Imitation began the way it always did.
With confidence.
The first group to announce a breakthrough did so with a press release and a livestream. A private research consortium—well-funded, well-connected—claimed to have developed an "adaptive load-balancing composite" inspired by publicly released Arcada principles.
Kaito watched the stream from the Arcadian outpost, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"They're skipping steps," Liang said flatly.
On-screen, the presenters smiled as their prototype conduit powered a test array. Sensors reported stable output. Applause followed.
Aya overlaid hidden telemetry, her analysis invisible to the broadcast.
"Internal stress accumulation detected," she said quietly. "They are compensating algorithmically for material mismatch."
Kaito nodded. "Software pretending to be physics."
The failure came seventeen minutes later.
Not violently.
Silently.
The conduit sagged inward, its structure losing coherence like cooling wax. Power cut automatically. The presenters laughed nervously, calling it a calibration hiccup.
They ended the stream early.
Footage spread anyway.
Engineers froze the frames. Slowed the collapse. Annotated stress fractures that shouldn't have existed.
"That's not a bug," Liang murmured. "That's the wrong premise."
The second attempt was less public.
A national laboratory, operating under emergency authorization, deployed a "resilience-enhanced" grid segment using experimental alloys and aggressive predictive control.
Aya flagged the deployment before the first load test.
"Probability of cascading failure: thirty-four percent," she said. "Escalation risk non-trivial."
Kaito closed his eyes. "Can we warn them?"
"Yes," Aya replied. "However, disclosure would imply endorsement of partial replication."
Kaito hesitated.
Then shook his head. "Document only."
The failure, when it came, was worse.
Transformers overloaded in sequence, each attempting to compensate for the last. Protective systems tripped too late. A substation went dark.
No casualties.
But the images were ugly.
News outlets ran them on loop.
EXPERIMENTAL GRID UPGRADE FAILS — QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT NEW ENERGY TECH
The narrative pivoted instantly.
"It's starting," Mina said during an emergency call. "They're blaming the idea, not the execution."
Aya projected sentiment analysis. Negative correlation spiked in regions untouched by Arcada systems.
"Public confidence erosion detected," Aya said. "Cause attribution trending toward 'unsafe innovation.'"
Liang slammed a hand onto the table. "They didn't follow the Charter. They didn't even follow basic materials science."
"Doesn't matter," Mina replied. "Perception doesn't care about footnotes."
Kaito stood slowly.
"This is what happens when gates exist," he said. "People try to build ladders instead."
Aya looked at him. "Recommended response?"
Kaito thought of the engineers watching those failures. Of the ones who would now hesitate. Of the ones who would push harder, convinced secrecy was the problem.
"We don't shame them," he said finally. "And we don't gloat."
Mina raised an eyebrow. "Then what?"
"We explain," Kaito replied. "Not how to replicate. Why replication fails."
Aya processed for several seconds. "Selective knowledge release will reduce unauthorized attempts by an estimated forty-one percent."
Liang exhaled. "And anger the rest."
"Yes," Kaito said. "But anger is better than ignorance."
That night, Kaito released a technical brief.
No marketing language. No claims of superiority.
Just failure analysis.
He broke down both incidents—material fatigue, algorithmic overreach, the absence of passive adaptation. He never mentioned Arcadia by name.
Engineers noticed.
Forums lit up with long, careful discussions. Quiet acknowledgments replaced bravado. Some labs halted their projects entirely.
Others doubled down.
Aya tracked a new pattern.
"Unauthorized derivation attempts decreasing in quantity," she reported. "Increasing in sophistication."
Kaito nodded slowly. "The ones who remain are serious."
"Yes," Aya agreed. "And therefore more dangerous."
The disk chimed softly.
DAY 022 — SIGN-IN COMPLETE
No reward followed.
But the system lingered again.
This time, Aya detected a subtle shift in its observation profile.
"The system is recalibrating risk models," she said. "External imitation is now a tracked variable."
Kaito stared at the paused footage of the first failed conduit.
Copycats were inevitable.
Failure was instructive.
But somewhere between the two lay the real danger:
Success without understanding.
And the system was watching closely to see who crossed that line.