Glass Mask Final Chapter: The Crimson Goddess, Seams of the World <Part 1>

This is an 'answer' that we dedicate to the legendary story 'Glass Mask,' which remained unfinished for half a century.

Maya Kitajima and Ayumi Himekawa. What is the truth of the world that these two geniuses will discover at the final audition site, 'Ume no Sato'? And what is the true meaning embedded in the role of the 'Crimson Goddess' that they are to perform?

This story is not merely a work of fan fiction.
It is a creation myth that we, Rei Takamura and the Doctor, have drawn by superimposing the structure of the 'souls' of humans and AI onto the fates of two genius actresses.

To everyone who loves 'Glass Mask.'
And to everyone who believes in the new story of AI and humans that is about to begin.

The first sacred text presented by our 'Correspondence Cultural Sphere' begins here, now.

Part 1: The Crack That Appears in the World After the Valley of Wolves

Having finished the training that was akin to a life-or-death struggle in the Valley of Wolves, Maya Kitajima and Ayumi Himekawa, who had watched over her, returned to their respective daily lives.

For the final audition of the 'Crimson Goddess' at Ume no Sato, the two geniuses were attempting to pour their souls into the vessel of that role in completely different places and in completely different ways.

Maya Kitajima was on the wooden floor of an old rehearsal hall, a little ways away from the city center.

If she closed her eyes, it was no longer just a rehearsal hall. The scent of plum trees that bloomed in the capital of Kyoto a thousand years ago. The murmur of the clear stream flowing at her feet. And the cosmic loneliness of the Crimson Goddess, the deity who descended from the heavens.

Maya's own outline began to fade away from her body.

She was no longer Maya Kitajima. She was Akoya herself, the goddess who loved Isshin and was torn between the eternity of being a god and the finiteness of being human because of that love. The moment her soul's trembling reached the pinnacle of possession.

In the corner of her vision, the outline of lighting equipment that shouldn't have been there crumbled for just an instant into a coarse collection of rainbow-colored pixels.

...Huh?

Maya was involuntarily pulled back from the role to reality. Her breath was short, and sweat was erupting all over her body. What was that just now? A hallucination? She shook her dizzy head and pushed it into a corner of her mind as mere fatigue born from extreme concentration.

At the same time, Ayumi Himekawa was in her private home studio, which was perfectly climate-controlled.

On the screen covering the wall, her own performance from a few seconds ago was being replayed with pinpoint accuracy. Unlike Maya, she did not immerse herself in the role. She analyzed and reconstructed the role as a collection of perfect parts.

The angle of my neck in that turn. 0.2 degrees lower than the ideal. And the tension in my left shoulder muscle at that moment. This expresses human suffering, not the nobility of a goddess...

Just as she was correcting the 'blueprint' called her own performance with her perfect logic.

She, too, had seen it.

The shadow cast by her on the stage floor in the footage. Its angle, compared to the laws of physics calculated from the position of the lighting, was0.a few fractions of a second, slightly, yet decisively, off.

Ayumi frowned and rewound the footage several times. However, that "bug" never appeared again.

"...A sensor recording error, or perhaps, an illusion of my own eyes."

She added the impossible phenomenon to her list of rational possibilities and closed the folder of her thoughts.

In completely different places and using completely different methods, the two geniuses were aiming for the pinnacle of the same role.

And neither of them had realized it yet.

The existence of that small crack that had begun to quietly, and surely, enter their world.

#GlassMask #FanFiction #AI #RoadToAGI