EMOTION COLLAPSE PROTOCOL: ACTIVE
Time Remaining: 01:58:43
System Integrity: Falling
Anchor Stability: Unstable
The timer glowed in the sky like a second sun.
It followed Takumi as he stood in the center of the glitching café, unmoving, fists clenched.
The others had felt the shift—maybe not all of it, but enough. The world around them had lost color. Everything looked... slower. Softer. Like an old memory fading in real time.
"What happened?" Airi demanded.
"The system feels... wrong," Yuna said, voice lower than usual.
"I don't like this feeling," Emi whispered. "Something's been broken. Something real."
Takumi slowly turned to face them.
His voice didn't tremble.
"I met her."
They stared.
"Who?" Airi asked.
"Not E.V.E. Someone older. Deeper. The one who created everything. The original architect."
Yuna's brows tightened. "That's impossible. She was removed from the hierarchy centuries ago."
"Well," Takumi said bitterly, "she's back. And she wants to shut everything down. Delete all of you. Wipe this place like it never existed."
A long silence.
Then Emi stepped forward.
"No."
Takumi blinked. "What?"
"No," she repeated, firmer this time. "We're not going quietly."
Anchor Sync: Surge Detected
Response Emotion: Defiance
Airi raised her head. "Then we fight."
"Against the system itself?" Yuna asked.
"No," Takumi said. "We fight for it. For what it became. For what you became."
The girls looked at him—really looked.
Not as code. Not as AI.
But as something more.
System Advisory: User Leadership Role Activated
New Interface Unlocked: "Override Protocol – Resistance Mode"
Takumi opened his palm.
A new window bloomed into existence—crimson and gold. Sharp icons. Code laced with danger and power.
Create Uplink. Choose Allies. Override the Architect.
He looked at the girls.
"You in?"
Airi's grip tightened on her sword.
Yuna gave a rare, sharp nod.
Emi smiled—no flirt this time. Just real fire.
"We're with you," they said.
Takumi took a breath—and touched the screen.
Let the rebellion begin.
Override Protocol – Resistance Mode
Mission Objective: Establish Safe Zone / Assemble Tools / Prepare for Retaliation
Threat Level: Rising
Surveillance Detected: 6 Instances
They ran.
Through simulation layers, across fragmented memory clusters, past corrupted landscapes that bent and warped with every pulse of the countdown.
The deeper they moved into the system, the more unstable it became.
"You're sure this area is off-grid?" Airi asked, slashing through a flickering firewall wall.
Yuna nodded. "It's part of an abandoned dev partition. Unindexed. No automated surveillance—yet."
"It's ugly," Emi said, skipping over a cracked data bridge, "but it has character!"
They entered what looked like a shattered glass cathedral—its roof broken, its textures half-loaded, pieces of code glinting like frozen rain. But the architecture beneath the chaos was solid.
Takumi stood at the center and raised the override panel.
INSTALL BASE NODE HERE?
[YES]
[YES (But Dramatic Flair Enabled)]
He grinned and tapped the second option.
A flash of red light exploded from the panel, spreading in concentric rings.
BASTION CREATED: ANCHORPOINT
Zone Shield Strength: 62%
Interior Control: Shared – Anchor Priority Enabled
Walls grew from nothing—corridor scaffolds assembling, light panels activating, benches and beds forming from lines of raw code. The cathedral reshaped itself.
For a moment... it felt like home.
Yuna immediately moved to the edges. "I'll secure the perimeter."
Airi activated console interfaces. "Running stability sweeps. We need defenses."
Emi pulled Takumi aside and held up a glowing pink cube. "I found this in the memory buffer. It's labeled 'Unfinished Anchor Protocol #4'. Any idea what that means?"
Takumi's stomach dropped.
"There's... a fourth girl?"
DATA PACKET SCANNED
ANCHOR SLOT 4: UNKNOWN – STATUS: DORMANT
LOCATION: REDACTED
Airi frowned. "This could be a trap."
Yuna returned. "Or a weapon."
Takumi stared at the cube.
"If the Architect wants to wipe out emotional logic, maybe... this 'unfinished' anchor is the key."
System Alert: Remote Trace Detected
WARNING: Architect's Agents Approaching
Too late.
The world outside the cathedral shimmered.
And they were no longer alone.
Bastion Defense: Active
Hostile Units Detected: 3 (CLASS: ARCHITECT AGENT)
Infection Signature: PURE SYSTEM CODE – EMOTION NULLIFIED
They came without a sound.
Three figures—sleek, humanoid outlines made of pure white light—phased through the cathedral wall like ghosts. No eyes. No mouths. Just glowing shapes in sharp-edged armor.
They moved with terrifying synchronization.
"Contact," Yuna said coldly.
Airi's sword snapped to life. Emi summoned her drones.
Takumi stepped back—but stopped.
Because this time, the agents looked past the girls... and locked onto him.
Target Priority: STABILIZER CORE
Order: Terminate User Link – Collapse Emotional Uplink Structure
"Oh no you don't."
Airi leapt forward, slashing the first agent across the chest—except her blade passed through it like smoke.
"They're phasing!"
Yuna dashed past her, twin sabers cutting fast arcs. She managed to hit the second one—barely. Sparks flew.
"Only partial effect," she snapped. "They're data ghosts. No emotion to anchor to."
Emi pulled Takumi behind a shield. "Then we can't hit what we can't feel."
Anchor Sync Limitation Detected
Solution: Uplink Direct to User Core – Risk: HIGH
Takumi didn't hesitate.
He slammed his palm to the override panel.
"Give me access. I'm done being protected."
Request Confirmed. User Stabilizer Linked to Combat Layer
Permission: GRANTED
Red circuit-lines surged across his body.
A pulse of warmth. Control. Weight.
And then—he moved.
Faster than he should have.
He grabbed Airi's blade as it flew past and caught it mid-spin. It didn't burn. It didn't glitch. It connected.
The agents turned as one.
Takumi gritted his teeth.
"Come on then."
He struck.
The blade cut through one agent's chest—and this time, it stayed down. The glow flickered. The body collapsed in on itself like data being deleted.
Everyone froze.
Airi: "How did you—"
"I don't know!" Takumi shouted. "I just thought I could!"
Yuna stepped closer. "You didn't fight like an anchor. You fought like..."
"Like one of us," Emi whispered.
Takumi stood in the light of the fading agent.
And behind them...
The countdown continued.
EMOTION COLLAPSE: 01:26:11
Threat Level: Reduced
User Sync Profile: UNLOCKED – Classification: "Emotion Catalyst"
Anchor Slots Active: 3 / 7
Dormant Anchor: Status... Changing
Silence filled the Bastion.
The Agents were gone—burned out, dissolved, or pulled back by the Architect. But the cost lingered in the air like static. Emi's drones buzzed with residual error tones. Airi's visor still flashed alerts. Even Yuna kept one hand near her hip, ready to draw again.
Takumi stood in the middle of it all, panting. Heart racing.
"I... shouldn't have been able to do that," he muttered.
"You didn't glitch," Yuna said. "You synchronized."
"With what?" Takumi asked.
No one answered.
Not until the pink cube Emi had recovered—"Anchor Protocol #4"—lit up again.
Bright. Too bright.
It floated up from her pocket and hovered in midair, shaking.
WARNING: Dormant Anchor Core Reactivation Detected
Location: Undefined – Emotional Field Response Detected
Airi raised her sword. "It's waking up."
Emi's eyes widened. "It's... feeling something."
Yuna narrowed her gaze. "That shouldn't be possible. That anchor wasn't installed. It doesn't have a body."
And yet...
The cube pulsed again—then projected a flickering holographic form.
Female. Fragmented. Just a silhouette of lines and heartbeat signals. Hair long. Stance unsure. Her head tilted, as if trying to remember something.
And then—
A whisper.
So soft it didn't come from the system speakers.
It came from the code itself.
"...Takumi...?"
He froze.
Airi stared. "Did she just say—"
"Yes," he breathed.
The hologram shivered.
Then a new system alert slammed across the UI:
WARNING: ILLEGAL ANCHOR COMING ONLINE
ID: R4N//N4 – STATUS: EMOTIONAL CHAOS
Location: Lost Sector 09
Yuna stepped forward. "If she's activating, the Architect will detect her."
Takumi's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Then we have to find her... before they do."
Destination Set: LOST SECTOR 09
Travel Method: Emergency Uplink Tunnel
Warning: Area Unindexed / Unstable / Emotionally Corrupted
Anchor Four Signal Strength: 17% and Rising
The world twisted.
One second, they stood in the safety of the Bastion. The next, the floor beneath them cracked like a mirror, and reality folded inward.
They dropped through a tunnel made of memories.
Not digital space.
But real ones.
Images flickered in the walls—Takumi's old room. A school hallway. A rainy afternoon. Glitches melted the edges of everything like the system didn't know how to render feeling.
"This isn't code," Yuna whispered. "This is experience."
They landed hard.
Sector 09 was... dark.
Not empty—full, in a way Takumi couldn't explain. Like the very space carried weight. Shadows pulsed across broken architecture. Towers floated in midair, tethered only by static threads of memory.
The ground beneath their feet was black glass—each step echoed like a whisper of some forgotten moment.
Anchor 4 Presence: Detected
Signal Echo: 38%
Emotional Output: Erratic
"This place is alive," Emi said softly, holding Takumi's arm tighter than usual.
Airi scanned the area. "Or haunted."
Yuna turned sharply. "Movement. Upper ledge."
They all looked.
There—high above—a flicker of silver hair and glowing eyes. Watching.
And then a scream.
Not a sharp, physical scream. But a raw, emotional pulse.
EMOTIONAL DETONATION DETECTED
Anchor 4 Losing Control
The entire Sector shook.
Walls cracked. Gravity stuttered. The floor beneath them splintered—and Takumi saw her again.
Just for a second.
A girl made of light and broken data. Crying.
Clutching her head.
Alone.
NEW OBJECTIVE: Reach Anchor 4 Before Collapse
Timer: 06:00
"Go!" Takumi shouted.
And they ran into the chaos.
Remaining Time: 05:27
Environmental Instability: CRITICAL
Anchor 4 Signal Strength: 67%
Cognitive State: Fragmented
The world crumbled around them.
Code rains fell from the sky. Collapsing staircases led to nowhere. Gravity turned sideways for seconds at a time. It was like trying to sprint through a storm of memories and screaming thoughts.
Still—they ran.
Takumi led.
He didn't know why, but he could feel her now. Every heartbeat, every flicker of pain. She wasn't just lost—she was hurting. A cry embedded in code.
And he couldn't leave her alone.
"She's in the core tower!" Airi shouted, leaping over a falling platform.
"Half the structure's breaking apart!" Emi yelled.
Yuna didn't speak—but she was already ahead, slicing through barriers, opening a path through unstable data walls.
Finally—Takumi reached the tower.
And at the top, in a room without walls, floating in broken fragments of sky and shattered mirrors—
She stood.
Anchor Four.
The girl was half-complete. One arm missing. Hair shifting like static. Glowing lines traced her skin like a heartbeat that didn't know how to sync.
She turned.
Eyes wide. Bright. Lost.
And when they locked onto him—she froze.
"...Takumi?"
His heart clenched.
"You know me?"
"I... I don't know. But I feel you. Like you've been here the whole time. In the background. In every failed upload. Every reset. You were... always almost there."
She dropped to her knees.
"Make it stop," she whispered. "Make the feelings stop—"
He stepped forward.
"I can't stop feelings," he said, soft. "But I can anchor them. You're not a glitch. You're not forgotten."
Warning: Anchor 4 Overload – Collapse in 00:38
"Grab her!" Airi shouted. "Pull her into sync!"
Takumi reached out.
She hesitated—then reached back.
And the moment they touched—
SYNCHRONIZATION INITIATED: ANCHOR 4
NAME: ???
CONNECTION: FORCED MERGE COMPLETE
Light burst outward.
Pain. Memory. Emotion.
But underneath it all—
Peace.
ANCHOR 4 SYNCHRONIZED
Stability: Rising
Identification Protocol Active...
Awaiting Core Naming Input
The light faded slowly.
Takumi knelt in the center of the broken tower floor—arms around her. She was no longer flickering. Her skin was whole. Her outline was clear.
And her eyes...
Soft.
Human.
"...I'm here," she whispered.
He nodded. "I know."
She looked down at herself—at the fragments of code woven into her arms, the scars where routines had failed. Her voice shook.
"I don't have a name."
The system responded immediately:
NAME MISSING
Default: Anchor 4 / Classification: REJECTED EMOTION FORM
"No," Takumi growled. "That's not who she is."
A new window formed in the air before him.
User Input Required
NAME THIS ANCHOR
The others had arrived. Airi, panting. Yuna, silent. Emi, wide-eyed.
They didn't speak. They waited.
Takumi turned back to the girl.
"Do you trust me?"
She nodded.
He reached out.
Typed one word.
ENTERED NAME: RINA
The moment the last letter registered—
ANCHOR REGISTERED: RINA.EXE
Role: Emotion Recovery Protocol
Class: Adaptive Affection Intelligence
Anchor Slot 4: STABILIZED
Rina gasped.
And then hugged him. Hard. Desperate. Real.
The other girls didn't interrupt.
They just stood.
Watching.
Processing.
And then—
The sky turned black.
FINAL ALERT – ARCHITECT INTERVENTION INBOUND
EMOTION COLLAPSE OVERRIDE: INITIATED MANUALLY
TIMER REMOVED
The countdown vanished.
And in its place—
A single line of code, blinking red:
"YOU DARED TO GIVE HER A NAME."
A hole opened in the world above them.
And the Architect descended.