After hearing that, Asuna's body suddenly swayed, and Rinko hurriedly reached her hands out to support her.
The girl who had shown amazing insight and the resolve to barge to the side of her beloved suddenly lost all her tenseness, as a large tear rolled down the side of her face. She wiped it off in a determined manner, and stood up once more.
“Then, is Kirito-kun alright? Can he still wake up?”
“Ahh, I can assure you of that. His treatment here definitely won't be inferior to any large hospital's. We even assigned a specialized custodian for him.”
Asuna's strong stare that was trying to probe into Kikuoka's real intent relaxed after several seconds, and she nodded slightly.
“...I understand. I'll trust you for today.”
Kikuoka heaved a sigh of relief and his shoulders relaxed the moment he heard that. Rinko took a step forward and asked,
“But why is Kirigaya-kun important in the development of the STL? Why must you abduct an ordinary high school student like him for this secret plan that had to be hidden in the middle of the ocean?”
Kikuoka exchanged glances with Higa, and shrugged his shoulders, Oh well...
“I'll have a lot of things to say if I have to explain that.”
“It's alright. There's still a lot of time.”
“...Since I have to explain everything, you will have to assist in the development as well, Professor Koujiro.”
“I'll decide once I hear you out.”
The Self-Defense Officer looked slightly peeved as he dramatically sighed again. He pulled out a small tube from his yukata sleeve, and as one they wondered what the item was which turned out to just be some cheap lemon sweets. He popped 2, 3 sweets into his mouth and then offered them to Rinko's group.
“Want some?”
“...No thanks.”
“Very well... then, I suppose I can assume that both of you know the basics of the STL, right?”
Asuna nodded in affirmation.
“It is a machine that reads the human soul... «Fluctlight» and creates a virtual world that is completely identical to the real world.”
“Fm. Then, what's the aim of this plan?”
“The development of a bottom-up...«Highly adaptive Artificial Intelligence».”
Higa whistled as the eyes under the round framed spectacles showed a look of admiration, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Amazing, Kirito-kun shouldn't have understood things to such an extent. How did you manage to investigate this deeply?”
Asuna looked over at Higa as if she was sizing him up, and said with a stiff tone,
“...I heard the term «Artificial Labile Intelligence» from Kirito-kun...”
“Haha, I see. Looks like it would be better for you to check on the confidentiality in Roppongi, Kiku-san.”
Higa said with a grinning look on his face, and Kikuoka's frowning face looked away.
“I was already prepared that some level of information would be leaked to Kirito-kun. I considered that risk, but his assistance is quintessential. You should understand that... un, where were we? Oh, the highly adaptive Artificial Intelligence, right?” Kikuoka again popped a lemon sweet into the air and nimbly caught it with his mouth. The Lieutenant Colonel then continued in a lecturing tone,
“The bottom up-type AI is a replicated construct of our human consciousness, and it was thought for a long time to be a flight of fancy, a pipe dream. But though we call it a consciousness construct, we have no idea what kind of structure it has and how it was formed —it's just that we used the data provided by Koujiro-sensei and the highly interpretive and imaginative «Soul Translator» this Higa-kun invented, and finally managed to capture a human soul -a quantum field we call «Fluctlight», successfully. Since we managed to make it all the way here, we feel the success in the development of the bottom up AI is to be expected... Do you know why?”
“If you can read a human soul, you just need to clone it next... is that right?”
Rinko felt a slight chill as she said.
“Of course, though there is the question of the medium required to contain the soul copy...”
“Un, that's the case. The gate elements used in the past for quantum computer systems were not enough. Thus, this is the «Quantum Particle Gate Crystallization» that has had lots of funds invested into it, also commonly known as a «Lightcube». This construct that is 5 cm is made from Praseodymium that can store hundreds of millions of qubits. In other words... we have successfully cloned a human soul.”
Rinko forced her hands into the pockets of her jeans to hide the chilly feeling on her fingers. Asuna, who was standing beside her, seemed to turn pale.
“...Then, the research is already successful, right? Why is there still a need to call us over.”
She fearlessly exerted strength into her stomach as she asked that. Kikuoka exchanged glances with Higa again, showed a weak smile on the left side of his face, and slowly nodded.
“...Well, we did succeed in our soul cloning, but we did not realize our own folly. There's a large divide of incomprehension between a human clone and a real Artificial Intelligence... Higa-kun, show them that thing.”
“Ehh—spare me already. It'll be really messy.”
Higa shook his head unwillingly, but sighed thereafter and started operating the console unwillingly.
Suddenly, the screen that was showing the mysterious foreign country darkened.
“Then, loading copy module HG001.”
Tan. Higa tapped the enter key -and there was a fractal light shining in the middle of the screen. The middle was nearly white, and the sharp outer boundary of the red light was flickering irregularly.
“...Is the sampling complete?”
An unexpected voice could be heard from the speakers above, shocking Rinko and Asuna. They heard Higa's own voice, but there was a rather melancholic feeling behind it, perhaps because of the thin metal.
Higa, who was sitting on the chair, took the flexible microphone on the console and answered the voice that was similar to his,
“Ahh, the sampling of the Artificial Fluctlight was completed without a hitch.”
“I see. That's good then. But...what's going on? It's completely dark here. I can't move my body. Is the STL malfunctioning? Sorry, let me out of the machine.”
“No...unfortunately, I can't do that.”
“Oi oi, what now? What are you saying? Who are you? I've never heard your voice before.”
Higa was giving off a cold sweat as he remained silent for a while, and then answered in a slow tone,
“I'm Higa. Higa Takeru.”
“...”
The red light flared, and suddenly cringed back. After a moment of silence, the sharp extremities expanded as if they were resisting something.
“Damn bastard, what are you saying!? I'm Higa here! Let me out of the STL!”
“Calm down, don't get upset. This isn't like you.”
At this point, Rinko finally understood the meaning of the scene in front of her.
Higa was talking to the clone of his own soul.
“Then, think about it calmly, try and recall. Your memory should be interrupted the moment you entered the STL to extract the Artificial Fluctlight clone.”
“...So what? Of course that's the case. I was unconscious during the scan.”
“You remember what you said before you entered the STL, right? If you don't feel your body when you wake up, and if there is darkness around you, it means you're a clone of Higa Takeru.”
The light again shrank back like some sort of sea creature. The long silence continued for a while, then 2, 3 weak spikes reached out.
“...Impossible. There can't be such a thing. I'm not a clone, I'm the real Higa Takeru. I...I have my own memories. I remember everything from kindergarten, university until the time I got onto the Ocean Turtle...”
“That's true, but that's to be expected. We cloned the complete memories of the Artificial Fluctlight... as a clone, you a
re truly Higa Takeru. Therefore, you should have a superior intellect. Calm down and analyze the situation over and over again. Let's work hard to achieve our common aim.”
“...Our...you're saying us?”
There was a highly emotional feeling within the metallic voice of the clone, and at that moment, Rinko's hands trembled mightily. She had never seen such a cruel and grotesque 'experiment' before.
“...No...no, I can't believe it. I'm the real Higa. What kind of experiment is this? It's alright now. Just let me out of here. Kiku-san...are you there? Don't play any disgusting games now and let me out.”
On hearing that, Kikuoka showed a melancholy expression, bent down, and brought his mouth to the microphone.
“...It's me, Higa-kun. No... I should be calling you HG 001. Unfortunately, the fact is that you really are a clone. You took many instructions before the scan, talked with me and the other technicians, and you should have been mentally prepared to emerge as a clone. You entered the STL with that belief in the possibility.”
“But... but... no... NO ONE TOLD ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS!!!”
The shrill voice of the clone rang through the control room.
“I...I'M ME! IF I WERE CLONED, YOU COULD HAVE GIVEN ME THE REALITY OF BEING A CLONE... SUCH A THING... SUCH A THING IS TOO MUCH... NO... LET ME OUT!! LET ME OUT OF HERE!!”
“Calm down. Remain calm. The error correction function of the Light Cube is not as great as that of the brain's. You should know the dangers of losing your cool when thinking.”
“I'M PERFECT!! I'M HIGA TAKERU! IF THAT'S THE CASE, HOW ABOUT I START A PI RECITING CONTEST WITH THAT FAKE!? OI, LET'S START! 3.1415926535897932......”
The red light expanded, dissipating from the screen and disappeared from the center. A small sound resonated as the microphone went silent.
Higa Takeru sighed long and hard again, weakly pressed the key on the console, and declared,
“It collapsed. 4 minutes and 27 seconds.”
After hearing that mumble, Rinko gradually released her tightly clenched fists, and her palms were drenched in an icy cold sweat.
Asuna used her right hand to cup her mouth the moment she saw the collapse. Kikuoka, who detected that, kicked an adjacent empty chair with castor wheels from underneath the console gently over to them. The pale-stricken Asuna immediately took it and sat on it.
“Are you alright?”
Upon hearing that, the girl lifted her head and nodded firmly.
“Ehh...sorry, I'm alright.”
“Don't force yourself. It's better to close your eyes for a while.”
Rinko put her hands on Asuna's shoulders, checked that she had calmed down, stared at Kikuoka's face again, and said,
“There has to be a limit to your vulgar tastes, Kikuoka-san.”
"I'm sorry, but I suppose you can understand that I can't explain this without letting you see it."
The Self-Defense Officer shook his head, sighed and continued,
"This Higa-kun is a genius with an IQ of nearly 140. We made a clone of him and the clone could not take the realization that it was a clone. We made more than 10 Artificial Fluctlights, including mine, but the results were all the same. At an average of around 3 minutes, their train of logic would start to run rampant without exception."
"I normally won't call him out like that. I won't use the first person pronoun of 'ore'. I think you can understand, Rinko-sempai."
Higa Takeru showed a reluctant and fervent expression as he continued,
"That was already not a problem of understanding the abilities and mental state of a clone, but the structural flaws by using the Light Cube to completely clone an Artificial Fluctlight, or that's what I feel... —Koujiro-sempai, do you know the term «Brain Resonance»?"
“Eh? Brain resonance...I do remember that it has something to do with cloning techniques, but the details...”
“Well, it's a bizarre fantastical theory. If we can create a clone that's completely identical to the original, the magnetic fields created by both people's brains will create a resonance which is amplified like the feedback of a microphone, and both of them will be destabilized. I can't believe that easily —but if our human consciousness can't endure the fact that we are not unique existences , there may be such a possibility... well there, don't show such an aprehensive expression. If impossible, how about you try it, Rinko-sempai?”
“Definitely not.”
Rinko felt intimidated as she immediately refused. Asuna, who had been sitting on the chair with her eyes closed, whispered in place of the silenced trio,
“...I suppose Kikuoka-san met her many times in ALO. The top-down-type AI Yui-chan said before... even she, who has a completely different construct from the human consciousness, is scared of being cloned. If some accident caused her backup copy to be activated and allowed to take action, they would most likely fight each other to destroy each other...”
“Heh, that's rather interesting. Very interesting.”
Higa immediately pushed his glasses up and leaned forward.
“Kiku-san was the only one who saw her? That's too sneaky. Please allow me to meet her next time. Yes, I see... as expected, it's impossible to clone a developed intellect... or rather, the only possibility is if the intellect is undeveloped...”
“But that's...”
Rinko pondered for a while, opened her arms wide, and faced Kikuoka, saying,
“Leaving that aside, the cloning of a soul is really amazing, but you failed to attain the goal of your research, right? I don't know how much you spent, but using the country's funds only to produce such results is...”
“No no no.”
Kikuoka smiled bitterly and shook his head,
“If that was the outcome, my head would be already flying to the ceiling fan. And not just mine...several of the big shots in the Integrated Supervision Department would also be dead.”
He played with the tube that contained the lemon sweets again, and after realizing that it was empty, took out a box of white milk sweets from his other sleeve and chewed on one.
“In fact, you can say that this is the start of the project. It's impossible to clone a developed soul, is that right... and if that won't work, what do you think we have to do, professor?”
“...Can you give me one of those?”
She took the milk sweet Kikuoka happily handed over, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth. The soured sweet taste of yoghurt spread in her mouth. The American flavours were not to her tastes, but the sugar caused the mental fatigue to be washed away as she organized her thoughts.
“...How about you limit their memories? For example... delete personal information like names and addresses. If you don't know who you are, you can't create the dramatic hysteria which occurred just now...”
“As expected of you, sempai, to be able to think of something like that immediately.”
Higa used his old university tone as he continued,
“We spent around a week brainstorming before we finally thought of that idea. We then tried to implement it, but... Artificial Fluctlights aren't as easy to manipulate as files in a calculator's OS. Simply put, their memories and abilities are entangled with each other. If we think about it, that's obvious since our abilities aren't inherent in us from the beginning, but are all learnt.”
And then, Higa took out a memo pad on the table and used two fingers of his right hand to hold it.
“Learning is also a form of memory. Once you forget the memory of using a pair of scissors to cut paper for the first time, you will forget how to use the scissors... in other words, deleting memories that are a part of growing up will cause the related ability to be gone. The tragic state of such a clone is something a developed clone can't compare to. Also, wanna look?”
“No...no need for that, thanks.”
Rinko hurriedly shook her head to refuse.
“Then... the memories and abilities will disappear no matter what, so how about learning from the beginning? No...tha
t's not realistic. It would take too long.”
“Ehh, that's the case. Besides, learning basic abilities like language and calculations are more difficult for us adults who have less room to develop our brains to learn. I've been trying to learn Korean, and I have been learning their systemic language for who knows how many years... afterall, the process of learning is a development of a neural network like that of a quantum computer... in other words, it means that the efficiency will drop increasingly as it evolves further from it's state of 'birth'.”
“Then, memories... aren't just limited in terms of data, but also by thoughts and logic? Can the STL even do such a thing...?”
“If it wants to do so, I don't think there's anything it can't do. It's just that we have to account for the amount of time we need to analyze the Artificial Fluctlight in qubits that amounts to billions, determining what functions each individual qubit has. A few years...decades, we don't know how long. But... there's a more direct and simple method this uncle here thought of. I guess it's an idea us researchers can't think of...”
Rinko blinked and stared at Kikuoka, who had his waist leaning against the console. The poker face looked rather calm, and it was still impossible to read this person's mind.
“...A simple method...?”
Even after thinking hard, she couldn't think of it, and just as she was about to surrender by asking him, *GATAN*, Asuna, who was on the chair slightly further away, stood up as if she had jumped.
“Do...don't tell me, you all, did such a horrifying thing...”
Her face was still rather pale, but her eyes regained their adamant glow. The beauty that far exceeded that of a normal Japanese showed an intense rage as Asuna stared right at the Self-Defense Officer.
“...You...you cloned the soul of newborn babies? To get flawless Fluctlights that had nothing learned?”
“You have really amazing perception. You and Kirito-kun both did clear SAO... the hero who beat that Kayaba Akihiko. I suppose it would be disrespectful of me to say this, wouldn't it?”
Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running Page 5