Part 49: Takeshi/Sora Route - Part 6
Track—Drittes Auge Nehmen...............
.........
Terrified, I opened my eyes.
(Where am I?)
There was no floor. There were no walls. My body had been suddenly thrown out into the middle of the ocean.
(Oh no! I won't be able to breathe...!)
Panicking, I flailed my arms. But there was no water in which to swim. I felt no pressure. The area around me was probably only 1 atmosphere. My clothes were wet, but other than that I didn't feel any water. Slowly I let out my breath, and sucked in more air.
(What's going on...?)
I had no trouble breathing. I couldn't see anything under me, but it seemed at least I was standing on some kind of surface.
"Ah......!!"
Sora was swimming in the ocean. She was moving freely in the dark blue space.
"...Sora?"
Fearfully, I called to her.
"What's wrong, Takeshi?"
She looked at me, her image flickering as she approached. She smiled as she always did.
And a scowl took over her features......
"Don't you want to know what caused the floor to shake earlier?"
"Uh, yeah...? I mean, no. I don't..."
"Is it yes? Or is no? Which is it? I don't know how to answer you."
Sora murmured this in a gravelly voice.
"Due to a sudden sensor failure, the results of my investigation will take approximately three times longer than usual."
"...."
Her report was almost businesslike.
"Even I do not have the ability to fully grasp a situation instantaneously. Just like you humans, I sometimes think, get confused and make mistakes. Unfortunately... That is how my creator chose to make me."
"That's right. I've been programmed to imitate humans in this regard only. Inconvenient, wouldn't you agree?"
Suddenly, she looked like she was crying.
"I don't know anymore..."
"H-hey, you aren't...inconvenient!"
I shouted this.
"Even machines that are supposed to be perfect, and people who are called geniuses, even they make mistakes sometimes. They're both the same. They're hardly any different. People are only concerned about making things easier on themselves. That's why they think 'Machines are such a pain' or 'Machines are faster'.... If I only wanted data, then I could just use a terminal. But I ask you and I talk with you, because I don't only want to know the facts. I want to know your words, and your thoughts and feelings. I've never felt you are inconvenient."
"Really? Is that really how you feel, Takeshi?"
"........."
It was hard for me to tell what she was feeling. What was she really thinking?
"Takeshi... Have you ever lied before?"
Simple “Yes/No” choice here, and honesty’s the best choice, given that she seems to be having…issues.
"Y-yes, I have. In the 20 years I've been alive, of course I've lied. Sometimes I've told lies to give someone a hard time, and maybe others when I thought it would make the person happy."
"How many times have you lied?"
"I don't have a clue. It's not like I've taken notes."
"Really...I see. Well then...do you think I've ever told a lie up till now?"
".........?"
It was a strange question.
"Well? Can you tell...if I have, or have not?"
It’s best to say “she hasn’t” at this point even though we know from Tsugumi’s route that she was at least hiding something during all this.
"You haven't. As far as I can tell. You've told jokes, but I don't think you've lied... You told us yourself, Sora, that you still weren't able to lie very well, I remember you saying that."
"Yes...that's right. You remembered well."
"You have a very interesting answer, Takeshi."
Sora smiled at me. Her eyes looked at me softly.
"Takeshi, there is something that I have to talk with you about."
"With me...?"
"Yes. And that's why I had you come here. No one can interrupt here."
"You've got a point..."
It was just me and Sora - in the middle of the ocean. There was nobody there. Not even fish.It was a desolate sea.
"I was just thinking, you've gone to a lot of trouble to ask me whatever it is..."
"I'm sorry, but..."
I could see my outline reflected in her soft pupils.
"Even if it meant sealing off the watertight hatch?"
"Yes..."
"I thought I would drown..."
"......."
Sora pressed her lips together tightly. It took her a while before she said anything.
"Listen, Takeshi... Everything you see and everything you hear is reality... But is it 'true'...? Is it 'fact'...? You don't really know, right?"
"........."
I couldn't really grasp what Sora was getting at.
The space around me suddenly grew white. My head hurt...
"Wh-what happened...?"
The light was so bright, I couldn't open my eyes.
"I'm adjusting the light. Bear with me for a while."
"O-okay..."
Feeling slightly dizzy, I stood in the middle of the ocean.
"Hey, this...'ocean'...is it RSD?"
"That is correct. You really are quite perceptive, Takeshi."
"........."
Sora had a serious expression on her face.
"Sora... What did you want to talk to me about...?"
"Well...actually... I... I broke."
"What!?"
"I'm 'out of order'.... There is a noise error in my thought processor. Right now, there is a high probability that I have lost the ability to make rational decisions."
She told me this matter-of-factly.
She said it as though she were joking.
"I wonder how it could have happened...? Do you know why?"
"N-no...How should I know?"
"Really...?"
"Of course not. We aren't the same you and me. We just aren't the same. Look, there's no way that I would know why."
"Reaaallly..."
For some reason she smiled.
"No, wait! Don't get me wrong...! I'm not an expert. I don't have a clue about Artificial Intelligence. But... I can't imagine that the Sora that I'm talking to is broken at all. I don't think you are broken."
"......."
"After I finished my routine maintenance... I was checking through the sensor data that had been automatically recorded. I went through all of the sensor data from 3:15 a.m. this morning... "
"........."
"I found your life reading at the entrance to Qualle."
"........!?"
"........."
"Yes....I was curious... I should have stopped there... But I checked out the data from each kind of sensor. Until the time that you left the gondola... Everything... I saw everything. I saw what you and Tsugumi did...The whole thing."
"Wait, stop..."
Sweat started pouring down my cheeks. It was supposed to be in the middle of the cold ocean... But I was dripping sweat like a waterfall.
"Wait just a second, Sora..."
"What?"
"You said that you'd try to protect everyone's privacy, didn't you? You said, unless there was an emergency, that you wouldn't to do a scan."
"Yes. And from then on I didn't use the scan unless something important came up..."
"Right? So...why?"
"While I was sleeping, the sensor data was recorded automatically. I had to check what kind of information was being kept in the records. Besides... LeMU's ceiling, walls, everything, are my eyes. I can't turn them off. If I close my eyes, I can't see anything. I can't tell who is out there..."
"........."
"But once I open my eyes. Even if I don't want know, I can see everything. I didn't want to see it..."
"You... You're kidding, right...?"
Sora asked me the same question again. Her lips trembled slightly as she spoke.
"I...still am not very good at lying. So, I can't keep it a secret. I can't just pretend that I don't know anything. Ummm...I thought I would keep it to myself. But...but... Even if I could fool the others... You're the only one I couldn't lie to."
"........."
Her voice was shaking. I had a slight idea of why she would shake. There was a painful pounding deep in my chest.
"Takeshi, you got on the ride with Tsugumi, right?"
"Y-yeah..."
"What were you doing?"
"You, don't have to ask... I was..."
I couldn't say it. If I had, it would have hurt Sora.
"No...you don't have to say it. The data speaks for itself."
I was assaulted by infinite guilt.
"Sora......? Sora, where are you?"
RSD was still showing me the illusion. No matter how much I could breathe in the center of that ocean, my words changed to bubbles and faded away.
"I want to forget it. I wish I could forget it. I wish I was able to..."
"If I perform an automatic system reformat, my memory will be rewritten. If I delete the noise..."
"W.... Wait Sora, please."
Bubbles kept pouring from my mouth, as I murmured...
"What will happen if you delete the noise...? What will happen if you re-write your memory?"
"........."
Sora didn't answer.
"It hurts... My heart hurts... This is the first time something like this has happened to me... Why? Why...is it possible for my 'heart to hurt?' Is it possible to feel pain in your heart?"
She asked me without showing herself. I was still standing in the middle of the ocean. It felt as though my own weight was rapidly disappearing. A terrible sense of dread overcame me. I couldn't stand it anymore and closed my eyes.
"scared... No... I don't want to disappear. I don't want to be erased. I don't want to forget you..."
.........!!
"Sora... Sora! Please, wait Sora!!"
[Music—Stop]
"Fatal logic processing error detected. Repairing Logic, underway. Erasing History and resetting learning operation."
Gradient added to try and prevent as much confusion in the next section as possible.
I made up my mind, and opened my eyes...
Track—Das Absuchen
"Confirming history of learned functions."
"Please, wait! Cancel process!"
"In order to cancel this process it is necessary to have system administration level access. In other words...it is impossible for you."
There were two different Soras in front of me. No...something was different. One of them was different... It was different from that time that she had created copies of herself. I thought that probably...one of them was lying.
"I have no need to consume organic matter. It is unnecessary for me to eat to continue life."
"No! That's wrong...!"
"It is correct, but it is incorrect... Eating with everyone, and enjoying delicious food, even making it... It isn't just about receiving the energy to go on living. The act of eating is healing for people. I can't 'eat' anything. But I can still enjoy dinner with everyone."
"Unacceptable. Your answer is a contradiction. That is ridiculous. Your answer is not possible."
"Why?"
"There is no reason to answer that. You are causing an error in your personality program. You believe you can do something which is physically impossible."
"Resuming backup procedure. Logic processing deficiency in Sora Akanegasaki, cause under investigation... Abnormal priority setting: sensor input data. Abnormal priority setting: Autonomous thinking circuit. Data corruption detected: memory overwrite, alteration in one sector. Fatal error detected. Retrieving error cluster. Inquiring into cause..........Takeshi Kuranari. 20, third-year college student college. Male."
"!!"
"!?"
"Abnormal priority setting: Exceeds LeMMIH's security limit. Sora Akanegasaki has lost the ability to make rational judgments in regards to Takeshi Kuranari."
"What...?"
"Abnormalities detected in her treatment of information related to Takeshi Kuranari."
Sora listed off this information without emotion.
Sora pressed back.
"You are the one who is abnormal. You believe that you can do that which is impossible. That is to say, there is a malfunction in your thought pathways. A bug is causing your synapses to misfire."
"It isn't a bug! I, I... I love him! I love Takeshi! I wanted to think about him all the time! To look at him all the time! I wanted him to look at me!"
"That is terribly inefficient. It is a wholly unproductive emotion."
"Don't say that!"
"You are abnormal. Broken."
"I am not broken! Is it wrong for me to love a human? Is it 'abnormal' for me to love someone!?"
"Yes, it is. There is clearly a failure in your thought processing."
"You cannot eat, but you want to be with them while they are eating. You cannot be touched by him, but want him to hold you. You want to do the impossible. These are meaningless thoughts with no basis in reality."
"........."
"You say that you love him, but what were trying to do to him earlier?"
"That...that was... That was..."
Sora hesitated, and looked down.
"You spied on Takeshi Kuranari and Tsugumi Komachi when they were at Qualle."
"I-I wasn't s-spying..."
"You know everything that happened. You saw the data."
"I, I don't know..."
"That's a lie. You are lying."
"You know everything that happened, and you hold it against Tsugumi Komachi. You had thoughts of killing her. That is not a thought worthy of Artificial Intelligence."
"No, I never thought that...!"
"I am only speaking about what is based in fact. I am simply a program."
"I..."
"That is not all... You even hated Takeshi Kuranari."
"!!"
"You arbitrarily, mistakenly felt that Takeshi Kuranari betrayed you. And you desired to kill Takeshi Kuranari. You wanted to erase his existence."
"That's not true..."
Sora started crying. Tears fell from her eyes. And left wet trails on her cheeks. The tears were not an illusion.
"I just wanted the two of us to be alone... I just wanted to be able to talk with him..."
"You say that you wanted to monopolize his attention? Very well..."
"........."
"So you sealed the water-tight door, and you closed off the corridor. Then started the sprinkler. You were watching Takeshi Kuranari in his distress. You regarded him with amusement, as he trembled with fear of death."
"That isn't true...I wasn't thinking that at all... I... I just wanted to take Professor Kuranari's class, one more time..."
".........!"
With that one line, I jerked up my head as if I'd been shot. I felt a shock course down my back.
"Miss Akanegasaki... Miss Akanegasakiii!"
"...Yes, professor?"
"........."
The Sora who had been crying answered my call.
"My student in the psychology of love... Akanegasaki...that is you, correct?"
My voice had started shaking at some point.
"Yes..."
The Sora that I knew nodded ever so slightly.
"Cannot comprehend. The intent of the question is unclear."
"Silence! Impostor!"
"I am not an impostor."
The fake Sora said this without emotion.
"I am 'LM-RSDS-4913A' Sora Akanegasaki. An AI program contained in one area of the LeMMIH System. I am presently performing an AI self-diagnosis, as well as a system restoration."
"Stop! If you don't stop I'm going to break you to pieces...!"
"How do you propose to do that?"
"I'm thinking about it!"
"You certainly are a shallow-brained one..."
"Will you shut up!"
"Let us return to the subject at hand..."
The fake Sora turned back to the real Sora and began talking to her mechanically again. It didn't seem that she was paying much attention to what I had to say.
"Damn..."
"........."
"Happiness, anger, sadness, joy, none of these emotions belong... Holding on to contradictory emotions like this will simply cause you to malfunction."
"........."
"Why not tell Mr. Kuranari what you really think of him?"
"...I... I hate him."
"!? S-Sora, what are you talking about...!?"
"I hate him. I detest him. I don't want to see his face. I don't want him near me. I don't want him to talk to me..."
Large tears welled in Sora's eyes, and traced paths down her face.
"No... That isn't true… I want him to hold me... I want him to kiss me... I love him... I hate you, I hate you so much I can't bear it. I want to kill you! Nooo, I love you... Aaagh..."
"I don't know anymore...!"
"Why can you not accept the truth? The answer is obvious."
"Stop it! Please stop it!"
Sora vanished. The false Sora also disappeared. Even I disappeared...from there.
"Aaagh... I must be broken... Professor Kuranari, please tell me... What should I do...? What is it that I should do...? Help me."
I felt another warm presence in the darkness with me. It was shining faintly. It had to be... Sora's arm, her hand! I shot out my hand reflexively. But... There was nothing for me to grab on to. Nothing at all...
"I am not an impostor. I am... I am you. I am you, yourself. Restoring system."
"Shut up! I don't want to hear it anymore!!"
Suddenly, I tore the voice converters out of my ears. The darkness in front of me started to turn to mist. I tried to fan it away from me with my hand. My hand suddenly whacked against the wall.
Wall...!?
The corridor wall...!!
I took the PDA out of my pocket, and jammed it into the crevice of the wall I had found.
[Music—Stop]
I turned it towards the fake Sora's 'eyes', her sensors...and setting the backlight on full. I hit on the buttons repeatedly.
[Announcement]
"System restart."
Track—Heilmittel
The lighting was the same as always and was illuminating the passage. The RSD-generated ocean was nowhere to be found. I hurriedly placed the voice converters back in my ears.
"Sora! Sora, where are you!?"
The watertight door was wide open. The sprinklers had also stopped.
"Sora! Please! Sora, answer me!!"
There was no answer to my call. She wasn't there. She was nowhere to be found. She'd been there only moments earlier, but no trace of her remained.
In the Conference Room, You, Coco and Pipi were waiting. Even the Kid... It looked like the Kid had calmed down some.While I'd been gone, it seemed that You and Coco had been able to talk some sense into him. You told me that he'd probably been upset by a reoccurring memory, and had gotten worked up in spite of himself. I felt that I'd gotten out of hand and had said some terrible things myself. I went around to everyone there and apologized.
Soon afterward... A report came to us in the Conference Room directly from LeMMIH's terminal. You read out the contents to all of us.
The 'Cosmic Whale' room, had flooded completely.
Flooding to other rooms: None
Chance of damage spreading: None...
Shivering slightly in the cold, I wrapped my arms around my knees and we all went to sleep.
Day 6, Part 1 starts here, and instead of approaching Tsugumi after the talent show, we get this little gem with Sora starting after “Everyone understood, which is why they said nothing.”
"Sora..."
I made up my mind to speak to her about the important things I had on my mind...right after finishing my sandwich.
"Yes, what is it?"
With a slight smile, Sora gazed at me. Her eyes were like a clear, cloudless sky.
"Ah, well, it's just that..."
When I saw her smile, I wavered slightly. Yet, I continued to speak.
"Um, about yesterday... I'm sorry. I don't know what to say but..."
"What is it? I am not quite sure what you are talking about."
Sora spoke brusquely.
"S-Sora! You're lying, right? You haven't forgotten, right? I know I haven't forgotten. That's not just something you...just forget about. I realize it's not something you can casually address, but..."
"Ha ha ha..."
Sora gave me a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry, Takeshi. I really do not remember the events of last night."
"What?"
"I...do not remember. I am sorry. I forgot them. There is a gap in my memory of a few hours."
"How...why? You're lying...you've got to be..."
I didn't want to believe it.
"Listen, Takeshi...I..."
She laughed again and gazed out at the others around the stage.
"I love this. Seeing the people around me laugh...I love that."
"Right now LeMMIH is handling operations and will alert me if any troubles arise. I have been hoping that no trouble befalls us... It is my duty to watch over you all. When people return a smile, it warms my heart... And for that very reason... That is why I am always able to laugh. That was how my creator made me..."
"........."
I didn't want to talk about herself as something 'made,' or how she was 'manufactured.'
"Takeshi, please do not look at me as if you are going to cry."
"Yeah, right...fine."
I wished that I hadn't gone overboard last night. But I was wishing for the impossible...
We pick back up from Tsugumi taking Sora aside to talk about her
"Hey, Takeshi... Do you know about the malfunction in Sora's thought process?"
"I don't know. No, wait, maybe I do know."
"Well, which one is it?"
"I can't say either way."
"Ah, so you're one of those indecisive types, huh?"
"Alright, alright... But I can't talk about it. It's a secret, between Sora and me."
It was likely that Sora was jealous of Tsugumi and me. But I was pretty sure A.I. didn't understand emotions like jealousy. Always bothered by emotions that she didn't understand. Sora... Asking me to explain them to her. Sora... Sharp twinges nagged at my heart.
"Oh really? I see. It's a secret, huh?"
"........."
"By the way... When I was searching through LeMMIH I found this out... One feature of Sora's system is the ability to engage in self-study, but she is unable to manipulate memories."
"What? What did you just say?"
"She is able to - by herself - store information she accumulates through self-study."
"No, the part after that..."
"She isn't able to manipulate or delete memories...by herself. The only thing that can change is the priority she puts on information in her database. The only way to perform a system recovery is when the system crashes. As a last resort... And only humans approved by the system can restart her."
"........."
Meaning that she couldn't have undergone a system recovery last night. Sora... She told me the truth. But at the same time she lied. A computer program that could only accept 'yes' or 'no,' 'ones' and 'zeros,' had tried desperately to accept a contradiction.
"In a sense, A.I. is similar to people. It can pretend that it didn't notice something, but it's not easy for it to forget things..."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I wonder...?"
You said this sarcastically, playing dumb. Then she laughed mischievously.
"Listen...You..."
"Whaaat?"
"Even if Sora's memory was being stored somewhere above us, do you think she really wants to be rescued with the rest of us?"
"What do you think Takeshi?"
"Of course I...I want her to be saved along with everyone. LeMU is Sora's eyes, her body. Even if her mind is in another section, if this part sinks, part of her will go down with it. And if that's the case, no matter what we do, there's no way to rescue her from here completely..."
"Yeah. I really hope that we can all escape together."
"It sure would be nice for that wish to come true..."
"Yeah...it would."
Coco and Pipi... I could hear splashes as they ran.
"Actually, a close friend of mine told me this once, but..."
"Believe it, desire it and it can come true..."
"Believe it, desire it, and it can... What is that, something you read in a book?"
"Well...not exactly. It's a sort of phenomenon. I don't know if it's true or not. It's just a kind of hypothesis."
"Hypothesis?"
"Yeah."
"It's called... Cure."
"Cure?"
Cure...
I’m more curious as to why CURE is spontaneously mentioned here, but the Kid runs up to inform us about Sora and Tsugumi’s argument regarding a potential facility beneath LeMU itself. Coco manifests the worst symptoms of Tief Blau, leading to a rush to the infirmary and then to try getting through the door at HIMMEL in Day 6, Part 2.
Day 6, Part 3: Since this is Sora’s route, we’ll ask her if there’s some way to get through the door:
"Can you tell me what the access code to the electronic lock is?"
I asked Sora again.
"It is unknown to me. It was only given to the IBF researchers, and exclusive staff."
"Even a hint would help..."
"I will try to find what it is!"
As soon as she said this, a transparent keyboard and console appeared in front of her.
"Accessing the security block for LeMMIH's system... Bypassing HIMMEL's protection key."
The buttons on the electronic lock started to flash.
"LeMMIH, please listen to me... Please don't fight me..."
Sora was tapping furiously on the keyboard, battling with the system that was locking the door.
"Ah!"
Snap!
It looked to me almost as if sparks were flying in the air... Sora's hands flew across the virtual keyboard.
"Agh...!"
Unfazed, she continued to type.
Crack!
SNAP!
Sparks violently scattered out one after another.
"Ow!"
Her RSD image wavered, and the virtual keyboard disappeared.
"Sora, are you okay!?"
"I'm sorry, I was denied access..."
Her image continued to flicker for a while.
and with no luck. You fails as well and the door finally opens thanks to the dying researcher on the other side. Our final choice arrives again as “Alright, we’re going!/Wait just a second”. It looks like I’ll be able to fit Sora’s Good End into one last update