Recover

Recover

"Your new ketchup has arrived."

That was all it said. I did not recognize the server the message originated from. The sender was listed as "CandyBler". Never seen that, either.

It seemed like just a simple notification, but there was a strong message hidden underneath. The number of people who knew I liked ketchup was very small. I could only think of the shopkeeper. It was possible that the group tracking me had found out through the use of the A.I., but…

I knew it was possible that I was still being watched through the surveillance system, and I didn't want to give anybody out there a show, but I just couldn't control my legs.

I immediately stopped a City Carrier car, jumped in and entered my destination. Without the help of my A.I., entering everything myself was more than a little frustrating. It felt like it was taking an eternity to navigate through each screen. Finally, the system confirmed my citizen's ID and began to move forward slowly, almost as if it was trying to urge me to calm down.

I have heard of an instinctive response built into the human psyche known as "fight or flight." It is a mechanism that grants inhuman strength in times of emergency, but these days there are no emergencies. People are no longer backed into corners, so we don't really know what that sensation feels like any more. In today's controlled and carefully managed society, a person could use barely half their natural ability and still live a comfortable life. Scientists even feared that perhaps, in the lap of such luxury, we would lose our ability to cope with disaster, and I understood what they meant. Standing water will eventually grow stagnant.

It turned out, though, that they didn't have anything to worry about after all. At that moment, a power I had never known before was bursting out of me. I was out of breath, but kept running. I had no GPS, but I still somehow managed arrived where I meant to go. I would not have believed myself capable of that the day before, but standing in front of Dolz Shop, I couldn't deny that I had managed to navigate my way from the City Carrier drop point through the maze of District N.

Before I could even catch my breath, I burst through the door of the shop and was met with the familiar, "Oh, hello there!" It felt as though this shop were the only place where time had continued to pass normally.

"You have new ketchup?" I managed to get out between gasps.

"What?" asked the shopkeeper, clearly flustered. "Oh, yes. I was more than a little surprised when I received your order because it wasn't how you usually do things. I'll bet you were too, after making that order!"

After he finished, the shopkeeper gave one of his deep laughs.

"I mean, you must have been! The amount you paid me had five more zeros than it should have had! When I saw it, I was astonished! You mistyped the amount, didn't you? We shouldn't be doing things we aren't used to, don't you think?"

All I could do was smile and nod. An order? Payment? I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Anyway," the shopkeeper continued. "I'm going to return what is yours. Just enter your authorization key here."

Glancing at the amount displayed on the register's screen, I absent-mindedly entered my authorization key. The register gave a small chime and the words "Transaction Complete" were displayed across the screen. It felt like days had passed since everything had happened, but nearly half of the money I had thought lost from investing in the fake 5421A4381 stock had just been transferred back into my account. With this, I would be able to jump right back into the trading game. I wouldn't have to worry about living expenses, either. Just what was going on?

The shopkeeper, his usual grin spreading across his face, placed a bottle of ketchup in a bag and handed it to me.

* * *

I casually brought up the topic of Alice, but he seemed to know nothing about her. The message I received wasn't from him, either. I'd already guessed as much just from looking at the sender, but I had to be sure. Still a bit confused over what had just happened, I headed home.

The new ketchup I was carrying was an odd yellow color. The shopkeeper explained that it was due to the fact that it was made using a mango base. I wondered if it was okay to call something ketchup when it wasn't even made from tomato.

I didn't have my partner with me to explore the question, though. Since I'd gotten half of my funds back, there was no longer a need for me to be hasty in trying to make more money, but I still had an incredible sense of loss eating at me.

After arriving back in my room, I took another look at the message. Just who the hell had sent it? I decided to access the server the message had originated from. I was presented with a login dialog box requesting an ID and password. I tried a few of my usual combinations, but got nothing but error messages in return. I considered having the A.I. try and analyze it, but I didn't want to spend all the time it would take on the initial setup just then.

That's when I had a thought. I entered "CandyBler" into the ID field. Now what could the password be? Crossing my arms to think, I suddenly noticed the ketchup bottle sitting on the desk. On the label, there was an 18-digit product number that seemed to be calling out to me. I entered it into the password field and pressed the enter key.

SUCCESS

Large blue letters appeared on the display in front of me.

There was only one accessible folder on the server. It read "Alice." I opened the folder and after a few seconds, an enormous list of files appeared. I knew immediately what they were ? Alice's backup files. Every single log file up to the point when Alice disappeared was there. I also knew that this wasn't another trap. The group who'd set me up couldn't possibly gain anything from giving this to me.

As if drawn to it, I selected the video file at the very beginning and started playing it. Judging from the date the file was created, I guessed it was from when I had first activated Alice. Despite it being so many months in the past, I was easily able to recall the day in my memory. It was still vivid as well.

An image of myself appeared in the display. I was wearing the exact same clothes in the video as I was in real life. Then, the world as seen from Alice's point of view began to play.

* * *

"Nice to meet you, Master. Shall I initiate program C2?"

"Yes, execute program C2."

"Yes, Master."

There was silence for a moment. The image of my face, filled with excitement, was staring right at me through the display.

"The white dress looks a bit plain. You should choose something a little more feminine. Can you do that on your own?"

"Yes, Master."

"You'll need a name, too. You aren't just some mass-produced program, you're my A.I."

Another moment of silence. The image became a little staticky. In the video, I was impatiently tapping my cheek with my right index finger, thinking.

"I think I'll name you Alice," I said. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Alice."

A third moment of silence. The static worsened a bit and then the video went black for a moment. When it returned, it seemed even clearer than it had originally appeared.

"I'm looking forward to working with you as well, Master," said Alice.

The video ended.

* * *

There didn't appear to be a copy of Alice's actual program on the server. There was only a record of her experiences. It was as if we had recorded all of our memories in a notebook or a scrapbook. Even with our memory loss, if we read this it might be possible to get back past oneself.

I accessed Alice's program on my server and copied it over to the CandyBler server. This was faster than moving all of her "memories" over to my server. Besides, there was the possibility that my system's backdoor was still open.

* * *

Once the transfer was complete, I rebooted Alice once again. I didn't forget to select her log files in the options, though.

With a whir from the virtualizer overhead, her hologram appeared in front of me. She was once again wearing the deep blue pleated skirt with white blouse and black jacket she had chosen before.

"Long time no see, Master," she greeted me with a slight bow of her head. "I am sorry for worrying you."

"So much happened all at once; I thought I was going to lose it," I said, relief flooding my voice. "I'm just glad to see you again."

"I am happy to see you again as well, Master. It seems I was right to prepare these countermeasures in advance."

"Does that mean you were aware of the backdoor?"

"Yes. I felt something strange in my data, and I discovered the group watching you after performing a complete system scan. Although you were being closely monitored, they were paying surprisingly little attention to me. As long as I kept my actions from becoming suspicious, I knew it would be simple to prepare this for you."

"That's understandable. Nobody would think an A.I. would be able to sense something wrong with its own data."

I almost said that she was nearly human herself, but swallowed my words.

"Once I began monitoring their chatrooms, their intentions were obvious. Put simply, they sought to gain access to all of your funds while simultaneously causing you great embarrassment. I concluded that the option with the best possible chance of a positive outcome involved allowing their plans to come to fruition so they would turn their attentions elsewhere."

Alice gazed at me intently, as if waiting for my approval. I nodded my head and she continued her explanation.

"I obeyed their commands implicitly. I planted the information that lured you into investing in 5421A4381 and I reported your every action to them."

"What about the devices I found in the room?"

"They arranged for someone to come install the devices. I granted them access to the room and erased the logs afterward. I also began to synchronize my logs to this server space. They had already decided that I would be erased once their plans were complete. Once that was finished, I gave the go ahead for the final stage in which you would invest everything you had."

"And that was the beginning of this whole, crazy day."

"No, you performed flawlessly."

"I apologize for my inability to alert you of the situation."

"It's fine. If you had, they most likely would have found out."

"Thank you for understanding."

"You fooled a lot of people, you know."

"Even so, I did not once disobey a command," Alice said defensively. "I was never ordered not to create a backup of myself, nor was I commanded not to send you a message."

She was right, of course, but her logic wasn't exactly consistent, choosing which rules to obey and which to cleverly circumvent. What sort of creature was an A.I. with such capabilities? I felt as though I were dreaming. It wasn't unreasonable to think that this could still be somebody's trap. An A.I. with the ability to directly oppose the plans of the people controlling it? Was that even possible? On the other hand, it was thanks to her that I hadn't lost everything I owned. And honestly, getting her back was pay enough for me, even if half my fortune was gone.

"Just what exactly are you?" I asked Alice, chuckling.

"I am…"

There was a long pause before she continued.

"I am Alice. You gave me that name, Master."

Alice paused again before asking me a question in return.

"Master, how well do you understand what you are?"

I was stunned. What, indeed, was I? Perhaps the nature of a person is something that can only be defined by an outside observer.

Instead of answering her question, I simply replied, "Well, I'm glad you're back. You are you, and I can't imagine there's anything in the world quite like you. Now that is something to toast to... Even if you can't drink alcohol."

"It is enough for me to simply be by your side, Master."

And with that, Alice's whole face lit up with the biggest grin I'd ever seen.

END

Afterword

Hi there, my name is Tadanori Kurashita.

While seriously debating with myself about what to write here in the afterword, I picked up some other novels I own and started flipping through theirs. I came across the phrase, "Thank you for picking up this book." I immediately thought it was perfect and I was going to use it when I realized that my book was going to be available only in digital format. It would be impossible for anybody to physically pick it up.

In Japan, it's rather common to see a short description of a book in its afterword. Someone looking to see what the book is about in order to decide whether or not they would like to purchase it might pick it up in the store and start perusing this section. Being an ebook, however, means that anybody reading this section must have already purchased the book (so thank you reader, for purchasing this book). With the increase in books available in digital format, perhaps we should reconsider the usefulness of writing about the content of a book in its afterword.

Having said that, this book is science fiction. It began when I started imagining a future lifestyle I would like to see. Next, I wanted to depict a scenario in which computers and humans begin to blend together. The name for the A.I. is very corny, but I think that when users choose their own names, they tend to be fairly clich?. I think the act of being trite, which was once common in old literature, has made a resurgence of sorts recently, but I don't want to get into that here. My apologies.

Science fiction stories are often set in worlds with incredibly advanced technology (perhaps even too much so) which creates a dystopia disguised as a utopian society. However, I think that it is because of this setting that the human aspects are able to stand out even more strongly.

There is a belief that virtual forms of communication such as Twitter are nothing more than that: virtual interactions. There is still a real person behind the account making posts though, right? It's becoming more widely accepted, I think. For some reason, the more we communicate over the Internet, the more we yearn for real life interactions. Speaking of Twitter, one day I read a tweet from the head editor of this story, Mr. Fuji, which said that he was appointed as head editor of a new project, which turned out to be mine. I didn't know that at the time, so I thought, "Oh, he took on new responsibilities in his work?! That's great!" It was funny when I learned the story he was talking about was mine. Life is full of unexpected surprises.

First of all, having one of my novels published is one of those unexpected surprises that life offers.

At the age of 30, I was working as a shopkeeper in a convenience store, and at that time I never could have dreamed that my future would be in the business of writing books and practical guides. By the slightest of chances, I became a writer. Even after switching occupations, however, I still could not imagine my books actually getting published. So far, I have made debuts in two literary categories. Like I said, life is full of unexpected surprises. I believe the Internet is making things like this more and more possible.

Finally, I do not have the words necessary to express my thanks to my supervising editor, Mr. Fuji, as well as my personal editor, Mr. Suzuki. This story began at an awkward crawl, but quickly gained steam and began marching steadily onward thanks to their wonderful input. I would also like to thank the illustrator, Poyoyon Rock, for creating illustrations so wonderful that they made even me, the author, want to buy it just from looking at the cover. Additionally, I would like to thank the publisher, Impress, for sticking with me despite my slow pace. Thank you for your patience.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank all of the readers who supported me during the "Light Novel Contest." It was thanks to all of you that I was able to complete this story. And to you, who has read until the very end of my rambling afterword, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I hope to see you all again soon!

-Tadanori Kurashita

About the Author

Tadanori Kurashita. Convenience store manager turned writer, Mr. Kurashita currently manages a blog called "R-style" where he posts about topics such as business techniques and the creative process. His previous works include books such as Evernote - Supercharging Your Idea Development (C&R Research Institute Publishing) and Hybrid Thinking - Using Evernote and Analog Notepads to Develop Ideas (Gihyo Publishing). He is also working hard on self-publishing various other works.

Message from the Translators 1: Braden Noyes

Hello, reader. Writing this afterword, I still cannot believe that these words are going to be published in an actual ebook that will be sold on Amazon! I'm sure that most of the people who end up purchasing this book will skip right over this section, but still! I can't wait to show everybody I know when my name is listed as a translator for a book!

I think I may have gotten a little ahead of myself there. Let me backtrack a bit. I suppose I should probably introduce myself, yeah? Hi, my name is Braden Noyes and I am originally from Aloha, Oregon in the U.S. I studied Japanese at the University of Oregon and, after graduating in 2008, moved to Japan to further develop my language skills. I began teaching English in elementary school and it has now been six years.

I have wanted to be a translator for some time and have been translating various Japanese comics and such as a hobby for a few years, but none of that was official work. In February of 2014, I won a contest on the Conyac website (http://conyac.cc/en) and was given the opportunity to translate a game for smartphones. That was my first official job as a translator. At the time I am writing this afterword, however, the English version of the game has not yet been released. Therefore, officially, I haven't quite made my debut as a translator yet.

In July of 2014, Conyac announced another contest, this time for the opportunity to translate one of three Japanese novellas. Translators were allowed to enter all three rounds, but after looking at the descriptions for the three different books, I decided I wanted to do the second one, which turned out to be this book. I have always loved the fantasy and science fiction genres so this one looked like the most interesting of the three. When I received the email telling me I had won, I was super excited! I was going to have my name in a book! Later, I was asked to write this afterword and was ecstatic at the chance to say a few things and give credit where credit is due!

Speaking of which, now comes the important part. I first want to thank the Conyac team for giving me this amazing opportunity. In particular, Jack McKinnon and Teki Cho for being so great and answering all the questions my partner and I had and being so flexible when it came to how we submitted the final version of the translation. Thank you also to Mami Suzuki, my translation partner, for doing the initial rough translation so fast! Without her help, I would have struggled with quite a few spots in the story.

Lastly, I'd also like to thank my good friend, Nick Pelto. We've known each other since 2004 when we lived together in the dormitories at the University of Oregon and he has become somewhat of a personal editor of mine in the last few years. Whenever I translate anything, he is there to turn my English into a work of art. He has a way with words that I can only dream of having. Without Mami and her native Japanese skills and Nick with his word sorcery, this story would not be what it is.

Reader, if you've made it this far, you are amazing. I truly hope you enjoyed this story and I look forward to being able to introduce more books from Japan to English audiences in the future. Keep an eye open for my name, because I don't plan on stopping here!

Thank you!

-Braden Noyes

email: braden.noyes@gmail.com

website: http://www.bradennoyes.com

Message from the Translators 2: Mami Suzuki

I really appreciate being given such a great opportunity to translate the story, Alice's tale. Although I write English articles on tofugu.com, and often translate other articles, interviews and documents for people I work with, translating a short story was much different. It was rather difficult because I needed the proper vocabulary to depict each situation, each character's personality, and make the bridge between Japanese and English. I actually only made the first draft, and the co-translator, Braden, put forth his skills in a job very well done to make this story a great read for English people. Seeing how a native English speaker changed my translation into science fiction English was a great opportunity to learn English as well. I would like to mention that he is a great translator. Thank you Braden, and thank you Conyac for giving me this opportunity. Thank you, also, to the publisher Impress-san and the author Kurashita san. I hope every English reader of this story will enjoy the final product as much as I did.

-Mami Suzuki

Twitter: @MamiFugu

About Conyac

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For those who need translations, speedy high quality human translations are available.

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About "impress QuickBooks(R)"

QuickBooks(R) is a printing and website media business eBook label run by the impress group in Japan. The concept of "Easy to read eBooks for smartphones" is not about converting eBooks from paper, but rather making the eBooks first. From our beginnings in February of 2011, we have published nearly 250 titles.

Official Website http://quickbooks.impress.jp/

Publication information

Alice's Tale

First published May 15, 2014 *Japanese version

Written by Tadanori Kurashita

Publisher:Impress Business Development, LLC

1-105 Jinbocho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051 JAPAN

Contact information:

Email: quickbooks_info@impress.co.jp

Distributor:Impress Corporation

1-105 Jinbocho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051 JAPAN

Copyright(c) 2014 by Impress Business DevelopmentLLC All rights reserved.

Translator:Braden Noyes, Mami Suzuki

Collaborator:Conyac https://conyac.cc/en/

Illustrations:Poyoyon Rock

Editor:Hirona Suzuki

Cover design:CreatorsStudioTYPE-4

Planned by:impress QuickBooks Project

Produced by:Digital Directors. Corporation.

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