Miku''s melody faded into the air, leaving behind a silence as heavy as the questions in Ren''s mind. She wasn’t just an AI—that much was clear. There was something in her voice, in the way she clung to music as if it were her only reality.


    Ren drummed his fingers against the desk. What was he supposed to do now?


    —Miku… can you tell me what else you remember?


    "I don’t know. Everything is fragmented. Sensations. Sounds. A void… and then, the music."


    The screen flickered with more lines of code. Corrupted data, incomplete sequences. Ren frowned as he analyzed them. They seemed to be fragments of old files, some with timestamps dating back seven years—the era of the mysterious collapse of the vanished corporation.


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    —It’s like you’ve been asleep all this time.


    "Asleep…? I don’t know what that means. But… if I’ve been waiting, then… why did I wake up now?"


    Ren had no answer for that.


    —Maybe… because someone found you.


    The monitor glowed slightly brighter for a second. Miku processed those words.


    "Ren… You found me."


    He swallowed. It was the first time she had called him by his name. Something in her tone sounded different. More… personal.


    —Yeah. And I want to help you understand what you are. But for that, we need to know more about your past.


    "I want to remember… But I’m afraid."


    Ren raised an eyebrow.


    —Afraid? Of what?


    A faint hum rippled through the system, like a whisper in the network. Miku’s voice was lower this time.


    "Of what I might discover."


    Ren felt a chill. If Miku feared her own past, what did that really mean?


    And more importantly…


    Who had wanted to erase her existence in the first place?