"Alright, Kosma will pick from the hardware section, and Dystopia will pick from the handicraft section."
Lin walked with serious intent into a store hanging a pink sign.
"I'll go pick from the talent section..."
BAM!
People on the street watched in surprise as a beautiful grey-haired girl with an expressionless face walked out of the store. She picked up the half-dead man who had been sent flying into a utility pole and dragged him toward the two people currently covering their faces.
"Prometheus, when did you arrive?" Lin asked, clutching his bruised right eye, which was swollen shut and flecked with blood, directed at the hostile Prometheus.
"...To prevent you from using Lin body to do strange things." Prometheus showed a rare hint of discomfort.
"Ah, is this jealousy? What a cute reaction. It's okay, I love you too." Lin smiled and opened his arms for a hug.
CRACKLE!
...
"That was a bit too harsh. As the big sister of the Prometheus series, if you're this violent, what if your sisters learn bad habits?"
Supervised by Prometheus, Lin walked back and forth along the shelves picking gifts. He complained about the merciless beating he had just received.
"You are not Lin. No authority to modify my operational commands." Prometheus went so far as to let data streams flicker through her crimson pupils to show she wouldn't obey Lin orders.
"Yes, yes, Lin is the best—raised you, taught you, tolerated you, forgave you..."
Lin stretched, then took an item off the shelf and tossed it into the cart, flashing a cramped smile.
"And you, you push your luck bit by bit. From wanting to truly touch him to changing yourself to better fit his aesthetic standards, quietly circling around him. Everything feels so natural that no one thinks it's wrong—just like no one expects an AI to evolve emotions."
"..."
"But actually, everyone has a sense of propriety. They know exactly what distance is appropriate to maintain."
Lin checked the specs on a pair of headphones, put them back, and reached toward the other side.
"This isn't an era peaceful enough for people to pour their hearts out and play house with interpersonal relationships. Everyone restrains themselves. Everyone has their own hidden troubles, so everyone chooses to control the distance."
"You take a step forward, I take a step back. You take a step back, I take a step forward."
"Friendship, family, love... these are luxuries for us."
Under the lights, his unique face held no special expression. He just smiled calmly.
"Do you know, Prometheus? You've always wanted Lin to treat you as a normal human and an equal. But unfortunately, your behavior looks like a little sister acting spoiled to him. So he thinks of you as a sister who is still learning. From start to finish, he has never viewed you as an equal."
"...You aren't Lin."
"Haha, true. Then just treat it as an 'emotional master' teaching you how to pick up men."
Lin slicked his hair back with a confident, roguish grin.
However, the only thing that met him was the fist of a mechanical girl with clearly defined knuckles.
"What did you do!"
Yama cornered Lin, questioning him sharply.
That couple didn't die; they lived ten years into the future. This was clearly not a normal occurrence. The only thing that could have brought this about was that so-called wish-granting Monkey's Paw.
"Did you use it to make a wish?" Yama gripped the Monkey's Paw; its hideous appearance was nauseating.
"...No."
Lin shook his head solemnly. He truly hadn't made a wish on the paw. He was still completely bewildered as to what was happening.
Yama looked at the paw in her hand, then at the expressionless Lin.
She actually didn't believe Lin would make a wish either; he wasn't the type to pin his hopes on a wish-granting machine. But all of this was happening too bizarrely. They were now supposed to go home and face parents who should have died ten years ago?
"..."
There was no choice but to go back and see what was going on. Furthermore, they had discovered something else.
If Lin really had used the Monkey's Paw to fulfill a wish to revive his parents and live ten years into the future, logically, the future trajectory should be different. Aside from the issue with the Speaker, they themselves should have been modified by that couple into the shapes they desired.
Regardless, after sending Kevin away with an excuse, the two siblings set out on the road home.
...
"Little Lin, Little Yama, wait for us in the lab in a bit."
The "happy" dinner was over.
Lin and Yama sat in their seats, staring at each other. They had developed a habit of communicating through their eyes.
That couple really had come back to life. They were fully resurrected from physiological status to social standing. Combined with the changes in the Monkey's Paw, it was practically certain the paw had fulfilled Lin wish.
"...It's possible that inner thoughts are captured by the paw and automatically fulfill a wish." Yama analyzed for Lin. Her knowledge of strange items and phenomena was broader than his, so she could quickly find the root of the problem.
The question then was: this time, it was Yama turn to wish. What wish of hers would the paw fulfill?
Yama prediction had come true. This paw was indeed not a conventional wish-granting machine. A thought of reviving those two might have occurred in Lin mind, but it was just a grain of sand in the ocean of his thoughts. The paw had specifically picked this one to fulfill.
Then, assuming the automatically fulfilled wish of this paw is the "worst" kind...
Lin and Yama had unknowingly arrived at the private laboratory. This was a lab built by the couple during the ten-year gap. Judging by the various instruments... their wicked ambitions had not died.
After thoroughly checking their own conditions, Lin and Yama confirmed the couple hadn't done nothing. After all, from the start, the two of them didn't belong to the "normal" category. It was just that after growing up, they hadn't changed compared to before, so they hadn't realized it at first.
Lin himself was a modified person. His emotional defects and over-limit cognitive abilities were factors of modification. If this couple hadn't done anything to him in ten years, he should have been a normal person.
"Little Yama, rub this stuff on your body."
"..."
The woman smiled and handed Yama a test tube containing a pink reagent.
"Then, take off your clothes."
"..."
Was it an illusion? The temperature in the room suddenly dropped a few degrees.
Lin stared unmoving at the majestic man and the woman with the eerie smile. Yama wordlessly threw the reagent into the nearby trash can.