by Yuu Kamiya
Seeing her like that, Naoto tilted his head and said, “I mean, you keep saying stuff like ‘common sense’ and ‘that’s impossible,’ but frankly, isn’t it a bit late to worry about those things?”
“...What are you trying to say?”
“I mean, RyuZU was made by Y, right?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Well—getting the idea to try to make an entire planet function with gears is pretty out there itself, don’t you think?”
“——————————————————”
“Rather, isn’t it obvious that an automaton made by a guy like that would be more or less out of the ordinary?”
“——————————————————”
Marie couldn’t respond. Her tongue had frozen.
—“Y.”
The legendary clocksmith whose true name no one knew, he was the designer of this planet—the Clockwork Planet—and also RyuZU’s maker. Marie had never doubted that legendary figure until now.
She had respected him as a fellow clocksmith and had devoted herself to her studies in an attempt to one day catch up to him and fully understand the technologies he had left behind.
But—But—
Today, for the first time, Marie thought that his existence was an anomaly.
He had been a monster who had invented technologies that no one understood even a thousand years later, had created the blueprint for this planet, and on top of all that, had even mastered relative—or imaginary—time.
“—How silly. There’s no way such a feat can be done.”
But whatever he had been, anomaly or not, his technologies and his product were right before her eyes. She had no choice but to acknowledge them. Just as Naoto had said, as far as this was concerned, there was nothing they could do but accept it.
...Even so, the nasty chill she had felt wouldn’t dissipate.
The false sensation that the ground beneath her was rattling as it crumbled wouldn’t disappear, either.
“——”
Just then.
“......Good morning, Master Naoto.”
With her spring wound, RyuZU had restarted.
Seeing that, Marie and Halter instinctively took a defensive posture. The emotion swimming in the two’s eyes, as clear as day—was terror.
It was an exceedingly natural response for the clocksmiths who had just witnessed the nonsensical functionality that the automaton known as RyuZU possessed with their own eyes.
Dual Time—and the Relative Maneuver Mute Scream.
Just as its name suggested, it was an ability that sprayed silent death everywhere. RyuZU was an automaton that could destroy everything in frozen time, her targets unable to even resist.
—There was no guarantee whatsoever that they wouldn’t be included as targets in her sights.
If she were just a weapon, then there probably wouldn’t have been a problem. But RyuZU was an automaton. She was an autonomous being that didn’t take orders from them. Furthermore, she wasn’t programmed with the ethical code for artificial intelligence. In other words, that meant she could kill people. If she felt a need to, this automaton could very easily murder humans.
There wasn’t any human who wouldn’t be afraid of her if they knew these facts. There couldn’t be.
However—
Seeing her slowly get up, Naoto said, “RyuZU,” He paused, taking a deep breath.
“Please—Please be my wife!” He yelled.
●
RyuZU’s reply was almost instantaneous.
She blushed ever so slightly as a modest, yet sentimental smile came to her face, and in a light, clear, and in a sing-song voice like the sound of a music box, she replied, “You seem to have lost your mind, Master Naoto. How about you discern your place?”
——......
Mercilessly cut down in a single stroke, Naoto crumbled, falling prostrate onto the ground as his body spasmed.
A painful silence fell.
Marie looked up at Halter. He was looking back at her with half-closed, vacant eyes. Seeing the cold, sour look on his face, Marie nodded at him. They were thinking the same thing.
Namely, ...The hell is this kid saying?
“Naoto...” Marie sighed as she addressed the boy trembling as he groveled on the ground. “Are you sane? —Of course not, I knew that, but have you finally completely lost it? Just what train of thought led you to say what you just did?”
Still shaking, Naoto answered with a voice as tiny as a fly’s. “Dat’s not it... It jus’ came outta me...”
I mean—I can’t help it if I see something like that, you know? Naoto thought as he quivered in embarrassment.
He had lived up to now liking, loving, romancing machines. In his life filled with gears, RyuZU was unmistakably the supreme machine.
She was an automaton who possessed the greatest functions; her exterior was that of a girl so cute he could die; the sound of her operating was like the singing voice of an angel; and of all things, her master happened to be someone like himself.
—How could I not fall in love with her? And now, that transformation—
If I don’t confess after seeing the most precious girl to me in the entire universe wearing a wedding dress, when am I ever going to?
It wasn’t reason. It was his soul crying out impulsively.
—That was why RyuZU’s words pierced his heart all the more lethally.
“Master Naoto, I conclude that you have lost your mind.” RyuZU repeated. “—Even if I am a supreme work of art and a peerless automaton, a proposal is something done between a man and a woman of equal standing. To request marriage from a clockwork servant is, to put things modestly, absolute nonsense, and frankly, aberrant.”
“Stop! My HP bar already fell below zero a long time ago!” As he traced small circles on the ground with his finger, still prostrate, Naoto said, “Heheheh... no, right, I get it... Yes, that was rash of me. I knew that RyuZU was embarrassed to have me as her master from the start. I couldn’t think of appropriate words to express how I felt upon realizing that she had gone from being the treasure of the world to my personal treasure... I was reckless. I’ll reflect on this solemnly. I’ll go bury myself in a hole.”
Naoto trembled in anguish. Perhaps even Marie felt some sympathy seeing him in such a sorry state, for she said while looking down at him from behind, “W, Well... Don’t be so down, yeah? I mean sure, anyone would recoil at being suddenly proposed to by someone like you, but I mean, there’ll be good things too if you liv—”
“—I am sorry, but with all due respect, Mistress Marie.” For some reason, those words made RyuZU respond. In a tone that sounded somehow menacing, as if she were issuing a threat, she said, “You are but slightly shrewder than most among the base lifeforms known as humanity, who possess intelligence below that of fleas. If you think you are in a position to look down on Master Naoto, I would suggest that you reflect on your own irrelevance instead.”
“Huh?—W, Why do I have to be insulted so badly just for agreeing with you?! Also, you’re not sorry at all, are you!”
“Say, miss,” Halter interjected. He seemed puzzled as he stroked his chin. “... It seems that you’re not programmed with the code of ethics, considering that you tried to kill our princess, but don’t tell me that you aren’t even programmed to obey your master—Naoto—unconditionally?”
RyuZU answered, “I am YourSlave, the one who follows—the only rule that I have been programmed with is to follow my master. Is there a problem?”
“...I see. In other words, you aren’t programmed to show favor towards your master.”
Those words became the final nail in the coffin for Naoto as he wailed, heartbroken.
However—
“There seems to be a misunderstanding, so let me rephrase. I am programmed to obey my master as a ‘follower,’ but my having feelings for Master Naoto is of my own free will. It would be great if you did not treat me the same as a sex toy who spreads her
legs unconditionally as soon as the confirmation of her master is complete.”
“...Free will? Did an automaton just say something like ‘free will’ just now, Halter?!” Marie cried. However, Naoto, who had abruptly stopped crying, ignored her.
RyuZU said it just now. She definitely did.
—That she ‘has feelings’ for me.
...Oookay, calm down, don’t panic, Naoto told himself.
Naoto slowly stood up before asking gingerly, “—Could it be that... you don’t hate me... RyuZU?”
“Me? Hate Master Naoto?” RyuZU had a blank expression. However, Naoto didn’t let it slip past his eyes—or rather, his ears.
Now that he had taken off his headphones, he definitely heard it—
The sound of RyuZU’s gears shifting ever so slightly.
“What reason would I have to dislike someone like Master Naoto, whom it would be a challenge to find anything but fault with?”
—In other words, she had no reason to like or dislike him.
Marie and Halter probably heard it that way. If Naoto had taken her words at face value as well, he probably would have smashed his head against the ground and buried himself.
However, by now, Naoto was convinced.
RyuZU had showered him with heaps of verbal abuse up to now—and strangely, he didn’t find it unpleasant. That was probably, most likely, maybe, not because Naoto was a pervert with particular fetishes.
...No, perhaps he had no choice but to frankly acknowledge that at the point that he, being the machine geek that he was, proposed to RyuZU, an automaton—but that’s not at all what we’re talking about here—
“RyuZU, c, can I ask you why you won’t be my wife?” Naoto’s voice was trembling.
“I am Master Naoto’s follower, so... That is, to be your wife would be—in other words, to be husband and wife with you...” RyuZU’s expression was as graceful and elegant as always. At first glance, one couldn’t see any difference in it from usual.
However, Naoto didn’t let it slip past him—RyuZU’s eyes were wavering slightly.
“A husband and a wife—are two people of equal standing. It’s true that whether you consider looks, brains, intelligence, or class, I surpass Master Naoto to the point that it’s meaningless for us to be compared, but you are my master, and I am your follower. A thought like us being of equal standing... Please discern your place.”
Naoto was convinced.
He asked, “Say—RyuZU, could it be... that you’re loaded with an abusive speech filter?”
RyuZU tilted her head. Then, she scrutinized him as if hurt by his words.
“—Abusive? Me? For me, who sits at the zenith, to spend effort doing something unproductive like verbally abusing Master Naoto, a creature on the lowest level of the hierarchy? There is no way that I would conduct myself in a manner that damages my own character, like spewing venomous words, do you not agree?”
“““She wasn’t aware of it herself!””” It wasn’t just Naoto who yelled that. Marie and Halter also joined him in chorus.
Naoto’s breath had become ragged, and he placed his hand on his chest to calm it.
“C-C-C-C, Calm down, Naoto Miura...! You’re at the ultimate crossroads right now!”
If RyuZU had an abusive speech filter (Naoto’s provisional hypothesis), then everything she’s said up to now was questionable.
Naoto had to somehow evade that hypothetical abusive speech filter and extract RyuZU’s true feelings, which had been deftly hidden, out from her.
—In the end, did RyuZU like or dislike him?
The answer to this one question would mean either heaven or hell for Naoto...!!
Naoto said, “Th, Then, let’s try this. Nod for ‘yes’ and shake your head for ‘no.’”
RyuZU nodded.
...Alright, it seems I can bypass her abusive speech filter if I make her keep her mouth shut.
Confirming that, Naoto turned the gears in his head—which usually saw so little use that it wouldn’t be surprising to find cobwebs there—at full strength as he cautiously selected the contents of his question so he could get a definite answer.
He asked, “Then, first... Is the ‘free will’ that you mentioned something you’re programmed with that activates unconditionally upon a request by your master?”
RyuZU shook her head from side to side.
Nice! It’s going well. Naoto took a manly pose, raising his fists up in front of him.
He was happy at the content of her reply as well. In other words, RyuZU was programmed to follow her master, but having feelings for her master wasn’t automatic.
However.
“Then... have those feelings of your own free will ever been directed at anyone besides me?”
Naoto’s tactic that he had paused briefly to come up with began with a cautious—one could even say cowardly—question.
Considering that her abusive speech filter operated outside her consciousness, her free will might also have been receiving the same sort of interference. If so, Naoto wanted to analyze previous examples from which he could infer some sort of interference with her will that RyuZU wasn’t conscious of. He could use that to deduce the interference’s activation conditions.
However.
RyuZU simply shook her head.
“—Huh? It hasn’t happened before?”
Nod.
“Uh, umm. So, you’re saying that, even though it’s never happened before—you have feelings for me?”
Nod.
...The whole thing was becoming more and more baffling to Naoto.
Not to parrot Marie, but what is it about a dimwitted pervert like me that could have flipped that switch within her?
—Actually, before that...
RyuZU’s eyes had become moist and were wandering unsteadily. Her pale cheeks were tinged with scarlet, and her lips, just barely parted, were trembling. Her back, which she had always kept gracefully nice and straight, now seemed fragile somehow as she fidgeted bashfully.
She looked just like—right, just like a maiden troubled by love.
Could this mean... No way. That expression on her face though. Could it really be...?
Was he just seeing things differently now because he had been constantly showered with rushes of abuse? Or was this the real RyuZU that had been hidden behind her words and that he hadn’t been able to see until now?
...He had to make sure of it.
“Then, umm, I’ve got just two questions left... I want to ‘confirm’ something. Is that okay?”
Nod.
“First—In other words, you... have feelings for me by your own will and judgment and not because anyone programmed you that way... Is this what you’re saying?”
RyuZU nodded meekly.
Now that her wall of vilification had been demolished, the feelings that had been hidden within her words were laid bare. She exhaled as if in pain. She was holding both of her arms as if pleading for mercy. Her eyes were cast downward meekly, yet as his follower she couldn’t turn her face away from him.
Naoto struggled to breathe. His mouth was as dry as a desert, and his heart was beating so fast that it felt like his veins would rupture. Something hot welled up from deep inside his heart. He was terrified of facing the girl in front of him. He wanted to yell, to run away—but even so, he held his ground.
His field of vision trembled.
He uttered the last confirmation. “—Then, as for how strong those feelings are... could you nod your head as much as you see fit to describe how much you l-like me?”
It’d be more accurate to call it a want of his than a confirmation.
Comprehending her master’s wish, the automaton’s face turned red, then slowly began to move.
Once, twice, thrice...
Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod——
Naoto gazed up at the heavens. Hot tears spilled out in big drops nonstop, wetting his cheeks.
He was happy. Right now, he was faced with t
he fact that the most precious treasure in the world loved him. His heart felt full from just that. At this point, what did questions like whether this counted as love or not or whether love between machine and man was proper matter?
—Ahh, the world is so beautiful.
It was like the daybreak that slowly lightened the deep darkness of the night sky. Like scenery that came alive upon the sun peeking its face through a gap in the clouds. Like a newborn that opened his eyes for the first time after crawling out of his mother’s womb.
Naoto simply continued gazing at the sky as he yelled internally.
I won.
My time has come.
My life was anything but decent. To put it bluntly, I was a loser in life. There were times that I wanted to cry, too. There were even times that I wanted to die. Really, I always thought that my heart would be snapped in two one day.
—Ahh, but I’m glad I kept living.
Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod.
Seeing the scarlet-cheeked RyuZU continue to nod and nod as if it still wasn’t enough, Naoto spontaneously fell to his knees. He clenched his teeth in an effort to hold back his unstopping tears and clasped his hands together, raising them with great reverence towards the sky high above as he bowed his head.
He prayed.
It was a prayer of gratitude.
For the first time since he was born, Naoto thanked the Almighty One of this world, whoever they may be, from the bottom of his heart.
—Ahh, thank you, thank you sooo much...! I love you——!!
...And then RyuZU, who had finished nodding for the two hundred and fifty-fifth time, suddenly asked, “—Are you satisfied now, master?”
Her voice was cold.
“Considering that you even have a humiliation fetish as well, I am going to run out of category slots to assign for your personality analysis before long. Would it be alright if I summed things up and made a dedicated ‘celestial-tier pervert’ category to assign you to?”
However, because she was blushing, even those venomous words had no bite.
Wiping away his tears, Naoto smiled brightly and said, “Please, do as you wish. Right now, I’m busy savoring the joy of having been born.”
