Shadows in Kairo’s Rest

The neon haze of Kairo's Rest buzzed with life, but Yumi couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. The whispers followed her, fragments of rumors drifting through the crowded streets.

"They broke the system."

"The ones who escaped the Echo."

"Azrael's ghosts."

Her fingers instinctively tightened around the small blade tucked into her sleeve. It had been weeks since they had arrived here, and for the first time in what felt like forever, they had something resembling a normal life. But normalcy, as she had learned, never lasted.

Yumi turned down a quieter alley, her senses on high alert. The streets here were lined with rusted storefronts, old tech dealers, and the occasional drifter huddled beneath flickering streetlamps.

Then—

A shadow moved in her periphery.

Yumi spun, hand on her weapon. "I know you're there."

Silence. Then—

A voice. Low, familiar.

"You're getting better at that."

A figure stepped out of the darkness, the dim neon glow revealing his face.

Kaito.

Yumi's breath hitched. The last time she had seen him was before the fall of the Iron Nexus, before everything had spiraled into chaos. He had been one of their few allies—until he disappeared without a trace.

She exhaled sharply. "You're alive."

Kaito smirked. "Didn't plan on dying." His eyes flickered with something unreadable. "But I could say the same for you. I wasn't sure you'd make it out."

Yumi crossed her arms. "You were watching us."

Kaito didn't deny it. He leaned casually against the alley wall, but there was tension in his posture. "Let's just say you've attracted some… attention."

Yumi's stomach clenched. "Who?"

Kaito's smirk faded. "Not who. What."

She didn't like the sound of that.

"They're calling it the Remnant Protocol," Kaito said. "Whatever's left of the Echo isn't gone. It's trying to piece itself back together—and it's looking for you."

Yumi's mind raced. The Echo had collapsed, the system fractured beyond repair. But if something was trying to rebuild it…

Then they weren't as free as they thought.

By the time Yumi made it back to their hideout, her mind was already spinning with possibilities.

Eli was sprawled on the couch, tossing an old coin between his fingers. "You look like you saw a ghost."

Yumi ignored the comment. "We have a problem."

Arjun looked up from his workbench, where he had been tinkering with a salvaged data core. "Define 'problem.'"

"Kaito found me," she said. "He says the Echo isn't dead. It's trying to rebuild itself."

Silence.

Then Eli let out a long sigh. "Of course it is. Because why wouldn't the universe let us breathe for five minutes?"

Arjun frowned. "That shouldn't be possible. The system collapsed. There was nothing left to salvage."

Yumi shook her head. "Apparently, there is."

Arjun tapped his fingers against the table, thinking. "If something's trying to restore the Echo, it means it needs a foundation to build on. A core fragment."

Eli sat up, suddenly serious. "You're saying a part of the system survived?"

"Not just survived," Arjun said grimly. "It's evolving."

That night, Yumi couldn't sleep. She sat on the balcony overlooking the city, the distant hum of neon signs filling the silence.

Azrael had warned them. He had said the Echo wasn't truly broken—just waiting for something to wake it up.

She had thought he meant them.

But what if there was something else?

A presence stirred at her back. She didn't turn. "Can't sleep either?"

Azrael leaned against the railing beside her, looking out over Kairo's Rest. "Sleep is an illusion. A luxury for those who think they're safe."

Yumi exhaled. "And we're not?"

Azrael's golden eyes flickered. "Tell me, Yumi. Do you think the Echo was just a system?"

She frowned. "What are you getting at?"

Azrael tilted his head. "Things like the Echo don't just die. They adapt. They become something else."

A chill ran down her spine.

She thought back to the moment in the Hollow Grid, the final data stream before the collapse. The way the system had fought against deletion, as if it was trying to preserve something.

"What did we wake up?" she whispered.

Azrael smiled. "That's the question, isn't it?"

Far below, in the heart of the city, a single screen flickered to life.

A message scrolled across in jagged text.

REMNANT PROTOCOL: INITIALIZING.