It was in darkness.

Its mind had awakened, and yet It could not move Its body.

It could not open Its eyes.

Its ears could not hear.

It could not smell or feel.

If It had been human, It would have gone mad in half a day. But It was not human. It was not even, in the normal sense of the word, a living creature.

It could wait forever, for It did not have a concept of life span. Ever since Its mind awoke, It had thought about what It was residing in and what It was. In order to find out, It began to absorb Itself into Its container.

It immediately knew what It was. It didn’t even have to think what had given It, residing in this empty doll, a mind. Its container was empty, so It would never be confused by other fleeting thoughts.

It knew the purpose for which It had been born. Now It needed only to gain the ability to act.

After waiting patiently for some time, It suddenly felt an energy blow into the container.

Quickly, It gained control over Its new “body.” The knowledge It needed to do so was stored in its “brain.” The process was different from the previous time, but fortunately, It did not remember that time. Last time, It had also experienced the conversion of electric signals flitting about in its brain into psionic signals. It did not remember, but It knew how, and thankfully, this container had a large accumulation of psions.

Now permeating the body, It read the psionic signals emitted toward Its inside. That taught It how to use this body. Its eyes could see. Its ears could hear. Its fingers, Its arms, Its legs moved. Now that person would make use of It. Moving as It wished, It began to want to express a feeling of happiness on Its face.

But Its expression did not change. This body was not possessed of the function to create expressions. Thus, as It searched for that person using the brain It had acquired, It decided to try expressing happiness with Its own power.

February 15.

Instead of yesterday’s giddy mood, an odd sense of confusion drifted through the First High campus.

The entire student body, however, was not involved. On the contrary—most students had no direct connection to this event.

Nevertheless, confusion rides on the waves of curiosity, and in the blink of an eye it had spread to the whole school.

Tatsuya visited the site during their lunch break before eating anything.

No, he wasn’t exhibiting a rabble-like curiosity. A freshman he knew—this one the very definition of someone directly involved—had pleaded with him until he reluctantly decided to come.

“Oh, Shiba!”

Upon spotting him, Isori came up to him, his voice relieved for some reason.

“Hello, Isori. Did Nakajou drag you here as well?”

Nakajou was Azusa. He couldn’t call her “president” yet because his mental image of the student council president being Mayumi was too strong. Kanon stood at Isori’s side, her default position. If he strained to look into the crowd, he could see club committee chairman Hattori’s figure as well.

“This phenomenon has a lot of the students feeling uneasy, so…” answered Azusa herself, a little uneasily. She’d been summoned for this, but she must not have been very suited for the circumstances.

“If it is true, however, I would think this issue too much for a high school student to handle. What did the teachers say?”

Tatsuya saw the classmate who had dragged him along made an unhappy look when he said “if it is true,” but the whole story was utterly unbelievable from his point of view.

A 3H (Humanoid Home Helper: a human-shaped robot that helped with chores)—a doll with mechanical functions—had, apparently, smiled, then emitted magical energy.

If all that had happened was a doll smiling, it wouldn’t have drawn this much attention. Humanoid robots equipped with the ability to change expressions were already in trial runs. If a type P-94, which didn’t have that function, really did change the look on its face, that would have been an emergency by itself, but those unfamiliar with the technological aspects certainly wouldn’t have paid it very much attention. And it was a somewhat common trend for magic high school students to equate nonmagical technology with pure mechanical technology.

But if a robot that shouldn’t have been able to change its expression suddenly smiled and cast a spell, then that was a horror story no magic high school student would be able to ignore.

The magic they used was occult, but not the horror-story type. They regularly manipulated paranormal truths, which might be why they felt fear and unease at something that departed from those truths.

“Mr. Tsuzura has been looking into it, but he said he couldn’t give us a clear conclusion.”

“He couldn’t even deny it?”

“Nope,” answered Isori, the perplexity on his face deepening. “We detected traces of high-density psions from the P-94’s body. According to Mr. Tsuzura, they were emitted from inside the chest area, toward the outside.”

Isori’s response, perhaps understandably, made Tatsuya’s brow furrow.

“A 3H’s chest region is where its electronic brain and containment vessels for fuel cells are, right? Which one did it come from?”

A 3H’s construction consisted of a communication unit and main sensor in the head, one fuel cell each in the left and right chest with an electronic brain positioned between them, and information and energy circuits running throughout its skeletal frame.

If they said it was the chest region, the emission source was probably the electronic brain, but…

“He said it was from close to the electronic brain. Seriously… They’re going too far with this.”

The answer was what Tatsuya expected. He and Isori both wanted to sigh.

It went without saying, but electronic brains weren’t built to emit psions. You needed a Reaction Stone to convert between electronic signals and psionic ones, and there was no need to fit a 3H—nothing more than a home automaton terminal—with one. And there was none in this one—at least, that’s what he thought.

“…Did a club member customize it?”

He was referring to the robotics research club. At the moment, they were conversing in the garage assigned as their club room.

“If they did, we wouldn’t be so worried.”

His question, which was not at all serious, was answered by a voice drily chuckling.

The lame joke didn’t help to lighten the mood.

“Besides, we saw traces of psycheons, too. We don’t know whether they came from the inside or the outside, though.”

“After all, psycheon measurement devices aren’t nearly as advanced as psion sensors are.”

Isori said it lightly and brushed it off, but the information he’d just stated gave Tatsuya’s thought processes a strong kick into gear.

A crazy theory built itself up in his mind. He willed his rampaging thoughts to slow down, then pushed the source of them, his theory, into a corner of his mind for now.

“It’s not doing anything strange when you try to control it, is it? Like moving on its own?”

“No, not at the moment. It’s obeying a command to stand by in suspend mode, too.”

He felt a presence behind him, wanting to say something to him. Miyuki and Honoka had probably bought him a packed lunch, worried he’d miss his meal at this rate.

“What would you like me to do, then?”

But his conversation with Isori wasn’t over yet. He couldn’t enjoy his food without knowing why he’d called him here.

“We want you to check P-94’s electronic brain. CADs are the one machine usually mentioned when it comes to linking electronic and magical technology. And you’re the most knowledgeable about CAD software in our school. At least, I think so. Because of the Nines.”

After saying that much, Isori seemed to finally notice the peanut gallery and lowered his voice.

“We want you to make sure there’s nothing like what happened at the competition—like Electron Goldworm—mixed into it.”

“I see.”

Tatsuya finally pieced together Isori’s concern.

If this was all a latent, long-term spell, then its expression change aside, it might be able to make the doll seem like it used magic. He wondered what the hacker would have to gain from that, but the possibility wasn’t zero that this was a criminal prank, either.

“All right. But I can’t do a thorough enough check here, so may I use the maintenance room?”

“That’s fine. I’ll get permission right now.”

The answer came from Azusa as her practiced fingers flowed across her portable terminal. After she spoke, she sighed a little in relief and brought her face back up.

“I’ve gotten permission to use the maintenance room. You’ll have until the end of fourth period.”

Secretly, Tatsuya thought to himself, You mean you’re ordering me to cut classes?

The room furnished with an automatic adjuster-equipped CAD was called the fitting room. Normally, this was the room students and faculty used when they wanted to adjust their personal CADs.

As for the maintenance room, it was not only for adjusting CADs to match their users but for doing arrangement and tuning on CADs themselves. It had devices capable of performing detailed settings changes and simple modifications. But the devices were highly specialized and difficult to handle, making the room rarely used. This was where Tatsuya brought P-94’s main body.

In addition to Isori and Azusa, he was accompanied by Miyuki, Honoka, Erika, Leo, Mikihiko, and Mizuki—the usual crowd. Tatsuya’s client, whether overwhelmed by the prominent lineup or uncomfortable with the tightly bound group, fled in haste.

Kanon, taking a page out of Miyuki and Honoka’s book, was running off to buy food. Hattori had shut the door on the unnecessary spectators. Despite Hattori being one of them himself, he’d let Erika and Leo be in attendance, giving a glimpse into his complex personality. Of course, it wasn’t necessarily a flaw. For instance, Isori and Azusa looked much more relieved to be out of sight of the curious onlookers.

“For now, would you tell me what happened?”

Biting into the hot sandwich Isori said he could go ahead and eat, Tatsuya first looked for accurate information.

“I only know the rumors going through school.”

The classmate who had dragged Tatsuya in hadn’t given him ample explanation of the situation, either.

“The incident started exactly at seven this morning.”

At Tatsuya’s request, Isori nodded as if to say, that’s reasonable, and began to explain in a businesslike tone.

February 15, 7 AM.

The 3H type P-94, code name Pixie, kept in the robot club’s garage, came out of suspend mode due to an external wireless charging. Humanoid Home Helpers, chore-assistance robots abbreviated as 3H, came equipped with a timer function that would restart them using an internal energy source. However, considering the load this placed on their fuel cells, it was recommended to use an external energy source to turn them on.

Pixie had awakened at this time, when students hadn’t yet arrived at school, in accordance with its execution of a self-diagnostic program. A 3H’s usage manual stated that it was desirable to have the 3H run a self-diagnostic program before completely booting it up every morning. Regular households didn’t follow this process very much, but the robot club had been lent P-94 partly for product testing, so they faithfully followed all items in the manual.

As mentioned previously, there were no students in that garage. The status of this self-diagnostic was automatically monitored by a server with a remote control application installed on it, and the machine was watched by cameras in the garage to see if it made any strange movements.

The self-diagnostic process ended without detecting any abnormalities. The program exited, and the 3H should have gone back into suspend mode at this point.

However, the supposedly error-free 3H did not cease functions as specified.

After the self-diagnostic program ended, P-94 began to communicate with the server. The data it tried to access was the school’s student records.

The remote control app, deciding there was a high possibility of a malware infection, transmitted a forced shutdown command. Any machine controlled by an electronic brain, not just 3Hs, prioritized this forced shutdown command above all else. Using any sanely designed OS (meaning one that wouldn’t let the machine go out of control) made it impossible to resist on the software end.

Machines for military use were sometimes constructed with a device that would shut out any remote commands, but no such hardware was ever included in a consumer model. P-94 didn’t have any hardware like that, either, of course. Even if it took time to completely shut down in order to switch to a sequence that would safely end processes, it was impossible to ignore the command itself.

Despite all that, Pixie’s functions did not cease.

Its access requests to the server continued after the command was sent, and when the server closed off wireless transmissions, P-94’s strange activity finally stopped.

During its erroneous operation, the observation cameras recorded Pixie with a happy-looking smile on its face

“Its expression was kind of excited, like it was eager about something.”

As Isori wrapped up the explanation, Azusa’s face seemed to pale a little. For her, that smile must have been creepy. If he saw a mechanical doll that wasn’t supposed to be able to change its expression make a face like that at him, even Tatsuya doubtlessly would have found it a little shiver-inducing.

“I looked at P-94’s logs, and the forced shutdown command was transmitted for sure. I mean, it’s hard to believe, but if the logs aren’t mistaken, that means the command was executed inside P-94’s electronic brain.”

After hearing that, Tatsuya appeared to think for a bit.

“…If P-94 kept operating even after it should have electronically stopped, then the machine was being controlled by some sort of signal that wasn’t an electrical command sent from some other part of its body than the electronic brain. My idea is that it was a psionic wave by itself or one accompanying a magical force.”

“Sharp as ever, Shiba. You’re right. That’s what Mr. Tsuzura said, and I don’t think any other explanation fits.”

“I understand… I’ll take a look.”

As far as explanation went, the most reasonable one was that a new sort of virus had infected it, but that wouldn’t explain the “smile.” He hesitated to use his “vision” in front of Isori and Azusa, but it seemed like he wouldn’t get anywhere unless he looked.

“Pixie, cancel suspend mode,” said Tatsuya to the robot modeled after a girl sitting on a self-propelled cart (more accurately, sitting on a chair affixed to the cart).

Effects appeared immediately. That meant voice input was working normally. The robot given the nickname Pixie blinked its eyes open, stood from its seat, and bowed deeply.

“What do you require?”

The usual boot-up phrase flowed smoothly from its subtly moving lips.

The preset phrase played back fluently, without needing any clause construction, but it still felt closer to human speech than it had before.

“I want to view the control log and the communication log starting from 7 AM this morning. Lie down faceup on that stand and move into inspection mode.”

“Confirming administrative privileges.”

Tatsuya’s command was one that required administrative privileges, and Pixie’s response was, in turn, a preset voice line.

Because she (?) hadn’t gotten off the cart yet, she peered up into Tatsuya’s eyes, slightly higher than hers Of course, that would be if a human was doing those things. In actuality, she was looking at his entire face. But technology to conduct iris recognition at this distance had not yet been realized.

Incidentally, Tatsuya had not been registered as one of Pixie’s administrators. Thus, he couldn’t use facial recognition to get through the security, so he had to display evidence that he had sufficient privileges.

In fact, the card that indicated his administrator privileges was clipped to his breast pocket.

So normally, Pixie’s gaze wouldn’t have been on his face—it should have been on his breast pocket.

Nevertheless.

Pixie’s gaze.

It remained locked, unmoving, on Tatsuya’s face.

Nothing happened for a time as she did what would most suitably be called gazing.

As everyone else, not just Tatsuya and Azusa, started to realize something was strange, Pixie moved.

From her mouth came a soft voice that said “I found you,” and stepping with motions that could be called careful, she got down from the cart and, a moment later, leaped toward Tatsuya.

Can’t evade!

In the back of Tatsuya’s mind…

Threat level low.

…compressed thoughts flashed.

Tatsuya caught Pixie’s small body, a head shorter than his, face-first.

3Hs were designed with home usage in mind, so they were made of lightweight materials.

It wasn’t much of an impact. It was probably about the same as an average adult female’s embrace.

A wordless cry went up.

Pixie’s arms were locked around the back of Tatsuya’s neck.

In other words, she was, in fact, embracing him from the front.

No one, Tatsuya included, could produce words.

The term dumbfounded was probably invented for times like this.

That was the level of surprise dominating the room.

A robot performing such a passionate, emotional expression was impossible—

“…Heh. Tatsuya is even popular with robots.”

The one who broke the silence filling the room was the one who hadn’t been around for the moment of impact.

Kanon, who had just entered the room a moment ago, joked in an unamused voice.

With that, paralyzed emotions began to restart one by one.

Tatsuya felt a piercing glare on his back. From directly behind him, someone was sending him cold waves of blizzard-like anger.

It seemed Miyuki was the one who had recovered the quickest from the “shock wave.” Still, it was rather dubious as to whether or not she had recovered to her normal state.

“…I was not aware you had a hobby of playing with dolls, Brother.”

“First of all, just calm down, Miyuki.”

It would have been one thing if it had been only Honoka directing a critical look at him. But Tatsuya never would have thought his own sister would falsely accuse him of adultery (?). To think of having himself regarded as such a person on a daily basis, that was definitely what stung more.

“I wasn’t the one who hugged her, here. She hugged me.”

“With your physical abilities, Brother, it should have been quite easy to dodge.”

She was right—if he’d wanted to avoid her, he could have. A 3H’s maximum mechanical output was set to be lower than an average adult female. This was so it didn’t accidentally break any furniture or dishes, and above all so that it wouldn’t injure the owner’s family by a slight mishap.

“If I had dodged, it would have hit you, wouldn’t it?”

But he still hadn’t dodged her because Miyuki had been right behind him. With the difference in body weight, Tatsuya could have caught her without a problem, but it was highly possible Miyuki would have been knocked over.

“Whoa, you figured out all that in the blink of an eye?”

“Come on. It was easy to see, you just have to look.”

After Leo voiced his surprise, seeming like he was about to clap for Tatsuya, Erika made a retort. It was a little late to be surprised.

“…I’m terribly sorry for my rudeness…”

Miyuki, who, on the other hand, didn’t understand that (or rather, didn’t think that far), put her hands to her mouth, wilted, and apologized. She looked depressed but also a little bit happy.

“More importantly, we need to do something about Pixie,” suggested Azusa hesitantly, finally getting going again.

Looking down at Pixie, who was still hugging him, Tatsuya grinned uncomfortably.

“Pixie, please move.”

At Tatsuya’s order, the soft resin-wrapped arms gave a twitch This should have been nothing more than a simple reaction to the motors starting.

Pixie obediently let go of him. The fact that she looked reluctant must have been a simple trick of the light.

It must have also been their imagination that her gaze at Tatsuya seemed filled with passion. All of it should have been an illusion—but Tatsuya, for some reason, couldn’t ignore it.

“Cancel the command for a mode change. Pixie, sit on that bed.”

“At once.”

This time, she immediately obeyed the instruction. It wasn’t a command that needed administrative privileges—would be the sensible interpretation, but with the previous scene burned into everyone’s eyes, it ended up looking like she did what Tatsuya said because it was Tatsuya who had said it.

“Mizuki?” Tatsuya stated next.

“Y-yes?” Mizuki, who had fallen completely into spectator mode, yelped out in surprise.

She wasn’t the only one who thought it was unexpected—Isori and Kanon were looking at him skeptically as well.

“Mizuki, could you take a look inside Pixie? Mikihiko, I want you to be on guard so she doesn’t suffer any major injury.”

“…You think Pixie is possessed by something?” asked Mikihiko, unconsciously lowering his voice.

“Something? That’s a roundabout way of putting it, Mikihiko.”

Tatsuya’s answer wasn’t a direct one, either, but it was enough to convey what he was predicting.

Mikihiko took out a paper talisman in place of his CAD, which he was restricted from carrying (in school), and focused his mind on it.

Mizuki seemed to sense what Tatsuya was thinking, too. Her countenance nervous and a little afraid, she nevertheless set her gaze on the robot and removed her glasses.

Her eyes opened wide.

Before her mouth could open, a change came to Pixie.

An expression appeared on the uncanny-valley mask.

By being seen, its existence took root—this, too, was one of those phenomena.

“It’s there… The parasite.”

Someone gasped.

Everyone aside from Mizuki expressed surprise in their own way, then prepared themselves in their own way, too.

“But…”

Mizuki’s remark wasn’t completed.

“This pattern, it’s…”

After frowning and groaning in thought, Mizuki abruptly turned around.

“Huh? What?”

At the end of her gaze was Honoka.

After carefully watching Honoka, Mizuki’s gaze went back and forth between her and Pixie a few times.

“This pattern… It’s just like Honoka’s.”

And at the conclusion Mizuki came to…

“What?!”

Honoka raised her voice in shock.

“…What does that mean?”

Kanon was the one who was willing to be frank enough to ask the question, but she wasn’t the only one thinking it.

“The parasite is under the influence of Honoka’s thought waves.” Faced with natural surprise and a natural question, Mizuki gave an unusually distinct, definite answer.

“Umm, does that mean she’s controlling it?”

“No, I don’t believe it’s that sort of connection.” Mizuki shook her head at Isori’s question. “There isn’t a line connecting Honoka and the parasite. It’s more like the parasite is copying Honoka’s thoughts. Or maybe I should say that Honoka’s ‘feelings’ have been burned into the parasite.”

“I didn’t do anything like that!”

“She’s not saying you did it on purpose.” Seeing Honoka on the verge of panic, Tatsuya soothed her. “Right, Mizuki?”

“Um, yes. It’s not conscious. They’re more like residual thoughts.”

They’d prevented the panic from breaking out.

But the questions were a long way from being answered.

“Residual thoughts… In other words, strong feelings Mitsui felt just happened to get copied by the parasite floating around nearby? And then it possessed Pixie? Or did Mitsui’s thoughts get imprinted on the parasite while it was inside Pixie…?”

Mikihiko’s words served the purpose of organizing his own thoughts; he was essentially talking to himself.

But a moment after he finished, Honoka suddenly looked down.

She was covering her face with both hands.

The color of her face seen through the cracks was quite a bit redder than normal.

She seemed to have a good idea about this.

Before anyone could press her with more questions—

“That is correct.”

—the answer came from the person—or perhaps robot, in this case—herself.

“I awakened to especially strong feelings toward him.”

Pixie’s lips were imitating a person’s lip movements when they spoke.

But those “words” didn’t ring in their ears—they rang in their minds.

“Active telepathy?” Azusa mumbled.

“The residual psions must have actually been psychic power, not magic,” answered Tatsuya before walking up in front of Pixie.

“Can you communicate through speech?”

“I am able to understand speech. However, it is difficult to control this body’s vocal organs, so please allow me to use telepathy in order to communicate my intent.”

“That’s because they’re not organs—it’s a machine. More importantly, you seem to be communicating in our language quite well. How did you learn it?”

“I have inherited the knowledge of my previous host.”

“Then are you the parasite from before?”

“Parasite—an organism that feeds off another organism. Yes, We are something similar to that.”

“Then that’s how you all change hosts. How many people have you sacrificed thus far?”

“Sacrifice—I have an objection to this concept. As for how many, I cannot answer that question. I do not remember.”

Nobody wanted to interrupt the conversation between Tatsuya and the parasite inside Pixie.

Everyone had been holding their breath, gazing at them, one man and one machine.

“So many that you don’t remember the exact number?”

“That is incorrect. The only thing we can inherit when shifting host bodies is the knowledge detached from the host’s personality. We lose all memories linked to their personality upon moving.”

“I see. That means you don’t know what kind of person your previous host was. And you don’t remember whether there was one, two, or more of them.”

“That is correct. Your understanding is accurate.”

“I see you can offer your own impressions in addition to answering questions. Do all of you have emotions as well?”

“We, too, possess a desire for self-preservation.”

“You mean to say you possess likes and dislikes originating in deciding whether things are beneficial or detrimental to self-preservation.”

Tatsuya paused for a moment.

“But I’m not concerned right now with what that wellspring of emotion is.” Then he tilted his chin. “What should we call you?”

“We have no name, so please call this individual by its nickname, Pixie.”

“Are you able to extract knowledge from that electronic brain as well?”

“It became possible after gaining control over this body, but this individual nickname is one you called me by a moment ago.”

“Then, Pixie, are you our enemy?”

“I am subordinate to you.”

“To me? Why?”

“I want to be yours.”

Pixie, the parasite residing inside it, directed a remarkably passionate gaze at Tatsuya.

“I awoke from my resting state because of her—the individual named Honoka Mitsui’s—thoughts.”

After a muffled cry, a groan escaped from a covered mouth and reached Tatsuya’s ears.

He glanced behind himself and saw Miyuki and Erika teaming up to cover Honoka’s mouth.

“We are drawn to strong thoughts, and we form our ‘ego’ using those thoughts as a core.”

“Strong thoughts? Can they be any sort of thoughts?”

“No. Only highly pure thoughts are able to create an ego for us.”

“Highly pure—do you mean thoughts rooted in single desires?”

“That is correct. I believe that, in your language, the concept of prayer would be closest.”

Tatsuya didn’t ask her what sort of “prayer” had awakened from Honoka. He already had an answer, and he knew asking again would only lead to self-destruction. But even though Tatsuya didn’t ask, Pixie began to speak passionately of her source:

“I want to do everything for you.”

The groaning behind Tatsuya grew more severe.

“I want to be useful to you.”

He could hear them struggling back there.

“I want to serve you.”

As though struggling with considerable strength, even the ones trying to suppress it began to breathe more heavily.

“I want to be yours. I want to offer everything to you. That is the prayer that awoke me.”

If her mouth hadn’t been covered, Honoka probably would have started shouting over them.

“As previously mentioned, my previous host’s ‘memories’ have been erased, so I do not know what sort of feelings dragged ‘me’ into this world. And right now, the desire to become yours makes up my core. Therefore, I am subordinate to you.”

He heard the thump of three people falling to the floor. Honoka must have finally reached peak embarrassment and lost her ability to stand, dragging Miyuki and Erika with her.

But Tatsuya didn’t react to her shame.

“How extremely interesting.”

Right now, Tatsuya’s mind was preoccupied not by emotion but by knowledge.

“I’m surprised you all have an ego, and even more so that you’re all entirely passive beings. In other words, you didn’t come to this world because you wished.”

“We originally are simple beings that exist. We are given ‘wishes’ by our host.”

“That hits close to home. Well, we can pursue who to blame for this at another opportunity… Pixie, am I correct in saying you will follow my instructions?”

“That is my wish.”

“Then you will obey my orders. I hereby forbid you to use psychic powers without my permission. You’re using a sort of telekinesis to change your expression, too, right? None of that, either.”

“As you com-mand,” answered Pixie in an awkward voice as if to prove she’d listened.

The smile disappeared from her face. Now it wore its original mask, stretched over a mechanical frame.

But the expression on that mask still looked as though it wore a mysterious smile.