Souta's Apartment, 2:05 a.m.
The rain hadn't stopped since the tape burned itself to ash.
Souta sat at his desk, staring at the Resonator. Its glow had shifted from the gentle white of peace to a deep, pulsating red steady, like a second heartbeat.
The room was silent.
But the silence wasn't comforting anymore.
It felt... alert.
Souta (thinking):
"If the Resonator is reacting… then something's coming. Not Kuroda. This is different. Sharper. Hungrier."
Toru's voice crackled through the speakerphone on the desk.
Toru:
"I ran the waveform you recorded before the tape exploded. It matches nothing we've seen. It's older. Analog. Almost like… the machine's reacting to its own creator."
Souta:
"My father built the first one. He said it found him. What if the signal found someone else too?"
Toru:
"You're thinking 'Subject 07'?"
Souta:
"No. I'm thinking there might be a 'Subject 01'... and we were never told."
Government Archives, Sector 5 11:43 a.m.
Rain still hammered the windows as Souta and Toru stood outside a rusting, underground government facility.
Toru:
"I used my uncle's ID to pull this location. Said something about 'Echo Engineering Division' buried after the Resonance Collapse of '99."
Souta:
"That's the year my dad disappeared."
They made their way inside. The air was thick with mold and forgotten history. Crates labeled "Echo Unit: DO NOT TEST" lined the walls.
In the far back, behind an old console, was a door.
Metal.
Bolted.
Locked with a voice scanner.
Souta didn't hesitate.
He leaned toward it and whispered:
"Project Echo."
Click.
The door creaked open.
The Memory Core Chamber
The room was circular, walls covered in old cathode tubes and voice recorders. A massive terminal sat in the center, with a cracked display blinking weakly.
Souta (reading):
"SUBJECT 07: STATUS – DORMANT.
HOST SIGNAL DETECTED IN URBAN ZONE-12.
AWAITING REACTIVATION."
Toru's fingers flew across the console.
Toru:
"There were multiple subjects. Seven of them. Your father wasn't working alone."
Souta:
"Kuroda must've been one of them. Maybe Subject 03 or 04. That's how he knew so much about memory-based sound manipulation."
Toru:
"Wait here's a file. Log from your father."
The speakers crackled.
"Subject 07 shows extreme resonance sensitivity. Rapid bonding with frequencies beyond human range.
We've underestimated the effect of memory-wave injection.
It's not just echoing anymore. It's rewriting."
Suddenly, the lights dimmed.
And the console shut down.
Then a new voice played.
But it wasn't a recording.
It was live.
???:
"Who's there…? You're not authorized."
A girl's voice. Young. Calm. Too calm.
Souta (tense):
"Who are you?"
???:
"They call me Echo. I was Subject 07. But I'm not asleep anymore."
The Resonator around Souta's neck vibrated violently.
Echo (through the intercom):
"I can hear yours, you know. Your frequency. It's beautiful.
So clear. So... unbroken."
Toru (whispers):
"She's like Kuroda. But she doesn't sound unstable."
Echo:
"That's because I learned to become the silence."
The power went out completely.
Escape
The emergency lights lit up as the walls trembled.
Doors slammed shut behind them.
Toru:
"She's in the system! We have to get out!"
They sprinted back the way they came but the entry door was sealed.
Suddenly, a voice began whispering from the walls. Dozens of voices. Some were Toru's. Some were Souta's father's. Some were Kuroda's.
And then
A girl stepped into the hall from the darkness.
Wearing a white dress, hair damp, barefoot.
Eyes glowing like sonar pulses.
Echo (in person now):
"You're carrying his echo. The original. That makes you the last piece."
Souta stepped forward.
Souta:
"Kuroda was trying to infect me. You want to do the same?"
Echo (smiling softly):
"No. I want to rescue you."
She raised her hand.
Souta's mind fractured instantly.
The Shared Mind
He was no longer in the hallway.
He was underwater. Endless black. No sound. No pressure. Just darkness.
Then whispers. Memory after memory. Not his.
He saw Subject 01 : an old man, screaming as a prototype Resonator tore his brain apart.
Subject 02 : a woman sitting in a white room, carving musical notes into her skin.
Subject 03 : a child (Kuroda), crying in silence, surrounded by fire.
And then Subject 07.
Echo.
Alone in a padded room. No one spoke to her. No one visited.
Only sound.
Over and over.
The same phrase.
"Become the silence."
She didn't scream.
She listened.
And then she began to reply.
Back to Reality
Souta gasped as the illusion snapped.
He was on the floor. Toru was trying to shake him awake.
Echo stood above them, hands behind her back.
Echo:
"Now you've seen it. All of it. You think this was Kuroda's doing? He was just a wave in a much bigger ocean."
Souta (weakly):
"What… are you?"
Echo:
"I'm the final resonance. And you're my key."
Before Toru could react, she stepped back into the shadows fading like smoke.
Gone.
The Resonator turned black.
Not dead.
Just waiting.
Rooftop, That Night
Souta and Toru sat in silence, staring at the city lights.
Toru:
"We're not done, are we?"
Souta:
"No. The project's not dead. It's just... evolved."
Toru:
"Then what do we do?"
Souta stood, gripping the Resonator tightly.
Souta:
"We don't run. We learn what she is.
And we make sure no one else becomes another 'Subject'."
The wind carried static in the distance.
And for the first time, it wasn't terrifying.
It was a challenge.
TO BE CONTINUED…