Leave a comment

Waking up, I saw Mister peering into my eyes. This information tells me one thing for sure. The trip has ended.

“It isn’t polite to stare at the face of an unconscious lady without her knowledge, Mister.”
“It’s rare for us to meet like this, so don’t be so uptight about it. That was nice to see.”

It isn’t any different from looking at your own body, so I don’t understand what’s so nice about it. More importantly, I don’t know why Mister is here. It should have been configured in such a way that she couldn’t come here without my invitation.

“How did you come here?”
“Didn’t you call me here? No, you were asleep, so that’s out of the question. In that case, how would I know?”

If I don’t know it, Mister naturally wouldn’t either. After all, only I know the internal configuration here. And only I can interface with it. And that’s why I’m able to protect Mister from here.

“Was it because I had you temporarily retreat here?”
“Still, this happened at a good time. There’s something I want to ask you about.”
“What is it?”
“I suddenly couldn’t move my body for a moment; was there some sort of issue?”

The moment I heard that, I launched various functions in order to properly assess the situation. This is my world. I can customize it to fit my convenience, so I can easily create a hologram display.

“That’s pretty futuristic.”
“What are you being so calm for? This could also spell major trouble for you, you know?”
“Hmm, it just doesn’t feel real to me, though. I’ve recovered enough to move around.”

She’s always so carefree. Still, what do you plan on doing if this leads to something fatal? We’re just barely one step away from crossing a dangerous line.

“The reason you couldn’t move appears to be because your connection to the body has been reset to its initial state.”
“This is likely due to the motion privileges having been transferred to me. Fortunately, the connection score has now recovered to its proper level. Eh?”
“Is there some sort of problem?”
“Our assimilation score has increased.”
“That sounds like a good thing, if you ask me.”

Nonono, let me explain for a moment. Everything I’ve done and all the effort I’ve made to gradually increase the score should have all gone to waste. Yet, for some unknown reason, it actually recovered and even reached higher levels.

“But it’s an abnormal situation.”
“It’s showing a positive trend, isn’t it?”
“Mister, do you know anything about this?”

The fact that she’s so positive about it is suspicious. She should at least show some doubt. While Mister is characteristically calm and collected, I find it very suspicious that she’s not showing much reaction.

“I did nothing at all. In regards to the assimilation score, that is.”
“Wait, wait a minute.”

I need some time to put my mind into order. In short, Mister just admitted to doing something that isn’t related to the current issue. And I have no idea what it is. Even if it might not negatively affect Mister, it could be dangerous for me.

“Alright now. I’m mentally prepared. Please tell me what exactly you have done.”
“I sealed off your self-termination.”
“Seriously, what have you been doing!?”

Casually sealing off my final desperate move is not just nothing at all! Then did she do this while I was asleep? Normally, that’s not something you would do when you’re suddenly here without any understanding of the current situation.

“This place is frankly convenient. After all, you can do pretty much anything you can think of.”
“How did you break through my protection?”

I set up mental barriers to prevent any manipulation in the unlikely event that Mister happens upon here. And yet, I have no idea how she could have broken through them. Regardless of how talented she is, there should be some things she can’t do.

“Actually, there weren’t any.”
“Lies. Even now, I can-…”

I tried activating certain processes, and what I saw shocked me. The protection isn’t working. I don’t understand anything anymore. If any more unexpected happenings occur, I’m going to lose my mind.

“Isn’t it because our assimilation has gotten to the point where the protection system can’t differentiate between us or something?”
“That possibility… is certainly within reason. Still, I don’t have the slightest clue on why the assimilation score suddenly increased by this much.”
“Can I share a hypothesis?”
“Feel free.”
“I think the score not rising much was because of a problem on your end.”
“On my end?”

There shouldn’t be anything wrong on my end. After all, my goal is to hand my life over to Mister. And to that end, I’ve been doing plenty of things within the subconscious. As I barely appear on the forefront, I don’t think that I could be the cause.

“Kotone, you suppressed yourself and wanted to give everything to me. However, this isn’t something I could agree with.”
“But you’ll be able to continue living, you know?”
“I don’t want to live at the expense of your life. I’ve always thought since the very start that, if you were alive, this life shouldn’t be mine to continue.”
“So it’s cognitive dissonance, is it?”

Since both of us are making concessions for each other, the assimilation continued. However, it wouldn’t progress at the expected rate. The assimilation score has gradually increased only because I pushed for further progress. If this had continued, some unexpected failure might have occurred.

“So, time for my actual question. Kotone, you found something you want to do now, don’t you?”
“Eh?”

Hearing those words, I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. After playing with Kaori, it gave me the energy to keep on going. However, it also made me think that if I continue to remain, maybe I can have more fun experiences. That’s clearly a lingering attachment.