Lydia returned to the underground library and now was in the air shower room together with Yuuyami.
The air shower is a room where all dirt and bacteria, which sticked to clothes and body, could be completely removed.
Before world’s collapse it was widely used in ordinary households because only a one minute was necessary to stay in the room to become absolutely clean.
Pushed out by the trend, old-fashioned bath has disappeared from ordinary households.
However, Lydia believed that someday bath will reappeared. Atmosphere of bath, washing one’s body with foam seemed to be very fun.
“I’m exhausted.”
Lydia leaned against Yuuyami who was standing right beside her.
“Please have a rest for today.”
Yuuyami put her left hand on Lydia’s head and stroked her hair.
“Uh-huh. You know, I really want to be friends with Rapha.”
“Yes, so?”
“However I believe it might be impossible.”
“Because she saying an unpleasant things?”
“That’s right. I don’t really understand Rapha. Actually, I had much more things I wanted to talk about.”
“I can’t help but understand. For Lydia, it was a first intelligent life-form other than myself.”
“Human beings are bothersome.”
Lydia tightly embraced Yuuyami.
Yuuyami wasn’t a bother at all. Although there were many disagreements, Yuuyami always considering Lydia’s opinon. Lydia knew that either, so it wasn’t unpleasant in a slightest.
“Yuo might say humans are, however Rapha-san and Lydia is a new breed of human beings created by humankind. Assuming that Rapha-san’s story was complete truth.”
“Then, new humans are bothersome.”
Lydia buried her visage into Yuuyami’s chest. It was soft and exceedingly comfortable.
The bosom of Yuuyami weren’t designed to be large, however the lines were absolutely beautiful.
Lydia was looking forward to the future, wondering if her chest would become like this one day.
“As the phrase「Ten persons, ten colours」indicate, people have a wide variety of opinions, whether they are old or new generation, and some of them may not suit you.”
“I see. I’m glad I was picked up by Yuuyami. Supposing it was Rapha who educated me, I would probably repudiate Yuuyami as well.”
Lydia felt nauseous just by imagining it.
Ah, that’s why. Lydia realised.
What she hated most was a repudiation of Yuuyami.
Her existence, her education a precious time for Lydia. Those Rapha completely refused to accept.
“That’s right. Rapha-san obviously repudiated my existence. She seemed to believe from the bottom of her heart that in AD can’t dwell mental consciousness. However that was due to her ignorance. Moreoverー”
Yuuyami closely embraced Lydia and caressed her back.
“ーeven if Rapha-san educated Lydia, Lydia undoubtedly would understand me someday. She would acknowledged my existence. So it seems.”
“Uh-huh, I hope so.”
Silence fell between them. However that was comfortable period of time.
Although air shower was already over, neither of them moved.
“Listen, Yuuyami.” Said Lydia.
“Yes, what is it?” Yuuyami asked indifferently, as usual.
“I love you.”
“I also love Lydia.”
Lydia knew that Yuuyami would say so.
Certainly knew.
Despite that,
she didn’t knew a reason, but
felt as her heart was pounding.
She remembered it being like this before.
What was that?
She didn’t understand.
She did not understand, however… it was extremely comfortable.
◇
Rapha used the director’s office in an underground research facility as her own room.
When she returned to the room, bright illumination and a light sky-blue carpet welcomed Rapha.
Her favorite fluffy white bed was installed on the left side from the entrance.
On the right side were placed a simple table and chair. On the table – computer.
Previously sofa and office desk were placed in the room, however Ohan removed them. It didn’t suite Rapha’s tastes.
“Now, Onee-chama’s matter, got to know what I said made her feel unpleasant.”
Rapha sat down on bed and began thinking.
Before anything else, Rapha recreated conversation with Lydia in her head. She was confident that she remember every single word without any mistakes.
After entirely replaying from Lydia’s first statement to the last, Rapha sighed a little.
“Myself. I was saying nothing but completely right things.”
Right. Nothing was wrong. Rapha was right. At least Rapha sincerely believed it was so.
A sole flaw was that she flusteredly turned over the chair.
Always be graceful. That was Rapha’s creed. It was a terrible blunder to knock chair over.
However, it has nothing to do with Lydia’s subject.
Rapha set aside matter with the chair, concluding – “she would be careful in the future.”
“If she disagreed with correct things, Onee-chama in not correct person, that’s all.”
However, Rapha thought it was unavoidable.
Lydia has no recollection. That why she learned certain new incorrect information somewhere.
“Indeed, why in the world did Onee-chama woke earlier?”
Completely irregular.
Lydia supposed to wake up together with Rapha.
Notwithstanding when Rapha woke up, she was alone.
She wanted to cry, but didn’t cry. It not graceful.
Instead, she thoroughly examined the pods for artificial hibernation. However, no error was found, and Rapha stopped blame the pod for the cause.
“After all it’s still unknown, right?”
With repetition of assumptions and verifications, there still was no answer.
Rapha fell on the bed and dimly stared at the ceiling.
Naturally, answer wasn’t written there. To the question why did Lydia woke up earlier nor why Lydia said she felt unpleasant.
“Nonetheless, I should give Onee-chama proper knowledge. In that situation she will realise that I’m not saying anything wrong.”
No, Rapha slightly shook her head.
That wasn’t it. What she should think about is on which words Lydia reacted.
Rapha once again reproduced conversation with Lydia in her head. Now, not mere words but Lydia’s every single move.
Thereupon, she noticed one thing.
Lydia turned her gaze to Yuuyami when she was troubled. She wished for Yuuyami to response. Instead of ordering, just asked. As if to friend.
“Friends? With AD? Are you stupid?”
Despite the number of great strides.
However, no matter how many times she replayed her memory, Lydia seemed to rely on Yuuyami.
“If Onee-chama has no recollection, would that be possible? If so, it’s possible that Yuuyami changed Onee-chama… That can’t be. AD fundamentally works only according to the program. ”
The LM series, Yuuyami, couldn’t possibly instil superfluous knowledge in humans.
When it come to that, there must be another person. The one who gave Lydia knowledge. Perhaps someone who rewrote Yuuyami’s program.
Who made Yuuyami behave more like a human being.
“I wonder where is Onee-chama’s base? Is an underground library still remaining?”
Yuuyami operating, so there was a good possibility.
“Ara.” Rapha interrupted her chain of thoughts. “I’ve deviate from the main subject again.”
Rapha rose her body and stand up from bed.
“Well, I have a week so I should think slowly.”
Muttering so, she left the room in favor of drink her favorite café au lait.
◇
Midnight.
Yuuyami was sitting at the computer desk.
The computer was booted up and holographic keyboard projected.
However, Yuuyami didn’t move a finger.
After Lydia went to bed, Yuuyami investigated the Angel Project. However, there was no records left anywhere.
Therefore, she decided to guess why there was no documents remaining. That was why now Yuuyami didn’t move her fingers and not looking at the display.
From when to humanity was open access to information. Humans, who had advanced technology and lived a prosperous life, have escaped from rivalry society. There was no need to hide the information.
Thanks to various Maker technologies which reproduced the molecular structures, any supplies were distributed to any people. A world without deficit. A world where you didn’t have to surpass nor defeat.
Number of crimes has decreased, most of the prisons disappeared.
Therefore, even if information were opened to public, a risk of criminal use was low. Consequently, anyone had access to information they wished.
However, with sole exception – military relations.
Despite it should have been a peaceful world with seldom hardship, for some reason humankind didn’t let go of the armed forces and weapons until the end.
It was strange to Yuuyami. Pointlessness to keep what you didn’t need, and developing arms that you wouldn’t expect to use.
For military-related matters, the latest technologies and plans were always kept secret and available to public after several years.
Ohan and so forth is an old generation of AD, so detailed specification documents were left. For that reason Yuuyami was able to compare her abilities with Ohan’s.
“Is the Angel Project under military authorities jurisdiction?”
Yuuyami tilted her head.
It was a deadlock. She couldn’t go any further unless she would hear from Rapha a full story or obtain materials for the Angel Project.
Therefore she needed to think over about another way.
Yuuyami played the action log and watched it for a while.
And then marked Rapha’s words which seemed to be important.
“Onee-chama, didn’t you promised to create a new world with me?”
If it was truth, there’s a pair of possibilities.
Lydia and Rapha knew that world would be perished.
Or, she made promise after its falling.
If she knew when the two went into suspended animation, the answer would come.
Next mark.
“You erased your memory in order to start over from scratch…”
In other words, Lydia erased her own recollections.
But why?
Although some conjectures could be made, none of them were definitive. It was the best to ask Rapha.
“Hey, Yuuyami!”
Abruptly, she heard Lydia’s voice. Surprised, Yuuyami returned from her thoughts.
“Lydia? Already woke up?”
Yuuyami turned the chair towards Lydia.
Lydia’s pale amber pyjamas were sloppy, and her hair here and there were springing up. This was usual case when Lydia woke up in the middle of the night.
It seemed exceedingly cute, and Yuuyami felt herself blessed.
“I called you for a while, you know?”
“Is that so? I didn’t notice.”
“Was concentrated?”
“Yes. So what was it?”
“Uh-huh, er, tomorrow…” Lydia smiled like a mischievous child. “…let’s go view the sea?”1
Suddenly, she was informed about exploration point for tomorrow.
- ［Umi］can be implied for both sea and sometimes for ocean, so… Will we learn afterwards which is it? I wonder; ↩
sakkamade 