The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 45
Episode 5 – Alien Selfie
“Hey, look at this, Tomomi. Isn’t it cute?”
In a high school classroom during lunchtime. Akane showed the screen of her phone to Tomomi in a corner of the room that was filled with the usual chatter. A selfie of her was displayed on the screen. What she wanted to show was the shirt she wore. It was yellow with popular characters printed all over it.
“Oh, yeah, it’s so cute. It’s great you bought this.” Tomomi also smiled when she spotted Akane’s shirt. “But aren’t this kind of things expensive?”
“Well, yes. It’s a rare pattern and the price is quite universal.”
Although she said so, Akane’s face was truly proud. She seemed to be eager to boast about it.
But then, Tomomi suddenly sensed something strange about Akane’s face in the selfie. The app had modified the image overly, making her eyes appear much larger than they actually were. Furthermore, her skin was remarkably smooth. Even her chin was adjusted to be considerably smaller.
“Isn’t this photo heavily processed? You look like another person.”
“Oh, this much is normal, right? Don’t you think I look cute?”
“No, not at all. It’s too much, and it’s creepy.”
“Do you like me better in person?”
“Yeah.”
“Really? I’m embarrassed to hear you say that.” Akane smiled. Her face was plainer than Tomomi’s, but her smile had a simple cuteness that reflected her age.
“But if I upload a picture on Twitter, I have to enhance it this much, right? I can’t upload my ugly face as it is.” Akane fiddled with her smartphone and displayed her social networking account. The same selfie from earlier had been uploaded along with her latest tweet.
“No, exposing your face to the Internet is not a good idea, no matter how much you correct it. You might get implicated in some kind of incident.”
“You’re so serious, Tomomi. Everyone does this.”
“But my father warned me against that kind of thing…”
When she reached junior high school and her father bought her a smartphone, he strictly instructed her not to do so. Under no circumstances should she use her real name on social networking sites or blogs, or unnecessarily expose her face or personal information on the Internet! Because that’s what loose-headed, stupid women do…
“Also, when I was in junior high school, my teacher told me that there have been a lot of cases lately where minors have been tricked into committing crimes by scheming adults on the Internet. So you have to be careful.”
Tomomi was basically of a child-like mentality, so she obeyed what the teacher said.
“Well, yes, but you know what? It’s okay to expose your face on Twitter. In the first place, the face you upload is so inflated that it doesn’t retain its original form.” Akane held up the LCD screen of her phone next to her own face. Indeed, she was a totally different person.
“If you just alter the eyes to a larger size and apply animal noses and ears, it will be even more indistinguishable who you are… Why don’t you try this a little Tomomi?”
Akane suddenly snapped a photo of Tomomi with the camera on her phone. She then proceeded to modify the photo of her slightly startled face with an app.
“Geez, why are you modifying people’s faces arbitrarily?”
She wondered how it would turn out. For now, she stretched her neck and glanced at the screen of Akane’s phone. Then there was a woman with… an abnormally large-eyed, specter-like face!
“What is this! Why are you turning my face into such a freak!”
“No, I’m sorry. This function wasn’t originally designed for you, Tomomi, with your bright eyes.” Akane giggled happily and quickly deleted the funny face image. “Well, let’s just say that your face is best unaltered!”
Akane tucked her phone into her uniform pocket as if this was the end of the conversation.