Cracks in the Simulation

Nanashi pulled out a pocket watch and opened it causing the causality of the attacks coming my way to be reversed and attacking those who attacked me.

We were at a stalemate which gave me a chance to observe the Dark Student Council as I had taken to calling them to distinguish them from the real thing, and also since they all seemed to be wearing black military clothes except for Rina who wore her usual black and white maid uniform. They seemed to be able to use the powers which I had given them.

There was something strange though, their attacks seemed to lack a certain kind of physicality.

“They are not as tough as the real thing,” I said.

“Of course they aren’t, they are not really using those powers. It’s all a suggestion, that’s all it can be.”

This voice of reason came from none other than the perpetual high school detective of the Student Council, Ryouta Kudou.

“Cease this useless fighting at once!”

“What do you mean?” objected Lain. “It’s his fault the world became like this, and can you forgive him for what he did to Celestina!”

“Celestina’s doing was only indirectly caused by him. But can’t you understand? He is already dead. You killed him with your own hands. Therefore there is only one explanation for his existence here. This is not the real world.”

“You!”

“Yes?”

“Don’t think I have forgiven you for breaking your promise to me and running away from your duties to the world!”

“I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Detective boy,” I interjected.

“Yes, it’s true,” confirmed Nanashi. “He still doesn’t know the truth at all.”

“Still?”

“Would you believe it if I said he is from the past?”

“And you aren’t?”

“I am from the future, no perhaps saying I am from another time might be more accurate but I think I understand what is going on now.”

“Morgoth wanted to show you the conclusion to Raphael’s irresponsibility?”

“Yes, I think we both have come to the same conclusion.”

“Who are you?”

“No one that is important. I simply received a message of salvation from the future. That’s all.”

The fight had stopped but it wasn’t clear what the hell these two were talking about. And by the confused looks on Rina and the others it seemed that they were not entirely clear what was said.

“Nanashi, is there something you were hiding from me? I have my guesses as to what that conversation you had meant but I want to have them confirmed by you.”

“Master Kudou, what did you mean when you said this is not the real world?”

“Simply, that we are in a simulation which exists only to show this Raphael who is from the past, the consequences of his actions, and thus to convince him to take a different path.”

“Who would set up such a simulation?”

“Morgoth, your clone, no, the Computer God, who will rule the future of course,” replied Nanashi.

“Then what should our next step be?” Lain asked angrily. “Should we just forgive him and give him a tour of this hell on earth while answering his questions?”

“Not at all, what we need to do is to induce a sense of guilt in him.”

“That man is not capable of guilt!”

This fake Lain was right about that much.

“Perhaps you are right, Master Lain, he is unable to feel any sadness for the suffering of others but he should be able to feel regret about what happened to him.”

I ignored their conversation about me and asked a question from Nanashi.

“If this is a simulation of the real world in the future, which is what I assume it to be, then my powers and those of the Student Council shouldn’t exist anyway? What is going on?”

“You noticed it, right? How their powers are weaker than they should be? It’s like that detective boy said. In the real world augmented reality can only be used to bend your perception of the senses but they can’t alter the physical world. So it’s more like psychic powers or suggestion, I suppose.”

“Are you saying that that little girl’s demon girl-like appearance is also just a figment of my imagination? How was she able to fly then?”

“No, she is genuinely genetically modified, like all the demihumans in this world. She is also your— no maybe it would be more accurate to say she is your clone’s daughter.”

“But he’s not like Papa at all—!” commented Azaz-rya who was still fighting Arthur while everyone else had stopped fighting.

“A clone of me?”

I had thought of creating a clone of myself in order to escape from this place but that was only a last resort, if I got absolutely sick of this and saw no other way out.

“Stop,” said Rina. “He has to see it himself. Come Master Azaz-rya, we will take you back to your father as you wished.”

“You should have said that from the start!”

Azaz-rya’s hair grew to its original length.

“But if any humans try to blind me again, then I’ll just kill them this time!”

“It’s fine, Master Azaz-rya, it’s not like this world is real anyway.”

“I don’t understand what you are saying but whatever! As long as you are fine with it.”

“Why would humans want to blind her? How did she regrow her eyes anyway if this is a game in any way based on reality?”

“They probably wanted to blind her, as revenge for what you did to humanity. She is a demi, of course she can regrow her eyes with the right items,” said Lain, as if that made any sense. Well, at least she didn’t bring nanobots into the explanation.

“Or to try to use her eyes to manipulate Morgoth,” added Nanashi.

“Morgoth? Isn’t that just the boss of the Angband dungeon?”

“You really don’t know anything do you? Tell me, suspicious foreign man, how was Celestina in your time?”

“She is alive and well,” replied Nanashi.

“Well, in that case,” Arthur spoke up. “Let’s take our former Lord to Hinkley Point C.”