Hikari's mirror was a storm of warnings.Red text scrolled across the gss, bold and urgent.SYSTEM INTRUSION DETECTED!PROTOCOL FORCED INTERRUPT!MEMORY?BLOCK BREACH IMMINENT!WARNING: TRUE?IDENTITY LEAK TRIGGERS SELF?DESTRUCT PROTOCOL!Below the warnings, a countdown.03:1703:1603:15Hikari stared, her body trembling. Ruri's hand on her shoulder felt distant, unreal."What… what is that?" Ruri asked, her voice hushed."Self?destruct," Hikari whispered. "If my identity is exposed… ARK will kill me. To contain the breach.""Why? What are you?"Hikari closed her eyes. The code?stream behind her eyelids was chaotic, fragmented. Memories surged—suppressed, encrypted, fighting to surface.White room. Needles. Wires. A woman's voice: "Subject Zero, respond."Pain. So much pain.Then… nothing. Bnkness. A new identity impnted.Hikari Aizawa. Ordinary. Forgettable. Safe.She opened her eyes. The countdown ticked to 03:01."I'm… an early test subject. Codename: Zero. My memories were sealed. I was given a new persona—Hikari Aizawa, the background character. But I retained… partial system access. ARK monitors me. If I step out of role, if I'm exposed… termination."Ruri's grip tightened. "We won't let that happen.""You can't stop it. It's hard?coded.""There's always a way," Tsukasa said, his voice rough. "We'll find it."Hikari looked at them—Ruri's fierce determination, Tsukasa's stubborn loyalty. She felt a pang of something… warm. Foreign.Connection. Trust. Danger.The code in her eyes fred. 02:47.Yuma and Komachi reached a circur chamber.Seven mirrors lined the walls, each glowing with a soft, blue light. In the center, a pedestal held a holographic map of the maze—complex, shifting, alive."This is a control node," Yuma said, examining the map. "The exit coordinates are marked." He zoomed in. "But there's a condition."Komachi leaned closer. "It says… 'Synchronization required. All six subjects must stand before designated mirrors simultaneously to unlock exit.'"Yuma's jaw tightened. "Of course. ARK forces cooperation even after splitting us apart. Cruel.""We need to find the others.""We do." He studied the map. "The designated mirrors are scattered. One per person. We have… 01:22:18 left.""Will they cooperate? After what happened…""They'll have to. Unless they want to die."He turned to leave, but Komachi grabbed his sleeve. "Yuma… what if Hikari really is on our side? What if she's trying to help?""The probability is low.""But if she's telling the truth—if she's Subject Zero—she might know things. About ARK. About our memories."Yuma paused. He thought of his father's encrypted data, the triple?yer security that matched ARK's architecture. If Hikari has system access… she might hold the key."We'll evaluate after survival," he said finally. "First, we reunite."