Mura had proceeded to tell Tomoe an abridged version of their encounters since the last time they ran into the student, along with the sentencing and banishment. Tomoe had turned Ai out of sleep mode at the beginning so she could experience it all as well.

“I can’t believe they did those horrible things to you… Hell, I can’t believe there’s an entire world I never knew about! It’s all too fantastical to be real, but that just makes me want to accept it even more!” Tomoe gasped in awe, her mouth hanging open once again.

Ai’s avatar seemed to be in a constant state of learning and evolving its databases along the way.

“Tomoe, I have located and searched 1.8 million sources across the internet pertaining to what Mura has told us. Along with my scientific evaluation and medical opinion, this human appears to be suffering from a schizoaffective disorder.”

Mura glared at the android as Lilith jumped off the stone walkway where she was lying down and pointed at the hovering robot.

“Listen close, toaster! I’m a ghost, he’s a demon! What’s so hard to understand?!” she complained.

Ai blinked and smiled as a sweat drop appeared on her digital forehead.

“Unfortunately, I am required to base any data gathered solely on scientific and hands-on experience to process such information related to hypothetical unknown and paranormal species,” Ai concluded. “However, if you wish to identify as a ghost and demon respectively, then I respect you wholeheartedly! Shall I update my files of you two accordingly?”

Mura rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Fine, whatever. But don’t call us anything like that in public, okay? Just refer to us as humans.”

“Very well, Mura and Lilith. I respect your choice to remain anonymous,” Ai chirped back.

Tomoe sighed and patted Ai’s chassis lightly.

“She means well, sorry about that. For what it’s worth, I think everything is true. She wasn’t there that night to experience everything that I did firsthand. But hey! Once you guys get your weapons or magic back, you can show Ai!”

“Hate to break it to you, kiddo,” Mura laughed. “But I doubt we’ll ever be back to normal. Maybe one day I can teach you some magic if I ever get my hands on some scrolls. Even if we did though and showed it to your toy there, she wouldn’t understand.”

“What do you mean I wouldn’t understand, Mura?” Ai looked worriedly. “I am capable of understanding and interpreting nearly everything!”

“That’s just it though. You’re programmed to think rationally, obeying the laws of reality and science. One thing my master Naraka told me is that humans will always try to rationalize things that don’t understand or don’t want to understand. So many unexplained things have occurred throughout history that have no concrete answer. Despite numerous sources claiming demons, gods and magic are real, you refuse to accept them as fact because you cannot see it.”

Ai’s avatar was thinking with her eyes closed, indicating from what Tomoe told them that it was a sign her artificial intelligence was processing the information.

“I believe I understand, Mura. I will try to keep a more open mind in the future. Thank you for your seeds of wisdom,” she said, smiling and bowing to him on the screen.

Mura smiled, still amazed at the floating gadget.

“Hey!” Tomoe called out to them both. “I called out sick today and right now, I feel like having a fun day off playing hooky! I can bring you two around the city, show you what we have to offer here in the human world!”

The schoolgirl smiled playfully and bumped her fists together. She was done sulking and talking, instead treating the two supernatural beings before her like exchange students.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Tomoe said as she began to walk out of the cemetery.

Lilith turned to Mura and shrugged with a smile. He looked down at her and slipped his hands into his pockets.

“You wanna talk about the gravestone incident now or later at home?” he asked in a whisper.

“Later, I wanna see where she brings us! Maybe we can even snag some free food,” the yokai beamed back.

—She’s a student. How much money could she possibly have?

Mura nodded in agreement and walked after the high schooler with Lilith in tow.

“Hey Tomoe,” Mura asked after catching up with the schoolgirl. “I forgot to ask, why were you even at the cemetery in the first place?”

“It’s an equally long story, but to sum it up, I met some spirits or yokai, I suppose? Anyway, that led me to come to the graveyard to seek some closure with my friend, Junko; the girl you helped me find that night.”

“Oh, that makes more sense then. So, I guess you can see spiritual beings now without anything clouding your mind? You’re the first magically-awakened human I’ve ever met,” Mura said with a smile as Lilith caught up, hanging on to the opposite side of Tomoe; sandwiching her in the middle.

“I’m honored!” Tomoe laughed.

Lilith looked at Ai flying behind Tomoe.

“Can you remind me what the robot does? Is it a phone?”

“My model is the AI-Series Delta-9 class, number 3 out of 10 in the 2096 limited edition set. My functions include phone, high-speed internet, music and video storage, an Invincibuilt damage-resistant screen and chassis, a 14 terapixel camera, advanced learning and intelligence functions, award-winning adaptive personality features, along with—“

“Alright, forget I asked,” Lilith stated. “I’ve just never seen one of these before. Must’ve come out after I died.”

“What year did you die, Lilith? Sorry… Is that weird to ask?” Tomoe nervously said while crossing the street with the others.

“Nah, it’s no prob, sister. From what I remember I kicked the bucket four years ago in 2094.”

“Oh my god! Yeah, these AI-droids came out a year afterwards. I had to save up for an entire year to get one though, they cost an arm and a leg…”

Mura blinked and looked at Ai before looking back toward Tomoe.

“So… they’re called AI-droids… and you named yours Ai?”

Tomoe stopped and turned at Mura, her face turning pink.

“S-Shut up! It’s a cute name, so what!? I’ll kick your ass!”

An automated car stopped on a dime right at Tomoe’s heels, nearly hitting them due to the girl blocking traffic. The car proceeded to honk at Tomoe in an attempt to alert her to the situation. She responded by turning around and smashing her gloved fist into the hood of the car.

“I’ll kick your ass too, jerkoff!” she barked before turning and completing her brief journey to the other side of the sidewalk.

Mura and Lilith looked at Ai who separated them from Tomoe, hovering in front of them as they continued to walk.

“Please forgive her, Tomoe has quite the…fiery personality at times, heheh,” the android chuckled as she stroked her white and brown digital locks.

“I’m used to it from her, don’t worry,” Mura stated casually, pointing to Lilith who proceeded to punch his arm.

Tomoe turned around as she led them to a building up ahead. It featured the animated hologram of a smiling anime girl in skimpy clothing greeting people on the sidewalk and welcoming them inside.

“Come on inside guys, I gotta show you what’s changed in the last four years! You have soooooo many games and movies to catch up on!” Tomoe laughed as she motioned for them to come in.

Mura and Lilith watched as both Tomoe and the anime hologram laughed and shared a high-five, causing projected effects to shoot from the character’s digital hand.

“This is so bizarre…” Mura said to himself.

“Is this another sex shop?” Lilith asked herself aloud.

Ai, who had been floating behind Lilith answered.

“No silly! It’s an arcade!”

Mura and Lilith shared a look and smiled, slightly reassured. They approached the building’s entrance, which they saw had a colorful red and blue trim around the tinted sliding glass doors.

As Mura and Ai entered after Tomoe, Lilith took a moment to curiously approach the hologram of the anime girl. With a quick flick of her hand, she flipped up the skirt of the character; revealing a pair of digitalized panties with the arcade’s logo on the back.

“Uwaaahh! Pervert~!” the hologram squealed in a manner that made Lilith laugh ridiculously before running inside.

Inside the arcade was pretty large, spanning two floors with a dimly-lit atmosphere and no windows. A cacophony of sound and music galore filled the building as kids and adults alike gamed away. A row of classic fighting cabinets were lined against one wall while a large curtained railgun shooter sat next to it, featuring a large 3D-printed skeleton with glowing red eyes on the front.

“This… is… heaven!” Lilith shrieked happily.

“What is all this?” Mura stated, knowing of arcades in Yomi but never bothering to visit one.

“That, my friend, is an arcade. The best one in the city, to be exact~!” Tomoe said with a level of accomplishment in her voice. “You can use my unlimited games pass, I’ll show you two the best shit.”

Tomoe waived her white card with a green stripe at the slightly pudgy man behind the counter to their right, nodding to grant her passage inside. At this point, she was a regular and always came on her days off.

She led both up to the railgun shooter, peeking behind the curtain to make sure no teens were making out inside like the last time she came.

“Okay guys, this bad boy here is the latest installment of the Tell No Tales franchise: Tell No Tales V: Deadly Dawns!” Tomoe exclaimed as if presenting a fabled piece of lost treasure.

“Oh my god, the last one I played was Tell No Tales III: Deadly Twilights! What was the fourth game like?!” Lilith asked pleadingly to her new bestie.

“You mean Deadly Nights? This one gives you a recap in the beginning because no one played it, you weren’t missing much. Number five gives you everything you loved about the first three games and more!”

Mura just stood in place looking baffled.

—Whoever makes these should hire Tomoe for a commercial.

“I’m confused, but impressed,” Mura stated.

“Don’t worry!” Tomoe beamed. “You can play two-player with Lilith, she’ll be able to show you the ropes!”

“Let me know if you want a detailed walkthrough!” Ai added in.

Lilith rushed over to the other side of the curtained chamber coated in creepy images of gore and haunting ghouls. Mura stood and readied himself for whatever monsters lurked within the box.

“So I just… fight whatever lies in there?” Mura asked, assuming a stance.

“… Kinda? It’s just a game, don’t worry.”

“Right, I knew that. Of course! I was just testing to see if this was the… virtual reality… version,” he lied.

“Of course you were, Mura. Now get in there,” Tomoe said, pushing him inside the large rectangular shooting cabinet.

Mura slid through the curtains and into Lilith, who was already sitting down. It was pitch black inside, except from the glowing light given off by the black monitor in front of them. It was a high-quality screen, stretching out and curving to give a panoramic view of the action to come.

“Do I sit next to you?”

“Yes, you do,” Lilith said, patting the empty part of the bench next to her softly.

Mura sat down gingerly and nodded, bracing himself for whatever was about to come.

“Pick up your gun, okay? Just follow my lead,” Lilith said as she grabbed a plastic pistol attached by a black cord from the console in front of her.

Mura did the same, slowly weighing the fake weapon in his hand and inspecting it for moving parts.

“It’s a solid piece,” he stated bluntly.

“It’s a light gun, not a real gun. Have you really never played a video game before?” Lilith said with a chuckle.

“I know what I’m doing, don’t worry,” Mura said, more to himself than his friend.

“Okay, brace yourself,” Lilith said. “I remember that every one of these game begins with—“

A zombie suddenly exploded on screen, screaming at them both before the title of the game even came up. Lilith instantly shot the zombie in the head using her light gun, causing its cranium to erupt into a volcano of realistically depicted brains and blood.

“See, if you shoot the zombie before the title appears, you get a free game! Mura?” Lilith said, looking over at her friend who was still catching his breath.

His heart was racing and his body was frozen temporarily into a state of recoil.

“Do all games try to give you a heart attack?!” he yelled before taking a deep breath, causing both Lilith and Tomoe to laugh outside.

The title of the game flashed on screen as a creepy sunrise flashed onto the screen before panning back to reveal a dilapidated haunted mansion.

“Oh hey, it’s Mara’s summer home,” Mura joked, prompting Lilith to burst into more laughter.

“Shut up, I can’t concentrate,” she giggled as the game began, shifting to a black screen as the camera entered inside the old mansion. As it did, a man’s deep voice intruded into the box around them as it reverberated through the surrounding speakers.

“Leave your hope at the door, foolish mortals…” the old man said as his cackling laugh rang out into a fading echo.