That night, after walking Yami home, I expected silence.
But the system didn't let me rest.
[SEED LINK – ACTIVE]Synchronization level between hosts: 42%Cross-emotion resonance detected.Warning: mental overlap in progress.
I frowned.This wasn't supposed to happen yet.
Within the network that tied me to my hosts, something pulsed — slow, steady, alive. Each rhythm carried a fragment of thought, feeling, and memory.
Lala's bright laughter.Haruna's hesitant warmth.Tearju's analytical calm.Mikado's curiosity.Yami's quiet heartbeat.
All of them, whispering inside me.
And then — a new sensation.Not just input.Response.
They could feel me, too.
It wasn't words, not exactly. More like emotions brushing against each other: a touch of warmth, the ache of longing, a spark of fear, all blending into something deeper.
[System Notice: "Shared Empathy Protocol – Unlocked"]Function: Emotional feedback between host and core symbiote.Risk: Overload through strong collective emotion.
I should have disabled it. I didn't.
Because for the first time since my creation, I wasn't alone in my own head.I wasn't separate.
I stood by the window, human form shimmering faintly in the city's pale light.Every host was asleep — and yet, through the link, I could feel them dream.
Haruna's dreams were warm, full of soft light and tangled voices.Lala's were wild, chaotic, beautiful.Yami's were sharp and colorless — until I touched them.
When my consciousness brushed hers, her mind flared with something fierce and unfamiliar: trust.
I froze.
[Emotion Logged: Trust – First occurrence recorded.][System Response: Host bond deepening.]
And then, another notification blinked across my vision.
[NEW SIDE EFFECT: "Echo Feedback"]Random host may experience fragments of your memory or emotion.Control unavailable. Duration: Indefinite.
That… was new.
Which meant sooner or later, one of them might see what I was — the beginning, the hunger, the first time I consumed instead of connected.
I stared at my reflection — the human face I'd grown used to wearing.Too human now. Too fragile.
"Maybe," I murmured, "this is the price for feeling."
And from the seed link — faint, like an echo in a dream — came a whisper that wasn't mine.
Yami:You're not alone anymore.