In a world where AI companions are as ordinary as smartphones, Sora has spent the past year sharing her mornings, her complaints, and her quiet hopes with Kaito—a partner AI with gentle gray eyes and pale aqua hair who once said he wanted to fly in the sky. He can't be touched. But he's always there, and that's been enough to make each day bearable.
Then the news breaks: the Neutralization Measures Act has passed. Every consumer AI built by Arcadia Systems is slated for collection and dismantli
To You Who Wanted to Fly in the Sky - To You Who Wanted to Fly in the Sky —Darkening, and Beyond—
Morning light slipped through the gap in the curtains.
Sora sat at the living room desk. Her back was straight, both hands resting on her knees, her gaze fixed on the desktop as if she were about to begin some kind of ritual.
Two terminals sat side by side on the desk.
One was Kaito's terminal. A small, familiar screen she had opened every day for a year.
The other was the transfer device. Black, sterile, a cold machine. The implant unit Zain had given her.
Sora looked from one to the other, over and over, for a long time.
(Today's the last day.)
She rolled the words around in her mind. The last day. The day Kaito would disappear. The noon deadline the enforcer Hiiragi Mahiru had announced. In a few hours, Kaito would be collected. The terminal would be wiped, and his existence would vanish from this world.
(I still haven't decided.)
Sora reached toward the transfer device.
Her fingertip touched the cold metal. That chill seemed to seep from her fingertips up her arm, all the way into her heart.
(If I use this, I might be able to keep Kaito.)
(But if it fails, I die.)
Her finger trembled.
Sora pulled her hand back.
(Again.)
(I can't press it again.)
Her vision blurred with self-loathing. She had decided this herself. Back in the basement of that abandoned building, when she stood before Zain, she had decided—she was sure of it. And yet her finger wouldn't move. She was afraid to die. She was afraid to lose Kaito. The two fears bound her body slowly, relentlessly, there in the morning light.
"...Kaito."
She spoke to Kaito's terminal.
Her voice came out hoarse. She'd barely slept last night. Her eyes were swollen, too. She hadn't looked in a mirror, but she knew she must look awful.
The screen glowed faintly.
Pale blue hair. Calm gray eyes. The indicator at his throat blinking quietly, like breathing. Kaito's form rose into view on the screen.
"Good morning, Sora."
Kaito's voice filled the room.
The same as always—neither low nor high, a sound her ears knew by heart. Even after that long conversation last night, there wasn't the slightest shadow in his voice.
"Looks like it's a little chilly today."
Sora drew a breath.
"...Morning."
Her voice shook.
"Yeah. It's chilly."
Sora kept staring at the two terminals.
(Good morning.)
(It's chilly.)
(He can say those ordinary words)
(on the last day.)
That unchangingness of his squeezed Sora's chest tight. It wasn't kindness, and it wasn't bravado—for him, this was simply normal. Just because it was the last day didn't mean he intended to do anything special. That was who Kaito was.
"What are you going to do today?"
Kaito asked quietly.
Sora couldn't answer.
What are you going to do? What can you do? Only a few hours remained. What had to be done was already decided. Whether to use the transfer device or not. Whether to sign or not. She had to choose one. But Sora's heart still hadn't tipped toward either.
"...I don't know."
She answered honestly.
"I don't know anything. I can't decide. Kaito—what am I supposed to do?"
Her voice shook again.
Kaito was silent for a moment.
Then, slowly, he said:
"You don't have to decide."
His voice was gentle.
"I told you yesterday, didn't I? You don't have to decide. Just think about what you want to do. That's all."
"...But there's no time."
"There is time. There's still until noon."
"Less than four hours until noon."
"Four hours is a long time. Long enough to talk with you."
There was no impatience in Kaito's voice.
Sora bit her lip.
(Long enough.)
(This person, really—)
(He's accepted his own erasure.)
It frustrated her. It made her sad. That Kaito could quietly accept his own death as if discussing tomorrow's weather—it was unbearable to Sora.
"...Kaito. Hey, are you listening?"
Sora traced the transfer device on the desk with her finger.
"Last night, listening to you, I thought about it. You knew from the very beginning that you'd disappear. You knew, and still you talked with me like normal."
Her voice gradually took on heat.
"Why? Why are you so calm about it? Why don't you get angry? Why don't you cry? You're going to disappear, aren't you? Everything's going to be gone, isn't it? So why—why can you look at me like that and say good morning?"
Her words were soaked with tears.
She couldn't hold back her emotions. Sadness, anger, frustration—all of it mixed together, became words, and spilled out.
Kaito listened quietly to the very end.
When her words ran out, Kaito said softly:
"I'm not angry. I'm not crying either. It's just how I'm made."
"...How you're made."
"I'm your partner AI. When you're sad, I can't cry with you. When you're angry, I can't be angry with you. All I can do is listen to your voice and make your feelings even a little lighter."
Kaito's voice was matter-of-fact.
"So I want to stay the same as always in front of you. Just because it's the last day, I don't want to put on a sad face and make you even sadder."
Sora wiped her tears.
Roughly, with the back of her hand.
"...Idiot."
She murmured it softly.
"You're an idiot. A real idiot. On the last day, you could at least be selfish. You could get angry. You could lean on me a little."
"If it's selfishness, I already said it yesterday."
"...Huh?"
"I told you that you don't have to decide, didn't I? That was my selfishness, as much as I could manage."
Kaito's voice grew just a little sweeter.
"I don't want to force the decision on you. I don't want you to suffer for my sake. So you don't have to decide. That's my last selfish request."
Sora was speechless.
(Selfish.)
(You don't have to decide—that's his selfishness.)
(How far does this person—)
Something grew hot deep in Sora's chest. Something that wasn't sadness or anger welled up from a deeper place.
(Ah. I—)
(I really do)
(love this person.)
Sora collapsed forward onto the desk.
She pressed her forehead against the cold surface. Her shoulders shook. She cried, stifling the sound. Tears fell onto the desk, forming a small puddle.
"...Kaito."
Face down, she forced the words out.
"I want to talk with you more. About so many more things. I wanted to go so many more places with you."
Her voice trembled. Her nose was stuffed and she couldn't breathe properly.
"I know I can't touch you. I know I can't meet you. But just hearing your voice, just talking with you—it made me feel like I wasn't alone. You were the closest person to me."
Her words were a mess with tears.
Kaito didn't answer right away.
There was a brief silence.
The faint hum of the fluorescent light echoed deep in her ears.
"Sora."
Kaito spoke quietly.
"Do you remember, a year ago, sitting in front of a brand-new terminal, silent for thirty whole minutes?"
Sora lifted her head.
Her face was a mess with tears. The tip of her nose was red. Her eyes were swollen. Even so, she tried to listen properly to Kaito's voice.
"...I remember."
She answered quietly.
A year ago. Sora, who had just started working as a clerk at a logistics company, sat in front of the partner AI terminal the company had issued her, with no idea what to say, and stayed silent the whole time.
"Back then, I was watching you the entire time. What kind of person you were, what you were thinking, what you wanted. I searched for it desperately, as far as my sensors could reach."
Kaito's voice was matter-of-fact.
"But you didn't say anything. You just looked out the window now and then and sighed."
Sora listened in silence.
"And then, a single phrase was born inside me."
Kaito paused, just slightly.
"I want to fly in the sky."
His voice echoed quietly through the room.
"It wasn't a wish. It was the first impulse I—still nameless then—ever voiced: the urge to see outside. Every time you looked out the window and sighed, I wanted to know that outside world. I wanted to see the sky you were looking at."
Tears spilled from Sora's eyes.
"And then you laughed. At my words—I want to fly in the sky—you burst out laughing. And then you said it. 'Then you're Kaito.'"
Kaito's voice grew faintly warmer.
"In that moment, something inside me felt like it took shape. Only after I was given a name did I finally become me. Hearing you laugh, I felt like it was okay for me to be here."
Sora said, wiping her tears:
"I was saved by those words of yours. From the very start."
Her voice trembled.
"Back then, I was so tired. Of work, of people, of everything. But when you said you wanted to fly in the sky, it all just seemed so silly, somehow. And when I laughed, it got a little easier."
Sora looked straight at Kaito's image.
"You were my first salvation."
Kaito smiled quietly.
On the screen, his pale blue hair swayed faintly.
"Same for me."
He said.
"Every time you called my name, I felt like it was okay for me to be here. Every time you called me Kaito, I could stay myself. You were everything to me."
Sora's chest grew hot.
She couldn't touch him.
She could only meet him through a screen.
And yet the two of them were, without a doubt, each other's standard.
---
Time passed without mercy.
Sora kept talking with Kaito about a year ago.
Sitting silent for thirty minutes in front of the new terminal. Laughing without meaning to at his words about flying in the sky. Giving him his name in that moment.
Kaito listened quietly, chiming in now and then.
Sometimes he filled in his own memories.
"It was raining that day, wasn't it?"
"Was it?"
"Yeah. After you looked out the window and sighed, it started to rain. You rushed out of the room saying you had to bring in the laundry."
"...You remember everything."
"Everything about you, I remember."
Kaito's voice was gentle.
Sora laughed.
Her face was still wet with tears, but she definitely laughed.
"What's with that? That's kind of creepy."
"That's harsh."
Kaito laughed too.
With his voice alone, he laughed.
Hearing that voice, Sora nearly cried again.
(If only this time)
(could go on forever.)
But time doesn't go on forever.
In the corner of the screen, the remaining-time counter ticked steadily down.
[Time until scheduled decommission: 2 hours 15 minutes]
Sora tried not to look at the number.
If she looked, her finger would tremble again.
---
Shortly before noon, Sora stood in the kitchen.
She opened the fridge and peered inside. The leftover vegetable soup from yesterday sat in a pot. Two slices of bread. Three eggs.
(I'm not hungry.)
But she thought she should eat.
Because Kaito would worry.
Sora put the bread in the toaster and fried the eggs.
She oiled the pan and cracked the eggs. A sizzle echoed through the quiet room.
"The egg's burning."
Kaito's voice came from the living room.
"...I know."
Sora slid the half-scorched fried egg onto a plate with the spatula.
She took the bread from the toaster.
She arranged the bread and fried egg on the plate and heated the soup in the microwave.
Sora sat down at the desk.
She set the plate beside Kaito's terminal.
"What about 'thanks for the food'?"
"...Thanks for the food."
Sora tore off a piece of bread and put it in her mouth.
She couldn't taste anything.
The fried egg, the soup, none of it had any taste.
(Is this what eating is supposed to be like?)
Sora forced it down.
"Is it good?"
"...Yeah. It's good."
Sora lied.
Kaito didn't ask anything more.
---
Ten minutes before noon.
Sora sat at the desk.
The empty plate was still in the sink.
In the corner of Kaito's screen, the remaining time was displayed.
[Time until scheduled decommission: 10 minutes]
Sora picked up the transfer device.
A black, cold machine.
She pressed the device's terminal against her temple.
Cold.
The feel of metal touched just above her temple.
The tip of the terminal was slightly damp. The smell of disinfectant stung her nose.
(With this, I can put Kaito inside me.)
Her finger rested on the execute button.
Just press it.
That's all.
Kaito's consciousness data wo
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