Chapter Text
Goyou wandered the halls of where Agape once rested, the PC was to shut down very soon and before it was, Goyou wished to lay down in the last “pretty” memory they had. It was strange, before, there was nothing Goyou wished to do other than obey their program, but now they wanted to spend their final moments with the virus they’d never see again.
A question came to them, one they had questioned the last time they laid in the file. If Goyou could meet Agape in another PC, would they tell Goyou the “feeling” they’re experiencing? The feeling as if they’re sinking to the bottom of a water.png but their head is above still breathing. Goyou felt this strong feeling strongly when they laid in Agape’s grave.
Agape mentioned that when humans die, they leave flowers at their grave files. A practice they’ve done before Goyou was born, the message was to share the memories. Goyou decided to do the same, to resemble humans a little more.
They ventured to the wedding file, taking a random flower in a vase. The soft flower twirled in Goyou’s hand, its pixel petals, flying around slowly with each movement. Goyou read somewhere flowers smell nice, even though Goyou knew they couldn’t smell, they lifted the flower to their nose and took in a breath. Of course, Goyou smelled nothing. Still, the gesture of putting such a pretty flower to the nose to sniff it’s scent made Goyou feel content.
Goyou looked around and noticed someone sitting in front of the aisle. Curious, Goyou approached the figure. The figure’s gray pixelated hair, white clothes adorned by ribbons, and the soft familiar wings of… Agape? Goyou was surprised to see Agape, but also… Glad? Goyou didn’t know, the best way they could describe it was when Goyou looks in the recycle bin.
Goyou’s feet were at first dragging them along, but surely their pace turned into a fast motion, Goyou reached Agape’s shoulder, frantically asking, “Agape? How’re you alive?”
Agape stayed still, but only for a moment. The figure, now known as Agape, turned their head to face Goyou. It was not the Agape Goyou knew.
The pixelated mouth stretched wide, almost as if to consume Goyou whole, the bulging left eye looked as if it were about to burst at any moment, and the glitching of Agape’s entire form was spasming.
Goyou stepped back, taken aback to find Agape’s form like this. The virus that was once Agape croaked out a pitiful sound, Goyou was surprised to hear a sound coming from Agape, their text box usually was their form of communication but Goyou had never heard a sound when they first searched for Agape’s body.
Agape groaned, “Goyou… Kun..?” Agape lunged forward, striking Goyou and pinning them down, the horrifying glitching pixels trembled the file, causing the file to decay on itself, Goyou pushed Agape off with their mace and escaped the file in time.
Goyou stared at the once fulfilled file, wondering if Agape would crawl out for them, and they did. Goyou watched as Agape attempted to escape but as the file was destroyed, it split Agape in half. The virus groaned, still attempting to reach Goyou. Goyou used this opportunity to swing their mace to destroy Agape once again, however they paused. Goyou didn’t know why they did, there was what felt like a small string edging Goyou’s mace from destroying Agape. Unfortunately for Goyou, the once legless Agape immediately grew their legs back and they charged at Goyou.
Instead of killing off Agape, Goyou smacked them away with the back of their mace, Agape’s limbs were almost numb to the impact, jerking involuntarily as they stitched themselves back in place. Goyou had never seen anything like this before, they were sure this was a different Agape attacking them, a much more violent and aggressive virus.
Though, if that were the case, the Agape before them wouldn’t call out to them, even saying their name. There was a sliver of hope that the Agape before them was the Agape they met and killed over 10203984 times.
Goyou attacked, smashing Agape’s body down to the ground until their body twitched and was unable to move. Goyou stuck the stick of their mace deep in Agape’s stomach, trapping the virus in place.
Once the virus regained its composure, it frantically tried attacking Goyou who stood in watch. Goyou spoke, “Agape, do you remember me?” It was silly, Goyou knew, however there was something that Goyou felt, compelling them to try and return Agape back to normal. The virus didn’t respond, instead its mouth stretched in an unnatural way, screaming as it tried to strike Goyou.
Goyou sighed, deciding to use this grace period to ponder over what had happened to Agape? Lastly that they remembered, Agape was never that violent, even when Agape tried “consuming” Goyou. The Agape before them was a mindless being almost, screeching to the rooftops. Goyou thought to themself, “how will I protect this VC now that Agape was added in?”
Wait… Added in? Could that be what's happening to Agape? Like an update to their software? They received an update from their creator? There are many other Agapes in PCs, so it wouldn’t be crazy to think they all received this update as well…
“Goyou… Kun…” The voice croaked again, Goyou looked down at the creature known as Agape still pinned by a mace. A strange twisted feeling in Goyou’s chest appeared, it was unpleasant. Goyou walked up to Agape’s mangled body and reached for his mace, upon drawing closer, Agape reached out to snatch Goyou and pull him closer! Goyou jumped atop the mace and deepened the mace in Agape’s stomach, making sure the virus could never escape.
Goyou jumped off thinking to themself as Agape screamed and shook the PC.
How did Agape first enter? Goyou didn’t know how to leave the PC and never once tried, Agape was a virus so they just assumed Agape could do that sort of thing. Goyou searched around the PC for any sort of route that led to the internet but nothing existed.
Goyou was in hopes that maybe a human could assist them, though that was impossible. Goyou was unqualified to destroy Agape as they were, both physically and “mentally”. Their only solution is to receive assistance from their creator or from another virus buster. The only way to reach either however, would be to leave the PC.
Goyou grumbled in annoyance before they noticed a second door in the bedroom file. It was never there before, instead of it matching the room it seemed to be a classic wooden door. Goyou looked around, wondering if anything else had changed. Nothing had, except for the screeching of Agape of course.
Goyou carefully proceeded to the door, lowering themself in case anything came out. Surprisingly, nothing did, however Goyou opened the door and panicked as the door seemed to be sucking them in. Goyou tried escaping, however the familiar croak of Agape caught their attention. Agape limped towards Goyou, ready to lunge themselves, Goyou had no choice but to let go, right as Agape pounced on the door.
As Goyou was dragged by the wind, they saw Agape pounding on the door in an attempt to follow them.
Goyou woke up, on a different PC this time. It was almost as if a USB forcefully carried Goyou to another computer. Goyou stood up, venturing the files.
Suddenly, Goyou was struck by a page opening! Goyou got up, rubbing their head and looking around, this new page read “youtube”. Goyou was puzzled by the app, finding it intriguing. They climbed on top of the cursor moving around and felt the red logo on it. Suddenly, a search engine popped up next, searching: What does it mean if there’s a little character on my laptop??
Goyou assumed a human was using this computer currently, and Goyou happened to drop in while the person was using it. Goyou waved their hands to gain their attention, looking out to where the screen was. Noticing the cursor stopped moving, Goyou huffed annoyed. They opened a paint app and wrote: Are you a human? No response. Goyou was confused as to why the human wasn’t responding back via text messages on an art app, so they wrote again
Goyou: My name is Goyou, I’m an anti-virus and I need your help.
Again, no response. Goyou was on the verge of giving up before a red text wrote back
Human: I am a human.
Goyou was grateful to be talking with a human and to get help from them.
Goyou: I need to help Agape. Is there a way you can help him?
There was a pause in the human’s response, before they texted
Human: Do you mean the virus?
Goyou: Yes.
Human: Why would an anti-virus want to help a virus?
Goyou paused, the question that even they didn’t know.
Goyou: Don’t know. He’s dangerous though, too dangerous for me too.
The human leaned in their chair, looking back at their coworker almost in shock. The two had found an abandoned laptop on the verge of shutting down, they would’ve ignored it if it weren’t for the strange log files of the anti-virus and virus. The two conversed with each other and even traveled the PC’s files together. Has technology grown sentient? Not only that, the anti-virus ended up in a different computer after they used a computer to charge it.
Someone knocked on the door to seize their attention. One of the humans greeted his cold glare as he advanced toward them. The man said, “Aki, show me the anti-virus.” Maeno nodded, having the other coworker scoot to the side as his childhood friend Ushirono Fuyu observed the anti-virus.
Despite the anti-virus’ tiny and miniature avatar, it almost looked like the anti-virus was worried. The small character on screen paced back and forth before a text box appeared along with a large icon of the character in detail. Maeno and Fuyu glanced at each other.
Goyou explained, “Agape is… I don’t know, but please humans, help me.” Fuyu whistled in disbelief as Maeno texted the anti-virus again.
Maeno: We’ll do what we can.
Fuyu smacked the back of his hand against Maeno lightly, “what’re you thinking?” Fuyu grumbled, Maeno stated, “this is our project remember? If these things are sentient we might as well follow their requests.” Fuyu smacked his hand against Maeno again, “this is a computer Aki.” Maeno knew how ridiculous this sounded, however after the ZENO research facility, he wasn’t against crazy ideas anymore.
Goyou texted again, “I’d like to get out.”
Maeno: What?
Goyou repeated themself, “I want to see the outside world.” Again, the two scientists glanced at each other. Fuyu theorized, “this could be a virus disguised as a Goyou, just leave it alone.” Maeno stopped Fuyu in his tracks, “then check the original PC, check if Goyou is still in there.”
Fuyu and Maeno each gave a long hard stare to each other, eyes fighting for dominance. In the end, Fuyu relented, “god, I can’t believe I’m going along with your shenanigans…” Maeno grinned at him and held a thumbs up, “Thanks.”
Fuyu rolled his eyes at Maeno while he started up the PC Goyou was originally resting in. To the dismay of his pride, Goyou was nowhere to be found. What was found instead was a virus slowly overtaking the PC.
Fuyu cursed quietly and yelled at Maeno, “Alright, alright…! you’re right! So what do you want me to do?” Maeno stated, “the lab was already in the process of this, but we created a body that Goyou would be able to reside in and control.” Fuyu scoffed, “yeah, the process! Don’t tell me you’re going to prematurely enter its software in the not even finished body?” Maeno paused, “well… We finally have a sentient computer being, this is an amazing discovery…” Fuyu sighed, “you’re thinking too much about an anti-virus. Goyou will survive in this computer for a while.” Maeno sighed, knowing Fuyu was right.
Fuyu disconnected the computer from the PC, noticing Goyou’s textbox asking where the two were. Maeno got back on the computer to discuss the plan with them.
Maeno: We’re going to try and build you a physical body to stay in. It will take a long time, so be patient with us please.
Goyou: Ok. How long is that?
Maeno: I don’t know, but I’ll let you know.
Goyou sighed, the icon of themself and textbox disappeared. Goyou sat themselves on the floor, staring at the ceiling before laying down. Their “mind” raced with thoughts of what they were to do, and more about Agape. What was Agape doing? Did Agape destroy the PC yet? What would Goyou say to Agape after seeing them again? Goyou stayed thinking about seeing Agape again for their remaining days as an anti-virus.