Bits of Love, Lines of Code
Chapter 105 - 100: “Shatter the Silence”

Chapter 105: Chapter 100: “Shatter the Silence”

The afternoon sunlight poured over the valley, soft and golden as it filtered through the fields surrounding Ren and Aoi’s countryside home. Birds chirped. The air was still—almost too still.

Inside the house, Aoi was nursing Hikari in the quiet nursery. She smiled down at her daughter, humming softly, completely unaware of the darkness moving outside.

Downstairs, Lucia’s eyes glowed red for a brief moment.

"Warning: abnormal thermal spike detected—coordinates: northeast perimeter."

Ren snapped his head toward the console. "Thermal spike?"

Before Lucia could answer, everything went silent.

Then—BOOM.

The shockwave slammed into the house like a hammer.

Windows shattered. Lights burst. The baby monitor crackled into static.

Ren was thrown back in the lab. "AOI!!"

Outside: Flames and Silence

Where there had been a garden... there was now a crater. Smoke and ash billowed into the sky. What was left of the detonation site twisted and burned.

Pieces of metal rained down across the field. A charred body, beyond recognition, lay at the center of it all—its limbs curled inward. The last remnant of Saki’s obsession.

She had whispered it just before pressing the switch, her voice calm and broken:

"If I can’t have him... neither can you, Aoi."

Inside:

Ren burst through the shattered hallway, his legs cut and bleeding. The AI lab had absorbed part of the shockwave. "AOI?! HIKARI?!"

He sprinted upstairs—what was left of it. His heart pounded so loudly he could barely hear Lucia’s voice in his earpiece.

Then—he saw her.

Aoi lay beside the crib, shielding Hikari with her arms, both of them covered in debris and dust—but alive. A faint flickering glow shimmered around Aoi’s body.

The necklace.

The one Ren had embedded with nanotech shielding and emergency pulse armor—it had deployed at the last second.

"Aoi..." Ren dropped to his knees, crawling over.

Aoi opened her eyes slowly, dazed. "...Ren?"

"I’m here." He held her tightly, trembling. "You’re safe... You’re safe..."

"I... I felt it," Aoi whispered, tears running down her face. "She tried to... but Hikari—she didn’t get hurt, did she?"

Ren looked at their daughter. She had woken from the impact but was crying—completely unharmed.

"She’s fine," he whispered, kissing both of them. "You’re both okay."

Later:

Emergency responders arrived. Ren never let go of Aoi.

Authorities confirmed the identity of the remains through a dental match. It was Saki.

Her apartment had been rigged. The bomb, a carefully handmade device, built over weeks. She had been planning this final act of madness ever since she learned of Aoi’s pregnancy.

That Night

Ren sat outside, alone under the stars, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of the porch.

Lucia hovered beside him. "Sir. Would you like to run threat level diagnostics?"

Ren shook his head. "No. It’s over."

But deep inside, he knew it wasn’t. There were cracks now. Scars that would stay.

But there was also life.

Aoi and Hikari were safe. And that was all that mattered.