This game made me cry far too much.
9S is my favorite.
Hands down.
YOU DON'T DESERVE WHAT YOU GOT! TT ATT
NieR: Automata
She was five when the Higurashi family witnessed 'The Giant' appear from a distance just outside of Shinjuku. Wide blue eye's watching The Giant and Dragon fighting one another over her fathers shoulder as he ran, ignoring the screaming and panic as people rushed to get away from the area in fear.
In december of the same year, her Father and she listened to the reports of a mysterious disease popping up in Shinjuku that turned people into salt. Kaname had been surprised, she hadn't encountered a such a thing before, and that was saying something with how fucked up some of the worlds she lived in were. They weren't worried as it was a rare occurrence and currently in Shinjuku.
In February of 2004 the number infected by the disease exploded.
In April report came out of some of the infected were going berserk and attacking people. Over the months the disease, named 'White Chlorination Syndrome' or WCS spread to infect the majority of Shinjuku, and after the incident of a famous actor being killed by one of the infected, the city was isolated from the rest of japan.
2008 the wall of Jericho around Shinjuku is destroyed, The Legion- a massive number of beserking white creatures- pour out from behind the wall and slaughter any humans they encounter. A creature with red eye's is seen leading them and the military starts an operation to repel Legion. Kaname and her siblings are confined to the shrine grounds in fear as Shinjuku was not far from where they lived.
WCS which was thought to have stopped in 2005 re-emerges and rapidly spreads. Cases of the disease appearing outside of Tokyo are reported by the news and by the end of the month the whole of the Kantō is infected. In September the government and imperial residence is relocated to a relatively unscathed Kyushu region.
January of 2009 brings an alliance between Japan and America to fight the Legion from spreading.
2010 brings the first record of WSC outside of Japan.
The Legion appears in China along with a very alive 'Red Eye'.
2011 for her impressive and ground breaking work in engineering Higurashi Emiko is sought out by the government to help find a way to more effectively fight The Legion and WSC disease.
Within a few months the facility she worked in was attacked and destroyed by an unknown party.
Kaname and her siblings rejoice over the survival of their mother.
2014, December 1st her mother births Higurashi Daisuke and the household is eager to welcome the newest Higurashi.
2015 brings the announcement of the Gestaltisierung process to the public, which was widely rejected.
In June it also brings the death of Higurashi Hideyoshi by WCS, prompting her father and mother to work together to try and stop the disease.
2016 brings some success to their labor, and while 'Luciferase' only slowed the process of WCS, it encouraged humanity that there was hope. The military promptly relocates the Higurashi's to safety.
It is December 3rd 2017 and Kaname is nineteen, in the three years since her baby brother was born humanity was steadily declining, along with Kagome and Souta falling to the WCS disease.
Leaving only four out of the original seven Higurashi's.
Kaname was currently following her parent's, little Daisuke in her arm's looking ever which way, in one of the 'Bunkers' for selective family's. Various government's around the world had decided to put their important (Un-infected) citizens in a cryogenic sleep in hope to save Humanity.
Because of the big impact her parents research had, they had managed to gain two spots for their remaining children.
She is not ecstatic about her parents not coming with them, but they were needed to stop the Legion and Red Eye, along with curing the disease. And in the event that they failed, that no one in cryo was awoken because humanity was wiped out, then in a few hundred years when it was safe she- along with the remainder of humanity- would wake up and start from there.
They stopped in front of a room, the doors sliding open to reveal the pod specifically built for the two of them. There was fairly big compartment built into it where a change of clothes for herself and Daisuke were stored, along with a few bags of things the toddler needed, a few toy's, disk's of the history of the world, toiletries, and a message her parents have for both of them when they woke up.
"...This is it." Kaname muttered, adjusting the plain white dress provided for her, before looking towards her parents. "Mama, papa, I know you're needed here, and I know you're doing this because of what happened to...them..." she pursed her lips, then looked towards a sleepy Daisuke. "But...I..."
"We know." Takeshi said with a sad smile, "We wish it wasn't like this either, but it is, and we need you to make sure you and your brother are safe." he lifted his hand and ran his fingers through Kaname's hair in comfort.
Emiko, with tears going down her cheek, quickly went over and hugged the two. "Be safe, alright? You make sure Dai-kun is eating enough, and to brush your teeth every morning, and to watch out for shady characters, don't let him stay up past ten, and-"
"Emiko." Takeshi interrupted, pulling her back, "It's almost time."
The demon slayer sniffed, nodding as she tried to hold in her sobs as to not disturb Daisuke, "R-Right."
Takeshi gave a kiss to his wife's temple, before giving his own hug to his children, "We love you, Kaname, Daisuke. Protect your brother if we should fail."
Kaname nodded, eye's blurring as she stepped back and headed towards the pod.
Once laid inside with a secure hold on her brother the top closed, the last thing she saw was the crying forms of her parents waving goodbye to her.
9S and 2B had just left the village of peaceful machines, the leader called Pascal imploring them to go deliver something to the resistance and speak to Anemone and verify that they were not a threat.
9S wasn't very convinced, but they might as well go back and replenish supplies.
They had just came out from another entrance into the city when a transmission from operator 21O.
[Unit 9s, this is Operator 21o.]
"Hm?" He answered as they walked.
[We've picked up a powerful signal in your area, the commander want you and unit 2b to go and investigate the cause of the signal.]
"And what should we do when we find it?" He questioned, waiting for the coordinates to find it on the map.
[Retrieve it if you can, if not then destroy it before it becomes a problem.]
"Roger." He confirmed, looking at the map and seeing that the signal was coming from the building across the small bridge. "Right, we'll be there in a bit."
[Be advised, we have detected a large number of machines in the area.]
"They must have picked up the signal as well." 2B commented.
"Even more reason to go and see what the fuss is about." 9S stated.
The transmission ended there, and the two androids quickly ran towards the bridge, crossing it and finding a dozen machines in front of the entrance.
"9S go and see if you can reach the target first, I'll take care of this." 2B stated, drawing out her sword and quickly gained the majority attention of the machines.
9S nodded and made his way deeper inside, taking out a few stragglers on the way, and looked around for where the signal was originating from.
"Where is it?" He muttered, he stopped in front of an area overgrown with vines and bushes. "Behind...here...?" he grunted, tearing away the vines and making his way through, the sounds of fighting starting to dwindle down as 2B decimated her enemy's. Once the vines were cleared away 9S found himself staring at an elevator door. "Huh, this still has power?" he commented in surprise, he wondered where the power was coming from since the 'Power Plant' he read about was destroyed. Maybe a generator? He then shook off the questions, instead pressing the button for the elevator and waited.
"It's underground then." 2B observed as she came and stood by his side.
"Yeah, seems so." He confirmed, "Explains why it was so strong to begin with."
The went into the lift, and waited as it traveled downwards. 2B was patiently waiting to get to the objective, while 9S seemed anxious to see what was hidden under the Shopping center.
They arrived, and the doors opened to the sight of a flashing red light and multiple automated voices.
[Warning. Warning. Power failure Imminent. Activating distress beacon.]
{Warning Pod 324 damaged}
[Warning power failure in Pod 745]
{Pod 564 has stopped responding}
More of the same type of messages replayed as the two androids walked along the hallway. Rooms were collapsed, destroying whatever was inside, other seemed to have cracked ceilings and letting water in to flood the room, but the rest of the rooms were dark. The darkrooms seemed to have been cut off from the power in an attempt to preserve what was left.
They noticed dark stains littering the hall and some rooms, they didn't know what it was, but thought nothing of it.
Finally they arrived at an undamaged room that still had power, it was also where the signal was located.
"This is it." 9S stated, he reached out towards the keypad next to it and hummed in thought. "This is really old, this place was from the Old world...I wonder what it was for?"
"Can you hack it?" 2B questioned.
"Well...I should be able to, hold on." He said concentrating on the keypad, a few minutes later and the door opened. "There we go."
The two stepped inside and found themselves stopping in their tracks at seeing the pod, the top was glass letting them see the two body's inside.
"I-Is that-?" 9S stuttered in shock.
2B was silent as she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Pod 042 and Pod 153 zipped past their androids and quickly circled the the cryo pod.
[Analysis: The two humans seem to be in a deep sleep.] Pod 042 chimed.
{Alert: The power seems to be failing.} Pod 153 stated.
[Analysis: Unit 9S should open the pod before the power fails.]
9S, who had been shocked that they had found two humans, quickly made his way over to the pod.
"Who are you?"
He stopped at the gravely sounding voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere.
"What?" 9S questioned.
"Who. Are. You?" it growled out.
"Where...?" 2B muttered, hand resting on her sword.
[Alert: The voice seems to be coming from the pod.]
{Analysis: The voice must be an 'Artificial Intelligence' program left behind to protect the pods}
"An AI?" 9S muttered, before answering the voice. "I'm 9S, and this is my partner 2B, who are you?"
"I am Sō'unga, and I have guarded my mistress' pod for thousands of years, slaughtering any Legion that managed to arrive, waiting for the mortals to come and awaken her." it stated. The two androids witnessed as a purple entity seemed to form and coil protectively around the pod, glowing red eye's staring straight at them from a serpentine head. It seemed to give an angry hiss at them, "Neither of you are human. So what business does machines have here?"
"We're not machines!" 9S protested, "We're androids!"
"I see no difference, only that you seemed to have adopted a mortal form. You will be eliminated like the ones before."
"We were specifically built to protect humanity." 2B injected, halting the entity in its tracks. "We are from YoRHa, an organization created by humanity to fight the machines, and put an end to the Alien threat so humans can come home."
Sō'unga seemed to observe them, then nodded it's head and disappeared. "You may proceed. But heed this, if you should bring harm to either of the humans, then your life is forfeit."
It went silent, the two waiting to see if it would come back, before confirming that they could get near the pod.
9S made his way over to the keypad on the side and hacked into it, a moment later the glass cover opened. He stared in wonderment, he was created for the sole purpose of protecting humans, yet he had never met one since they were all on the moon.
Yet here were two of them, one female and the other a small male human. She had wavy black hair that reached her chin, there were a few curls here and there, light skin, seemed to be 164cm, and wearing a plane white dress. Resting on her chest was the smaller human male, the same skin tone, short black hair, chubby looking arms and legs, and wearing a plane white shirt and pants.
"It's...so tiny." 2B muttered, having come over as 9S was observing them. She furrowed her brows, "Are they suppose to be so small?"
"I'm pretty sure this what 'Babys' are." 9S responded distantly, reaching out one of his gloved hands and hovering over the two. "It's normal for them to be so small..."
The girl stirred.
Kaname blinked her eye's open, and saw two white haired people hovering over her.
One was a boy, a black blindfold covering his eye's, light skin to match his hair, and wearing black clothes. The girl was almost the same, but wearing a dress and taller then the male.
Daisuke gave a huff in his sleep, prompting Kaname to sit up and check on him. Once satisfied that he was unhurt, she turned he attention to the two...beings in front of her.
"Who are you." She questioned calmly.
"I'm 9S, and this is my partner 2B, we're androids belonging to an organization called YoRHa. We were built to defeat the machines that invaded the earth, and defend humanity." The boy- 9S- explained.
"I need to report this to command." 2B stated, turning around and walking outside of the room.
Kaname hummed at this, before stepping out of the pod, she looked around the room and noted how...stale the air was. She furrowed her brows, she didn't hear anything but alarms when 2B opened her door. There was no sounds of doctors running about to help anyone getting out of cryo, no family's reuniting, and the warnings weren't about attacks from Legion or Red Eye. "Hn." she grunted, before noticing that 9S had taken off his blindfold, revealing blue eyes, and was staring at her in devoted fondness. "Is there something wrong?" she questioned, his eyes seemed to become watery.
"Ah, no- I just-" he said, shaking his head and coughing. He looked back at her, the devoted fondness still present, "I'm just so happy."
"Oya?"
"I...I was built for humanity...for you I guess." He stated, his eye's glancing down to Daisuke, "For both of you." he muttered, looking back at her. "But, despite that, despite being built for humanity, I've never met one of you. For years androids have fought and been destroyed to get the earth back for you, to go back to how it use to be during the 'Old World', and yet we've never even seen a glance of an actual human." He explained, making Kaname narrow her eye's as she had an inkling on what was going on.
"So meeting us is...making you happy?" She questioned.
9S smiled widely, he went up to her and hesitantly reached his hand out to her, "Y-Yes...Can I...t-that is if...?"
Kaname smiled softly at him, she found the android cute, and seeing as this was the first time he seemed to actually meet the things he protected for so long- seeing that familiar longing in his eyes- made her comply. She knew just touching her hand wouldn't be enough, so Kaname lifted her hand past his and gently cupped his face. She ignored his startle, instead looking into his widened eye's, "You've fought for so long, 9S. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting." she stroked his cheek, smiling sadly at how he seemed to lean into her touch, "You've done so much. Thank you for fighting for us, even if humanity doesn't seem inclined to say so."
2B had come in just then, pausing at the scene she was seeing, but didn't say anything as Kaname seemed fine with what was happening.
After a few more moments of letting 9S get his bearings, Kaname took her hand back, mouth quirking at the disappointed face the boy gave her. "Now, as much as I would like to leave, I need to change my brother and myself." she stated, going towards the pod and kneeling besides it. Kaname found the button to open the compartment that also had a stasis effect. "Here we are." she muttered, she glanced at Daisuke and shifted him so he was in front of her. "Daisuke, time to get up." he stirred slightly, before going back to sleep. She huffed in amusement, "Come on Dai-chan, don't you want something to eat?"
"mmm.." The toddler grumbled, blue eye's blinking open groggily. He yawned, raising a hand to rub at his eyes, "Nee?" he questioned.
She chuckled, "Yes?"
"'unry..." he mumbled with a pout.
"Well, lets get our clothes on, then we'll find something to eat, neh?"
Daisuke scrunched his brows up, glanced down at what he was wearing, then gave her a confused look. He was already wearing clothes?
Kaname snorted, she set her brother down and pulled out his bag, "Don't you want to change into your lion overalls and red shirt?" she questioned, pulling the said clothing out.
Daisuke's face lit up, more awake now that he's seen his favorite overalls. "Yes!" that was when he noticed the two people in the room with them, he suddenly shied away, running to hide behind Kaname's back and peek out at them. "'Ame."
9S blinked at the look he was being sent from the child. He had been enjoying the opportunity to observe an actual Human child, and not just reading about them, and wasn't expecting to be regarded like this. Then again, it does say in the records that children were naturally weary of strangers. He mused. "...Hello." he waved, crouching down and giving a friendly smile, only to get a sudden vicious glare from the little human.
"Dai-chan, it's alright." Kaname coo'ed, "This is 9S and 2B, they're here to help."
Daisuke glanced at them, huffed, and buried his face into Kaname's back.
9S seemed very dejected while 2B's mouth quirked in amusement.
The two androids had arrived back at the resistance camp with Kaname and Daisuke, they had reported to the bunker and were charged with keeping the two safe from harm until told otherwise.
As they made their way to Anemone the chattering camp seemed to grow quiet as everyone saw Kaname and Daisuke. They seemed to want to know who she was, having never seen her or the small being in her arm before.
Anemone greeted them, taking the item and telling them all about their alliance with the forest machines, before noticing Kaname and Daisuke. "What...?" she said, eye's focusing in on the child- who was looking around curiously- before looking towards the two YoRHa soldiers for an explanation.
It was 9S who answered.
"This is Kaname and Daisuke Higurashi...They're humans we found deep underground."
Instant chatter as every android in the camp seemed to look in awe at the two humans. The one next to Anemone was ordered to quickly bring a Popola and Devola over, before the leader greeted the two.
"Hello, it is nice to meet you as well." Kaname greeted with a slight bow, making the android confused. "...It's a greeting."
"Oh, right, I remember reading about that." 9S muttered, "Apparently humans that lived in the 'Asia' part of the Old World bowed in various degrees for specific things." he explained to 2B.
"Depending on how low you bow, depends on if you're being disrespectful or not."
9S and 2B then proceeded to lead the two humans to a storage room that was converted into a small bedroom, the S unit happily sitting besides the older of the two, asking various questions about the Old World.
2B was trying to have a serious conversation with a 3 year old Daisuke, she looked a little out of her depth by the rambling of the toddler, but gave a faint smile.
"Oh, thats right, I found this in the 'Shopping Center'." 9S stated, pulling out a still sealed toothbrush and holding it out to her, "Do you actually use this to brush the bones in your mouth?"
Kaname blinked at him, "What?" she chuckled while taking the toothbrush, "Do you mean teeth?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, because if we didn't then they would get yellow and rot out of our mouth." she stated, cocking her head to the side as she stared at his mouth. "Don't you brush your own teeth?"
9S shrugged, "Not really, we could if we wanted to, but androids don't need maintenance like you humans did. Everything about us is synthetic and made to look like our creators and last." He informed her, untying his blindfold and leaving it in his lap. "Be that as it may, I do like to take baths from time to time, it feels nice."
"Kaname." 2B called a little worried, gaining the others attention. The female android was pointing at down at a wiggly Daisuke, "What is wrong with him? Is he suppose to be doing that?"
Kaname gave a snort, standing up and making her way to her brother, before kneeling down. "Dai-chan? What is it? Need to go potty?" she questioned.
Daisuke nodded, "Pee-pee!" he whined.
"'Potty'?" 2B questioned.
"He needs to go to the bathroom." Kaname clarified, picking up her brother and turned to 9S. "There wouldn't happen to be any working bathrooms around, would there?"
"Uh..." 9S fumbled, checking his map and getting his Pod to initiate a scan of the city, "Maybe...? we could check one of the shower rooms to see if there's a functioning 'Toilet'?" he suggested.
"Lead the way." Kaname nodded, following 9S out of the room with 2B following beind.
9S turned his head slightly to look back at Kaname, "Is he...what is it? Potty trained?"
"Yes."
"Oh...From the records it said that most 3 year olds are still in 'diapers', was that false?" he questioned curiously.
"No, most were still in diapers, but Daisuke is unusually bright and decided that he was a big boy."
Daisuke nodded his head firmly, puffing out his chest, "Not a baby."
"I am fairly sure you are." 2B commented.
Daisuke turned to her, giving a small glare that wasn't very effective, "I'm a big boy! I'm already three!" He argued, holding up three fingers at her and giving her a look that questioned intelligence.
2B just hummed, not convinced, then started argue with him.
The remaining two of the group were very entertained by the argument between an android and a toddler. It kept going even when Daisuke used the- thankfully- working toilet to when they were coming back to the camp. 2B had somehow ended up with the child in her arms, poking holes in his logic, while Daisuke stubbornly held on to his opinion and argued on how she was wrong.
"...you wouldn't happen to be recording this, would you?" Kaname questioned from besides 9S.
{Affirmative}
"Started the moment 2B decided to argue with a child." 9S smirked.
The two were watching 2B and Daisuke sitting in the small patch of grass in the middle of camp, that way every android in the camp could see the 'smaller human' and Kaname, to see what they were doing all of this for.
Although it was mostly because the toddler wanted to look at the flowers, and 2B couldn't deny him.
That was when Kaname heard footsteps coming her way, she turned to see a pair of identical maroon haired androids staring at her with tears running down their cheeks.
"Sō'unga." Kaname called, eye's narrowing at the Goliath machine rampaging.
Yes?
"Lets get some exorcise, It has been a few thousand years since we've last moved." she commented, her partner appearing in a cloud of purple smoke, "We must make sure we haven't gotten rusty."
Not to mention they are frightening the little master. He snickered, I am surprised you entrusted him to those two.
"I see nothing wrong with neither Devola nor Popola. What happened was not their fault, it was the others." She commented.
She released a dragon twister, ignoring the startled shouts of 9S and 2B.