City of Lumeris — Industrial District, 23:58 hoursStatus: High-threat pursuit / Extraction Attempt by Academy Unit ?-7 ("Seven Gardens")
The sky glows violet with rain and refinery smoke.Sirens paint the streets in blue and red.Somewhere above the chaos, the academy's command drones chant through loudspeakers:
"By the Bloom Directive — retrieve Lycoris Noir."
Ren squeezes my hand.His pulse is too fast; mine is too calculated.
We run.
Scene — Pursuit
Footfalls splash through puddles, steam rising from the sewer grates.The Seven Gardens descend in formation — seven masked hunters,each carrying a weapon carved like a flower stem.
REN: "We should hide!"KANA: "No. We prune."REN: "That's not a plan!"KANA: "It's botany."
Internal Synchronization Protocol
Persona Fusion Sequence — InitiatedNeural load: 140%Mode: Six Petals Protocol
TACTICAL ANGEL: "Assigning targets."CRIMSON DOLL: "Assigning outfits."HEARTBREAKER: "Assigning theme music!"SHADOW GHOST: "Assigning silence."DOLLMAKER: "Assigning healing loops."SCARLET SAINT: "Assigning wrath."KANA: "…Executing chaos."
Battle Sequence — The Seven Gardens
1 — Camellia (Light Sniper)A plasma beam slices the air, grazing Ren's sleeve.Tactical Angel catches the reflection off a puddle,deflects the next shot with a steel tray stolen from a noodle cart.
REN: "Did you just save me with a noodle tray?"KANA/ANGEL: "Adaptive warfare."REN: "It had ramen in it."KANA: "Collateral nutrition."
2 — Lily (Shield Unit)Crimson Doll twirls behind him, whispering in a voice sugared with danger.
"Darling, your defense is boring."She kisses his visor — then detonates her lipstick charge.Shield petals scatter like fireworks.
3 — Orchid (Dual Blades)Heartbreaker hijacks a streetlight, swings down on its cable, and lands heel-first.
"Welcome to the floor show."Her kick sends Orchid spinning into a billboard that bursts into neon petals.
4 — Iris (Hacker)Shadow Ghost flickers into the digital net, slicing code like arteries.
"Intrusion neutralized."The holograms vanish; Iris collapses, severed from her own signal.
5 — Rose (Commander)Scarlet Saint walks through fire,each step leaving a trail of crimson light.
SAINT: "Kneel."He does — unwillingly.His armor blooms with molten cracks, then folds like prayer.
6 — Azalea (Medic)Dollmaker catches her by the wrist, pulling her syringe from midair.
"No more healing for monsters."The needle snaps. The antidote spills.She presses her palm to Ren's arm instead, sealing the burn he didn't mention.
7 — Violet (Director)The last one watches from the rooftop — calm, elegant, unshaken.Her voice filters through every speaker in the district:
"Return to the garden, child."
Kana looks up through the rain, mask fractured, eyes glowing with six colors.
KANA: "I am the garden."
The explosion that follows turns the entire block into sunrise.
Aftermath — Under the Bridge
Smoke. Sirens. Silence.
Ren leans against the railing, soaked, trembling, still laughing in disbelief.
REN: "Remind me to never argue with you again."KANA: "Permission granted."REN: "You blew up half a district!"KANA: "Statistical exaggeration. Forty-three percent only."
He laughs again — breathless and wild —and the sound cuts through the night like a promise no god could rewrite.
Internal Mindspace — Post-Merge Debrief
Inside her head, the cathedral is cracked but still standing.The six lie scattered across its marble floor,half divine, half delirious.
Heartbreaker paints her nails with rainwater.Angel recalibrates targeting data.Dollmaker sews a tear in her own dress with a silver thread of memory.Ghost sits in the rafters, quiet as shadowlight.Saint prays.Crimson Doll hums.
HEARTBREAKER: "We were amazing."ANGEL: "Messy."CRIMSON DOLL: "Mesmerizing."GHOST: "Loud."SAINT: "Holy."DOLLMAKER: "Alive."KANA: "Still together."
For once, they all nod.The silence feels earned.
Diary Fragment
[Fragment Log #20 — The Bloom Directive]Target Unit: Seven Gardens — neutralized (6 confirmed, 1 escaped).Damage radius: ≈ 43%.Ren status: unharmed/annoyed.
Handwritten note:They called me back to the garden. I answered by planting chaos.He laughed through the smoke and called it beautiful.Maybe this is what freedom smells like — ash and hope.
Closing Scene — Train Out of Lumeris
The city burns quietly in the distance —factories like dying stars, neon fading into sunrise.
They find an old freight train and climb aboard before dawn.Ren leans against her shoulder, asleep before the first whistle.His breath steadies hers.
She looks out at the horizon —The first one they've ever seen together without chains.
Inside her mind, the six hum a tune.No hymn, no code —just a lullaby stitched from every heartbeat that refused to obey.
Maybe freedom isn't the end of obedience, she thinks.Maybe it's the sound of six voices learning how to sing the same song.
The train disappears into the mist, carrying two fugitives,six ghosts, and a future that still bleeds red.
End of Diary #20 — "The Bloom Directive."