– I –

I held deep misgivings as I looked up at the immense apartment complex that served as a dormitory building for many of the students of Telos Academy.

But it was too late to think of a better plan.

Rather than walk or catch the maglev, Renew had a car waiting for us outside the Civic Center. No doubt she had received word from her superiors about my decision to come here after Ghost relayed my intention to Erina.

However, I didn’t know – or care – if the car was her idea.

Instead, what I cared about was arriving at the building without incident.

That said, my heart did jump into my throat when I first climbed into the car and recognized the driver as the Simulacrum sister who had chased me out of the apartment. Fearing an ambush, I almost bolted out of the car, especially when Renew sat beside me in the backseat. But with the doors locked, making a break for it would have required some serious effort. Mirai was strong but she was unarmed, whereas Renew and the Simulacrum sister were undoubtedly carrying concealed weapons.

Had Ghost not been reining me back – insisting that I was safe – I would have taken my chances and fought for freedom. Thus, you can imagine my relief when I was finally out of the car and standing on a sidewalk outside the sixty storey dorm building.

The residential complex was large enough to house Telos Academy’s six thousand students – give or take a few dozen – but it had the room for many more. Because of this, scores of students that should have been sharing an apartment with others found themselves living alone in family sized dwellings. Others, like myself, were assigned to hotel sized rooms that were spacious but hardly awe inspiring. In addition, it wasn’t just the students that lived there, but teachers, administrative staff, and maintenance personnel, though they resided on separate floors from the rest of the students.

So why such a large building for just one school?

The truth was that Telos Academy was only operating at two-thirds capacity, with numerous classrooms waiting to be opened to accommodate a growing student body. As Ar Telica continued to add habitation Rings and expand its footprint across the east coast, there would be an increased demand for the school, and so the apartment complex was purchased by the Telos Corporation and converted into a dormitory for both students and the faculty.

I counted up to the thirty-fifth floor where my old dorm apartment was located on the south-east face of the hexagonal building. The light to my room – that is, the light to Ronin Kassius’s room – was turned off and the balcony windows were dark. That didn’t guarantee the apartment was unoccupied, though it would be disconcerting if it had already been reassigned to someone else a mere day after my disappearance. On the other hand, if the room still belonged to Ronin Kassius, I would be entering it as a stranger despite being intimately acquainted with it.

Misgivings and reservations aside, I had little choice but to come here.

Both the curfew and needing to being chaperoned by Renew had taken the fun out of walking through the city, so spending the rest of the morning hiding out in the building was fine if it meant avoiding unnecessary conflict, and I’d be lying if I wasn’t curious about the identity of the girl on the phone.

The dorm building’s ground floor had broad steps leading up to a permaglass wall with a panoramic view of the street.

It also had two very wide sliding doors that were presently shut.

I gave those doors a very pointed look that Ghost quickly understood.

“Princess, there is a Category Nine Ancile firewall surrounding the building’s photronic infrastructure. Your military uses something similar to prevent its autonomous vehicles from outside interference. I can break through it, but it will take time. Thus, I suggest finding another way in.”

I turned to Renew who was standing off to my left. “How do I get in?”

“I have access into the building,” she replied in a flat tone, then jerked her chin at the entrance. “Shall we?”

With a grim heart, I glanced up at the dorm building and once again asked myself if it was wise to come here. But I had no alternative course of action.

Let’s be honest, I didn’t like Raine Renew.

She’d chased me down a building while firing electroshock rounds at me that scorched my clothes and skin. Regardless of whether she was following orders, I wasn’t going to forgive her anytime in this millennium. I had a score to settle with her, but it was mine and mine alone to deal with. I wasn’t going to let the unknown girl get to her first. So if coming here was going to keep her out of harm’s way for now, then I had no choice but to see this through.

Facing her again, I gave Renew a curt nod. “Lead the way.”

And she did just that.

I followed her up to the transparent doors of the building’s ground floor entrance. We had to wait a couple of seconds before they opened to admit us into the dark foyer. The building was operating in night-time mode, but soft lighting turned on to illuminate our surroundings as Renew and I walked over to the front desk. Alerted to our presence, a sentry bot emerged from an alcove in the wall behind the desk. The machine floated a couple of inches off the ground as it flew toward us, then swiftly stopped to hover in front of Renew and I.

The bot reminded me of an upside-down electric shaver. Floating upright, it stood three feet tall, and possessed a smooth plasteel body painted in a light grey color with black trimmings. At its base, three effect-field impellers hummed softly as they levitated the bot off the ground. Six beady camera eyes were arranged in two columns down the face of its tapered head, and the name PERCEVAL was printed boldly down its flanks. When it spoke, it questioned us in a stuffy male voice.

“Are you aware that it is past curfew?”

Like most of the students living in the dorm building, I was accustomed to its uppity tone, so I didn’t bat an eyelid at Perceval’s presumptuous manner of speaking. However, Renew wasn’t a resident and she regarded the bot with veiled distaste.

“I am aware of that,” she replied in an icy tone.

Perceval leaned back slightly as though taken aback by her cold reply, then boldly thrust its tapered head toward her. “In that case, state your intentions—hah!”

Its startled gasp gave me a start, but Renew merely narrowed her eyes at it.

“What’s the matter with you?” she demanded.

Straightening its posture, the bot rose higher into the air until it hovered at eye level with her. “Firearms are not permitted in this building.”

I failed to hide my surprise.

I wasn’t shocked to learn that Renew was packing heat because that was a given in her line of work. Rather, I was stunned to learn that Perceval had noticed she was carrying a gun.

What kind of sensors is this thing equipped with?

Renew extended her left wrist toward the bot, as though offering it the silver bracelet that she wore. “I’m with Telos Corporation security. Here’s my ID.”

Perceval’s camera eyes peered down at the bracelet. “Raine Renew. Soteria Division. Identification code: Artemis Thirteen.” It paused before grudgingly declaring, “Very well, you may keep your firearm.”

A slow frown broke out across Renew’s forehead as she watched the machine float down to the floor, and her lifeforce aura flared hotly for a moment.

Undoubtedly, Perceval failed to notice the flash of anger that I’d just witnessed. But even if it had, I doubted the machine would have toned down its haughty manner of speaking.

“I will ask you once more,” Perceval said. “State your intentions for coming here…with a gun.”

His request – or demand – was met with stony silence from Renew, who slowly folded her arms under her breasts and stared down at the bot with growing contempt.

This served to dial up the heat under Perceval butt, and the machine bobbed indignantly on its effect fields. “Do I have to ask you a third time?”

If Renew had chosen to shoot the bot in the head, I wouldn’t have stopped her.

Perceval was annoying at the best of times, and despite many students lodging complaints with management, nothing had been done about the machine’s self-important attitude. Attempts to hack its core programming had failed. So too had the attempt to seal it within its alcove behind the front desk. Perceval had literally ripped itself free of the wall in a burst of machine fury. Then it chased after students while demanding to know who was responsible for trapping it inside its alcove. Eventually, technicians from the maintenance company were called in to take the irate bot away. When it returned to duty a few days later, it had no recollection of the event, but its behavior was as conceited as ever…if not worse.

However, one thing surprised me.

Renew had acted indifferently toward me, yet Perceval had succeeded in getting under her skin almost from the get-go.

Could it be that she had a grudge against semi-sentient machines?

That said, Perceval had a habit of getting under everybody’s skin, and Renew wasn’t bothering to hide the contempt she felt for it.

Exhaling loudly, she stared down her nose at the bot. “We require access to one of the dorm rooms.”

Perceval leaned back ever so slightly as it looked up at her.

I imagined its camera eyes narrowing in suspicion when it then asked, “At this hour? Please explain why.”

“No. That’s classified,” Renew swiftly countered. “Just unlock room 35 dash 16 for us.”

My heart jumped in my chest when I heard her quote my dorm room number.

I was already aware that Renew had some deep connection to Project Mirai, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, and yet it did.

But it also suggested that she knew who I used to be.

Or perhaps Erina had told her I’d be coming here but didn’t tell her why.

Either way, it still surprised me, something that I hoped Renew hadn’t noticed.

As for Perceval, the bot jerked on its effect-fields before sharply retorting, “Excuse me?”

Renew took a menacing step closer to the machine. “Are you hard of hearing?”

“I most certainly am not,” Perceval retorted.

“Then unlock room 35 dash 16.”

For a second, the bot appeared to tremble as though it was bottling up its rage before blurting out, “I will do no such thing. That room has been allocated to a student. I demand to know why you require access to it.”

I noticed I was holding my breath and subsequently released it slowly. “Excuse me.”

As though reluctant to break eye contact with Renew, Perceval swung half its camera eyes my way. “Yes? What is it? Who are you?”

“My name is Isabel.”

“Yes? And?”

Up until then, I’d been a bit anxious to speak up. But having Perceval question me while sounding hoity-toity had quashed most of my hesitation. As a result, I wasn’t nearly as bothered when I asked, “Who is the student in room 35 dash 16?”

“And who is asking?” the bot questioned me.

I frowned at it. “I just told you. My name is Isabel.”

“And what is your relationship to the student in room 35 dash 16?”

My frown turned into a scowl. “Hey, it’s rude to answer a question with a question.”

“You have a point,” Perceval agreed. “However, I cannot disclose that information without the proper authorization on your part.”

I dropped my scowl and palmed my forehead. “I can’t believe this….”

“What can you not believe?” the bot inquired.

I gave the machine a sour look. “I can’t believe you’re such a dick.”

Perceval floated in stunned silence. “What did you say?”

I groaned and palmed my forehead again. “I seriously can’t believe this….”

Ghost sounded curious in my ears. “Princess, does it always behave like this?”

I nodded very, very faintly. “Yeah, pretty much,” I whispered.

“Surprising,” Ghost murmured, “or should I say most peculiar. Then again, the Asterios models do serve as home butlers and concierges. Nevertheless, I must wonder if this unit has been branded with a unique personality.”

Was Ghost implying someone had tweaked its behavior matrix?

Was it someone with a twisted sense of humor—perhaps a Joker of an engineer back at the factory?

Swallowing quietly, I asked him in a hushed whisper, “Can you do something about it?”

Unfortunately, Perceval heard me. “Why are you muttering to yourself?”

I groaned inwardly.

Damn the bot’s sharp hearing.

I then gave the oversized, upside-down electric shaver a tired look. “I’m talking to my invisible friend.”

The bot leaned back, then regarded me suspiciously. “Talking to oneself is a sign of—”

A loud clink, that of metal on metal, silenced it.

Renew had drawn her gun, and was pressing its muzzle against the bot’s smooth, tapered head.

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised to see that she’d finally snapped and pulled a gun on the bot.

Instead, what surprised me was that she’d drawn the gun so casually that her movements had completely slipped my notice.

Holy crap, I whispered inwardly. She’s good. The Cat Princess could learn a thing or two from her.

I then quickly reconsidered that last thought.

Nope, that would be a bad idea. A bad idea!

Renew’s icy tone frosted her words. “We don’t have time for this, so start co-operating or—”

A spinning red siren popped out of Perceval’s head.

Thankfully, it was silent and only flashing its red light, but the bot sounded royally peeved when it reported, “I have notified the local authorities of your transgression toward me.”

Ghost started to laugh.

It was so unexpected, that I chortled as well.

The bot’s beady eyes seemed to glare at me. “I do not find this situation amusing.”

Palming my mouth contritely, I muttered a hasty apology before glancing at Renew. “You said you had access to get in there, right?”

“I have access into the building,” she explained. “But no one told me this thing was going to get in our way.”

That was a surprise to hear because I’d assumed that she’d been briefed on the building’s starchy concierge. Nonetheless, she was quite right. Perceval was a hindrance and not a help.

I knew the way to my dorm room, and I had the entry code to open its door.

The problem was getting past Perceval, and unfortunately Renew had just made things worse.

I shook my head at her. “Shooting it isn’t going to help. And what are you going to do when the Enforcers get here? Or are you planning on disposing of the body?”

Pressing her lips tightly together, Renew stared down at Perceval for a short while before lowering her gun.

“Fine, then we’re leaving,” she declared in her customary deadpan manner. “Let’s go.”

Unfortunately, that presented an even bigger problem, since a major reason for coming here was to avoid the unknown girl harming her.

Hence, I panicked as I watched Renew turn on her heels.

“Wait—we can’t leave.”

She stopped, then looked at me over a shoulder. “Why not?”

“Yes, why not?” Perceval asked.

I floundered as I exchanged looks between them. “Because…because…because we just can’t.”

Renew’s expression was unreadable, however, Perceval tipped slightly to one side and complained, “That is an unsatisfactory explanation.”

I crossed my arms stubbornly under Mirai’s breasts, then jerked my chin at Renew. “You can leave if you want, but I’m staying.”

Renew remained impassive but the bot was another matter.

“Unacceptable,” it declared while bobbing on its effect-field. “Utterly unacceptable.”

I scowled at it. “Why are you being so difficult?”

“Difficult, you ask?” The bot froze but its siren light spun faster. “You cannot waltz into this residence and simply demand to be taken to someone’s room without permission.”

Renew turned away again. “As I said, we’re leaving.”

And I started grinding my teeth together.

No, this is NOT happening! NOT HAPPENING!

By now, Ghost had brought his laughter under control. “Princess, I have a means of resolving this situation.”

I gaped, then gasped before asking, “You do?”

“You do, what?” Perceval questioned me.

“Will you shut up.”

“No, I will not shut up.”

I raised a fist at it. “I’m going to hit you!”

Perceval extended two thin plasteel arms and held them at the ready. “You are most welcome to try.”

All the while, the siren light continued to spin madly on its head.

Ghost snickered. “Princess, I suggest you offer it a handshake.”

I released an exasperated groan. “Ghost, seriously? Just look at it. It’s ready to go nine rounds with me.”

Unexpectedly, Perceval lowered its ‘dukes’ and floated closer to me. “I say, are you unwell? Your proclivity for whispering to yourself is clearly a sign of mental instability.”

Releasing another groan, I glared down at the infuriating machine.

Oh, what the Hell. What harm could it do? We’re already up the creek. How much worse can it get?

Forcing myself to smile, I stiffly offered the bot my righthand in greeting. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Isabel. What’s yours?”

The bot stopped and appeared confused for a moment before replying, “Yes, of course.” Retracting its left arm into its body, it then extended its right hand toward me. “A pleasure to meet you, Isabel. My name is—”

Seconds after shaking hands with me, the bot trembled and fell silent. However, it remained hovering on its effect-field impellers and its siren light continued spinning silently.

“What—what happened to it?” I muttered.

Renew had come to a stop and was staring at the floating machine with a faintly perplexed look. “What did you do to it?”

“Nothing,” I admitted. “I just shook its hand—huh?”

Suddenly, the siren light retracted into Perceval’s head. Quickly releasing my hand, the bot floated back a step.

What’s going on? I wondered with a pinch of worry.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed the gun was back in Renew’s hand as she watched the machine in guarded silence.

“Hey,” I said to her, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

But just then, Perceval stirred into action.

Oh, what now?

Abruptly, Perceval extended its left arm again, then used both hands and arms to offer me a rigid bow. “Your Highness, forgive my lack of decorum.”

“What the…?” I whispered in confusion.

Even Renew was taken aback though she regained her stoic demeanor in the blink of an eye.

Perceval continued to bow before me with downcast camera eyes. “Your Highness, how may I serve you?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Renew warily stepped closer to me. “I’ll ask you again. What did you do to it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Like I said before, nothing.”

Renew wasn’t buying it, but I wasn’t going to admit that Ghost had undoubtedly hacked the machine when I made contact with it. I didn’t know why he needed me to touch it. Maybe it was to keep up a pretense of some sort. Whatever the reason, I glanced at my right hand but saw nothing unusual about it.

Ghost chuckled gently. “Princess, there is no need to be concerned. I merely switched the Asterios unit over to a different personality program, one of many that it is loaded with, and one that is subservient to royalty.”

Royalty?

“What do you mean?” I whispered uneasily.

“I made it believe that you are a princess visiting Teloria from a kingdom far beyond the star system.”

My mouth fell open.

Ghost then added, “Therefore, Princess, I suggest you play along with it.”

I closed my mouth slowly, then sighed wearily as my shoulders slumped. “I don’t believe this….”

Staring down at the patiently waiting Perceval, I wondered how I should act, then decided to draw inspiration from Erina. With her personality firmly in mind, I cleared my throat, and then looked down my nose at the floating sentry bot. Yet despite this, I almost choked when I said, “I am Princess Isabel val Sanreal. Do you have a name?”

I already knew its name, but it seemed wrong not to ask.

The bot nodded which was quite a feat since it had no neck. “I am Perceval, your Highness, and I am at your service.”

I heard Ghost chuckle again in my ears.

Ignoring him as best I could, I swallowed and cleared my throat again. “Perceval, I would like to be taken to room 35 dash 16. An acquaintance of mine is staying there.”

The bot straightened. “As you wish, your Highness. Are they expecting you?”

“Ah, no. No, I…I don’t think so.”

“Then shall I inform them of your arrival?”

I couldn’t believe how helpful the machine was behaving after acting like such a stick in the mud. “Ah…no, that’s fine. I’d rather surprise them instead.”

Again, the bot nodded stiffly. “As you wish, Princess Isabel.” It gestured with a small mechanical hand toward the elevators at one end of the foyer. “This way, please.”

As Perceval floated off toward the elevator bank, Renew approached me. “I wasn’t aware that you were royalty.”

Again, I glanced down at my right hand. “Me neither….” Then I gasped as I abruptly remembered something important. “Hey, wait!” I called out to Perceval.

The bot came to a floating stop, then spun around to face me. “Your Highness?”

I hastily walked up to it. “You said you called the Enforcers. Can you cancel that call? Can you tell them it was a false alarm?”

“A call, your Highness?” Perceval questioned politely. “I have no memory of making any such a call.”

Ghost stepped into the conversation. “At ease, Princess. I used Sir Perceval to rescind that call to the authorities, then removed it from the unit’s memory cells.”

I exhaled slowly in relief. “Cool, great.”

Perceval was staring at me expectantly. At least, that’s the impression it gave me, so I waved a hand in apology. “Sorry. My bad. Ignore what I just said.”

“As you wish, your Highness.”

I started to grimace.

I’d grown accustomed to hearing Ghost address me as ‘Princess’, but being called ‘your Highness’ was making me feel a little nauseous.

“Ah, Perceval. Could I ask that you call me Isabel?” I gave it a queasy smile. “You don’t have to be so formal with me.”

The bot was silent for a couple of seconds before bowing to me once again. “Your Highness. I could hardly dispense with such a formality.”

I stifled a groan. “Great….”

Standing a few feet away, Renew asked, “What about the Enforcers?”

I shook my head quickly. “Don’t worry about it. They’ve been taken care of.”

“How?”

“Just—just trust me on this. It’s not a problem anymore.”

“I disagree.” She pointed at the building’s entrance. “Take a look.”

Beyond the transparent permaglass doors, I saw the silhouettes of a couple of hulking Enforcers climbing up the steps to the entrance.

And I say ‘hulking’ because they were clad in armor-skins.

“Damn it,” I hissed, then whispered, “Ghost, help!”

Before he could reply, Perceval took action. The bot quickly sped toward the permaglass entrance and the Enforcers walking up to it. “Your Highness, leave this to me. Regina, please attend to her Highness.”

As Perceval raced off, the lights in the foyer quickly turned off and the place was cast in darkness.

Renew smoothly slipped on a pair of sunglasses – probably equipped with some night-vision capability – but Mirai’s eyes adjusted in a heartbeat, thus I could see quite clearly because there was sufficient light spilling into the foyer from outside streetlights.

While this was happening, a section of the wall behind the concierge’s desk parted open and a second security bot resembling an upside-down, electric shaver floated out from a concealed alcove.

At sight of it, Renew unhappily clicked her tongue. “There are more of them?”

I studied the bot approaching us. “So this is Regina….”

Like most of the students at the dorm, I’d heard about her—I mean it—but I’d never seen it before. In fact, few students had spoken to Regina in person, and only on rare occasions when it ventured out into the foyer. But I had heard rumors that it wandered the hallways at night like a ghost, scaring the bejesus out of students breaking curfew inside the building. The bot looked identical to Perceval. However, Regina floated upright like someone walking with their back straight, whereas Perceval leaned forward when it moved as though battling a headwind.

There were two other notable differences.

The first was that Perceval had black trimmings, while Regina’s trimmings were red.

The second difference was that Regina spoke with a demure feminine voice.

Stopping a respectful distance away, Regina gave me a shallow bow, then asked, “How may I assist you?”

I was a little flummoxed by it and spent a few moments wondering how I should respond.

However, Renew was quicker on the uptake. “We need to go to room 35 dash 16. And we’re in a hurry.”

She was right.

The Enforcers were almost at the entrance to the building.

Having the lights off inside the foyer wasn’t going to hide us from the Enforcers if they used night-vision to peer into the darkness.

“As you wish,” Regina replied, then swiftly darted toward the elevator.

Renew exhaled in a rush as though relieved, then chased after the speeding Regina. “What are you waiting for, your Highness?”

I bit back a snide remark as I followed her at a run.

At the elevator bank, there was a lift car waiting for us.

I suspected that Perceval had summoned it earlier before he hurried off to intercept the Enforcers at the entrance.

Regina politely ushered us into the lift before following us inside.

Within moments the doors had closed, and the elevator flew at high speed on maglev rails to the thirty-fifth floor. The lift car was designed to carry up to twenty occupants so there was an abundance of room with just the three of us aboard. Nonetheless, Renew and I kept our distance from each other, but Regina had positioned itself in front of the elevator’s touchscreen control panel.

I was puzzled by its decision to do so.

Regina could operate the elevator wirelessly, so why choose to stand in front of the control panel?

Was it a quirk of its programming?

Whatever the reason, I was grateful that it wasn’t chatty. But in the silence filling the elevator car, my thoughts circled back to Perceval’s personality switch, and once again I studied my right hand. Renew noticed me doing so, and the slight twitch of her eyebrows was like a warning telling me not to touch Regina. I deliberately shoved my hand into a pant pocket and that seemed to satisfy her, but Renew then gave the silent, floating Regina a wary look.

As for me, I wondered how Perceval was coping with the Enforcers who were responding to a call that the bot had no memory of having made.

I decided to classify that under, NOT MY PROBLEM.

– II –

When the lift stopped at the thirty-fifth floor, its doors opened, and Regina dutifully led us out into a wide hallway.

The place was outlaid with low pile carpeting underfoot and the walls were painted in Navajo white. It was dimly lit, but the ceiling lights brightened to follow us as we walked down the hallway, then darkened behind us. That made me slightly nervous because I felt like we were walking under a spotlight, and when I glanced back at Renew, I saw that she was still wearing her dark sunglasses as she attentively watched our surroundings.

The residential complex had an enormous footprint, so we walked in silence for a fair distance before arriving at my old dormitory room.

35 dash 16.

It may be a cliché to say this, but it felt like a lifetime since I’d looked upon those numbers.

However, what truly raked my heart was knowing that it was a life stolen from me.

Seeing the door and knowing that my old apartment was on the other side, my emotions began to bubble and froth inside my chest.

I couldn’t stop myself from shivering and forcefully shoved my left hand into my pant pocket.

All the while, I could see Renew in the corner of my eye, watching me with an immutable expression, and I was now certain that she knew exactly who and what I was. After all, she had chased me down the side of a four hundred storey building, and then onto a speeding maglev. Yet while she continued to act like a personal bodyguard, I maintained the pretense of being a rebellious teenage princess.

Actually, it was half a pretense – I was a rebellious teenager, but not a princess.

Regina floated beside the door and she stared at me with her six camera eyes. “This is room 35 dash 16. Do you wish to enter?”

My throat had grown dry and tight, and the bubbling cauldron of emotions in my chest was putting pressure on my lungs. Feeling like my heart was being squeezed, I also feared my voice would fail me, so I raised a hand to ask Regina to give me a moment, then hastily swallowed twice to loosen up my throat.

The bot waited patiently for me, but not Renew.

No doubt she was aware of the struggle playing out within me – a conflict I simply couldn’t hide from her studious gaze – so she took the opportunity to ask Regina, “Is the room unoccupied?”

My breath caught and my awareness seemed to hang in the air as I waited for the bot’s answer.

Regina aimed her camera eyes at Renew. “Yes. The occupant of this room has not returned to it since departing at 8:20 am on Monday, February 10th, 2273 AD.”

So the room was empty.

I felt an odd sense of relief and a some of the pressure inside me bled away, thereby making it easier for me to breath. But my emotions continued to froth and slosh about, and they threatened to spill when Renew jerked her chin at the door and instructed Regina to open it.

The bot appeared to hesitate for a fraction of second before moving to obey.

“Wait,” I snapped at it, stopping it with a hastily raised hand. “Please, wait.” I faced Renew. “You can go now.”

I could feel her impassive gaze scrutinizing me from behind her sunglasses, and after a second or two, Renew calmly asked, “Are you planning to stay here for a while?”

After swallowing heavily, I nodded back at her. “Yes, I am.”

“Then I need to check that it’s secure.”

I slowly shook my head at her. “No, you don’t.”

“My orders specifically state—”

I stepped up to Renew. Sunglasses not withstanding, I could still see her eyes and I stared hard into them.

“No…you don’t.” All of a sudden, I wasn’t feeling uncertain or nervous anymore. I was feeling trespassed and infringed upon. And fairly pissed off. “You’ve done enough already, and this is where I draw the line. You can go.”

That was met with silence from Renew, until she nodded curtly a moment later. “Very well.”

I wasn’t surprised that she’d back down so easily.

Renew had been expressing a detached indifference toward me since our first proper face-to-face encounter. Yet, I suspected she didn’t argue with me because she had other means of surveilling the apartment. She probably knew all along that the place was unoccupied. The only real surprise had come from her antagonism toward Perceval, but as I’d said before, Perceval rubbed everybody the wrong way.

Renew looked down at the floating Regina. “You don’t mind if I leave out the back door?”

The bot looked up at her. “The westside exit is presently locked.”

Renew nodded as if taking the news in stride. “Can you open it for me?”

“I can.”

“Then lead the way.”

However, rather than heading off, Regina rotated toward me and then asked, “Do you wish to enter the room?”

“Yes, I do. But”—I pointedly glanced down the hallway—“you don’t have to wait for me.”

Unexpectedly, Regina demonstrated a very humanlike reluctance to leave, and appeared to glance up at Renew before once again speaking to me. “The passkey—”

“I know what the passkey is,” I told it, then gently added, “I’ll be fine here. Thank you for your help, Regina.”

Again, the bot displayed an unwillingness to leave, but moments later it gracefully offered me a rigid bow. “As you wish.” Regina then turned to Renew. “This way please.”

The bot began floating down the hallway in the direction we’d come from.

As Renew started to follow it, I called out to her.

There was something I just had to ask her before she left.

“How did you know I was coming to this room?”

Renew stopped, then half turned to regard me with inscrutable eyes that I could faintly see behind those damned sunglasses of her. “Doctor Kassius explained that you might be coming here.”

“Did she say why?”

Renew casually shook her head. “No, she did not. And I didn’t ask.”

I bit the inside of my mouth to stop my cheek from twitching angrily.

Yeah, because you didn’t need to. You’ve known about me all along. This is like a charade to you.

Renew waited for a second before inquiring, “Is that all?”

She didn’t sound impatient to leave. In fact, I didn’t know what she was feeling. The waves of her lifeforce aura were calm and regular, its radiance reminding me of a warm sunrise or sunset. The only time her aura had changed markedly was when she’d been sparring with Perceval. But toward me, Renew felt nothing.

She really doesn’t care what I am, does she…?

I can’t say it didn’t bother me, because it did. And yet, I couldn’t explain why. All I knew was that for some reason my contempt for this young woman had jumped a notch.

“Is that all?” Renew asked.

I felt like snorting at her in reply, but instead I exhaled quietly before giving her a blunt nod. “Yeah, that’s all….”

Unwillingly, my words hung in the air. Maybe they gave Renew the impression that I was leaving things unsaid, and perhaps that’s why she hung back for a moment, as though giving me an opportunity to say more. Perchance, she was baiting me to say what was really on my mind – to express my dislike for her.

However, I held my tongue, and dismissed her with a silent stare.

After nodding curtly, Renew pivoted on her heels, and then followed after Regina who had stopped to wait for her.

I watched the two of them travel down the hallway.

It wasn’t until they’d rounded a corner and disappeared from sight that I relaxed a little, feeling as though a weight had come off my shoulders.

But that didn’t last long.

Standing in front of my old dorm room, the full burden of coming here crashed down on me – staggering me – and in the quiet stillness of the hallway, my heart and breathing sounded unnaturally loud in my ears.

“Princess, are you not going inside?”

My gaze fell on the touchscreen panel beside the door jamb. “Just give me a sec….”

However, it took me longer than a second to gather my resolve and enter the passkey into the panel.

There was a soft click as the door unlocked.

After taking a couple of trembling breaths, I reached out with an unsteady hand and then pushed the door open.

Stepping into the room’s familiar hallway, I quietly closed the door behind me.

The lights didn’t come on and I stood in quiet darkness with my back to the door. Yet there was enough city light filtering in through the curtains drawn across the apartment’s window wall that I could see the contours of the hallway and the living area.

Greeted by silence, I spent a long while taking slow, patchy breaths as my body shivered every now and then.

I was finally here and yet I wasn’t able to step away from the doorway.

And then Ghost made it even harder for me to venture forward by saying, “Welcome back, Princess.”

My heart thumped painfully in response.

Seconds went by before I replied in a faint whisper, “…yeah…I’m back….”

Then my throat grew tight and no amount of saliva or swallowing could loosen it.

A ragged breath escaped me, and my legs turned rubbery.

I almost sank to the floor but remained on my feet by bracing my back against the door behind me.

Closing my eyes for a long, long while, I slowly calmed my breathing and listened to my heartbeat gently ease down. When my body no longer trembled, and my legs felt stronger, I straightened my posture, opened my eyes, and then gently pushed away from the door.

“Yeah, I’m back,” I repeated softly as I took my first steps down the five-meter hallway.

The lights failed to respond to my presence when I stopped at the entrance to the rectangular living area. I gazed over the dark shapes occupying the interior, knowing what they were by heart.

“Monitor, lights on,” I requested, but there was no response and the apartment remained dark, prompting me to ask, “Ghost, is the Monitor disabled?”

There was a lengthy delay before he replied, “Apparently so.”

“Why?”

“Uncertain. There is no record explaining why but the system has definitely been deactivated. Do you wish for me to look into the reason?”

I mulled the offer for a second. “No, but can you turn it back on?”

“Certainly, Princess. Shall I do so?”

I hesitated while thinking it over, then gently shook my head. “No…leave it off.”

“As you wish, Princess.”

Walking over to the silhouette of the bedside table, I activated the lamp sitting on it with a gentle tap. It radiated a soft amber light that spread throughout the living area, and I slowly, carefully surveyed the room.

The bedsheets had been changed, and the bed remade by the automated cleaning service that employed the bots shaped like bowling pins. No doubt the carpet had been vacuumed as well. The air smelt clean, with a scent of lilac coming from an aerosol dispenser sitting on a shelf beside the flat holovid projection screen that dominated one wall of the apartment.

The contents of my shelves and bookcases were unmoved from where I remembered them.

I walked up to a shelf, and then ran my fingers over my collection of Mercy Haddaway photo albums. Although I had her assorted holovid and digital releases, I’d purchased her printed material as well.

Pulling out an album, I leafed through it as I returned to my bed. Sitting down on the edge, I continued paging through the big book. Every photo that I looked at reminded me of how closely Mirai resembled Mercy. When I reached the end of the album, I gently closed the book, and placed it reverently beside me on the bed, then once again gazed about the interior of the apartment.

Now that I was here, I wondered if I would have come back here if not out of necessity. It had been difficult for me to step away from the door because the place was of monumental significance to me, but had circumstance been different would I have made the trip here of my own will?

With a soft, lengthy sigh, I fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

I felt a growing lethargy mire my thoughts and weigh down my limbs.

The past couple of days had been nightmare for me – a storm of events that had tossed me like flotsam on a raging sea. The peace I was experiencing now was like having drifted into the eye of that storm, but I was mentally weary and emotionally exhausted.

I was also a little hungry, yet, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it because on top of being drained, I also felt aimless and distracted by the questions tumbling about inside my head – questions for which I had no answers, or maybe I had the answers and was refusing to acknowledge them.

If not now, would I have ever come back to the apartment?

I swallowed hard as I continued gazing at the ceiling.

Yes…I would have. Eventually, I would have come back here.

The question was…why?

Would it have been to establish a sense of closure on my old life as Ronin Kassius?

Would it have been to cement the decision I made back aboard the Sanreal Crest when I told Ghost that I would live as Isabel and fight as Mirai?

My gaze followed the contours of the embossed patterns decorating the ceiling, losing itself in the flowing lines while my thoughts gradually converged upon one question – was I ready to open up to a new life as Isabel and Mirai?

I’d been told there was no going back to my life as Ronin Kassius, so would I be able to go forward?

“…can I live as a girl….?”

I searched my feelings and found myself uneasy and uncertain, perhaps reflecting what was also an uncertain existence.

“…easier said than done….”

I realized that by whispering aloud I’d invited a comment or two from Ghost.

Astonishingly there was none.

His silence surprised me, and I wondered if he was being unusually considerate toward me, but then I realized I was being unfairly harsh on him.

However, I soon noticed something else.

The tortured feelings that had wracked my body and held me back at the door had all but bled away.

All I felt now was exhaustion.

I was weary all the way down to my bones.

But why was I feeling nothing else?

Now that I was here, shouldn’t I be feeling a profound sense of loss?

I’d read how some people would describe a distinct lack of grief after losing a loved one, so was this what I was experiencing?

Was I unable to grieve for the loss of my old life?

Or maybe I wasn’t ready to do so.

Perhaps my feelings were all bottled up, waiting for the right time – the right moment – to be unleashed.

When that happened, what would it be like – an explosion of pent up fury or a quiet fizzle?

Throwing an arm over my face, I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh.

“Lights off,” I called out to the apartment’s Monitor.

There was no confirmation, and I remembered Ghost telling me the Assisting Intelligence had been disabled. Suppressing a flash of irritation, I crawled over the bed to the lamp on the bedside table, turning it off with a tap, and then rolled over onto my back. Dropping my head onto the pillows, I made myself comfortable as I clasped my hands over my midriff.

In the dark room, I breathed slow and deep while gazing up at the ceiling.

There was enough light for me to trace the swirling, flowing patterns, but I found no solace in them – nothing to ease my mind.

“Ghost…?”

“Yes, Princess.”

After a lengthy pause, I admitted, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Ghost too was silent for a long while before asking, “What do you mean?”

I gave myself a few moments to organize my troubled thoughts before airing them.

“I thought coming here was the right thing to do. I mean, it’s the best solution I could think of. But…but I also thought I’d feel something. And I did. Don’t get me wrong, I really did feel something when I walked inside.” I paused for a quick breath. “But…it wasn’t what I expected.”

“Was it grief? Was it resentment?” After a delay, Ghost somberly questioned, “Did you feel robbed?”

“Robbed?” I shook my head weakly. “No…I was…I was afraid….”

“Afraid?”

I nodded gently. “Yes, I felt afraid…afraid that I’d been replaced.”

“Replaced?”

“Yeah…by a Simulacrum.”

Ghost answered me with silence that lingered in the air for a long while, until I garnered the courage to continue expressing what I was feeling.

“I was scared that I’d step inside and find myself—that I’d find Ronin Kassius sleeping in my bed. Even after Regina said the room was empty, I couldn’t shake that fear, and I carried it with me into the apartment. I guess that’s also why I had so much trouble making myself open the door.”

Ghost remained silent and I started feeling uneasy.

“Ghost? You there?”

“I am here, Princess.”

I sighed loudly. “Well? Nothing to say?”

“No…not for now, Princess.”

What?

A slow frown spread across my forehead, but Ghost questioned me before I could ask him what he meant. “Princess, how do you feel now?”

My frown deepened as I stared pensively up at the ceiling. “How do I feel?”

“Indeed.”

I breathed in deeply, then expelled it slowly as I examined my feelings. “Right now…right now I feel tired. Dead tired.”

“Physically?”

I shook my head on the pillow. “No. All of me.” Then I scoured deeper into my feelings and realized something that made me chuckle in disbelief and disappointment. “I’m so messed up.”

“Princess, you have been through a great deal in a short amount of time—”

“No, that’s not it,” I countered. “That’s not it at all.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t feel anything, Ghost.”

However, that remark was too vague to rest upon, so I after a breath, I sought to clarify what I meant. “For sure, I’m tired. For sure, I was afraid when I first walked in. But past all that…it’s like I’m dead inside.”

My eyes absently followed the patterns embossed in the ceiling.

“I should be grieving or mourning over what I’ve lost, but I’m not, and that’s just too weird. Too wrong.” After yet another heavy breath, I muttered, “Maybe I’m broken. After everything that’s happened to me, maybe I’m burnt out. Or it could be that I’m done grieving about my past life without knowing it.” I hesitated before whispering, “Maybe, I’ve already started moving on….”

If that was true, and I’d already come terms with losing my life as Ronin Kassius, then perhaps coming here served to make that clear to me. However, it didn’t change the fact that everything about my return was anticlimactic, leading to a belated sense of frustration that gradually grew stronger and eventually induced a restlessness that spread quickly throughout my body.

Trying to shake it off, I rolled onto my side but was quickly irked by the hefty weight of Mirai’s breasts as they shifted beneath the tight sports bra.

Groaning in annoyance, I went back to lying on my back, and then closed my eyes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before I was irritated by an unpleasant pressure in my nether regions. I clamped down on it with unfamiliar muscles, but that only served to delay the inevitable, so with a loud huff, I swung my legs and feet off the bed and then sat up.

“Lights,” I grumbled then once again remembered the Monitor was off. “Damn it.”

I reached for the bedside lamp but then stopped short of turning it on.

Mirai’s eyes could see well enough in the dark, and I knew the apartment inside out, so I was unlikely to stub a toe in the furniture.

Plus, I was wearing my sneakers.

Exhaling heavily, I rose from the bed, momentarily swaying on my feet before gaining my balance.

“Damn it…,” I complained as I pressed a hand to my lower midriff.

“Princess?”

“I need to pee.”

“Oh. I see. By all means.”

Although I couldn’t see him, it didn’t stop me from scowling at Ghost, as I walked to the bathroom that I was so intimately familiar with. Turning on one of the lights, I blinked once as Mirai’s eyes adjusted, and then stepped up to the throne.

Reaching down to flip up the lowered seat, I grumbled under my breath.

“Ghost, if you—”

I froze with my fingertips hooked under the edge of the plastic seat.

“—peek on me….”

My voice faded away as I stared down at my long slender arm and feminine hand touching the toilet seat.

“…oh God….”

At that moment, I felt as though I’d stepped under a waterfall as I was drenched by the undeniable, inescapable truth of what I was seeing.

All those emotions that I’d believed were bottled or burnt away now flooded through me, and from deep within my chest, a weird, strangled laugh bubbled up, making my body shudder.

But the call of nature was too strong to ignore by now, and so I had no choice but to answer it by hastily dropping the necessary garments and then taking a seat on what was now a Queen’s throne. Yet the laughter that gurgled in my chest and throat wouldn’t stop, even as Mirai went through the natural, human process of emptying her bladder.

It carried on after my tears started to fall, and it ended when sobs began to wrack my body.

I hunched over, with my large breasts pressing into my thighs, and my arms wrapped around my belly. With my long dark hair curtaining my face, I cried softly, desperate to keep the volume down though I knew the soundproof walls would prevent my neighbors from hearing my distress.

I don’t know for how long I cried, but it felt like an hour later when I finally regained a semblance of calm.

However, it was a while longer before I ventured to clean myself up – nervously and hesitantly feeling around a delicate, unfamiliar place. I had my eyes squeezed shut the whole time my trembling fingers felt their way around Mirai’s womanhood, opening them only when I needed to dispose of the biodegradable paper wad.

An equally long while later, I found the strength to stand, pulling up my clothes with unsteady hands and shaking arms.

My sobs threatened to perform an encore, but I clamped down on them, and then shuffled over to the wide washbasin.

Filling it with warm water, I washed my face carefully.

Because my skin felt raw, I patted it rather than scrubbed it dry with a hand towel I pulled from a bathroom rail.

When I found the courage to look at my reflection in the mirror, I saw a girl watching me, her exquisite beauty marred by the hollow expression she wore.

Anyone who saw her would have been convinced she had just lost everything, and they wouldn’t have been far from wrong.

I’d come to my old dorm apartment with the intention of avoiding a conflict.

And I’d come here seeking answers from an unknown party.

But subconsciously, I’d also come here seeking solace and solitude.

In a way, I was looking for a place of refuge, a place that I felt was home, somewhere that made me believe that nothing had changed.

Yet the sole gesture of answering a call of nature had brought me face to face with reality.

And no matter how much I argued with Erina or anyone else – no matter how much I denied it – there was no running away from the truth that Mirai’s body had forced me to acknowledge more profoundly than anything I’d experienced since waking up in this body.

I was a girl now.

Pure and simple.