11: A.I.

The surface of the water rippled violently, and the golden axe sank deep back into the pond.
Rena gasped at what she’d just done, but gradually caught her breath.
The man in the suit, still holding his fishing rod, looked at her in astonishment.

“Wow! You’re pretty strong, huh? Tossing that thing into the pond with one hand!”

“I… I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking… My hand just… moved on its own.
It was like the axe was pulling me toward it.”

She couldn’t believe it herself.
A heavy axe like that—something she could barely hold with both hands—she had flung it into the pond with just her right hand.
It was like she’d tapped into some kind of emergency strength.

“There was this boy I know—my childhood friend. He was being attacked by this black shadow…I just… reacted.”

“I didn’t see anything like that myself, but judging by your face, you’re not lying.”

Rena had clearly seen Tom in that pond—his face twisted in terror, like something out of a horror movie.
A shadowy, formless creature loomed behind him, and he was just about to touch the page of a picture book.

“…A picture book… Why did I yell ‘don’t touch it’? Did I forget something… something really important…?”

Fatigue suddenly hit her hard.
Feeling a little guilty, she looked down and apologized.

“I’m sorry… You worked so hard to fish it up, and I just threw it back…”

“Oh, don’t worry about it! It was an axe, sure—but it wasn’t the one I’m looking for.
Still, this AI fishing rod has some serious precision!”

All the strange things happening had thrown Rena off balance, but this man’s relaxed tone started to ease her distrust a little.
She tilted her head and asked slowly,

“You said AI… as in Artificial Intelligence, right?”

She remembered it from the novels Tom used to talk about—where AI meant machines that could think.
But the man made a puzzled face.

“Huh? Artificial Intelligence? What’s that?”

Now it was Rena’s turn to freeze. Did I get the English wrong?
Her face turned a little red.

“Well… it is shortened as AI,” the man said. “But I’ve never heard that version. That must be something else.”

Her curiosity only deepened. Trying to get to the bottom of it, she pressed a little further.

“But… didn’t you say you were ‘searching’ for something?”

“I did, yeah. But this is a different kind of AI—It stands for Artistic Illusion.”