The Arrow of Rhythm

The edge of the world shattered like a mirror. The long arrow pierced through the air, causing a burst of rhythmic ripples.

Miya stood on the other side of the world, looking upon all that had transpired after the breaking of the dimensional barrier. The dimensional barrier is like a one-way mirror. On one side was Harmonia, an Al world built with code, while on the other was the real world that created it. Miya had never been as eager to learn something... Just what was this "real world"?

Hard to believe that all of this started with a false alarm, just a few months ago.

As a police officer of Harmonia, Miya's responsibilities included guiding its residents and attending to miscellaneous day-to-day affairs. In all honesty, it was a boring job. Repeated lines of instruction and countless little troubles were enough to wear anyone's patience, but Miya still enjoyed her work very much. This was despite the fact that Miya had far more enthusiasm than she did patience.

Miya had many fellow police officers, each assigned to their own area. As for Miya herself, she was under the command of the Great Dragon, the highest-ranking leader of Harmonia. The pure but impulsive Miya often received instruction from the Great Dragon, though many thought them to be words of criticism.

"Oi! Did you guys report this case?"

The two people in front of Miya were at a bit of a loss, but they still told her everything.

Student No. 15... Miya thought for a long time. As a police officer, she knew everyone in Harmonia, yet she had no impression of this Student No. 15 that Eudora was speaking of.

With no idea for the time being, Miya had no choice but to keep the matter in mind. Miya had always felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with Eudora, though she couldn't think of anywhere she would have crossed paths with the music teacher, nor where this sense of familiarity could have come from.

Wait... Perhaps there was one place where she could find information on Student No. 15.

The data hub.

All information in Harmonia was stored in the data hub, but as such, it wasn't a place that just anyone could enter. As a reporter, Rafaela certainly did not have the credentials. With nowhere else to turn to, Rafaela asked Miya to head to the data hub in their place. Luckily enough, Miya was of the same mind. The ALLSTAR Music Festival would begin in just a few days. The festival would draw most of the city's population, meaning that the defenses around the data hub would be greatly weakened. It was the perfect opportunity for them to sneak in.

But on this day, an incident happened. Just as everyone was immersed in the music festival, Entity X invaded Harmonia.

The data hub was the first target, and Entity X had gone after the most important piece of data there.

"Disaster!"

As she was looking for information on Student No. 15, Miya was disturbed by a sudden noise. By the time she came back to her senses, she was already trapped in a dense network of data, one that had isolated all external information. In the quiet central station, Miya heard a faint noise. It was approaching... and in the blink of an eye, it had arrived outside the door.

Flustered, Miya tried everything she could to try and open the data network, but to no avail. In desperation, Miya summoned her trusty bow and arrow, charged her arrow, then fired it towards the center of the data network. With the network shattered into pieces, Miya was no longer trapped. But as she rushed out of the central station, she found that the outside world had been turned completely upside down. What were once neat and orderly streets had become run-down and messy, and those who were laughing and reveling just moments ago were now clutching their heads in pain. They had become the walking dead under the control of some outside force. Miya even saw her fellow colleagues among them.

Something's wrong! Miya tried to contact the police officers who hadn't been affected by the corrupted code, but found that communications had been completely severed. Looking upon all those who had lost control of themselves, Miya could neither open fire nor do nothing. Just as she was in the midst of her inner battle, Miya saw a familiar figure in the crowd... Eudora.

As Miya was trying to rescue Eudora and take her to a safe place, Eudora stopped her.

"Listen to me, Miya." Eudora held onto Miya tightly with her trembling hands, and told her the truth about everything she knew — the truth about the Al, the virtual world, the data erasure, and Student No. 15.

These revelations were shocking enough to leave Miya speechless for a while, but Eudora's next words made Miya believe in their authenticity. "Can you recall a specific event that happened last year or the years before, as well as the feelings, results, and changes from that event?"

The past... Miya couldn't recall it very clearly. She just repeated her tasks as a police officer day in and day out. The flow of people and events in Harmonia had occupied her entire life. The past and the future never seemed to occur in her memory. She had only focused on the present... Or rather, her programming only allowed her to focus on the present.

In that very instant, Miya realized that her memories were repeating in an endless cycle. Every day, there were old people who got lost, cats who went missing, and urchins who were spraying graffiti on the walls. Only helping Eudora find Student No. 15 was an unexpected variable, a mission in line with her purpose as a police officer and one which gave her true friendship with another human being. And it was then that the attack of Entity X shattered the calm...

— But then, just who am I? Why do I exist?

Instead of facing this question, Miya directed her attention to the more critical attack by Entity X. Though she had accepted that she was just an Al program, she still won't allow Harmonia to be destroyed. Since the corrupted code was infecting people by changing the melody of music, perhaps the melody would also be key to purifying the code. The speculation was also affirmed by Eudora and Rafaela. The three of them looked at each other with determination in their eyes.

The arrow of rhythm pushed back the spread of the corrupted code, and the three of them worked together they find the source of it all — Entity X! But just as they were about to destroy that invader, it escaped to the real world. The three of them couldn't make chase, limited by the rules of their dimension. But Miya's sense of justice made her refuse to let go. If Entity X was not completely destroyed, it would come back sooner or later, and infect all of Harmonia once more.

— Who am I? Why do I exist?

After they had repelled Entity X's attack, these questions resurfaced in Miya's mind. She looked upon Harmonia, which had served as her home. If she couldn't find the answer here, perhaps she would have better luck in the real world? That's right! I'm going to see the real world, the world that created all this!

— Whoosh!

The long arrow pierced through the air, causing a burst of rhythmic ripples and shattering the edge of the world like a mirror. Miya stepped out of Harmonia and into reality.

One day, I shall find the reason for my existence!