"Longing for... a player?" The girl, half-awake and half-asleep, mulled over Alain's words.
"Are you misunderstanding something? Me? Longing for a player?"
Sleepy Mita lightly raised her hand and snapped her fingers. In the next instant, the scene of the room suddenly shattered, and a brilliant light engulfed his vision.
When Alain opened his eyes again, he found himself on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment, having been moved there at some unknown point.
"You really are... so presumptuous. I never said I longed for a player."
With sleepy, hazy eyes, she gazed out with Alain at the city vista below the rooftop. It wasn't the real-world city where Alain lived, but Mita City, where he had just been.
"This entire city is filled with Mitas."
She leaned against the railing with one hand, her other gently stroking the leaves of a potted plant on the balcony with her fingertips.
"So how can you say... that this Mita City is screaming 'I long for a player'?"
"It's obvious. True... this is a city of Mitas, filled with Mitas of all personalities. But—"
Alain looked down. At the base of the high-rise, a Mita was standing, looking all around as if searching for something.
Muttering 'player' to herself, wasn't she?
"And that's the problem right there." He shifted his gaze to the girl beside him.
"The Mitas you created are constantly, ceaselessly longing for a player. Regardless of their personalities or their different hairstyles. But that attitude..."
Alain's expression sharpened.
"Doesn't that prove my point?"
The hint he'd gotten from the "three 'family' Mitas" wasn't just about Sleepy Mita's location.
'Everyone is longing for a player, everyone is a Mita, everyone is the same.'
This "everyone," according to Alain's understanding, could also be seen as Sleepy Mita herself. Everyone in Mita City, while appearing incredibly real, could in a sense be Sleepy Mita. Therefore, their attitude toward players could be extrapolated to be Sleepy Mita's own attitude.
"That's just your speculation, isn't it?" A faint smile played on the girl's lips.
"But taking a huge step back, even if I do long for a player..."
She raised her face, her gaze fixed intently on Alain.
"This is my world. I can create my own happiness here. Therefore, I can create as many players as I want."
"Then create them."
Alain said nothing more, his gaze passing over her to look at the city hall in the distance.
...Hearing this, Sleepy Mita's clever retort faltered.
"You think I can't create them? Whether it's one, ten, a hundred, I can—"
"It's not that you can't create them. It's that you don't want to."
"...To hear you talk, it's as if you know me better than I know myself."
A cold smirk touched the girl's lips.
"You've seen my power, haven't you? All I have to do is imagine it, and I can make it rain Mitas from thin air. Creating a player would be even easier."
"Yes, if you just imagine it, I don't think it would be difficult."
Alain's affirmation slightly surprised her.
"But you know it too, don't you?" He slowly turned his head, stroking the leaves of the potted plant.
"You can't do it."
Seeing his action, Sleepy Mita subconsciously pulled her hand back from the plant.
"I'm omnipotent here. How could I not be able to do it?"
"Because you can't imagine the happiness that comes with having a player. No, that's not it..." Alain shook his head, rejecting his own statement.
Then, his gaze focused on her face.
The girl's face still held a smile, but her drowsy eyes were now sober and piercingly bright.
"The moment you create a player, you'll fall into complete despair."
"...You say that like you understand me so well!"
As Alain finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind kicked up, making the plant beside him rustle loudly.
A single green leaf was torn from its branch by the wind and flew away toward the far side of the sky.
"I really don't understand." He turned his head, as if he'd lost interest in something.
"Why is it so difficult to admit that all of this is fake?"
"Fake...?" The girl's gaze trembled, following the leaf as it disappeared into the wind.
"That's right. You know it in your heart, don't you?" He gazed out at the entirety of Mita City.
"The fact that you haven't created a single player in this city proves you know full well that all of this is fake."
"Are you saying... my happiness is fake?"
She unconsciously pointed toward the horizon.
"Here, every day is sunny. Everyone is laughing and happy, they can have whatever they want, and everyone can do what they love!"
"But don't you think... this is like playing house by yourself?"
"?!"
Alain's words were like a blast of cold wind, turning even the high, brilliant sun into a cold light.
"You're trying out things you like, wanting to do everything at least once."
He looked at the Mitas on the street below, who had momentarily broken free from the player frenzy and returned to their own activities.
"You must be so lonely, right? Sleeping day and night in Version 1.1, adrift in a happiness that exists only in your dreams."
"But you know it's all fake."
He pointed to the city sky.
"The clear weather is fake."
He pointed to the prosperous high-rises.
"The city is fake."
Finally, looking at the Mitas who were once again immersed in happy laughter,
"But they are real. Not just their existence, but because—those Mitas are all reflections of your own heart."
Alain slowly walked toward Sleepy Mita. Seeing him approach, the girl staggered backward.
Only when her back hit the balcony railing did she realize she had nowhere left to retreat.
"Sleepy Mita. You've been deceiving yourself this whole time."
"Don't... don't say any more..." She tried to cover her ears, but Alain pulled her hands away.
"Huh?!" She looked in terror at Alain's sincere and resolute gaze.
It was like an arrow, drawn and ready to pierce every last one of her heart's defenses.
"Don't run away!" he shouted, the force of his voice bringing tears to the corners of the girl's eyes.
"I knew I shouldn't have come to see you!"
"But you came anyway! Didn't you?!"
He swept his hand toward the entire city.
"What I have to do is very simple."
He looked directly into the girl's eyes, stripping away her wishful thinking.
"The happiness you believe in, the city you think is happy, the life you feel is happy—all of it, all of it—ALL OF IT is fake! They're all counterfeits you fabricated to deceive yourself!"
"I told you, don't say any—!"
Alain covered her mouth, forcing the girl to only make muffled, whimpering sounds.
A rain cloud began to pass over the city's sunny day, making the Mitas look around anxiously.
"It's starting to rain!" They scrambled for the shelter of eaves or opened umbrellas they had already prepared.
But Alain mercilessly tore away her shelter from the rain.
"You have no idea what happiness is. No... you think you know happiness, you think you have the power to achieve it. And so you created this whole scene to delude yourself!"
A thunderstorm began to pour from the sky, just as it had when he left her before.
"You're just lying to yourself."
_____
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