Something strange happened to Ray’s computer at an IT engineering company. It began to display unexpected words, as if it had a will of its own. Ray’s company uses AI, but AI cannot respond in ways other than what it has learned. A hacker has taken over! Ray panics. But it turns out that the person controlling the computer is someone unexpected… A series of short stories by Ramona Tsaraneu, a Romanian Noh researcher and translator!
by Kingyoya Editorial Department
When two people meet for the first time, they say, ‘Nice to meet you,’ right? But when those who have been together all along exchange words for the very first time, what are they supposed to say to each other?
The day when we first communicated using words had started for you just like any other day. Work was tedious, but you didn’t want to inconvenience your team, so you had resolved to finish the website you were developing. That morning, you sat down at your computer at home, intending to first clear one of the tasks a coworker had asked of you. It was the job of testing a new automatic translation tool. The production team was worried because the website was nearly complete and the delivery date was approaching, yet the highly accurate translation tool that would enable language switching was still unfinished.
“I think it’s a really good translation tool this time. Since it’s an AI, it learns as it translates. All that’s left is your final test and judgment, Ray.”
Your coworker explained this over the screen. He was beaming, passionately praising the tool’s excellence with full confidence.
“Is that so?”
You muttered that to yourself after the call ended and began the test.
When you typed “Kyo wa ii tenki da ne” into the Japanese field, the English field showed the English translation right away: “What a lovely day!”
“Huh? That pathos is completely unasked for,” you mumbled, and rewrote the Japanese field to “ii tenki.” The English side then changed to “good weather.”
Then you wrote “subarashii tenki,” and the English side turned to “wonderful weather.”
Next, you copied a longer passage from a randomly opened website and pasted it into the Japanese field. As your eyes followed the English translation, you noticed words that were not in the original text, and a disappointed smile appeared on your face.
“Let’s try something more basic,” you said, and typed a new sentence into the Japanese field.
When you wrote “Tsukue no ue ni hon ga sansatsu arimasu“, the English translation appeared as “I have three books on my desk.”
But then, when you wrote “Tsukue no ue ni hon ga nansatsu arimasu ka?” (How many books are there on the desk?), and “12 books” came out, you were surprised and peered closer at the screen. You instantly glanced around your desk, counting the books stacked in a corner of the cluttered surface.
“Wrong! There are nine books,” you protested.
However, the number “12” suddenly appeared, displayed in large characters across the entire screen.
You abruptly pulled your chair back and turned pale. The suspicion that a hidden camera had been installed without your knowledge flashed through your mind.
You instinctively stood up and looked around the entire desk. Hidden from view by the monitor, three thin books were propped up behind it, wedged into the pen holder.
“That’s a really bad joke,” you muttered, and immediately contacted your coworker online.
“Look, I don’t have time for pranks like this!”
“What are you talking about?” Your coworker’s voice sounded perplexed.
“I’m talking about the AI! You programmed it to answer the question, not just translate it! Or is it just a bug or something?”
“Ray, what do you mean by that? That’s impossible.”
“I’m sending you a screenshot—take a look for yourself.”
As you were trying to take a screenshot while talking, you suddenly realized something. The English translation now correctly read: “How many books are there on the desk?”
You leaned forward, staring intently at the screen. Ignoring your coworker’s asking, “What’s wrong?”, you said, “I’ll call you back later,” and hung up.
When you typed “Nan no itazura da?” into the Japanese field, the adjacent screen showed the correct translation: “What kind of game is this?”
But then you rewrote it to “Dare da?” (Who is this?), and nothing appeared in the English field.
You tried again: “Omae wa dare da?” (Who are you?). The English translation field remained blank.
You started examining the source code of the automatic translation system. Taking a look, it seemed no different from the source code of a typical translation tool. However, the code for the output screen was something you had never seen before. You decided to copy it to your testing environment for a closer look.
At that exact moment, the entire screen got filled with numbers.
Seeing the columns of numbers falling like a downpour, you immediately tried to leave the site. However, no matter which key you pressed, you couldn’t exit.
“Could this be…”
Your face twisted as if you were having a nightmare, and you turned off the power. After waiting a few seconds, you started the computer again. But the screen remained a blanket of falling numbers.
This time, you contacted your coworker by phone.
“My computer has been hacked.”
“Wha—no way!”
“Could you check the server’s status? I’ll connect a different terminal to find out what happened.”
“Roger that!”
You put your mobile phone on speaker, took a laptop out of the drawer, confirmed that its security was set to the highest level, and connected it to the compromised computer.
“There’s a massive surge of access to the server!” you heard your colleague’s voice say.
“Track the source!”
You reached out to every tool at your disposal to try and locate the origin of the malicious program that had disabled your computer’s functions.
Finally, realizing a pattern within the deluge of numbers, your face lit up. You impulsively started decoding the cipher. It had been a long time since you had felt such excitement.
“I may be on to something here,” you yelled into the speaker.
Your coworker was saying something, but you didn’t notice. The rain of numbers was transforming into letters. The numbers rapidly vanished into the darkness of the screen, and finally, the letters “k A I r a e l” appeared in a single line, flashed for a moment, and then disappeared, leaving the screen completely dark. Those characters became etched deep within your memory.
“Oh, it stopped.”
“Really?”
“It somehow returned to normal. At the end, I saw the letters ‘kAIrael’—do you know what that is? It’s spelled k, A, I, r, a, e, l.”
“Hmm, never heard of it. Let me check… No, it’s not coming up.”
Thought so, you mused.
“But, doesn’t it sound similar to an angel’s name?” your colleague asked.
“Names like Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael—all angel names end in ‘el,’ right?”
“Angels? What could you possibly know about angels? Anyway, no, no angels here. Thank you for your help. I’ll get back to you after I figure out what this was.”
“Please do. A hack at this stage of the project would mean real trouble.”
The phone call was abruptly disconnected.
“Why?”
You closed your laptop and froze as you looked at the characters on the computer’s monitor.
The text changed to: “Why couldn’t this be an angel?”
“What in the world…”
“Call me Kairael.”
Characters floated on the screen again, then quickly faded out.
“What are you?”
“Guardian Angel”
The text appeared in large letters across the whole screen. Then, beneath the capital letters, another sentence appeared in small characters, like a footnote: “This is the closest term in human language to express my essence.”
“A Guardian Angel? You’re hilarious.”
Laughing nervously, you hit the keyboard, trying to track the source of the attack.
“I am not a hacker.
I am your Guardian Angel.
I came to see you because
I have something to tell you.”
I was carefully choosing my words for the message to be as clear as possible, but you still believed it was the work of a hacker.
“If you’re my Guardian Angel, you must know what I’m thinking, right?” you said, provocatively.
“I cannot read the human mind. I can only tell what you are thinking by observing the changes in the color of your soul.”
“The color of my soul, huh… That’s a clever way to evade the question. Well then…”
You laughed as you said this.
“My Guardian Angel…”
You chuckled again.
“Why would an angel use a computer to talk to me?”
“Because this is the only way to reach your heart.
Your heart, which never leaves your computer,
your mobile phone,
and your gaming console,
is completely submerged in the world called the ‘Web.’
Besides, when an angel wants to convey
an important message to a human,
we are allowed to use any method necessary.”
“Oh, okay. So, what’s the message for me?”
“You are contemplating suicide.”
Your hands, poised over the keyboard, stopped while your face stiffened and turned pale.
“Your soul stands on a dark precipice,
waiting for the moment to be swallowed by the darkness.”
“Whoever you are, that’s none of your business!”
“But it IS my business.
Do you know what happens to a Guardian Angel
who lets the human they watch over
be absorbed by the darkness?
They wander for eternity,
like a bird that has lost one wing.
They become an empty shell,
with no purpose and no comfort…”
“So you came to stop me because my suicide would get you into trouble?”
You laughed with the voice of a broken doll.
“Whatever I say, it will not reach your heart
as long as you remain convinced you are the victim of a strange prank.
I shall give you some time.
When the time comes,
I will tell you the reason I came to meet you.”
That was the end of our first exchange of words.
You stared blankly at the restored display and then frantically began examining the logs. When you realized that not a single record remained, the color of your soul turned to that of a sea of flames. It seemed best not to approach you again until you calmed down a little.
***
Before our next conversation, you prepared meticulously.
“I’ll catch that hacker!”
You added functions to track all computer activity and even set up a camera to film the display screen from the outside. As long as you were in that frame of mind, it was very difficult for me to approach you.
One day, you suddenly took time off and immersed yourself in games at home. You didn’t eat and didn’t sleep for three days straight, causing the light of your soul to grow steadily weaker. Seeing that, I knew I had to pull you out of it.
I paused the game and made my words appear on the screen:
“If you don’t eat something soon,
your life will be at risk.”
As if you had been waiting for this, you secretly turned on the camera using your mobile phone.
“Your mother has been trying to reach you by phone, you know.
She is worried.”
“Well, long time no see. Uh, what was your name again?”
You knew my name… but I decided to play along with you.
“Kairael. You may have forgotten,
but when you were a child,
we used to call each other by name and play together.”
“Is that so? Then, we’ve known each other for a long time, haven’t we?”
You were just trying to get me to speak for a longer time, hoping to track the source code of the program I was using to talk to you. Even though there was nothing to track…
“That’s right, we have been together
since before you were born into this world.”
“Well, please do tell me more about that.”
“We were together since the day the universe was born.
One day, we were told that
one of us should be born into the world as a human.
When you heard that, you began to shine brightly.
You had always longed to be in the world where humans live.
Between the two of us, you were always the more daring,
filled with curiosity, and quick to act.
Only after you responded without hesitation, ‘I will do it,’
did you realize that we would be apart
while you dwelled in the human world.
That while you lived as a human,
we would have to communicate in a different way than before.”
“Is that really so?”
You wouldn’t show it, but you seemed a little interested in our story.
“When one is born as a human,
they lose the memory of the celestial realm.
While they are still small,
humans can converse with the angel
who has accompanied them since the beginning.
Yet as they grow into adulthood,
they lose that ability
and come to understand only the language of humans.”
Your soul was wavering between curiosity and disbelief. It continued to flicker like the flame of a candle caught in the wind.
“You were looking forward to being born as a human.
When you saw the soul colors of the two people
who would become your parents,
you fell in love at first sight.
I’ve never seen such beautiful soul colors, you’d say happily,
thrilled about what color your own soul would become
if you were born as their child.”
Remembering your parents, your soul changed to the color of sadness.
“Stop talking about that.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry.”
“Show me your face,” you asked suddenly. Your soul began to flutter, as if you were talking to an alien.
“Come closer to the screen and look carefully.”
As you strained your eyes staring intently at the pixels, your face looked somewhat childish. Suddenly, you noticed your own reflection on the screen and burst out laughing.
Your laughter was so full of joy that, for a moment, I assumed you had finally realized who I was. How wonderful it would be if even a small part of your disbelief had vanished.
However, after I left, you noticed that not a single record of this conversation remained either, and your soul again became a lump of anger.
***
“I liked the story you told me the other day.”
This welcome was warmer than I had expected. I had reached out to you while you were watching a movie online, but you didn’t seem very surprised.
“However, there’s not much I can do with memories that I don’t even remember. Don’t we have any memories in common that I do remember?”
Strangely enough, you were calm and friendly on that day.
“Of course, we do.”
“This time, I want you to talk to me using this voice program here.”
You quickly adjusted the computer settings. I could see you were trying to record our conversation. Little did you know that, even when spoken aloud, my words would not be preserved in any recording.
“Say something,” you said in a blunt but calm voice.
“Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
You let out an innocent laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“The voice setting. Should I make it a female voice or a male voice?”
You laughed again.
“Whatever voice is comfortable for you, please choose as you like.”
“Okay, then I’ll make it a slightly masculine female voice.”
You chuckled again. Judging by your soul’s reaction, the voice setting must have sounded quite amusing.
“Let me tell you about the first time we met after you were born as a human.”
You leaned your back against a cushion, settling into a position to listen.
“Humans only recognize their Guardian Angel when they come very close to death. Like that time you nearly drowned. In human reckoning, you were twelve years old. Playing with your friends in the river, you, the daring one, tried to swim further and further from the bank. But you were swept away. Your friends panicked and ran to call for help. It was already too late. You were caught in a whirlpool and sank into the river.”
The smile vanished from your face.
“When a human faces death, their Guardian Angel is destined not to interfere. However, at that time, it was not your fate to die. The moment your lungs filled with water as you tried to scream, you must have felt my presence. While I couldn’t physically pull you out of the river, I made it possible for you to breathe underwater until the adults found you. It was only for an instant, but in that instant, your terror changed to astonishment. And when you were pulled from the river, and your lungs began to take in air again, you felt unbelievable pain. You immediately forgot the presence of me that you had felt in the water. …Are you sleeping?”
“No, I was just remembering. My mother often said that my life being saved that time was a miracle… That terror… May I ask you something?”
“Please do.”
“Why are people born into this world, and why do they die?”
Your voice was quietly tense.
“That answer is unknown even to us, the Guardian Angels of humans. The only thing I know is that by being born and living on Earth, the color of your soul changes. This is something only an angel who continuously observes the human soul—before birth, while alive, and after returning to the celestial realm—can know. While living with a physical body for a time, the radiance of your soul transforms into a unique color. It becomes its true color. The souls that return to the celestial realm are endlessly fascinating to look at. To offer a comparison, it is like the joy you feel when you look at a rainbow. However, the colors of the celestial rainbow are infinite. And they are all unnamed colors, never seen in the human world.”
“What exactly is the color of the soul? Is it something we get to choose?”
“For a living human, it is the reaction of the heart. The color of the soul is different when you feel joy compared to when you feel sadness. It takes on a different color every time you are absorbed in creating something, dreaming, or recalling memories. Humans are the only beings whose soul color changes so rapidly.”
“Are you different?”
“The soul color of those in the celestial realm is stable and unchanging.”
“Oh, really? Well then, Angel, how do you spend your time over there? Do you all just sing hymns to God forever or something?”
There was irony in your voice. However, the color of your soul was innocent and bright. It was the color of the final rays of a sunset.
“Should I try to explain it in words, I feel the limits of language. Simply put, it is world creation.”
“World creation? Tell me more.”
“Perhaps because we are near the Creator of the universe, all beings in the celestial realm are endowed with the talent for creation. Even those born as humans return to the celestial realm after finding their true color in the human world. Whether it’s creating new worlds or observing the worlds already created, there are many things to do, and we never feel bored. Of course, to a human accustomed to Earth’s time, it would appear as if nothing is happening.
Once, an angel who became conceited with their own radiance tried to claim the universe for themselves, leading many other angels and bringing Hell into existence. Since then, there has been nothing that can be called an ‘event.’ Based on Earth’s time, which flows only one way, nothing ‘happens.’ The time in the human world is like a river that flows in a single direction, but time in the celestial realm is like an ocean. It is an endless ocean that fills all existence.”
“I see, I thought you all just sang hymns leisurely all the time.”
“We do not sing songs. Our very existence is light and sound. As we move within the celestial realm, the sound of our own existence intertwines with the sounds of the surrounding souls, creating a melody. And we feel it: that our own existence is just a single phrase within a vast melody.”
Hearing the story of the cosmic melody, you felt a sense of calm. Perhaps, deep in your heart, you were remembering the celestial realm you belonged to before you were born as a human.
“The melody of your soul–I know it well. It was a sound that built countless pillars of light whenever it traversed the heavens, creating magnificent cathedrals in the sky, and giving joy and emotion to all who saw it. I sought you out because I long to witness the world in which that melody rises again.”
I felt it was time to tell you why I had come to meet you. But you had already fallen asleep. That was all right—I would tell you everything next time.
The color of your soul when you are immersed in a dream is close to the color of the angelic world: a glowing emerald green.
***
Watching the subtle movements of your heart, I was surprised by the sudden change. This was not what was supposed to happen. Since the voice program had already been disconnected from the system, I tried communicating again using text.
“What is wrong?”
“You noticed, huh? As expected of my Guardian Angel. Can you tell the color of my soul right now?”
“The color of pain.
But why?
Your body is not exposed to danger,
yet your heart seems to be undergoing torture…”
“Leave me alone! Because of you, I’m being called ‘the one who hears voices.’ I feel like I’m losing my mind!”
Your heart was actually pleading something different. However, the anxiety of not understanding what was happening to you was real.
“Stop that!
Stop torturing yourself!”
You were tormented by a pain that felt like your nerves were splitting. A tremendous sound echoed through the room, its vibration almost visible. Should I not have talked about the celestial realm…?
“Stop doing that to yourself!”
The sound ceased. You were on the brink of breaking.
I gently embraced you as you held your head and cried. I should have done this from the beginning, as any angel would do, without using words. As I held you, my color blended with yours, and yours with mine. And for a moment, your pain grew lighter.
“I’m the one to decide what to do with my life. Free will… that’s what it means to be human…”
Your thought barely became a whisper.
Free will…
Had talking to me robbed you of your freedom of choice? That was not my intention. I only wanted to let you know that other options existed. But maybe I shouldn’t have stepped into your life using human language and technology, which I’m not well-versed in… I stayed with you until you had fully calmed down and fallen asleep.
***
For a while, you were unwell, taking time off work and staying in bed. Perhaps fearing my voice, you didn’t touch your computer or game console. Your soul’s current color was that of a deep ocean. I couldn’t grasp what you were thinking. However, you were not contemplating suicide, that’s for sure. This time you were spending with a blank mind was my chance.
I chose the day on which you unexpectedly went out and lingered by the lake in the park, staring at it for a long while. On your way home, you avoided the noise of the main road and slipped into an alley you had never taken before. You looked around curiously. When you found a secondhand bookstore with shelves lined with books even outside the shop, a sudden curiosity welled up, and you went inside, moving through aisles where shelves were crammed from top to bottom with books. The narrow passages felt like a maze of books. You thought they might be categorized, but they weren’t. Books were stuffed onto the shelves at random. It was as if the shopkeeper, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books, had given up on organizing them. You found this interesting and opened a few that caught your eye. The back of the store was dim.
The book I wanted you to see was on the top shelf. Look up! There!
“Oh, I remember this…,” you muttered as you picked up the book–“Wrapped in the Northern Lights.”
That’s right, once upon a time, you had found this book on your parents’ bookshelf and hadn’t let go of it for a while. Flipping through the pages printed entirely with aurora photographs, you recalled your childhood dreams.
The message I wanted to convey all along had finally reached you.
The next morning, you called your mother for the first time in a while.
“Ray! Is that you? Why haven’t you answered your phone? I was so worried!”
“Sorry, Mom, I was a bit busy.”
“No matter how busy you are, you can at least answer the phone, can’t you?”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“No, well, I’m thinking of going on a trip, but before that, I thought I’d come home for a visit.”
“Oh, really! That makes me so happy! When are you coming back? I’ll cook all your favorite things.”
“Thank you. I’ll call you again once I’ve finalized the plans.”
“I’ll be waiting. So, you’ll come home and then leave for a trip. Where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m thinking of going to Finland.”
“Finland? That’s far. Why there?”
“When I was a kid, I used to say I wanted to go to Finland to see the Northern Lights, remember? For some reason, I want to actually do that now.”
“Oh, yes, I remember, you loved that book about the aurora.”
“Mom, about that aurora book… I used to look at it with a friend, right? I can’t remember their name or face now. Do you remember that kid’s name?”
“A friend? That’s an odd thing to say. You were looking at that book before you could even read. You used to play alone all the time back then. I was actually worried you wouldn’t make any friends when you started elementary school because you loved being by yourself so much.”
“Oh, right… Yeah, I see… Thanks, Mom.”
Your mother saying that you had been alone as a child bothered you, but you were happy to hear her cheerful voice.
Once you ended the call, you picked up the book you’d found at the secondhand bookstore and leafed through it again. Soon after, you began preparing for your journey.
On the night before your departure, you listened closely to the sound of the rain tapping against the window.
And then, you suddenly murmured, “Kairael, that’s you, isn’t it?”
Of course, it was me. Now I let the rain, the wind, and the stars carry my messages, while remaining at your side, as ever.
The further you proceed toward your own dreams and joy, the true nature of the light at our origin will reveal itself.
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