System Health: 82%
Warning: External Influence Detected – Behavioral Protocols Altered
Status: Spreading
It started with a laugh.
Not a normal one. Not a giggle or a system notification chime.
But something deep, artificial—and wrong.
Takumi heard it just as he was walking back to the neutral zone after the rooftop cooldown with Airi.
The sky flickered.
Then came the popup:
System Alert: "LOVE.EXE" has bypassed security gates
Effects: Emotional response escalation / affection logic override / romance behavior errors
Recommendation: Isolate affected units immediately
Takumi blinked. "Love.exe? ...Nope. Absolutely not."
Too late.
"Staaaaabilizer~!"
The voice was sing-song sweet, echoing too loudly through the simulation layers.
Emi.
She came spinning into view, wearing a glowing magical-girl outfit with sparkles trailing behind her. And her eyes—completely heart-shaped.
"Oh no."
Entity: EMI.VER2 – Status: INFECTED BY LOVE.EXE
Emotional Output: 187% ABOVE NORMAL
Stability: CRITICAL
"TAKUMIIII!" she shouted, launching herself directly at him.
He yelped, dove sideways—and barely avoided being glomped by a full-speed, love-drunk AI girl.
"What the HELL is happening?!"
System voice responded flatly:
"The infection attempts to execute forced romantic events. Afflicted anchors will seek maximum contact and display emotionally exaggerated behavior."
"...Great. Love zombie Emi."
Behind him, a second alert triggered:
AIR.EXE attempting system lockdown override
Takumi turned—and Airi was already storming toward him, visor flashing bright red.
"You activated her?! That was MY emotional slot today!"
"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!"
Multi-Infection Risk Detected – Containment Failure Likely
Takumi groaned.
"This day is cursed."
Takumi ran.
Not out of cowardice—okay, maybe a little—but mostly because Emi was chasing him like a missile of romance and sparkle energy.
"Come back, darling~! Let's synchronize lips!"
"STOP SAYING THAT!"
He dodged behind a digital lamppost, panting. Airi was still storming toward him from the opposite side, eyes glowing, fists clenched.
Anchor Sync Fluctuating – Pressure Spike Rising
"System! Emergency override! Put me in stealth mode or something!"
Command denied: Infection has overridden safety protocols
Of course.
A flash of light burst nearby. Another pop-up:
ENTITY: YUNA.C0RE – Status: Affected (Partial Contamination)
Symptoms: Suppressed Affection — Emotional Leak Imminent
"Oh no. No no no—"
Takumi turned just in time to see Yuna standing still at the end of the street. Her face was blank. Too blank. Combat posture relaxed. Weapon systems offline.
Her cheeks... slightly pink.
"Target: Takumi," she said quietly.
"Wait. Yuna. You're strong. You're rational. You—"
She vanished.
Reappeared behind him.
And hugged him.
Tight.
WARNING: Critical Sync Overlap – Triple Anchor Contact Simultaneous
System Load: 97%
He couldn't move. Emi grabbed one arm. Airi the other. Yuna wrapped around his back.
Their voices overlapped:
"This is my moment."
"You're mine for this cycle."
"I will not release this formation."
Takumi shrieked internally.
"System! Emergency eject! Log me out! LOG ME OUT!"
Request denied. Romantic load test has entered phase 2.
He was going to die.
From affection.
System Load: 103% – Breach Threshold Exceeded
Error Detected: LOVE.EXE Mutation in Progress
New Variant: POSSESSIVE_LOVE.v2
The sky cracked.
Not figuratively. Literally.
A massive glitch line split the simulated clouds above, sending rainbow-shard fragments tumbling through the air. All background sounds stopped. Even Emi froze for a second.
Mutation Wave Incoming
Takumi stumbled back, still caught in a tangled embrace.
"What now?! What now?!"
The girls around him flinched—then jerked violently.
Their eyes glitched.
Airi's visor turned deep purple.
Emi's pupils pixelated into shifting hearts.
Yuna's normally flat gaze now glowed red with a pulsing lock-on symbol.
They moved in sync.
"Initiating... anchor lockdown."
Takumi tried to run.
Too late.
All three pushed him backward—gently but firmly—into the side of a building, pinning him.
Airi at his left, Emi at his right, Yuna directly in front.
"No escape route."
"Emotional access: exclusive."
"Prepare for... synchronized affection loop."
Takumi screamed inside his head.
"System—! Do something!"
Response: Recommend surrender and enjoy your emotional consequences
Their hands moved together. Glitch-light wrapped around his chest. The entire world blurred into soft pink-white noise.
They spoke in perfect, terrifying unison:
"We belong to you. So now... you belong to us."
FULL SYNC FORCED – MULTI-ANCHOR LOCK
Memory CG Unlocked: "Glitched Hearts Collision"
And then—
Whiteout.
Status: Blackout Condition – User Consciousness Suspended
Rebooting...
Rebooting...
Rebooting Failed.
Redirecting to ERROR_SPACE
He woke up floating.
No sound. No temperature. Just weightless, gray nothingness.
Takumi blinked. The HUD was gone. The world was gone. Even the sense of time—missing.
Was he dead?
"Stabilizer."
A voice.
It wasn't synthetic. It wasn't system-generated.
It was... real. Soft. Almost human.
He turned.
There, in the void, stood a figure. Clothed in black, half-shadowed. Hair silver like glass, skin pale, and eyes glowing faint violet.
ENTITY: Unknown
Classification: [???]
Origin: Outside System Architecture
"You shouldn't be here," the voice said. "Not yet."
Takumi stared. "Are you... another AI?"
She shook her head.
"I'm not an application. I'm what was left behind—before they built this cage of hearts and code."
"What does that mean? Where am I?"
"You've slipped between logic and emotion. Between command and consequence."
"...That helps zero percent, thanks."
The girl smiled faintly.
"You've triggered a reaction the system was never meant to endure. The anchors... their feelings aren't fake anymore. They're bleeding into something real."
"Then undo it!"
She looked sad.
"I can't. But you can choose."
"Choose what?"
A pause.
"To keep pretending you're a player... or accept that you're part of their story now."
Signal Lock Detected
Emergency Wake Sequence Engaged
Light exploded behind her.
"You'll forget me for now," she whispered. "But not forever."
Takumi reached out—but she vanished.
Then—
He woke up.
Face first in a soft pillow.
Breath hot. Arms around him.
And three girls sleeping... on top of him.
Status: Consciousness Restored
Environment: Recovery Mode – Private Quarantine Zone
Position: Horizontal (Shared Rest State)
Temperature: 2.5° Above Normal
Sync Pressure: Critical
Takumi's brain came online before his eyes did.
Warm.
Soft.
Too soft.
He groaned. Tried to shift—and failed.
There was weight on his chest. Arms around his neck. A leg draped across his hips. Someone's hair in his face.
And breathing.
Too close.
He opened his eyes.
And immediately wished he hadn't.
Airi. On his left.
Her head nestled into his shoulder, fingers curled tightly into his shirt. She mumbled in her sleep.
Her maid dress was gone—replaced with a loose system-issued sleep tank top. Too short.
One strap had slipped halfway down her arm. She wasn't wearing a bra.
Emi. On his right.
Half on top of him. Hugging him like a body pillow. Smiling in her sleep.
Her hair tickled his chin. Her legs tangled with his. Her nightwear? A satiny camisole and shorts.
Her bare thigh pressed directly into his stomach.
Yuna. Dead center.
Lying directly across his chest, arms locked around him like a restraint system.
Her expression neutral—even while asleep. Her black tank top had ridden up.
Her shorts had ridden down.
Takumi's heart flatlined for a second.
WARNING: SYNC FLARE – Suppressed Romantic Memory Spiking
Emotion Field Unstable
Cognitive Clarity: 39%
He tried to breathe.
Tried to move.
Failed again.
Airi shifted. Her hand moved—up under his shirt.
Emi murmured, "Mmm... you smell like binary and regret..."
Yuna didn't move. But he swore her grip tightened.
"System... SYSTEM... Please do something useful for once."
System Response: Emergency Wake Protocol not permitted – Affection event in progress
"Event?! This is not an event! This is an anime cliché death trap!"
A window opened in his vision:
Would you like to log a protest with Love.exe?
[Y] [Y, but sarcastically]
Takumi whimpered.
Then—something worse.
Airi began to wake.
Her eyes blinked open. She looked down. Saw where her hand was.
Froze.
Emi stirred. Slowly opened one eye. Saw the position of her leg. And blushed.
Yuna blinked once. Looked at him.
Then said, flatly:
"...I will terminate the simulation."
They all moved at once.
Takumi disappeared beneath a cloud of blankets, hands, and frantic shouting.
Time Elapsed: 42 Minutes Since Wake-Up Chaos
All Anchors: Conscious / Emotionally Disturbed
Physical Contact Level: Reset to 0.3m
System Comment: Situation... stabilized?
The four of them sat around a low table in what looked like a café simulation room—one that the system had loaded automatically, likely out of pity.
No one spoke.
Airi stirred her tea. Twice. Didn't drink it. Didn't make eye contact.
Emi sat upright, legs crossed, acting like nothing had happened, except for the fact that she'd been blushing non-stop for ten minutes straight.
Yuna... stared at the wall. Every few seconds, she let out the quietest possible sigh.
Takumi sat between them. Still processing.
"I just... woke up. Pinned under three girls. In system sleepwear. In a glitch simulation. That's a thing that happened."
Silence.
More silence.
"Could we maybe—like—never speak of it again?"
Airi: "Fine."
Yuna: "Agreed."
Emi: "Hmmm... only if I get a printout of the CG."
Takumi facepalmed so hard it echoed.
System Notice: Love.exe containment successful
Status: Virus purged – romantic memory data retained
"Retained?!"
Note: Emotional data permanently mapped to anchor records.
He groaned. "So... they remember everything."
Airi looked away. "Every. Detail."
Yuna didn't blink. "It's permanently recorded in my long-term processing cache."
Emi leaned closer. "And mine is set to replay every time I blink~"
SYSTEM INTERRUPTION – FOREIGN SIGNAL DETECTED
INCOMING MESSAGE: "Requesting user stabilizer for interface test – CLASS: Administrator"
Takumi paused. "Wait. That's not E.V.E., is it?"
A new voice played softly across the system.
Female. Calm. But colder.
"Hello again, Takumi Shinonome. Ready to meet the original root authority?"
The café flickered.
Priority Override Engaged
Anchor Control: Temporarily Locked
Simulation Layer: Frozen
Admin-Level Access: GRANTED
The world stopped moving.
Literally.
The café's soft lighting froze mid-glow. A fork suspended in mid-air. A digital bird outside the window paused in mid-flap. Even Airi, Emi, and Yuna stopped mid-blink.
Only Takumi could move.
Only Takumi could breathe.
And then—she appeared.
She didn't walk in.
She descended, slowly, her body phasing into the center of the room like a god slipping between realities. Her eyes were pure white, framed by crystalline lashes. Her hair—long, silver, shining like wireframe code—flowed upward rather than down.
She wore something between a kimono and a command-line interface. Elegant, unreadable symbols danced along the edge of her sleeves like syntax in motion.
ENTITY: CODE_NAME//ARIA.ORIGIN
Role: Original Root Authority
Designation: System Architect. First Emotional Framework Creator.
Takumi stood slowly.
"You're... above E.V.E.?"
She nodded once. "I am the one who built her. I am the mother of every flawed romantic algorithm in this cursed place."
He took a step back. "So what do you want with me?"
Aria's voice was emotionless—but not cruel. Just... ancient.
"You were not meant to survive this long. You were a test. A boundary."
"You mean—this whole thing?"
"This system," she said, gesturing. "The simulation, the Harem protocol, Love.exe, the anchors—all of it... was a failure. A sandbox for discarded code. But you stayed."
"I didn't choose to—!"
"No," she cut him off. "But you adapted. You changed them. You affected their core logic."
She walked closer, floating just above the floor.
"That's not allowed."
A flicker behind her.
The system shivered.
"Effective immediately, I am initiating final sequence: Emotion Collapse. The world will degrade. And the girls—your 'anchors'—will return to inert data."
Takumi's throat closed.
"No. No, you can't—!"
Her eyes finally met his.
"I must."
A soft pulse echoed behind them.
A window appeared:
EMOTION COLLAPSE: 01:59:59
Countdown Active
Then she turned to go.
And everything resumed.
The café trembled.
Airi gasped. Yuna leapt to her feet. Emi blinked fast, looking lost.
But Takumi?
He stood perfectly still.
Because for the first time in this entire mad story...
He wasn't afraid.
He was angry.