45. Fireworks Big Bang
I dove into the depths of the electric sea.
Deeper still, plunging into the darkness of the deep ocean.
Activating my detection systems at full power, I searched for the remains of the Electric Kraken I had once defeated.
The massive robot was easy to find, even if its functions had ceased.
Its former majesty was lost, covered in electronic moss like the Titanic sunk on Earth's seabed, exuding a mysterious stillness as if billions of light-years had passed.
The charisma that once ruled the electric sea was gone, leaving only the remnants of a deflated giant balloon.
I grabbed one of the Electric Kraken's tentacles—hard to tell if arm or leg—and lifted it.
Surprisingly light.
I swam with it along the coast.
Upon reaching the beach, as if by appointment, the beautiful shop clerk who had once made uniforms for Jinri and me was waiting.
Spotting me, she waved both arms and called.
"Over here, over here! Hurry!"
I presented the Electric Kraken's remains, and without even being asked, she repaired the torn parts at a speed surpassing her work at the Black Dot Department Store's jungle ruins.
The repair completed in an instant, I turned on my heel.
"Thank you! I owe you one!"
As if to say, don't forget me.
Then, sinking back to the sea bottom with the remains, I began diving deeper.
Even deeper, into the abyss of the deep sea.
Diving sufficiently, I reached a realm of complete darkness where no light from surface fireworks could reach.
Fortunately, a few deep-sea creatures with transparent, glowing bodies were present. I caught several and combined them like torches to proceed further into the dark depths.
Eventually, I arrived at the place I sought.
A hydrothermal vent.
Though no glowing deep-sea robots were around, the superheated water spewing from the crudely piled, misshapen cake-like summit emitted light autonomously from the heat alone.
Seeing it clearly, I approached straight on.
As I drew nearer, tremendous heat permeated my body.
I profoundly realized that the source of Tropical Night City's heat came not from the atmosphere but from this deep sea.
In the fiercely hot, dense hydrothermal water like boiling magma, my body seemed about to melt.
Before melting, I brought the Electric Kraken's remains close, pierced one of its suckers, and fitted it onto the vent's protrusion.
Searching under the vent's main body, I found, as expected, two valves.
The mechanism was so artificial, devoid of any naturalness, that I was convinced.
"As I thought, this world is a simulation."
There was no reason for disappointment.
Rather, it was as I had foreseen.
I felt only gratitude toward whoever created this simulation.
Thanks to them, I met Jinri.
"Thank you,"
I muttered, closing the valve labeled "Hydrothermal" and opening the one labeled "Helium."
Then, helium gushed from the vent, gradually filling the Electric Kraken's deflated head.
The head inflated like a revived balloon, rapidly growing enormous.
With that buoyancy, it suddenly began ascending at incredible speed.
Clinging to the Electric Kraken rising at near-light speed, I shot out of the deep sea, piercing through the electric sea in an instant.
Yet the remains didn't stop, leaping into the air.
It took off with the force of a hot-air balloon equipped with jet engines.
Reaching high altitude, I looked down.
I could see the Apache carrying Jinri, and behind it, the formation of three carriers and countless pursuing fighters.
Manipulating the Electric Kraken's tentacles skillfully, I changed direction and approached the scene of Jinri's chase.
We were already nearing the border.
Soon, we would cross it.
And my life would end.
Before that, I had to see the sun.
But crossing the border alone wouldn't suffice. A long journey to behold the sun might follow.
I no longer had the leisure for such a lengthy trip.
I had to settle it here, no matter what.
If the journey continued beyond the border, I would end it here.
How?
I squeezed out all the luck I had hidden until now and pulled something from my pocket.
It was a USB packed with my lost memories.
I had known inserting it would restore all memories, but I had deliberately avoided it.
Restoring memories alone would reduce me to ordinary data.
Having built this one story, I didn't want to return to being a mundane part of memory through a boring CPU.
I wanted to achieve something with these tedious full memories.
I didn't know how, but act first and find the way—reckless perhaps, but likely the boldest and wisest choice.
"Start even if unprepared."
No, different.
"Start deliberately unprepared."
Anyway, start.
In this simulated world, at least, I was convinced deep in my CPU that this was the right way.
I shaped the USB compressed with all memories into an ice pick.
In this scorching city, to pierce the helium-filled, now coldest Electric Kraken remains, I chose this tool deliberately.
Pouring all the feelings from my memories, I thrust the ice pick into the inflated Kraken's head with full force.
Then, the head burst—not exploded, but popped with a bang.
The Big Bang fireworks began.
The dubious myth that Tropical Night City was born from fireworks became reality.
The fireworks spread beyond the city, beyond the border, across all of Mars, and my launched Big Bang fireworks detonated.
The entire electric sea compressed to high density, expanded,
the whole city underwent inflation,
the planet uniformized at super speed.
Minute density fluctuations arose in the galaxy,
cooled by dark matter,
quarks, electrons, protons, neutrons formed drop by drop,
nuclear fusion began,
and finally, the sun appeared before my eyes.
My visual sensors glowed like a full moon beholding the sun,
gaining vision to see to the universe's end in a moment shorter than the Planck constant (ℎ ≈ 6.626 × 10⁻³⁴ J·s).
Before that invincible moment faded, I searched for Jinri and approached her.
Jinri, even amid the Big Bang's fury, continued flying steadfastly in the Apache but had fainted, perhaps from hitting her head in some impact.
Feeling sorry, I gently woke her.
"Jinri."
The Planck-constant-like moment had passed, and I was no longer in an invincible state seeing all, but it was enough strength to find only Jinri.
I waited, simply joyful for her to wake.
Eventually, Jinri opened her eyes.
"Such a…"
She muttered with a sleepy expression.
"short dream."
"What dream?"
"Yura-kun…"
With terribly lonely eyes, she gazed far at the seemingly eternal Big Bang fireworks carnival spreading outside the window, wistfully watching the tsunami of fireworks, and said,
"a dream where you stared too long at the sun and went blind."
I couldn't help but laugh.
Then, gripping her hand, reconnecting our hearts hand in hand, I said,
"My memories went blind long ago."
"Then…"
Jinri's expression twisted in sorrow. "You've already forgotten me?"
"Yeah."
I answered plainly.
Then, as if addressing the most cherished thing in the world, I softly said,
"Who are you?"
Tears overflowed from Jinri's eyes.
They kept flowing, and as the Big Bang subsided, the electric sea returning to a primordial soup-like stillness, her tears gradually calmed.
On her face, tears dried, appeared a relieved smile—or one where a wounded heart had healed, transformed into an even stronger existence—a supremely natural, precious smile impossible to reproduce in a simulation.
Then, she looked at me and said,
"I'm your future in love."
おわり