Visual Novel Experiments Lain

Layer 04: Religion

--What's your name?

[...Lain.]

--You're in seventh grade? Eighth grade?

[Eighth.]

--Do you like school?

[(long pause) ...Uh-huh.]

--What subject do you like?

[(silence)]

--Are you in any clubs?

[(shakes head silently)]

--Do you go straight home after school?

[(silence)]

--Do you have friends?

[...Yeah.]

--What do you and your friends do for fun?

[Nothing.]

--Well, what do you do?

[...(thinks for a while) ...Talk.]

--What about?

[...Stuff.]

--Where do you go to talk?

[Wired.]

--You don't like talking with each other in person?

[(silence)]

--What kind of place is the Wired, to you?

[...A place where people connect with other people - the top level of the real world hierarchy.]

--(weak laugh) Who told you that?

[My dad.]

--Do you love your father?

[(Long pause... nods)]

--What kind of Navigator do you use to access the Wired?

[When I was in sixth grade... my dad... bought it for me...]

--Do you like operating this kind of machine?

[Uh-huh.]

--Do you dislike questions like these?

[(silence)]

--You dislike talking about yourself?

[...(nods)]

--Why?

[...(long pause)...Because...]

--Because?

[Because I'm... I'm me, but I'm not me. I mean, I'm just me...]

--Who told you that?

[(silence)]

--Who?

[...God.]

--What god?

[The god of the Wired.]

--There's a god of the Wired? You believe that?

[(silence)]

--Answer me.

[(silence)]

--Answer.

[...There is if I believe there is...]

--That answer isn't good enough.

[...There is... a god...]

--Alright, fine. The god of the Wired is the god of the top level of the real world hierarchy - in other words, a being that controls the entire world. Is that right?

[...Who are you?]