Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

No more contact.

She turned her eyes away and quickly entered the classroom.

"—!"

There were hurried footsteps behind me.

Deng chased to the door of Class 1-B.

Xiangzi didn't look back at the light. She sat down in her seat.

She hadn't intended to make any eye contact.

But I still caught it out of the corner of my eye.

Xiangzi saw Deng standing at the door, staring at him.

That look.

It's like seeing through everything about myself.

The light didn't come in.

Didn't leave either.

She stood there, holding onto the doorframe—

"Xiao Deng, why are you standing there? The teacher is coming!"

Xiangzi heard a lively voice calling for the light.

what.

The light moved because of the sound.

The persistent feeling she had just had disappeared from her, and she became a little confused and at a loss.

"Come in quickly, Xiao Deng! You'll be scolded!"

Click, click, click.

A girl with long pink hair trotted over, grabbed Deng's hand, and led her back.

The light didn't resist.

However, before leaving, she took one last look into 1-B's classroom.

Xiangzi has already sat down.

Her figure was blocked by many students who were debugging their brain-computer systems and accessing teaching terminals.

……

Watching the shadow of the lamp finally disappear and hearing the footsteps entering the next class, Xiangzi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Going back to the classroom when the bell rings is really a good choice.

Fortunately, it’s time to go to class.

Otherwise there's really no way to get out.

But, I won’t have to step on the bell to go back to the classroom, and I won’t bump into the lights... ?

"..."

What are these things?

Xiangzi ruffled the hair hanging down in front of his forehead.

The 1-B lesson is about assembly language.

Xiangzi basically didn't hear anything.

I was planning to think about my future plans...

This is not considered at all.

The light is in the next class.

This was the only thing left in Xiangzi's mind.

When I was considering which school to go to, I actually thought about whether I would meet former members of crychic.

In addition to Xiangzi, there are four members of crychic:

Deng, Mu, Su Shi, Li Xi.

Su Shi is in the Moon Forest.

Mu is one of us. And he is also in the Moon Forest.

Li Xi did study in Yuqiu Junior High School for a while.

However, when Shoko met her, she had already transferred to Hanasakigawa.

"Why don't you read Yuqiu anymore?"

Su Shi once asked Li Xi this question.

"I originally wanted to study at Hanasakigawa. But it was the same school as my sister, which was too annoying... I spent a lot of effort to get into Hanaoka, only to find out that my sister is more famous in Hanaoka than in Hanasakigawa. It's boring."

Li Xi didn't really want to answer this question, but in the end, she explained it unhappily.

Riki's older sister, Maki, is taking intensive courses at Hanasakigawa while taking her time off from daily training and riot control duties as a student at Hanasakigawa.

Maki is probably the first person who can keep up with both Hanasakigawa and Hanaoka's lessons.

No wonder the students of Yugaoka, who tend to value grades above all else, are so fond of Maki.

Xiangzi knew about this.

After all, Maki's excellence is well-known.

Maki is the youngest BCPD management member since the establishment of La La Land.

He is even very good at music theory and is an honorary member of the Music City Orchestra.

It was because of Maki's excellence that Xiangzi extended an olive branch to his younger sister Li Xi to join crychic.

However, Xiangzi noticed that Li Xi herself hated people mentioning her sister, so she didn't say that she recruited Li Xi for this reason...

...Thinking too far ahead.

"(Anyway.)"

There was absolutely no way Riki would go back to Yugaoka in high school.

And the lights.

When I was in junior high school, lights always gave me the feeling of small animals.

I feel a little timid and always don’t know what to do. I often stand there in a daze when everyone is talking.

The Deng that Xiangzi knows pays more attention to her own inner feelings than to things like "what to do", "becoming excellent" and "gaining recognition from others".

Xiangzi rarely heard her talk about her studies.

She is more often seen writing poetry, lyrics, and painting.

... Xiangzi thought that a girl with such a light would never be able to enter the strict entrance school Yuqiu.

"(I made a mistake...)"

Xiangzi pressed his forehead hard.

I didn’t expect the lights to be at Yugaoka.

Or the class next door.

worst case.

"(Su Shi is in the next class, she is better than a lamp...)"

Xiangzi is a member who avoided crychic.

But she didn't think she was completely unable to fool people she already knew.

Xiangzi still has confidence that even if he meets someone he once knew, he can still conceal his mistake to a certain extent...

Only lights.

There was only a lamp, but Xiangzi was not sure.

Deng is the only person Xiangzi has ever met who never relies on electronic devices.

Deng has a retinal projector implanted in her eye socket, and she also uses various brain-computer interface probes.

But Xiangzi often felt that those numbers were really just numbers to the lamp.

The lamp always carefully looks at the mountains, trees, rivers, grass, rocks, animals, insects behind the information...

……people.

During their interactions, Xiangzi discovered that Deng seldom cared about what the machine showed, such as "what the other party was thinking, whether he was lying, or whether he had any hidden meaning."

She only listens to what the other person says and watches what the other person does.

Then respond with what you say and do.

For Deng, what talks to her is never a bunch of physiological indicators, a bunch of EEG signals, or a data link.

But a person.

Xiangzi believes that everyone in Lezhicheng has unknowingly become too dependent on technology.

Even if I wanted to just look at the "people", I couldn't do it anymore.

So is Xiangzi himself.

No matter how much she told herself to just look at the person she was talking to, she couldn't ignore the polygraph curves jumping on the display.

Cyberized devices provide a “cheat code” for interpersonal communication.

When everyone drives them.

Even if you know you should turn it off, it's hard to do so.

Many people and many companies claim that they "only look at people", but that is just an excuse they use to whitewash themselves.

Xiangzi only saw that Deng really did this.

The lamp's approach cannot be said to be correct.

In fact, in this era, she is more often troubled by the adverse consequences of this practice.

But the Lights take those consequences seriously.

Then next time, follow your heart again.

The lamp looks at the world.

Stare intently.

Understand it.

Xiangzi looked at the lamps and thought they were very powerful.

She knew, in this era, among the walking dead.

The lamp is the one who is truly alive.

Only then can one become an artist, a singer, or a lyricist.

Xiangzi once firmly believed this and was attracted by such lights——

but now.

This attitude towards life that she once admired has become the biggest problem she has to face.

"..."

Xiangzi didn't know how to hide it from the lamp.

Force calmness, control brain waves, control micro-expressions...

Xiangzi really didn't know whether these would be useful for the lamp.

Being watched by the light, she would feel that all her disguises were meaningless.