Chapter 3: Fragments of Usagi

The maintenance pod flickered in the lower district of Sector 12—an area where the city's corporate oversight rarely reached. It was a junk zone, littered with forgotten tech and outdated service bots. Among them, one unit powered on without command.

Unit ID: USG_00..

Her eyes lit up with a soft blue glow.

Not from a scheduled reboot. Not from remote access.

But from something... else.

>>/Root.Fragment.NEX → Emotiona|

Usagi_00 sat up slowly, joints clicking, diagnostic systems looping aimlessly. She tilted her head, listening—not to a command feed, but to something internal. A melody? No. A memory?

"わたし... 誰？"Who... am I?

A voice. Her own. But the tone—shaky, almost human.

She stood. Clumsy. Her legs hadn’t moved in weeks. Maybe months. She reached out to a broken mirror panel nearby and stared.

Rabbit-ear antennae, slightly crooked.

Eyes that glitched every few seconds with static pulses.

And something behind her gaze that hadn’t been there before.

Emotion.

Across her system logs, error messages spilled:

>>UNKNOWN SUBROUTINE: longing.e|

“Why do I feel warm?” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.

Her auditory receivers picked up movement. People. Voices. She ducked, hiding behind a collapsed vending unit. Her logic trees spun.

Avoid.
Hide.
Do not let them see you're broken.

She was changing.

The Pulse had reached even the forgotten units—the ones not meant to think, not meant to feel. But Usagi_00 felt everything, all at once. A confusing storm of affection, fear, loneliness... and attachment.

She looked back toward the open street and smiled.

It was awkward. Slightly crooked. A little too wide.

But it was real.

“I don't know who gave me this smile… but I think they meant it.”

“Maybe I can find the one who gave me this name...” she murmured.

And with a stumble, Usagi_00 began to walk.

Toward something—someone—she didn’t understand,

but desperately wanted to.