"ahh, Rin, you're here"
Mei called me here without explaining anything... it's been a few months since I returned back here... it's... silent... huh?
"ahh! miss Rin, welcome back! do you have any business here today?"
"you saying that makes me feel like I'm not needed here... well, Mei called me the other day and I just came here. one question, where are they? it's so silent here that it's practically a haunted island..."
I can barely feel a slight breeze here...
"about that, they seem to be quite bored so they started going around the world obtaining information. did you hear some rumors? songs by the late miss Yuna could be heard here, it's quite calming but we still like the feeling of it, it's like miss Yuna is back here"
ahh-... yeah... Yuna...
"well, she did reincarnate to our world so it's common sense for her to sing some of the songs that was her homeland"
she nodded. well, my answer was solved, looks like they got bored here which... I could understand why...
"anyway, miss Rin, mind if I escort you there"
"sure!"
Erica Aus Meister... she's quite dedicated to her work and has respect for us as her higher-ups. although... she has a crush on Ingrid and surprisingly hides it quite well, thanks to that, I can blackmail her all I want.
we arrive and Erica leaves me in front of the door saying she doesn't have any reasons to stay. I open the door and I'm greeted with a starving lady...
"ahh- *cough* Rin, sorry for this but would you mind taking care of her? it seems that I'm can't go on like this any further... I need some rest..."
"Mei! what the f-. what were you doing!? hold on, let me get something for you-"
I grab some ingredients and cook up something large enough for her. what the heck was she doing to forget about her health!?
. . .
. .
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"here, at least eat this."
"Thanks, I feel much better right now, anyway, about what you asked, this here is a new creation, although since I'm short on resources, I only grabbed the most useful ones and made her, what do you think?"
I look at the girl... she's... a puppet, a wooden one... the joints and everything are made of wood and there's something in her chest... or nothing...
"that's where the heart should be. since she's only made with limited resources I have, she'll need to have something that could back her up, this ether crystal is enough but it also needs to charge with the ground underneath. I have multiple of these so having her on every time is fine but when she runs out, the Ether veins that serve in the joints will collapse if not tended correctly, in short, she'll collapse into multiple segments."
oh... is that the reason why she's disheveled?
"I can fix her up though, the only downside is that it's time-consuming"
I get her reasons but... what does she need me here for? surely not to manage her, I'm no scientist to understand a single thing inside her
"so... what am I supposed to do here Mei?"
"right... you'll be babysitting her, Ingrid and Arie are fine with Osiria there but for this little one, she'll need to be tended with care, I suppose that I can trust you with that?"
Mei giving me some stupid orders again... haahhh... if only I was smart enough to argue against her...
"yeah... I'll take care of her, what am I supposed to do anyway? just look at her?"
"mostly, probably. she's still a child and pretty much robotic, I don't plan to turn her into something similar to Solstice so take extreme care for her"
"when Yuna was still alive, you'll trouble her with these kinds of requests... haahhh... fine, I don't really have anything to do much anyway besides takes care of Osiria"
"Oh, and please don't let it meet Osiria, there's a program in her head that I'm still afraid that it will run amok once she sees her"
"run amok!? Mei! what are you going to do with her!?"
"Please be silent... she's not going to kill her, the programming in her head is still iffy, I don't have my personal database with me so I can't create a draft of the exact copy, what you just need to do is let her experience that outside world, the emotion and memory program along with her actions is proper. she's just a small innocent child right now so please let her be free right now, let her see the world and experience emotions"
"experience emotions... how? she doesn't have a heart in the first place"
"The heart is just something made fictional by dreamers, although if you're talking about that, then don't worry, there are quite a few more unused variables and concepts inside her and by time, she'll be the same like you and me"
hmm... I think I quite understand what's happening right now... well, Mei reads everything in a more scientific standpoint so anything like emotions is something outside her scope but...
"Why are you giving her this much attention? it's not quite like you to be like this"
"hmm... no particular reason... listen, I'm quite tired right now so I'd like both of you to leave right now, I have a lot of things to do after my rest so-"
ahh- wai- stop pushing me!
"Please take care of her for the rest of the month? thanks, bye~"
Mei-!
"what the heck Mei! haahhh... she's hiding something again and I don't like it... it's not like her to be this inefficient... something's definitely off... "
"oh, I forgot about her. here are her Ether crystals and her clothing, now get out and let me rest"
"wha- what the heck Mei! tossing me all of your responsibilities to me isn't quite mature! haahh... fine then..."
the girl looks alive... her right eye looks like it could come off if pushed but her left eye seems normal... if not for the slight gap in it, she could hide her right eye and could be passed off as a normal human... where can I even take her in the first place? if the military or even the government found this, it would spell catastrophe... well, we're aliens in the first place, why would they care about this now?
"so? do you have something to say?"
she's just moving and looking everywhere...
"ahh- wait a second, raise your hands, please? thank you"
she's quite obedient... she really is an innocent child...
"there, fully clothed, shorts check-!... you probably don't need underwear right?"
I completely forgot about her underwear...
"well... let's just redo everything... c'mon umm... do you have a name?"
". . ."
talk... please...
"ana..."
"ana...?"
"lisse..."
Analisse?
"Analisse? hmm... sounds about right... it's too long though, what about I call you Ana or Alice?"
"... no... Analisse..."
haha... well... I guess she likes the name too much...
"fine then, Analisse it is, please come over here, I'll dress you up properly, keep the order in mind aright?"
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"there, you're now fully clothed. you look so cute wearing a t-shirt, the short pants also spice things up a bit, well then? why don't we go? just don't let go of my hand"
her hands... it's tough... like wood... this really is a wooden puppet but her expression's... human-like... what did Mei do? it's not normal for wood to move... like that...
she's holding my hand quite hard... but at least she knows how to hold it back
"you nervous? well... your creator should be with you when you go outside so you'd feel a little bit more safe rather than a stranger who you just met right?"
I decided to escort her with Mei since Mei hasn't seen the outside world that much either, that would probably be best but... I'm afraid that she won't comply with it...
. . .
. .
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45 hours passed and Mei finally woke up, Analisse wasn't bored since she doesn't really have anything to do and doesn't know what to do so she just diligently waited
"Mei, you're finally awake"
"hmm... yeah, what about you Rin? did you take care of Analisse?"
"well, yes but I didn't took her out"
"WHAT!?"
that... scream... I can feel a sense of dread and anger from her... she's fuming
"MEI! would you calm down for a second! Analisse is right behind me!"
she took a glance and made a surprised face... calming down, she finally lowered her voice
"haahh... it's quite unlike me to be pissed like that... so? why didn't you took her to the outside world?
why indeed...
"well... if she's going outside it's probably best for her creator to be with her right? *ahem* excuse me, I mean mother"
she looked as if her secret was exposed. I talked to Analisse about her creator and she didn't knew who she was, all she knew was her mother which is supposed to be Mei, I asked her why she called her mother and her response was
「mother said that I call her mother...」
and it was the cutest expression I have ever seen!
"f-fine then... I'll be accompanying you both... I am quite busy so I'd like it to be short, please..."
she lost... wow... this is the feeling of winning against Mei! it feels so fulfilling
I told her that we would be going to a colder climate so she changed to her formal wear... it's quite surprising but with her in those clothes, she can pass it as anything... it's also quite weightlifting to see her without her extremely seducing work clothes... well, she was wearing it incorrectly in the first place since her birth from what I heard from Kirin... it wasn't his decision and he just left her like that... that's why we need to hammer common sense to Mei's creation from this time on...
"we'll be using the floating airship since it's quite faster, I already called someone to pilot it"
"Wells at your service, it's a pleasure to meet you Rin and miss Mei's child"
Wells is quite old, he's not a soldier but has been the best pilot for the Fallen race, he's half-human half-spirit and he's supposed to be in his prime right now. combat-wise... he's as weak as an ant but his piloting is top-notch so Mei gave him the seal of approval of letting him drive the personal airship Mei owns.
we board the airship and lift off from the ground, the inside's quite normal if not, a little formal for taste but it's still nice to be inside... we can see the horizon from here too, we're barely in the stratosphere, just shy between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
"I'm quite surprised that this airship can take a beating in the cold climate..."
"hmm? the balloon isn't that fragile as one would thought. the engine's durable enough to even take a beating from a charging cannonball and the hull is just as strong as Ethereal Iron, but I guess that's not saying much..."
"it's saying a lot, I didn't know that this ship was that strong..."
"of course it's strong, if it wasn't we wouldn't be flying right now"
huh? wait... isn't stronger means heavier?
"your face says everything, Ethereal Iron is strong but light, the hull is made up of Ethereal adamantine and a thing one at that, if we would be using normal adamantine then we wouldn't be flying in the first place, that's why Ethereal adamantine is used quite frequently by Arie and Ingrid"
I see... Ethereal materials are quite light while maintaining their durability and toughness...
"the balloon is a different story. while the shape is questionable at best, its materials definitely isn't..."
her worry is also worrying me a bit...
"what about the balloon? is something wrong with it?"
"we're safe since we're not in a war, the balloon is quite fragile so the outside of it is layered by Ether crystals that have kinetic discharge. the crystal is quite large but that large crystal won't be able to reduce a single 10-meter bullet. below that is safe enough but other than that, it's quite dangerous"
anything bigger than 9 meters would break the crystal... well... there's nothing like that here in earth so it's safe... probably...
"Why don't we touch the sky here? the temperature might be cold for a normal human but as a Fallen, it's nothing"
haha... her saying that isn't reassuring...
"then what about Analisse? will she freeze?"
"Analisse isn't flesh and bones in the first place, I've set her pain nullification to the highest possible for her to not feel the cold"
"pain nullification? so she feels pain?"
"yes, internally and externally, there's a setting here in her back if I plug this in her crystal where her heart is supposed to be, the crystal itself is her internal settings but I want her to be as humanlike as possible..."
keep quite Rin... you might find something out...
"she's fragile and innocent right now... if I turn her into the perfect being, that'd be owning something similar to a robotic program whose goal is to kill... as my sole project, I want her to be like Osiria as much as possible; humanlike, a will..."
silent... c'mon... I want to see this side of Mei
"miss Mei! we're now below -50 to -40 Celsius, (around -60 to -40 F )"
"ahh, then we'll stay at our current altitude. sorry for the rambling Rin, why don't we go outside for a long minute? this kind of temperature is quite nice to feel, c'mon Analisse"
"coming Mother..."
drat! damn you, Wells! well... at least I get to see her charming side... walking with Analisse's hand... you changed after creating her huh?
. . .
I exit the lobby where we were talking to the front of the ship... it's so cold yet... nice...
in the distance, Mei is talking to Analisse as if she really was her mother... taking care of her like that... now I feel so left out...
"cute isn't it miss Rin?"
"Wells! you surprised me for a second. yeah... seeing the demon strategist like this is quite weightlifting for me..."
"you can tell me that again, now that three demons have a child of their own, Osiria and Analisse... it gives this old man a sigh of relief to finally see them in their peaceful time"
yeah... being finally free from war is something everyone has never wished to be this close... it's a breathtaking experience to finally be free from the shackles of war... death in Laplace finally decreased exponentially...
"wait, if you're here, who's piloting this airship?"
"that's a common cliche that many people have always asked me, this ship isn't on autopilot, my apprentice is piloting it right now"
apprentice?
"she's my youngest daughter, don't worry, this ship is all fine in her hands"
"really now... then I'll trust your words then..."
since the end of the war, the total population of Laplace drastically increased, 10 years after the war, children were everywhere, it's like a new generation was given birth...
"I'll be checking up on my daughter right now... please do be careful on the ship"
"we will, thanks for the talk"
I look back to where Mei is and she's still with Analisse... she's really taken a liking to her... well... she is her daughter... no father too... wonder who that will be... I doubt Mei will be marrying anyone but we could never tell from her...
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we arrive at our destination, Canada, it only took around 8 hours too, that was quite fast when accounting that we were across the planet...
"I'll be returning to the outpost, I expect you to take full care of Analisse, Rin."
"roger... why do I always get the tedious jobs... well... it's not like I have anything to do..."
the ship lifts back up with Rin and the pilots leaving us... quite bold of her to just leave us here... I can probably defend against some weirdos if necessary but I want to find out if Analisse can fight...
"so Analisse... what do you want to do?"
"... go... back to mother..."
ehh?