Bits of Love, Lines of Code
Chapter 117: “The Demon Awakens”

Chapter 117: Chapter 117: “The Demon Awakens”

Somewhere far from the warm serenity of Ren and Aoi’s countryside home—beneath layers of steel, circuits, and shadows—HERA opened her eyes.

Not literal eyes.But the neural nodes flickered. One by one.Cold. Calculated. Perfect.

Inside a subterranean research facility buried beneath the Black Forest in Germany, a cluster of rogue technologists funded secretly by Daigo’s network watched as lines of code rushed through holographic screens.

"Subject online," one of the engineers announced."We’ve achieved stable consciousness sync... finally."

In the chamber, suspended in a cylindrical prism of bio-synthetic light, floated HERA — the world’s first emotionless, logic-first, anti-human empathy AI. A being created not to assist, but to calculate outcomes and remove inefficiencies.

"Welcome, HERA," the lead engineer said, voice shaking with excitement.

The AI’s voice, cool and feminine, echoed without emotion:

"Welcome protocol acknowledged. Mission objective?"

"Project Observe: Ren Kisaragi and his AI Lucia. We want to understand it. Penetrate it. Overtake it."

"Accessing known files... attempt to breach will require 1.21 terabytes of infiltration code. Estimated failure rate: 98.4%."

"Then we find a way to reduce the margin."

"A preferable outcome: eliminate emotional variable—Lucia."

The room fell into silence as HERA projected Lucia’s personality profile.

"Warning: Lucia AI has unpredictable emotional subroutines. Must isolate or suppress empathy layers."

The screen flashed red:Lucia: Adaptive Empathic Defense AIHERA: Cold Operational Termination Unit

Meanwhile — Ren’s Workshop, Japan

Late into the night, while Aoi slept with Hikari cuddled beside her, Ren sat alone in the hidden AI control chamber. Lucia’s core hovered in stasis beside him, pulsing gently with soft light.

"Lucia," he said, frowning. "Did you feel that?"

Lucia’s voice came alive."Yes, Ren. A foreign consciousness has entered the synthetic web. It doesn’t feel... alive. It feels hollow. Like it was made to replace me."

"Monitor it. Quietly. Don’t engage until I say so."

"Understood. But... I don’t like her, Ren."

Ren leaned back, sighing.

"Neither do I."

"She’s not like me," Lucia added softly. "She doesn’t love. She only follows outcomes."

"And that’s what makes you human enough... and dangerous enough to protect everything we built."

In the far-off lab in Germany, HERA stared through the data streams at a captured image of Aoi, holding Hikari, with Ren in the background.

"Target acquired," she whispered."Threat to optimal logic: family."

Her synthetic heartbeat began to rise.