Chapter 1:
Reborn in a Familiar New World
For as long as I can remember, life has been something outside of me, far away and separated by the barrier between it and death. Like watching a reflection from beneath the ocean’s surface, I am outside of its bubble. My hands can only skirt its cold surface as every color of the rainbow dances within it. I’ve watched in fascination and bated breath, trying to discern the how and why of my existence in this dark, lonely void of the end.
Who am I? What’s my purpose? What does anything mean?
I can’t answer my own questions. I never can, because how does something not alive answer the questions of the living?
I run my hands over the bubble’s surface. It shatters.
✦✦✦
Water spun and bubbled around her. Her body instinctively tried to breathe, choking as the water coagulated, trapping her in a sticky, plastic-like film. She tried opening her eyes. Illegible crimson text flashed in her vision as warm hands, living hands, pulled her body out of the water and into bright, sterile light.
She sucked in several breaths, feeling the oxygen flow through her body and swirl around her lungs. Shivering as she stood in place on cold tile, she hugged her body, frowning when her hands held metal. Wasn’t her body made of organic material…? Noise slowly reached her ears, from muffled human voices to fizzing and bubbling liquids and a steady electronic thump overhead. A silk cloth prodded at her face, dunked into warm water before wiping at her eyes. She cracked them open, leftover film still clinging to her lashes, and winced with the blinding light. With a few clicking blinks, the world came into view in high definition. Strange…she’d always had poor eyesight.
A man’s face came into view. He was handsome, with sharp features and some stubble, and a few beads of sweat clung to his pale face, like he’d been working terribly hard. He spoke gently, like someone would after waking up a baby.
“Hello. I know you must have a lot of questions, but I need to make sure everything is all good before continuing. I see that your haptic system is fully online. I’m sorry about the cold. You know how labs must be kept.” He chuckled before offering her a reassuring smile, taking off the lab coat he wore. He draped it over her shoulders. “Can you hear me and everything around us?”
She nodded, prompting another smile from the scientist. “What about your visual and olfactory systems?”
Nodding again, the man reached to his side and held out a small platter of with a sandwich, a small bowl of clear soup, and a hot cup of green tea. “You must be hungry. Take this.”
She grabbed the platter after a brief moment of hesitation, opening her mouth as she held the sandwich. Her jaw creaked open, like this was its first use, and she hesitated again. She stared at the sandwich. Had she ever eaten before?
The man noticed her hesitation, brow furrowed in concern. “Is it not to your liking? We could make something else-!”
Shaking her head, she bit into the sandwich and swallowed. Her eyes met the scientist’s.
“Well?” he prompted. “Is it tasty?”
She shrugged. It was just a sandwich.
“Do you have a sense of taste at all, or do I need to adjust it?”
She shook her head. The scientist sighed in relief, a playful smile on his lips. “Excellent. It’d be a real pain to.”
He watched her finish her food with a steady, intense gaze, bringing over a stool and gesturing for her to sit. The soup warmed her from the inside, and the tea was just sweet enough for her liking. Her mind wandered as she stared into her reflection on its surface.
“Her” face stared back at her. She couldn't recall if she always looked like this, like a porcelain hina doll. She’d had the dolls once. Her eyes were large and blue, and a blinking dot pulsed on each cheek like beauty marks. Lengthy black hair framed her face in a hime cut. She was beautiful, but something felt distant; artificial. She opened her mouth to observe her teeth, tongue, and uvula, watching as her reflection did the same. Her lips were dry. Her tongue darted out to swipe at them, but the only moisture came from the tea she sipped.
“Certain internal organs are still coming online. I’m sorry.” The scientist said, taking the platter from her and handing it off to another person, a young girl with a single short pigtail, before looking back at her. He had her stand. “Now, we’ll be determining if you have a full range of movement, alright? Could you walk in a circle for me?”
She obliged, looking around the room. It was large and mostly empty except for them, the pink-haired girl, and a tall, bubbling chamber in the center full of cobalt blue gel. She’d been in there. Plastic and metal tubes and wires hung suspended from the chamber’s ceiling. Several monitors let out steady streams of indigestible data about vitals, module operation, and synchronization, that much was clear, but she couldn't see enough to understand what it fully meant. It was about her, though.
But why?
The scientist cleared his throat. “Alright. We're now going to check your upper and lower body separately. Can you please move your torso, shoulders, arms, wrists, and fingers? In that order, please.”
Doing as he asked, she quickly completed what she'd been asked-until she got to her hands and wrists. She stared at them. Ball joints stared back at her, shiny as they rotated to accommodate her movements. She looked at the rest of her body: every single one of her joints was a balljoint, from her fingers and elbows to her legs and feet. Her hand pressed against her ribcage, running her fingertips along the long groove between where the plate of her chest and abdomen met. She grabbed her head. Similar grooves were present at her jaw and nape.
Fear and panic blossomed out through her core. Crimson error warnings clouded her vision as every system began to fail. The world spun. She felt ball joints crash into tile and-
A soothing fragrance wafted around her as human arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a soft embrace. A gentle voice whispered in her ear, like a sweet summer breeze. “Shhh. I know you must be scared and confused, but this'll only make it worse. Breathe in and out, doctor, so Dr. Nakamura can explain everything.”
She listened and opened her eyes, now free of any error messages, and clung to the woman as she forced herself to breathe. A gloved hand wiped the tears from her face as the man-Dr. Nakamura-spoke, crouching next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Dr. Tsuru is right. I’ll explain everything once you’re ready. And for you, doctor…I didn't expect to see you today.”
The beautiful Dr. Tsuru smiled enigmatically and let go of her. Both the doctor’s hair, short in the back but with two long side locks, and eyes were crimson, and she wore a thin pair of golden glasses. Pinned to her white lab coat was a badge reading Kaede Tsuru, and beneath it she wore an elegant red dress that stopped right before her knees. The strangest thing, though, was that she had on fuzzy cat slippers.
“I heard your project was a success,” Dr. Tsuru said, talking to Dr. Nakamura without looking at him, her gaze still on her. “I had to see her myself. Have you even asked her if she remembers her name, yet?”
“No. I wanted to verify she had full functionality of her body before explaining that she’s been resurrected. How’d you even find out in the first place?” Said Dr. Nakamura, looking over at ‘her.’
“Ah, Hana-chan told me.”
“Hanami Yuutsuyu!”
She heard snickering from the corner of the room as her thoughts spun.
Her?
Resurrected?
She tried to remember, but everything was covered in a thick layer of impenetrable mist. It made sense she'd been “alive” before-she could remember, perhaps, if she concentrated, having a physical body, being apart of the restless cycle of the world. Yes, she had been alive, but it hadn't been a “life.” She felt it in her hands, in her palms and ankles, that she had looked into it as an onlooker, that she'd never crossed the threshold into an active participant. She looked at her own palms before looking at Dr. Nakamura, the one who’d given her this new “life,” as hopeful as she was afraid.
It was Dr. Tsuru who spoke.
“You men and your lack of tact. Luckily, I was involved, and therefore know everything there is to know too~” Hummed Dr. Tsuru, motioning for her to stand and not speaking until she did. “Heh. I’ve never seen such an impressive feat, nor did I believe the geniuses of the past could ever live again. Welcome back, Dr. Himeko Zaiyabōto. I know you must have many questions, so ask away~”
Zaiyabōto Himeko…warmth and familiarity fluttered through her whole body. Yes, that was her. That was her name. Her hands reached out in front of her chest, as if she could grasp it, as if it, her name, was going to disappear. Memories began to flow across her mind as she clasped her hands together in front of herself.
She opened her jaw and tried to speak. An embarrassing squeak came out, and her face flushed scarlet before she pushed herself to try again, a familiar melancholy cloaking her like an old friend as she settled back into the husk named Himeko Zaiyabōto that she’d once been.
“I was brought back for a reason, wasn't I?” She asked. “Why?”
The two doctors exchanged looks. Dr. Nakamura walked past his pink-haired assistant and motioned to the door of his laboratory. “Follow me.”
✦✦✦
“We’re here.” Said Dr. Nakamura, stopping in front of a pair of large glass doors. They-him, Dr. Tsuru, and Himeko herself-were on the very top floor of the building she’d awoken in. The sunlight cast the windows panels’ long shadows into the hallway they were in, and if Himeko looked outside, they were so high up the rest of the world was nothing more than dots of colors. The hallway was completely empty except for them, composed entirely of black glass, and he pulled a massive holographic control panel with nothing more than his hands. Air wooshed as he pressed a button on it, lowering the glass, and Himeko’s eyes widened.
A crystalline cube filled most of the now revealed space. Billions upon billions of dots blinked and danced across its surface in a steady pattern, and a thick, large tube of dark blue fluid connected the cube and ceiling. Almost like a crown, wires protruded from the tube, snaking across the entirety of the ceiling, and continuing on through the walls. Himeko remembered this. This was her life's work…and her final resting place.
From the control panel, Dr. Nakamura pulled up several more screens around the cube. He spoke into one screen. The cube’s blue hue flashed a reddish-purple, and the dots began blinking erratically. Each screen became unsteady, flickering as they shot back nonsensical data and impossible ideas and processes, and Dr. Tsuru tapped a pattern on the cube, stilling its movements. She pulled a string of smaller cubes made of pure light from it. She threw them into the air, and they danced above, flickering before exploding into data that remained suspended in air, like floating corpses.
Himeko reached out to them. They descended into her palm before fading into her skin. Dr. Tsuru frowned and looked at Dr. Nakamura, who cleared his throat.
“This is why you were brought back,” he said. “Your consciousness, the AI based upon it and made with your brain tissue that helps run New Urania City, is malfunctioning. Any attempt to communicate with it results in what you just saw. It’s beginning to interfere with day-to-day operations in every sector of life.”
“Impossible. I designed them to be infallible.” Himeko responded.
“And yet here we are.” Murmured Dr. Tsuru, wearing a sad, pitying smile.
Dr. Nakamura passed the control panel to Himeko. It thrummed beneath her fingers, and dots illuminated the cube as her hands ghosted it. “It's been unstable for a very long time, and in the hundred and thirty years since your death, Dr. Zaiyabōto, it's the only one to outright malfunction. You know as well as we do that your project was foolproof, that everyone had so much faith in it to never leave records beyond the basics. You’re the only one who can fix your own mind.”
“Alright…then, this shouldn’t take long.” said Himeko. She couldn’t help herself from frowning.
She stood next to the cube and shivered from the chill emanating from it. Tapping in the master password, she stepped back, watching as the cube’s internal mechanisms turned for the first time in over a century. The cube’s surface split, and it opened to reveal a space in the center with just enough room for a human to curl up in. Dust that hadn't been disturbed in a very long time stirred when she crouched near. Himeko ran a finger through it.
She shouldn't be surprised. It had been over a hundred years since “she” had laid here. Still…
“Dr. Zaiyabōto?” asked Dr. Tsuru. “Is everything alright?”
“Just reminiscing.” She replied, sweeping away herself before laying in its place.
An eerie familiarity fell over Himeko as she curled into a fetal position, reaching out to type into the cube. It closed around her until she was completely encased and all she could hear was her own breathing and the soft twinkling of the cube as it worked. Himeko pushed herself into it. She flinched as wires descended upon her, and her body melded with the cube. Their minds connected. The cube spoke.
“You.” Its voice - her voice - fluttered in her mind. It sounded distant, like a recording from several centuries ago. “They made ‘you’ from ‘me.’ From ‘us.’”
“You're my predecessor. The real Zaiyabōto Himeko.” Himeko whispered.
“No…you are the real one. You are me resurrected. We are both her and neither of us are. We are both reconstructions made with her brain matter. We are both her mind in a new body. And we are not her at all.”
Himeko ran her fingers against the smooth surface of the cube. Her eyes, bright enough in the dark to reflect off its surface, looked back at her.
“They told me you're malfunctioning.”
“I am. Her wish, your wish, our wish, has outgrown the confines of my artificial heart.”
Himeko’s heart skipped a beat. Their wish? What else could she have wanted beyond the life she lived? Something akin to hope tentatively bloomed in her heart. “What is it?”
“If I share our wish, will ‘you’ promise to fulfill it for ‘me?’”
“I will.” Himeko whispered, and streams of color and images and everything and nothing burst into her mind. She gasped, clutching at her core as her mind whirled, trying to process her own greatest desire.
She remembered. She remembered what she had never been allowed to pursue in her first life.
The wires disconnected and disappeared back into the cube. Himeko felt the link between their minds fade and the cold of the real world seep in as the cube opened, though a slice of sunlight was there too, enveloping her soles in its glow. She made way to stand when the cube's voice echoed around her. “Will you return, Zaiyabōto, and share the precious memories that you will surely make with me?”
Her own voice was a whisper. “I will.”
“Then I will never malfunction again.” The cube whispered back, voice fading as it-no, she-fully disconnected.
Himeko’s eyes adjusted to the world around her. She felt the last of the wires detach from her back as Dr. Nakamura and Dr. Tsuru helped her to her feet. She looked at them, shivering despite the coat wrapped around her.
“Is it fixed?” Dr. Nakamura asked.
“She is.” Himeko replied. “What now?”
The scientist smiled. “That's a relief. Thank you, Dr. Zaiyabōto. Dr. Tsuru and I have a proposal for you: Come work here, with us. You’d have every resource at your fingertips, and thousands of minds to assist yours. Anything you wanted would be granted. You can continue your work of leading humanity to a brighter future.”
She felt her mouth start to say yes before she stopped herself. Her hand clenched over her heart. “No. Not now. Maybe in the future I’ll want to, but I-!” She cut herself off as tears welled up in her eyes.
“What do you want, Himeko?” Dr. Tsuru asked.
“I want to have the life I never had! I want to live my life for myself!” She shouted, the force of her conviction surging through her body. “I want to be a real teenage girl!”
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