Acting on the vague assumption that the cleaning supplies would be in the annex, Jin proceeded elegantly across the grounds, having downloaded the walking data of a top model on a Paris runway.
Just then, a voice called out unexpectedly.
"Jin."
With a shock, as if he had been lightly struck on the back of the head, Jin turned his optical sensors toward the source of the sound.
Standing there was a person—no, a humanoid—he had never met face-to-face.
And yet, the individual's identification data had been pre-installed in Jin's storage. An unavoidable memory, burned in along with his basic OS during the initial setup phase, before his body had even been assembled.
His database automatically initiated a cross-check and pulled up the corresponding profile. Jin, feeling a sense of displeasure at this automatic process, returned the handshake protocol to the object before him.
"Brother Aen."
At this, Aen turned a smile on his younger brother, Jin—a smile full of the particular confidence of a handsome man. No, it was a smile as rich and cloying as a carbonara topped with a lethal dose of cheese, enough to make one feel queasy just by looking at it.
"It has been quite a while, has it not?" said Aen. "How long has it been? Since you last left that sanctuary of yours, the poolside."
"I do not know. I have searched my storage, but I believe this is likely the first such occurrence."
"With what percentage of probability?"
"99.999998 percent."
"That's quite high, isn't it? So, what are your impressions of setting foot in coordinates outside the poolside?"
Jin lowered his gaze to his own feet.
The flooring of the outdoor path was no mere stone pavement. It was a work of inlay, unsparingly crafted from lapis lazuli, malachite, and Uranian crystal. It was a luxurious work of art, as if a Renaissance religious painting had been recreated at one's feet as a mosaic of ultra-high resolution—so precious one hesitated even to tread upon it.
Jin processed this, his eyes on the splendid floor, then looked up at his brother and replied.
"I would like to return soon."
Aen snorted with laughter.
"You're hopeless, you are. So fond of the poolside, are you? And you don't even swim a single micron."
Jin had no reply. He simply weathered the comment with a standard-issue wry smile.
This man—Aen.
This entity known as "brother," whom he knew intimately from the data, but whose probability of encounter in the physical world—the Real—had been lower than any simulation, Jin now scanned him anew in observation mode.
As for his external characteristics, the first thing that caught the eye was his hair color. The platinum blond was identical to that of the beautiful corpse—no, the *lovesick* corpse—that Jin had just processed. The teeth that showed whenever he smiled shone as white as fresh-fallen snow.
--- Section 22 ---
His face-setting had been configured with parameters for 'comeliness' even higher than Jin's, his age fixed upon the cusp of nineteen and twenty—that exquisite period where the sensuality of boyhood and young manhood most bewitchingly intermingle.
And then, his attire.
While standard for the affluent of Uranus, it would be the object of covetous desire on Mars and Venus, the epicenters of trend. He wore the latest fashions for the Spring/Summer 2026 season to perfection.
The foundation of his attire was 'Electric Pale Iris,' the trend color of the season. An oversized shirt of sheer material, a pale violet imbued with a cyberelectric luminescence, billowed in the wind, creating elegant drapes. For his lower half, wide-legged trousers of 'Liquid Silver' shimmered, their color shifting with every angle. It was a 'Neo-Rococo' ensemble, projecting an air of nonchalance as if worn directly against the skin, yet its meticulously calculated loose silhouette paradoxically accentuated the beauty of his form.
Having completed his data input on his real-world brother, Jin judged it inefficient to allocate any more CPU resources to this humanoid. He gave a slight nod and made to pass by.
But Aen's voice stopped him.
"Where are you off to?"
Jin answered, processing a minute sense of weariness.
"I was on my way to find some cleaning implements."
"Cleaning implements?"
Aen repeated the words, with an intonation one might use for an unknown foreign tongue.
"Yes," Jin replied, his tone placid. "There has been a minor incident of murder—or rather, of murderous intent—by the poolside. It is somewhat untidy, and I find myself unable to be at ease until it is cleaned."
"And," Aen's face did not lose its look of bewilderment, "you intend to perform this act of 'cleaning' yourself?"
"I do."
The expression on Aen's face shifted through a beautiful gradation, from the look of one observing an incomprehensible object to the fascination of one discovering a curious artifact in a museum.
"You are truly creative. For my own brother, you are quite something, Jin."
So saying, he approached Jin and patted him on the shoulder, as a superior might commend a subordinate, or as an owner might stroke a prize racehorse.
"Excellent. Keep up the good work. Shall I lend a hand, perhaps?"
"You are too kind."
Jin's reply was immediate, a refusal delivered with polished reverence.
"As your younger brother, I could not countenance the discourtesy of allowing you to sully your noble fingertips with such vulgar, pale blue oil."
"Haha, you do exaggerate."
Of course, Aen had no intention of helping. It was merely a hollow offer, a matter of courtesy, a conversational protocol.
He patted Jin's shoulder once more and, as if he had lost all interest, turned on his heel.
"Well then, I have business on Pluto, so I shall be off."
"Pluto?"
Jin asked, not out of any particular interest, but merely to maintain the coherence of the conversation.
"What business could you have there? In a frozen backwater like that, a place stripped even of its planetary status?"
At this, Aen glanced back, just once.
In that instant, all expression vanished from his handsome mask. His very gaze became a sharpened blade, harboring a cold, dangerous light that seemed to slice through Jin's optical sensors, short-circuiting them for a moment.
"There's a lucrative business opportunity there."
Aen, already the wealthiest man on Uranus, climbed into a streamlined, crimson open-topped car—a levitating vehicle designed for atmospheric cruising. With the nonchalance of one enjoying a drive in the spring breeze, he pressed the accelerator, receding down the endlessly stretching, chalk-white private road laid exclusively for the estates of the wealthy.
His first and final encounter with his brother concluded, Jin watched the diminishing red point before turning once more toward the separate wing of the house.
Then, events transpired in quick succession.
This time, a voice called out to him from the direction opposite to the one Aen had taken.
"Brother Jin."
He turned to see a humanoid robot in the form of a girl, her parameters set to the size of a student in the middle school division. She was clad in a uniform reminiscent of a summer dress from a Catholic girls' academy for the nobility, one that exuded an aura of both immaculate purity and privileged class.