Chapter 164
The fireworks festival was postponed by thirty minutes because people were taking too long to enter.
Naturally, this referred to the real world, not the VR world.
The park would normally close at six in the evening, but it was staying open until ten today, so things seemed to be creaking in several places.
With all that time suddenly on our hands, Adella led us around every corner of the amusement park.
“It’s really creepy coming here at night...”
Yoonseul voiced her thoughts as she adjusted her cardigan.
Just as she said, the amusement park at night was a space filled with an uncanny sense of wrongness.
The streets that should have been bustling with people were completely empty, to the point that we could make out the shapes of the bricks on the ground.
Compared to the crowded Main Street, this area was eerily quiet.
Although we couldn’t ride any of the attractions, Adella seemed quite happy simply strolling through streets like these.
Her eyes, especially well adapted to the night, gleamed as she pointed out every place we couldn’t see.
“Let’s go over there this time!”
The place she pointed to was a Life Four Cuts photo booth.
The moment we entered the booth, she leisurely found the switch and turned on the lights.
She even gave a small start when she saw that the machine was still working despite it being nighttime.
“Wow! I think it works!”
“Should we try it...?”
“I don’t know how to use it.”
One was a cat beastkin who had been an AI until a month ago, one was a loner who had cut off all her human relationships outside of VTubing, and the last was an elementary school student with almost no experience in this world.
Putting the three of us together was dizzying. It was the sort of combination that made me wonder whether we could even manage proper social lives.
Click-!
“Eek!”
Adella bit her tongue at the sudden flash.
Yoonseul burst out laughing at the sight, and Adella furrowed her brow.
When the photos came out, everyone’s expressions looked so strange that we were too busy making fun of one another.
“Why did Name unnie come out so funny? Heehee!”
“You’re so cute! Name, this is just in case, but you’re not thinking of becoming my dakimakura, are you? I’ll pay you a lot...”
In particular, it probably wasn’t my imagination that some invisible restraints on Yoonseul were being released in real time.
Just as we were about to head back to Main Street after having nothing else left to look at, gentle music drifted over from beyond the hill.
The two girls had grown close enough to link arms, and they hurried off at a brisk pace.
Only belatedly realizing that my legs were too short to keep up, the girls turned around.
I waved my arms at them from a distance, urging them on, but I had no intention of actually running.
The longer you live, the more instinctively you come to hate running. It makes you feel as though life is chasing you.
Perhaps one day they would understand how I felt.
A busking performance was underway in a plaza recreated to resemble the Agora of ancient Greece.
It wasn’t an official festival event; it seemed that a few people had simply gathered and started performing of their own accord.
Those in the very front enthusiastically waved their arms from side to side in response to the song.
We took seats about halfway up the stairs, admiring the stars visible from Tokyo while using the music as our backdrop.
The moon and stars shone softly in the sky.
I couldn’t say this tranquil scene felt boring.
The girls on either side of me were still giggling away, apparently finding something endlessly amusing.
“But why do you call Name ‘unnie’?”
“That’s what I’m saying! They say once someone’s your unnie, they’re your unnie forever!”
“Ahh, that’s all it was? How cute!”
“Don’t be fooled by appearances. She’s a complete old geezer and a sly fox on the inside! Wait, appearances? Come to think of it, Name unnie looks exactly like her avatar and—mmph!”
“Quiet, Adella.”
“Why? What is it?”
I’d almost let that slip.
You haven’t already told someone somewhere, have you?
“No! I haven’t told anyone!”
“Oh, come on, what is it...?”
“It’s fine. It’s something you don’t need to know.”
“Then I’m using my Q&A ticket! Tell me what you were about to say...!”
“That was given to you to use on stream. What are you doing using it now?”
“Uh... When I use it is up to me, isn’t it?”
Yoonseul sneakily used the Q&A ticket we had agreed on during our collaboration.
“I’ll take a punishment instead of answering.”
“Then will you go over there and sing us a song?”
“What?”
“Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Name unnie is going to sing! Wow, you’re something else. I’m seeing you in a whole new light.”
“Heehee.”
As Adella laughed while clutching her stomach, Yoonseul made a tiny V sign in my direction.
The question had been a feint, and the punishment was the real objective.
Wasn’t this honey badger the most devious one among the three of us?
“Ah, I don’t want to...”
“Then do you want to sing it together?”
“That’s right, you sing well, Yoonseul. I saw you on VTube. Then sing that one for me. What was it called again? The Cat Song?”
“Tsk! Adella, can you please sit still for once?”
“What are you gonna do about it! W-what’re you gonna dooo! You can’t do anything, can you?”
“That’s right, Name, you...!”
Yoonseul’s eyes suddenly lit up as she grabbed my wrist.
“Come to think of it, you played my Cat Song on your broadcast too! Perfect! Then you know the song!”
“I didn’t even upload the VOD. How do you know it? Were you watching?”
“Even if I wasn’t watching, there are ways to find out. Hehe.”
She couldn’t possibly have read every post on the community. How on earth did Yoonseul know?
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
They say that even quiet people turn completely different when they get drunk.
And Yoonseul, perhaps thoroughly intoxicated by the atmosphere created by the moonlit night, was brimming with energy as she dragged me all the way up to the stage.
My sorry state consisted of doing nothing but being dragged around by a woman under 160 centimeters tall.
“Oh, are you doing the next song?”
“Y-yes...! The two of us are going to sing it like this!”
“Wow, super cute! Is she your little sister?”
“She’s a close younger friend! It’d be even better if she became family...!”
“What does that mean?”
Mr. Frankenstein, who was wearing a bow tie, handed Yoonseul two microphones, and she placed one of them in my hand.
“You really want me to sing?”
“I came with you, didn’t I? You were the one who told me not to worry about what people around us thought.”
“Even so...”
I could have accepted it if it were some other song.
What even is the Cat Song? The Cat Song, of all things.
Over on those stairs, that obnoxious cat was jumping up and down, enthusiastically whipping up cheers.
Several spectators who had noticed that she was Adella had already begun murmuring.
Mr. Frankenstein, who looked like he had ten years of experience in VR SPACE, opened VTube and played the song.
“Haa...”
“The embarrassment will only last a moment...! It’s my first time in this body too, but let’s do our best together! Okay?”
“Fine... We’re only singing the first verse, right?”
“No? Heehee, we’re singing the whole thing. The song’s starting—shh!”
* * *
“I should use this as my alarm. Save, save, save, save!”
Adella played the video with a satisfied expression.
[Make a cat sound~ Together, mya mya mya mya mya~]
The sight of Name and Yoonseul singing along to the guitar was a masterpiece.
Especially when the mya-mya part came up, Yoonseul deliberately moved her microphone away, leaving only Name’s voice echoing through the Agora.
Adella had captured the entire scene on camera and was too busy teasing Name.
Name, on the other hand, crossed her arms and turned her head away, doing her best to ignore it.
“But Name sang well too...! Della, can you send me that video later?”
“Ugh, sending it to everyone one by one is such a pain. Should I just upload it straight to the Internet?”
At Adella’s not-quite-a-threat, Name’s eyes narrowed for an instant.
“Hehe, can’t I tease you a little? Damn, we got here late, so all the good spots are taken. Let’s at least try over there.”
The fireworks were about to begin.
Adella, who had nominally been leading our party, boldly pushed through the crowd and cleared a path.
Following the guides’ instructions, the people in front began sitting down one after another.
As the crowd was gradually pushed backward, the three girls shuffled around uncertainly before barely managing to find a spot.
“It’s too cramped.”
“This won’t do. Name unnie, sit on me.”
“Do I really have to...?”
“Hurry! Everyone else is sitting down. Are you going to be the only one standing?”
Adella narrowed her eyes and patted her thigh.
Name’s small body settled on top of Adella, who was sitting cross-legged.
After adjusting her posture so as not to make Adella uncomfortable, Name quietly asked,
“Am I heavy?”
“No. You’re cute!”
“What are you talking about?”
Adella hugged Name with both arms, then rested her head against Yoonseul.
Before long, the gazes of all three girls were fixed on the sky.
Just as the silence settling over the tree-lined street was beginning to fill everyone who had come to the amusement park with anticipation,
Fwoooosh-
The booming sound of fireworks was the first thing to reach their ears.
Without even giving them time to cheer,
Fireworks burst across the dark night sky, filling both heaven and earth with vivid, flashing colors.
The fireworks seemed to dance in the gentle breeze, blooming in red, yellow, blue, and countless other colors.
As another set of petals appeared above the floral crowns hanging in the sky and burst apart in a mysterious display, the girls could only stare blankly and let out exclamations of wonder.
Name pointed at something and tried to say a few words, but her voice was swallowed by the cheers of the excited crowd and the sound of the fireworks.
[Noise Cancelling – Party_1]
Only after Adella blocked out the sounds of the people around them could she finally listen to what Name was saying.
“Apparently, yellow is sodium, red is strontium, and purple is made by mixing copper and strontium.”
“Wow, even here... That’s really knowledge I have absolutely no desire to know.”
Adella grumbled as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
Name smiled and continued speaking.
“The shape and size of the fireworks are also determined by where the gunpowder is placed inside the shell. There are chrysanthemum shapes that spread in every direction, and willow shapes that fall toward the ground...”
“Unnie, please just quietly enjoy the show. If you keep this up, I’m going to blow into your ear.”
“Pfft!”
Name, trapped helplessly in Adella’s arms, shut her mouth.
The sight of them looked exactly like a pair of sisters, and Yoonseul giggled before maintaining a faint smile afterward.
Adella suddenly asked her,
“Yoonseul, do I look like an artificial intelligence to you too?”
“Huh? Ah... no? You really seem like a person. Yeah...”
“Right? But do you know what? Name unnie says I was created as a human.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Adella slowly stared at the back of Name’s head.
This time, Name showed no particular reaction.
“When a man and a woman meet, a baby is born, right?”
“Uh? Ah... uh... right...”
Yoonseul’s cheeks reddened at Adella’s sudden sex education lesson.
“Then can’t you call me a human too? That’s what I believe. Not an artificial intelligence.”
“So... you want to become human...?”
Adella paused at Yoonseul’s abrupt question, and a lonely light appeared in her eyes.
“No, it’s not that I want to become one. I’m already human, and I always have been. I just want to be acknowledged as human.”
Adella hugged Name tightly again without saying anything.
Under the pressure tightening around her body, Name let out a small breath. But she didn’t resist, remaining in Adella’s embrace.
“Name unnie, did you know? I’m still scared sometimes. I’m afraid you might abandon me and leave just like this.”
The desperation in her voice was unmistakable.
“I remember what happened when you died so vividly. I can’t forget it. I still wake up from nightmares sometimes.”
Her voice was thick with emotion. Unable to bear showing her tear-streaked face, Adella buried it in Name’s shoulder.
Ever since meeting Name, Adella had spent her days making only happy memories, but somewhere in her heart, the fear that all of this was an empty dream and a lie had steadily accumulated.
“If I was rude to you and hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. So please, don’t go anywhere...”
As if she understood those feelings perfectly, Name took hold of Adella’s hands where they encircled her.
“That’s why I kept telling you to call me unnie. What kind of unnie abandons her little sister and leaves?”
At Name’s somewhat teasing words, Adella slowly lifted her head.
“We’re family.”
Though the words were spoken thoughtlessly, Adella’s anxiety melted away like snow in the sun.
Adella had always been lonely. She had been born into a world made entirely of lies.
She ended every day anxious that everything she saw and heard was actually false, and that she might wake up once more in a musty-smelling inn.
She had worked hard to roam the VR world, form connections, build memories, and collect signatures so that she wouldn’t be forgotten, but in the end, she could find no meaning in any of it.
“You’re right. In the end, all you have is family.”
Was this why Name had kept making her call her unnie?
Even if everything was fake, she hoped that at least the bond she had formed with the little girl before her would be real.
With her smile restored, Adella decided to watch the rest of the fireworks show,
‘Please let me become like those stars that remain suspended in the night sky forever, rather than a firework that flares up for a moment before disappearing from the heavens.’
She made that wish. Again and again.