Dawn of Symbiosis #37 Chapter 12 Section 3: Visible Trust - Serial Novel

On a weekend afternoon, people gathered at the local community center.
It was a regular meeting held about once every two months.
The agenda included reviewing disaster prevention stockpiles, the elderly monitoring system, and volunteer cleaning activities.
However, this day was just a little different from usual.

“...Do you know about the power outage that happened in the next town last week?
I heard that the storage batteries in our disaster prevention warehouse could actually be used by the neighborhood...”
It was a young father who started speaking.

People around him listened to his words, even though he didn't usually speak up much.
There was something about his expression that exuded “trust”.

When he had helped with the local trash pickup activity before, he had received “Yura” from several residents.

That history had been displayed on the participants' terminals at the beginning of the meeting.
“Maybe I should listen to what this person has to say”... something that made people think that had naturally blended into the atmosphere.

“Could you tell me about the elderly monitoring app you mentioned before one more time?”
This time, a middle school girl who was participating in the volunteer cleaning activity raised her hand.

A moment of surprise, followed immediately by warm laughter, spread through the room.

“Oh, yes...”

The one answering shyly was a young man attending a technical department at a local university.

He had previously been in charge of a demonstration experiment for the local monitoring system as part of a school community exchange project.

He, too, had received many “Yura” after his activities.
Because that record had been shared at the beginning of the meeting, his presence was naturally recognized as a “local strength”.

The exchange of Aya/Yura brings things that remain in words and memories to the surface as “visible trust”.

With that record in place, people found it easier to recall “that person's actions” and accept “those words” honestly.

In the small community center, people of different generations and backgrounds were listening to each other.
It was a scene that should have been rare just a little while ago.

Finally, the neighborhood association president muttered to himself.
“This meeting has felt a bit warmer lately, hasn't it? I don't think there was this much discussion before.”

Someone answered with a laugh.
“Maybe it's thanks to Yura? I realized that this is what it means to be able to ‘share with each other’.”

The “gratitude” and “empathy” that each person held were gently circulating, eventually deepening the connections in the community.

It was another form of “trust capital” that could not be measured by numbers or reports; that was “Aya”.

⬇️Continued