Chapter 665

The jet-black tentacles lunged at Fujino.

Before she was swallowed up, Shirou picked up Fujino and fled the scene.

Shirou: "Are you alright?"

Fujino: "Ah, um, I'm sorry, sir... but Miss Touko..."

Shirou: "That's not the real Miss Touko anymore; she's just a stage prop in this world."

"If we don't defeat her, even if we avoid total annihilation, we'll still enter the next cycle."

Fujino: "Uh, what do you mean?"

"It means, it's okay to kill them completely... Please, Shiki!!!"

Shirou called out loudly, "That monster, even more terrifying than the 'Ultimate Monster'!"

The black-haired beauty in a pure white kimono used the ceiling as a springboard, completing a movement trajectory impossible for humans, and unleashed a deadly Flash attack on Touko Aozaki.

"How long are you planning to sleep? Get up, you three idiots!"

A sharp pain shot through my forehead.

Feeling as if she'd been poked on the head by something like a hard leather boot, Asagami Fujino opened her eyes.

"Oh dear! Sir! Are you alright?"

Shirou was entangled by tentacles while protecting herself. She quickly got up, only to find the Dark Agency shrouded in blue light before her.

"...?"

Fujino found herself lying face down on the sofa, with a blank screen in front of her, and Shirou pinned beneath her.

Standing not far away by the projector was a beautiful woman with glasses, Touko Aozaki, who looked displeased.

It's genuine.

Volume 9: 411 Fujino | Touko ← Shirou

"Miss Touko... why are you here?"

"You're the ones who sent me here, right? You said you wanted to introduce me to a job Sealing Designation Enforcer."

I came all this way but I can't get in touch with anyone. You must be kidding me.

As she spoke, Touko Aozaki lit a cigarette.

Upon discovering that the other party was indeed the real Ms. Touko, Asagami Fujino breathed a sigh of relief.

"Um... speaking of which, why am I here...?

I remember... being attacked by a monster released by Miss Touko, and it was Shirou who protected me...

Then together we defeated Miss Touko and her familiar...

"No, you just nestled in Shirou's arms and spaced out the whole time. You weren't useful at all in the battle, Asagami."

"Don't say that, Shiki. Didn't Fujino crumple the entire mansion, including yours and Touko's Fujino, into balls after I died?"

The other two people in the office... Shirou and Ryougi Shiki also slowly woke up.

They squinted at the light from the projector, looked around, and then noticed Touko Aozaki standing to the side.

"Whoa!? Sister Touko, why are you here!?"

"... Sigh, I don't want to explain a second time. Go ask Fujino Shirou yourself, did you bring this thing out?"

Touko Aozaki looked at the projector in the room.

Although the projector was still running, the most important part, the film, had been removed along with the film reel, which was now being held by Touko.

Shirou: "It's me."

Shiki: "Don't lie, it was Asagami who took it out, wasn't it?"

Fujino: "... I'm so sorry."

"Did Miss Touko stop it...?"

"Pretty much. This thing is seriously defective. Once you open it, there's no way to stop it, so I had to tear the film tube off."

"Speaking of which, what kind of dream are you having? Why does the scene on the screen look so shabby?"

A projector is a machine that projects a still image onto a screen using light. The film in the upper reel is rotated to wind the completed portion into the lower reel.

Ignoring the fact that the film was still playing, Touko Aozaki cut the film reel and then detached the film tube from the bottom, thus stopping the movie.

Shi: "... Hmm... So, we escaped?"

Shirou: "It seems so, although the result is hard to accept... I was hoping for a perfect playthrough."

Fujino: "... Um, so how exactly did all this happen?"

The three looked at each other, unsure of where to begin.

They generally understood the situation.

It was hard to believe, but they were all sucked into the projector.

Of course, we're talking about the mind, not the body.

Then the three of them kept acting out the characters in the film playing on the projector.

"... Group hypnosis, brainwave adjustment, soul linking... is that right?"

Shirou looked at the owner of the projector Touko Aozaki.

"This should be a slide projector that automatically generates stories, even movies that didn't originally exist can be played on the spot."

Right, Sister Touko? The film reels above are all blank; blank reels like these can't normally be used to project movies.

But the footage was played, which means that we ourselves were the ones who created that story.

"But this is probably a mass-production machine that works by reading the memories of everyone present and then using the Principle of secondary creation, right?"

He understood the Principle the machine, but what he cared about wasn't "how" but "why".

What reason could this projector have had to do such a thing to them?

Shirou sensed from the beginning that this projector was no ordinary device and was undoubtedly Touko's creation.

Since it's something Sister Touko did, it should be quite interesting.

Thinking this way, he ended up getting caught in the trap himself.

There was no malice emanating from the machine itself, which is why Shirou was puzzled.

What is its purpose in imprisoning us in an endless dream world (the world of movies)?

Touko Aozaki scratched her cheek and said, "Well, my original intention in creating this was to build an ultimate entertainment device that combines film projection and production functions."

New Age of creators (dream machines) tailor-made for the coming era of fast consumption... but they messed it up, oh well.

"Using other people's memories as material... does that mean that world is the wish we want to fulfill...?"

Asagami Fujino her sentence and looked at Shirou shyly.

In two dreams totaling 180 minutes, she established a relationship with Shirou that transcended their current one on both occasions.

In the first act, Fujino and Shirou become a couple trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

In the second act, Fujino becomes one of Shirou's wives.

If what's projected on the projector represents one's own wishes, then wouldn't my wishes be...?

"Speaking of which, what's the matter with Miss Touko saying it's a defective product?"

Asagami Fujino hurriedly changed the subject.

"Because it will use the people around it as material, playing the recordings until their physical bodies die?"

"No, it doesn't matter if it kills the materials, right?"

Because the design philosophy of this machine (Heart) is "to provide stories forever, as long as there are audiences."

Calling it a defective product refers to its concept (Soul). Its performance itself is perfect, yet this thing actually denies itself.

"The projector... has it malfunctioned...?"

"Ah, it could have just been producing stories mechanically, but it can't stand the mechanical process anymore."

Although this thing was given the ability to "create happiness for everyone," the intelligence went wrong due to a contradiction.

"I filmed a happy world. But this world will always come to an end. No matter how happy the script is, the world will eventually come to an end." That's the feeling I got.

"..."

That's why that stage was always so joyful, yet also so sorrowful.

The slide projector provides entertainment that makes people feel like they are in a dream.

However, there will always be an ending. No matter how joyful the process may be, as long as it's a movie, that world will end after a mere 90 minutes.

The more faithfully a machine is to its duty to reflect a paradise different from reality, the more it will destroy that beautiful paradise.

Just like life, even in movies, there is always an ending.

So the machine malfunctioned.

It lost its way.

Since an ending is inevitable, let's at least cover up the sad ending by playing out the next story.

"The conflict between performance and ideals... This projector, from the very beginning, only thought about pleasing us... no, it only accepted the order to please us."

Shirou murmured, Touko Aozaki nodded.

"Yes. No matter the story, it's all sad. This thing can't accept that; it's too romantic for a dream machine."

"Hmph, you're just causing trouble for others."

Ms. Ryougi reached her hand out from inside her kimono and swung her knife at the projector that seemed to be spinning endlessly.

After that, the three of them spent the night at the firm as originally planned.

Shirou took out the sleeping bags they had bought at the supermarket and made makeshift beds on the floor of the office, while Touko Aozaki went to rest in her original room.

Although they were physically unharmed due to being caught in the projector accident, they remained in a state of high excitement for the entire 180 minutes.

Soon after lying down side by side, the three of them fell asleep.

"..."

When Asagami Fujino opened her eyes again, the clock on the wall showed that it was a little past four in the morning.

It's still a while before dawn.

As expected, I'm still a little nervous sleeping next to Shirou.

Hmm, let's admire Shirou's adorable sleeping face...

Thinking this, she turned over in her sleeping bag—

As a result, Shirou was supposed to be lying next to her, was nowhere to be found, leaving only an empty sleeping bag.

Where are they?

Did they go to the restroom?

Fujino waited a few more minutes, but Shirou still showed no sign of returning.

She glanced at Ryougi Shiki, who was separated from her by Shirou's sleeping bag, and noticed that she was sleeping soundly. After thinking for a moment, she slowly got up.

Asagami Fujino went to the restroom first, and as expected, Shirou was not there.

If it weren't there...

Only one area remains of the entire building.