“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

I glared bitterly at the empty ice cream display. I had undertaken the perilous journey of leaving my house in the middle of the night and braving dark, deserted roads to reach the convenience store, only to find out that the ice cream that I sought was completely sold out. Never mind the mango flavor that I so coveted…there wasn’t even the horrible green tea flavor left on display. Nothing but a puff of mist uncurling from the freezing shelf to taunt me for making the futile journey.

“I scream when there’s no ice cream.”

“Stop making cold jokes back there!” the convenience store cashier shouted from the front, probably pissed off that she had to take the midnight shift. I was taken aback by her sharp comment. I had expected a synoid to operate the cashier, but evidently, some people needed the money from part-time jobs.

As convenient as synoids were, we couldn’t let artificial androids monopolize the job market. They could do the job perfectly, but ever since Genesis produced the first successful synthetic robot that looked identical to humans, they had caused a turmoil in the economy. Even though their initial cost was exorbitant, they didn’t need to be paid monthly salaries, they didn’t need to take vacations or sick leave, and they were totally obedient. They would be cheaper in the long run.

However, they weren’t perfect. They still lacked that human feel, somehow. Despite being physically indistinguishable from humans, there was a lack of expressive emotions on their faces that rendered them… uncanny.

I couldn’t say I objected to a human cashier, though. Unlike synoids, they had a sense of humor and wouldn’t respond robotically to my jokes with a polite smile and blank eyes. It would still be a long while before synoids could successfully wrench the service sector away from us humans. At least annoyance was still a far more interesting response. Smiling, I offered a retort.

“What do you expect from a guy standing in front of a freezer? Hot jokes?”

“What did I just say?”

I gave up. That was no way to speak to a customer, but I was too lazy to argue with her. Besides, I could empathize with her. Working at this time of the night would make anyone cranky, especially if they weren’t a night owl.

Despite the cashier’s attitude, I still preferred a human cashier to a synoid. I still couldn’t get over my trauma of a synoid, having been involved in a near-death incident with one of them half a dozen years ago.

I shuddered. Best not to think about it too much. I was still alive. That was all that mattered.

Abandoning my efforts to procure some much-needed ice cream, I turned my attention to the snacks shelf. I wasn’t going to waste the trip, and since I was here, I might as well buy something. Like that Calbee pizza-flavored potato chips. And probably that bottle of Dr. Pepper sitting inside the refrigerator to the far left of the ice cream freezer. If I couldn’t get ice cream, the least I could do was secure my supply of snacks.

Satisfied with the alternatives, I paid for my snacks and walked out of the convenience store with my spoils jingling inside a white plastic bag. The cool, spring air hit my face and I closed my eyes momentarily to savor the feeling. Relaxing my shoulders, I tapped into the online interface implant in my brain and registered the temperature.

14 degrees Celsius? Oh, that’s pretty cool.

I stared at the meters at the bottom right corner of my eye. The implant allowed me to access the weather information uploaded into the cloud server, granting live updates that constantly refreshed whenever the online weather system detected changes. At the top left corner, a map spread out, with a blue icon indicating my position. A green line snaked through the 3D image, following several roads and displaying a path home.

I almost rolled my eyes. Even without the inbuilt Global Positioning System, I could find my way home. I had been through this route so many times that I could walk home with my eyes closed. Given how there were barely any cars on the roads, I could attempt that without worrying about my safety. Speaking of safety, though…

There was a red arrow in the top right-hand corner. A safety warning, huh? I sighed and shook my head. I already was aware of the news, particularly the series of kidnappings that had plagued the neighborhood. Young girls were being abducted in the middle of the night, leaving behind frantic and worried families. I personally knew about it because one of my classmates, Kurosawa Kaede, had been kidnapped just a week ago. It had caused a furor in the class, and nobody could stop talking about it. Even my friends, Yamada Youskue and Nagano Hiroyuki, wouldn’t shut up about it. I could still remember the conversation earlier that day.

“They still haven’t found Kurosawa yet!”

“Wow…”

Yamada had nodded at Hiroyuki’s outburst when the two of them gathered at my desk. I stared at them sourly, annoyed at the intrusion, but also glad for the company. When the going got tough, I could always rely on the two of them to watch my back.

“Hey, Fujimoto, didn’t you like Kurosawa or something?”

I had shrugged at Hiroyuki’s query.

“Well, but she doesn’t like me.”

Kurosawa Kaede and her friends had accused me of stalking her, thinking that I was creepy. After they spread rumors about me, I had intelligently decided to cut my losses and keep my distance. It wasn’t worth being bullied and abused over a girl, no matter how beautiful she was.

“Scary…I wonder if they’ll ever find her.”

“They still haven’t found the other girls yet, right?”

Hiroyuki nodded at Yamada’s question, before offering a query of his own.

“Why do you think they’re kidnapping the girls?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well…the kidnappers haven’t approached any of the families for ransom, right?”

I thought deeply before offering a reply. Both Hiroyuki and Yamada turned to me. I struggled to find something to add on to my statement.

“Maybe they’re selling the girls on the black market as sex slaves or something. Importing them overseas…you know, human trafficking.”

I finally coughed up a lame reply, but almost regretted the speculation because several of the girls whipped around to glare at me.

“Ew…disgusting!”

“Can always count on Fujimoto to think of something so twisted and perverted.”

“I can’t believe you’re making such tasteless jokes about this! Kaede-chan is our classmate, you know?”

“I wasn’t joking…”

I sighed but didn’t argue. There was little point in wasting my energy convincing the girls that I didn’t mean any harm.

“Wow, way to overreact…”

Hiroyuki was shaking his head. He patted my shoulder.

“Don’t worry. They’re just edgy because of what happened with Kurosawa. They didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Yeah. And that was quite the valid speculation, too. I mean, it’s not unheard of for the yakuza or some crime syndicate to kidnap girls and smuggle them overseas…”

He had earned the glare and ire from our female classmates, and the three of us wisely decided to stay silent after that.

With that memory playing vividly in my mind, I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. Well, I didn’t have to worry about getting kidnapped like Kurosawa. It might sound misogynistic to say this, but I wasn’t a girl. All the victims had been female so far, so they surely wouldn’t abduct a plain-looking, nerdy-looking guy dressed shabbily for his trip to a convenience store.

And besides…if the criminals or whoever responsible attempted to snatch me from the streets, they would be in a world of pain…

...beep!

I flinched when the car sped past, honking at me for not paying attention to the road. Even at this time of the night, there were still people driving about, huh? I glanced nervously at the car until it disappeared down the street, my mouth feeling dry.

I still can’t get over it, huh…even though it has been 6 years since the accident.

Shaking my head, I swallowed and proceeded to cross the road. I glanced anxiously at both sides of the road, wary of any approaching vehicles. Having been knocked down and almost losing my life all those years ago in a traffic accident thanks to a malfunctioning synoid driver, I had developed a slight phobia toward synoids and vehicles. I wouldn’t take a bus or ride in a car if I could help it. I knew it was stupid, but…

Well, rather than a phobia, it’s more like paranoia. Like I’m suspecting that they will malfunction and attack me out of nowhere.

Scratching my head, I exhaled and continued down the path. There were another couple of cars speeding past behind me, but I forced myself not to look back. Steeling my gaze forward, I continued my journey home. The streetlights illuminated the dim district, but my optic implants displayed a visual layout of the place as if it was daytime.

“Oh, hello.”

My limbs immediately locked up when I heard the familiar voice. I stiffened and turned my head, catching sight of a friendly old lady approaching me with a wave of her hand. She was smiling, but there was something mechanical about her expression as if it was just a façade, a mask that concealed the artificial circuitry that laid underneath plastic flesh.

“Aiba-san. Good evening.”

I somehow managed a polite greeting. Even if Aiba was a synoid who served as a domestic housekeeper for the next-door neighbors, the Shinomoto family, that was no reason to discriminate against her. She wasn’t the synoid who malfunctioned and drove into me. From all my encounters with her, she had never been anything but pleasant and friendly.

“Are you going shopping?”

“Ah, yes. I’m about to head to the convenience store. Kyoko-chan is requesting for some ice cream.”

“Ice cream?” I shook my head. “I just arrived from the convenience store. There’s no ice cream left. It’s out of stock.”

“Oh? You went to the convenience store too?”

A programmed, rhetorical response. Aiba could already guess that just from seeing the white plastic bag in my hand. But she was asking out of mechanical politeness. Not so different from humans attempting to be social, after all. However, she frowned in concern.

“It’s pretty late to go out shopping, Fujimoto-kun. Don’t you think you should be more careful, what with the serial kidnappings taking place in the neighborhood?”

I smiled cynically. “Well, I don’t have a synoid to run errands for me. And besides, the victims have all been girls so far. I don’t think they’re interested in a guy like me.”

“Still… in any case, it is better to be careful.” Aiba gave me a firm but robotic look. Her responses were so human that I had to remind myself that she was artificial, and these were all programmed to make me believe that she was the real thing.

“Thank you.”

I finally found my voice and bowed my head appreciatively. I was about to continue my journey home, but I suddenly remembered something.

“Well, there’s no ice cream in the convenience store, so there’s no point going there now.”

“Very well. I’ll contact Kyoko-chan and ask her what she would like as an alternative.”

I shrugged and left her to it. As I took another step, I suddenly noticed something.

“…what’s this?”

Something was falling out of the sky. A lot of…what looked like multicolored snow?

No way. There’s no way there will be snow in April? And there hasn’t been any snow in Tokyo for years!

Not only that, snow was white. These multicolored fragments looked more like…petals. Yeah, that was what they were. Petals. Considering that it was spring, it wouldn’t be weird for the pink petals to scatter after the Sakura trees bloomed.

Except there were no trees or flowers around. This was urban, concrete Tokyo. There were no Sakura trees or even a little shrub growing from the pavement. Even if there were, they would be pink. Yet I could see red, orange, yellow, green, blue and pink petals fluttering around.

I raised a hand and caught a couple of them in reflex. I stared at them until legs sprouted out from the “petals” and began digging into my palm.

“Whoa!”

With a cry, I swatted them away and stumbled backward. Swiping at the air around me, I tried to knock away the petals, which were all growing legs and scuttling around like bugs. Cursing, I swiped them away from my skin and limbs and began stomping on them and crushing them like the metallic insects they were. They shattered under my tremendous weight, flattened to broken pieces of glass-like shards.

“Huff…”

The rain of weird petals finally stopped. Turning around, I saw Aiba lying on the ground, prone and unmoving.

“Aiba-san…? Are you all right?”

I felt stupid for asking that question. Clearly, she wasn’t all right, or she wouldn’t be lying on the ground, caked with so many petals.

To my horror, I realized that the petals’ metallic legs had dug deeply into Aiba’s prosthetic flesh and were burrowing into her, or at least latching onto her.

“Damn it!”

I ran over and began swiping the petals away, but they remained firmly rooted. I had to individually pry each and every one out of the skin.

But there were so many of them. I wasn’t even done with five when Aiba’s body jerked and went into violent spasms.

“Whoa!”

I backed away in reflex, my head jerking to the side instinctively to avoid getting hammered by Aiba’s heavy titanium limbs. That would have cracked my human skull open.

Aiba continued to flail about for a few moments, and then she suddenly jolted upright. My eyes widened as I watched her head snap at an unnatural angle, her teeth chattering and her eyes staring blankly ahead.

That couldn’t be good. I had never seen a synoid act like that before, not even a malfunctioning one.

Her limbs bent back and forward, her head hanging from her neck before spinning clockwise to stare at me. She scuttled forward, stomach-up, her limbs twisted unnaturally to resemble legs of an arachnid. With a shrill shriek, she scuttled toward me like a predatory spider, her jaws clacking mechanically like mandibles.

“Holy…!”

With a panicked yell, I jumped backward. Aiba plunged past me, her limbs striking out and hitting me. Despite crossing my arms to shield my face and chest from the blow, I was hurled across the street and sent smacking against a concrete wall.

“Gah!”

I coughed as I slid down. Meanwhile, the abominable Aiba was now circling around to charge at me, her artificial skin tearing apart from the impossible movements and leaking mechanical innards and exposed wires. White fluid splashed out, dripping onto the petal-decorated ground. The petals seemed to wriggle, but at least they stayed put.

At least those that weren’t crushed underfoot by her rampage.

Aiba turned toward me and rushed forward. Breathing heavily, I righted myself before preparing myself for the assault. The crazed synoid hurled herself at me, but I pressed myself against the wall before springing upward and above Aiba. With a yell, I swung my leg down in an axe kick, smashing my foot onto her mechanical skull and burying it into the ground.

“Sorry, Aiba-san,” I apologized as I landed. My kick had almost severed Aiba’s head from her body, the wires and metallic spine snapped from the sheer force. Still, Aiba’s body continued to twitch and lash out, so I finished her by stomping on her head and completely decapitating the insane synoid. She jerked one last time before finally stopping.

What the hell was all that about? I wondered as I stepped away from the smoking body. A bug in her programming, caused by these bugs? They’re really bugging the synoids out, huh?

I sighed and reached for my cell phone. This was beyond me. I had to call the police. Even though I dreaded the trouble and reaction of the Shinomoto when they discovered that I had wrecked their expensive, top-of-the-line homemaker synoid, I couldn’t just leave the scene as if nothing had happened.

Before I could extract the cell phone from my pocket, however, I was alerted to the roar of tires. Glancing up, I caught sight of a car screeching toward me. From first impression, I could see that it was a taxi, one of those driven by a synoid. Taking over human drivers for the night shift, evidently.

Except that now the taxi, which was covered by petals, was speeding toward me with clear, murderous intent.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

I was barely able to jump out of the way in time. The taxi rolled over Aiba’s prone body, further crushing her into scrap, and collided with the concrete wall, leaving a crater. Rolling to the side, I rose to my feet and surveyed the scene in dismay.

And here I thought only human drivers drink and drive. This synoid is clearly intoxicated too!

Well, that was unfair. The synoid driving the taxi was evidently under the same influence as the malfunctioning Aiba. The petals must have done something to them, hacked their program and turned them berserk.

I had best call the police.

I fumbled in my pocket, but froze when I heard another screech. The tires spinning rapidly, the taxi reversed from the wall before swinging around to face me. With another bellow, the car charged toward me.

“You’re really bringing a whole new meaning to road rage.”

Clicking my tongue, I jumped up at the last minute before bringing my foot down on the hood and pulverizing the engine. Pivoting on the manhandled metal, I spun around and kicked the windshield with my other foot, shattering the glass and slamming my foot into the mechanical head of the male synoid who was struggling with the wheel.

With a single crack, his head came off. The taxi continued to surge forward, the last death throes of the headless synoid, and I leaped away from the accelerating vehicle, landing heavily on the ground. Without an artificial intelligence to control it, the taxi continued to speed blindly forward and collided with a concrete block that served as the perimeter of a condominium complex.

Without his head, the synoid slackened as his foot slipped off the accelerator and his hands released the steering wheel. The car shoved against the wall for a few more moments, its tires spinning furiously, but it finally ground to a slow halt.

“If you thought you could hit me with a car, you’ve been taken for a ride,” I mocked the decapitated driver mercilessly, panting heavily. Even after smashing the car, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. My trauma from the accident all those years ago still hadn’t vanished.

But one thing was for sure. I was never going to let myself get hit by a car ever again. Not after that accident six years ago.

Damn…

My prosthetic legs were trembling, superimposed over phantom limbs, a vestige of the legs I had lost in the accident all those years ago.

Good thing my father implanted military-grade prosthetics as a replacement for my lost legs, or I wouldn’t have gotten a leg-up in this battle.

Even when encased in flesh-colored material that was supposed to perfectly replicate the texture and feeling of organic human flesh, I could feel the difference. The titanium skeleton, the circuits and wires that ran through the frame in place of arteries and veins, and the considerable mass and density that weighed me down more than any natural limb would.

At least these prosthetic legs would give any of those government-issued prosthetics for war veterans a run for their money.

“Now can I finally call the police?”

Still wary of interruptions, I was about to reach into my pocket when I saw a whole series of mechanical bodies dropping onto the street. All of them twitching and moving weirdly like Aiba, their limbs twisted back and flailing about like cranes. Several of them were on fours, others were jerkily staggering forward on two legs while their heads and arms spun around crazily like rotors.

I sighed and pushed my glasses up as I stared at my new opponents. This looked like it was going to take all night. And even with my prosthetics, the rest of my body was human. I didn’t know if I could handle the burden my legs placed on the organic part of my body. Or if I had the stamina. I should have listened to my Dad and trained more often.

“Damn it… I’m going to need some help here!”

One of them lunged at me. I was about to prepare myself for a kick when someone landed between us, using something huge to block the synoid from clattering into me. I watched in awe as the young girl stood up between me and my assailants, raising what looked like a gigantic coffin. Long, blue hair flowed down to her waist, and her skintight clothes resembled a leotard more than a uniform. White and black, the latter color matching the bulky weapon she now wielded singlehandedly with her right hand, the synthetic fabric stretched over her body, emphasizing her feminine curves and perfect physical proportions.

I had never seen anyone so beautiful in my life.

“Uh…”

The girl turned to me, and I was struck by how mechanical her pretty face looked. She stared at me, almost blankly, her sapphire eyes glowing softly in the night.

Yeah, she was definitely not human.

“You asked for help?”

Taken aback by the question, I could only nod dumbly. Shaking my head and realizing that she wasn’t a hallucination, I focused on her features. I blinked as my enhanced optics adjusted and brought her into focus. Despite her ethereal beauty, there was something familiar about her. As if I had seen her before…

“You… aren’t you Kurosawa Kaede?”

The girl before me looked almost identical to the classmate I used to have a crush on, except that she was a lot less emotive and expressive. Kurosawa Kaede had often looked upon me with disgust and a little bit of fear. Right now, the girl before me was just staring at me impassively, like one of those service sector synoids who maintained a polite, mechanical mask while entreating customers. Her blank eyes didn’t just tell me she didn’t know who I was. She didn’t care.

“I am afraid I am not Kurosawa Kaede, nor is there any such person in my limited database.”

Limited database… so the girl was a synoid. It figured. Furthermore, Kurosawa Kaede had black hair and dark eyes. This girl’s long hair was a soft sky blue, and her eyes were a sparkling sapphire. Her beauty was so perfect it almost felt artificial.

“Well, yeah… thanks for helping me out, but we should leave this place. I don’t understand what’s going on, but the synoids in the area have all gone berserk.”

Before the girl could reply, one of the synoids lunged at her to prove my point. Without flinching, the girl hammered her with her coffin-like case. Getting off my lazy ass, I decided to help and kicked another synoid who was approaching her from the side.

I couldn’t let the girl do all the fighting, after all.

Twisting around, I struck another synoid with my leg and brought it down, wheeling, into the ground. The girl barely spared me a glance, but she knocked away another couple of synoids before she grabbed hold of my hand.

“Do you trust me?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Do you trust me? Yes? No?”

Well, if I had to say, I definitely trusted her over the rampaging synoids that were obviously trying to murder us, so I nodded.

“Yeah. You got an escape plan?”

“No, but I have a countermeasure in place. Please hang on tight.”

With a yank, the girl leaped from the ground while dragging me along with her. She sailed several meters over the marauding army of mad synoids and landed far behind their line. Noticing that we were gone, the synoids jerkily turned toward our new position.

“I’ve decided.”

“Decided what?” I asked impatiently, stunned by the sudden translocation. The girl looked at me with that same hollow expression.

“I have judged you to be suitable to be my owner.”

“Uh huh…uh, what?”

My eyes widened and it was my turn to stare at her blankly. Not caring about my confusion, the girl continued without pause.

“I am a weapon. A tool. I do not possess my own will. I cannot take responsibility for my actions. Therefore, as my owner, you will have to bear the responsibility. Are you ready for that?”

“Uh, are you really fine with me?”

I peeked past the girl and stared at the approaching synoids. We had landed quite a distance away, but those things would be on us within a minute.

“Yes. You said you trust me.”

“Yeah, of course, I did.”

I swallowed, still not understanding the flow of the question. The girl stared at me, and for a moment I almost thought I saw a slight flicker of emotion. Of hesitation?

I didn’t like this. Not one bit. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her or synoid in general, but I still hadn’t gotten over that trauma. I remained instinctively suspicious of synoids and vehicles after the accident. This didn’t change anything. If anything, it proved my fears right – that synoids were prone to insane malfunctions.

Yet, this girl alone didn’t malfunction when all the other synoids did. There was something soothing about her. I wasn’t sure what. Perhaps it was her uncanny resemblance to Kurosawa Kaede, a girl I knew… and liked. Or maybe this was the suspension bridge effect. When faced with unparalleled peril, I couldn’t help but believe in the only comrade available. It also helped that she saved me, so I couldn’t see her in the same light as the other synoids.

Kree!

The berserk synoids were drawing closer, and amidst the terrifying view, the girl stood firmly, like a solitary pillar of calm and assurance. If I didn’t make my decision soon, we would be overrun in the next thirty seconds.

This is no time to hesitate!

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and nodded.

“Got it. I’ll be your owner. I’ll take responsibility for your actions.”

“Thank you very much. Then, could you please provide your name?”

“Fujimoto Hideto.”

The girl closed her eyes and took my hand.

“Recording physical data of owner. Setting Fujimoto Hideto as the owner of the Advanced Combat Elite class Synthetic Humanoid Android, Type 004. The synoid and the Black Monolith device are autonomous, but our services are bound to the owner. Once I have confirmed the date, please agree to the contract.”

I gulped, but the girl moved on without hesitation.

“The owner will shoulder all responsibility for all actions of this synoid and the Black Monolith device. Do you agree?”

“Yes.”

The girl closed her eyes, and the gem-like hairclips in her hair glowed softly, suffused with an ethereal light.

“Starting the lifelog of the owner. These records will be used in any legal lawsuits. Further confirmation is required to release the lock on this device.”

“Understood. Whatever you need to do, please do it.”

And hurry, I silently begged. The army of crazed synoids were almost upon us. The girl stood up and turned to face them. Beside her, the coffin-like device unlocked and shapeshifted into a shape of a gigantic cannon.

“Understood. The contract is complete.”

That was when a bunch of bugs began to rain down from above. I hurriedly swiped away the petals that were collecting on the girl’s hair and shoulders. The damned things seemed to possess the ability to hack into a synoid’s system and drive them mad. I didn’t want the same thing happening to the girl.

Unfazed, she continued to focus her attention on the approaching army of synoids. Lowering her cannon, she aimed it at them.

“Owner. Suggested countermeasure: a massive electromagnetic pulse to disable all electronics in the area.”

“Okay…”

I was about to give my consent, but the girl continued.

“However, if there are any people in the vicinity on life-support, this would have drastic consequences for them. Even then… will you take responsibility?”

I swallowed for a moment, digesting that new piece of knowledge. If I disabled the life-support systems in the vicinity, I might end up causing casualties. Was it fair to trade the lives of other people for mine?

However…

If I don’t stop these synoids from rampaging here, everyone will be in danger anyway!

Making a snap decision, I met the girl’s gaze with steely resolve and nodded.

“Yeah. I’ll take responsibility. Do it.”

The girl acknowledged my command with a brisk nod and then unleashed a bright blue beam from her cannon. I blinked and fell over as I lost power to my prosthetics, going blind as the cybernetic implants in my head blanked out. My vision turned hazy again, but I peered through my glasses and saw that the petal-like bugs around us had shorted out, smoking and falling harmlessly to the ground. Further in front, the army of berserk synoids had crumpled, toppling over like puppets with their strings cut, their systems completely fried.

Good thing I have electromagnetic shielding…still, that was so powerful that my implants all shut down…

I would have to ask my father to improve the shielding. On the other hand, I was relieved that my internal circuits weren’t fried from the EMP burst. That would have been disastrous. For now, all I needed to do was reboot my internal systems and power would be restored to my synthetics.

“Are you all right, Owner?”

The girl offered me a hand. I nodded and took it, shakily rising to my feet as power blinked back on.

“Thanks, uh…”

I suddenly realized that I didn’t know her name.

“What’s your name? What should I call you?”

The girl stared at me blankly. For a second, I felt a chill run down my spine. The uncanny resemblance between her and Kurosawa Kaede continued to disturb me but I shoved that unease to the back of my mind.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s called Kaede.

However, the girl merely offered an emotionless response.

“I am an advanced combat AI programmed into the frame of an ACE-class synoid, designated Unit 004.”

“It’ll be weird to call you Unit 004,” I complained, but the girl didn’t seem perturbed.

“Owner can call me whatever you feel most comfortable with.”

“You mean, give you a name?”

The girl nodded. I studied her for a moment, and then took a deep breath. I was half-tempted to name her Kaede, but even by my standards, that was creepy. Besides, I had moved on. I no longer had a crush on a girl who accused me of stalking her and spread terrible rumors about me. No, I decided to begin with a clean slate.

But what should I call her?

While wracking my brain, I suddenly recalled her introduction.

“I am an advanced combat AI…”

“AI…” I murmured as a smile spread across my face. “Ai. That’s it! I’ll call you Ai!”

For a moment, I thought I saw a smile flash across Ai’s beautiful face, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. My imagination?

“That is a great name. Thank you, Owner. From now on, I’ll respond to the name, Ai.”

“Nice to meet you, Ai. I’ll be in your care.”

“As am I.”

Ai bowed politely, and I hastily returned the greeting. Pulling my head back up, I glanced at the devastated scene before us.

“Still, we’ve to do something about this.”

“The police are already on their way. They will be here within 5 minutes.”

As expected, I could finally hear the sirens in the background. Too slow…they arrived when the action was over. I wondered what the point of spending all those taxpayer money was.

“I’ll upload a copy of my visual recordings for the police investigation, with your permission.”

“Yeah, I’ll be counting on you for that.”

Turning away from the direction of the flashing sirens, I glanced up. For a second, I thought I saw a shadow of a little girl disappearing into the darkness of a building above. Biting my lip, I stared into the darkness, calibrating my visual optics, but I couldn’t locate the girl again.

The petals came from there…

While I was a little pleased and apprehensive that I had met Ai, I couldn’t help but receive a premonition that I had gotten myself involved in something really troublesome.