Chapter 2.7

The three of us are walking with Jessa through the Irorishiro grounds, and no one has said a word since we left the Cultivation Hall. Miki and Miko crowd around me with anxious faces as I'm watching Jessa out of the corner of my eye, noticing little "things" about her that I hadn't before.

She doesn't blink. She walks with an even, unwavering, I would go so far as to call "robotic" step.

She doesn't wear shoes. Or socks.

"Humanity has entered into a new age," she says without any prompting, all of a sudden; as though conscious of how strange she appears to us mere mortals, with an explanation already prepared.

She halts, looking me squarely in the face.

It's spine-tingling--her blank stare and peaceful smile conjuring in me a kind of fear I can't properly put into words, as she goes on to say, with all the cordiality of a voice on a subway speaker, wishing me a pleasant, safe trip: "What was once forbidden, will become the everyday."

There's nothing I can say to this, and I'm not here to have a debate over transhumanism anyway.

"I want to learn more about my powers." I say to her, trying to veer the conversation back to my originally planned script. "Since you're able to access that kind of information, I...thought I should consult you first."

Jessa's smile widened. Ever so slightly.

"Why, of course. Who else could you possibly turn to?"

Again, I was stumped for an answer.

I've started to think of the Cultivators as being a useful resource, like a library, but they're seriously not a group I want to be around any longer than necessary.

Though, I suppose that's a given because of who I am...

I'm sure they're secretly fascinated by me.

Maybe, even a little threatened.

Jessa escorts us to the laboratory where I was brought to first activate my System power, but instead takes us downstairs into a wide basement designs like an arena stadium with a green flat-topped center and three rows of bleachers, blue walls covered in LZU screens, and an impressive array of simulation projectors jutting down from the ceiling--far more numerous than in Ms. Alice's classroom.

It smells like rubber and the air is as crisp as it is in the school gymnasium--subtly getting me in the mood to sweat.

"This facility should prove more than adequate." Jessa says, directing us inside with a servant-like bow. "You'll be able to experiment with your powers to your heart's content, while I provide answers for any concerns that arise."

I reply with a quick "sure," thinking practical is always the better option, if mastery over the subject in question means a reduction in accidental disembowlments.

Then, I hear Miki behind me: "Wow! So cool" Drawing my attention, as I watch her twirling and looking around excitedly--when suddenly, she takes up a  boxing stance: energetically swerving, guarding and punching at the empty space between us.

"Alex, Miko, let's go--right now!"

Miko gives a look like she just witnessed a murder.

"What?! You want us to do it right here?"

"No, dumby!" Miki snapped, lowering her stance. "Get your head out of the gutter! We're in a cool-ass stadium, so I want us to fight!"

Now I'm the one who's witnessed a murder, as I turn to Miki.

"Ah, really? With your Charming Forms?" 

"Duh!" Miki scoffs, rolling her eyes as she's slowly walking away to be at Miko's side. "Why is everyone acting so stupid all of a sudden?"

"No, it's just...I've never seen yours before."

I'm strangely excited by the prospect. Ever since Blitz mentioned they worked well as a team, I've wondered what kind of System powers that could entail.

Also, I find it kind of funny that--

"I've seen you two naked, before I'll be seeing your Charming Forms!"

Miko is blushing. Miki bursts into laughter.

Jessa is taking a seat up high in the bleachers, clapping and giggling.

"Oh, my! I'm excited for the show, too!"

So, with palpable excitement in the air coming from all sides, without further ado we find our starting places--within a pair of white circles drawn unto the arena, spaced apart by several meters: me against Miki & Miko together.

Just as I'm about to activate my Charm Ring, though, I freeze--just as I remember...

"Uh." I give a nervous laugh, scratching the back of my head. "Alice, is...actually naked right now." And because I'm feeling the incriminating glares of Miki and Miko upon me, I sheepishly add, "from getting shot to death, by Ms. Alice today."

I can see Miko's eyebrow raise, and her auspicious glare, even at this distance. "Ms. Alice? Since when did you start calling her that...?"

Shit! I messed up. Fucking--

"Do you mean...Ms. Berlin?" Miki asks, tilting her head like a dumb dog.

"Y-y-yes. My tongue just slipped."

Miko crosses her arms, her expression serious. "Didn't sound like a mistake to me, Alex. It kind of sounds like you're on a first-name basis with a teacher."

I'm real flustered; I don't have to pretend:

"What?! Of cour--what exactly are you implying?"

Meanwhile, Jessa is completely oblivious of the unfolding drama--her palms clasped as she rocks back and forth, humming to herself.

Ah, this is bad though!

Miko is secretly the violent one, and now she's suspecting me of cheating--

Just as we're about to fight!

"Quit dawdling, you two!" Miki yells, beaming as she holds up her hand with the Charm Ring showing. "Let's~~~get  our charm on! Teehee!"

I timidly shift my gaze--from that, to Miko shooting eye lasers at me.

And I pause to watch, to see what form the imminent bringer of my destruction will adopt, as the dual vaccine barriers persist for a while…

First to emerge is Miki: as a little girl with a peach complexion wearing a pink and white themed pinup dress, with matching candy stripe patterned knee-socks and pink "drill tails" styled hair, who waves as she greets me with a chipper "hi hi!"

I nod slowly, giving a pathetic, silent wave of my own in return.

Really, I'm anxious to see--

Miko emerges from the barrier with a brazen stomp. Her outfit and hairstyle are completely identical to Miki's, except for her opposing green and black color scheme, and her retained dark complexion.

Also, I think she wants to make a soccer ball out of my head--judging by the shallow breathing and clenched mouth, and that ominous look she's giving me.

I hear Alice's laughter emanating from my ring.

"You've really stepped in it this time!"

"Listen, Miko--"I say as I'm changing into Alice mid-sentence. "It isn't what you're thinking!"

"Shut up!" She snaps back at me.

Miki is looking concerned, now. Like she's finally catching up.

"What's Miko so pissed about?"

She turns to me gravely.

"Miko's only kidding about you being with Ms. Berlin, right Alex?"

Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit.

So I'm freaking out, and that's when suddenly Miko does something I'm completely unprepared for by roughly grabbing Miki close and--

Hugging...her. Wrapping her shoulders.

Hugging, while never once taking her fearsome gaze off me for a second.

And I don't have to wait long to learn why.

Because, as she then pulls away, from her impromptu embrace with Miki--

A doppelganger has emerged--

Still clinging tight to Miki. Still staring daggers at me.

It is a perfect clone of Miko.

So, I'm facing 2 angry Mikos--

Until the clone hugs Miki again, and pulls away to reveal 3--

Then that clone does it again, to make 4--

All the while, the original Miki is hugging the clones as they emerge to create even more, and I realize I've completely lost count!

I hear Jessa laughing, even as I'm near-pissing my pants in fear.

But, speaking of pants: Alice isn't stripped to her underwear anymore! I'm wearing the full ensemble of the signature outfit that the Cultivators programmed unto her. Almost as if that whole incident--of being torn to pieces in a hail of bullets--was just a bad dream…

Luckily, part of "transcending humanity" must involve mind-reading, since Jessa has an answered prepared for me again:

"The signature outfit we design for each Charming Form is materialized in a similar way to vorpal weapons, with some adjustments made by our technicians." She explains. "For one, all outfit pieces will dematerialize when the user reverts to their mortal form, even if they have been removed from the body. Secondly, if the user--in their Charming Form--has stripped to their underclothes or naked before the reversion, the outfit will be rematerialized upon reinitiation of the Charm Ring; otherwise, the user will still be wearing whatever they'd had on before the reversion."

"Soooo, it's basically an anti-naked protocol built into the ring?"

"Yes." She beams, clapping her hands together. "Though we can have it removed from your Ring, if you like! It's our job to personalize the experience to suit every Vorpal Knight's individual taste."

"No thanks." Clothing is basically my ammunition, and I haven't gone full robot lolicon like you Cultivators, so…

"Get ready, Alex!" Miki calls out to me.

I turn at her voice--

Just as a small army of Miko clones is charging at me!

They're coming at me, all at once--

Some with huge, aggravated arm swings which I dodge easily--

Only for two to sneak up and grab me from behind, holding me still as the others crowd around to slap and claw me across the face, pull Alice's hair and pummel and knee me in the gut; albeit, not with the sheer bone-crushing force of a Power type, but something perhaps even more frightening: the uncontrolled, frenzied rage of a severely pissed off girlfriend--multiplied by several dozen!

Meanwhile, the original is overseeing the assault, standing with her arms crossed bearing a harshly indifferent air. Like a poker-faced General, sternly presiding over all the madness.

"Guys are still the same, even now." She says in a cold, low voice.

I'm let go, falling to my hands and knees.

My ribs hurt. I'm bruised and bloody.

Damn! Am I seriously getting beaten up twice in one day?

Not only that, but I find I can't bring myself to hit Miko--whether it's her Charming Form, a clone or the "real thing." Because guys aren't supposed to hit their girlfriends, right?

I'm grunting, trying to rise back up through my injuries: "Miko...I was with...Ms. Alice, first…"

A clone stomps on my back, pinning me.

The original walks up, stooping to look into my face with her intensely narrowed gaze as she tilts Alice's head up by the chin.

"Is that supposed to make it alright?"

I don't know how to answer--marking the third time that's happened today--as all of a sudden I find myself questioning if my System power is flawed in its ability to reverse brain damage.

Then, an all-new thought creeps in: maybe I do have an answer, but I'm just hesitant. Then there's Miki lingering in the background during all this, watching with these indecisiveness, shifting movements, like she's also hesitant. As if we're both on the same page in this, and Miko is just in need of a hard lesson in three-way relationships built upon democratic ideals…

That lesson being, the majority rules.

I crack a smile, ready to take a huge gamble: one that could either save my skin, or see me introduced to Miki's System powers in the worst possible way.

"I don't get why...it's such a big deal." I say. "I love Ms. Alice, and you both...equally."

Miki gasps, her eyes innocently wide. But Miko is baring her teeth, like she's itching to tear my throat out--for even daring to speak with such insolence!--holding me up slightly by the neck, rearing her arm back for a hit that'll no doubt cost me another few brain cells.

Only she is interrupted by a loud, but brief explosion, the rippling air currents causing her drill-tails to billow as an expression of  pure confused shock consumes her face.

Her voice is tense, uncertain: "Miki…?"

I had had my eyes closed at the exact moment of impact, bracing for Miko's knockout hit, so I missed it. But as I'm reopening them, I see that a thick ring of smoke is expanding outward all around us, obscuring my view of Miki as well as a large number of the Miko clones.

Jessa drums her feet in the bleachers, squealing with excitement.

"It's her System power!" She exclaims.

"Look at what you've done!" Miko snaps, ringing me with both hands as another explosion ensues, followed by another, and another. Each one, accompanied by a sickening splattering noise, like something moist and meaty slapping against a flat surface. "You've even turned Miki against me!"

I'm in a daze as it is, with her violent shaking only making it worse, but at the very least one thing has been made clear to me…

Miki has switched sides.

I raise Alice's clenched fist, and smash it against Miko's face.

It breaks her clutches on me and sends her reeling back, her painted-blue lip stained with red blood that she wipes off onto her arm, then looks at me as if...I'd just hit her.

"You just...hit me."

I struggle back to my feet, through the continual rocking of the stadium from the ceaseless explosions.

"Technically, it was Alice."

"Alex, this isn't a joke; you just hit me."

"Yeah, because you clobbering the shit out of me just now had no bearing on my decision whatsoever--"

"Because you cheated on me! On Miki!"

"Well, Miki doesn't seem to mind, now does she?"

As I say this, the disembodied head of one of the Miko clones comes flying out of the cover of smoke, landing at our feet with a slight roll.

I jump, screaming, instinctively flying into Miko's arms.

I wince, expecting a slap or something--

But she just smiles slightly.

"You're lucky you're so cute, or you'd be dead by now."

"Huh?" I stand apart from her. "I'm...cute?" A Miko leg with the foot attached sails past, which I barely duck fast enough to avoid. "You aren't just dating me because I'm the last guy in school."

She scoffs, crossing her arms and turning away. "Wow! You're so clueless."

"No, but I really thought...all this time--"

She punches me in the shoulder.

"You're safe for now, you cute idiot," she says, turning and walking from while she's smiling--though with a malicious vibe--toward the smoke and explosions. "But you, Miki and I, are going to have a nice sit-down to talk about this later."

I nod slowly, even though she can't see.

And I'm thinking--

Gah! It feels so weird, having this lovers' quarrel while we're both little girls!

Gradually, the smoke dies down as the explosions cease, unveiling the gruesome aftermath of Miki's carnage upon those poor, unfortunate Miko clones...

Trails, and pools, and dripping piles of gore and bone and guts are spread all across the arena. Worst of all, some Miko clones are still alive: desperately crawling with their hands, dragging their legless bodies across the ground; sitting with parts of their torsos blown open, struggling to contain their exposed guts from pouring loose. Screams and cries of agony abound.

From seeing and hearing all this, combined with the...the smell, I--

I vomit, and I can't stop. I fall to my knees and there's an eyeball right there, looking lost and alone without a face to call home, so I vomit even harder.

But Jessa is smiling, bright as ever.

"My daisies!" She says, with a giggle. "What a huge mess you've made!"

Meanwhile Miki is sobbing like a child just calming from a tantrum, in the middle of all this gorey mess, as the original Miko holds her, softly patting her back.

"Stop...fighting...you guys!" Miki strains through sobs, as Miko tries to comfort her:

"There, there."