Chapter 8

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!” But this time, she heard Agnes shrieking from outside the cafeteria. “It’s just one thing after another today!!” Kanzaki stood up and rushed out of the cafeteria. She didn’t know where Agnes’s voice had come from, but she had a rough idea of the direction. She just had to run down the long hallway now. And then she discovered Agnes sunken to the floor in front of the changing room. When Kanzaki approached, she pointed into the room, still sitting. “The… The washing machine… It—it…” Veins visibly popped on Kanzaki’s head at those breathless words. The washing machine again? It had caused a problem before breakfast, too, which they hadn’t solved yet. And now it was making more trouble? Kanzaki already had enough to worry about, between the war and the rumors of lovers. Why the washing machine now? Was it a hateful high-tech AI spy sent by Academy City after all?! That’s the only way to explain all the trouble it’s been causing!! Commited to tearing the machine up with the Seven Heavens Sword if it caused any more issues, Kanzaki charged into the changing room. The tub next to the room was a large communal bath, rare in the Western world, and so the changing room was large, too. The washing machine in question should have been in the corner of the vast room, along with the scale. She looked that way. She looked at the piece-of-trash, Academy City washing machine, that good-for-nothing, useless thing that had taken the color out of her yukata obi and started malfunctioning when they had put the futon into it. And as it gave off a loud clattering—it was properly cleaning the futon stuffed inside. “Wha…?” Kanzaki’s breath caught. The quietness of this washing machine was originally its selling point, so it was strange that it was making that noise at all. It must have meant the machine was working that much harder. Exceeding its design limitations, accepting an order far beyond its operating restrictions, and yet still, it endured, it withstood, it had borne its duty until the end—and now, it was finally about to accomplish the titanic feat of washing all those futons at once. I don’t believe it… The strength left Kanzaki’s body. Her legs buckled underneath her, and she knelt down on the changing-room floor. The emotion of anger had been replaced with an intense shame. She had been reflecting on her own inexperience not moments ago. And it had happened again. Even after they’d stuffed it with all those futons it couldn’t possibly have washed, even after they’d forced it to turn on, even after they’d given up on it and left it alone, that washing machine had kept on doing its best, all alone. It endured the pain, endured the agony, always working dutifully to complete that which needed to be done, and now, at last, it was about to accomplish an impossible task. And yet she—she had wanted to tear it apart with her Seven Heavens Sword if it caused any more trouble… The washing machine said nothing. It was only natural that the onboard AI would have no speech functions. But Kanzaki knew she could hear it. She could hear the voice of the AI. Kanzaki, it said. I did it, just like you asked. “~~~~!!” Tears burst from the corners of Kanzaki’s eyes. She was speechless. She tossed her Seven Heavens Sword aside, then clung to the washing machine’s square body, hugging it, as though reuniting with a long-lost family member.