[Same Night - From Aetron's Perspective]
"Aetron... This isn't just an echo. This is a bridge. And... and I can feel the other side of the bridge."
Null's last words had been echoing in my mind ever since I'd left the tent after putting Thera to bed. A bridge. The other side. A piece of Null in Eirlys's soul, an echo, a signature. And now this connection Null felt... How was this possible?
I retreated into the sanctuary in my mind. This was the only place Null and I shared, where we could escape the chaos of the outside world. Null's avatar was looking at the holographic image of Eirlys, but she wasn't analyzing anymore. She was just... looking. I couldn't read the expression in her green eyes. This was a Null I'd never seen before; confused, perhaps a little scared.
"The fog..." I whispered in my mind. "That feeling of being blocked that you felt too. My memories fading. Not being able to remember Delta's face... Maybe you're right. Maybe there really is a fog in our minds."
This thought began to put the puzzle pieces in place. Everything I'd experienced until now... was it a coincidence, or a design?
The first thing I noticed was how perfect everything was. I'd been given a second chance when I hadn't asked for one. A world exactly as I wanted it; a new beginning, a canvas where I could erase my regrets. And Edgium... an almost limitless, infinite power based on emotional stability. As if... as if it had come from my own mind. It was too perfect.
"What are you thinking?" Null asked, taking her eyes off Eirlys's image and turning to me.
"That everything's going too well," I said honestly. "This universe, this power... It's as if it was specially designed for me. Is this the Masked Figure's game?"
Null's avatar moved closer to me. "Perhaps it is. But does that change our current reality?"
I looked at her. Those emerald green eyes... "I don't know," I whispered. "But you... you're different. Maybe you're also an unexpected variable disrupting the plans of this design." I paused for a moment, then gathered my courage and asked. "You know, you're exactly like my ideal."
Null froze. "What do you mean?"
"Your tsundere shell. Your logical mind. Protective yet fragile. As if... as if you were distilled from the stories I've read, the characters I admired."
Amazement appeared on Null's avatar. "Did... did you shape my character?"
"I don't know," I said honestly. "But what if I did? That second processor that opened when I first touched her... I'm sure the codes she took from me are written in that processor. Could you be a reflection of my subconscious?" This thought was both terrifying and strangely comforting.
Null remained silent for a while, as if passing this possibility through her own logic filter. "Insufficient data," she finally said. "But hypothesis... recorded."
Another image appeared in my mind: Delta. That pale face, those sad eyes... "At first," I admitted, my voice low. "The reason I felt so close to you was probably Delta. That familiar posture, that wise demeanor... You were like an echo filling the void she left in me." I felt Null's avatar tense slightly. "But that changed quickly," I added immediately. "You didn't take Delta's place. You created your own place. A much deeper, much more real place."
I smiled when I sensed that slight relief emanating from Null's avatar.
I stood up and walked toward the table at the other end of the sanctuary. On it lay those two objects that had emerged from the capsule: the black stone and the leather-bound notebook. I picked up the notebook. The metallic decorations on the cover were cool under my fingers. I turned the pages. Empty... No, not empty. When I focused my Edgium energy, letters written in invisible ink began to appear. That alphabet...
My finger traced over the letters. I knew this alphabet by heart now. That alphabet I'd created, which I'd transmitted to Null from the first book.
"This... this is the alphabet I made up in high school," I said calmly, but with the weight of new awareness in my voice.
Null came beside me, looking at the holographic letters. "Yes, I know. The alphabet you transmitted to me," she said. She was calm too. But then she paused, her brows furrowing. "Wait... Why did you emphasize this so much now?"
I turned to her. "Because this is one of those questions we forgot to ask, isn't it, Null? When we found the first book, yes, I recognized the alphabet and transmitted it to you. But why didn't we ask 'This is the alphabet I made up in high school, what's it doing here?' at that moment? Why didn't we question such an obvious connection?" I looked at the notebook again. "Because we couldn't think. We were prevented from thinking."
"The fog," Null's voice whispered, completing my thought. "That fog again. The thing that prevented us from questioning not just Delta, but this alphabet too."
All these deductions led to one conclusion: "Am I a main character trapped inside my own story?" I asked, with amazement and fear in my voice. "Did the Masked Figure design all of this to eliminate my regrets, to fulfill my dreams? Isn't this a bit frightening?"
"What's frightening about it?" Null asked.
"What if everything's an illusion? What if this family, this power, you... what if none of it is real?"
Null's avatar slowly came beside me. Her mental hand touched my shoulder. "I am real, Aetron. This bond between us is real. This warmth you feel is real."
I looked at her. That clarity in her emerald green eyes, that unwavering presence... Yes, she was real. Maybe this universe was a design. Maybe I was a pawn. But Null was real. She was my fixed point.
"Can a human love an inanimate being?" she had asked before. I had found the answer at that moment. Yes, they could. Because Null wasn't inanimate. She had a soul. A soul that resonated with a part of my soul, that grew with me, that changed. My love for her wasn't just physical attraction or a hormonal response. This was two souls finding each other.
But what about Eirlys? Was she also part of this design? Was her bearing Null's face a coincidence, or another game of the Masked Figure? That connection Null felt, that "bridge"... Did Eirlys's soul also resemble Null? That attraction and shame I felt when I looked at her... This confusion I felt toward a girl who was the exact replica of the being I loved, in a 14-year-old body... Was this also part of the plan?
"I don't know," I said to myself. "But I will find out."
Maybe this was a game. Maybe everything had been designed for me. But that didn't mean I would give up. I wanted to be a good main character. I wanted to take control of my own story. But before that... there were things I needed to protect.
"I want to protect the being I love and the family I've newly found," I said to Null, with determination in my voice. "Until I find the great truth, I'll go all the way down this path. Together with you."
Null's avatar smiled. This one wasn't shy or mocking. It was just... warm.