She was dressed in a nightgown, gazing at him through the connection with a mischievous smile on her lips. Apparently, Erika and Mariage had their own video transmission resources, separate from those opened by Lacia.
“We need your help,” Arato said. “You know what Lacia’s dealing with on the outside, right? Please do something to take some of the heat off of her out there.” There were few things Arato could do without relying on Lacia. One of those few things was reach out his hand to ask for help.
〈And you were under the impression I was going to help you?〉 Erika asked.
“You have to help me,” Arato replied. He didn’t know what would happen, but he had to say it.
〈If things are rough, why not just quit? There’s no reason for you to be there,〉 Erika said. She seemed to be enjoying herself.
But Arato wasn’t about to give up. He knew that his fight and Erika’s were connected. “We humans have to be involved in Lacia’s fight,” he said. “All the way to the end. You were the one who wanted to drag the fight between the Lacia-units out into the public eye, so you must feel the same way on some level.”
〈So you’re saying I owe you something, since you did what I wanted you to?〉 Erika asked, her eyes shooting him a challenge.
“Humans have to be the ones who give the final answer,” Arato said. He wasn’t great at negotiating, but he knew that much. “If you want humans to have the last say, you have to see this through to the end. Weren’t you willing to risk your life, when you kicked this whole thing off?”
〈I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea about me. I actually quite like the thought of watching the end from a safe distance,〉 Erika replied.
Arato couldn’t help comparing their situations: she was in a clean, beautiful nightgown while he was far under the Earth, with his horribly burned arm anesthetized to numb the pain. At that moment, he realized she was probably the Lacia-class owner who had wound up in the best position. But she was also the one who had invited all the other Lacia-class owners to the Burroughs mansion.
“I think you’re the most invested of all of us,” Arato said. “You knew Methode could easily kill you, no matter how strong Mariage is, but you revealed your identity as a Lacia-class owner to her anyway. One little slip-up, and you’d be dead.”
When he looked back on it then, Arato realized just how odd the party at the Burroughs estate had been. Having experienced Methode’s power first-hand, he was still terrified of her, even knowing that she had been permanently shut down.
Each of the Lacia-class units was based off of the unit that had come before it. So, as the owner of Type-003, Mariage, Erika would have been well aware of Methode’s power as Type-004. As the manager of a company that couldn’t just pick up and run, Arato found it hard to believe that the threat of assassination by Methode wouldn’t have loomed so large as to make it impossible to focus on her daily life.
〈Yes, but that gamble has already paid off, for me,〉 Erika replied. 〈The little flame of conflict between the Lacia-class units has caught up all of the ultra high-performance AIs of the world, and is now a raging fire of a global scale. You’ve all gotten used to such disgusting things in this era. But, soon, humans will go back to the cheap, proper version of our nature.〉 Erika’s face, through the video, seemed to have shaken off any remaining gloom. She seemed exhilarated and relaxed.
Lacia had always protected Arato and, at that moment, he was desperate to protect her. “Things aren’t over for you,” he insisted.
It was hard not to expand your own horizons when you got an omnipotent tool in your hands. Yet, it seemed that only Erika had not deviated from her course when she got her red box. 〈What do you think you know about me?〉 she asked, taking a cup of tea Mariage had brought her.
She was as calm as ever. To Arato it seemed that, even though she had awoken in the 22nd century and had her dreams fulfilled, she had woken up too soon.
He was sure she had only held that party—where a fight between Methode and Mariage could have easily wrecked her house—because she had needed to do so to find her place in this era. But, even though Erika had won everything she’d wanted, he still felt like she was acting as an outside observer, watching the world from a distance.
“I bet the reason you want to cheapen human nature, or whatever, is that you don’t like how people think about you, right? Slapping you with a nickname and turning you into a character. But I don’t think you’ll be satisfied with just rolling back human nature. I don’t think you’ll be able to ignore the suffering of people around you while only you have it easy,” Arato challenged. The way he saw it, even after what she won through the Hazard happening right then, she still hadn’t found her place in the world.
〈You think I won’t be satisfied just watching human nature run its course and rot away?〉 she shot back.
“You’ve only been watching humans, from the start,” Arato said.
At the party, Erika had been the only one without her Lacia-class seated at the table by her side. Arato figured the reason she hadn’t been twisted by the power Mariage’s Gold Weaver gave her to create gold, or the mystery of its creative powers, was that she hadn’t had the least interest in them right from the start.
〈I suppose. You don’t use it anymore these days, but there’s a term—meme—that’s like a gene, but for information rather than life. The only memes left from the 21st century are the ones I’ve brought with me. So, you could say I’m a little sick of everyone trying to insist that all your 22nd century memes are the ‘right’ ones.〉
As they spoke, Arato began to understand what it was he wanted from her. He didn’t want her to save them; he just wanted her to fight by their side, even if it was only for a little while.
“If that’s the case, then I doubt you’ll feel better just by messing up all this era’s memes,” Arato said. “You’ve got all those hIEs in that house, but they’re just dolls to you, even Mariage. None of them are a replacement for other humans, to you.”
〈Didn’t you want my help? Are you sure this is the way you want to ask for it?〉
“I’m not just calling you to ask for help. There’s got to be something more out there you want,” Arato pressed.
〈There isn’t,〉 Erika insisted. 〈Why are you talking as if you’re trying to guess what I’m thinking? Or is your doll helping to give you some insight into that?〉
“Just from being with Lacia, I’ve learned some things about how all her sisters think,” Arato explained. “Hasn’t Mariage tried to push you at all? Maybe asked you why you aren’t getting involved?”
Erika twisted her lips disdainfully at his question. 〈Mariage feels that she must fight, but is completely incapable of coming up with strategies on her own. Thus, she is forced to rely on me. I think it is less a matter of pushing me to get involved, and more that she simply doesn’t want to be discarded as being useless, perhaps?〉
Thanks to Lacia, Arato understood. Erika was feeling the heart she shared with Mariage. Even though neither of them probably recognized it, they were now a single unit with a single heart between them.
“Mariage doesn’t have a heart, just like her sisters,” he said. “But unlike Snowdrop and Methode, who each had their own ideals of what the future should be like, she doesn’t hate the complexity of human hearts or her human owner. If she’s been strictly obedient this whole time, I’d have to say Mariage doesn’t actually have a goal of her own.”
〈You seem to be well-informed,〉 Erika murmured.
Arato suddenly felt a stab of tension. After having the character of the sleeping beauty thrust upon her, there was nothing Erika hated more than having someone else project their perceptions onto her. It was clear he had just stepped across the line where she would still smile and forgive him.