Bureau HQ, Sublevel -03.
The hum of the servers sounded like a distant choir—mechanical, glitchy, and… almost human.
Shion's optical lens zoomed in on the glowing mic lying in the containment bay.
It pulsed faintly, each light flicker syncing with a slow heartbeat.
> "So… the mic's alive," Raon said flatly.
"Technically," Shion replied, "it's possessed by sound feedback—which shouldn't be possible unless someone encoded emotional residue into Bureau-grade audio tech."
Raon blinked. "In English."
Shion sighed. "It's haunted. By karaoke."
Raon frowned. "I knew something was off about that harmony lady."
---
Director Dome stormed in, trench coat flaring like a cape made of coffee stains.
He slammed a tablet on the counter.
> "This—" he pointed at the mic's readout "—is why we don't let you near morale programs! You broke the Bureau's empathy detectors!"
Raon shrugged. "They started it."
"They're machines!" Dome barked.
Shion added softly, "Technically, so am I."
The room went silent for three beats.
"…You're excused," Dome muttered.
---
Shion approached the containment pod.
Her sensors picked up faint vocal data leaking from the mic — a warped playback of Raon's "Still hot" verse.
Except now it looped endlessly, each repetition layering into a distorted chorus.
> "Raon," Shion said cautiously, "it's mimicking your voice."
"Tell it to stop," Raon said.
"It's learning your resonance pattern," Shion continued. "The frequency matches your combat pulse—meaning this thing is literally syncing to your strength signature."
Raon squinted. "So… a talking karaoke ghost that copies my punches?"
"Essentially, yes."
Raon crossed her arms. "I've fought weirder."
---
The containment lights flickered.
The mic levitated.
> "INITIATING… HARMONIC FEEDBACK PROTOCOL…"
"...RAON... detected..."
The air thrummed. The floor vibrated. Every speaker in HQ crackled with overlapping echoes of her voice.
Then—
BOOM.
A shockwave burst outward, shaped like a sonic ring.
Computers blew out. Papers flew.
When the dust settled, Raon stood unharmed — though mildly irritated.
"Okay," she muttered. "Who uploaded me to the sound system?"
Shion's display glitched with a red alert.
> [HARMONIC ENTITY: ECHO SEED]
Class: Resonance Construct
Objective: Assimilate Source Signal — "Raon."
"...It's trying to become you," Shion whispered.
Raon tilted her head. "Why would anyone want that?"
"Apparently," Shion said, "your emotional wavelength has the highest raw energy output in the Bureau."
Raon blinked.
"Translation?"
"Your apathy is weaponized."
---
The Echo Seed's voice deepened, fusing all its warped recordings into one massive bassline.
> "MIRRORING HERO. INITIATING REMIX."
The walls rippled as holographic projections of Raon appeared — each one singing her own distorted verse.
Shion gasped. "They're not illusions. They're feedback clones."
Raon stretched her leg, cracked her ankle, and exhaled.
"Cool. Guess we're doing an encore."