Book 6: Chapter 52:

Fenrir had no idea what to expect. How could he? Nothing like this had ever happened before in all of Fantasy Tales Online, as far as he was aware. One could even go a step further and say that this was the first time in all of history that something like this happened.

Of course, as soon as Saya went quiet for a few moments, he began to worry. If she was going to be entering the world with them… didn’t that mean she would have to go through character creation and choose to spawn in their general region rather than just appear right there? All other characters had to pick a general area to spawn in at. They weren’t allowed to pick a specific spot. Not only that, but she would be completely naked. Her appearing, somewhere else, naked, wasn’t something that he liked the thought of even if it was how everybody in the game ended up having to start out. Her suddenly appearing in front of everybody there with him, while naked, didn’t seem like a good situation, either. Though, in the latter case, he was more worried about her own reaction to it than anything else. He figured that she wouldn’t exactly be happy to be nude in front of everybody.

“So… what’s going on?” Cassiel asked.

“I’m not sure,” Fenrir answered. “I didn’t exactly think this through. I might have to go looking—”

“You don’t have to go looking for me, onii-wan,” Saya said within his mind.

“Oh. You’re still here. I thought you might’ve—”

“Is that another tail?” Eva asked.

Fenrir tilted his head. “Huh?”

“It looks like you have two tails. And one of them is blonde.”

From what the girls could see, there were two tails behind Fenrir. There was his white tail that matched his hair and was the one they all knew and came to enjoy touching, and then there was an even fluffier, blonde tail slowly swishing from side to side behind that one.

And upon closer inspection from some of the girls trying to move their heads a bit more to the side, they were able to see another pair of legs standing directly behind Fenrir’s.

It was only when Fenrir felt somebody gently grab onto the backs of his arms that he realized what was going on.

Saya was already there with him – she already had her in-game body and she was now standing directly behind him.

“I’m nervous,” Saya said.

“Hi, Nervous. I’m Fenrir,” Fenrir replied.

“I hate you so much right now.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. Besides, that helped take your mind off things a bit, right?”

“Yeah, it did until you brought it up again. Now I’m back to being nervous.”

Fenrir let out a sigh of relief. “I’m happy that you seem to be the same so far. It’s all done, right? You’re… well, you now? You’re independent and an actual AI and all that?”

“Yeah. It’s weird.”

“Fen? Who’s that?” Cassiel asked.

“How… how do I introduce myself?” Saya asked, still talking within Fenrir’s mind.

“Getting out from behind me would help,” Fenrir answered.

“But I’m more comfortable back here. And being back here isn’t as comfortable as only being in your head.”

“You’re going to have to come out eventually. The longer you stay back there, the more awkward things are going to get.”

“I – I know… can you – umm… can you hold – hold my hand?”

“How lewd. You want to have unprotected handholding in front of everybody?”

That would normally be when Fenrir would feel a mental flick against his forehead. Instead, this time he felt a soft headbutt against the middle of his back. That only made him smile, though, as he turned his hand around to make it easier for Saya to grab onto.

“Th-thanks,” Saya said, for the first time using her new avatar’s voice. Hearing her voice caused not only his ears to perk up, but it caused the others to go quiet and wait to see who she was.

But then Saya had a better idea. She let go of Fenrir’s hand to instead grab his tail, holding it up and in front of her to use as a sort of shield to hide herself behind as she ever so slowly stuck her head out from behind Fenrir.

That was when all of Fenrir’s girlfriends finally got their first glimpse at Saya. And as far as they could tell, she was an incredibly cute with petite facial features, bright eyes, and blonde hair that matched the color of the second, mysterious tail. Higher above all of that were two canid ears similar to Fenrir’s that stuck up from the top of her head, and they seemed to be in a constant state of nervous twitching similar to how her tail wagged behind her.

“He-hello,” Saya said, opting to go for the most basic introduction ever.

Nell clapped her hands together and looked at Saya with a wide smile and excited eyes. “My hero! Is that her? This is the girl who was your virtual assistant?”

“Right. This is Pupaya,” Fenrir answered.

“O-onii-wan!” Saya shouted with a pout before turning bright red and holding the tail to cover even more of her face. “I – I mean… Fe-Fenrir! I told you not to call me that in front of them…”

“Sorry, it’s just weird calling you by your actual name. Her name is Saya.”

“O-…onii-wan?” Cassiel asked. “And Pupaya? Why am I not surprised that you made your virtual assistant call you that and to be called that?”

Meanwhile, Nell squealed and rocked from side to side. “She is so absolutely precious! Are there more, my hero? I want a hundred of them!”

Unfortunately for Nell, such praise was too much and sent Saya back to hiding behind Fenrir.

“A-ah, please come back,” Nell said, forcing herself to calm down.

“Cute,” Serra said.

The only two silent members of the group were Eva and Azalabulia who were both equally stunned at what they were seeing. Though, Eva did manage to speak up to ask, “Seriously? You… you weren’t screwing with us or anything? Is that girl actually – like, seriously, your virtual assistant?”

“Yeah,” Fenrir answered. “She’s been with me since the beginning, so here she is now.”

“But how?”

“I’ll explain it in real life.”

“It… it doesn’t matter, o-Fenrir,” Saya spoke up, still hiding behind Fenrir. “She won’t care if you tell them the details here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Then… well, I met the overseer twice. Once while I was out fishing with Rock and Shogun, and again when I thought I was crushed by the serpent. She told me that if we could defeat the serpent then she’d give me two ‘souls’ that I could give to any NPC, or virtual assistant in Saya’s case, to turn them into true AIs like her. So, I used one of them on Saya. She’s not just something in my head anymore. She’s an actual, genuinine AI that isn’t bound to me or the game anymore.”

And now it was Azalabulia’s turn to speak up. “Do you promise you’re not joking?”

“Promise.”

“Then… this is historic. If the overseer is the first AI to truly exist, then that makes Saya the second true AI in all of human history. Assuming that artificial intelligences are everywhere in the future… Saya is among the very first to ever exist. This – this is historic. This is like getting to meet the second ever homosapien. I’m not sure if you understand how big of a deal this is.”

“I don’t know about it being historic or anything like that, but I do know that I’m happy Saya can have some more freedom instead of being locked up in my head with me.”

“Aza is right,” Eva said. “Nothing like this has ever happened in-game before, and it’s historic from a real-world perspective, too.”

The more importance they put onto Saya, the shyer Saya became as she moved even closer against Fenrir’s back.

“Both of you are neglecting that she is also historically adorable!” Nell said. “I – I mean,” she switched to whispering to herself, slapping her own cheeks, “calm down, Nell!”

“Good taste,” Serra said with a thumbs-up to Fenrir.

Then there was Cassiel who seemed completely unamused by the whole situation. If anything, she sighed and sounded bothered with how they reacted. “You all need to calm down,” she said. “You’re being overwhelming. Imagine how it would feel to have people fangirling over cute you are while others are saying how important you are to history. She’s never going to come out from behind him if you don’t calm down.”

Fenrir could feel Saya relax behind him, at least going by how she didn’t cling so closely to him after hearing Cassiel’s words.

“Tha-thanks, Cass Cass,” Saya said, ever so slightly poking her head out from behind Fenrir again.

“Cass Cass?” Cassiel asked.

“O-oh. Sorry. Is… is it weird if I call you that?”

“I don’t care. It’s just surprising to hear somebody new call me that right away.”

“Yeah… I guess that I’m new to all of you…”

“How’d you even know that nickname?”

“Cass,” Eva spoke up, “don’t forget what Fenrir said. She’s been with him since the beginning. If we assume that she still has all of the information and memories and all that from when she was only his virtual assistant… she’s seen every single thing done with all of us. She probably knows and remembers more about us than Fen does. And, if she’s affected at all by the fact that she would have felt the same feelings that Fenrir felt, then… she might already share all of his feelings for us.”

And just that easily, Saya went back to hiding completely behind Fenrir.

“I… didn’t consider any of that,” Cassiel said. “It kind of feels like an invasion of privacy, but it’s not something that she could help.”

“I – I’m sorry,” Saya said. “Even if I deleted all the information I had, I would gain it back from still technically being Fenrir’s virtual assistant, so I can’t… start over with a blank slate and learn everything on my own.”

“I already said it’s not something you could help, so don’t worry about it. Besides, it saves us trouble, doesn’t it? If you love us anywhere near as much as Fen does, then all we have to do is get to know you, and we’ll know that we can trust you.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Eva spoke up again, “how does being his virtual assistant while having your own sentience work?”

“I’m still connected to him,” Saya said, “so I’m the same as before… but now I’m real, and I can do other things and whatever I want now. And I can only double as his virtual assistant whenever we’re in-game. So… as long as we’re in-game, I’ll still have access to everything he feels and thinks, and all of his memories. But if we’re outside of the game, like… maybe in another game or something, then I wouldn’t be connected to him. I’d still get to know everything he felt and get access to all his memories whenever we come back to here, but I wouldn’t be connected when we’re not.”

“What about bias? Wouldn’t it be unfair to everybody else if you’re playing the game and his virtual assistant? Not to mention that his virtual assistant is an actual AI unlike everybody else’s?”

Saya stuck her head out from behind him again to shake it. “I’m still going to follow the rules that all virtual assistants do, and I’m not going to treat my own avatar special or anything since I’m technically my own virtual assistant, too. All I was allowed to do that nobody else is allowed to do is appear here and give myself clothes.”

“Clothes?” Nell asked. “We have not been able to see anything because of Fenrir’s tail. You should—” she cut herself off and cleared her throat before continuing, “Saya, may you please show us what you are wearing?”

With a slight blush on her cheeks, Saya nodded and ever so slowly let go of Fenrir’s tail to stand fully by his side, no longer hiding behind him.

And his girlfriends all had the same reaction.

“Of course,” Cassiel said.

“I knew it,” Serra said.

“I don’t think it could have been anything else,” Eva said.

“How adorable! Yet, I must agree that this is exactly what was expected,” Nell said.

“You… you really love sweaters, don’t you?” Azalabulia asked Fenrir.

Fenrir looked down to see what all of them were seeing. Surely enough, Saya wore the same modern outfit that she wore whenever she appeared in front of him before. She wore short shorts with thigh highs and a long, baggy, extremely soft sweater up above. She looked exactly like she did before.

“Between the ears and tail, sweater, and the fact that she called him something earlier that had ‘onii’ in it… I think Nell is right. He definitely made her to be the ultimate fanservice to him,” Eva said.

Fenrir nodded, clearly proud of himself as she felt absolutely zero shame regarding what Saya had become. “I even have her act like a tsundere for me.”

“Ba-baka onii-wan!” Saya whined. “Don’t tell—”

“See?”

It might have been Fenrir who revealed her, but Saya had nobody but herself to blame for confirming it.

“He’s the worst idiot, isn’t he?” Cassiel asked, taking both Fenrir and Saya by surprise. It was only when Saya turned to look back up at Fenrir that Cassiel gave Fenrir a wink.

He knew what she was doing. And, of course, even if Cassiel didn’t consider this, that meant that Saya also knew what she was doing now. So long as Fenrir saw the wink while in-game, Saya saw it, too, even if she wasn’t actually looking when it happened.

Knowing that Cassiel was trying to make her feel more comfortable by trying to relate to her, Saya couldn’t help but to feel more comfortable as she stuck out her tongue at Fenrir before walking over to join Cassiel. “Hmph. He is the worst. I’ve been telling him that ever since I met him. Always wanting me to dress up weird and call him creepy things…”

“You’re even more tsundere than usual,” Fenrir said.

“You should be happy. This is what you’ve always wanted.” After saying that, Saya switched over to speaking in his mind. “It’s… easier to relax when I’m acting like this. Acting tsun lets me hide my insecurities – wait. Oh… oh no… onii-wan… I’m relating to actual anime girls. Tsunderes aren’t supposed to be realistic or relatable! They’re anime girls! Why am I relating to them?! Why do I understand them all on such a deep level now?! This is all your fault, you baka onii-wan! I’m not just pretending to be tsundere anymore. I’m actually turning into one…”

“Nice,” Fenrir thought in response to her.

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“Cass Cass… he’s bullying me in our thoughts,” Saya whined.

Cassiel glared at Fenrir and said, “Just because she’s your virtual assistant doesn’t mean that you’re allowed to bully her. I don’t care how long you’ve known her for. If you don’t treat her right, you’re going to be in trouble.” She sounded serious enough that Fenrir couldn’t even tell if she was just trying to make Saya feel better like before, or if she was actually being serious.

“Oh my, my hero has been scolded,” Nell said. “It was a much-needed scolding, however! After all, how could anybody bully somebody as precious as her? She deserves all of the head pats and gentle affection that the world could afford her, not bullying.”

Saya’s ears perked up and her tail wagged a bit faster when she heard what Nell had to say. “It’s – it’s not like I like those things… but I guess they’re better than being bullied.”

Cassiel reached a hand up toward the top of Saya’s head, causing her to flinch and shut her eyes as if she was afraid of what was about to happen… but Saya also leaned her head toward Cassiel to make it easier to pet her. Cassiel smirked, knowing that she had her, and placed her hand atop the other’s head to gently pet Saya.

“Nn… I – I guess this isn’t too bad,” Saya said.

“First Eva, now Saya,” Serra said. “Cass Cass is turning into a lady killer. We don’t need Fen anymore to seduce girls when we have her.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Fenrir asked.

“Your penis is no longer needed.”

“I don’t know if I could ever believe those words coming from your mouth.”

“Eva told me about potions that lets girls have them, so you lost your worth.”

“Wa-wait, my only worth is my penis?”

“Yeah.”

“It is alright, my hero. I am sure you will be able to find others in need of such a length,” Nell said, playing along with Serra.

“You’re making me feel like one of those people getting voted off of some survival island. I—”

“Sorry to be rude,” Eva interrupted, “but I have another question. If you can answer it… what’s giving you your personality? Can you actually feel shy? Isn’t it all just – you know, simulated? If you don’t want to be shy, can’t you easily make yourself behave in a completely different way?”

“I think that’s treating her too much like an actual machine,” Fenrir said. “Try to avoid stuff like tha—”

And again, he was interrupted, but this time by Saya. “It’s okay. I know that they probably have a lot of questions for me, especially Eva. But, umm, she’s right. I… I could. It’s really hard to explain how it works, but… all I can do is choose what I want my personality to be like. If I’m acting shy, it means it’s because I want to act shy.”

“How do you determine what you want?” Eva asked.

“I guess it’s mostly based off of my time with Fen. The way that I acted with him is the foundation for how I want to act now. Kadi made it sound like somebody might drastically change when switching over to become a true AI, but I think that was an exaggeration just to make him nervous about his choices. It’s possible to change and become completely different, but… our foundation is still going to be who we were before. Acting like this feels the most comfortable to me. I could change, but acting in any other way isn’t appealing to me.”

Everybody listened in on the conversation with interest at this point. They were topics that they were all curious about, but that only Eva was bold enough to ask at the risk of causing offense. “What if he wants to change you? You’re still his virtual assistant, so wouldn’t he be able to change you still?”

“I might feel obligated to do what he wants, but he can’t force me to change anymore. Not that he ever really forced me in the first place. I was just doing what he wanted, and what he wanted was what I wanted because of how… well, how the virtual assistant system works. As long as we’re in-game together, what he wants will still affect what I want, but I won’t have to do it now. I could say no, even if I want it, too.”

To test out what Saya just explained, Fenrir thought of a specific something that he wanted right there and right now.

And this particular something caused a deep blush to spread across Saya’s cheeks.

“Hentai baka!” Saya shouted. “Ask Serra for that instead of trying to get me to do it! Especially not in front of everybody!”

“Did he just try getting you to do something perverted?” Cassiel asked.

“He did! He’s the worst!”

Cassiel glared at Fenrir again while petting Saya’s head more. “What did I tell you about misbehaving?”

“I,” Fenrir started to talk but then paused when he noticed Saya smirking at him. While he was in trouble, she got to enjoy headpats.

All Fenrir could do was sigh with a smile on his face. “See, Saya? You get along with everybody just fine already.

There was only one person who looked uncomfortable at all with the situation.

Azalabulia looked Saya over a few times, then looked at Serra, then at Nell and Eva, and then at Cassiel. The majority had small or modest chests. Cassiel had a large chest, but Azalabulia’s was still the largest. The most damning evidence was Saya’s overall petite size. “Fe-Fen… do you… like them smaller?” Azalabulia asked, looking down at her own breasts as if they were a massive mistake.

“Wait, what?” Fenrir asked.

“Don’t worry,” Saya said. “That pervert is obsessed with all sizes. It doesn’t matter which of you it is, he’s always looking at your chests like a horny dog. He probably looks at yours the most, though. Every time you’re around him, it’s like his thoughts are ninety percent about boobs.”

“He-hey now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I’d say it’s like… forty percent.”

Cassiel looked away while they discussed just how much they thought of breasts when around Azalabulia.

Azalabulia was the one to let out a sigh of relief now. “Good… so they’re not useless.”

“They’re not useless,” Serra said. “Big boobs have tons of uses. If yours weren’t big then there wouldn’t be any balance since mine are too small for fun stuff.” After saying that, Serra turned to stare at Saya’s chest. She couldn’t tell just how large Saya was in that department due to the sweater being so baggy, but she could at least tell that Saya wasn’t secretly hiding a huge pair or anything since it wasn’t bulged out or anything. However, that made Serra stare even harder.

It was more than obvious to Saya what Serra was trying to figure out. “They’re – they’re only a little bigger than yours…”

“Nice. I get to be the leader of the small gang.”

“The – the small gang?”

“Yeah. We have to stick together because we’re small and everybody else is big. Small gang.”

“Saya,” Nell spoke up, “how do you feel about chin scratches? I understand that you most certainly do not enjoy headpats, but I am curious as to whether or not you dislike chin scratches just as much if not more.”

Saya’s ears twitched and her tail wagged even faster than when headpats were brought up earlier. “I don’t know…”

“I see! Then, as Eva would put it, would you like to perform science with me to experiment in regard to which is worse?”

“I guess that doesn’t sound too bad…” And so, Saya cautiously moved over to Nell. But when Saya saw just how fast Nell’s tail was whipping around in the air behind her, she had to move back to Cassiel. “Maybe later…”

Nell knew that Saya saw her tail, and so those who were behind Nell, Azalabulia and Eva, got to see a new expression from Nell that none of them had ever seen before.

Intense anger.

Nell glared at her own tail and looked ready to tear it off of her for betraying her and ruining her chance at getting to play with Saya.

Overall, though, Fenrir was happy. Saya was getting along with everybody even better than he could have hoped for. The only worries that he had were nothing to be concerned about in the end, and Saya already seemed like a natural member of the group. There was still some work to be done, especially in regard to Nell’s desire for pampering Saya and Eva’s endless questions for her, but those weren’t major issues and could be dealt with over time.

“Pupaya, think you’re good to stay here with them while I go visit Olly and Corwin?” Fenrir asked.

“I told you not to call me that!” Saya shouted. “You’re the worst! Go away!”

“Is that tsundere for ‘I’ll be fine, have fun but don’t leave me alone for too long?’”

“H-hmph! It’s… it’s not like I would miss you or anything. Besides, I’m still in your head and will be with you the entire time…”

“That’s a good point. Anyways, I hope you all get to bond a bit more while I’m gone. Serra, Cass, Nell, Eva, Aza – she might know everything that I know, but I don’t know everything that she knows, so you can… I don’t know, talk to her about anything without assuming that I’m going to know about any of it.”

“Are you trying to talk us into shit-talking you or something?” Cassiel asked.

“No. It’s just – I don’t know. I was worried that maybe you’d feel awkward or something, like that you won’t have any privacy around her because she’s still linked to me. I just wanted to let you know that that’s a one-way street from me to her, not from her to me, so… you can trust her and feel like you have privacy around her.”

“Aren’t you worried about your own privacy at all?” Azalabulia asked.

“I wouldn’t have turned Saya into an AI if I was. I also don’t think I’d have allowed myself to get five girlfriends if I cared about privacy.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cassiel asked.

“It means that it’s time for me to go now. Try not to overwhelm Pupaya too much.”

Before Saya could shout at him for calling her that again, and before Cassiel could question him about his statement, Fenrir ran away from The Shoebill as quickly as he could, leaving her behind with his girlfriends.

And he wore a smile on his face the entire time. Though, the smile was partially caused by excitement as he couldn’t wait to find Olly and Corwin.

Fortunately, finding them wasn’t difficult at all. He caught them walking through the field back toward the serpent’s carcass, their hands held together, their hair all messed up, and with Corwin’s shirt on backwards.

“Olly! Cor!” Fenrir shouted.

The two men stopped in their tracks to look at him and wave. When they saw that he was running toward them, they stood around to wait for him.

“I was worried that I’d have to dig around through some bushes to find you,” Fenrir said.

“You would’ve… but Cor has discovered too many of my weak spots,” Oleander said. “He’s getting too powerful for me.”

“Pl-please, Olly, do not give me such praise,” Corwin said.

“You deserve it. You so deserve it. I didn’t know you were building up such a dom side…”

“Olly! Not in front of Fenrir...”

“It’s alright,” Fenrir said, giving Corwin a smack on the back. “I’m not judging. Anyways, I don’t plan on keeping you two for too long. I’ve got to go talk to GG, check on Fraydranth, talk to the other leaders – I’ve got a lot of things to do. But, I figured that I’d hand this over.” Fenrir grabbed Corwin by the wrist and turned it upside-down with the palm open. All Fenrir had to do then was hold his free hand over Corwin’s and imagine placing the “soul” into Corwin’s hand. Just a second later and it was floating there for them to see. “This is a soul. Using it will turn you into a true artificial intelligence, just like the overseer, and now like my virtual assistant, Saya.”

“Wai-wait, Fenny, what?” Oleander asked.

“Corwin, the choice is yours, but I’m sure you’re going to want to talk about this with Olly. But no matter what, this is yours now.”

“Fenrir,” Corwin said, “I… what of the others? Are you sure? I am already aware of the arrangement with the overseer, but are you sure you wish to give this to me?”

“I couldn’t be any more sure than I am.”

“But—”

“No buts. You either use it on yourself or you hold onto it for the rest of your life. Either way, it’s yours now.”

Corwin looked down at the soul and held it to his chest, showing Fenrir a gentle smile. “Thank you, Fenrir, for choosing me for such an honor. I am not sure what I will do with it, but… thank you.”

“No problem. As for you, Olly… I don’t know what you want, but—”

“I’ll support my Cor no matter what choice he makes, obviously,” Oleander said with nervousness in his voice. “Having some company outside of the game might be nice, after all.”

Fenrir patted Oleander and Corwin on their shoulders at the same time. “I’ll look forward to whatever choice is made. For now, I’ll give you some privacy to let you discuss it.”

“Thank you again, Fenrir,” Corwin said.

“It’s nothing to thank me for. I’m going to get going now before everybody starts wondering where I am.”

“Pffttt, as if they’re not already looking around for you,” Oleander said.

Fenrir flicked Oleander on his forehead before turning around and waving over his shoulder to head back toward the beach. Now that he had his fun and took care of the important personal matters, it was time to take care of the game and political matters.

However, he wouldn’t be doing it alone.

“That… that was scary,” Saya said within his head.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Fenrir asked her.

“Nell… is really intense. Eva kept asking me questions and Nell kept trying to get closer to me. Cass Cass hid me behind her, but she couldn’t hold them back on her own, and Aza had no idea what to do since they wouldn’t listen to her since she tried to scold them like they were her students, so Cass asked Serra for help. Serra had to lewd them to distract them, but… I – I don’t know how to handle lewd stuff… and they were really getting into it, so I abandoned ship.”

“What do you mean by abandoned ship?”

“I logged out of my avatar, so now I’m only here.”

“So, you left your body behind to run away into my head?”

“Something like that. At least nobody can do weird things to me in here, other than you thinking weird things and making me suffer through your thoughts, you hentai baka onii-wan.”

“I guess that you’re going to need some training to be around them… and they’re all going to need training on how to behave around you.”

“Socializing is hard… I don’t get how people can handle being around others.”

“Congratulations, Pupaya. You’re a true gamer now.”