The Christmas Truce
"Mhh… so, what'cha looking at, Asuka? Back there? Ohh... I see. Yeah, kinda odd, right? I wonder why she's here too. They never come here... they're not like me. They don't need a place like this... nor do they need a friend like you. They wouldn't appreciate someone like you, they're not real people, you know? They're just… things, they don't even have names… we're so much better than them, right?"
Asuka was whispering absentmindedly to the doll, staring into her dull eyes. After a short pause, she muttered something inaudible, and the doll nodded in agreement. Asuka replied with a defeated sigh, and leaned back against the steel beam behind her. It was rusty; the floor boards she sat on were strewn with dried mouse and bird droppings. The plaster had long since fallen off the walls, revealing the red brick structure beneath; there was nothing of value here, just rusty, old machinery. The old water tower was ripe for demolition, but nobody had gotten around to it yet. Time and resources were scant, and there were more pressing matters than removing derelict eye-sores such as this one. Asuka appreciated that; the tower offered her a place to be alone, and to feel safe for a while. The view from the top wasn't that bad either, even if it was a bit drafty up here. The heavy winter jacket and the cap helped somewhat against the icy wind.
"I can hear you, you know... you don't have to hide back there, Copy..." she said in an impatient, annoyed tone. Something rustled behind the old, heavy piping at the back of the circular room; Asuka thought she could hear a quiet gasp. "Come here, I'll show you something neat... Don't worry, I'm not gonna bite, or push you out of the window, or something." - she didn't necessarily sound much friendlier now; rather, Asuka's voice sounded tired, even slightly bored. It didn't sound as if she meant it as a threat, at least. It was as good as an invitation from her would ever get. After a moment of hesitation, floorboards creaked; the sounds came closer and closer, until they stopped one or two meters from her. Asuka stared at her doll for a while longer, then she took it off, and put it down on her lap.
She took a deep breath, and hesitated before turning her head towards the other, red-haired clone. The girl that looked like her wore the usual, deep frown on her young face; she was staring at Asuka with barely-concealed anger and distrust. Slight confusion, too, as her gaze alternated between Asuka's face and the weird thing in her lap.
"Shikinami Type. You're nothing. You're inferior. I'll show you. I'll beat you. I'm better than you." - the thoughts came unbidden to Asuka's mind, like a reflex. The other copy was thinking the same, probably. It was only natural. Asuka sighed, and picked up something from the ground next to her. She bit her lip, and tried to ignore the familiar, hostile emotions. They welled up in her almost automatically, whenever she met another copy face-to-face. She tried to resist them for now, as best as she could. Asuka and the other Shikinami clones were rivals by nature; but now, despite herself, she wondered if that was all they ever had to be.
"Here. Look at them, over there..." - Asuka offered half a pair of binoculars to the clone. Only the right side of the optics remained. It was still attached to the hinge with the focusing knob, that bore a weathered 'Carl Zeiss Jena' logo. Her left hand pointed at the empty window. The landscape beyond the base was covered by a blanket of snow, like a serene shroud. Thousands of twinkling, colorful stars seemed to be embedded in it; chance rays of moonlight reflected by singular ice crystals. There were golden lights in the distant darkness, by the little settlement some distance away from the base, beyond the barbed wire fence. Misty columns of smoke rose from the chimneys; the wind swept them away swiftly.
The other clone looked out of the window as well, during a long moment of silent deliberation. Then, she hesitantly took the instrument from Asuka's hand, and sat down as well. She kept her distance, though.
"Why do they put little lights on the trees, outside? And behind the windows... seems so useless, and really stupid." - the clone had observed the distant homes for a few minutes. She had kept her left eye open, consciously blotting out its input rather than clenching it shut; she had been trained to do so. Occasionally, she had muttered a soft, puzzled "Hmm...", while observing the strange children. They had created big balls of snow, by rolling them on the ground; now, they were stacking them on top of each other, for some reason. Grown-ups watched them from a bench, drinking something from steaming mugs. They all looked so carefree and relaxed; soft, and weak. They looked so unreal.
"Not sure... they don't need to care about concealment, or about those lights giving away their position. They're not exercising or fighting, they're just... uhh, living, you know?" Asuka said, and shrugged, "They just have those lights because... they look nice, I guess.".
"Hmm. Really weird." the clone replied, and lowered the glass.
"Hmm. Yes." Asuka agreed, and nodded weakly.
They sat in silence for a while, and let the howling wind speak for them. Then, the copy examined the broken binoculars again. She bit her lip, while a battle was being fought in her mind. At some point, the side that wanted to speak to her rival again gained the upper hand, at least momentarily.
"This thing… I've overheard the base commander chewing out one of our handlers over... over something just like this." she said, and held up the broken instrument. Asuka simply nodded, apparently not taking the comment as a threat to rat her out.
"Yeah, it's some stupid keepsake of his. I snuck into his office once and took it..." Asuka responded casually, and lifted her brow at the other clone. "Took a look at your test scores as well." she added with a sly smirk. The clone almost flinched at those words. She took an angry breath, realizing how stupid an idea it was to come here. But Asuka spoke before she could get up and leave:
"You could be better than me, you know? With guns, I mean." - that gave her pause, and she looked at Asuka with a puzzled expression. Curiosity mixed with a healthy dose of mistrust. But Asuka didn't seem like she was boasting, or mocking her. She sounded... calm, maybe even... sincere? It was strange, she had barely ever spoken to any of her "sisters", beyond exchanging insults. She wasn't expecting any kind of honesty from anyone, let alone from one of them. Instinctively, the clone girl suspected some kind of trick.
"What do you mean?" she demanded harshly, glaring at Asuka suspiciously.
"You're reflexes and coordination are great... you have potential, but your technique sucks." Asuka continued calmly, while her finger drew a little circle in the dust and dirt on the floor. "You're flinching, you're tensing up right before you pull the trigger, expecting the recoil. It throws off your aim... it's not a big deal with the small training calibers, but it'll be a problem when you get to heavier stuff. It's noticeable enough now, and it'll be a bigger problem in the future..." she explained, and looked at the other copy sadly: "Well, at least if you don't want to get sent home early...".
"Shut up!" the clone interrupted her angrily, "If you have something useful to say, spit it out! I don't need fake sympathy from someone like you.".
Asuka's hand clenched into a fist, but she resisted the urge to punch some respect into that inferior specimen. She sighed, and relaxed again.
"Try practicing with one of the old bolt-action ones... they have some K98k's with shortened stocks. It'll be uncomfortable, it'll hurt like hell..." Asuka explained, and rubbed her right shoulder, "...but it'll prepare you. It will teach you to accept the recoil, ease into it, and shooting anything else after that will be much simpler. Just ask the quartermaster, he'll give you one. Repeat the basic course with it, if you have to. That's what I did... and well, we both know who's better on the range, right?" Asuka said, and winked at the girl.
"Hrmph..." the copy grumbled, and couldn't help but nod begrudgingly. After a moment, her expression became bewildered as she looked at Asuka again: "I don't get it. Why... why do you tell me this?".
Asuka looked out of the window, and shrugged. She pulled her knees closer to her body, as a gust of wind made her shiver. "Hmm... good question. Beats me..." she muttered pensively, her blue eyes fixed at the lights in the distance again. Her copy sighed, and did likewise.
Again, they sat in silence for a few minutes. Faintly, they could hear distant shouts; both happy and angry. The children were throwing little balls of snow at each other, without any regards for proper tactics or cover. Soon, there were louder noises too, closer, coming from the base itself. Hectic shouts, guards barking orders, and barking dogs as well.
"I saw that Kleist hag today... she's back." the clone girl said after a while, in a sorrowful tone. She turned to Asuka, with a hint of curiosity in her voice: "Her hand was bandaged. Is it true, what they said? That you almost bit off her finger, that day?".
Asuka let out a sad, disappointed "Ohh...", and her shoulders sank. "Just... almost? Hmm, too bad. Guess I'll have to try harder... gotta make sure the guards can't tase me next time." she said, and surprised the clone with a sudden, mischievous grin.
The clone nodded in agreement. "Blöde Kuh." she spat, and glared at Asuka.
"Dämliche Psycho-Hexe." Asuka replied, and nodded gravely.
The clone snorted, and blinked in surprise at why she did that. Asuka snorted as well, and her grin grew wider. Soon, both girls were giggling wildly; they looked merry and confused at the same time, unsure of what to make of their own, inexplicable behavior.
Asuka managed to subdue her chuckles for a moment. "Hey, watch this!" she cheered, and inserted her hand into the doll. She turned it towards the clone, and began shouting, in a mocking imitation of the hated evaluator's voice. The doll supported her performance congenially, with exaggerated hand gestures and pompous nods.
"I want to understaaaand you! Why won't you tell me your feeeelings!"
The clone clutched her stomach, shocked by the strange, sudden pain she felt there. But she couldn't stop. She sounded clumsy and embarrassed; laughing wasn't something she had been trained for. It almost scared her.
"Insubordinaaaation! Criminal behaaaavior! Unstable personaaaality! Uncontrollable Aggreeeeession! Violence towards supeeeeriors! Let me heeeeelp you! Why won't you truuuust me? Answer my stupid queeeestions!"
"Phhhffsh… Stop! Stop it! You're k-killing me!" the clone gasped. Luckily, Asuka wasn't able to continue her performance, too busy with her own, sudden giggling fit. She looked surprised to find a few tears on her cheeks; she wiped them away quickly.
"You're really stupid, you know that?" said the clone, still reeling from the aftereffects herself. She had been on the receiving end of Asuka's violent tendencies many times before, but to her own surprise, she couldn't feel angry about it right now.
"Yeah..." Asuka nodded, not sounding offended at that comment in the slightest. "I sometimes listen in, you know?" she went on, feeling sufficiently confident that no further giggles would interrupt her speech. "There's a place in the maintenance tunnels, where you can hear what they say in the conference room, through an air duct. I stole the keys for the door, and sometimes I sneak in there, to listen." Asuka explained.
"Yep... somehow, that doesn't surprise me at all." the clone said, with a knowing nod.
"Hmm..." Asuka responded with a sigh, and her mood seemed to sink a little as she contemplated the doll on her hand. "So, turns out that dumb Kleist bitch is the daughter of some committee bigwig… or some stupid general, I dunno. And well... she took my little stunt kinda... personal, it seems." she said, and shrugged.
"Well, anyway, it was worth it. Here... she's yours, I don't need her anymore." Asuka added in a resigned tone, and stood up.
The clone girl blinked, unsure what she meant; then, she gasped, as the little doll was dropped into her lap.
"Uhh... d-do you mean..." the clone muttered, as she gazed at Asuka in utter disbelief.
"That they'll send me home? Yeah, looks like I finally get to find out what that really means." Asuka interrupted her sarcastically, and stretched her arms over her head. She took a deep breath, exhaling a cloud of mist while the joints of her interleaved fingers cracked. "Well, whatever it means, I'm sure it can't be worse than this place... it's so boring and stale, now that the others are gone." she added, and looked down with sadness in her eyes.
The clone's gaze fell to the ground as well. A moment of silence passed between them. They both knew what it really meant.
"Don't get any wrong ideas, Copy. I'm still better than you, in all things that really matter; you just won by sheer luck, and by having enough good-girl-points." Asuka said, pointing an accusing finger towards her. "Don't slack up, or I'll have to come back and kick you in the butt again." she said, and snorted derisively while she playfully poked the clone's thigh with the tip of her boot, knowing perfectly well that it was still bruised from her latest, unprovoked attack.
"Hm." - the clone nodded absentmindedly, and stared at the doll in her lap. She felt paralyzed by the sudden revelation. Her dream had come true. Her life would finally have meaning and purpose. She would learn about the great secret, find out what all this fuss was about. Still, the happiness she had hoped for was strangely absent. "So... I'm the last one. My great victory. It's what I've been fighting for my whole life, isn't it? Then, why does it feel so... empty?" she wondered silently, after picking up the doll to examine it closely.
"Well... I'll better get going, they're looking for me already. Take care, Shikinami… remember to get back to your dorm before 22 Uhr, or you'll be in trouble." Asuka said as she left for the stairs, addressing her fellow clone by her official designation for the first, and last time ever.
"Hmm... A-su-ka..." the clone whispered softly, after discovering the crudely-stitched letters above the hem of the doll's dress. "Hey, wait! What's Asuka? Is that her name? Or is it... is it your name?" she shouted, turning her head towards the stairs. But the other Shikinami clone was already gone.
Epilogue
Candidate has failed to meet established performance requirements. Thorough assessment of subject's condition and circumstances has concluded any probability of recovery and/or regaining prerequisites to be minimal. Research resources have been reallocated. This decision is final.
Thank you for reading, and Congratulations!