Unique charm

After abusing a lot of brain cells for an hour, I had finally managed to limit the potential names to five finalists. Each of them had some kind of deeper meaning:

Capti - a Latin word for ‘trapped’ as she was trapped inside that vessel and in a sense I was trapped with her.

Garnet - which was, of course, the name of the precious stone with deep red inclusions, just like the crimson shade visible underneath her pale skin.

Shiro - a little cliché based on her hair color, nevertheless pretty.

Luna - a more commonly known Latin word meaning ‘the moon’, slightly connected to her mysterious, darkish nature and pale appearance.

Sola - and yet another Latin-based word, but I had changed it a little to make it sound more feminine and didn’t really feel like thinking about the meaning behind it.

While wondering how three out of five had ended based on Latin I prepared five small pieces of paper, wrote the names down, put them into an empty glass, shook a little, closed my eyes, picked one at random and the winner was - Luna.

“Luna, Lu-na, Lun-a.”

After repeating it thrice to ‘taste’ the sound of it, I made my decision.

Sounds good, I hope she likes it.

I took the phone and leaned it on the table against a glass in a way that we could talk without me holding it close or hanging over her.

“I’ve picked one. Nice to meet you, Luna.”

The display turned on, she stretched on the armchair as if she just woke up and I saw her cutely trying to stifle a yawn, or at least I could have seen it if there was no mask on her face. She just moved her hands in a similar manner.

“Master is there some kind of meaning behind it?”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“No! Don’t get me wrong! I know that sometimes it may not look it, but I’m a girl you know? I would simply love to have a meaningful name.”

She was referring to her current action of arranging her white hair, covered with that bluish substance, after un-gluing it from the armchair.

“Listen to me carefully Luna. This name wasn’t a random pick, I put a lot of thinking into it. It means ‘the moon’, your pale radiance and mysterious atmosphere are like a moonlight night, as there is only one moon on the earth’s sky you’re the only one among the people known to me with such a unique charm.”

“Master! I really like it! I really do, and now I also know that master likes to use corny pseudo-romantic-”

“Shut it.”

“-lines that are probably a random mish-mash of suitable words.”

“I regret giving you this personality, I really do.”

I looked away to hide my embarrassment and the fact that I had wanted to impress her a little. Still, she looked happy with it.

“Oh, right! Master, I’ve checked and master can use this vessel as a normal phone. Take the phone and I will tell master how… good, now stand up… good, now extend master’s hand up as if master was trying to catch range.”

“Luna, do I really have to do all that if I want to use it?”

Standing in a pose similar to the one I did while praising the sun, I started to get suspicious.

“Don’t worry master, there’s only one step left. Now please shout ‘PHONE MODE ACTIVATE!’”

Calmly, I went to the window and opened it, a breeze of cold air flew into the flat.

“It won’t work if master doesn't do that, trust me.”

“Of course I trust you… Go Luna go, towards the moonlit sky, ROCKET MODE ACTIVATE!”

“Maaaaster I’m sorry! Please don’t! I was just trying to hide my embarrassment!”

Her earnest appeal stopped me right before I was to swing my arm. I didn’t really plan to throw the phone, but it might have slipped out of my hand if she didn’t apologize.

I went back with her to the table.

“Luna, let’s be serious for a moment.”

“Yes, master.”

She sat cross-legged on the armchair, slightly leaning back to rest her body on it, which also put more accent on how tightly the knee-socks were wrapped around her petite calves and thighs.

“I don’t regret giving you this part. Of personality. Anyway, I’ve made my mind and decided to give you a very small amount of trust. But! One, I repeat O-N-E, suspicious action, strange behavior, harmful lie, anything like that and you won’t even be going back to the comfy plastic box in that cemetery. I will dig out a shallow grave in the backyard and bury you like a dead hamster, got it?”

“Yes, master. I’m really glad that master has decided to give me a chance, but about the other thing I’ve mentioned…”

“Don’t worry Luna, I’m not planning on making you lend me this thing power.”

“That’s great master! Now we can play together without worries!”

She happily stood up, accompanied by the sound similar to peeling protective film off plastic.

It has to be a pain in the ass to unglue and arrange your hair each time after you lean against something.

“So about the phone options, do you think you can at least tell me the time? I used to check it on my old phone, before it had exploded, or laptop, before it had been stolen, but now this flat is timeless. Basing it on sun’s position is kind of hard, already tried it.”

“That’s simple! Master doesn’t have to pose or shout, but it really turns into a normal phone when master says ‘phone mode activate’ and reverts to the view of my room when master says my name.”

“You've got to be kidding me!”

“No master, I set it up like that myself and no, I won’t change it no matter how much master wants me to. By the way master, can master tell me the story behind the phone and laptop?”

“...”

With the money I had, even thinking about buying a new phone was blasphemous. That’s why I moved this one closer to my mouth and whispered as silently as possible.

“Phone mode activate.”

“Nyaa~, I can feel, aaHHh, master breath, UuuMMm, on my exposed, oOOhh, skin.”

“Stop moaning you stupid six-eyed thing and give-”

I stopped in the middle because when I looked at the screen there was a perfectly normal phone interface displayed on it.

It has actually worked.

“Luna.”

The display reverted back to the meaty gore room with the small girl standing inside.

“Hai, hai, master?”

“Phone?”

Nothing.

“Phone mode?”

Nothing.

“Phone mode activate?”

It worked.

“You’re going to stay in this mode for the rest of your life, I won’t be able to bear the disgrace of saying it aloud even one more time.”

“Ksksksks~, master talks as if master can withstand the temptation of playing with me.”

Her laughter sounded really strange, it was a cheerful, bright and pleasant to the ear voice of a young girl, yet there was something insect-like mixed within as if it was produced by a mouth not suited for this action.

It was nearly 9 PM.

“Luna, do-, ah god damn it, you will revert every time I call your name won’t you?”

“Not me master, the vessel will! And yes every single time.”

“Whatever, earlier you ‘felt’ that I’m bound by geas, right? Can you do anything else without using the power of that phone?”

She tried to scratch her cheek, but it got stopped by the black fox mask, so she switched to tapping on it with her pointing finger.

“Well… yeah, a little shouldn’t be a problem. If I’m really close to someone I can feel things like activating geas or an active usage of mana, other than that… nothing at the moment.”

I don’t buy it.

“Alright, stop. I told you that acting suspicious will get you killed, so tell me everything.”

“Eeeeh? But master! Master won’t like it!”

“Just tell me everything and let me decide myself.”

She looked around as if searching for a convenient way of changing the topic, but gave up after I made a sour face.

“Fine! I will tell it! Master mana level sucks, rocks bottom! It’s so low that for a while I was almost convinced that there was none and was wondering ‘how was it possible for a normal person to create his own DOLL?’, I mean, is master even an esper? This amount is like a common tiny pebble lying uselessly near the road. Happy now master? Don’t hate me for stating the truth!”

She seemed to be preparing for my outburst of anger.

“That’s it?”

“M-m-master? M-master is ok with that?”

Was it really such a big deal? There’s always an option of hunting for mana spots if I will ever need more.

However, Luna apparently didn’t agree with my way of thinking as she stood frozen solid.

“Why are you so shocked?”

“I just thought that master wouldn’t like to be called a pathetic failure of an esper. Is master more of an ‘M’ than I thought?”

“And you were right. Master doesn’t like to be called a pathetic failure of an esper, but I prefer it to you hiding things from me, understand? It’s not as if this was the first time you tried to insult me, and don’t you even dare to give me the ‘M’ label.”

“But master! Then I was half-joking, teasing master, but now I’m serious, I really think that and I don’t want to seriously insult my master…”

‘But now I’m serious', 'you’re a pathetic failure of an esper’, ouch.

I had mixed feelings about her statement and the best way to deal with such situations was to ignore them.

“Ok I got it, let’s forget about this matter. So since I can’t supply you with more mana, all you can do is to feel it around yourself, right? That’s good enough already, aren’t you a precious detector of espers and mana spots?”

Luna turned each of her three pairs of eyes in a different direction to avoid direct eye contact between us.

Damn! They can move independently of each other? That’s quite awesome and rather creepy! But is she embarrassed, lying or feeling bad about something? Can’t tell much with that mask on.

“I like it when master calls me precious, but I have to disappoint master. Mana spots are in a passive state, I can’t feel them at all, the same about espers who aren’t currently using their powers. I only checked master’s when master was helping in my creation.”

“But, when someone is using it and you’re close enough then you can feel it and will do that free of charge, right?”

“Yes, I can and will, purely out of my loyalty to master!”

This time the fervent gaze of her blue pupils didn’t leave me for a second.

“Just inform me every time you notice something, alright?

“Ay, ay, master!”

“Dismissed.”

She saluted and went back to nest in her leather armchair.

I pressed the top button on the phone, which was apparently a sign for her that I wanted to end our conversation as she had turned off the display.



The night was young and I had slept a lot during the day so I was preparing to go out. It was a good occasion to walk around the city for four hours. Luna went into my jacket’s breast pocket, the phone fit perfectly into it.

It’s not as if her comment about my pathetic mana level is bothering me… but it won’t hurt to localize a mana spot or two just in case.

“Master, what was what ‘pssshhhsss’ noise?”

“Oh, that? It was only the dehermetization process of my front door. You can’t see it?”

“All’s black inside my master.”

“You mean inside your master’s pocket, anyway here take a look.”

As I was really proud of my recent purchase I took out Luna and showed her every detail of my important door.

For sure she's working hard to make me like her, over one hundred times.

“Master… did master stole that from NASA or a spaceship has crashed nearby?”

“That’s rude, I bought it online. I take my security seriously.”

“But master, at this point wouldn’t it be easier to simply break through the wall instead of wasting time on that?”

“... I didn’t think about that.”

During the next fifteen minutes, I walked in silence, pondering over her words.

It was relatively early and there were still some people walking on the snowy sidewalks. Everyone was being careful, some of the snow had melted during the day only to create a slippery ice layer at night.

It is indeed just as she has said and one Adam with a drill can make a hole in the wall to let Rora inside. I have no money left to reinforce the defenses or to rent an underground dwelling. Moreover, with Viktoria's luck, she may be able to get herself invited to my neighbors flat and suddenly pam! A secret passage has appeared, back from the times of war or something, and it will be leading straight into my bedroom.

I wonder if Luna will agree to placing the phone on the corridor so she could scream if someone breaks in.

I stopped this train of thoughts, it was getting far too ridiculous and far-fetched. At this rate, I would fall into a paranoia. Not to mention that I didn’t saw any signs of either of them for almost a whole day.

It bodes well, right?

“Master, where are we going?”

“For a little walk.”

Talking to your phone on a loudspeaker in a public place was at most rude, but other than that no one had paid it any attention.

According to Votr’s words, all I had to do to activate his 'present' was to think about using it.

“Master did something? I can feel some mana swirling around master.”

“...”

“Master?”

“...”

“Master?!”

“...”

“Master! Something’s wrong?!

“Luna, just what the hell is that?”