"Our research became more and more mature over time." Tsukiya stops speaking for a while, and within this time gap Suzukawa's voice appeared in his mind again. "Kuroba-san, what do you think of *jinkouchinou*?" Then she continues saying: "That is, until that man was promoted to be a member of T20. He suggested to reform the field of research in artificial intelligence, and that's when the progress of the research to actualize artificial intelligence simulation of human stopped."
Tsukiya and him both turn to look at those bodies which look the same, and a chill crawls up his back.
"I continued to work for Tahou for another five years while also looking for a partner in the science field who would be willing to collaborate with me. So when I met Shinsanrou Suzukawa, in order to continue the research without anyone knowing, I opened this psychological consultation clinic after walking out the doors of Tahou's Scientific Research Department."
He takes a look at the whole laboratory. This is when he realizes that this sort of dark blue light and the temperature which makes him feel many chills, isn't just familiar to him simply because the setup happens to be the same with Suzukawa's lab. The thing is, he actually believed Tsukiya and thought that the one dream he had was indeed nothing more than a precognitive dream.
He rethinks what Tsukiya just said, and he gets a little confused. If she happens to have worked with Suzukawa doing private research, then all costs should come out of their own pockets. Although she had worked under Tahou for many years, meaning that she would have gotten not a penny less than what she earned, her savings on top of Suzukawa's still should not have been enough for an experiment conducted on such a large scale.
He can't be sure of this one, but the other lab that has The Dream Exploring Machine must have been somewhat sponsored by Tahou.
According to his judgment, since Tahou chose to end the research to actualize artificial intelligence simulation of human, then they would not have the means to sponsor Tsukiya to continue this sort of research. So in conclusion, either she misappropriated a part of the money that they sponsored her with, or there's some other sponsors. As for the reason that Futoumiya accepted the deal and arranged the meeting here, currently he has no idea why.
All he knows that, Futoumiya now may suffer the same consequences as Suzukawa.
"The motive for killing Suzukawa wouldn't simply just be to silence him," he points this guess out in the tone of a statement as he imagines Suzukawa being killed by an AI robot who looks exactly the same as him.
She thinks back to the last conversation that she had with Suzukawa and recalls the pathetic weakness in his tone. The corner of her lips go upwards a little. "To tell the truth, originally I didn't think of that, but he suddenly changed his mind and wanted to call quit."
She covers her mouth with the back of her hand and starts laughing out loud. "Five years passed before he finally decided that artificial intelligence should stop at the point of simply serving mankind, what a joke." She lifts her head and appears to stare at the ceiling leisurely. "The feeling of being killed by your own project must be very unique and different."
Seeing now as a chance, he rushes over and reaches for the gun, yet she grabs him by the wrist. He quickly reaches out his other hand, but gets stopped by her again.
"Now, enough time has been delayed."
With a kick from Tsukiya, Kudo Kuroba hits the wall heavily and his back starts aching badly. He feels pretty dizzy, and blood drips out from the corner of his mouth. He gently touches the back of his head and manages to stand up, although double images still appear from time to time. He didn't expect that a research scientist would have such quick reactions. He really regrets having underestimated the physical training that Tahou provides for its members.
Kudo Kuroba takes a few steps forward and then closes his eyes, and that image of Futoumiya being hit on the belly appears in his mind again. When he opens his eyes once again, there's no more double images and Saiesu Tsukiya is nowhere to be found. Turning his head back, he suddenly feels that a hand grabs his face and under this condition she dashes until he hits the human-fusing machine. He sees a chance and grabs that hand of hers, except the next second the palm of her other hand hits right on the shoulder of the hand that he reached out, and forces him to let go.
Upon opening his eyes, there's no double images to be seen, and when he touches the back of his head there is no blood gushing out. Except after the second hit, his body hurts even more with a sort of burning sensation mixed with the pain, and just standing up wastes him quite some energy. He manages to haul his weary body towards the experiment stand. She starts to attack without stopping, leaving him with no choice but to keep backing away in defense, although from time to time he fails to block her attack and still ends up with parts of his skin being purple. She sweeps the floor with her leg and hits his lower left leg. Before he could react, she takes another kick at the side of his knee, and another hit on the back of his head with her heel.
He kneels down, then along with his upper body leaning over a little bit, he literally just falls over with his face smacking the cold ground. He lifts his head and opens his eyes; some blood drips onto his clothing, although he notices not this dreadful situation but rather the fact that Tsukiya purses her lips. As if part of his consciousness flew out along with part of his sense of feeling, he only feels a slight pain that instant when he hits the ground. Yet this doesn't take away the stronger pain in other body parts which have not been cut, neither does it take away the psychological pain done on the inside.
She picks up the gun, and casually throws it somewhere as she says so: "It seems that there's no use for this."
The cold air passes by his face and pokes at the wounds. It seems as if his sense of pain has fully recovered, so he lets his head down and uses the reflection on the ground to look at himself. Then he wipes his face as he thinks to himself: "Good thing it's just some bruises."
"The potential of scientific research is unlimited and worth the time for us to explore; research should not be cut short because of some depressing and pathetic reason like fear."
She sees the chance and gives a kick at his chin. He lies on the ground all powerless and helpless, and then feels that a foot steps onto his back. "Since every one of you likes to disregard the power of science," she says as she bends down and tightly grabs some hair of his, "then let me create an army of AI 'humans' which can perfectly blend into human society, and let everyone know what they were wrong about." Then she presses his head down.
He attempts to lift his head up in resistance.
"I seem like a mad scientist, don't I?" Before he even opens his mouth to respond, she grabs and pulls his hair again. "But I'm different from Suzukawa, a guy who only knows to speak without taking action does not qualify to be dubbed such a name." As she says so, she releases his hair again. "Oh yeah, you've probably already guessed it," she says and then takes a look at the human-fusing machine behind him; Haibara's voice appears in his mind simultaneously as Tsukiya speaks: "you're not human." With that, everything that happened over the past few days start repeatedly playing in his brain like a movie.
That is, until Tsukiya's voice shatters them into pieces: "You're just one of the experimental artificial intelligence lifeforms that combined Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kuroba's way of thinking along with their consciousness, just one of my projects."
"Futoumiya..." as he says so, he spits out some blood and then wipes it away using his sleeve as if nothing happened, "no, I should say that Tahou must have stopped the development of the research in actualizing AI simulation of human because people like you go too far in your worship-like behavior towards artificial intelligence, and will result in AI invasion and the extinction of humankind in the end."
As if insane, she cannot stop herself from laughing out loud, and this time she doesn't even bother to hide that twisted and even ugly look on her face. "What a joke, all I ever worship is just the potential of science and never artificial intelligence itself. You're just an AI lifeform," she says as she looks at him on the ground who struggles to get forward with disgust, as if she's looking at trash, "what right do you have to judge me."
"In order to achieve your goals, you're willing to use whatever methods you can, including killing others..." His voice is a little hoarse. "People like you won't prevail and get away with it." He continues to crawl towards the experiment stand as he talks, as if there at that colorless place exists a streak of light.
Tsukiya walks over and blocks his way, so he starts changing his direction and trying to make it around her. A black shoe then steps on both of his arms and dismisses his ability to move forward, as if he were in chains again.
"What's with you crawling like this," she says as she moves her leg away, "stand up." This sentence serves as a driving force injected into that broken down body of his and makes miracles happen. With his fists clenched tight, he manages to support his whole body and make his way back up with his shaking arms.
She then steps onto his back, and from that smile on that face it seems as if she really enjoys and gains satisfaction from torturing others. "Stand up and fight." That little bit of weight pressures him down like with a heavy rock. He feels as if all the bones in his body are about to fall apart.
He manages to stand up on those shaking legs, and so she has to move her leg away. Except he hasn't stood up straight yet when she takes another sweep on the floor and hits his lower leg. If it isn't for her using not as much power in the last kick, maybe he would have been unable to sustain and kneel down on the ground again. Or maybe it's because the willpower of the originals, Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kuroba, happen to be so strong to the point that this body which is pretty much close to good-for-nothing can still withstand that devil's attack. Again and again, he gets up to receive another blow from her, and having nearly reached success but having to start all over.
What is it that drives a person to have such hatred, they cannot understand. What is it that drives a person to have this sort of determination, she has an even harder time of understanding.
Pathetically rolling about in a puddle of blood, just to overcome that fate that's already set. Maybe she got touched by this sort of persistence, so she doesn't continue to attack that structure, that structure used to have this immature project be able to walk.
She takes the remote and clicks the screen a few times. Seeming to have disregarded him who was forwarding slowly, she chooses to walk towards the human-fusing machine and quickly types away at the computer keyboard. Something that appears to have something like a timer appears in the middle of the fusing machine, then she walks towards somewhere where a bunch of tools have accumulated. Out of all of them, she chooses a most simple tool which happens to be a pair of scissors. Then she unhurriedly walks back to the experiment stand.
"Since you care so much about these unintelligent human, then I'll give you a chance." As she says so, she returns the remote back to the pocket on the inner side of her big white lab coat. "Left or right," she says as she reaches her hand out, "tantei-san or the phantom thief magician," and then passes the scissors, "you choose."
Along with the sound of electrical currents in his mind, black and white snowflakes appear before his eyes. Those aren't because of dizziness due to the blow that he received on his head, nor do they have to do with earlier double image problems or any illusion.
Seeing that he seems to not be able to move, Tsukiya pushes him. Looking at the timer before his eyes, he feels that more and more snowflakes are appearing, and that the sound of electrical currents appear more and more often. Yep, that condition only occurs when the system cannot function normally.
After all, it's just a lowly AI lifeform. Not to mention, facing the two life-and-death lines which link to the fate of the two before him, even normal human cannot make the decision so easily.
To kill, to rescue, or to go to hell together? Shall the messenger of justice who wears a sakura badge be chosen, or shall it be the ordinary citizen who once wandered out during night?
Everything depends on how the scissors in his hand are worked, even if he knows that he'll lose no matter which path he takes.
He...or they ultimately lose all paths of the human world while they walk the path which seeks the truth.
The path of life is long, yet it seems to end right here.
人工知能Jinkouchinou means artificial intelligence, in chapter 10 only the first syllable jin was revealed. Jin stands for 人human, other pronunciations for this character include hito and nin.
The next chapter, also the ending chapter of the main story is a long one that's about 1.5 times the length of an average chapter; I'll have some other stuff to say so don't be surprised when you see a super long chapter/receive a notification of an update that may be a couple of thousands of words. And then there's four parts to the epilogue.
Though at this point who and why is pretty clear, there may still be some details that you don't really get or maybe they confuse you quite a bit when combined, so really—don't hesitate to ask questions.