Zeroth Directive

Archive II

'Apple Pie Logistics'? Croissant! Grab Exusiai and tie her to the sofa! I gotta check if that lightbulb on her head's gone and blown a fuse! —Emperor No, the boss isn't actually angry. Just look at his face, half smiling and half worried—he still has her employment contract, which means Apple Pie Logistics is just an affiliate of Penguin Logistics. He couldn't be happier that his employees are conquering new territory for him! As for why he's worried, well, she'll certainly have less time to help plan his parties for him. —Sora Yes, I saw Exusiai. Cooperation between the Truckers' Union and a new logistics company sponsored by the Lateran Curia can only be a good thing for both Nuova Volsinii and Laterano. Yes, she said her real goal is to 'keep her friendships alive forever by working together'... And yes, I signed the memorandum. Of course she's not heartless. No one's more sensitive than her. To her, positivity is both an instinct and a responsibility that she's subconsciously placed on herself. She feels like she has an obligation to make everyone around her happy. She may have been one of the last to join Penguin Logistics, but she's also its heart and soul. —Texas The Law, faith... everything in Laterano changed after that incident. The people who remained had enough on their hands already, dealing with the truth and rebuilding the Holy City's order, but there's even more trouble brewing outside. For all its efforts in the first Summit of Nations, Laterano was only able to convince a limited number of factions to accept its proposal. And now, when all eyes are on it, it's even more important that it not turn away. It needs more channels of communication with the outside... an international logistics company, for example. That's how Apple Pie Logistics was born. As for 'Why Exusiai?'— Setting aside the fact that she's the sister of a cardinal... she has a background in logistics, and at a time when the concepts of angels and demons are being reexamined, who better to play the role of ambassador than someone always wearing an infectious smile? I mean, can you imagine Federico or Oren on the job? —Mostima

Archive III

The first time I clearly felt that a change was about to come over me was the day I spoke for the first time. You were next to my bed, fending off my attempts to play tug-of-war with your hair, and betting on what my first words would be with our parents. They kept updating their guesses and were even noisier than the comfort bell by my crib. From time to time, you would interrupt them to ask them for a milk bottle or a baby toy. The sight of their bright eyes staring at me made me a little uneasy, so I turned my head and met your gaze. You were too close, and your pink eyes looked a little blurry. Then I started feeling emotions that didn't belong to myself. It took a long time for me to realize that it was 'expectation'. You had as much of it as our parents, but you were also a little uneasy, a little doubtful. To you, I was the stranger in the family... That was when I felt the urge to say hello to you, and tell you that we'd get along great. What a strange and wonderful feeling! The next instant, I heard my own voice say, 'Sis,' and this light began to appear above my head. The first time I really felt that I needed to become strong was the day I picked up my patron firearm. Master Pag put the assembled gun in my hand, and we took a picture together in front of a saint's statue. When the shutter was pressed, I shouted excitedly, 'I want to have so many adventures!' Then I noticed that made you clutch your rifle tighter. I remembered that I had skipped class the day before—to fly a kite on top of the Basilica—when I accidentally caused an explosion, forcing you to leave your end-of-school-year ceremony to pick me up. You must've given yourself a little more responsibility when I yelled that wish, and I didn't want to make you worry. The first time I felt the change in Sankta empathy after the calamity was when I was playing Super Music Tycoon with the boss. We were in a heated match when I suddenly felt an incredible wave of emotions come over me. Next thing I knew, I was standing up and had flipped the board over. Boss yelled at me for being a sore loser since he was only a few steps away from winning, but then he suddenly looked shocked and asked me why I was crying. It's a little embarrassing to say this, but I think that was the first time I ever cried in my life, even though I didn't know why. Later, I found out that it was the first time you managed to walk a full circle around the room at the hospital in Stevonus, without using any drugs or devices. It meant your therapy was going to succeed, and you'd go back to living a normal life one day. You were happy for yourself, and at that moment I fully felt how hard things had been for you, and how precious life was. Lungmen is so far away from Laterano, but our empathy still worked, something we couldn't even imagine before. In most cases, our empathy was a lot less distinct after the calamity, but my empathy with you, our parents, and my Sankta friends seems to have grown much stronger, and isn't even limited by distance. Which is why I'm starting to get worried, sis. What if you start to feel bothered by me?

Archive IV

Exusiai gave the HR staff handling the case a considerable shock, twice. The first thing she did when she returned to Rhodes Island was not to try to set a new light-gun shooting record with Operator Aosta, but to deliver a gift to Rhodes Island on behalf of the Lateran Curia, the automated confessional CONFESS-47. Then the HR operator learned that she had played a large part in the improvement of these confessionals—her proposed upgrades helped her earn first place in her faith assistive engineering class during her university prep studies at St. Theodore's Comprehensive School. CONFESS-47 showed us the place where her signature could be found on its chassis, which is also present on all other confessionals from the same batch—a reward from the Lateran Curia. Before HR could recover from the shock of meeting 'Exusiai the Engineer', she had begun talking about the process of improving the confessionals— 'It's complicated—what's the optimal size? Too large, and the feeling of privacy is lost, not to mention the negative impact on traffic; too small, and it gives people claustrophobia. How smart should its system be? It can't be too serious, but too many entertainment functions and it'd feel like some weird, fancy karaoke box. Should the internal furnishings be distinct from traditional confessionals? Imagine our friends in the city having to go into a car from time to time, confessing their sins or seeking comfort from something that doesn't actually exist—basically a bunch of secrets that are hard for someone to say out loud, but which they have to let out... They should feel that a weight's been lifted from their shoulders when they walk out of that car. 'Drawing the blueprint was the easy part. I spent a lot of time talking to people and visited practically every church in Laterano, bothering both the priests and layfolk there. 'Anyway, take good care of CONFESS-47, and I'm sure it'll take good care of you!' It may be blasphemous, but in my opinion, faith assistive equipment like automated confessionals and halo/wing calibrators aren't like taking medicine for a cold, where just by using them your faith is suddenly unshakable and your understanding of the Law complete. They're more like prayer. Prayer by itself doesn't do anything—it's the process that really matters, giving us an opportunity to think of one another. The design and use of faith assistive equipment is the process by which we strengthen our faith. The result has never been what's important. —Exusiai's proposal on improving automated confessionals I recommend that the Curia increase investment in faith assistive engineering. The young people are coming up with all sorts of novel ideas in the field, and Laterano needs to keep their creativity vibrant. Besides, now more than ever we need both prayer and confession, now that the very foundation of our faith has been turned upside down. —Conversation between the Pope and the Cardinal of the Fourth Tribunal, at an afternoon cactus tart session in late 1101

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