20 Conifer Village / The Truth

Previously, on Usagi Days: The Professor's computer is running again. Eimi, the innkeeper, comes in and asks the machine where the Professor's mysterious assistant is. The computer displays a live feed of its own interior, revealing the girl trapped inside …

- 20.1 - The Professor is Undone -

Ruby, Anemone, Violet and Ivy had been hiding in the crowd. Watching the entire time.

And they were among the first to help out in the group effort to tear apart the computer and free the girl inside.

The Professor hadn't even tried to stop them. She simply stood there, watching as her precious machine was dismantled entirely. A defeated look on her face.

Prof K: "You are all being so dramatic. I haven't hurt her. I've never hurt her. She'll even tell you that herself, if she could manage more than a couple of words."

But she received only nasty looks and insults in return.

Misa, her face stained with tears, marched up to the Professor.

Prof K: "Misa … Please. You know I would never—"

The slap of Misa's hand across the Professor's face reverberated through the warehouse.

- 20.2 - The Professor Explains, Pt 1 -

Several villagers had bent down and asked if the girl was okay, if she had a name, if she was hurt.

But the girl only looked around, wide-eyed.

Prof K: "Oh, come on. She doesn't have a name. She's not even human! She's just a tool."

Villager #1: "Oh, shut it already!"

Villager #2: "You're a monster."

Prof K: "I am not. I am NOT a monster. That"—pointing to the girl—"that thing might be one day, though. If you let it.

"Oh, yeah, you were all so eager to use my machine when you didn't know how it worked. You didn't care to know. None of you ever stopped to question how the SOLA9in3 could possibly do everything that it did.

"You all just blindly accepted my explanation of, 'Yeah, yeah, we'll just strap a couple of AND and OR gates together, and you'll get something that can think for itself, provide you with the answer to any question.'

"Any question." She emphasized this last point, and looked pointedly at Anemone.

Then she addressed the rest of the crowd again.

Prof K: "Face it. You're all … you're all sheep. You'll just believe something if it sounds good enough.

"The closest one to even remotely question the whole setup was this … this freaking pile of neuroses right here!"

She pointed a finger directly at Anemone.

Prof K: "So, Anemone, you wanted to know so badly how the computer works, do you? Then allow me to enlighten you.

"Listen up closely.

"Of course, the rest of the crowd is welcome to listen in as well."

- 20.3 - The Professor Explains, Pt 2 -

Prof K: "You're right. Persistent memory. How to control the light angles to hit each reflector pixel. I don't have solutions for them.

"The keyboard … The keyboard isn't even properly connected to the machine."

Villager #3: "What? You mean this cord doesn't go anywhere?"

Prof K: "No, the cord does connect to the SOLA9in3. Look. See? Connected. But … also not really."

The crowd seemed more confused than before.

The Professor sighed.

Prof K: "All this"—gesturing to the disassembled logic gates scattered all over the floor—"is necessary. And at the same time … they don't do anything."

The Professor turned her head at Ruby now.

Prof K: "Remember what you said about your Usagi?"

Ruby: "I said a lot of things about my Usagi."

Prof K: "When your car repairs itself … You have to provide the possibility that it can happen. You have to make it plausible enough for the particles to re-arrange themselves in to a"—she cringed, as if not wanting to finish her sentence—"… a pink 2002 Kisuzu Usagi.

"It's a similar situation here. I can't just put a keyboard in front of some dichroic glass and have it automatically display what I want it to.

"But if you start putting together pieces that might add up to a computer … well, it's like you said, Hanasaki. 'Air turning into gold'."

The Professor walked up to the screen. She tore a single pixel off.

Prof K: "Behind it. You see this? Mirror on a string. Light reflects off it, the angle controlled by … well, chaos. Influenced by the minute movements in the air. The vibrations of molecules.

"Who's to say what's happening inside the tarp covering your car?

"Well, who's to say all the light behind the pixels can't align to display exactly what you're typing in? To display exactly the answers to your questions.

"So the computer does nothing. But at the same time, it provides the possibility for it to do everything."

With a despondent look on her face, she kicked a logic gate into the air. It landed somewhere with a loud clatter.

Prof K: "Stupid. Completely absurd. What a stupid, stupid world we live in.

"Well. You can thank the Orcs for that. Them and their … blasted field."

Ruby: "That's great and all. But where does the girl rolling the die come in?"

Anemone held up the photo she had found in the underground room. "And why is she in this picture?"

- 20.4 - The Professor Explains, Pt 3 -

The Professor looked at the photo of herself. She took it gently from Anemone.

Prof K: "Firgrove Village. My parents were scientists.

"This was in the first few decades when the Orcs had just left.

"At the time, humanity was keen on trying to figure out Orc technology. There was still the sentiment that we could reverse engineer it, or at least operate it for our own purposes.

"The Village performed experiments on the SDF. How it influenced probability and luck.

"The girl you see here now … and the girl in the picture …

"They're not the same girl. I guess you could say this one's a clone of the one in the picture, but … well.

"Long story short, they're the product of a single thought experiment: 'If life is immune to the effects of the SDF, could we not somehow take advantage of that property?'

"Now, you add a sprinkle of Orc tech to the equation, and this is the result.

"A luck module.

"An artificial human. Hard-wired to fear a particular number, from 1 to 20, at any given point in time."

Anemone: "… 'Fear'?"

Prof K: "Yeah. Fear. Numerophobia. Different cultures have superstitions about certain numbers. It always feels like that specific fear for her—except the number keeps changing.

"If you fear a certain number, the probability of you rolling exactly that number is less probable than not rolling that number.

"Her fear of that number … She doesn't want to see it come up on the die. It's through that anticipation … and fear … and alignment of her fear of the number coming up, and the number actually coming up … that she manifests certain …"—she gestured in the air—"… improbable events.

"You follow me? It's not that the luck module reverses the SDF—on the contrary, I suspect it actually causes improbable events inside an entire ocean of improbability."

Silence thoughout the warehouse.

Nobody seemed to understand what she was saying.

The Professor snorted, spat on the ground. "… Or whatever."

The same despondent look again.

Prof K: "It's all a bunch of SDF mumbo-jumbo anyway.

"It works. It doesn't work. It sometimes works. It works. It doesn't work.

"… Whatever.

"Look. Find a way off this planet and go ask an Orc. Maybe he'll explain it all to you before he eats you alive.

"I'm merely human, after all. Just a stupid, primitive ape, compared to them."

All this talk of numbers seemed to be agitating the girl, who was grabbing her head in pain.

Prof K, smiling spitefully: "Oh yeah. Definitely keep her away from numbers 1 to 20. The mention of them. The sight of them. She really doesn't like it."

- 20.5 - The Professor Explains, Pt 4 -

Prof K: "My parents, the other scientists. They were fools to think they could harness the power of Orc technology. To think there wouldn't be consequences.

"The luck modules, they functioned well at first. As though they were perfectly normal, human girls.

"But that's just the thing, isn't it? They weren't.

"They were produced using technology we will never understand.

"And as a result, they … broke down in ways we didn't understand.

"The monster that chased you. The monster of Firgrove Village.

"The ultimate fate of all luck modules.

"I'm not even sure if the one you managed to kill was the one who killed my parents. The one who devoured all the other scientists living in the Village.

"I was the only one left.

"For years I lived in that bunker. Only books to keep me company.

"I went out when I thought it was safe. Not that there was much outside.

"The bunker was stocked with a full stock of survival rations, meant for an entire research team. Of course, me being the only person, it lasted much longer than it was ever supposed to.

"But even that couldn't last forever.

"Years went by, and I ran out of food.

"I knew I had only one choice."

She looked at Anemone, then at Ruby.

Prof K: "Tell me, while you were in the bunker … Did you open the door to Room Number 3?"

Anemone gulped.

Prof K: "You didn't. I can tell. But you wanted to, didn't you? I bet you did. Real bad."

- 20.6 - The Professor Explains, Pt 5 -

Prof K: "The room contained the last few remaining luck modules. Kept in stasis. Not alive yet. Locked in a constant state of unbirth.

"In all my time, I never once went in. Just the thought of them across the hall from me, as I slept." She shuddered. "But on the day I left the Village, I finally opened the door.

"And I woke one up." She pointed at the girl. "That very one.

"I couldn't have made the trip without her.

"It.

"I gave her a pair of six-sided dice that my … my dad used for game nights.

"Stupid of me. I wasn't thinking properly. All I could think of was the trip. The monster outside.

"The two of us went out in the night. A heavy storm, I remember. Raining down on us. Couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of us.

"Not that she needed to. I carried her, I led her by the hand. All the while she just kept rolling the dice.

"The monster never showed up that night. Maybe it was all the luck module. Or maybe it was just plain, garden-variety luck.

"Who can say?

"Ah. Forgot to mention what I did with the other luck modules in Room 3.

"Do you want to know?

"Well, that's an easy answer.

"I killed them. I killed them all.

"I couldn't let them become monsters.

"I had to do it."

- 20.7 - The Professor Explains, Pt 6 -

Prof K: "And that's the fate that awaits her, too. I mean, 'it'.

"If you're smart, you'll take care of it before that happens."

The luck module stared, blankly, back at Professor Kay.

Then she looked around at the crowd, with the same blank stare.

Prof K: "If you treat it as a human, you'll regret it.

"… Yes.

"You will regret it."