39 Once Again, Nice To Meet You!
Editor: Crembo.
-Early Evening, My House, Simulation Room-
-Bara POV-
The Sun was shining brightly. The wind rustled my hair. The sky was clear, with not a cloud in sight.
'… Kill me.'
The waves crashed gently against the shore, the sound they made soothing my heart.
'Kill me.'
The sand felt soft when I stepped on it. It was as if I was stepping on a pillow.
'Kill me!'
And finally, my brand new swimsuit, red frilly tank top and red skirt-and-panties swimsuit.
"Tadaaa~!!" I made a pose.
'KILL ME!!' he shouted in our mind.
"Relax, aren't you actually happy that you can finally see a girl in a swimsuit?" I said playfully.
He grunted inside.
'… Part of your statement is right, I did want to LOOK at a girl in a swimsuit, but I did not want to BECOME the girl in the swimsuit!'
"Hoi!" I made another pose.
'UARGGH!' My action blew him away in our mind. '…I don't care anymore.' Now he gave up.
"Then suit yourself, Master!" I started playing on the beach.
[Simulation Room: Environment Simulator(Small) = 30,000 IP]
That was the new simulation room function that Master bought a few days ago.
It started when both of us were getting anxious, counting the days until this was all over.
It was strange, Master shouldn't have been feeling anxious over this. After all, I was the only one who would disappear by the end. I guess I influenced him somehow.
That said, because of our anxiety, Master decided to distract ourselves by doing something else, and that something was sightseeing. Thus, he bought the new function.
Bountiful forest, cities from many different countries, a hot desert, a crystal cave, a field of flowers, and many more.
Both of us enjoyed it, especially me. It was all very new and exciting to me. Ever since I was born, all I saw was just the white of snow, the frozen lake, and glimpses of other places like in the Simulation Room. I also heard and glimpsed many things from Master's Thoughts, but they were just thoughts. I couldn't fully experience them that way.
But now everything that I wanted was realized, it was wonderful.
That was, until Master brought us to a beach. Suddenly, Master's Thoughts were filled with things called 'Swimsuits'. All of them were really cute and I was really curious how I would look with a swimsuit, so I tried my best to influence Master to bring me back to the beach all this time.
'Beach~.'
"No."
'It's gonna be fun~.'
"No."
'There's gonna be lots of swimsuits~.'
"..No."
'You're thinking about it~.'
"Nonsense."
After I kept nagging Master for days, he finally gave in and created it. And as it happened on my final day, too, I counted it as a win on my part.
'Hey, Bara.' Master called me.
Since I was still underwater when he called me, I needed to go to the surface to reply. "Pwuaaah!" I gasped for breath. "What is it, Master?" I asked.
'Do you want to build a castle?'
"Castle?"
An image flashed in my mind. A small Castle made out of sand.
"Sand Castle?"
'Yup, and with our ability we could make it life sized. Do you want to do it?'
"Of course, let's do it!" I started swimming back to the shore.
After vigorously swimming, I finally arrived on the shore.
"So how do we start making the sand castle?" I asked.
'Let's build something basic first before we continue.'
Master manipulated the sand using Vector Change, compacting it into a block .
"All right, me too then!"
I created another block beside it.
'Another basic shape.'
He created a triangle beside his block.
"Yes!"
I also created a triangle beside my block.
'Another one.'
He created a circle.
"Got it!"
I also created a circle.
'…'
He created an 'X'.
"Hup!"
I also did the same.
I caught a glimpse of what Master just thought, some kind of symbol and a word.
"PlayStation?" I asked.
'PlayStation for the win!!'
He created this 'PlayStation Logo' behind his sand structure.
"PlayStation for the win??"
I also did the same even thought I didn't know what a PlayStation was.
'Suck it Xbox!!'
He raised both of my middle fingers to the sky.
"…Master." I was worried.
'Ah, yeah, sorry, I just went with the flow. Let's make the sand castle now.'
After that, we both started making a very big sand castle. It was a lot of fun. We played until the sun started to set.
I sprawled on top of the sand castle's roof. The roof was wide and sturdy enough for me to do that.
"Haha, that was fun." I said with a satisfied smile.
'Yes, it was definitely a fun experience.'
"I'm glad that I know you, Master."
'…Yes, me too, Bara.'
We ended the conversation with a happy note, both of us smiling. But we know that was not true. All this time, the both us refused to point out the truth, hoping the other one was also ignoring the issue like themselves.
But today was different, and I refused to let our last conversation end with this kind of feeling.
"… Master"
'Hm?'
"You've already noticed it, haven't you?"
'…'
"These last few days, new words suddenly appeared when I talked to you. 'Bara', 'We', and 'You', those are new words, right?"
'…'
"And this," I waved 'my' hand. "You occasionally let me take full control of your body even though you could easily take it back just like earlier today."
'…' he stayed silent.
"You're finally aware that I'm real, but you never pointed out that fact and just decided to call me by my name to indirectly notify me that you're aware of my existence."
"All of those clues, if I gather them and guess what they mean... You were taking pity on me by letting me do whatever I wanted these last few days, but you also didn't want us to invest too many feelings toward each other so that we both wouldn't be hurt when I was gone."
"It may look cruel to others, but I believe Master actually really cared about me. Today was proof that what I'm saying is true, you really hated to wear a girls' swimsuits but because this is my last day, you let it slide and gave in to my request."
"So thank you for everything, Master." I smiled.
'…Tch.'
-My POV-
I switched seats with Bara.
"System, simulate a Karaoke Room and change my clothes back to normal."
[Affirmative]
The scenery changed from a beach to the inside of a karaoke room.
I picked up the microphone and selected a song from the song list.
'Eh?'
"We're going to sing."
'Eh?!'
"I said we're going to sing!"
'O-okay!'
I searched through all the songs I could remember for one that would help me right now.
'S-so many songs, t-too much noise.'
Found it.
[PaRappa the Rapper - Romantic Love]
"Sing with me."
'W-what?'
"Sing!"
'Y-Yes!'
The video of the song started playing on the monitor.
The music started and I, no, we were ready to sing.
"Yes...
It is time to get romantic.
Time to get romantic, yes indeed, that's for sure
Da kick punch style remains very secure.
Never pending, always the first to make a move
This time we get down nice and smooth.
Love Kick
Love Punch
Love Duck
Love Turn
Love Chop
Love Twist
Love Pose
Love Hug
Smooth kick
Nice punch
Sweet chop
Love fight
Because I'm smooth, with a groove so new,
I wish everybody had the same point of view.
Meet me at the corner, pick you up at 7
Wear your best dress and I'll take you to heaven"
I kept singing while imagining all the scenes I remembered that involved 'Confession.'
"Hold Hands
Face to face
Get romantic
Let's get it on
Love style
You and me
Together forever
Never to part
Look up in the sky
See the stars?
I hold you tight
Lovers we are
I'm da sensei, you are my student,
But before that, you and I are friends.
We lean on each other, anyway we can,
We all need love, no matter woman or man.
Smoothe like butter
Caress your lover
Enjoy the moment
Won't last forever
Love punching
Soft *sniff* chopping
Sweet *hic* kicking-"
At that moment, I realized that my vision went blurry.
I stopped the song and switch seats again.
"… I got it - sniff - I got it already. I just have to tell you the truth right?"
She wiped her eyes before she threw the mic on the floor.
"I WANT TO LIVE!!"
"*Hic*I STILL WANT TO KEEP HAVING FUN!!"
"I STILL *Hic* STILL WANT TO MEET AKYUU!!"
"*sniff* I STILL WANT TO BE TOGETHER WITH MASTER!!"
"I STILL HAVEN'T DONE EVERYTHING THAT I WANTED!!"
'SAY IT!!'
"I WANT TO LIVE!!"
'LOUDER!'
"I WANT TO LIVE!!!"
'LOUDER!!'
"I DON'T WANT TO DISSAPEAR!!"
"AND THAT'S THE WORD I'M LOOKING FOR!! SYSTEM!!" I immediately retook control.
[Hypothesizing what User wants from current scenario]
[Are you sure about this, User? This will weaken you.]
"I DON'T CARE, JUST DO IT!"
[Initiating Point Conversion and Skill Transfer]
[User Level reduced from Lv.72 to Lv.63]
[Creating and Transferring Entity]
'*hic*Master?'
"Nobody wants to disappear. If they say they're fine with it then there's a huge chance they are lying. That also includes you."
'*sniff* I'm sorry.'
"For the record, I hate tragedies and sad things. So you better pay me back by staying happy and positive, do you understand?!"
'…yes.'
"I can't hear you!"
'Yes!'
"Good."
After I said that, there were 3 things that I suddenly felt, sensed and saw at the same time.
1. Bara 'left' me.
2. Something appeared above me.
3. It fell toward me.
I caught it and immediately identified it as a human, an unconscious human girl, and someone I knew too.
[Lv.49 Gentle Flame, Bara Api]
She was fully clothed in her usual outfit and was smaller than I remembered.
That was probably because I turned back into Arah, but unfortunately my clothes did not change back too.
"That was really fast! And where's my 'suddenly naked girl appears in front of me' cliché?! I thought this was supposed to be the event flag that would trigger it!" I complained.
I felt something touch my cheek.
It was Bara's hand. She was smiling while looking at me.
"You really are a pervert, Master." she said before going unconscious again.
"… She smiled, I guess that counts as a success."
I left the Simulation room and put her to sleep inside my futon in my room
I changed my clothes to my regular outfit before going downstairs.
I sat down on the floor and started lamenting my failure.
I sighed.
"…I'm the worst."
I tightened my fist.
"I should have just asked the system earlier and not waited for her decision at the last minute. 'Awesome' my ass, 'Piece of shit' probably suits me best. "
I was disappointed with myself for letting that happen and I swore to myself never to let this kind of thing happen again in the future.
Reaction Theater:
The scene where Bara raised double middle finger to the sky
ED: DOUBLE DEEEEEEUUUUCCCEEE
Author Note:
Heyo, author here. I'm sorry that the chapter feels like it rushed, because it's probably is. My shitty English knowledge probably the main cause of the issue, it limits my imagination and word choice in the chapter conversation, or I'm just bad with this stuff.
There will be no update for the next 2 weeks because I'm gonna be busy with work and final project. But when I come back, and as I promise, I will start making the continuation of the side story, but I only gonna make 2/3 chapters of it for now before going back to the main story.
1.9k word, committing seppuku right now.
About Arah Level conversion to Bara Level, it was because the higher level you are, the harder it is to keep leveling up, and the level system in this story is through how dangerous/powerful you are
