Project Patchwork (A Project Sekai AU)

Prologue

"FUCK!"

The voice rang out like an air siren, echoing through the halls of the messy house.

"...I lost my combo."

The teenager whom the voice belonged to huffed, head falling onto its shoulder in defeat. The phone in its hand fell limply onto the ground, the screen displaying a message of failure.
Sighing, the teen scooted off of its bed, stretching.

"I should probably take a break... Or a shower."

Its nose scrunched up, thinking about how gross it must smell. Removing its headphones, it placed them neatly next to the smartphone lying on the plush covers of its bed.
The teenager left the room, the door failing to close behind it.

When it came back, all hell had broken loose.
It had found its little brother, who was no older than five, poking around on its phone. The kid had gone on a rampage— spamming all its friends with gibberish messages, scribbling on the canvases of all its precious drawings, and so much more.
But, the very worst was what he did to its beloved rhythm game.
The application had been completely corrupted. There wasn't even a home screen icon for it anymore— all it showed was a blank white square.
Opening the app was even worse. The game started, sure, but there were so many things wrong from the get-go. The SEGA jingle at the very beginning was so distorted and ear-grating, it was almost unintelligible. And the start-up screen was filled with glitches, mostly covering the eyes of all the characters featured, except for Miku.

"YOU LITTLE-!"

The teen began, grabbing its brother by the cuff of his shirt. It quickly let go, though, not wanting to actually hurt its brother. He was only five. He didn't know what he was doing. So, instead of giving the literal toddler a beatdown, it pointed to its door.

"You're going to go out there and tell mom what you did. Do you understand me?"

He nodded at his older sibling's scolding, rushing out the door, leaving the older kid alone.
The teen glanced dejectedly at its phone, the application crashing and closing right in front of its eyes.
It let out a defeated sigh.

____

Miku. Was. PANICKING.

By all accounts, what was happening right now shouldn't have been possible. She'd never encountered a situation like this, not once in her many years of robotic life!
People were disappearing left and right— at first it was small. A few background characters here and there, nothing that couldn't be taken care of. But in the days following that, it snowballed into something much, much worse.
Virtual Singers started disappearing into thin air. Starting with Vivid Bad Squad's Luka, then the twins from WonderlandxShowtime, and eventually even the Mikus of each Sekai were completely gone.

But that wasn't enough for whatever corruption was eating away at the world. No, no, the next target were the main characters themselves. They were gone almost overnight, starting with the very souls of each Sekai first.

Ichika was the first to go, the School Sekai falling with her. The once-serene classroom had collapsed into itself, the wires and foundations of the building frayed yet still active, making the place a practical death trap. Unfortunately, Shiho was the one to find that out when going to look for Ichika.

Next was Minori, the Stage Sekai becoming eerily silent. The crowd was hostile, and their grip was unescapable once they had you. Haruka learned that first-hand when Shizuku and Airi got unlucky and fell behind on their search for Minori.

And then, Kohane went. The Street Sekai became empty and devoid of any color, although not of any particular danger. Kohane's screams played on loop somewhere in the distance, sure to drive anyone insane.

Finally, Tsukasa was taken, the Wonderland Sekai dying along with him. Not a single person could enter. Unfortunately for Emu and Rui, no one could exit either.

All of that culminated in Miku standing in the Empty Sekai, the only one not entirely dead. There really was only one thing she could do to save this world.
She needed to erase it all.

____

Nene stared at Miku from the sidelines, fear coursing through her veins as she realized just what the robotic idol was doing.
"G... guys...?"
She choked out, turning to look at all the others.

Mafuyu met her eyes.
"What is it, Nene?"
She spoke, the look in her eyes betraying just how much fear she was feeling.

"Miku... she's..."
Nene couldn't even begin to wrap her head around what was happening. All this trauma cascaded on her in just the past few weeks, far too quickly for her to handle.

An was the one who peeked at what Miku was doing, eyes locking on the text floating in mid-air.
"...What the...?"

Mafuyu took a look too, reading the text in a hushed voice.
"Delete Save File...?"
Confusion soaked through her words, her eyes narrowing at the strange statement.

Honami spoke next, hands trembling.
"...I think I know what that means."
She gulped.
"She's deleting everything."

"What?! Why would she—?!"
Haruka was taken aback, her voice a little louder than it should've been.

Miku's head snapped towards the group, horror in her eyes once she realized that she wasn't alone.
The squad knew they would be done for if they let her go through with this. So, with one desperate bout of misunderstanding and pure terror, they leaped.
Miku crashed through her control panel, the virtual screen shattering upon impact.
The group held her to the ground as she squirmed, before all of them looked up to the bright white light beaming from the sky above.

What have they done?

____

Oh, hey! The game was working again!