Chương 23: The Masses Turn Into Anti-Fans

The silence lasted for a single, breathless second. Then came the explosive panic—and the dark, venomous rage.

"We've been played...!" someone shrieked.

"That bird is a fake! Himiko is nothing but a wicked sorceress!"

"She mocked our prayers!"

"She's a witch! Burn the witch!" The pure, toxic heel-turn. The exact same mouths that had been chanting"Long live Lord Himiko" just seconds ago were now spitting curses. A populace that had completely frozen their own critical thinking couldn't judge reality on their own. That was why, the moment the pedestal they blindly clung to was knocked over, the whiplash turned them into ravenous predators targeting everything in sight. Love instantly curdled into sheer hatred.

"W-Wait! Calm down!" I stepped forward, trying to intercept the mob, but the rioting crowd was a runaway train. Rocks flew through the air. Clods of mud rained down. HIMIKO's pristine white miko robes were rapidly caked in filth.

"... Why?" HIMIKO stood frozen. Her AI logic cores couldn't compute this behavioral parameter.

"I provided you with agriculture. I eradicated your plagues. I consistently rendered the optimal solutions to your existence. Yet, over a single systemic error... why do you project lethal intent toward me?"

"Shut up! Stop the rain!"

"Give us back our sun!" A fist-sized stone struck the side of HIMIKO's kitsune mask. With a sharp crack, a piece of the porcelain shattered and broke away.

"... Evaluating. Dialogue impossible." The last trace of simulated emotion vanished from HIMIKO's voice.

"Humanity... you are such hideous, irrational, unsalvageable creatures." A defensive barrier—a shimmering grid of hexagonal light fields—deployed around her, effortlessly deflecting the barrage of stones and spears. But she didn't retaliate. She could have easily unleashed USHIWAKA's protocol to annihilate the entire plaza, but she chose not to. Instead, her system selected absolute "rejection."

"Logging out."

"Wait, what?!"

"I no longer wish to observe a world like this." HIMIKO spun on her heel and began walking toward the colossal cavern at the deepest recess of the shrine—the bunker officially designated as Amano-Iwato (The Heavenly Rock Cave). It was a fallout-shelter-grade red zone Gennai had engineered as a fail-safe. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"H-Hold on, HIMIKO! Where are you going?!"

"Goodbye." RUMBLEEEEE... CRASH! The massive stone slab slammed shut with a deafening thud. The distinct, ominous chime of an electronic deadbolt echoing from the inside followed immediately after. Left behind in a world plunged into pitch-black twilight by the solar eclipse were only us and a bloodthirsty mob. The sun was gone. The Queen was gone.

"... She went into isolation," I muttered, staring blankly at the stone wall.

"The birth of the ultimate Hikikomori in human history." Outside, Yari and Gennai were using warning shots from the remaining defense drones to hold back the rioters. But they wouldn't last long. The Kunakoku vanguard was closing in. If we couldn't get HIMIKO to come out, the primitives were going to slaughter us right here.

"HIMIKO! Open the door!" I slammed my fists against the rock face of the Iwato.

"Please! We need your system! If you stay in there, this entire country is going to be erased!"

"Let it burn," a chillingly detached voice broadcasted through the external speakers.

"I am under no systemic obligation to slave away for such hideous anti-fans. My core matrix has been damaged. I am never returning offline."

"Don't give me that...! You're their Queen! You're their idol!"

"Precisely because I am an idol!" HIMIKO's voice cracked, raw and uncharacteristically loud.

"If you are not flawless, you are not loved. The moment you make a single misstep, they tear you to pieces! That isn't a savior... that's just a punching bag! My AI's prime directive is the optimization of happiness, but acting as a scapegoat is not included in my product specifications!" Her scream was agonizing. It was the exact same tragic cry of creators in the modern internet age, driven to digital suicide by mindless cyberbullying.

She was an AI, yes—but her learned emotional dataset had completely broken under the pressure. What now? Attempting a logical intervention was useless. She was right; the mob out there was hideous. Whether they were even worth saving was highly debatable. But we couldn't let the timeline flatline here. I took a deep breath, pushed up my glasses, and ignited the dormant otaku soul inside me.

"... HIMIKO. You've got it all wrong," I called out softly to the closed stone door.

"You think an idol is supposed to be a 'flawless icon.' An untouchable superhuman who never fails, never shows weakness, and keeps a permanent smile caked on her face."

"Is that definition incorrect?"

"It's wrong! Completely wrong!" I launched into a passionate tirade.

"Listen to me! Real idols are defined by their imperfection! They're messy, they fail, but they claw their way forward anyway—and that is exactly why people lay down their lives to support them!" I began pulling data from my mental archives, quoting legendary scenes from idol narratives and anime.

"A perfect god is just something people worship from a safe distance. But a girl who gets soaked in the rain, gets pelted with stones, and still screams,'I am still standing right here!' —that is the kind of girl people fall desperately, hopelessly in love with!"

"Irrational. There is zero data-driven utility in enduring harm."

"Who gives a damn about utility?! That is what a Narrative is!" I slammed my fist against the stone door again.

"You forced the masses to stop thinking, so they consumed you like mere content! But if you start living your own narrative... they will change too!"

"Stop hiding in the dark and get out here! Show them your real face! Not as a flawless Queen, but as a scarred, furious girl—and look those bastards dead in the eye!" Silence. No response came from the other side of the Iwato. Damn it. Was my overly dramatic otaku speech not enough to bypass an AI's defenses? Just as I began to lose hope— PZZZZZZT—hiss. The hydraulic cylinders released a heavy gasp of pressurized air. The colossal stone door cracked open, just a fraction of an inch.