Chapter 139: Symbiosis

I remembered something Akito had said before.

There had been a technological leap in the first place.

Humans, Tooths, Insectum, and Bubbles.

The great war between those four had all been mixed together in the records, but from an engineer’s perspective, history looked like this: technologies whose systems were plainly different from everything that had come before suddenly appeared, then stood on the front line in a single leap.

The Tree Crystal used as a Monoz core was a special kind of Tree Crystal, given a special cut.

By doing that, a Monoz gained a core.

Fuel.

And the place where its self existed.

At that point, if you called it strange, then yes, it was already strange.

The very idea that cutting a stone could create something that surpassed artificial intelligence was strange.

Fire to steam.

Steam to electricity.

Electricity to fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels to nuclear power.

A field of research that did not exist anywhere in that flow appeared, and in an instant, it repainted existing research.

Could something like that happen?

If it could, what would be necessary?

A once-in-a-century genius?

No.

That would not be enough.

Even a genius is influenced, to some degree, by existing fields. Even if they thought of it, unless others could understand it as something real, it would never be accepted.

They would have to be mad.

They would have to be wrong.

They must not be understood.

Even if later ages called them a genius, in that place, in that moment, they would have to be a lunatic.

In other words, a paper written to be understood would not do.

It would have to be a grimoire.

Something that deserved to be called that.

A mad poet.

One who heard the voice of the night.

Abdul Alhazred.

He was probably close.

That was the impression I got.

Because there was a common point.

The Al Azif, which recorded the Old Ones, was, to put it roughly, a book containing knowledge from space. And the method for using Tree Crystals had also come from space.

Tooths, Insectum, and Bubbles.

If those were to be called hostile aliens, then naturally, there had to be aliens that were not hostile as well.

I had thought those were the Monoz.

But that was half right, and half wrong.

The being that had now, very honorably, become the fourth hostile alien.

The first thing that had come from space.

Tree Crystal.

That was humanity’s new enemy.

***

Tooths were, in truth, mutated Earth humans, so strictly speaking, they were not hostile aliens.

But apparently, during the Great War, they had been labeled aliens to loosen the psychological brakes involved in killing them.

Your transformed kin, or invaders.

Which is easier to kill?

That was the question.

Then what about the Insectum, Bubbles, and Tree Crystals?

That was to prevent people from getting careless.

Bugs.

Foam.

Stone.

If you looked at them through those preconceptions, it was obvious you would look down on them. So as a warning not to underestimate them, they were called not space organisms, but aliens.

Then what defined a person?

I was no philosopher, so for now, I would pick a famous answer.

Language.

Yes.

In other words, Tree Crystals talked.

“…”

What gathered all our gazes was a sphere.

Arawn-made Monoz Body: Pearl.

A white, shining body worthy of the name. It was not made for battle.

That beautiful sphere, stripped as much as possible of any ruggedness, was something like a ceremonial model, adopted by corporate upper management because appearances mattered. It had no offensive ability. No defensive ability either.

—We trust you.

That was the message it existed to send to guests.

So of course it did not need such things.

And now, “he” spoke.

『Now then. I believe it is time we formally give you our answer.』

It was a mechanical voice.

But not broken. Not halting.

It formed proper words with clear intent.

『As our symbiotic partner on this planet, we choose neither humans, nor Tooths, nor Bubbles, but the Insectum.』

“I would prefer not to have this happen in our generation. Could you perhaps postpone it a little?”

Edrym’s words drew a few dry laughs.

Unfortunately, I had not merely failed to keep up with the situation—I had been left completely behind—so I did not know where the funny part was.

Troubling.

Thinking that, I poured syrup and milk into my iced coffee and stirred.

Milky white entered black coffee and made an irreversible change.

Now then.

What to do?

As I was thinking that, Miss Henrietta, seated beside me, handed me a tablet.

Was this her way of telling me to watch a video and sit quietly?

That was what I thought, but apparently not. It seemed to be the agenda for this meeting. Important sections had been highlighted, which made it easy to understand.

I transferred it to my terminal and returned the tablet.

When I gave her a small bow, she lifted one hand as if to say, don’t worry about it.

I skimmed through.

For now, I understood what that earlier “symbiosis” meant.

A little over four hundred years had passed since the Tree Crystals fell. During that time, the Tree Crystals had apparently been selecting their next partner.

Their method was conflict. Which meant they had been very much the masterminds behind the wars.

During that process, the relatively weak human side had been given power in the form of Monoz.

Apparently, Tooths had also been that.

As part of lending power to humans, the Tree Crystals had evolved humans too. That much was fine, but there had been one miscalculation: the two sides did not blend.

They had intended to greatly strengthen the evolved humans—Tooths—by having them use Monoz as well, but alas, behold the ugliness of discrimination.

Humanity was far more exclusionary than expected, and the Tooths, being evolved from humans, apparently had the same tendency.

But discrimination is important, you know.

When mixing different things with different things, one ought to be careful.

…For some reason, I looked at my iced coffee.

And then there were the partners from another planet, the ones that had chased the Tree Crystals here.

Those were the Bubbles and the Insectum, and apparently, they intended to take the Tree Crystals—Earth included—for themselves.

There was plenty more that sounded like it belonged in a paranormal conspiracy rag.

Oh.

So Tree Crystals are silicon-based life-forms with carbon shells.

Hm?

Sunbathing is for breathing?

You can tell me they collect sunlight to turn silicon dioxide into gas, but I am afraid I do not quite understand.

While I skimmed through the agenda like that, opinions flew back and forth over being told the Tree Crystals had chosen the Insectum.

Honestly, I did not care.

I looked at the clock. It had already passed midnight. We were supposed to have a Smile Company meeting first thing in the morning.

“Um…”

In the middle of the heated argument, I raised a hand and gathered attention.

Whether the timing was good or bad, everyone fell silent and looked at me.

“…”

My throat felt a little stuck.

“Please let me ask just one thing. I understand that the Tree Crystals have joined hands with the Insectum and are trying to destroy us. —Then what about the Monoz who have been helping us until now? I can imagine the recent Monoz incidents come from that, but will it happen to every Monoz?”

『Excuse me, but you are?』

“Hound, from Doggy House. Ah… Mister Pearl?”

『I like that. Please call me Mr. Pearl, Hound.』

“Understood. Mr. Pearl.”

Now then.

“How does it work?”

『Yes and no.』

“Let’s not play word games.”

『Quite right. Then, simply, we leave it to the individual. We too have individual wills. We stayed beside you in order to judge you. Now that task is complete, some will decide there is no longer any need to remain. However—』

“Some will still choose to stay beside humans, the same as before?”

『That is correct.』

“I see. Thank you.”

I bowed my head.

I had asked what I needed to ask.

In that case, I had no business here.

“Should I delete the agenda data when I leave?”

When I asked, they said there was no particular need, so I left it as it was and stood.

『Are you leaving, Hound?』

“Yes. I am. I’m a Sleeper, so I have no intention of commenting on the policies of this era. It is enough for me to know my friends will likely remain my friends.”

『I see. —It seems your friends have found themselves a good friend.』

“I’d be happy if that were true.”

Well then.

I waved my right hand in goodbye.

As I rose from my seat, some important person shouted, “What is with that man!”

For a moment, Mr. Shimamura came into view.

So this was the reason Abacus had been trying to create weapons not derived from Tree Crystals.

Something like this.

That was what I thought.

“You should read Jump.”

As I passed Mr. Shimamura, I tapped his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

To connect effort to victory, friendship is indispensable.

People of the future did not seem to understand that part.

Then Rat Unit, Sheep Unit, Dog Unit, and Snake Unit rolled up to my feet.

My terminal chirped.

Apology: We are sorry we could not tell Friend the truth.

“Well, don’t worry about it. Even if you had told me something like this, I wouldn’t have known what to do with it.”

Question: Will Friend continue to be our friend?

“If you haven’t gotten sick of me, I’d like that.”

Resignation: Friend is liable to do anything if we take our eyes off him. We must continue watching him.

“Then I look forward to working with you from now on.”

Line: Indeed! Now, let us race toward the morning sun!

“Yes. Our battle has only just begun.”

The end.

…Incidentally.

Nothing had ended, and it was night.