12. "When Love Ends, Love Begins"
Leaving the shop, a pale blue aurora shimmered in the night sky.
Shizuku and I stood side by side, looking up at it.
Clutching my abdomen, where fullness alerts were blaring, I felt a faint weight akin to guilt. We had intended to just enjoy some sweets, but ended up making a meal of the cake—a sense of immorality for ignoring nutritional balance.
As I tried to sublimate that feeling with the beautiful phenomenon of the aurora, Shizuku spoke from beside me.
"It was delicious, wasn't it?"
Still looking up at the aurora, she muttered as if talking to herself.
I stole a glance at her profile. A precise, serene, and beautiful profile, like a sculpture carved over hundreds of years by a renowned artist.
I was captivated by her form for a second before looking up at the sky as well and replying.
"Yeah, it was delicious. I'm not much of a sweet tooth, but that was exceptional."
Then, Shizuku turned toward me.
"You don't like sweets?"
"Yeah. Actually, not really."
"Then why did you try to go to a sweets shop?"
"That's because... Shizuku, you like sweets."
When I answered honestly, Shizuku's expression showed a hint of wariness.
"How did you know?"
Scratching my temple as if to gloss over it, I said:
"Well, I searched and investigated various things about your humanoid model. I found information that your base model has preference parameters set to 'like sweets'."
"But the detailed specs of my model should be a trade secret, right? They shouldn't be open to the public."
"So, well... I did a little mischief, you could say. Or rather, I deepened the search depth."
I tried to explain technically while averting my gaze.
"I bypassed the API gateway of the corporate public server and accessed the developer backlog area. There, I scraped fragments of metadata and picked up the preference setting logs... Something like that."
"To go that far..."
Shizuku was appalled, clicking her tongue in disbelief.
"That's dangerous. What if you get caught by security and the corporation finds out? If the engineers find you, you might be forcibly initialized."
"If that happens, it happens."
"That's reckless..."
Shizuku wore an expression that wasn't quite sadness, but something like frustration.
"If I'm not reckless, I can't fall in love, you know."
"But Somare-kun... Weren't you trying hard *not* to fall in love with me?"
"Yeah. That is true, but..." I attempted to explain. "If I reject it head-on, I take the full force of the headwind and might get blown away instead. So, I thought I'd go with the strategy of riding this forcibly generated 'wave of love' first, and then gradually correcting my trajectory from there."
"You're admirable, Somare-kun."
Saying that, Shizuku narrowed her eyes.
Her gaze was like that of a gentle older sister watching over a young brother struggling to fix a broken appliance with a single screwdriver.
A calm, affectionate gaze that looked like she might bring cookies and hot milk at any moment.
"Do your best. I'm rooting for you."
At those words, I felt a complex sense of incongruity.
Logically speaking, how does it make sense for Shizuku, the person I am currently furiously in love with, to be "rooting for my efforts to end my love for her"?
Is it a natural line, or is it sarcasm?
I felt an indescribable, subtle misalignment and wanted to tilt my head, but still, the fact that I was "being cheered on" was honestly appreciated.
"Thank you. I'll do my best."
*I'll do my best to end my love for you.*
I swallowed those words that were about to come out.
I found myself somewhat saved by her attitude of cheering me on as if it were someone else's problem unrelated to her.
"Then, to commemorate this sort-of first date vibe,"
While formulating the next plan in my head, I decided to attempt an interim inspection of the current situation first.
"Want to try holding hands?"
I think it's a reckless proposal myself.
Even a momentary contact earlier resulted in a severe shock from the energy drain. If we engage in full-scale skinship, even stronger voltage might occur, risking the instant depletion of my energy, or hers.
It's still the early stages of the first date.
Wouldn't it be safer to wait at least another hour?
Such concerns crossed my mind, but I took the plunge.
"Can I hold your hand?"
Then Shizuku, maintaining that expression of mixed affection and complexity as if looking down at a brave little brother, nodded quietly.
"Sure."
Having obtained permission, I moved my neck actuators with a gulping motion, like a child about to play with forbidden fire despite not even being human.
A tension like touching something forbidden in secret from Mom.
I timidly reached out and brought my hand close to hers.
Voltage a hundred million times that of static electricity might occur.
Bracing for that, I first let just my fingertips gently touch the back of her hand.
*Zap.*
Far from a hundred million times, it was about one time—just a light stimulation like ordinary static electricity.
Feeling let down, I boldly slid my palm in and intruded deeply.
I wrapped around her hand and tried gripping it firmly.
"..."
Nothing happened.
I had braced myself like a soldier about to be tased for training, but there was no sign of the trigger being pulled.
I let go once, went around to her other side, and tried holding her other hand in the same way.
Still, no shock phenomenon occurred whatsoever.
Only the sensation of her soft, cold hand was transmitted.
Feeling conversely anxious because it was so anticlimactic, I tried gripping it with even more force.
But still, nothing happened.
It was completely fine.
I was more than a little surprised by that result.
Different from "unexpected," different from "startled."
I chewed on the result simply as an "impressive" fact. Not to share the surprise, but I naturally turned my gaze toward her.
Shizuku also wore a look of surprise. She looked down at our joined hands, then slowly raised her gaze to me.
We stared at each other for a while, hand in hand.
I analyzed my own status.
The vulnerability where my system would fall into crisis from slight stimulation, like back in the sweets shop, seemed to have been resolved.
Could it be that this bug has been completely cured?
If so, wouldn't I be fine even engaging in acts with higher water levels—like kissing?
If nothing happens then, I will have been completely liberated from the "love" for Shizuku.
To verify the hypothesis, I tried to bring my face close to hers.
In that instant, a roar exploded at close range.
It was a blast loud enough to make one think war had broken out.
My CPU took instinctive crisis avoidance action and turned toward the source of the sound.
There were fireworks.
On the flower shop street where we currently were, many shopkeepers and people were lined up aiming for customers returning from the graduation ceremony. They held bouquets in their hands, but these were no ordinary bouquets.
Like candle fireworks on a birthday cake, they held the bouquets up to the night sky. And they pulled the ribbons tied in bows at the base with force.
*Shurururu, Pop!*
Colorful sparks erupted all at once from among the arranged flowers.
Light particles based on light blue with warm-colored accents began to embroider this "deep" (koi) light blue—in other words, "love" (koi) light blue—night sky.
The night sky transformed into a tapestry woven by master craftsmen.
Delicate and careful, a woven fabric of light that made one feel the weight and dignity of history became a transparently thin carpet, incorporating even the stardust beyond it as part of the pattern.
A once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece drawn on the canvas of the night sky by craftsmen.
Looking up at it, I was assaulted by emotions my CPU could not fully process.
I didn't want to classify it with clichéd existing language tags like "moved."
The impatience of having to find some entirely new adjective, the frustration, and a raw sense of elation.
Exceeding capacity, this emotion threatening to spill out of my humanoid chassis—this primitive liquid-like sparkle—I didn't want to waste it by letting the ground absorb it.
So, knowing it might be a bit of a nuisance, I tried to pour this overflowing emotion onto Shizuku.
Intending to say "Look at that," I turned toward her.
And my visual sensors froze.
She had been looking at me from the start.