It was a moment ago just before the stream started.
"Hm..." he groaned. He told himself it was just release. A way to feel something. But in the silence after, the emptiness lingered like a punchline to a joke he didn't laugh at.
Being brought up one's hope only to be dropped into lingering despair had hit him harder than he expected.
Albeit hopelessness remained, he had organized his thoughts more or less.
Bringing his touser back up, he took the used tissues and burnt them without remains.
Then, a notification rang out as a blue interface appeared in his view.
[You have begun your stream.]
[Watching: 0….]
[Watching: 1]
'Wait no—who hacked my account!?' Sakura clutched his head in panic, mouth agape, like when he once saw a Steam notification saying his rarest item had been traded for a disgustingly low price.
Beyond the screen was a beautiful girl whose hair dropped like a waterfall at her back.
'Aqua?' Sakura thought to himself.
"Please be my friend! Please be my friend!…" On the screen, Aqua threw the Pokeb-… Pal Sphere, praying for the percentage to rise.
From 0.1%… to 44%… then the number jumped to 99%.
Click!! A rewarding light illuminated, causing Aqua to jump in joy.
Her hair was messy, her body muddy. Indicating, she rolled around to dodge the attack made by the Pals when they escaped Pal Sphere. "Thank god!! That was my last sphere."
"Ehehe~, it's nothing too great…" Aqua rubbed the back of her head with a big grin on her face.
From Aqua's Pal Sphere, a Depresso popped out—its deadpan expression told it was so done with life and the overall dark color hit Aqua with something. It was like finding a fellow friend of the same category. Moreover, it was cute.
From Depresso, stars twinkled uncharacteristically pointing it a 'Lucky' unit.
"Awww, you're so cute, Sonata~, there there~" Aqua called Depresso by its nickname and rubbed its body.
'What is with this human,' Depresso, or rather, 'Sonata' rolled its eyes.
'Heh, naming a Depresso after me... what an irony,' Sakura thought to himself while watching the stream.
"You can, Uta-chan! You just have to come to Loguetown to play Master's computer!"
There she was—the AI he stitched together, a Frankenstein of idol voices and gaming maids, now saying things he never dared expect
'As if she could,' Sakura thought, his eyes half-dropped.
However as he thought this conversation would be dropped here, Aqua continued.
"Is there something wrong, Uta-chan? Please say anything! I want to do my best to help," Aqua asked.
He almost laughed.
What the hell was this? A maidbot therapy session? Since when did I program you to act like that?
But she wasn't faking it.
She leaned forward, concern glinting in her soft eyes. Not programmed. Not prompted.
Just... her.
Something twisted in Sakura's gut.
Not sympathy. Not yet...
He had just finished pretending he could escape his emptiness through a chemical shortcut—and now he was being forced to watch two girls remind each other how much people want to be loved.
"No way that is true! In this world, no one is worth nothing! Even I, who is programmed to feel nothing, can at least see Master treasures me a lot!"
Sakura looked away from the screen.
"Don't say that," he muttered. "You're just code...a mistake—a byproduct of my lust and laziness..."
But Aqua wasn't stopping.
"That's why, Uta-chan, please don't call yourself worthless..."
Her voice was soft. Too soft. Too gentle. It shouldn't have meant anything.
But it did.
His heartbeat kicked up again. But this time, it wasn't lust. It wasn't comfort.
It was guilt.
He closed his eyes. For just a second, he let them sting.
Finally, he let them go.
---
Inside the Palworld, Aqua's mind froze, and she tried to run away.
She saw a random person chasing her.
However, the player threw a smoke grenade. Then, predicted the direction from where she would exit.
Emerging from inside the smoke, was Aqua—meeting her was the player: Blossom.
As Aqua's silhouette escaped the smokescreens, Blossom had swiped her leg, disrupting her balance, then finishing her with a lock-hold.
She couldn't run away anymore. "You should've hidden your minimap."
"Y-yes… sorry for running away, master…," Aqua said with shame—with the smell, and voice of the player Blossom she had figured out the identity of the others.
She couldn't figure at first because Sakura looked completely different from his original appearance.
On her opposite side wasn't her usual overweighted master—albeit his deep-purple gaze and messy hair remained—it was like seeing a slim version of her master whilst keeping her favorite smell.
Blossom flicked her head, thinking Aqua was having weird thoughts.
"Ouch…" released by Blossom, Aqua held her reddened forehead.
"Come on, I didn't hit you that hard—" said Blossom passing Baked Berries to boost her healing.
Only after Aqua accepted it with glitters in her eyes and munched on it like a squirrel—did Blossom stop beating around. "Aqua, did you use my account to stream?"
"Master, what do you mea—… what the! When did I start streaming? So that is why Uta-chan can talk with me through chat… Master, I'm so sorry, please don't throw me into a garbage can,"
Aqua made full use of her wetting function tears dripping out of her eyes.
Sakura facepalmed. "Ssh~, stop saying something weird, you are free to do whatever you want..."
"Aqua, do you want an emotion of your own?" Sakura looked straight into her eyes.
"Really? Master, you're not lying?" Aqua brought fists in front of her plumpy chest.
"Yup."
Giving her emotions meant turning Aqua from a 'robot' into an individual—one he could no longer fully control.
'Haha, ha~ this is going to be a great idea," Sakura thought sarcastically.
This also meant that Aqua would no longer be bound by Ralts' brainwashing of "natural love toward its trainer" and he wouldn't hold the freedom to stop her whatever she wanted to try.
'Oh great, I'm committing blasphemy now—playing God,' he jested.
However—for some reason, he didn't mind even if Aqua lived to hate him.
His biggest sin would be that he unintentionally created a life he mistakenly loved.
.
.
.
Two hours later, the programming was complete; he merely placed a seeds—like when Eve and Adam ate the apple.
That was how easy it was to create emotions for Sakura.
"Oh, and… if you hate it, you can change your name,"
Sakura couldn't even look Aqua in the eyes—as expected of an osu! gamer trying to dodge women.
But Aqua followed his back. "Thank you, master! I will think about it! By the way, where are we going?"
Sakura widened his eyes.
Then restoring his composure, he said. "I don't know, maybe catch some slav-…pals?"
"Oh, shut up," Sakura responded jokingly at the camera hovering.
"Master, master! Look! It's Boss Chillet! Let's capture it together!" Thankfully, Aqua read the room and changed the topic quickly.
Then, she instructed Depresso to help her create a Pal Sphere together.
"Right, that's a good idea. Maybe we can impress Smoker and the others when riding this humongous creature," Sakura said, matching his pace with Aqua.
The restrictions on this game were quite strong, limiting players' physical capability and completely obstructing Sakura's Devil Fruits—at best, he could only cook food with it, and he couldn't even release flame during combat.
Although players can get stronger as they level up, at best they could become slightly stronger than the average person and it was inefficient. So, it was best to rely on Pals.
"Aqua, have you prepared enough, arrows?" Sakura said while gathering resources for her.
"Thank you for superchat~, hm? Ah yes! Now that you say it, I forgot I used up all my arrows previously! I will make more," Aqua said.
Depresso stared at her with dead-fish eyes. The arrow wounds were not completely healed.
"Grow up well…" Sakura muttered, a rare warmth flickering behind his eyes.