At the aurius stations medical bay.
Akane sat at the bed.
armor still active.
Still humming.
Still watching.
"Deactivate it"
Yumi stood across from him, tablet in hand.
Akane didn't move.
"Why?" He asked.
Silence.
"I wanna analyze your armor." Yumi said.
"N-"
"Do it now!" Yumi said"
Akane sighed.
Then.
He tapped twice on the triangle core.
The armor responded instantly.
Segments retracted.
Folding back.
Collapsing inward—
until it returned to its compact form.
Resting on his arm.
The room felt colder without it.
Yumi stepped forward immediately.
Scanning.
Fast.
Focused.
Lines of data scrolled across her screen.
"Heart rate normal"
"Muscle strain... Beyond normal circumstances"
"Bones... All cracked"
"How are you even standing?"
"Anyways, I'll inform the head medic here"
"For what?" Akane asked.
"Reinforcing your bones obviously"
She continued.
"... Radiation detected" yumi said.
The noise in the room went still.
Behind her.
James Arthur who had entered the room and heard the conversation frowned.
"Is it from the planet?"
Yumi shook her head.
"No..."
She looked at the device.
"From that thing
Akane didn't react.
"Expected"
Yumi's eyes narrowed.
"Expected?"
"First generation's unstable build"
"What can you expect?"
"Overuse of radiated materials"
A pause.
Then—
"Still... it doesn't matter"
Yumi lowered the tablet slightly.
"It does"
"Prolonged exposure will damage your nervous system"
No response.
"It will affect your vision. Your reaction time. Your cognition"
Still nothing.
"Eventually, it won't just be a strain"
Silence.
Akane looked at her.
"How long"
Yumi hesitated.
"Unknown, it matters how much u use it"
That was worse than a number.
But Akane nodded anyway.
"Then... Maybe my life is short huh"
James exhaled slowly.
"Maybe earlier" James laughed.
Akane didn't argue.
Didn't explain.
Because to him—
it was...
"Run the system scan."
Yumi turned on the detector near him.
Lights dimmed slightly.
The room shifted.
Scanning field activated.
The device pulsed faintly on Akane's arm.
Then—
something changed.
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then stabilized.
Yumi frowned.
"That... Isn't... Normal"
She checked the readings again.
"Something's interfering"
James stepped closer.
"Where?"
Yumi didn't answer immediately.
Then—
"The... Armor... Is undetectable"
A low hum filled the room.
Different from before.
Deeper.
Unstable.
Akane's eyes narrowed slightly.
"She doesn't like this"
"Armours don't have life inside" akane James said.
But even he didn't sound convinced.
The screen glitched.
For a split second—
something else appeared.
Not data.
Not numbers.
A shape.
Gone instantly.
Yumi froze.
"What's that!?"
"What?" James replied.
"There was a figure inside the reading moments ago"
Akane's vision darkens.
A hallucination.
He saw destroyed buildings.
Blood splattered across.
Broken defences.
Around him a voice.
"You're nothing but just an anomaly"
"You shouldn't exist"
"You should've died"
"You're nothing but a miscalculation..."
"A... Glitch in the system..."
Akane's instinct felt terrified and confused.
The voice felt familiar.
And it's words.
But... He can't remember anything...
Then yumi's voice pulled him back
"Akane?"
"You good?"
The room was normal again.
No distortion.
No hallucinations.
Just machines.
And... Just people.
Akane blinked once.
"N-nothing... Just gazing at the wall"
A lie.
"Scan complete."
Yumi stepped back slowly.
Shocked.
"Anything wrong?" James asked.
"Akane's armor..."
James stared in confusion.
"It's not just responding to him..."
She looked at Akane.
"It's copying akane's personality.
Silence.
Heavy.
"But... Armours aren't alive" James asked.
Yumi hesitated.
"The Ai is.."
"Akane's ai... is developing it's own consciousness"
Akane didn't react.
The room fell quiet again.
No one argued.
No one pushed further.
Because they all understood now.
This wasn't equipment anymore.
It was something else.
Because the Ai's coding is entirely different.
Like making it's own codes.
The engineers works are strict.
Testing everything dozens of time before releasing.
The armor felt like an anomaly too.
Something that shouldn't exist too.
The armor felt like it had a person's consciousness inside.
Alive.
Learning.
But it isn't an enemy