Standing in the hallway and looking out, the lights of Tokyo blazed beyond the window.
How many rotting, broken dreams could one city hold? Far too many to count. Tokyo itself probably had no idea how many failures it had quietly swallowed whole.
The Shiina family home was well-situated, and Taki's room caught the best light in the whole apartment — the family's love for her was written in every little detail like that. Taki felt embarrassed by it, sometimes even convinced she didn't deserve it.
Shiina Taki smoothed out her school uniform and, only once she was satisfied that everything was in order, turned her key in the lock.
The lock gave a faint click. The moment the door swung open, Taki called out:
"I'm home — Sis, are you in?"
Even though — even though she really, truly hadn't wanted to do this.
What she'd wanted was to beat her sister. To make the Shiina name ring out just once under Taki's own banner.
And yet here she was, needing her sister's help just to succeed.
So if she did succeed in the end… would that success belong to her alone? Or would it be something she and her sister had built together?
If the success wasn't pure anymore, then all her effort…
"Taki? Come on in — I'm in my room."
Taki's sister — the golden child the world never stopped praising — called to Shiina Taki in a voice as gentle as ever.
"Okay, coming — just changing my shoes."
Maybe it was just her imagination.
But Shiina Taki thought her sister's voice sounded… off.
How to put it? It was like…
It was perfectly convincing on the surface — no stranger would have noticed a thing.
But Taki genuinely felt that the warmth in her sister's tone was somehow too neat, too mechanical. Like an AI doing its best impression of a person.
"Taki! Stop overthinking!" Shiina Taki slapped both cheeks lightly, took a slow deep breath, and walked toward her sister's room.
That's just how it was.
...
"I've already arranged the buyer for you, and I've prepared a complete set of critical condition notices."
Both were things an ordinary person couldn't get their hands on — but that was exactly where The System's complete disregard for reason came in handy.
As long as it judged something to be useful to the simulation, it would move heaven and earth to make it happen. Well — up to a point. Like, say, dropping a meteorite…actually, scratch that. A meteorite killing someone would make it impossible to achieve the optimal Lifelong Regret.
"Wait, no — if someone confessed right before the meteorite hit… hehe. In the final second before death, you finally have the person you love most — what should be the happiest moment of your life — and then you realize you only get to keep them for one second. When without the accident, you could have had them for a whole lifetime."
Something like that would hurt so much. You'd want to cry. You'd be drowning in regret.
How much could be packed into that one single second — how vivid and complicated it would be — Chiose didn't even dare imagine it.
Yoshiiro Chiose stared up at the ceiling, her head full of schemes for future simulations. The television in front of her was playing a film; she wasn't paying attention to which one.
"System — I thought you were still over at Taki's place pretending to be her sister, keeping her occupied. Why are you back already?"
"I can split myself."
"You're so ridiculously cool. Fine. You win. I'm impressed."
You'd go that far just to help me get the best result out of a simulation? System, I respect you.
Yoshiiro Chiose held out her popcorn, but The System only ate a few pieces before going still.
"What is this film about?" The System asked.
"It's a bit complicated. Sure you want to hear it?"
"Mm."
"It's about a girl who's dying, so she sells everything she has to help her friend achieve their dream. In the end, the friend discovers that she broke her promise — she couldn't be there to properly accompany the girl one last time. The friend spends the rest of her life after the girl's death eaten alive by regret."
"Interesting. Is this where you got the idea?"
The light from the television washed over the girls' faces.
"More or less. But don't you think it's missing something?"
"Missing what?"
"A touch of magic, you idiot."
Chiose rolled her eyes. Chiose turned off the television. Chiose looked at her own reflection in the dark screen and let out a brief, self-deprecating laugh.
"I keep forgetting you're The System. Haah."
Something like The System — did it even count as a living thing?
"Can The System not understand things like that?"
"The System… probably can understand, I suppose."
"Then — what do you mean by 'a touch of magic'? What are you planning?"
"Hmm… ending a story with a devoted lover giving everything and then dying is too ordinary. Not enough flair. What if we made it a little more interesting?"
"System — the settlement window for the emotion score is within ten years after my death, right? Whatever emotions the target generates in that period?"
Yoshiiro Chiose felt her brain humming with electricity. She had a brilliantly wicked idea, and she was itching to put it into motion.
Should she…
Was she really going to do this?
Yeah. She was going to do this.
She really, truly was.
"My dear System — after I die, in the ninth year… could you do me one tiny little favour…"
Yoshiiro Chiose leaned in and whispered into The System's ear.
"Oh? I didn't expect that. You actually…"
Well. That was something.
"You really are changing."
"I don't have much of a choice, it's just that…"
Yoshiiro Chiose ran her fingers over the panda notebook Shiina Taki had given her.
The little panda's face on the cover was growing blurry — rubbed soft by all the times Chiose had traced over it.
"Haah. Poor Taki. I still feel guilty about it. I really wish I could have a drink right now."
...
"Sis, you've said so much tonight!"
Shiina Taki felt like this evening's version of Shiina Maki was practically a chatbot.
She'd gone through technique after technique, tip after tip — all of it genuinely useful, a mountain of things to take away… but wasn't this a bit much? How long was this going to go on?
She'd been listening since just past six and it was already past eight. At the start she'd been fine, but as time wore on she grew increasingly restless.
Taki kept sneaking glances at her watch, trying to figure out when she could find a moment to message Chiose and let her know she'd be late.
Because… well, what Sis was saying was genuinely great. Genuinely so useful she could listen for hours.
"Right, next I want to share some of my own experiences performing on stage — does Taki still want to hear?"
Her sister was as warm as always, but that strange, unsettling feeling refused to leave.
"Yes! I really need this — I'm sorry to keep imposing on you, Sis…"
"Ha, don't worry about it."
Just keep listening. Best if you lose all track of time.
Shiina Taki sometimes struggled to keep pace with [Shiina Maki], so every now and then she'd interrupt to stop and take notes.
It was within that hour that she looked at her watch for what would be the last time.
[Sorry, Chiose. Tonight is too important — I really don't think I'll have time to come find you… It's only one evening of breaking plans. That should be okay, right?]
Taki's heart was thudding. She felt vaguely, inexplicably irritated and uneasy — but she couldn't pin down exactly where the feeling was coming from.
"Is it from too much coffee?"
Or maybe embarrassment at standing someone up?
But… but…
"Sis, keep going!"
"Sure."
But what Sis was sharing was too important. I have no choice but to keep listening.
Shiina Taki had already made her decision before she'd even finished deliberating.
That's just how it was.
____
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