Redmont Manor,

Serisis.

7:34 p.m. 20th Banem 1092.

Kashi, oblivious to the thunderstorm that was approaching, entered the room assigned to him by a maid. The daeben smiled in appreciation as he looked around and inspected the room. As expected of a royal manor, the room was beautifully adorned with numerous artworks and décor on the walls. The daeben took a glance at a massive bed with comfy looking quilts and then turned towards the door leading to the bathroom.

"Wow... It's really pretty."

"Yeah, it is," Kashi off-handedly replied, but then realized something was off. Why did he hear Lunette's voice? The daeben turned around and was shocked to find Lunette near the doorway, admiring a chandelier hanging off the ceiling. "Lune?"

As if on cue, the maid called from the door, "Miss, your room is this way, please." Kashi nodded as if to say, 'that makes much more sense,' but then Lunette's response threw that thought out of the window.

"It's fine," Lunette politely refused with a gracious smile. "I will be staying here, thank you." The songstress' smile was polite, but firm, causing the maid to pick up a strong vibe that did not encourage any dissent.

The maid smiled and then said to both of them, "The bath has been pre-heated. You may go in anytime. If you need me, I will be stationed outside the door." As if realizing she said something off, the maid, covered her mouth as she assured, "Do not worry. These doors are soundproof. You may go on about your business as you please." Lunette turned red, her gaze turning playfully hostile, while Kashi raised a brow in question. Without waiting for their reactions, the maid quickly ducked out of the room and then shut the door behind her.

"Weird girl," Kashi remarked with a chuckle and then pointed at the bathroom as he turned to Lunette. "Do you want to go in first, or?"

"I'm fine," Lunette replied as she looked around the room, eventually finding what she was looking for. "But before you go, can take a seat over there," she asked as she pointed at a small dresser set in front of a large obsidian mirror. Destia's technology had not advanced enough to produce modern-day mirrors, but it seemed that some nobles had access to obsidian mirrors made from polished obsidian ore.

"What? Why?" Kashi asked, puzzled by the strange request.

Lunette smiled as she took out a pair of scissors and a comb from her inventory. "I finally have you in one place without some important thing you need to take care of."

Kashi raised a brow as he looked at the comb with a bemused smile. "...And, what do you plan on doing with those?"

"Obviously, I'm going to fix your hair," Lunette replied with an excited glint in her eyes. "Muko introduced me to a hairdresser. She taught me for this very occasion." Snip! Snip! The songstress' eyes shone brightly as she snipped the scissors.

Kashi's eyelids twitched in line with the scissors' snips. "How good are you with that?"

"Only one way to find out," teased Lunette. "Don't you trust me?"

"Yeah, well, it's not a matter of trust or not," Kashi struggled to defend himself as he ran his right hand through his hair. "Just don't want a situation where I'm forced to cut it all off, you know." The daeben shivered as he imagined himself bald, with the sun glinting off his obsidian skull.

"Ah, then don't worry," Lunette assured as she took out a vial from her inventory. "There's this new hair potion going around. A few drops on the scalp and you'll have shoulder-length hair within minutes." Looking at the vial, she added with a sigh, "Sadly, doesn't cure baldness. Only works on people with healthy hair."

Kashi once again shivered as he questioned in disbelief, "Isn't that too convenient?"

"Not really?" Lunette replied with a shrug. "I think the developers put it in so we can easily switch between hairstyles. Plus, it's plant-based, so it doesn't put any animals in danger of extinction."

"Ha..." Kashi sighed as he resigned himself to his fate, and sat on a chair in front of the dresser. "Fine. Just don't mess it up, please."

"More than it already is?" Lunette shot back with a snarky grin as she walked up behind him. She then took out a series of drawings depicting different styles and placed them on the table in front of the daeben. "Pick one."

Kashi quickly glanced through the options and randomly selected an option, not particularly caring about the end result as long as it did not get in the way during battle.

"Thank you, customer," Lunette snarked as she took the drawings into her inventory. She then took a deep breath, and only then did she finally put the scissors to Kashi's hair.

Kashi, well aware of her deep breath, asked, "Should I be concerned?"

"I've got this," Lunette promised. Whether that was for Kashi's benefit or her own, only she knew. Silence followed shortly after, as the sounds of snipping scissors became the only thing one could hear.

Kashi sat within the silence, watching Lunette's strangely desolate expression as she worked on his har, After a couple of minutes of uncomfortable silence, the daeben finally broke. "Are you going to say what's on your mind, or what?"

Silence followed for a few moments, before Lunette finally responded in a small voice much unlike her, "What're you talking about?"

"I'm talking about this situation," Kashi responded as he pointed at his hair, and then looking at Lunette's reflection, he said, "I know just how busy you've been. There's no way you had time to learn how to cut hair."

Lunette hesitated, raising her eyes to meet the daeben's reflection. "You knew and still let me?"

Kashi shrugged as he replied, "I figured it must be serious if you felt you needed to go this far. Well? What's wrong?"

Lunette paused... her pupils visibly shaking as she struggled to firm her resolve. It took a moment longer than she would have liked, but the songstress finally got her nerves under control. She lowered her gaze, returning to her task on Kashi's hair as she asked, "...Do you think A.Is can fall in love?"

"Huh?" Kashi questioned, stunned by the question that came out of left field. "Where'd that come from?"

"I heard Paris is getting married to the Serian Princess," replied Lunette in a low tone. "I was curious. Do A.Is truly fall in love? Or is that just a couple of 0's and 1's that can easily be manipulated." Lunette hesitated, but then repeated her question. "What do you think? Can A.Is love?"

To her surprise, Kashi did not take a moment, before answering, "Every sentient living thing can love."

"You consider A.Is as living beings?" Lunette questioned with a strange look in her eyes.

"Maybe not every A.I out there," Kashi replied with a shrug. "But at the very least, I think the ones in this game qualify as living beings."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you want to look at it scientifically, there are seven characteristics a thing must fulfill to be classified as living," explained Kashi and then began counting them off his fingers. "Nutrition, Respiration, Movement, Excretion, Growth, Reproduction and finally, Sensitivity." The daeben paused, taking a breath and then exclaimed with a chuckle, "Oof, thanks Ms. Nomura. I guess Health Science wasn't as useless as I thought." Kashi, slowly getting into his own world, continued, "If you think about it, the A.Is here fulfill all those categories. They eat, breathe, walk around, grow old, have children, can touch and feel each other, and I might have to consult with Paris, but they most likely use the bathroom too."

Lunette chuckled as she imagined a scene where Kashi asked the King of Rosendun if he uses the bathroom. But then, realizing it was Kashi she was thinking about, she felt compelled to say, "Don't do that. Please."

Kashi raised a brow, but then shrugged and said, "Fine, I'll just ask the forums later."

Lunette shook her head, unable to tell if the daeben was joking or not. Hence, she decided not to bother her brain, and instead switched the topic. "You said scientifically. Is there another way to determine a living being?"

"Yes," Kashi replied. "The only one that matters."

Lunette's curiosity was officially piqued. "What is that?"

This time, it was Kashi who went silent for several seconds. Eventually, the daeben pointed at his chest and muttered, "The heart."

"What?"

"The heart," Kashi repeated in a louder voice. "As long as you can feel love or hate, care for someone else, grieve for a loved one and feel guilt when you betray someone who trusted you, you are alive." The daeben paused, his gaze growing heavy as he surmised, "If you are incapable of feeling love, then you are not alive no matter how many scientific checkboxes you fill."

Kashi continued, his gaze downcast and solemn, "These A.Is can feel pain when they are hurt. They cry when their friends are killed in front of them. They are capable of loyalty the likes of which I've never seen. In that respect, many of these A.Is are more alive than some of us humans."

"But those emotions are as a result of coding," Lunette argued. "Anyone can tamper with their code anytime. Can that be considered real love then?"

"And if you smack the human brain the right way, you can eliminate our emotions altogether," replied Kashi. "At the core of it, most of what we call human emotions are as a result of chemical impulses causing the neurons in our brain to fire off 'good' or 'bad'. With enough expertise, you can probably tamper with a human's brain, causing it for fire off 'bad' whenever they see someone they were previously in love with. The only difference with A.Is is that their 'brain' is much easier to access than a human's."

"Yes," Lunette agreed, but then added, "Because humans made them. They were made, so they can't be alive."

"Ignoring the possibility that humans were genetically designed to be as we are, A.Is can be considered the next logical step in evolution. Just because they were borne from human intellect rather than biology doesn't negate it any less," Kashi proposed with a bright light in his eyes that surprised Lunette. She had never seen that look in his eyes before

Lunette paused and could not help but give the daeben a strange look, "You've done a lot of research into this."

"Haha, yeah," admitted Kashi with a chuckle, but then his smile dissipated as he muttered, "Suzuki did a presentation on emerging technologies in elementary school. It was one of the rare times father had time to help him on a project."

"Oh," Lunette muttered, unsure how to respond. "Sounds like it was beautiful."

"It was nice," muttered Kashi, but then quickly changed the subject, "So, does that answer your question? I believe A.Is can love just as much, if not more than humans."

Lunette paused for a moment, catching Kashi's reflection in the mirror. "In that case, what about an A.I and a human?"

"What about it?"

"Can a human fall in love with an A.I?"

"Why not?"

"What?"

"Why not?" repeated Kashi with a smile. "If you think about it, there's nothing stopping A.Is and humans from loving or hating each other. If you spend enough time together, eventually, one party will develop feelings for the other, Artificial be damned."

Lunette hummed as she returned to working on Kashi's hair and then asked, "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you think you can love an A.I?" Lunette asked.

"I'm not sure I'm capable of love," Kashi instantly replied, almost as if by reflex. The daeben paused and then added, "What I do know though, is that I enjoy being Summoned just as much as I enjoy being with Residents. In fact, I think I enjoy spending time with Residents a little more. Life's so much easier with those guys."

"Well, what if I was an A.I? Would you be creeped out?"

"Nope," Kashi replied with a shrug. "But it would answer a lot of questions."

Lunette's brows furrowed as she stared at the daeben's reflection. "What do you mean?"

"I told you I know how busy you've been," stated Kashi as he sighed. "I also know that ever since I've met you, no one has ever noticed you logged out." The daeben raised his fingers and said, "So, either you're an irredeemable NEET, terminal patient, or an A.I."

Lunette let out a depreciating chuckle as she muttered, "Somehow, A.I sounds the best option amongst those three."

"You think so?" replied Kashi as he raised a brow. "Doesn't really matter to me. I want to believe that what you are isn't important. It's who you are." Kashi held Lunette's hand, stopping her from cutting his head. He then pulled his head backward, so he looked up directly into her eyes. "To me, you are Lunette Falsetto the amazing, beautiful singer with a scary younger brother."

Lunette's heart quickened, racing uncontrollably as she stared into the daeben's sincere, red eyes. "That's not fair," she complained as she pushed his head back into position. "You don't get to do that to me when I can't do the same to you."

"...What are you talking about?" Kashi asked and made to look at her again, but the songstress held his head in place with a vice-grip.

"It's not important," Lunette retorted. "Now stay still. I'm almost done." When she was sure Kashi wasn't moving, she continued cutting his hair.

Snip.

Snip.

Snip.

For a while, this was the only sound in the room as both Kashi and Lunette were absorbed in their own thoughts.

Snip!

Lunette's resolved expression reflected on the silver scissors, as the final lock of hair slowly fell off Kashi's head. The songstress raised her eyes, gaze meeting the daeben's in the mirror as the lock struck the ground.

"I'm an A.I."

A/N: Well, how do you like them apples. Lune, and by proxy, Shadow are A.Is.. What does this mean for their relationship going forward?  

If I were to be honest though, many people already predicted this, and initially, a part of me wanted to cancel that plotline, but a word of advice for any aspiring authors out there. Just because the audience predicted a storyline does not mean you should change it just to 'subvert their expectations.'

A good story with a satisfying, sometimes predictable, logical plot is more enjoyable than one with an unsatisfying, illogical plotline created for the sole purposes of breaking the reader or audience's expectations.

Stay Safe y'all!