San'ya

There were many strange places in Tokyo that cropped up in the last century. The Tokyo Skytree sat on an island thousands of meters above the ground. Akihabara turned into a sci-fi novel, holograms covering every building, street, and person. You could even see some giant, fake perpetual motion machines strung together with a bit of magic and technology. However, the weirdest, by far, was a ghost neighborhood becoming real once again.

It wasn't hard to find: between the Taito and Arakawa wards, just south of Namidabashi intersection. If the area still looked normal, you were too far north. It was only when the buildings were twisted and warped in strangely stable shapes that you made it. The people there wore conflicting outfits that somehow worked together. Even the things they used were for something consistently arbitrary.

That was San'ya: a neighborhood given new life, a slum that wasn't a slum, and place where people who disappeared appeared.

Nowadays, with the mixing of AI, San'ya was more of a slop than a slum. Even if the accuracy of models was 99.999999999%, there was still that one in a billion where it hallucinates, making up an answer out of thin air. In a world with over ten billion people made thousands upon thousands of queries a day, that meant hundreds of hallucinations, bringing forth all sorts of weirdness in indescribable ways. Although most outcomes were destroyed, quite a few made their way into the hands of those less fortunate. And where were the majority of these people? That's right, in San'ya.

Though, rather surprisingly, that same slop brought economic riches. A hairbrush-shaped pen, a violin that made trumpet sounds, a book the size of a mattress, and many more sold for cheap. Form? beauty? Sure, that was important sometimes, but if it was functional, then who cared. It was gacha on steroids, and the students of the University of Tokyo lapped it all up. The exact same reason she and Microwave were there today, walking down the street.

"Did you forget you're rich?" Microwave asked. "You could just go to a proper supermarket. Or you know, order online like a normal person. The difference is negligible compared to your pool of money."

"But that's no fun," she whined, ignoring Microwave completely. Like always, entertainment and risk took priority over efficiency and safety. Plus, with her magic restricted, she wanted to see whether she still had a good eye for products. Granted, she was in one of the more dangerous back alley main streets, but compared to Microwave...

"Try out this new pen! It works just as well as a pencil."

"Need a textbook? This has been compiled with all of the previous wrong answers for Magic Theory."

"Looking for some combat practice? Try some monster repellant attractant!"

"Sonny, why not buy a bracelet for your girlfriend? It has the perfect ten meter restraining barrier."

It was surrounded almost instantly by the salesmen lining the streets, hawking their products from every angle imaginable. They even managed to block the thoroughfare, albeit temporarily. After all, from the outside, Microwave looked like your average student: the perfect mark for cheap objects with random uses. It stood out among the orderly chaos.

As for her, did you see how she dressed? She was more San'yan than the people living in San'ya.

"Hey! Charlotte! Help!" it tried to call out. However...

"Pfft..."

"Stop laughing! And help!"

"Pfft. Sorry, I can't help it! Haha!" A hearty chuckle escaped her lips as she watched Microwave disappear into a sea of monster-looking humans. It was an absurdity far removed from absurdity, but it was a common occurrence on these streets, where one sale could easily snowball into riches. Still, that didn't make it any less hilarious.

Unfortunately, the ever-stoic Microwave was becoming more exasperated by the second. Or, in human terms, it was very angry. Its arms twitched as it tried to calm down, but the incessant buzzing only made it worse.

"Look at this new headset! It works as the perfect microphone!"

"This rather fine beauty can create advanced spells for three times the mana cost!"

"Frying something? This faucet produces oil with a bit of magic!"

It couldn't escape, and its master did nothing to help, until finally...

"How about a new cooking knife? It's enchantment is powerful enough to cut through nanofiber!"

"Oh really?" it snapped, grabbing the knife out of the saleswoman's hand. "Let's try it then."

With no hesitation, it swung the knife down right atop its arm, and--

CRACK! CLANG!

Just like that, the metal snapped like a twig, clattering to the floor. Everyone went silent as the tidal wave froze. They finally noticed that it wasn't a normal student.

No, it was a psychopath.

Microwave let out a brief sigh, its expression turning more neutral as it tossed back the knife's handle.

"Seems like it wasn't strong enough."