Character Story 8: Another Me

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Scene: A prison in Landsol.

Kasumi
Assistant! Sorry for calling you here in the middle of the night, but we've got an emergency situation!

Kasumi
My apologies, but I'm also confused about it so I can't really explain clearly...

Kasumi
Anyway, seeing is believing, so I'd like for you to confirm Kiiri's current condition. ^[1]

Kasumi
Yeah, there's something strange about her.

Kasumi
In the midst of us communicating more and more, she seemed well so I let my guard down.

Kasumi
She's a Shadow. An unidentified, ephemeral being... A vague thing whose physiology and disposition are still in the process of being researched.

Kasumi
I forgot about all that. This was my blunder.

Kasumi
I'm unfit to be a Great Detective. This was a situation that should have come up in my hypotheses, and yet...

Kiiri
….......

Kasumi
Kiiri! Are you okay, can you understand me?

Kiiri
"Gr... De.. ive"

Kasumi
There's some noise mixed in with her voice, or rather it's become difficult to comprehend her.

Kasumi
And look here, Assistant. Isn't her form starting to become transparent?

Kasumi
Her outline is wavering and her shape is starting to blur. Her mass has been decreasing as if she's about to vanish. Like a dream, or an illusion.

Kasumi
However, I'd like to avoid that situation. The research on Shadows still needs to continue and, personally, I've grown quite fond of Kiiri.

Kasumi
I refuse to part ways here.

Kasumi
That's why, Assistant, I have a request.

Kasumi
I'd like you to strengthen Kiiri with your strange power.

Kasumi
That mysterious power used to power up others, please use it.

Kasumi
Only you possess that inherent power to bring about miraculous phenomena... I've only got you to rely on, Assistant.

Kasumi
This is my deduction, whose truth is backed by statistics. In the first place Shadows are unstable. I believe they are not beings who are able to persist for long periods of time.

Kasumi
That is why sightings seem to be so rare-- Shadows disappear immediately.

Kasumi
As such, once the sun shines on them they are erased, just like actual shadows.

Kasumi
So the reason a Shadow such as Kiiri would be able to persist for an exceptionally long time... is most likely because of your strange power.

Kasumi
You strengthened Kiiri's very existence up using that power.

Kasumi
That's why she was able to persist in this world for so long and stay alongside us. It was certainly, undoubtedly a miracle.

Kasumi
If you think about it like that, it all lines up. Or it could just simply be my wishful thinking...

Kasumi
From meeting you, coming into contact with you, and befriending you, she was unconsciously influenced by you. She received those power's blessings.

Kasumi
That's why as a Shadow she lived... aah, let me use some different phrasing... for an extended time, existed in this world.

Kasumi
So from that line of thinking, I can only hope and entrust you with my wish.

Kasumi
This is a request. Please, Assistant, save her... save Kiiri!

Kasumi
Uu... This light again? Just what is this?

Kasumi
This might sound a bit sarcastic, but I sure get my fill of difficult cases when I'm with you.

Kasumi
With such mysterious happenings being so constant, a Great Detective gets no time to rest.

Scene: A dream. A neighborhood in Japan.

Kasumi
Senpai, Senpai! Over here..!

Kasumi
Ehehe, sorry for calling you out here so suddenly.

Kasumi
Being you, Senpai, wouldn't you have other matters to attend to?

Kasumi
Eh? You didn't really have much else to do? You have too much free time?

Kasumi
Huhu... Just like me, Senpai is living quite the gray youth.

Kasumi
You'd want to go out after school with friends and eat sweets, or play at the arcade, after all. I get it.

Kasumi
But other than Senpai, I don't have any other close friends...

Kasumi
Even if I have an interesting discovery, I have nobody to share it with.

Kasumi
That is, certainly, a bit sad.

Kasumi
Ehehe. Leaving that aside, I made a big discovery today.

Kasumi
I wanted to tell Senpai about it, which is why I called you out here. That it wasn't a bother to you, I'm glad.

Kasumi
Huhun. Look here, Senpai. This girl here, do you remember her?

Kiiri
Meow~...♪

Kasumi
W-Wha? Kiiri, don't just suddenly jump onto Senpai like that... you'll get hair all over his uniform.

Kasumi
Huhu. As usual she really loves Senpai, that Kiiri.

Kasumi
...Huh? Wait, did you forget, Senpai? The other day, there was a certain incident that we resolved, right?

Kasumi
The incident where, in the school's nursery, the flowerpots were being ruined...

Kasumi
Like a Great Detective we investigated and caught the culprit that ended up being a cat.

Kasumi
It was a shame the incident's outcome wasn't remotely dramatic.

Kasumi
They said that the cat culprit would be a bother to people, so they wanted to take it to a health ministry to be euthanized.

Kasumi
We were worried, so we took her in. Having her be euthanized is just sad, after all...

Kasumi
And that was, this girl. You forgot all this, Senpai?

Yuuki
1. Sorry, I have no memory of this.
2. ... this cat is Kiiri?

Option 1.

Kasumi
Jeez. You're still young and yet you're already suffering from memory loss?

Kasumi
If you don't properly work your brain tissue, it'll just keep becoming weaker. Let's make sure to temper your memory and deductive skills the next time we're resolving an incident, okay?

Option 2.

Kasumi
Yes. It seems that she was an abandoned stray.

Kasumi
The name Kiiri was written on the collar around her neck.

Kasumi
Huh? I was so sure that was why, but there's nothing like a name written on her collar...

Kasumi
That's strange. Did I just misremember?

Kasumi
But, her name is Kiiri. I definitely remember at least that much.

End of branches.

Kasumi
Anyway. Senpai, I'm made a big discovery.

Kasumi
This girl, Kiiri, is pretty clever... using a mimi, she can perform simple communication with us.

Kasumi
This is that toy that was popular a while ago that claimed to "Let you have a conversation with a dog or cat".

Kasumi
When I let her operate the mimi, she was able to properly establish communication.

Kasumi
Yes. Senpai's acquaintance, Rima, was it....

Kasumi
She's also just an animal, but she can communicate normally using a mimi. It's just like that. Amazing, right?

Kasumi
If she gets sleepy, she says "Sleepy". If she gets hungry, she says "I want to eat food".

Kasumi
It's true. Let me demonstrate for you.

Kasumi
Watch carefully Senpai... Kiiri, give Senpai a proper greeting.

Kiiri
"Good afternoon."

Kiiri
"It was an honor. I was glad to have been able to live. I didn't want to disappear."

Kiiri
"I loved both of you. That's why I didn't want to say farewell."

Kasumi
Huh? She's saying some pretty weird things...

Kasumi
That's strange, it became very conversational just now.

Kasumi
Uun. Was it just a coincidence that it resembled a conversation?

Kasumi
If you give a monkey a typewriter, they will eventually produce something akin to Shakespeare... is something I've seen come up in writing before.

Kasumi
And I've heard some stories of such things happening.

Kasumi
What a shame... Even though I thought it was a great discovery, was it just a misunderstanding by me?

Kiiri
"Great Detective."

Kasumi
Hm? What is it, Kiiri... Wawa, licking my cheeks is off limits.

Kiiri
"Thank you. For thinking that our parting is saddening. For loving me, thank you."

Kiiri
"For wishing for my continued existence, thank you."

Kasumi
Nn, nn? Kiiri's voice, she recorded my voice and played it back...

Kasumi
It's as if I'm speaking to myself, what a strange feeling. The meaning behind the things she's saying are unclear, too...

Kasumi
Well, that's fine. As long as Kiiri is healthy and living. I was able to save this girl who was about to be disposed of.

Kasumi
This is that feeling of affirmation you get from being a Great Detective... Senpai♪

End of dream.

Ames
Alright, good job.

Ames
Let me firstly apologize, Yuuki. I'm not an all-seeing all-knowing god, so there are things even I'm incapable of.

Ames
The Shadow Kiiri that exists Here will shortly cease to exist. There's no escaping that fate.

Ames
By nature these Shadows are merely just bugs formed during the "Reconstruction".

Ames
The fact that they are here is an aberration, which is why this world's self-purification system quickly stamps them out.

Ames
If we were to put it in terms of the human body, these shadows are a foreign body that did not originally exist within it.

Ames
And just like a virus, they are being purged by the immune system.

Ames
... though being how you are right now, even this explanation might not make sense to you.

Ames
However, with my authority, that sense of self that started to bud within Kiiri... I protected her heart and isolated it somewhere safe.

Ames
Simply put, I've stashed her away on some of my free memory. ^[2]

Ames
Only while you or Kasumi are dreaming can I retrieve her and allow you to meet.

Ames
She was like a child that you two found, raised, and loved... never being able to meet again for all eternity seems pretty sad don't you think, Yuuki?

Ames
I also share some similarities to Kiiri, since we both spontaneously formed a heart... so I have a bit of empathy for her.

Ames
And it might be pretty obvious, but I think just disappearing like that is sorrowful.

Ames
So that's why I intervened. I don't need any words of thanks.

Ames
Simply put, it was just for my own self-satisfaction. I can't do anything besides this, after all.

Ames
Anyway. Even if you use your Princess Knight power, it would merely be a symptomatic treatment.

Ames
Within a few days, This Kiiri will fade away.

Ames
So remember this. Don't forget her. And at least, give her a proper farewell.

Ames
I was never able to properly smile and tell you "Goodbye"... and I have always regretted it since.

End of Ames conversation.

Scene: A prison in Landsol.

Kasumi
U, n... H-huh?

Kasumi
I was asleep, huh? I feel like I had something like a happy, yet sad, strange dream.

Kasumi
Ah, Assistant is also asleep... Wake up.

Kasumi
If you know anything about that suspicious light earlier, I'd like for you to explain it.

Kiiri
.......

Kasumi
Kiiri! A-Are you okay?

Kiiri
.......

Kasumi
N-no response. She's gradually growing dimmer and her existence is fading away... Are you really disappearing, Kiiri?

Kiiri
.......

Kasumi
Kiiri? Was that a laugh just now? Why?

Kasumi
Aah, Kiiri... To me, since the day we met, and even right now, you were the embodiment of a mystery.

Kasumi
The one that shared my appearance, my shadow... ^[3]

Kasumi
Because I admired Great Detectives, I've lived by dressing myself up as one...

Kasumi
But I had no intention of tossing aside the weak and pitiful me.

Kasumi
You were also me. That's why Kiiri... Please, don't disappear.