An objective.

A prerogative.

A goal.

Fina had lived her entire life from her days in the arena by focusing on one task at a time, completing them and moving onto the next.

However right now, in the midst of this city which was once covered in smog, and now covered in darkness, Fina found herself without an objective.

For the first time in her life.

"Objective is undefined. Sister's vitals and safety appear to be in good condition. Her eminence has assigned me no further tasks as of right now. Considering new objectives."

Closing her eyes, this gerbil humanoid whose body was half mechanical thought to herself, yet she stopped in her tracks with a straight and emotionless expression.

"No objective found. Error."

"You don't always have to be finishing an objective you know."

The one who walked alongside this robotic girl was a gerbil who gave off a similar appearance, though this one had lighter fur and wore the outfit of a worker.

Both of the girls seemed to be relatively muscular, however one had obtained her figure through combat while the other had obtained it through hard labor.

"Her eminence said that we can have a day off..... though to call it a day is a bit off..... I guess it somewhat reminds me of when the smog was present."

Looking up into the night sky, the girl smiled.

This was Gina, the sister of Fina who had been spared of a fate fighting in the arena due to the sacrifice of Fina, yet had in turn been kidnapped and tormented, having flames pressed to her face by none other than the leader of the ferrets faction at the time.

Even so, peace now reined throughout the ratmen village.

"When the smog filled the sky, there was little difference between night and day. And now there is no difference at all. Whether it's even night or day... haha..... who knows?"

"A tool known as a watch is apparently used by their excellencies and her eminence to determine the time. Should I make it my objective to obtain one?"

"Oh.... a tool that can tell time? That's interesting."

"Understood. Objective obtained. Perusing objective."

"Wait just a minute, sister. You really can't hold still for a second, can you?"

Turning to her sister with a kind smile, Gina let out a quiet laugh.

"But I suppose that's a good thing."

To this cheerful statement, Fina merely looked at her sister with confusion.

"Your statement is unclear."

"Yep."

"Your statement just now has not improved the situation."

"Mhm."

The two went back and forth without a hint of understanding, yet there was a strange chemistry between them that spoke of the undeniable bond.

"Speaking of which, I think Vex has a watch of his own. Wanna go ask him about how to get one?"

"Objective has been defined and method of completion has been acquired. Proceeding."

With this, Fina rushed off with a blank face, to which Gina was left to walk after her.

"Such a handful....."

"Isn't she?"

Looking back, Fina saw an older gentleman step out from the shadows, tipping his hat.

This ratman was Ramrod, the former leader of the rats faction.

"Ah, Ramrod. Since it's a day off I didn't expect to see you around here."

"I was taking a walk and I couldn't help but notice how subtly beautiful the sky has become. There is something about it's darkness which is..... soothing."

Fixing his monocle as he looked upward, the man seemed to smile lightly.

"I understand well just how difficult it can be to have to watch over a child. After all, my grandson is always getting into trouble as well."

"To think that I would be sympathizing with an old man like you.....", Gina said with a lamenting expression.

"Being old is a burden, but it does not mean that a young one cannot share the same experiences as me. Age has nothing to do with a person's mindset. No.... perhaps that is not quite right. It is the experiences which people go through which mold their mindset, and it is through age that those experiences come about. However it is the content of those experiences, not the number, which truly molds people."

On hearing the man's statement, Fina could do no more than nod.

"I suppose that's right."

Looking off, Fina stepped away, heading off to follow her impatient sister.

"I wonder then just what experiences their excellencies and her eminence had to go through to get to their mindsets..."

"Something which is far worse than we would ever experience. Yet it is because of those experiences..... that they have become something far greater than what should belong in this world."

With this statement, Ramrod walked off, tapping his cane to the ground as the two parted paths.

Rushing off, Gina soon caught up to her sister.

"Sister. Your legs are slow. Perhaps we should convince her eminence to replace them-"

"Absolutely not, sister."

"But it would be more efficient-"

"Absolutely not."

Rejecting the proposal of the sister, Gina smiled as the two walked along, headed to the home of the demon within this city of rodents.

"Life isn't all about efficiency, you know."

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With this statement, Fina looked to her sister with confusion, her robotic eyes penetrating the girl.

"Ah. I think I understand."

Nodding her head, Fina smiled ever so slightly.

"Even if they would be efficient, you must be worried about durability. Worry not, sister. Her eminence will use materials which are sure not to deteriorate-"

"Sister, you don't understand at all."

With a laugh, Gina cut her sister off, and the two ceased speaking for a moment.

"But..... I suppose that's fine. You don't have to understand everything. Because if you did..... then I suppose I wouldn't be as useful."

"Sister, I fail to understand. You claim to wish to be useful yet you reject a method to increase your efficiency."

"Mhm."

Fina once more looked to her sister with confusion, however Gina didn't bother to clear such confusion up.

The two then walked in silence through the streets, eventually coming across a set of apartments.

"We have arrived at our destination. Let us commence the acquisition of information."

"Fina. You have to be respectful, ok? You can't just-"

Kicking the door down, Fina entered the home without so much as a facial expression, entering the home.

"Door has been left unlocked. Entering household. Household has been entered. Locating subject."

"You can't just do that, Fina!!"

Rushing after her sister with a worried expression, Gina ran forward, watching as her sister stormed into the home without a care.

Then, coming down a stairway, two voices were heard.

"What the heck was that?"

"Did something crash downstairs?"

A male and female voice.

"Sister!! Let's get out of here before they realize it's us!!"

"Hm? You are being strangely illogical, sister. After all, we are here to obtain information."

"Agh!! I'm the one being illogical!?"

Gina felt as if her mind was rotting away just listening to her sister.

It was then that the two demons came down the stairs, looking over to the door to see the two gerbil kin.

"Ah."

"Orange demon. Hand over your information. We have come for it."

"Sorry Vex!! My sister just went and..... you know..... haha...."

"Vex, who the hell are these girls? Why did they just come into our home like this?"

"Wait just a minute, Hatia. I have no idea why they're here like this. And why did you break the door down? Come on."

"It was left open. I'm not sure what you're talking about."

With obstinacy, Fina looked up to Vex without the slightest hint of remorse for her destructive actions, to which Vex could only laugh.

"Pfft."

"Vex, I'm not sure why you're laughing. Two young girls have just burst into our home uninvited. If we weren't living under her eminence with a law against the killing of citizens, I would have already slain them.", Hatia stated with a grimace.

"Don't worry so much, Hatia.", Vex said as he walked past the demon, heading down the stairs. "This one right here is the robotic girl I told you about."

"Ah. Is that so?"

"I am uncertain as to why you have spoken of me, but that is not of importance. I require information on a tool called a watch. You will provide me with such information."

As Fina said this, Vex looked at her with surprise.

"Oh...."

Looking to his wrist, he took note of his watch, taking it off.

"This is a watch. Take a look. Don't break it though."

Fina immediately stepped forward, grabbing the item and inspecting it with her heat seeking goggles.

"Numerical figures and hands which move at a constant rotation about the central axis.... how has this effect been achieved? How is it possible for them to be moving at different rates?"

Opening the watch up to view the inside, Fina completely ignored everything Vex told her, taking a seat at the table without a care.

"Oh..... I see..... there are gears which are staggered such that one rotation of this hand is equivalent to 60 rotations of that one, and 12 rotations of this hand is equivalent to one of this one... interesting. That would imply that the day has been split into units of 12 and 60 respectively?"

Fina begun to talk to herself while Vex merely watched with annoyance as she took apart his precious watch.

"Er... have a seat I guess..."

"I'm sorry about her. When she get's an idea in her head she just sorta...."

"I know, Gina. There's no need for you to apologize. She's a strange one, isn't she?"

Closing his eyes, Vex made his way over to the kitchen.

"I can tell. She's been through a lot of suffering. It takes more than one event for a mind to be broken to that point."

"You..... can tell that much?"

Gina looked to Vex with surprise as he recounted a somewhat accurate prediction based on his own experience.

"Well..... I was the Host of Wrath. I've experienced not only my own suffering..... but that of many others. So I understand what it takes to break a person."

"Vex..... is... is that something that you've been dealing with your entire life?"

Hatia asked this from the stairs, twiddling her thumbs with a concerned expression as she looked down on her lover.

"Yeah. But I didn't have to deal with it alone. And I caused a lot more suffering than what I experienced anyways..... so I suppose it's obvious that I should endure at least that much."

Vex had committed numerous crimes in his life.

He had killed many with his own abilities of wrath.

He had killed even more on the orders of the Determined.

"Yet.... the killing I did before was killing for pleasure. It was killing because I found it to be fun to watch those below me struggle and explode in rage. After fighting for her eminence..... I may have committed much more killing, but I feel that it was for..... perhaps not a just cause, but for a cause nonetheless."

Looking back to the two, Vex gave them a strained smile.

"Before I was creating suffering without reason. At the very least, now the suffering I have created has a purpose."

"The suffering which we created on the orders of her eminence was in direct proportion to the suffering which people produced for others. There is no reason to feel guilt for such a thing."

As she fiddled with the watch, clicking it back together, Fina made this statement.

"You created suffering before with no ratio to the suffering which was produced by others. Without order, suffering is merely that. But her eminence has taken even suffering and given it order."

The three all looked to the girl with shock as she stood up from her seat, bringing the watch back to Vex.

"I have analyzed this. I thank you for the information. I will have blueprints created and sister will make efforts for these to be mass produced, with the permission of her eminence."

"Ah..... that's good."

Handing the watch back to Vex, Fina begun to walk off, as emotionless and robotic as ever.

"Our objective has been completed. Let us go, sister."

"Er..... Fina! We have to fix the door! We can't just-"

"It's fine.", Vex said with a smile. "Heh... after all, if it was unlocked then there's no helping it. Right?"

"Of course. There is no need to trouble ourselves with such trivial things, sister."

With this statement, Fina walked through the doorway, however she was stopped as Hatia spoke up.

"Um..... if you two would like... you could stay for a meal? After all..... it is a day off, I suppose. And I have been improving my cooking lately. It isn't every day that we have guests over."

Stopping in her tracks, Fina immediately turned around, walking back into the home and taking a seat at the table.

"Free food has become new objective. I implore you to serve me with efficiency and quality, woman."

With a rude tone and even ruder actions, Fina immediately accepted.

"Wha..... I said I would cook but this is how you thank me? Are you really just a robot!?"

"Unnecessary information. Chop chop. The hands on that tool have already rotated significantly."

"What!? I invite you in here and now you tell me that I'm slow!? Vex, do something about her!"

"Fina, you can't say things like that! You have to show people appreciation when they go out of their way to do something for you.", Gina stated as she ran up to her sister, who looked at her with confusion.

"Why?", she asked, bewildered.

"Well..... you know..... because people have to go out of their way to assist you..... and....."

"People will always do as they wish to do. I did not require of them that they comply with my demands. She offered it herself."

Fina's heartlessly logical statement's forced a sigh out of Gina as she looked to the other two apologetically.

"I'm very sorry about her."

"I already said, doesn't matter. That's the way she is, right?", Vex said with a laugh. "So? Should I help you, or do you wanna do all the cooking yourself?"

Looking up to Hatia once more, the woman descended the stairs with a sigh.

"I'll do it myself. After all.... if you helped me it would probably become something horrid."

"Hey! I'm not that bad a cook, am I?"

"Actually yes, you are. There is a reason we always went out to eat before. I considered dumping you when I first tried your own cooking..... though at the time I cannot say that mine was any better given that my servants always did all the cooking for me."

Walking past Vex, Hatia smiled lightly as she entered the kitchen.

"Just wait and see. I'll show you that I'm no longer a stuck up noble who only knows how to be served."

With this, Vex took a seat with the other two, kicking his feet back on the table to show off his black sneakers.

"Well, you heard the woman. Looks like today's a day to relax."

"Relax..... a useless term for remaining idle. Unacceptable."

"Fina, that's enough....", Gina said.

"However..... I suppose if remaining idle is due to the fact that others must finish their tasks before the next task is begun... then there is no helping it."

With this, the three patiently awaited the meal, continuing to chat among themselves.

"It really has become a peaceful place..... this world.", Vex stated as he leaned back in his seat, staring at the ceiling.

"It has. And it is all because of the fear which her eminence has spread throughout the world. That was the element which forced the humans to cooperate with monsters..... and it is the element which is now running this society."

"Peace through fear.... eh?"

Letting out a chuckle, Vex closed his eyes with a nod.

"Isn't that just a Dictatorship?"