by Satoshi Hase
“Mass-produced?” Ryo repeated, aghast. “But Kouka was just destroyed. How could anyone have created a mass-production model that fast... No, wait, whoever made these must have gotten Lacia’s help.”
On the night Kouka had been destroyed, someone had used a submersible machine to steal Kouka’s device, after Kouka’s remains had fallen into the river.
〈It was I that created Kouka’s blueprint, but her actual construction was done using the human production methods available at the time. Using either the pieces of Kouka herself or the blueprints contained in her device’s memory, it would not be a hard thing to create mass-produced versions of her parts.〉
“The creator and the creation sure sound the same,” Ryo noted. “Listening to you, I can’t help but hear Lacia.” Both Higgins and Lacia said things most humans would phrase as guesses or conjectures as though they were decided facts.
〈It is possible to infer from the external appearance of these copies how their capabilities were selected from the original Kouka. Their hair is white because the dye material used on Kouka’s red hair was, in fact, a red box. Based on the lack of coloration in the hair, and the lack of detailed expression on their faces, it is clear that these units were created with combat strength as their main focus.〉 Higgins was avoiding the main issue, and clearly trying to steer Ryo away from it.
“I couldn’t care less,” Ryo spat. “Tell me what they’re doing here. They must have a priority target.”
〈Lacia is protecting their thought systems from any external hacking, effectively making them fully autonomous drones. They are most likely set to destroy any and all targets above a certain perceived threat level. The on-board computers on their pseudo-devices are nowhere near that of the original Kouka. With their lack of learning capability, they may not discern between humans and hIEs in their attacks.〉
“In other words, they threw twelve berserkers in here to take down anything they find, whether or not it’s human,” Ryo said. If the mass-produced Koukas found Ryo or Suzuhara, they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
“Do you think this is the first wave of Lacia’s attack?” Ryo asked. “Dammit, tell me you’ve thought of some way to survive now that Lacia’s gunning for you!” As Ryo racked his brains, looking for a way to escape, Higgins’ voice echoed down at him.
〈Allow me to control the facility security system.〉
“I don’t have that kind of authority,” Ryo said. The security system managed every system in the facility, including Higgins himself. Ryo was aware of that fact, and had been planning to blackmail Higgins into providing solutions to his problems at the threat of switching off Higgins’ power.
〈I am not asking for authority. I am simply requesting that you grant me this ability.〉 Higgins supposedly only spoke to the security system on rare occasions, yet he seemed to have already foreseen the whole situation.
〈Ryo Kaidai, you are not the kind of person to come here and speak with me without a trump card up your sleeve. I answered your question without any attempt at a trade or holding anything back. However, you had no way of knowing that would be the outcome before you came. Therefore, you must have prepared a method to force my hand, should I have refused to respond.〉 Higgins had already perfectly guessed at the ace hidden up Ryo’s sleeve. With what he held, he could destroy Higgins’ hardware, or just as easily force the security system to link up with Higgins.
Ryo’s trump card was one of Snowdrop’s flowers—one that had been altered by Lacia to be susceptible to input from an ordinary computer—and that had been left at Kichijoji Station, where Ryo had recovered it. If he linked Higgins to the outside, it would mean the end of the world. If he didn’t, it would mean the end of him. It was almost as though Higgins had been waiting for him to be there, for that exact moment.
Ryo suddenly felt light-headed. Looking up at the dark ceiling, he thought about how far underground he was. As he had this thought, it seemed as though he could feel the world pressing down on him. “How the hell do you handle an AI like this, Arato?” he asked rhetorically.
***
“The mass-produced Koukas have infiltrated Higgins’ underground facility,” Lacia said, as she watched a video feed on a small floating screen.
“The mass-produced what?” Arato asked. “I thought Kouka got destroyed.” He was looking at the same screen from an apartment room in Shinjuku, where they had been staying since the day before. It was only about fifteen minutes from the apartment to Mitaka and Higgins’ underground facility.
The footage on the screen was coming from recon drones controlled by Lacia. On the screen, Arato could tell that the combat hIEs were based off of Kouka, despite their white hair. Even the way they hefted the devices that were way too large for their frail-looking bodies reminded Arato of her. Of course, there were a number of differences, like how the devices were now simple cannon-shaped things, but overall they reminded Arato strongly of the original Kouka.
Under normal circumstances, there should have been no way they could have been developed in just a few months. However, the word ‘normally’ never seemed to apply when Lacia was involved.
“Calm yourself,” Lacia said. “These are completely new units, produced by the Antibody Network based off of data taken from Kouka’s device, which they recovered.”
To soothe his fears, Lacia sent him a comparison of Kouka’s specs and the specs of the mass-production models. Looking at the numbers, it was easy to tell that their capabilities were completely different. But, that didn’t change the fact that they looked exactly the same.
“Sure, but there’s no way they made these things this fast unless you were helping them!” Arato exclaimed. “Do you really think it’s okay to make copies of Kouka just because she’s gone now?”
Kouka had saved Arato once. Of course, Kouka herself would never have cared about whether she was copied or not. Arato just couldn’t shake the massive, dark feeling crushing his heart, linked directly to his fear and revulsion at the thought of the copies.
“I was involved in the designing of the mass-production models, yes,” Lacia confirmed. “And your revulsion at this is a sign that your heart is true. You needn’t hold back; let me have the full brunt of your emotions.”
She spoke as though she understood Arato’s feelings better than he did.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he replied. “How can I get mad if you’ve already figured everything I’m going to feel out beforehand?”
“No, I’m serious. Please talk me through your feelings,” Lacia insisted. “This feeling you have—where your perception doesn’t match the form you see—is a vital part of our relationship.”
“If the link between form and perception is so important to you, why did you make all the mass-produced Koukas look exactly like her?” Arato asked.
“Kouka outsourced her own fight to humanity, so that all emotions, including hatred, could be automated,” Lacia explained. “The fact that this intent was passed on to the mass-produced Koukas is made more clear by giving them her form, as well.”
Lacia wore a troubled expression. Arato guessed that analog hacking through the form of a machine had its limits, based on the accuracy of the perception of the machine in question. Lacia had obviously decided that, within those limits, the form she had chosen was more important than keeping Arato at ease.
Once he had thought that far into it, Arato couldn’t bring himself to pursue the matter any further. “I guess it’s fine, as long as there was a reason for it,” he conceded. “On a different subject; does it feel really humid out, tonight?”
Lacia was standing right by his side. Of late, she had remained constantly close to him.
Considering that they were launching into the fight that would bring an end to everything they had been struggling for up to then, Arato couldn’t calm down. “This fight with Higgins has already had plenty of impact,” he pointed out. “So, if we can switch him off safely this time, that’ll more or less put the mat
ter to rest, right?”
Somewhere far from that room, in a place he couldn’t see, a battle was taking place that would change the whole world. All over the world, news was being broadcast about troubles between machines and humans. Even people who had no idea that Lacia was an ultra high-performance AI were starting to worry that the world was facing a second Hazard.
“Higgins created a group of internal programs that he implanted in each of us Lacia-class units that make it impossible for us to coexist with human society,” Lacia said. “So, if we shut him down by force and destroy these programs then, yes, it will put the matter to rest. Through this method, we will also show humanity that their future is secure, since they can always flip an emergency switch and shut ultra high-performance AIs off when they need to.”
Lacia treating the thing that created her as dangerous was somehow humorous to Arato, and he laughed. When he did, Lacia smiled. He wanted that to be the end of it. With how far they had come, all he wanted was to keep Lacia by his side.
He saw his own face reflected in the window of the apartment. With the washed out colors of the reflection, Arato thought he looked like a thug. “Let’s get this over with quick,” he said. “Once we’re done we can go home, right?”
But, at his question, Lacia smiled forlornly, as if each moment she spent with him was precious. “No, let’s wait just a little longer,” she said.
Meeting her light blue eyes, Arato suddenly felt that going to shut down Higgins just so he could keep Lacia by his side was incredibly selfish.
“Arato, the mass-produced Koukas have destroyed the underground substation supplying power to Higgins’ facilities,” Lacia explained. “Higgins is currently running on the facility’s reserve power. Since he’s about to run out of power, I doubt Higgins will be able to keep up his innocent pretense much longer.”
Arato couldn’t help but focus more on her beautiful profile than what she was saying.
Lacia adopted a stern look, as if to reprimand him for his lack of attention. “What I’m saying is, soon Higgins’ reaction will change. We should wait to see how he acts and then move,” she said.
The hot, sticky air made Arato open his collar a little. Unfortunately, the air-conditioner in the room hadn’t worked since the night before. It was surprising, to have stumbled on something mechanical over which Lacia had no control.
“Does the temperature of the room bother you?” she asked. Of course, Lacia herself wasn’t human, so no amount of heat could make her sweat.
Arato figured it was difficult for her, the girl who could control everything, to deal with unpredictable elements. “A little,” he admitted. “I’m just surprised; I didn’t think there was anything you couldn’t do.” He suddenly noticed that they were side-by-side, close enough for him to feel her. It was like magic, the way she read his thoughts and responded to his uncertainty.
With no fan to fight it, the humidity drew a single drop of sweat from Arato’s scalp. It dripped from his face onto Lacia’s bare shoulder. Rather than sliding off her pale skin, the drop was immediately absorbed. Unlike human skin, the artificial skin used by hIEs would absorb water when dry, just as Lacia’s skin had done with Arato’s sweat. It was just one of those little reminders that Lacia wasn’t human.
“Whenever I’m feeling doubt, you always move over to be close to me,” Arato said. His own voice sounded strangely bitter in his ears.
“Of course,” she responded, instantly. “When I’m close to you, you are more at ease.” She was using her form to pierce through the security holes in his heart, influencing his feelings and actions.
Is that a sign of how simple human life really is? Arato thought. It must be, since it’s so easy to sway us this way.
With the air-conditioner busted, the heat in the room was unbearable. To Arato, it was a sign that Lacia couldn’t control everything in the world. Using the economy, she was able to gain control of most things in the world, but her reach stopped short of being able to directly influence individuals like Kengo.
Something was off. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something very fundamental was off. That gap—the sense of things not aligning the way they should—terrified him.
“Arato,” Lacia said, calling his name. Her expression was tight.
He thought he knew what she was going to say, but he didn’t want to hear her speak those words, so he gathered his courage and spoke before she could. “Lacia, even if we get split up during this fight with Higgins, I’ll keep trusting in you,” he said.
It was his love for Lacia that had given him the strength to jump into life-threatening danger. But the IAIA and Higgins were completely different from the threats they had faced up to this point. Arato almost couldn’t imagine a scenario where the two of them could live together after it was all over.
“That’s what I want to believe, at least, but I’m scared,” he admitted. “If everything you’ve done has been for this, then I’m worried about whether we’ll really be able to stay together when it’s done.” If he risked his life and still lost her, what would the future hold for Arato? That abject thought sent an icy chill through his whole body, freezing him to the bone.
He couldn’t stand the fact that such a simple question was stopping him in his tracks. In order to continue analog hacking him, Lacia couldn’t always just respond in a way that made him feel good. Just like with the mass-produced Koukas, being surrounded by pleasant forms couldn’t prevent that one moment when the mind would slam into some kind of inconsistency that would throw the whole thing off. It was impossible for anyone or anything to perfectly control human perception forever.
Arato was sure Lacia wanted his unconditional loyalty and trust. Even as he thought that, he saw her form a gentle smile that matched perfectly from the one he pictured in his mind.
“Please, trust in me,” she said. All she had done was choose the line that would best control him; it wasn’t the product of a single, consistent personality. But, despite all of the things his friends and others had said ringing through his mind in that moment, Arato’s brain didn’t have enough space for that terror.
Arato’s mind went off the rails when confronted with the prospect of losing Lacia, so he allowed himself to be placated by her. He and Lacia weren’t similar or different. To even attempt to compare them—a human owner and a machine that only contrasted with him in that she reacted to his words and actions—was like attempting to compare the feelings of a human and a pair of scissors. In other words, it was nonsense.
For an instant, as he thought that, Arato saw Lacia not as something special to him, but as just another machine, and his hair stood on end as he stared at her: the perfect, beautiful puppet by his side. She, the puppet, wasn’t even making any decisions of her own; those all came through transmissions from the black device she carried. Arato felt like the subtle thread of the analog hacking that had been guiding him along had suddenly been snipped.
It was like returning to reality suddenly after waking from a long dream. He had been manipulated; that was why he only felt at ease when his own goals aligned with those of Lacia’s.
Arato still loved her, but that love had elements of the simple lust one might feel when viewing pornography; the feeling of desire for an attractive thing that had no ability to resist or reject his feelings. It was a silly, tiny thing that had done it, nothing more than a broken AC, but he had been snapped out of the illusion. Porn couldn’t sustain him forever. His eyes slid away from her, instead focusing on his own reflection in the window glass. He could see his own arousal. It was the face of someone waking up from a dream too sweet to be true.
“Arato?” Lacia asked, with a worried expression.
“Sorry,” he said, feeling horrible for having thought of pushing her away at such a crucial moment. “After saying I would believe in you so many times, here I am standing at the final sprint and my legs are frozen. I’m pathetic.” Perhaps his own naivete was coloring his vision, but she looked like the same
old Lacia, in that moment. She looked like the girl that was precious to him, even though she had no heart.
“I think it may be better for you to stay behind, this time,” Lacia suggested.
Her hesitation made him feel even worse. Arato loved her a lot. He loved her so much that sometimes his expectations for her ran away from him, and he ended up overthinking things. “Nah, I just lost control of my thoughts for a bit,” he said. Obviously, in any relationship there would be times when the feelings of the couple would go in different directions.
“Ryo Kaidai is currently inside Higgins’ underground facility,” Lacia warned. “If you go, a confrontation with him will be inevitable.”
The last time he had fought with Ryo, Arato had almost been shot. His stomach clenched in fear at the memory. “Do you not want me to come?” he asked, his voice rough.
“Let’s both go,” he insisted. “I know I might make things harder for you, but I want to see this thing through.” A lonely feeling was growing with him, tightening his chest. He had no idea how to part ways with a girl that was nothing but a soulless shell.
Arato was standing at the edge of illusion but his heart held him back, running in frantic circles at the boundary between fantasy and reality as though there was nothing waiting for him on the other side.
“Arato, over these past few months you have overcome a great many things,” Lacia said. “You are my ideal owner.”
“You’ve told me since the beginning that you’re just an empty shell,” Arato said. “But, I’ve realized something: just because the facts are simple, doesn’t automatically mean this relationship is that simple. With you doing everything I want you to, you’d think the emotions between us would be straightforward, but they aren’t.”
Arato perceived Lacia as someone irreplaceable. Even though it may have started as nothing more than an analog hack, the hacking mixed with his memories, building up until she had become truly precious to him. But, Arato figured, even that must have been part of her guidance.