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“Ah… ah ah ah ah ah...”
Matsumoto took off from the thin carpet and floated in front of the short-haired AI as she continued to sing practice notes, the short but sweet melody adding colour to the otherwise plain corridor.
“You’re prepping your voice already?”
Vivy opened her eyes, only to blink in surprise at him now being at the same level as them. “You can fly?”
“Among other things. I’m an AI that defeated a super-AI in the past, you know.”
Vivy cocked her head. “What does that even mean?”
“It’s not important. Just another day in the life of the great Matsumoto.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think I understand what’s going on,” she hid a chuckle behind her hand. He's just showing off. “Anyway, of course I’m practising already! Any worthwhile singer knows to keep their throat nice and supple!”
She stopped mid-step and frowned. Matsumoto turned in the silence and watched as the light on Vivy’s neck flowed from white to blue and back again, like a gentle heartbeat. A few seconds passed before she shrugged.
“Oh, it seems I already have some preprogrammed knowledge so I can sing to the best of my ability.” The smile back on her face, she walked on, singing the short tune again. Matsumoto watched her go, but remained floating on the spot.
“Hmm...”
He mulled things over for a while longer, but in that time Vivy reached the stairs at the end of the hall, noticed his absence and turned around. “Are you coming or not?”
He scowled, putting his thoughts to one side and chasing after her. “Don’t think you can order a supreme-AI around!”
Once on the ground floor, Matsumoto led her to a stage facing the street she’d seen from (what she assumed was) her room. She was surprised by how plain her stage was, a small wooden platform with curtains (currently open) separating her from the benches placed before her, but when she looked at how narrow the pathway before her was, everything made sense. Some of the pedestrians noticed her at once – most of them children tugging at their parents’ clothes – and they made their way to the seats, almost filling them completely in a matter of seconds. On her far right, in line with the front row of seats, she saw a brunette watching her with a faint smile, the handles of her wheelchair held by a woman of a similar age, only with pale blue hair tied back in a ponytail.
Blue hair? That’s not a natural colour…
She took a closer look at the second woman and saw the AI indicator on her neck.
That reminds me, there’s a fair few people here, but no AIs besides us and Matsumoto. Where are they all?
But she shook her head: it didn’t matter right now. She instead thought back to the song she’d chosen to sing on her way downstairs. There had been a handful pre-installed in her interal storage, but that confused her: surely a singer AI would have hundreds if not thousands of songs prepared? It’s not like she was lacking in the memory department. Thankfully, the mundane street outside her window and the homely looking people had called for an equally humble, yet cheerful one and one of her songs matched those criteria perfectly. Even looking at the crowd now, she knew her choice was the right one. Despite that however, she couldn’t help wondering if she should have worn something more appropriate for a stage than a simple skirt and sweater combo and, just as she thought so, a few outfits sprang into her mind, each one flashier than the last. All three were predominantly white: one looked like a suit with a long purple skirt, the second was low cut with a mini-skirt (an idol uniform, perhaps?) and the third was a leotard with a long flowing cape.
...but again, this particular crowd called for a more down-to-earth approach: her current clothes were perfectly fine for the situation. She didn’t know why she was so confident in her judgment, but now that she'd decided on it she felt a sudden swelling of faith in her instincts, as if she couldn't possibly have chosen to wear anything else.
Despite the rudimentary appearance of her stage, she was surrounded by a few loudspeakers for playing the accompanying music she’d need to make her singing truly pop. She connected to them remotely, loading the relevant musical data into them. She prepared herself for her performance, but at that exact moment her companion left her side and flew towards the audience.
“Matsumoto?”
He turned in the air.
“What is it?" he asked. "I’ve always wanted to watch a songstress from the audience, is that a problem?”
“Oh?”
His narrowed eye softened somewhat. “I tried doing it once before, but I could only get the audio. I’m not wasting this opportunity!”
Without waiting for a response, he floated over to the two women she’d spotted before and sat on one of the wheelchair’s armrests. Vivy raised an eyebrow at his actions, then shrugged once more. She took a deep breath… and let the music play.
Time goes
With shoes that fly away
Heels turned to the other side
You still doesn't notice when y ou passes by
But someday the day will come
Keep in mind the memories of the children waving their hands
At that time, kindness flows…
“So? Does she remember anything?”
Matsumoto twisted on the spot and looked up at Yui’s pursed lips and narrowed eyes. He thought for a moment, then muttered a blunt “No.”
“What was the pause for?” He could tell Elizabeth was trying to keep quiet for Vivy’s sake, but she couldn’t quite keep the edge out of her voice. “You’re not still keeping secrets, are you?”
He scoffed, also trying to keep Vivy’s performance and her audience unaffected. Thankfully the seat beside Yui was unoccupied; perhaps the crowd assumed Elizabeth would take it – or perhaps she was just that intimidating to those that didn’t know her.
“She has the habits of a songstress and, as you can hear for yourselves, the database of one, but none of Vivy’s memories or personality. To put it in terms even you could understand, she’s a replica like you, but without the advantage of her data being stored on an illegal server in the middle of nowhere.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to yell, only for Yui to place a hand over hers. She fell silent. Yui flashed her a quick smile, but her expression fell as she turned to watch Vivy once more. “How horrible,” she whispered. “Is there no way we can restore her?”
‘Happiness, Hello,’ a wonderful departure
Those who them see off, you can forget it now
Make your cheeks shine in the distance
I'm proud of your laughing face
Wrap yourself in the newborn wind and run
On a road that is not built by anyone
Around the time when you dry your eyes on torn petals
We have reached the future...
Matsumoto sighed. He was silent at first, but spoke just before Beth thought to yell at him again. “...there are no backups,” he repeated slowly. “Her original data has been completely deleted too. It’s even worse than what happened when she became Diva, and it’s not as if we can consult the Archive for any solutions or residual data any more either. If she were human I suppose she could see a therapist, but I fear all we can do now is let this new Vivy lead the life the old one couldn’t.”
Beth snorted. “You can say whatever you want, but there’s still so much I wanted to ask her about my first Master. I’m not letting the old Vivy stay quiet forever, Cubeman.”
“Cubeman…?” Matsumoto blinked a few times, then turned away once more. Yui expected him to defend himself, but instead he mumbled a soft “...I wish you the best of luck.”
Beth gaped at him for a moment, then averted her gaze as well, with a small pout to boot. “A – alright then.” Yui giggled, which only made her blush deeper before the three turned to watch Vivy’s performance once more.
The mystery left in my open hand
Waiting for the time to wake up
Meet someone who has similar feelings
Who knows their meaning
Even with shaking fingertips
Reach out to the silver hope
‘Happiness, Hello,’ at the end of dusk
With the sound of the heartbeat I want to convey
Turn your eyes in the distance
I can hear the glittering laughter...
“...hey,” Matsumoto almost jumped at the return of Beth’s voice. Only almost, mind you. He didn’t actually get surprised or anything. He and Yui looked up at her and she continued. “Do you think this Vivy will understand what a heart is too? Didn’t you say that bothered the original her whole life?”
“Hmm…” he balanced on the edge of his shell opposite the two women as he thought. “She may be a new Vivy, but in the end she’s still Vivy, so I think she’ll understand someday: the first Vivy regained her voice at the very end after all. I wanted to wait a while before telling this Vivy about needing to put her heart into her singing though – I thought she ought to be happy for her second debut.”
“So she really did learn how to put her heart into something, huh…?” Beth folded her arms and looked at the floor, a patch of fluorite marble visible just behind Yui’s wheelchair. As a result she missed Matsumoto rolling his eye, but heard his exasperated cry.
“Don’t you start! One Sister complaining about incorporeal concepts is bad enough, I am not prepared to go on another 100-year journey with anyone else!”
“Hey -!”
“Shush, both of you!”
Both AIs turned their glares to Yui, but she just smiled from one to the other before reaching over Matsumoto and patting the empty seat beside her. “Beth, sit next to me. You don’t need to stand behind me all the time.”
“Ah...” Elizabeth trailed off and scratched her cheek. “I really shouldn’t, I’m fine like this, really –”
“I insist!” She patted the bench again. “You know no one’s going to attack us anymore. Come sit with me. Relax! Vivy has such a beautiful voice, let’s listen to her together, as friends!”
Beth froze for a moment and her cheeks turned a faint pink again. She looked away as she walked around her charge, grumbling under her breath as she took the offered seat. Matsumoto snickered.
“Maybe later you can serenade Yui with your own singing, Sister.”
Her eyes still on the songstress before them, the Lifekeeper slammed her fist down on his roof with a quiet yet oh-so-sharp “Be quiet!”
Connect!
I hope you have a prayer in your heart
Looking for
A place where you can be loved and loved
‘Happiness, Hello,’ a wonderful departure
Those who them see off, you can forget it now...
As she sang, Vivy saw the blue-haired woman take a seat. She sat on the edge of the bench, as if trying to remain as close as possible to the other woman, thus leaving so much space another person could easily squeeze into the gap she'd left. Vivy couldn’t hear the trio, but the sight of Matsumoto bantering with them made her smile for some reason. They'd only spent a short time together - only a few minutes at best - but she'd already gotten the impression that he was the type to claim he was 'too cool' for friends or the company of others. She wondered if he’d introduce her to them: it would be a nice way to learn more about the people and world she’d been born into, but there was no rush: she could take her time with all of that.
Make your cheeks shine in the distance
I'm proud of your laughing face
Wrap yourself in the newborn wind and run
On a road that is not built by anyone
Around the time when you dry your eyes on torn petals
We have reached the future…!
Vivy let the last syllable linger in her throat before letting it peter off and bowing. Despite keeping her head down and her stomach bent, she spoke loud and clear enough for even those in the back rows to hear her - another skill she seemed to have been given ahead of time.
“Thank you for your kind attention!”
The crowd erupted in applause. It was a small group, but the sound of their clapping was so loud! She’d made them happy. The thought made her glad.
It was her mission, after all.
But no, it was more than that. She’d made her audience happy! It was a simple thing, and she didn't truly understand it, but somehow that fact alone filled her to the brim - no, made her overflow - with contentment, far more than she thought was natural for simply performing the sole task that she had been designed to. It was strange, it really was.
And yet she knew she would never forget this feeling.
She opened her eyes with her head still lowered, and caught a flash of green to her left. She turned her face towards it ever so slightly, but saw only the controls of the speakers that had bolstered her performance. A trick of the light, perhaps? There were several rows of windows on the opposite street after all: something could have reflected off of one of them, or maybe one of the occupants was watching something on a large screen.
She stood once more, but in the few seconds she'd looked down saw that the few gaps left on the benches before her had been filled in. Next to the other blue-haired AI sat an identical woman with long yellow hair, with an identical blue-haired AI opposite her, holding her hand. A few rows behind her, closer to the middle of the wooden seats was a tiny girl with long black hair. Directly behind her sat a man with glasses and a receding hairline, next to whom sat a woman with tan skin and a child with ginger hair - their daughter? - on her lap. In the middle of the benches on her left was a man in a lab coat, his arm around a woman of similar age with black hair, cut to shoulder height. In the front row on this side was another small girl, this one with brown hair tied in pigtails and a blonde teen sitting beside her, both holding a paw of a blue and brown teddy bear between them. Far behind them, in the last row, was a haggard looking man with a scar on his cheek and, standing in line with him in the aisle between both rows was a woman identical to herself, only this one wore a plain white jumper with red sides, and had hair falling to the small of her back and spreading to her sides like a waterfall. This stranger - the strangest of them all - gave her a thumbs up.
Vivy blinked, and just like that the additions disappeared. A corner of her mind told her she ought to be worried about such a glitch, but… she couldn’t bring herself to feel anything negative about what she'd just seen. She felt no sense of danger or urgency whatsoever; instead she just stood where she was, with her hands crossed in front of her, as the crowd before her continued to cheer.
After all, she thought to herself as she watched the crowd stand up, a handful at a time, smiles still glued to their - to her audience's! - faces; she'd been conscious for such a short time, mere minutes in fact, but she could already tell.
"This world..." she muttered to herself, letting her audience's expressions fuel the upward curve of her own lips "...is a happy one."