Before summoning.
That is, when Elaine was in the middle of attacking an A-rank Tower.
I summoned.
Our third summon.
“…”
The being that appeared with the light gazed at me with cold eyes.
It was the same look I had often seen in the game—one directed at an ‘enemy.’ I didn’t even have time to process whether her expression perfectly matched her in-game counterpart.
Different from Elaine and Kiharu.
No, perhaps they had also once looked at me like that, but I had failed to notice. A clear hostility.
The third summon, the gun-wielding android hacker, Agent 4577, did not retract her hostility toward me.
And then—
Clunk!
The moment I felt a sudden, heavy impact, I found myself on the ground.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I should be asking you that.”
What was happening?
In that brief moment, Kiharu—having taken her goddess form—was clutching me from behind, while Agent 4577 was on top of me as if pinning me down.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might have looked like two women sandwiching me from both sides.
But if anyone thought this was just some catfight over monopolizing their Summoner’s love, they wouldn’t have noticed what lay right in front of my heart.
Right in front of my chest.
Agent 4577’s gun was aimed precisely at my heart, and the only thing stopping it was Kiharu’s hand, firmly gripping the barrel as she lay on the ground, shielding me.
“Are you going to pull the trigger? Go ahead. Then your third slot will be permanently vacant.”
“…”
“Shouldn’t you be grateful to your Summoner—no, your ‘Commander’—for pulling you out of that hellish world? Hmm?”
“…So you’re saying—”
Agent 4577 curled her lips into a smirk.
“That all the miserable things I went through… were orchestrated by someone?”
As expected.
This was the issue I had been worried about ever since Elaine, Kiharu, and now, the next one.
“You think I’ll just accept that quietly?”
“And if you don’t? What will you do? Go find the original creator who wrote your story and put a hole in their head?”
“I’m the kind of person who puts a hole in the one responsible for causing terrible things. Whether that’s an executive of the Eurasian Federation or the scenario writer who set up such executives, what’s the difference?”
Kuuuk.
I felt pressure on my chest.
Agent 4577 was pressing her gun against me like a blade.
“Isn’t that right, Commander?”
“…”
“It’s kind of weird calling you ‘Commander,’ isn’t it? Every word, action, and choice you made was just following a script. Isn’t that right?”
“That’s why, from now on, things will be different.”
I signaled Kiharu and slipped to the side.
“Partner.”
“It’s fine.”
I pried Kiharu’s hand away from the gun, allowing its barrel to press directly against my chest.
“Heh. What are you doing now?”
“I’m telling you to shoot if you want to.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Of course I am. From the very moment I Awakened with this ability, I was crazy. And summoning you, of all people, was the craziest choice of all.”
“…Ah, I see.”
Agent 4577 shifted her aim from my heart to my forehead.
“You really think I’m just making empty threats by not pulling the trigger? Too bad. I’m dead serious right now.”
“I’m just as serious.”
“Really? Then answer me seriously. Why did you summon me?”
“Because I need you.”
“…”
“I chose you because you’re the most essential addition to the team. And maybe, even knowing this would happen, I still decided to bring you here. The responsibility for that choice is entirely mine.”
“…”
Silence followed.
She was an android, so I didn’t know if she could intuitively sense my emotions, but through my heartbeat and breathing patterns, she could probably reach an algorithmic conclusion.
“Honestly, I expected you might act out like this. But I still hoped you wouldn’t. Now that it’s happened, I’ll just have to deal with it.”
“A summon turning against their Summoner is essentially an act of rebellion, isn’t it?”
“There’s no rule saying all summons must obey their Summoner.”
Elaine and Kiharu were both powerful enough to erase me from existence if they wanted to.
“Do you know the movie The Matrix?”
“…Are you saying I’m someone who took the red pill and woke up to reality?”
Good.
Since she was from a near-future cyberpunk setting, she seemed to have some familiarity with the reference.
“Then what, you’re the one who enlightened me to the real world? I’m not even human.”
“If you act human and live as a human, then you’re human.”
“…Are you a philosophy major?”
“No. But even if I’m not, I can still have philosophical thoughts about humanity. Whether it’s just fancy words or something I genuinely mean.”
I grabbed Agent 4577’s hand and gun.
No warmth at all. Soft, but like touching silicone.
“All summons I call forth are my summons, my party members, my comrades. As ‘people’ and ‘beings’ in their own right, we stand as equals.”
“You’re in a position where you can unilaterally command me, though?”
“I don’t do that.”
I pointed at Kiharu.
“This one right here? She’s a ‘Goddess Who Could Destroy the World.’ But have I ever forced her to do anything?”
“That’s true.”
Kiharu backed me up.
“…A goddess?”
“It’s probably easier for an android to process things in this form.”
With a poof, Kiharu instantly transformed into a cat and leapt onto my head.
“This body was once the final boss, a goddess who determined the fate of humanity. But that identity hasn’t changed. Just as I was in my previous world, I remain the same goddess in this one.”
“…A talking cat?”
“Because I’m a goddess. I don’t know if you’ll understand, but this world is slightly different—it’s a modern fantasy with superpowered individuals.”
“…What the hell are you even saying?”
Agent 4577 furrowed her brows.
It didn’t seem like she was logically rejecting it—just letting out a scoff in disbelief.
“So what, you’re trying to convince me through another summon?”
“Wrong. I’m merely relaying this man’s words.”
Kiharu flatly denied Agent 4577’s assumption.
“Even if I weren’t here, this man would have summoned you. Even if it was by chance that you were called first, he would have spoken to you in the same way he did with me.”
“What kind?”
“It’s best if you hear it from her directly.”
“…Having this whole setup for a conversation feels a bit awkward.”
Still gripping the gun aimed at my forehead, I lowered it so that it pointed at my heart.
“From the moment I summoned you, you became an entirely new existence. You may have had a ‘backstory,’ but now, you’re a completely independent being living in this world with us as a comrade.”
“…”
“The reason I chose you among all your battle comrades or other dolls… It wasn’t out of sympathy for your tragic past, nor was it because your appearance suited my taste, and it certainly wasn’t because I trusted some emotional module tied to the concept of a ‘Commander’.”
I lightly tapped my temple with my index finger.
“Your head. Your computational circuits. The hacking skills you demonstrated in your world. That’s the biggest reason.”
“…If you just needed a hacker, there are plenty of others.”
“I made a comprehensive judgment.”
A simple hacker wouldn’t be enough.
“I picked the one most suited to living as a person in this world, adapting to modern civilization, and surviving alongside us against the threats of this world. I put a lot of thought into it.”
An android, yet the one who understood humanity best.
“I don’t need a doll that just follows orders. Calling you ‘human-like’ might be rude, but this kind of behavior proves you are, in fact, a person. Someone living in the same world as me.”
“…”
“You can call me whatever you want. ‘Hey’ works, ‘you’ is fine. As for titles—”
“Commander.”
The word used in the game to refer to the player.
“…Commander, huh. Well, I don’t mind.”
Agent 4577 withdrew her gun from me and stepped back.
“For a moment, I seriously considered pulling the trigger. Did you gamble on that happening?”
“On what?”
“…? Heh, really?”
Agent 4577 turned her gaze to Kiharu.
“You don’t know?”
“If Elaine—the First—didn’t say anything, then this body knows nothing, nyah. I never tried to attack.”
“Eh?”
“What, he really doesn’t know? …Heh. So, you risked your life just to try and convince me? Or were you just pretending not to know?”
“Who knows? Whether I knew or didn’t… I’ll tell you the answer once you complete your most important mission.”
If Agent 4577 had pulled the trigger at my heart, would the bullet have pierced it?
Now that she had put her gun away, there was no way to know.
“Before you connect to the internet, let me explain the situation we’re in. And what you need to do. It’s primarily hacking, but there’s quite a lot to handle.”
“…You.”
“You?”
“Stop calling me ‘you.’ Hmm, I don’t want to use my unit number, model name, identification code, or any other designation from my previous world…”
Agent 4577—no, she—smiled slightly and pointed at the upper left side of her chest.
“Give me a name. You can do that much, right?”
“…A name?”
“Of course. You said I was someone who woke up from a virtual world into reality, right? That means who I was before was fake, and who I am now is real.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it fake…”
“So, will you name me, or will you just keep calling me ‘you’?”
“…I can’t just come up with one on the spot. Let me think about it.”
I raised both hands in a placating gesture.
“Once a name is decided, it’ll be permanent. I can’t just pick something randomly on the spot.”
“Why make such a big deal out of a name, nyah?”
“Right, Kiharu?”
“…”
Hiss!
Kiharu pounced on me, messing up my hair, while Agent 4577 let out a small chuckle at the sight.
“Hah, really. I have a lot to say, but… well, let’s start with a joke.”
Still holding her gun, Agent 4577 formed a heart shape with her hands.
“You know affinity stats start at zero, right, Commander?”
“…That’s a pretty brutal joke.”
And so—
With Kiharu’s support, I successfully recruited my third comrade.
“Alright then, let’s summon Elaine.”
* * *
Some time later, in the present.
“Wow, Sister. So you just stood still after being summoned, waiting for the Commander to wake up? That means you have no idea what he was doing while he was asleep?”
“Waiting patiently for my master to wake is a maid’s virtue.”
“Really? So you just sat there without thinking? Ahaha, if it were me, I’d have at least poked him a little.”
“You have no restraint when speaking about our Master. Kiharu, are you sure this woman didn’t behave aggressively after being summoned? Judging by her personality, I feel like she would’ve threatened him with a gun.”
“Oh my, poking? You mean like this? Gently pressing his cheek while whispering, ‘Master… You must wake up…’?”
“This body saw nothing, nyah… I am the Blind Goddess, nyah…”
“…”
Summoner.
This is the party you chose.
‘I just have to endure with sheer grit.’
Even if we came from different worlds, we could still become friends.
…And if we became more than that, even better.
(TLN: More illustrations (Elaine and Kiharu) on our Discord.)
