"Grandpa, grandpa, hurry up!"
The young, vibrant voice that trills through the air is in stark contrast to the setting around it. The dilapidated buildings that lean against one another for support makes for a bleak backdrop for the young girl's playing. But the girl doesn't care; she loves playing in the ruins of a city that once was.
"Slow down there dear," A haggard voice replies to her calling, "I'm not as young as I once was."
"But if we take too long, the sun will set and then we'll have to go home without any playing!" The girl calls in response.
"Listen to you!" The old man replies with a good natured laugh, "Just how old are you? Aren't you supposed to be fourteen years old?"
"Just because I'm fourteen doesn't mean I have to be a boring fogey who sits at home and does nothing with her life," She responds with a grin as she stops her skipping and waits for her grandfather to catch up with her. When he finally manages to reach the place where she is waiting, he falls heavily against a large boulder that he uses as a make-shift chair.
He gathers his breath before he gives a weary smile and rubs at one of his feet. "You've worn me out already girl! I think I'll just rest here for now and let you take care of the playing; make sure you come back by sunset, alright?"
"Are you sure you'll be alright on your own?"
"I'm old, not senile; I'll be just fine."
"Alright, I'll see you later then grandpa! I'll make sure to bring back lots of stories for you!" With a boisterous wave of her hands, the young girl turns her back on her grandfather and heads into the ruins of the once grand city.
For a while, she allows herself to simply wander the labyrinth of buildings. Her eyes flit from gray building to gray building as she hums a tuneless song to herself. She smiles to herself as she stops to pick up a few colorful shard of glass. They're nothing spectacular, but a few of them are unique colors and they'll match well with her collection at home. She stands up, dusts herself off and begins to head off to find another adventure.
But a sudden streak of movement out of the corner of her eye causes her to stop.
"What was that?" She mutters wonderingly as she looks at the doorway of the building that the object or, more than likely, animal, has gone into. With a smile and bob of her head, the young girl heads into the building without a second thought. Adventure came to find her today instead of the other way around.
The building she enters into isn't one she has ventured into before. Of course, this isn't a surprise to her; there are so many buildings in this ghost town that she's sure someone could explore it for a lifetime and still not enter every one. As her eyes explore the building, she observes the whitewashed walls and the rows of steel doors lining both sides of the room.
"This must have been a storeroom at one time or another," She says aloud, which prompts her voice to echo back.
Struck with sudden apprehension, she takes a few hesitant steps into the hallway of doors and continues to explore the building with her eyes. Once more, she sees the streak of movement. She turns instantly to see what it was, but all she sees is a singular door lying open. Taking a moment to hesitate and look at the doorway that leads back to the outside, the young girl quickly shakes off her misgivings and heads into the open door.
The room she enters into is littered with boxes. Some are stacked high on top of one another and others have been knocked over, their contents spilling onto the floor. But the young girl pays attention to none of these; her eyes are fixed on the animal that sits in the middle of the room.
It is a large tabby cat that sits regarding her with huge, emerald eyes.
She has never seen a cat in real life, the only way she even knew the thing that sits in front of her is called a "cat" is because of her collection of books at home. They often mention cats and some even provide pictures for reference.
As the girl continues to stare at the cat, it stares placidly back. The girl stands still in wonder as she knows instantly that she just has to take the cat back to show her grandfather her grand discovery.
"Hey there Mr. Cat," She says as she kneels down and holds out her hand, just like one of her books recommended she do if she ever met a cat, "What are you doing out here? Are you lost?"
The cat makes no movement, instead choosing to hold its position and stare at her as its tail swishes lazily back and forth like a metronome keeping time.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," She coaxes gently. She wishes she had some small scrap of food to entice the cat to friendship. Being as she doesn't, she settles for gently scooting forward and attempting to appear as disarming as possible.
"That's right, I just want to pet you," She says as her hand slowly inches towards the cat's head.
Suddenly, the cat raises its paw, claws drawn, and swats her hand away. With a yelp, the young girl holds her hand to her chest and jumps back in surprise as the cat jumps off the box it was perched on and darts past her. She feels her back slam up against a pile of boxes that instantly begin to rumble.
The girl doesn't have any time to respond before the pile of boxes come tumbling down on her head. She screams as corners of boxes assaulted her head and arms as she shuts her eyes tight in an attempt to weather the storm.
A moment later, the avalanche is done and the young girl coughs as the newly stirred dust enters her lungs. She takes a moment to inspect her hand that the cat attacked. She now has a new scratch mark on her hand that is bleeding slightly. Cradling her injured hand to her chest, she turns to look at the door the cat escaped through.
"You stupid cat!" She calls after the offender that has already fled.
With a sigh of resignation, the young girl detangles herself from the now collapsed mountain of boxes and begins to head for the doorway. The encounter with the cat and the boxes falling on her head has put her in a bad mood. Maybe she should just go back to grandpa…
"I don't know who's watching this or even if anyone will ever see this, but please listen."
The young girl stops in her tracks as she hears the sound of a voice behind her. She spins around instantly, expecting to see someone in the room, but she finds herself utterly alone. Believing it to be some bizarre trick of her ears, she once more turns around to be on her way.
"Please, I know you don't want to hear things from a stupid girl you don't know, but you've got to listen."
The voice continues and the young girl knows she can't just dismiss it as her over-active imagination. She turns once more towards the room. This time, as she scans the landscape, her eyes settle on a soft, blue glow that emanates from the contents of one of the boxes that just spilled onto her head. Her curiosity piqued, she heads towards the glow and finds, to her surprise, a small device.
"…A video diary?" She wonders as she draws closer.
As she finally settles so she can see the screen completely, the young girl feels herself gasp in shock.
The woman on the screen….
She-
"-got to understand," The woman on screen says as the young girl tunes in to what she is saying in the middle of her sentence, "This diary will be the only testament of what happened. They'll cover everything else up. Please, you've got to listen to my – to our – side of the story."
With trembling hands, the young girl takes the thin video diary into her hands and unconsciously grips the thin metallic siding on the screen tightly causing blood from her freshly earned cut to bleed out slightly. The woman on screen pauses for a moment as she looks uncertainly at something, or someone, next to her. In the next moment, she turns back to look at the camera and the young girl feels as if she is looking directly into her soul.
"Alright…" The woman on screen states, "Let's start. My name is Rin Kagamine – Act 2. I'm a clone."