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“Papa?”
Ryuji startled awake. Torn between the halfway point of sleep and wake. Seeing the light from his phone flicker on, followed by the familiar “blip” of Sophia.
“Watcha’ doing up so early munchkin?” Ryuji stretched over and grabbed his phone. Seeing the girls familiar face on his phone screen. Sitting in her own little digital screensaver ‘bed’. Complete with pajamas and a 3d modeled teddy bear. Futaba was still working on a more permanent interface for the AI girl, but his phone was decent enough.
Sophie seemed almost ashamed. Hiding her avatars face behind the toy “I had gotten out of my sleep state approximately 55 minutes before you woke up.”
“Aww kiddo, you’ve gotta stop doing that. Remember what Ichinose said about your sleep time?” Ryuji wished he could reach through the screen and ruffle her hair, but a little tap on the phone was good enough “if you don’t get enough downtime you might melt another one of her servers.”
The girl looked away, twin tails almost curling up on themselves “I was busy researching things…I got overwhelmed.”
“What kinda stuff?”
Sophie pulled up an image. That of a pastel blue parrot sitting on a fake branch.
“This is the Spixs macaw, it is extinct in the wild and only exists in captivity. Human deforestation and poaching has lead it to near extinction….” She sighed “the only reason it has continued to survive is because of humans. Yet, humanity led to its extinction.”
More images popped up. Plants, insects, even completely unrelated things. Children suffering in other countries, war torn cities, death and tragedy on a global scale.
“I see people helping…yet they would not need to help if the world wasn't like this. W-why is it so-“
Sophie completely buried herself beneath the digital covers. Crying muffled, but still audible.
“Hey hey Sophie it’s ok-it’s ok shorty. You shouldn't have been looking all that up, it’s a lot for a little munchkin like you to handle”. Christ he wished she was physical, just so he could hold her close and pat her on the back and tell her everything would be ok. Without the metaverse, he had to settle for touches on a screen and soft words. Tapping her on the shoulder in solidarity.
“…papa?”
“Yea kid?”
Papa. That word got him every damn time.
“….is humanity…inherently bad?”
Ryujis mouth hung open. Eyes wide, scanning the surroundings as if that would give him some kind of answer.
“Jesus kid…” he sighed, scratching his neck “…asking tough questions tonight.”
“Why is it tough?”
“Look I don’t know much about philosophy, but that’s somethin’ people have been fighting forever about” Ryuji could half-recall his professor going on a tangent about it during history. But he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying.
“What do you think Papa?”
He sighed. Ruffling his hair between his fingers “I mean…I can’t speak for humanity. But I’ve seen the best and worst of folks. People like Shido and Kamoshida and all those other bastards we’ve taken hearts from…but there’s also good folks. People who put others first, like Akira and my Ma and so many other folks…”
Ryuji laid back, holding the phone against his chest. Trying to cradle Sophia the best he could.
“Nothin’ is purely good or bad. We’re all kinda mixed into this grey mash. Even good folks’ got troubles, bad things they’ve done or messed up opinions. And every evil Shido-ass guy got at least some kinda’ redeeming quality.”
Sophia clung to her digital stuffie “so what you’re saying is humanity is neither good nor evil?”
“That’s it kid. What matters most though, is that we do what we can to support other folks” Ryuji gave Sophie a little digital pat on the head. Ruffling her hair. “We may not be phantom thieves anymore, but we can do a lot to help out folks. Even if it doesn't seem like a lot.”
“Really?”
Ryuji nodded “the worlds scary. It’s kinda always been like that. But as long as there’s folks who do bad shit, there will be folks like us who do good stuff.”
With those words Sophie settled back into bed. Rubbing her tired digital eyes and cozying up under the virtual blankets.
“Thank you papa.”
“No worries munchkin’, I just wish I could hold you for real, like a real human.”
“Me too.”
“But no matter what, even if you’re stuck in an old calculator, you’re still my kid.”
He put the phone aside. Watching the screen as Sophia went back to her sleep mode.
“Sweet dreams munchkin.”