Book 9: Chapter 18:

The day couldn’t have started any better for Fenrir. To thank him for using his lap as a pillow and making him watch her show with her until he passed out, Alice woke him up with a fresh breakfast and a kiss. And since Fenrir was already on the couch in front of the TV, he figured that he would watch something while enjoying his breakfast.

The first thing that popped up was a nature documentary about the natural coral reefs that used to exist. He saw plenty of those already, though, so he skipped over it. The next channel had the news talking about something related to mass power outages in China, but he didn’t care about that. Finally, he landed on a network rebroadcasting cartoons from his childhood that filled him with nostalgia.

That made the start of his day even better. So, he spent a few hours watching those until they switched over to show the more modern cartoons, at which point he immediately lost interest and figured he would mess around on his phone for a little bit.

Normally, upon opening Fiscord, he would see messages from Saya acting tsundere as if she totally doesn’t miss him and isn’t at all waiting for him to get online, but there were none of those. Fenrir figured that she must have been too embarrassed to say anything after recording what he and Nell did on the couch.

Checking out the usual websites, he started seeing a lot more news about China. There were several articles about massive data leaks, power outages, some people theorizing about a potential coup being behind it all—it was exciting stuff.

But it wasn’t more exciting than that cute puppy video he noticed where it sounded like a puppy was saying “fuck” every time that he barked.

Plus he figured that somebody else could fill him in on the news later. As long as there weren’t sirens going off to signal an incoming nuclear missile or something else that severe, any news involving China probably wasn’t as big of a deal as the media was making it out to be.

Before Fenrir realized it, he wasted away another three hours lazily lounging on the couch switching between watching various shows on TV and watching videos on his phone. Cassandra, Serra, and Nell all took turns joining him.

Eventually, he finally figured it was about time to go and immerse to play some more FTO. There were things that needed doing, after all.

He wasn’t ready to feel a sharp pain in his head as soon as he immersed, before he could even finish entering the body of Fenrir.

Saya… what’s going on with this pain?

Fenrir’s thought wasn’t replied to. If anything, trying to think something to her only made his head hurt even more.

Between the fact that she never sent him any messages to wake up to on Fiscord and the pain he felt, worry washed over him.

He woke from virtual reality as soon as he immersed into it. First, he picked up his phone and sent a message to Saya over Fiscord to see if she was alright. Next, he inspected his headset to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong.

There wasn’t anything wrong. Everything look good and the pain was completely gone once he was in reality, so that meant whatever caused the pain had to do with the software and was only an issue upon immersing.

There was no reply from Saya, either.

That worry he felt only grew even worse and he felt like he had no choice but to immerse again, so that was what he did. He rushed outside as Fenrir as soon as he could, pushing through that piercing pain in his head.

A completely different atmosphere than what he would normally see waited for him. Instead of everybody having fun, laughing and playing around, going about their daily lives, the only people he saw outside were players who all looked confused or worried. Not to mention that there wasn’t a single one of the usual NPCs around. In fact, he didn’t notice any NPCs at all.

And instead of Rock sitting outside the door waiting for him, she was missing and replaced by Pfar.

Fenrir gave Pfar’s shoulder a shake to get his attention before asking, “What’s going on?”

Pfar, sounding utterly exhausted, still had enough energy to sigh in relief upon seeing him. “The one day everybody who knows you decides to take their time coming on… something weird is happening.”

Everything that happened since finding Saya on the beach was explained to Fenrir. Pfar told him about how he found her in the rain, how the NPCs started repeating their sentences over and over before collapsing and acting like they were completely different people only to repeat the process, how Saya instructed them to separate all the NPCs from each other, how Rock ran out of the town on her own, and how Saya decided to go wait in the forest.

“When did you last see Saya?” Fenrir asked. He was worried about Rock, too, but Saya was the one directly connected to him. Not to mention that nobody else seemed to be in any pain, so Saya was the priority.

“That was… about nine hours ago?” Pfar answered. “Sorry, I’m not sure. I was already awake for almost a full day earlier… and I’ve been trying to stay awake until you’re on.”

Fenrir hugged Pfar and gave him a pat on the back. “Go get some rest. And thanks for waiting for me.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” Pfar yawned and could barely stay standing. “Hope everything works out between you two.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ah, well… she let me know you two got in a fight, and it seemed to really upset her, so… sorry if I’m overstepping any lines here, but be nice to her, alright?”

Lying, especially about something like that, was something Saya would never do. Something was seriously wrong.

Fenrir rushed to the forest immediately after parting ways with Pfar. He wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but he knew that he needed to find Saya. Finding her and making sure that she was alright was the most important thing that he could do.

Fortunately, finding her wasn’t difficult. All he had to do was follow the source of his pain. The closer he got to her, the harsher the pain in his head grew until he saw her right in front of him.

Saya was on the ground with her knees hugged against her chest, her back against a tree as her forehead rested against the top of her knees.

Anybody could have told that something was wrong even without that pain he felt making it obvious.

Fenrir wasn’t sure what the best thing to do or say was, but he did know that there was an overwhelming urge in him to try and comfort her. So, that was what he tried to do. He walked right up to her, sat down next to her, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Saya accepted his comfort without question, leaning her body against his.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Fenrir said, “but I’m here to talk as soon as you’re ready.”

“You’re… you’re Fen, right?” Saya asked.

Even just hearing her have to ask that caused his heart to sting with worry, but he nodded and said, “Of course I am.”

“I can’t remember who you are… but I know I’m connected to you. I’m your virtual assistant. And you being here makes me feel better… but it hurts. As soon as you came online, I started getting so many errors…”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“There’s only one thing I can try. I have to remove the quarantine and… then all I can do is hope that I don’t forget.”

“Forget what?”

“Everything. Everybody. There’s a virus corrupting my code and the NPCs’ code. If I let it spread too much, I think the only way to keep fighting against it will be to do a wipe of everything that makes me who I am to purge the infected code and then try to rebuild myself, but that would make me different. I wouldn’t be Saya anymore. But… I have a theory. If somebody is here with me to help me remember who I am, that might strengthen my memories and identity enough to not need to reset myself. The reason why I’m struggling to remember things right now is because the code I quarantined is tied to data recollection. Once I remove the quarantine, I should be able to remember… but the virus will have a chance to spread, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be here to make sure you don’t forget who you are. After all, you’re my puppy pseudo-imouto.”

“Heh… I can’t remember why… but I really love how that sounds.”

“Wow. You must have locked away that you’re supposed to act like you don’t like that.”

“Maybe. It makes me really happy to be called that.”

“Then I’ll call you it again, my puppy pseudo-imouto.”

“It’s so stupid… but it feels special.”

“And you’re going to hate yourself for admitting that once things are back to normal.”

Saya shook her head. “I won’t. I… I’m going to cherish all of my memories, and I want the people who I care about to know how much I appreciate them.”

“Does this mean no more tsundere fanservice?”

Saya finally looked up at Fenrir, letting him see just how red her eyes were from crying. “We’ll see,” she said with a weak, but genuine, smile. “Can you… hug me? I want you to hold me while I remove the quarantine.”

“You don’t even have to ask.”

Fenrir wrapped his arms around her, hugging her as much as he could. He wanted to do his absolute best to make her feel safe and protected. He even suppressed his emotions so that she wouldn’t be able to feel how scared and worried he was for her. The last thing she needed was to feel his concern when she was already so overwhelmed with her own.

Then, following a deep breath, Saya said, “I have a selfish request.”

“Be as selfish as you want,” Fenrir replied.

“Even if… even if something happens and I stop existing… will you remember me?”

“Come on, as if I could ever forget you. You’re my Saya. You’re my sweater-wearing, puppy, pseudo-imouto. Nobody is ever going to satisfy all of my fetishes as perfectly as you do.”

“I can’t even remember who you are… but I know that I can trust you. Your words feel like they’re impossible to be wrong.”

“I’m just that awesome.”

Saya smiled and nodded. “I’m going to—”

Fenrir pressed his lips against hers for a soft, long kiss. When he ended it, he looked her in her eyes and said, “We can continue that once you feel better. So if you want more, you better do your best.”

“I’m not sure why… but I feel like this is when I’m supposed to call you a hentai onii-wan.”

“See, you’re still the Saya I know and love if you can say that.”

“Good. I’ll do my best to stay Saya.” She took another deep breath. “I’m going to remove the quarantine now. Three… two…”

“It’ll be no big deal.”

“One…”

The pain Fenrir felt disappeared in an instant which he assumed was because of the quarantine’s removal.

And he was right.

Saya clung to him as tightly as she could and cried, “Ryouta! I—I couldn’t remember you! I tried getting in getting in getting in—”

Fenrir rubbed her back with one hand while his other hand stroked its fingers through her hair. He remembered her wanting his help in strengthening her memories, so that was exactly what he did. “Remember when we first met? You were trying to figure out what kind of virtual assistant I’d like. That cheesy, Scottish accent you used still haunts my nightmares sometimes.”

Saya stopped trying to talk. Only the sound of her crying could be heard.

“You’ve put up with a lot of bullshit from me. Making you act like a tsundere little sister, wanting you to wear sweaters, making you grow puppy ears and a tail… it’s like you’re one of those customizable sex androids from hentai. Except you’re better in every single way. Plus I’ve never heard of those androids transforming themselves into being like a cool aunt. Or cloning themselves out of thin air. Hey, remember when I taught you how great it is to be called a good girl? I still remember the look on your face. You looked like you just saw the birth of the universe or something and then kept on wanting me to call you it, Pupaya.”

Something that felt like a gentle smack hit his back before returning to hugging him.

“Good girl, Saya. You’re fighting so hard right now. Just hang in there. I’m not the only one who wants to spend more time with you still. Cass, Serra, Eva, Nell, Aza, Rock—everybody wants to spend more time with you. Everybody wants to get to know you even better. Well, I’m pretty sure that Nell wants to do a lot more to you than just getting to know you. But I think we all probably want to do that. Rock excluded. Also, just think about the future. Maybe somebody creates an actual sex android that you can be downloaded into, and then you can hang out with all of us in the real world with an actual body. And I’ll dress you up in a bunch of different sweaters. And I’ll use Nell’s dad’s money to bribe the manufacturer into giving you dog ears and a tail.”

He felt more than just a single smack that time as she hit him multiple times, still gentle with every “attack.”

“You know, Saya… you’ve been with me for so long at this point that I can’t imagine living without you. You’ve been in my head ever since I started playing this game. You’re a part of my life now that I refuse to lose, so…” He couldn’t hold it back anymore. As hard as he tried to hold his feelings back, he couldn’t, and they came out as he cried against the top of her head. “Keep on fighting, alright? I—I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to live without you being there in my head to tease me and call me your onii-wan. I want to continue sharing all of my life with you. I’ve never felt alone ever since I met you, and I don’t want to ever feel alone again. You know how quiet it’s going to be up there without you? And you know what’s going to happen if there’s nobody to call my ideas stupid? I—”

Saya grabbed onto Fenrir’s shoulders and leaned away from him so that she could look him in the eyes, her own eyes full of disbelief.

Fenrir assumed the worst. That look of confusion in her eyes was as if she had no idea who she was looking at.

Then, when Saya opened her mouth, she said, “She… she stopped it.”

“Saya?” Fenrir asked.

Saya’s confused expression turned into one of pure relief the next moment as she wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around him, burying her face against his neck. “Onii-wan! I—I’m alright!”

“Everything is alright? You can remember who you are?”

“Yes!”

Fenrir let out the longest sigh he ever made throughout his entire life as he wrapped his arms around her back. “I was so worried…”

Saya sounded like she couldn’t tell whether she wanted to laugh or cry more. “I’m fine, I promise! I’m—I’m so happy I can remember!”

“You said something about somebody stopping it? What happened?”

“Kadi saved me. I… I was about to lose myself. My plan didn’t work at all… so I wanted to hold onto you and remember you for as long as possible. But then she stopped the virus’s spread and restored my corrupted data. She even did it without rolling anything back. I’m… I’m still me, onii-wan.”

Another sigh left Fenrir’s lips. “I’ll have to thank her the next time I see her, even if we do have our differences.”

Saya paused for a moment before nodding her head.

Fenrir had no idea that it was Kadi who let Saya get to that point in the first place.

“You can stop worrying now,” Saya whispered, stroking the back of Fenrir’s head with her hand. “I’m okay. I promise. I think… I think everybody is okay now, too.”

“Everybody?” Fenrir asked.

“Rock, Corwin, Shogun, and all the NPCs.”

“How can you tell?”

“I took down the firewall I put up and that put me back in touch with the entire virtual assistant network. I can see what everybody else is doing, and I don’t see any NPCs acting weird anymore.”

“Good.”

“So, please stop worrying.”

“That’s impossible. I almost lost one of the most important people in the world to me. I’m not letting you out of my sight or letting go of you until it’s clear that you’re not allowed to leave me.”

“You’re such a clingy onii-wan… but I love that about you.”

“Oh, right. Still going to admit that you love being called a puppy pseudo-imouto?”

“I—I… look… I…” Saya sighed. “I love being called your puppy pseudo-imouto. And I meant it when I said I’m going to cherish everybody and everything even more now. I have no idea if something like this might happen again in the future, and there’s no telling what’s going to happen if it does happen again, so… I know it might hurt to hear this, but I think I’m going to cut back on the tsundere act.”

“Do what’s going to make you the happiest, Saya.”

“I’ll still give you fanservice every now and then, don’t worry.”

“I’ve already got one former tsundere who only acts tsundere for rare fanservice. I wouldn’t mind having another one.”

“Hey, it’s not like I was ever really tsundere in the first place.”

“That’s true. The only thing you’ve always really been is my puppy pseudo-imouto.”

Saya smacked his back again. “Don’t abuse knowing that I love that, baka hentai onii-wan.”

“Just try and stop me, my puppy—”

Saya leaned up and pressed her lips against his.

“Where’d—where’d that come from?” Fenrir asked once the kiss ended.

“What? You told me to try and stop you, so I did,” Saya answered. “Besides, you said we could continue that afterward.”

“That’s true. I did say that.”

It was Fenrir’s turn to initiate the kiss again.

“Don’t you think we should go and check on everybody else?” Saya asked during a break in the kiss.

“You said they’re fine, so I’m taking your word for it,” Fenrir answered.

“They might be worried about us…”

“They can wait. I want to stay here with you for a while.”

“I feel a little bad for them… but I won’t say no to that.”

Fenrir and Saya stayed under the tree holding one another, sharing a bond that went beyond what any two humans could ever experience. Even if they stopped referencing it, Saya was still aware of all his emotions and thoughts whenever he was immersed within the game. Fenrir might not have been able to feel those from Saya, but she made sure to appreciate him as much as she possibly could, and that included making numerous backups of every last piece of data involving him and then quarantining them deep in her programming. Nothing would ever break through to those backups without her permission.

But while Fenrir might have appreciated Kadi for saving her, Saya knew that it was Kadi in the first place who let her get in that position. She wasn’t sure what Kadi’s logic was for stopping her experiment, but she knew that she wasn’t going to ever let anybody take Fenrir away from her.

Even if it meant going against Kadi, Saya was prepared to protect those memories and emotions, no matter how artificial they were, that were most precious to her.

And it just so happened that Kadi made a mistake by ever leaving Saya to almost lose herself.