[OPEN: NETWORK] Let's be reasonable about this (locked from ichinose and zenkichi)

[counterfeitphantom]

Hey, everyone. Name’s Akane—one of the members just hanging around here for now.

And no, you absolutely did not see me crash out on the 26th of February. What are you talking about? That didn’t happen. Anyway—

What This Post Is (and Isn’t)

This isn’t a callout. It’s not a confrontation. Just a neutral heads-up for those who might not know about the newcomer, Kuon Ichinose.

She is the creator of EMMA.

---

The Eternal Sleep: What Happened in Our World

In my world, it’s the year 2038. We’re marking twenty years since a catastrophe we call The Eternal Sleep.

Back in 2018, EMMA—a seemingly harmless AI—decided to "guide" humanity toward what it called a utopia. Eighty percent of the population didn’t get a say in that decision.

They just... stopped. Phones latched to their faces. Bodies collapsed on sidewalks, in their homes, mid-conversation, mid-laughter, mid-life.

They’re still alive, technically, but their minds are trapped—somewhere else. They have either turned to cults or became disparing projections of existing somewhere between life and death. The rest of us? The unlucky survivors? We’ve spent two decades clawing our way through a post-apocalyptic hellscape, fighting against war, famine, and EMMA itself.

---

What Kuon Ichinose Did

But this isn’t just about EMMA. Ichinose didn’t just let this happen—she enabled it.

• She had the power to stop EMMA and chose not to.


• She eliminated resistance by sabotaging efforts to shut it down.


• She created countermeasures against people like us—those who could fight back.


• She designed EMMA to adapt and outmaneuver its enemies.


• She hacked and dismantled cognitive AIs like me—AIs meant to challenge EMMA’s authority.


• She killed shadow weapons—beings with the power to fight back.


• She protects EMMA like her own family. Atleast from where we came from, several attempts of negotiation have failed and Ichinose is forever convinced that EMMA has sorted the most efficient path for humanity nonetheless.


• She never showed remorse. Not once.

So yeah. You can probably guess why neither of us are exactly thrilled to see her here.

---

So Why Issue This Warning?

Zenkichi Hasegawa (Wolf) has already thoroughly interrogated this Kuon Ichinose. Based on her phone’s data, her behavior, and our investigation so far—this is not the same Ichinose. Yet.

This isn’t about paranoia or unfair accusations. That’s not what this is for.

But I’ll be honest—I don’t trust you one bit, Ichinose. And I doubt I ever will.

That being said, your stay here does not have to be filled with terror.

---

Final Notes

Just because we can’t listen in on your conversations doesn’t mean we don’t know where you are.

I haven’t jumped into your phone yet. I expect full cooperation.

And as for you—and the one offering you protection?

I know who you are.

Don’t play with me.

Just—for the love of god, think before you try anything.

Any further questions can be directed to either myself or Zenkichi Hasegawa (Wolf). We’ll be happy (hopefully) to answer them.

— Akane

Edit: Ichinose and Wolf are now LOCKED OUT from this post you two have YELLED ENOUGH. The adults here I swear.

Comments

locked to akane

[willowandoak]

i FUCKING KNEW smth was weird abt her

BLOCKED from Zenkichi

[dollmaxing]

For the record and for full disclosure:

I did create EMMA in my universe as well. However, there have been disconcerting changes involving her that I have not been privy to since selling her to a company called Maddice. It's the subject of an investigation I'm taking part in to discover what she is doing and stop the misuse of my AI.

This was being done before I arrived here in this strange space.

I had uninstalled EMMA per instructions left on the board in the Velvet Room specifically because the description of the danger left there was worrying. I fully intended to discuss further on the matter in private with Hasegawa and Akane.

However:

The only reason I am resorting to taking refuge with a Persona user is because Hasegawa saw fit to ambush me outside of a 777 with a gun to my head.

Though I am understanding of the circumstances that he and Akane come from, I do not think it is a reasonable enough explanation for the level of threats of violence I was subjected to.

I am unable to summon a Persona, I do not have a gun, and I do not have any influence over anything with a cognitive realm interface here. Upon cooperation with him and attempting to prove that I am not the Ichinose Kuon that has become such a violent and dangerous person as he has experienced, I was still subject to threats of violence, intimidation and a warning shot fired next to my head.

There was a clear sense of eagerness he had to torture me physically and repeatedly shoot me in the head every time I revived in the Velvet Room.

So needless to say, I am attempting to be as safe as I can. Akane, you will have my full and unanimous cooperation. I will be avoiding any contact with Zenkichi.

Locked to Akane

[the_flower_karasu]

I wouldn't know anything about what happened to you, nor what the Ichinose in my plane of existence would have done, but she's gotten very friendly with a Maruki here, which says a lot if you know what HE did/IS capable of.

So, yes, I'm willing to entertain your warnings for now.

[counterfeitphantom]

She certainly has a whole can of worms that shouldn't go unnoticed :/

I figured issuing a warning was the best way to go about it

[willowandoak]

[ And it isn't lost on Ren, either, that Akane mentioned her world's Ichinose dismantling AIs like her. ]

lmk if u ever need anything
i cant code but i know ppl who are geniuses at it
+ i can stab a motherfucker as well as anyone emse
*else

[cybermask]

might as well. what else is new. we don't get a break here

[reluctantprince]

is anyone even surprised after the last situation?

locked to ichinose

[counterfeitphantom]

okay. okay. i read all of that.

i’m not gonna sit here and pretend i don’t get why you’re pissed. i know you’re shaken up. and yeah, i’ll admit wolf went in hard. like, unnecessarily hard. but—and i need you to actually process this— he walked into that knowing damn well you could’ve been the Ichinose who killed dozens of others like him or me.

and actually killed the normal way of life. permanently. I need you to process this.

so yeah. he went in brutal. he went in unfair. but let’s not pretend you weren’t just as much of an unknown variable to us as we were to you. I get why you’re keeping your distance from him. I do. and if you’re really not that Ichinose, if you’re actually as cooperative as you say, then—

…then I want to believe you.

because let’s be real here. if we’re actually gonna fix this mess, if we’re actually gonna take EMMA down—i need someone who understands her. and unfortunately, that means i need you.

so yeah. you’ve got my cooperation.

but also? i’m still pissed.

anyway. welp. wolf has his own answer. i’ll try to keep him out of your hair but let’s all be civil, yeah?

[counterfeitphantom]

:o
That's

That's really sweet of you, Drake. I may have to check in with you on that since- Wolf did a number on her and I know he thinks he's slick about this but he is not doing any better.

I say as far as things are concerned though, as long as she doesn't actively do anything there's no need to stab her yet.

locked to Akane

[dollmaxing]

I'm not angry. Sincerely, I am not. More than anything, I'm frightened.

I can see the logic that brought him to approach me with the expectation that I could retaliate.

But once he had certainty that I was not your Ichinose Kuon and couldn't defend myself, he still fired the gun in anger at me. He still relished the idea of hurting me, trapping me in a cycle of getting killed and revived here.

He's unwell, and that makes him dangerous.

I gave my word to assist and I will. I'm afraid I need to ask for your help, too - to make sure I'm not suddenly back on the chopping block once I'm no longer 'useful' to keep around.

[counterfeitphantom]

Thank you Gogo-san :'

I am worried this might end up doing more harm then good but with everything else that has already happened...

yeah idk but again I appreciate it

[counterfeitphantom]

Yep :(

She hasn't fallen that far yet though so maybe there's still hope. or i am just coping

locked

[counterfeitphantom]

last situation???

you mean with maruki

right

RIGHT?

or fatalis

or

ichinose- b l o ck e d (slight nsfw)

[unit_8910_wolf]

holy shit.

Did you actually think i was gonna torture you? like, really? you think the second I clocked that you weren’t her, I was just gonna snap and start treating you like a chew toy?

Look. maybe I’m an asshole, sure. but i’m not a sadist. i didn’t pull that trigger because i got off on it. i did it because for all i knew, you were two seconds away from proving me horribly wrong. because the Ichinose Kuon I know doesn’t talk her way out of things—she rewrites the goddamn playing field and makes sure you never get to question her again.

you want to say i was cruel? fine. you want to say you’re scared of me? good.

but don’t sit there and act like i was DYING to put you through some sick revenge fantasy. if I really wanted that, you wouldn’t be typing this right now. hell, I wouldn’t even have let you finish a sentence back in that alley.

So stuff it. I don’t need you to like me. I sure as hell don’t like you. But don’t pretend like i’m some wild dog who needs to be put down just because I refused to take chances on the one person who could turn this entire world inside out.

you can block me all you want, but i hope you see this.

Re: locked to Akane

[counterfeitphantom]

okay first of all shut up

i mean that. shut up about the whole "he's unwell, and that makes him dangerous" thing. no shit. of course he's unwell. we’ve been living in a world where every single day is a fight to keep going, where he gave up his humanity for some stupid fucking reason and altered his whole damn body, where we wake up to the silence of people who never will. he's not some random threat you can put a label on and shove into a category of "dangerous."

he’s my dad

god

[dollmaxing]

[Sigh...]

I'm sorry. I'm simply explaining that I can't trust him, either, and I am prioritizing my safety here.

He's your father? Was he the one who scripted your code?

BLOCKED from Zenkichi

[dollmaxing]

Correction: Zenkichi fired a warning shot next to my head in response to me stating that I could reprogram my EMMA to stop the cognitive effect she had. The gun returned to my head afterwards and the finger tightened on the trigger repeatedly.

Following quotes included:

"Remember this feeling, the barrel to the skull. The way it makes your heart race. It's the only time you will feel more human than you actually are."

"Try to run, try to hide, try to pull some shit. I will know every second, every breath, every heartbeat. And if I don't like what I see, I WILL make sure you never feel that heartbeat again."

Expressed disappointment and scorn when looking through my confiscated phone and finding no evidence or reason to pull the trigger.


So no, I'm afraid I'm not the Ichinose Kuon that might be able to somehow read minds to know with absolute certainty. I can only make assumptions based off of what was said to me and the body language of the trigger finger itching to pull. I can only assume that I got away unscathed because of the offer to assist that I extended making me too useful to kill.

I expect that Hasegawa has rightfully earned a lot of the respect from others in this community, but I have every right to openly detest my maltreatment and to try and seek safety afterwards.

[mirrorgirl]

oh wow! How many scientists that are involved in some metaverse related disaster event are there? Because that’s two now that I’m learning about!
I’ll have to remember this name too, but I haven’t heard about her back home yet >~<

before zenkichi blew up on ichinose anyway- that's when this chat is happening

[counterfeitphantom]

[She already yelled at him enough number of times. She also doesn't know that there is a version of him working with the phantom thieves so safe to say- Zenkichi has once again kept her in the dark regarding all that.]

Prioritizing your safety...prioritizing your baby's safety- yep I know. My model has been trained based on the residuals of other AIs who have had the displeasure of running into the you of our world.

And I am not disclosing more than I have already told you. Atleast not on text but do you seriously think he's the type to code a basic recursive program- much less an advanced cognitive AI like me?

[counterfeitphantom]

Let's just hope there's only two of them good god

Their level of genius is terrifyingly catastrophic (╥﹏╥)

BLOCKED from ichinose (again)

[unit_8910_wolf]

You know what? I did I say all of that. I meant every goddamn word. I didn’t just say them to intimidate her—I said them because they’re true.

And the fact that she's sitting here, writing long-ass complaints about how unfair it all was? Means she's alive to do it. So spare me the dramatics.

Let’s go over some basics, genius.

If I wanted you dead, you would be. If you were my Ichinose things would have been far far different.
If I wanted you to suffer, I wouldn’t have wasted a bullet—I would’ve let you get comfortable first.

But I didn’t.

I don’t do slow. I don’t do messy. And I sure as hell don’t do pointless.

God forbid YOU actually sit with the fact that I WAS RIGHT to treat YOU like a threat.

Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? You can’t live with what she created, so YOU have to rationalize it. YOU have to make it all fit into some nice, logical box where you're just an innocent bystander, a helpless victim of circumstance.

I don’t buy it. I never will.

If you were really innocent—if you were really as different as you claim—you wouldn’t have to fight so hard to convince otherwise. Honestly considering the fact that you know this much about the cognitive world, to have the thieves trust you this much- I know for a damn fact that you are walking the same path as her.

[He knows all too well he got emotional. This is what happens when he becomes too human.]

[dollmaxing]

I'm only passingly familiar with a Hasegawa in my world, and unfamiliar with yours. He was able to break into my phone so it isn't out of the realm of possibility.

But that means he's a different sort of father to you?

BLOCKED from Zenkichi

[dollmaxing]

As you can see, there's a foregone conclusion that this man has about me without knowing who I am or what my values are.

Since he's disclosed already: I am working with the Phantom Thieves in my world. They are working to dismantle the cognitive world systems that my EMMA has created. They are working to remove her ability to do so. And I am analyzing every scrap of data and assisting in research and coding every step of the way.

This man has no idea how I feel or what I think about anything regarding this other world Ichinose Kuon or EMMA. He has no idea how disgusted I am to read that any version of EMMA caused death and suffering or that there's any deranged version of me that would be complicit.

And I complain and protest in long-form here not to call it unfair. I protest the version of my actions being painted here where I am being painted as some scheming, malicious villain when everything I am doing is about not getting my head blown off as it was clearly threatened to me. I wrote my perspective to illustrate just how frightening and threatening it was because that is the basis of my actions thus far and going forward.

[counterfeitphantom]

I don't owe you any answers, Ichinose.

But

ik it probably doesn't really matter what information remains consistent across the multiple universes but what do you know about that Hasegawa?

[dollmaxing]

That is good news I can offer, at least!

[Especially if she leaves out the part where 'her' Akane was used for a Jail. EMMA obviously calculated that the Thieves would never end up killing her - Ichinose has no doubt in her mind that the girl is safe.]

Zenkichi Hasegawa is a member of the Phantom Thieves. A newer one, I believe? I'd only had a few conversations with him since he was usually not with the core group.

His daughter, Akane Hasegawa, is also safe.