"What?" the shocked reaction would have been music to my ears in pretty much any other context. The look on their faces if the police were breaking down the door on their inhumane experiments would be something I'd cherish for the rest of my life. If that was what was actually happening.
And it was not. I'd still be probably excited either way, but the source was someone who couldn't seem to figure out a smart idea if it decided to chomp right down on their rear end.
"Yeah, I'm not above agreeing with the two that spent time torturing me, you are a complete and utter dumbass," I snapped. My words resulted in me falling to the floor, my legs no longer functioning, but this was frankly a regular occurrence, and a consequence of me even considering speaking my mind around Yuni.
The brat, also called Syuen, who was somehow a CEO and my 'boss', or, quite frankly, not beating around the bush, owner, looked down at me the same way someone looked at dog shit. I'd kick her if I could, but I was immobilized by the other psychotic youngster in the room.
"I wasn't aware I asking for opinions. I'm giving your orders. Follow through with them," the child-sized CEO took her eyes off me to glare at the other two. It was strange to see the two of them so cowed. Mihara did her best to avoid me after that incident, but Yuni was intent on paying me back in full for nearly frying her brain alongside my own. Mihara wasn't above joining in on her teammate's fun once I had been immobilized if need be.
So to see them cowed by a slip of a girl that either of them could break over their knees in theory was, surprising. Sure, if they were anything like me, there was nothing they could physically do to hurt the brat, but that was its own problem. There were other ways to hurt people than violence.
"Well, given that you're giving stupid orders, I'm electing to ignore them," I ground out, as Syuen sent me a glare that could have outright killed me. I wonder if I can get her to kick me in the face. Might break her foot. "I get that you're probably not used to getting your ego checked, but I'm going to give you a little piece of advice. Sending out someone who has no military training onto a highly classified black ops squad? Not the smartest of ideas."
"Frankly, we're more concerned about you stabbing us in the back," Mihara glared down at me. If I could have, I would have shrugged. That was a perfectly fair concern to have, to be honest. I probably would, if I thought I could get away with it.
"A concern I've more than accounted for," Syuen handed her small button. "This is a manual control and override button for her enhanced nerves. Think of it as a slower, far more painful, and considerably less devastating suicide bomb. If it tries to betray you, all you have to do is hit the button. The problem will resolve itself shortly. You have my expressed permission to do so."
I scowled. Of course, that would be the first thing she'd go to. What else could be expected from someone who clearly never learned what a carrot was, and why they were so much more effective at getting what you wanted than a stick. The unspoken threat was obvious, too. Syuen hated my guts. I hated hers too, but at least I had reason to despise the half-pint Human Rights violator. She probably had one of her own, and frankly, could hit it any time she wanted to. Not like anyone was going to find my corpse in this place if they could make kill switches with this degree of ease.
That was going to be an absolute fucking problem. I had no idea what the range on those things even was. I highly doubt it was infinite, but I certainly didn't know. And the odds of them functioning as a kill switch being the trick it had was much, much too low for my tastes. Not only that, I had no way to guarantee I'd get them all even if I tried to deal with them. They could just make more.
I could read between the lines well enough. Syuen made good on her threat to have a gun to my head. Did I try to get her to pull the trigger? Doubtful. She viewed me outright as an it. An expendable thing. She could kill me the same way she would kill a bug. Without the slightest thought. If I wanted to live, I would have to play her stupid game. Which meant biding my time.
Frankly, if I understood Wardress's job, they were meant to be a sort of special operations unit. Something meant to do whatever it was Syuen wanted. Something that certainly wouldn't be getting up to legal activities. Frankly, it would be a Hail Mary, regardless. Syuen was rich and had plenty of power. But being an eyewitness to her little black book, shit the public wasn't supposed to know about? Of course, I wasn't going to say it like that at this point. If she was going to make that mistake, I was more than willing to let that go uncorrected. I already gave her an out as was. If she wanted to go through with this, then I was more than willing to do so.
I was just going to have to try to keep myself alive in the meantime until I could whistleblow her entire operation wide open. Would it work? Hopefully. I wasn't thinking too far ahead, trying to keep my options open. I still had pretty much no idea what was going on here. I had no explanation for what had been done to me, or why I was being treated like this. I figured I wouldn't like the answers, but I needed to know what the hell was going on.
"Now that I've made myself clear, get 313N out of my sight," Syuen waved her hand as if the gesture would make us vanish from view. "You'll receive orders on your next operation soon."
"And what should we do about 313N?" Yuni asked.
"If it's incompetent as it claims to be, throw it into the training simulator we have on hand. If nothing else, it should give it some knowledge on what exactly to expect. Just keep it away from the central one. I'd rather not give the investors a bad impression," Syuen rolled her eyes as if that was the obvious answer.
Investors? Really? Just how messed up was this company that this would be brought up with the investors but not a peep to the outside world?
At least I could move my legs again, a sure sign that it was time to leave. Part of me wanted to flip Syuen off on my way out the door, but giving the person who could kill me without a second thought even the slightest reason to do so sounded like a terrible idea. Not until I could get out from her iron thumb.
At least I was being given enough dignity to carry myself out the door. Even if that meant I was going to have to deal with whatever this simulation room was.
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"What the hell is this shit!" I struggled against the blue plates that made up what was my 'combat uniform'. The black bodysuit was simple enough, if very tight against my frame, but the armor covering it was a different matter. It wasn't like I didn't understand its function. It was some type of bulletproof protection, like the stuff soldiers got.
Still, the idea of being a soldier against my will rankled me. I was effectively just raw meat to throw into the grinder by Syuen's estimate, but I wasn't a trained soldier. I understood why it was important, but understanding the why was putting me not a step closer to putting it on.
"Yuni, hold her still!" Mihara and Yuni were trying to help, much to their frustration.
"Okay!" the girl smiled, as my body suddenly went numb, causing me to collapse onto the floor.
"Because that helped the first time," I ground out. Of course, the scientists got it wrapped up inside her head that keeping me still meant taking away my ability to move completely. Mihara pushed my body up, using gravity to hold one of the metal plates to my back as she fastened the one in the front.
"Now try not to forget your helmet," Mihara scowled, an expression I returned. Feeling finally returned to my legs I stood up, scooping up the piece of armored headwear. At least the visor was see-through.
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It felt weird holding a gun. It was hardly the first time in my life, nor was it the second. But the fact they were just, letting me walk around with a gun after everything that had happened was, kind of crazy. Sure, Yuni could put a stop to anything I did, and I couldn't kill anyone anyway, but was it that little of an issue?
Frankly, nobody seemed to be giving me a second glance. Like I hadn't just tried to tear this place apart. I kept my eyes on a pivot, keeping myself alert to what was happening around me. This place looked like some mad scientist's haven. These people could tell me they employed Frankenstein, and I'd believe them.
Something drew my eye though, my steps faltering. I gazed forward, brain stuttering as if it was having a hard time processing what exactly it was seeing. It was my face, the face of the body I was in. Not once, not twice, easily dozens of them. The same silver hair, the same green eyes. The same armor, with not a distinctive feature among them.
"What the hell?" I found myself asking, finally alerting the two members of Wardress that I had fallen behind. Why were there so many with copies of my face?
"Continue to the simulation room are we'll drag you there," Yuni threatened, as I glared down at her.
"Why are there people with my face?" I demanded, tempted to lower myself down to her eye level to prove a point.
"You know exactly why, 313N. Stop being stubborn. We will not hesitate to drag you," Mihara threatened, as I resisted the urge to growl.
"Lead the way then," I crossed my arms in a huff, before muttering under my breath. "If I knew the answer I wouldn't be asking the question, dumbass."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"She's really bad at this," Yuni's statement was accurate. Blunt, but accurate. Getting 313N into her armor was a task and a half, something that tickled at the back of her mind even now. Mihara watched as 313N weaved through pillars around the fire of simulated Raptures, a look of panic clear on her face. So far, she hadn't fired her rifle even once in self-defense.
Which went beyond bad. Frankly, the display she was seeing should have been impossible. What type of mass-produced model didn't know how to use their armor and weapons? That information was pre-entered, even before NIMPH was injected. And while it could just be the 08 model being rebellious, as Syuen had told them, this seemed different. Confusion, in comparison to outright resistance.
Mihara had seen what happened when 313N wanted to be difficult. She could still feel a faint twinge of pain. This wasn't it. This was panic, someone who'd never seen a Rapture before, and had no idea how to fight one. This was true for some, but most knew how to properly fight, and at least make some sort of stand.
Something was wrong here. A mass-produced Nikke wouldn't be able to fake this type of incompetence. At least, it shouldn't be able to. Especially one so fresh off the assembly line. She should know how to put on her armor, she should know how to use her gun.
She should know that she was mass-produced. How could she not know these things? Every Nikke should understand their situation.
If she didn't? Then what exactly had gone wrong? A Nikke should know what a Rapture was. A Nikke should know what a mass-produced model is. So why didn't she? Was 313N that good at faking things already?
Or was she truly ignorant?
And if she was, what exactly did that mean? Did 313N even know she was a Nikke? The question was an impossibility. It should have never crossed her mind. And yet, here she was, contemplating it. Was 313N unaware of her nature?
If she was, suddenly the previous events were shown in a different light. Resistance for the sake of resistance became ignorance, quite possibly, even panic. An act of rebellion became desperation and even fear. Someone causing trouble for the sake of trouble became a person who had little to no clue what was going on around them.
Mihara had no idea how such a thing was even possible. It shouldn't. It just didn't happen. It shouldn't happen. The odds of that wouldn't even be one in a billion. They would be so astronomically small that they shouldn't have been realistically possible. It wasn't intentional. At least, it was unlikely that it was. Being unaware of what they were, but at the same time knowing something was wrong? That was never going to invite anything good. Mind Switch, or even worse.
That implied several things, a Mihara didn't like a single one of them. What exactly had to have happened to get something like this? Was the person still there? Surely not, at least, not exactly. Even if how Nikke's were made wasn't, wholly understood by the public, what a Nikke was? That was more than understandable for some random citizen. How do you get someone who didn't know what a Nikke was?
Someone from the Outer Rim, maybe, but even that was stretching it. Ignorance on that front could only go so far, and 313N sounded like she had at least some degree of education, even if her manners were lacking. Perhaps, understandably so. But at the moment, she was operating off conjecture. Mihara would need to ask 313N for information, but given what had happened, getting honest answers out of them would prove to be a troubling task.
One worth the pain, maybe, but she and Yuni made any attempt at connecting with 313N much more difficult than it needed to be. But what was done was done, and they had their orders. If 313N were human, that would complicate her feelings on what had transpired considerably more. But she had her orders, no matter how much she didn't like them.
"She finally managed to get one!" Yuni's voice broke Mihara from her thoughts, and she looked up just in time to see one of the many fake Raptures fall. However, it wasn't a good thing, as 313N had already been forced behind cover, which was rapidly degrading. Then there was a faint flicker, before 313N seemingly vanished into thin air, only to appear behind another pillar.
That was promising, if little else. There could be room for improvement. Such as shooting her weapon when she did that little trick of hers.
Still, her eyes flickered around. She and Yuni were far from the only ones watching the display. Several scientists also observed, taking various notes and recording data about what they were seeing. 313N's display wasn't awful if one accounted for the fact she rarely fired her weapon. After all, she hadn't been registered as defeated by the simulation yet.
Yet. She hadn't lost yet. And since she wasn't killing targets fast enough, more and more Raptures were piling up, their shots breaking apart cover in a relentless barrage of shells. While the potential was there, this could still prove to be problematic in the field. Something they could ill afford, given the nature of the missions they received.
What Syuen had been thinking was fairly obvious in assigning 313N to Wardess, and it was going to cause problems. They had some time to fix said issues, but it would be an uphill battle.
She listened in on some of the scientists. 313N had been causing issues for a while before Yuni and she were called in to sort out the problem. They might have more of an idea of her nature, as it were, and how this whole mess came about.
"I think 313N is in a near-perpetual state of Mind Switch, or close to it," Mihara found herself regretting listening in already. Was that something they were floating about as an idea? You did not try and cause a Mind Switch in a Nikke if you valued your life. You didn't even try to push it that far.
"Given the state in which 313N returned to consciousness, this hypothesis is, possible," another said, jotting down a few notes. "The insistence that 313N gives that it is human is abnormal, in that context."
Mihara felt herself frown. She had noticed that from 313N. She genuinely felt that she was still human. Denial could explain that, a refusal to accept her present reality. But that was playing a very dangerous game. 313N snapping would be, disastrous, on numerous fronts, especially on an operation.
But how do you tell that to someone? Much less have them listen to you about a matter they do not wish to hear about? Especially when 313N already had no reason to listen to them? Sure, there was the button, Syuen's suicide switch that might as well poison any attempt at gaining any goodwill. But that was the problem. 313N had already shown they were willing to kill themselves if it meant possibly killing her. Hitting that button wasn't the threat that Syuen thought it was. 313N was at least, already willing to die, if only in part. Another reason why Mihara did not want 313N assigned to Wardess.
313N was willing to get herself killed out of, some sense of spite, Mihara supposed. That was a liability and yet another issue that needed to be addressed. But with the button existing, and Syuen making such a show out of it, the odds of 313N being willing to talk, well, willingly, with either of them. Never mind that their treatment of her, orders or not, would sour her considerably to such talks. If she didn't understand what a Nikke was, then she wasn't going to understand that, either.
"And there she goes," Yuni said, as 313N was defeated in the simulation. It didn't take long for her to find the exit, and she was fuming. Though the expression of anger was something Mihara had begun to consider her default trait, which looked odd on the face of the normally serine 08. She had already torn her helmet off, holding it in her free hand.
Already Mihara was ill at ease. Between the thoughts bouncing around in her head, and the fact 313N looked as if she was about to embed the helmet into the nearest surface, whatever it was be damned, this wasn't going to go well. She gently nudged Yuni, hoping to signal to her partner that it would be best for her to handle the talking.
"That was terrible," Yuni spoke her mind in an instant instead. "You had some interesting moments, but that was about it."
"I'm so glad you were entertained," if words were knives, Yuni would have been stabbed repeatedly. "Just what the hell were those things?"
A deep, sinking feeling appeared in Mihara's core. 313N had no idea what a Rapture was. If she had no idea what a Rapture was, then she truly knew nothing. And if she knew nothing?
"Come on, you should know what already! What type of Nikke doesn't know what a Rapture…"
BOOM!
The sound wasn't like a gunshot, but it was loud. 313N blurred into movement, and before anyone could react, had nearly thrown a powerful kick. 313N's armored boot hovered mere Centimeters away from Yuni's chest. If it had connected, the damage would have been, significant. 313N's eyes were pointed, but at the same time, puffy and red. She held it for a moment, holding the room in stunned silence, the only noise coming when 313N brought down her leg, stomping her foot against the ground with enough force to break the floor.
"How many times do I have to spell this out for you fuckers!" 313N screamed, her voice so loud that Mihara would be surprised if the entire building didn't hear her words. "I haven't understood a damn thing since I woke up with some fucker with his hand in my chest, messing around with what should be my fucking heart!"
