00:29:33 – Tanaka Estate, Mainframe Room
The screens reflected in Hiroshi's glasses like stars in a void.
"Initiate Protocol D-9."
His technicians hesitated. "Sir, the algorithm hasn't been tested at this scale—"
Hiroshi silenced them with a look. "My grandson's mind was made for this."
A final keystroke.
The virus unspooled across the network, a serpent of code slithering into every database, every server, every camera feed.
It hunted with ruthless precision.
Hana Shiraishi's birth records—deleted.
Her school transcripts—erased.
Every photograph, every fingerprint, every trace of her existence—gone.
Hiroshi smiled.
Let the wolf run now.
00:31:18 – Rooftop Safehouse
Hana's phone lit up with a dozen alerts at once.
ACCESS REVOKED
USER NOT FOUND
IDENTITY INVALID
Her breath hitched. "Ren—"
He was already typing furiously on his laptop, his burned fingers leaving smears of blood on the keys. "Hiroshi's purging the networks. He's using my algorithm."
The screen flickered. A progress bar crawled forward:
SYSTEM PURGE: 87% COMPLETE
Hana's stomach dropped. "Can you stop it?"
Ren didn't answer. His nose was bleeding.
00:33:42 – The Algorithm's Price
The virus wasn't just deleting files.
It was learning.
Ren's vision fractured as the code echoed in his skull—his own childhood calculations, twisted into something monstrous.
*"Subject D-9, initiate protocol."*
His mother's voice.
His trigger.
Blood dripped onto the keyboard.
Hana grabbed his shoulders. "Ren! Look at me!"
But he was gone.
Somewhere deep in his mind, seven-year-old Ren sat strapped to that chair, watching numbers scroll past—
"Hana Shiraishi: Threat Assessment."
"Probability of Betrayal: 62.3%."
"Recommended Action: Terminate."
Adult Ren fought back.
The laptop screen exploded in sparks.
00:35:01 – Collapse
Ren's knees hit the concrete.
Hana caught him as he convulsed, his pupils blown wide. The kill-switch in her chest burned hotter—
[00:04:59]
[00:04:58]
—but she barely felt it.
"Stay with me," she begged, pressing her forehead to his. "Fight it!"
Ren's fingers dug into her arms. "The algorithm...it's in me."
His eyes rolled back.
Hana's tears hit his cheeks as the last alert flashed:
PURGE COMPLETE.
Then—
Silence.
00:37:22 – The Choice
The rooftop door slammed open.
Lady Saeko stepped into the moonlight, her white kimono fluttering. "Oh dear. Has the dragon bitten off more than he can chew?"
Hana didn't reach for her gun.
She reached for the knife Ren had given her.
"Fix him."
Saeko tilted her head. "Why? So you can die together when that kill-switch detonates?" She knelt, brushing Ren's hair from his face. "I'll save him...if you walk away now."
Hana's grip tightened.
[00:01:17]
[00:01:16]
The numbers blurred.
Ren's breath grew shallow.
Somewhere in the city, sirens wailed.
00:38:59 – The Cut
The knife clattered to the ground.
Hana stood.
"Do it."
Saeko smiled.
Then everything went black.