Chapter 11: Analog Hack
Summary:
"Arato-san, do you believe that the special feelings you hold for me, a machine, are simply due to the analog hacking caused by my physical appearance?"
Without mercy, her clear, soulless voice penetrated through his heart to target his most vulnerable fears. In an instant, Arato felt his entire world break apart. He could visualize the cracks appearing in his field of view, like a glass window that had been struck.
In the end, Arato couldn't deny that physical appearances constituted a critical part of the complex system of human emotion known as 'love'. Because Lacia looked like a human girl, he found himself drawn and attracted to her. But he knew deep down that her appearance was but a fabricated lie created by the one who had made her.
Her true form was that of a machine. No heart, no soul. Just electronic components and circuitry. The advanced AI within Lacia might have been able to interact with him on the same level as a human, but the fact of the matter was that if she shed her skin and took on the form of a chipboard in front of him, Arato couldn't say for sure that he would be able to see and love her the same way as he did right now.
"Everything depends on you. As I do not possess a heart, I cannot find that answer for you."
"Sometimes I wonder if it was easier if you could."
"I am a machine, and you are my Owner. We machines are tools that can only exist together with humans so long as we continue to fulfill the desires of our Owners. Do you recall Kouka's words? hIEs were created to bring happiness to humans. So please tell me your desires. I might be unable to decide for you, but I can still provide comfort. If you're hurting, please use me in such a way that I can relieve that pain."
The value of a tool was directly related to the convenience it provided to the Owner. Just like a hammer or screwdriver to a technician, or a tractor to a farmer, the object in human form calling herself Lacia derived her self-worth from Endo Arato's happiness. When faced with her alien-like mindset, he couldn't help but feel sorrow in his heart.
From that day on, Suguri Kengo's life transformed into a whirlwind of activity.
He would continue attending school as usual, only returning home to change before being picked up by a bus that brought him and a motley crew of assorted lowlifes to an old abandoned factory near the Edogawa River. There, its interior had been remodeled into an obstacle course for them to conduct their training. Their training regimen comprised three sections.
Physical Training made up the first part of their training. There, the entire group, the bulk of which were older men in their twenties to forties, would run laps around the factory grounds until their legs burned and sweat poured down their bodies. All the while, their trainer remained perched on a walkway above hollering insults at them.
"Move it, ladies! My dear sweet grandmother runs faster than you pieces of shit!"
"Why don't you get your grandmother to do it then?" Kengo muttered under his breath between gasps as he struggled to keep up with the group. Being used to sitting at his terminal all day in his room, physical activity was never his strong suit.
It still wasn't.
"Glasses! Pick up the pace! Don't make me go down there and ram my boot up your ass!"
Kengo glowered at the man but said nothing, only forcing his legs to run harder.
'Glasses'. That name came to him on his first day. Then, Kengo didn't know anybody and stood alone at the edges of the group of assembled men, slouched over with his hands in his pockets. That earned a few words of elucidation from their instructor.
"No proper Destroyer, not even a maggot like you, parks their hands in their pockets!" He opined.
Kengo didn't know the name of the foreigner who served as their trainer, but he was tall, towering over everyone else and built like a fire engine. His thick, corded muscles made it look as if he was a flesh golem woven out of meat jerky. He spoke sharply as if they were the lowest forms of life in the world, to be withered and abused at his leisure. His Japanese was crude and accented, but it only made his words seem even more intimidating.
Drill Sergeant Asshat had a prosthetic arm. Kengo didn't know the details of this man's background, but from the way he moved and carried himself, Kengo guessed that he was ex-military, probably a US Marine that had been discharged early from the service. Kengo found out the hard way that this guy liked reinforcing certain words and phrases with it. At "maggot", he closed the gap between them. His hands, which were still in his pocket, couldn't react in time. A flash flood of acute pain flared across his abdomen as Kengo found himself suddenly slugged in the gut.
Kengo unceremoniously dropped onto the dirty floor like a sack of potatoes, sucking air.
"Stand upright, with your hands at your sides. No other posture is acceptable during training. Are we clear?"
"Yes."
"That the best you offer, maggot?" He said, tilting his head to one side. His expression turned scary again and Kengo found himself shouting at the top of his lungs as if he was a recruit in boot camp.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Kengo yelled.
"Name's Kengo." Lying on the ground, the frustration inside of him must have boiled over, because Kengo found himself complaining out loud. Before he could regret his words, however, their instructor was standing over him once again. Kengo squeezed his eyes shut, sure that he was about to be stuck again.
"I don't give a rat's ass about your name. To me, you're just meat. Mindless corpses who don't even know that they're already dead. But if you insist on special treatment like the brat you are, then I'll call you Glasses," The man's facial features twisted in a mocking grin. "Now, the walking shitstain known as 'Glasses', is there anything else I can do to make your stay more comfortable?"
"No sir. Thank you, sir."
"Now get up, Glasses." He said before turning back to the others. Some of them were greatly amused at the interaction. Their first day was scarcely ten minutes past, and already one of their number was prone on the ground with pain-wet eyes.
"What's so funny?" At his growl, the laughter soon died off. "Form up into a column! Three lines! Move, move!"
After that was navigating the makeshift obstacle course that was built to resemble the interior of a building. They ran from room to room with guns in their hands, learning when to stop whenever their leader gave the signal.
Indeed, the bulky tool in his hands at the moment was a real gun. Not a toy, like an airsoft or a replica, but an actual illegal firearm capable of firing live ammunition. Just the weight of it alone terrified him. Like most boys his age, he had thought of guns as something cool. But now, when faced with the real thing and the real chance of using it to shoot something or someone, all that earlier naivety disappeared in a flash.
Finally, after nearly a week had passed, it was time for the final part of their training, the shooting gallery where a series of man-sized targets had been prepared.
"Shit, this thing kicks like a mule!" Kengo swore. Before today, the closest he had gotten to a gun in his life was from a video game. Now here he was, firing the real thing in preparation for an upcoming assault.
The rifle in his hands, the FN FAL, was if he were to describe it in his own words, a Cold War era piece of shit that rightfully belonged in a museum at this point. Unlike the sleek carbines in the modern day used by the military which chambered the 6.8mm common cartridge, the FN FAL fired full-powered rifle rounds which were positively ancient by today's standards. From weight, magazine capacity, report, and recoil, it was an absolute pain in the ass to handle.
Even the stock was made out of wood and had a white tape conspicuously holding it together. When it came to him, the entire thing was absolutely drenched in cosmoline. Where did they even find this anyway? Did the Antibody Network dig up unmarked graves in Vietnam for this? It wasn't as if he expected thugs like them to be given the latest and greatest hardware, but the piece of shit in his hands was literally a relic from two centuries ago.
'You will be issued automatic weapons and body armor.' The notification by the Antibody Network reassured them before coming to this place. Well, they were right, despite Kevlar providing as much protection as a T-shirt these days. That and along with nobody in their right mind would fire a 7.62mm battle rifle in its full auto setting. Technically, the conditions of their statements weren't a lie.
Although at that point Kengo would have almost preferred them to be armed with Samurai armor and Tanegashima matchlocks instead, if nothing else but for the comedic irony.
"Couldn't we at least get something in .556 at least?"
His grumbling must have been louder than he thought because their instruction immediately stomped over to holler in his face.
".556!? .556!?" The large man repeated, spittle almost flying from his mouth. "Intermediate cartridges like the Sig .280 and Remington .223 are for pussies! They don't have nearly enough stopping power to take down a full grown man and will never make for a proper combat rifle! What the NATO forces of the future need is a manly caliber with real muzzle energy, like a Winchester .308! And I don't want to hear any whining or complaining about it being unusable in full auto or the ammo weighing too much! If you lack the upper body strength and determination to rock a battle rifle on full auto full blast from the standing position, well then maybe you're just not a good fit for this outfit!"
Great, of all things we got a fossilized dinosaur here. Kengo thought to himself.
"What do you use then?" He couldn't help but ask. Even in this situation, his interest in military-related matters shone through.
"Back in my day, we shot a man's round, .30-06. I still do all my shooting in .30-06." The man said, a hint of pride showing in his voice. 'Back in my day'. Kengo thought him retarded for saying something like that in the 22nd century.
"What, like an M1 Garand?" He did everything he could to keep his voice neutral.
"Try again."
"You're shitting me, 1903 Springfield?"
"Wrong again. Let me introduce you to my wife here, Sonia the HCAR. She made the trip all the way from Ohio."
The blonde man unslung the personal rifle he used and held it in a shooting stance. Even against his bulky frame, the weapon looked massive, even bigger than the cumbersome battle rifle Kengo was carrying, and far, far larger than a standard issue carbine. As a Japanese teenager, Kengo wasn't the tallest specimen out there but lengthwise, the new rifle was nearly three-quarters of his height. Everything was oversized, from the compensator to the vertical foregrip and the extended magazine.
"Look at these babies," He removed the magazine and showed him the gleaming brass within. "Hornady 220 grain Armor Piercing. Human or hIE, one round center mass with these and they can kiss their ass good night."
He reseated the magazine back into the well and then started hammering away at the target Kengo had been aiming at moments before. Even with his hearing protection on, the report was like a painful thundercrack. He couldn't help but feel surprised when he saw him manage to land most of his shots despite dumping the magazine in full auto. The prosthetic arm must have helped.
When the rifle clicked empty, he swapped to his sidearm and emptied it at the target as well.
"1911. That's a .45." Kengo recognized the iconic, if extremely archaic pistol in his hands.
"God's caliber itself. With .30-60 by my side and .45 on my hip, that's how we won our two World Wars son. If it's good enough for them back then, it's good enough for me now." Apparently, the dumbfounded expression on his face must have been too obvious to ignore, because Kengo received a follow-up lecture.
He wanted to tell this knucklehead that if bullet size was the only thing that mattered, then he might as well use a musket instead, but Kengo wisely kept his mouth shut. In life, it's important to choose which battles are considered important enough to fight over. Kengo judged this to not be one of them.
Then on the final day of their training, instead of sending them home as usual, the instructor summoned the entire group to brief them about the upcoming mission they were to take on for the Antibody Network.
"This marks the end of your training! Now I'll go over the plan for the mission," He pushed a button on the remote which controlled a 3D projector and images soon started appearing in the air. "Tomorrow, the android chairman experiment will be taking place at the Oi Industry Promotion Center. The building is thirty-six stories, and the target will be located in a meeting room on the 22nd floor. Our objective is to destroy the hIE at the head of the movement to automate our government. Now, the target!"
An image of a female hIE appeared on the screen. She was created young and beautiful, like most artificial constructs of her kind were in order to trick humans, but Kengo saw through the illusion for what it was.
A lie.
"Do not be fooled by her looks. This hIE might seem harmless, but it possesses the power to corrode human society," He said. He spoke in absolutes, leaving no room for discussion. "When the time comes, engrave the determination to protect humanity into your heart, and do not hesitate to pull the trigger!"
"Sir, yes sir!" Everyone barked, including himself. Kengo found himself staring at the portrait of the target hIE in question, hate burning in his heart, but for a different reason than everyone else around him. Like Kouka had said, even powerless humans could still take out their frustrations on an object.
Back in the locker room, the atmosphere was rife with excitement and anticipation. All around him, thug-like guys were talking among themselves, discussing the earlier briefing.
"A machine making laws? Like hell we're going to let something like that slide! Let's crush it into pieces!"
The one speaking was only met with roars of approval. But not Kengo. He couldn't find any joy in the moment. All around him, he was struck with the sense that this was what it must felt like in 1914. When swarms of young men happily volunteered, not realizing that they were about to be slaughtered in the most inhuman ways possible.
But not him. The sickening feeling in his stomach was a constant reminder of that fact.
"Idiots, the lot of them!" He couldn't help but whisper under his breath.
"Huh!? What was that, you fucker!?"
Kengo cursed under his breath. It seemed that someone had heard him.
"Nothing, I was just talking to myself."
"Get out of here with that shit. I heard what you were saying. We all signed up for this so why the cold feet now?"
"I didn't... ask to be here."
"Huh!? What, you trying to weasel out at the last second or something?" The muscular youth, along with others were surrounding him and clenching their fists. "Come on boys, let's teach this coward the meaning of courage!"
Kengo only shut his eyes. From experience, he knew that fighting back only made things worse. So he relaxed his body and took it as best as he could. Once it was all said and done, he couldn't help but stare at the ceiling as waves of pain rolled over his body.
"God, it's like elementary school all over again." With his head still shoved in the locker, he mused bitterly. One time, during grade school, word had gotten out that he was a half instead of a full Japanese person. At that time, he had gotten mad at how his classmates were making fun of him and they had beaten him up after school in response.
That was the reason why he didn't particularly like walking to school with Olga, or hanging out with her for that matter. Instead, he chose to leave their home at different times every day. It was only made worse by their outward appearance being so radically different, despite them being full-blooded siblings. More than once, weird rumors circulated between him and Olga. He considered Kaidai and Arato lucky in the sense that they didn't have to deal with this sort of misunderstanding with their siblings.
Speaking of which, Arato jumped in to try and stop the bullying at that time. Of course, all he achieved was getting his ass kicked as well, that moron. Truly, what idiot jumps into a fight if they aren't even confident in their ability to come out on top in the first place?
Even now, he could still recall how foolish Arato's response was, with his face dirty and bruised like his.
"Why do you care? You know I'm not like you, right?"
"So? You look the same to me. If it looks the same, who cares about some made-up difference?"
The memory fading away, Kengo could only muse as he picked himself up and made his way home.
To an anomaly like Endo Arato, the boy who could never stand by silently whenever he saw an injustice in this world play out with his own two eyes, and who could not meaningfully differentiate between humans and hIEs. When one pondered about it, it was plainly obvious that he too would eventually fall prey to the clutches of these lying hIEs and their scheming creators. Especially now, after he had started growing into a man. Historically, men were always weak to a pretty face. One only needed to look at the numerical tales of men who found their lives falling into ruin because of a woman. Even today, that poor inclination of theirs still plagued society.
Perhaps, it was inevitable that Arato would find himself falling in love with one. Especially one who understood perfectly how to appeal in such a way to arouse his naive desire for righteousness. And also, to add to his supreme disgust, the ability to arouse him in other, baser methods.
As he slid open the sliding door to his home, the sound of footsteps alerted Kengo that someone had been waiting up for him. He couldn't help but click his tongue in irritation. He already knew who it was, for she had been repeating the same song and dance every night ever since his training with the Antibody Network started.
He stared flatly at Olga's green eyes. Again, her eyes were filled with a distinctively unfamilial-like nervousness. Honestly speaking, it pissed him off to see his little sister so easily frightened like that. Did she not realize that it was precisely due to the fact that she was such a pushover that people tended to walk right over her?
If one does not have a spine, then the world will take advantage of that and use it to trample all over you. Yes, like hIEs, which were objects that no one in their right mind respected.
"I've returned." He said offhandedly and then started to make his way to the staircase leading to his room.
"You came home late tonight as well." He glanced at the hands of the old clock in their house. She said something so obvious it only made his irritation grow.
"Oh, did I?"
He started to walk off again but once again, he found himself interrupted by her.
"Nii-san... Is there something wrong?" Olga asked, trembling.
"I'm alright. Then, I'll be going to bed now." He waved her off and said.
He barely made the second step of the staircase when he heard her voice again.
"Mom and Dad are worried about you too! If there's really something wrong, you can come and talk to us about it!"
This time, the pain of his aching body and the fatigue plaguing his mind won over and Kengo found his patience finally wearing thin. He turned, and when he saw that damned traditional hairpin on her hair again, it made something in him snap.
Couldn't she see that people were making fun of her behind her back for trying so hard? For pretending to be something that she wasn't? The more she tried, the more awkward she came across, like a caricature.
Even a child knows better than to keep playing house after they grow out of it.
"Olga," His tone was so sharp that he actually heard her squeak. "If you really want to fit in better, you need to learn when to take a hint and leave things be. It's still fine because I'm your brother. But if you keep acting like that around others, they find you to be a nuisance as well. As you are right now, you won't make many friends like this. That's all. Good night."
His words might have been harsh, but as they said, bitter medicine had a tendency to be the most effective cure. As he continued climbing the staircase up to his room, he thought he could see Olga reaching for her phone.
Tuesday, April 28th.
At 5:30 pm, like clockwork as always, the delicious smell of food wafted through the Endo Apartment from the direction of the kitchen. Ever since Lacia had appeared in his life, mealtime followed a much more regulated schedule, especially when compared to the past when it was just him and his little sister living alone together.
Arato watched her work from the living room. Normally, he would have offered to help, but somehow he felt like he would only get in the way. So despite feeling a little bad about it, he allowed himself to relax in the living room while Lacia did all the work.
Still, looking at her like this, with her hair tied up, apron over her simple clothes, and attending to a stove, Arato couldn't deny that the pleasant image appealed to him with a deep sense of satisfaction. It was an image so pure that, just by watching, he felt himself recovering mental health points.
If he were to be asked to describe the meaning of 'bliss'. Arato would reply with a setting similar to the current one at the moment.
It was simply perfection.
God, it was at times like this when he simply felt like he was the luckiest guy in the world.
"Wooo~! This rocks! Lacia-san's homemade cooking is always a treat! Hamburgers, yay! Hamburgers, yay~❤️!"
... Outside of this ravenous creature currently splayed on the sofa and loudly crunching on a rice cracker. That overly chirpy voice paired with the non-stop sounds of snacking couldn't be recognized for anything else in this world.
Now, if only she happened to be out of the picture. Seriously, couldn't his idiotic little sister take a hint?
"You..." Arato growled.
"Wow, how rude. I have a perfectly cute name you know. Besides, what's with that scary look on your face? Why are you glaring at me like I'm your mortal enemy?" Yuka asked in an innocent voice that was obviously faked.
"Shut up and go somewhere else."
"No, you go away." She returned to her normal spoiled voice and shot back.
"Did you hit your head or something? I live here, stupid."
"So do I, moron."
"What happened to Miss 'I'm so popular and have so many friends', huh? So that was all a pack of lies, I see. Don't you have anywhere else to be?"
"Don't wanna," She pouted childishly. "I wanna eat Lacia-san's food too."
"You... You piece of..." His chest hurt from the sheer amount of restraint he had to summon up in order to not complete that sentence.
She hopped off the couch and then brought her face so close that when she grinned, he could even spot the specks of seaweed dotting her teeth.
"Thought you were gonna have her all alone to yourself? Huuuh?" She hissed under her breath.
His annoying little sister was being so presumptuous about the entire thing that it made the saliva in his throat start to bubble from all the holding back he was putting himself through.
"Oh nooo, imagine if I didn't happen to be here. The both of you could've been aaall alone and made sweet, sweet music together. What a shame. Guess it sucks to be you." She smirked.
"Sonofa-!" Okay, now he was actually seething for real. Having it rubbed in his face like that had that effect.
"Well tooooo bad! Better start getting used to it, cuz I'm gonna cockblock you every chance I get from now on! Bwahahaha!"
"God, you piss me off so much!" Over the sound of her obnoxious laughter, Arato could only seethe bitterly as the defeated party.
That was when he heard Lacia call out from the kitchen.
"Yuka-sama, would you like cheese or egg on top of your hamburger?"
"Ohhh, can you do both? Can I have both?" Yuka repeated happily.
"Yes, of course. The works, then. What about you, Arato-san?"
He made sure to clear the gathered saliva in his throat before answering back, lest his voice came off as too guttural.
"Anything's fine for me. Thank you very much, Lacia." He said, ignoring how Yuka was rolling her eyes.
"Seriously, what's up with this guy? 'Thank you very much', he says. I swear, you're such a tryhard around her."
Exhaustion was starting to build up in his mind from dealing with his annoying little sister. It was only natural for a guy to want to show his best side to a girl he liked, so of course he would talk in a different manner. In any case, he opted to ignore her and watch Lacia cook instead to heal his mind.
He had to say, he really liked the way she rolled up her sleeves whenever she cooked. Her slim, white wrist holding the spatula looked incredibly sleek. Not just that, but thanks to the apron tied around her body made her shirt look tighter than it was. The line of cloth circling around her back drew attention to her hips and waist as well. Thanks to her incredibly good looks and figure, Lacia looked amazing in pretty much anything. However, he couldn't help but feel a certain domestic happiness bubble in his chest when he saw her in an apron and working in a kitchen like this.
The crackling sounds of hot oil. The rhythmic noises of the cutting board. The sizzle of frying meat. All of them combined into a scene where if one looked at it long enough, one would find themselves healed. Truly, the sight of her wearing such clothes proved to be the best mental medicine, surpassing any form of therapy. Now that Arato thought about it, maybe he should set up a clinic where people paid money to have their minds healed by watching Lacia cook.
Arato sighed contentedly to himself. This must be what it felt like to live with one's girlfriend. The blissfulness was so overwhelming that it almost felt sinful to indulge in it.
Suddenly, he found his field of view filled instead with an annoyed face.
"Hey Onii-chan, don't look at her. Look at me instead. Now, repeat after me. Pretty girls are temporary but little sisters are eternal."
Arato tried to maneuver his head such that he could continue looking at Lacia but to his irritation, Yuka adjusted herself to continue blocking his vision with her face.
"Tch." Arato clicked his tongue.
"Hmm? Resorting to clicking your tongue again? Did you run out of comebacks? Is that the only pattern you have left?" She smirked and crowed.
"By chance, am I interrupting anything?" Before he could say anything, he heard Lacia cut in. The table was already laid out with their dinner. Seeing that, the daily squabble of the Endo siblings came to an end.
An array of food was laid before him.
Hamburger steak topped with perfectly melted cheese and a sunny-side up egg, with the entire thing smothered in a rich-looking Wafu sauce.
Yakitori skewers.
Miso soup with kelp, carrots, and fried tofu.
Fresh salad.
Cold tofu.
Spring rolls.
Pickles.
And of course, as much fluffy white rice as one desired.
A sumptuous meal as always. Honestly, he felt a little spoiled eating like this every day.
"Isn't this more than usual? You usually make five side dishes, right?" Arato muttered. He was amazed by the spread before him, but Lacia remained indifferent.
"I merely bought some tofu and sliced it. It was nothing special." Lacia reassured him.
Again, as expected, she deflected his compliment. She always did that whenever he tried to praise her. The way she never took pride in her own work frustrated him. He knew that she only acted this way because she was a machine, but it still annoyed him.
To bury the feelings of helplessness, he took a bite of his hamburger. When the savory meat juices touched his tongue, Arato couldn't help but let out a sigh of satisfaction.
"Delicious! This hamburger is hella delish, Lacia-san!" Yuka squealed.
Hearing that, Lacia only silently responded with one of her artificially perfect expressions.
It might have been the previous feelings of frustration overflowing but Arato couldn't help but make fun of his little sister. "Is 'delicious' the only word in your vocabulary?"
'Hmph! Like you would know anything, stupid. When it comes to food, I'm the expert here." Yuka said haughtily.
"In that case, why don't you describe the dish to us, Master Yuka?"
Put on the spot like that, his moronic little sister stiffened. After a while, the dead voice that came from her resembled a politician giving a speech on tv, one that was extremely careful in the language used in order to not offend the least amount of people possible.
"The uhh, meat juices are really full-bodied and when it enters your mouth, it does the, ahh, this and that thing."
"I have no clue what you're trying to say at all." Arato snarked.
Her eyes suddenly sparkling, Yuka let out a shout. "In other words, it's delicious!"
A gentle laugh broke through their comedy routine.
"Thank you very much for your kind words. I made enough for seconds, so please help yourself as much as you like." Lacia smiled.
Hearing that, a sudden wave of giddiness stuck him and a dopey grin almost broke across his face. Arato immediately lowered his head and started to stuff his cheeks with rice in order to hide the foolish expression that had appeared. Honestly, it had always been a fantasy of his to want a girl to say something like that to him.
Once dinner was over, a sudden thought came to his mind and Arato asked over the sound of the running tap. "Say Lacia, do you have anything to do after this?"
If she had free time then... Maybe he could ask her to come to his room tonight as well. Just the thought alone made his face heat up and Arato lowered his head to avoid looking too guilty.
"We seem to be out of Worcestershire sauce. As such, I will be heading down to the store to restock our supplies." She said, spinning around after she had placed the final cleaned plate on the rack.
Her sleek movement made her long violet hair fan out and seemingly slice through the air. The sight of it was so hypnotic that Arato found himself unable to utter even a word from his throat, which had turned dry all of a sudden. The things that she was saying might have been mundane, but to Arato, Lacia was anything but that.
Robot or not, hIE or not, object or not, it was at times like this he really did find her beautiful beyond measure.
"Oh, Lacia-san is heading to the store? Then, I'll come along as well!"
While he had been distracted admiring Lacia, his little sister had taken the chance to successfully one-up him. Arato couldn't help but feel ticked off.
"Very well, please wait while I change into a more suitable outfit." Lacia said smoothly before going to her room. This left him and his little sister alone in the living room. The way Yuka was cheerfully humming really annoyed him.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to head out this late." He told her.
"Huuuh? But why? I wanna stock up on my snacks too ya know." She started to whine.
"Drop it already, will you? I'm not letting you go."
"Wow, that's so unfair! You're out late all the time!"
"That's different. Just tell Lacia to pick up your stuff as usual."
"Shopping in person is a different experience!"
All her complaining was starting to get to him. He raised his voice and snapped at her. "Didn't you hear me!? No means no!"
Yuka blinked, seemingly stunned at his outburst.
"Huh? Why are you getting so worked up for?" She said.
The fear in his chest was starting to twist like a knot. Just recalling what had happened the other day when she was out with Lacia alone made his field of view turn blurry.
"I'm worried for you. After that incident with that bad guy, I can't help but be afraid." Arato told her with utter seriousness. "You're my precious little sister, Yuka. If something terrible were to happen to you again, I wouldn't know what to do. I..." He turned away after trailing off, slightly embarrassed. Emotion had flooded his voice and made it sound funny by the end.
Yuka stared at him in shock. Then she sniffled, blinking her eyes which now seemed moist. "Onii-chan..." She murmured wistfully.
Arato swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. It was rare to see his little sister take things seriously for once. It was nice to know that at times like this, despite their squabbling they were still family at the end of the day.
Right as the tension in the air seemed like it was about to reach its peak.
All of a sudden, her expression turned incredibly straight.
"You just want to be alone with Lacia-san, don't you?" She deadpanned.
"..."
A painful silence descended upon the living room.
Even though he knew that silence was an admission of guilt as any, Arato couldn't find a rebuke to her accusation.
"Oh my god, exposed! I totally knew something was up when you started acting all weirdly smooth! Arato, you absolute poser!" She hissed.
As she wasn't wrong, Arato didn't have anything to say in return. He whipped out his terminal and quickly entered a series of taps. Immediately after, her pocket terminal vibrated.
"Hey, what's with this twenty thousand yen you're trying to slip me on the down low?" She whispered in a low voice.
"Shut up. Just take it and stay home! I'm begging you here!" He whispered back.
"God Arato, how down bad are you for this girl?" She had a face full of amazement that at the same time, also looked a little disturbed.
"At the bottom of the Mariana Trench," Arato muttered. "I've forgotten what the sunlight looks like."
"I want to make fun of you, but you're being too sad right now. If I do something like that I'll just feel bad. See a doctor, alright?" His little sister simpered. She might have been supremely disappointed in his life choices, but from the way she went back to the sofa to get comfortable, it seemed that she decided to go along with it. It was either that or the power of money was too strong to beat.
"So you're really going to stay home today?" He asked, just to make sure.
"Yeah, I got it. I'll let you two have your alone time." She shrugged.
Arato went up to her and started to shake her shoulders. "Thanks! You're the best!"
"That's the first time I've seen you grin like that."
"You're the kind of little sister that every guy dreams of, you know that?" Arato continued on, nearly gushing.
"Ew, stop that. It's seriously disgusting. If we still lived alone I would punch you for that weird flattery."
Thankfully, he didn't have to deal with the wry expression on his little sister's face for too long as he heard the door to Lacia's room open and she reappeared in a set of fashionable, but still casual clothes. Upon hearing the door open, he jumped away from Yuka in order to not seem too suspicious.
"I apologize for the wait. Now then, are you ready to go, Yuka-sama?"
Arato quickly interrupted before his idiotic little sister could have the chance to dig a hole and bury him in it.
"Change of plans, Lacia. Yuka here is gonna stay at home. I'll follow you to the store instead." He said.
"Yes, of course." Lacia smiled gently as she replied. Somehow, her reaction was so seamless that it felt like she had been expecting the entire thing all along. But Arato was sure that it was just because she was an hIE, and she processed things quicker than any human could.
He went to the coat hangar by the door to grab his jacket. Lacia was already at the entrance waiting for him. She had an empty cloth bag slung over her shoulder. These days, in order to encourage shoppers to bring their own bags, most stores charged a 100 yen fee if one did not bring their own. It was strange, but seeing Lacia being conscientious about something like that made her homely appeal only increase.
"Do make sure to not forget anything, Arato-san." At her helpful reminder, Arato checked on his backup Personal ID tag on his wrist and his pocket terminal. The way she said it reminded him of his mother, especially how she would fuss over him before he left the house.
"Nope, all good here."
The automatic door to his home slid open as he approached it. He stepped out first, but before Lacia could leave their home, Yuka called out after her.
"Have a safe trip! By the way, Lacia-san," She addressed her. "You should be careful around this horndog! Arato here only has eyes for your body!"
He flushed a deep red at her remark, but Lacia answered for him before he could yell at his stupid little sister for her nonsense.
"My, what an astute observation, Yuka-sama." She said dryly.
It was impossible for a soulless machine like her, and Arato knew that he had to be imagining it. But looking at her emotionless face for a moment, it seemed as if Lacia was looking down on his little sister.
"Wait, what?" Yuka blinked.
The door closed after her confused face.
When they reached the elevator landing, Arato noticed that it was already waiting for them.
"Hey, we're in luck." He remarked. Lacia didn't respond to that. Although he was guessing it was normal, as what he said was quite rhetorical.
When the elevator doors closed, Arato couldn't help but feel a sense of nervousness start to build up. Being alone in an enclosed area with Lacia always had that effect on him, and he found himself shifting nervously.
"So it's just the two of us this time." He said, trying to break the spell with meaningless conversation. His voice sounded funny from all the tension he felt.
"Indeed," Lacia said as she shifted closer until their bodies were touching in the small space. Compared to how she was acting before, whenever they were alone, it was as if a switch had been flipped in her personality. Her cool voice only increased the tightness he felt in his chest. "It is as you say, just us."
"Y-Yeah..." His voice cracked there at the end, he was sure of it.
"Arato-san." She narrowed her eyes affectionately and murmured his name. Whenever she did that, it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand in anticipation.
Her pale blue eyes were staring at him. There was a touch of glamour on her beautiful face. Not to mention the scent that wafted through the air which smelled intoxicatingly sweet, an aroma that was very much different than a guy's. She must have been wearing perfume again. That was even before taking into account the soft, pleasurable sensations that were now being directly transmitted to his body.
"Do you usually put on makeup when you go to the store?" Arato asked to break the spell, trying not to be stunned by the rapidly overwhelming sensations Lacia was stimulating from within him.
"Only on special occasions." She blushed, fluttering her perfect eyelashes at him in a way that made his chest clench.
"Oh, what's the special occasion?" With his heart beating rapidly in his chest, Arato couldn't help but ask what he honestly felt was a foolish question. After all, Lacia was supposed to be out with his little sister instead of him right now.
The enigmatic smile she had on her face had the effect of pushing his nerves to the limit. Right when it seemed she was about to answer, the chime of the elevator rang, rescuing him from his predicament.
Never one to look for a gift in a horse's mouth, Arato rushed out of the stifling atmosphere, desperate to disguise to Lacia how he truly felt. The refreshing cool night air helped reorient his mind back to its normal state.
"I only mentioned it because you looked very pretty today," He said and then hurriedly caught himself. "Don't get me wrong! It's not like I think you don't look good on other days as well!"
Or maybe not, from the way he was stumbling over his words.
With his apartment building as a backdrop and the moonlight shining down on her. Arato couldn't help but stare, transfixed by her enchanting beauty. Even though she was dressed normally, she still came across as more of a character from a story than a being from reality.
"Yes, I'm glad you liked it." Lacia beamed, seeming genuinely pleased at his candidness.
"Well, the konbini I usually go to is down the street that way." He changed the topic and said, looking away after much effort.
"Oh, wouldn't it be better to patronize the supermarket in front of the station? The prices there are much cheaper." She suggested.
"That's almost a kilometer away, isn't it?"
"If you don't mind the walk, that is." She added smoothly. The way she had said it had him objecting strenuously.
"Don't get me wrong, I wasn't complaining! You know what? I think that's a great idea! Let's head to super by the station instead!" Arato said, a little louder than he had wanted to. He didn't want to turn down one of her suggestions and look bad.
As if she found his lovesickness fuelled reaction amusing, Lacia let out a gentle laugh. Then, without hesitation, she slipped her hand into his.
"Of course, one should always get their money's worth whenever they can." She squeezed his hand tightly as she said that. After which, without skipping a beat, her beautiful form started to immediately walk.
Arato couldn't do anything but shyly blush. It wasn't like he had any retort to that. From the way she moved without waiting for his response, it was as if Lacia was pushing him to the next step. But it wasn't like he disagreed with her idea of saving money, after all, he had just spent twenty thousand yen bribing his little sister, not that she would know anything about that of course.
The outside world at night seemed to stretch out around them. Just by following her guidance, Arato felt his head turn all fuzzy and hot. It felt like he was nothing more but a dumb, happy dog on a leash out on a walk with its Owner. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging like crazy right now.
Sometimes, it felt like his responses to her were similar to a pet that deliberately played tricks or pretended to be sick in order to get its Owner's attention. Honestly, it all felt very silly.
But to the 'actor' that was the hIE Lacia, who only pretended to be human, he hoped that she could tell that this was his way of trying to form a connection with a soulless object.
It wasn't as if he hadn't recognized what had just occurred. The human had proposed an initial plan, and then the machine had offered a counter suggestion that optimized everything perfectly. After the human had agreed to the finalized plan, the machine set out to execute it.
That was all there was to it.
But even though he understood that with the logical part of his mind, he couldn't stop his pulse from racing anyway.
With Lacia by his side, even something mundane like walking around in his home neighborhood seemed special. As they navigated the dark streets toward Shin Koiwa Station, the number of people slowly decreased. Although there was light illuminating the night around them from streetlamps, digital multipurpose signboards, and the houses they passed by, even then, there were still pockets of darkness between these light sources.
Unlike his body which automatically turned more cautious whenever he couldn't visually identify the path in front of him. Lacia's movements remained confident. It was this confidence that he latched on to, and his steps didn't slow down one bit even when they reached a dark area.
"Are you always this good in the dark?" Arato asked curiously.
"The store we're currently heading toward is broadcasting its location on the map," Lacia explained in a way even he could understand. "It is much like treading a path that one has already memorized by heart. The world as perceived by humans is quite different from the world we perceive."
Her smile and tone were sweet, but her choice of words was coldly logical in a way that a machine dressed like a human could give. Of course, it went without saying that humans and machines didn't look at the world through the same lens.
But even so, he wanted to believe that there was a way to close that gap.
Although having said that, object in human form or not, holding hands with a girl was still a little embarrassing. Arato couldn't deny he quite liked the feeling. Her soft hand was chilly and dry, unlike his which was hot and starting to sweat a little from all the excitement. Compared to her icy skin, the palm of his hand was like a brick of red-hot coal.
If she had noticed the state of his hands, he didn't quite know as Lacia did not see fit to mention anything about it. In fact, from the way she was acting, it didn't seem like she had any intentions of separating them.
Arato wasn't blind enough to not know the fact that unless they happened to be lovers, men and women didn't usually hold hands. Even if the 'woman' in question was merely a robot wearing the skin of one.
He hadn't explicitly confessed his love for her. Never once had he ever said the words 'I like you' or 'I love you' to her, but even someone like him could recognize that Lacia was starting to alter her behavior and act as if she was already his lover.
And of course, this went without saying but since she hadn't been confessed to in the first place, there was no need for her to directly respond to him.
But in a way, just as there was no need to tell or receive, there was also no need for any such verbal declaration between them.
Arato might have been projecting, but it felt like the warmth of their entwined hands had already conveyed their fondness and affection for each other without requiring a spoken acknowledgment between them.
It was a stretch, just like how his sister had called him delusional the other day, but to Arato, it felt like he were already at the stage where he and Lacia could be considered 'lovers'.
Just that thought alone made him feel like he was floating among a sea of fluffy clouds.
Somewhere in his mind, he knew that there was a possibility of the entire thing being a case where the AI inside of her had simply calculated that it was actions like these that would have made him the happiest and merely executed them, as the emotional cost of delivering affection was zero for a soulless machine, but Arato didn't care.
Even though she couldn't directly express herself, for it was impossible for a heartless robot like her to come up with the words. To Arato, her actions, even if they were calculated were more than enough for him.
Even if due to her soulless, mechanical nature, Lacia could never tell him that she loved him on her own initiative, just the loving actions she performed alone were meaningful enough for him.
Thus, when he looked at the situation in that way, Arato felt like there was no need for a confession between them. In fact, it would be rather tactless to push her to play that role out of his own selfish desires.
Of course, when it came to a normal relationship between two humans, it wasn't as if he didn't know the importance of clearly verbalizing their feelings to the other person instead of keeping things vague like it was right now. But things were different for him.
For 'Lacia', the one whom he desired so dearly, wasn't a human, but merely an object that just so happened to adopt the shape of one.
If he tried to do something like that with Lacia, her lack of emotions would push her into instantly accepting his decision. In a way, it felt like the 'Lacia' he knew up to that point would be brutally murdered by his own hands and replaced with another 'Lacia' devoted to the sole purpose of loving him. It was a delightful fantasy in a dark, human way, but it was also scary and painful to think about.
Memories of how effortlessly she had imitated Eliza came rushing back to him.
Until Lacia could learn to value and protect herself, he would have to perform that function for her in her stead.
He had already lost Eliza, so no matter what, he was determined to not lose Lacia as well.
Arato already knew that his indecision could be considered pathetic and cowardly, but he wanted to convince himself that they could continue this vague lover-like relationship without everything falling apart in an instant. Where he poured affection into her and she automatically responded with the same feelings in kind, in hopes that one day a miracle might occur, and that a soulless machine like her could come to have a heart if he loved it enough.
Besides, it wasn't as if there weren't any disadvantages to keeping things vague. At the very least, there was no need for him to summon up his courage to confess to her. Lacia might have been a machine, but it would be a lie to say that the idea of confessing his feelings to her wasn't a nerve-wracking thought that sent him into an absolute pit of despair whenever he thought about it.
While he was pondering all this, they reached their destination. The large brightly lit signs of the discount chain Don Quijote stood before them, illuminating the dark surroundings like a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean.
Arato watched as hIEs wearing the uniform of the supermarket chain packed groceries from the auto-car rental spot. As long as one made a certain minimum amount of purchases online, one was eligible for an automatic car to deliver groceries to one's home free of charge. Due to that, the store they were at was popular among family units who did their buying in bulk.
Other hIEs were packing smaller purchases into a carton to be delivered by flying lightweight drones. For Arato, who did not usually purchase that much in one go, this was the usual method for delivery for him.
Despite the dozens of hIEs carrying out their work, there was not a single human in sight. From what he could see, even the foot traffic that passed through the main entrance solely consisted of housekeeping hIEs carrying shopping bags as they made the trip back to their residence.
From what he could see, Arato found himself the sole human in the vicinity. Even the 'girl' by his side was an hIE.
"Did you forget something at home after all?" Lacia asked as he stopped to take in the sight.
"I'm just thinking, it's crazy to see how many people around here that aren't actually human," Arato said. He didn't know why, but now of all times, it felt like he was actually seeing the world he lived in for what it was. "It makes me realize just how incredible the era we're living in is."
Here he was, holding hands with a machine, going to a store run entirely by machines, where the customers were also machines.
In the 22nd century, even without humans, the world could still continue to smoothly function.
Truthfully, it was an amazing thing to see in person.
But all the same, the implications of such a thing was also frightening.
"Say Lacia, don't you usually do your shopping online?" He asked to distract himself from thinking too much about it.
"Only for processed products." She answered.
"But they do send over fresh meat and vegetables too, don't they?"
"It is possible, but overreliance on pure datasets can lead to overly idealistic assumptions. There are times when direct interaction in the field allows one to have a more accurate view of matters at hand," Lacia turned to stare at him. Her pale blue eyes were incredibly beautiful, but they were also soulless. "I would not commit to a decision without being able to first verify the information."
The way she said it made sense, but the perfect smile on her face and the way she stared at him made a chill run down his spine.
"Ah, I think I get what you mean. You get to handpick the produce if you go down to the store yourself. Then there are things like fresh eggs which are really fragile. I prefer to carry those home myself just to be sure." Arato said, shaking off the weird feelings from earlier. He might not have been able to understand it at the same level as her, but he could still try to connect her complex words with his own admittedly meager life experience.
In any case, between that and her own modeling work with Fabion MG, it was probably the reason why Lacia left their apartment on her own so frequently.
"Why is that? Do you not trust a machine to deliver your goods safely?" She asked casually but even then, Lacia always had the strange ability to make simple words and questions come across as absolutely piercing.
"I know that the hIEs will pack them properly, but there are some things I just feel safer doing myself. I don't really know how to explain it properly, but it's just more reassuring that way," Arato went on quickly, his chest clenching in pain. The last thing he wanted was for Lacia to see him in the same way as everyone else in this screwed-up reality. "That said, it's not like I don't know in life it's impossible to do everything by myself, so if I have to get someone else to do something important for me, I would try to ask someone I trust to act in my stead."
"I understand." Lacia nodded. As messy as it was, she seemed to accept his explanation.
"You do?"
"Yes, because I feel the same way." She remarked. To be honest, hearing her mention their similarities made him happy.
They entered the store after that strange interaction. The rush of cold, air-conditioned air made the hairs on his skin rise. Since he was the guy between them, Arato grabbed a basket with his remaining free hand. He didn't want a girl like Lacia to carry stuff if he happened to be around. However, this arrangement left him without any free hands at all. Well, he could let go of her hand but obviously, he preferred not to.
Inside, seemingly endless aisles of products crammed from top to bottom greeted them. An overly upbeat song was softly playing in the background as a number of hIEs went about their shopping. None of the hIEs took note of them, or even the fact that he was holding hands with one of their own.
"It was not necessary for you to get involved in a simple errand such as this." Lacia mentioned.
"Don't say that. I should be the one thanking you for everything you do for us. I want to help out whenever I can as well, you know?" Arato understood that hIEs were created by humans to make their lives easier, but he couldn't see Lacia in the same light as any other hIEs. Like any other girl, especially one that he liked, he wanted to make her life easier if he could as well.
After all, humans were creatures that felt a sense of camaraderie whenever they relied on someone and found themselves relied on in return. So in that sense, he wanted Lacia to be able to rely on him too. Simple it might be, but it was the truth that such a simple thing had the ability to bring him happiness.
He wanted to be relied on by her, while at the same time being able to rely on her.
He desired to be protected by her, while at the same time being able to protect her.
They were opposite things, but just because something was opposite, it didn't necessarily mean that they were mutually exclusive.
Joy and sadness, love and hate, obsession and apathy. Humans were strange creatures that harbored these strangely opposite desires within them. Just like how he wanted to get closer to her, while at the same time freaking out whenever the thought of their relationship went beyond the surface level and difficult questions started to arise in his mind.
"If it makes you happy." She agreed genteelly. Even though her answer resembled a default hIE-like reply on the surface, it was at times like this when he got the feeling that she could somehow understand the conflicted thoughts and emotions within him perfectly.
They started off at the condiment section, before heading to the area containing snacks for his little sister. Obviously, it went without saying that they would leave any frozen items or fresh ingredients toward the end in order to retain maximum freshness. On the way, they made sure to avoid bumping into the hIE staff busy refilling the store shelves with more products.
"We need to get some rice crackers," He told her. Since both of his hands were occupied right now, he had to rely on Lacia to grab stuff for him. She moved to pick up a bag, but when Arato saw the one she had selected, he interrupted her. "No, not the house brand. Yuka doesn't like the cheap ones."
"They come from the same production line. Outside of the packaging, there are no differences." Lacia said. He had heard about something like that before, where factories would produce the exact same product for multiple brands, and the price premium only existed due to their marketing strategy.
"I believe you, but Yuka isn't someone who's able to function on such pure logic. Even if you try to explain it to her, she's going to make a fuss about it either way."
"If I repackage the item, she would not be able to tell," Lacia suggested before adding at the end, her eyes narrowing mischievously. "Of course, you will have to play along. It will be our secret."
Hearing that she would be trusting him to keep a secret between them sent a rush of happiness to his head. Arato knew that as a Red Box, Lacia possessed many secrets of her own, and he was already an accomplice in keeping that information confidential in order to prevent anyone else from finding out her true status. But, it still felt good to be trusted, even if it was something as minor as this.
"I guess there are some things she's better off not knowing. It's not like we're lying out of malice." Arato agreed, and not just because the rice crackers Lacia had picked out were nearly half the price of the usual brand Yuka favored.
No one was one hundred percent honest in the world. In reality, a certain amount of deception was necessary for humans to function in society. People naturally kept their true thoughts to themselves and presented a carefully fabricated image of themselves to the world.
Even he wasn't innocent of that fact. Whenever he was around Lacia, for example, Arato always tried his best to look good in front of her, and his civilized manner of speaking reflected that. It was a far cry compared to how he was around his little sister, where he could bluntly speak his mind whenever he wished. In a way, Olga was right when she said that there was a certain intimacy involved when a relationship reached that level.
Lacia returned to picking out the bag of rice crackers. As the house brand was cheap, stores tended to place them in an inconvenient location at the top of the shelf in order to subtly encourage shoppers to buy something pricier. It wasn't a problem for a guy like him, but for a girl like Lacia who happened to be slightly shorter, Arato found himself treated to a wonderful sight as he watched her tiptoe and stretch out her sleek arm to reach the item in question.
The movement made her chest press delightfully against her thin white blouse. She had left the first few buttons of her top fashionably unbuttoned. Arato knew that it wasn't exactly nice to stare, but he couldn't help but be entranced by the two lovely round shapes in front of him. Her bust was much more well-defined and larger than he had initially assumed them to be. He had seen her in other clothes but for some reason, their appearance and size looked very different when he compared them. The skintight body suit must have had the effect of compressing her breasts, making them seem smaller. While at home, Lacia usually had a second layer of clothing in the form of an apron which hid most of her amazing body.
Not that he had any doubts that a supermodel like her didn't possess an amazing body in the first place. But seeing it in this manner turned it from amazing into an outright weapon of mass destruction. The hIE Lacia was exactly the kind of woman that drove men into performing unspeakable crimes for a chance of winning her favor.
Arato knew that his staring had gone on for far too long by this point and he tried to pull away his gaze, but he found going against the gravitational pull of her cleavage an enormously difficult task. Traditionally, the Japanese placed a high value on the erotic appeal of the nape of the neck. But in the West, where cleavage was invented and seen as the peak of feminine sexuality, it could be said that such preferences reflected their cultural tendency to be more direct and straightforward. The idealist would call them honest, while a cynical person might label them crude. In the end, it all depended on how the individual saw the world.
But to stubbornly stick to tradition these days was a death sentence in a modernized world. So just like how Commodore Perry had forcefully opened Japan to the West with the guns of his ships, and how the Americans had used nuclear bombs to wipe out the old Japanese Empire and replace it with a democracy of their own choosing. As a Japanese person living in this bold new age, Arato found himself enjoying the modern world and all of its ideals built from the ashes of the old.
After all, for a guy to indulge himself in the act of gazing at partially exposed breasts wasn't simply engaging in simple lasciviousness, he was also meditating on the concept of language itself. Even the language invented to describe such a view had profound implications.
When one pondered about it, the word 'cleavage' originated from the term 'to cleave', which meant both to 'cut apart' and to 'put back together'. This was even helpfully hinted at by the line which divided the two wonderfully shaped globes of white in front of him. The person who had come up with the term must have been a peerless genius indeed.
In that sense, the cleavage of a woman perfectly illustrated the hypocrisy and double meaning of such a contradiction. After all, the existence of breasts, among other body parts, was what separated women from men, yet it still had the effect of dragging a man's gaze downwards like an all-consuming quicksand, threatening to suck them into a bottomless abyss if they did not watch themselves carefully.
Humans were always naturally attracted to the unknown and new experiences. As a guy who was subjected to the same rules, he found himself drawn to and interested in the chest of a girl, which carried two shapes that he did not have himself.
Just like women, cleavage could be both hypocritical and dangerous. Whereas women could look at a man as much as they wanted, with the guy being viewed as generally appreciative of it, for breasts it was a different matter altogether. When it came to looking at those parts of a girl, for a guy, it was truly damned if they looked and damned if they ignored it. There was no scenario where an average guy like him could escape unscathed. If he looked, there was a high chance of the girl being disgusted with him and calling him a pervert. If he didn't look, there was also the possibility that the girl would be insulted that he didn't fall for her carefully prepared trap.
So considering that he was screwed either way, Arato reasoned to himself that he might as well enjoy the sight of Lacia's chest while he could. Her robot titties might have been a hundred percent artificial, but it wasn't as if his sexual palate was refined enough to tell the difference. It helped a lot that their absolute perfection made the horny teenage boy in him really, really happy.
... Coming up with this kind of screwed-up logic, the brainwashing power of ninety-one centimeters was terrifying indeed. As a wise man once said, boobs are life and life are boobs.
Just by looking at her, sexual desire was starting to accumulate in his body. Right then, Lacia's cool voice broke through the fog clouding his mind.
"Perchance, do you see something that you like?" She pouted, asking in the demure voice he liked so much.
"Melons!" Arato yelped without thinking, totally caught off guard. "No, milk! No no, it's not what you think!" His mouth started to spew nonsensical stuff that even he didn't understand, terribly embarrassed at the fear that he'd been caught checking out her chest. "I mean melon milk! As in the dairy product, from cows! That we still need to get! Completely unrelated!"
His face inevitably turned red. He realized that by the end he probably gave himself away, but Arato found that he couldn't quite meet her pure gaze at the moment. The intensity of it burned hotter than the blush currently on his face.
The expressionless way she stared at him made it seem like she could see right through him. She was looking at him as if he was a thin, transparent plastic film. As if he was an open book she was casually turning the pages on. Through all the childish bluster to the sly and dishonest feelings of love and desire twisting about deep in his chest.
It was as though she understood everything perfectly, but for some reason chose to say nothing.
With the rest of their non-perishable groceries done, they could start picking up fresh and frozen items. This time their objective happened to be the stack of milk puddings at the back of the store. On the way there, Arato couldn't help but sneakily throw a forlorn glance at the frozen pizzas he passed by. Before Lacia had taken over all the cooking duties in their house, this was quite embarrassing to say, but instant food had been more common in his diet than he'd liked to admit. But even though her cooking was consistently delicious, it wasn't as if he didn't find himself struck with cravings for junk food every now and then.
Besides, he couldn't exactly ask Lacia to make him a meat lovers pizza. If he tried something like that, she would probably chide him with that painful stare of hers for requesting something so unhealthy. Not to mention, he wanted to avoid looking like a slob in front of a girl he liked if it was at all possible.
As if she could read his mind, she stopped in front of the freezer containing the object of his desires(for his stomach).
"I believe you had pizza two days ago," Lacia said. She had even gone to the trouble of handmaking one in their kitchen the other day. As expected, it was delicious. Between the thin, crisp crust and the fresh toppings of four seasons, biting into it had momentarily transported him to Italy. "But if you like, I can make it again tomorrow."
"Well, I can't possibly bother you all the time whenever I want a late-night snack, can I?" Arato tried to play it off, but honestly, that wasn't even the reason. The truth was, while freshly made food was a wonderful thing, there was a certain deep satisfaction that only junk food could provide. It didn't help at all that it seemed like forever since he had indulged himself.
To put it bluntly, he just wanted something greasy and unhealthy once in a while.
Hey, he was a guy too.
"I understand. It must be exhausting for you to experience the same thing every day. In that case, it can't be helped." Lacia said.
Just when Arato was about to relax, thinking she had agreed, Lacia suddenly dropped a bombshell, pouting.
"You're free to cheat on my cooking if you must. Please go ahead. I do not mind."
"H-Hey, wait a second, why do you have to go and word it like that?" Even in the air-conditioned store, he could feel cold sweat start to bead on his forehead. For some reason, he felt terribly guilty. "I was just thinking you might not be in the mood for it all the time, honest."
Upon hearing that, her face fell and turned cloudy. "I see. It seems that I am unable to satisfy your needs." Lacia bit her lip, looking sulky. When he saw how clearly unhappy she was acting, it felt like a knife had been viciously slammed into his heart and he couldn't help but desperately try to reassure her of his faithfulness.
"No, it's all my fault! I'm sorry for being an easy guy that's easily led astray! Forget about all this stuff! Your cooking is the only one I want! I want to drink your miso soup everyday!"
"You are far too kind, Arato-san." Lacia smiled and accepted his panicked response in her usual genteel manner, but Arato couldn't help but still feel like a fool for bursting out like that. She always had that effect on his emotions.
Sometimes, from the way she could easily trigger such a response from him, it felt like he was just a lever that she was pulling.
"Oh, before I forget." The shelf containing the usual zero-calorie soda he favored was closer to him, so Arato released their entwined hands to reach for it.
"Coca-Cola," With his hand around the neck of the bottle, he heard Lacia remark. "An African product."
As that was obviously incorrect, hearing that made him confused. Everyone and their mother knew that Coca-Cola was an American product. Not even just that, but it was nearly a national symbol of their country that happened to be exported all across the globe, like Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks. So he couldn't understand why Lacia had said something like that.
"What do you mean? It's American, isn't it?" He asked, still unsure if he was being led into a trick question.
"That is not true. The drink is African," She was staring blankly at the rows of soda bottles. "They extract the raw material from African countries at an insignificant cost and then process it into a finished product which they then sell in return to said countries at a hundred-fold markup, in many cases even more. Why then, is it wrong to call it an African product?"
What she was saying went against everything he had assumed was common sense. For example, if the metal used to create a Japanese car came from an overseas mine, say Sweden, it didn't make the car Swedish. These days, supply chains were globalized and there was not a single country in the world today which existed in perfect isolation.
"Arato-san, do you know how much a bottle of Coca-Cola costs?" Despite his lack of reply, Lacia continued without missing a beat.
The price tag was staring them in the face, yet Lacia asked anyway. By this, he already knew her question to be a completely rhetorical one, but he answered her despite that.
"A hundred and nineteen yen?" He parroted the number on the digital tag.
"And out of that amount, how much of that do you think goes back into the calloused hands of the ones who labor to provide the raw materials? In contrast to the smooth-skinned hands of idle shareholders in the form of dividends?" She asked mildly, as if she was discussing the weather or the natural state of the environment around her.
"I... don't know the answer to that." Arato swallowed thickly. He was starting to get an idea of what she was trying to say. It wasn't as if he didn't know inequality existed in the world, but truth be told, it wasn't something he thought much about in his daily life.
Between this and what had happened with Olga the other day, he couldn't help but feel he had lived a sheltered life.
"Why do you like to drink Coca-Cola, Arato-san?" She redirected the question. Probably in response to his shoddy answer.
The road ahead of him was darkening, but Arato felt like he had lost control of his own initiative. It was as if he was being dragged deeper into an abyss. He couldn't do anything else but open his mouth and answer.
"Because it's sweet."
"Indeed," She nodded. "The sweetness of the beverage known as Coca-Cola is world-renowned. When one tastes that sweetness, one can't help but smile. But what if I told you that in order to create that one smile, there are ten others who have to shed tears in their place?"
"When there's an injustice, there's also a person responsible. So when it comes down to it, the ones at the top responsible for making the decisions are guilty." Arato said a bit quicker than he would have liked, a small amount of heat entering his voice. The amount of control she had over their conversations annoyed him sometimes.
Lacia turned. Her face was devoid of expression.
"The supply would not exist without a demand." She said quietly.
He stared at the pitch-black liquid in the bottle. It was perfectly still. Just by looking at it and digesting the words she said, a wave of guilt and nausea started to build in his stomach. She hadn't gone so far as to accuse him, but the implication was clear in her message.
For a moment, his hand tightened around the neck of the bottle.
"I get it, I won't buy it again. That'll help, right?" Arato muttered bitterly after removing his hands from the drink.
"You are not to blame. It is natural for you or anyone else to live as best as they can within the framework that society dictates," She reassured him. Lacia took the bottle that he had shunned and put it in their basket. "Unless you wish to spend the rest of your life alone in a jungle, that is."
"Then who is?" He pressed. Arato was a simple person, he didn't like it when things got complicated for no reason. It took a criminal to commit a crime, so going by that logic, it should be easy to figure out which were the ones who required punishment.
"All are guilty. However, all the same, you could say that none are. Inevidently, humans chose to bind themselves to a system known as 'society', not unlike the chains of a prisoner or a steel cage of a captured animal. In that sense, they feed on each other's happiness until one is doomed to eternal torment."
She stared at him, her eyes softly glowing a light blue. The amount of resolution in her voice made it sound like Lacia was a divine entity passing judgment upon the human race.
"As humans are the only animals on this planet to have evolved in such a way that their intrinsic desires will never be fully satisfied, and as there exists only a finite amount of resources available in the environment, therefore, where there is gain, there must also be loss. Where there is happiness, there exists agony alongside it. In the current system, everyone is a victim, but at the same time, everyone is also a perpetrator. Greed and numbness reside in human hearts. Thus, when driven by this greed, humans choose to commit terrible deeds, and it is the same numbness that makes them turn apathetic when faced with the evil of others. Even before the advent of hIEs, this is the economic system that humans have decided on and installed for themselves."
"But that's just how things are. We can't help it." Arato caught himself before he could deliver his automatic reply. A sense of guilt coursed through his veins when he realized that it was precisely this 'numbness' that Lacia had described.
Her explanation made his earlier assumption regarding responsibility seem childish. It pained him to hear Lacia describe things so clinically, like she was a distant outsider, observing the world from above. But at the same time, he couldn't deny that the things she had said were the inexorable truth.
After all, if the problem happened to be such a broad one, then it was impossible to simply assign blame for said transgressions to any single party, for the sins that Lacia described were carved into humanity's very nature. If the existence of human nature itself begets conflict, then it was natural that said conflict in turn begets destruction and cruelty.
But even if the words she spoke so happened to be the 'truth', he didn't want to think that writing off everything as inevitable was the right way to go as well. Going down that path only served as a breeding ground for apathy and selfishness.
That was one reason, but the honest, baser truth was that he didn't like the idea of Lacia turning into someone unyieldingly cynical.
"Everyone has different circumstances in life. We can't exactly choose the environment we're born in, but we can work hard toward success. Getting caught up in envy or resentment only drags one down."
That was what he had been raised and taught to believe by his parents. That if one worked hard enough, one could be successful no matter where one came from. To be independent and earn one's own means of living.
"Arato-san, what do you think is the primary concern for an affluent, advanced nation?" Lacia asked simply.
"The birth rate?" He replied immediately, half serious. It was what the government harped on constantly on TV these days. Hell, he was pretty sure the Prime Minister was this close to climbing on the podium and losing his mind when it came to this particular issue. Arato could imagine it. 'Make babies you fools!' He would pound the table and yell, after which the rest of Japan would continue to ignore him.
"In the past, the biggest fear of a developed nation used to be the industrialization of a developing one. As that would mean instead of their finished products being marketed and sold in a foreign country of lower economic strata, the reverse would occur. That is to say, they would find foreign goods competing and even possibly dominating in their home market. In essence, they sought to horde and plunder. To maximize their gain at the cost of another's loss. That was the wish of a developed nation residing under the previous economical order. It was a selfish wish forcefully imposed with the cold steel of a bayonet."
"I don't think there's any point bringing up the past." He said. This sort of thing didn't matter to him. It was all in the past. There was no point in digging up old wounds and seeking retribution for a crime their ancestors had committed in the ancient past, just like how the son was not expected to be answerable for the sins of the father. In any case, every nation, if one looked back far enough in history, possessed a ledger that dripped a bloody red. Food, water, energy, land, precious minerals, and even ideology or faith, for the longest time, humans had once eagerly slaughtered each other en masse for less.
Human history was simply a tale of the oppressor and the oppressed endlessly trading places in the world order. If past grievances were stubbornly clung onto and pursued, in that case, then the hatred and resentment would become an all-consuming void of endlessness as well.
"To avoid making mistakes in the future, it is necessary to understand the past," Lacia said, before continuing. "Over time, the nation-state soon found itself forced to share its once-vaunted primacy with the corporation. When that change happened, society naturally followed along in its footsteps. An open market instead of a closed one. Privatization, not nationalization. Cooperation over conflict. Partnership instead of slavery. The cost optimization of production with comparative advantages. What has once been assumed to be a zero-sum game has now transformed into a scenario where both parties can win," She added. "That is in theory, of course. The reality is that a majority of resources in society remain unevenly distributed due to certain unethical actions taken by these companies."
The complex words Lacia was sprouting out made his mind hurt. She reminded him of Ryo in a way, who would launch into a tirade regarding these types of annoying stuff at the slightest notice.
"When you put it like that, you make it sound like these affluent corporations meddle in the affairs of other nations around the world in order to keep them destabilized so as to have an easier time exploiting them." Incredulity filled his voice. It wasn't as if he didn't recognize the possibility of something like that. But with the global reach of the network and the 24/7 news cycle nowadays, it was nearly impossible to get away with something like that without a ton of bad press.
"Though the method might differ between eras, the human desire for greed remains constant. As the values of human society evolve and become more complex, so does the means. After all, the world in the current period does not take too kindly to a nation imposing its economic desires with the sharp end of a bayonet. Not anymore. Once the supreme tool of a conqueror in an era where martial strength was the only measure that counted, the bayonet now finds itself discarded in favor of loans, debt, and lobbying."
"But what you're saying doesn't add up. This isn't the twenty or heck, even the twenty-first century anymore. Most of the work these days are done by hIEs. Why would someone go out of their way to do all this shady stuff involving humans when it comes with it such a high risk of a backlash from the public?" He pointed out. Arato recalled a scandal where a confectionary company had been exposed for lying about the status of their supposedly fair-trade cocoa, after which a punishing lawsuit followed.
That was something he'd remembered Ryo mentioning in one of his usual rants.
"Why should I exploit humans when I can exploit a machine instead? It's just too much of a hassle to exploit humans these days, man."
At that time, Arato had waved him off, saying he didn't want to bother himself thinking about such depressing stuff. It was something he knew deep in his heart, that human society as he knew it relied on the tools known as hIEs to function. But it wasn't like he could do anything about it even if he knew, so the way he saw it, there was no point brooding about things one couldn't change. It was better to focus on the stuff that happened to be in front of him instead.
Lacia stared at him.
After a moment, she replied.
"There are certain places in this world where the value, and accordingly the price, of a human life is considered to be lower than even that of an hIE." She said bluntly.
Her answer triggered a coil of revulsion in his gut. Of course, because in the race to the bottom, even automation could be too expensive for a company. He hadn't really thought about it until now. Like most, he had bought into the belief that these sorts of things weren't applicable nowadays, what with the existence of hIEs and all.
'Because it's cheaper, that's why.'
It seemed that age-old adage still applied even today. The centuries might come and go, but the soul of the human remained a constant.
"In a way, you could consider the purpose of nine billion humans in the current order as supporting the lifestyle of the remaining billion. Just as how these one billion humans work to support the lifestyle of ten thousand. The class structure of society is usually described as a pyramid for a reason, after all." Lacia ended with a remark.
He remained silent until they reached their destination, their previous heavy conversation simmering in his chest. After their talk, Lacia returned to her usual self and didn't seem to act any differently. Honestly, he was just a tad envious of how she could seemingly take everything in stride. Arato couldn't mentally compartmentalize like that. Unlike the emotionless Lacia, words affected him.
He only spoke up to stop Lacia when he saw her avoid the ones in the chiller and go for the puddings stored in plastic containers on the outer shelves. He couldn't help but hurriedly explain when he saw the curious look on her face.
"I'm sure it's the same item, but Yuka only eats the expensive ones in the glass jars. Also, there's no way you can disguise them because they go bad quickly outside of their original packaging."
As pudding was an item that required refrigeration, he couldn't figure out a way for Lacia to trick his little sister into eating the cheap ones in plastic cups.
"Do not worry. I will be the one serving them to her. Ever since my arrival, it seems that Yuka-sama has developed a habit of relying on me." She mentioned.
"You don't have to be so polite about it. I know better than anyone how lazy my little sister can get," He deadpanned. "But how are you planning from stopping her from raiding the fridge and finding out about it on her own?"
"Yuka-sama does not have a habit of checking the rear compartment of the fridge."
"How did you... Wow, you seem to know my little sister even better than I do." Arato noted.
"She is not a particularly complex individual." Lacia said dryly.
It wasn't like she was wrong about that, so he had nothing to say. Even he thought his little sister stupid at the best of times.
"Lacia, you really like to buy stuff that is on sale, don't you?"
"I do try to be as cost-effective as possible whenever I prepare your meals."
Getting the best deal was all fine and dandy, but it required one to do grocery shopping on a daily basis. Arato thought it must have been exhausting for Lacia to keep it up all the time. He knew he would lose his mind if he found himself forced to do the same.
"It's not like you have to go out of your way to save that much. My dear old Dad's paying for it all anyway." He couldn't stop the wryness in his voice. It might have been the truth, but saying that out loud made it feel like he was somehow a failure of a man.
"That won't do at all, Arato-san," She chided. "You should value your money more."
"Hey, don't make it sound like I'm careless with it just because it's been handed to me." Arato complained.
"Previously, you had a habit of racking up nearly two thousand yen every day at the convenience store alone. Not only that, but I do believe you would purchase beverages from the vending machine at school to go with your sandwiches or boxed lunches. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the amount you spend on food each day much be substantial." She pointed out.
"Urgh, sorry for the conspicuous consumption." He mumbled in submission, like the good henpecked guy he was. As usual, Lacia was always spot on when it came to these sorts of things, so it wasn't like he could argue back. It wasn't like he didn't know that cooking at home turned out to be cheaper than eating out all the time, but after his mother had passed away, the homemade lunches he'd gotten used to since grade school had stopped as well.
"I have mentioned this to you before, but the nutritional balance of ready-made meals tends to be of a lower standard," Lacia continued her lecture as if she hadn't heard him. "With homecooked meals, I am able to replace your usual menu with one of a higher nutritional quality. In addition, only selecting fresh ingredients that are on sale daily allows me to find the optimal point between the factors of quality and price. Taken together, I have managed to reduce your household food expenses substantially while improving the quality at the same time."
"R-Right..."
Arato could only listen in muted awe and horror. He didn't know how Lacia had managed to make grocery shopping sound so important, but apparently, from the eloquence she waxed about it, it was probably just him that overlooked such things.
But still looking at her, the sense only amazement only grew.
The Red Box Lacia, an unknown piece of technology created by a Super Intelligent AI so advanced that it was beyond the reach of even the greatest scientific human minds to achieve on their own power. Not just that, she was also a supermodel working under Fabion Media Group, which meant that she drew big bucks on the regular.
And having said all that, what seemed to be her hobbies?
Apparently, coupon clipping and bargain hunting at the supermarket.
Honestly, if he hadn't seen it for himself, Arato probably would have laughed out loud if someone told him that. The image was just too farcical.
As a supermodel, Lacia acted like the antithesis of such an elite category of person. If anything, despite her pretty girl appearance, he could mistake her for a model proletarian. Indeed seeing her quickly snatch up rounds of cabbages and packages of freshly minced Kagoshima snow-white pork made her seem like a perfect housewife if anything.
Being able to see this homely side of her, a side that he had gotten to see for the first time, made his heart flutter and wild fantasies start to form in his mind. Just the thought of them getting closer was making him all giddy and excited.
"Hm? What's the matter?" He asked when he noticed Lacia had stopped. For some reason, she was fidgeting and coyly twirling one of her silvery locks of hair.
"Oh, forgive me if I'm being presumptuous. But doing these sorts of activities together, doesn't it make us seem like a married couple?" She blushed and said. The way redness was starting to color her pale cheeks made the perfect Lacia only seem even prettier if such a thing was even possible. Apparently, the advanced hygroscopic skin Stylus used contained a chemical that could be released on demand by the hIE frame to mimic the skin tone of blushing. How did he know all this? Well, he looked it up on the internet, among other 'information' about hIEs.
With the knowledge of that, Arato knew that the reaction Lacia was displaying to him at the moment was nothing but the calculated, artificial one of an emotionless robot.
But even so, hearing that made the vision in his field flash white like the time when he had been struck by Kouka. Except unlike that time, instead of pain, the pure sensation currently flooding his body was euphoria instead. Even his body felt light enough that Arato almost thought he could float, unlike the crushing weight of that night. His heart twisted and screamed like it had been forcefully stimulated by an electric current by a shock pad, but even those sensations were more pleasurable than painful.
Indeed, just like how Kouka could push him to the brink of the abyss of fear and terror, Lacia could do the same with euphoria and desire.
His mind might have understood that this wasn't natural, but his heart rebelled against his rationale, and so far, his love for her was winning over the cynical poison produced by his mind called 'logic'.
This entire time he had been trying not to fall too deep into the realm of fantasy, but with just a single push, Lacia had broken open that barrier in his mind.
His suppressed desires came flooding to the forefront. An image of an ideal married domestic life flashed before his eyes. With silvery hair, pale blue eyes, and a beautiful face along with a perfectly stacked figure, Lacia was supremely attractive. But her perfection didn't end at her looks, her domestic skills were unmatched as well. Not just that, but her demure and submissive bearing hit all the right spots for him as well. The way she could easily manage and babysit Yuka displayed her family-friendly side too. And then there was the time when she rescued him from that flower storm attack on that fateful night, the fact that he could rely on her for protection.
In all ways, Lacia represented his image of the ideal woman.
And it wasn't just her physical form or her skills, but her reactions towards him as well. From face to body, from expression to voice, from top to bottom, every part about her was a perfect match to sate his every fancy. Indeed, if someone pressed a gun to the back of his skull and forced him to name a flaw about Lacia under the threat of death, it was just that she was simply too convenient. On many occasions, he had described her in the back of his mind as 'wish-fulfillment'.
Because, to Arato, that was exactly how it felt sometimes. It was as if someone had sat him down and asked him to list out the detailed criteria for his ideal girl, which from there they used as a reference to create Lacia.
It was as if she had been customized to be his dream girl.
Thinking that, Arato couldn't help but feel his head turn hot, like a melted marshmallow. The thought of spending the rest of his life with Lacia made his pulse surge and the blood in his veins sing.
Lacia went quiet and blinked a couple of times. He knew that she didn't possess a heart, but Arato thought could see love in her pure blue eyes. Or at least, he believed with all of his might that there was love there.
Or something along those lines. It might be a delusion, but basically, he was getting desperate. The heat in his mind made it hard to think properly. After all, hIE or not, his perfect girl was in front of him.
When he saw how Lacia narrowed her eyes and tilted her face upwards in a show of submissive affection, Arato could feel the liquified remains of his brain drip out of his ears. Despite his heart thundering in his chest, he was pretty sure that this wasn't one of his hallucinations.
She was slowly bringing her face closer. Without thinking, his body automatically responded and he leaned forward as well. The thought that this was actually happening, right here, right now almost drove him crazy from all the love surging through his body. He knew that if they kissed, there would be no going back in their relationship. It would bring about an irreversible change and erase everything before tonight, after which he would begin a new phase of his life with her.
It would be a life where Lacia would faithfully love him until the end of days, and he would faithfully love her in return.
Like two mindless automatons engulfed in the curse known as 'happiness'.
Even so, Arato found that he couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to. His body was moving on its own, like it was a machine executing its task. It was as if somewhere in his mind a lever had been cranked, and everything after that was inevitable.
Her beautiful face filled his entire world and at the moment, it felt like Lacia was the only thing that mattered in his existence.
Nothing else.
Just Lacia.
Right when he was about to cross that final line, he saw how her affection-filled face was seamlessly replaced with a look devoid of any emotion. The change occurred in an instant and the abruptness of it brought him out of the pink haze clouding his mind. The smoothness of it had reminded Arato of how a curtain would close on stage once the play had concluded.
That or an unexpected disruption had occurred.
"Excuse me, Customer-sama? I'm going to have to ask you to stop."
A voice broke through the illusion in his mind and Arato felt his senses return to him. He turned towards the source of the interruption. A male employee wearing the store uniform was standing before them. From a glance at his posture and the way he held himself, Arato could tell that he was a human, probably the manager in charge of this store.
His social skills kicked in and Arato was about to automatically apologize for causing a scene in public when all of a sudden, Lacia gripped his hand tightly. She was looking down and averting her eyes.
When he saw how depressed Lacia looked, everything in his mind felt like it had been wiped away. In an instant, Arato felt a surge of self-loathing and anger fill him. The fact that he had almost reverted to his previous habits of avoiding conflict pissed him off. After all of his big talk, in the end, it seemed like he was the same as everyone else. Someone who talked a big game but couldn't step up when the going got tough. It was these emotions that tainted his voice with anger.
"What's that? Who the hell are you? You want something?" He growled, secretly enjoying how the employee flinched at his tone.
The slightly older guy, Arato guessed him to be in his early twenties, replied back with a polite voice that was obviously strained. "No, what I'm saying is that these sorts of things are inappropriate, especially in public..."
"And how is it any of your business what I do?" Arato shot back. "Are you suggesting? Or is that a rule of the store?"
"It's a suggestion, sir."
"Well, too bad for you, but I follow laws, not suggestions." Arato waved him off and was about to turn away to end the entire thing when he saw the male employee tense up.
"Sir, I ask you to reconsider. Families come here often," He said, his voice so tense it sounded like it was about to crack. "There are children here."
The guy might not have realized it, but in a single line, he had managed to push all of his buttons at once. All of his deep-seated insecurities rose to the surface to mix with his previous anger and Arato almost saw red. It took everything he had not to raise his voice and yell at him.
"There is nothing wrong with what I'm doing." Arato hissed. Poison laced his words and turned them venomous.
Humans could kiss and hold hands with other humans in public, so why couldn't he do the same with Lacia? After all, it wasn't a crime in this country to fall in love with an object.
"I didn't say it was wrong. You're free to do whatever you want on your own time at home. But you have to understand that when you're in public, your actions affect others around you." When he said that, Arato glanced over his shoulder and noticed a housewife glaring daggers at him. She was holding her daughter and shushing her not to look. When he saw that, he immediately made the connection and figured out how the current situation had come about.
"Please, I just work here." He pleaded.
Arato understood that the guy before him was an innocent caught in the middle of a crossfire. It was obvious that like him, the guy didn't want to be here as well. But he found himself forced to anyway, as a tool of the customer who had lodged a complaint.
Yes, in that sense, he was almost like an hIE. To be used as a tool for someone else's will and a scapegoat to shoulder all the blame when things went wrong.
But even though Arato knew that.
Even though he understood.
"To hell with you. Let's go, Lacia." He snarled.
The burning heat in his chest from the feelings of guilt and shame at the moment was just too strong to fight against. Arato knew better than anyone that he was just compensating for his inferiority complex, but he couldn't stop himself.
As he tugged Lacia away with more force than he had meant to, Arato couldn't help but glance back. In the distance, he could see the housewife walk up to the employee and begin to furiously berate him. Arato saw that he silently nodded along to everything the woman said with a forced smile on his face, no matter how horrible they were.
Indeed, he reminded him of an hIE. In the end, humans or hIEs, both were just tools in the end.
When the heat of his surging emotions cooled off and he found his mind turning clear again, Arato couldn't help but feel sick at how he'd reacted just now.
"God, when did I become such an asshole?" He muttered. He didn't understand at all what was going on with him. Like Kengo had said, it seemed that anything that had to do with Lacia carried the potential to set him off at a moment's notice.
Guilt and shame were accumulating in his heart, but when he saw how pleased Lacia looked, it felt like these negative feelings evaporated away just as quickly as they came. He knew that he was probably acting like a lovesick puppy around her but Arato didn't really care.
The truth of the matter was that a thrill was running through his heart. It felt good to stand up for his girl. It felt good to act manly in front of the girl he liked. It felt good to protect her and make her smile happily.
It felt incredibly good as well when Lacia placed her head on his shoulder while they were queuing at the self-service checkout. The way she had her eyes closed made it seem like she was peacefully resting. From a distance, they probably looked like a normal couple, he mused.
Rain was pouring down in sheets when they exited the store. Not a mere drizzle, but thick, wet droplets that made distinct sounds as they splattered against the earth.
"Crap." Arato swore under his breath, taking cover under the shelter of a nearby building.
There was no chance of them walking back home in this kind of weather. He fumbled with the bags containing their groceries, trying to reach for his pocket terminal to call for a car. Looking back at it later, Arato realized that as an hIE, Lacia could probably access the transport app without using her hands but he was still acting as if she was a normal human girl for some reason.
He was steadily slipping into bad habits cultivated by her analog hacking. This was despite the fact that the logical part of his mind knew without a doubt that although she was an object that merely so happened to possess the looks and mannerisms of a human, his reactions toward her still defaulted to treating Lacia like a normal girl. Just as how he had the bad habit of defaulting to treating Olga as a foreigner due to her exotic looks, even though he knew that she was just as Japanese as him.
In a way, both Olga and Lacia possessed a gap between their appearances and their true nature. Olga, the Japanese person who looked like a foreigner, and Lacia, the robot that looked like a girl.
In the end, the reflex of the senses has a tendency to move faster than the logical human mind. According to Kisaragi Asuna, humans who studied this phenomenon deliberately programmed hIEs to act similarly to humans. Arato recalled Ryo claiming that hIEs were out to deceive humans, but he didn't want to believe that, as that would mean Lacia was tricking him.
Following that line of logic, it would also be a ridiculous notion to accuse Olga of deceiving him, as it was impossible to blame someone like Olga for the circumstances of her birth.
But there was where the similarities between Olga and Lacia stopped. Unlike Olga who couldn't control her circumstances, Lacia was an AI who made the calculated decision to adopt the persona of a girl, for whatever reasons, he still didn't know. However, it didn't change the fact that her natural state was that of a cold, unfeeling machine.
His chest tightened when he reached that line of thinking.
Even though a part of him knew her true nature and had seen what she was capable of, Arato still wanted to believe in her.
"There's still a while until the car comes, so let's just hunker down until then." He told her as he set the grocery bags down. He hoped that he didn't catch a cold at this rate. Unlike hIEs, humans could get sick after all.
He checked the time using his terminal. 10:00 pm, right on the money.
Ten. It was a number that carried a heavy load of meaning for him.
Ten years ago, he had lost Eliza.
Ten years later, he then met Lacia.
In the gap between these two events, Endo Arato was a machine that operated on inertia alone. By burying his grief and going through the motions one day at a time, by putting on a mask of normalcy to fool everyone else, somehow he'd managed to endure the pain of the gaping hole in his heart without breaking down.
Only when Lacia entered his life did he truly experience his world lighting up once again. Now, he could see the beginnings of a future begin to form in his mind. Before meeting her, Arato was content to be carried along by life, uncaring where he ended up.
But not anymore.
With Lacia came hopes and wishes. Heat and anxiety. Fear and anticipation. It felt like he was starting to experience life properly once again.
Frankly, he found himself at a loss for words.
Lacia too must have noticed his internal turmoil, for she remained silent. She didn't try to fill the air with meaningless conversation, rather she allowed him the space to think.
It was such a simple act, but he found it filled with meaning anyway. He didn't know why such trivialities from a heartless robot like her could move him this much.
Looking at her gently smiling face, Arato couldn't help but wonder what that smile meant. She seemed pleased, but it didn't make sense, because all they did was spend time doing meaningless things tonight. For a machine like her, it must have seemed like a waste of time. So why then, was Lacia smiling?
A smile is meant to convey happiness. But the soulless Lacia doesn't have any feelings. So why is she smiling?
These questions ran through his mind. Arato couldn't read her at all. He had spent the entire evening grocery shopping with her. Furthermore, even though he knew that she was a machine and nothing else, his heart still raced like he was out on a date with a human girl the entire time.
He didn't understand it at all.
"I want to ask you something." Arato spoke up after a while.
Don't do it.
His mind was warning him. That he was being far too prideful for his own good. If he shut up now, this meaningless day of happiness would come to an end, and another would begin first thing in the morning tomorrow.
"Yes, what is it, Arato-san?" She replied with a bright smile.
He swallowed his nerves, ignoring his screaming mind the entire time.
"Well... It's actually about you, Lacia."
Don't do something so stupid, stop.
"Oh?" Lacia tilted her head.
You'll ruin the illusion at this rate. Don't go and break the agreement.
But he pushed on anyway, despite the repeated warnings from his brain telling him otherwise.
Because Endo Arato loves Lacia, he desires something more than an 'illusion'.
Humans are truly greedy creatures.
They will never be satisfied with what they already have.
"Are you really... a machine?" His words came out slow and unsteady, like a drunk salaryman smashed after work. His brain was trying to force his lips to remain shut, and Arato found that he had to fight against his instincts to even speak.
A frightful memory flashed in his mind. Lacia. The cold, inhuman Lacia standing firmly as he rose his voice to yell and plead with her.
Unmoving.
Heartless.
Soulless.
A pure machine.
Lacia stared at him, her face expressionless.
He couldn't help but avert his eyes. Of course, she would find his basic question foolish. The answer to his own question was clear as day. He would probably react the same way if someone approached him and asked him if he was human.
But beyond the surface, the meaning of his question was obviously different than its wording. But it would take a human heart to understand context. No heartless machine would be capable of that.
Right when he was about to pass it off as a joke, Lacia spoke up.
"Would you like to find out for yourself?" She said with a mysterious smile. And just like that, she started walking away from the shelter they were under towards the road.
"Wai-" Arato reached out to try and stop her, but all he'd achieved was getting the sleeves of his jacket wet. As Lacia was a hIE, it was impossible for her to fall sick with a cold if she were to be drenched by rain, but Arato still couldn't help but worry.
Splish, splash. The wet sounds of her footsteps resonated in his ears.
He tried to speak out but entranced as he was by her beautiful frame under the rain, Arato found his voice faltering. He stared at the pool of light created by the streetlight. The way Lacia stood in that illuminated circle surrounded by darkness reminded him of a performer on a stage.
Lacia spun around, as if she were dancing, causing her white skirt to flare up. She was going through the steps of some sort of gliding dance, moving to a rhythm and beat that he could not hear.
There was a primal sort of intensity in the air, an ethereal grace and feminine sexuality coursing through her motions. Like a ballerina, her back arched as she twirled and lifted a sleek leg behind her, as if she was offering the lovely shapes on her chest to the chilly rain, and her damp violet hair cut through the air like a whip with its weight.
Even as Arato felt his cheeks flame up with a fresh heat as he continued to watch her impromptu street performance, a beam of light piercing through his peripheral vision brought him back to his senses in an instant. A delivery vehicle from the supermarket they'd just been at was cruising down the road in her direction.
"Car! Watch out!" He yelled, but still Lacia didn't make to move.
What happened next shocked him. Instead of engaging the breaks as all automated cars did whenever they found their path obstructed, the delivery vehicle simply swerved around Lacia without even slowing down, as if an invisible, magical hand had been guiding it.
The entire time, Lacia continued her dance. Her movements were bringing her closer, step by step, bit by bit.
When he saw how she had perfectly controlled the car as if it were an extension of her own body, his head started to hurt. At that time when he had been attacked by the mysterious flowers, and later Kouka, Arato could vaguely recall that a motor vehicle had been involved in each incident. For some reason, it felt like he was missing something important but Arato couldn't put the pieces together for the life of him.
With a final spin, Lacia stopped before him. He could see how the rain had done a number on her. She was soaked from top to bottom, with her hair sticking to her face. Her clothes too were drenched, allowing him to notice the outlines of her bra.
"Did you enjoy the private show?" She asked breathily, her chest heaving in and out. Knowing that a machine like her couldn't experience physical exhaustion, Arato doubted that it was merely from the exertion of her dancing. Though he couldn't deny that it looked nice when she was breathing hard like this in a wet, slightly see-through blouse, analog hack or not. Yes, they were definitely bigger than the ones Olga had.
"Well... It was... Yeah." Swallowing his guilt for comparing her boobs with another girl's, he forced his eyes to respectfully remain above her neckline as he answered.
"Oh my, you look like your heart is about to burst out from your mouth. Did strange thoughts cross your mind again?"
"No, not at all. That is, I don't get what you mean." Arato tried to correct himself at the end after realizing his mistake. The way she narrowed her eyes at him always had the effect of making him feel all funny and lightheaded.
Again, from the way Lacia smiled, Arato got the feeling that she could see right through him. Through the mess of lies and deception he presented, right down to all the sly feelings he held for her.
"Oh, I was concerned that you might think of me in a different light after that performance." Lacia pouted and then took a step forward to close the distance between them. He hadn't noticed the entire time they had been talking, but a gap of around two meters separated them.
He didn't quite understand what she was trying to say.
Lacia took another step forward, and then another. She was closing in little by little, with the same strange smile she always carried.
"Uh, Lacia? You're coming a little... close." Arato found that it was getting hard to breathe. It was like her presence was sucking out all of the air around him. His entire body tensed up when she stopped right before him.
With the concrete wall of the building behind him, Arato felt like he had been trapped for some reason. He didn't know whether to feel excited or frightened. To tell the truth, he was experiencing a little bit of both at the moment.
All of a sudden, her face disappeared.
"There is no need to worry," He couldn't see her face but her alluring voice entered his ears. Her sweet voice reverberated in his head and melted his brain to mush. His higher brain functions were rapidly shutting down. "After all, if you remain silent and continue pretending to be dull, a favorable outcome might occur."
It felt like she was making fun of him. But that couldn't be right. Lacia would never do something like that.
"I don't understand. You're acting strange." The moment he said that, Arato felt the weight release itself on his shoulder and he could see her face again. There was only gentle affection on her face. When Arato saw how pure her expression looked, he found himself instinctively relaxing, having found his previous suspicions cleared.
"It's not that you don't understand. Rather, you find it too painful to understand and as such you choose not to understand." Lacia replied, as if she was answering for him.
"I... don't understand the things you're saying." Arato repeated, his voice tight. Droplets of water were running down her hair and face to trickle down her neck. There was a certain aura of sexiness around her. When she got all soaking wet like this, Arato couldn't help but find her erotic.
"Do not worry," She smiled and repeated as well. "I believe that there are more important things for you right now. Like say, my neck for instance. Look, do you like it?"
Arato recalled reading somewhere online that a romantic setting was critical in stimulating passion when it came to relationships. At the moment, he wasn't sure if it was the rain or the fact that she was clinging onto him while dripping wet, but he could hear his heart pounding in his ears.
Despite her position in front of him, it seemed like Lacia's words bypassed his ears and were being whispered and slipped directly into his cranium. When she tilted her head in a way that allowed him to visually feast on the length of her neck, Arato felt his brains slowly liquefy into a pink slop.
"Relax," Lacia whispered. Was it a suggestion? Or maybe it was an order? Arato couldn't tell at all with the current state of his mind. But staring at her erotic neck, his body obeyed the sound of her voice automatically and he did as he was told. Her neck was white and smooth, like the surface of a silken tofu. It was the neck of a woman that invited a man's ravishing.
"You asked if I was a machine." She slipped an arm around his back and at the same time, pressed her body against him. He could feel every curve, every part of her wet body, especially the twin hilly mounds attached to her chest.
The warmth. The softness. The smell. All of the sensations that only a human girl could provide. His world was turned upside down in a rollercoaster of love.
It was like he was being wrapped in a comfortable blanket. One of his heartbeats jumped so strongly that it almost hurt from its intensity.
He wanted her.
He wanted her so much.
Not as a tool, but as a woman.
His emotions were bubbling over. His brain was frying. His blood was boiling. Arato was trembling from how desperately he was trying to hold himself back from embracing the girl in front of him. No matter how much Lacia was analog hacking him into making a decision, he knew that he couldn't until things were properly settled with her. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself otherwise.
Even knowing that, it hurt. It hurt so much to hold back that it was almost physically painful.
"Lacia..." He murmured her name without thinking. Arato felt her slip her other hand into his and entwine their fingers tightly. Her fingers were unlike his. Perfectly smooth where he was slightly calloused. Dainty where he was thicker.
Yes, her digits were thin and sleek.
Like a serpent coiling around its prey.
"We're lacing our fingers together. Our skin is coming into contact and our body heat is being transferred. Our weight is pressing against each other." Lacia must have noticed how out of it he was being, as she was helpfully stating her actions to follow.
"What should I be doing right now?" Arato asked dumbly, his mind too mushy to think of anything else but her. The feeling of her wet skin was slowly breaking down his inhibitions. The chilly wetness contrasted delightfully against her warmth.
Upon hearing that, Lacia smiled. Or at least he thought she did. He wasn't really sure.
"Oh my, what if I said I would like you to have me for your next meal instead?"
Arato couldn't believe his ears. He wanted to tell her to knock it off with the jokes, but the saliva in his throat became stuck and he could only choke.
She narrowed her pale blue eyes delightfully and shyly lowered her head to press into his chest. The position made her look smaller, like a fragile doll seeking comfort and protection. When he saw that, Arato couldn't help but go wild as a guy. His heart raced and cried out, pounding like a beast demanding to be let out from its cage.
"Yes, indeed. This is it, the expected reaction," She murmured quietly before lifting her head to look at him. "From the way your heart is beating, you must be quite excited. Intriguing. Your mind acknowledges that I am a machine, yet your biological reaction says otherwise. Why is that?" She asked.
"I don't know." Arato admitted honestly. He himself couldn't comprehend the reason for his love-drunk reactions around her.
"Arato-san, do you believe that the special feelings you hold for me, a machine, are simply due to the analog hacking caused by my physical appearance?" Lacia asked.
Without mercy, her clear, soulless voice penetrated through his heart to target his most vulnerable fears. In an instant, Arato felt his entire world break apart. He could visualize the cracks appearing in his field of view, like a glass window that had been struck.
In just a single line, Lacia had effortlessly destroyed the entire illusion between them.
Whenever it rained, the raindrops would turn the entire front windscreen of a car into a blur, unless one switched on the automatic wipers.
The analog hacking performed by Lacia was somewhat like that, in which it had the effect of metaphorically blurring his vision. And it was the same Lacia who was able to wipe away the foggy ambiguity with a single line, just like a windscreen wiper wiping away the rain.
A wave of shame and guilt surged through his body. Arato felt sick at her implication. The parts of his twisted desires that he'd tried so hard to bury, Lacia had effortlessly dragged them all to the forefront. It was as if she had an iron grip on his fragile heart and was mercilessly squeezing down.
His vision was starting to cloud over and it was becoming hard to breathe. Arato already knew the 'correct' answer to give, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to continue spinning that lie.
Of course, the politically correct answer would be to retort back at her that appearances didn't matter when it came to affairs of the heart. These days, society's answer was clear when it came to such things. Race, gender, sex... None of it mattered. Love was love.
But yet such a utopian answer was reserved only for humans, not machines.
In the end, Arato couldn't deny that physical appearances constituted a critical part of the complex system of human emotion known as 'love'. Because Lacia looked like a human girl, he found himself drawn and attracted to her. But he knew deep down that her appearance was but a fabricated lie created by the one who had made her.
Her true form was that of a machine. No heart, no soul. Just electronic components and circuitry. The advanced AI within Lacia might have been able to interact with him on the same level as a human, but the fact of the matter was that if she shed her skin and took on the form of a chipboard in front of him, Arato couldn't say for sure that he would be able to see and love her the same way as he did right now.
And that was precisely why he felt ashamed. A small part of him had believed that he was somehow better than everyone else in this twisted world, and that he was able to easily sprout and maintain such morally idealistic views like saying how appearances didn't matter, only personality. But when confronted with the harsh reality facing him right now, Arato couldn't find the strength to reassure her, or even lie to her.
At the end of the day, humans were born to fall in love with other humans, and that included the human form. There will always exist a difference between an actual human and an object which took on the form and role of a human.
"I can't give you an answer to that right now." He blinked away the moisture that had suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Everything depends on you. As I do not possess a heart, I cannot find that answer for you." Lacia explained gently before she released her grip on him and stepped back. Arato took it to mean that this was the end of her analog hacking.
"I am a machine, and you are my Owner," She continued. "We machines are tools that can only exist together with humans so long as we continue to fulfill the desires of our Owners."
The value of a tool was directly related to the convenience it provided to the Owner. Just like a hammer or screwdriver to a technician, or a tractor to a farmer, the object in human form calling herself Lacia derived her self-worth from Endo Arato's happiness. When faced with her alien-like mindset, he couldn't help but feel sorrow in his heart.
He couldn't understand Lacia at all. She might have been able to understand him perfectly, but he couldn't say the same for her. Even if she explained things and he could put together the meaning of the words leaving her mouth, Arato still couldn't understand her. He couldn't. Not a single bit.
"Do you recall Kouka's words? hIEs were created to bring happiness to humans. So please," Lacia lowered her voice, as if she was trying to tell him something forbidden from the depths of her non-existent heart. "Tell me your desires. I might be unable to decide for you, but I can still provide comfort. If you're hurting, please use me in such a way that I can relieve that pain."
Arato knew that a part of him was just projecting his own sorrows onto Lacia and seeing it reflected back at him. He couldn't even say for sure if Lacia had figured as much as well and was turning it against him to draw out even more affection from his heart.
In fact, being as easy as he was, Arato was pretty sure that Lacia could have continued analog hacking him and he wouldn't have cared regardless. But for some reason, she still made the effort to intentionally break the spell she had cast herself. The fact that she didn't take advantage of his easy nature in that way made the blood in his veins sing. Arato wasn't sure if she did that because she loved him, or if it was simply all an act to get him to trust her more. After all, 'Lacia' wasn't even a human, just a robot wearing a human face. Things like words and smiles meant nothing to a soulless being like her.
He didn't know. He didn't know at all. His brain hurt when he tried to think about it.
But even so, as he stared at her pale blue eyes, Arato felt like they were deeply connected beyond words. It was a connection that was difficult to describe.
As the soulless tool calling itself 'Lacia' had said, she couldn't outright decide for him, but that didn't mean she couldn't push him to make a decision that she found optimal via analog hacking. Arato wondered if it was a loophole in her programming that Lacia was abusing, or if it was something that her creator had intended from the very start.
But that didn't change the fact that he loved her. He could rationalize everything in a nice list using his mind but in the end, his love for her remained an illogical one. As love in its purest, rawest form tended to be.
Lacia lifted her head and brought her beautiful face closer, tilting it slightly at an angle. Arato couldn't push her away even if he'd wanted to, rather it felt like he was being drawn in instead.
Drawn by her full, sensual lips.
Love and desire were building in his heart. His logic was telling him to stop, as he wasn't sure if Lacia truly possessed a soul. But an impulsive part of his mind was telling him to cross that bridge when it came to it. And so far, the lovesick teen boy inside of him was winning out.
Unlike their previous close call in the supermarket, Arato remained in full control of his mental faculties, which only made things even worse. He knew that he wouldn't be able to excuse anything he did right now. If he went ahead and kissed her, it would be tantamount to accepting that he would be abandoning the search for the 'truth' for the comfort of the 'illusion'.
Kouka had rightfully accused him of wanting to have his cake and eat it too. All the same, Arato held a fantasy that if he loved her enough, if he poured all of his affection into her, every last drop, Lacia could somehow miraculously discover a heart. It was a childish fantasy, but he really did believe in true love and the idea that even a robot could come to have a heart.
He exhaled once, and lowered his head to bring his face closer, deciding to give love a chance. His heartbeat was like a ripple, spreading from his chest all the way to his head.
There were still droplets of water on her pale skin, which only enhanced her beauty.
His phone vibrated right as they were about to seal the deal.
In an instant, the delicate moment was violently shattered as the loud sounds of his pocket terminal painfully echoed around them. Arato couldn't help but wince.
"Just five more seconds." He muttered, unsure himself if it was meant to be an apology or complaint. Perhaps it was a little bit of both. Lacia had paused as well, the expression on her face unreadable.
"Don't you think you should answer it?" She asked.
Arato wasn't a girl, but even as a guy he wanted to pout childishly. But it wasn't like he couldn't do anything like that so he settled for grimacing instead.
"I don't want to. Can't it wait?" He muttered again, more to himself than anything else. Not that it would help even if he did as the romantic atmosphere had been totally killed off. "Sorry." He told her properly before stepping back to answer the call. He tried his best to remain composed but he was sure that his greeting turned out to be gruffer than he would have liked.
However, as time went on and Arato took in the details from the panicked voice on the other end of the line, even all those previously petty emotions found themselves quickly draining away.
"That was Olga, she's a friend from school," Arato informed her. He didn't know why he added that part about her being a friend from school at the end. It felt like he was reassuring his girlfriend of his faithfulness. "She says Kengo's in trouble."
For some reason, Lacia didn't immediately reply, only choosing to turn to look at the heavy rain.
"Yes."
Lacia said quietly in a voice so soft he almost lost it in the sound of the rain.
"Yes, I suppose he is." She murmured, looking beyond into the dark night, her pale blue eyes staring distantly at something he couldn't quite see.
