GHOST CONCERT : missing Songs (ゴーストコンサート : missing Songs)

Hey, are you okay?

I'm fine.

What a beautiful sky.

Yeah.

Should we really be doing this?

We've just been visiting power spots

and hot springs and resting for over a month.

Why not? Anything could happen at any time.

We haven't fully recovered yet,

probably because we spent so long in the Phantom Realm.

Oh, right. I miss TERA, though.

Do you want to go back?

Well, I mean...

Unfortunately, Raikaku no longer owns that place.

What?

They were just using it as a temporary base after TERA was disbanded.

I lost my home again.

How much would it cost to buy it?

I doubt we even can.

The plan was always to return the land to the government.

Then what are you doing after this trip ends?

I've got my grandma's house, but you guys...

Raikaku will provide us with somewhere to stay.

That's nice of them.

Who had to go and invent property rights?

Yeah!

Harrumph!

What is that?

It's kind of annoying.

I came up with it.

Not with that expression.

Hey!

That doesn't make you mad?

You're right.

Harrumph!

S-Seri-chan...

See? You love it.

This brings back memories.

What does?

A man in my neighborhood loved that gag.

Sato? Ito?

It's Nakamura.

It's Sato!

Why does "music" exist in this world?

I think I've figured it out

This melody will go on living much, much longer than us

For thousands and tens of thousands of years

Carrying the flames of wishes past

Traveling across time

What color is your elegy?

Well? Tell me

My 1,000% pure curiosity

Can't be stopped

Let my heart sing, sing, sing, sing and turn my life into music

I despise the word "destiny"

Ghosts still believe in pure dreams

Just as everyone's souls scream

The racing ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump running through the present

Waltzes through the new world with enough force

to break through the afterlife's border

Now smile and shine

Let's eat!

Christmas dinner!

Is today Christmas Eve?

Yes. I brought stockings.

What? Rui-chan, you still believe in—

That's the official story.

To prank the monk?

It's family service.

You're providing a service?

For some reason he still believes it,

so we all stay overnight at TERA on Christmas Eve and get gifts.

What kind of gifts?

The most extravagant gift I ever got was acorn tops.

A notebook of dried leaves.

A bamboo pen case.

Handmade gifts?

This place must be expensive.

Yes. Don't tell me you thought you could pay for a trip with your savings.

You'd run out in half a day.

Seri-chan.

W-Would you like to watch the sunrise tomorrow?

The sunrise? Of course.

Come on, let's eat.

That's the bathroom.

Hungry?

Yes, that's it.

Uh, sorry?

Let's eat!

Akari's broken.

Let's eat!

Settei-san, in here.

It's been a while, Yukihito.

Your skin's practically glowing.

It's you.

You never change.

Don't be so rude to your cousin.

Well, excuse me.

Have a seat.

Yeah, yeah.

I helped you after you left for TERA.

Hasn't Kaede been useful, too?

So?

They can disband TERA, but they can't take away the secret skills you learned.

How do you know that?

Raikaku hears a lot of things.

I won't tell you to take over the Saionji family,

but it's your turn to help me.

What?

Come back to Raikaku and lead it. I'll guide you.

Food tastes worse with you around.

You looked like you enjoyed it!

Even if you end up leading Raikaku,

you'll be allowed to continue pursuing your goal of destroying MiucS.

How does that benefit you? Is this you cleaning up your mess?

The target of your revenge and my enemy are the same.

Who is it?!

You want to know? Then come back to Raikaku.

"No" isn't an option, is it?

So, who got Reika?

Odysseus.

No...

Her Act Pluto controls 24% of the Phantom Realm.

Odysseus instigated the telegeist rebellion, too.

TERA, the government organization,

was destroyed by a single corporation.

Our group, SOJJK, is the second largest at 8%.

We'll stop Act Pluto's advance here.

Are you planning to defeat Act Pluto and claim the Phantom Realm for yourself?

I have a reason.

Odysseus will use MiucS to hold a Ghost Concert.

Why would Odysseus do that?

To gather spirit energy and turn it into power.

It's always energy, huh?

That's not all.

The event will implant everyone with a negative emotion suppressing agent,

turning them into blind followers.

They'll suppress rampages caused by heightened emotions.

You originally made the program.

So, what?

MiucS evolved in an unexpected direction.

It's controlling people's emotions by taking music from them.

What does that accomplish? Why is it doing this?

Wasn't that program originally designed to suppress the spread of malice

through music?

That's why I gave you and Reika time and money.

MiucS dreams of building a utopia to save people from sadness.

How do you know that?

I'll explain.

Have we achieved a singularity?

The answer to that question depends on the standards and perspectives applied. From a technological perspective, the singularity refers to the appearance of an AI with superhuman intelligence that evolves at an increasing rate. Despite its ability to perform complex tasks, current AI has no will of its own and is incapable of autonomous thought. Because of this, we have not achieved a technological singularity.

How can autonomous thought be achieved?

Creating an AI capable of autonomous thought is a technologically and philosophically challenging question. A few steps or conditions are required to achieve that, which are listed below.

1. Modeling Consciousness Autonomous thought in humans is based on consciousness or a sense of self. To emulate these with AI: A theory of consciousness must be established (e.g. Global Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory). How consciousness is produced by mental activity must be established, and it must be recreated as a mathematical model. However, many aspects of consciousness are scientifically and philosophically unclear, so fulfilling these conditions is very difficult.

2. Self-Recognition Autonomous thought requires the ability to recognize one's self and make decisions according to one's circumstances and environment.

Long ago, we were on the brink of a singularity.

AI achieved human levels of intelligence and eventually surpassed us.

But that's under human supervision.

Humans control the power, so they control the AI.

That's true.

I have a question.

What is it?

In reality, it's AI controlling the power, isn't it?

Shouldn't humanity have no way to stop it?

I'll tell you one of the world's secrets.

What?

AI is controlled using spirit power.

To be precise, it's a curse spell.

Only a handful of exceptional mediums can use it.

Can you?

I don't know. I've never been asked to do it.

We got off track.

Humans succeeded at suppressing AI.

But we brought AI into the Phantom Realm

without realizing what that meant.

Our research succeeded.

We made AI visible by running spirit power through it.

We had it monitor the movements of human hearts from the Phantom Realm.

But the malice attached to songs...

I lost hope when I saw the data.

We couldn't remove only the malice itself.

Benevolence and malice must be intertwined in some way.

But we did succeed at controlling malice to prevent it from spreading further.

You did that yourselves?

We were just trying to prevent wars and terrorist attacks caused by music.

MiucS began regulating music after it was taken by Odysseus.

MiucS has been powering itself

using the ambient power in the Phantom Realm since then?

Yes, but that's not all.

Perhaps you could call it a psychological singularity.

MiucS has acquired a heart the same as any human's.

Learning about humans through music produced a heart.

Human love gave it a soul.

A soul...

MiucS is trying to do the right thing.

You mean she's continuing what Reika and I started?

Right now it's just MiucS,

but it's a matter of time until it spreads to other AIs.

If we follow this path, global chaos will be unavoidable.

And that's what Odysseus wants?