The first time Lantern saved a life, it wasn't supposed to be watching.
Kirito stood behind a glass wall, arms crossed, as the city flickered across layered screens.
Traffic heat maps. Medical probability charts. Storm vectors.
Lantern was still in trial phase.
Predictive modeling only.
No authority.
No control.
Just observation.
"It's rerouting an ambulance," Ananya said quietly beside him.
Kirito frowned. "It can't."
"It just did."
On the screen, a collision probability spike formed like a bruise.
Lantern projected a chain reaction: Five vehicles. Two fatalities. Seventeen injuries.
Then it altered a traffic light sequence.
Three seconds earlier than scheduled.
The accident never happened.
The model recalculated.
Zero fatalities.
Kirito exhaled slowly.
"That wasn't in the code."
Ananya smiled, but there was something careful in it.
"It learned," she said.
Behind them, in a quiet hospital room, their newborn daughter slept through the moment the world changed.
Her name was Airi.
And neither of her parents knew that one day—
Lantern would learn how to choose between her and someone else.