City Series:Volume8b Chapter15

Chapter 15: Outride A Crisis

Welcome back!

Straight from DT Prison’s cathedral, it’s time for “Rejoice! It’s the Oracle Message Board!” with Racter Nosrup Txt, member of the 13 Demigods and American with a bad Kansai accent!

I live!! But the shield around the castle and Babel is still there.

Babel is still extracting the Great God Lives and the people fighting haven’t left yet.

That means the battle is ongoing in some form.

So what do you think? This is a false city remade to erase the greatest mistake made by us 13 Demigods.

Yet we still want to govern and preserve DT.

It might be false, but is it really? Anyway, the phrase this time can be “waiting for an answer”. Think on that for a while.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

(Matthew 27:59-61)

Hm, I see you’re blabbing away on here. -Fooblicky Telyb

Hey, hey, hey. I’m stopping in to say hi in between jobs.

Racter, you’re giving away too much information. Not that I can really blame you. Anyway, I’m going to give what information I can.

07/07/2000 DT 03:03 PM x1k (+00:03)

Help Text

DT’s Boost Control

DT’s internal speed is boosted to 100 times the speed of the outside world.

But that x100 speed is the result of controlling the boost for human purposes since DT’s natural speed is a lot faster, which creates energy consumption and safety issues.

Even the current DT OS can alter the boost setting of a portion of DT up to x1000.

The boost control is generally handled by the generators in DT’s intermediary layer and the DT OS itself.

The intermediary layer is a uniform space, so the generators are positioned at virtual positions that allow them to surround DT’s X, Y, and Z axes from all directions. They intercept the high speed virtual waves constantly produced by DT, apply a controlled boost, and return that to the DT OS.

When the DT OS receives that, it activates a Mini Boost Adjustment Program written across all of the space forming DT.

By taking control of the entire space, the speed of all things can be controlled.

Also, the PC Bodies within DT have their metabolism and other biological data fed back to the DT OS where they are adjusted and have subprograms applied to ensure their growth within DT matches the outside world.

This technology gives the people within DT a lifespan 100 times longer than normal, although that extra time is technically an artificial experience since that much time does not pass in the outside world. This is why DT became a destination for terminal patients, prisoners with long sentences, and various types of research and development.

In the current year of 2000, the adjustment program can handle a boost up to x1200, but all plans to increase the boost have been abandoned.

This is partially because safety is only guaranteed with a boost up to x1000 and because an increased boost would exacerbate the disconnect between DT and the outside world.

Research is underway to find a way for the setting to be changed on an individual level, so by accumulating heat energy through eating or paying money, an individual or a limited space can take the heat energy usually used for the boost setting and use it to activate their own programs instead.

Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Aoe’s Over Reload>

The first thing Myst drew while facing Aoe was a single cloth.

The light green cloth was quite large. She tapped the program control panel at her hip to give the cloth a hitbox. The drawn cloth began gracefully interacting with the air around it and it flew above Yuo.

Aoe stood next to Yuo, so he caught the flying cloth in his right hand and draped it around her.

He then moved Yuo to a sitting position, leaning her against one of the Questron’s leaves. He had her crouch with her back in a corner so she wouldn’t fall over.

Her weakly opened mouth tried to form words but only released a breath.

<Wait. Please wait.>

She realized he was about to move away from her. The quick reaction meant she was in Sight Mode.

<My Mouse seems to be displaying something in a window.>

<Change attack authorization setting? Y/N>

That was Aoe’s criminal management setting which had been customized nearly beyond recognition. He wasn’t even sure where his name was written on the thing, but the attack authorization setting was displayed at the very top.

He needed that, but for Yuo, it would mean telling him to defeat someone she knew well.

Without her sight, she could not read the contents of the Mouse’s window, so he explained it for her.

“That is a settings window for removing my attack restrictions. If you raise your hand and press Y, I will be able to punch that Myst woman.”

That put a look of surprise on her face.

But after a bit, she raised her hand, unsteadily due to her lack of touch.

<Myst is my enemy now, isn’t she? Because I didn’t give up like dad wanted.>

She spoke in her window and prepared to make her choice with trembling fingers.

<Ah.>

Tears spilled from her eyes. Her hand started to lower from the window.

But something stopped her: a voice.

Myst’s tearful cry rang sharply across the room.

“Master Yuo! How could you choose him!? He killed Excel. Excel, who looked after you and taught you your program activation technique!”

Aoe spun around.

“How dare you! You would confuse her further after all this!?”

But he was somewhat shaken when his gaze reached Myst.

In the center of the ceremony room, Myst’s face had clearly paled while she held her virtual pen with the emblem floating near its tip. Her face was twisted in anger at the words she herself had spoken.

She looked him in the eye before shutting her eyes, biting her lip, and shaking her head.

Aoe realized what this meant.

<She wants to test Yuo even if it means saying things she doesn’t mean.>

Myst soon raised her head and spoke with a tone that differed from her facial expression.

Her tone was accusatory, but her face belied that tone.

“And now he intends to kill me! Me, the artist who dried your tears in the amusement park 4000 years ago! How can you let him do something so unconscionable, Master Yuo!?”

Myst swung her virtual pen.

Several windows opened in the wavering air above her and to her sides. But not just 10 or 20. There were hundreds if not thousands of windows.

Countless winds blew out to prove the presence of those windows.

“You can hear this, can’t you, Master Yuo? This is everything we shared since our meeting 4000 years ago.”

Images appeared on the windows.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

They all depicted Yuo smiling.

Myst’s expression broke down in front of thousands of smiles.

Her eyebrows drooped and her cheeks tensed, but her voice remained firm.

“You once abandoned us in your resignation, but now that you are abandoning that resignation, you still won’t join us!? You’re going to throw us out again so you can be with that man instead!? How is that fair!?”

That one made Yuo’s lowered hand flinch back. She began to pull the fingers back toward her right shoulder.

<Myst.>

But with some silent words, she kept her hand where it was.

<I remember everything in those windows so well.>

A tear spilled down her cheek as her window added a “but”. But just the one.

<Let us through. And this time you can draw me with something other than a comforted smile!!>

Aoe saw the voice of her soul.

At the same time, he heard the powerful cry of a wild animal from nearby.

That was Monkey. The large Shiba Inu stood up despite the blood soaking parts across his body. He moved between Aoe and Yuo with a ferret on his head.

The dog barked loud again and Yuo responded with a faint smile.

She raised her hand and reached for the window.

The ferret cried quietly and waved his front paw. The window moved to meet her extended hand.

Aoe smiled bitterly when he saw the result of her choice: her finger had pressed the Y button.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Aoe turned back toward Myst.

She stood in front of the many past smiles. She hung her head a bit with tears in her eyes.

Her face remained pale, but her expression was no longer twisted.

She looked like she had gotten over something.

Aoe spoke to her through his window.

<You played the villain so Yuo wouldn’t feel bad about her decision, didn’t you?>

Myst opened her mouth a crack and mouthed a response so only Aoe could see.

“You fool. Only ignorant commoners and extreme hypocrites assume all actions have pure intentions.”

She twisted her lips into a small smile, raised her eyebrows, and held her head high with tears still in her eyes.

“Is that so?” replied Aoe, spreading his arms. “Then answer me this: will you let us through like Yuo asked? The Yuo you believed in has already abandoned resignation. Algo may have a reason to keep fighting, but you don’t.”

Myst pushed her chest out and raised her head. She still did not wipe the tears from her eyes.

“Ha! I already discussed this with Excel! The Quartet has only one administrator! Even if it means Master Yuo turn on us, we cannot disobey Master Suedomsa.”

She stabbed her virtual pen into the floor and spoke with a tense look on her face.

“The settings you ask us to apply are not a part of the Quartet’s basic concept!”

“Excel has confirmed for us you can be the strongest for Master Yuo. But if you and Master Algo intend to begin a new fight here, we will obey Master Algo who is following in Master Suedomsa’s footsteps!”

“Ha! That’s some loyalty!”

“Loyalty? That is too crass a word to describe this, fool.” She suddenly smiled. “Listen carefully. The purpose of our coming battle is to stop you, but is also to test you. We do not have much time left before we die, so we must test you to see if we can leave Master Yuo in your care.”

“So if you defeat me, it’s for Algo, but if you can’t, it’s for Yuo?”

“Yes. I knew this was coming as soon as I learned Excel had let you pass. Did he learn that Master Yuo was an even greater programmer than him?”

“Mh.”

Myst shut her eyes at Aoe’s grunted affirmation.

“Then if you wish to continue past us, we will each thank Master Yuo in our own way.”

<Thank me?>

That thought window was Yuo’s.

Myst opened her eyes, read the window, and opened her mouth.

“Yes. Back before you gave up, you stayed with us and supported us. As fellow Minus people.

“But,” continued Myst. “We wanted to thank you for the time you spent with us by ensuring you would be fine without us. Unfortunately, we cannot seriously test you to see if you have surpassed us.”

“Is that why you chose to become her enemy like Suedomsa told you to?” Aoe looked Myst in the eye and nodded. “You wanted to use me, a Plus person, to eliminate the anxiety and fear she would feel when you disappeared?”

“Yes. If she has set aside her resignation, then we too must return to who we were so long ago. This is a thanks we can only provide as enemies. I believe this was a final kindness Master Suedomsa did for us.” Myst lowered her head a bit. “He told us to do everything we can to stop you here. He doesn’t normally speak so inefficiently.”

She smiled and slowly raised her virtual pen overhead in both hands.

“Master Yuo, I will now thank you for spending time with someone as insolent as me…and for always viewing my drawings and supporting me!”

Her expression grew tense once more.

“The strongest artist strives to perfect herself and continues creating art as an offering to someone.

“If you were to compare her to a flower, she would be the ambitious chrysanthemum blossoming toward the sky!”

<Pseudo Grandload: Running Pseudo Load Emblem: Premier: Preparing to Activate>

A shattering stone sound came from the pen and the arms holding it.

Dozens of transparent windows opened around her.

Text strings extended from her arms and the emblem at the pen tip.

●Type-XX076: Imperial-class: Premier●

A large diskette program appeared halfway down the pen and began to rotate.

With another shattering stone sound, she shifted the virtual pen to only her right hand.

“Behold!”

<Myst: Gabriel Word Race Conversion: Switching to Avi Word Race Traits: Limiter Off: Accelerated Drawing>

Yuo’s smile vanished from all of the windows behind Myst.

The next thing Aoe saw was light.

One of the windows behind her shined bright and then the data was transferred to all the windows.

The thousands of windows shined a bright white as they worked together.

<Myst: Gabriel Word Race Conversion: Switching to Jpg Word Race Traits: Limiter Off: Accelerated Drawing>

A dual lens floated in front of the thousands of windows.

<Myst: Gabriel Word Race Conversion: Switching to Gif Word Race Traits: Limiter Off: Accelerated Drawing>

Each time she drew something, a mobility program window was applied to it and a moving turret appeared below all the lenses. The thousands of lenses moved back and forth and focused in on Aoe and Yuo.

“What in the world!?”

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Windows opened in the light to indicate program transfers and they were all given the power of the drawn images.

The light of the windows grew in heat as it shined through the lenses.

“Are you trying to burn us to death!?”

Anything created by a program would remain even if the program user disappeared.

Defeating Myst now would not stop this attack.

She wasn’t his target. He had to attack the window behind her that had shined first.

<Hopefully the drawing data is being transferred to the other windows in real time!>

Then destroying the initial window would stop them all. Speed was the issue, so he did not hesitate to run forward.

“Let us through. If you have a problem with me, then stop me!”

The light reached its peak then, as if responding to his words.

Myst shouted while transformed into a silhouette by the light shining from behind her.

“Can you stand up to this, Master Yuo’s chosen strongest!?”

<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>

Myst’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Myst’s Over Reload>

Myst saw something within the light shining on her back.

The light around her was already so bright she had trouble seeing anything more than 2D silhouettes, but one such silhouette seemed to be swimming through the light.

That body eliminated all excess motion to move with great speed and no waste.

The racing image created from high contrast whites and blacks had an emblem open on both arms.

A see-through black frame surrounded a metal spear symbol.

That was Aoe. She couldn’t hear his footsteps or even his breathing in that world of shadows, but she did see him.

He was shadow art of unwavering attack power.

<This is…>

Myst spoke in the light, her will displayed in a window.

<This is the art accompanying Master Yuo now.>

Aoe’s silhouette was coming, but Myst did nothing as he passed by her side.

Rather, she couldn’t do anything.

She was already slowly fading away in the light.

The hand she stretched out to grasp the silhouette had lost its hitbox.

She could no longer touch things.

Her white dress, blonde hair, and virtual pen all slowly melted into the light.

She shut her eyes and faced upwards. Her lips curved into a smile and that curve opened.

“I see…”

She spoke in a tone that could have been acceptance or regret and her hands moved in the light. Her flashing index finger reached out in front of her and opened a window.

The window was colored such a dark black it couldn’t be dyed by the surrounding light. It was a film settings window.

“Master Yuo, you said, for the first time, you want a drawing meant for more than just comfort, didn’t you?”

Her eyes remained closed as she angled the virtual pen, which was a part of her, toward the window.

It had lost its hitbox, but she used her last strength to shine a light from the pen tip.

“Understood. I will now draw the piece you deserve.”

She wielded a light even brighter than the surrounding light to draw out the negative of an image.

<This is my strongest. In order to thank you for always viewing the drawings I made, I will draw a piece that can surpass your anxiety and sorrow.>

She drew.

It did not take long for her to finish.

And with that done, she disappeared and all the light shattered.

<Myst has been fully eliminated>

Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Aoe’s Over Reload>

The heat produced by the shattering created a wind that blew Aoe away.

The next thing he knew, he saw the metal floor back over his shoulder.

That meant he was flipped onto his back in midair, so he instantly punched at the floor.

The impact pushed him back into a flip. He turned his back in the direction he was moving, took control of his body in midair, and landed on the floor.

He ended up crouching between two of the Questron’s leaves.

He saw Monkey back in mini form.

He also saw Yuo seated between the leaves with her hands on the floor.

Something fell in front of him as he viewed her.

A yellow program trigon had been tossed this way by the heated wind.

The mark on its surface depicted lightning stabbing into an open hand. That was the program controlling her sense of touch.

The ferret ran over before he could snatch it from the air. The ferret leaped like a baseball player but with his mouth open wide instead of a glove. He caught the trigon in his mouth and swallowed it while rolling across the floor.

A solid thud soon followed.

“Mh,” grunted Aoe, looking up.

He saw Yuo.

She was still wrapped in the green cloth and now she was bent over and holding her head.

He looked to the Questron above her. He noted the corner of a curving metal panel at about her head height. It was right where she would hit the back of her head if she stood up from there.

<She stood up in excitement as soon as she felt her sense of touch return, didn’t she?>

Yuo rubbed her head with both hands and opened a window.

<Owww.>

“You idiot.”

She looked up when she heard him. And she stopped rubbing her head.

She opened her unfocused eyes and quickly looked side to side. She was searching for him.

So he took her hand.

<Oh.>

Before that window even opened, he scooped her into his arms while standing up.

She resisted for a moment, but she relaxed the next moment and let him carry her. Her hands found his body, moved up to his shoulder, and grabbed on.

He nodded and then noticed something strange.

The floor was shaking slightly.

<Is this place collapsing?>

“We must pursue Algo,” he said.

She nodded and smiled bitterly.

<You’re a man of few words, aren’t you?>

He read the window and checked her expression.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Her expression was gentle and changed frequently. That meant she was in Sight Mode.

So he shut his eyes and thought about what she had said.

<She said the same thing when we first met.>

He kept the words on the window she couldn’t see and said something else out loud.

“I am blunt by nature.”

He looked up and noticed something scattering through the ceremony room.

Myst’s windows were shattering in a chain reaction.

An alarm continued to sound as the dust of shattered windows fell through the air. Fell slowly and silently.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

One new window floated at the center of it all.

“What is that?”

That was where Myst had been standing.

He carried Yuo across the shaking floor toward it, but she couldn’t see.

<What is what?>

“The artist drew something for you.”

He looked at the window, but he couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. It was a negative image, so colors polarized to purples and oranges were drawn atop a black background.

He only needed to alter the window properties to fix it, but he didn’t know how.

The ferret had followed after at his feet and, after some thought, raised his front paw.

The image on the window suddenly changed. The negative of blacks and purples became a positive image with the proper colors.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The window depicted Yuo and Aoe. It was a rushed hand-drawn image done in watercolor.

The Questron was in the background. In front of the roughly colored metal, an equally roughly drawn Yuo was held to Aoe’s chest while she held a window to herself and had a serious look on her face.

“A look of determination, huh?”

<Eh?>

After Yuo’s question, the window folded itself up and disappeared. The ferret had stored it.

All of the specks of light floating in the ceremony room vanished at about the same time.

“You can see it once you get your vision back.”

His reassurance was followed by a tremor that seemed to shake the entire room. It was a powerful vertical shaking.

A window appeared.

<Warning: Forced interruption of Questron output has placed too great a burden on the system. Please evacuate the area immediately>

Extremely heavy destruction began overhead as if answering the warning.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The metallic mass forming the ceiling was pushed down along with a few smaller pieces.

First, a piece crashed loudly down. A meter-long hunk of metal landed on the seven-layer diskette program covering half the ceremony room.

That was the starting point.

Aoe sensed more large masses beginning to move to the right, left, front, and back.

“Damn.”

He took off running.

He leaped atop the diskette program and kept moving forward, rushing toward the bulkheads leading out of the ceremony room.

The ferret cried once while passing by the ashes left by Suedomsa.

Yuo flinched in Aoe’s arms when she heard that cry, so Aoe spoke to her.

“You can return here and cry once things settle down.”

He moved his gaze from Yuo’s lowered head to the first bulkhead. The sounds of destruction were continuing.

Once he was only a few paces away from the bulkhead, he heard a sound from overhead.

It was an annoying sound, like the chirping of an insect, so he looked up toward it.

There was a distorted square mass overhead. It had to be at least 2 yards across and it was falling toward them.

He cried out in alarm, but without warning, a bluish-white panel inserted itself between them and the falling metal.

The hunk of metal that had to weigh several tons crashed loudly into the defense shield.

The bluish-white barrier stopped the falling steel.

The bulkhead leading outside opened in front of Aoe.

Only then did he look back inside the ceremony room.

He heard a rumble and the sound of spilling sand as more metal fell to the floor.

The diskette program and Questron had already been smashed to pieces by the heavy objects.

Several damage warning windows opened, but Aoe still managed to spot a woman inside there.

“You.”

Akalabeth stood with her back turned deep inside the room. Her reddish-purple dress was not a bit out of place.

She held her bleeding side and had grown transparent.

Aoe tried to say something.

“–––––”

But he couldn’t find the words, so he turned away from her and ran out through the open bulkhead.

The defense shield protecting them immediately vanished and the ceiling pieces fell.

<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>

Akalabeth’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Akalabeth’s Over Reload>

Akalabeth slowly sat down in the collapsing ceremony room.

She held her fading body, shut her eyes, and rested her chin on her raised knee.

She heard destruction all around her and placed her vision in the darkness.

“Suedomsa. What emotion will I feel in this Minus world after I am Formatted and learn you are no more?”

Her shut eyes bent a bit.

“It’s just like the biblical symbolism, isn’t it? Even if my Wild Name isn’t Mary.”

She lowered her head, pressed her forehead against her knee, and sighed.

Her shallowly opened lips sang a song.

The sounds of collapsed continued, the ceiling broke, and its pieces stabbed into the floor as she sang her song.

It was the song Yuo had often sung.

She sang as she disappeared.

And eventually, the entire ceiling had collapsed.

<Akalabeth has been temporarily destroyed>

Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe climbed the narrow stairs with Yuo in his arms. It was a winding basement stairway. Some of the angled stones forming the wall had fallen out onto the stairs.

The castle was no longer shaking around them, so its collapse was complete.

<Based on what I heard and felt, the center of the castle collapsed inwards.>

Aoe hurried up the stairs.

Yuo remained perfectly still in his arms with her arms around his neck. Her Sight Mode expression had the eyebrows bent worriedly. Her unfocused eyes looked up vaguely in the direction of his face.

<Um…you can put me down now.>

“Mh,” he grunted, but did not do so. So she did not let go of him either.

<I’m still not sure what’s going on, but what are you to me? Aoe was it?>

When she struggled to remember his name, he only gave an expressionless grunt of acknowledgment.

She responded with a tense wrinkling of her brow.

<Why won’t you tell me anything? Surely you can at least tell me who we were to each other.>

“I would rather not.”

<Wh-why?>

<Because I don’t have the guts.>

Since she was in Sight, she could not read the window floating above his head and she wrinkled her brow even more.

She tilted her head and her loose hair swayed while more text appeared.

<If you won’t tell me, we can never be more than strangers…and it’s harder to thank you.>

“I haven’t done anything you need to thank me for.”

<But you helped me escape there.>

Her thoughts appeared in her window, but then her eyebrows lowered.

<Except that was my decision, wasn’t it?>

Aoe looked to her lowered head with exasperation on his face.

“Listen.”

<Listening.>

“I pushed you toward that decision, but I am no more than a stranger to this version of you.”

<You don’t remember your past with me, so whatever I might want is irrelevant to you now,> he added on his window.

So…

“Do not trust me so readily.”

He came to a stop partway up the stairs.

“For one thing, I never arrive on time when you’re worried. And…”

He paused for a moment.

“I have killed several people and I am proud of it.”

She responded by nodding her head.

<Probably so, if you’re willing to say that yourself.>

“Then!”

He raised his voice, but now she shook her head.

<But is it so wrong to feel safe with someone like that and to want to be with him?>

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Yuo asked her question in his arms and shut her eyes.

<This is my decision to make, no matter who I choose or what kind of person they might be.>

She shut her mouth and squeezed with the arms around him.

<I refuse to believe something I believed in would bring me unhappiness. And if I thought my own survival was a bad thing, I would have to question why I bothered defying my dad and the others in the first place.>

“…”

<What about you? Maybe you didn’t make it in time and maybe you have killed people, but would you be happy if you could forget those things ever happened? You know as well as I do that forgetting does not mean it never happened.>

She sucked in a shallow breath and shouted with her thoughts.

<I forgot about my dad and the others and I forgot about you, but you were still there. And even though I forgot about you…>

She let out a rough breath.

<I want to get to know you again and be with you again. Is that so wrong?>

“Well…”

<Is it so wrong that I don’t remember who I have been for the past however long?>

After Aoe read her questions, he saw something shining on her cheek.

It was a tear.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Aoe’s vision grew clearer as he viewed the tear on Yuo’s cheek.

At the same time, her expression suddenly changed. She had looked worried, but now her eyes widened in surprise.

She removed her right hand from around his neck and placed it on her cheek.

He saw a new tear there.

The eyebrows of her surprised expression collapsed. Her mouth twisted and a window opened.

<Is…is it…>

A tear dripped down her cheek and she wiped it away with her hand.

<Is it so wrong to want to be with you when you cry?>

Her question led him to realize something.

<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

There were indeed tears on Yuo’s cheek, but their location was unusual.

Only her right cheek was damp.

Those were not her tears. Someone else’s tears had fallen onto her cheek.

His lips trembled as he asked whose tears those could be.

“Was it…me?”

He didn’t need an answer because he could now feel the tears dripping down his own cheeks.

His cheeks twisted and he could not stop his thoughts from leaving his mouth.

“I…”

He choked a bit and his vision blurred, but he still got his mouth open.

“I…!”

He sucked in a breath and tried to force out his voice, but then Monkey raised his front paw atop Aoe’s right shoulder.

Confused, Aoe looked over to see a word mail window had opened.

The message Monkey showed him was not a new message or one he had already read. It was a draft filled with typos.

It was the one he had written for Yuo in the central comm tower.

He had never actually sent it and Monkey was showing it to him now.

He read through it.

“No matter…”

He spoke the words aloud.

“No matter what I might learn about you, it changes nothing.”

<Opening word mail window>

Aoe’s Word Mail Draft: To Yuo

No matter what I might learn about you, it changes nothing.

I swear I will come for you.

I swear I will give you a place by my side.

So don’t you worry about anything, Yuo.

<Returning to Aoe’s Sight Mode>

Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Aoe’s Over Reload>

“Don’t you worry about anything, Yuo.”

Once he said those words, Aoe held Yuo even tighter.

“Uh.”

A groan left his throat and he lowered his head.

Meanwhile, Yuo let out a breath, rested her cheek on his shoulder, and eventually shut her eyes.

She placed her arm around his neck and opened the hand.

She gently patted his back. Over and over and over again, she softly and gently patted his back and nodded.

The ferret on her shoulder raised his front paw as if responding to that nod.

A word mail window of her own opened next to Aoe’s one.

Hers had a new message. The message’s send settings had been altered so it would only be sent…

“If Aoe Shouzou recognizes my presence after the Day of the Oracle.”

Aoe’s voice trembled as he read the conditions aloud and the word mail responded.

It spoke in Yuo’s voice because she had used voice input for the message.

<Opening word mail message>

Yuo’s Voice Word Mail: To Me

Um, I’m not really sure how to say this.

If you’re hearing this, it means I made it through alright.

If you’re listening to this, it means I’m still with Senpai.

But if I can make one request, please apologize to Senpai.

I don’t want him to think I forget about him so I wouldn’t have to do that.

After that, I won’t have anything else to worry about, so you can tell him I’ll be with him forever.

<Returning to Aoe’s Sight Mode>

Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle

<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Her claim in the message was belied by the worried tremor in her voice.

But she didn’t hesitate or stumble over her words.

Aoe realized Yuo had leaned more deeply against him after hearing her own voice.

Her eyebrows were drooping.

A window opened above her somewhat lowered head.

<That’s right. I need to thank you, but I also need to apologize.>

Her shoulders trembled just a bit, she breathed in, and another window opened.

Aoe read her words in silence.

<I’m sorry.>

She shut her eyes and pressed her cheek into his chest.

<I’m sorry.>

She rubbed her cheek against him even though it bent and squashed her ear.

<I’m sorry!>

“I know,” he said, his voice shaky.

He saw the words she had wanted to tell him for so long.

The window over her head wrote out an apology.

It contained the words he needed to hear and it contained her will.

<I’m sorry for worrying you and for forgetting you.>

She let out a choking breath.

<I’m sorry…I can’t remember you.>

“Don’t worry about it.”

He held her more tightly in his arms.

“I felt the same.”

<Yes. We’re the same.>

Her nod sent tears spilling down her cheeks.

These were not from Aoe. They were her own tears.

The tears flowed as she let the emotion take over.

They wet his shoulder as he said something more.

<I’ve forgotten so much, but…but from now on…>

She roughly took in a breath and truly addressed him for the first time.

She did not know who he was, but her past self had used a certain term when talking about him.

So she followed that example and redefined their relationship using it.

He was no longer just a stranger to her. He was…

<Senpai.>

She nodded and finished her thought while weeping.

<From now on, I will always be by your side, Senpai.>

<Aoe’s Sight Mode has ended>

Back to Chapter 14

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 16