a truth she already understands from Valenmere:

Supplies are not a plan.

They are what a plan carries.

As water and glass begin behaving strangely again, the road home stops feeling like a distant possibility and starts becoming a question no one is ready to answer.