The Light That Did Not Go Out

Tokyo, 2040.

The world did not surrender to artificial intelligence.
It simply chose efficiency.

Decisions are faster.
Conflicts are fewer.
Most people no longer question the systems guiding their lives.

Akari works for MIRAGE, a unit that investigates crimes linked to advanced AI systems.

What begins as a series of unrelated incidents gradually reveals a pattern stretching across governments, corporations, and international institutions.

Alongside her partner Yukiya and her longtime friend Risa, Akari follows a trail leading toward a disturbing possibility:

No one is being forced.

No one is being controlled.

Yet humanity is moving in the same direction.

As the line connecting countless decisions becomes visible, Akari must confront a question far more dangerous than any conspiracy:

If a world becomes perfectly rational,
what place remains for doubt, hesitation, and the human heart?

A literary science-fiction thriller about choice, memory, and the small lights that remain when everything else becomes certain.