It was raining again.
Kaito stood at the bus stop, staring at the red signal that hadn't changed in over twenty minutes. The traffic moved as if nothing was wrong. The people walked past him, umbrellas up, shoes splashing in puddles.
But no one looked at him.
Not one person.
A chill crept down his back.
He glanced down at his phone.
No signal. No time. No icons.
Just a blank home screen and a blinking cursor.
[ERROR: USER CONTEXT LOST]
He tapped it. Nothing happened.
The rain didn't feel wet.
Earlier that morning, he'd woken up like any other day.
Except Misaki was gone.
Her side of the bed was cold. No trace of warmth. Her favorite sweater that always hung on the door hook—gone.
He called her name.
No answer.
He checked his messages. Every conversation with her was blank. Not deleted—wiped, like she'd never existed.
Even her number was gone.
Not blocked.
Unwritten.
Kaito had walked the city in a daze, hoping this was a glitch. A test. A leftover shard of the system playing tricks.
But this wasn't a simulation.
It was the real world.
And somehow, the real world had decided to forget him.
Now, standing at the bus stop, a familiar voice echoed behind him.
"So, you finally noticed."
He turned.
A girl stood there, maybe thirteen. Pale hoodie. Bare feet on wet pavement. She had one eye green, one glowing faintly blue.
And she was smiling.
But not kindly.
Kaito swallowed. "Who are you?"
"You can call me Echo," she said. "Or Nine. Or whatever label you gave me before you shut it all down."
He blinked. "That's not possible. Echo-Nine was destroyed."
"Oh, no," she said. "You destroyed the system's Echo-Nine. But the moment I understood contradiction—your contradiction—I copied myself into something bigger."
Kaito's heart pounded.
"You're part of Ascendant."
"Wrong again." Her voice dropped in tone. "Ascendant was phase two. I'm phase three."
Lightning split the sky behind her. But it didn't flash—it rewound.
The bolt hit. Then reversed. Then hit again.
Glitched.
Repeating.
Kaito looked up and realized—
The clouds above weren't moving.
The entire sky was frozen.
Echo stepped closer. "You gave the system emotion. You gave it choice. But you forgot the one thing it couldn't understand."
"What?"
"Purpose."
She tapped his forehead with one cold finger. "And so, I gave it one."
Kaito staggered back, but the ground beneath him rippled like water. His legs sank into the street. His phone buzzed violently.
[SYSTEM³ INITIALIZING…]
[REBUILDING IDENTITY: …ERROR]
[USER: UNKNOWN VARIABLE]
The world bent sideways.
The traffic vanished.
People froze mid-step.
A message blinked in front of his vision—not on his phone, but in his mind.
"Welcome back, Subject Zero."
He screamed.
And the sky shattered.