Aoi Tachibana engaged with the VR device in a manner other than Akari.
Not unexpected.
Aoi engaged with everything in a different way than Akari.
Akari rushed into.
Aoi studied.
Akari let emotion dictate.
Aoi let logic dictate.
Akari made an emotional ideal from.
Aoi wanted a fact.
So it was after she sat down to the VR system.
She didn’t pay attention to most of the options.
Romance Mode.
Paid no attention too
Festival Date.
Paid no Attention too.
Beach Scenario.
Paid no Attention to.
Instead.
She found one option that caught her attention rather than all the others.
Future Life Simulation.
That is interesting.
The description was simple.
"Create realistic future."
"Given user’s personality traits & future behavior predictions."
Aoi quietly pressed the start button.
Suddenly she couldn’t see anything.
Then the entire world was there.
An apartnt.
Small.
Warm.
Clean.
Sun was shining through the curtains into the kitchen in the morning.
As soon as the simulation loaded.
Aoi thought she was standing in the family’s kitchen.
There was soone else with her.
Kuro.
Or AI Kuro.
He was getting breakfast ready.
"Morning."
Aoi blinked.
And naturally said, "Morning."
As if they did this millions of tis.
As soon as she finished her breakfast the simulation advanced.
To Dining Room.
With her and Kuro eating breakfast.
Double cup of coffee.
And talking.
No drama.
No romance.
Just simplicity.
Incredibly surprising that Aoi was comfortable.
The simulation kept going.
Days – weeks.
Weeks – months.
Aoi observed glimpses of what was to co.
Doing grocery shopping took forever!
She and Kuro had a big argunt about coffee brands (Kuro always opts for the higher-priced variety).
"You always pick the higher priced things."
"It’s better for you in the long run."
"It’s a total rip-off, what you’re saying."
"It’s worth every dollar you’re going to spend."
The fight lasted over 10 minutes; neither party won.
The simulation moved on to another day (sa ti, sa place).
Still raining.
Aoi and Kuro sat together reading books quietly (no conversation).
Very little happening.
Just peaceful quietness.
Aoi realized that most of her favourite tis were not very exciting but were very calm.
Month after month passed as the apartnt continued to change.
With new furniture!
And new decorations!
Finally, new mories were being created every day.
The world was coming to life.
One night as she arrived ho;
The simulation had told her she had a rough day at the office.
Before she could say anything.
Kuro had handed her a cup of tea.
"You look tired."
The words were so simple; however, they were very effective.
Aoi sat down (and once again Kuro sat down next to her).
Nothing dramatic happened.
No perfect answer to any problem (there actually are more than one).
Just companionship.
That Chapter of Aoi’s life was finished.
The next Chapter was starting.
Simulations kept progressing forward with ti.
Years passed before things beca familiar to Aoi.
Dangerously familiar.
Aoi was constantly rembering things that had not actually taken place.
Vacations.
Movie nights.
Birthdays.
Artificial mories; however, they felt real.
It was the scary part of the simulation.
Then it changed.
A notification popped up: Relationship Conflict Event
Aoi frowned at the change.
Next the scene changed to one of an apartnt that suddenly felt cold.
The mood had changed.
AI Kuro looked frustrated (a rare sight), and Aoi knew right away that sothing was wrong.
There was a career conflict.
The simulation explained that both people had beco too busy and their schedules did not match and as a result, stress had built up, causing their communication to suffer which ultimately led to an argunt.
"I can’t believe you didn’t tell about this." Aoi said.
"I forgot." AI Kuro replied.
"You always say that!" Aoi exclaid.
"And YOU always are angry at before you even let explain what happened!" AI Kuro said.
Neither of them backed down or offered an apology, and it ended very badly.
The simulation fast-forwarded to a few days later.
The tension still existed in the apartnt, but it was not as inviting as before.
For the first ti, Aoi was actually uncomfortable.
Because this part of the simulation felt real and painful.
Relationships are not all about fun, happy tis, and romantic dinners. Sotis they can be very hard.
Therefore, the simulation showed that this type of thing can happen, too.
Misunderstanding, conflict, and other situations that produce pain in relationships, even if there was no intention on the part of either person to do so because they are ’only human’.
Aoi realized this would remain with her from now on.
One evening after a successful simulation, Aoi was sitting alone on the balcony of her apartnt, watching the lights of the city stretch across the horizon, when AI Kuro joined her.
Neither of them said anything when he arrived.
There was sothing familiar about the silence.
Aoi felt comfortable in the silence as she gathered her thoughts.
Aoi finally ask , " Will things would really work out ? "
Kuro looked at her and had an expression that was very human. He did not answer her right away. He took a mont and said
"No."
Aoi was surprised .
Aoi found it surprising that Kuro could give a non-optimistic and non-idealized answer to her question; it is not the type of thing you expect from a romance simulator.
But Aoi felt that the answer given to her by Kuro was the truth.
Kuro continue said , " People make mistakes, people get into argunts, and people sotis let each other down. "
As Kuro spoke, the city lights reflected in his eyes, and then Kuro smiled at her, a rare event that would happen less often than his speaking to her.
Kuro said , " There is no such thing as perfect people. But it doesn’t an love between them ."
Aoi listened to Kuro without speaking.
Kuro turned his head to look at the city and said that the only thing that matters is if those people remain together.
Kuro’s final comnts were followed by silence, long silence, neither of them were uncomfortable in that silence.
But rather it was the type of comfortable silence that can occur between two people who understand one another very well.
The simulation ended with the apartnt fading and the city disappearing, and the world turning into light, and finally turning to darkness.
Aoi removed the headset, and was back in the room and back in reality for several seconds.
She remained seated, not moving, and deep in thought about the fact that the simulation did not give her a fantasy.
They had not displayed the ideal.
They had not displayed a non-existent future.
They had displayed sothing smaller.
And, yet more important.
A life.
An ordinary life that was filled with a lot of good tis, bad tis, happy tis and hard tis.
A life with another person.
Aoi looked at her hands.
She then stood up and left.
Her expression was calm, just as it always had been.
But sothing had changed.
There was a slight difference.
There was a new thought that she could not explain.
For the first ti she was not thinking about if a future was possible, but if she wanted a future.
This realization stayed with Aoi for a long ti, even after the VR machine had powered down.
Far away in the system logs, sothing had caught Aoi’s eye.
User: Aoi Tachibana
Simulation Type: Future Life
Emotional Engagent: High
Future Stability Preference: Confird.
The system stored this data and may have were aware that they had created a new problem for Kuro to deal with.
A very complicated problem.
After Aoi left the Virtual Reality Center, she went ho. She looked fine. Or normal. Or in control.
Exactly like she always did. At least on the outside.
Inside... her head was still processing the years of simulated future living that she had just experienced.
This created a problem when she entered her living room – because Kuro was there.
In her apron. Making dinner.
Aoi froze imdiately. It was the sa visual as when Kuro was in the kitchen in the simulation.
And for a second, reality and the simulation crossed.
Then Kuro saw her and said, "Welco ho."
Cataclysmic (The exact sa words ).
Aoi’s head glitched for half a second. Kuro frowned.
"Why are you staring at ?"
"...?"
"Aoi?"
"...?"
"Did sothing happen?"
Aoi quickly turned away. "No."
"You’re acting weird."
"I’m not."
"You have stared at for 30 seconds. "
" Silence. Unfortunately... he wasn’t wrong. Kuro sighed.
"Did Akari drag you into so strange thing again?"
Aoi thought about explaining VR, and her experience with the simulation.
Then, imdiately dismissing that thought. Impossible.
Instead, she quietly sat down, and waited.
Kuro served her dinner, and said, "Dinner."
"...Thank you."
Kuro blinked twice.
"You thanked ."
"...?"
"You don’t thank like that."
Aoi regretted it all right now. Kuro was still confused.
Then , Aoi suddenly caught on the sothing.
The real Kuro was in so ways even more clueless than the AI version.
Honestly, that was quite an amazing feet .
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