Chapter 22
"Mr. Kanzaki, shouldn't you tell your teacher?"
"My teacher is a long-lived species. A hundred and some years is nothing more than a grain of sand in her life. To her, I'm just an insignificant passerby. Besides… she doesn't like to be disturbed."
"…" Clarisse's face showed no surprise.
That was exactly the kind of thing Kanzaki Tomomu would say.
Even though he was about to die, he still didn't want to trouble his teacher.
Perhaps to his teacher he really was nothing more than a trivial passerby.
But to him, his teacher was the most important person in his entire life.
He lived in seclusion in the mountains, never married, had no children, and most of what he did revolved around her.
He cleaned her house regularly, trimmed the path leading to it, tended the plum grove year after year to brew wine, and sent it to her.
He never disturbed her in any other way.
All of it showed how much space his teacher occupied in his heart — more than anything else.
If even news of his death would be a disturbance, wasn't that a kind of cruelty in itself?
Wasn't it too heartless?
Clarisse couldn't help thinking that.
"Is there anything left unfinished… I can help with it, Kanzaki Tomomu."
"…There's a bottle of medicine in the inner pocket of my white coat. Pour out four pills and give them to me, please."
Clarisse looked at the white coat hanging nearby. When she reached into the inner pocket, she noticed a small plum blossom embroidered inside.
She stayed silent for a few seconds, took out the bottle, returned to the bedside, carefully poured four pills, and helped Kanzaki Tomomu swallow them.
The medicine worked quickly.
In less than two minutes, under Clarisse's gaze, Kanzaki Tomomu regained his youthful appearance.
Yet he only gave a helpless smile.
Before, it hadn't even taken half a minute…
Looking at the all-too-familiar face of Kanzaki Tomomu, Clarisse could no longer hold back her tears.
Unable to suppress the impulse, she threw herself into his arms and cried loudly.
Kanzaki Tomomu raised his hand, wanting to gently hug her back, but his arm stopped halfway and finally dropped without a sound.
At this point, how could he not see the girl's feelings?
If he couldn't give her any promise and couldn't give her a future, it was better not to start anything at all.
A dandelion seed that never lands in the soil will never take root. In the end it simply drifts away with the wind.
Kanzaki Tomomu stayed completely still and let Clarisse's tears soak his clothes.
Sadness was the girl's right and her freedom. He had no right to stop it.
Kanzaki Tomomu turned his head and looked out the window.
It had started snowing again, and heavily.
He checked the time and realized he had been unconscious for nearly a full day.
He didn't know how long had passed when Clarisse finally stopped crying. She simply held Kanzaki Tomomu in silence.
"I'll walk you home later. If you stay out all night, Mrs. Durand will worry." Kanzaki Tomomu spoke gently.
"…Mother has already gone back to our home planet…"
"I see."
"Mr. Kanzaki, let me stay with you until the end. Please… don't refuse me."
Because… this is the only thing I can still hope for…
The girl didn't dare lift her face. She was afraid of seeing rejection in his eyes, and even more afraid of hearing those gentle, polite excuses.
"…Alright." Kanzaki Tomomu answered with just one soft word.
...
[Remaining Lifespan: 1 day 2 hours 24 minutes 41 seconds]
Inside the folding space, a humanoid mechanical body floated quietly above the assembly area in front of Kanzaki Tomomu.
His ten fingers flew across the control console in a blur as he made the final adjustments to the program.
He implanted a partial digitized backup of his own memories into the core and set absolute primary directives that could not be overridden.
Clarisse stood to the side, watching everything in silence.
She knew what this machine was for, and she knew it hadn't been bought from the company.
Light flowed across the assembly area. The mechanical body rapidly grew tissue as if bones and flesh were forming, quickly taking on Kanzaki Tomomu's exact appearance.
Kanzaki Tomomu stopped his hands, his fingertip hovering over the confirmation key.
"Kanzaki Tomomu… can you change how it looks?" Clarisse suddenly asked.
Even though he had made it, she didn't want to see another face that looked exactly like his.
"Using someone else's data would violate portrait rights. Using my own is the most convenient and carries no risk."
Kanzaki Tomomu made a rare small joke.
He reached out and pinched the mechanical doll's skin. The texture felt almost identical to real human skin.
Only the face was blank and expressionless, the eyes vacant, showing no emotion at all.
Kanzaki Tomomu didn't need it to have emotions.
As long as it faithfully carried out the primary directives.
Should he delete the language module or keep it…? He hesitated.
Clarisse sighed quietly and said nothing more.
In the next second, she saw another afterimage from the past.
It was the process of Kanzaki Tomomu building this mechanical doll.
In that moment, she deeply understood her mother's words—
[Life is a winding labyrinth. Aside from memory, we have nothing.]
Then she remembered Kanzaki Tomomu's interpretation of those words, and the short, cruel story he had told.
She remembered… the answer he had given when she asked if he would remember her.
—He had said: Of course I will, and it needs no reason.
Now, she also wanted to remember Kanzaki Tomomu — every part of him.
And she needed no reason either.
Clarisse understood everything.
If even she forgot Kanzaki Tomomu, then he would truly be gone forever.
Every time she thought of him, he would live again through her, as if he had never died.
"Self-check complete. Beginning activation."
Kanzaki Tomomu lightly tapped the confirmation key, pulling Clarisse back to the present.
He had decided to keep the language module.
The mechanical doll's eyes slowly lit up with a faint glow.
It slowly turned its neck and moved its limbs. At first the motions were stiff and lacked any human naturalness.
But as time passed, its movements became smoother and more lifelike.
All the simple preset actions passed the test perfectly.
A calm synthetic voice sounded, gradually adjusting until it closely matched Kanzaki Tomomu's own tone.
"Primary directives confirmed. Protocol complete. Please specify the first test content."
Kanzaki Tomomu gave a small nod. He moved the mechanical doll from the assembly area to the floor, then pulled Clarisse back a few steps.
"Within three seconds, perfectly imitate my behavior patterns."
The mechanical doll's gaze locked onto Kanzaki Tomomu.
The next instant, its posture, movements, and even the slight habitual curl of its fingertips matched Kanzaki Tomomu exactly.
If not for the still-expressionless face, it would have been almost impossible to tell the two apart.
Kanzaki Tomomu gave the second test command: "Switch to combat mode. Target: virtual markers ahead."
The moment the words left his mouth, several targets instantly appeared inside the folding space.
The doll moved in a blur. Its right arm whipped out like a lash, carrying a sharp gust of wind.
Every strike during the rapid flashes hit the center of the targets. The motions were crisp, precise, and elegant.
Kanzaki Tomomu stared at the data screen as the numbers jumped rapidly.
The combat mode's action logic was stable, and reaction time was better than expected. It had met every requirement.
A doll without high-level autonomous intelligence still needed self-defense capability.
"Next we test energy attack functions. There's not enough room here. Follow me."
Kanzaki Tomomu turned. The other "him" followed faithfully.
Clarisse followed silently as well.
On the quiet, empty snowfield, the doll fired a single energy blast that carved a fifty-meter-wide crater into the ground, shaking the earth slightly.
Kanzaki Tomomu was very satisfied with that destructive power.
It was more than enough to deal with ordinary threats.
After all, the original purpose of building it had never been for killing.
"It's cold. Let's go back."
"Kanzaki Tomomu… there's only one day left, isn't there…" Clarisse's voice was extremely low.
Kanzaki Tomomu paused for a moment, then gave a soft laugh.
"Yes."
---
T/N: Heya~
Hope you're enjoying the fic so far!
and since it's a new book, would be really appreciate if you stone me to death. like i would preferer to. no need to look at me like I'm some kind of pervert....
but yeah, show me some love or this fic with some power stones!~
Thanks for reading~
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