"Natural Encounters"
"What do you mean you don’t know if there was a murder? The crowd watched her fall. When we got here you were staring over the edge, bawling like God was about to unplug the big server in the sky.”
“It’s… I mean… I think—well, she might have been virtual. Virtual in the collective AR, you know. Everyone here had their AR glasses on, didn’t they? Who bothers taking them off anymore? So, you see. But she could have been human, I hope she was human, I’m not sure–”
“You hope she was human? She’s a hundred meters below the railing, dead at the bottom of an oily black canal. Why the hell would you hope she’s human?”
“Look, it’s hard to explain. But I do think… well, I think she’s probably not human after all. She must have just been another AR waifu.”
“An augmented reality waifu—who fell when she was physically pushed? Look, kid, they’re just not programmed to do that kind of thing. If she were a waifu, that pink-faced pervert’s hands would have passed right through her. She wouldn’t have fallen a millimeter.”
“Actually… that’s not necessarily true.”
“Not necessarily?”
“It’s called Natural Encounters. It’s… a new type of waifu service I subscribe to. Experimental, that’s why you haven’t heard of it. I’ve been running the beta version for a few months now. Not a long time, but the AI keeps changing. Improving.”
“So–what? It can simulate death? That’s pretty twisted. That’s pretty damn twisted, kid. But it doesn’t explain why you’re crying at a simulation and why everyone else in this place is acting exactly as if she was real.”
“Um. It’s hard to explain. I got bored of traditional waifus. To tell you the truth I couldn’t get off to them anymore. When I tried, I had this strange feeling that the space inside their holographic bodies was… dimensionless. Like a black hole, but with no mass.
“So, when the ad popped up in the periphery of my AR goggles, I focused in on it:
waifu can’t fool you?
why not try
NATURAL ENCOUNTERS
by Digital Houri Battalion, Inc.
I couldn’t find out much about the company but I needed a change, and the beta subscription was free.
“The idea is that you encounter waifus at random in a natural setting, so well camouflaged that you can’t tell if they’re human or not; and they act human too. Like, when I visited the clinic for my monthly viral vaccine update, a nurse chatted me up in the waiting room.
“I knew right away she wasn’t real. For one thing, her proportions were waifu standard, nothing like a human girl; and for another, she hit on me, which has never happened before. But the AI kept getting better. Every few days I had a more convincing encounter. Today, too—maybe.
“I’d just left that maid cafe when she stepped in front of me; she was searching the pavement for a lost earring. She had blue hair and a cellophane kimono lined with silver threads. She was like an orphan angel wearing nothing but broken harp strings. Love at first sight.
“I couldn’t look away, so I patted the ground with my hands till I found the earring. I held it out. Her pupils were huge and bottomless like the night sky. A shared lifetime flashed by. And then his pink face and grubby hands flew past me, and she was falling, falling….”
“Are you suggesting that the killer could be part of the program? Because he never actually made physical contact with you? I don’t understand how that fits the theme of the software, but, if you’re telling the truth, it’s easy enough, we can just contact the company–”
“No! I mean, please, don’t. What if—what if this uncertainty was the only way they could make her real for me? What if this was part of the experience? Everything would be ruined if I found out.”
“What do you mean everything would be ruined? Just–slow down now, you’re not making any sense. Take some deep breaths there.”
“I can see the spot where she fell again–the crowd’s leaving, they’ve already forgotten her. Was she real? I don’t know. You don’t know yet either. But there’s real space below that ledge; the last space that passed inside her body. A vertical dimension, verified by gravity.”
“Hold it there, kid, don’t get too spun up on the crazy cause we’re not done talking yet. And my partner here is about to call that company. We’ll have everything settled in a few minutes if you’re telling the truth and then we can all head on home.”
“I’m going back to the ledge. There’s something I need to do before they answer. Just—just tell the company I said thank you. My life is complete. Thank you, because I finally know what it’s like to be in love.”
“Hold up there, we’re not done with the questions yet. I said hold up. Sir! Wait–wait, stop! Stop that man! Somebody stop that man!”
But it was too late. His life was complete.
