Sunday, 2:35 PM.
Eastern Civic Agency, Central Wing.
The building loomed like a gray beast — soulless and geometric. Aidan stood outside its revolving doors, his heart oddly steady. The file on Rikuto En burned in his messenger bag like it carried more than paper—like it carried risk.
> [Civic Surveillance Node Detected]
> Security System Layered – No breach recommended
Request: Passive Scanning Only
He agreed. No flashy moves.
Today was for observation.
---
Inside, the lobby was full of motion — government workers pacing with documents, receptionists handling calls, officers stepping in and out in dull uniforms.
Aidan had memorized Rikuto's department number: 38-J. Internal Affairs, Surveillance Analysis.
He took the elevator, fifth floor.
The hallway was quieter. Too quiet.
---
Room 38-J was open.
No secretary. No posted sign.
Just a half-lit interior and a man seated at a central desk — black shirt, sleeves rolled up, head tilted slightly like he was already waiting.
Aidan stepped in.
"You're early," the man said.
"Didn't know I had an appointment."
"You didn't." Rikuto looked up, and Aidan's breath caught.
He looked ordinary.
No cold menace. No false cheer.
Just... blankness.
But his eyes were sharp. Too sharp.
"I'm Aidan Vale."
"I know."
A pause.
"And you're Rikuto En," Aidan added.
"I was wondering when we'd meet."
---
They sat across from each other. A glass table between them. Empty room. No surveillance in sight. But Aidan had already scanned the place:
> [Signal Reflection Detected]
> Status: System Echoing Pattern – Source Unconfirmed
Warning: System Feedback Possible
He didn't fully understand it—yet. But something about Rikuto's presence echoed him.
"You scanned me already," Rikuto said, dryly. "It won't help."
"Your system mirrors others?" Aidan asked.
"In a way. When I'm near another user, it adapts and reflects part of their core structure. Not to copy, but to bend."
"Bend how?"
Rikuto stood and picked up a silver coin from his desk.
"Your system runs on logic trees, right? I can see the 'branches.' Just one glimpse—and I can shift a leaf... change an expected result. Nudge the probability."
He flipped the coin.
It landed on the edge of the table. Balanced perfectly. Neither heads nor tails.
Aidan's Core vibrated.
> [Decision Result Skewed – Unstable Path Detected]
> Source: External System Interference
"You're manipulating outcomes," Aidan said.
"No," Rikuto corrected. "I'm creating… gray space."
---
Aidan leaned forward. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're the only one whose system I can't fully read," Rikuto said, his tone distant but not hostile. "Yours evolves. Changes. It's alive in a way none of the others are."
"So you see me as a threat?"
"I see you as a variable. And variables are dangerous to those trying to run simulations."
Aidan sat back. "What do you want?"
Rikuto finally smiled—but it didn't reach his eyes.
"I want to know why we were chosen."
---
A silence hung in the air.
Then Rikuto stood and walked to a wall cabinet, pulling out a slim data drive.
He tossed it to Aidan.
"Take this. It's from three years ago. A surveillance node intercepted a system anomaly—an origin trace. Someone was testing fragments of what eventually became your Core."
"Where?"
Rikuto stared at him.
"China."
---
Aidan's heart ticked faster.
"So this didn't start with me."
"No. But it may end with you."
Rikuto sat down again, folding his hands.
"There's one more thing."
He pointed to the corner of the room.
Aidan turned—and saw a tall, slim girl standing there, barely twenty. Pale face, green hoodie, watching him in silence.
Her eyes were wide, twitchy.
"She's a minor system user," Rikuto said. "Task-based. Emotional reinforcement loop. But her system is responding to yours."
Aidan looked at her.
And her system blinked on visibly for a second.
> [Affinity Spike – Core Proximity Detected]
> Subsystem Sync: Involuntary Initiation (Locked in 30 Seconds)
Aidan's Core flared.
"She's syncing?" he asked sharply.
"Her system is requesting it. Yours is resisting."
Aidan stood. "Stop it."
"I can't," Rikuto said. "That's what I wanted to test."
---
Aidan turned sharply and walked out. As he exited the Civic Agency, he pulled out the data drive.
He would check it later.
But now, one thing was certain:
Someone had started building systems long before he arrived.
And they weren't finished.
---