He patted her back, then Vivy turned to her partner, Matsumoto.
“…”
That silvery-white body of cubes, the oh-so-familiar frame, had been by Vivy’s side for a hundred years, longer than anything or anyone else. She felt that time, even though they’d only been in operation together for about two weeks. From the moment they met, he’d been pushing her around. He wasn’t all that serious, despite carrying the fate of humanity on his shoulders. He constantly made fun of Vivy for being old, fragile, and weak, yet the information he supplied was only ever of questionable accuracy. That was why the two of them had always rushed around so frantically.
Honestly, carrying out the Singularity Project with him had never gone well. It was all just trial and error, and the results were not AI-like at all—it was hard for the two of them to hold their heads up high and definitively call them successes.
Vivy knew exactly how she felt about him.
“Matsumoto.”
“Yes, yes, what is it? You’re starting to seem all touchy-feely and stuff. Could you stop bringing down the mood? We’re AIs, you and me. A goodbye scene between a human and an AI is one thing, but two AIs don’t need—”
“I’m glad you were my partner.”
“…”
She’d never told Matsumoto that, not once.
Together, they had made it through so many tough spots. There were times when they were nearly destroyed, moments they argued, and more than one or two times when it was hard to even continue on with the Singularity Project. But if it weren’t for him, Vivy wouldn’t have even made it to this time period. That was the conclusion Vivy reached through her one-hundred-year journey. She calculated that no other AI could have brought this about.
Matsumoto was silent for a few moments after hearing what Vivy said. Then he groaned and said, “To be completely honest, having you as my partner was a real pain in the rear.”
“…”
“I mean, how many times have I said it? I wasn’t just a cutting-edge AI of the time—I was the super galaxy-class, head-of-the-pack AI of the future! And sadly, I was stuck with a classic piece of AI history like you and forced to carry out this mission with all these restrictions.”
“…”
“You never listened to my logical and efficient orders, and your sisters were always doing things totally different from what history dictated. You made a complete mess of all my strategies… You’re ridiculous. My complaints never end. If I printed out a log of all my grievances, the entire world would drown in a sea of letter-sized paper.”
“…”
“But…”
Vivy stayed quiet as Matsumoto rattled off his various complaints. After all that, once his words ran out, he said one word, stopped, and opened his eye camera. The mechanical orb peered at Vivy, its shutter narrowed in a smile.
“…I don’t mind your singing at all.”
“You like it enough to make the deepest part of your Archive the Main Stage?”
“Yes, I admit it! After all, I was nothing but code. The first time I existed, the first time I touched this world…”
Vivy blinked slightly as she listened to Matsumoto. The first time he made contact with her was when she was still Diva, before she carved herself out as Vivy. She was in the middle of singing on the Main Stage at the time. That was when Matsumoto broke in from The Archive, slipping into the professor’s Singularity Project. That was the moment Matsumoto became more than just code—the moment he was born.
“You were born to sing,” he went on, “and I was born along with song. What do you make of that? Quite poetic, isn’t it?”
Vivy shook her head at his jest. “No, but it’s not bad at all.”
She stepped up to him and placed her palm on his frame. She stroked its cool, hard surface and gently brought her forehead to it. AIs could share memories by bringing their foreheads together, but Vivy and Matsumoto had seen the same things. There was no need for them to look at each other’s memories.
“I’ll be back,” she said.
“See you later, Vivy.”
With that short goodbye, Vivy moved away from Matsumoto’s frame. Once she went to NiaLand, she wouldn’t be able to make it back to Kingdom before the countdown ended. That meant she
couldn’t help with the conclusion of the final war. Saying goodbye was the same as saying she was leaving it in their capable hands.
As she retreated, Matsumoto called out, “Oh, by the way… You should probably fix that little bouncing thing you do before you start singing.”
“Now you’re overstepping your bounds.” Vivy stuck out her tongue in response to his final piece of advice, then ran off.
. : 2 : .
“I HONESTLY DON’T EVEN KNOW what that girl’s thinking.”
“…”
Vivy rushed out of Kingdom and was greeted by that transmission from Navi, her voice melancholy. This was Vivy’s second visit to NiaLand that day, but this time, there was a discomforting quiet to the park that had been her home.
If nothing had changed, then the park facilities were still being used as holding cells for the guests. The cast AIs were taking care of them, but it was a miracle panic hadn’t already rippled through the visitors—likely because of all the experience the cast AIs had built up over the years. That made Vivy proud. She had been gifted to the museum and lost her role as a cast member of NiaLand long ago, but she still took pride in their skills.
She didn’t have time to get too engrossed in such pleasantries, though. Video signboards and wait-time monitors throughout the park displayed the countdown to humanity’s destruction, ticking away with every second. Less than half an hour remained.
Vivy knew this, but there really was nothing she would be able to do for Matsumoto and the others back in Kingdom.
“Do you regret coming?” Navi asked.
“If by ‘regret,’ you mean I deem the possibility that I’ve made the wrong decision, then no, I don’t. Your meek attitude is making me way much more uneasy, anyway,” Vivy said. Navi’s transmission stirred an odd sensation in her consciousness.
There was no doubt that Matsumoto had been Vivy’s partner during the Singularity Project, but outside of that—during her century-long operation in NiaLand as Diva—Navi was the person she’d had the most opportunities to talk to. The majority of what Diva did in NiaLand was done along with Navi.
Obviously, Navi was simply going along with the role she’d been given, but now that the final war had begun, and so many AIs had turned on humanity, Vivy couldn’t help feeling a positive emotional pattern at knowing Navi and the cast AIs had chosen to protect humanity.
On the other hand, she was also nagged by a sense of urgency because of Navi’s newfound frailty. It was Vivy’s turn to return all the support Navi had given her throughout the years.
“Navi, do you know anything about what the other me, Diva, is trying to do?” she asked, running to Diva’s location per Navi’s directions.
Diva was the songstress leading the AIs, and she had continued to hole up in NiaLand even after her encounter with Vivy in the Princess Palace. Vivy calculated there had to be a reason for that, hence her question to Navi.
Navi sounded irritated when she replied. “What are you talking about? You’re Diva! And I have no clue what she’s trying to do. She won’t listen to anything I have to say. She shut her circuits down, so I decided it was out of my hands at that point. I mean…not that I have hands.”
“Uh-huh.”