The landing platform was located on a corner of the octagonal megascraper, but not at the top.
Looking up through the lounge’s transparent ceiling, I could see another thirty odd floors of the massive building looming over me.
I figured those floors were home to the palatial apartments that commonly occupied the highest tiers of Ar Telica’s residential buildings.
With the Cat Princess glowering at me from behind, I followed my sister and Pearson out of the waiting lounge, through a connecting tunnel, and then into the innards of the apartment complex. After a short walk down an opulent hallway, we arrived at a bank of elevators. However, Erina continued leading us deeper into the building until we stopped at a second elevator bank. Unsurprisingly, rather than heading down into the depths of the megascraper, we crowded into a life car and rode it up.
After my not so private tête-â-tête with the Cat Princess the mood between us was tangibly fouler so when she bumped into me, I reflexively shoved her away.
“Hey!” she yelled as she caught her footing.
“Learn to drive that metal bitch,” I yelled back.
“I’m gonna drive this metal bitch right up your ass!”
She started reaching for her stun baton, and I readied myself to grapple with her.
Unsurprisingly, the two Simulacra sisters made a move for their guns.
But all this came to a halt when Erina loudly slapped the wall beside her. “Will the two of you shut up?” She pointed at the silent sisters who had stopped reaching for their guns. “Why can’t you be more like them?”
The Cat Princess and I studied the Simulacra women for a second, then replied in unison, “Hell no!”
Pearson bit her lower lip then nervously smiled at Erina. “Children these days.”
Erina’s face contorted as though she took umbrage at the remark.
“What are you talking about?” She pointed at me. “That one’s a child.” She pointed at the Cat Princess. “But that one’s a grown woman!”
Eyeing us askance, Pearson appeared unconvinced. “How can you tell?”
Exasperated, Erina threw her hands up into the air. “Oh, come on, Umi! Not you as well.”
“I’m just saying that they’re more like rival classmates. Don’t you agree?”
I was ready to deny the observation when a sudden slap made me flinch on the spot.
The Cat Princess had jerked upright and slapped her forehead.
Oddly, it didn’t sound like metal on metal, but flesh on flesh.
However, I didn’t have time to mull that over because the mechanical avatar started trembling with laughter. Then she covered her eyes as her laughter grew louder.
I had no idea what had brought this about, and by the looks of it neither did Erina or Pearson. For that matter, even the Simulacra Sisters were regarding the Cat Princess with the slightest of curiosity and concern.
As for me, I was growing irritated with every ‘Ha Ha Ha’ that came out of her mouth. The desire to bang her head against the elevator wall was mounting by the millisecond, when she suddenly palmed her forehead instead of her eyes, stopped laughing, and peered at Erina with a somewhat delirious look on her face, yet she spoke in a deathly whisper.
“She’s right, Eri…she’s absolutely right.”
I watched Erina frown in abject confusion, but she was obviously affected by the Cat Princess’s behavior because it took her a while to respond. When she did, she sounded acutely annoyed.
“She’s right about what?”
The Cat Princess chuckled but she sounded pained. “Now I know why she pisses me off so much….”
I cocked my head at her. “Well, let’s hear the grand epiphany you just had.”
She ignored me, prompting me to quietly decide, I am so going to pummel her.
“Eri, you remember her, right?” the mechanical girl asked.
My sister still sounded annoyed, but some of the confusion on her face had seeped into her voice. “Remember who?”
The Cat Princess clenched her hands. “That slut who constantly picked fights with me.”
Curiosity began to get the better of me, and I decided that hitting her could wait for later as the situation was becoming interesting.
Erina sighed wearily. “Akane, a lot of people picked fights with you…and you picked a lot of fights with them too.”
“That’s not fair,” the Cat Princess complained.
“Well, it’s true,” Erina insisted. “Have you forgotten how many times you were summoned to the Vice-Principal’s office?”
The Cat Princess abruptly shuddered from head to toes, then quickly shook her head. “Can we not talk about that?”
I too almost shuddered when I remembered my own unsettling experience with the creepy VP.
I wonder what happened to her—no, I better not ask!
An edge crept into Erina’s voice. “Very well. What do you want to talk about?”
“Not what—who,” the Cat Princess corrected her.
“Who do you want to talk about?”
The machine girl raised a clenched fist. “I told you. That bitch who constantly challenged me. The one who claimed she could beat me at long distance running. Remember? She had the whole team on the fence when she challenged me for the captaincy right before the inter-state competition—and I smoked her ass in the qualifiers!”
I hesitated before asking, “You did what to her ass?”
Again, she ignored me as she stared hard at Erina. “Come on, Eri. Surely you remember her.”
Glancing at my sister, I saw that Erina was having some difficulty recalling the person in question. “You mean…that flat chested girl who stole your boyfriend?”
I distinctly heard something go ‘snap’ right before the Cat Princess went feral.
“Oh—you just had to bring that up!”
“I’m just asking if she’s the one,” Erina hurled back at her.
“Yeah. Her. Cappella Leone.” The Cat Princess punched a fist into an open palm. “That slut.”
I raised a hand and politely cleared my throat with a cough. “For the record, I haven’t stolen your boyfriend, so that’s no reason to hate me.”
She hissed at me like a cat rubbed the wrong way. “You get under my skin just like she does. Your constant needling, heckling, jibing, smart ass remarks. Even the way you stare at me.” She shook all over. “Frek! I knew there was a reason why you pissed me off so much.”
This insight into the Cat Princess further tickled my curiosity. “Can you tell me more about her?”
She froze for a split second before grumbling, “Why the Hell would I?”
“So that I can find out what really ticks you off.”
In a heartbeat, she looked ready claw out my eyes. “There will be blood tonight.”
I frowned at her. “You mean eighteen hours from now?”
Erina suddenly kicked the elevator door with her shoe. “That does it! One more word out of either of you and I’ll have them shoot you both!”
The Cat Princess and I glanced at the silent Simulacra women who stood eerily dispassionate as they watched our raucous antics. That faint curiosity they’d betrayed earlier was like a distant memory. However, I saw that they’d both slipped a hand behind their backs. A memory recalled from Mirai’s vast knowledge base made me suspect that they were wearing hipster holsters, and if their guns were small enough then such holsters could carry two firearms along with spare magazines.
While thinking this, I noticed the Cat Princess regard the Simulacra sisters with an unreadable expression, before silently retreating to the elevator car’s back wall.
That sure as Hell surprised me.
It also made me wonder if there was more to those two women than I’d initially assumed.
Deciding to follow the Cat Princess’s lead, I crossed my arms under Mirai’s breasts, then leaned my back against the rear wall.
Facing the doors, and almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the Cat Princess, we stood in stony silence while the elevator travelled upward. I was relieved when it stopped a couple of seconds later, then opened its doors with a gentle swish to reveal an opulent hallway beyond them.
Erina huffed in frustration and stormed out of the elevator.
Pearson quickly scampered on her heels with a rather jumpy look in her eyes.
I found myself wondering if she was afraid of me or the Cat Princess, so I looked askance at the mechanical girl.
“See what you’ve done?”
“Damn you!”
I hastily ducked when she swung at me and bolted out of the elevator.
She ended up striking the wall behind my head.
Out in the hallway, I wagged a finger at her, then hurried after Erina and Pearson.
It wasn’t long before the Cat Princess chased after me, and the two silent sisters followed in her turbulent wake.
After catching up to Erina and Pearson, we soon arrived at double-doors situated at the end of a hallway. I expected Erina to unlock them with a key or keycard, but instead she touched a security plate affixed to the wall on their right. Mirai’s acute hearing caught the sound of a chime ringing faintly somewhere on the other side of the doors. It wasn’t long before one of them unlocked, then gently eased open.
A young woman in a traditional maid outfit poked her body out into the corridor.
No, no, no—allow me to rephrase that!
A young woman in a traditional French maid’s outfit, with a bodice that clung tightly to her well-endowed chest, poked her body out into the hallway.
Mama Mia, I thought to myself as my eyebrows rose to my hairline.
Heck, even the Cat Princess looked startled at the girl’s appearance when I glanced at her.
At sight of Erina, the young woman opened the door fully, revealing the rest of herself, and I ran my gaze quickly over her short skirt, and shapely legs as she stood perched atop a pair of black high heels. Her long, auburn hair was arranged into a thick braid, and I suspected she was a little older than me, though still in her teenage years. My eyebrows dropped when I found myself wondering if she was a Menial, and perhaps this was all the employment she could find for herself after graduating from second tier education, otherwise known as high school. When I realized what I was thinking, I flinched in shame and quickly averted my gaze.
Who was I to judge her?
I wasn’t even human.
I was a fraud.
But more so, what right did I have to be critical of her?
Yet while I felt contrite over my supercilious thoughts, Erina had no qualms or regrets in regarding the girl as an inconsequence.
“Lady Kassius—” the maid started to say but stopped when my sister angrily stalked past her into the wide hallway beyond the doors.
She would have knocked the girl aside had the maid not jumped out of the way.
Pearson stared pensively at Erina’s back for a few seconds, before throwing me an accusing look, as though blaming me for Erina’s rudeness.
Granted, I was responsible to some degree, but it wasn’t all my fault.
After that silent rebuke, Pearson nodded politely to the maid, then stepped through the open doorway.
I exhaled slowly, aware of the Cat Princess standing close by, and when I glanced at her, I saw the veiled reproach on her face. However, she wasn’t looking at me or the maid. Instead, she was looking in the direction Erina and Pearson had walked off.
I guess she’s not happy with Erina’s attitude either.
However, like Pearson, she quickly turned that expression upon me as she crossed her arms before her chest.
I sighed inwardly.
Okay. Okay. I get it. I did play a hand in stirring up Erina’s foul mood.
Noticing that the maid was anxiously looking at me, I took a quick breath, then entered the hallway. As I stepped past the girl, I bowed my head to her, and offered her a softly spoken apology.
“Sorry. She’s mad at me. Nothing to do with you. Okay?”
The girl blinked quickly, then faintly smiled in relief as she bowed politely in reply.
I felt a little better at that, and I almost smiled back at her, but I had the Cat Princess and the Simulacra sisters waiting behind me. They were like dark clouds waiting to unleash thunder and lightning upon me, thus feeling pressured and resenting them for it, I walked the rest of the way into the hallway.
I quickly realized it wasn’t a hallway, but a spacious anteroom adorned with antique furniture, and artwork that was meaningless to an uncultured proletarian like me. However, there was no sign of Erina and Pearson, so I assumed they’d departed by way of the double-doors located directly opposite to the entrance.
I wonder what those two are discussing in private?
The Cat Princess and the silently threatening sisters followed me into the anteroom. The young maid closed the doors behind them, then hurried over to open the other set of double-doors.
“This way, please,” she indicated as she ushered us down a wide hallway that ended at a luxurious living area.
It was hard not to gape in awe of the apartment.
The living room had a sunken floor at one end that was furnished with sofas, a low table made of thick tinted glass, and a holovid projection system that befit a private cinema. A permaglass window spanned the length of one wall, with doors that slid open before an enormous balcony that was several times larger than my dormitory apartment. An open kitchen area was situated adjacent to the living room, and two hallways led deeper into the apartment, undoubtedly to the bedrooms, guestrooms, bathrooms and so forth. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all painted a light creamy color that matched the soft pile carpet underfoot.
Everything about the place projected luxury, comfort, and convenience. In terms of opulence, the apartment was on par with Mat’s family home in Ring One, District Ten where society’s affluent lived. It was a richness that made me uncomfortable as I slowly walked around the living area, aware that my sister and Pearson were watching me while the Cat Princess openly gawked at the interior of the apartment. As for the maid, she was keeping to herself by standing silently at the entrance to the living room.
However, the Simulacra sisters were nowhere to be seen.
I’d lost track of them when I was caught up in admiring the apartment.
Where the Hell did those two go?
Since I couldn’t see their pale orange auras, I assumed they weren’t hiding in plain sight behind a thermoptic camouflage field. Thus, it was likely they had remained behind in the anteroom.
Not good, I told myself because it meant the way out of the apartment was guarded.
However, while a concern, I had other pressing matters to contend with.
I turned to face my sister who was standing a few meters away. “Is this your place?”
“No, it’s yours,” she replied matter-of-factly.
My mind went blank for a moment. “Come again?”
“This apartment belongs to Isabel val Sanreal.”
“You’re kidding,” I muttered.
Erina folded her arms across her chest. “No, I am not.”
Her calm bluntness made it difficult for me to doubt her.
I spun slowly in a full circle and gave the place another long look that ended with me staring at Erina again. “So why are you here?”
She started to reply, but then looked behind me.
I swiftly turned to see the sexy maid was still standing where the hallway met the living area.
Like a deer in headlights, the girl grew rigid with wide eyes as she was subjected to Erina’s withering stare – something I wasn’t aware of until I glanced back at my sister.
“You can leave now,” Erina commanded in a painfully highhanded manner.
The maid almost jumped in fright, then hastily bowed, making her voluptuous chest bounce. “Y—yes, Lady Kassius.”
Skirting along the back of the living room, she fled out of sight down a hallway to my left. Moments later, Mirai’s sharp hearing caught the sounds of a door opening, then closing.
Well that was fast, I mused inwardly, then turned back to Erina. “Is she your maid or mine?”
“Yours.”
“Huh?” My eyes widened at the thought of living under the same roof with a hot sexy girl like her. “Okay….”
Erina stared hard at me. “Keep your hands off her.”
I jerked back as though I’d taken a roundhouse to the head. “What? I wasn’t thinking of doing anything to her.”
“Really….”
I clenched my jaw and straightened my back. “If she’s my maid, you could treat her a little nicer.”
“She’s a Menial. Why should I?”
My innards tightened at her words, and I softly stated, “You really are a bitch.”
“I didn’t hire her,” Erina coldly remarked.
“That doesn’t change anything,” I replied curtly.
But if she didn’t hire her…then who did?
Erina inhaled deeply and stared contemptuously at me. “That’s hypocritical when considering how you’ve been lashing out at everyone around you. Why don’t you practice what you preach?”
For a long while, I met Erina’s hard stare with silence. “I have a reason to lash out—a reason you gave me. What’s your excuse?”
“You.”
My innards clenched a little tighter.
She wasn’t wrong. I had been pushing her buttons at almost every opportunity that arose. It was bound to set her off, but it was causing collateral damage to the innocent people around me like the sexy maid.
“I can’t help it,” I explained. “Just looking at you twists my guts.”
“Well, then we’re going to have a problem.”
“We already have a problem,” I corrected her.
Erina shook her head slightly. “I meant a new problem.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’ll be living here with you.”
I felt a cold wind blow through my mind. “Say what?”
“I need to be here,” she stated sternly, “so I’ll be living with you.”
A second cold wind blew through my head before my chest began to heat up in anger. “No, not happening.”
“This isn’t up for a discussion, Isabel.”
Walking up to her, I clenched my hands into fists but kept them at my sides. “After everything you’ve done to me, you expect me to live under the same roof with you?”
“I expect you to behave appropriately and co-operate.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I shook my head at her, “I’ll co-operate but I draw the line at living with you.”
“You need to be supervised, Isabel. There’s no choice in the matter.”
“You can do that without being here. I have no doubt that you have a surveillance system installed in this apartment, so you can watch me from somewhere else just like the voyeur that you are. And I’ve already said that I’ll be keeping my hands off the maid. But I won’t tolerate living with you. And that’s final.”
I turned around and strode toward the hallway leading to the apartment’s entrance.
As I’d expected, the Cat Princess stood in my way.
Coming to a stop, I punched a fist into a palm. “I don’t need a gun to deal with you.”
She gave me a tired, disappointed look, like a parent may to an unruly child.
It wasn’t what I was expecting. In fact, it surprised me so much that my thoughts floundered, and I almost missed what she was saying.
“Just hear her out,” the Cat Princess said, sounding dispirited. “It’s important to you and to her. But more so to your safety.”
My thoughts were still wallowing when Erina addressed me from behind me. “Isabel, she’s telling you the truth. I need to be here.”
“Why?” I didn’t turn around. Instead, I kept my attention on the Cat Princess who stood before me with her arms folded. I didn’t know why she was holding back her usually aggressive manner, but at least she wasn’t making a move for her gun. “I’m not your lab rat, Erina, so you don’t need to be here.”
Because of Mirai’s wide field-of-vision, I was able to watch the Cat Princess and the hallway behind her.
Where are those Twisted Sisters? Are they in the waiting room?
I regretted not paying more attention to those two women.
Undoubtedly, the Cat Princess was physically their superior, but oddly I found her less threatening, perhaps because despite being a machine, she acted like a human being and was thus easier to read. In contrast, the two Simulacra women acted like automatons, so I couldn’t tell what they were thinking.
“I’m still your sister, Isabel,” Erina stated firmly.
Her words grabbed my undivided attention, and I abruptly realized there was something I’d been subconsciously denying for too long.
“My sister?” I risked looking away from the Cat Princess to glare at Erina over a shoulder. “You’re not my sister. Not anymore. Not since you shoved my mind into this body.”
I’d finally made the long overdue admission that I no longer considered that woman as my sister, and I felt lighter for it.
However, Erina’s response was to sigh at me as though I were a stupid child. “According to legal documents submitted to the Civil Registry, the Sanreal Family has made me your Guardian.”
My mind did the equivalent of a double-take. “What was that?”
“I said, I’m your legal Guardian.”
“Why the Hell are you my Guardian?”
“Because I requested it,” Erina deadpanned.
My mouth fell open. I had to remember to close it before swallowing. “Oh…that figures.”
There was no escaping her…or was there?
I clicked my teeth together at a sudden thought. “If I’m a member of the Sanreal Family, shouldn’t I be living with them?” Retreating a step from the Cat Princess, I turned sidelong toward Erina. “Just what’s the deal here? Where exactly do I fit in?”
“Officially you’re only a half-sister to the Sanreal siblings.”
“You mean, Mat?”
“I’m speaking in terms of what’s recorded in the Civil Registry. Matrim is a Praetor. You are a Sanreal.”
“Then who are my other official siblings? Clarisol?”
“She is one of them.”
“Does that mean another Simulacrum of Clarisol will be unleashed upon the unsuspecting world?”
Erina started to sigh but stopped hastily. “Her absence would be problematic.”
I mulled that over, wondering if this embodiment of Clarisol would be less extreme than her previous incarnation, then puzzled over why it would be a problem if she disappeared from society’s pages. “Who else is a half-sibling of mine?”
“Simon Sanreal and Conrad Sanreal. Consider them your older brothers.”
“…what…?”
For various reason, the mention of having older brothers left me floundering yet again, but one reason confused my feelings the most.
It was the notion of being part of a family.
The Sanreal were people I had never met, and they were intimately responsible for my present predicament. Yet despite this, learning that I was a part of their family – even if only on paper – meant that on some level I wasn’t alone. I was now part of something bigger, though it also meant that I would need to embrace my new identity.
I wasn’t Ronin Kassius anymore.
I was Isabel val Sanreal.
But what did that really mean? Or rather, who was she supposed to be?
In a sense, Isabel was like a character that I was playing in an elaborate drama, and in that respect, I was the actress struggling to come to terms with her role. However, while that gave me a new perspective on my predicament, it also made me regard myself as the understudy since Mirai had been originally intended as Clarisol’s means of escape from the virtual prison.
Unfortunately, it was yet something else for me to ponder later.
Erina was watching me intently, and I could ill afford to be distracted. Besides, I felt like I was playing chess against a Grand Master, with the terms and conditions of my existence at stake.
To hide my discomfit, I raised my chin and firmly met her gaze. “You suck at housework. Is that why I have a maid?”
She paused before retorting in a flat tone, “I’m a little busy to be doing housework.”
I slapped my forehead. “Yes, of course. Being a mad scientist is a fulltime job.”
“No, dealing with you is a fulltime occupation.”
“Then you shouldn’t have taken the job.”
Erina sighed in exasperation. “Really, Isabel? Is this how things are going to be between us?”
I scowled inwardly.
She was right. This was getting us nowhere.
Taking a breather, I folded my arms under Mirai’s bosom. “Then tell me. How much does that girl know about what’s going on?”
Erina sighed again, before she too folded her arms across her chest. “She knows that you’re Isabel val Sanreal, the youngest member of the Sanreal Family, and that you’re an illegitimate child.”
“You mean a love child.” I shook my head unhappily. “Fantastic cover story….”
Erina gave me a flat look but didn’t comment.
“What else does she know?” I pressed her.
“That you’re lacking in manners, good graces, and you’re a tomboy. Frankly, there is nothing ladylike about you.”
I heard the Cat Princess snicker but decided not to confront her, and instead directed a scowl at Erina. “Anything else I should know?”
“You’re also convinced that you’re a teenage boy.”
“What?” I cried out.
“You have delusions of being a boy in a past life. In other words, you believe you’re a boy reincarnated as a girl.”
I swear I could hear the tendons pop in my fingers when I clenched them. “No thanks to you,” I retorted angrily.
Unsurprisingly, Erina smiled as if to say ‘checkmate’, yet what she said was, “We have all the bases covered.”
“Yeah, I can see that. You have the maid believing that I’m crazy. That way if I act weird she’ll believe it’s because I’m a nut job.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention. She knows you like girls too.”
This time I blushed. “Well of course I do—” I cut myself off as I realized I was about to say something that would further incriminate me as being delusional.
I’m a straight guy in a girl’s body. Of course, I like girls. But now this makes me a lesbian!
My heart abruptly jumped in my chest at a suspicious thought.
Hold on a minute! Is that why she dressed up like a hot French Maid?
My gaze dropped to the carpet underfoot.
Okay, this definitely opens up possibilities—!
Realizing what I was thinking, my cheeks grew hot, but I froze when I noticed the knowing smile on Erina’s lips.
“What are you smiling at?” I snapped at her.
“You, of course.”
But of course, you would, I thought bitterly.
Erina could see that I was bothered by the French maid. However, I had adamantly stated I would be keeping my hands off the girl, and I was a man of my word.
Having said that, I chose to divert the conversation back to Erina.
“You sure laid it out nicely, didn’t you,” I verbally applauded her in a mocking tone.
“What choice did we have? You’re not aware of it, but you don’t move like a girl. Your mannerisms are barely feminine in passing. Other than your looks, there’s little else that’s feminine about you.”
Was that true?
Erina didn’t appear to be lying, but then again this was Erina that I was dealing with.
In other words, I was squaring off against an Alpha bitch.
Because of this, I held back a frown.
Showing weakness or doubt in front of Erina was a no-no, and I was doing a piss-poor job of hiding it, but I wasn’t going to stop from trying.
“I get that you’re insulting me,” I said to her, “but is that really what you wanted to tell me?”
Erina blinked slowly at me for a long while. “Yes, you’re quite right.”
“So spill it.”
“Come Monday morning, you will be attending Telos Academy.”
“Yeah, I know that. So what?”
I’ll admit that I sounded way more blasé than I should have, because attending school as a girl was no casual matter. It was going to be a waking nightmare for me, but I’d decided to show a strong front in front of Erina. However, she promptly torpedoed my resolve with a point-blank observation.
“Everyone who encounters you in school will wonder what kind of upbringing you’ve had.”
It took a moment for me understand what she meant. “Because I don’t act like a girl, right?”
“Correct. And soon it’ll be all over the social media waves that the youngest daughter of the well-known Sanreal Family is a tomboy…and that’s putting it politely.”
I planted my hands on my hips. “And why is that a problem?”
“Why? Well, you’ll understand why eventually. By then, you’ll have dug yourself into a social pit of your own making.”
“Speaking from experience, are we?”
A subtle twitching of her eyebrows told me I’d either hit the mark or was very close to target.
After a pause, Erina continued. “Frankly, it’s not my concern. As I’ve said before, you have a purpose and so long as you meet that purpose, it’s not my problem if you ruin your school and social life.”
My eyes widened as I faked disbelief. “Wow, and here I thought you cared about your lab rat.”
Erina stepped up to me.
Since Mirai was a tall girl, our heights were comparable, and so I stared back at her at eyelevel.
“I’ll say this clearly, so pay attention,” she advised me in a low voice. “I only care about the lab rat, Isabel. You make it impossible to care about the rest of you.”
I wet my lips slowly. “Then get out. Or better still, have the school assign me to a dormitory, and I’ll continue living on my own—as I’ve been doing for the past three years after you abandoned me just like our parents did.”
Erina’s face grew taut for a heartbeat before relaxing. “That’s out of the question.”
I smiled mercilessly at her. “Then I’m going to make your life here a living Hell.”
Her jaw muscles clenched in response. “Do you want to be boxed?”
I thought of Clarisol in her cage – the virtual prison for her mind – then I weighed what I knew of my importance to Erina and the Sanreals.
“Go ahead and do it,” I answered her with unwavering eyes.
Once again, a tense, heavy silence shrouded both of us.
I could also imagine a thundercloud or two over our heads.
Then a loud, heavy sigh rushed through the air behind me, and the Cat Princess intruded into our standoff.
“Eri, you’re going to give yourself ulcers again. Remember what your doctor told you? This time it could be a lot worse than last time. If you end up hospitalized again—oops!”
Hospitalized? Did she say hospitalized?
While I had trouble hiding my shock, Erina shifted her attention onto the Cat Princess standing behind me to my five o’clock. “Unlike other people, I learn from my mistakes.”
The Cat Princess sighed again, but she sounded exhausted. “And now you’re going to make a new set of mistakes.”
I narrowed my eyes at Erina. “You were hospitalized? For real?”
Annoyed, she snorted loudly at me. “It’s none of your concern.”
I slowly nodded. “You’re right. And I don’t intend to go easy on you. When I’m done, you’ll have sworn off having kids for life.”
Without warning, Erina violently flourished her arms into the air. “Fine—have it your way! Do whatever the Hell you want!”
I have to admit she took me by surprise and I almost retreated a step. However, while I didn’t back away, I failed to stop myself from recoiling from her. Maybe that was a mistake because Erina pressed home her advantage by poking me hard in the collarbone.
I really didn’t think she’d risk touching me, but I guess she finally went ballistic and tossed caution to the wind.
“You want to live alone?” she railed at me, turning beet red with anger. “Fine. Live alone. I’ll have you assigned to a dormitory in time for school next week. But until then, you’re going to live here for the next five days and learn how to be a lady! At the very least, learn how to walk like one!” She took several deep breaths, paused, then took a handful more before asking, “Is that clear?”
I replied with a curt nod, while holding back a grin.
Erina inhaled deeply, and then squeezed her eyes shut while pinching the bridge of her nose. For a long while she huffed and puffed like a steam engine, before finally opening her eyes and glaring at me. But that didn’t last long because she turned away without warning, then trudged off without a word.
I watched her walk out of the living room and disappear into an adjoining hallway to my left. However, she re-emerged moments later, crossed the breadth of the living room, and vanished into a hallway to my right.
Did she get lost? I wondered, then inwardly patted myself on the back. Wow, I really got to her. Hooray! That was a home run!
Crossing my arms over Mirai’s chest, I stared at the view of Ar Telica beyond the balcony.
Her meltdown might seem like a small victory, but I felt it was the start of a grand campaign to eventually push Erina over the edge. Indeed, I was looking forward to the day I paid her back in full for the trauma she had thus far inflicted on me.
So then…why did I feel like shit?
While I was thinking that over, I noticed Pearson who was silently standing in the middle of the living area, peering in the direction Erina had stormed off.
Stowing my sour feelings, I gave her a haughty look. “What? You’re still here? Don’t tell me you’re moving in as well?”
The young woman regarded me quizzically for an uncomfortably long while until she smiled fearlessly at me. “You really are a child, aren’t you?”
“Hmm?” I turned toward her and met her smile with a menacing grin. “Oh, right. I just remembered that I don’t like you.” I dipped my head at her. “And Erina’s not around to protect you…is she?”
It was pleasing to see her smile waver and fade away. But she quickly shrugged off my threat, then walked down the hallway Erina had vanished into.
It must have taken her a great deal of effort not to glance back at me over a shoulder.
When she was out of sight, I exhaled loudly and slumped my shoulders. “Yeah, I really don’t like her….”
Behind me, the Cat Princess sounded quietly disappointed. “I bet you feel really proud.”
I slowly turned to face her. “Yeah. I’m clapping madly inside. Woo hoo. Hooray for me.”
“Then why do it?”
“That…is a stupid question.”
She stared at me with suspicion in her eyes. “Then when are you planning to stop lashing out at everyone around you? What good will that do you? You’re not going back to being Ronin Kassius.”
Ignoring her questions, I focused instead on that last remark. “You knew about that?”
“About what?”
“That I can’t go back to my old body.”
She hesitated for a long moment. “Yes, I knew….”
I slowly wet my lips, feeling my anger faintly rekindled. “I bet you enjoyed watching me hope in vain that I could be a man again.”
The Cat Princess weakly shook her head, and seemed sincere when she replied, “It wasn’t fun at all. Not in the least.”
I refrained from frowning.
Why is she acting so considerate?
Her new approach had me both curious and cautions, which was why I decided to act like I hadn’t noticed. “Well, you sure looked like you were having fun at my expense.”
Again, she hesitated for a long while, and eventually averted her golden eyed gaze. “That was the intention. It doesn’t mean I enjoyed it….”
I held back another frown.
What is she playing at? Why the conciliatory approach?
Nonetheless, what she said was too important to ignore, so I turned around and faced her properly. “What do you mean by that?”
And now she hesitated a third time, before appearing to wilt a little. “The point was to give you a traumatic experience so that you would want to wake up.”
It was growing harder not to frown at her.
Had she been referring to my time as Ronin Kassius the Simulacrum? If that was the case—
“You shot me,” I reminded her.
“And you woke up,” she stated as though it was a natural result.
“No, I died.”
The memory of finding the dead girl’s body – of laying eyes on that female version of Ronin Kassius – made my throat tighten and it painfully squeezed my heart.
In the end, I became what I had most feared…a girl Ronin Kassius.
And then I died…and woke up inside Mirai’s head.
Yet the Cat Princess was shaking her head slowly as though disagreeing with me. “You were already as good as dead. That Simulacrum wouldn’t have lasted more than a week at best. Your consciousness was already mapped into Mirai’s brain. You were connected to the Simulacrum’s mind so that you could experience everything it experienced. But you were already inside Mirai.” She shrugged uncomfortably. “It still sounds weird no matter how much Erina explained it to me, but it’s the truth.”
I felt something wasn’t adding up. “Clarisol told me that my sister—I mean, Erina—knew that the Empress wanted my mind inside Mirai two months ago. So why put me in a Simulacrum that wasn’t going to last?”
“We knew about her intention to stick you in Mirai. What we didn’t know was that she was going to throw Ronin Kassius into Limbo where he almost died. Everything happened so fast. And then we found out we couldn’t awaken Mirai. She was experiencing some weird dream state after Ronin’s mind was imprinted into her in a rush. Because of that, Ronin’s Simulacrum was produced on short notice.”
Was this really the truth? It sounded probable, but why the rush to wake up Mirai? Was it because they were trying to keep up with the Empress changing the rules on them? Despite what my sister had said about standing up to the Empress, they were still dancing to her tune.
I gave the Cat Princess a sour smile. “When you put it that way, I’m surprised I’m still sane.”
“I’m not following you….” She looked genuinely confused.
“I mean that I’m surprised Erina did anything right. I could have ended up with multiple personalities or a complete nut job in a padded cell.”
She appeared to ponder that for a while before casually declaring, “The night is still young.”
“Oh wonderful.” I rolled my eyes and started turning away.
“If you want to blame someone then blame the Empress. Blame her and not Erina. She doesn’t deserve your scorn.”
“Oh, she deserves it,” I countered. “Every bit and more. She has treated me like nothing more than a science project. And she made it clear just now that that’s all I am to her. So she can get frekked for all I care.”
Once again, the Cat Princess was studiously quiet for a long while before saying, “She may have said that, but to me you’re a lot more.”
“Huh?”
“You said you wanted to see the real me. Fine. I’ll show you the real me. Maybe then you’ll understand how important you are to Erina and I but in different ways.”
I watched the Cat Princess walk past me toward the balcony on the opposite side of the living room.
At the permaglass window wall, she slid aside one of the transparent partitions that served as a door, allowing the cold night air to drift into the apartment’s temperate interior.
“Follow me,” she instructed, then walked out to the middle of the balcony, whereupon she sat down cross legged, and then closed her eyes.
Stepping up to the open entrance, I wondered what she was up to when I abruptly sensed a disconcerting weightlessness accompanied by disorientation.
For a moment, I feared a translocation was imminent and I clenched my gut to keep myself from feeling overly sick as I hastily swept my gaze over the balcony. Moments later, I noticed a warping of my view of the surrounding city buildings, something akin to a fisheye lens effect, and a deep thrumming filled the air. It worked its way into my bones, and I quickly recalled a similar experience when I stood near a Sarcophagus, but never at this scale.
The phrase, ‘speak of the Devil and he shall come’ rushed through my head as I watched the lens effect warp my view of the city even more before a giant, gunmetal grey Sarcophagus emerged from the distorted area. Floating inches above the balcony floor, the giant device towered over me and the Cat Princess sitting motionless on the ground. It belched a cold, white fog much like an ancient locomotive venting steam, obscuring much of the balcony within seconds. Despite this, I was still able to see the silhouette of the Sarcophagus open its doors, and quickly unleash multiple dark tentacles from its innards. They deposited something on the ground, before reaching out to pick up the motionless Cat Princess, and then carry her into the giant coffin. Afterwards, the immense device closed its doors and disappeared back into the warped, rippling curtain of air above the balcony.
As soon as it vanished, the disorienting weightless sensation went away, and I felt my surroundings return to normal, along with the fog slowly dissipating into the chilly night air.
Whatever the Sarcophagus had delivered was slowly moving on the ground.
I waited until more of the fog had evaporated before cautiously venturing out onto the balcony to see what it was. However, after walking a few meters toward it, I stopped and stared at it with uncertainty.
A young woman with long, blonde hair, wearing a white leotard, was half-lying on the balcony like a beached mermaid. She had propped herself up on her arms and was shaking her head slowly while blinking as though heavily concussed.
Swallowing quietly, I cautiously stepped closer to her.
Sensing me draw near, she looked up at me with a strained expression, and my gut clenched tightly when I recognized her.
“It’s you….”
She swallowed a few more times before speaking in a raspy voice, “You remembered me.”
I nodded absently as I stared at her intently. “You were there at the game center the day my nightmare began. You were playing the Gun Princess Royale, and Class Rep—I mean, Shirohime—she called you stupid.”
The young woman snorted softly. “Yes, she did. And you were hiding in the crowd.”
Remembering that she’d used a wheelchair at that time – one with the Telos Corporation logo on it – I regarded her legs. There were odd grey rivulets running all over them, scarring their skin. Sweeping my gaze over the rest of her body, I noticed it was waifish, and her arms had the same rivulets coursing through her skin. This was my first time seeing them because back at the game center she’d been wearing long sleeves and her legs were sheathed in stockings.
At the time, I’d thought she was a burn victim, but now I saw what she’d been hiding.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked her.
With a groan, she shifted her body, indeed much like a beached mermaid.
“Humanity hasn’t solved all medical conditions,” she replied. “There’s a few they haven’t fixed yet.” She looked up at me again. “My body looks horrible to you, doesn’t it?”
I decided to be honest with her. “…yeah….”
Her laugh was gentle yet bitter. “This is the result of your sister saving my life.” When I frowned, she smiled as though in self-pity. “I suffered from muscle dystrophy, and your sister tried to save me by using the Angel Fibers she had cultivated. It was illegal, and contravened scientific practices, but I had nothing to lose, and she was running out of time. So I became her first and last human test subject.”
“It didn’t work…?”
“Yes and no. The Angel Fibers stopped my muscular dystrophy, but they paralyzed my legs and scarred my body when they ripped out of me.”
I winced at the image her words painted in my mind.
Akane Straus nodded slowly. “That’s right. I wasn’t a pretty sight. But I survived, and whatever changes they made to my body stopped the muscular dystrophy in its tracks. But they also disrupted my motor controls, crippling my legs. I can feel them so in that respect I’m not a paraplegic, but I can’t use them. I can’t even crawl on them.”
My gaze was drawn to her legs. “Does it hurt?”
Straus shook her head. “No. It looks bad, but I’ll admit there’s no pain.”
I noticed I was nodding, probably in sympathy, and quickly stopped. After a deep breath, I asked, “What happened afterwards?”
Straus was puzzled by the question. “Afterwards?”
“You said my sister operated on you illegally. So what happened after that?”
“Oh.” She chuckled softly. “Her superiors suspended her, but the Sanreal Family who own the Telos Corporation stepped in and re-instated her. However, rather than using human subjects, they provided her with Simulacra instead. That’s when she learnt about the other universe and the truth about the Sanreal Family.”
My eyes widened. “That’s how it happened?”
Straus nodded weakly. “Yes….”
When I pictured the plight she’d endured, it made my chest grow tight. I found myself sympathizing with her anew, and seeing her lying poorly on the balcony floor, I couldn’t think of her as the Cat Princess anymore, even though I knew they were one and the same. Because of this, some of the animosity I’d harbored toward her crumbled away, but I was left nursing some complicated and confused feelings
A woman’s sudden shout from behind me made me flinch in surprise.
“Akane!”
I turned quickly toward the apartment and saw Erina standing by the permaglass entrance to the balcony. Umi Pearson was there too, with the large magazine sized tablet in her hands and a frightened look on her face, but it was Erina who rushed out and dropped to her knees beside Straus who was now sitting upright on the ground.
“What are you doing? What were you thinking?” she cried out, sounding the most frantic I’d ever heard her.
“It was something I needed to do,” Straus answered, placating her with a hand on her shoulder.
Erina looked aghast. “What? Why?”
“Because I had to show her,” Straus replied.
Erina shook her head, protesting loudly, “No. It wasn’t. You didn’t need to do this at all.”
“Yes, I did. She needed to see me, Eri. The real me—”
“Absolutely not!”
“Eri—”
“We can argue about this elsewhere. It’s cold out here. We need to get you inside.”
Erina attempted to pick up Straus, but she was unable to cope with the young woman’s weight.
She looked pathetic to me, and I held back a sigh because it would have sounded too much like a derisive snort. Instead, I sighed inwardly as I stepped closer to the two women. “Here, I’ll do it—”
“Get away from her,” Erina shouted at me.
Startled, I stepped back and stared at her with wide eyes. “Hey, what is your problem—?”
“Don’t touch her,” Erina snapped, and resumed her feeble attempts to pick up Straus.
However, the latter reached out with her hands and stopped the woman that I no longer considered family. Facing me, Straus spoke in a manner that did not reflect her personality as the Cat Princess. She sounded quite calm and composed while supported by Erina as she sat helplessly on the ground.
“Do you still want to hit me? Or am I too pathetic?”
I couldn’t tell if she was taunting me or sincerely asking for my opinion.
I chose to be honest with her. “With Mirai’s strength, I’d kill you if I hit you…and I don’t want your blood on my hands.”
Straus smiled wistfully up at me. “I don’t know whether to be grateful or not.”
I started to shrug indifferently. “I’ll find another way to make you suffer.”
Erina stood up swiftly and spoke in a heated, menacing tone. “You will do no such thing—”
“Eri!”
She looked down sharply at Straus who admonished her with a hard stare.
“This is between her and I,” Straus calmly stated then with some difficulty, she rearranged her legs on the balcony so that they stretched out before her.
When she looked up at me, I could see the strain on her face.
“I told you this before,” she said. “To me, you’re my hope.”
I understood what she meant, and I didn’t like it at all.
I felt she was being unfair to me, and I could have said as much, but instead I shook my head slowly and replied in a perfunctory manner, “At least you have something to hope for. I don’t.”
Ignoring Erina who had resumed kneeling on the balcony beside Straus, I turned away and began walking back toward the apartment.
I can’t tell you why, but I started shivering as soon as I crossed the threshold into the living room.
Was it because I’d been somewhat wrong about Straus? Was it because I felt burdened by her? Or was it something else?
I stopped in the middle of the room to search my feelings as the shivers continued to afflict my body.
And then I realized why.
It was the angry yet terrified shout Erina had thrown at me, the look on her face, the panic in her eyes, and the frantic desire to keep me away from Straus.
It had cut me deep, so deep that I was experiencing a belated reaction.
Cold rushed through me, encircling my heart, chilling the air in my lungs.
I found it hard to breathe, and I found it hard to see as tears welled up in my eyes, and then spilled unhindered down my cheeks.
In the middle of the living room, I sobbed.
And then something else welled up inside me.
All the hurt, the despair, the desolation that roiled within my chest burst out of me in a primal scream that ripped the air out of my lungs. When silence finally returned to the apartment, my body no longer shivered, but instead trembled as my tortured emotions continued to combust painfully within me.
Clenching my hands, I bowed my head for a long while, before slowly straightening up.
I dried my face with the back of a sleeve, clearing away the clouds in my eyes. As I did so I noticed a girlish silhouette in my peripheral vision.
The young maid stood at the entrance to a hallway connected to the living room. She was keeping close to the wall, ready to dart either back into the hallway or across the living area at the drop of a hat.
The scream I’d bellowed had undoubtedly drawn her here, and the fear on her face was my doing.
I felt guilty for having scared her, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize.
My throat felt raw as I harshly snapped, “Go away.”
The girl grew even more frightened and began turning to flee back the way she’d come, but she suddenly stopped. With eyes growing wide, her attention was riveted in the direction of the hallway leading to the apartment’s entrance.
It was easy to understand why she was so alarmed.
Wearing dark glasses, the two Simulacra sisters had rushed into the living room with guns drawn. Upon sight of me, they aimed their firearms in my direction, then silently advanced toward me with practiced ease. Moving without hesitation, their body language practically shouted their intention to subdue me by force – a clear case of shoot first, ask questions later.
As I watched them, a cold chill swept through my body that washed away my tortured emotions.
Maybe that was Mirai’s doing, or maybe it was mine.
Either way, I now observed the Simulacra sisters with preternatural clarity and calm.
My scream had attracted the maid, so perhaps it had summoned the two women as well. But wasn’t it overkill for them to approach me with guns drawn?
Something didn’t feel right, and I had no choice but to face the next question.
Would I run, fight, or allow myself to be shot?
My gut instinct warned me that talking my way out of this was unlikely to work.
The two women were like preprogrammed automatons, and I doubted peaceful negotiation was part of their skillset.
Yet knowing this, I struggled to decide on a course of action.
On the other hand, Mirai had already made her choice.
Someone once said that the worst mistake anyone could make in a street fight was to demonstrate a willingness to do battle. Their philosophy was to remain impassionate until the very last moment, then explode into action when all other avenues were exhausted, and fighting was unavoidable.
Mirai was of a different mind.
Reacting to the threat instinctually, she kicked my awareness into overdrive.
With my senses now painfully acute, she dropped her body into a low, aggressive stance.
Thus readied, she made her position abundantly clear.
Unfortunately by doing so, Mirai’s instincts all but shoved me into a corner.