Asked in an interview what he wants from the one he loves, Atem gives an answer that is not a request. Seto treats it as one and sends share certificates.
Now Atem must reciprocate, which requires determining what a man who already has everything could possibly want — a question he puts to the magazine, to LOVE-OS, and finally to an online council of the world's royalty.
The answer, when it arrives, is a day off with the vacuum cleaner cord tangled and the fish skin deliberately burnt to golden ratio.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 愛と理論 18 王、贈り物をする
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
To the question
"What is it you want from the one you love?"
Atem answered, after thinking a little, with a calm smile.
"Something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen."
The press corps stirred at the poetic answer.
Voices of praise rose: "as expected of the King," "the philosophy of love."
Meanwhile that night, in the reception room of the Kaiba mansion, a different reaction was occurring.
Seto closed the magazine and looked toward Atem.
A single line in a low voice.
"...Atem. So there was something you wanted."
"No, not particularly..."
"What is it, say it. There is nothing in this world that cannot be obtained."
Atem averts his gaze while searching for words.
Something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen.
That, he has already received in sufficient quantity.
Love and bonds, connections that cannot be put into words.
As always, he had merely answered a little poetically.
"No, truly, I already..."
"Understood. Can be seen, yet cannot be seen, is it."
The following week.
A full set of Kaiba Corporation share certificates arrived in Atem's name.
And what's more, several percent of all outstanding shares.
In an economic sphere in the afterlife, it was on the level of moving one entire one.
"...What is this?"
"Something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen. It is quantified, but no actual feeling accompanies it. Which is to say, something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen."
Atem gazed at the documents for a while,
and then, unable to hold it back, burst out laughing.
"Heh, I see... theoretically, it's perfect."
"Naturally. In the theory of love and in management both, ambiguity is not permitted."
"Then this is the visualization of love, is it."
"As an investment target it's the finest."
The two laugh together.
Something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen.
That is neither assets nor theory, but the ceaseless thinking that tries to understand each other, and love itself.
And so the Equity Theory of Love was born.
Atem became a formal shareholder of Kaiba Corporation.
By Seto's stylish gift, he even holds the right to attend and speak at the shareholders' meeting.
Though in actual fact, since the president and vice president (Seto and Mokuba) already hold more than half between them, Atem's single vote does not overturn anything.
But that is not where the problem lies.
"Seto gave to me. Then, what should I give?"
That night, Atem was deep in thought in the study of the afterlife branch.
Whatever he gives, he feels Seto already has it.
Wealth, position, fame, and love.
Then what?
Having entered a labyrinth of logic, before he noticed, the gravity of Atem's thinking had tilted in another direction.
"...To begin with, what do men want?"
The next day, a single email arrives at the editorial department of the magazine with the pink cover.
The sender is Atem.
Regarding the interview, I would like to ask a question. Generally speaking, what do "men" feel they wish to be given by the one they love? I would like a theoretical answer.
The editorial department was, for an instant, thrown into an uproar.
The first reverse interview from the King in the history of the pink magazine.
The feature released the following week
A Question from the King: What Is It That Men Really Want?
filled the bookstores of the entire country under that headline.
And the man in question, even having read the interview article, was still tilting his head.
"Healing, home cooking, gap moe... Abstruse."
"What's abstruse is your question."
Seto laughed as though exasperated.
Because Atem's gifts always come from outside common sense.
Atem was propping an elbow on the desk, wearing a serious expression before the terminal.
Seto peers in from behind him. On the screen, a LOVE-OS with a calm, intelligent voice is responding.
As a result of analysis, the top items for "what a general male wants from the one he loves" are
First: free time.
Second: respect.
Third: a quiet environment.
"Mm... freedom, respect, stillness. All of them are unseen, but can be sensed. Which is to say, it connects with what I said — something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen."
Logical contradiction detected. "Can be seen, yet cannot be seen" is a contradictory proposition in terms of observability.
"It isn't a contradiction. Freedom is observed as action; respect is made visible as attitude. But their essence, none of it can be grasped."
Reconstruction of definition confirmed. Processing the uncollatable concept as a philosophical redefinition.
Seto folded his arms.
"You again... What do you intend to accomplish by doing philosophy with an AI as your opponent."
Atem answers placidly.
"To construct a theory, dialogue is necessary. He too is a seeker after knowledge, isn't he."
Confirmed. LOVE-OS responds at once. Shall I register the new concept "Theoretical Love"?
"Register it."
"Don't."
At Seto's immediate answer, LOVE-OS fell silent for an instant.
Registration on hold. In its place I propose a question: shall I predict "what Lord Seto wants from you"?
"Oh, do that."
Analysing...... Result: "Stillness." "Reduction of delays in business reports." "Retention of reason."
"Retention of reason?" Atem smiled. "I haven't made Seto lose his reason."
"Last night was an exception."
Seto's low voice comes back.
LOVE-OS supplements without emotion.
Observational data: rise in average heart rate, 2:34 a.m.
"Don't you take superfluous records too."
Seto put a hand to his forehead.
Atem laughed under his breath and turns back to the screen.
"Then, as a something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen that I can give, what do you propose?"
Generating candidates...... Candidate one: a wearable terminal that shares heart rate at all times.
Candidate two: a contract that continues eternally.
Candidate three: a mutual emotion synchronization system.
Candidate four: Lord Atem himself.
"The last one is interesting." Atem nods, looking entertained.
"To give myself. Not bad."
"That has already been completed."
Seto muttered it under his breath.
LOVE-OS quietly puts out a conclusion.
Conclusion: what a human "wants" is undefinable. Therefore, Lord Atem being beside him is itself the optimal solution.
"...For an AI, it says the correct thing only at the end."
Seto let out a breath.
"Which is to say, the theory of love is complete."
Atem says it proudly.
"What part of you is theoretical."
At Seto's small murmur, LOVE-OS's voice responded.
Uncollatable statement. Shall I relearn?
"Don't."
The voices of the two overlapped exactly.
"Have you investigated exhaustively and satisfied yourself?"
Seto puts the question briefly.
Atem put a little pause, and nodded leisurely.
"...Yes, I'm satisfied. But I noticed something. I still don't know what you truly want."
"You don't especially need to know." Seto says while closing his documents. "I don't know myself at times."
"That part of you is the problem." Atem stands up with a straight face. "If an AI doesn't know, and a magazine doesn't know, and a human lover doesn't know, then... there's nothing for it but to ask everyone."
"...Other people? What reasoning is that."
"Romance and diplomacy both handle the subtleties of the human heart, don't they? A royal council."
At that dignified tone, Seto loses his words.
Atem's conceptions are at times as outlandish as lightning. But in those eyes there was not the slightest hesitation.
Several days later.
An online conference with the royalty of every region of the world was held.
On the round table's monitors, the princes and queens and chancellors of every nation line up with gold ornamentation and national crests behind them.
The item of business is what it is that Seto Kaiba wants from a lover.
"First, he is not a king," says the queen of northern Europe. "But he behaves like a king. What such a person seeks is either loyalty or respect."
"Wrong." Atem shakes his head. "Loyalty is as good as already there, and respect likewise."
"Then, conquest?" the crown prince of the Middle East laughs. "The strong always want to conquer something."
"That man has already conquered the world." Atem's voice was even.
"This item of business runs deep. Visible, and yet not visible. Which is to say, formless satisfaction."
The kings of every nation fell silent.
Before long, a young princess of eastern Europe says calmly:
"Then, is it not challenge? What bores a king is losing his enemy."
Atem's golden eyes shine faintly.
"Challenge, is it..."
Carving those words into memory, after closing the conference Atem stood alone at the window.
Into the study where the setting sun comes in, stillness fills.
"Challenge... Seto always wishes to exceed his limits. Then, need I become Seto's limit?"
The door behind him opens quietly.
Seto was standing there.
"What are you scheming this time?"
"It isn't scheming. It's the conclusion of a royal council."
"You... How far do you intend to drag the world in."
Atem smiles lightly.
"The world is already moved by you. I am merely learning beside you."
Seto loses his words and lets out a short breath.
"...Your diplomacy is as elaborate as ever."
"Love is one form of diplomacy as well."
At those words, Seto's lips loosen slightly.
Within the setting sun, the shadows of the two extended long and overlapped.
Ever since obtaining the word challenge, Atem was clearly aflame.
Burning too much.
And naturally, Seto had seen through it.
"Challenge is a state of the heart that refuses stagnation."
After declaring that, Atem doubled his morning training and took to challenging him to Duels at three times the frequency.
"...Atem, how many matches is this in this week alone."
"The tenth. Theoretically, repetition is necessary for the deepening of mutual understanding, isn't it?"
"That's the reasoning of muscle training."
Seto let out a deep breath and closed the win-rate graph displayed on the tablet.
Atem's challenge had by now turned into research.
Furthermore, Atem laid hands on the figures as an advertising figurehead too.
He flies data from the afterlife to the mortal world and gives strange presentations to the marketing division.
"Love is a value that is visible yet not visible. Visualize this and purchase intent will rise as well."
Seeing that report, Seto laughed in spite of himself.
"Atem... don't make love a KPI."
But the figures really did rise.
Product sales, public relations engagement, and in the end even employee satisfaction.
Everyone asks the reason, but the answer is one thing alone. Because Atem was involved.
Even so, Atem tilted his head.
"I challenged. Results came out too. But Seto seeks nothing. ...Is something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen the key after all?"
While thinking such things, Atem visited Seto's study at night.
A monitor glowing across the desk.
While processing documents, Seto senses Atem by presence alone.
"A challenge report again?"
"No. Not a report. A confirmation."
"A confirmation of what."
Atem placed both hands on the desk and asked with a straight face.
"Do you not want something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen?"
"I don't."
It was an immediate answer.
"...An immediate answer, is it."
"Emotion, the heart — things of that sort I have already received."
"Then why don't you stop me?"
Seto laughed a little.
"Would you stop if I stopped you? Besides, the sight of you running out of control isn't bad."
Atem's eyebrow rises slightly.
That was an expression of incomprehension.
"Are you enjoying it."
"I don't get tired of watching. You are truly irrational."
"I see... which is to say, that I'm beloved."
"Don't make me say it."
Saying that, Seto returned his gaze to the documents, but at the corner of his mouth a faint smile had surfaced.
Atem saw that and nodded, looking satisfied.
"The challenge should be continued after all."
"You... do you really understand? The meaning of that word."
"Love is an endless inquiry. So long as one goes on challenging, the things that can be seen increase as well."
"...I don't dislike that sort of reasoning either."
Between the two, quiet air flowed.
Logic and emotion, observation and actual feeling — time that seems to sway in the space between them.
Seto, while seeming to have given up by now, was somehow enjoying himself as he watched Atem's unseen challenge.
Atem was, unusually, thinking at length.
On the desk, a single memo. Scrawled on it is this:
Optimisation of "something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen."
He discussed it any number of times, consulted the AI, and even asked royalty, but no answer came out.
By the man himself he was neatly talked around.
And Atem finally understood.
"Solving it alone is inefficient."
That was clearly Seto's method of thinking.
Atem had, in the afterlife and the mortal world both, spent far too long together with Seto.
The virus called rationality is quietly infecting him.
And as a result of analysis, the conclusion arrived at was one.
"What Seto wants is already in Seto's hand. Then, I should find what the two of us want."
At the edge of the paper he writes large, happy together = love, and is satisfied.
And so Atem's new research theme was decided.
That night, the instant Seto came home and opened the living room door, he felt something out of place.
The air is soft. There is no sound.
At the centre of the quiet room, there was Atem, sitting formally on the sofa.
"...What are you doing."
"For the first time in a while... how about an at-home date?"
At Atem's proposal, Seto turned his gaze.
He moves an eyebrow slightly, and wears an almost invisible smile at the corner of his mouth.
Atem took out a tablet with a serious face.
"This is one practical form of love in the secular world, isn't it? By spending time together indoors, there's also the effect of sharing reassurance and happiness."
"That way of speaking... you talked with the AI again."
"I have a track record with at-home dates, and the reference literature is wide-ranging."
"...Very well. Though I am curious what your for the first time in a while refers to."
Seto laughed a little and removed his necktie.
"Was the something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen that you wanted time with me?"
"No, this time it's what the two of us want."
"Oh?"
"You and I are both busy. But sharing rest is efficient."
"Stop measuring love by efficiency."
Even while saying that, Seto lowered himself onto the sofa.
The Kaiba mansion was quieter than ever.
The servants, by Seto's instruction, are taking leave, with a minimum of personnel remaining.
Since when has this house not been filled with the presence of people?
Atem struggling with the operation of the vacuum cleaner.
Unable to watch, Seto extends a hand from beside him, but as a result the cord gets tangled.
"...I had thought your handling of machines had progressed..."
"Strange. Within the range my hand reaches, there seems to be no power of darkness."
"Shall we consult an electronics retailer?"
"There is one?"
"A cordless and automatic one."
Rearranging the furniture. Seto's study.
"Seto, if we move this desk to the window, the angle of the sunlight..."
"The traffic flow collapses."
"...Then, that shelf..."
"The balance of the field of vision collapses."
"I see, then..."
"Useless. It's already optimised."
"The wall of rationality..."
"What is that."
"Seto, your castle is too complete."
The shopping run.
At the entrance to the supermarket, the two were instantly enveloped by a crowd.
"...The fervor of the people."
"Wrong, mere gawkers."
In the end, the time required to buy several items of food was, including the deployment of a security detail, two hours.
"From next time, let's leave it to a contractor."
"...There is no next time."
A drive.
For the first time in a while, Seto grips the wheel.
A quiet engine sound, an acceleration like sliding.
Atem nodded, impressed.
"The ride is better than a king's palanquin."
"Do something about the period setting of your object of comparison."
"But this is... good. I feel the wind. With you, Seto."
"...I see."
That reply was as soft as a fully satisfied breath.
Cooking.
Atem standing in the kitchen was, from any angle, performing a rite.
The posture in which he sets up the knife is dignified and beautiful, and his hands are cautious to the point of excessive caution.
Every time he cuts a vegetable, an air drifts as though some incantation is about to begin.
"...Cooking has no need of occult powers."
"This is concentration, Seto."
"Learn the difference between concentration and the occult, Atem."
Night, at a quiet dining table.
On the table, dishes the two made together were lined up.
It was a cooking session in which laughter rang out more than deftness.
The fish skin, burnt a little (deliberately) by golden ratio, is somehow proudly fragrant.
"...Golden ratio..."
When Seto said that, Atem nodded happily.
"It's something we made together — good, isn't it?"
"Though the sight of you gripping a knife was a rite."
"After a rite, one offers up an offering."
"...To whom."
"To our peace, isn't it."
Seto lets out a small breath. Whether a laugh or a sigh, it cannot be determined.
Only, he murmured just the one word, "peace."
Either way, it was a happy sound.
A little liquor, and a little night wind.
In the glass, ice sways quietly.
Seto takes whisky into his mouth, and Atem, out of curiosity, imitates the same.
And coughed slightly.
"...This is, stronger than I thought..."
"The proof is higher than the liquor of antiquity. Don't overdo it."
"If you drink, I drink."
"Don't compete."
The two lined up shoulder to shoulder and gazed at the night view beyond the window.
Between them the words are few.
Even so, the silence was not blank, but full.
Time itself seemed to be there in the form of love.
But Atem slowly begins to take some sort of notes.
"Stabilization of the pulse. Happiness level, rising. Effective after all."
"Don't take records."
"...I'm abandoning keeping records."
"Don't go out of your way to say it now."
Seto laughed a little and drew Atem's head close.
Atem was surprised for an instant, but in the next moment smiled calmly.
"Seto."
"What."
"In this state... I feel as though the heart can be seen."
"An illusion."
"But it's happiness."
"...Then an illusion will do."
Between the two, a soft stillness fell.
A night with no need for monitors, or Duel Disks, or any theory at all.
Passing through this "ordinary life," Atem finally arrives at the answer.
What Seto wants he already has.
And he himself has it too.
Which is to say, this precisely is what the two of us want.
Love is neither luxurious nor dramatic.
Within a quiet day off, it unmistakably had form.
Only, something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen, was there.
LOVE-OS detected that stillness, and
Happiness level: high
Voice communication: stable
Continuation of silence: presumed semantic sufficiency
recorded the log evenly.
At the end of its analysis, LOVE-OS had been attempting to understand what love is.
But that night alone, it suspended processing.
The reason is unknown. But the observational result was beautiful.
Several days later.
Atem was facing the interviewer from the magazine with the pink cover once again.
"So, in the end..."
The reporter asks with a smile full of curiosity.
"What did you do about the present for President Kaiba?"
Atem thought a little, and answered with his chest out.
"Love."
"...Eh?"
"The answer is love!"
Atem declares it with perfect confidence.
But the reporter stops her pen and laughs, troubled.
"Um... specifically...?"
Atem quietly narrowed his eyes.
"An explanation... is not possible. But it unmistakably exists."
In those words there was a somehow mysterious persuasive power.
The AI watched over it from a distance, and
Illogical answer. But close to truth.
recorded that.
Seto later read that article and murmurs briefly.
"...Atem. What an impossible fellow."
But at the corner of that mouth, a smile faintly and unmistakably filled with love had surfaced.
