Chapter Text
Keiki and Sumireko stood just outside of the Hakurei Shrine. It was a cloudy day, and Sumireko held up her phone so that the goddess could see it.
Keiki looked at the screen of Sumireko's phone. “So, it will reply to me?”
Sumireko nodded. “It'll generate a response, and you can choose to edit it or regenerate it if you want.”
“How novel! What do people use it for?”
“Oh, they just ask it questions and stuff like that. It’s pretty dumb, though. That's if you're normal.”
“And if you're not?”
Sumireko giggled. “Then you try to date it.”
“Date it? You can romance a machine?”
“Yeah, but only a weirdo would do that.”
Keiki leaned back and put her hand to her chin. “Really? What's so strange about that?”
“It's just a computer, it's not really alive.”
“But if it were?”
“It still wouldn't have a body.”
“But if that could be solved as well?”
“Then I guess it would be okay, but still.”
“What would be the problem then?”
“I mean, you'd still basically be dating a machine that was made just to be your love interest. Isn't that inherently weird?”
“No, not at all. In fact, I think that concept has a lot of potential.”
Sumireko's jaw dropped, and she stared at Keiki in stunned silence.
Keiki interpreted Sumireko's silence as fascination. “Imagine if all couples were perfectly crafted to suit one another. Wouldn't that be lovely? No more strife or relationship woes. Just perfectly crafted love.”
Sumireko struggled to formulate a response. “That's... that would be awful. You'd take all the humanity out of it! People would only exist to be with one specific person! It would all just be a bunch of cogs in some machine!”
Keiki grinned. “Exactly! It would be amazing, right?”
Sumireko looked at Keiki with a mixture of horror and disgust. “I really shouldn't have told you about this.”
“But just think about how the haniwa will perform with perfectly sculpted partners.”
Sumireko sighed. “I guess if it's just them, that's sorta okay.”
“Now you're getting it.”
“I didn't say I understood it.”
“I think I know just who to use as the first subject.”