Tokyo – A few days later
The world had beco softer around Aoi and Ren — slower, sweeter.
Sunlight filtered through the windows of their countryside ho, where fresh wildflowers blood just outside. Aoi had started humming more in the mornings, her hands instinctively resting over her still-flat stomach. Ren, though busier than ever managing his AI startup and security upgrades, had kept the lab closed for now — devoting his mornings and evenings entirely to her.
"Morning sickness?" Ren asked gently, bringing her a warm herbal tea.
"Not too bad today," Aoi said, smiling. "Lucia gave reminders for als and temperature tracking before you even woke up."
Lucia hovered in the background, her cylindrical form pulsing softly. "I have calibrated daily monitoring based on pregnancy symptoms gathered from a private dical dataset."
Ren chuckled. "A bit much, but appreciated."
Their life felt peaceful — but peace, like glass, was fragile.
anwhile...
A black vehicle idled quietly at the back of the hospital.
Inside the building, a nurse gasped as she found the bed empty.
Saki Himura was gone.
The surveillance footage showed nothing but flickering static. Her discharge hadn’t been authorized. And her personal belongings had vanished along with her.
Tokyo – A dim, hidden apartnt, not far from Ren’s office
Saki sat by the window, bandages still fresh on her arm. Her leg brace made movent slower, but not impossible.
Her eyes, once soft and innocent, had hardened.
She flipped through photos on her phone: Aoi glowing in the hospital, Ren’s hand protectively on her back, Lucia hovering in the background.
"She thinks she’s won," Saki muttered.
Stacks of printed AI schematics, blurred screenshots of Lucia’s early phases, and old blueprints of Ren’s underground lab covered her desk.
"I’ll take back what’s mine."
Back in the countryside ho
Ren stood in the garden, hands stained with soil. He had begun building a small greenhouse beside their house — Aoi had always said she wanted to grow herbs and vegetables with their future child.
He turned as Aoi stepped outside with a slight yawn, draped in a soft sweater. "Slls good out here."
"It’ll sll even better when we plant strawberries," Ren said.
She smiled warmly, leaning against him. "I’ve been thinking about nas."
"Already?" he teased.
"I want sothing that ans hope," she whispered. "After everything."
Ren kissed her forehead. "Then hope it will be."
But as twilight fell across the field and the stars began to shimr above their ho, a dark screen lit up in a distant apartnt.
Saki zood in on a satellite-captured photo of their property. The files Ren had locked in his lab... the AI system... the baby...
One by one, she pinned photos to her wall — strings connecting everything.
"You took everything from ," she whispered. "Now I’ll make you feel what I felt."
Reviews
All reviews (0)