"Master, we're back!" Neon announced as she burst through the door, her voice echoing in the empty room. Yet as she stepped inside, she realized that no one was there.
"Neon, you shouldn't be so loud. The commander might be sleeping," Rapi chided softly as she followed behind.
"Sorry," Neon replied quickly, lowering her voice.
Rapi sighed and scanned the room until her eyes settled on two framed photographs resting on a table. She stepped closer and picked up the first one.
The photo depicted a young boy standing beside a red-haired man who appeared to be in his early twenties. Intrigued, Rapi then reached for the second picture—which showed the commander standing next to the same red-haired man.
"Huh?" Neon asked, peering over Rapi's shoulder as she squinted at the image. "Who's that?" she inquired, pointing to the red-haired man beside the commander.
"I don't know," Rapi admitted, equally puzzled.
Just as Rapi was about to set the photographs back down, the soft glow of the artificial sky caught the glass and revealed something unexpected: letters. Words that had previously been invisible now shimmered in the light, forming sentences across the images in a tone reminiscent of a diary entry.
"Rapi, why did words just appear on the pictures?" Neon asked, her curiosity piqued.
Rapi shook her head. "I have no idea."
Without hesitation, they began reading the inscription on the first photo:
"Today, my father and I are going to visit Grandpa's lab! I was so excited that I almost went at midnight. Hehehe. Anyway, when we arrived, we had to verify our identities with Jasper, the AI Grandpa built to manage the lab."
Neon tilted her head in confusion. "So... the little boy in the picture is the commander?"
"Maybe," Rapi replied, carefully flipping the photo to reveal more writing.
Another inscription read:
"I love going to Grandpa's lab—it's so cool! Robots are always moving around, carrying boxes, and Grandpa is working on something he calls a 'super project.' Every time I ask why it's 'super,' he just smiles at me."
They flipped the photo again, and new words emerged:
"Two months have passed, and Grandpa is ecstatic—he finally finished his 'super project.' And wow, he's amazing! He told me he created the first-ever male Nikke! Can you believe it?! And the best part? He let me name him! Of course, I wanted to! I thought long and hard before deciding on the perfect name: Ripper. I even got to take a picture with him!"
A heavy silence descended as the words hung in the air—an undeniable revelation: a male Nikke had been created.
Almost mechanically, they flipped the picture back over, their eyes locking on the red-haired man standing beside the little boy. At that moment, the silence was shattered.
"Commander! Where's the soda you promised me?!" Anis stormed through the door, her energetic voice cutting through the stillness.
Startled, Rapi and Neon snapped out of their trance.
"Huh? Where's the commander?" Anis asked, glancing around the empty room. Then she noticed the two friends standing stiffly by the table, their backs turned toward her.
"What are you guys looking at?" she demanded as she approached.
Peering over their shoulders, Anis's eyes widened at the sight of the photographs. The first image showed the young boy with the red-haired man, but it was the second picture that made her stomach drop. It showed the commander standing beside that same red-haired man—a man who had not aged a single day.
Then something else caught her eye: at the bottom of the picture, additional writing emerged.
"A-Anis... y-you might want to read this," Neon stammered, her voice trembling as she handed Anis the first photograph.
Anis hesitated before taking it. Slowly, she flipped the picture over and scanned the words. Her breath hitched and her hands began to tremble.
"T-this is i-impossible..." she muttered in a barely audible whisper.
Almost as if compelled by an unseen force, she flipped the photograph back over, her gaze fixed on the red-haired man.
"We know it should be impossible," Rapi finally said, breaking the heavy silence, "but there's one thing that proves otherwise."
She then lifted the second photograph and angled it so that the artificial sunlight revealed yet another hidden inscription. Neon and Anis leaned in, their eyes darting over the freshly unveiled words:
"It's been a few years now, and I'm finally a commander! Hahaha! Just like Dad, I'll take care of my Nikkes. Well... Ripper's words had a part in that too. Anyway, after so many years, Grandpa finally answered my question—on his deathbed."
"The reason he was able to create a male Nikke... was by establishing a nerve connection to the body. And the key to his success was not implanting NIMPHs into the body. That was the real breakthrough."
At that moment, the room fell deathly silent—so quiet that they could hear their breathing and even the faint hum of the artificial sky overhead. The weight of the revelation pressed down on them like an unshakable force.
A male Nikke had not only been created; he was still here—and they had no idea where he was now. This discovery, both astonishing and mysterious, hinted at secrets that could upend everything they thought they knew about their world, leaving them to wonder what other impossible truths lay hidden in plain sight.