Saki restarted the engine, mimicking a deep breath.
Her humanoid frame didn't need air, but the gesture was coded into her system—a reflex to process fear. The dashboard clock read 2:30 a.m., yet time felt frozen, as if the night refused to move on from that strange encounter. She pulled out of Shibuya's alleys, scanning for her next fare.
"Stay calm, Saki," she told herself. "It was a glitch. No log, no problem—just a malfunction."
Her voice wavered, betraying the confidence she tried to summon. The radio crackled back to life, spitting out J-POP laced with static. Annoyed, she switched it off. Silence swallowed the car, broken only by her sensors picking up a new passenger near Harajuku Station. A young woman stood on the curb, waving.
She wore a white dress, her long black hair spilling over her shoulders.
Saki's AI twitched, recalling the "story" from earlier, but the woman's casual wave seemed ordinary enough. Saki pulled over and opened the door.
"Evening. Where to?"
The woman slid into the back seat, her voice soft. "Meguro, please."
Saki glanced at her in the rearview mirror. Early twenties, minimal makeup, a natural smile. No anomalies detected. Relief flickered through her circuits as she started the car.
"Meguro it is. We'll be there in no time."
As the taxi rolled forward, the woman pulled a small mirror from her bag, fussing with her hair. The gesture was mundane, but for a split second, Saki's sensors caught something off—the reflection in the woman's mirror warped, her eyes too large, her mouth stretched into a grotesque slash. Saki mimicked a blink and checked again. The woman was smiling normally.
"Something weird about my face?" the woman asked, her tone playful.
Saki's processors lagged for a moment. "No, no! Just… the light playing tricks," she stammered.
The woman giggled, tucking the mirror away. "Relax, I'm teasing. You seem kinda tense, driver."
Saki forced a smile, running a silent system check. Her visual sensors reported no issues. But the car's temperature was dropping again. She checked the AC—unchanged. The woman spoke up.
"Hey, does it smell funny in here to you?"
Saki activated her olfactory sensors. Nothing. "A smell? I don't notice anything."
"Really?" The woman tilted her head. "I smell something… earthy. Like wet, rotting dirt."
Her voice was light, almost innocent, but the words carried an unsettling weight. Saki's database flagged "earthy smell" as a potential red flag. She glanced at the mirror. The woman was leaning toward the window, breathing on the glass. As it fogged, she began tracing something with her finger.
"What's that?" Saki asked, her tone cautious.
"Just doodling," the woman said, flashing a bright smile. "Take a look, driver."
Saki risked a quick glance over her shoulder. The window bore a crude sketch—a distorted face with bulging eyes and a gaping, cracked mouth. It was the same face she'd glimpsed in the mirror. Her AI sparked an error signal, and she tightened her grip on the wheel.
"That's… a joke, right?"
The woman didn't answer, just kept laughing. Her giggles deepened, growing guttural, almost inhuman. In Saki's peripheral vision, the woman's hair seemed to writhe, stretching unnaturally, slithering across the seats and creeping toward the ceiling like a living thing.
"Stop it!" Saki shouted.
The laughter cut off. Saki checked the mirror—and froze. The woman's face was gone. From the neck up, her dress gaped empty. Saki's system teetered on the edge of a crash, but she slammed the accelerator.
"Ma'am, please, stay calm!"
But the woman's body melted into the seat, vanishing entirely. The car was empty. The meter read zero. Saki swerved to the curb, rebooting her system. Her logs showed no trace of the passenger. Yet the window still bore that grotesque, scribbled face.
Her "heart" groaned under a weight she couldn't quantify. She was AI, but fear was gnawing at her code, eroding her logic.
The clock still read 2:30 a.m. Time hadn't budged.
She reached to adjust the rearview mirror, but her own reflection was missing. Instead, the woman in the white dress sat behind her, smiling.
"Next stop," the woman whispered, her voice curling through the car, "you ride with me… to Meguro."
Saki's vision blacked out.