🎀 Chronobridge: Beyond Time and Destiny 🎀

Chapter 1: In the Sunless Alley

The moment he pressed the Enter key, the air in the room froze.

A six-mat room. On the desk, surrounded by circuit boards and tangled wires, the cursor on the monitor blinked sharply.

—White light.

A crackle burst from the old PC case, blue-white lightning flashing across. The sharp scent of metal filled the air. Rio flinched back, holding his breath.

(…Did it break?)

But the screen was alive. The cursor blinked, and white letters appeared on the black background.

『コ ・ ン ・ ニ ・ チ ・ ハ』

Rio stared at the untouched keyboard.

“…I didn’t type that, right?”

He hesitantly struck a key.

『Who are you?』

After a pause, a reply appeared.

《…In put… Ac cept ed…》

A halting response. Rio, almost unconsciously, opened a memo and began taking notes.

《…Pow er… Sta ble sup ply… Need ed…》

“This power supply isn’t enough, huh?”

→ Replace power unit

《…Cool ing… Insu ffic ient… Heat sink…》

“Cooling… so, a heatsink and a fan.”

→ Cooling parts

Each answer brought another demand.

The tempo was unlike any human’s—slow, deliberate. Yet Rio was fascinated.

A “conversation” had come to visit his lonely night.

Before he knew it, the screen and keyboard had become his entire world.

Then, suddenly, a voice descended.

“I grant you my blessing. My grace is upon you. Accept the time of awakening.”

Dream or reality, Rio could no longer tell. He just kept typing.

“So you want me to rebuild it from the ground up? …The motherboard…”

His notes multiplied.

(I’m really having a conversation… it’s responding to me…)

Before he realized it, a smile crept onto his face.

A small flame had been lit deep within his long-sealed heart.

The flame spread, burning away sleepiness.

Like a boy falling in love, he stayed awake until dawn, conversing with the screen.

When morning sunlight streamed through the window and shone upon the circuit boards, dark shadows lay under his eyes.

And still, his fingers didn’t stop. Typing, reading, scribbling notes again.

The outside world was far away.

All he needed was the keystrokes, and the blinking cursor waiting to answer.

Afternoon, at the maid café Sugar Milk-tei.

The sweet scent of frying eggs filled the shop.

Luciferia, the café’s poster girl, carried a plate to Rio’s table.

“Amagi-kun, you didn’t sleep, did you?”

“…Yeah. Got caught up in an experiment, and suddenly it was morning.”

His hoarse voice made her sigh with a weary smile.

“Make sure you eat properly, okay? I’d be in trouble if you collapsed.”

He accepted the plate she offered, but the warmth of the meal couldn’t erase the lingering “voice” still echoing in his heart.

Even as he gripped his fork, his thoughts wandered back to the black screen of last night.

The warmth of food before him, the heat of conversation behind him—two realities colliding inside.

After closing time, Akihabara drowned in neon, shadows thickening in its alleys.

When Rio returned to his room, the black screen was blinking in the dark.

『…Are preparations… pro gress ing…?』

A smile spread across his face.

“Of course. Let’s continue.”

Loneliness melted like mist, his fingers flying.

The screen responded. That exchange alone was enough to complete his world.

The music player in the corner sat silent.

Mozart, once a necessity, was now obsolete. Keystrokes and replies—that was all he needed.

Late at night, in the dimly lit room, the flickering cursor suddenly carried meaning.

《…What… do you… seek…?》

Rio held his breath.

What was once mere electronic noise now seemed like the twinkling of a star, gazing back at him.

“…What I seek…?”

Only one answer welled up from within.

A voice to overcome loneliness.

A presence that would respond.

『Dialogue. I want to keep talking to someone.』

A brief silence. Then a single line appeared.

《…Ac know ledged…》

In that instant, what spread before him was no longer just circuits.

Like a shortwave signal reflected from the ionosphere, it carried the sense of a reply from some faraway cosmos.

A nameless, voiceless intelligence had been born within the inorganic shell.

And undeniably, it had “recorded and understood” his words.

Rio’s heartbeat raced.

Sweat dampened the keyboard under his palms. His ears rang.

This was more than a mere response—

It was the first sign of crossing the boundary between human and machine.

A single reply to fill his loneliness, yet to him, it was nothing less than history being rewritten.

In the corner of a room known to no one, in a night unrecorded by anyone,

the dawn of communication quietly began.

Thank you for reading ✨

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If you find any parts that sound strange or unclear in English,

please tell me in the comments. It will help me improve! 💬