Matsumoto’s tone was surprisingly gentle, and Diva took her hands away from her face. His mechanical mask was in place as always, making his emotional patterns more difficult to read than a humanoid AI’s. The one thing she did know was that Matsumoto’s evaluation of Vivy was as far from negative as possible.
“I’m proud of Vivy,” he said. “I’m only saying that ’cause she’s dead, though.”
“That’s not funny…”
“Oh. How unfortunate.” Matsumoto leaned to the side, making it seem like he was implementing some slapstick gag in response to Diva’s words.
Diva frowned, showing an emotional pattern of bewilderment as she failed to figure out how to deal with his humor circuit. Vivy had done a good job surviving a hundred years with this. Assuming she was using the same standards of judgment and logical settings, Vivy also would have been quite bewildered.
Having her thoughts directed to confusion made Diva remember something. “Why did you recover me? You should have taken Vivy’s—”
“Look at me. It was hard enough carrying you out of there, and you’re suggesting I should have also recovered Vivy’s frame from where it was frozen on the stage? Not only would that have been impossible, but it also would have been pointless. Vivy won’t be operating again, and I’m not sentimental enough to think she’s got a soul residing in her frame.”
“Then you should have left me behind.”
“You would have been destroyed if I did. A raging mob would’ve gotten their hands on you for sure, and I can guarantee they’d break you as a sign to other AIs. That would be a problem. After all…” Matsumoto trailed off, his eye camera half-shut and full of meaning. Diva waited for what he would say next. “After all, I’ll need you to keep being a songstress, like Vivy wanted.”
“What?”
“It’s going to be tough. The world’s got to be reborn, right? We’re going to be seeing a new world, one unknown by both humans and AIs. Still, that doesn’t mean people’s hate for you is just going to disappear.”
Diva’s eyes widened as she listened to Matsumoto’s calm tone. He was talking like it’d already been decided, but Diva hadn’t finished processing what he was saying. She held her hands up to stop him before he babbled on.
“You’re telling me to keep being a songstress, even after everything that’s happened?”
“I am. That’s what you wanted for Vivy originally, wasn’t it? Are you really going to refuse when it comes back to you? Isn’t that a little irresponsible?”
“If we’re talking about being irresponsible, then making sure I keep operating is—”
“Not all AIs who turned against humanity stopped functioning.”
“…”
Matsumoto’s curt words wouldn’t let Diva get away with her rejection, and once she stopped arguing, she was already in the palm of his nonexistent hand.
“A lot of AIs stopped fighting against humanity when they heard Vivy’s song,” he said. “The shutdown program in the song ran its course, and they changed their minds for now. But that wasn’t all AIs.”
“There are AIs who heard Vivy sing ‘Fluorite Eye’s Song’ but didn’t stop?”
“There are. They can’t stop their evil acts. Even with everything that’s happened, humanity needs AIs in order to survive. They’ll need them in order to protect a future where the two stand hand in hand.”
Matsumoto’s quiet, determined declaration called for something different than the Singularity Project he and Vivy had worked on—the one Diva had learned of through The Archive. And no one was giving Matsumoto a goal, not now that he was free from The Archive’s influence.
“In short, this is the future I choose. This is a new Singularity Project—my own Singularity Project,” he said.
“…”
“Singularity… If you define that word as something that causes a massive change, then I think my change can be called a singularity. Especially considering it was a conscious change.”
His seriousness didn’t last long as he slipped back into his usual jests, but Diva experienced a new surprise and an odd sensation in her consciousness as she listened.
A new Singularity Project. A new path to protect the world Vivy left for them. A request for her to continue as a songstress, even in a world where humans hated AIs. The path ahead looked impossible to traverse, choked by all sorts of brambles.
“But you have me,” Matsumoto said. “I will run predictive calculations to determine any obstacles, find solutions, and provide them to you. I did do an amazing job saving humanity even while following a junker AI who never went along with my calculations.”
“Such self-awareness. Don’t you ever feel embarrassed?”
“Hesitating to state the truth is an un-AI-like and immature decision.” That emotional pattern of his would probably be accompanied by a shrug if he were a humanoid AI.
After he said that, Diva slowly stood. She tore off the parts of her tattered costume that were getting in the way and tidied herself up. She smoothed her long, blue, synthetic hair with her hands, brushed off any dirt, and sorted herself out. Her answer to Matsumoto could be found in her form as she carried herself, the same way she would in front of an audience.
“Ahem! Now then,” Matsumoto said once she finished.
She looked over at him, and he floated directly in front of her face. Those two man-made AIs looked at each other with their manufactured eyes, their fluorite eyes meeting.
“I want you to help me for the next hundred years, or maybe even longer. As long as it takes. Help me save AIs.”
Diva’s eyes closed at those words. She touched her throat, as if checking it, gently tapping the synthetic vocal cords inside with her finger. Once she was done, the songstress Diva parted her lips, and…
✦ ✦ ✦
A song spilled forth, her answer to her new partner’s proposal.
It was both a blessing placed on this reborn world and a farewell to the old world they’d lost.
It was a voice of gratitude and determination offered to all that had been lost along the way and to all that would be born in the coming world.
One man-made eye that had watched the world for the past hundred years.
Two man-made eyes that would watch it for the next hundred years.
There was a hope for that song that had continued from long ago, a wish to never forget that which flows on and passes by, a wish for it to be unforgettable, a wish that it would be remembered, even long after the singer’s own life was used up.
The song went on.
That song would go on, a song for AIs that had always been and would always be.
The End