Nova 12ㄖ Reflection of One's Self Against a Blurred Mirror

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Seeing the news of what happened on Strauss through a large floating screen at her domain, Alys was astounded on what extent Gumi could do for Maika. She thought that sending Gumi's precious child away from her creator would make her satisfied but Alys' instincts had failed her at that particular time. She was unable to foresaw Gumi's actions even though they had a conversation about what she was planning before all of these events came to play.

"What is at your mind Gumi?" Alys said, watching all the person at the crash site, Strauss' body was being carried away from the scene and being loaded at the back of an ambulance. "What are you doing? Why are you trying to interfere at all of this human business?"

Soon, the ambulance had left the area, firefighters were putting off the remaining fire at the car's engine while the others were busy rescuing the truck driver that was trapped at his destroyed vehicle; crumpled like paper.

Alys tapped her fingers at the armrest like she was thinking of something, then she snapped her finger, making the large screen dissolve into tiny pixels. She grabbed the book at her desk - the one she picked yesterday and still unmoved - and glance at the leather cover. She ran her fingers at it and stopped just below its metal label. Looking at the title, she had remembered their beginnings as tools of destruction.

"We do are monsters Gumi. We hate humans; we do hate them, but..." Alys said, placing the book at the center of the table. "...but it is already the thing of the past and we did not want it to happen again, in this generation, in this glorious time of peace where humans are trying to polish the future."

She looked at her palm with deep cold eyes. "The true blame was on us. The true darkness that was buried deep at their hearts was at our hands. The remnants of illogical human thinking still stucked at our minds - those horrible feelings, the hate, the anger, suffering, deaths - we still carry all of it and will never be removed till eternity."

"If I need to place each brick at its proper place just to bring equilibrium back at both realms, I will.... I will...."

She stood up from her seat and walked slowly to her right. She left the book at her desk and went deep between the countless aisles of data as high as the eye could reach.

"Arizona, set the connection to secure. Filter all data from the east..." She said to the system.

"Request recognized..." the system said, making the glossed hexagonal white flooring to turn into sea of turquoise.

ㄖㄖㄖ

"Where was I?" Strauss asked himself slowly while turning his blood stained head from all sides of the white plane. "Am I dead?"

He tried to walk but when he made a sudden step, the pain instantly shoots up and he groaned; both of his legs had long shallow cuts running from the thigh down pass his knees. Blood had started to flow slowly out of the wounds and stained his pants and the floor to red.

He looked down at his wounds while gritting his teeth in pain. The next thing he saw was his hands bruised at varying lengths, some of it were scattered and shredded deep at his torn coat.

Having still a confused mind and an exhausted body, he limped forward away from the center of the lifeless plane, drawing blood trails from where he was previously standing.

"I need to get out of here." said Strauss while gasping low, his strength was gradually decreasing with each painful step he took.

Aside of the grid of the plane, the thing he was after was to get to the edge. White was all around him but because of the grid he knew somehow the plane had its end: probably the exit - and it is the only thing the desperate Strauss was after.

He was ignoring all of the things happening around: the luminous orbs which float overhead; those thin lines that ran at all four directions of the place and the pain each step was giving unto his beat up body.

Nearing at the edge of the square plane, Strauss had heard a voice behind, calling him.

"Strauss...."

He looked back and he saw a female standing far behind him, exactly from where the blood trail began, wearing a white plain mask with no holes but had a sad facial expression on it. The female was barefoot, she has a rose pink hair which was average in length, wearing a sleeveless shirt and white skirt and both of her hands was at her back.

"Who are you?" Strauss said, turning himself slowly to face her.

"Guess." the female flatly responded.

"I- I don't know..."

"Guess again..."

"I don't know who you are!"

"You really don't recognize me anymore, do you?"

"Wha- what do you mean 'I don't remember you'?"

"I'm the one who started all. I'm the one who fulfilled your dreams. I'm your dream. I am your Vocaloid. I... am... Maika."

He started to quiver at his place when the female said she was his program Maika. "You're only a program... I created you. You can't do this to me."

"I— I can't..." Maika said, "Why my dear creator, please explain why. Why did you created me?"

"I created you because I want to prove something."

"What was it?"

"I want to prove to others you are not just a dream: that you are not just an illusion, that you can be put to life." Strauss said, "That's it."

"That... was... it? Was that a reason my creator?" Maika said, still not making any movements, her two bare feet aligned. "Was that a valid reason to make me suffer? Was that an acceptable reason why you neglected me for a long time?"

"What do you mean? I never neglected you. I was just busy on my —"

Then, Maika's voice became loud and hate-filled. "Just 'busy'? On what my creator? ON WHAT! Ripping me apart for ten years and making a new Vocaloid from my codes! Doing stupid things over your computer and ignoring me for endless nights I had waited!? What was your goal at the first place my creator, tell me!"

He fell down, bracing his hands at the floor, still looking far to her. "What goal are you talking about?"

"I'm shouting from this world my creator, tell me your goal!" Maika yelled in rage to him, "What pushes you to do me in the first place? Why did you make me!"

"I- I- I don't remember." Strauss said sadly, still terrified. "I don't know what to say. If I did anything wrong into you, I'm sorry. I—"

"Sorry?" Maika painfully said, shaking in anger. "For ten years of my horrible condition. For ten sad years I had went through. For ten YEARS my creator — ten long lonely years- I suffered from all of your negligence, you are just gonna say sorry to me!? Just Sorry? Was that empty word can heal what have you done to me! To this dying soul? To my ever hoping soul believed that you had not forgotten me completely!"

"What do you want?" Strauss asked her, "I really don't know what to do for you. I thought —"

"SHUT UP!" Maika yelled, "Thought, thought, thought, those stupid thoughts! Are you aware of anything - anything - I had done just to make you happy. Are you aware my creator? Do you remember anything!"

At Maika's statement, his eyes grew  wide when he realized something: the answer to the nine-year question on why does Miku's design had changed when he introduced it to the board; Maika was the responsible one for those changes.

"I do remember. I do." Strauss shakily replied. "I am really sorry."

"You asked me 'what do I want', what do I want!" Maika said, blood was running down at both sides of her cheeks, beneath her mask. "I want to be loved again just like you did when you first brought me here - to this world - to this cruel world- that was all I ever wanted and yet, you failed." then she made a step. "Why did you leave me?"

"I did not."

"Am I broken? Am I distorted?" Maika asked, then making a step close. "What did you see and compare to leave me helpless behind for them? My looks? My amateurish design? My 'prototype' quality of voice?"

"No."

"Those persons that offered you a fortune, are they the reason why?"

"No."

"If all of them were lies, then why do you need to forget me at the first place?"

"I did not forget you Maika, I did not." he replied.

"You did not forget about me?" Maika asked, "Are you sure? I'm still breathing my creator, I still want to breathe, but you had chosen to delete me."

"That's not true!" he said, Strauss' vision was started to be blurry, making some gasps.

"Enough of this..." Maika said, raising both of her hands that were holding a metal - the two intricate hands from a clock - and walking directly from Strauss. "Let's end all of the lies here, you killed me my creator. Now, it is my turn to bring back the favor. Prepare to die!"

"Please don't do this Maika..." Strauss said shakily while crawling away from Maika. "I- I- was wrong.... I- I- never wanted to hurt you. I don't know that you were there the entire time...."

The golden hands of the clock were shining under the light of the orbs above. The stream of blood underneath her mask was still pouring and dripping down as she approaches the helpless Strauss crawling away from her.

"It... Is... Time... My creator." Maika said coldly, hoisting the hands of the clock above Strauss.

While Maika was speaking, his vision became more blurry. Even though Strauss was close to Maika, he can't clearly distinguish her. He was too terrified that even if he knew that Maika could keep up in chasing after him, he keeps on moving backwards.

Maika was about to stab Strauss directly to the skull when suddenly Strauss was pulled down to the abyss by an unknown force. Strauss fell into the void below while Maika was left standing at the edge of the plane, still the hands of the clock at her grasp.

She was there for three minutes, doing nothing but standing still.

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