"Especially you, Rei-kun..."
Everyone turned and looked at Reiji who still looks like a ghost from the news he heard. His mouth moved and slowly, the words "hakase" came out of his mouth. The professor smiled and walks at the room wherein a couch was positioned. He placed Mikaze there and then walked over to Reiji and the other two. He squats and now is at the eye level of Reiji who looks up but still has soulless eyes.
"Ha...ka...se..." Reiji slowly said and the professor just pats Reiji's head and slowly ruffled it.
"Hakase..." Kei mutters and the professor stood up and just nodded.
"Look how the three of you guys grow up..." The professor commented. Kei nodded while Katakiri felt flattered but didn't show it on the outside. Reiji on the other hand was still the same as when Kei told him that Aine had gone missing.
"What happened to this champ?" The professor asked and looked at Kei and Katakiri for some answers but they avoided his gaze and from this point, the professor easily understood what happened.
"Lemme tell you something about my nephew..." He said and at the moment he said the word "nephew", Reiji immediately stood up and asked if the professor knew where Aine was, so did Kei and Katakiri. The rest who were near Mikaze also were interested and some went near the professor while the others stayed where they were but the professor held his hand, signalling them to stop where they are because the professor stood up and went to where Mikaze lies and he sits at the little spot of the couch.
"You see..." He starts as he caressed Mikaze's hair gently, "Ai is just a robot. From the name itself. "AI" literally means Artificial Intelligence." And with this sentence, everyone in the room had their jaws drop on the floor, even Kei and Katakiri who had never talked with him before also gapped.
"Ai-Ai is just a...!" The professor nodded.
"No one noticed Reiji standing up and when he finally stood up, he asked, "Hakase, what's your reason to make Ai-ai then?" Everyone was taken in by his question and the professor smiles sadly.
"Rei~chan..." Ittoki said.
"Before my nephew 'disappeared', he was actually having a good life. He being famous at an early age was huge. Everyone loves him and whenever he comes to my place, he was always wearing that bright smile of his." At this sentence, Kei nods, knowing how Aine was doing before he disappeared.
"Of course, not all celebrities have the perfect fun life they dreamed to have. There was one day when Aine visited me...
"Oh Aine, you're just in time..." The professor said as he was mixing some chemicals and then was pouring it in another beaker. He waited for a response but the only thing he heard was a loud thump.
He left the laboratory. The place was still the same but he saw Aine lying on the floor panting heavily. The professor immediately drag Aine's body towards his room. He removes Aine's shirt and replaced it with a white collared shirt. He wipes off the sweat and he turned the room's air conditioner on.
A while later Aine's phone vibrated. The professor grabbed Aine's phone and on the screen reads the name of Reiji. He opens the message and reads:
Aineyan~
I'm feeling nervous with the audition~. There's this guy who sings rock music and it was good. It even sounded good with the guitar he brought...
Hope you're doing well, Aineyan~!
Ja'na~
And the whole message ended there. The professor sighed and looked at Aine who was now awake somehow. He turned his head to see the face of the professor. Aine smiled at him and apologized.
"Why are you apologizing?" The professor asked but he didn't got the reply because Aine went back to sleep.
The following day, the professor checked on Aine and when he saw that he was still sleeping, he closed the door and left his house.
"...It was raining hard and the ocean was so violent that sometime later the boat would flip over. Then at the horizon, I saw someone in the sea and when I focused my gaze, I could see a hair in cyan colored and that's when I just reluctantly jumped in and found out that it was Aine.
"I tried waking Aine up. My other companions suggested to take him at the hospital but I opposed. I'm not saying that I should've taken him in the hospital, but then he's been in a comatose for years now. I created Ai," He looks at Reiji then at Mikaze, "So that you won't miss Aine. I also told you that Aine's having a concert abroad, right? That/s just a part to hide that Aine really had gone missing..."
Reiji looked at the professor and his knees gave up on him, Katakiri had wide eyes and Kei just doens't want to believe everything while Ranmaru, Camus and every ST RISH members were silent, still obviously haven't taken anything the professor said, especially the part of Mikaze being a robot.
The professor walked near to Kei, Katakiri and to Reiji and in a low voice, he asked...
"Do you want to visit Aine?"
