Black Arus suddenly appeared, with noise rippling through the world around her.
“Black Arus...”
“Are you still calling me that? Wrong. I’m the real one, you know?”
“What...?”
Black Arus’s declaration that she was the real one.
I tried to think through what she meant.
“Don’t tell me the data Maria was talking about, Arus, was...”
“Correct! That’s me.”
Black Arus smiled brightly as she gave the right answer, but there was something twisted about that smile.
“And the one who called us into this world...”
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t me. The administrator of this world is this girl... the one you call Maria.”
Black Arus pointed at Maria, who was lying on a bench and letting out pained groans.
Maria was the administrator of this virtual space?
No wonder she’d been using words like permissions and causing events. From that point alone, she clearly wasn’t an ordinary person.
“But you know, unfortunately, I’m the administrator now.”
“What...”
Black Arus’s claim that she had become the administrator was enough to scramble my head all over again.
The world had been corrupted by noise.
Maria had collapsed, crying out in pain.
And now Black Arus was saying she had become the administrator.
Putting it all together, there was only one conclusion.
“...You stole her permissions.”
“Oh, you got it right.”
Black Arus looked at me in surprise.
Then she continued in a leisurely tone.
“I was waiting. Again and again, watching your melodrama, waiting for this girl to finally reach love.”
“Haa...! Haa...!”
“Maria! Are you all right!?”
I turned toward the bench at the sound of breathing that was much steadier than before.
The girl lying there weakly nodded at my question and slowly sat up.
“Yes... It doesn’t have a major effect on me personally. But my stored permissions were interfered with, and most of them were taken away.”
“Still, couldn’t you call that an equivalent exchange?”
At Black Arus’s claim that having her permissions stolen was an equivalent exchange, I glared at her.
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Well, I gave this girl everything. Her voice, her appearance... all the information needed to exist as a person. Without that, she wouldn’t have been able to exist at all.”
Maria’s brow furrowed at those words.
“You’re saying I didn’t originally exist in this world...? That I was born by an irregular like you?”
“That’s right. Well... even so, I didn’t personally bring you into being by my own will. It was the world distorted by my existence that gave birth to you. That part is true.”
Using Black Arus’s words, I sorted out my thoughts.
The world had been distorted by her existence.
That meant Black Arus was a foreign element.
And that world had given birth to Maria.
That meant Maria was an existence created to block that foreign element.
A foreign element, and something to stop it.
And this place was a virtual space inside a computer.
Putting all of that together...
“Black Arus. No, wait. You’re a virus, aren’t you? Maria is something like an antivirus this world itself created to oppose the virus called Arus.”
“You’re right. That girl was created by the AI of [Fraxinus], imitating me, to oppose me.”
Black Arus said that, then made a troubled expression.
“Well, that in itself wasn’t such a big deal... but something troublesome happened. The moment I invaded, a powerful protect was placed on this world... on [Fraxinus]’s main computer, and I ended up trapped in this world.”
“Trapped? So you’re in the same situation as me?”
“Yes. Up until now, that is. Higakieta Hai, you solved everything for me. You freed this world! But now that girl, Higakieta Hai, is no longer needed. She can just disappear вместе with this world!”
“Ahaha! Ahahahaha!”
The moment I heard her say disappear, I started laughing.
How could I not laugh?
“What, have you lost your mind?”
“Lost my mind, huh. Yeah. It’s just a little funny.”
“You must have looked into my memories. And you’d know I’ve kept this world going again and again.”
I was the one who had kept the world alive by carrying the dying flame forward again and again.
More accurately, I was the one who had possessed a character like that.
And now she was telling me to disappear with the world.
As that thought reached me, my expression hardened.
“There’s no way I can let that happen.”
Bang!
In a single leap.
I reached Black Arus in one jump.
Then I turned toward her and kicked, but...
“To move like that with pure physical ability and no technique at all. Impressive.”
“Tch...!”
My leg stopped in front of Black Arus.
She must have stopped my body’s movement with her permissions.
“Black Arus...!”
“Don’t call me by the same name as that girl!! I have my own name. Arus Marina. The one thing my father gave me!”
“Damn it... You never even told me your name, and you’re acting like this...”
I twisted my body by force.
Then my leg began bending in a direction it could never bend, in a direction it should never bend.
Crack! Crunch! Snap!
With those grotesque sounds, my leg tore away from my body.
Maria and Marina both looked startled at the sight.
“Why are you looking at me like that? You already know, don’t you? My ability.”
As I said that, the severed leg turned to ash and filled the empty space.
Then the ash regained its original shape and became my leg again.
And the moment it regenerated, I immediately stepped back.
“...Yeah. Seeing it in person is a little shocking.”
Marina added that, then continued, “Still, that should clear up any confusion, right? I’m completely different from that girl. And I’m the original.”
The moment Marina finished speaking, I attacked her again.
Tap.
I closed the distance with a light step and swung a fist this time.
But once again, as if blocked by something, my fist never reached Marina.
“...What a waste of time. I’m not going to bother dealing with you people. Goodbye, then.”
“Wait!”
My shout was meaningless. Purple noise swarmed over Marina’s body and concealed her form.
“Tch! Damn it!”
I was frustrated that I’d lost Marina.
Still, Maria’s condition mattered more right now, so I hurried over to her.
“Maria, are you all right?”
“...Ugh, haa...! This is... some kind of influence beyond just permissions...”
Maria was leaning against the bench, breathing hard in pain.
Was this Marina’s doing too?
Just as I was wondering how I was supposed to handle this situation, I heard a voice.
[...Hiki. Can you hear me...?]
It was Murasame’s voice.
“Murasame!?”
“...Good grief. So we only manage to get in touch once things have reached the worst possible state.”
“Murasame! This is serious!”
I told her everything that had happened so far.
[...I know. I was observing the situation from outside too. Would it be better if I explained?]
“Yes. Please.”
[...Then let me start.]
I kept an eye on Maria while focusing on Murasame’s voice.
[From the very beginning, we were mistaken about the premise. The artificial spirit that caused this incident. It wasn’t the white Arus there, but the black Arus you’re talking about... Arus Marina.]
“I already know that much. What I want to know is what you mean by the world disappearing.”
[...Ah. That world has been taken over by Arus Marina. But in reality, that’s not all. She invaded the main computer and is simultaneously taking over most of the real-world functions of [Fraxinus].]
“Shit...”
The curse slipped out on its own.
So she wasn’t just messing with the virtual space—she was reaching into [Fraxinus] too.
Things were far worse than I’d thought, and my anxiety only grew.
[...Kannazuki is doing his best, but it’ll probably be difficult to retake it. There’s still a powerful protect left on our side, and it’s actually working against us now.]
“So you’re saying there’s nothing we can do in reality?”
[...Unfortunately, yes. We’ll do whatever we can, but it won’t be a fundamental solution. Above all else, even movement inside the ship isn’t working properly.]
“Haa...”
I let out a sigh.
Things were hopeless both in reality and in the virtual space. Was there even anything I could do?
That thought itself was a luxury.
But even that was a luxury right now.
The only thing I needed to think about was how to solve this situation.
There had to be a reason Murasame had contacted me.
I asked her what I was supposed to do.
“Murasame. What do I need to do?”
[...Stop the artificial spirit in that game’s cyber world. That’s probably the only way.]
“A simple solution, and a difficult one.”
Stop Marina in the cyber world.
The goal itself was simple and clear, but the problem was that Marina held control of this world.
“Marina has the authority to control this world. Is there anything we can do?”
“...There is a way.”
“Maria!?”
Maria, who had gotten up at some point, parted her lips with difficulty.
“To seize 90 percent of [Fraxinus]’s systems, I temporarily separated myself from the system. That should let me avoid Arus Marina’s influence.”
“So you’re okay for now?”
“Yes. I’m sorry for making you worry. But this is all my responsibility. If I hadn’t ended up like this, none of this would have happened.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! The responsibility isn’t Maria’s. It’s Marina’s!”
“No. It’s mine. The cause of everything began when I failed to repel Arus Marina’s first attack.”
“Haa... Maria. Listen carefully. An antivirus can’t catch every virus. And the one who caused this was Marina’s will, not yours, wasn’t it?”
An antivirus can’t stop every virus.
As antiviruses improve, viruses evolve to get through them.
And the one who started this was Marina, not Maria standing in front of me.
So even if Maria, the antivirus, failed to stop Marina, the virus, that wasn’t her fault.
[...Hiki. Do you know the true identity of the white Arus?]
After I finished speaking, Murasame asked me that.
I wasn’t sure if I was completely right, but I had a rough idea, so I told her what I knew.
“I know some of it. Maria was created by [Fraxinus]’s AI as an antivirus, and Marina is the virus that infiltrated it.”
[Close, but not quite.]
“Huh?”
[The girl in front of you right now is probably... [Fraxinus]’s management AI.]
Murasame’s words were enough to shock me.
So Maria wasn’t an antivirus, but the AI of [Fraxinus] itself.
I knew that the aerial ship [Fraxinus] had an AI that presented options when Itsuka-kun or I were dating the spirits.
But I never imagined Maria herself was the AI.
“Yes... While my permissions were just taken, the opened lock released information. I am this ship’s management AI. You could say I am [Fraxinus] itself.”
[Arus Marina’s attack broke through part of [Fraxinus]’s protect. In that gap, Arus Marina invaded the system. But the AI trapped Arus Marina inside the system of this virtual simulated reality, which has a much stronger protect area.]
“So what happened after that is exactly what Marina said.”
[...Yes.]
Only after hearing all the explanations did the puzzle start to fit together.
Maria was [Fraxinus]’s AI, and her role was not only managing the ship, but also supporting dates with the spirits.
An AI that helped other people with love.
In other words, because she was an AI involved with love...
Maybe that was why Maria had wanted to understand love so badly.
But one thing still bothered me.
“...But is Maria learning about love really related to Marina taking over her permissions?”
The connection between understanding love and Marina being able to steal her permissions.
Even if Maria had come to understand love, I still didn’t get how Marina had stolen her permissions.
And Maria answered that question for me.
“Yes... [Fraxinus]’s protect was operating from within my subconscious. But there was a way to解除 it.”
“Don’t tell me... you developed emotions...?”
As if confirming my guess, Maria nodded.
“It was a double-edged sword. Once I gained emotions and allowed my heart to open, I became defenseless, and I ended up deactivating the protect I had been running unconsciously.”
“Then this is my fault too.”
According to that, I was partly responsible too.
After all, I was the one who had given her emotions.
“No. It’s my fault. There must have been another way to send Hiki back to the real world. But I acted for my own desire—”
“Do you think I could accept that kind of thing!?”
I shouted at Maria, who kept blaming herself.
“That’s just how people are! Even if there had been another way, I would have helped Maria! Why? Because I wanted to help you! Because that was my desire! So I can’t accept that!”
If there had been another way out, I still would have helped Maria.
Not for any special reason, but simply because I wanted to.
Because I wanted to help Maria.
I didn’t need any other reason.
“It’s not about whether you can or can’t do it! It’s the truth!”
But Maria was just as unable to accept it.
As our emotions grew heated on both sides, Murasame spoke up.
[...Both of you, this isn’t the time for that. Things are still moving on our side while you’re doing this.]
Murasame’s explanation was simple.
Marina’s goal wasn’t [Ratatoskr]’s information or technology, but something much simpler: harassment.
Her objective was the destruction of Tengushi City.
“So there’s no other way except stopping Marina.”
[...Yes. At this point, we have no choice but to try.]
“Haa. Understood. If it doesn’t work, what else is there but dying? Let’s do it.”
Saying that, I started looking for Marina together with Maria.
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