CHAPTER 10: The Nightmare's Sublimation
KUROE: 'Taking night shift patrol. North of Oldtown. Boarding C-Train to West Central. No activity atm.'
Kuroe stood there unsheltered in the, icy, freezing rain, tapped the 'Send' icon and checked her last few messages. It was her second week of night shift out of her three stints scheduled this month. One extra week to make up for the stint she missed while stranded in Canada with Ayame Mikuri and two members of Nanaka Tokiwa's gang. The other week to make it up to a new recruit who was a person she knew was someone she'd saved from a particularly nasty witch quite some time ago. The foolish girl was trying to rescue a cat when Kuroe noticed her, and together they managed to retreat to safety. But then the girl meekly asked if she had any spare Grief Seeds to share. Kuroe fibbed, telling her she didn't, and the two went their separate ways. Kuroe spent the entire rest of the week feeling so terrible for that lie until a kindly yellow-haired girl from Mitakihara arrived and gifted her a jewel and informed her that she'd never have to hoard a single Grief Seed ever again. That wracked Kuroe with even more guilt, but all she could do at the time was send her that poor girl's way, with no way of knowing whether or not she'd made it long enough to receive her just reward. It came as such a relief when Konoha Shizumi had found and subsequently introduced the young lady into their fold, but not totally enough to alleviate her conscience. By this point she was ready to concede the possibility that no amount of voluntary night shift work would be enough to atone for the one sin of that afternoon.
AYAME: 'Lemme know if you see some girl with straight cut bangs in a Takarazaki Central Uniform get off the C-Train on her own with flowers. I see her every other nite on patrol near Takaraji Ward. Been wonderin' what her deal is.'
That last text was sent seven hours ago. Kuroe didn't necessarily mind taking on these extra dogwatch duties if it meant she could have some alone time. She wasn't even aware she was the sort of person who preferred this solitude until after she made her contract with Kyubey. At the time she thought all her ails in this world could be cured by having a boyfriend, so she wished to go out with the very first boy her teenage hormones generated a crush on, only to be put off by the lavish attention he'd started heaping on her. In an ironic twist, it didn't even take more than three dates to figure out they weren't much of a match beyond their taste for reading stories. So she'd ended the relationship and all she got out of it was the additional duties of fighting witches and protecting the unwitting masses. All in all, a terrible, no good, very bad deal. Now more than anything else, she wished for nothing but the chance to drop-kick that scuzzy fuzzball into next Thursday.
KUROE: 'Someone matching description just exited the train. Looks around my age.'
She tapped the 'Send' icon and stashed her phone in her pocket. No clue why she was bothering to humor Konoha's sister's curiosity, beyond her own boredom. This town hadn't seen much action in weeks, just a wayward wandering small-fry familiar. Even so, Hazuki's protocol dictated that no fewer than two magical girls should engage one when detected, and four when it's a full-blown witch. That way burdens are shared and safety is prioritized. Kuroe didn't mind at all the Azalea Sisters moving in and taking control over the magical girl fiefdoms if it meant more cooperation and less overwhelming responsibility. Without them, she couldn't imagine lasting long trying to make it through this troublesome life. Some witch would've made quick mincemeat out of her for sure. Worse yet, at times she'd been so down on herself lately that she'd conceivably might've let it skewer her if it could.
KUROE: 'Taking a detour. Following someone under possible magic influence. Profile reasons: Young, female, traveling alone, late t.o.d., not dressed appropriate for weather.'
She hit the 'Send' icon a third time. Then added, 'No phone on personage' addendum and tapped it again once she got a closer look at the wanderer Ayame might have once spied. One of the only boons to her flagging self-esteem was Konoha's praise for her beat cop-esque fastidiousness, punctuality and eye for detail. Which wasn't much, but Kuroe craved any kind of positive praise out of this humdrum job.
KUROE: 'She also looks'
"Oops," Kuroe's finger touched the 'Send' icon before she meant to. 'Preoccupied,' she texted with haste. She also didn't seem to be paying any mind to the fact that Kuroe had been watching her leave the station for more than five minutes now. As if she were in a trance, or just absolutely fixated on making it to her destination.
KUROE: 'Sad. Very very sad.'
She added that part as a post-script. She'd seen such gloominess before only in the mirror, as someone who looked as though the most important moment in their existence had already come and gone, leaving them adrift and without direction. At least Kuroe had her powers and personal prayers to fall back on, but this girl just seemed to be at a total loss in life, judging by the way she trudged down the streets. She'd already crossed one street missing a red 'Don't Walk' sign. It was fortunate it was late enough that there weren't any oncoming cars. And she was in danger of doing it again at this next crosswalk. Only this time, there was a car speeding along.
"Hey, watch out!" Lucky for her, Kuroe was close enough to pull her back at the last moment.
"Whaaah-" Kuroe's hard tug made her trip over a pebble on the sidewalk. She lost her balance and wound up falling straight into Kuroe's arms.
"Are you alright?" The inconsiderate jerk at the wheel didn't even stop at the next red light.
"I'm fine," The girl answered. But not quite in a tone that sounded honest or even grateful.
"Are you sure?" Kuroe asked, tilting her head left and right checking to see if there were any signs of a witch's kiss branded on this soft-spoken girl's neck. There didn't appear to be one, so why was she acting so aloof?
"Yes." She had also dropped her flowers, which got swept away in a puddle flow down the gutter. Although from what Kuroe could tell it seemed to be less of a bouquet and more of a loosely tied together assortment of common flowers and grasses collected on a parkway stroll.
"Sorry about your uhm," Kuroe apologized. "Flowers." Their matching forlorn faces watched the grouping get swept away and sucked down the storm drain.
"That's okay," The girl uttered at a decibel level just barely above a whisper.
"Where could you be going at a time like this?" Kuroe probed. According to Konoha and Hazuki, people under the spells of a witch tended to lumber around without any clear destination nor particular interest in either people or surroundings.
The girl seemed to take another minute studying the degree of concern in Kuroe's frown. Which was good, because another symptom of a witch's influence she'd been told to watch for was a general apathy towards the presence or attitudes of others. "I'm going to go visit my sister." She answered once she judged Kuroe's character to be adequate.
"Your sister?" Kuroe blinked a few curious times. "Are the two of you close?" A simple question that was somehow loaded enough to make her recoil and jerk her body out of Kuroe's arms.
"I have to go now." The girl took three steps backward. "Thanks for the catch." She bowed as a token act of gratitude. "Goodbye." She hustled across at the turn of the next green light.
"Wait!" Kuroe inaudibly wailed after her. It was late, she had another four neighborhoods to patrol, she was running behind schedule, and the girl wasn't in a trance and didn't seem to want any further assistance. Kuroe's instincts were telling her to leave her be, turn around and get back to minding her own business. She could even picture Konoha in her head telling her leaving would be the logical decision. Yet she could also picture Hazuki right there next to her, yakking on about how a good magical girl isn't wasn't supposed to run around town tracking witches, taking notes, and supporting their own, but also offer a helpful hand to anybody in need, be it a grandma who needed someone to carry around their groceries, kids who lost their puppies, guys whose phones slipped into spots their fingers were too fat to reach, yadda yadda yadda. How those two got to be such a dynamic, complementary duo, she couldn't guess. Maybe opposites really do attract.
Before she'd even made the decision in her conscious mind her subconscious superego had taken control of her feet and were chasing after her. Replaying those moments after meeting that girl in the hood, it was telling her that while doing the self-interested thing might have been defensible on an intellectual level, at a fundamental moral one it was wrong. If there was one thing that previous encounter's failure taught, it's that her conscience couldn't handle leaving another sad girl at the mercy of fate.
Kuroe hopped atop a highway barrier to get a more omniscient view. One of the few perks to becoming a magical girl was her ability to defy gravity like that. It was just too bad Kuroe had no interest in athletic achievement. But her subpar grades would disqualify her anyhow.
She watched as the girl turned a corner and ascended some steps into the woods. Looking ahead Kuroe could see a series of dead plant-strewn arches leading to a walled-off spot populated by countless stone pillars and monuments. Her destination was a cemetery, and those were the gravestones. Kuroe leapt over to a line of monuments situated above where the young lady stopped and she camped within earshot behind a headstone.
"Hi Ui!" Kuroe heard the girl's voice greet someone in a low, subdued mutter. "Snuck out again tonight." Superior hearing was also one of those few job perks. "I know, you say it's raining and I didn't dress for the weather." But not so much in this case. "I'll catch a cold." Noble intentions aside, she'd stumbled her way into eavesdropping on a grieving sister's private chat with a ghost.
"But maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if I got sick," She choked. And hearing that caused Kuroe to pop a piqued brow out from behind her hiding spot. "Then I might be distracted enough to sleep a little tonight." She watched her rearrange a pair of pots containing lilies and chrysanthemums, the latter of which had been blown over by a wind gust. "I can't help it. You remember those nights we would lie awake talking about all the things we learned that day and wondering what the world might offer tomorrow until we made ourselves so tired one of us would pass out and fall asleep mid-sentence?" She clasped her hands and kneeled as if she were about to pray. "I stay awake and cry trying to think of everything we ever talked about until I'm too weak to think straight." Kuroe joined her in the act. If she was going to snoop, then the least she could do was be a respectful snooper.
"Mom and Dad cleared our bedroom out today. They say they're thinking about renting it out." That got Kuroe thinking about her own parents and siblings. "Sorry, but I just couldn't stand that room anymore, knowing it would always be half empty forever onward." In a house with four children but only three bedrooms, Kuroe had to share hers with her older sister. "I moved into the corner guest room." But their relationship was less of sisters sharing a bedroom than strangers sharing a living space as tenants, as her sister was never the type who could stand to stay in one place for long. Always out and about, always moving and shaking, her sister was rarely there to serve as Kuroe's confidant. "On the bright side, at least it's closer to the kitchen." The girl unzipped her backpack and took out a small, disposable bento box. "I made an extra meal without thinking again. Can't help it." Kuroe imagined a life without her sister, and it wasn't all that worse from the one she had now. Realizing that shot a heavy pang of envy right down through the pit of her empty gut. How could she be envious of someone in the throes of such overwhelming grief, while Kuroe herself had living siblings, loving parents, schoolmates who always expressed empathy in their concerns, and grew to be a trusted member of an ascendant magical girl squad? Was it just in her nature to be a self-pitying wretch, always defaulting towards pessimism and fatalism? She never wanted to kick herself more than right there in that moment. What a fine line between introspective sulkiness and sheer self-absorption.
"Huh? Who's there?" The girl called out into the night.
"Uh-oh!" Kuroe watched a rock she accidentally kicked tumble down the hillside and slam against a headstone, causing a commotion.
"Mister Caretaker?" But it wasn't Kuroe's slip-up that had caught the young lady's attention. "Is that you?" A flock of birds took off from the treetops nearby. Kuroe could sense there was something out there in the darkness, she could hear the steps of something heavy clubbing against the brickwork. And her eyes witnessed something barely there, warping the light of a lamp post, ever-so-slightly.
"Sorry I didn't call you first." And she was one hundred percent oblivious to its presence, nor was Kuroe in a position to convey her foreboding feelings about its intent. "But will you please give me a ride home again after I say goodbye to Ui?"
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| ENGAGING CAPTURE MODE |-
"Mother?" Hitomi ventured into the kitchen. "Will you please sign my report card?"
"Why certainly," Her mother untied the twine that was sealing the envelope. Hitomi had just completed another very solid quarter. "Japanese Language, 'A', Algebra, 'A', Social Studies, 'A'," She read each subject aloud. "Home Economics," She scratched an itch behind her ear. "'A Minus'."
"We had to bake a soufflé as our final project," Hitomi explained. "And it didn't quite rise up past the dish." But at least she wasn't sewing a duffel bag.
"Mmmhmmm," Her mother gave an understanding nod. "Health and Physical Education, 'A'." An improvement, now that she had Saya as both a study and gym partner. "English, 'A'." Holding firm, and arguably attributable to no more Saotome going off on wild tangents about her personal life. "General Art, 'A', and Earth Sciences," Another pause. Weak subject incoming. "A 'B' Plus." But it was a marked improvement over what she accomplished at her old school. "Overall class ranking, third out of two hundred twelve. National percentile, top five percent." Without even turning her back she placed the report card on the counter and offered her signature. "Congratulations, dear!"
"Congratulations?" Hitomi repeated with a tilted head. She came home expecting her mother would nitpick that Home Economics grade, or harp on her for still not being a great science student. But she was expecting to hear her express her particular dismay from letting herself slip from top dog at Mitakihara Middle School to a less prestigious third in this larger class. "Why thank you, Mother!" This fortunate turn had really made her day.
"Dinner can be your pick this evening," She added, in another positive twist for Hitomi.
"Really?" A novel opportunity presented itself. "Can you give father a call and see if he might be able to come home early and we could all eat out somewhere tonight?" They hadn't eaten out as a full family since her elementary school graduation day.
"Alright. I shall give him a call." She agreed, much to Hitomi's further elation. "Assuming he can, where would you like to go?"
"What was the name of that restaurant we went to back when I was in grade school?" Hitomi didn't want to waste today's fortune by suggesting some junk food chain at the mall.
"I cannot recall," Her mother replied. "We can look it up later." She returned to her previous activity of washing their dishes. "Hey, Hitomi?"
"What is it, Mother?" Hitomi took one step into the adjacent den and turned around.
"Have you taken the chance and asked any boys out yet?" Hitomi could sense her cheeks turning red at the question.
"Oh, dear heavens, no!" The embarrassed young lady wobbled over right into the door frame. "Why, I've nary any time to devote to such an undertaking." She awkwardly tittered. "Besides, I've swept every single idea of a romantic pairing under the rug, ever since you and father introduced me to that young man from the bank."
"Hm?" Her mother made a sudden one-eighty quick turn. "What young man?"
"Uuuuuuhhhhhhhmm," Hitomi pondered. "You introduced me to this one grown man several weeks ago," She recounted a most vivid chain of events which at the time greatly distressed her. "After you two learned about my failed effort to woo Kamijo and had to change schools because of the aftermaths, father brought home this young man and implored me to sit down and have an hours-long chat with him." She managed to make it through the meeting with her usual calm and courtesy, but afterwards she was throwing a hissy fit and punching her pillows. "I remember you even clearing my schedule for that whole afternoon just so you could fit his visit in." No one would say it, but she knew exactly what that day's appointment was. It was the opening interview in an arranged marriage. How dare her folks presume they could fix her burgeoning love life that way! "He kept asking all these questions about me and my hobbies and my education plans." Plus, the guy was about to turn thirty! Did they really think she'd go for a guy twice her age just because he was already in a position to be her financial provider? Just how out of step with the times were they?
"Oh, poor dear," Her mother rushed straight over. "You must have banged your head real hard to craft a fantasy that detailed!"
"Huh?" She'd embraced Hitomi in a prodigious hug before she could react. "Whatever do you mean, Mother?"
"Just now," Her mother guided her over to a bookshelf and snatched a pocket mirror that rested on it. "When I inquired, you stumbled and slammed your head straight against the door frame!"
"I did?" In her reflection she could see there was a brand new welt forming on the side of her temple. "I- I did!" But she couldn't remember banging her head on the thing. Her shoulder, yes, in fact it was still tingling up along her collarbone, but how could she have hit her head too and not known?
"I was merely following up on something you asked me earlier," It took ten full seconds for her mother to let go of her. "Remember? You wanted my input on whether it was appropriate or not for a girl to be the instigating party in a dating encounter?"
"Oh, yeah!" The memory of that morning was also pretty fresh. More so even, than the conversations she had with that man.
"I have read in all sorts of medical journals that the most upsetting nightmares tend to be the ones that persist longest in a person's mind over the most pleasant dreams," Her mother explained. "They say it is because one's brain tends to snap awake before the dream sequence is completed." She pushed a loose strand of hair behind Hitomi's attentive ear. "I think you hit that frame so hard you mistook reality for a recent one."
"Oh." Hitomi blinked. "That makes sense." She rubbed the spot on her temple. "I guess."
"Perhaps it would be best if we cancel those plans for tonight so that you get the chance to recuperate?"
"No, I'm fine!" Hitomi insisted. "Really fine!" This day was once going so well. The last thing she wanted was for it to be ruined by her own clumsiness. "Please bring me a little bag of ice, and I'm certain I'll be healed once Father comes home."
"If you insist." Her mother walked back into the kitchen and fetched a cold pack from their freezer.
"Get baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Kuroe lunged twenty-two meters like a speeding bullet and struck that invisible object about to ambush her newest acquaintance as hard as she could with her electrical batons.
-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Whatever foe attacked Gamma moved so fast its targeting system could not compensate in time to acquire it.
-| IMPACT DAMAGE TO UPPER LEFT APPENDAGE AND ROTATOR BEARING |-
-| ADDITIONAL ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED |-
-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-
"Are you alright?" In one fell swoop Kuroe managed to both land a hit on whatever that thing was and rescue the girl. She had never ever moved so fast before. She hoped she hadn't accidentally caused her rescuee any whiplash.
"I'm okay," She managed to mumble to Kuroe's relief. "What was that?"
"I don't know," Kuroe chanced the briefest of glances from their hiding spot behind a headstone. There was nothing visible, but that didn't mean there was nothing there. She sensed a foreign soul of some kind, however faint, it was looming. And looming large. So large that Kuroe's hand was still ringing from the impact.
"What on earth are you wearing?" The young lady beside Kuroe had taken immediate notice of Kuroe's magical getup. Her long, black cloak was her primary piece of wardrobe, but it wasn't sufficient cover for her sleeveless crop top and double-layered skirt underneath. Her legs and feet weren't much better covered, as she donned only a long pair of pink socks and black sandals. With both her thighs and belly button exposed and only a pullover hood to protect her from the surging rains, she looked too little covered to serve as a sufficient bodyguard.
"I'll explain later, now shhh!" Kuroe tried to keep her quiet. It wasn't too difficult for her ears to discern something heavy stomping into the bricks. Even her non-magical associate could hear it.
Gamma sensed an energy source somewhere in proximity to it, one whose output was comparable only to the mystery battery operating within its chest compartment.
-| MISSION PROTOCOL OVERRIDE |-
-| PRIORITY ONE TARGET DETECTED |-
-| EXECUTE CODE 3390: ***** HOMO MAGICA COMBAT MODE ***** |-
-| CAPTURE BIOFORM AT ALL COSTS BY COMMAND OF CYBER REGENT! |-
Was the Cyber Regina arbitrarily assuming control over the operation again? It took less than zero point zero zero two nine six seconds for Gamma to deduce that, no, the communications blackout was still in effect and its autonomy had not been usurped. Instead, a backdoor line of operating code was being initiated, one it did not know had been installed. "Update in progress." It sensed its electronic voice module speak aloud.
"Huh?" Kuroe and the young lady exchanged confused looks. The girl was baffled, because to her it sounded like a robot of some kind. Kuroe was even more flummoxed, as she'd never known of any witch or familiar to speak in such loud, intelligible words before.
-| SCANNING FOR RESONANT ENERGY SIGNATURE |-
Gamma had no choice but to follow the new instruction set. It was, after all, still bound by the nature of its programming. It did not matter whether or not it was aware of all its subroutines on a conscious level, it still obeyed them.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| RANGE: 14.331 METERS |-
A multicolored glow in one spot was transposed over Gamma's field of view. Indicating the target was hiding behind a solid limestone object.
"Run!" Kuroe sensed their position had been made. "Get as far away as you can!"
"But what about y-"
"Just go!" Kuroe shouted, charging her batons with as much voltage as her magic could muster. "Please!"
Gamma took hard and fast steps towards its prey. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It was an automatic utterance, Gamma could perceive the extra electrochemical surges it got from speaking it.
"Yyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhh!"
"Father!" Hitomi perked right up and greeted her dad at the front door. "So glad you could make it home early today!" She threw her arms around his waist with much adulation.
"It is the least I could do for you on a fine day like this," He smiled and patted her on top of her head. "How is your head?"
"Much better," She fibbed. It never hurt at all. "Thanks." She felt a little silly holding an ice pack to a bruise she only seemed to feel whenever she peered into her own reflection. "I'll be fine enough to dine out with you and mother tonight."
"That is good to hear." He pecked a kiss at that spot on her temple. It was quite unusual for him to plant a kiss of any kind on her, so for her the gesture of affection was quite appreciated. "Now head on into your room, while I pull some strings for those reservations tonight."
"Father?" At the door Hitomi thought to ask him one question.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Uhm," She was dithering over how to do it. Most bad dreams faded in detail as time went on, but from her odd fantasy new random details were sneaking in like unwanted pop-up ads. "Do you happen to have someone working for you who goes by the name 'Kotaro'?" Like the name of that overpolished man she'd been set up with.
"Why yes," He replied. "He's the newest member on our board of directors. Brilliant business acumen, but Kotaro lives alone. In fact, he reminds me a lot of myself at-" She had already booked it straight up to her bedroom.
"Coincidence!" She tried to reassure herself as she whipped her door open in a troubled huff. "It's just a coincidence!" She hurled her body straight into the middle of her massive, double-sized bed. "That's all!" It wasn't a waterbed, but the landing still felt as if she'd taken a hard plunge into the deep blue sea. "Unnnnngh!" She buried her face in her big, pink frill-trimmed pillow.
"Are you a vegetarian or non-vegetarian?" She could hear that man's distinctive, low patronly voice ask.
She was eggetarian, but added she had no ill regard or feelings of superiority over those who consumed meat. The perfect little lady's perfect answer.
"What are your hobbies and what sorts of things do you like to do in your free time?" She could smell his aftershave as though the scent had embedded itself into her pillow.
She was freshly fifteen. The age where hobbies come and go on a whim, where the only thing she prized doing with her precious spare time was frolicing with friends. Of course she didn't say any of that. She had to tell him that all the extracurriculars her mother made her take were her hobbies and that what little free time she spared was spent with said friends. Omitting that it had been months since she'd last spoken to them, and was no longer on good terms with one in particular after romantic kerfuffles and popcorn shenanigans.
"What are your plans after finishing high school?" She recalled a pocket notebook and a pen in his hand. He was jotting down her answers verbatim like a student attending a lecture.
But what girl her age already has their whole life mapped out past school? A girl whose life was being controlled by their parents, a notion that she had tried to be in denial about herself until this very reality-busting moment. She only told him that she wanted to live a life in which the knowledge and experience she'd gain could be used to help others.
"What place would you most like to travel to?" Anywhere but here. Baaaaah. Hawaii.
She rolled over and opened her eyes. It. was. A dream. And she was getting nothing but needless stress dwelling on it so much.
"Do you like pets? Do you prefer dogs or cats?"
Hitomi always wanted to be a pet person, but allergies precluded it. She opened her mouth intending to give a cheeky answer and say she wanted to adopt a naked mole rat, but her mother walked in and poured up some tea and offered snacks. She chickened out and just said hairless dogs look so sad and hairless cats looked sickly. What a bizarrely specific thing to remember from a dream. She got off the bed and ventured over to her desk.
"What kind of music do you like?" Why was she thinking about this?
Romantic era violin concertos. Thanks in large part to a boy whom she would've much preferred being the one asking these questions.
She opened a book. It was a science textbook. The subject didn't matter as long as it kept her mouth and her thoughts preoccupied.
"For decades it was widely held by scientists that the bottom of the sea was as sterile and lifeless as the surface of the Moon," She turned to a page and read aloud.
"What has been the scariest situation you've ever faced, and how did you recover from it?" That was one of his later questions. She'd been so polite and cooperative up to that moment, then she got the bright idea of trying to scare him good by recounting in lurid detail her most harrowing recent ordeal.
"But thanks to advances in submarine technology, humanity has explored the deepest trenches and discovered countless microbiomes thriving at temperatures and pressures once thought to be inhospitable." She told him that she had been in this exact room doing this very activity when it first happened.
-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-
"Bwwwweeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooooop!" Gamma's electronic voice module squeaked. "Whhhhhiiiiiirrrrrr! Bwwaaawwwp!"
Kuroe still had no clue what she was fighting. But the light generated by the jolts and sparks of her baton's blow suggested something humanoid in shape.
-| HAIRLINE CRACK IN MAIN CHASSIS |-
-| LOCATION: HIP ROLL JOINT |-
-| ADDITIONAL ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED |-
-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-
-| REROUTING POWER TO COMPENSATE FOR ELECTRICAL INTERFERENCE |-
"The goal is for technology to one day reach a point where a probe with the ability to drill all the way through the thick ice of Europa, the Galilean moon of Jupiter, and search for microscopic life." She'd been sitting at her desk, trying to study. But really attempting to distract herself from her many unpleasant thoughts. That's when a mysterious, otherworldly voice whispered sweet nothings into her ears.
"Parents don't understand us. They don't want to. We're nothing more than accessories. Or possessions."
No, no - It wasn't that. It had something to do with Sayaka Miki, and her irksome disregard for their friendship. But, yes, Hitomi held such a budding sentiment towards her folks, too.
"Studies of hydrothermal and geothermal vents have also yielded questions about the viability of life on the neighboring Galilean moon of Io, as well as the Saturnian moon known as Enceladus." That's when she somehow let her imagination get a little carried away from her. But her memories of what followed were a little vague, so she filled in the gaps with a fair bit of creative indulgence.
"But we mustn't go on being their perfect little wind-up dolls. We're not their smiling little robots. We have wants, needs, passions and desires of our own!"
She actually took a fair bit of joy in being excessively descriptive of her delusion, reveling in the turnabout of him having to just sit there, smile, nod and sip tea while she got to do all the talking. Flashing those pearly-whites as she regaled him with the entirely true story of how she was suddenly a specimen on an operating table, terrified and so sick she wanted to puke, but couldn't trigger her gag reflex.
"So why don't we run away? Run away to where we need only to live for the things we cherish most? Free like in our most precious dreams!" That wasn't what the mysterious voice said at all, but she did remember the sentiment burrowing its way down to the core of her brain as she spun her tale.
"But perhaps the most coveted destination of all could be Saturn's moon Titan, where life may swim among the flowing rivers of methane and ethane." The whole out-of-body experience seemed a lot like being whisked away to another world, alright. But couldn't remember what that ghostly voice said exactly, she only remembered how content and cared for its soothing whispers made her feel. Like falling in love.
"Hitomi?" She heard her father speak and knock at her door.
"Yes Father?" She turned towards him and faked her good-est, most goody good girl smile.
"Reservations made, seven-thirty sharp!" He started undoing his red business tie. "Formal attire only, so why don't you put on that nice floral gown from your grandmother?"
"Thank you, Father. I will." She returned to her busywork reading.
"Reroute successful," A mechanical voice buzzed into the nighttime air. "Acquiring target."
Kuroe made sure to keep moving fast and loose. Whatever this was that she'd chosen to involve herself with, now it sounded like it was on the hunt for her.
"Scanning!"
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| RANGE: 18.347 METERS |-
-| VELOCITY: 24.653 METERS PER SECOND |-
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The effect of those simple synthesized words really was improving Gamma's reaction time by a calculable margin. It spotted its prey zero point zero zero zero two seven seconds faster, and opened fire another zero point zero six eight four seconds sooner. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"
"Oh, crap!" Kuroe had been made. Now she was pinned behind a metal maintenance shed, and whatever this thing was shooting was gonna chew through her protection in no time flat. She needed to create a distraction, something that would buy her an invaluable extra second or three. How fortunate she was, that Konoha had trained her in what things she should try under these very circumstances.
"Target identifying," Gamma's sights tracked something that was catapulted high into the air, spinning at a rate of eight point six six revolutions per second.
Kuroe clutched her remaining baton like a baseball bat and rocketed her whole body at her marauder. The precipitation was washing down at a rate sufficient enough to mark an outline of her foe. It was huge, at least two meters tall by Kuroe's estimation. But more important than that, it had a large, bulbous head. A head she was gonna swing for like a tee-ball batter.
"Kiiiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"
By the time its motion sensors had deduced that the object was ballistic and its strategical software concluded that the item was a decoy, it could do nothing to counteract the black body hurtling towards it at a speed that should not have been possible for a biological entity of that size and profile.
-| Err0R |-
-| CraN1Al Ar^^0R C*MpRoM!5Ed |-
-| 313cT71cAl 5urG3 2 c3NtRA1 Pr0Ce550r |-
-| 3xTerl\laL C0ml\/lun1cAt!0N5 al\ltenl\lA dAl\/laG3d |-
-| !l\it!AtInG 50fTwAr3 Rel300T |-
"After the success of the Cassini-Huygens mission, in which the first successful landing of a probe beyond Mars took place, scientists are looking to study both Titan and Enceladus with a successor probe scheduled to launch sometime in the- Aaaaaahhhh!" A needling jab as sharp and piercing as a hornet's stinger penetrated through Hitomi's temple straight into the very core of her brain. "Ooooowwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiieeeeeee!" She jumped away from her desk, tumbled back and landed on her bed. "Waaaaaaaauuuuuuuugghh! Waaaaaaaaaahhh- Hawwaaaaaaaawwwww!" She bawled and bawled like a newborn.
"Notagainnotagainnotagain!" She thrashed and writhed and pounded her bedsheets. "Plllllleeeeeeaaaaaassssse no not again!"
"Hitomi!" She felt someone gently shake her by the shoulders. "Hitomi, wake up please!"
"Huh?" Her eyes zipped open and the panic of tears and fears had vanished. The only sign that anything happened at all was that the pages in her textbook had become stuck together. Because she'd been drooling on it.
"Sorry I had to wake you from your nap," Her mother apologized. "But it is almost seven." She helped Hitomi stand up off her seat. "But I have brought that nice dress out for you." It was the exact same floral dress her father had suggested mere moments earlier, hanging over the handle to her wardrobe.
"Oh," She mumbled with a glance out her window. It might have seemed like moments earlier, but somehow the afternoon had progressed and the sun was now around two hours or so lower in the sky. Had she just dozed off and let her nagging worries drag her poor psyche into the clutches of a nightmare? Or rather, a day-mare? "Thank you, Mother." She got straight out of bed and inhaled the fresh scent of the late afternoon air. "Whew!"
"We will be waiting for you downstairs when you're dressed," Her mother pecked a parting kiss on top of her head.
"Okay," Hitomi inhaled and exhaled another deep, relieved sigh. She'd read stories about people who had dreams wrapped in dreams, and had the jarring experience of having to wake themselves up twice or more. But she didn't think she'd ever be one who'd experience the disorientation of one firsthand. Though all things being equal, a dream within a dream was the only logical explanation. Unless she'd suffered from yet another one of those mass delusions. But the thought of that happening to her a third time was just too dreadful to think about. So she refused to entertain it. Punted that notion straight out of her skull.
"Hnnnnnnnghhh," She picked the dress up off its resting spot by the hanger. She'd never tried the dress on before, not even for her grandmother after getting it on her thirteenth birthday. She remembered that at the time she'd gotten it in her head that outfits like this one, with black as its primary color and red spider lilies as the decorative pattern, was symbolic of an impending death, and that her grandma was about to break some very heartbreaking news in the wake of a recent health scare. She was secretly convinced it was the dress the old lady had picked for Hitomi to wear at her forthcoming funeral.
"Hehehee!" She just had to chuckle at her thirteen-year-old self's unfounded alarms. Months later she cracked open a fashion magazine while with her mother at a grocery checkout stand. And what did she happen to discover when paging through it, but a drop-dead gorgeous older teen modeling that exact same dress? Reading the description and subject interview, she discovered the dress color wasn't black, but rather a deep shade of sapphire blue that commonly gets mistaken for black. And the adorning lilies weren't of the heavenly lycoris family but rather of the more common and earthly lilium type. Her grandmother was simply trying to be trendy, and she misunderstood the message. But by then Hitomi felt too embarrassed by her color-blindness and lack of botanical knowledge to dig the dress out and give it a try-on.
"Oooh," She cooed as she performed a runway twirl before her mirror in her new gown. With a see-thru upper chest and sleeves featuring frills at the elbows and neck, it really brought out the silky smoothness of her skin. How might her parents react if she told them she wanted to become a model? Boys and fellow girls were always telling her how cute and conventionally attractive she was. But she always struggled to see the same person they did. Like with her academics she always tended to harp more on her minor imperfections than appreciate the things going for her. But for the first time while donning that dark, flowery dress with those long laces in back, she saw the things they saw. She was tall, well-proportioned and had an ample bosom. From her shiny, well-kempt hair, to her perfectly-spaced eyebrows. Having rosy-red cheeks, luscious lips and a full set of pearly-white teeth, she put her hands to her face and admired the figure smiling back at her.
"Well, Worthington Bear?" She turned back around and asked the stuffed animal sitting perched atop her plus-sized pink pillow. "What do you think?" It was one of her most prized possessions, that plush bear. A refugee from the toy store's discounted back shelf, it had two ebony black, round eyes with stitching that made it look like two tears were about to droop from the corners. Her Father later told her it was a character from a European storybook series. It made her keen to learn everything about the character, from its unique silver fur to its life jacket-esque pewter overcoat and gray rain boots. He had a wide, toothy smile and a personalized tag whose stories taught her so many fine foundational lessons for living a kind, moral life. "I look pretty nice, don't I?"
"System restoration successful. Upgrade in progress."
The forced reboot had disabled Gamma's automatic targeting software. Now it was going to have to rely solely on its ocular sensors to engage this belligerent. It was not about to retreat or restrategize, for its orders to apprehend this antagonist were hard-coded in its operating system. To counteract the being's ability to create directed energy attacks, Gamma grounded itself by jabbing its long, pointed heels into the soil. It had also depolarized the nanomolecular fluids flowing within its chassis to minimize the chances of another electrical outburst disrupting its core circuitry.
Kuroe, meanwhile, was still recovering from the aftermath of her strike. Slugging whatever that thing is, was like trying to batter a tank. Should she keep fighting it? Should she run? Or should she keep her head down in hiding and try to wait it out? Her gut was telling her the third option was foolish wishful thinking, and that this behemoth wasn't going to rest until it tracked her down to the ends of the earth. Like it or not, she was going to have to make her stand right here, right now, do or die.
"Huuuuuuuuuaaaaaaap!" This time she switched it up, fastballing her baton at her target while taking to the air. It might have been a tank, but even one of those could be put out of commission after it's been dealt enough damage. And a magical girl is capable of all kinds of miraculous feats.
At least, that's what Konoha and Hazuki kept preaching to everybody belonging to their upstart Takarazaki Squad. And so Kuroe dove in, desperate to prove it.
"Ohnonononono noooooo!" The frantic Hitomi picked poor Worthington Bear up by the arm and chucked it at her desk. "Youdidn'tjusttalkyoudidn'tjusttalkyoudidn'tjusttalk!" The toy smacked hard against the wall, then careened into a snowglobe resting on her desk. "Eeeeeeeep!" Hitomi dove after the rolling glass memento and caught it just before it shattered against the floor.
"Wheeeeeeeew!" She breathed one very huge, exasperated sigh of relief. It was one thing to rough up a teddy bear, at least that thing could be stitched back together or replaced. But this wonderful little one-of-a-kind snowglobe that her Father got her for Christmas? It would've mangled her heart to watch it in dozens of ruined pieces on the floor.
So how in the world did that exact memory wind up in her head?
"Eeeeeeeek! Get away from meeeeeeee!" A warbled, anguished voice squawked as it smacked Kuroe hard in the gut and sent her flying into a tree.
"Unnnnnggggf!" Kuroe spat up blood upon landing. "Owwwwww!"
-| eRr0R |-
Gamma had no diagnostic explanation for its involuntary vocalized spasm. All it knew was that its operational imperative was to neutralize this subject, and its unexpected counterblow had just given it that much-needed tactical upper hand.
A huge, screeching blackbird had just swooped straight through the window and attacked her! Hitomi batted it back and rushed over to close the window. But the assault wasn't even the most frightening thing about the ordeal… For when she reached out and struck back at her assailant, for a moment Hitomi swore her whole arm was a long, metallic rod-like appendage!
"Whawhawhat's happening- To meeeeeee?" The confused, upset and frightened Hitomi didn't know how much more of this weirdness she could take. Phantom injuries, conflicting memories and now creatures that dive-bombed her from out-of-nowhere all conspiring to separate her from her very sanity. "Booooo- Hoo- Hooo- Hoooo- Hooooo!" What else could she do but curl up into a fetal ball and cry?
"Target One apprehended!" Gamma announced in its typical clinical, though slightly off-pitch tone. "Adjusted mission directive complete!" It had Kuroe by the neck and immobilized. "Scanning." Now it had to figure out how to transport its subject back to its base without incurring further harm to itself.
"Gurrrrrk!" Poor Kuroe couldn't move and couldn't breathe. All she could do was look on in ever-growing fear and panic as the rainfall washed the transparent camouflage away from her captor's visage, revealing its form as a huge, hulking, gray metal robot with its cold, black gaze, and strange ears so long they better resembled fins. She could see that she'd caused a pretty sizable dent to its left side with her earlier effort, so in a desperate huff she materialized another baton and tried smacking the same spot again. But the machine caught her arm with ease and dislocated it with an effortless tug and crunch. "Auuuggh!" Kuroe screamed a muffled cry in pain as her magical form reverted to her school clothes in a dull, amethyst flash.
"Resistance is ineffectual, further attempts will be punished," Gamma verbalized a warning. Its physical examination concluded the subject was a physiologically typical Homo sapien, age approximated at fourteen or fifteen years. There were no signs of physical augmentation, and to Gamma's vexation, all files pertaining to priority targets dubbed as 'Homo magica' were stored in an encrypted fileset that could only be accessed with the additional authorization of the Cyber Regent. The only clue on the subject was that anomalous energy source, once affixed as a shining circular item to its right lower appendage but now had transmuted itself into a much smaller attachment around one of its digits. "Query: Identify this object." It studied said object and noted that there was an energy reaction emanating from a glowing core at its tip, and there was a phase change within that was accelerating at a cascading pace.
"Leeeeeet… Goooooooo… Of meeeeeeeee!" Kuroe murmured through her pain. Konoha had said that if she were ever taken captive by anyone or anything that wasn't a magical girl, she should die before letting the secrets of her kind fall into an enemy's hands. At the time she didn't take the idea seriously. She was convinced that her leader was just being overly grim or dramatic, but now here she was, face-to-face with that very possibility. And she didn't want to die. Not like this.
"Response not valid," Gamma sternly intoned. "Answer the request or face further dismantlement!" It clamped down harder on Kuroe's wrist.
"Huuuuuuurrrrrrk!" Kuroe gurgled. It was supposed to be a quiet night shift gig. She should've just ignored that stupid message from Konoha's not-sister and not involved herself in another girl's affairs. She hated those stinking sisters for convincing her to keep being a magical girl. She hated herself for being such a foolish interloper. She despised herself for being too weak to make a difference in the end. And above all, she resented that stupid human girl for abandoning her to a fate that was supposed to be all hers on this dreary night.
Gamma calculated that the chain reaction event would reach its terminus in thirty-two minutes, sixteen seconds. But it was going to take Gamma approximately forty-seven minutes, fifty-one seconds to return to base. But if it took off now and pushed its thrusters to fifteen percent beyond its maximum designed efficiency, then it could make the trip in twenty-nine minutes, seventeen seconds. It could do twenty percent but it would risk burning out its own energy supply in twenty-five minutes. Gamma bent its legs, extended its wings and prepared to ignite its boosters.
"Put her doooooooooown!" A voice rushed out of the bushes and latched itself onto Gamma's leg. Gamma evaluated its latest nuisance as a complete non-threat. The tactical recommendation was to delete the biological organism with its electrified grip.
-| ErrOR |-
Except Gamma could do no such thing. That presented a problem.
"Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Hitomi cried. "Getoutofmyheadgetoutofmyheadwhateveryouaregetoutofmyhead!" She beat her wrist against her face trying to exercise those torturous images from her brain. Every time she closed her eyes, she was watching events unfolding in an entirely different world. One tinged in a deep crimson shade of red, where two very terrified girls were trying in vain to harm her. For it was like her whole body had been turned into an indomitable tank. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Tormented by outlandish delusions where she had no control over her disfigured formIt had happened to her before and now it was threatening to derail her wonderful day again!
A follow-up analysis determined that Gamma's outset mission and its revised parameters had come into conflict. The individual attempting to stop it from carrying out its new protocols was the designated target of its prior assignment. And as such, it was not allowed to inflict grievous harm upon the being. Yet it could not initiate takeoff so long as the individual was in such proximity to danger.
"Juuust goooooo… Awaaaaay!" Kuroe pleaded to the girl holding onto Gamma's leg for dear life. "Pleeeeeease!" She was trying to put on as brave a front as she could, but secretly she was so glad to see there was someone who cared enough to come back. Even if it meant they were both about to die, at least Kuroe wouldn't have to suffer alone.
"Mister Robot, you were trying to catch me first, weren't you?" The girl pounded and pounded against Gamma's gluteal armor. It could pound and pound on Gamma's shell until whatever resource that supplied it was exhausted. It was never going to afflict any damage with such insufficient force. A most illogical expenditure for no appreciable gain. "Let her go, and you can do whatever you want with me! Please!"
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Gamma's vocal synthesizer squawked. If there was a broader tactical reason for that proposal, its analytical software could not discern it. "Whiiiiiirrrrrrrrr! Beeeeedip!" Although the evaluation was increasing the temperature of its CPU by zero point zero zero three eight degrees.
"Whyyyyyyyy?" The organism struggling in Gamma's clutches asked the key question in a way the unit just could not articulate. "You could've- Saaaaaaaved yourself!"
"You saved me first," She said. "You don't have to trade your life for mine. It isn't right, and I'm not worth the trouble."
-| ERR0R |-
Gamma was at an impasse. It had its new primary target captive and ready for transport, but could not leave because its former prey would not allow it. It also could not take both at once, as flight trajectory models indicated it could not achieve a sustainable flight path while carrying both in tandem. Nor could it travel by ground, as this was a stealth mission and that created an unacceptable risk of discovery by the other human biological entities.
"Dataset insufficient," Gamma finally spoke. "You possess attachment to one with whom you have no genetic or familial affiliation?" Its updated scan indicated the cascade reaction in its captive's energy source had somehow slowed by a sixty-nine point seven one three four percent margin. It was now at least at a point where Gamma could mount a return mission at a later date with additional data and instructions from its Master. "This does not compute." Pattern tracking suggested that there was a correlation to the exact moment the other one volunteered to go instead.
"Hitomi, dear!" Her mother's voice called out. "We are ready to leave when you're ready to go!"
"Mooooooooooommie!" Straining herself to find the will and courage to move, Hitomi got up, shambled to the door and cried as loud as she could. "There's something wrooooooooong with meeeeeeee!" The last two times her sense of reality got twisted and warped she had been left to her own devices alone. And after both incidents she tried her best to downplay the true severity of her freakouts. Not so this time. There was a very fine line between having the strength to deal with your mounting woes and being so weak that you can't even admit when those problems have become too overwhelming to handle on your own, and she'd crossed it. But was she too late to turn back?
"Oh, my goodness!" Her mother caught her in her arms just as she tripped on the third step downstairs and almost went for a painful tumble. "What happened to you?"
"Every time whenever I close my eyes I see," Hitomi gasped. "I see something that scares me!" Her mother had escorted her weary body into the living room, the same room where her father was waiting, and helped her lay herself down on the sofa.
"It is okay," Her mother took her outreached hand. "Please tell us, what do you see?" Her parents exchanged a set of very unnerving glances.
"The electrical discharge and subsequent hardware damage has altered the unit's internal brain chemistry in a way that my throughput monitoring could neither predict nor capably compensate for once the effects translated into the Deltaband." Her father spoke such pure nonsense in a very dry, and thus unsettling tone.
"Wha- Whaaat?" Hitomi whined. "What on earth are you talking about, Daaaaddy?" Her state of mind had gotten so frayed that now she was addressing her parents as if she were seven again. Was she now so far gone that their words were no longer making a single lick of sense?
"Never mind his words," Her mother stroked her cheek with her free hand. "Please describe the things you see when you close your eyes." Her request carried as clinical a voice as her father's and even though her soft touch was benign it was also cold. And she was rubbing her face as if she'd never engaged in the act before. It wasn't making Hitomi calm at all.
"Seeing you hurt her so much makes me hurt too," The original reason for Gamma's excursion explained. "And I don't wanna hurt like that anymore. So please Mister Robot, wherever you want to do with me, I'll let you do it. But you have to put her down."
Gamma had no reason to comply with the request. The embedded subprotocol was its operational prime directive, and no matter how dynamic the situation got, no alteration was permitted.
So why had Gamma not shaken her off if it wasn't considering the trade?
"I'm in a dark place." With little other choice Hitomi did as her mother asked. "So cold." Her connection to whatever was going on in the other place was creeping beyond just the mere sights. "I think it might be outside and storming." She winced in pain and fear at the events in which she was but a captive, helpless observer. "And my arms… I think they're both my arms… They're reached out and I've got this very frightened-looking girl in a deathlock!" There was an equally frightened girl who had her by the leg, but the one most fearful of all was Hitomi herself.
"If the experience of it becomes too intense, you can simply open your eyes," Her mother said. "That should alleviate the symptoms. I have issued a patch that should also dampen the severity of the input-output link's feedback."
"Why do you guys keep talking like that?" The only time her father would ever use such technical language was whenever it pertained to his business interests. And her mother, while quite intelligent, was not computer savvy enough to talk like that. At least, computer talk was how it sounded to Hitomi. "Who are you? Are you really my parents?"
"The administrative users have not cleared us to answer those queries at this time." Her father answered. To Hitomi's ears it was a very roundabout and upsetting way to say 'no'.
"Our identities are not the subject of paramount importance," Her mother was even more cryptic in her attempt at reassurance. "Please just take my word for it when I say the only thing that matters right now is you!"
"Input request," Gamma buzzed. "Biological units, state your designations."
"Huuuuuuuh?" Kuroe coughed.
"You want to know our names, Mister Robot?" The other one seemed to understand Gamma's phrasing. "I'm Tamaki," She declared. "Iroha Tamaki."
"Ta- Ma- Ki?" Gamma bleeped. They were two words Gamma was familiar with, being the former monikers of Units One Zero Three and One Zero Four.
"I- I'm Kuroe," The hand around Kuroe's neck had loosened up enough to let her speak without struggle. "Kuroe Shizumi." But she wasn't about to trust this hulking lug with her real identity, so she gave it Konoha's family name while showing her appreciation for the other girl with her given name. And as soon as she gave the name, the squeeze retightened.
"Even though I know it is very difficult," Hitomi's mother implored. "Right now I need you to close your eyes again and concentrate all your remaining will upon that other place."
"I don't want to!" She protested. "I don't understand why you'd want me to!"
"Because a person's life is at stake," She insisted. "Their life is in your hands. I am aware that those appendages you see look alien, the farthest thing imaginable from your small, dainty digits, but they belong to you and only you have the power to spare that poor soul from being extinguished."
Hitomi didn't want to believe what her mother was telling her was serious, but there was such a gravity to the way she put it Hitomi couldn't take a chance on a more comforting lie. So she closed her eyes and squirmed on her back.
-| ERROR |-
Gamma heard the clicking of its internal bearings and servos which chained together to release its lock-tight grip around the captive Kuroe. It did not comprehend the reason why it would commit to such an act. Especially since all its differential tactical and situational evaluations foresaw her resuming belligerent status immediately. Slowly but surely the captured magical girl was freed, first by the neck, then it opened its claws around her crunched wrist. Kuroe fell to the ground and into the open arms of its volunteer hostage.
Gamma also did not understand what it did next. Rather than gearing up for an imminent resumption of hostilities, it was slowly migrating both its main appendages into its direct field of view. At first it was convinced that its autonomy had been overridden again, but the blackout was still in effect, and it detected no other Cyber Unit within network range. That could only mean it was somehow doing this of its own volition.
Now it was moving those appendages right up to its cranial armor, placing them in such a way as to obscure over ninety-two point eight percent of its sight. Why would it sabotage itself in this manner, should the biological beings take the statistically most likely actions? "Beeeeeep! Whiiiiiirrrrrrp!"
"Oh, my god!" Hitomi sobbed into her hands. Or rather, the fleshy paws that were her hands in appearance only. For it was finally dawning on her, that she had fallen into a delusional, dreamlike state as happened twice before. But unlike those last two times, this time the fantasy was the warm and fuzzy living room and sofa that embodied the previous world that she had fled.
"Mister Robot," Gamma's surface sensory systems detected a light contact on its torso and chestplate. "Are you okay?"
"Beeeeeeeeeeeep! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt!" But right now it was too busy doing an on-the-fly bugfix to respond.
No. Hitomi was not okay. More than a light year from okay her mind was, with a shotgun blast of once-repressed memories blowing buckshot holes straight through the façade that was her former life.
She ran away from it all. Right after her parents surprised her with that miserable interview, she waited for her chance to be alone, trashed her room and fled the scene. Where she wound up she didn't know and didn't care. That was when she heard yet another siren's call, a kindred heart singing to her from the shadows of the night, luring her in with the promise of freedom and happiness. She had no trouble following it all the way to its origin either, as she remembered walking her way down through the most secluded depths of her brand new private school. The next thing she knew, she was back in her bedroom living this sick, sordid lie.
"Hitomi!" She heard her mother in the distance, trying to snap her out of her self-imposed catatonia. "Hitomi!" But why bother responding? She wasn't really her mother.
"Mister Robot," She could also hear the other voice calling through a distorted filter, as if it was coming through the speakers of the answering machine of a landline phone. "I'm ready to go with you." But she wasn't about to go anywhere. Or do anything. She was content to just curl up and die.
"Mission parameter, code three three nine zero," Gamma found itself freed from whatever internal malfunction caused its body to behave so arbitrarily. "Manual override executed." But in those few moments trapped in that idle state it learned it could do a workaround that allowed it to make operational changes without preauthorization. "System restore to previous mission objective." Thus resolving the peculiar paradox that was most likely responsible for the functionality failure. "Please stand by." It took a knee and presented its arms in such a way as to suggest that the girl would next need to climb into them.
"No!" Kuroe took one step in an effort to stop her. "You don't have to-"
"It's okay," The girl gestured for her to halt. "I'm not scared." She wanly made a smile. "You tried your best for me, and that was enough. Thank you." She fell back into the robot's awaiting arms and waved with her fingers. "Goodbye, Kuroe."
"Minimum safe takeoff distance is three meters." The robot advised. "Step back now." Kuroe did as demanded and the sound of twin rocket jets roaring pummeled her eardrums.
"Hitomi!" Her father was next in trying to shake her from her stupor. "Hitomi, you have visitors!" But why should she be willing to see anyone if they weren't real? They all ought to just go away. "It is your friends Saya and Nemu." She didn't ever even introduce them to her parents, that's how obvious this farce had gotten. "Oh? I see… We have to vanish so that you will be able to conserve magic. I understand." What? Magic?
"If you can reach her," Her mother whispered, yet somehow Hitomi's hearing had become so acute she could perceive it. "Tell her goodbye, and please apologize for our failure to function as adequate firewall and throughput monitoring subroutines in the end." What? They were computer programs? Made of magic?
"You operated within the best of your algorithmic limitations," She heard Saya say. "Rest in peace and contentment with awareness of that."
"Thank you," Her fake folks said in unison. "We are sorry, Hitomi." Hitomi was shaken by their earnest apology enough to witness them vanish in a flurry of green ones and zeroes.
"And we're sorry, too," Nemu approached. To Hitomi's sheer shock and confusion, she was wearing her magical getup from the game.
"Sorry we had to deceive you with this model, but it was necessary." And while it was Saya's voice, it was digitized and her image looked nothing like the girl Hitomi spent the past few months making into her new best friend. Now she was the basic framework of a humanoid form, lacking a face, but featuring a green feminine body and long locks. "We believed it was the only way to make your transition from biological to technological lifeform easier and not psychologically scarring."
"Please forgive our deceit, but we really need your help!"
