She wasn’t kidding about the strength of the armor, Arato thought. The floating plates shrugged off bullets and anti-tank rounds from all sides with no sign of weakening.
Through the display projected on his barrier, Arato saw that soldiers ahead were blocking off his route, using armored vehicles as barriers. He waved his hand at them, hoping they would just clear out of the way for him.
As if Arato’s hand—giant compared to the soldiers on his device’s display—had actually struck the barricade, soldiers went flying. The armored vehicles were running wild, sweeping the soldiers aside to clear the path for Arato.
He could hear shouts of anger from the nearby army encampment. The soldiers on the screen were already trying to reform, but Arato held up his hand as if to stop them in their tracks. Buildings on either side of the street exploded from within, showering window glass onto the soldiers like rain. The soldiers, wearing only their field uniforms, had no choice but to retreat to a safer location.
“What the hell is going on?” Arato asked, surprise leaking into his voice. It wasn’t like he had actually gained the power to make things explode by gesturing. Apparently, Lacia was watching him from a distance and translating his hand movements into directions to get rid of the soldiers.
Arato ran, aiming to break through the military cordon. He met no resistance, as if he had the whole road to himself. Of course, the endless pitter-patter of bullets raining against his giant shields continued, but that was all.
Lacia was keeping her eye on Arato’s progress, guiding him on his path. Each time he made even the smallest gesture, she interpreted it as a command, and controlled the world around him.
Arato couldn’t keep a level head. He knew that he was perfectly safe within the barrier, but couldn’t stop running like his life depended on it. His whole body was burning hot. Of course if, as Lacia said, humans were systems that included their tools and surroundings, there was no way he could be expected to keep a level head in this situation.
His heart thrilled, as though his entire being had been stretched into something giant. If he went by what Lacia had said earlier, the two of them together formed one complete unit, which meant that the power of an ultra high-performance AI could actually be considered his own power. Still, Arato got the uncomfortable feeling that he shouldn’t get too used to having that power at his command.
The power was as intoxicating as a drug, pushing him forward, making him feel like he could do anything. A small part of his mind, though, reminded him that he could just be drowning in an illusion, led along by Lacia.
He wanted to get his feelings and thoughts under control.
Before he realized it, Arato’s breathing had gotten ragged. He slowed to a walk, and spoke to Lacia, whom he was sure was listening. “Why are they attacking us this violently?” he asked.
〈They are afraid of us,〉 Lacia replied, simply.
Arato could have used a breeze, but no wind could get through the armored barrier that was protecting him from the attacks.
〈Astraea stated earlier that society required widespread agreement, but this is incorrect. Political and world viewpoints, when compared minutely, show a large amount of disconnect in reality. This disconnect causes chaos, which leads humans to make errors such as illogical decisions, or to rely too heavily on their instincts,〉 Lacia explained.
She spoke as if all the soldiers pointing their guns at him, and all the humans in the city, were all making these errors. Of course, with bullets pinging off his shield, Arato couldn’t exactly say that those errors were one of the things that made humans wonderful. With Lacia protecting him, Arato started to think that the ground passing under his feet was the only thing he had won that day.
〈The material distribution system in today’s society has fully incorporated these errors,〉 Lacia, his guardian angel, continued. 〈Therefore, any being that attempts to mitigate these errors will appear to humans as if they were trying to institute a new social system.〉
Surely Japan, which had authorized the attacks on him, wasn’t the only country that shared the same feelings. It sounded like she was saying that Arato no longer had a place in human society.
On one of the armor plate screens, Arato saw Lacia crossing a bridge blocked off by tanks. While she ran, she sent him a route that would get him straight across the Tokyo Bay.
“I know you’re following my orders not to kill anyone, but I feel like we’re still piling up wounded like this,” Arato said. “Please, just tell me the fastest way to get out of here.” Stabbing his finger into the map, he drew a straight line right through the group of soldiers in his path, without any idea of how Lacia would interpret his gesture. A cluster of shadows flew over his head; the unexploded missiles Lacia had taken control of earlier. Arato heard the commander of the soldiers screaming for them to retreat. His voice was drowned out by a massive, fiery explosion.
While the explosion bloomed, one of the six plates detached itself from the barrier and slipped under Arato’s feet like a flying surfboard. “So I’m supposed to ride this?” Arato wondered aloud. He crouched down, keeping his body low so that he wouldn’t slide off as soon as the thing accelerated. The floating plate carried him toward the fire.
A message on the plate said ‘Please hold your breath’ and showed a countdown to when he would pass through the fire. Lacia really had prepared every single thing beforehand. Arato couldn’t even tell anymore whether Lacia was guiding him, or if he was just dancing on her strings. Still, he somehow felt calm, like everything was as it should be.
What worried him, instead, was the thought that someday, the time he was sharing with Lacia might end. Automation was making everything easy for him, but in the end he was just being carried along by time and circumstance.
It was far beyond his capabilities to foresee where the massive analog hack—the complete change of human consciousness that would be brought about by the conflict with Higgins—would take humanity.