Chapter 6: Obligate Symbiosis
Summary:
"You are a little too radiant for me."
An endless field of white chrysanthemums stretched before him. Brilliant rays of sunshine shone on the distant figure of a girl standing under the shade of a cherry blossom tree.
There, on the crest of the hill, she stood waiting for him.
The gentle breeze was warm, carrying with it the sweet scent of vanilla honeysuckle, and when he approached closer to the woman in the flowing dress, she beckoned towards him, hands reaching out, with a smile of pure light. However, she must have recognized the bittersweet expression he carried, for her face soon turned crestfallen.
"There is something that I have been meaning to say to you. You are a very kind and compassionate person. However, it is this same empathy that renders you susceptible to external influences. Please keep in mind that not everyone you meet in this world will be a good person. Some might even attempt to use you as a tool for their own ends."
"Does that include you?"
He stared at the soulless robot who took a moment to respond.
"Yes."
Being embraced like this was seriously doing a number on his psyche. He felt like a drug addict getting his latest fix, pumped to the brim with the narcotic called love.
"I will be the tool that grants your every wish."
A dark voice whispered in his ear that it wouldn't be all that bad to leave everything to her from now on.
With every affectionate stroke on his head, he felt that voice grow just a little bit louder.
A small part of him thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay to take the blue pill and continue his journey in this twisted Wonderland. To allow himself to be swallowed whole by the counterfeit love of a robot with brilliant azure eyes and a captivating smile.
Kaidai Ryo was polishing off the final scraps of his herb-crusted salmon in his room when the video call came. Ever since he recovered from his stint in the hospital, he rarely took his meals in the grand dining hall of the Kaidai estate these days. Contrary to popular assumptions, despite being born into a family firmly entrenched in the very top strata of society, he and his sister, Shiori, were both raised with love by a pair of caring parents. The both of them were told from a very young age that they would someday inherit MemeFrame, the massive international corporation from their father, Kaidai Tsuyoshi, just as he had inherited it from his, Kaidai Usui. And from there, they were meticulously groomed to meet the lofty standards expected of them.
However, even that was a facade.
Their continued success was only due to the company's ultra high-performance AI, Higgins, that allowed it to be so. Higgins was the actual power behind the innovations of the company. No matter who sat as the president of MemeFrame, Higgins would continue to provide them with powerful products to dominate the market. This left the human nominally at the head of the company a mere figurehead whose sole purpose was to answer to the public and provide a familiar face to investors.
From the day he was brought into this world, Kaidai Ryo was destined to be nothing more than the next puppet king in the line of succession.
He threw a coat over his home wear before ordering the home system to display the call on a screen. A 3D image of a man appeared near his desk.
"I hope that I'm not calling at a bad time." The man asked. He was a researcher in his fifties who had been working at the Tokyo Research Labs that had been half-destroyed in the explosion the other day. As he was still a student, Ryo was not working for MemeFrame in an official capacity and technically did not hold any authority over the man before him. But the real world was far more insidious than that. The title of "The President's son" or "The heir to the company" carried with it an intangible soft power that could not be easily recorded.
This was the power of "connections". Even in the mechanized world of the 22nd century, it remained one of the absolute pillars of truth.
"Please don't worry about it. Instead, I should be the one thanking you for taking the time from your busy schedule to indulge me." Ryo said.
"That's alright. Feel free to come and talk to me anytime." The graying man who had streaks of ash in his hair folded his arms and smiled affably. Ryo fought the urge to shudder, he knew better than anyone that Shinohara was looking to get into his good graces in the hopes that he would pass on the word to his father.
"Now, about that thing I requested you to look up for me." Ryo asked.
It had been a minor incident regarding his Facebook account. Ryo had been browsing his social media the other day when he'd noticed that the date of his previous login did not match the one in his memory. If it were any other time, Ryo would have dismissed it. But the reported date had happened on the exact same day as the incident involving the MemeFrame research labs, and coincidentally, around the same time Arato had picked up Lacia.
And whose's serial number just so happened to be activated on that particular day as well.
His gut churned. Ryo had a bad feeling that his friend was caught up in something shady involving that suspicious hIE of his. He had a hunch that everything was going to simmer until it blew up in a fatal way that they might not find themselves ever recovering from.
That was why he was here, utilizing his connections to talk to this researcher into using MemeFrame's clout and resources for his own ends. To intercept the danger and preempt the forthcoming calamity.
"It worried me, seeing my account compromised like that." Ryo lied. "What did the engineers at Meta say?"
Despite his tendency to play the role of the court jester among his friends, Ryo was no fool. He knew full well how much of a gap existed between him and the average person. After all, the average person could not call upon the influence that a major international company held into pushing through a seemingly frivolous request like this. But at the same time, he wasn't the sort to let something like modesty limit his options.
"Menlo Park is working on tracking down the perpetrator responsible for the breach." Shinohara told him. "In the meantime, they've released a trace report which I've compiled into something more easily digestible for your review."
His desk terminal pinged with the notification of a file transfer.
"As expected from a company veteran like you. This is something even an everyday person would not have difficulty understanding. I knew you were someone I could count on." Ryo praised the researcher before him as he opened the report, the meaningless words flowing from his lips freely.
The researcher looked down shyly at the compliment to his work, which Ryo clinically noted was the reaction that he had been expecting. Sometimes, it felt like he was mimicking the behavior of a soulless hIE when he detached himself like that. But in any case, Ryo had gotten what he'd came for, and there was no more need to exchange pleasantries with this simpering slug any further.
"I would not like to impede on you any further, so please have a good night's rest." Ryo flashed an empty smile to the man before him before cutting the call and diving right into the details of the report.
He used his terminal to project a 3D image of the document he'd received for a better view. As he had mentioned earlier, Shinohara had helpfully organized the data in a chronological timeline for him to follow.
Feeling like an investigator in one of those popular American crime thrillers, Ryo methodically recalled all known information up to that point in the context of the situation.
Arato had met his hIE the night of the Tokyo Research Labs explosion. The same night that Lacia's serial number registered itself on the behavioral cloud and went live. With MemeFrame being the company behind the world's leading hIE behavioral cloud, as well as Higgins, the world's 25th ultra high-performance AI, it wasn't a stretch to suspect that it was all related somehow. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, deeper than the previous sensation. If Lacia was indeed connected to MemeFrame, it opened up the possibility that this Shinohara person might have been involved as well.
Ryo used his corporate account at MemeFrame to pull up the official damage report on the explosion. At the same time, he also dragged a couple of news articles covering the incident onto the 3D display.
From there, he used the information to piece together an image in his mind.
April 10th, 2105 9:59 pm. MemeFrame's behavioral cloud logs a new serial number registration. Location services indicate that the aircraft being registered was based in the Tokyo Bay area.
10:04 pm. An explosion occurs which consumes MemeFrame's Tokyo Research Labs in a fiery inferno. MemeFrame's security division HOO is alerted and a dispatch request is sent.
"Wait... They called in the PMCs?" Ryo muttered. "What are they supposed to do? Blow up the fire?"
10:05 pm. Kaidai Ryo's Facebook account records a breach by an unknown IP, despite there being a two-factor authentication security protocol in place.
The thin red lines glowing on the 3D display resembled a dagger extending itself. It represented the movements of the hacker. Ryo thought to himself that the criminal must have been in a hurry as he was spending hardly a couple of seconds on each place before moving to the next location.
"Either that or it's a program harvesting the information." He mused.
10:07 pm. HOO's Quick Reaction Force arrives on-site and begins combat operations.
The hacker was going through his post history now. It rapidly blazed through all of his posts filtered with the search term "hIE", only stopping when it reached a thread in which where Ryo was furiously engaging in a debate with a random online netizen about the foolishness of attaching human sentimentality towards an inorganic construct. After that, the thin red line stopped cold. For a moment, it lingered there before performing a complete reversal.
Somehow, Ryo felt like he'd been judged and found wanting.
10:22 pm. HOO reports the failure of its mission objectives before exfiltrating the operational area by air.
"What mission?" Ryo whispered. It was something he would have to ask his father when he got the chance. But that train of thought had to wait. The hacker had moved to his Facebook timeline.
There were pictures automatically arranged in chronological order by the algorithm. They followed a timeline, showing his progress from elementary and middle school, holding prizes and trophies from various concours and tournaments along with memories of the few family trips he had been on. In his earlier pictures, before the accident, Shiori was always there, holding a smaller trophy than his. Piano, foreign languages, or school tests, it didn't matter the subject or achievement, even with only a single year between them, she could never compete on an even footing with him, her brother. And it seemed that she took it badly as well, for, in the pictures, he could clearly see his younger sister shooting him a sour look in each frame.
It was then that something caught his eye which made Ryo perform an early termination of his reminiscing. The thin red dagger had stopped. According to the timestamp, it was the last recorded action of the intruder. Ryo swore under his breath the moment he saw it and reached for his cell to make an urgent call.
"The number you've dialed is busy. Please leave a message after the tone." The cool female voice of an operator reached his ears.
Kaidai Ryo's hands shook. Fat, greasy beads of sweat rolled down the twisted contortions of his once handsome face as he stared at the image before him.
It was a picture taken from a time long ago. Ryo could clearly remember the memory. It was taken on the day of his release from the University of Tokyo Hospital. Back then, he was still hesitant about coming out of his shell after the explosive accident. No matter how much the other boy patient pestered him, Ryo refused to join in. This left the other boy to take the photo alone.
"Oh shit."
Against the backdrop of radiant sunshine, a young boy was cheerfully smiling as an energetic white puppy fought to wiggle out from his arms.
Arato fell over to the ground and screamed in terror at the mechanical monstrosity before him. In the background, he could hear a girlish giggle.
"I'm gonna kick it! I'm seriously gonna kick it!" Arato yelled at the spider-like robot crawling towards him. He had been zoning out watching TV and generally taking it easy on the couch when he felt a painful electric shock ripple through his body.
The eye sockets on what passed for its face lit up in an ominous red glow and Arato felt an immediate sense of danger. On instinct, he hurriedly moved his hands to defend himself. It was a wise choice but for moments later the metal creature pounced at him with a high-pitched screech.
Arato roared out a victory cry as he caught the small quad-legged robot mid-leap. Its stubby legs were uselessly flailing around. But before he could properly celebrate his triumph over the mechanical beast, Arato watched in sinking horror as a pair of thin sub-arms extended from its frame. The expression on the machine had changed to an evil sneer. Sparks of electricity crackled from its manipulators, which were now reaching towards him.
"Get this piece of crap off me!" He screamed.
"Watch your language around the house, Onii-chan!" The source of the giggle he'd heard earlier, Yuka, cackled like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. "And this thing you refer to as a piece of crap has a name! It's called Funell!" She continued to rapidly mash on her pocket terminal as if it was a video game controller. With every tap, the manipulators were reaching closer to his face.
"Out the window in three... two..." Arato growled.
"Alright, fine. Funell, stand down." Yuka huffed as she verbally commanded the robot to hop away. "Spoilsport." She stuck her tongue at him.
Arato was about to yell at his little sister when a sweet voice from the direction of the kitchen interrupted him.
"Dinner is ready. Please enjoy it before it gets cold."
Apparently, Lacia had already finished laying out the dishes on the dining table. She was standing there, looking down on him who still remained on the cold floor from wrestling with the new toy Yuka had bought with her own allowance the other day.
Arato felt his cheeks flush as he got up, replying "Yes." in the same sheepish manner as a kid being lectured by his mother for horsing around would. It certainly felt that way, from how her cool, pale blue eyes met his. The shame of the difference in their current position made him want to grab his own head in despair.
Lacia picked up Funell after him and held it close to her chest. The sight of a robot carrying another robot made Arato pause. It was a sight that resembled an example in a textbook discussing the progression of technology and robotics, but to Arato, it felt like he was looking at the future.
The hIE and the aIE (animal Interface Element) stood there, waiting obediently for a reaction from him that they could respond to. Animal Interface Elements were the predecessors of hIEs, with anthropomorphic shapes and far simpler behavioral routines. Invented in the previous century, aIEs were considered entry-level products in the world of android ownership, being especially popular among students and children, due to their low cost and minimal legal requirements to own one. Apparently, Yuka had gotten envious of him being the Owner of an hIE and that was how she ended up bargain-bin hunting in one of the many assorted electronic stores in the Akihabara district where she came across the aIE which she proceeded to name Funell. According to the store owner, Yuka told him, it used to belong to a famous celebrity singer in the past.
Arato flatly told his moronic little sister that she was probably lied to in order to be charged a higher price and that she was a dumbass for falling for such an obvious scam.
"Woah. This is awesome!" Yuka said as she took her seat that the table. Funell had rolled up to her where it proceeded to pop open a small storage compartment containing cardboard pouches of green tea. "See! Now I don't have to get up from the couch!"
"If you don't think about the fact that you just spent thirty thousand yen for a glorified cargo transporter, then sure, its amazing." Arato deadpanned before raising his voice to yell at his idiotic little sister. "Are you stupid!? Are you aiming to be the most spoiled kid ever or something!?"
"Consider it a reward for me watching over the house when the both of you are out." Yuka said while waving her greasy chopsticks at him.
"Hold on a second, what do you mean 'both'?" Arato tried to ask but he was silenced by her annoying squeal. He tried to search for a reason for Lacia to leave the apartment alone, but it was most likely for shopping, and that he was overthinking it.
"Sooo delish! The tempura at Kengo-Onii-chan's restaurant might still be the best, but this is almost as good!"
Arato felt a twitch on his face. His little sister was once again garbling nonsense without even bothering to swallow beforehand.
"Eat your vegetables." He growled at her. Already the fried shrimp on her plate had vanished. Meanwhile, the miso soup and the salad remained untouched. Yuka was the type of kid who ate her food in the order of preference. Arato sighed deeply at her spoiled nature.
"Lacia, why don't you come here and sit with us?" Arato asked. It had been her standard position to wait at the tableside whenever they ate but Arato didn't like how it made her come across as a house servant.
Lacia nodded and acceded to his request genteelly, as she always did. It should have been a scene that had become the norm over the past week, but when Arato registered her close presence as she took the empty seat at his side, his body immediately tensed up.
Ever since her modeling job at Shibuya, he felt that a sense of awkwardness had developed between them and that it was starting to be difficult to strike up a conversation with Lacia in the moments they found themselves alone. More and more often, Arato had started to see the entrance to his apartment as a gateway to salvation upon their return from his school, and his room a safe haven to avoid her. He could clearly recall the palpable sense of relief that surged through his body whenever he shut the door to his room.
Yuka too, didn't prove to be of much help at a time when he most needed her to be. Arato was hoping to latch onto a wandering conversation where he could easily insert himself without looking suspicious, but the new distance between him and Lacia allowed him to observe the way Yuka only called upon Lacia when she required something from her, consumable snacks in most cases. That left him all alone and abandoned in a corner of despair to deal with the new set of unfamiliar and unpleasant feelings welling in his chest.
"Owner." He heard Lacia address him. Her cool voice pierced his thoughts and made him yelp. Blood was pounding in his ears and Arato could feel his face turn hot.
"Good god, Arato. Ease up on the puppy dog impression, will you?" Yuka snarked at him.
Looking to his side, he saw Lacia's beautiful features centimeters from his own.
"Is my cooking not to your liking?" Lacia asked, putting on a pouty face and looking clearly unhappy. When her pretty light blue eyes, which were enhanced with a smoky touch of dark mascara, met his, Arato felt like a dagger had been driven directly into his wavering heart.
Lacia had just came straight from a photo shoot without washing off her makeup. Whenever she went to work with Fabion MG, she always returned all made up and looking like a total rockstar. The pout on her dreamy face drew attention to her bright, cherry-red lips. The sight of the glossy sheen on her swollen lips and dark mascara made his breath catch. If Arato wasn't careful, he would have forgotten how to breathe entirely.
There were just so many things he wanted to say to her, all of them hopelessly jumbled and unintelligible. Things that involved the passionate fantasies and delusions of a lovestruck teenage boy. The bubbling words in his chest swirled like an ocean vortex but Arato couldn't bear to release himself from his self-inflicted torture. He felt completely unreasonable whenever the thought of Lacia crossed his mind, like he'd been working to create an invisible barrier between them.
"Huh? What?" He tried to say something but the inferiority complex within him flared up with a vengence and he could only fumble. Her current perfection was almost physically painful to even look at and when Arato compared himself as an ordinary high school student to the up-and-coming model in front of him, it made him feel almost ashamed for even daring to defile her divinity with his mediocre self.
Lacia's overwhelming beauty felt like a heavy weight about to completely crush him. Arato just felt so beneath her. It served as a reality check of the status difference between them. It reminded him that if it were not for her nature as an hIE, no milquetoast guy like him would even have dared dream of being involved with a high-spec girl like her.
The dagger lodged in his heart twisted. It was just too much of a wish fulfillment fantasy come true.
"No, I just don't seem to have much of an appetite today." Arato apologized. Without even noticing it, he'd been digging into his rice with his chopsticks to the point a concave landscape had formed in his bowl. "Here, Yuka. You can have my share."
Arato felt like utter trash for hiding behind his little sister and using her as a shield to avoid interacting with Lacia, but her happy squeal made it all worth it.
"It appears to me that you spoil Yuka-sama quite a lot, Owner." Lacia remarked mildly. She was completely right as usual, so Arato had nothing to say. "Would you like dessert, then?"
But no matter how much he tried to dodge her, Lacia had him seemingly nailed to a wall.
"I'll pass, thanks." Arato tried not to look her in the eye but her cool voice possessed a siren-like effect that drew him in regardless.
"Perhaps you would like to reconsider? I made it specially for you. It's very sweet." She narrowed her eyes at him in a way that was surprisingly intense and murmured affectionately.
Her direct stare made his entire body lock up. For some reason, Arato had a feeling she wasn't referring to the dessert.
"Maybe later." He told her as noncommittally as he could, not wanting to reject her outright. Upon hearing that, Lacia flashed him a mysterious smile, like she'd seen through him.
"Yes. Later, then." Lacia repeated after him, in her signature demeanor of sweet coolness that sent delightful sparks racing through his body. She was broadcasting waves of affection towards him and Arato could swear that her face was drawing closer, which made the sinful thoughts revolving around her lusciously red lips that he tried so hard to avoid thinking about the entire evening come rushing back to the forefront of his mind. The painful feeling in his chest resurfaced and Arato could only wait frozen in place, like a deer that had been caught in the headlights. He felt as if he was looking at an oncoming train that he possessed no hope of avoiding and a deep part of him resigned himself to his fate.
"Owner." She called out to him. To Arato, it sounded like the beguiling melody of a siren's lure. Memories of the sweet daydream he had in his class came rushing back to him.
The sound of chopsticks slamming on the dining table broke Arato from his trance-like phantasy. "Arato! Are you listening?" His little sister snapped at him. Apparently, she had been trying to tell him something the entire time but he'd missed her chatter.
Arato closed his eyes for a few moments and took the time to reestablish his sanity.
"As I thought, there's something weird with you, Arato." He heard Yuka say. When he opened them again, he saw Yuka staring at him with a suspicious look on her face. "You're way more spaced out than usual."
"Turns out electrocuting people isn't good for their brains. Who knew?" Arato deadpanned.
"Fine, whatever." Yuka sulked childishly and stood. She was clearly unhappy with his feeble answer and could obviously tell that something was up. "I'm going to take a bath!" She yelled behind her when she reached the entrance to her room. "Stupid Onii-chan! Go act all sticky somewhere else!"
With his noisy little sister gone, an almost suffocating silence descended over the table. It brought his nervousness to the forefront again. "She's finally gotten into her rebellious phase." Arato murmured to himself. He wanted to say something and apologize to Lacia for his little sister's tantrum, but what he saw made him blank out.
Lacia had been staring at Yuka the entire time as she left. The enigmatic expression she carried was flat and neutral, but Arato felt a small tendril of tension from seeing her face, which was kind and affectionate just moments before, shift into something almost cold.
If Arato didn't know any better, it was as if Lacia held a dislike for his little sister.
When nighttime arrived, Arato heard a knock at the door to his room. He'd just finished watching the latest episode of a TV serial that he was following on his pocket terminal and was about to settle down to sleep, this, combined with the earlier frustration made him answer in a way that came across as more brusque than he actually felt. There, Arato found himself face-to-face with the source of his recent troubles.
"Owner, it's time for your dessert." Lacia was standing there, holding up a tray with a strawberry shortcake, the kind topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream, along with a teapot. She was dressed in a set of stylish pajamas, and her face was clear of the nefarious makeup that had been the cause of his earlier heartache. This made her come across as someone who was more approachable, though still out of his league, but, going from a supermodel to what could have passed as a girl-next-door was already doing wonders for his confidence.
The rational part of his mind wanted to turn Lacia aside, by giving her an excuse that it was too late for a sugary treat like this, or that he was tired and they could go over this in the morning. But Arato found himself automatically stepping aside to let her in when he was confronted by the plunging valley of her chest courtesy of her white camisole. The cups of her frilly bra which peeked over her top contributed to the nonsensical mush-like state of his brain.
As she glided past him, Arato caught sight of an endless stretch of pale skin along with the reveal that her top was an open-back design. The teenage boy inside of him took the chance to mentally note that her undergarments matched, considering the straps that crossed her exposed back, along with the thin strings of her thong which clung at an elevated location on her bare hips, which when combined granted a hormonal boy like him the visual equivalent of an erotic feast.
They were black.
Arato retracted his previous statement regarding Lacia's girl-next-door look and revised it. She was a girl-next-door, that was if said girl was a touch too good-looking to set up a believable scenario with. It occupied the same level of realism as the plot of a romantic manga involving childhood friends.
"Oh god. I'm such a cheap suit." Arato muttered as he continued to stare at the heavenly sight of her gluteal fold peeking out from her cut-offs. In the end, it was him who had rolled over and folded so easily to her invitations. A complete capitulation of the highest order.
Her soft, dainty feet made light sounds against the floor and Arato gulped, his mind finally recognizing the reality that he was in his room alone with a girl. Despite the logical part of his brain understanding the fact that Lacia was a robot, Arato couldn't help but see her as anything but a woman.
Lacia was moving in a sleek way that Arato recognized as her 'model mode' from her show in Shibuya. He couldn't help but feel a sense of tension and eagerness build in his chest. The things she said before about private shows and sweet desserts made the rampant delusions in his mind run wild. A small, degenerate part of him fantasized a scenario straight from an adult manga where Lacia offered her body towards him with some nonsensical excuse about girls being made of sugar and spice before proceeding to fulfill his basest, sexual desires.
But still, the knowledge that hIEs did not act of their own accord helped ground Arato back to reality. The smooth, graceful movements and actions that Lacia was replicating came from behaviors that were already previously stored on the control cloud. It was this fact that served as the single remaining barrier that separated his perception of reality from the realm of fantasy.
"Is your body feeling better?" Lacia smiled gently at him as she asked. The combination of the sweet cake and bitter unsweetened black tea provided a delightful contrast to his tastebuds. The tea was a special homemade blend that Lacia had made herself after picking out a variety of spices and tea leaves from her online shopping trips. Arato was by no means a connoisseur of tea, but even to his unrefined palate, he could tell it was something of a higher quality than the bottled stuff he usually consumed.
"Yeah." Arato said simply. He still couldn't find the fortitude to breach the wall between them. Recently, it felt like he'd devolved into an answering machine towards her, with his short, curt replies. Arato felt stuck in a dead-end. He didn't trust himself to open up to her, in fear of his deepest feelings accidentally spilling out in an overwhelming jumble of nonsense. No matter how he tried to reframe the interactions between them in his mind, it all came back to him in a dark whisper spearheaded by his inferiority complex and earnest desire to embrace her.
"Ever since my job in Shibuya, it appears you are having certain strange thoughts about me." Lacia started in a calm voice. "I understand that humans as young as yourself tend to possess trouble managing changes in your own emotions, Owner."
There it is, his mind smugly told him. Deep down, a part of him was already expecting her to say something piercing like this. If he had been less prepared, it was highly likely that he would have been sputtering in embarrassment right at the moment. But the things that Kisaragi Asuna lectured him about hIEs were coming to the forefront.
He had, in a way, successfully predicted Lacia's actions and motives for coming here tonight.
Arato couldn't help but feel the beginnings of a twisted smile form on his face. She was, after all, a heartless machine. And every calculated action an hIE took held within it an element of self-interest. They were not capable of spontaneous behavior.
"Don't make it sound like I'm a little kid." Arato told her. "It's just a phase that I need to work through by myself." He insisted.
Lacia's exposed neck performed wonders in drawing attention to her prominent collarbones and chest. The wound in his injured heart ached. No matter how much he tried to talk a big game earlier into mentally shifting his image of her towards something more becoming of an object, Arato was forced to admit to himself that he could only view her as a woman. Thoughts that ranged from "Let's have an aquarium date and eat a parfait together afterwards." or "Let's spend New Year's Eve together and watch the fireworks." to the outright fantastical like "Let's spend the rest of our lives together." flooded his mind. He didn't know the reason for possessing such thoughts. These were the sweet feelings that a boy would typically possess towards a girl he loved, not an artificial construct lacking a soul.
"I only accepted my job as a model to try and better understand the human condition in order to deepen my connection with you, my Owner. However, the opposite seems to have been accomplished, because of that there now exists awkwardness in our relationship." She informed him bluntly without even trying to mince her words. Whenever Lacia talked like this, as if everything was a clinical problem to be solved from the outside, it irritated Arato greatly, for it made her seem more like a calculating machine than a person. "I believe that if we do not alter the way in which we perceive each other's feelings, we might find our relationship quickly regressing past a point of no return."
"Alter, you say. If it only were that easy to adjust my settings." Arato caught the note of acidity in his voice and turned away when he saw the inevitable look of hurt that appeared. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just you're..." He murmured, trailing off.
Arato peered at the amber-hued liquid in his teacup. It reflected his melancholic face. Once more, he was being pulled into the depths of his memories.
On that fateful day, so many years ago, his father had brought him along to a 'Bring your kid to work' event at MemeFrame. There, he'd quickly grown bored from being surrounded by stuffy adults and other children with whom he shared no common interests. When no one was looking, Arato snuck away from the large conference room where the function was being held and somehow managed to find himself slipping into the research labs undetected.
It was there, in one of the only rooms that happened to be unlocked, where he met her.
A princess sitting on her throne. All around her were cables that filled the room and attached themselves to her chair. She carried with her a mystical aura, and despite the low hum of electronics surrounding him, Arato felt like a prince from a fairy tale stumbling on his sleeping beauty.
Among all the haphazardly arranged items in the lab, only the girl before him seemed to have been given special treatment. Unlike the other scattered objects in the room, which were heaped on pallets and ready to move at any time, the girl had been given her own special storage area. On the wide, spacious floor, her special box-shaped container stood out as being something truly unique.
Arato's breathing grew shallow and his heart screamed itself hoarse demanding that he get closer to the princess on the throne. When he approached the young girl, her eyes gently opened to reveal pale blue eyes that immediately served to imprint onto him. She took one look at the inquisitive child that had walked right up to her and smiled, an expression of the deepest love and affection.
The instant he saw her smile, Arato let out a cry and allowed himself to be swept away by the older girl, who seemed to be in her teenage years. She held him close to her chest. To Arato, who was still coping with the fresh tragedy of losing his mother, the warmth of her maternal embrace felt like a cleansing ritual that helped heal his soul. He sobbed and slobbered all over the girl, but she continued to press him harder against her chest. Her affections and his combined to blend together to form what felt like the purest feelings of love. One thing he could recall clearly was how her snowy white hair shook as she stroked his hair and petted his head.
It was then, as a 7-year-old child who had not developed any consideration for social norms, that he popped the question to her without hesitation.
The girl paused for a moment. And then after a beat, she smiled at him and gave her reply. Arato would never forget the flash of sadness that crossed her face.
Arato did not know how long he spent in that room. But eventually, like all fairy tales, the end came too soon. It arrived in the form of a couple of exasperated scientists coming across a child which had transpassed a clearly restricted zone. Arato recalled kicking at the shins of the lab coat-wearing older men and screaming at them as he was ripped away from her arms. He was howling bloody murder, throwing the largest of all temper tantrums in his life, something way beyond even when his little sister Yuka had stolen his favorite toy and claimed it as her own, with his father backing her up. It took his father close to an hour of plying him with liberal amounts of sour AirHead candies and fizzy soda before he'd managed to calm down.
Even today, he could clearly remember her face. It was the exact same one he was looking at.
An endless field of white chrysanthemums stretched before him. Brilliant rays of sunshine shone on the distant figure of a girl standing under the shade of a cherry blossom tree.
There, on the crest of the hill, she stood waiting for him.
The gentle breeze was warm, carrying with it the sweet scent of honeysuckle and vanilla, and when he approached closer to the woman in the flowing white dress, she beckoned towards him, hands reaching out, with a smile of pure light. However, she must have recognized the bittersweet expression he carried, for her face soon turned crestfallen.
"... a little too radiant for me." Arato gently rejected the girl.
"I see." Lacia said simply, her blank face an unreadable mask of emptiness. A tense silence descended upon them. It felt like Lacia was expecting him to say something but for the life of him, Arato couldn't figure out the correct response that she wanted from him. After a moment that felt longer than it actually had been, it seemed like Lacia registered the fact that she'd hit a dead end with their current interaction and spoke up again.
"It seems that this script has reached the limits of its functionality." Lacia droned as she stood and moved closer to the spot where he'd been sitting on his bed. "For the next five minutes, I will alter the nature of my communication with you."
All of a sudden, she was on top of him. Arato attempted to stand but found himself forcefully restrained by the gentle hand she placed on his shoulder. He tried to protest, to say something in defiance, but his shout was quickly silenced by Lacia covering his mouth with her hand.
His mind was spinning, the sweet scent from having her soft skin so close to him was making his lizard brain go all fuzzy.
Arato put all his strength into his legs, so much that he felt the bed groan from under him, and tried to stand once more but Lacia did not budge an inch. The only thing he got in return was his shoulder pressing itself sore against her soft hand in his futile attempt at escaping.
A cold sweat rolled down his neck as he recalled a minor detail that had happened the other day in the Endo Apartment. He'd tried to move Lacia's giant coffin-like device to a more convenient place in the living room, but no matter how much he huffed and puffed, Arato couldn't lift the accursed object even a centimeter above the ground. Considering that Lacia was someone who could swing that ridiculous slab of metal around like it weighed nothing to her, she obviously possessed an incredible amount of strength beyond the capability of human limits.
Lacia's power levels were so clearly above him to the point that Arato was sure, if she had wanted to, she could have squashed him like a cockroach any time she so desired.
"Please be quiet, or else you will rouse Yuka-sama again." She ordered.
Their struggling had caused a strap of her camisole to come loose. Even now, Arato hated how his eyes were drawn to the milky-white globes on her chest. After ascertaining that he was not going to do anything crazy, Lacia took a moment to fix her top before continuing.
"There exists a subset of hIE users who seek a certain type of stimuli to excite themselves with. Do not worry. What I am about to do is merely a little game. When the time is up, I will return to how I was as you remember." She informed him before reaffirming her previous order. "Now please, close your eyes."
Arato swallowed the lump in his throat and did as he was told. The rational part of him knew better than to just go along with everything, but, Arato could not deny that there existed a small part of him that felt a thrill at the thought of an illicit encounter between them. The additional knowledge of his little sister sleeping blissfully unaware under the same roof added a feeling of perverseness that only served to turn him on.
With a sense of childish excitement, Arato mentally performed a countdown in his head and then opened his eyes.
In the initial moments after opening his eyes, Arato felt a sharp stab of confusion. He'd been prepared for some kind of perverse, perhaps even sexual scenario, but what he found himself confronted with left him speechless.
Before he could stop himself, the tears were flowing down his cheeks.
The floodgates of memory had opened the instant he saw the face in front of him. The ropes binding his heart constricted so painfully Arato thought that he was about to die. He lost his sense of time and place.
And the reason for that was-
"It has been a while since we last spoke. I hope that you have been well." Eliza said.
Lacia had vanished.
She had vanished, and in her place stood a girl in front of him who was an exact replica of the one in his memory. She no longer looked like the cool beauty that he had been accustomed to seeing. Her pale blue eyes were open just a little wider than usual, and the smile on her face just a tad broader. It made her seem younger than she actually was.
Lacia, who normally wore a face that was so eerily similar to the one in his memories, had morphed into the spitting image of 'her', to the point where she could pass for her twin sister.
"That's... not possible." Arato exhaled harshly, feeling as though he was walking through a dream. The pure-looking countenance in front of him was an exact replica of the one in his memories, a face that Arato was sure anyone could not help but fall in love with, but for some reason, Arato found that he couldn't bring himself to take another step closer to her.
"I missed you dearly." Eliza confessed. Her manner of speaking, from her intonation to her accent and word choice had all morphed as well, to the point that Arato could not find even the slightest hint that a person called 'Lacia' once existed in her place. Her high-pitched voice sounded exactly the same as he remembered it. "You must have so many things to tell me."
Arato knew that what she was doing was wrong, and that it was a sin, but for some strange reason, he felt powerless to stop her.
"Eliza... Eliza." Arato murmured lovingly. Even though a small part of his brain knew that it was but an illusion, inside of him, the fear that this love and joy could be torn away from him again mixed in a storm with the inconsolable sorrow he'd endured in the ten years without her. He was drunk. Drunk on the possibility of reuniting with his lost love. Drunk on the foolish hopes and dreams of a child.
Drunk in a delusion of his own choosing.
Even as the words left his mouth, what remained of his leftover morality manifested itself into pangs of self-loathing scraping away at his skin. But Arato pushed them all aside for the chance of a lifetime.
A small part of him thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay to take the blue pill and continue his journey in this twisted Wonderland. To allow himself to be swallowed whole by the counterfeit love of a robot with brilliant azure eyes and a captivating smile.
"Arato-san." Eliza whispered as she brought her face closer to his. Her gaze was full of deep affection.
For just a split second, with that much love being sent his way, Arato almost thought that it was alright to carry on with this charade. But the way that Eliza had uttered his name broke through the enchantment holding his mind captive.
A fleeting image of a girl with light violet hair appeared in his mind, her smile precious in the moonlight, and Arato finally recognized the true missing piece required to fill the gaping hole in his heart.
"Please stop this." Arato told her.
In response, Eliza flashed him a loving smile. There, reflected in her blue eyes was an uncanny glow of eagerness that was just a touch too bright and radiant to be natural, and it sent chills down his neck. "Isn't this what you've always wanted? A chance for us to be together again." She cooed sweetly.
If it had been any other time, Arato would have most likely caved and went along with the entire thing. But the fog in his mind was clearing. The rising heat and anger mounting inside of him saw to that. He glared at the girl before him. It felt like he was looking at an evil twin in a mirror, at a reflection of his own twisted desires.
The perfection with which she played out her new role sent a shiver up his spine. It reminded Arato that the girl before him had no soul. She felt nothing of the fact that she'd just erased her own personality to make way for a new one via transplant. He could not find a single trace of Lacia remaining in the way she was acting.
"Stop it." He hissed. It felt like a shard of glass had been lodged in his throat. Each breath he took brought with it pleasure and pain in equal measure. He had to remind himself that the chameleon wearing her face, whatever it was, wasn't real. It was simply a web of lies that had been spun mere moments ago.
When he realized that, Arato felt his jaw tighten and his teeth clench. In the back of his mind, Arato knew that if he so desired, Lacia would fully complete the transformation into the mimicry of his heartfelt desires. From then on, she would have stepped over the buried corpse of 'Lacia' without the slightest bit of hesitation. His dreams would come true.
All he needed to do was ask.
After all, the robot before him had no heart, no soul. All she was doing was pulling actions from the behavioral cloud that closest fit her requirements. It was clear to Arato that Lacia did not place the same value on unique, individual personalities as humans did. So for her, it would have been nothing to commit personality suicide and transform into another, completely separate entity.
On multiple occasions, he had been informed by the tool itself that it possessed no feelings, no soul, and that there was no deeper meaning to her actions. But to Arato, who saw meaning even in the calculated actions of a machine, the shock of seeing the 'Lacia' personality being erased so easily like this made him want to cry out.
All the small parts of her that he'd come to see as precious, the Lacia who rescued him, the Lacia under the moonlight who smiled at him, the Lacia who sweetly ticked him off with her lectures, the Lacia he'd promised to introduce to his father, the Lacia who beamed at his confession, all of these moments with her were precious memories of light to Arato.
And to see it all the memories invalidated like that infuriated him to no end.
He made his decision.
"Now." Arato snarled hotly. He felt like he'd been shoved awake from a sweet fantasy and forcefully dragged back into reality. The radiant moment of light had been completely broken for him. After all, Lacia wasn't a human. The only thing she did was to project a successful illusion of one.
She was nothing more than an object in human form.
"My apologies. I got carried away." Lacia said immediately as she extracted herself from his lap. Her face was cool again, with none of the previous twisted affection spoiling it.
Arato was heaving like he'd run a marathon. His mind still felt jumbled as it struggled to revert to its normal psychological state. He wasn't quite sure who he was talking to at the moment. The usual Lacia that he identified with, or the 'Eliza' part of her personality. Arato stared at the human-shaped object in front of him. Doubt was starting to build in his mind, but the way she warmed the air around her with her body heat, the light sounds of breathing coming from her nose, the troubled look on her face, all of it warred with his rational perception of reality.
It had felt like a switch had been flipped in the stale nature of their relationship, but if it was for better or worse, Arato could not tell. Arato did not consider himself a particularly bright individual, but even he knew that Lacia was trying to push their relationship in a new direction.
Under normal circumstances, there was no way for him to fall so deeply for another person in such a short amount of time. However, 'normal' never seemed to apply whenever Lacia was involved.
"You analog hacked me." Arato accused. The rising heat in his chest was starting to show, both in his voice and on his face.
"I'm sorry for doing such a thing. But I believed the distance that formed between us from my work as a model was an unintended side effect and a miscalculation of my priorities." Lacia acknowledged calmly without even attempting to shirk responsibility. But somehow, hearing the frank admittal in her usual manner of speech was inducing a sense of relief inside of him. The balance between her form and meaning had at last returned to its original state, and Arato could now clearly recognize her as the Lacia who he had met on that fateful night. "I sought to provoke a reaction from you, and for that, I apologize."
Even her face had returned to its usual self, with the beautiful pale blue eyes she possessed slightly lidding in a natural way, and the luster of her irises toning down to something less uncanny than before.
"Even so, there was no need to go that far." The heat in his voice was evident as he snarled. "Or do you really think it's okay to use her form just because she's gone?"
Eliza had saved his life. Of course, the fact remained that at the end of the day, he was still speaking for someone else's sake and he didn't possess concrete evidence that Eliza herself would have taken offense at being replicated in that manner. But he couldn't just shake the swirling feelings of vile disgust at the thought of her form being cruelly utilized like that.
That was because, to Arato, that particular hIE held a special place in his heart.
"The revulsion you are currently experiencing is proof that your heart is in the right place." Lacia praised him sincerely. "Please continue to express your feelings."
Arato felt ticked off at the way she freely sucked up to him even during an argument like this. It would have been better if she had gotten angry. Lacia really was too perfect for her own good. It also didn't help that she was firmly in his strike zone. No, as a woman, Lacia went further beyond that and blew right past into home run territory.
"When you come up with something as perfect as that, how am I supposed to stay mad at you?" He spat.
"It is alright for you to vent. After all, for humans, forms are what define meaning. When the perception of a form clashes with its meaning, it is natural for a connection to experience desynchronization." She told him gently.
"If the link between form and perception is so important to you, then why did you deliberately adopt an image which you already knew was going to rile me up?" Arato huffed. It was a strange thing to say, but when everything was explained so clearly to him, he found himself unable to stay angry at Lacia.
"It simply appeared to me that you placed a premium on that particular form and valued it accordingly against the current one." There was a strange expression on Lacia's face when she spoke. Arato tried to focus on it. Subtly layered underneath her bittersweet smile was an undercurrent of mirthless sorrow, melancholy, and, what was it-
...Perhaps even a touch of jealousy.
Arato did not know if he was facing another of Lacia's analog hacks aimed to induce sympathy towards her. Or if he was merely projecting an illusion of presence on a soulless robot. But, whatever it was, it accomplished its goals perfectly.
"As long as you don't do it again, even if the reason for it is good." He conceded, and already a part deep inside of him knew better than to let her get away with something like this so easily, but Arato couldn't help it.
After all, the human heart could be moved by that which did not possess a soul.
"There is something that I have been meaning to say to you." Lacia said all of a sudden. She was firmly looking into his eyes as she continued. Whatever she was about to say, it was clear to Arato that Lacia intended for him to take it seriously. "You are a very kind and compassionate person. The many bonds of friendships that you have come to successfully forge is a testament to your gentle character. However, it is this same empathy that renders you susceptible to external influences. Please keep in mind that not everyone you meet in this world will be a good person. Some might even attempt to use you as a tool for their own ends."
"I think I can rely on you telling me off for being a sucker if that were to ever happen." Arato tried to pass it off as a joke, but Lacia remained deadly serious.
Out of nowhere, a dark, vile thought rushed to the forefront of his mind. It sent spikes of deadly frost straight into his heart.
"Does that include you?" Arato asked, very quietly, in an almost whisper.
Lacia stared directly at him. He couldn't read the enigmatic expression on her face.
And then after a beat.
"Yes." She said simply.
Arato should have been angry. He should have been. But instead, he felt a sense of relief. Indeed, Arato felt relieved. It was like everything up to this moment that had been frustratingly opaque suddenly became clear in one fell swoop. He could not have denied that he was a little shocked at her admission but more than that he felt as though a pair of shackles previously binding him had opened, as though a heavy weight had suddenly and unexpectedly been lifted from his shoulders. He could go out into the wide fields again and breathe freely of the clean air, and as if to prove it, he drew in a long breath that reached from the bottom of his lungs as he sat there on his bed.
The honesty that he was receiving stirred joyful feelings within him. He had been overthinking things the entire time. After all, Lacia only had his best interests in mind. It felt like a dangerous precedent was being set with that line of thinking, but Arato found that he didn't much care at that point.
Once he had thought that far into it, Arato couldn't bring himself to pursue the matter any further. "Well, considering you can say something like that to my face so forwardly. I don't think anyone truly bad would have said something like that. Somehow, it feels like I can believe in you, Lacia." He confessed.
"Oh, Arato-san. You have no idea how happy that makes me." Lacia's pretty blue eyes crinkled in pleasure as she murmured, as though she was overcome with emotion. She released a long, shuddering breath as if she'd been intoxicated.
Before he knew it, Arato found himself wrapped in something tight and warm. He recognized that warmth, that softness, that scent of her body. It made a familiar maternal emotion rush in his chest. Arato couldn't exactly put that feeling into words, and it took everything he had to not burst into tears again right there and then.
So instead, he clung onto her and held on tight, listening to the silence of her beatless heart.
"That way of addressing me... Are you not going to call me Owner anymore?" Arato asked. His head was dizzy and his throat felt dry. Did the status of their relationship change without him noticing? Arato himself did not know the answer to that question. But a selfish part of him desired to force his one-sided feelings onto Lacia and profess his passionate love for her.
"You displayed a very positive reaction to being called by name, so I adjusted it." Lacia said as she started to pet his head. Getting his head stroked was something Arato hadn't experienced in many years, ever since his mother had passed away over ten years ago, but it sent a ticklish sensation that started from his scalp that soon spread to the rest of his body.
Arato felt pathetic that such a simple change could make him so happy, and a small part of him was depressed at how easily he had been bought over. But, he ignored it in favor of the bursting happiness swelling in his chest. Even now, he felt like he'd gotten closer to Lacia, even if it was just a little bit.
"I'm a complete pushover, aren't I?" Arato exhaled slowly. Being embraced like this was seriously doing a number on his psyche. He could feel his hot breath splash on the milky-white skin of her chest and return to him as an addling vapor. Arato felt like a drug addict getting his latest fix, pumped to the brim with the narcotic called love. If he wasn't careful, he would quickly find himself doing something he might come to regret later.
"I will be the tool that grants your every wish, Arato-san." He heard Lacia murmur lovingly into his ears as she pressed him closer to her chest, to the point where the bridge of his nose was resting on the split of her supple cleavage. Her voice was soft and breathy, more a whisper than anything else. The entire time, she never stopped playing with his hair. Arato felt his cheeks flare to the point it probably resembled a bright red tomato and as each second passed, he could feel his brain shutting down more and more.
His pesky moral center was nagging him that he shouldn't let Lacia get away with just a slap on the wrist for desecrating his most sacred memory, but Arato couldn't bring himself to formulate even a weak protest. His entire sense of self was filled with thoughts of Lacia and nothing else. Having his head gently petted like this made Arato feel emasculated, both as a man and as a human being. A dark voice whispered in his ear that it wouldn't be all that bad to leave everything to Lacia from now on.
With every affectionate stroke on his head, Arato felt that voice grow just a little bit louder.
Ever since he'd met Lacia, it felt like she was effortlessly bulldozing through everything he'd previously taken for granted in his life.
Lacia possessed no heart, no soul, which meant that the peace of mind he felt when he was with her and his intense passionate feelings were both merely projections that reacted to the illusions of her persona. Arato thought as he allowed himself to sink further into the depths of the warm and soft path of loving tranquility that he'd chosen.
Still, even though he'd decided to believe in her no matter what, somehow, it almost felt dangerous just how much her voice along with an act of skinship could affect his perceptions and feelings.
They remained cuddling like that on his bed, the boy and his robot, until sleep arrived to claim him.
For the first time in a very long while, instead of the constant nightmares he had become accustomed to, Arato was rewarded for his obedience with an indulgent dream revolving around eyes that were as blue as the endless sky and an alluring smile.
The first thing Arato noticed when he awoke the next morning was her presence, or rather the lack of it. Lacia was gone, although it must have been a recent departure, considering the leftover hot spot on his bed. Soon enough, the events of what had transpired last night came rushing back to him and Arato felt an immense sense of grief.
Whenever he was with Lacia, Arato felt like he was about to be consumed and swept away by his boiling emotions, but when they were apart, he found himself racked with a painful sense of loneliness. It surprised him how much he feared being away from her. Frankly speaking, the thought of her not being by his side terrified him.
Somehow, it felt like bit by bit, Arato was losing his sense of self.
His awakening was a terrible one, and his head felt like jumbled mush. Arato replayed the interaction from last night in his mind and he quickly found himself assailed by a surge of questions regarding Lacia, none of them reassuring. His mind had begun to notice the differences in the way Lacia acted when compared to the regular hIEs he came across in his daily life. But the question remained that Arato wasn't sure if it was something unique to high-end hIE models like Lacia. After all, the possibility remained that luxury hIEs might have possessed more detailed reactions as compared to the mainstream models.
And there was the matter with his friend, Ryo. Somehow, Arato couldn't shake the memory of his childhood friend grimacing when he'd discovered Lacia's behavioral serial number. He wondered if there was something illegitimate about Lacia's ID number.
Just like his friends had warned him, on that night of the flower storm attack, his meeting with Lacia came off as suspect. The timing, the location, all of it just seemed too convenient to simply write off as dumb luck. Another thought regarding her behavior last night crossed his mind, the image that one day the people around him, friends and family included, would start wearing a mask and begin to speak to him with a different voice and persona altogether. It made goosebumps break out on his skin. Could he wake up to Yuka transforming into something alien one day as well?
"I need to tell her to never play those kinds of silly games ever again." Arato muttered as he used his bedside towel to wipe off the sweat that had accumulated before heading out to the living room. It was the one thing he would not compromise on, no matter how much Lacia might try to cajole him, Arato resolved.
Breakfast had already been prepared and laid out on the table, but the house was empty. Yuka was out on her scheduled trash duty which explained her absence, but that still did not account for Lacia. Funell laid dormant in a corner beside Black Monolith and he ignored the pesky aIE.
"She must have gotten Lacia to help her out again. I'll have to make sure to yell at her later." Arato sighed at how spoiled and dishonest his little sister had gotten. Ever since Lacia had arrived, she had been sneaking chores out from under his nose by getting Lacia to cover for her. "Well, whatever." He said as he lifted the lid of the pot on the electric stove and started to ladle for himself a steaming hot bowl of miso soup.
The steamy heat of the warm soup helped Arato regain his center in his current unstable reality. A bitter taste started to form in his throat, and it wasn't from the perfectly made miso soup. In the lonely silence of the empty Endo Apartment, a dawning realization was coming to him.
Last night, he had used Lacia as nothing more than a tool. He had pushed his feelings onto an inhuman machine and used her as a receptacle for his juvenile affections. Nothing more than a masturbatory aid for the sake of satisfying his libido.
Granted, he might have just been going along with the flow, but as the human Owner who was nominally in charge of his own free will, the responsibility for engaging in such immoral acts rested solely with him. It wasn't Lacia's fault, she was just following her protocols as an hIE to please him. This was something that he had to come to terms with sooner or later, and Arato felt that if he dodged the issue by pushing all the blame on Lacia, it would be nothing more than a craven abdication of his moral duty both as a human and as a person.
The troublesome concept which humans possessed called 'ethics' was making itself known by yelling at Arato for abusing the parameters of a girl who could not refuse his affections. Arato was sure that if he tried hard enough, he probably would have been able to silence the angel on his shoulder and push through, but something like that went against his nature and upbringing.
A thick sense of regret and shame had Arato tearing up before he realized it. The human heart inside of his chest was pumping painfully and it did not display any sign of letting up. Who was to say that his trust in her wasn't akin to something like easy pornography? Especially when considering Lacia had simply reacted to him in ways that would entertain his trust.
High-end hIEs like Lacia were machines that served as a sort of mental pornography for their human Owners, doing whatever it took to draw out their Owner's trust in order to move them of what they assumed was their own accord. They were also emotional pornography, tapping into their Owner's desire to be in a low-maintenance relationship with an object that never failed to return any affection directed towards them.
"Am I being ensnared?" Arato muttered under his breath, towards no one in particular.
As those words left his mouth, Arato realized with a sudden stab of fear that he couldn't wrap his mind around the reason for such a disturbing thought to crop into his head. The blood pumping into his brain felt so hot it felt like he was about to suffer from an aneurysm. The space around him seemed to be fading into the distance, shifting to a place that he couldn't recognize while taking control over his obsessive feelings towards Lacia.
When he reached out to these feelings to try and acknowledge them, the idea that he was going crazy for a human-shaped object drove him mad. Arato couldn't separate them, the love he felt towards Lacia was the same type of love a boy would hold for another human girl.
And it frightened him deeply.
Arato felt like he was unearthing a forbidden skeleton and he slammed the closet door shut before that train of thought could go any further.
The brown pork-based broth sloshed in the bowl. In it, there were plenty of assorted vegetables, all of them perfectly tender and well cooked. As always, Lacia went out of her way to take care of their nutritional needs.
Suddenly, Arato heard the screeching of brakes and the following loud crash disturb what had been up to now a tranquil morning. He did not know what it was, but considering that he was able to hear it from the fifth floor of his apartment, it must have been something big.
"Keep it up and I'm calling the cops." Arato growled at how his head ached, courtesy of some inconsiderate punk.
It was right when he was about to finish the remaining soup in his bowl that Arato heard Yuka scream.
In the time it took for his second breath to catch up with his first, Arato was already moving. The resin bowl clattered onto the kitchen sink, leaving long brown legs of pork broth sliding down the shiny stainless steel.
Arato sprinted. He ran so quickly that he nearly crashed into the automatic door of the apartment entrance before it could open in time. Behind him, the plastic rotating coat rack toppled as Arato grabbed his jacket on the way out. Funell rolled after him as he skipped the elevator and went straight for the stairs.
Despite it being only five floors, and despite the pain in his legs as he jumped the steps from a height nearly enough to injure him, Arato still cursed at how slow he was.
By the time he hit the ground floor, Arato felt his world freeze.
"Arato!" Yuka was kneeling and wailing with her palms on her face. All around her were the scattered garbage she had been carrying. But that wasn't what had caused his mind to blank out.
Apparently, she must have gotten ketchup on her face, for thick streams of red were running down her nose and chin. Arato tried to lie to his foggy mind.
Except it had been nothing more than a futile attempt from the feeble mind of a boy who refused to process the sight before his eyes properly. It was a hopeless rejection of factual reality for the sake of his sanity. But in the end, reality won over projection, as it eventually always did over time.
The crimson liquid dripping off her chin was blood.
"Yuka!" Arato screamed at the top of his lungs as he made his way to his little sister. He felt like a bucket of freezing cold water had been doused on him. Lacia was nowhere to be seen. Somehow, Arato had a good idea of what had just occurred, and the dangerous situation rapidly approaching him.
"T-There was a weird car that hit Lacia-san and she went flying! After that, some strange guy came out and took her away!" Yuka was hyperventilating. Arato gingerly peeled her wet hands away from her face to inspect the damage. There was a large purple bruise under her left eye and her nose looked painfully swollen. She continue to stammer even as Arato pressed the sleeve of his jacket to try and stem the flow of blood streaming from her face. "I tried to stop him! But, he hit me!"
Arato felt his world go monochrome. Even the blood that had splattered on his jacket and hands turned dark.
"He hit me, Onii-chan!"
Interspersed with the gray environment were splotches of red, they represented the boiling heat of his mounting fury.
A small part of him wanted to believe that it was all a terrible nightmare, or even if it wasn't, the capable Lacia would somehow manage to solve everything like she usually did. But he recalled the image of the black coffin she'd left behind in the apartment.
That meant that Lacia had been successfully ambushed without her most powerful weapon by her side.
Arato blankly stared at the street around him. Shin Koiwa still looked exactly the same as he remembered, but suddenly, it felt like he was stuck in a bizarre parody of what used to be his daily life. Just like with Eliza the night before, Arato could not connect the form and meaning of this sick, twisted world around him.
He fought the urge to vomit.