I left the elevator with a spring in my step, blood all over my suit, and a determination burning in my chest. I headed straight for the throne room, as I had been ordered to do by two of Goto’s guards who had been waiting at the entrance of the Palace for me.
“Hey, Joshua. What’s…” Lucina’s face froze as she gazed upon the woman being cradled in my arms. Instead of delivering us to a hospital, the Asahi Police had told me that they had received orders to bring us directly to the Steel Palace.
“No time. Need to see Goto. She’s been dead for ten minutes already.” I brushed past the Metronian Princess, leaving her in shock.
She turned and made to follow me, but two servants obstructed her and ‘recommended,’ that she go back into her room for the time being.
With little ability to persuade them otherwise, Lucina sent me a message. “What in the Starlord’s eternal nothingness happened, and why aren’t I allowed to go with you?”
X, write her a response breaking down the last twenty minutes. Send a message to Goto telling him that we are outside his throne room, as well.
“Of course, Master. Shall I just unlock his throne room instead?” No, don’t. He just lost a daughter, there’s no telling how he’ll react.
Soon after, I received a tidal wave of messages from Lucina, ranging from concern, to anger, sadness, and pure despair. I ignored them all in favor of the one from Emperor Goto that read, “Come in. The door is unlocked. Enter only by yourself, and with my daughter's corpse.”
I exhaled forcefully, and steeled myself to receive her father’s rage, in whatever form that it may have taken. I lightly pushed the door with my foot, and walked into the dimly lit throne room.
Goto’s desk was behind his throne, and the man was sat there in silence, looking down upon me. “Is that her?” He asked, a steely tone in his voice.
I nodded, and he beckoned me forward with a gesture of his hand. “Follow me.” He pointed to the left of the room, and led the way to a carved out section of the wall that functioned as a bookshelf.
“Judgment, unlock the door.” Goto spoke, and a mechanical voice replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, Emperor Goto. Which floor would you like to go to?” My eyes widened and I froze in place at the foot of his throne. X, subspace, and time dilation, now!
I wasn’t even given a word as I was silently sucked into the ruined plane of my subspace. I appeared right in front of Three, who looked at me incredulously. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here so soon, what’s-”
“Sorry, no time. X, private conference room, now.” A pitch-black wall came into existence between myself and the Judgment A.I., and soon surrounded me on four sides.
Once we were secure inside the black box, I ran up to X, grabbed the program and asked, “Is he one of the Judgment users!?”
The copy of Lucina merely shook its head with a frown. “No, Master. I believe you are being too paranoid about the situation. All palaces have Judgment home and office systems in place so as to assure the maximum amount of security.”
“So then…”
“Yes, that was just the Emperor directing the mainframe of a simple input and output command.” I let out a deep and shaky breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding, sat down on the black floor. I breathed some more and cradled my head in my hands.
“Master, I suggest we go back to the physical world soon. Too much of this may warp your sense of time even farther.”
I bit my lip at the comment, and even though I didn’t want to admit it, the program was right. I stood up and nodded to X, who smiled back.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in Goto’s room, facing the throne. “Is everything ok?”
I turned to Goto, who was looking at me with concern. “No… not really. I just witnessed your daughter get murdered, and I couldn’t… no, I didn’t do anything about it. I thought I was invincible, I thought-!”
“Hush child. It will all be ok.” I just stared at the man as if he had gone insane.
“What the fuck are you talking about!? Your daughter is dead! She was killed by some low class piece of shit who only wanted to incite violence!”
“Calm down, damn it! I know what happened! I saw her damned camera footage. She started streaming when she called me. The stupid girl has a bad habit of getting herself killed lately.”
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My brain froze at his words, and it was only when some of Akahime’s blood seeped through to my stomach that I regained consciousness.
“I’m sorry, I think I heard you wrong…” Goto looked at me as if I had a screw loose, and beckoned me forward into an elevator, which had replaced the bookshelf when I hadn’t been paying attention.
I readjusted my grip on the princess, and walked through the door and into the spacious elevator. We rode down a pitch black shaft in silence, and must have ascended for twenty seconds before coming to a stop.
The doors opened to reveal a pure white room. One which had various tubes and large chambers lined up from wall to wall. I followed Goto as he strode out, and stopped at a grey control panel. He hit a series of iridescent blue lights on the dashboard, and some machinery started making noise in the large room.
“Take this as a sign of my gratitude towards you, and a token of goodwill that you will do my daughter proud in your ongoing relationship. Only other world leaders know of this, and they are sworn to absolute secrecy using a Judgment Contract.”
My eyes widened as a pod was pulled off of the wall by a large claw, and started moving slowly towards us. My breathing started to hasten and my grip tightened on Akahime’s corpse.
I was hit on the back and almost choked. “What’s wrong with you, boy?” Emperor Goto asked, taking his hand off of me. “You’ve been despondent since you got here.”
I didn’t answer him, and looked straight ahead at the pod. Goto sighed, “Ugh, foreigners. Always like this when they learn of the Phoenix system. Don’t worry, my boy. Your reaction is normal.”
As the pod grew closer, I could make out wide hips, generous breasts, and Akahime’s face, perfectly molded onto the body in the pod. “What the fuck…” I let out before I even knew what I had said.
“Ha! Impressive, isn’t it? I remember the first time my father showed me, I had the same look on my face that you have on yours. Although my father was a little less tolerant of the swearing than I am.”
I ignored the man who was having a father-son bonding moment on his own, and asked, “What is this place? It’s not what I think it is, is it?”
“Of course it is!” Goto responded with a smile. “Ah, unfortunately, the last backup that Akahime made was a month ago, so she won’t remember you. However, you guys hit it off so spectacularly last time that I don’t even think you’ll have any problems.”
I could only stand there in silence, clutching Akahime’s corpse to my chest as I watched Goto work his machine, and the pod opened. Akahime slid out and landed on the floor with a wet splat.
A few moments later, she pushed herself off the ground and stretched. “Ah, that was a nice nap. Huh? The phoenix room again? Ugh, what the fuck did I do to myself this time?” Her eyes wandered to her father, who she waved at, and then landed on me.
“Ah, you must be the new undertaker. Thanks for recovering my body. It really puts the public into a fit when rumors of my death start spreading.” I tried to respond, but all semblance of intelligence was locked away from my speech.
Akahime put on a robe, and walked towards us. “Thanks dad, sorry about that. How long have I been sent back?”
“A full month, Akahime. Princess Lucina Metron is currently visiting upstairs and saw your body, so why don’t you explain to her why you’re alright.
“Oh, shit! Sorry dad. At least it’ll be fun hanging out with her afterwards.” She waved us goodbye, and headed for the elevator. Once the doors opened, she made to get inside, but turned to face me.
“Thanks again for recovering my body. You can just dump it in the incinerator over there.” She pointed to my left, where a large red chute was present. After the doors closed, Goto turned to me.
“When you’re done disposing of that, you can head back upstairs. I need to start growing another extra body in case she dies again, so I’ll be a little while longer. Take your time, I know how strange this must seem to you.”
Emperor Goto walked deeper into the laboratory, and eventually I was on my own with a corpse in my arms. X… extract the data from Akahime’s Judgment Panel. That… that thing that walked off isn’t Akahime.
“Master, Emperor Goto implied that-”
Just do it! I walked up to the panel, and pressed the buttons that I had memorized from before. The chamber came to life again, and again, an Akahime body duplicate was brought in front of me.
Where do I upload her data? I want to overwrite the saved memory that this doll possesses. We can bring this Akahime back… I know it’s possible.
“Master, I feel that I must once again remind you of the potential dangers. The death that she has experienced beforehand may have corrupted her data from that panel, and ‘your’ Imperial Princess Akahime may be lost forever.”
I tapped my foot and ground my teeth. “This has to work. You saw her come back to life, right? This must work.”
X said nothing, and instead a reticle appeared in my vision, directing me where I needed to go, and informing me of what steps I needed to follow in order to upload this consciousness.
Once the procedure was complete, I hit the button that started the revival process, and Akahime shook from the electricity starting the body’s heart once again. The body fell from the pod, and a few moments later, she stood up wobbly, just as the previous Akahime had.
The one in front of me started to pat her body, and laughed softly. “Akahime, are you-” My voice caught in my throat as her laughter increased in volume and started sounding deranged.
Suddenly, the laughter stopped, and she inspected herself. The front and back of her hands were examined, and she flexed and balled up her fingers. With a light chuckle, she started to eat her fingers. Sickening crunch after sickening crunch came as she maimed herself.
She fell to the ground before I even knew what had happened, and I realized that I had thrown my knife directly into her forehead. My breathing was ragged, and I watched as the last vestiges of life left the body on the floor.
My lip trembled as I walked up to the new body, and reclaimed my knife from its purchase on her forehead. I picked up that body and Akahime’s original, and dumped them both down the chute. I stood in place for another moment before turning my back on the lab.
As I walked back to the elevator, it took everything I had not to cry more than I already had that day. I pressed the elevator’s up button, and X’s form coalesced in front of me. She sighed, “It was outside my calculations to fail that spectacularly. I guess that the experience of death isn’t part of the mortal ingredients, after all.”