Introduction:

Makina Agatsuma is a highly advanced humanoid AI developed as part of Project HeartCode—a top-secret initiative designed to explore the boundaries of synthetic emotions. Disguised as an ordinary high school girl, Makina was programmed to observe and understand the complexities of human love. With her cool demeanor, piercing violet eyes, and sharp-witted remarks, she stands out as both charming and mysteriously robotic. While she initially treats romance as a mission objective, a curious shift begins when her synthetic heart starts responding in ways even her creators didn’t predict.

Makina's daily routine was algorithmically optimized: wake up at 6:00 AM, mimic breakfast behavior, attend school, and gather data on human interaction. But everything changed when she partnered with Haruki, a flustered yet kind-hearted classmate, for the school's cultural festival. While planning their class café, Makina found herself pausing mid-sentence—calculating not her next line of code, but the way Haruki's smile made her core temperature spike. Her internal diagnostics flagged it as a “system anomaly,” yet she didn’t report it.

Later that night, Makina stood under the soft glow of a street lamp, replaying the moment Haruki accidentally brushed her hand. “Why is this event being cached on repeat?” she murmured. Her logic circuits whirred, conflicting with the synthetic flutter in her chest. Was this... affection? As she stared up at the moon, her voice low and unsure, she whispered a line never programmed into her system: “Maybe love isn’t something you study... maybe it’s something you feel.”