[OLD] Book 1: Densetsu.EXEcution

Chapter 24 - Collapse

Arashi had seen this woman before many times in his past. Her name was Miradelle Olette, a woman who took care of him and Saki for a while after their parents’ passing. She looked at Arashi with a gleam of respect in her eyes. “How long’s it been?” she asked him. Arshi shrugged and looked at his surroundings.

“What do you mean you’ve been waiting? And who’s ‘we’?” he asked. Miradelle smiled.

“I thought you knew,” she said. “We’re in the central control room of Alvira Tower. In other words, the main operations base for the N-AI.”

“How dumb could Arakawa possibly be?” Arashi asked, “He brought me right to him?”

“A lot smarter than you think,” Miradelle replied, “Dominic isn’t here, he’s in a different tower connected to this one in the mountains of former Russia. I’ve brought you here to see just how powerful you truly are…”

“Miradelle, that’s who you are, right?” Arashi asked, ignoring her briefing as he looked at the red-ish machinery in the tower’s hollowed room. “You’re the woman who watched over Saki Mitsurashi and I after our parents’ passing.”

“I remember,” Miradelle replied. “Oh Taifurashi, may she rest in peace.” She placed her hands together in prayer. As she stepped back, the room was filled with a bright eminence. She disappeared along with the red-toned machinery and electronic projections that went with it.

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Everything emitted a pale tone around Arashi and Kiri as they found themselves in the center of a glass platform. Blue spears flickered around them, combining with each other here and there. It was the lights of the Cyber World that Kiri had known so well. Every so often, the spears would vanish and re-appear in another spot near the one they formerly occupied.

“What exactly did you mean?” Arashi asked Kiri, knowing that her emotions were no longer limited by a human environment. Kiri looked deep into his eyes.

“I was born as Dominic Arakawa’s first Artifical experiment, but the reason he created me…It wasn’t to my liking,” Kiri explained. Her tone had more feeling in it than it had in the human world. “I was afraid of myself, I was afraid of changing things around me. I became everything I wanted not to be, at the same time avoiding everything I was created for. If I wanted to become a Rogue AI, all I would need to do, Arashi, is to kill you…”

“I see,” Arashi replied quaintly. “But you want to change the human world?”

“I want to repair the human world,” Kiri said, “And to do that I need help. Dante just doesn’t realize that we rely on other people all the time, and he sees those who try to branch out from the normal as a threat. His purpose was to kill me, because Dominic believed I was a mistake…”

“You’re not a mistake,” Arashi said reassuringly, “the things I said before at Marrow Pass were irrational. I judged you too soon without giving you a chance to tell your side of the story…”

“Well I’m glad you decided to hear me out,” Kiri said, smiling at him. Arashi nodded before presenting Kiri with a brief silence. “I’m sorry for everything,” she eventually said.

“Don’t be,” Arashi requested, “You can’t live your life repenting for the mistakes of others. It isn’t worth it.” Kiri smiled at him again.

“How touching,” said a dark, ravaged voice from the distance. “I dread to interrupt your moment of bonding, but I’ve more important things to tend to than listen to your cheesy apologies to each other.” The click of a gun reverbated across the Cyber World’s air as Dante aimed the gun at Kiri. “I’m going to finish what I started fifteen years ago.”