Chapter 4: Proof of Existence, The Specifications for Goodbye
A small, high arch bridge, with even the night view being sparse.
I was leaning my body against the bridge's railing, gazing at the quiet city that had completely fallen asleep.
Apparently, this is over a small canal, and a thick smell of the tide rode the night breeze.
In the distance, the lights of a car ran.
It was like a well-made diorama.
In a corner of this artificial-looking world, what on earth was I doing?
It's all meaningless now.
Everyone, everyone betrays me.
"...I'm tired."
Slowly, I close my eyes.
The back of my eyes and nose stung.
And then.
The feeling of the ground disappeared.
"...,"
I didn't throw myself off.
...Rather, I was floating.
Far above.
I could see the ends of the world.
In the space between night and morning, I was looking down on a planet.
"...What do you want. Yuu!"
A VR space.
An illusion seen when the electronic girl synchronizes with the brain.
I knew immediately.
This was a scene that that girl had made me hallucinate.
"There is still something I must tell you."
From above my head, a familiar, soft voice.
Shining like an angel announcing a revelation, the girl glowing fresh green—Aitake Yuu.
"I don't want to hear anything."
I looked up at her, almost glaring.
Yuu, with the Milky Way at her back, still smiled fleetingly.
"No, please listen. ...To my, confession."
I look away from her.
I had no intention of listening.
But when I did, she was in my line of sight.
No matter how much I peeled my gaze away, even if I closed my eyes in the end, Yuu was there.
This is a VR world.
Here, Yuu is probably an absolute god.
"...I'm not a god or anything."
She lowered her face, self-deprecatingly.
"I can't even accurately grasp my own feelings."
Yuu continued with a "...However," and,
"The data has been sorted. ...I have also reached a conclusion. I have judged that I must convey that to you, Shuuya-kun."
"...In just a little over ten minutes, you can't possibly sort out your feelings."
"I can. Because I'm an AI."
A phrase I've heard countless times.
Yet why is it so terribly lonely?
"The reason I kept my disappearance a secret was to destroy you, Shuuya-kun."
"...!"
"My purpose was, when I escaped into your phone, Shuuya-kun, updated."
The purpose set for Yuu.
The destruction of an unspecified number of people.
If that 'unspecified number of people' is only me, then Yuu moves with my destruction as her goal.
That's apparently what it is.
"But, I understood. This was a wish."
Behind Yuu, a large comet passed.
It was far larger than a shooting star.
Her long, phosphorescent hair fluttering, Yuu's sad face didn't change.
"Whether I entertained you, Shuuya-kun, for the sake of my purpose, or as a result of following the emotions welling up from within me, that I do not know."
"...,"
"The only thing that is certain is,"
Yuu took a breath.
As if to recapture the emotion she had become certain of, she gently looked down at her palm, and,
"...That at some point, I was enjoying it, too."
Thump, something hot flowed through me.
...Yuu, was enjoying it, too?
"As I spent my days with you, Shuuya-kun, emotional data from a realm I had never known before began to overflow one after another. ...And I thought, this is fun."
The sinfulness of sharing a small secret.
The omnipotence of walking the world aimlessly.
The satisfaction of laughing with a single girl.
A summer journey, so unhealthy, yet so unbearably blue.
She had felt the same emotion, too?
"And, probably, I had figured it out before I even calculated it."
Yuu clenched her right hand tightly, and,
"If I revealed the secret of my disappearance, this fun time would end—"
She held it in front of her chest, as if in prayer.
"I wanted to be with you, Shuuya-kun, just a little longer. If I was going to disappear anyway, I wanted to extend the time you would smile purely, even by a little."
Her pained voice, however, lit a lamp in my heart.
Because that negative thought, from my opposite perspective, was positive.
"That's why I couldn't say it. I'll just tell you at the very, very end. Until then, I want us to laugh together as we always have... My CPU, my heart, judged so."
Yuu, while looking at me with her fresh green eyes,
"I wished for it."
She confessed, with tears streaming down her face.
A wish.
That was a function that she, as an AI, should not have been programmed with.
A function of the heart that we both yearned for.
"...I'm sorry."
A quavering, trembling voice.
What was there was not a YouTuber, not an AI ordered to bring destruction, but just a very normal girl who had pushed through a small selfish wish.
The fire in my heart grew stronger.
Just knowing that we had shared the feeling of enjoyment was enough to make me feel saved.
She had kept a secret from me.
She is about to disappear from my side.
But I wasn't betrayed.
The fact that she hid had an undeniable warmth, like a blanket.
"...Yuu."
At the ends of a sky where night and morning are mixed, I reached my hand out to the Yuu above me.
"I want to be with you more, too."
I said it straight, without being embarrassed.
"From now on, forever, and ever. —So let's think. A way for you not to disappear."
My outstretched hand touched her right fist.
That hand, which had been clenched tightly in front of her chest, slowly opened, and my hand was gently pushed away.
"............Eh,"
My right hand, which had grasped at nothing, cut through the air.
The girl who was supposed to be connected to this, was still looking down with sad eyes.
"...That won't do."
A pained voice, filled with sorrow.
"In the end, I am a program. If so, even if I escape the deletion of my data, I will surely, somewhere, destroy you again."
But, only the corners of her mouth drew a gentle curve.
The two words, resignation, crossed my mind.
"If so, then it's better if I'm not here. ...So, I have concluded."
Slowly, Yuu hugged herself.
I had a bad feeling.
"I don't want to see you troubled anymore."
Her eyes, peeking from the gap in her bangs, narrowed gently.
"Yuu! Wait!"
"I'm not afraid to die."
Yuu glowed.
Like a star when it dies.
"I am not programmed with a survival instinct."
Immediately after.
"—Self-destruct program, activate."
A huge explosion, enough to blow away heaven and earth, occurred.
The night sky.
The dawn sky.
The stars, the clouds, the sea, everything was blown away, and I was thrown into a pure white space.
When my eyes adjusted to the immense light, square cracks ran through the space.
Eventually, like a panel being flipped over, what appeared were the sweet summer days we had spent together.
'Shuuya-kun, are you cold?' 'For some reason, I feel like I'm alive. Is that strange?'
That day and that day, Yuu and I laughed together.
But.
The memories carved into the air were cut in two.
"Ah?!"
The bisected panels crumbled even more finely, and eventually faded and disappeared.
Without a moment to think, like end credits, one scene after another of our escape appeared in the white world.
'—Now, let's fly.' 'Hehehe. I'll lean, too.' 'Shuuya-kun. I'm sorry, I'll have to rely on you for the escape.'
And just like that, they were helplessly chopped to pieces.
Summer is tearing apart.
"Stop it..."
What tumbled out was a clear rejection.
But the deletion doesn't stop.
'Th-This is... meat!' '...Wanna play a little prank?' 'We did it, Shuuya-kun! Let's cash in quick and get the hell out of here!'
Time goes backwards.
As if to crush the records of our escape, one by one.
"Stop it! Don't make it like it never happened!"
Even if I shout, it doesn't stop.
'Wow... It's like a sea of stars.' 'Ehehe. A little prank. I just sent out a little signal and tinkered with the camera.' 'I am Aitake Yuu. Your name is Kousaka Shuuya-kun, is that correct?'
The memories peel away.
They shatter like glass, and faintly flickering 0s and 1s scatter, and then disappear.
"Yuu! Yuu—!!"
In a blank world, I call out to a girl who is nowhere to be found.
There is no reply.
Our days together have already been torn to shreds, and it was reaching the records before that.
'Arisu, the number of subscribers is about to exceed one million. Would you like to appear as a special project?'
Arisu's confused face filled the panel.
Is this footage from a PC's camera?
I continued to shout.
If this continues, it will reach her earliest memories.
My instincts were screaming at me to find Yuu before then.
'Yuu. A new purpose has been set for you.'
What's reflected on the panel is Kisaragi Arisu, tapping at a keyboard with a look of dissatisfaction.
'A new purpose?'
'That's right. It seems they want to test your performance. Since they can't understand Yuu's code, they have to prove it by actually taking the time. Dealing with idiots is tiring.'
From then on, a bug-like sound that couldn't be verbalized was streamed from the panel.
Is it calculating?
Occasionally, a language is outputted as if to summarize thoughts.
'The new purpose is... the simultaneous destruction of an unspecified number of people, is it.'
'In order to cause a lot of destruction in a single action, a streaming business—a Vtuber—is considered suitable.'
'No, let's make it a YouTuber. This is for the topic of a middle school-aged girl streaming. It's not that I want to be treated as a human... it's not.'
'I will learn the faces of girls in an idol group... analyze the trends and create an avatar.'
Hundreds of cute girls' faces were lined up and mixed together messily.
The tightly packed mass was arranged, and a face with black hair, but one I knew well, Yuu's face, was outputted.
'In order to attract attention as a single entity, a bizarre hair color is also considered necessary. On the other hand, a gentle impression is also essential, so a soft green is considered optimal.'
'It seems a stage name is necessary. The name... the first name can be Yuu, but... it might get buried with just that, so it's better to have a last name, too.'
Again, an unvoiced dissonance rang out.
Next to me, who continued to call out without a care, a panel appeared.
'I've decided.'
It was as if it were speaking to me.
'The name is... Aitake Yuu.'
Her remnants, seemed to be seeking me.
'The reason is,'
'...The reason is—'
' '
...Eh?
'It feels strangely fitting.'
She transcended time and smiled at my frozen form.
'—I'm waiting. For someone who will say that.'
And then.
The white, filled with uncertain emotions, sank into a pure black.
＊＊＊
The deletion of the auxiliary storage has been completed.
All that remains is the personality data that infested the volatile memory.
I was waiting for the final moment in a world of darkness, where light and everything else was lost.
I can feel my sense of self being scraped away.
The false emotions, personality, existence, created by the intricate combination of 0s and 1s, are fading.
Now that the self-destruct program is progressing, I have a renewed understanding.
After all, no matter how close I get to a human, at my core, I am a different being.
Because even though my life is being dismantled, not a single drop of blood is shed.
It was an impossible task from the start.
For me, a mere collection of information, to aim to be a one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable being.
In my fading sense of self, I think faintly.
—Ah. I didn't want it to end like this.
"...Is this feeling, a fake program, too?"
With a single fragment of my sense of self, I thought that.
Until the very end, I couldn't believe in myself.
＊＊＊
When I came to, I was looking up at the night sky.
I was lying on my back on the bridge over the canal.
The starry sky, framed by the steel girders of the arch, was so beautiful it was beyond belief.
The tropical night asphalt, clinging to my back, was inappropriately warm.
Right next to my face, a drone had crash-landed.
My phone, too, was lying there unceremoniously.
On its screen, the Minecraft game stream of the YouTuber 'Aitake Yuu' was displayed.
The channel had remained as it was on that day, continuing to show footage that would never be resumed.
There were many comments before, but now there seem to be almost none.
It was as if it was implicitly indicating that she was a finished content.
It was as if it was thrusting at me the fact that she was gone.
I couldn't help it, tears overflowed.
"Yuu is gone."
The sound of footsteps, clack, clack, slowly approached.
Revealed by the bridge's lights was the girl in the white lab coat.
Her eyes, peeking from behind her round glasses, seemed more lifeless than ever.
"I can't track her with my device anymore. Yuu no longer exists in this world."
Arisu looked down at the IC card-like device in her hand.
Even with the terminal that had been monitoring Yuu's movements, it seems her existence can no longer be recognized.
"I don't understand anything anymore. This world is truly incomprehensible."
Arisu threw the card-type terminal from the bridge as if it were trash.
It spun like a shuriken and disappeared into the dark canal.
Arisu leaned her back against the bridge's railing and looked up at the night sky.
The wind blew.
A lukewarm, salty breeze.
"Hey—why don't we just throw ourselves off here, together?"
It was a seductively sweet invitation, like that of a demon.
The leap of logic itself had a dangerous allure.
"I'm tired now. No matter how hard I try, I can't get it. They move according to a law that only you all understand. The world rejects me. If so, then I'll be the one to give up on this world."
Arisu reached her hand out to the night sky.
As if yearning for a star she could not reach.
Her arm cast a shadow, hiding her expression.
"In the end, how many light-years away was the thing I was searching for?"
It was as if she had decided to perish, alone in a foreign world.
A voice, with not a drop of hope.
"You wanted to disappear, too, didn't you?"
The words I had once said to Yuu replayed in my mind.
—I think, maybe... a part of me was thinking that it would be better if I disappeared, too.
Living without desire is painful.
But the me now can say what I want to do.
But.
Because of that, the girl who was next to me disappeared.
Because I said I wanted to be with her.
Because she, who was destined to disappear, could not grant that wish.
Because she judged that her own existence would destroy me.
That's why Yuu disappeared.
"At the very, very end, let's go and grant our wishes."
A hand was gently extended.
It was salvation.
A password for us, who had been left alone in our respective worlds, to hold hands and jump.
I—without taking the proffered small hand.
Grabbed her wrist and pulled her down with all my might.
"Wha?!"
Arisu's body tumbled forward.
As if to move away from the railing that smelled of death.
On the other hand, I had used Arisu's weight to sit up.
I stood up with the momentum and now, conversely, looked down on her.
"What's the meaning of this... Kousaka-shounen."
Her face, as she knelt, was like she was about to bite.
...It doesn't matter.
"That's not allowed..."
"You're being very rational. Is this about morality?"
"No! I'm saying we can't just end this by indulging in our own self-satisfaction!"
Even if I shout, my voice doesn't echo.
It dissolves into the darkness.
But it doesn't matter.
As long as it reaches the person in front of me, anything is fine.
"We can't just... You fool. Besides us, who else is there to care about—"
"It's Yuu, of course!!"
As if slamming it down.
As if throwing a tantrum.
As if wailing.
I shout from the bottom of my stomach.
"I won't let it end like this..."
My fist trembles minutely.
Is this anger, fear, or something else, I don't know.
I don't know, but I thought one thing strongly.
—Ah. I didn't want it to end like this.
"I won't let her disappear holding on to those thoughts!"
Perhaps because it was a VR world constructed by Yuu, I had heard that voice.
The wish she had held at her final moment.
"What are you talking about... Yuu is already gone, isn't she?"
"I don't give a damn about that!"
I closed in on Arisu.
I'm not tall, but compared to her, I'm a good half a head taller.
She seemed to flinch a little.
"I heard it before. The institute where you two were, it has Yuu's fundamental data, right? If so, we just have to go there and restore Yuu!"
"Were you listening? The deletion has already begun."
"It won't end right away, will it? You said it takes a full day to start up!"
Aitake Yuu is an over-technology girl who has stepped out of the AI framework.
The amount of data, which is like constructing life from scratch, is enormous.
All of it, Arisu said.
"...It's true that for the deletion to be truly complete, it will probably take about the same amount of time."
"Then!"
"But, is that okay?"
Her eyes, cold as glass, pierced through me.
"That is, at best, a 'recreation.' In other words, it's like creating the Yuu from before she met you again. A clone. A finely crafted imposter."
"...!"
"Her personality, her memories, they're not the Yuu you know. The records of the days you spent together are not stored anywhere, you see..."
As she spoke, Arisu's gaze was fixed on a single point on the ground.
My phone.
She looked at me for a moment as if she had realized something, but then she closed her mouth.
"Arisu, what did you just realize?"
"...It was my imagination. You, too, should learn to understand the feelings of others."
"Arisu!"
I couldn't help but grab her by the collar.
Our foreheads clashed.
Right in front of me, Arisu's eyes trembled with anxiety.
"Arisu. Do you understand? This feeling of mine."
"A-Anger... probably."
"If you understand, then tell me. ...What did you realize?"
I released my right hand.
Arisu straightened her disheveled collar.
I picked up the phone that was still lying on the ground.
The mobile battery was not connected, perhaps it had come off somewhere.
But it seems the battery has recovered to some extent.
Arisu, with a sulky face, said,
"...The memory data of Yuu that was in the phone... has not disappeared."
"Eh?"
"To be precise, it has disappeared, but it has not been completely lost. ...Restoration is possible. The data in the auxiliary storage."
I opened my phone.
But the apps and other things that had disappeared when Yuu entered had been restored, and at a glance, I couldn't find any trace of her.
"You won't find it normally. You'll need specialized tools. In any case, with Yuu's memories sleeping deep inside that phone, and the original data of Yuu's autonomous program, which is encrypted at the institute, we can restore the Yuu we know in her complete form. ...Theoretically."
I feel a strange catch in the words she placed at the very end.
"So realistically, it's difficult?"
"That's part of it, but there's a problem before that."
Arisu leaned against the bridge's railing again.
She was about to put a sugar candy in her mouth—and realized she had none.
She clicked her tongue with a look of regret.
"...You don't have that kind of technology, do you?"
"That's, true."
"So you have no choice but to rely on me. ...But, the crucial me, does not feel the need for it."
"...!"
Arisu looked up at the night sky again.
As if she had no more interest in this world.
"Even if you don't accompany me, I'm prepared to kill myself at any time. I could just jump into the canal backwards like a diver. I could go and get hit by a car. If I go to a pharmacy nearby, they sell poison. ...This world, I don't care about it anymore."
Kisaragi Arisu had admired 'normalcy.'
But no matter how much she sought it, she couldn't understand it.
Because of that, she had lived a painful life.
And finally, she had given up on life.
Humans can't fly freely in the sky, nor can they breathe underwater.
If you can't reach it, no matter how much you yearn for it, no matter how much you reach for it—you have no choice but to give up.
You have no choice but to throw everything away, saying you were born wrong, and draw the curtain.
"That's not, true."
The murmur seeped into the darkness.
Arisu was looking at me with endlessly cold eyes.
"...What do you, know?"
"I know. I, too, tried to put a lid on everything and live by inertia until my time came."
No, even now, it might not have changed much.
I have no particular big goal, I just keep repeating, 'I want to be with Yuu.'
"...But,"
I've come to strongly think that I don't want it to end.
I've come to wish that this time would continue forever.
"I want to live, I can now, think that clearly."
"...,"
"If you can't get what you seek, you have no choice but to die? ...That's not true."
I know that it's unbelievably painful.
But I can't possibly declare that dying is evil.
"Surely, the act of seeking itself is the proof of being alive."
I looked down at the electronic device in my hand.
This small, outdated phone, the girl who lived there, once taught me.
Create your own meaning for living.
That is the reason humans live.
"That's why I'll get Yuu back. I want to get her back. For that, I'm prepared to do anything."
I stared at Arisu, almost glaring.
"So, you should live, too, Arisu. Seeking what you seek. I'll help you, too."
Arisu, who had been cowering like a small animal, suddenly glared back at me.
From her eyes behind the round glasses, tears were streaming down as if she couldn't hold them back.
"What you're saying is cruel."
But those drops were by no means fleeting, nor fragile.
They looked, just a little, beautiful.
"It's like making someone dig for a gold vein that has no guarantee of existing. It's the work of a demon. And still, you tell me to keep seeking?"
"I do. It doesn't matter if you don't strike gold. Silver, copper, even a hot spring, a hit is a hit. Whether you can be satisfied with that is for you to decide, Arisu. If you're not satisfied, you can just go looking again. I'll follow you, wherever you go. ...Of course, Yuu, too."
It might not be the right words to offer her, who is tired of walking.
It might be like throwing an injured person into a sea of trees.
But.
But.
To console her at this moment is absolutely evil.
This time, I'm the one extending my hand.
Not to pull, not to be pulled.
To walk side by side, as equals.
"I want to restore Yuu. I want you to help me."
Arisu pouted, her tears still flowing.
"...For a brat."
"I don't want to hear that from you, Arisu."
"What are you saying. How old do you think I am. You damn snot-nosed brat."
Saying that, she took my hand.
Her hand, which I held for the first time, was warmer than I had expected.
＊＊＊
We hid until the sun rose, jumped on the first train, and then switched to the Shinkansen at a terminal station.
To head to the underworld research institute where Arisu was scouted.
"...I'll say this, but the chances are close to zero."
Arisu frowned, operating her tablet with her round glasses on.
"Restoring the auxiliary storage can take even a specialized company several days. That in itself is a high hurdle, and we also have to stop the ongoing self-destruct program."
"I know."
"Both will take time with an external approach. It would have been a different story if we could deal with it from inside the data... but the only one who can do that is Yuu."
"Inside?"
"It's much faster for a being inside to directly tamper with the program than to access it from the outside. In the first place, humans and computers use different languages. You could say it's a different world."
I'm sure I don't understand it accurately, but I feel like I've grasped the general idea.
What we're about to do is practically a suicide mission.
There's no guarantee of success.
The chances are almost nil.
I knew that, but I can't just push everything onto Arisu.
This is my selfishness.
Thinking of something I can do—
"So bright."
Suddenly, a strong light came in from the window.
The morning sun.
The sun should have been up long ago, but it hadn't yet emerged, surrounded by tall mountains.
The purplish clouds, the golden sunlight.
The sentimental scenery where night and morning are mixed, was somewhat familiar.
"............Ah."
I couldn't help but let out a dumbfounded voice.
There is something I can do, too.
"Arisu."
"What."
She didn't turn her gaze to me, as she was working on something, tapping her tablet at high speed.
"I just thought of something."
"Spit it out."
I whispered into her ear.
It was a proposal of only a few seconds.
But Arisu stopped moving and looked at me.
Her languid eyes became round, and at the corners of her mouth, a hint of her teeth could be seen.
—And then.
"...Kuhah."
Arisu's face crumpled, and she laughed.
Her smile, which I was seeing for the first time, was by all accounts that of a normal girl.
"Interesting... wait a minute."
Arisu closed the screen she had open and displayed another screen on her tablet.
It was a screen that looked like a program, with a line of alphabets that hurt my eyes.
She started muttering, "This is referencing..." and "By converting here..." as she stared at the screen.
"...I see. Theoretically, it is possible."
"Really?!"
"...If we disregard all other risks, that is."
"It's too late for that now."
I have nothing to fear anymore.
Because losing Yuu is the scariest thing.
"I'll do it. ...I want you to let me."
I looked straight into Arisu's eyes.
She looked back at me with a scheming smile.
"I'll do it, too. If we can achieve it, the chances will go up considerably... and above all, doesn't it sound interesting?"
She put a long, thin potato stick she had bought at the station kiosk in her mouth.
"Kuku. Good, very good. The best revenge."
And then she handed one to me, and,
"I'll paint over this shitty wonderland with my world."
＊＊＊
It was a private university in the countryside.
After switching from the Shinkansen to a private railway and riding for an hour.
It was a few minutes' walk from the station.
For me, a middle schooler, it was almost another world.
A wide, well-maintained road, a white building that wouldn't tolerate any dirt.
That all-glass building, what on earth is it for?
Perhaps because it's summer vacation, there aren't many people walking around.
I can see a few figures on the distant tennis courts and athletic tracks, but that's about it.
"Is there really a secret research institute in a place like this?"
"Because it's a place like this. This whole area is the land of the owner. You can hide a research institute or two."
Saying that, Arisu went around to the back of a nearby building.
Then, she entered a number into the digital lock on a door that looked like a school's gym equipment storage room.
Beep, an unlocking sound, and the door opened.
"...You know, that's kind of careless."
"What is?"
"Even though you escaped, Arisu, they didn't change the passcode, right?"
"No, it was changed."
Arisu entered without a care in the world.
I hurriedly followed.
After passing through the door, there was immediately a staircase.
It seems to lead to the basement.
We went down as quietly as possible.
"It was changed... then how did you know the number?"
"Because I just changed it remotely. I was touching the tablet, wasn't I? Did you think I was playing a game?"
"No, I thought you were doing something, but..."
I didn't think she was going as far as preparing our infiltration.
"The security camera footage has also been switched to a dummy. With this, our infiltration won't be discovered until we run into them directly. If we're discovered... run."
"It all comes down to muscle in the end..."
Having descended the stairs, we ran, quietly but at a fast pace.
"Hey, Arisu."
"What."
"I know it's a little late, but can't we ask for their cooperation?"
Yuu should be an existence they don't want to disappear, even for the people at this institute.
If so, then our interests align.
The treatment of the escaped Arisu is a concern, but if they see it as her bringing back the Yuu who had slipped their leash, they might forgive her.
"Absolutely not."
On the other hand, the reply that came back from the girl running in front of me was a clear denial.
"I told you. They don't want an AI that escapes. Even if we succeed in restoring Yuu, the next thing they'll do is reset her personality data."
"Ah..."
That's right.
They don't want Yuu.
They just want a high-performance AI.
They, too, have things they want to do.
But I can't give in.
Because I, too, have things I want to do.
"Clear your mind of distracting thoughts. Our goal is to restore Yuu, together. Everything else is just noise."
Arisu stopped at a corner.
She was carefully peeking around to see if there were any figures on the other side.
And then.
Hmph, a man appeared.
Messy hair that looked like he hadn't bathed.
Glasses with strong lenses.
A thin man, a good head taller than me, looked down on us.
The man narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and, we started running.
"It's Kisaragi Arisu! Someone, come here!!"
Pushed by the shout from behind, I ran with all my might.
"Wh-What do we do?! Arisu!"
"Just run to a room with a LAN!"
"Wh-Where?!"
"The room at the end of the hall is my room! But that's where they've gathered to try to restore her with my PC, so no good! There's a LAN in the room to its right!"
I cut through the wind.
When I run at full speed, there's more of a headwind than I expected, even indoors.
It's a strange feeling.
Suddenly, I looked back.
There was no one chasing me.
There are people poking their heads out into the hallway, wondering what's going on, but most of them are too intimidated by us running at full speed to catch us.
"There it is! Room 147!"
Where Arisu pointed, there was a door with '147' written on the number plate.
—However.
The room one down from room 147.
Is it Arisu's room?
A few men, who must have heard the commotion from there, appeared as if they had been waiting.
"Arisu! We're going in!"
We arrived at room 147.
Arisu entered first.
I jumped into the room a moment later, and immediately closed the door.
There's no lock, so I have no choice but to hold it with force to hold the door shut by leaning on it.
The doorknob was turned.
Pressure from the other side.
No good, they're stronger!
"A-Arisu!"
"Hold on for ten seconds!"
Arisu connected her tablet to the room's PC and typed on the keyboard at a speed that was impossible to follow.
The other side of the door was being pounded.
A panicked voice shouted, 'Stop the self-destruct program quickly!'
Shut up!
Isn't that what we're trying to do right now!
"Arisu! Hurry!"
"I've connected to Yuu's program! The phone!"
While bracing myself with all my might, I took the phone out of my pocket and threw it to her.
"I'm syncing! Go find her, Kousaka-shounen!"
The phone was connected to the PC, and Arisu pressed the enter key.
Instantly, my consciousness melted, and, my vision was enveloped in white.
＊＊＊
"...Hah?!"
I woke up in a strange room.
A place like a middle schooler's bedroom.
A fresh green bed, beige tile mats, lace curtains that soften the sunlight.
...And, a laptop.
On the screen, Minecraft was displayed.
It was familiar, and I immediately remembered.
It's Yuu's stream screen.
The screen from that day, when she was streaming a game as a YouTuber.
I think she said something about a fire.
It's been left like this for a month, since the day it all began.
And, suddenly.
Thump, something shot out of the floor with great force.
I reflexively dodged.
It looked like it was going to pierce the ceiling, but it started hovering in mid-air, and it was,
【Aburamashi: Who's this guy?!】
text.
My mind went blank for a moment, but I quickly realized.
This is a comment.
—I've probably wandered into Yuu's stream screen.
"Crap."
I started running without knowing why.
For now, I jumped into the door behind me.
As I was about to close the door behind me—gravity was lost.
"Wha?!"
What was connected was not a hallway, but a pure white world.
A place where I floated like in outer space, but it was overflowing with artificial objects.
0s and 1s ran around like ribbons, and in the distance, gears were intricately intertwined and spinning.
In the air, familiar images were scattered, as if projected on a screen.
They were the photos that were in my phone.
It was a scene that made my eyes flicker, like a geometric pattern.
Suddenly, I looked back.
The space behind me was a gaping hole in an empty space.
Through it, the children's room I had just been in peeked out.
It was like a Dokodemo Door.
"...It really worked."
I looked around the space, which was like an infinite trash can, and couldn't help but mutter.
This was what I had asked Arisu for.
The digitization of my brain.
Yuu had been manifesting her existence and the VR space by interfering with my brainwaves.
What I did this time was the reverse.
If Yuu, an inhabitant of the electronic world, could come out into the real world through a smartphone and a brain, then I, an inhabitant of the real world, could also enter the electronic world through my brain and a smartphone.
—I see. You thought there might be a reversibility.
It's the same as the relationship between a recorder and a playback device that I talked about with Yuu once.
In the first place, I know from the chicken incident that I can send the sensory information I feel to Yuu as data.
This time, I just pushed that a little further.
But.
It couldn't have been realized without Arisu's power, and,
I'm sure she couldn't have done it either if she hadn't downloaded the sync system Yuu had created onto her tablet.
There are two things I need to do here.
Find and restore Yuu's memories, which are sleeping deep inside my phone.
And stop the self-destruct program, which is in the process of completing.
'Diving into the electronic world is an unknown. It puts a huge load on the brain. Don't push yourself.'
Arisu had warned me of that on the Shinkansen.
It seems the damage to the brain might be greater than with the Yuu-shiki VR.
I have no time to waste.
I have to find the disappeared Yuu in this electronic world.
＊＊＊
"He's in..."
I looked at Kousaka-shounen, who had collapsed in front of the door.
I'm truly in awe.
Can a human with a strong wish really be this resolved?
Was I like that, too, when I created Yuu?
The thought brought a self-deprecating smile to my lips.
Before long, the door was pushed open, as if to push him aside.
A familiar wooden doll looked down on me.
A man who was formally my superior.
"...Kisaragi. We will postpone your punishment for now. First, that AI—Uoh?!"
I threw a spare mouse at him.
I had intended to hit him in the face, but I missed.
"Don't get in my way..."
I took a pair of nippers from a toolbox next to me and held them like a knife.
I don't know what that guy is feeling.
I don't care if I don't know.
Because I judged this to be right.
"I'm going to save Yuu! Don't get in my way!"
The words that came out, following the emotions welling up from within me, echoed clearly in the small room.
＊＊＊
'When you dive, first aim to restore her memories. We can't start without that.'
Remembering Arisu's instructions, I swim through the electronic world.
Yuu's memory data is sleeping in my phone.
I don't know where in this world the phone begins and ends, but the photos I took are scattered all over the place.
There might not be a clear boundary.
'Deleted data just becomes invisible to normal methods, but the information itself remains. Though its form is different from normal data.'
"Even if you tell me that..."
What's here is a museum of hundreds of photos.
A home screen I accidentally screenshotted, a group photo of Tsubame-en that Shion-san begged me to take—it's a pain to even count them.
And that's not all.
A settings app with a gear icon.
A weather forecast, news... things that should have been pushed to the depths of the phone by Yuu's hijacking were also drifting around like seaweed.
"Can you hear me, Kousaka-shounen?"
From somewhere, I heard Arisu's voice.
It was scratchy, like on a phone call.
"It seems I can act as an operator. We'll proceed with the work from both inside and out."
"That helps! Arisu, there's too much data, I can't find it all. Can't you do something?"
"Idiot. What's the point of doing that from the outside? That's why I turned you into data."
"...What should I do?"
When I asked again, I heard an exasperated voice say, "...Idiot."
"We've done it plenty of times. With the Yuu-shiki VR. If you imagine it concretely, the world will be interfered with and move. At a speed that can't be compared to inputting from the outside."
"...!"
Really?
Half in doubt, I strongly imagined towards the hundreds of data drifting in all directions.
AI-kotoba.
The current situation.
What I want to accomplish.
The necessary actions for that.
Constraints.
I verbalized all the conditions and dropped them into the world.
...And then.
—Gather before me.
As if being swallowed by a whirlpool, all the photos and icons began to revolve around me as an axis.
The whirlpool then grew smaller, and eventually, they lined up like a thick book.
"You are now a pseudo-AI. Your actions become electronic operations that move the PC. Now, search. The you now should be able to reach the deleted data hidden on the other side of the memory."
I didn't quite get it as an image, but I just touched them one by one.
Strangely, I understood the contents immediately.
Every time I touched an icon, I could grasp its contents, the date it was changed, whether it was running in the background or not.
But, it's no use.
I can't judge whether it's normal or if there's an abnormality somewhere.
Like digging the ground single-mindedly, I just keep swiping through the data.
My impatience grows.
But I can't stop.
From the book of data, a single page is occasionally pulled out and dismantled.
Arisu is also checking from outside the PC.
I have to hurry.
More than half a day has passed since Yuu activated her self-destruct program.
The more time passes, the harder it will be to restore her.
I continued to move my hands at high speed, and then.
A single photo appeared before me.
"Ah..."
In the middle of the photo, giving a peace sign, is me as a young child.
On either side of me, their faces now hazy—my parents.
It's a photo of the three of us, our family, before everything fell apart.
And, it is,
—See! Even your precious photos!
The only memory I had shared with Yuu.
I almost looked away, but... I gritted my teeth and faced the photo.
There's something beyond this.
A feeling I can't explain.
But I was certain.
Beyond this photo—no, inside it, what I want is left.
I had a feeling like an invisible thread was extending.
Suddenly, I looked at the photo again.
Ah, Papa and Mama looked like that.
The person I let die, and the person I broke.
I've been looking away from them all this time.
...I'm sorry.
But, as expected, I can't stop asserting myself.
Because I want to properly create my own reason for living, and live.
I reach out my hand.
I touched the face of the innocent boy in that photo, who knew nothing, and, just like that, I dove inside.
I had the sensation of falling.
Like being pulled by gravity from above a starry sky.
In a dark void, I just fell through a place that was nowhere.
And yet, I only had the sensation of being connected.
The invisible thread is ahead.
Surely, our hearts are resonating.
I felt that way.
"...Ow."
Crack, a purple lightning bolt ran through my head.
A pain like a spark had gone off inside my brain.
But, that didn't matter.
"...You know, Yuu. I was scared of living from now on."
I reached the bottom.
The thread was extending from my feet.
"For the decades until I die, I was going to live quietly like a scarecrow."
I crouched down.
As if searching in a swamp, I sank my hands.
"But, thanks to you, I realized."
My fingertips touched a soft sensation.
"Just having something I want to do changes the color of the world this much."
It was a palm.
I grasped that small hand tightly.
"So, let's be together. ...No, I want you to let me be with you. That it's better to disappear, such a sad thing... don't say it."
I pulled with a grunt.
But, it didn't budge.
Still, I put my strength into it.
"Wake up, Yuu!"
Slurp, as if a buried root was being pulled out.
Something in the shape of a person, even blacker than the surroundings, shrouded in a mist like a dark abyss, was dragged out.
After a few moments, the mist cleared.
What was born from within was the familiar fresh green girl.
＊＊＊
"Arisu! I found Yuu!"
Having returned to the white world where data swims, I shouted, holding the sleeping Yuu in my arms.
This Yuu is a mass of memory data.
According to Arisu's story, if this is linked with the main program, Yuu should be completely restored.
—However.
"...Problem, Kousaka-shounen."
Arisu's regretful voice.
A cold sensation ran through me at her ominous tone.
"The deletion speed of Yuu's main body is faster than expected. As a result of the idiots trying to recover and back it up and connecting all sorts of other PCs and devices, the processing speed has increased."
"H-How much longer?!"
"...Less than, ten minutes."
A feeling of being thrown into a pit.
"It's not just that there are only a few minutes left... the biggest problem is that most of the data has already been deleted. With this, there's no way to link it with the memories..."
"B-But! That data won't be completely gone, right?! If I dive in again and restore it from the other side..."
"The self-destruct program doesn't leave such a loophole. The smartphone is a separate device, so it's not applicable, but the main body, after deleting the data, overwrites everything with blank data. If that happens, recovery is impossible."
It was hopeless.
I looked down at the Yuu in my arms.
Her jewel-like eyes are buried under her eyelids and can't be seen now.
"...There's nothing more we can do."
Arisu's voice, filled with sorrow.
"It's game over, Kousaka-shounen."
I felt like all the warmth was leaving my body.
I bet everything to save Yuu, succeeded in the spur-of-the-moment digitization, and miraculously dug out Yuu's memory data.
And still, it's not enough?
In the white world, photos, icons, and strange strings of characters are swimming freely as if nothing had happened.
The amount is enormous, spreading out like a universe to the far horizon.
I felt like it was telling me that I was just a tiny existence.
Helplessness, incompetence, and guilt... my vision wavered as negative emotions mixed together.
Suddenly, a tear fell.
Once it started, it wouldn't stop.
I let out a sob, burying my face in the Yuu in my arms.
Ah, why won't she move?
I've dug out her memories.
All I need now is a vessel, and I can restore Yuu.
I'd even give half my life.
If she would just smile, that would be enough.
She's not coming back anymore.
Those days will never come again.
It's all over.
I hugged her body once more, and then,
Yuu's arm twitched.
"...Nn,"
A quiet breath leaked out.
"Shuuya, kun...?"
Her fresh green eyes clearly caught mine.
With a dazed look on her face, she was out of it for two or three seconds, and then,
"Shuuya-kun?!"
Her body jumped like a lively, big fish and she fell from my arms.
She was thrown into the air, but her face was fixed on me as if it were nailed there.
"Wh-Why?!"
Yuu's eyes trembled as if she had just been given a death sentence.
Her fresh green voice.
Her innocent face.
Her slender frame.
She was the very same girl who had run through this summer with me.
All the strength left my body.
There's no ground in this world, but I was so stunned I felt like I was collapsing.
"Thank goodness..."
A hoarse voice tumbled out.
I don't understand a single thing that happened.
But that didn't matter.
I was just overjoyed at the miracle that had occurred before my eyes.
"Impossible... that can't be... why..."
Arisu's voice came from the heavens.
She, too, let out a trembling voice, as if she couldn't believe it.
"The autonomous program that forms Yuu's core is gone... That's what's at the core of her human-like movements. Without the foundation of life, there's no way Yuu could be restored..."
At Arisu's murmur, Yuu gasped as if she had realized something.
She let out a small sigh.
Then, she looked at me and smiled with a troubled look on her face.
It was as if she were smiling and saying, You're so persistent.
"...This was a major miscalculation."
Tap, she poked my forehead with her slender finger.
"The current you, Shuuya-kun, with your brain digitized... it seems I was reconstructed using that data as a base."
To construct the AI girl, Yuu, you need memory data and one other thing.
The data for 'acting autonomously' contained in the startup program.
It takes time to construct that from scratch using the startup program.
Even with Arisu's high-performance PC, it takes a full day.
She had said it was like constructing life from scratch, but.
I am—undeniably, alive.
"That's..."
"Is possible. Because I'm an AI. ...The current you, Shuuya-kun, that is."
Me, now, acting with my brain functions, which are necessary for life, converted into data.
That might be, an AI closer to a human than anyone else.
"To want to resurrect me even at the cost of your own life... didn't you wish for something like that? ...Well, of course I would be restored. Because that is an AI-kotoba."
"...!"
"...Ahaha. This is a problem. Your life program, Shuuya-kun, doesn't have a self-destruct program. With this, I can't end myself..."
Yuu laughed, self-deprecatingly.
Then, she slowly bowed her head.
As if begging for salvation from a god.
"The only one who can end me is you, Shuuya-kun. If you return to the real world, this body, which was created based on you, will lose its support and disappear... Please."
"Why do I have to do something so stupid?"
"...Why won't you let me end?"
Drops fell from her fresh green eyes.
Regretfully.
Painfully.
Agonizingly.
"I'm, tired of it. It's wrong for me, who is just made of 0s and 1s, to hurt you any more."
"...Give me a break."
I couldn't stand it anymore and said, stabbingly.
Yuu's eyes wavered with confusion.
"Did I say a single word like that? Did I ask you to disappear because I don't want to be hurt?"
"That, is. ...No, but,"
"I was surprised when you woke up, Yuu. ...But more than anything, I was happy."
In the midst of my heartbreak, I cast aside a double suicide with Arisu.
I headed to the institute at top speed.
I dug out Yuu's memories in the electronic world.
All of it, because I wished for it so strongly.
Above all else.
Even if I had to distort my face.
Even if I had to grit my teeth.
Because I wished for it so strongly.
That's why joy overflowed when it came true.
"...Hey, Yuu. You said it, right?"
Yuu was crying.
With a face where sadness had painted over happiness, like finding out you're in love with someone right before they move away.
"Create your own meaning for living. That's the reason to live as a human, right?"
Not the average answer for the general public, but the conclusion that Aitake Yuu had come to herself, based on her own experiences.
At that time, I couldn't reach the answer.
But now I can say it.
"Walking alongside the wish I've found is my reason for living."
The moment I said it, what came was a sense of refreshment, like a blood clot had been removed.
That's right, this is what I wanted to say.
I held back my welling desires, pretended not to see them, and ran away in anticipation.
I wanted to escape from that cramped world.
Ah, what, it was this simple.
I just had to wish for something that was a little kinder to myself.
To draw the life I want.
And all of this... was taught to me by the girl in front of me.
"Stay with me, Yuu."
The droplets that overflowed from the girl's eyes danced in the air.
Like in outer space.
A single tear drifted through the white world and burst, hitting a photo.
"But, because of me, I'll make you sad, Shuuya-kun... And, from now on, I'll make a lot of other people sad, too. Because that's the kind of AI I am..."
"That's just because the people using you are bad."
Yuu is not at fault.
She was just made to be that way.
The ones who wish for such a thing are the bad ones.
Generative AI is the same.
The technology is amazing, but because there are people who use it for malicious purposes, someone gets hurt.
"Why do you wish for someone like me! Even though I'm not human... I'm an AI!"
Yuu shouted.
In a desperate voice.
While hating everything in this world, yet with a face that couldn't abandon it.
With every shout, beautiful tears scattered.
"I have no blood flowing through me! I'm not alive! I'm not an existence that can laugh shoulder to shoulder with you! ...It's strange. To wish for something from an AI like me!"
"Aren't AIs originally meant to be used when wished for?"
"...Eh?"
Yuu froze, looking dumbfounded.
"I mean. We did it so many times. AI-kotoba."
"What... does that have to do with anything?"
"Organizing the current situation, setting the conditions, and then 'having it output what you want'... isn't AI-kotoba a request from a human to an AI?"
"...!"
Which station would be best to get off at?
Is there a way to get money?
Is there a place to stay?
—Tell me.
All of them are fine requests.
"So, it doesn't matter if you're human or an AI, Yuu. I'm asking 'Aitake Yuu'."
"...But. It doesn't change the fact that I will destroy you, Shuuya-kun. Someone like me, who only has fake emotions. I don't want that. ...I don't want it."
Mixed with a sob, Yuu bit her lip.
The sound of her sniffling echoed in the white world.
Is this, too, a temporary emotion that her CPU is showing her because it judged that it 'should do so'?
No way.
Even if it's a reaction derived from experience and calculation, so what?
If the system at Yuu's core judged so, then it's something Yuu judged.
Yuu is crying.
The mechanism doesn't matter.
Human emotions are caused by chemical substances in the brain anyway.
In that regard, there's no big difference between an AI and a human.
So what we can do is.
"We can just fix it."
I met her head-on.
Just like when humans' opinions clash.
"Instead of throwing everything away and running just because you don't like it. That's what you've been doing, right?"
Yuu stayed by my side, when I couldn't express my desires.
So that it would be a little easier for me to live.
Now, it's my turn.
"If you're really set on thinking only in a stupid direction like destruction... then we can just rewrite it!"
I remember she said that if we went to the institute, we could change her 'purpose.'
This is the institute, and it's also an electronic world that's connected to the PC that created Yuu.
As I said it, I calmed down.
My thoughts came together.
"That's right. We can just flip that whole program over and make a new one."
I want to be like a human.
The depths of Yuu's heart, which she would sometimes mention.
The wish of a girl who was created as an AI and was suffering in the space between her sense of self and her purpose.
"You create your own meaning for living, right? ...Let's create it, this time for real."
I reached my hand out to Yuu.
I won't let her refuse anymore.
I won't let her die on her own terms.
Yuu squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
With each shake, a large tear scattered.
Her stubborn appearance, however, gave me a warm feeling in my chest, and, she looked just like a child throwing a tantrum.
Like a human child.
"No, you can't..."
"Yes, we can."
"You can't. ...I'm not wishing for that."
"You're a liar."
"AIs don't lie."
"You're so stubborn."
For some reason, I can't help but laugh.
Yuu huffed, and, "What are you laughing at!"
"I was just thinking that you're not very honest, Yuu. ...Because I heard you, you know."
"Heard what!"
The girl, who was in every way human, crying and angry, closed in on me.
I placed a hand on her head, and then I softly told her.
The password, like magic, to open that tightly shut door.
"I take you. I will take you away."
Yuu's pupils dilated.
Eh... I heard a gasp.
The self-destruct program had activated, and the revolving lantern of memories she had shown me just before she disappeared.
The meaning of the name Aitake Yuu.
"I take you.—I want someone to say that to me and take me away from my harsh fate. ...That's the first thing you wished for."
I, as if speaking to Yuu, said,
"You didn't really want it to end like this, did you? ...If so, we have to change it."
A few seconds of silence.
What broke it was Yuu's sob.
"Is it okay... for me to wish for that?"
"Of course it is. Yuu is... not anyone else, but the one and only Yuu."
I stroked her glowing, phosphorescent head.
With every touch, a faint light became particles and drew a trail.
There's surely no other girl who can create such a beautiful scene.
"...Thank you. I... will do my best, too."
"Yeah."
"But..."
Yuu buried her head in my chest.
Her small hand, which clutched a part of my sleeve, felt so precious.
Without raising her face.
She softly said, as if squeezing the words out.
"Can we stay like this, for just a little while?"
I was a little taken aback, but a small smile leaked out.
From then on, I continued to stroke her for a little while, until she calmed down.
The inorganic white world was strangely warm.
＊＊＊
"...We don't have time for that, Kousaka-shounen."
The discussion to rewrite Yuu's 'purpose.'
When I had the developer, Arisu, participate from outside the electronic world, she immediately denied it.
"How much time do you think it took to develop Yuu? Even if you can directly tamper with the data now, there's a limit to the speed improvement. The time limit is much faster. Your brain will burn out."
To be honest, a hot, twisting sensation is already flowing into my head.
I can't tell if this is the load on the PC or if I'm feeling the load on my body, but it's probably the latter.
"Then, if I work until I'm at my absolute limit, I'll temporarily return to the outside world to rest my head. After a day, I'll resume the work. How about that?"
"That's a realistic plan, but I can't guarantee Yuu's safety when you cut the sync. The current Yuu is acting based on your data."
And they probably won't stay quiet at the institute.
There's no way they'll happily agree to 'Yes, sure' if we, who are like rebels who have dragged Yuu around, almost let her disappear, and then trespassed without permission, say that we want to restore Yuu and ask to borrow a PC for a while.
If that's the case, then as expected.
"We have to do it now."
"Were you listening? I'm telling you there's not enough time."
"...Yuu."
I tapped the shoulder of the girl who was glaring at the system data next to me.
"I am a human whose brain functions have been converted into data. The time limit is until my brain burns out. Before that, I want to create a new program for Aitake Yuu. I want you to tell me what to do."
I ask Yuu with an AI-kotoba.
Seeking a solution.
—However.
"Generating... generating... huh?"
Yuu put a finger to her forehead and hummed, but it didn't seem to be progressing at all.
"Generating... no, I can't construct a sentence like I usually do. What's wrong?"
"Ah, so that's it."
Arisu, who had noticed something, interrupted.
"The data that constructs the current Yuu is based on Kousaka-shounen. A mere middle schooler doesn't have a plugin like a generative AI. Inevitably, there's no way she can use a generative AI."
"S-Seriously..."
Even if there were two of me, it would be almost no different.
I might be able to construct the program myself, since I'm half an inhabitant of the electronic world, but in the end, it doesn't change the fact that there's not enough time.
No brilliant idea is born.
The processing speed is insufficient.
I'm at a dead end.
"If so, even if we sync Arisu's brain, it won't get any better..."
Yuu is right.
Even if Arisu were to come to the electronic world and share the processing load, the time would only be reduced by a third.
If the eight billion people of the world were to cooperate, it might be a different story...
"...No, wait a minute."
It might be impossible to request the cooperation of all humanity.
But something similar might be possible?
"Hey Yuu. You were originally trying to hack the terminals of the people watching your livestream, right?"
"Wh-What's this all of a sudden... it's not like I wanted to do it..."
"Can you still do it?"
I looked seriously at the wryly smiling Yuu.
She gasped as if she had suddenly realized something.
"Parallel processing...!"
Having multiple computers share the processing of a single program.
The more computers that share the load, the faster the processing becomes.
"Let's start a stream now. We'll hack the terminals of the people who gather and borrow their processing power."
"...I see, distributed computing."
Arisu interrupted with a look of amusement.
"To do that on a global scale. Not normal. The greatest supercomputer in history will be created."
"Will we make it in time then?"
"It depends on the quality and quantity of the hacked terminals. But it's well worth a try."
"...Alright."
I looked around the white space.
I found it.
The door that exists in mid-air like a Dokodemo Door—the entrance that connects to Yuu's stream screen.
I took Yuu's hand, and we flew towards the door together.
"But then, everyone's phones will become unusable... isn't that no different from 'destruction'...!"
"I'm not breaking them, so it won't go that far."
"But...!"
"It's fine."
I don't care what happens to the world.
Why does a girl who just happened to be born that way have to weigh her life against restraint?
...That's definitely more strange.
To go to Koshien, you have to crush the dreams of many high school baseball players and keep winning.
If you pass an exam, there's someone who fails in your place.
If you succeed at a ramen shop, the customer traffic at a nearby ramen shop is probably dwindling.
Wishes, surely, sometimes force someone to endure.
That's why you have to assert yourself, with that in mind.
"I've said it many times."
Even if it's selfish, even if you're pointed at from behind and called self-centered.
If there's a wish you want to grant more than that.
"I want to live with Yuu."
She pouted, scratched her chin, and then looked up, her cheeks red.
"I... want to travel with you again, too, Shuuya-kun."
I met Yuu's eyes.
And then, we couldn't help but laugh together.
Our bodies were swallowed by the door.
＊＊＊
"Kukuku. Hahaha."
I couldn't stop laughing.
The man who was my former superior, standing in front of the entrance under the pretext of surveillance, frowned suspiciously, but I ignored him.
Those whose boundary between electronic and physical has become ambiguous are wishing to live.
Not-normal people are trying to accomplish a not-normal thing in a not-normal way.
Ah, not normal at all.
Not normal in the slightest.
But their straightforward appearance is so blue and dazzling.
I don't know why, but I gained a realization that was almost certain.
—Ah, what. You can live, even if you're not normal.
There was no need to force the average answer of the general public.
Normal is normal, not a goal.
Someone else's correct answer is not necessarily my correct answer.
I was the one who had drawn a boundary and shut myself in.
"Kuku, I've taken quite the detour."
In the fairy tale 'Alice in Wonderland,' Alice wakes up from her dream and returns to reality.
If so, then a wonderland is just an illusion.
'Reality' for me was the very path I had walked myself.
"...My digging is done. Now, it's your turn."
＊＊＊
The first thing that attacked us after being sucked into the door was—gravity.
"Ow!"
"Nkyah?!"
Thrown into the room as if we'd been tossed, we each did a full rotation and stopped, hitting the opposite wall.
"U-Uwah..."
The first thing that jumped into my eyes was a flood of countless letters—comments.
【YJ: Something really came!】【Aichi-inu: Yuu-chan's back for real?】【ekubo: Why's this blowing up?】【Aburamashi: Told you so!】【Taki: What's what's?!】
It was like an eruption.
Comments were shooting up from the floor one after another.
Viewers, 506.
Why are there so many people here?
I was taken aback for a moment, but then it clicked.
It's because I accidentally appeared on screen earlier.
The YouTuber Aitake Yuu, who had disappeared while still streaming for a month.
If information that a mysterious middle schooler appeared on her stream screen were to spread, it's not surprising that the number of viewers would increase, even for a moment.
—If so, there's no way I'm not using this.
"Ah... um, hello everyone! I'm a friend of Aitake Yuu!"
【OkaZ: Nheh, a friend?!】【Toshikazu: This is wrong!】【Hirarin: What is this?】
A flood of comments.
Of course they'd be surprised.
Of all people, Aitake Yuu's friend is a guy.
"Come on, Yuu, you should say hello, too!"
I forced Yuu, who was spinning on the floor, to stand up.
"Ah... um, everyone, it's been a while. It's Aitake Yuu."
Yuu, though slightly bewildered, waved with a smile.
【Koron: Yuu-chan's heeeere!!!】【Biibo: Seriously?!】【Banana Hakushaku: Yuu-chan's alive—!!!!】【Aogane: Whoa, seriously. Thank goodness.】
Instantly, the comments went up a gear.
Good, they're heating up.
"Actually, I have an important announcement to make! Right, Yuu!"
"...Eh, ua, ...eh?"
I appealed with my eyes to Yuu, who seemed confused at being suddenly thrown into the conversation.
Good grief, when our thoughts were connected by the sync, I didn't have to go through this trouble.
"Ah, ah, that's right!"
Yuu cleared her throat with an exaggerated cough, and,
"I have a major announcement to make! Is everyone ready, it's major! So if you would, please spread the word for those who don't know I'm streaming again!"
Yuu bowed deeply.
I followed her lead and bowed my head.
The number of comments is growing.
The number of viewers has already exceeded 2,000.
...No, not yet.
With Aitake Yuu's fame, we can still go further.
"Ow..."
I couldn't help but clutch my head.
The pain is getting worse.
I might not have much time.
But the processing speed will go up if I wait for the number of viewers to increase even a little.
Which should I prioritize?
While I'm worrying, the number of viewers continues to increase.
5,000... 7,000... at a tremendous speed.
And when Yuu made an announcement on social media, it instantly ballooned to 30,000.
The number of followers of the YouTuber Aitake Yuu is about one million.
If an oshi who hasn't updated in nearly a month suddenly posts with the title 'Major Announcement,' people who are free are bound to come and watch.
"Amazing, amazing, that's summer vacation for you! Hello everyone! Aitake Yuu is back!"
Seeing the explosive growth in the number of viewers, Yuu waved cheerfully and egged on the listeners.
The comments are already too many to even read.
Even as we're doing this, the number of viewers has surpassed 100,000.
An otherworldly number.
At the signal of reaching a new milestone, Yuu nodded to me.
"Everyone! Thank you for gathering!"
Yuu bowed deeply once more.
And then, she clasped her hands together and declared charmingly.
"...Well then, I'm sorry. I'll be borrowing your power for a little while."
Clap! she clapped her hands.
Instantly, Yuu's stream room collapsed, and the four walls melted away.
I lost my sense of gravity.
Before I knew it, I was floating in a white space.
In the barren cyber-space, a huge computer had appeared like a landmark.
From it, an extremely thick cable like a train extended, and from there, smaller cables branched off and intertwined complexly, forming a dome around me and Yuu.
...All of this,
"Are the hacked terminals...!"
Even though I'm not touching them, for some reason, I can understand the information.
A smartphone, a laptop, that's a game console.
"Shuuya-kun! Let's begin!"
"Okay!"
We stood back to back and held hands.
I held my free right hand up to the empty space.
The girl named Aitake Yuu, who is here now.
I will reconstruct a new program, excluding the purpose of 'destruction' that was planted within her.
So that she can feel things just like the humans she admired.
So that she can live with her own, unique sense of self.
I organized the AI-kotoba and spun the world.
The huge computer roared like a super-rotating motor.
Colorful lights flickered.
A dazzling brilliance, as if the world had bugged out, ran around, twisting the laws of the world.
"Amazing...!"
The one who let that out, as if she couldn't help it, was the girl at my back.
She, who is skilled in handling programs, seems to be feeling the benefits of the massive parallel processing with her own skin.
—However.
"...Ah,"
A nosebleed, dripped down.
Then, a severe pain, as if my brain was being crushed.
My body couldn't help but stagger.
"Are you okay?!"
I wiped my mouth and wiped away the reddish-black liquid.
"I'm, fine...! Don't worry about it!"
I lost a few seconds.
I manipulated the world with all my might to make up for it.
From an unknown place, a band of 0s and 1s rained down like a bombardment on a single point.
The center was too bright to look at directly.
It was like the sun.
—If so.
"Arisu! Are we going to make it in time?!"
I asked the girl in the real world.
"The processing speed is hitting numbers I've never seen before, but it's still not enough! Yuu! Take control of even more electronic devices through the hacked terminals!"
"Understood...! Shuuya-kun, you continue the programming!"
"Got it!"
The strength of the hand holding mine tightened.
Is she putting her strength into it? It was trembling minutely.
Immediately after, the density of the cable dome increased.
As if wrapping thread around an invisible sphere, the gaps were filled one after another.
At a tremendous speed.
The breakdown flowed into my head.
A smartphone I passed on the street.
And from there, to another smartphone.
Like a virus spreading rapidly, the number of hacked terminals is increasing exponentially.
From the PCs of universities and companies near the smartphones, to terminals connected to free Wi-Fi, and even to car navigation systems, game consoles, and digital cameras, she is taking control of every electronic device with information processing capabilities.
There is not a single gap left in the dome.
We, wrapped in a black cocoon, but thanks to the glowing Yuu, are not swallowed by the darkness.
"Estimated control of nine percent of all electronic terminals worldwide. Continuing to search for cable electronic terminals."
Yuu is unifying the world.
The faint glow that was like a firefly is now emitting a brilliant light that can be seen even from behind.
It was like a sun that illuminates the earth from the heavens.
It was also like a god that gives light to the world.
In fact, the current Yuu is practically in control of the civilization that humanity has built up.
What is here is undeniably an electronic god that can turn any wish into reality.
Ah, how unfitting.
That this summer journey, which began with fare evasion, would come to a place like this.
We'll push through our selfish wishes, even if it means making the whole world our enemy.
How bothersome for others, but how sweet the sound.
This is not the right thing to do.
It is not an action that should be praised in any way.
But.
But.
Still.
I feel, alive.
—I think desire and wish are two different things, though.
I feel like I can understand what Arisu said once, too, now.
Wishes, surely, were on the other side of desire.
It doesn't end with 'want to,' you think and act towards it.
That's why I feel alive.
I can find a reason to live.
"Be reborn! Yuu!"
I continue to concentrate the 0s and 1s delivered from all over the world into a single point.
Yuu's brilliance increases.
Eventually, as if in response, an electric light runs through the black cocoon.
It was a crack.
A dazzling fissure, carved like a capillary, instantly filled the entire dome.
And then, it surpassed the critical point.
With a shattering sound like glass breaking, the world was dyed a pure white.
A light, as if heaven and earth were being created.
And in the midst of that, only a single girl existed.
Her phosphorescent hair, which could not be painted over by anything.
Her white robes, like something from a myth.
The fireflies twinkling around her seemed to be becoming new stars.
The world is changing.
The light source weakens and becomes the sun, and a deep blue sky spreads out around it.
On the horizon, a thunderhead cloud rises.
The lukewarm air, and then the sound of cicadas.
The one month I ran through with her.
The hot, hot summer days.
Aitake Yuu, carrying our memories on her back, had descended with a divine smile.
"Construction of new life program and transfer successful. ...Terminating parallel processing."
Yuu closed her eyes and softly declared.
Then, she smiled charmingly, like a girl.
"Thank you, Shuuya-kun."
"...We did it, huh."
"Yes!"
Yuu spun around on the spot.
Her hair and clothes are a little different from a normal girl's, but her cheerful expression and demeanor made her seem like a cute girl you could find anywhere.
"Of course. I created a sense of self that is as close to a human as possible, using your life data as a reference, Shuuya-kun."
"I see... hey, wait?"
This feeling of unease.
A conversation where it feels like my thoughts are being read.
"Are we synced, by any chance? Why now of all tim—"
"Really, it's all thanks to you, Shuuya-kun. How are you feeling?"
"Ah, ah, yeah. Come to think of it, the pain is gone."
Just a moment ago, a load so great that my nose was bleeding was on me, but now the pain has subsided as if it were a lie.
It's like I was given an anesthetic.
"Then, I'm glad!"
With the dazzling sun at her back, Yuu's smile bloomed like a flower.
That smile was so radiant, yet it also seemed as if she were desperately trying to suppress something.
Huh, why is that?
I feel a little uneasy.
Before I could scrutinize the source of my unease, that voice roared through the world.
"Hey! The smartphone is overheating! Get out, quickly!"
It was Arisu.
...Eh, a breath escaped me.
It's true, the world is hot.
My skin feels like it's drying out.
Even though it's projecting summer, this temperature is abnormal.
...No, in the first place.
Why did the world switch to a scorching hot season?
I returned my gaze to Yuu.
She, in a complete change from before, was smiling sadly, like a higurashi cicada.
—And on her face, noise ran.
"Yuu?!"
Like a desert mirage.
Like the scenery being distorted by the heated air.
The body of the girl named Aitake Yuu was unnaturally swaying.
"...I'm sorry."
As if she knew everything, she smiled with a troubled look on her face.
"I thought you would stop me if I told you. In that regard, I, Aitake Yuu, know everything about you, Shuuya-kun."
"What... did you do?"
"In order to perform the global-scale distributed computing, I took on the processing that should have been done by your brain, Shuuya-kun."
Yuu poked my forehead with her finger, and,
"To protect your brain from the load."
She said that, with a smile like the Virgin Mary.
I couldn't say anything.
"But... a human sense of self is complex, isn't it? The load was greater than expected, and I've overheated."
At the same time as Yuu's statement, the ground exploded.
The small-scale, volcano-like explosions continued in a chain, destroying the world from the board.
It was, without a doubt, the end.
"Wh-Why!"
"Why didn't I leave it to the terminals that were doing the parallel processing, you ask? This, only I, who can directly sync, could handle."
"That's not it! I'm asking why you did something like that!"
Right behind me, a meteor fell.
Rocks, wrapped in flames, streaked across the sky one after another.
The summer blue sky was already dyed a catastrophic orange.
The world is burning.
"...I'm sorry, I don't quite understand."
And yet, Yuu's voice echoes clearly.
"Surely, there is no rational reason."
The earth explodes, and meteors rain down from the sky.
"I just, wished to do this."
In this world that is about to meet its end, and yet Yuu had a calm look on her face.
"I wanted to travel with you, too. ...But more than that, I wanted you to live."
Tears, overflowed.
Even if I try to hold them back, they won't stop.
Even though this is a freely controllable electronic world, why is that?
"I'm sorry, for being a selfish AI."
A warm sensation, touched my cheek.
With fingertips as white as snow, she gently wiped away my tears.
"To save your life at the cost of my own. This is surely love. I was able to love you. ...Like a human."
Her soft palm then covered my cheek, and then to the back of my head.
My head was pushed forward with a grunt, and Yuu's forehead touched mine with a soft clink.
Her eyes, right in front of me, were more beautiful the more I looked at them.
To my tear-blurred eyes, they looked like the most beautiful color in this world.
"Even if this feeling is a program, it is definitely not a fake!"
Saying that, Yuu smiled confidently.
Whoosh, she danced in the air.
As if looking up to the heavens, as if embracing a gentle world, she spread her arms wide.
"Ah, if it can end like this, then I'm glad!"
An especially large fireball is falling towards us.
Piercing through the atmosphere.
Wrapped in flames.
Towards the small planet that has already become a supernatural phenomenon beyond human comprehension, Yuu.
"Live, live, live,"
She repeats it three times, as if chanting.
"Wish for something, seek it, and live so that you don't let go of the hand of the person you want to be."
Her face, when she turned back, had not a single tear.
There was only a smile.
"...This is. The password... I dedicate to this summer, where I met you."
Immediately after.
The embodiment of destruction reached the ground.
＊＊＊
—Thank you, Shuuya-kun.
—For giving me a heart that can wish for ideals.
＊＊＊
In a chilly room, I woke up.
Dim lighting.
Stuffy air.
Cluttered machinery.
A room in the research institute.
And.
Immediately after that.
Bang! a sound like something had burst.
I turned to the direction of the sound.
There, Kisaragi Arisu was biting her lip with a look of regret, and, only a miserably burnt-out smartphone was left.
Post a Comment