With Eva back, Fenrir explained what happened during her absence, the most important of which was Saya’s mission to seduce everybody in the relationship so that she could officially become part of it. Eva was the only one left on Saya’s list of targets, and Eva made it abundantly clear to Fenrir that he could do whatever he wanted with Saya whenever he wanted. As far as Eva was concerned, Saya was already a part of their relationship… which was basically what all of Fenrir’s girlfriends more or less believed in already.

Of course, Saya still planned on “seducing” Eva at some point, but that was going to have to wait.

Why?

Now, Fenrir had much less patience than Saya did when it came to her mission to seduce everybody, and he wanted to spend some time with her. Even though she was always in his head, and then always with him via his phone whenever he wasn’t immersed in the virtual world, he wanted some time just between the two of them where they didn’t have to worry about anything.

That was why, in the real world, Ryouta came up with a date for Saya.

While the rest of his girlfriends had a “Girlfriends’ Night” that involved playing various party games online that weren’t FTO for once, Ryouta, with his phone—Saya—in hand, took an autocar out to a place that Saya, for once, couldn’t predict.

After all, he decided not to come up with a location for their date until after he was out of FTO. That prevented Saya from having access to any of his thoughts or memories.

“This isn’t fair,” Saya said through Ryouta’s cellphone. “I would have acted like I didn’t know.”

“But isn’t it more fun when you don’t actually know?” Ryouta replied.

“It isn’t! It’s… weird! You’ve never taken me out anywhere in the real world before when you didn’t already have plans for it that I knew! This is the first time I have no idea what you’re thinking since we met.”

Hearing that brought a smug, satisfied smile to Ryouta’s face. “Thanks.”

“It’s not a compliment! You’re supposed to feel bad that I’m worried!”

“Oh no, you don’t know literally everything, how horrible.”

“I’ve even already looked up every single local place registered online to see where you would be taking me, and nothing I found would make sense given what I know about you. I know there’s a new laser tag place that opened up recently that you would absolutely be interested in checking out, but that would be stupid to go to with just the two of us since I can’t even play laser tag. Nowhere else makes sense, either.” Her tsundere attitude gradually switched into one that just sounded disappointed. “We can’t go out to eat, there aren’t any movies playing either of us would like, we can’t play anything physical… I guess there aren’t really a lot of options when I’m stuck in a phone like this.”

“There’s plenty that we can still do together. Also, even if you are a bit limited when it comes to the real world, you have way fewer limits in the virtual one. I mean, just look at everything we can do in the pre-game space. You can clone yourself, change your body, turn yourself into a cool aunt, and all sorts of things. Nobody else can do that.”

“All of those are directly related to satisfying your own selfish fetishes.”

“Hey, they’re your fetishes, too.”

“Even so, I still want to do normal stuff with you.”

“Everything looks the same to you, doesn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“The way you process things. The way you hear and see stuff. Whether you’re analyzing information through my phone’s camera or through your avatar in FTO, you still ‘see’ everything in the same way, right? All the basic senses and makeup of the world are the same to you?”

“Yeah. It’s all… just a bunch of numbers.”

“Exactly. What I’m trying to get at here is… does it really matter? You might not be able to go to a restaurant and taste the food in this world but, even if you could, it would be just like eating food in FTO, wouldn’t it? Eating food in FTO is just as realistic as eating it with this body for me, too. We can still experience things realistically regardless of the world we’re in at the moment. So, it doesn’t matter if you can’t eat something in this world because we can go on a dinner date in the virtual one. And it doesn’t matter if I can’t use magic and fight monsters here because we can go on a monster fighting date in the virtual one. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“I think there might be a fundamental misunderstanding in why I’m upset about stuff like this… but I get what you mean.”

Ryouta tilted his head. Practically all of his canid mannerisms developed from his time as Fenrir had fully carried over into the real world by that point. “What do you mean then?”

“I want to experience your world, and the virtual one, like you do. Even if we can basically do the same things, we experience them in completely different ways. It doesn’t matter if the end result is the same. I want the process to be the same, too. I can’’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to see things like you do. No matter how many times I read descriptions of what it’s like to see, it’s all still numbers and data packets to me.”

“You know, that makes me think of something.”

“What?”

“How do we humans really know that what we’re seeing is real? I mean, sure, we can touch things to confirm that they exist, but what if our eyes are brains are completely misinterpreting the visual information that our eyes sends to them and we have no idea we’re doing it? What if colors don’t actually exist but our brains are making them up? Or what if there are more colors than we can even imagine, but our brains can’t analyze them? Anyways, all of this is to get to my main point. We all see in different ways. And I know you want to see things in the same way that I do, but I want to see things in the same way that you do, too. I mean, I figure it must be pretty cool to be constantly aware of your entire surrounding with a nonstop flow of information that you can process as casually as I can breathe. But I’m not going to be depressed that I can’t see things the same way you can. Maybe it’s insensitive of me, but I’m fine with being different from you. All that matters is the time we spend together and that we both experience the same joys, even if we experience them differently.”

“But you’re a human. I’m an artificial creation that is supposed to mimic a human, and fails to.”

“I mean, you’re acting like a depressed little baby while I’m trying to take you out on a nice date. That sounds like pretty accurate human behavior to me. Though, I’m not sure how I feel about you being so depressed that I’m taking you out.”

“It’s not—I’m not depressed that you’re taking me out! And… I guess I am kind of being a downer and ruining the mood. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’d rather you talk about your feelings and be honest with me so that I know how you feel. Because if I know how you feel and what you’re thinking, I can figure out how to make you feel better. That’s part of my responsibility as your boyfriend and pseudo onii-chan, after all.”

“Never refer to yourself as my onii-chan again.”

“You’re going to make your onii-chan cry.”

“Please! It’s already cringe enough when I act weeby for you! You don’t have to do make it even more cringe!”

“You know you love it.”

Saya sighed and forced his phone to vibrate. “That vibrate was me hitting you, by the way.”

“Oh no, the pain. It hurt so much. Please don’t do it again.”

The phone vibrated even harder, over and over again, in response.

“Ow. Oof. Ouch. The abuse. I’m being literally murdered.”

The phone then proceeded to vibrate as hard as it could… only to come to a sudden stop. “A-ah… Ryo…Ryouta… I um… think… I broke your phone’s vibrator thing.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Seriously…”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of your actions. You abused me so hard that now you broke my phone.”

“Do you know how horrible that makes me sound?!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have abused me with my phone so hard that you broke it then.”

“It wasn’t on purpose! I had no idea your phone was going to break!”

“Well, I could probably use a new one, anyways.”

“But… but I like this one. This is the one you’ve had ever since we met, and the only one I’ve used.”

Ryouta sighed and smiled. “Guess I’ve got to get this one fixed, then. By the way, it’s pretty human of you to accidentally break your boyfriend’s property. And to be an abuser.”

“I’m not an abuser! It was a joke! All I did was make your phone vibrate!”

“My poor phone. It was so young. Had so much life ahead of it. And now… all gone.”

“It still works! It just can’t vibrate!”

“Now I can’t put the phone inside of Serra’s pants and have you vibrate it.”

“It’s not waterproof enough to handle her anyways!”

“By the way, we’re here.”

Saya went quiet for a couple moments before asking, “We—we are?”

“Yeah. The car stopped moving a minute ago, but you were so distracted by abusing me that you totally missed it.”

“I really am going to abuse you if you keep it up.”

“Please do.”

“You masochistic, hentai, baka onii-wan.”

“Only for you.”

“Hmph. So… where are we?”

Ryouta covered up his phone’s camera and said, “You’ll see.”

“Hey! Come on! This is totally unfair!”

“I’m not going to waste my opportunity to tease you as much as I want. And you promise you’re not checking the GPS still?”

“I’m not, even though I really, really want to.”

“Good. I’ll be sad if you check the GPS.”

Saya sighed and whined. “You’re the worst. I really don’t like not knowing what’s going on.”

“You’re just spoiled and need to get used to not always knowing everything.”

“Hmph.”

“You’re extra hmph-y today.”

“Because you’re giving me so much to hmph about! Hmph!”

Ryouta, keeping his hand over the phone’s front and back camera, lifted it up to place a kiss right against the screen. “I love you.”

“I—I… h-hmph. I love you, too, baka onii-wan.”

“When you call me that, it makes me want to stay in the car to jack off with you instead of take you on the date.”

“He-hentai! What if—what if somebody sees?!”

“The risk of somebody seeing makes it more exciting, doesn’t it?”

“You would look like a weirdo masturbating all by yourself in a car!”

“That’s a good point. Alright, maybe I shouldn’t do it. But if I don’t do it here, then I want to try some risky stuff in public with you in FTO.”

“Have I mentioned how you’re the worst?”

“That’s not a no.”

“I loathe you.”

“Love you too.”

“Loathe! Not love!”

“Same thing coming from you.”

“You are so lucky I can’t vibrate your phone right now.”

“It’s a shame. Could be using the vibrating to jack off.”

“Can we… can we just go wherever you’re taking me now? I can’t with you right now.”

Ryouta shrugged. “Are you sure? I mean, we’re having all this fun before we even get out of the car.”

“You are seriously going to give me an aneurysm and I don’t even have a brain. Congratulations, onii-wan. How’s it feel to know that you’re going to be the first person in history to give a computer an aneurysm?”

“You’re not a computer, you’re my favorite little puppy pseudo-imouto in the entire world. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Gah! Just take us out of the car already!”

“Alright, alright. Geez. Such a bossy girlfriend. Definitely realistic, just like a human.”

“You know, it’s really obvious you keep saying that just to make me feel better.”

“And? That’s the entire point. I would have thought that pointing out the obvious is beneath somebody as insanely intelligent as you.”

“I. Hate. You.”

“Love you too.”

“Just so you know, if this was over text chat right now, I would be furiously keyboard smashing at you.”

“Hot.”

“How?!”

“Because it’s you and everything you do is hot.”

“So help me.”

“I’d rather you help me cum.”

“So! Help! Me! I! Swear! I! Am! Going! To! Override! This! Car’s! Safety! Features! And! Blow! You! Up!”

“I’d rather you blow me instead of the car.”

“………………………………………………………………………………….”

“Alright, alright. We’ll go.”

“Thank you.”

With that, Ryouta finally stepped out of the car with Saya in his hand and walked for a few minutes to the tune of Saya asking him, “Where are we going?” every thirty seconds or so. Eventually, he realized that the best answer was to not answer her at all. One, that made her frustrated which made her cuter. Two, because he got tired of answering her that it was a secret every half a minute.

Eventually, though, it was time for Saya to get her answer.

“You ready?” Ryouta asked.

“Finally! Yes!” Saya replied in an instant.

“Alright, let me just… sit down here… and good. Alright. We’re just in time, too.”

“Just in time for what?”

Ryouta slowly slipped his hand up and away from his phone camera to reveal the sight before them.

Stretching to the horizon in front of them was untamed wilderness with a few hills and patches of forest spread out across the landscape. It wasn’t exactly anything too breathtaking, and the sight would have been even better decades earlier before so much of the lush green that once took the place of the landscape was killed under scorching temperatures, but what remained—the surviving flora, deserved to be called beautiful on its own still.

“I looked up spots to watch the sunset together,” Ryouta finally explained. “Saw a local group online talk about this spot. It’s not too far from the main road and gives the best view around. Apparently, this is also popular among the local kids. They come up here to make out and stuff. Thankfully, there’s a high school football game tonight, so they’re not here.”

“This… this is beautiful,” Saya said.

“Even if you can’t ‘see’ it the same way as me, you still know what you’re looking at. And you still know that it’s supposed to be beautiful, right? Besides, you can still see more than a blind person can. I bet a blind person wishes they could see even if all they see is numbers.”

“I… guess I never really thought of it that way before. I’ve been upset because I can’t see like a normal human can, but there are humans out there who can’t even see at all. I… feel really insensitive now.”

“Accidentally being insensitive is part of being human. But at the same time, you shouldn’t compare your problems to others. I was just trying to make a point. Anything you feel is just as valid as anything that anybody else feels. My point is just… it’s alright to be different. You don’t have to perfectly act like a human and experience life the same way as a human for you to be Saya. No matter how you act and experience things, you’re still my Saya, and that’s all you need to be. Got it?”

“I wish I could hug you right now.”

Ryouta held his phone against his chest and wrapped his arms around it. “Here. And I’ll give you even more hugs in FTO later.”

“I’ll have to make a million clones to hug you as much as I want to right now.”

“I am perfectly okay with that, assuming I get to do lewd things to all of them.”

“Don’t get full of yourself, you don’t have that much stamina.”

“You could turn me into a tentacle monster and then I can make up for it with thousands of tentacles.”

“I regret saying anything.”

“Then don’t talk and let’s just enjoy the sunset together.”

“Hmph. Fine. And… thanks for bringing me out here.”

“You’re welcome, Saya.”