Location: Tsubaki Valley StationTime 06 12 a.m.Condition: light fog/scent of soil and lilacs
The train exhales steam and goes still,as if it's tired of running.
We step down onto a platform the world forgot.Old signs are half-eaten by ivy.Crickets outnumber cars.Somewhere, a wind chime rings for no one.
The hills look soft enough to forgive anything.
REN: "It's beautiful."KANA: "It's empty."REN: "Sometimes that's the same thing."
Scene — The Valley of Echoes
The locals call it that because sound carries here—whisper once, and it returns six times before dying.
I know why.
Beneath these hills lies Echo Garden—The lab where I was broken and replanted.
Memory strikes like cold water:Sterile lights, white coats, a voice saying,
"Prototype Noir complete."
The ground itself hums, thick with ghosts in lab shoes.
KANA (whisper): "They built us here."REN: "Then let's bury them here."
Internal Mindspace
The six gather in a field of mirrored dew.For once, they're quiet.
DOLLMAKER: "It smells like the beginning."ANGEL: "And the end."HEARTBREAKER: "Can we not cry before breakfast?"GHOST: "Cry later. Scan perimeter first."DOLL: "Always the romantic."SAINT: "Silence. The soil remembers."
I kneel. My reflection fractures into six petals.The earth trembles; metal grinds beneath us.A rust-stained elevator hatch pushes through the grass.
Scene — Descent
The panels groan as we descend.Every mirror in the elevator flickers between past and present—
A child strapped to a chair,electrodes glowing blue.Then the same child, reaching toward the light.
Ren's fingers find mine.
REN: "You don't have to open every wound."KANA: "If I don't, they'll keep bleeding inside."
The doors hiss open.
The Garden.
Rows of shattered glass tubes.Cables hanging like vines.On the far wall—a mural in faded paint:Flowers, suns, and a stick-figure girl labeled Kana.
Scene — The Core Room
At the center, a dormant console still blinks faint green.Across the screen:
LYCORIS PROJECT / FINAL ENTRY"Subject showed emotional resilience.Division decision: terminate project.Subject memory fragmented to preserve data."
Ren scrolls further.Seven digital signatures appear—one for each persona.Each ends with a single word: Awake.
REN: "They didn't make you to destroy you."KANA: "Then why?"REN: "Because they couldn't understand love without breaking it first."
No voice inside me argues.Only the hum of the Garden answers—steady, remorseful.
Internal Echo — All Six Together
"If this is where we were born…""…then this is where we can rest.""…or bloom again."
They merge—no violence, no static—just the hush of petals closing around a stem.
Scene — Above Ground (After Dawn)
We burn what's left.Flames lick through the weeds; ash drifts like gray snow.The valley swallows the smoke, satisfied.
REN: "You okay?"KANA: "For the first time, yes. The voices are… quiet."REN: "Completely?"KANA: "No. Listening."
She smiles—small, imperfect, human.
Diary Fragment
[Fragment Log #22 — Echo Garden]Objective: Investigate the origin.Result: Closure.
Handwritten note:The place that finally made me let go.The echoes stopped repeating his name and started singing mine.
Closing Scene
They leave Tsubaki Valley on foot,walking through fields of wild lycoris glowing in morning light.
Six faint silhouettes fade into her shadow—content for now.
Ren hums a tune.She matches it softly, almost shyly.
REN: "Where to next?"KANA: "Anywhere the flowers grow wild."
The wind carries their laughter.For the first time, nothing answers back—no commands, no static, only daybreak.
End of Diary #22 — "Echo Garden."