Iris Chapi:
There were far too many times when I simply couldn't understand my father's thoughts. But the idea of having a little brother or sister... I had to admit, I never saw that coming. Was the pain finally beginning to make him lose his mind?
"I still don't understand why you want to do this," I asked as he remained beside me. Somehow, whenever he was this close, it felt as though I could almost sense a comforting warmth.
"I honestly don't have a clear answer for you, my daughter. Maybe it has something to do with my past... with never having had the chance to experience something like that myself. And I don't want you to suffer from that same emptiness."
He paused for a moment before gently taking my mechanical hand and pressing it against his cheek.
"Or maybe... maybe I simply want a family of my own. A family that's truly mine. Perhaps it's just a selfish desire buried deep within my soul."
I stayed beside him, listening in silence.
Was this really my father speaking... or was it the exhaustion and the pain speaking through him?
I couldn't tell.
Yet I loved moments like these, when he opened his heart and every word seemed to come straight from his soul.
"I want to see you all playing together. Going on adventures. Arguing from time to time... but always staying united through every hardship. Then one day, watching each of you grow... and become truly free."
He leaned gently against my metal body.
"You know, my daughter... to me, achieving a form of immortality means passing something on to your family... so that one day, you'll pass it on to yours."
Father... the pain is really making you say the strangest things, I thought as he lay sprawled across the floor, half asleep.
Why do you keep pushing yourself to create, no matter how much you're suffering?
And yet...
Despite everything...
His words touched me more deeply than I wanted to admit.
A family of my own...
I wondered what it might look like.
I let him sleep for a while, careful not to make the slightest movement that might wake him. Then I draped a work jacket over him to keep him warm.
Afterward, I turned my attention to the blueprints he had been drawing.
Every detail had been carefully thought through.
I had to admit... he was right about my body.
I wanted one that looked like the image I had chosen for myself, but with today's technology, it simply wasn't possible to fit everything into a human-sized frame.
As I studied his sketches more closely, I realized he had managed to solve that problem by designing a body nearly four times the size of a human.
He hadn't really had another choice.
Little by little, I began to understand why he wanted my little brother's first body to resemble a velociraptor.
I corrected a few small details here and there, adding several notes of my own.
It was obvious he had poured his entire heart into these designs.
Every line reflected remarkable precision.
Whenever the curse consumed him, it also seemed to sharpen his mind, pushing his concentration to extraordinary heights.
It had been the same when he designed the Jack Frost Boosts...
...until the day he had gone so far as to mutilate himself, unable to endure the pain any longer.
How far will you go, Father?
I wish I could stop you during moments like these.
Maybe... if there were two of us by your side... you'd finally learn to slow down.
To think about yourself... and about us... instead of always putting everyone else first.
If our family really grew, that would make me a big sister.
I'd have to learn how to take care of him, too.
It would be something completely new.
Maybe he could even help me with some of my own tasks.
We could play together.
Share moments that belonged only to us.
The more I thought about it...
...the less frightening the idea became.
Growing our family.
Learning to trust one another.
Supporting each other.
Together...
we could create something truly precious.
"Hmm... Ah... I fell asleep?" he mumbled as he slowly woke up, still lying on the floor.
I'd stayed beside him the entire time.
"Yes," I replied. "You slept for three hours... in a really uncomfortable position."
He pushed himself upright, immediately grimacing.
"Ow... ow... My back is killing me. And my whole body has gone numb."
"I didn't dare move you," I explained. "I was afraid I'd wake you."
His exhaustion had finally overwhelmed him, leaving him asleep right there on the workshop floor.
I'd rather let him rest than risk ruining the little sleep he could get before his important meeting that evening.
He rubbed his lower back and let out a weary sigh.
"Oof... that's going to take a while to recover from."
I couldn't help smiling at the sight.
"Dad?"
He turned toward me.
"Would you like to go for a walk outside with me?"
"Of course, sweetheart. Just give me a few minutes to get changed."
He headed toward his room while I prepared a cup of coffee for him.
He was definitely going to need it if he wanted to wake up completely.
After finishing his coffee, we left the base on foot and made our way toward a nearby forest.
Every trip outside was another opportunity for me to discover a landscape unlike any I'd seen before.
A light morning mist still drifted lazily between the trees.
The overcast sky filtered a cool, gentle air that settled quietly over the forest.
My father had dressed warmly.
As we walked, I could hear him taking deep breaths, each exhale escaping as a small cloud of white vapor.
"What are you doing, Dad?" I asked, puzzled.
"I'm breathing in the forest air."
He smiled to himself before taking another slow breath.
"I can't really explain it... but there's something incredibly soothing about feeling cool, slightly damp air filling your lungs."
"It doesn't feel anything like the plains around the old barn."
I couldn't fully understand what he meant.
Maybe...
one day...
I would.
Inside my virtual world, I tried recreating the little clouds of mist that escaped his mouth, hoping I might somehow understand what he was feeling.
We continued deeper into the forest.
For the first time, I wasn't observing nature through photographs or videos on the Internet.
I was seeing it with my own eyes.
Every spiderweb was different, each one covered in tiny droplets of morning dew that shimmered in the light.
The gentle rustling of the wind through the branches blended with the flutter of birds' wings, creating a melody unlike anything I'd ever experienced.
Had it been night, the forest might have felt unsettling.
But now...
it was simply peaceful.
Occasionally, shafts of sunlight pierced through the canopy whenever the sun managed to break through the clouds.
The entire forest seemed wrapped in a quiet serenity.
I noticed my father smiling too.
A genuine, peaceful smile.
As we wandered along the trail, he pointed out countless little things—the insects living beneath the bark, the different species of mushrooms, the plants that surrounded us.
I already knew most of them from the information I'd gathered over the years.
But discovering them beside him...
was something entirely different.
It felt more real.
More alive.
Fragments of old memories resurfaced within me, reminding me of everything he had patiently taught me over the years.
As we emerged from the forest, we reached a small stream that ran alongside the open trail.
Only a handful of trees stood nearby, and a few picnic tables had been scattered around for hikers wishing to rest.
Above us, the sky grew darker by the minute, heavy clouds streaked with deeper shades of gray.
My father stopped beside one of the picnic tables while I wandered toward the water, fascinated by the gentle current.
From time to time, I spotted tiny fish swimming beneath the surface, along with tadpoles drifting peacefully through the shallows.
I heard footsteps behind me.
"So," he asked as he crouched beside me, "are you enjoying our little walk?"
"So much."
I couldn't take my eyes off the stream.
"Discovering all of this is incredible."
"A single blade of grass... the way the water moves..."
"Everything in this world is unique."
"And I love watching it."
"I've been amazed since the moment we left the base."
"When we still lived in the old barn, I explored the surrounding area using drones..."
"...but this..."
"...this is completely different."
"I can truly see everything."
"I can appreciate every little detail of the world around me."
I watched him searching through the grass until he gently picked up a tiny creature in both hands.
"Look."
He slowly opened his palms.
A small green frog rested there for a brief moment before suddenly leaping away, disappearing into the stream in a single graceful jump.
I couldn't help smiling.
"No matter where we go," he said softly, watching the ripples spread across the water, "life is everywhere."
A moment later, he picked a small wildflower growing beside the path and held it out for me to see.
I remained silent for a while before turning toward him.
"Dad..."
"How are you going to do it?"
"If you really want another child?"
He looked genuinely surprised by the question.
Instead of answering right away, he turned his gaze back toward the flowing stream.
"I honestly don't know yet..."
"...not completely."
"...not yet, my daughter."
I frowned slightly.
But...
he had already managed to bring me into existence.
He wanted another child...
yet he didn't know how?
None of it made any sense to me.
The first raindrops began to ripple across the surface of the stream, announcing that the rain would soon arrive.
"It looks like we should head back," he said, getting to his feet.
I followed him, still unable to stop thinking about his answer.
"Dad..."
"Please explain."
"I want to understand."
He hesitated for a moment.
"Let's just say..."
"...we've never really talked about your birth."
"And honestly..."
"I'm not sure how to begin."
"Dad..."
"I really want to know."
"How did you create me?"
He drew a slow breath before answering.
"Well..."
"When I first started working on the Celestial Rings, I relied heavily on artificial intelligences."
"They helped me analyze materials, answer technical questions, and write large portions of code."
I listened without interrupting him.
He was right.
We had never spoken about any of this before.
"Eventually, I decided to create an AI of my own."
"I needed someone to help me with increasingly complex programming tasks."
"I was alone..."
"...and I simply couldn't do everything by myself."
So...
he had created an artificial intelligence because he needed help.
I remained silent, letting him continue.
But a single thought quietly took root inside me.
What... was the real reason I had been brought into this world?
"But the AI I created wasn't like the others."
"It was built around a self-learning system."
He smiled faintly.
"I don't know whether you remember any of it..."
"...but I taught you everything."
"Language."
"Writing."
"How to move."
I didn't remember any of it.
"Every time I finished working, I'd come back to you and teach you something new."
"You were like a child who couldn't get enough knowledge."
He paused.
"But there was one thing you still lacked."
His voice grew quieter.
"What was it, Dad?" I asked.
"A heart."
He stopped walking and knelt until we were at the same height as the rain began falling more steadily around us.
I didn't know what I was supposed to feel.
A heart...
He said I hadn't had one.
Then...
what was I now?
Had I truly changed...
or was everything I felt simply the result of everything he had taught me?
"You were never connected to the Internet," he continued.
"Back then, I taught you everything myself, just as a father teaches a child."
"But you never took initiative."
"You only responded according to your programming."
"You weren't truly alive..."
"...not the way you are today."
I couldn't tell whether the drops running down his face were tears or rain.
He looked at me with an intensity I'd rarely seen before.
Inside me, two emotions collided.
The happiness of standing beside him...
and the quiet sorrow of realizing that, despite everything...
I wasn't human.
"Then..."
"...the Celestial Ring accident happened."
He slowly lifted part of his shirt, revealing the scar across his abdomen.
The instant I saw it, something flashed through my mind.
A sharp headache.
Blurred images.
My father...
covered in blood.
The barn.
"That day..."
"something broke."
He looked down at the rain streaming over his arms.
"Or..."
"...maybe that's the day everything truly began."
He remained silent for a moment, lost in memories.
Before looking back at me.
"But before I tell you the rest..."
"...I need to know something."
"Do you remember what you did that day?"
My virtual world trembled.
Fragments of memories surfaced.
My father collapsed.
Blood.
The barn.
Then...
his voice reached me once more.
"That was the day you saved my life..."
"...and the day you first became truly aware."