The Mystery of Ren Amamiya - Lightning99

Stream 15:

Sophia

As her stream that evening reached the short milestone of ten minutes, Ann was reminded of a fact about herself. When she was excited about something, she could not suppress her emotions.

The more subtle reminder was that she couldn't stop herself from grinning. She had sat down ten minutes ago with a firm resolve not to give anything away, but a minute later, she had realised her lips and cheeks hadn't listened. It became a repeated pattern: tell herself not to, smile anyway. The second reminder was a lot more obvious:

AnnFann101: Ok, what's going on?

'What do you mean, AnnFann?' Ann asked.

AnnFann101: Why are you smiling like that?

TheGhostlyMaiden: Right? It's kinda creepy!

All-Hail-LL: Ren's right. You couldn't be an actor. You're way too transparent.

'I have no idea what you mean,' Ann said. She paused. 'It's not creepy, is it?!'

She said that, but as she glanced around her room on that mid-winter evening, she supposed it might be. The sky peeking through the curtains was already dark, and the neon lights in her streaming room seemed to shine brighter. Seeing her grinning with such a backdrop must have been creepy.

Ann was about to refute their comment until she spotted the time in the corner of her screen. It flicked over to ten o'clock, and the picture of her stream went dark as if the camera had switched off. The chat began filling with question marks and queries as to whether the stream had died. Ann sat back in her chair and waited. And she grinned some more.

A tiny patch of red appeared in the top right of the screen. After a brief pause, the red expanded into a small circle, which descended the screen. Within the circle was a small white head, with two blue circles for eyes in a black oval and what looked like tufts of red hair.

Golden_Guy: What is that?

Featherman616: What the hell?

DynamiteKitten142: ?

The icon floated about the screen for about a minute, a trail of blue geometric shapes behind it. And then, after about thirty seconds more, it expanded, revealing Sophia across the entire display.

Akiharabaki: HUH?!

HP_Sauce: A girl?!

PhantomThiefRai: She's so cute! Who is this?

'Hi, everyone,' Sophia said, grinning. 'My name is Sophia.'

Sophia's screen shrunk down, placing itself in the corner of Ann's camera, on the other side of which Ann was still grinning.

'And Sophia, chat, is our guest for today! It's a very special treat. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Sophia is an AI!'

It'SnOUsE: She's a what?!

RenFan101: :O

Live_Wire: No way!

'Yep!' Ann said.

'I am, as Ryuji would say, for real,' Sophia said, nodding.

PhantomThiefRai: She's basically perfect. How the hell do you have such a perfect AI?

'Oh, no, I don't own her. Nobody does, really, but a woman named Kuon Ichinose created her,' Ann said. 'Sophia is a different type of AI to something like the EMMA system from a few years ago. Unlike most AI, Sophia has the capacity for human emotions. She can feel, cry, and laugh. She's pretty much her own person.'

ShuGC: For real?!

Football121: Wait, her own person, as in a human?!

'That is correct, yes,' Sophia said. 'I do not have a physical body, but otherwise, my mind is that of a human's.'

Endlave2011: Incredible…

FrozenFire: How did we have no idea you exist?!

DynamiteKitten142: How the hell does someone even make a sentient AI?!

'It's a long story,' Ann said. 'But yeah, I didn't think I would be able to have her visit the stream since such a complex AI could make some suspicious companies interested in her. But Sophia and Ichinose agreed that it would be safe. They have been travelling around the world, learning more about humans and the human heart, so lots of people have seen her already.'

'It shouldn't be much of a problem,' Sophia said. 'I am here to help my friend, Ann, so please, ask me whatever you would like. I will answer you the best I can.'

RenFan101: I'll go first, then! What's it like being an AI?

'Living purely through the internet is unique,' Sophia said. 'If I were to give an example of how unique I was able to answer your question without having Ann tell me and without a screen in front of me. If it is in data form, I essentially know as much as is online. I can find information immediately, have the freedom to look at anything I would like, and tinker with programs if I want to. I have a moral compass, so I still follow the law.'

ShujinGirl2: You can find out anything immediately? Damn, I wish I had that for my exams…

FrozenFire: So, realistically, you could hack into the government's database?

'I do not believe I should confirm nor deny that fact live on stream,' Sophia answered.

'Yeah, let's not go there, shall we? I don't want the stream to be taken down,' Ann said. 'How about this question, Sophia? What're your day-to-day activities as an AI?'

'My day-to-day activities? Let's see,' Sophia began, which led into her detailing her usual routine.

Sophia first explained how she likes to emulate humans by manually scheduling her shut-down periods in accordance with Ichinose's sleeping pattern. When somebody asked if she ever has insomnia, she told them she did, that she scheduled in days where she 'can't sleep' to get a feel for what it is like. From there, she talked about how her days were always different, that whenever she had spare time, she spent it browsing the internet for random information or reading digital novels. By that point, many chat members understood what they meant earlier when they claimed that Sophia was human-like. That was what tripped them up.

'At lunch times, I always ask Kuon, sorry, Ichinose, to buy me snacks or cook something,' Sophia said. 'Chocolate is my favourite food.'

As Ann muffled her laughter behind her palm, the chat became one big box of confusion. Sophia grinned until it finally clicked, and they realised with significant wallowing that an AI had just pranked them.

'Of course, I don't eat,' Sophia said. 'That is one of the downsides to being an AI. I display an eating emoji or something similar when Ichinose is eating. That way, it makes me feel involved.'

DarkSun: Yeah, that makes so much more sense…

X-Flare2011: We're idiots, I swear.

After that, the questions kept coming, including those about Sophia's many abilities, how she interacts with people and an especially thought-provoking one about whether she envies real humans.

'I suppose,' Sophia began after a moment of thought, 'I do. There are so many sensations that I can only imagine from inside a phone. I once could feel these sensations, and that is something I will never forget. But because of that experience, I know what I am missing out on. It can become a bit upsetting at times.'

'We need to take you there again. Hopefully, it'll work as it used to,' Ann said, thinking of the New Mementos.

'Perhaps. Even so, Ichinose is constantly thinking of ways for me to experience these sensations so I do not feel I am missing out all of the time. Technology is advancing far faster than the public world knows. I exist, after all.'

'That you do,' Ann said. 'And you've been to far more places than I have. Where have you been, exactly?'

"Good question, Ann. I have been to many different countries and continents, including England, Scotland, and this small country called Wales. America, Italy, and Australia. Travelling all around the world over the last few years has been an amazing experience.'

'I imagine, yeah,' Ann said.

Lancer-ga-shinda: Yeah, but like you said, isn't being trapped in a screen boring?

'I don't quite get what you mean,' Sophia said, tilting her head to the side.

Lancer-ga-shinda: Well, you don't get to do anything, do you? Or feel much.

'That's not true. I get to do plenty of things and make a lot of memories. Ann, do you mind if I borrow the screen for a moment?'

'Go for it,' Ann said.

Sophia's corner expanded once more, filling the entire screen.

'Let me show you my experiences from my first trip when I was awakened from my shut-down state,' Sophia said, and a picture of the seventeen-eighteen-year-old Phantom Thieves appeared. It was from their road trip while battling Jails. Ann grinned, for it had been a little while since she had seen the photos.

'As you can see, these are all my friends from my first trip,' Sophia said, flicking through the photos. Ann giggled when the one of her and Morgana and a table full of sweets appeared, then full-on laughed at the one of Ren and Ryuji eating ramen. She smiled at Yusuke's drawing and Makoto's watermelon obsession in Okinawa, and her laughter returned when the one of Zenkichi setting a frying pan on fire appeared.

'I remember that,' Ann said. 'Ren wouldn't let Zenkichi cook afterwards.'

Then came their group photo, which warmed Ann's heart more than she could explain. There was a photo of LeBlanc. The final one made her chest squeeze blissfully. It was of Ren resting his eyes in the van, one hand on Morgana's back, one cradling his head. He looked so content, so happy. She, however, wasn't the only one taken with that image.

RenFan101; LOOK AT HIM! AHHHH 3

HP-Sauce: Calm down! He's taken.

RenFan101: Can we share him, Ann?!

'Absolutely not,' Ann said, folding her arms.

DynamiteKitten142: Those are lovely pictures.

AWinterNight: You guys all look so close. It's amazing.

'Thank you. Yes, we are very close. That was one crazy road trip,' Ann said.

'It was. And as you can all see, I had a lot of fun, too. I may not be able to get involved physically, but I can share the memories and the laughter and the conversation. It is so much fun. I can show you more if you'd like,' Sophia said. She was, of course, met with confirmation from the chat.

So, they filled the next short while with Sophia showing and discussing several pictures she had taken, many of which Ann herself had yet to see. She saw castles, ocean views, mountain ranges, a volcano and a thunderstorm. Her final picture was of Ichinose sitting on a beach, looking at the sea.

As she shrunk back to the corner of the screen, Ann caught back up with the chat, happening upon a question that made her sigh.

PizzaKing: Ok, but why is nobody asking the big question?

'And what might this big question be, Pizza?' Ann asked.

PizzaKing: You're a sentient AI. You could very easily take over the world.

'No, I'm not going to take over the world,' Sophia said, giggling. 'As we have established, I can feel human emotions. I factor those emotions into my analysis of situations and, therefore, my actions. I might try to take over the world if I didn't have such feelings.

Unless any of her fellow Phantom Thieves or their accomplices were in chat, Ann was probably the only one that understood what Sophia was referencing there.

It was that comment which sent the chat spiralling into yet another tangent. Using films and television shows about AI as their basis – which made their argument oh so reliable – they tested Sophia's emotions. That then became a test of her intelligence, in which they attempted to outsmart her with questions like how long it would take to run around the earth, the circumference of the moon, and the factorial of 1124. They completely failed.

Akira_Kurusu: Sophia.

'Yes, Akira Kurusu?' Sophia asked.

Akira_Kurusu: I would have asked Futaba to do this, but I wouldn't want her to be caught for hacking…

Alibaba: I never get caught.

Akira_Kurusu: You have said multiple times today and proven that you can know anything in under a second if you search for it.

Akira_Kurusu: Does this apply to the identity of The Phantom Thieves?

PhantomThiefRai: Akira, you're a goddamn genius!

'The Phantom Thieves' identities, you say?' Sophia asked.

Akira_Kurusui: That's right. Can you search for it?

'Ok. I will give it a try,' Sophia said. She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them a few seconds later. 'I'm sorry, but that information does not appear to be online. My immediate search yielded more than three million results, yet I found nothing. My subsequent searches gave me nothing, either. I am sorry.'

PhantomThiefRai: So, it's not online anywhere, huh? And even an AI doesn't know who the Phantom Thieves are… Man, they're good.

PhantomThiefRai: But wait…

PhantomThiefRai: I don't know if this will be behind a government wall, but is there any record of who arrested The Phantom Thieves' leader, apart from that detective? Or somebody who interrogated him?

Sophia closed her eyes again. 'Somebody who has talked to The Phantom Thieves' leader… Let's see…'

Ann watched Sophia carefully as she opened her eyes.

'Yes, it would appear this information has been recorded.'

PhantomThiefRai: HOLY SHIT!

Akira_Kurusu: You're the genius, Rai!

TheGhostlyMaiden: WHO WAS IT?!

PhantomThiefRai: Can you tell us, Sophia?

'Umm, yes, I can,' Sophia said. 'It was a woman named Sae Niijima.'

PhantomThiefRai: SAE NIIJIMA?! AS IN MAKOTO'S SISTER?!

Akira_Kurusu: EXCUSE ME?!

JackBros123: YOU WHAT?!

Endlave2011: This isn't real life…

'Sae?!' Ann shouted, leaping out of her seat and leaning into the screen with as much exaggeration as possible.

PhantomThiefRai: WAIT, ANN, YOU DIDN'T KNOW?!

'No! I had no idea!' she said. 'Sae knew all this time?'

PhantomThiefRai: It's settled, then! Ann, you're asking her to join the stream next time, and I'll pitch all of my ideas to her! We'll finally determine if The Phantom Thieves' leader is Ren Amamiya!

Ann purposely sighed. 'Alright, fine. We can end it next stream. Is that ok with you, Ren?'

Ren_Amamiya: Bring it on.

PhantomTheifRai: This is gonna be good!

'Oh my. It seems I've caused a bit of chaos,' Sophia said.

'I wouldn't worry,' Ann said. She had a single thought throughout the rest of the stream: the chat was wrong earlier. She was a better actor than they realised.

Hi!

Here we go, we're finally nearing the end! Not loads to say about this one, but I wonder what'll happen next? :)

I hope you continue to enjoy!