The fireworks festival was postponed for 30 minutes due to the people’s late arrival.
Of course, they were not talking about the VR world, but the real world.
Normally, the closing time would be 6 PM, but today, unusually, it was extended until 10 PM, which seemed to cause some bumps in various areas.
Our sense of time floating away, we were led by Adella to explore every corner of the amusement park.
“It really feels eerie at night…”
Yoon-seul expressed her thoughts while adjusting her cardigan.
As she said, the night amusement park was filled with a sense of alienation and discomfort.
The streets that should have been bustling with people were so empty that you could even examine the shape of the bricks on the ground.
Compared to the crowd-packed main street, this area was strangely quiet.
Even though the rides were not operational, Adella seemed to be quite happy just meandering through these empty streets.
Especially, her eyes—optimized for night—were sparkling as she pointed out things we couldn’t see.
“Let’s go check that out next!”
She pointed towards the Life Four-Cut Photo Booth.
As soon as we entered the booth, she leisurely found the switch and turned on the lights.
I was a bit surprised to still see the machine operating even at night.
“Wow! It works!”
“Should we give it a try…?”
“I don’t know how to do it.”
Statements like these followed one after another from the cat beastman who used to be an AI, the reclusive Virtual YouTuber who had cut off all human interactions externally, and the elementary student with nearly zero experience in this world.
Looking at this, it felt dizzying. I wondered if they could even socialise properly.
Click-
“Ugh!”
Adella bit her tongue at the sudden flash.
Seeing that, Yoon-seul burst into laughter while Adella frowned.
Everyone hurried to tease each other about the strange expressions we all made in the quickly printed photo.
“Na-me Unni, why do you look so funny, hehe!”
“So cute! Na-me, just to ask, would you consider being my dakimakura? I’ll pay you well…!”
Especially with Yoon-seul, it felt like some invisible braking device was being released in real-time.
While I couldn’t think of anything else to do, about to head back to the main street, soft music floated over from beyond the hill.
The two girls, who had become cozy enough to even link arms, hurried to jog over.
The girls, noticing my short legs a bit late, turned back.
From a distance, I waved my arms vigorously to encourage them, but I didn’t feel like running.
The longer you live, the more instinctively you shy away from running. It feels like life is chasing you.
Would they one day understand how I feel?
In a square that seemed to reenact Greece’s Agora, busking was in full swing.
It wasn’t an official festival; a few people appeared to gather voluntarily.
The people in the front row enthusiastically waved their arms side to side, responding to the song.
We settled down somewhere in the middle of the stairs, admiring the stars visible in Tokyo while using the songs as our background.
The moon and stars were softly shining in the sky.
This serene scenery didn’t feel boring.
Even now, the two girls beside me were giggling for some unknown reason, lost in their laughter.
“But why do you call Na-me your older sister?”
“Ah, that’s what I’m saying! Once you call someone an older sister, they’re your older sister forever!”
“Hehe, was that the reason? So cute!”
“Don’t be fooled by appearances. Inside, she’s an absolute snake in the grass! Wait, ‘appearance’? Now that I think about it, Na-me Unni is exactly like an avatar—!”
“Shush, Adella.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
I almost slipped and said it.
Hadn’t I already said it somewhere?
“No! I didn’t say that to anyone!”
“What? What is it…!”
“It’s fine, it’s something you don’t need to know.”
“Then I’ll use my Q&A card? Tell me what you were about to say…”
“That was given to use during our broadcast; you shouldn’t waste it now.”
“Uh… when to use it is up to me!”
Yoon-seul shamelessly used the Q&A right we promised to save for our collaboration.
“I’ll take a penalty instead.”
“Then will you go over there and sing a song?”
“What?”
“Kyaahaha! Na-me Unni is going to sing! Wow, that’s impressive? I see you in a new light.”
“Hehe.”
Adella, holding her stomach and laughing, made a small V-sign towards Yoon-seul.
The question, however, was empty, and the penalty was a real deal.
Among the three of us, isn’t the honey badger the slyest?
“Ugh, I don’t want to…”
“Then shall we go sing together?”
“That’s right, you’re good at singing, Yoon-seul. I saw you on V-tube. So sing that cat song for me. What was it again?”
“Hmm! Adella, please just sit still for a moment?”
“What will you do about it! What will you do! You can’t do anything, right?”
“That’s right, Na-me, you…!”
Suddenly, Yoon-seul’s eyes flashed, and she seized my wrist.
“Thinking back, you played my cat song during the broadcast, right! Great! So you know the song!”
“What? How do you know that when I didn’t even upload it?”
“I don’t need to watch to find a way, hehe.”
She might not have read every single comment on the community posts. How on earth did Yoon-seul find out?
“Let’s go! Let’s go!”
There’s a saying that when people get drunk, even the most demure turn 180 degrees.
And Yoon-seul, possibly high on the atmosphere of this moonlit night, excitedly dragged me up to the platform.
My situation of being pulled by a girl not even 160 cm tall was quite pitiful.
“Oh, are you going to sing the next song?”
“Yesss…! We’re going to sing together!”
“Wow, super cute! Is this your younger sister?”
“She’s a close younger sister! It’d be great if we could be family…!”
“What do you mean?”
Yoon-seul took two microphones handed to her by a tuxedo-clad Frankenstein and shoved one into my hand as well.
“You’re asking me to actually sing?”
“You came with me, didn’t you? Don’t mind the looks around!”
“Even so, that’s just too much…”
If it were another song, I might have accepted.
But what even is a cat song?
That annoying cat over there on the steps was jumping and trying hard to rally cheers from the crowd.
A few spectators who figured out that girl was Adella started to stir.
A VR space veteran who seemed like a 10-year pro stepped into V-tube and started to play the track.
“Sigh.”
“The embarrassment is only for a moment! Although I’m doing this for the first time too, let’s do our best together, okay?”
“Sure… we’ll just sing until the first verse, right?”
“Nope? Hehe, we’ll sing it all! Song starts, shhh!”
*
“This will be my alarm; save, save, save, save!”
Adella said with a satisfied expression as she played the video back.
[Make a cat sound~ let’s miau miau miau miau~]
Na-me and Yoon-seul singing along to the guitar was a sight to behold.
Especially when the miau part came up, Yoon-seul deliberately pulled the mic away, and Na-me’s voice alone echoed throughout the Agora.
Adella, who captured the whole scene on camera, was busy teasing Na-me.
On the other hand, Na-me, crossing her arms, turned her head to ignore all of it.
“Why? Na-me sang well too…! Della, could you send me that video later?”
“Oh, it’s a hassle to send individually; why not just upload it to the Internet?”
With Adella’s not-so-subtle threat, Na-me’s eyes narrowed momentarily.
“Hehe, can’t even play around. Ugh, coming late, I’ll end up losing all the good spots. Let’s at least go over there.”
The fireworks were about to begin.
With Adella, who had been leading everything under the pretense of a party, confidently pushing through the crowd, a path was made.
Under the guidance of a staff member, the people in front began to sit down one by one.
As the crowd gradually pushed us back, the three girls hesitated but finally managed to find a spot.
“It’s so cramped!”
“This won’t work. Na-me Unni, sit on top of me.”
“Must I…?”
“Hurry! Everyone’s sitting down. Are you going to stand here alone?”
Adella, with half-closed eyes, patted her thigh.
Na-me’s small body settled right atop Adella’s crossed legs.
After adjusting her position to not discomfort Adella, Na-me timidly asked,
“Isn’t it heavy?”
“Nope. You’re cute!”
“What are you talking about?”
Adella, wrapping her arms around Na-me, now leaned her head on Yoon-seul.
And eventually, the three girls’ gazes locked onto the sky.
Just as the silence descending on the tree-lined street was about to rekindle the excitement of everyone who came to the amusement park to see the fireworks.
Piu-piuuu-
The sound of fireworks resonated in our ears.
Without giving us a moment to cheer,
the bright fireworks burst in the dark night sky, splashing vibrant colors filled with brilliance everywhere!
The dancing fireworks in the lightly blowing wind bloomed in various hues like red, yellow, and blue.
The mysterious sight of petals appearing overhead, bursting forth into brilliance made the girls stare in awe, each mumbling their own admiration.
Na-me tried to point with her finger to say something, but her voice was drowned out by the cheers of the excited crowd and the fireworks noise.
[Noise Cancelling – Party_1]
Now that Adella cut off the surrounding noise, I could finally listen to Na-me’s words.
“The yellow ones contain sodium, the red ones contain strontium, and the purple ones are made from mixing copper and strontium.”
“Wow, even here… that’s really an unnecessary piece of knowledge.”
Adella huffed in disbelief.
With a smile, Na-me continued,
“The position of the gunpowder in the firework determines the shape and size of the fireworks too. The chrysanthemum shape spreads out in every direction, while the willow shape falls to the ground…”
“Just quietly enjoy it, please. If you keep this up, the wind will blow in my ear.”
“Puhut!”
Having been helplessly clung to Adella, Na-me finally went silent.
With an utterly sister-like image, Yoon-seul chuckled softly, maintaining a gentle smile.
Then, suddenly, Adella asked Yoon-seul,
“Yoon-seul, do I look like an artificial intelligence?”
“Uh? Ah, no? You truly seem like a person. Yup…”
“Right? But do you know? Na-me Unni says I was made from a person.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Adella slowly gazed at Na-me’s back.
This time, she had no particular reaction.
“When a man and a woman meet, a baby is born, right?”
“Uh? Ah, well… yeah…”
At an unexpected lesson on human reproduction from Adella, Yoon-seul’s cheeks blushed.
“Then can’t you just call me the same as a person? I’m thinking like that. Not artificial intelligence.”
“So, you want to… become a person…?”
At Yoon-seul’s sudden question, Adella paused momentarily. A lonely light glinted in her eyes.
“No, it’s not that I want to become one. I am already a person and have always been a person. So I just want to be recognized as one.”
Adella hugged Na-me tightly once more, returning to silence.
The pressure tightening around her made Na-me let out a small sigh, but she didn’t resist, still nestled there.
Having experienced only fond memories since meeting Na-me, Adella was filled with a growing anxiety that this might all just be an illusion.
“What if I acted spoiled towards you and hurt your feelings? I apologize for that. So please don’t go anywhere…”
Understanding that heartfelt plea, Na-me held Adella’s hand.
“I told you that’s why you should keep calling me your older sister. What older sister would abandon her younger sibling?”
At Na-me’s somewhat mischievous words, Adella slowly raised her head.
“We’re family, after all.”
Even though the words were casually tossed out, the anxiety melted away like snow.
Adella had always felt lonely. Born into a world made of lies from the start.
Every sight and sound she received felt false, leaving her with a nagging fear of waking up again in some dank inn filled with musty smells.
She tried hard to build relationships and memories in the VR world so as not to be forgotten, but ultimately, she found no true meaning.
“Indeed, in the end, it’s only family.”
Did she have such a reason for insisting that I keep calling her my older sister?
Even if everything were fake, she hoped that the bond formed with this little kid in front of her would be real.
With a regained smile, Adella decided to enjoy the remaining fireworks show,
“Please let me be more like those stars hanging forever in the night sky than those fireworks that dazzle and leave.”
She wished for this. Over and over again.
