Beatless

Phase 1 Contract
by Satoshi Hase ()
Art by redjuice
Translated by nakulas

I trust in your smile. I wont care whether you are

soulless or not.1
1

This is the tagline for the series, and yes, its in Engrish.

Beatless

Phase 01 Contract

There were two things Arato always dreamt of as he

slumbered.
One was a tremendous re, swelling to ll a passageway. It seemed as though the world would go up in
smoke, engulfed by a swirling wave tinged the colors of
re and charcoal. Truly, that was a nightmare.
The other was a memory of a dog looking up at him,
wagging its tail.
Once, Arato was caught in a gale of scorching air.
After that, he was hospitalized for burns covering his
entire body. The hospital was so quiet that Arato could
scarcely feel his heart beat. He would often sit in the
hospitals front yard by himself and watch the people go
by. The incident happened when he had just begun grade
school, a time when his father was busy and his sister was
still a wee child. His family could only make time to visit
him on occasion, and so he came to believe that he was
a person unworthy of being paid heed.
As he slumbered, Aratos memories were so indistinct
that they may well have been mere daydreams. Everyday,
when he took his painkillers, the world went quiet.
At some point, a white puppy entered his desolate
world.
By the time he noticed it, the dog was at his feet.
It snied at his legs, its face lled with an expression of
fascination.
He says that he wants to be your friend, said a
young nurse clad in her uniform. Arato could never re3

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member her name. He certainly did remember the way

the pup tried to get him to scratch its head, grab its front
paws, and tickle it under the chin. It was almost as if the
pup were a spoilt child.
Its short-haired coat was uy and white, from its
head to its furiously-wagging tail. It leapt at him, and
he couldnt help but run around with it at his heels for
a while, though doing so was taxing on him.
He says that he wants to play with you and your
friends, too.
Some days later, the nurse brought along a boy about
Aratos age.
Noticing his gaunt limbs, Arato gured that he must
also have been a patient. Arato didnt realize until much
later that the boy was actually on an IV drip because he
couldnt eat any food.
Unsure of what to do, Arato avoided eye contact with
the scrawny boy.
Only the dog was excited by this turn of events, running in circles with its tongue hanging out. Its eyes grew
wide, for it was faced with an impossible decision who
would he play with?
Peoples hearts are touched by the actions of others.
Others including those who are not human.
Arato directed his gaze at the boy who stood before
him, unmoving. The boy had a dull expression on his
face, as if he was lost in a vast darkness. It seemed like

Beatless

Phase 01 Contract

he couldnt even cry out for help. He grasped at his

haggard neck, perhaps to suppress some sort of ache.
Arato heard a wet sneeze near his feet. The little dog
wagged its tail as its hindlegs quavered spiritedly. Just
when Arato felt certain that he was a lonely boy living
in a lonely world, he came upon this little fellow enjoying
the world to an absurd degree.
Looks like hes really enjoying himself, said Arato,
breaking the silence.
He felt warm, yet for some reason felt like he was
about to cry.
The pup snied at the ground, pausing from time to
time to look up at Arato. Arato thought that perhaps
just maybe if he could make himself so happy, hed
never be sad again.
The other boys injuries werent as severe as Aratos.
Nonetheless, it seemed he wasnt planning to speak a
word.
Aratos body was wracked with pain. It was a struggle for him to just proer a handshake. But still, he
decided to talk with the boy.
Im Arato Endou.
Mustering all his courage, Arato took the rst step.
Lets be friends.
***

Beatless

Phase 01 Contract

Sunlight streamed through the windows of the school

building.
Arato Endou collapsed into his seat and groaned,
Damn, its hot. And its only April, too...
The sky was clear and cloudless. Arato stared at the
ceiling of the classroom.
Not the least bit ashamed of sleeping through class,
are you? asked Ryou Kaidai, standing next to Aratos
desk. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone.
Ryou had gone over to see Arato now that they had a
break.
Its not like youre any better, came a voice from behind them. Kengo Suguris seat was just behind Aratos.
With an air of indierence, Ryou responded, I took
care of all my homework yesterday.
Arato found it strange that Ryou was attending a runof-the-mill high school like theirs. He wouldve thought
that Ryou would have matriculated at a more elite academy.
Youre just too smart. Im jealous.
Ryous expression remained nonchalant, albeit with a
subtle hint of glee.
Oh, please. Theres just one reason that we still have
schools: to practice building interpersonal relationships.
Theres so much more to learn during break time than
during class. By the time were old, it wont matter how
smart anyone is.
Using his portable computer, Kengo sent his notes to
Ryou and Arato, saying, Rich folks sure have it good,
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specially when it comes to their excuses for being lazy.

Arato was fed up with the warning messages popping
up on the screen on his desk. He was the only one being
assigned more homework.
He pulled out his portable computer and glanced at
it. It seems he had been done the great favor of having
his personal calendar lled with homework due dates in
red font.
Responding to Ryou, Arato said, Whatre you talking about, Kengo? Break time is the whole reason schools
exist.
According to my calculations, within ten years, we
wont have almost anything to do besides getting friendly
with the ladies, that is. Or at least, thats what Im expecting, declared Ryou, extending his arms like a dancer.
It felt as though the female half of class 2-C, twenty
in number, were sending icy glances their way.
I dont know how you do it, Kaidai, making a declaration like that in the classroom.
Why do you say that?
Do you realize that you just said that to all the girls
in the class?
Well, yeah. Thats what Ive been working on all
year. I put in a lot of eort, too. One girl a week.
The three of them seemed subtly detached from the
rest of the class, amidst the otherwise-relaxed break time
environment. They were just a bit out of place. That
was Ryous fault. Ryou was something of a lecher, and
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Phase 01 Contract

a bookworm to boot. And on top of that, he just had

to go and aggravate all the girls. Unsurprisingly, it was
generally agreed that Ryou was a lousy fellow. The other
boys in the class also made sure to avoid associating with
him, just as they would avoid anyone so openly shunned
by the girls. As a result, the three of them, friends since
a long time ago, fraternized only with each other.
Sweat ran down Aratos brow.
Ryou. You claimed that school is a place for building
interpersonal relationships, right.
Thats right. On Sunday, I have a date with a girl
from a nearby school. You should come along.
Ryou threw his arm around Aratos shoulder. Arato
responded,
No can do. I already promised my sister Id spend
time with her, so...
Bullshit. You mean to tell me that Yuka would try
and get money out of you now? You barely have an
allowance these days!
Lay o. You dont know Yuka.
Always sticking your nose into the aairs of the Endou family, interjected Kengo. Ryou responded with a
horribly wide grin:
Everythings more fun with Arato.
Arato had to wonder if maybe Ryou was so bright that
hed wrapped back around into stupidity. By association,
Kengo and he himself were probably pretty stupid, too.

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Outside the schools windows, the town gleamed with

light reected by the solar panels that adorned the houses
of the residential district across the river.
The third trimester had just begun that month.
Japan had switched to the Western-style Septemberto-June school calendar quite some time ago. A century ago, the school year would begin right when the
cherry blossoms came into full bloom. Looking back,
that seemed like quite a curious system.
Arato and his friends went to and from school via a
street lined with cherry blossoms, running parallel to the
Sumida River2 .
They made their way past the fragmented memorial
stones outside the Ushijima Shrine, the remnants of the
Kototoi Bridge visible out of the corners of their eyes.
The foliage of the cherry blossoms planted on Bokutei
Avenue formed the roof of a tunnel, which they slipped
into.
Why dont we go ower-viewing? asked Ryou.
Arato stopped walking. He stood next to a relatively
new memorial stone, facing the banks of the Sumida
River. The elderly would often come by to leave owers
in memory of the Great Disaster that turned the whole
Honjo-Azumabashi area into nothing more than a heap
of rubble.
2

The Sumida River and all the other places mentioned hereafter
seem to be real places in the Tokyo area, with one exception.

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Phase 01 Contract

Faced with the heat of early April, Ryou removed his

uniforms blazer.
Lets go ower-viewing this Sunday.
Youre damned persistent. How many people did
you invite? replied Arato, turning a small dial on his
necktie. The air-conditioning element in the armpit of
his jacket kicked in and began to cool him down.
With a powerful look in his eyes, Ryou raised four
ngers.
Four girls.
Apologize to them! Even if Kengo and I do go,
theres only three of us.
Arato, you seem to be under the impression that I
only have two friends.
Exactly.
Of course I have other friends! Youre going to make
me cry.
Over the past fty years, the former oce district of
Sumida Ward had been extensively re-zoned. Starting in
Azumabashi and Komagatabashi, the roads were relaid
on a checkerboard-like grid.
Cars drove down the wide roads, proceeding as smoothly
as the water owing in the nearby river. Trac congestion became a thing of the past as self-driving cars
became universally available.
The three of them approached an intersection just as
an elderly woman was crossing towards them.

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A young girl with shoulder-length hair, wearing a yellow shirt, approached the elderly woman and held her
hand, helping her cross the street.
Without a seconds hesitation, Arato sprang into action.
Ill go help out too.
Kengo absentmindedly called out to Arato: You realize that girl isnt human, dont you?
She seemed perfectly human by her looks and comportment.
But Kengo was well-informed on matters of technology.
If you try to help an Interface, youll just make its
job more dicult.
Interface was the colloquial term for an hIE a
humanoid Interface Element, a humaniform robot. An
hIE could take a humans place to perform more or less
any task. Thanks to hIEs, labor shortages were a thing
of the past. The world had become quite an easy place
to live in.
I want to help her anyway.
Arato dashed out into the zebra crossing. The girlshaped android noticed Arato approaching and gave him
a smile.
Ill help you, he said. The signals about to turn
green.
Thank you, replied the hunchbacked old lady. She
profusely thanked him, her face wrinkling with delight.
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Because humans cannot directly transmit their emotions to one another, they instead show their emotions
through their actions. But now, there exists something
other than a human that can do the same thing.
That was reality for Arato and his peers. Androids
went about lling in the niches of Japanese society in the
year AD 2205.
Youd be a perfect mark for con artists. Youre too
trusting.
A bustling shopping district had been built in the
vicinity of the Honjo-Azumabashi subway station.
I like being nice to girls. Hell, you guys should, too.
The town was actually full of hIEs. They were particularly common in eateries, owing to the perpetual lack
of workers in the service industry.
Kengo was well-informed about this area, having grown
up here.
The girl at that taiyaki 3 stall is an hIE. Can you
tell? he asked.
At the taiyaki stall on the roadside, a girl with curly
blond hair was ipping taiyaki molds. Her dexterity was
impressive.
The worker at that soba stall, too. Same with the
cashier at the supermarket in front of the Sky Tree. Did
you know that all hIEs will help out old people?
3

Those weird sh-shaped cakes

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Thats quite impressive.

As they walked past, the girl at the taiyaki stall looked
them in the face and asked if theyd like to have some
taiyaki. She wasnt sweating.
Ryou was just as cold towards her as he was irtatious towards the girls in their class. He asked Arato,
Impressive, are they? Would you call a spinning motor
impressive, too?
You cant tell me what to think.
Youre living in a fairytale.
Even in fairytale-land, they have science, interposed
Kengo.
The times are changing. Even unscientic people are
totally surrounded by the products of science, replied
Ryou.
The three friends continued to carry on a conversation
about nothing in particular.
And then, Arato glimpsed something out of the corner
of his eye. Something that should not, could not be there.
A delivery bike was parked in a back alley adjoining
the soba stall. A stray black cat was pulling something
out of the alley.
It had bitten onto something its own size and was
laboriously dragging it along.
Under the midday sun, that something looked conspicuously dierent.
It was a human arm.
Wo-woah!
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Aratos face went white in an instant.

It was a right arm with smooth, pale skin. The cat
ran o, leaving behind the lump of esh, torn o at the
elbow, to op to the ground.
Arato felt weak in the knees.
Kengo walked past him and casually picked up the
arm.
Not again.
Then, he waved it about. A white tube dangled from
the severed end of the arm, leaking a uid as if it were
blood.
Somebodys been vandalizing hIEs as of late. Theyve
found a number of scrap piles. What a waste.
A waste? Thats an unkind way of putting it, replied
Arato. His heart wouldnt stop throbbing. He couldnt
see the pale, slender arm as anything but the arm of a
woman. It baed him that Kengo could deal with the
arm so impersonally, given that it looked human, even if
it wasnt actually human.
This looks like it came from an hIE that was worth
about as much as a car. If you had to scrap a car,
wouldnt you consider that to be a waste? said Ryou,
grabbing Aratos shoulder.
Get o me. I dont care where it came from.
Gulping, Arato stared at the dismembered arm.
I guess we shouldnt toss this in a trash can.
The yellow-shirted android who helped the old woman
earlier walked by. Arato found it painful to think about
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how the arms owner had been walking around helping

people like the yellow-shirted android until somebody
broke it.
Abandon your misconceptions, Arato. Theyre just
helping people in accordance with their programming.
Thats all. Its all about marketing. The fact is, it makes
for better sales when things that look like humans are
also programmed to act like good, friendly people.
Looking down at the wreckage, Ryou clearly articulated: This is just a thing.
Even though they were right in the heart of the shopping district, not one passerby was startled by the arm
that Kengo was brandishing.
It seemed that Aratos friends didnt care much for
hIEs. Some onlookers scowled at them, while others
seemed sympathetic.
But without a doubt, everyone would have reacted
dierently if the arm had once belonged to a human.
Arato, too, was less worried that there was some sort
of danger about them, whereas before, he was under the
impression that the arm was the work of a murderer.
And yet, Arato was reluctant to dispose of the arm,
an arm which looked as though it could have been human.
Lets take it to the police. It just wouldnt be right
to throw it away.
***

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That night, an incident occurred at one end of the

2nd Reclaimed Island Group4 in Tokyo Bay.
The dull sound of an explosion rang forth from the
base of a building belonging to a certain laboratory, built
at the center of a vast plot of land. Immediately afterwards, dark smoke spewed forth from the rst oor of
the building like an upside-down avalanche.
The building was fteen stories tall, 50 meters in
height. Its windows shattered, one after another. Its
black exterior, built from nanobers, undulated silently.
And then, the lights in the building went dark. In
that instant, the building died. It was the Tokyo laboratory of the Memeframe Corporation5 , a major player in
hIE control systems.
2208 local time. A large transport chopper approached
the 2nd RIG from the bay.
An order to scramble had been issued when the building collapsed. Memeframes private defense contractors
the Peoples Military Corporation and the Hands Of
Operation6 took action to bring the situation under
control.
The helicopter took o from the heliport at Funabashi
in Chiba Prefecture, carrying an enormous container.
4

This is the only ctional locale in this chapter.

This is actually the ocial English rendition of the name.
6
Im not making this shit up either.
5

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The pilot wore a helmet equipped with a head-mounted

display. He turned around to look at Schest and said,
The USFJ and Japanese Army7 have us authorized for
20 minutes of ight. Weve got to be in and out of Tokyo
airspace in that time.
Schest was a former Green Beret, and one of the best
at that. He rubbed the back of his sinewy neck. Strategic
Command had redesigned the crew area of the chopper
for use by combat mechs. It gave him a sti neck.
Strategic Command to Schest unit verifying operation parameters. Your objective is to destroy or capture
the 5 hIEs that escaped from the laboratory following
the explosion. Evacuation of the civilians from the laboratory is complete. Over.
It was a peculiar order.
It shouldnt have been possible for hIEs to escape
in the rst place. Though they look human, the behaviors of hIEs are almost all controlled remotely. hIEs are
supplied with an appropriate course of action based on
a collection of specialized programs and behavior models that exist on external networks. Eectively, hIEs are
puppets, controlled wirelessly from a great distance.
Memeframe used a cloud system to control its hIEs.
And so, it was as though a puppeteer had asked Schest
to retrieve his runaway puppets.
The copters rotor was quiet. Though it was night,
7

Apparently not the same thing as the JSSDF

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they nonetheless sought to be unheard, and so they ew

through the night, maintaining a xed altitude.
The emergency-response unit consisted of the pilot,
Sergeant Toma; the operator, Sergeant-Major Yusuf; and
the squad leader, Captain Schest. Nobody said a word
about the peculiar nature of their orders. They were
pros, after all.
Schest opened a channel with Strategic Command using the transmitter hed had implanted in his cranium.
Schest unit to Major Cordenne. Were in position to
begin operations. Deploying sensors for recon. Over.
The helicopters infrared sensors detected ve humansized heat sources approaching the 1st RIG. Schest conveyed this data to Strategic Command. In response, the
Command AI prepared a strategic analysis.
HOO Strategic Commands advisory AI recommended
that the hIEs be forced over the bridge into the residential district.
Schest crossed his muscled arms and growled.
Pretty fuckin intense.
The Command AI recommended urban warfare in the
residential district. That was the plan of last resort for
intercepting an unmanned combat unit.
Control systems on robots forbid them from deciding
to attack humans without the permission of their Owners, to whose will they are subject. Robots are, after all,
nothing but mere tools. Hence, an unmanned combat

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unit that nds itself in a densely-populated area loses

the ability to act freely.
The prole of a woman appeared on Schests retinal
display. She wore an eyepatch and a military helmet.
Command to Schest unit. Have them turn down the
sensitivity on the Command AI. The client has ordered
us to scramble. The AI is severely overestimating the
threat level of the targets.
Major Cordenne was in her forties, and made for a
cool and composed commander. Her past was a mystery
to Schest.
Major, should we proceed according to the AIs recommendation?
Even when faced with a tough situation, his longhoned self-condence wouldnt allow him to falter. He
joined the army at 18. Now, he was a battle-scarred
veteran with 16 years of service. Even after being promoted to Second Lieutenant and gaining access to better
equipment, he always regarded himself as a loyal, stalwart infantryman.
Negative. Im overruling the AI. The police and the
military are in the process of barricading the bridge. Its
not practical to try to get the targets into the residential
district.
The major was not a humanitarian. Rather, she wanted
to avoid a battle on the bridge. Radio waves cannot penetrate the waters surface, rendering a submerged mech
uncontrollable. If a target were to fall from the bridge
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into the water, they would be unassailable by any landwarfare squadron.

Requesting an alternate course of action, Major.
The client has received governmental authorization
for the use of heavy-duty incendiary weapons. The 2nd
RIG is a research municipality. Its nighttime population
should be virtually nil. Deal with the targets there.
Schest received a list of authorized armaments. It
was clearly overkill for capturing the 5 hIEs. Granted,
Japan wasnt as anti-militaristic as it was a century prior;
even so, it made no sense to use such heavy armaments
right next to the capital citys residential district. They
didnt have enough information about the targets. Thats
why their orders were so strange, and why they had such
powerful weaponry.
Schest felt goosebumps on the back of his neck.
Yusuf, do you have the clients data?
The units comm operator was a black Frenchman.
He tapped at the keys on his console with his exible,
bony ngers.
All the escaped hIEs are gynoids. Each unit is specialized, bearing dierent equipment. Thats all weve
got so far, if you can call that data. Hell, if that counts
as data, I dont know what we need intel agents for.
Schest checked the countdown timer on his retina.
Five minutes had already passed since their helicopter
had entered Tokyo airspace.

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Unload the container. While were deploying the

surface combat unit, Major Cordenne ought to be negotiating with the brass.
In the research municipality, mostly devoid of residences, the roads were wide and straight. There was not
a soul in sight. The client didnt allow any re engines
or even ambulances near the site.
The helicopter hovered at an altitude of 20 meters
and lowered the container onto an abandoned street. The
street glowed with a white light, reected from the nearby
streetlamps. The container was twice the size of a standard shipping container. It touched down, explosively
emitting gases as it did so.
Within it were two unmanned combat units. The
PMC unit consisted of 11 mechs, the same kind used
by the US Army. The other unit consisted of 22 mechs
loaded with military-grade incendiaries. They easily carried enough repower to turn a mere fortress into a sea
of ame.
The helicopter deployed its sensor unit in response
to a request from the containers AI. The mother sensor
unit released 64 single-use camera drones. They took
to the air like beetles and began to record videos of the
surrounding area.
Back at Strategic Command, 64 palm-sized screens
opened up on a 3D monitor.
Upon receiving conrmation that no humans were visible on any of the screens, the monitor displayed a mes21

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sage in green: Theatre of operations, all-clear.

The 2nd RIG was once known as the Outer Breakwater and Disposal Site for the Central Land Reclamation
Project. It became the nal dumping site for the rubble
produced by the Great Disaster. Nobody wanted to live
there, and thus residential developments failed to ourish.
The motion detection system noticed something on
ve of the screens. Their video feeds expanded to ll the
center of the monitor.
The targets are on-screen, said Schest.
He had participated in countless many operations.
And yet, on this occasion, he forgot that he was on the
battleeld.
Five rays of light, each a dierent color, meandered
forth from the night, as did a group of women, who positiely looked like works of art.
I guess these are the specialized units, said Yusuf.
He zoomed the camera in. Red light upon green, yellow light intertwined with orange, and a bright white
light shone forth from the suits the hIEs wore. Each one
carried a large, peculiar apparatus.
The combat mechs exited their cuboidal container
and spread out into formation. As the commander of
the platoon of mechs, Schest kept a close watch on their
actions on his monitor. Some of the mechs were two meters tall and humanoid in appearance. Cleverly exploit-

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ing the lay of the land around the unduly wide roads,
they concealed themselves.
Some other mechs were equipped with wheels and
heavy artillery. They lay in wait behind the vanguard
of humanoid mechs, awaiting the right moment to strike.
The vanguard mechs carried levitating smart mines, designed to blow holes through the enemys ranks.
The PMC control cloud adroitly manipulated its puppets. While hIEs were built to be favored by humans,
military mechs were designed to harm humans. Nonetheless, they were both based on the same underlying ideas.
Even if they were heartless, they could still fulll their
duties if they behaved correctly.
Set two smart mines 70 meters ahead along their
approach vectors. The wheeled mechs will re on the
targets one at a time, concentrating re on whichever one
is nearest. The vanguard will maintain a line of defense
by applying suppressive re to anything that gets too
close. Well gure out the rest based on the enemys
response.
Schest, a born soldier, wasnt one for bluster on the
battleeld. The control cloud interpreted his instructions
and directed Schests unit.
While gathering data on the surroundings, the mechs
cautiously approached the target.
And then
A female-type hIE laughed bewitchingly at the camera, her red hair tied into two tails.
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She ran forth, straight towards the helicopter the

helicopter that was in stealth mode, its lights completely
extinguished, silent as a stone.
Schests muscular arm was covered with goosebumps.
He instinctively sought to prevent her from getting any
closer.
Toma! Get the chopper away from that red thing.
Schest unit, dont let the target take one step into our
perimeter.
The battle had begun all at once.
The mechs constituting the defensive line attacked
the hIEs. The sound of gunre split the night in two.
Muzzle ashes bloomed like reworks.
Yusuf silently tapped at his console. He was always
calm, like a machine. As a soldier, he had to be in order
to stay alive.
Lieutenant, the target is withstanding re from 50caliber machine guns.
The wheeled mechs sprayed bullets from their guns
like water from a hose. The red-haired girl deected
them, using a powerful bladed weapon as a shield. She
was being showered with a storm of bullets, each one
powerful enough to penetrate 5-millimeter steel plate, yet
the little girl wasnt wavering at all.
Mechs 01 through 03 of the rst unit, snipe the
points on the red things body that you can see. Remaining units, keep the other four hIEs in check.

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One of the levitating mines went o. The blast formed

a vortex and expanded like a blooming ower. The helicopters monitors all went white, since the infrared sensors had been overloaded.
But not one sniper managed to get a shot o.
An alarm went o and a warning appeared on-screen.
All four of the wheeled units had been short-circuited.
They were out cold. In a split-second, Schests most powerful weapon was gone.
Bring them back online.
I dont know what caused the damage, replied Yusuf.
He stopped moving his thin ngers. The air grew
heavy. The mechs were functional even in the depths
of the Amazon rainforest. They couldnt have all failed
simultaneously.
Schest to Command AI. Weve been attacked. Analyze the enemys weaponry.
The AIs strategic decisions were informed by tomes
of information about past battles. And yet, it responded
Conclusion Withheld, and then was silent. Schest gulped.
The situation was just bizarre.
The pilot, Sergeant Toma, turned around from the
pilots seat.
Woah. Look at those owers, Lieutenant. Does
Memeframe deal in owers, too?
Ceasing their banter, the soldiers regained their composure, faced with a crisis.

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To make up for the seconds they lost due to the smart

mine, they searched the screen for any sign of danger.
Flowers of many colors bloomed all over, landing on the
streets, which were paved with recycled material.
The red-haired girl, who had been pinned down by
the wheeled mechs gunre, became free to move again.
Her bladed weapon, larger than she herself, glowed with
a mighty red light.
What could be done about her?
Never mind that she was at the center of the explosion; she stood unharmed. She laughed amusedly.
Shit! Shes targeting the container!
As Schest bellowed, a red light shot towards the container.
A thin line of light split the darkness. It went straight
through the center of the container and vanished into the
air.
A hole opened up in the container. Yet the container
was so heavily reinforced that even a shot from the railgun of a main battle tank wouldnt penetrate it.
On the screen in the helicopter, more than 20 warning
messages appeared. The container was also a key relay
station for conveying battle information. It was as if the
puppet strings had grown slack, causing the mechs to
behave abnormally.
Just then, right after they had received a decisive
blow, the Command AI returned a response to Schests
earlier inquiry.
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There are high-voltage underground electric cables,

installed for use by the lab. It is very likely that the
mechs were shorted by current from those lines.
The RIGs high-voltage electric cables were housed in
a utility conduit over ten meters below the surface. Not
only must the target have know this, but it also must
have had the ability to draw electricity from a cable at
least ten meters below the surface.
A message arrived from Major Cordenne. Her expression was the same as always. Schest could see just
one thing: she had used the severe damage suered by
Schests unit as a powerful bargaining chip.
Cordenne to Schest unit. The client has nally released some information. Im not going to ask you to
take down all the hIEs. Focus your eorts on whichever
one is easiest to attack.
Lines of text appeared on the 3D screen.
Yusuf, read over that. I want to keep an eye on the
conditions on the ground.
It looked like Schest knew more or less what to do
from here. The possibility of issuing an order to retreat
didnt even enter into his decision-making process. Somewhere deep within himself, something nagged at him,
asking whether that was really the right way to go. Of
course, the answer was armative.
He ordered the mechs to fall back and rebuild the line
of battle.

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The information that Yusuf had been summarizing

began to appear on his retinal display.
Class Lacia humanoid Interface Element. No information about use. Equipped with a device that uses
a quantum computer. Able to make complex decisions
without connection to a network.
A caption was displayed on the image of the redhaired hIE that destroyed the container.
Type-001 Code: Kouka
The gynoid hIE laughed amusedly, illuminated by the
glow of ames. The device she wielded may have been a
blade, or perhaps a rearm.
Type-002 Code: Snowdrop
A little girl, wearing a white dress, demurely sat atop
a humanoid mech, using it as a cushion. The mech had
been rendered immobile, and had ceased to function. The
girls dress was studded with luminous emerald-colored
ornaments. She was surrounded by a eld of owers that
were out-of-season, yet blooming in profusion.
Type-003 Code: Saturnus
It was something with the form of a girl, with disheveled, ax-colored hair. She stabbed a spinning wheellike device into the ground and twirled a joystick about.
Type-004 Code:
A shadow. Something that could not even be captured on realtime video. The only sign that it even existed was the dancing line of orange light thrown o by an

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LED on its suit. Humanoid mechs were scattered about

like stued animals, unable to lift a nger in response.
Type-005 Code: Lacia
The nal target was a girl about to reach the peak
of her beauty, a pellucid expression on her face. In her
delicate hand, she carried a black casket8 . With ease,
she could use it to stop bullets. The casket was cleft in
multiple pieces. A pale blue light turned her hair white.
The screen connecting the helicopter to Command cut
o without warning. The main control system went down
just like that. The helicopters silencers deactivated, and
the helicopter was battered about by the turbulent winds.
The rotor noisily chopped at the air, sounding like the
blade of a blender.
Schest grabbed onto a piece of machinery to steady
himself.
Yusuf, reconnect us to the network. Whats going
on?
All the surveillance video from the battleeld was also
lost.
By the time the 3D screen recovered, the battleeld
had ceased to be.
Somebody tunneled into Memeframes servers and
invaded our systems. My queries arent returning anything.
8

I dont know of a good way to describe this, and apparently,

neither did Hase.

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Cyberwarfare, huh?
The wireless connection was a lifeline for Strategic
Command. They needed it to control the mechs. If these
girls had broken their military-grade encryption... what
fearsome monsters they must be.
By then, the girls had disappeared, shadow and all.
HOOs Command AI predicted that they had dived into
the bay.
They had feared that this would happen. This was
the worst-case situation. If an ordinary mech falls into
the water, where wireless communications cant reach it,
thats the end for that mech. But these ve could make
high-level decisions without being connected to a network, and so the vast ocean was an escape route available to them. In the seaside city of Tokyo or worse,
anywhere in Japan, bounded on four sides by the ocean,
there was no hope of recapturing the targets once theyd
made it into the water.
Tomas grin faded.
Yusufs ngers stopped moving.
They were authorized to remain in Tokyo airspace
for another ten minutes. Schest looked down at the vast
ocean, pitch-black in the night. Their helicopter didnt
have the equipment necessary to search for an underwater
target.
What the hell were those things that escaped?
The things they encountered were far stronger and
more bizarre than they had anticipated. When they re30

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alized just what exactly had happened, all three of them

broke into a cold sweat. They couldnt stop shuddering.
They didnt know the abilities, goals, duties, or even
identities of the things that escaped.
This was all Memeframes fault. In the rst place,
they didnt release information about the hIEs when the
explosion happened. But perhaps this was an incident
on a completely dierent level of importance. The red
things device alone had more destructive power than a
tank. That being the case, it was entirely possible that
the other hIEs possessed devices that housed chemical,
biological, or nuclear weapons.
The three soldiers may have been the rst witnesses
to a disaster that would turn human society on its head.
***
10:30 PM.
Arato Endou was scolding his little sister.
While he was cooking, his sister had sneaked in and
eaten all of the ingredients.
Are you retarded? Theres snacking, and then theres
this.
Arato and Yuka lived alone together at the Endou
residence. Their father was always busy with work, and
rarely came home. Their mother had left them when
they were young.

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Thats why Arato had always worked hard for Yukas

sake. He tried to help her however he could. And before
he knew it, Yuka had turned into an incorrigibly spoilt
child.
Just tell me what you were thinking, eating all the
ingredients while I was cooking.
Hooray, meat!
Youre feral.
His little sister Yuka, age 14, was two years younger
than him. She was still childish at heart, though.
You were cooking too slowly!9
Yuka changed the channel from a video game to a
regular TV channel. A news program appeared on the
3D television in their living room.
Wow, hey, there was an explosion.
Another 3D screen rose up from the oor of the dining
room. It displayed a video of a building going up in
ames.
The footage was from just half an hour prior.
The 2nd RIG in Tokyo Bay thats kind of close
and kind of far, isnt it?
Its really close, stupid. As the crow ies, anyway.
Yuka opened the TV guide with her remote control.
It caught her inquiry and answered. Apparently, their
9

Yuka uses oniichan as a term of direct address for Arato, so

if my localization rustles your jimmies, just imagine that instead.

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apartment was roughly 15 kilometers10 away.

Is that close? Ah, I guess that sucks.
The sound of an explosion rang forth from the 3D
video and echoed around their apartment.
I wonder if well have school tomorrow.
Of course we will.
I guess so. I hope nobody around here got hurt.
Yuka was terrible at academics, but she had a good
heart. And that wasnt just Aratos bias speaking. Setting aside Yuka, who was sitting cross-legged on the couch,
staring fascinatedly at the television, Arato started on
making dinner again.
Albeit, it wasnt really making dinner. All he really
did was fry up whatever frozen food and seasonings he
had on hand. Since Yuka had brought calamity upon
them by eating the fried meat he was going to use for
sweet-and-sour pork, he decided to take whatever was
left and make donburi out of it.
They said it was a robot company. You should get
a job so we can buy one. You could be a chef!
Ah, crap. We dont have any rice left. Lets have
fried udon instead.
Huh? Not two days in a row! Cant we just have
rice?
We dont have any rice. Id have to go buy some.
10

Thats about 9 miles in America.

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Yuka ipped around on the sofa, as if she were leaping

to her feet.
If people could extract pure strength from food and
amusement, Yuka would be outrageously strong.
Buy some ice cream on the way back, wont you,
Arato?
She was a frightening little sister, a spoilt child who
had never known the slightest pain.
On the way back from where?
Yuka smiled at him genuinely.
I love you, Arato.
Thats cheap! And anyway, you think thats going
to get me to go shopping this late?
Since it was chilly again that night, Arato put on the
jacket that was hanging in the vestibule.
So youre going?
So as not to look like an easily-swayed man, Arato
had an excuse readied.
With the explosion and all, its probably unsafe for
girls to be out tonight.
Yuka clasped her hands together.
May an explosion occur somewhere tomorrow, too.
How inconsiderate.
But he was her older brother, and so found her endearing all the same. Yuka saw him o, acting like it was
a chore. Arato set forth into the nighttime city.

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Arato was thoroughly pleased that he was able to do

just what his sister had asked of him.
He wished his sister would always let him dote on her
like that.
You could say that he was pampering her with all his
might.
Their apartment was in Shinkoiwa. As part of the
Tokyo Bay redevelopment project, Shinkoiwa had been
turned into a hub for rail transit between the coast and
the interior.
As a result, the town was lively even at night. If one
were to travel along the Sobu Line towards Arakawa, one
would nd fewer and fewer people. On the other hand, if
one were to follow the Urayasu Expressway southwards,
away from the city center, one would quickly encounter
a grocery.
The south side of the train station had been gentried. It was a high-class residential area with convenient
transportation, lled with people who were wary of owning standalone homes along the coast. This late at night,
few people would be walking about.
Should I really be out here? There was an explosion,
after all....
He was particularly conscious of the explosion, perhaps because hed spoken to Yuka about it. His father
had once worked at a company that was located on the
2nd RIG.

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The store was about a ten minutes walk away. To

keep his mind o of worrisome matters, he decided he
would listen to some music on his portable computer.
Oh, my! On an errand? called out a middle-aged
woman as Arato passed her.
That was Marie, a plump woman who looked to be in
her late forties. She was an hIE belonging to the landlords who lived near Aratos apartment. Arato had seen
her around since he was a child. She was an old machine,
having been operational for over ten years.
You too, Marie?
Thats right. Were out of rice too.
Walking at night made Arato restless.
Talking about nothing in particular as they walked,
they quickly arrived at the store. The store was a small
place. Arato bought the usual frozen rice and ice cream.
When he stepped outside, owers were scattered everywhere.
Wh-whats going on?
It wasnt raining. Rather, owers of ve colors sprinkled to the ground like snow. Given that it was April,
Arato thought they were cherry blossoms, but when he
picked one up, he saw that the petals were long and narrow, like a chrysanthemums. Even more strangely, he
couldnt feel any moisture on the petals.
This being a completely incomprehensible happening,
Arato found the owers pretty, but at the same time he
was concerned about them.
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But more importantly, if he didnt get home soon, the

ice cream would melt.
This is weird. What happened?
Marie calmly stepped out of the shop with her shopping bag in hand. And then, perhaps guring that the
rain of owers wasnt dangerous, she briskly headed back
up the road.
The neighbors hIE proceeded quickly, not stopping
even to pick the petals out of her hair. She receded into
the distance, her gait relaxed yet quick, disappearing into
the night.
Arato chased after her, pulling petals out of his hair
all the while.
Suddenly, he noticed that Marie had stopped moving.
She stood in an unnatural pose, with one foot in front
of the other as if she were still walking. From behind, it
was as though her portly body was frozen in place.
Arato was about to say something to her, whereupon
he realized that her thighs werent moving even a centimeter.
She began to vibrate so violently, it was like she was
about to explode. Then, her round head, topped with
scruy mid-length hair, began creaking. Her head rotated 180 degrees on her neck.
She had lost all semblance of a facial expression. Her
shopping bag fell from her hand. A dull noise emanated
from her as her joints deformed in strange ways. She fell
to the ground like a puppet.
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The brilliantly-colored owers continued to utter down

from the sky.
Arato felt something on the back of his neck, as if
something was touching him. Arato reexively wiped
the back of his neck.
His palm was illuminated by the streetlights.
Thin legs, packed tightly together like the legs of a
centipede, emerged from the bright-hued petal and began
to crawl all over Aratos hand.
He screamed. Just as it was about to crawl up his
sleeve, he managed to get it o. He was frantic. Though
it was the middle of the night, he wasnt in a situation
where he could aord to worry about keeping his voice
down.
What the hell, what the hell!
The petals, each one of ve splendorous colors, were
spread across the streets like pavement. They began
crawling around the streets like insects. Arato knew that
this couldnt be happening. Common sense forced him
to reject the reality his eyes saw. Reality itself came to
seem like a work of pure ction.
He was worried about Marie. He recalled that she was
not human, but rather an hIE. She wasnt human. Yet
he couldnt turn his back on her and ee, for she looked
like she was human.
Suddenly, the lights on a car that had been parked
nearby turned on. The car started moving. The car
jerked forward, its tires squealing against the pavement.
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It was headed straight towards Arato. He tried to

escape from it by throwing himself to the side, landing
hard on the pavement. He twisted his arm in a strange
way, causing a dull pain to radiate from his shoulder.
As he tried to stand up, the ice cream hed bought
for his sister rolled out of his shopping bag. On reex,
he grabbed it and put it back in the bag.
He stood up, clinging to a nearby wall. The car
shouldve passed him. But now, it was backing up, clearly
with deliberate intent to run him over.
Hed taken desperate measures to avoid the car, but
it all came to naught. He received a sharp blow to the
hips.
He caught a eeting glimpse of the drivers seat. There,
he saw not a human, but a mass of colorful owers, looking like a tremendous bouquet.
Oh, come on.
The owers continued to rain down, as if to bury the
night sky.
It seemed like the world that had existed before the
rain of those unreal things was about to collapse. The
happy world he had thought to be reality was nothing
but an illusion. True reality was nothing but suering
and terror. He could do nothing about the danger to his
life, which deeply unsettled his heart.
Frozen food began to crawl out of the shopping bag
that Marie had dropped. The petals that fell on the
packet of frozen rice had condensed to form full owers.
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They sprouted arthropod-like legs, making a dry noise in

the bottom of the bag.
Suddenly, a black shadow stretched from the base of
a streetlight. Footsteps drew close to Arato, intermixed
with a painful, creaky sound. Arato stared at the ground,
breathing unevenly. He noticed that the shadow was
wearing a skirt about the same length as Maries.
A mass of owers had swarmed onto something, turning it into a monstrosity. It approached Arato, perhaps
trying to encircle and crush him.
The car stopped moving after running into a wall.
White smoke oated from underneath it. Countless many
owers were ocking around the exterior of the car and
coming into full bloom.
Arato prayed that he would awaken from this dream
if it were a dream. But this was reality. Even if he were
to give up all hope, the horrors of reality would continue
to strike at him without limit. Wiping sweat o his brow,
he nally drew back from the dangers that surrounded
him.
But before he could ee, the car burst into ame with
a furious intensity.
The swirling red ames lled Aratos eld of view,
binding him to the spot.
It was just like the nightmare hed had so many times.
He realized that this would be the end for him. And so,
he cried out for help, as if he were a child once more.

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Just then, with wide eyes, he glimpsed the hazy gure

of a person in the center of the ames.
Something exploded. Suddenly, someone appeared
with her back to him, facing the ames. She carried a
casket in one hand. With bewildering speed, its thin
frame fell to pieces and reconstituted itself as a giant
hemispherical umbrella, shielding them from the ames.
She seemed trustworthy, and at the same time seemed
like the sort of person Arato would want to protect. She
stood between him and the burning nightmare.
The pressure of the blast faded, as did the fear Arato
felt. All that remained was the young woman, her light
purple hair uttering in the warm wind.
She turned around.
Though she wore no makeup, her lustrous skin and
beautiful facial features were enough to draw anyones
gaze. Arato was speechless, faced with such unearthly
beauty.
You wished for help.
She spoke with a clear voice.
She was slightly shorter than Arato. But she was
magnicent, carrying that black device in one hand. Arato
felt pressured.
Th-thanks.
The device that had been an umbrella returned to the
form of a casket.
She looked a bit older than Arato. She opened her
pale lips, tinged the color of blood.
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Beatless

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I am Lacia.
Lacia turned her gaze on Arato. Her pupils were an
icy shade of blue. Arato knew what she wanted out of
him.
Im Arato Endou.
His voice quavered pathetically, his body still numb
with fear.
Her expression was reassuringly tranquil. Arato heaved
a sigh of relief. He noticed that she was rather cute.
The girl who called herself Lacia wore a black-andwhite bodysuit that clung tightly to the lines of her body.
It was obvious that she wasnt human, based on the way
she manipulated that heavy-looking black casket with
just one hand.
Lets get out of here! If one of these owers touches
you, something strange will happen to you.
The owers danced in the sky, bueted about by the
hot air. The remnants of Maries body had been blown
to the opposite side of the road by the explosion.
Flowers were blooming on the roads and walls without
limit, accumulating in forms that looked like corals. The
walls and streetlights were lifeless ower gardens.
Aratos instincts were quietly urging him to run away.
He couldnt help but recall the terrifying sensation of that
centipede-like petal. Cold sweat dripped from his body.
But Lacia stood strong even as those inglorious owers of death landed on her. She, unlike Marie and the
car, was not controlled by them.
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Why must we ee?

Arato pulled at her hand, but her small body didnt
move an inch. His face began to contort. After having
been trapped in that explosion, his heartbeat wouldnt
slow down a bit.
Lacia, however, had no heart. She asked of him:
Are you afraid?
Obviously! I could die here!
Arato screamed at her.
Anybody would be afraid!
Do you not wish to overcome your fear?
Arato felt like he had been stabbed in the chest.
He never thought hed be remonstrated by something
not even human. He wanted to yell at her, telling her to
mind her own business but she had the form of a girl,
so he couldnt.
And what if I do overcome it?
Flowers were ying everywhere. Indeed, they were
completely surrounded by the enemy.
If you wont ght now, then when?
Arato wondered if this was really the time for a question like that. At that time, everything was thoroughly
unpleasant for him.
But still, he thought that Lacia was beautiful.
He shuddered, wondering what wouldve happened if
somebody else had walked into that explosion. Theyd be
involved in this mess too. The thought was so frightening
that his body was deceived into feeling cold.
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Beautiful owers had already started blooming on Lacias light-purple hair. The black casket looked like a
tremendous bouquet.
There was nothing that he could do. Hundreds of
petals with short insectoid legs crawled all over her white
skin.
Arato felt like he was going to go mad with fright.
Hold still for a moment.
Arato gritted his teeth and reached his hand out.
She nodded slightly. Arato brushed the petals o of
her light-purple hair with his bare hands. A crown of
owers aked away, bit by bit.
At the very least, she was in no immediate danger.
Realizing that he was able to help her, he swelled with
courage.
I guess there are some things I can do if I just try.
Arato thanked her for her earlier help in kind. Since
she was an hIE, his feelings might not have gotten through
to her, just like Ryou had mentioned. Arato was satised
anyway.
Lets go!
Arato grabbed Lacias hand. This time, Lacia didnt
resist. Arato was startled that her hand was warm.
Lacia, youre an Interface, right? Can you link up
to the police?
Now that Arato was able to look at the situation a
little more evenheadedly, he noticed that the vivid rain

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was falling only where they were. He looked back at the

grocery and saw that it seemed undamaged.
The fallen owers rushed towards Arato and Lacia
like a breaking wave.
Lacia didnt have any lungs either, so she wouldnt
run out of breath even if she were to run while carrying
that cumbersome device.
The police are not suitably equipped. They cannot
put a stop to the enemy that is creating these owers.
Even though he had just barely escaped with his life,
Arato was seething with emotion so great that he wanted
to scream. That was because he was holding Lacias
hand.
The town he had known for so long once again looked
like a completely dierent world.
Running as fast as he could, he knew not where he
would end up.
He knew nothing but the name of the one running
next to him, a girl who wasnt even human. When he
looked back at her, he saw her opening her mouth to
speak, her light-purple hair rippling in the wind.
Arato do you believe in me?
Lacia was no ordinary hIE. Perhaps just perhaps
her being here had something to do with the rain of
owers.
I do, he yelled into the night sky. None of that
stu mattered to Arato. It was just totally uncool to
disbelieve a girl.
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Grasping Lacias hand, Arato ran back up the street

the same street where he had earlier walked and talked
with Marie. In another ve minutes, theyd arrive at
his apartment, where Yuka was waiting for him. Earlier,
Arato had been knocked down by a car.
Now, as he was groaning in pain from that incident,
he heard another car speeding down the road towards
him, its engine roaring.
Just as he was about to be struck again, Lacia saved
him.
Then, she sat astride him, pinning him to the road.
Arato Endou I have something to ask you.
The moon shone a brilliant white in the night sky.
Lacia stared down at him with a serious look in her
eyes.
Will you become my Owner?
Warm water slowly spread across Aratos stomach as
she sat atop him. Her body was wet, as if she had just
stepped out of a pool.
A drop of water fell on his shirt, perhaps having
dripped from her hair. Like a teardrop, it soaked into his
chest, while Lacia continued to hold him to the ground.
By Owner, you mean youll become my possession?
I have concluded that you are suitable to be my
rst Owner.
Arato had no idea what she based that conclusion
on. In any case, this was too serious a decision for him
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Beatless

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to make at a time like this, when hed just escaped death.

You shouldnt make snap decisions like that. You
dont know the rst thing about me.
For some reason, he thought about his friends and his
sister. He couldnt even imagine what had brought about
Lacias decision. His chest grew heavy with dread.
Even so you said that you would believe in me.
She rested her damp body against him, seeking some
sort of support.
When he was caught in that cars explosion, Lacia
had saved him. He could run away, or he could grit his
teeth and accept her. It was up to him.
But Lacia was right there in front of him, waiting for
his answer with her lips closed.
Alright!
She wasnt human. She was stronger than he was.
But he wanted to protect her anyway.
I have concluded that you have made your decision.
Please conrm that you consent to the formation of a
contract.
That beautiful girl placed her hand on Aratos shoulder as he lay prone on the ground.
You will have no immediate duties pertaining to your
ownership of me. I will make use of my own strength. I
seek but one thing from you.
Arato didnt understand most of what she was saying
her lips had captivated him, and he couldnt look away.

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I am but a machine. I cannot take responsibility for

myself. So please take responsibility for me.
There was a sound like a thunderclap. Lacia had left
her casket standing on the road. It had blocked the path
of the car, which had come back to nish them o. Its
tires screeched against the pavement.
The casket had anchored its base to the pavement.
Even as the sports car rammed into it, it remained stationary.
Now, Owner, I will obtain your biological data. Once
I have done so, please assent twice.
Lacia took Aratos hand and guided it towards her
body. She moved his hand towards a keyhole-like socket
in the neck of her suit, which clung tightly to her body.
Then, she inserted his nger into the keyhole at her
neck.
Recording Arato Endou as the Owner of humanoid
Interface Element class Lacia Type-005. This hIEs core,
Black Monolith, is capable of independent decisionmaking. The Owner is responsible for all decisions made
by this hIE. Do you assent?
I do, replied Arato. Lacias hair ornaments began
to glow with a cerulean blue light.
Acquiring the Owners lifelog. This data may be released in response to properly-led legal paperwork, and
will be released to the court in the event of a lawsuit
against this hIE or its Owner. In order to unlock this
device, you must assent.
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I do!
Arato replied once more.
A metallic restraint near the waist of Lacias white
bodysuit started spinning like a screw being unscrewed.
A red light began to glow at her waist. The black casket
was ooded with pale blue light.
Everything around Lacia that was touched by the
blue light was permeated by a rustling noise that echoed
in the deepest parts of Aratos ears. All of the owers
that were kept airborne by the wind now landed on the
ground like rain. If they had been attacked at that point
in time, they would have been vulnerable to concentrated
gunre from overhead, since they were unable to move.
Lacia kept her calm even as she was battered by the vecolored rain of death.
We are currently under attack by a small combat
unit. In order to nullify them, I recommend disabling all
communications.
I have concluded that doing so will have the least
impact on the surroundings, and will pose the smallest
possible threat to others.
Arato was losing track of what was going on around
him. He couldnt move, and his eld of view was limited.
He saw something like a lamppole intertwined with debris
crawling up towards them. It was moving on four legs,
dragging the wreck of Maries body by her skirt.
It was covered in owers and creaked as it moved,
falling apart with each step. And yet it rushed in closer.
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It was like a beautiful and monstrous work of modern

art. And it was closing in with each passing second.
If you can stop it, do it! Hurry!
Be forewarned that the metamaterials necessary to
perform a full spatial barrage will deactivate all electrical
lines in its area of eect. Any life support devices in the
vicinity will lose their source of power.
Arato wanted to cling to her. She looked down at him
uninchingly.
The responsibility for my actions lies with my Owner.
Arato didnt really grasp what those words meant.
Nonetheless, he felt an ominous weight on his shoulders.
Your decision, Owner? Given that a barrage may
pose a threat to humans in the vicinity, should I proceed?
She oered him the option. His nerves were fraying,
faced with a danger to peoples lives and the responsibility associated with it.
But that didnt matter. Arato had told her that hed
believe in her.
Do it!
Arato issued an order. Lacia nodded.
The thick shell of the casket opened up. The thin
black plates stored inside it fanned out, rotating to form
a three-dimensional structure. It was like a metallic tree
spreading its branches out wide.
In the blink of an eye, the world underwent a transformation. The owers were banished from view, and the
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town returned to normal. It was like he had woken up

from a dream.
Theyre gone.
Unconsciously, Arato propped himself up and examined his surroundings. Even the noises that had borne
down on him had gone completely silent.
Theres nothing here.
This area has been made opaque to all radiation in
a certain bandwidth range by its interaction with the
metamaterial membranes, which have a negative index of
refraction. By isolating these units from wireless power
transmissions and control signals, they have been nullied.
Thanks for the explanation, but that doesnt really
help....
Arato placed his hands on the ground, crushing some
dried object beneath his palm. On reex, he withdrew his
hand, gasping. Preparing himself for whatever disgusting
thing might be there, he took a look at it. Though he
couldnt quite make out what it was, he could tell that
there was a large pile of soft objects.
The petals remained. Thanks to Lacias device, they
couldnt receive signals from their controllers anymore,
rendering them immobile.
All the hundreds of thousands of petals were deactivated instantaneously. Arato couldnt fathom how she
could pull o a stunt like that while remaining seated
atop him.
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The wind blew. The blizzard of owers vanished in

the dark, apping in the wind as they went.
Aratos chest was trembling so much he thought his
heart might stop. Even if he wasnt the sharpest tool in
the shed, he had to begin to suspect that Lacia wasnt
normal. But that manifestation of power was so great
that his basic animalistic survival instincts were urging
him to cower with his tail between his legs.
That was amazing. What was it?
Even before his logical faculties caught up to him, he
instinctively realized that this thing he had taken possession of could be frighteningly dangerous.
She stood up like nothing had happened.
To Arato, that thing looked like a monstrous beast.
It was at rst such a beautiful thing, and a mere second later, such a dreadful thing.
Arato was running out of time.
He only had until the ice cream melted.
When he got to the door of his apartment, he checked
his watch. It had been 8 minutes since hed met Lacia.
In the distance, police sirens wailed.
Youre so slow, Arato.
Yuka used her mobile computer to deactivate the electric lock on the door. She had been waiting for him.
When he opened the door, she ran towards him.
Shopping can be tough sometimes, okay.
He pulled the pack of frozen rice out of the bag, making sure that no petals were stuck to it.
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It seemed like Yuka was panicking. She couldnt get

a word out.
A-A-A-Ara!
I am Lacia. It is my pleasure to meet you.
Lacia bowed her head respectfully. Yukas face turned
white. But Arato was Lacias Owner now. There was
nothing peculiar about him keeping his possessions near
him. That is if that possession was not in the form of
a human.
Oh god, Arato bought a woman.
Cut it out. I didnt pay her anything.
Thats even worse!
In general, one would be surprised if a family member
said they were going to get food but instead ended up
getting a woman. Yuka looked like she was about to cry.
Everythings going to be okay, Arato. Ill help you
through rehab. Im sure this was your rst oense, so it
shouldnt be too bad.
Yuka spoke with a tearful voice, her head bent low.
Arato realized that Yuka had misunderstood the situation. Lacia, noticing this, delivered a simple explanation
so as to disentangle Yukas confused trains of thought.
I am not human, but rather an Interface. Arato has
committed no crime by bringing me to this residence. As
I had no Owner, I requested that Arato take possession
of me. We have forged a proper contract.
Youre smarter than me, arent you? said Arato.
He wasnt even a bit nervous anymore. He didnt even
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care that he had been attacked earlier.

Huh? Really?
Yuka lifted her head up. She really was crying. This
made Arato feel a bit o. He wasnt sure if he should
be happy that Yuka cared about him so much, or sad
that Yuka was legitimately worried that hed kidnapped
someone.
So, then... about Ms. Lacia can we just leave her
here?
Yuka was embarassed to call Lacia just by her name.
She wiped her eyes and said
Okay, thats ne.
You sure?
Yuka was quick to return to her usual smiling self.
Shes yours now, right? You cant complain about
getting something this cool.
Arato wanted to tell Yuka about all hed been through
since hed left to go shopping. He wanted to bring Lacia
inside, but he absolutely didnt want to scare his sister.
Hey, Yuka. When I was out shopping, there were
owers fwooshing all over. And Marie Mr. Yuzawas
hIE she broke. Maybe Lacia was going to be attacked
too.
Lacia had said that she didnt know who was behind
the owers. Arato was still reeling from his encounter
with that bizarre world, and his hold on reality was still
weak. He could only give the most perfunctory of explanations to Yuka. Lacking any other way to tell Yuka
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what happened, he lifted his shirt and showed her the

bruise hed gotten.
See, I got hit by a car here. Thankfully, Lacia protected me.
Thats great. Lacia saved you, huh.
Indeed she did. Arato didnt really do anything.
Theres nothing on the news about that. But if it
wasnt safe out there, it was really dumb of you to go
and bring her back here.
Yuka snied at him. She believed not in Lacia, but
rather in the one who had brought her back here her
own brother.
Arato was about to thank Yuka, when she reached her
hand into his shopping bag and grabbed the ice cream.
She lives here now, right? And hIEs can cook food,
cant they? I bet itll be tasty!
Lacia responded immediately.
If you would like me to prepare a meal, I can begin
right away using data from a commercial control cloud.
Will that be yummy?
Users have given the recipes a ve-star rating.
Youre awesome, Ms. Lacia!
Yuka innocently hugged Lacia.
She held Lacias hand and led her inside.
Hold it. You think you can get away with anything
by being nice?

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Yuka was as smooth as butter. This time, Arato

didnt get carried along by Yukas enthusiasm. He grabbed
Lacias hand and stopped her.
But Yuka had been powerfully persuasive since forever.
It said on the TV that hIEs can use their eyes as
cameras and record all sorts of stu If Marie was here,
everythingd be on camera for sure. If something bad
happens, Im sure the police will come here to help.
As a matter of fact, everything that had happened
to Arato and Lacia had probably been recorded on the
surveillance cameras outside the store. If there really
was a problem, the police would denitely be around by
morning.
I guess so. That is how cops earn their keep.
Arato felt like he had been too worried. Whoever the
culprit behind the rain of owers was, there was no sense
in thinking about ghting that culprit himself.
After all, he didnt plan to remain Lacias Owner forever. Arato couldnt imagine that someone as exceptional
as her would become part of their lives.
Youre such a worrywart, Arato. It doesnt matter
who she is. Its all about what shell do for me.
Sometimes I wish I could think the way you do.
Lacia and Yuka had established a relationship of mutual benet in a startlingly smooth manner.
Youve got a tough life ahead of you, Arato. It looks
like youre all out of good luck.
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Dont say things like that! What if it turns out to

be true?
If youre worried, just ask Lacia. Will it be dangerous for us to leave Lacia here?
If matters are as you said they were, Miss Yuka,
there will be no danger to you.
Lacia responded immediately. Yuka nodded, grinning
slyly.
See? Everythings gonna be ne.
Yuka was utterly indomitable. Maybe it had something to do with her being a girl.
If something comes up later, we can worry about it
then. Lacia needs our help now.
Arato wasnt one to fret over the small stu either. He
was so easygoing that Kengo and Ryou would sometimes
harangue him about it.
Youre right. Why dont we have dinner now?
I have examined the contents of the refrigerator.
If one were to judge Lacia based on the food she had
made, one would certainly nd her to be a splendid hIE.
She had made a delicious Chinese meal from the bits and
pieces Arato had lying around. Arato couldnt gure out
how she did it. Neither could Yuka. They set about
eating.
The two siblings were hopelessly useless.
It was late, so Yuka had a bath and went to bed right
after she was done eating. Lacia took care of the dishes
too, so Arato had nothing to do.
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Sorry for making you do all this work already.

She was in the kitchen, putting the various dishes and
utensils in order.
Please do not worry about it. From the beginning,
Interfaces existed to act as caretakers and manual laborers.
The black casket rested against the wall of the living
room.
So as not to damage the oor, it had been placed atop
a cushion. The room was laid out somewhat strangely as
a result.
While gazing at Lacia working, Arato felt a rush of
emotion as he realized just what an overwhelming day
hed had. Arato leaned back in the sofa and lazily eyed
her. Suddenly, he realized that he could see her skin
through the holes in her suit.
Now that hed become aware of her white skin, he
couldnt restrain himself. He felt stranger and stranger
as he stared at her back. He couldnt help it. Her whiteand-black bodysuit was too out-of-place in the kitchen.
His body got hotter and hotter, until he collapsed on the
sofa.
Oh man, this isnt good.
His heart was beating fast again.
Arato remembered the way Lacia looked when they
rst met.
He recalled how he held her hand as they ran away.
Her hand was so soft.
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The sensations he felt when she had sat on top of him

and made him her Owner welled up within him, as did the
image of her face, lit by the moon. He grew impatient,
anguished by his feelings.
It didnt seem like he could get up, and so he remained
lying down. He couldnt control himself. His face turned
red and he began to sweat. From today on, Lacia would
live with them. This fact came to the fore of his consciousness once again. Even if she wasnt human, her
presence still discomforted him.
Like Yuka had said, maybe he had exhausted all his
good luck. He thought his heart might stop if he fell
asleep.
Im a simple guy, arent I.
He got up. If he hadnt, he felt he mightve gone mad.
Owner, would you prefer that I leave this seat?
Lacia was right next to him, looking down at him
with a cool expression as he turned red. She retrieved a
tea tray from who-knows-where and brought it to him.
Arato looked absurd standing up half-way, and so he
sat back down on the couch. Lacia kneeled down to set
the tray on a low table. She poured hot water from the
teapot into a cup of cool water. Neither Arato nor Yuka
had ever used traditional equipment to make green tea.
As such, Arato found Lacias graceful movements novel.
Wow. Its impressive that you can make tea too.
Thank you. However, the behaviors of hIEs are
merely acquired by connecting to a network and down59

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loading them from a control cloud service. I am able to

brew tea like this because my body is able to mimic the
actions described by motion capture data and videos of
humans doing the same.
Feeling as though he was being lectured by Lacia,
Arato smiled wryly. Ryou, too, had said that hIEs were
tools.
She astutely discerned what Arato was thinking and
responded.
I was concerned that you might be lacking information about the basic nature of hIEs.
Is it a problem if if I am?
She remained graciously silent.
Arato hadnt thought about the possibility of Lacia
having been somebody elses before she contracted with
him.
Fear crept into him once again as he had second thoughts
about having become Lacias owner. Its unrealistic to
expect people never to renege on their agreements.
Where did you come from, Lacia?
She poured tea powder into the teapot.
Is this information necessary in order to strengthen
our relationship, Owner?
The strong sense of reliability and trustworthiness
that Lacia bore about her had left a deep impression
on Arato when they rst met. He wanted to get closer
to her.

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Come to think of it, I dont really know anything

about you. If theres anything youre worried about, its
better to get that out of the way now so we dont have
to worry about it later. Plus, itll make it easier for us
to understand one another.
Besides, he wanted to do anything he could to help
her.
Alas, she didnt reply to Aratos rather embarassing
comment in the way he had been daydreaming about.
She just dispassionately stated the facts.
You are a good person. However, you are making a
fundamental mistake.
Lacias light-purple pupils didnt waver.
I have no soul.
That was a retort he hadnt expected. He was her
Owner, and yet he couldnt muster a reply.
I do nothing but respond to others using human language and behavior in whatever manner will please them
most. My speech and actions are guided by my predictions of how others will react, and do not suce to
constitute a consistent personality.
As technology marched on, human behavior ceased
to be the sole domain of humans. Anything in the form
of a human could display that same behavior. Even a
heartless, soulless hIE could exhibit human behavior if
they were provided with appropriate behavior patterns.
All the behaviors that an hIEs Owner witnesses
amount to nothing more than a shadow an illusion.
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Aratos chest trembled as his blood began to boil.

He thought he had saved the girl he had met out of
the blue. But he had not. Anger started to build up
inside of him. He did realize that what she was saying
was true.
As long as he was appreciated, he was in a fantasy
world. It was just this sort of things for which his friends
rebuked him. His world was overturned as he saw everything the way it really was. He had great patience when
dealing with other humans, because he shared something
with all of them the essence of humanity. But not with
her.
Arato doubted that he wouldve set foot on the path
that led him to bring Lacia home if she hadnt looked
like a human.
Fear, regret, and despair intertwined, rendering him
speechless. All he could hear was the sound of the veins
in his neck pulsating.
He was unsteady on his feet. It was like he had gazed
into an endless abyss.
Lacia had no heart. And she said it again.
I am soulless.
Arato turned to the heavens for guidance.
Because he had been irresolute, the pain he had felt
grew and grew. He closed his eyes. Whenever he felt
troubled, hed see things on the back of his eyelids: things
that were his starting line. Hed see the red-and-black
explosion and the white dog, wagging its tail. Arato
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breathed out a warm pu of air. His younger self was

saved by the dogs delightful behavior as it wagged its
tail. He decided to take the rst step.
Even if there wasnt any meaning in doing so, hed
proer a handshake.
Its not like your life wont matter just because you
dont have a soul.
Arato was angry. He had never seen that white dogs
soul. Even so, it had lent him courage.
Your heart still beats.
Miraculously, he kept at it, his emotions welling up.
His chest was just as hot as the things hed lost were
numerous.
Indeed because he was irresolute, his emotions could
change on the quick. He wasnt an intellectual, and so
he felt that he had to take physical action instead.
Blood owed throughout Aratos body. He was going
to nd something he could do for Lacia.
If you just sit there and wait quietly, will you really
be able to compose your emotions?
Arato broke the silence between them, a silence that
should have meant nothing, for Lacia was heartless. She
smiled mysteriously.
No for I have no emotions.
She had no emotions in the rst place.
But still, Arato wanted to do something for her.
He felt so hot that he realized his face must be red.
I really am a simple fellow.
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Arato yelled loudly, trying to sweep away all the pain

and happiness he felt.
Quick footsteps came down the corridor. It was Yuka
in her pajamas, carrying a pillow in one hand. She had
a fearsome expression on her face.
Arato. Shut up.
Arato went to sleep, as restless when he woke up as
he was when he went to bed.
When he went to the living room, Lacia was there, as
he expected.
She had even prepared breakfast for them to eat before they left for school.
Yuka really did live on enthusiasm alone. She had
quite a few friends at school. Their father was busy with
work and hadnt come home.
Four days passed. Lacias presence didnt seem unusual at all.
Arato awoke at the sound of his alarm. He grabbed
his portable computer from his bedside table. Without
any intervention from Arato, the computer automatically
opened a connection with Lacia, who had sent him a
wakeup call.
Breakfast is ready. Will you be waking up soon?
Lacias limpid voice tickled his ears. He leapt out of
bed excitedly, with such haste that his heart throbbed
painfully.
Whats for breakfast?
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Hed know once he got to the living room, but he

wanted to hear Lacia say it.
I have made French toast, since you indicated that
you had never eaten it.
Arato was tremendously embarrassed, feeling as though
he was taking advantage of her kindness. He sat up in
bed and cradled his head in his hands.
Is it really okay for things to be like this?
Of course not.
He headed to the living room. Yuka sat there languidly, biting into a light-brown piece of French toast.
Morning.
Mm.
With a fork in her hand, she mumbled at Arato, her
mouth full of food.
Thanks to Lacia, the two of them were getting their
once-disordered daily routines back in order. Also thanks
to Lacia, they were perpetually sleepy. Unbearably so.
Owner, have you awoken?
She was wearing normal clothes now not the blackand-white bodysuit she was wearing when they rst met.
The lock on her waist was unlatched.
She looked absolutely identical to a human now, and
so Arato averted his gaze from her. It was embarrassing
how she was wearing one of his shirts and a pair of his
jeans.
Horny already? asked Yuka.

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Arato didnt want to hear his family members calling

him horny. Plus, it was kind of depressing that he was
so easy to read.
He snuck a glance at Lacias face. It was refreshing.
Even though she wasnt human, Arato was worried that
she might hate him.
Yeah, we denitely need to get Lacia some new clothes.
When Arato went to the fridge to get some juice, as
he did every morning, he noticed that there was a teapot
on the table.
He felt bad that Lacia was doing everything for them,
so he poured a cup of tea for himself. They hadnt had
any tea leaves at home before. Lacia must have placed a
mail-order for them. A powerful scent wafted forth from
the steaming cup. It was a real waker-upper.
Lacia stood in front of a hot plate, wearing an apron,
readying herself to ip a piece of toast at exactly the
right time. It smelled great.
Now that Lacia was around, Arato had more time
than he knew what to do with. He synchronized his
portable computer with the television.
The control system for all the electronics in the house
took care of the details.
Lines of text appeared in 3D. The control system presented all the information it concluded Arato ought to
know. Among the information was an email Arato didnt
recognize.
Hey, Yuka, isnt this email addressed to you?
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Arato expanded the email on the screen. It was addressed to Yuka, but it had been forwarded to him on
purpose.
Suddenly, Yuka leaned over to him, as if she had just
woken up.
Just take a look, she said.
The senders name was displayed on the white 3D
screen. Arato didnt recognize the name.
He opened up the le and looked at its contents. His
mental faculties left him.
Yuka, have a seat over here.
Im already sitting.
Whats this about a model audition?
A terse message was displayed on screen.
Dear Miss Yuka Arato, Your hIE, Lacia, has received the grand prize in our companys model audition.
Isnt that awesome? The grand prize!
Essentially, a media conglomerate must have been
looking for hIEs to work as models, and Yuka must have
submitted an application on Lacias behalf.
And this was the announcement of the results.
When he clicked on the link Yuka had included, Arato
was redirected to the public website announcing the results. Various responses from viewers were displayed on
Lacias page.
See these pictures?
At some point, Yuka had taken pictures of someone
wearing her schools uniform. Of course, that someone
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was none other than Lacia. There were also pictures of

other hIEs who had made it to the nal stage, but Arato
had eyes only for Lacia.
She really is beautiful. Yup.
The other thing that drew Aratos gaze was the name
of the auditions sponsor.
Theyre kinda famous arent they?
Yeah. They announced the results on TV too.
That meant that from now on, Lacia would be a hot
topic in the media world.
Arato felt like he was about to get a headache. He
still had no explanation for how or why he was attacked
in that storm of owers.
So, Arato, dont you have anything to say to me?
Youre a m-m-moron!
Arato stammered.
Perhaps Yuka was expecting to be praised she grumbled at Arato.
Shes so pretty! Whats the point if we dont make
good use of it?
That doesnt mean you should do this without even
talking to me about it. Think a bit before you act.
Lacia calmly responded, I have no objections.
See? Lacia is ne with it, so it must be okay.
Interfaces wont oppose humans in situations like
this, replied Arato
hIEs are dierent from humans.
Lacia herself said that she had no soul.
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Which means that her assent to the audition was just

a response tailored to please Yuka.
Lacia ipped over another piece of French toast and
then turned around.
Owner, at this point, it is too late to do anything
about it.
The sound of oil bubbling and crackling awoke Aratos
stomach. It was like his body was telling him, It doesnt
matter. Just let me eat.
Arato leaned back.
What are we going to do about this?
When they rst met, Arato and Lacia had both been
attacked. What if an enemy were looking for her? Their
location had been broadcasted to the entire world.
I still havent gured out what happened that night.
And now I have even more problems? This sucks.
Yuka put her nger to her lips and rmed up her
expression.
Am I living in the future?
Yuka was the sort of person who would push a button
just because it was there.
What kind of future are you imagining?
The two siblings heard an amused giggle from beside
the dining table.
Lacia was laughing, still wearing her apron. She elegantly covered her mouth with her right hand, laughing
all the while. She was smiling brightly, in a way Arato
had never seen.
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Arato murmured: hIEs... laugh?

Her laughter seemed to originate in an deep emotion
one so deep that he almost could not believe that she
was soulless.

-to be continued-

The beginning of a new world is

yet also the birth of new dangers.

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