9 "ZINV"
"What is that thing?" Minaho who had long worked under Seto, was confused as she turned towards Seto.
"It might be the founder of the humanoids of Renza. Normally a large humanoid shape is nothing but a waste offensively speaking. But it's perfect for establishing a religion, or a legend or a fable. It works better as a symbol. It's purely aesthetic."
"Why is it here?"
"Who knows, but it's generating Light Hawk Wings, so it must be related to Jurai, I can't wait to study it."
----------------
One of the spaces fixed in the Mikagami was Seto's studio where information analysis equipment, a simple repair dock. and other things like that were located.
ZINV was housed in the analysis dock there.
-------------
Seina finished his examination in the medical room together with Fuku, and was moved to the waiting room, that looked like the lobby of a prestigious luxury hotel, where he played with Fuku and the others.
"Seina!" Kiriko came in to see him with tears in her eyes. She examined him up and down for wounds like a mother dog would her puppies.
Seina felt like he was back in the good old days again. Till the others came in.
"Oh, Seina ... ... Am I imagining things or are there four Fuku's on the sofa there?" Amane asked breaking the intimate moment between the two.
"There are really four of them, it's no illusion, the three are clones that the Space pirates made for research."
"Clones? ... Oh, I see, only one has a jewel in her forehead, so it that one Fuku?" Fuku lept towards Amane. Neiju was surprised but she approached Fuku and lifted her up.
"Miaa!"
"Oh Fuku! I'm so glad you're safe!" Everyone rushed to welcome Fuku back. However, they seemed confused as to how to deal with the Fuku's clones. Seto emerged out of their crowd and pushed herself ahead of them.
"Even so ... for cloned newborn children, Their reactions to things sure seem different from one another."
"Oh, one of them is Kirche who was in NB and the other is a person in ZINV who is called D."
"Kirche ... .... That Kirche?"
"Yes, The one on TV, that Kirche, I don't know why she was in my NB ... ...."
"Oh, uh, well... about that..." Both Seto and Kiriko diverted their eyes from Seina and gazed at the Kirche clone.
"Well, perhaps we should talk about the other one instead ... ...." Seto launched a medical record monitor and showed off the contents.
" .... by any chance is she the terminal form of ZINV? By that I mean is she like the personality of it?"
"She's a different personality from ZINV, I found her in there alone sleeping when I went inside, but I haven't heard anything detailed from her, I didn't have time to talk ..."
"Yes I see ... ..." Seto was staring at the D cabbit.
"What about the other cabbit?"
"…………I don't know anything about it at all." Seina thought harder but couldn't recall anything else.
"Nothing at all!?"
"No, I don't even know how this happened."
"We need to investigate the situation in detail, I suppose we should just ask them, will you cooperate with us?" Seto crouched and moved her face closer to the clones.
"Mya!" all three agreed, Seto launched the monitor.
"If you're a clone of Fuku, you should be able to access this link ... try this okay?" a monitor appeared as if it were a comic book speech balloon on top of the three of them.
First D 's appearance data was displayed, next was Kirche, the last one was... ...
"Miki Steinbeck!" Everyone shouted her name in unison. Miki crossed her arms and looked at everyone with a slightly dissatisfied expression.
"... .... Miki ... ... senpai ...?" Seina was confused. Of course so were the others.
"Long time no see Seina." Miki looked at Seina and smiled
"How! I thought you died ..."
"Don't you remember what happened after I was attacked? ... To your NB?"
"What happened? .... Oh! Yes, Now I remember." Seina remembered it suddenly transforming into a humanoid figure, and it tried talking to Seina. Her remembered it's face resembled Miki somehow.
"But how ...... ??"
"I didn't even know until this, but I was an AI with an astral just like Kirche. Tarrant didn't know it either and ... Well lots of things happened and I ended up in the network at his base, and then this happened... Do you understand? "
"Not really, I feel like you're leaving a lot of things out... ...."
"Well the point is I'm still alive. Isn't that enough? "
"Uhm ... .... Well, yes. That's true." He was convinced that she was definitely Miki
"Hey Miki, was it by any chance Dr. Clay who moved your data to the clone?" Seto asked
"Yeah it wasn't cheap, but he saved us from Tarrant."
"That's all you have to say about it?" Seto gazed at Miki. "Yes, that's all."
"... Well ... He'll do anything, if you can pay for it, you're lucky he's always open to negotiations." "...... I'm used to handling those kinds of people." She meant her father, Hiroshi. Of course, but the statement applied to most scientists.
"I see" Seto made a wry smile without hesitation.
"Well, What else happened?"
"Before that I want to know about Acha ... where is the girl who was with us?"
"Oh, that lovely golden haired wau? ......" Seto launched a monitor.
"Kaaaaaa! so cuuute! " Her chief officers cried out, as they played dress up with Acha. she had bathed and was being brushed carefully, her golden hair was shiny and fluffier than before. Because she was trained to be a shrine maiden she was used to being taken care of by someone, although she still seemed quite puzzled.
"So then what happened?"
"I became shrine maiden, and I locked hands with the brave hero, but since I'm still a child ... ... I only entered into a contract with him ... .... " Acha said shyly.
"But I'm glad to go with Seina he's so brave! " The officers became overwhelmed by her cuteness and her sappy story.
Seto grinned at Seina, Kiriko looked stunned but she understood more or less the situation from Acha's story.
"............ But well ... ... I think that both the villagers and my mothers are worried, so I'd like to see them again soon ..." Seina could feel a pressure from the glares behind him. He felt like running away.
"Well ..." Seto looked at Kiriko, Fuku and the clones quickly.
"We should hurry up and make that happen." Seto decided to steer the conversation somewhere else quickly. The Mikagami and Mizuki's arrival had delayed the GP investigators and they were still busy conducting investigations at the site Tarrant's base.
-----------
Seto's staff gave a tearful farewell to Acha. Seina and Acha had several guards, a medical team and a joint GP and Juraiaian research team come with them back down to the planet. First of all, in order to inform the villagers about what was going on and get their permission, Seina and others preceded to the village with a parade.
"Is... is this really okay?" The windows were big and the people inside were visible outside. However, Seina was more worried about the brittleness of the glass.
"This is made for parades for VIPs, it's much more robust than it looks, even a falling rock couldn't crush us, were more safe then in an armored car." A guard told him.
"Although it might be impossible to escape if we become trapped inside, there's plenty of water food and air, and things to do to kill time in here."
"Oh, is that so?"
They entered the cave where ZINV was formerly where they saw a light.
"Mother!"
Waus gathered in front their mostly destroyed houses and the elders and kusuro were there too. However, as soon as they saw the parade vehicle the villagers hid themselves to escape, leaving the elders behind, but the elders saw Seina and Acha and waved to them.
---------------
The doctors and the research team that accompanied Seina were welcomed by the villagers after the elder informed them of what was going on.
The doctors started treating Kashak and the injured soon after, the research team surveyed around the dome, and a rescue team began searching for survivors and corpses from beneath the rubble.
Seina, accompanied by the elder and Acha, headed for the back of the dome, and was guided to a small room on the third floor. There was an altar and a bed there, it was a place reserved for the the shrine maiden and the brave hero.
"Acha can't return to this village any more? ... What do you mean?" Seina raised his voice to the elder, but the elder looked around the room and sighed as he ignored him.
"If Kashak was doing well, I'd have her come here to help expand our blood line ..." That is to say sex act were supposed to be done here.
"No thanks, I'm good... so why is Acha not allowed back to the village?"
"The shrine maiden can't live with the villagers.When she became a shrine maiden, her life became tied to our God and she's supposed to enter his world ... Kashak's shrine maidenship is done now, but the only reason she ever lived with us villagers was that we were in hiding. "
"But Acha is still ... ...."
"Of course Kashak and those who served as shrine maiden can stay here now that they're done, but Acha was completely deified and became one with our god, and she made a contract with the brave hero, the two of you have to be together as one, it's wrong to divide you into two, it could cause the end of the world. " The elder stepped up and stared at Seina.
"...... If the brave hero stayed in this village permanently though, Acha could live here naturally. Acha is still young and can't work, but Kashak and the villagers could pick up the slack Kakakakaka!"
"So you won't take her back? It may be difficult for you to comprehend, but that idol is similar to the flashlight that Kusuro had. It may seem like magic from your point of view, but it was still made by people, even your ancestors had the same power."
"I know that."
"Eh!?" The words the elder said were shocking.
" I'm the only one who knows that though. I went to the academy through correspondence classes."
"What!?" The Academy had a long distance curriculum that was free so that people in the rural areas and those far from the academy could take classes. The content of the lessons were politically neutral and religiously/ ideologically unbiased, many of the pirate's children used it.
"We used to trade with those in space in the past, but when the pirates came here we had to go into hiding, the long distance transfer gate facility was destroyed, but we used to use it to visit the other tribes that live a long ways away but we were isolated from them once the pirates came. As you probably noticed it wasn't exactly safe to go out traveling."
"But I heard you had other travelers?"
"Very rarely the other tribes would send one of their adult males over here. Needless to say it was hard to get here so they too were considered brave men.''
"I see.... so you knew about that idol as well?"
"It's something the pirates in Renza use.This place was where the original owner of the planet was doing excavations for a long time ago, we came here when they were still excavating."
"That reminds me, I heard that he claimed that the prehistoric civilization was born here, but after his death there was no detailed documentation left ... ... and I couldn't find anything in the foundation's simple survey.Do you know anything about that? "
"That's probably intentional, Once he found the idol he decided to keep things quiet If he announced it he would have gotten the honor of finding it but the ruins and all the materials excavated would have been taken and he and all of us would have been kicked out of this solar system and be labeled illegal occupants. It just wasn't worth it."
"And then the space pirates came and everyone migrated down here?"
"And since then we've been isolated from others and we couldn't keep the village in a peaceful state without our religion ... without access to the outside we couldn't do any maintenance and things started to break down, it was a real problem. That flashlight was once new but it's deteriorated quite a bit. " Actually, the transfer gates were also installed by the elder.
"I thought there were only 3 generations here max?"
"Well I've been Bio-Enhanced, so I've been around for about 250 years now, but the others haven't, its already been about 10 generations for them since the pirates came."
----This means the average lifespan of a normal Wau is probably like... less then 20 -25 years.---
"Oh, I see ... ... so only you know about the statue ... ..."
"There's no actual tale of it coming online before, I thought it was broken and thrown away ... ... I was seriously surprised when it actually reacted, Ahkakaka! "
"So you were just making things up?"
"Naturally, I'm trusted in the village. There was no way to avoid panic besides lying about it ... Well, I knew that the statue responded to you and I figured that might be some kind of transfer gate so I figured it was worth a try .... "
"What if it hadn't worked !?"
"At that time, we were out of options.... so is the GP is going to help us out?"
"You know about the GP? Oh right... of course you do..." Because of the classes.
"Look I made up all that stuff but it's pointless to us now, won't you take Acha so she can at least learn some actual knowledge? Now that everyone here knows about the GP too and the pirates are gone we can have the next generation go back to learning like normal. There's no need for any of that stuff now, the idol will be gone and to the the God has rescued the village and is set to return to heaven."
"But Acha is still a young girl ...." Seina was worried about separating Acha from her mother. And the GP would still have to rule on the matter.
"It is not like she won't ever see her again, Tarrant is gone, we'll be able to communicate with the academy now. I know she will have a better life there."
"Well that is true ... but ..."
"Acha doesn't want to part with you ... ... Do you not like her?"
"Well no but if it were me I wouldn't want to part with my mother, or kusuro, or his mother." Seina was saying but Acha burst into tears she looked like a cat that was about to be abandoned
"But since I met you I've made new friends... I'm not lonely!"
"Oh you made friends?"
"Fuku-chan, she's cute and fluffy! And I hear there are other kids at the academy!"
Seina looked at Acha who seemed happy when she said that and decided to take her. In the village, she'd only be treated like a shrine maiden but she could live like an ordinary child at the academy. The girls would help. and she could make friends her own age. If the result of the investigation of the area ended up with them all getting kicked off the planet then the new generation of the village would all end up in space anyways, and the village would be completely different in half a century anyways now that they weren't stuck in hiding.
Lastly, Seina noticed something.
(Oh, this is like Masaki village.) The village made contact with the universe while it was in the early civilization stage.
(If there's a legal problem in taking Acha, I'm sure Seto-sama, Airi, and Mikami, would help... I think they might understand.) It was a nice thought. The Galactic Federation and GP weren't ran by monsters; If they were deemed illegal occupants they would have grace period of half a century to migrate.
"Okay, I'll keep Acha." Seina decided.
----------
Seto got the story of what happened when he went to find Fuku all the way to when
Acha was frozen by D until Kirche got on board ZINV. After that, Seto was able to find out what happened just from the battle data extracted from ZINV, she spit out a big sigh as she got the report from the cabbits.
"But if you could control the nanomachines, why did you enter Tarrant's base with ZINV?"
"I was stopped by Ms. Mitsuki."
"My name isn't Mitsuki, it's Miki! "
"So why did you stop, how was Seina-chan was caught by Tarrant?" Although she had a quiet tone, Kiriko's eyes were angry.
"To stop Kirche from being killed. For me, I don't know anything about her, except that she was the one who got my message to my father. "
"Why couldn't she just upload herself to the network?"
"I had a monitoring device installed. If I accessed the network or any of the equipment, or tried to make any super-spacial communication, my core would have been destroyed. "
"Even if she could have Fuku wouldn't have been spared."
"Well ... I guess that's true... sorry for getting mad." Kiriko apologized.
Either way Seina was saved, the case was settled.
"No, I'm sorry I couldn't protect seina ... ..." Kirche said
"But how did you do the data transfer to the clone? Was there a monitoring device?"
"Dr. Clay did all the work on the data transfer. And the monitoring device was just one used for monitoring a specific super space communication frequency. Tarrant was wary of her directly accessing the network, but Kirche accessed Tarrant's computers and other equipment for communication through Seina. And they didn't know about the existence of the high-level hyper-spatial region."
"Wait a moment.Kirche didn't know that Miki was in Tarrant's computer? You had one shot to do the transfer, There should have been no time to interact with the transfer destination or anything else. " "As for data transfer I co-ordinated it by relaying with ZINV. With Kirche and ZINV, the transfer speed was instantaneous and I could transfer directly to the clones."
"So you could communicate between Miki and D, what was the exchange between ZINV and Kirche? How could you manage it without that?"
"Kirche and I interacted directly with a high-speed language conversation."
"A direct high-speed language conversation! Indeed, I see how you communicated without being seen but ...." High-speed language was a primitive communication method that was almost never used. Since it was a form of voice communication, it was slow and the amount of information conveyed was small, it was mostly only still used for children's toys.
A high-speed language was also what ZINV groaned in, so Kirche's speech was camouflaged.
"But there was no guarantee that Tarrant wouldn't notice that"
"So we spoke in Japanese."
"Japanese?" That was dangerous, if you didn't know the language being spoken it meant you could easily mistake the communication as just noise.
"Kirche you know Japanise because you're Seina's NB right but what about D?"
"There are minor word differences, but they are very similar to the words used by ZINV's previous master."
"So is that the language of the prehistoric civilization?" Seto who had been silent until that time chimed in
"Why do you say that Seto?"
"A surveyor accompanying Seina reported that the ruins were about a billion years old"
"... A billion!?" Everyone was shocked.
"Assuming that what you call the prehistoric civilization is the same as were we came from, ZINV is actually a thing from the previous age."
"Before that? It was before the great prehistoric civilization?"
"ZINV and my original self proceed them by tens of thousands of years."
"Woah that's amazing! She's a living witness of super ancient history! Ryoko instinctively brought her self closer to D.
"Calm down and stay on topic, you can always find out more at a later date. Anyways you were saying Kirche was doing high speed communication.."
"Yes. As a result, I understood. The Languages are very similar, but even if we could communicate with each other, the standards of measurements aren't always the same. It took quite a long time to actually examine the bandwidth was available in hyperspace ...... "
"Seina's finger was about to be cut off."
"Cut off?" As expected, Kiriko was angry. "Tarrant was trying to make Kirche torture seina. But I found a common band in the vicinity and D, Kirche and I transferred our data to the clone at the same time."
"Oh, then it's you guys who started the Kamidake, wasn't it?"
"Linking functions existed immaturely in the clones. There was no capacity to start the Kamidake on our own, but it was possible to do it if two of us cooperated. I also participated in order to make sure it worked. " That was why D wasn't there when Seina came back to the cockpit.
"After that I started the Kamidake, we released Fuku from the time freeze. ZINV teleported Seina to the inside of the cockpit "
"To be accurate it moved him by distorting the two points in space. Seina was scanned and if he was in danger ZINV would have left instantly. " They didn't know if Seina was going to keep his finger or not but Seina's fingers were saved.
"After words you synced with the Kamidake. Who did the restoration work ZINV or The Kamidake?"
"We cooperated with each other. Especially the restoration of the repair system. That was mostly the Kamidake After that it was all collaborative work."
"Well ... well ... well... Washu sure went and made quite a versatile ship." Seto said with a puzzled face.
" So how does that work I know it has something to do with the atmosphere ... ...."
"We form a plane that controls thousands of force fields to generate repairs, parts, and materials, from the air, if there is data, in theory anything can be formed at any place Of course it requires enormous amounts of energy and a sophisticated computer that can control it, but if you try to reproduce it with ordinary things, the formation of the force field and the control system itself become enormously huge burdens and the cost is no better then just rebuilding things manually. "
"Maybe in the distant future it will become common ... ...."
"If you think about it in the GP or the military, it's not really that necessary is it?"
"Well ...... That's true.
"Psh ... ... Knowing Seina we will probably have to use it nonstop." Miki said with a big sigh.
"Oh no, Ms.Mitsuki You'll never change, you're still a tsundere!"
"Who are you calling tsundere! And it's not Ms. Mitsuki! It's Miki! "
"Well, let's take a break for a while, a contact has told me that Seina's will be returning home with a lovely new daughter." Seto said as she got ready for the oncoming ruckus in her mind.
"A cute Daughter?!"
"Why is Acha coming with him?!"
"Just go ask him yourself."
"Hey! Don't go and excuse yourself!" Kiriko and others blew up as Seto showed them out of the room. Fuku was just glad that Seina was coming home already.
"Oh, what's wrong aren't you coming?" Seto inquired to Miki who remained there. Miki who remained alone smiled, "Ms. Seto, I'd like to talk with you alone if that's okay?"
-------------------
"... .... I see. So this girl, Acha-chan, she wants you to take her to the Academy?" Acha looked up at Kiriko with eyes like Fuku's. She couldn't say no to those adorable eyes. Everyone was convinced. (Damn it! She's too cute!) Although puzzled, everyone who was already there had fallen to Acha's cuteness. Kiriko was truly cautious, but it was difficult to refuse Acha even though she wanted to lives in an unknown place away from her family.
"Nice to meet you!" She said to Kiriko. That was it... the white flag flew. Kiriko's serious face shattered and she immediately began thinking about the legal processes necessary for adopting Acha. "Yes. It's nice to meet you too." Her acceptance was decided when Kiriko gave the OK. Everyone rushed to fawn over Acha just like Seto's officials had.
-----------------------------------
"So, what's the deal?" Seto and Miki were talking alone. The room was in a completely blocked off state. "Did my father decipher the mail I gave to Kirche? "
"... .... Yes" Seto immediately knew what Miki wanted to say.
"Definitely, your father has decrypted the email, and it was me who stopped the attempt to rescue you, are you satisfied with that?"
"Seina got involved, it was really too troublesome, wasn't it? Well, I'm very happy with how things turned out either way ... but I don't know how I feel about all these other people getting involved. " Still Miki smiled satisfied satisfactorily with Seto's answer.
"There is one favor that I want to ask from you, is that okay? " Miki asked.
"Of course, if I can do it."
"Well, can you introduce me to Washu Hakubi? "
"............" Seto thought a little, but immediately started the communication monitor.
"Washu-chan, are you there?"
"Hmm? Do you need something? "
"This woman wants to meet you."
"Ok I'm on my way." And the next moment she arrived.
"Thank you all for waiting ♡" After acting like she was introducing herself in to a stage play, Washu appeared through a long distance transfer gate. Which by chance was hidden behind the door there.
".................." Miki wasn't expecting this to be taken so lightly. It was amazing just to meet with the legendary philosopher, Washu Hakubi. She expected to have to wait months, years even...
"... Well, what's up !?"
"Hahaha, well time is money, so let's get to it, this is Miki Steinbeck."
"...... Huh. Actually I wanted to give you this information. " Seto looked at the data presented by Miki, and then looked towards Washu, Washu replied.
Both of them seemed to have expected Miki's proposed content.
"I found it in Tarrant's highest memory area. I couldn't confirm whether there was a backup, but I quarantined it, I only let clay see it too."
"Ahahahaha ..." Seto began to laugh. It was the same reaction as doctor clay.
"Ho ho ............ It seems that there is no mistake, well done, This deserves a thank you, so what is your wish?"
"Would you mind using my father, Washu-san as your external apprentice, starting at the end of the semester? "
"But Hiroshi, is at Airi's workshop now, He's an apprentice to Airi Herself, I suppose I could take a new student if that's what you want..."
"Is that so !? I didn't know that."
"Well that might be the case now but you never know the future. I don't mind either, so please tell me once you decide... but while were here ..." Washu took out the ball type personal scanner "Mini- Mamoru-kun" from her bosom and put it on the head of the Miki clone.
"Miau?"
"I'd like to investigate to what extent Fuku was cloned . Please cooperate, this will only take a moment."
It had already been checked in Seto's medical room, but Washu was able to diagnose things with a higher level of sophistication. And in a few minutes "Mini-Mamoru-kun" displayed the data.
"Well, there's no funny business going on, it seems they just cloned Fuku, in the usual textbook way, it's just a normal living organism."
"Just a moment please! What are you talking about? "
"Even if you're a clone, it's impossible to copy Fuku exactly. Even if you do some retroactive remodeling ......"
"... ... Hah. Dr. Clay was saying something similar. You are similar philosophers, aren't you?" Normally Washu disliked being compared to him but she seems not to care.
"Uhuhuh, well doing things halfway is the biggest taboo for philosophers, so in that sense, every philosopher is the same, Miki do you want to be in this body for the rest of your life?"
"Eh? I was planning to move to another body... "
"Hm ... ... Sorry, but that's going to be difficult, even if you move the data in that brain, you'll end up having different memories with the same astral, If you want to keep the same memory as Miki, You're going to have to remains as is. Even if someone tried to transplant you, it would be necessary to remodel the brain and nervous systems to restore you to a humanoid body, and the remodel will have to happen to your astral form too. "
"So I have to stay like this for the rest of my life ...?" Miki was shocked.
"It's pretty cute though."
"Yes, but I want to return to the original body! ...... I want to be with Seina ..."
"Washu-chan, quit teasing her." Seto said
"What! Did you fool me? " Miki glared at Washu.
"I wasn't lying, I was just explaining the risk because Miki is going to move to another body."
The picture that Washu showed was that of of Ryo-Ohki. There was Ryo-Ohki transforming from human form to Cabbit form and back.
"This is ... Fuku-chan, isn't it?"
"Fuku's older sister, Ryo-Ohki."
"She can turn into a human?"
"How about it, I can strengthening your body to Fuku levels, and you can change into Miki · Steinbeck form at will, of course, your memories and astral will stay the same and you will have all the functions of a women! You can even give birth ♡." Washu smiled.
"Oh!! Well............" Miki was staring at the picture of Ryo-Ohki.
"It's within the scope of your reward for helping save Fuku and if you like you can keep thinking about what you want for that data."
----End of chapter--------
"What is that thing?" Minaho who had long worked under Seto, was confused as she turned towards Seto.
"It might be the founder of the humanoids of Renza. Normally a large humanoid shape is nothing but a waste offensively speaking. But it's perfect for establishing a religion, or a legend or a fable. It works better as a symbol. It's purely aesthetic."
"Why is it here?"
"Who knows, but it's generating Light Hawk Wings, so it must be related to Jurai, I can't wait to study it."
----------------
One of the spaces fixed in the Mikagami was Seto's studio where information analysis equipment, a simple repair dock. and other things like that were located.
ZINV was housed in the analysis dock there.
-------------
Seina finished his examination in the medical room together with Fuku, and was moved to the waiting room, that looked like the lobby of a prestigious luxury hotel, where he played with Fuku and the others.
"Seina!" Kiriko came in to see him with tears in her eyes. She examined him up and down for wounds like a mother dog would her puppies.
Seina felt like he was back in the good old days again. Till the others came in.
"Oh, Seina ... ... Am I imagining things or are there four Fuku's on the sofa there?" Amane asked breaking the intimate moment between the two.
"There are really four of them, it's no illusion, the three are clones that the Space pirates made for research."
"Clones? ... Oh, I see, only one has a jewel in her forehead, so it that one Fuku?" Fuku lept towards Amane. Neiju was surprised but she approached Fuku and lifted her up.
"Miaa!"
"Oh Fuku! I'm so glad you're safe!" Everyone rushed to welcome Fuku back. However, they seemed confused as to how to deal with the Fuku's clones. Seto emerged out of their crowd and pushed herself ahead of them.
"Even so ... for cloned newborn children, Their reactions to things sure seem different from one another."
"Oh, one of them is Kirche who was in NB and the other is a person in ZINV who is called D."
"Kirche ... .... That Kirche?"
"Yes, The one on TV, that Kirche, I don't know why she was in my NB ... ...."
"Oh, uh, well... about that..." Both Seto and Kiriko diverted their eyes from Seina and gazed at the Kirche clone.
"Well, perhaps we should talk about the other one instead ... ...." Seto launched a medical record monitor and showed off the contents.
" .... by any chance is she the terminal form of ZINV? By that I mean is she like the personality of it?"
"She's a different personality from ZINV, I found her in there alone sleeping when I went inside, but I haven't heard anything detailed from her, I didn't have time to talk ..."
"Yes I see ... ..." Seto was staring at the D cabbit.
"What about the other cabbit?"
"…………I don't know anything about it at all." Seina thought harder but couldn't recall anything else.
"Nothing at all!?"
"No, I don't even know how this happened."
"We need to investigate the situation in detail, I suppose we should just ask them, will you cooperate with us?" Seto crouched and moved her face closer to the clones.
"Mya!" all three agreed, Seto launched the monitor.
"If you're a clone of Fuku, you should be able to access this link ... try this okay?" a monitor appeared as if it were a comic book speech balloon on top of the three of them.
First D 's appearance data was displayed, next was Kirche, the last one was... ...
"Miki Steinbeck!" Everyone shouted her name in unison. Miki crossed her arms and looked at everyone with a slightly dissatisfied expression.
"... .... Miki ... ... senpai ...?" Seina was confused. Of course so were the others.
"Long time no see Seina." Miki looked at Seina and smiled
"How! I thought you died ..."
"Don't you remember what happened after I was attacked? ... To your NB?"
"What happened? .... Oh! Yes, Now I remember." Seina remembered it suddenly transforming into a humanoid figure, and it tried talking to Seina. Her remembered it's face resembled Miki somehow.
"But how ...... ??"
"I didn't even know until this, but I was an AI with an astral just like Kirche. Tarrant didn't know it either and ... Well lots of things happened and I ended up in the network at his base, and then this happened... Do you understand? "
"Not really, I feel like you're leaving a lot of things out... ...."
"Well the point is I'm still alive. Isn't that enough? "
"Uhm ... .... Well, yes. That's true." He was convinced that she was definitely Miki
"Hey Miki, was it by any chance Dr. Clay who moved your data to the clone?" Seto asked
"Yeah it wasn't cheap, but he saved us from Tarrant."
"That's all you have to say about it?" Seto gazed at Miki. "Yes, that's all."
"... Well ... He'll do anything, if you can pay for it, you're lucky he's always open to negotiations." "...... I'm used to handling those kinds of people." She meant her father, Hiroshi. Of course, but the statement applied to most scientists.
"I see" Seto made a wry smile without hesitation.
"Well, What else happened?"
"Before that I want to know about Acha ... where is the girl who was with us?"
"Oh, that lovely golden haired wau? ......" Seto launched a monitor.
"Kaaaaaa! so cuuute! " Her chief officers cried out, as they played dress up with Acha. she had bathed and was being brushed carefully, her golden hair was shiny and fluffier than before. Because she was trained to be a shrine maiden she was used to being taken care of by someone, although she still seemed quite puzzled.
"So then what happened?"
"I became shrine maiden, and I locked hands with the brave hero, but since I'm still a child ... ... I only entered into a contract with him ... .... " Acha said shyly.
"But I'm glad to go with Seina he's so brave! " The officers became overwhelmed by her cuteness and her sappy story.
Seto grinned at Seina, Kiriko looked stunned but she understood more or less the situation from Acha's story.
"............ But well ... ... I think that both the villagers and my mothers are worried, so I'd like to see them again soon ..." Seina could feel a pressure from the glares behind him. He felt like running away.
"Well ..." Seto looked at Kiriko, Fuku and the clones quickly.
"We should hurry up and make that happen." Seto decided to steer the conversation somewhere else quickly. The Mikagami and Mizuki's arrival had delayed the GP investigators and they were still busy conducting investigations at the site Tarrant's base.
-----------
Seto's staff gave a tearful farewell to Acha. Seina and Acha had several guards, a medical team and a joint GP and Juraiaian research team come with them back down to the planet. First of all, in order to inform the villagers about what was going on and get their permission, Seina and others preceded to the village with a parade.
"Is... is this really okay?" The windows were big and the people inside were visible outside. However, Seina was more worried about the brittleness of the glass.
"This is made for parades for VIPs, it's much more robust than it looks, even a falling rock couldn't crush us, were more safe then in an armored car." A guard told him.
"Although it might be impossible to escape if we become trapped inside, there's plenty of water food and air, and things to do to kill time in here."
"Oh, is that so?"
They entered the cave where ZINV was formerly where they saw a light.
"Mother!"
Waus gathered in front their mostly destroyed houses and the elders and kusuro were there too. However, as soon as they saw the parade vehicle the villagers hid themselves to escape, leaving the elders behind, but the elders saw Seina and Acha and waved to them.
---------------
The doctors and the research team that accompanied Seina were welcomed by the villagers after the elder informed them of what was going on.
The doctors started treating Kashak and the injured soon after, the research team surveyed around the dome, and a rescue team began searching for survivors and corpses from beneath the rubble.
Seina, accompanied by the elder and Acha, headed for the back of the dome, and was guided to a small room on the third floor. There was an altar and a bed there, it was a place reserved for the the shrine maiden and the brave hero.
"Acha can't return to this village any more? ... What do you mean?" Seina raised his voice to the elder, but the elder looked around the room and sighed as he ignored him.
"If Kashak was doing well, I'd have her come here to help expand our blood line ..." That is to say sex act were supposed to be done here.
"No thanks, I'm good... so why is Acha not allowed back to the village?"
"The shrine maiden can't live with the villagers.When she became a shrine maiden, her life became tied to our God and she's supposed to enter his world ... Kashak's shrine maidenship is done now, but the only reason she ever lived with us villagers was that we were in hiding. "
"But Acha is still ... ...."
"Of course Kashak and those who served as shrine maiden can stay here now that they're done, but Acha was completely deified and became one with our god, and she made a contract with the brave hero, the two of you have to be together as one, it's wrong to divide you into two, it could cause the end of the world. " The elder stepped up and stared at Seina.
"...... If the brave hero stayed in this village permanently though, Acha could live here naturally. Acha is still young and can't work, but Kashak and the villagers could pick up the slack Kakakakaka!"
"So you won't take her back? It may be difficult for you to comprehend, but that idol is similar to the flashlight that Kusuro had. It may seem like magic from your point of view, but it was still made by people, even your ancestors had the same power."
"I know that."
"Eh!?" The words the elder said were shocking.
" I'm the only one who knows that though. I went to the academy through correspondence classes."
"What!?" The Academy had a long distance curriculum that was free so that people in the rural areas and those far from the academy could take classes. The content of the lessons were politically neutral and religiously/ ideologically unbiased, many of the pirate's children used it.
"We used to trade with those in space in the past, but when the pirates came here we had to go into hiding, the long distance transfer gate facility was destroyed, but we used to use it to visit the other tribes that live a long ways away but we were isolated from them once the pirates came. As you probably noticed it wasn't exactly safe to go out traveling."
"But I heard you had other travelers?"
"Very rarely the other tribes would send one of their adult males over here. Needless to say it was hard to get here so they too were considered brave men.''
"I see.... so you knew about that idol as well?"
"It's something the pirates in Renza use.This place was where the original owner of the planet was doing excavations for a long time ago, we came here when they were still excavating."
"That reminds me, I heard that he claimed that the prehistoric civilization was born here, but after his death there was no detailed documentation left ... ... and I couldn't find anything in the foundation's simple survey.Do you know anything about that? "
"That's probably intentional, Once he found the idol he decided to keep things quiet If he announced it he would have gotten the honor of finding it but the ruins and all the materials excavated would have been taken and he and all of us would have been kicked out of this solar system and be labeled illegal occupants. It just wasn't worth it."
"And then the space pirates came and everyone migrated down here?"
"And since then we've been isolated from others and we couldn't keep the village in a peaceful state without our religion ... without access to the outside we couldn't do any maintenance and things started to break down, it was a real problem. That flashlight was once new but it's deteriorated quite a bit. " Actually, the transfer gates were also installed by the elder.
"I thought there were only 3 generations here max?"
"Well I've been Bio-Enhanced, so I've been around for about 250 years now, but the others haven't, its already been about 10 generations for them since the pirates came."
----This means the average lifespan of a normal Wau is probably like... less then 20 -25 years.---
"Oh, I see ... ... so only you know about the statue ... ..."
"There's no actual tale of it coming online before, I thought it was broken and thrown away ... ... I was seriously surprised when it actually reacted, Ahkakaka! "
"So you were just making things up?"
"Naturally, I'm trusted in the village. There was no way to avoid panic besides lying about it ... Well, I knew that the statue responded to you and I figured that might be some kind of transfer gate so I figured it was worth a try .... "
"What if it hadn't worked !?"
"At that time, we were out of options.... so is the GP is going to help us out?"
"You know about the GP? Oh right... of course you do..." Because of the classes.
"Look I made up all that stuff but it's pointless to us now, won't you take Acha so she can at least learn some actual knowledge? Now that everyone here knows about the GP too and the pirates are gone we can have the next generation go back to learning like normal. There's no need for any of that stuff now, the idol will be gone and to the the God has rescued the village and is set to return to heaven."
"But Acha is still a young girl ...." Seina was worried about separating Acha from her mother. And the GP would still have to rule on the matter.
"It is not like she won't ever see her again, Tarrant is gone, we'll be able to communicate with the academy now. I know she will have a better life there."
"Well that is true ... but ..."
"Acha doesn't want to part with you ... ... Do you not like her?"
"Well no but if it were me I wouldn't want to part with my mother, or kusuro, or his mother." Seina was saying but Acha burst into tears she looked like a cat that was about to be abandoned
"But since I met you I've made new friends... I'm not lonely!"
"Oh you made friends?"
"Fuku-chan, she's cute and fluffy! And I hear there are other kids at the academy!"
Seina looked at Acha who seemed happy when she said that and decided to take her. In the village, she'd only be treated like a shrine maiden but she could live like an ordinary child at the academy. The girls would help. and she could make friends her own age. If the result of the investigation of the area ended up with them all getting kicked off the planet then the new generation of the village would all end up in space anyways, and the village would be completely different in half a century anyways now that they weren't stuck in hiding.
Lastly, Seina noticed something.
(Oh, this is like Masaki village.) The village made contact with the universe while it was in the early civilization stage.
(If there's a legal problem in taking Acha, I'm sure Seto-sama, Airi, and Mikami, would help... I think they might understand.) It was a nice thought. The Galactic Federation and GP weren't ran by monsters; If they were deemed illegal occupants they would have grace period of half a century to migrate.
"Okay, I'll keep Acha." Seina decided.
----------
Seto got the story of what happened when he went to find Fuku all the way to when
Acha was frozen by D until Kirche got on board ZINV. After that, Seto was able to find out what happened just from the battle data extracted from ZINV, she spit out a big sigh as she got the report from the cabbits.
"But if you could control the nanomachines, why did you enter Tarrant's base with ZINV?"
"I was stopped by Ms. Mitsuki."
"My name isn't Mitsuki, it's Miki! "
"So why did you stop, how was Seina-chan was caught by Tarrant?" Although she had a quiet tone, Kiriko's eyes were angry.
"To stop Kirche from being killed. For me, I don't know anything about her, except that she was the one who got my message to my father. "
"Why couldn't she just upload herself to the network?"
"I had a monitoring device installed. If I accessed the network or any of the equipment, or tried to make any super-spacial communication, my core would have been destroyed. "
"Even if she could have Fuku wouldn't have been spared."
"Well ... I guess that's true... sorry for getting mad." Kiriko apologized.
Either way Seina was saved, the case was settled.
"No, I'm sorry I couldn't protect seina ... ..." Kirche said
"But how did you do the data transfer to the clone? Was there a monitoring device?"
"Dr. Clay did all the work on the data transfer. And the monitoring device was just one used for monitoring a specific super space communication frequency. Tarrant was wary of her directly accessing the network, but Kirche accessed Tarrant's computers and other equipment for communication through Seina. And they didn't know about the existence of the high-level hyper-spatial region."
"Wait a moment.Kirche didn't know that Miki was in Tarrant's computer? You had one shot to do the transfer, There should have been no time to interact with the transfer destination or anything else. " "As for data transfer I co-ordinated it by relaying with ZINV. With Kirche and ZINV, the transfer speed was instantaneous and I could transfer directly to the clones."
"So you could communicate between Miki and D, what was the exchange between ZINV and Kirche? How could you manage it without that?"
"Kirche and I interacted directly with a high-speed language conversation."
"A direct high-speed language conversation! Indeed, I see how you communicated without being seen but ...." High-speed language was a primitive communication method that was almost never used. Since it was a form of voice communication, it was slow and the amount of information conveyed was small, it was mostly only still used for children's toys.
A high-speed language was also what ZINV groaned in, so Kirche's speech was camouflaged.
"But there was no guarantee that Tarrant wouldn't notice that"
"So we spoke in Japanese."
"Japanese?" That was dangerous, if you didn't know the language being spoken it meant you could easily mistake the communication as just noise.
"Kirche you know Japanise because you're Seina's NB right but what about D?"
"There are minor word differences, but they are very similar to the words used by ZINV's previous master."
"So is that the language of the prehistoric civilization?" Seto who had been silent until that time chimed in
"Why do you say that Seto?"
"A surveyor accompanying Seina reported that the ruins were about a billion years old"
"... A billion!?" Everyone was shocked.
"Assuming that what you call the prehistoric civilization is the same as were we came from, ZINV is actually a thing from the previous age."
"Before that? It was before the great prehistoric civilization?"
"ZINV and my original self proceed them by tens of thousands of years."
"Woah that's amazing! She's a living witness of super ancient history! Ryoko instinctively brought her self closer to D.
"Calm down and stay on topic, you can always find out more at a later date. Anyways you were saying Kirche was doing high speed communication.."
"Yes. As a result, I understood. The Languages are very similar, but even if we could communicate with each other, the standards of measurements aren't always the same. It took quite a long time to actually examine the bandwidth was available in hyperspace ...... "
"Seina's finger was about to be cut off."
"Cut off?" As expected, Kiriko was angry. "Tarrant was trying to make Kirche torture seina. But I found a common band in the vicinity and D, Kirche and I transferred our data to the clone at the same time."
"Oh, then it's you guys who started the Kamidake, wasn't it?"
"Linking functions existed immaturely in the clones. There was no capacity to start the Kamidake on our own, but it was possible to do it if two of us cooperated. I also participated in order to make sure it worked. " That was why D wasn't there when Seina came back to the cockpit.
"After that I started the Kamidake, we released Fuku from the time freeze. ZINV teleported Seina to the inside of the cockpit "
"To be accurate it moved him by distorting the two points in space. Seina was scanned and if he was in danger ZINV would have left instantly. " They didn't know if Seina was going to keep his finger or not but Seina's fingers were saved.
"After words you synced with the Kamidake. Who did the restoration work ZINV or The Kamidake?"
"We cooperated with each other. Especially the restoration of the repair system. That was mostly the Kamidake After that it was all collaborative work."
"Well ... well ... well... Washu sure went and made quite a versatile ship." Seto said with a puzzled face.
" So how does that work I know it has something to do with the atmosphere ... ...."
"We form a plane that controls thousands of force fields to generate repairs, parts, and materials, from the air, if there is data, in theory anything can be formed at any place Of course it requires enormous amounts of energy and a sophisticated computer that can control it, but if you try to reproduce it with ordinary things, the formation of the force field and the control system itself become enormously huge burdens and the cost is no better then just rebuilding things manually. "
"Maybe in the distant future it will become common ... ...."
"If you think about it in the GP or the military, it's not really that necessary is it?"
"Well ...... That's true.
"Psh ... ... Knowing Seina we will probably have to use it nonstop." Miki said with a big sigh.
"Oh no, Ms.Mitsuki You'll never change, you're still a tsundere!"
"Who are you calling tsundere! And it's not Ms. Mitsuki! It's Miki! "
"Well, let's take a break for a while, a contact has told me that Seina's will be returning home with a lovely new daughter." Seto said as she got ready for the oncoming ruckus in her mind.
"A cute Daughter?!"
"Why is Acha coming with him?!"
"Just go ask him yourself."
"Hey! Don't go and excuse yourself!" Kiriko and others blew up as Seto showed them out of the room. Fuku was just glad that Seina was coming home already.
"Oh, what's wrong aren't you coming?" Seto inquired to Miki who remained there. Miki who remained alone smiled, "Ms. Seto, I'd like to talk with you alone if that's okay?"
-------------------
"... .... I see. So this girl, Acha-chan, she wants you to take her to the Academy?" Acha looked up at Kiriko with eyes like Fuku's. She couldn't say no to those adorable eyes. Everyone was convinced. (Damn it! She's too cute!) Although puzzled, everyone who was already there had fallen to Acha's cuteness. Kiriko was truly cautious, but it was difficult to refuse Acha even though she wanted to lives in an unknown place away from her family.
"Nice to meet you!" She said to Kiriko. That was it... the white flag flew. Kiriko's serious face shattered and she immediately began thinking about the legal processes necessary for adopting Acha. "Yes. It's nice to meet you too." Her acceptance was decided when Kiriko gave the OK. Everyone rushed to fawn over Acha just like Seto's officials had.
-----------------------------------
"So, what's the deal?" Seto and Miki were talking alone. The room was in a completely blocked off state. "Did my father decipher the mail I gave to Kirche? "
"... .... Yes" Seto immediately knew what Miki wanted to say.
"Definitely, your father has decrypted the email, and it was me who stopped the attempt to rescue you, are you satisfied with that?"
"Seina got involved, it was really too troublesome, wasn't it? Well, I'm very happy with how things turned out either way ... but I don't know how I feel about all these other people getting involved. " Still Miki smiled satisfied satisfactorily with Seto's answer.
"There is one favor that I want to ask from you, is that okay? " Miki asked.
"Of course, if I can do it."
"Well, can you introduce me to Washu Hakubi? "
"............" Seto thought a little, but immediately started the communication monitor.
"Washu-chan, are you there?"
"Hmm? Do you need something? "
"This woman wants to meet you."
"Ok I'm on my way." And the next moment she arrived.
"Thank you all for waiting ♡" After acting like she was introducing herself in to a stage play, Washu appeared through a long distance transfer gate. Which by chance was hidden behind the door there.
".................." Miki wasn't expecting this to be taken so lightly. It was amazing just to meet with the legendary philosopher, Washu Hakubi. She expected to have to wait months, years even...
"... Well, what's up !?"
"Hahaha, well time is money, so let's get to it, this is Miki Steinbeck."
"...... Huh. Actually I wanted to give you this information. " Seto looked at the data presented by Miki, and then looked towards Washu, Washu replied.
Both of them seemed to have expected Miki's proposed content.
"I found it in Tarrant's highest memory area. I couldn't confirm whether there was a backup, but I quarantined it, I only let clay see it too."
"Ahahahaha ..." Seto began to laugh. It was the same reaction as doctor clay.
"Ho ho ............ It seems that there is no mistake, well done, This deserves a thank you, so what is your wish?"
"Would you mind using my father, Washu-san as your external apprentice, starting at the end of the semester? "
"But Hiroshi, is at Airi's workshop now, He's an apprentice to Airi Herself, I suppose I could take a new student if that's what you want..."
"Is that so !? I didn't know that."
"Well that might be the case now but you never know the future. I don't mind either, so please tell me once you decide... but while were here ..." Washu took out the ball type personal scanner "Mini- Mamoru-kun" from her bosom and put it on the head of the Miki clone.
"Miau?"
"I'd like to investigate to what extent Fuku was cloned . Please cooperate, this will only take a moment."
It had already been checked in Seto's medical room, but Washu was able to diagnose things with a higher level of sophistication. And in a few minutes "Mini-Mamoru-kun" displayed the data.
"Well, there's no funny business going on, it seems they just cloned Fuku, in the usual textbook way, it's just a normal living organism."
"Just a moment please! What are you talking about? "
"Even if you're a clone, it's impossible to copy Fuku exactly. Even if you do some retroactive remodeling ......"
"... ... Hah. Dr. Clay was saying something similar. You are similar philosophers, aren't you?" Normally Washu disliked being compared to him but she seems not to care.
"Uhuhuh, well doing things halfway is the biggest taboo for philosophers, so in that sense, every philosopher is the same, Miki do you want to be in this body for the rest of your life?"
"Eh? I was planning to move to another body... "
"Hm ... ... Sorry, but that's going to be difficult, even if you move the data in that brain, you'll end up having different memories with the same astral, If you want to keep the same memory as Miki, You're going to have to remains as is. Even if someone tried to transplant you, it would be necessary to remodel the brain and nervous systems to restore you to a humanoid body, and the remodel will have to happen to your astral form too. "
"So I have to stay like this for the rest of my life ...?" Miki was shocked.
"It's pretty cute though."
"Yes, but I want to return to the original body! ...... I want to be with Seina ..."
"Washu-chan, quit teasing her." Seto said
"What! Did you fool me? " Miki glared at Washu.
"I wasn't lying, I was just explaining the risk because Miki is going to move to another body."
The picture that Washu showed was that of of Ryo-Ohki. There was Ryo-Ohki transforming from human form to Cabbit form and back.
"This is ... Fuku-chan, isn't it?"
"Fuku's older sister, Ryo-Ohki."
"She can turn into a human?"
"How about it, I can strengthening your body to Fuku levels, and you can change into Miki · Steinbeck form at will, of course, your memories and astral will stay the same and you will have all the functions of a women! You can even give birth ♡." Washu smiled.
"Oh!! Well............" Miki was staring at the picture of Ryo-Ohki.
"It's within the scope of your reward for helping save Fuku and if you like you can keep thinking about what you want for that data."
----End of chapter--------