010. Insomnia (2)
010. Insomnia (2)
"Euh-eh?"
Laika tilted her head and asked back, as if wondering what I meant.
"Isn't napping enough for a hobby~?"
"Would that be enough?"
In the first place, it was questionable whether napping could even be placed in the 'hobby' category.
"I'm talking about a more wholesome and productive hobby. Cooking, stamp collecting...... something of your own you can really get absorbed in."
"Euh-eum.... Well... do I...?"
Laika began to ponder seriously.
But even after some time passed, nothing in particular seemed to come to mind. After about a minute, Laika smiled sheepishly and concluded.
"I don't have one?"
"Nothing at all?"
"Yeah. Even when I had free time, I never really did anything except kill time by napping. ......Euhye."
Laika laughed it off as if it were no big deal.
In reality, it wasn't a problem that could be dismissed so lightly.
"Repeat after me. Food, clothing, shelter, and human relationships. Plus hobby activities."
"Euhye?"
"I said repeat after me. Food, clothing, shelter and human relationships, hobby activities."
"F-Food, clothing, shelter and human activities? Hobby relationships? ...Right?"
Anyway, the order got a little mixed up in the middle, but it was fine.
What I wanted to say was this.
"Don't forget those five things and remember them well. Because they are absolutely necessary for military biodroids."
"Euh-eh...."
Laika objected, clearly unconvinced.
"Even if food, clothing, shelter, and relationships matter, wouldn't it be fine not to have a hobby? Plenty of people live without one......."
That might be the case for humans.
For biodroids, especially military biodroids, having a hobby was arguably even more important than food, clothing, and shelter.
And with good reason—military biodroids didn't use food as fuel. The core supplied power.
Body temperature was also regulated by the core and phase circuits, so they wouldn't die even without clothing.
They didn't get diseases, so a sanitary living environment wasn't exactly a necessity either.
Even so, those five things were still essential because they helped reduce stress.
"Stress?"
"Yeah. Stress."
Military biodroids basically lived with stress levels through the roof.
That was inevitable. They were worked hard on hellish battlefields, then came back to bases where even their daily lives were tightly controlled.
Life was that harsh, and they weren't even properly compensated for it. Apart from the stability of being forcibly employed by the military and a bit of utterly useless honor, the biodroid herself got nothing in return.
In the midst of all that, the biodroid's brain was that of a girl.
Girls' brains—sensitive, delicate, easily hurt, and not especially resilient.
Enduring that kind of stress with such a brain wasn't easy. Despite their resistance to physical fatigue, military biodroids were vulnerable to psychological breakdown.
Therefore, relieving that stress in an appropriate and healthy way was incredibly important.
That was a long buildup, but the point was this:
The five pillars of stress relief were clothing + food + shelter + relationships + hobbies.
In that sense, Laika was.
—For clothes, she was at least wearing a stretched-out tracksuit, so CLEAR.
—For food, she was regularly consuming combat rations and bungeoppang, so CLEAR.
—For shelter, she at least had a shabby private room, so CLEAR.
—For human relationships, she had me, so CLEAR.
But a wholesome, productive hobby? FAIL.
A complete fucking failure.
"......Is having a hobby really worth making this much fuss over?"
"It's that important."
Again, stress relief was crucial.
If stress wasn't properly relieved, reduced efficiency was the least of the problems. It also left a biodroid vulnerable to mental attacks from Legions.
It could even cause a genuine 'rampage,' unlike Laika's Rampage skill, which was a designed function.
To prevent that, military biodroids were effectively required to have at least one hobby.
"Euh-eh... it's even forced? Did Laika violate regulations without knowing it?"
In principle, yes.
But it wouldn't be very fair to push this issue entirely onto Laika.
Recommending hobbies to a biodroid and making sure they had time for them was fundamentally the commander's responsibility.
Laika hadn't been able to have a hobby because the commanders responsible for her over the past year had neglected that duty.
......And, as Laika's empty room showed, she had difficulty letting anything become precious to her.
Beyond not having been given the chance to develop a hobby, she herself had probably avoided the very act of liking something, investing time in it, and becoming attached to it.
So.
Here, I had no choice but to give her a firm push.
With that in mind, I made Laika a suggestion.
"Let's make one."
"...Euhye? Make? What?"
"A wholesome and productive hobby that's perfect for you."
"Starting when?"
That, of course.
"Starting now."
"...Euh-eut."
Laika began to whine again.
"It's such a hasssssle... Laika is fine with just napsssss..."
"It's not enough."
If it were enough, a status abnormality like insomnia wouldn't have appeared.
In that sense, a hobby was a doubly effective solution.
Because not only would it help her sleep well at night by keeping her awake during the day, but it also reduced physical and mental fatigue in and of itself.
"If you really hate it, I can also increase your training volume by about five times so you pass out at night. Which do you want?"
"I guess I have no choice. The mature and generous Laika will give in. I'll try having a hobby."
Laika changed her tune as if she'd been waiting for it.
A moment later, Laika tilted her head quizzically.
The cowlick on top of her head curved into a question mark, making the question that followed all the more expressive.
"But what would be good to take up as a hobby?"
...What was I supposed to do if she asked me that?
"Wasn't there anything you ever wanted to do? Even a fanciful wish is fine."
"Euhye, that's too hard of a question..."
Was this hard?
It struck me again that Laika had a tendency to be far too indifferent to herself.
She'd need to change that mindset too if she was going to stay calm on the battlefield.
I didn't bother to mention that I was aiming for that effect too.
Bringing up that goal again would only constrain her thinking.
For now, I wanted her to tell me what she genuinely wanted, without any constraints.
For that reason, I simply waited calmly for Laika's answer.
Maybe thanks to that.
A moment later, Laika let out an "Ah," as if a good idea had occurred to her.
"I might have wanted to be born as a fish and swim through the ocean."
......Hmm.
Her thinking certainly had become freer.
But it seemed to have become a little excessively unrestrained.
"I asked what you wanted to do as a hobby. What you just said is a future dream...... no, it's not even that. You're talking about after you reincarnate."
Or maybe it was just a continuation of the games she'd been playing on the rooftop last time.
"Euhye..."
What was she trying to get away with by acting cute?
Since it had come to this, I considered simply having her try one thing after another at random.
I considered it for a moment, but that was problematic too.
The lack of time was the secondary issue, but actually, we probably couldn't afford it financially either.
And yet, I couldn't exactly turn this kid into a fish.
I only had a moment to lament that.
Suddenly, a good idea flickered through my mind.
"How about raising one?"
"Euhing? Raising?"
"Fish, I mean."
"Fish? ...Who raises them?"
Obviously, she would.
"...Euh-eh? I'm the one raising them?"
Laika was obviously flustered, but I wasn't discouraged in the slightest.
I thought raising fish would suit Laika perfectly.
The reasons were numerous.
First, Laika herself liked fish.
Once the initial setup was finished, it would not require much moving around to maintain, which suited her personality.
On top of that, it wouldn't cost much.
The only real cost would be materials for the aquarium, and most of those could probably be sourced locally from the base or nearby Trash Island.
Above all, the act of carefully managing and raising something was in itself helpful for emotional stability.
In reality, for elderly people who had lost a spouse, raising a dog or cat worked better than antidepressants.
Of course, keeping a dog or cat on base was still impractical.
Also, Laika wasn't yet in such a stable state.
If she impulsively brought in a medium or large animal and ended up killing it, there was a high possibility Laika's condition would worsen significantly.
It would be wiser to start with something smaller and less consequential—a fish—and let her learn that it was okay to have something precious.
That was how we would move forward, one step at a time.
Even that one step seemed to weigh heavily on her.
"...Could Laika really raise a living creature?"
"Why do you think you can't?"
"Just...... if it's alive, isn't that a lot? I feel like I'd worry about it constantly...... and if something went wrong, I'd feel terrible......."
"That's a bad habit, thinking of negative results first like that. Think about the good side. If you put an aquarium in your room, how easily you'll drift off to sleep. And how pretty the fish will be."
As my persuasion continued, Laika's ears perked up.
She was almost completely won over.
I added a line as if delivering the finishing blow.
"Since I'm the one recommending it, if it doesn't go well, you can just blame me. Of course, I'll do my best to help you so it doesn't come to that."
At that, Laika laughed with an Euhye.
"Then...... should I give it a try?"
"Give it a try."
"Okay!"
And so, our fish tank creation project began.
...It wasn't an easy project.
A little while ago, it might have sounded like I had some expertise in raising fish.
In truth, I had just been talking big. I did not have any real knowledge about keeping fish.
To be honest, my understanding went no further than: get a glass tank, pour in water, add fish, and that would be it.
In short, I was useless.
On the other hand, Laika was far better than me in terms of knowledge.
Because she usually liked fish, she'd watched videos of fish swimming in tanks online, and in the process, she'd naturally picked up how a fish tank was structured.
"You thought you just needed a tank and that was it~ Commander, aren't you being way too unreasonable~? For fish to live, you need a filter, you know~ It's good to have substrate and aquatic plants too~ And when it's hot, the amount of dissolved oxygen goes down, so~ you need an air pump too~"
......And just like that, she launched into a lecture on fish keeping as if she were an aquarium-keeping expert.
Even though she herself didn't know exactly and had to look it up again for quite a while.
With the basics understood, Laika and I started gathering materials in earnest.
Fortunately, the dust-covered base warehouse was full of odds and ends usable as materials.
We salvaged a motor, drain pipes, and other parts and built a filter.
We made a new tank by bonding unused glass panels together with silicone.
We made the other components ourselves in much the same way.
The completed materials were installed in Laika's room.
Laika wanted to put it somewhere convenient on the first floor of the residential block, but on this point I put my foot down.
I wanted to fill her room, as empty as her inner world, with something alive.
Clear water and the precious lives within it would make the perfect foundation.
After it was actually installed, Laika also seemed quite pleased.
How could I tell? Because as soon as the tank installation was finished, without even being told to, she began decorating the interior landscape.
Using gravel and driftwood she'd brought from somewhere.
During that time, I couldn't rest either.
Laika had sat me down and kept chattering at me the whole time.
"Is it better to place the driftwood like this, I wonder? No, in the video they said you have to make a triangular composition like this~ But considering I'll plant aquatic plants, should I do it like this, I wonder~? Ah, right, this is better after all~ Right, Commander?"
"I have absolutely no idea what the difference is."
"Haa~ Beginners, I swear~"
Again, this was also her first time actually making an aquarium.
She just had a bit more background knowledge; she was just as much a newbie.
Well, that wasn't what mattered.
What really mattered was that Laika had found a hobby she was motivated to pursue on her own, giving her something to engage with outside combat.
Raising fish.
...There were no fish yet, though.
I deliberately hadn't added them.
I had deliberately left them out because Laika had warned me not to add any yet.
According to what she knew, adding fish immediately after setting up the tank was almost guaranteed to kill them.
She said the tank had to cycle for a few days with only the filter running in plain water; only then would it be safe for fish.
One afternoon, after waiting several days like that, all preparations were finally complete.
I went to find Laika, who now stayed in her room almost as often as on the rooftop, and said,
"Pack your stuff and come out. We're going to Metropolis."
"Metropolis~? All of a sudden, why~?"
"We need to get the fish."
But there were no aquarium shops nearby.
We had no choice but to go all the way to Metropolis to buy them.
"Do we really have to go all the way there, I wonder."
"...You're not thinking of saying it's too much of a hassle now, are you?"
"Of course not. I'm just saying there's no need to go to the trouble of going all the way there."
I couldn't understand Laika's confident answer.
Because I had already confirmed that even the nearest aquarium shop was located in downtown Metropolis.
Regardless, Laika left me standing there puzzled and pulled something out from under her bed.
"...A net?"
"Yep~ I asked Alicia for a favor and got it~ More precisely, she gave me rope, and Rinne and I wove it into a net~"
So Rinne would actually interact face-to-face with Laika. I was jealous.
...It definitely wasn't the time to be lost in such pointless thoughts.
"What are you going to do with that?"
"To catch fish, of course?"
"You're going to catch them yourself?"
"Uh-huh. But before that, we need to find a stream where fish can live first. Why-y?"
"No..."
I was about to tell her to stop.
Due to the existence of Trash Island, the land around Krädel was extremely polluted.
There was no way we'd find clean water in a place like that—water where freshwater fish could live.
But after a moment, I changed my mind.
In any case, Laika was motivated and had actually put in effort.
Even though she'd surely end up disappointed later, pouring cold water on it from the very start wouldn't be a desirable attitude.
"...Well, fine. Let's look for one first. And if it doesn't work out, we can just buy them."
"Uh-huh!"
Excited, Laika headed out of the base, and I followed behind her, still skeptical.
To find a stream that couldn't possibly exist.
Exactly 30 minutes later.
Laika found a picture-perfect, crystal-clear stream.