"...What is love?"
"Love, huh..."
My head was already a mess because the connection to the real world had been cut off, and now the girl in front of me had made it even worse with that question.
Love.
It was the kind of feeling I couldn’t really explain.
There were all kinds of love, and everyone felt it differently, so if I were going to explain that abstract concept, I’d probably need to be some sage who’d mastered all knowledge.
"Love... comes in more varieties than you might think."
"Varieties?"
"Yes."
I explained the kinds of love I knew to the girl in front of me.
"Comradeship—no, maybe more like fellowship. Family love between relatives, friendship between friends, romantic love between the opposite sex, and though it’s extremely rare, there are even people who feel love toward objects."
"...I don’t understand."
Even after hearing me out, the girl kept that serious expression and still demanded an answer about love.
I sighed inwardly and decided to say as much as I could about it.
"Hmm. Still, there is something all of those have in common."
"Something in common?"
"Yes. They all contain the feeling of wanting to cherish and protect one particular thing."
After all, whatever form love takes, I think the very act of loving is born from the desire to care for and treasure the other person or thing.
If not, it wouldn’t really count.
Of course, if it goes too far, it turns into possessiveness, but that had nothing to do with the topic, so I left it out.
The girl fell silent for a moment as if deep in thought, then opened her mouth again.
"...Then, Higakieta Hae. Do you love Itsuka Shido?"
"..."
I knew full well the girl in front of me hadn’t meant it that way.
I understood that.
And yet my heart did not understand.
There was no malicious intent at all, and still, hearing that question made me deeply uncomfortable.
"Uh. Since I’m friends with Itsuka-kun, I do feel friendship toward him."
"I do not understand. Then do you love Itsuka Kotori?"
"Oof."
Why were all of these questions land mines?
"That would be fellowship, I guess."
"...I still do not understand."
The girl shook her head, still saying she didn’t get it.
Honestly, human emotions are hard to understand to begin with.
And among them, love is especially incomprehensible.
Things you could never understand rationally suddenly become understandable once you fall in love. It’s a truly difficult feeling.
"Why do you want to know about love in the first place?"
"Why, indeed?"
"No, don’t ask me that..."
I pressed a hand to my forehead and shook my head at the utterly pointless conversation.
How was I supposed to know why she wanted to know about love?
"But I... want to know. In this world, only that... love, only that."
"I-I see."
I still had no idea what the girl in front of me wanted.
No, I understood that she wanted the definition of love, but I didn’t understand why.
Was this because the game was based on a dating sim, or did she have some other purpose?
I had no clue.
"What is love... what does it mean? I need to know that. Otherwise, I will surely remain incomplete. ...I will not be able to fulfill my mission. So I want to know love."
"...!"
Among the things the girl said, one line stood out to me: she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her mission.
That made something click.
Just like with Rinne, and just like with Mayuri, both of them had been given their own "roles."
In other words, maybe the girl in front of me was a spirit too, like they were.
But if that was the case, then why? Why had she been born?
Rinne had been born because she wanted Itsuka-kun to be happy, to protect him, and Mayuri had been born to watch over whether the spirits we sealed could be handled, whether we could make them happy.
Then what about this girl?
...I had no idea.
Could a spirit even exist as a program in the first place?
"...He? ...Hae? ...Higakieta Hae?"
"Ah, ah. Yes."
I snapped out of it at the girl’s voice.
I must have fallen so deep into thought that I didn’t hear her calling me.
"Why did you not answer?"
"I was lost in thought for a moment. More importantly, how do you know my name?"
Setting everything else aside for now, I needed to know how this girl knew my name.
If she hadn’t asked me first, I would have asked that question myself.
At my question, the girl answered calmly.
"I have... fully grasped this world."
"...?"
She’d fully grasped it?
What, was she the god NPC of this game world or something?
Though if that were the case, Murasame didn’t seem to know anything about her either.
"Are you even an NPC in the first place?"
"NPC... is that my role?"
"So you don’t know after all..."
Yeah, I wasn’t expecting much.
"...I have no assigned role. There is only one thing I know. That I must learn love... only that."
"Then do you at least have a name?"
I couldn’t keep calling her "you" or "girl" forever, so I asked in case she might know.
"A name... My name... you say..."
The girl closed her eyes, as if thinking.
After a short while, she opened her mouth.
"Arus. A name that matches my appearance data."
"Arus, huh. Is that a first name or a family name?"
"I do not... know. But the data proves that I am Arus."
"Data..."
Murasame had said there was no data on Arus, if I remembered right.
But Arus herself said she had "appearance data."
So whose word was right?
"Then I’ll call you Arus."
"Yes. I look forward to working with you. Then, Higakieta Hae. Please teach me about love."
"That’s a tall order..."
I let out a long sigh and rubbed at the corner of my eye.
I was tired because of this love-obsessed girl in front of me.
I wasn’t exactly someone with much connection to love in the first place, and if you asked me, I only really knew about family love. I didn’t have much of an answer to give.
"...If you experienced it yourself, maybe you’d understand."
"Experience it... myself?"
Damn it, my mouth.
"We need suitable candidates to form love with Higakieta Hae. ...Beginning search."
Arus closed her eyes as she said she was searching.
"Oh, shit. This is getting bad."
Why did I feel so uneasy?
"Search complete. From this moment on, I will initiate contact."
*******
As time kept passing, Kotori grew more and more uneasy and asked Reine, "...Hiki is immortal, so couldn’t we just force him out?"
"No. If we do that, his consciousness might get trapped in the game entirely."
"...Sigh."
There was no real solution.
In that situation, Reine noticed something.
"...This is it."
"Did you find something, Reine!?"
"An irregular existence has been detected inside the main computer of [Fraxinus]."
"Is it a cyberattack?"
Reine shook her head at Miku’s question and said, "It’s impossible to hack the main computer of [Fraxinus]. ...For a human, that is."
At Reine’s words, Yuzuru tilted her head.
"Question. What do you mean?"
"That means if it’s not a human, it might be possible, right~?"
"What are you talking about, Yoshinon?"
"If it’s not a human, then it must be the work of an ‘unidentified spirit.’"
At Kotori’s words, Reine nodded and said, "Pretty much. But it might be a little wrong to call it a spirit, too."
"What do you mean?"
"...This spirit-like existence has not manifested in the real world. The program itself is in a state of possessing spiritual power."
"An artificial spirit, then..."
Kotori felt the situation getting more complicated.
She figured only DEM would be capable of creating an artificial spirit.
"Ugh... Is there any way at all?"
At Kotori’s question, Reine answered by shaking her head.
"...Hm? This is strange."
"What is it, Reine? Did something change in the situation?"
As she operated the machine, Reine said calmly, "An approach just came in from the other side."
"From the other side? You mean that spirit—the artificial spirit contacted us?"
"...I’m not sure I’d call it contact, but look at this."
What Reine showed them was a list.
Starting with Yoshino, then Kotori, Mana, Tohka, Kurumi, the Yamai sisters, Rinne, Mayuri, Sachi, and even Shido.
Every single person connected to Hieta was listed there.
"What is this, ‘Please come here in order to love Higakieta Hae’?"
"Conveniently, after this message arrived, another terminal activated. Access is only granted to specific individuals."
"So we have to go into the virtual space ourselves..."
After a brief moment of thought, Kotori made her decision.
"Is everyone ready?"
Of course, Kotori intended to go rescue Hieta.
"Of course."
"If Shido’s going, then I’m going too!"
"Hieta has done a lot for us."
"This time... I want to save Hieta myself!"
"Kukuku. Hieta belongs to us, the Yamai. If he’s been taken from us, then even if he’s in the underworld, we should naturally go get him back!"
"Agreed. I don’t know what this artificial spirit or whatever is, but we can’t hand Hieta over."
"Same here."
"Let’s go save my darling!"
"Hieta saved my life."
"Looks like everyone’s ready... Now, what about Kurumi? Kannazuki!"
"Yes! I was already investigating inside Tengushi."
As soon as Kotori called his name, Kannazuki appeared at once.
"Wah~! Where did this guy come from!? Amazing! He’s amazing, but somehow disgusting!"
"O-ohhh!!! I like this~ If possible, I’d love to be insulted by Yoshino herself, too..."
"Kannazuki?"
Kannazuki, who was about to say something perverted, was cut off and obediently resumed his investigation.
"Commander! The unit identified as [Nightmare] has requested contact! Their purpose is to help Hieta!"
At the sudden report, everyone in the room widened their eyes.
No one knew how Kurumi had figured out the current situation.
"[Nightmare]!? Right now—"
"Miku."
"Yes~!"
"Eek!"
At the news that Kurumi had shown up, Kotori had Miku restrain Mana, then ordered the crew to transmit Kurumi into [Fraxinus].
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register