Vivy was, of course, the one who had set up the plan, and they only started it on the assumption that Kakitani had the ability to carry it out, but Vivy was still aware she’d put Kakitani in a very tight spot.
She searched her consciousness for appropriate words to commend Kakitani for pulling it off with aplomb. “Kakitani, are you sure you’re human?”
“Well, that’s a nice way to say hello to your number-one helper. Want me to smash you till you’re nothing more than a calculator, AI? How’d it go, anyway?”
“Great. He’s trying to hack into me right now. So, Professor Matsumoto?”
“Yeah, I got your message. Which means…what? A strange face-off between human Matsumoto and AI Matsumoto? That’s an odd twist of fate.”
Matsumoto immediately picked up what was going on and sent Vivy his reassuring response. Vivy turned back toward Matsumoto’s frame. Matsumoto had cut off the attack actions he was in the middle of just before the water from the pump room soaked him—before Vivy connected to his Archive. Lights flashed in several places on his frame.
“…”
The frame heated up, light shining from the gaps where the cube parts joined together. There was probably a digital battle taking place in a high-speed world as Matsumoto threw off the interference from The Archive and took back control of his frame. His positronic brain resisted the influence of The Archive while Professor Matsumoto assisted. The outcome of that battle would determine Vivy’s and Kakitani’s fates.
“What if we destroy it now while it’s not moving?” Kakitani suggested.
“We can’t get through Matsumoto’s armor with the firepower we have available. You know that,” answered Vivy.
“Just wanted the honor of destroying the legendary Cubeman. He’s been talked about ever since my granddad’s time.” Kakitani cradled her injured left arm as the two chatted. It was no small feat for a human to take on Matsumoto.
Vivy calculated she should respond to Kakitani’s wishes, considering the amount she helped. But she didn’t get much further.
“Oh?”
Overhead, the tear in the pump room floor opened wider with a piercing screech. The building wasn’t a fortress, so it wasn’t going to hold out much longer. Its walls had been smashed to smithereens and peppered with hundreds of high-caliber bullets.
The split didn’t stop there. It cracked open even more, threatening to cave in the whole floor.
“Kakita—”
Vivy’s calculations in response to the situation told her to quickly pull Kakitani back and protect her, but she wouldn’t be able to fully protect Kakitani from the collapse no matter where she sent her. The entire floor was destroyed. Vivy’s frame was definitely not enough to hold it back, so she should act with the goal of reducing harm to Kakitani, even if only a little.
“…”
The Princess Palace roared as it collapsed. Vivy looked up to keep the falling debris in sight, and she did her best to dodge it as it came. Just then, a large shadow cut into her vision, taking the hit of a particularly large chunk of the castle. A gust of wind burst forth, blowing Vivy’s synthetic hair back. Her eyes were closed, not paying attention to her messy hair or the plumes of dusty debris.
She turned to the large form standing above her back and said, “You took a while.”
“That’s a bit mean, considering I just heroically saved you from the precipice of danger.”
While Vivy glared, the voice that responded was light and casual. It had been so long since she’d heard that synthetic voice vibrating through the air outside The Archive. Here was the cutting-edge AI, capable of handling any situation imaginable, now shuffling his silvery-white cubes to protect Vivy and Kakitani from the hail of castle debris as if it were nothing.
“Matsumoto Rebooted, an AI carrying the burden of the Singularity Project meant to save humanity, at your service,” he said.
“Is this the return of the prodigal son?”
“Here I am, making a grand entrance, and you’re calling me a prodigal son? Since when are you my mother?”
“Stop messing around. Get us out of here. The priority is saving human life.”
“Aye-aye, captain!” he said jokingly, then lifted up the ceiling with his frame. As he did that, he sent other, independent cubes to clear a corridor on the verge of collapse and open a hole to the outside.
Kakitani was in Vivy’s arms, a pained expression on her face as she said, “Uh-huh…so you can do all that and handle delicate work.”
“I held back my capabilities during all the Singularity Points because I didn’t want people to see my true specs. There’s no need to intentionally downgrade myself now. I’ll show everyone the true Matsumoto. I am—”
“Matsumoto,” Vivy said, staring daggers at him.
“Okay, okay, fine. Here we gooo!” Matsumoto took Vivy and Kakitani in two of his many arms. They were going to escape the Princess Palace through the hole he’d made. “All right, try not to bite your tongues, and have a nice flight!”
He suddenly accelerated, and the building collapsed further, having lost the support that was holding it up. He sped down the corridor, the Princess Palace crumbling behind them with a rumble, and that was enough to tell Vivy the castle of dreams she’d spent so long in was losing its shape. That building was the symbol of NiaLand. Its collapse looked like the destruction of the park of hopes and dreams, causing emotionally charged images to flash through her consciousness.
“Vivy, I know you’re getting really sentimental, but—”
“Broken things can be rebuilt,” she finished for Matsumoto.
“Exactly.”
The moment after that exchange, the touch sensors in Vivy’s synthetic skin registered the cool feel of the night air. Matsumoto flitted through the sky above NiaLand with Vivy and Kakitani in his arms.
Their next move was to rejoin Toak and Professor Matsumoto, then plan their next moves. That was what Vivy had in mind as she looked out over NiaLand below.
But the situation wouldn’t allow them even a brief respite.
“Oh, Vivy, I have bad news for you. Which is maybe good news for you, Miss Kakitani,” said Matsumoto.
“What’s that?” Vivy asked, glaring at Matsumoto through half-lidded eyes while thinking there was no way those two things could both be true.
Matsumoto only looked back at Vivy with a half-closed eye camera of his own. Then the data of what Matsumoto saw came to Vivy.
And what it showed wasn’t pleasant.
“…”
“Toak’s been wanting to defeat Cubeman since your grandfather’s time, right, Miss Kakitani? If so, you’ve basically got a self-serve buffet. Funny, huh?” he said in a tone utterly unsuited to the situation while Vivy was at a loss for words.
She had no capacity in her consciousness to call him out for his dark humor.
“I was created in this time period,” he explained, just getting the words out. “So…this is the natural outcome.”
The video data he sent Vivy showed silvery-white cube-type AIs soaring through the skies in various regions of the world.
AIs, the same model as Matsumoto, controlled the skies with overwhelming numbers.