Echoes In The Static

The rain had stopped, but Tokyo still shimmered like it was soaked in memory. Rei walked fast, hood up, phantom card pressed against her chest like a second heartbeat. Her boots splashed through puddles that reflected vending machine glow and the occasional flicker of a surveillance drone overhead.

She didn’t flinch. She didn’t look up.

Inside her jacket, a burner phone buzzed once.

> FROM: NAMIE

> “Echo test tonight. Come alone. No tech. No name.”

Rei pocketed the phone and turned down a narrow alley behind a shuttered bookstore. The walls were tagged with digital graffiti—symbols that pulsed faintly when she passed. She recognized one: a snake coiled around a circuit board. The Lattice’s mark.

She was close.

The entrance was hidden behind a rusted vending machine that sold nothing. Rei pressed her palm against the side panel, and a soft click opened a narrow door. She slipped inside.

The room was dark, lit only by a single strip of blue LED running along the floor. Namie stood at the far end, arms crossed, eyes unreadable.

“You came,” she said.

“I don’t miss tests,” Rei replied.

Namie gestured to a table with a headset and a small vial of clear liquid. “Echo simulation. You’ll be dropped into a virtual node. Your job is to find the breach and erase it. But you won’t know what’s real.”

Rei picked up the vial. “What’s this?”

“Neural stabilizer. Keeps your mind from fracturing.”

Rei smirked. “Comforting.”

She drank it in one gulp, strapped on the headset, and sat down.

The Simulation

She woke up in a train station. Empty. Silent. The signs were in Japanese, but the letters flickered between languages. English. Russian. Binary.

Rei stood slowly. Her clothes were different—school uniform, black blazer, white shirt, red tie. Her boots were gone.

She hated this already.

A voice echoed from the intercom:

> “Find the breach. Erase the echo. You have ten minutes.”

Rei moved through the station, scanning faces. Except—there were none. Just mannequins. Frozen. Staring.

She passed a vending machine. It blinked once and whispered:

> “You left him behind.”

Rei froze. “Riku?”

The machine didn’t answer.

She kept walking. The walls began to pulse. Her name appeared in red letters across the ceiling:

> “REI. REI. REI.”

She ran.

At the far end of the station, a door opened. Inside—herself. Standing still. Wearing her hoodie. Holding the phantom card.

Rei stepped forward. “You’re not real.”

The echo-Rei smiled. “Neither are you.”

Rei lunged, grabbing the card from the echo’s hand. The world shattered.

Back in Reality

She gasped, ripping off the headset. Her hands were shaking.

Namie handed her a towel. “You lasted eight minutes. Not bad.”

Rei wiped her face. “That wasn’t just code. That was personal.”

Namie nodded. “The Lattice knows how to weaponize memory. You’ll need to learn how to forget.”

Rei stood. “I don’t forget. I compartmentalize.”

Namie smirked. “Same thing. Just prettier.”

Later That Night

Rei climbed the rooftop slowly, muscles sore, mind buzzing. Riku was already there, headphones on, sketching something in his notebook.

“You look like you fought a vending machine,” he said without looking up.

“I did. It won,” she replied, sitting beside him.

He handed her a can of peach soda. She didn’t drink it. Just held it.

“I saw you,” she said quietly. “In the simulation.”

Riku looked at her. “Was I cool?”

“You were... a whisper.”

He nodded. “That tracks.”

They sat in silence. The city blinked around them.

Rei finally spoke. “They’re trying to erase me. Piece by piece.”

Riku tore a page from his notebook and handed it to her. It was a sketch of her—hood up, boots on, standing in front of a vending machine with a sword made of neon.

“You’re not easy to erase,” he said.

She folded the sketch and tucked it into her jacket.

“I’ve got another test tomorrow,” she said. “Deeper node. Real contact.”

“You’ll pass.”

“I might not come back the same.”

Riku leaned closer. “Then I’ll learn the new version of you.”

Rei looked at him—really looked. And for the first time in weeks, she felt something solid beneath her feet.

Not the rooftop.

Not the mission.

Just him.

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