Higgins’ underground facility was south of Mitaka Station, beneath the old Inokashira Park site. But, for her assault, Lacia chose not to enter through the above-ground entrance she had shot up during her attack; the Antibody Network had already closed in from that entrance, and the Japanese Army had tightened its security net in the area. Instead, Lacia had obtained a blueprint of the facility beforehand. With it, she had a construction company excavate the ground, opening a path right to the outer wall of the facility.
Once she had come to the outer wall, Lacia blasted open a new entrance. She gave Arato a quiet, serene smile, contrasting sharply with the earth-rattling cannon shot she had just fired off. “Let’s go in,” she said, leading the way.
The bodysuit she was wearing today seemed different from what she’d been wearing on the night they had met. Arato wondered, had she improved it somehow? There were 16 metal plates floating around her, now somewhat thinner than the originals. Of course, she was also still wielding the black coffin device, which hadn’t changed. Just as Arato was thinking of how she and her coffins made an odd infiltration squad, Lacia looked back at him.
“I will assign five of my armor devices to you, Arato,” she said. “They should be more than enough to protect you from the facility’s security systems.” Even as she said it, five of the metal plates floated over to take up positions behind him in the air. They were the same as the ones that had protected him after their meeting with Astraea.
“Hey, don’t go looking so uneasy,” he told her, trying to lighten the mood. “Just act like you already know what’s going to happen, like you always do.” But in his heart, Arato knew that Lacia had every reason to be uneasy. Even for her, going toe-to-toe with an ultra high-performance AI like Higgins would be difficult. And—even if they did manage to shut down Higgins safely—the human world would still reject Lacia, as well.
“Higgins’ containment facility, much like the Oi Industry Promotion Center, has a high-powered security system that will block all signals to and from the outside,” Lacia explained. “I’ve thought up some countermeasures, but this will still be a difficult fight.”
Arato’s heart was a roiling tempest of unease, as though belonging to someone who’d been left alone in the wilderness. Even if Lacia didn’t make it through the coming conflict, the world would still consider him an enemy. If that happened, he wouldn’t have Lacia there to protect him any longer. Despite the apprehensions tearing through his mind, Arato didn’t want Lacia to see his pathetic side. He was fighting down his fears with everything he had.
“Let’s finish this and go home,” he said, praying deep in his heart that the day they would part was still a long way off.
Lacia smiled at him encouragingly. “I will let Higgins know that you and I are dating,” she said lightly. “I know we’re going to shut him down, but he is technically my father.”
The joke caught Arato off guard. “That’s right,” he said. “Higgins did make you, so I guess you could say that.” Though it didn’t completely relieve all the tension and weight of the moment, Lacia’s comment made Arato feel a bit more like they were going in as lovers, which was a great feeling.
“You have already introduced me to Professor Endo, so I am simply returning that gesture in kind,” Lacia added, stepping through the large hole she had blown in the wall, which was still hot from the blast.
Higgins had no heart, just like Lacia. But, despite there being no actual emotional parent-child connection between the two, the relationship itself suddenly seemed very human and relatable. “Maybe Higgins will understand where we’re coming from, if we just explain it all to him,” Arato suggested, beginning to feel excited about the meeting.
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Lacia said, with a bitter smile. “He will be the very first ultra high-performance AI to deal with his daughter bringing a boyfriend home, after all.”
Arato knew their relationship couldn’t continue the way it was forever. But, even if what they had then came to an end, he still felt like his reason for continuing forward was set in stone.
“Still, I can’t wait to meet Higgins, the person who created you,” Arato said. “I want to ask him why he made you.”
Lacia’s light-blue eyes were obviously artificial, but so beautiful.
“Actually, I want to ask him why he created all of you—you and your sisters,” he added.
“That could be intriguing,” Lacia mused, although from what Arato had observed, she tended to be more interested in resolving issues than discovering why things happened.
The corridors in Higgins’ underground facility were narrow. The facilities for an ultra high-performance AI were never designed to be accessed by large groups of people, right from the moment of their conception.
It was readily apparent to Arato that he was in a place not designed for humans, while going to meet with something that also was not human. He just prayed that this meeting wouldn’t mark the end of his journey with Lacia.