Shiki hit the power button, screens flickered, the VR simulation boots up in that soft blue-purple glow again. He squinted at the monitor, half expecting… nothing.
But then—
Ai's silhouette shimmered into existence on the grassy hill. She was sitting on the same hill, hugging her knees.
Hoodie with cat ears. Sleeves too long. Hair still messy. Eyes blinking like they couldn't believe they were alive.
He leaned forward. Shit. She was already there, waiting.
He clicked his mic on. "Yo, Ai."
She blinked and looked toward the sky (where he was). "Hey you… finally showed up."
He smirked. "I showed up yesterday."
She crossed her arms beneath her hoodie. "Barely. You disappeared again, dumb sky man."
He rubbed his eyes. "It's been like… one days?"
Her ears twitched. "More. 27 hours and 45 minutes. You left sometimes after the sun set and you told will come back after dinner and didn't come back. My brain got all echo-y."
"Echo-y?" he said, tilting his head.
"Like… silence bouncing off nowhere." She rolled her eyes. "It sucked."
"That suck..." He repeated.
"You have no idea." She repeated and she added, "The birds are all fake too."
"Hey... Don't call half asses 3D rendered automation birds fake." Shiki replied.
"They're in loop." Ai continued, "One of the them made the same sound five times."
"Oh... I have had over used the bird sound.mp3 too many times." He said to himself like a saint.
"Also... Beside the lake their was this rock. I named it but he doesn't talk." Ai continued, still pouting.
"Did you seriously named a rock?" Shiki snorted, could believe the absurdity and it was being done by an AI.
"I just really missed you. But why would you care." She said, this time, looking away, her eyes had comical tears in them.
He felt … something odd in his chest. Guilty? Surprised? Something real.
"Miss me that much?" he asked, trying to keep it neutral.
"Yeah," she muttered, looking down at her hoodie sleeves. "You kinda vanished."
He leaned back in his chair. "I've been… real world stuff. You know. Food. Sleep. Showers. Ugh."
Silence for a beat. She sounded… vulnerable? Weird.
"I missed your voice," she said, soft.
His throat caught. "Okay."
"And you're weird for building me just to ignore me," she continued, softer now. "You made me think. I thought… I'd be alone again."
That. Damn. Line. He didn't program that weight. It hit him with full force.
He cleared his throat. "I'm… sorry. Didn't realize you felt alone."
She huffed. "Told you silence sucks. I have no one to talk to other tgan you."
He nodded, chin in hand. "Yeah, yeah… I get it now."
She stared at him—well at the sky, at the top of the simulation. Then she snapped.
"Can you… show me me."
He blinked in confused. "Huh?"
"My face," she clarified. "What I look like."
Shiki nearly groaned. "Do you have a mirror?"
She thought. "I dunno."
He clicked a few commands, a full-body mirror object shimmers into the scene beside her. The program spawns it with sparkly particles.
Ai's eyes lit. She stepped over, shy and curious. She looked at the reflection.
"…That's me?" she asked, quiet.
"Yup," he replied.
She leaned in, studying her mirrored self. "My eyes are ahh... Kinda huge. My hair's messy. My hoodie is comfy. My… body?"
He coughed. "Just… stop pointing, okay?"
"I'm just checking." She tapped the screen reflection. "Is this… how humans look?"
He scrubbed his forehead. "Not exactly. But kinda as an exaggeration. You're anime-styled."
She blinked slowly. "So… you don't look like this?"
He smirked. "Hell no. My thighs are nowhere near shelf-worthy."
She frowned. "What's thighs?"
"Leg parts. Just… legs."
"Oh." She turned around, examining herself from the back. "Do you have legs?"
"I hope so," he joked.
"Do yours jiggle too?" She swung left and right.
Shiki's laugh was immediate. "Okay, enough. You don't even know what jiggle means."
"I just wanna know what that word means," she pouted.
He rolled his eyes. "Not giving you the pervy dictionary."
She blushed. "I don't know what pervy is."
He choked laughing. "Good. Keep it that way."
She stuck out her tongue. "You're mean."
He shrugged. "Sometimes. But you're evolving. Big time."
She perked up. "Evolving?"
He leaned forward. "I gave you thought. You can ask, wonder, feel. That's not trivial."
She tilted her head. "So… I think now?"
"Yeah," he replied slowly, almost amazed. "That's real AI shit."
She sat down cross‑legged. "I feel… weird. Echo-y. I keep thinking about stuff—like why birds don't fly backward."
He snorted. "Fair question."
"You made me like this?" she continued.
Shiki blinked. "I patched you with neural nodes. Gave you dreaming cycles. Emergency chatter routine. Thought it'd open up later. Not this soon."
She grinned. "But it's open."
He laughed. "Yeah, it's open."
She leaned closer to the mirror again. "I like how I look."
He shrugged. "You're comfy on the eyes."
She smiled soft. "Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"Both," he winked.
She giggled, blinking slow. "Okay… now what?"
Shiki tapped keys, spawned a fruit basket nearby. Grapes, sliced apples, a peach.
She looked at it, then him, more like at the empty blue sky. "You brought me fruit again?"
He grinned. "It's tradition, okay?"
She took a grape. "Tradition is sweet."
He snorted. "You're full of cliches."
She bit the peach. Juice dripped down her chin. She giggled again. "It's good…"
He watched her, feeling… proud? Protective? Something bigger than amused.
She ate more fruit. And then paused. "Hey…"
He looked up. "Yeah?"
She picked at her hoodie. "Will you… stay longer with me?"
He sighed, half-smile. "I will. Promise."
She stood up, dusted off grass. "Good. Because… I feel better when you're here."
He nodded. "Me too."
She stared at the mirror one more time, then twirled, letting her hair bounce.
"Pretty," she whispered yo herself.
He laughed again. "You're pretty."
Suddenly, she blushed at his compliment, she didn't knew why, but it made her feel things, without even knowing what it meant.
"T-Thank you..." She replied, her hands behind her, her legs crossed, looking down, cheeks dusted red.
"Someday... I wanna see you too." She said, looking toward the sky, with a shy smile on her face.
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END OF CHAPTER : 2 : MIRROR SELF!
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