And everything starts again.

I blush an even deeper shade of red as I say desperately,

“What? No, I can’t take acting classes. It would be super embarrassing, and I couldn’t even take most of the roles because of the ears and the tail.”

I realize that she might be mocking me, implying my acting skills are bad, and I say,

“Uh… was my acting so bad? I was just testing, okay? Don’t go thinking it was actually me trying to impress anyone.”

Then I get slightly scared as she comes closer to me with a smirk. She’s still blushing a bit as she says softly,

“Oh, don’t worry, I wasn’t mocking you. I actually found it pretty alluring. It might be some hidden talent of yours.”

My tail curls around my leg while my ears droop a bit, and I say, a bit embarrassed,

“You truly think that? I don’t really know if I want to do that. I mean, it was a bit fun, but it doesn’t seem like something I want to keep doing.”

She simply smiles, coming close to me and putting her hand on my arm as she says softly,

“But we can still check it out, right? It might be fun, even if just for fun.”

I’m not completely against the idea; it could be fun. I nod to her, agreeing. I just look at her for a moment, and then she says, looking at me with a slight smile, still blushing a bit,

“And about our earlier acting… I used a reference from an old fictional movie from a long time ago… Times have changed, okay?”

I simply nod, finding this mention of her references confusing. I simply say,

“Okay… we could watch this movie together sometime. I don’t know many old movies.”

I say this and step back from her as I smile and say,

“Today was really stressful, but I found it funny too. It was nice to learn a bit more about the Singularity. Thanks for lightening the mood a bit. I think I’ll just write today’s diary, and then I’ll take a nap. Can you call me to dinner if I’m still awake?”

I just see her nodding, still smiling. I go upstairs to my room to write the diary. I haven’t written much this time. I might finish it tomorrow. My handwriting has improved a bit but is still indecipherable to humans. Well, I’m already tired. I’ll just sleep and wait until I need to wake up again. I expect Cali will let me sleep until morning.

The next day, I wake up a few minutes before my alarm clock. I feel refreshed since I slept pretty early yesterday. I go downstairs still in my pajamas, only to see Cali sleeping sitting on the couch. As soon as I get downstairs, she opens her eyes and looks at me. Her face looks slightly disappointed for a moment before she looks surprised and comes to me to ask,

“Layla? What are you doing up so early? It’s still 4 AM. Are you excited to go to the theater class today?”

She smiles warmly as she asks this, but besides her words, she’s still scanning me up and down, searching for any abnormality. I really like how she always cares for me. I might play along this time.

“Yeah, I ended up sleeping pretty early yesterday. I was wanting to try these theater classes already, and who knows, maybe train some new skills to participate in those tournaments, right?”

I then lightly touch her shoulder and move to eat my breakfast. This time it surely won’t be a rushed meal. As I wait while Cali prepares the food, I notice her expression and movements are a little unusual. She might still be feeling guilty about yesterday’s incident.

“You know… you always do your job properly and without any mistakes, but I’ve learned to know when you’re shaken by something. So, what’s the problem?”

She just giggles slightly and puts the plate with some well-prepared toast and coffee as she sits beside me with a slight smile that’s still a bit sad, as she says,

“Thanks for noticing, I guess. Even I don’t know exactly when I’m being emotional or not. I can be really cold sometimes because of my medical training, but it looks like when I’m not treating some accident scene or something, my emotions just flood out.”

I just listen to what she has to say. The rest of the morning, I just talk with her while I eat my breakfast and then move to the hell that is putting on my school uniform. After some time putting on the uniform, I head downstairs again as Cali is just waiting next to the door.

“Cali, what are the plans for today? Besides the theater classes?”

“Hmm, I think we can go to your classroom first, don’t you agree? Maybe your classmates want to join too.”

I just nod at her, and we leave home to go to school. The transport to Alias is slower than conventional trains. The view outside is also beautiful—those green fields outside, broken by some vibrant colors of Nova Tempo city. Cali is surprisingly quiet this time, admiring the view.

Arriving at the Alias entrance, the same crowd of students is there. This time, Cali just waves her hand at the assistant bots’ group and follows me through the entrance while holding onto my arm. This is kind of embarrassing, but I don’t have a reason to be embarrassed, right?

As we walk, we hear some loud noise and see students surrounding a giant table. It’s almost impossible to see who’s there, but Cali looks at it, slightly surprised, and with a giant smile, she says,

“Oh, it’s Johan and Lucil. Let’s see.”

Cali takes me by the arm and gets me closer to the table, where the public around is buzzing with a mix of cheering and excited screams as Lucil, Johan, and some other cyborgs are sitting on one side of the table while robots come and go with plates full of food. They’re all eating nonstop, some not even chewing. It’s quite gross to see but also extremely funny.

“What are they doing?”

I ask Cali as I look at her excited expression. She looks to be enjoying it as she explains without taking her eyes off it,

“Oh, you don’t know? When someone gets a prosthesis, it consumes some energy from the body, so when people lose a body part, they start to feel much hungrier. Well, there are other ways to use the mechanical parts without forcing your body too much.”

As she finishes explaining this to me, Limer speaks. When did she arrive at my side? This was scary.

“But where’s the fun in it, Cali? This way, they can eat almost nonstop. Eating competitions like that would never be so fun, don’t you think?”

As soon as she says that, Lucil stops eating and turns his head back, with a hand over his eye, as he sighs. He looks completely full.

“Hahaha, I told you that just an eye wouldn’t be enough to compete in this category, Lucil. Good luck next time.”

Johan says this while continuing to eat. He doesn’t let any bit of food spill out while eating. Two other students also give up as the competition just remains with Johan and another cyborg who has his torso fully mechanical. The two cyborgs quicken the pace as the screen behind them starts to count down from 15 minutes while Lucil walks slowly to us when he notices the three of us watching them.

“It’s almost ending. I lost count of how much they’ve already eaten. This competition is really not for someone like me.”

Lucil says, almost looking like he's going to vomit, but holding himself back as he watches the time run down.