Chapter One: The Erased Starter

Obsidian won the scrim. Afterward, Zhou dismissed the numbers. "Crimson's practice squad follows rigid routes. The real team isn't that stupid." Lin took out his phone. He meant to ask his older sister about Ying's rehabilitation. Their pinned chat displayed a photograph of the three siblings in their old kitchen. Ji held up flour-covered hands. Ying sat beside a crooked cake. Lin stood between them. The date read August 8, three years earlier. He knew it was his fifteenth birthday. He knew Ji had baked the cake and Ying had stolen a strawberry. Those facts remained like entries in a file. But he did not remember the kitchen, the color of the candles, his sister's laughter, or whether the cream had tasted sweet.