28. Headstrong

“Hey, Anath.”

“Oh!” Anath jolts, a fragile smile popping up on her face. “Uh! Hey, Luna!”

“Whatcha doin’?” I ask, leaning nonchalantly against the front doors to the castle.

“Uh, um, well, you know. Just… taking a nighttime walk!” Anath lies brazenly.

“Well actually, it’s daytime, at least in the only place that gets a daytime,” I say. “You wouldn’t happen to be thinking of going there, would you?”

“Why, um. Why would you think that?” Anath fidgets, her tail twitching back and forth behind her.

“Because Nanaya and Melpomene specifically asked me to stand by the door while they slept to make sure you didn’t sneak out,” I answer flatly.

“Whaaaat!? Pshaw,” Anath waves me off. “No, I’d never do that, I mean, why would I do that? Why would they think I would do that?”

I stare at her. One of the nice things about being a robot is that I’ve gotten very good at staring at people.

“…Okay but I’m out of snacks, though!” Anath whines. “I just want to pick up some stuff from a convenience store. Nothing dangerous!”

“Anath, you can barely even navigate the Dark World. Going out on your own is intrinsically dangerous,” I point out.

“I could navigate just fine if not for all the stupid mist! Our fragment is just choking with the stuff for some reason. I hate it.”

She wrinkles her nose, likely out of both indignation and the memory of a foul scent. I don’t have any way to know what it’s actually like to inhale the black mists; Melpomene certainly doesn’t seem to mind, but apparently that’s far from a universally held opinion.

“All the more reason to stay inside, then,” I say frankly. “Come on, you know you’ll regret this later if you go through with it.”

“Well that’s a problem for later me! Current me wants snacks! So I’m going to go get them!”

“No, you are not,” I say.

“You think you can stop me?” Anath grins, puffing out her chest. “You can’t keep up and you know it. I’ll be out of here in a flash!”

Well, she has a point. Which is bad.

“Okay, but please don’t,” I say, resorting to begging. “If you go out there, I’ll have to chase you down to make sure you don’t hurt yourself, you’ll try to run away from me and end up super deep in the city, then you’ll get the bright idea to try to fight Fulgora again and at the end of it we’ll both get beaten up by magical girls until Nanaya wakes up and comes out to yell at us.”

“Well, except for the end there, that all sounds super fun,” Anath wiggles. “Now I really wanna do it!”

“No! No no no, wait! Please, Anath? We’re friends, right? You’d feel bad if you were mean to me, right? I wouldn’t have any fun with that at all. That would be awful for me.”

“Then don’t follow me!”

“But then I’d feel terrible for letting you get kidnapped and Nanaya would murder me!” I say, all of which is technically true if admittedly not the primary reason I would have to follow her.

“Uuugh! Well then you go get me snacks!” Anath groans.

“What? No!”

“Luna, I’m getting these snacks one way or another,” Anath insists. “If you don’t want me to have fun on Earth, then I’m gonna need a snack delivery service. Who better to do it than my favorite maid robot?”

“I’m not your maid!” I protest.

“Then how come you do so much cleaning? And cooking? And nagging? I swear you’ve already cleaned the whole castle, but you just keep going!”

“Anath you have to clean things multiple times, they just get dirty again if you leave them alone.”

“You see what I mean!?”

“No! That’s just how cleaning always works, for everyone!”

“Well, I guess you’d know, being the maid and all,” Anath answers smugly. “Now come on, are you gonna steal me some Cheetos or do I have to do it myself?”

“Nobody’s stealing anything!” I insist. “But fine, if you get me some money, I will buy you some snacks.”

It is, unfortunately, the best way I see to follow the spirit of my orders. Anath’s right; I probably can’t physically prevent her from leaving the castle, and I’m not sure how much force would be acceptable to use even if I tried. And since Anath is Anath, I know she fully intends to make good on her ultimatum. Either I go and do a snack run for her, or I fail my objective of making sure she stays in the castle and doesn’t get into any trouble. Fantastic.

“I mean, I guess if you wanna be a goody-two-shoes about it,” Anath sighs. “I don’t see much point in following the law when our very existence is illegal.”

“No it isn’t,” I say.

“What? The Earth Guardians try to capture us on sight,” Anath reminds me.

“Yeah but the Earth Guardians are not technically a legal entity. What they think doesn’t matter. In the eyes of the United States government, I think we’re in the clear,” I answer. “Well, I mean you’re not, because of the theft, public disturbance, and property damage, but the rest of us keep our fights in the liminal zone. And as far as I know selling artifacts isn’t actually illegal? Maybe it is. I should look that up. But either way I’m pretty sure half of Nanaya’s buyers are government officials anyway.”

“Who cares?” Anath says. “Get me snacks!”

“Get me money!” I counter. “I know you guys have some.”

Anath groans and wanders back into the castle, eventually returning with a backpack and five twenty-dollar bills. I hope she does not expect me to be purchasing a hundred dollars worth of junk food, because I am not going to be doing that. I feel like telling her this would be foolish, though, so I accept the money and put on the backpack.

“Now promise me you’re going to stay here until I get back,” I tell her firmly. “We have to try to be nice to future Anath.”

“Do we really, though?” she asks. “I mean, what’s she gonna do? She doesn’t even exist yet.”

Yeah, that’s not reassuring. I think I only have one more thing to try that might convince her to stay. I open up my plating, letting her feel how upset and concerned I am about all this. She flinches.

“Can you please stay here for me?” I beg again. I don’t want to deal with whatever will happen to me if the others find out I left the castle and let Anath do the same. Thea hasn’t completed the disguise she promised me and I’m almost certainly not supposed to be on Earth by myself, but I just don’t know what else to do at this point. I don’t want Anath to go out there and put herself in danger again, and I definitely don’t want her to go out and put other people in danger either. Thankfully, her abnormally strong empathy seems to kick in, her tail drooping as she backs down.

“Okay, okay,” she mumbles. “I’ll stay. Thanks for going to get me food.”

“You didn’t give me much choice,” I grumble back at her, pushing open one of our enormous front doors and quickly stepping outside. The howling black mists immediately block my view, but I can still feel their currents and I know exactly where to go. I make my way towards the portal.

I wish I could say I’m looking forward to this, but I’m not. My mind churns with discomfort, the knowledge that I have failed to chart a truly desirable course for my master eating away at me on the inside. Melpomene’s stupid orders will prevent all actions other than completing my task as quickly and efficiently as possible, and I still won’t be able to do anything that people could misconstrue as the behavior of a real person. As I make my way to the portal, I practice moving and walking in a manner even stiffer and more robotic than usual, using halting movements that come more easily to metal than the motions I’m used to.

I head through the portal and make my way carefully through the liminal space, sensors on high alert for Earth Guardian activity. There doesn’t seem to be anything to detect, thankfully, as our fragment is probably the only one currently converging with Earth. The Earth Guardians don’t really have the numbers to keep tabs on us, so our particular section of liminal space tends to get left alone just because monsters almost never come out of it. Barring us, of course.

There is one advantage to making it to Earth, at least. The moment I step out of the liminal zone, my radio receiver is bombarded with countless transmissions, an almost overwhelming amount of data flying through the air in every direction around me. My mind gets to work translating, categorizing, sorting, saving. Having learned the tricks behind human encryption practices, I start cracking them one after another, gobbling up data that is almost entirely useless to me. It’s the experience that helps, though. Soon enough, I’ll be composing some packets of my own to send out on the airways and see if I can get myself connected.

In the meantime, the sky gets brighter and brighter the further I get from the liminal space, illuminating one of the vast fields outside of town. I guess our fragment is floating a little further away from civilization than usual, which is probably another reason it’s going unobserved for now. Since I know I shouldn’t be out here for any longer than I have to, I accelerate into a run, spotting a convenience store up ahead of me where I could probably purchase Anath’s preferred methods of upsetting her stomach.

It’s the middle of the day, so there are plenty of people around, which is vastly uncomfortable. Should I keep my run at human speeds so I don’t attract as much attention? Should I just sprint all out so I can leave as quickly as possible? It’s not like my shiny ass isn’t going to get people staring at it one way or another. The default assumption for someone looking like me would probably be a cosplay or something, but is making people think I’m a person in a suit cosplaying a robot a violation of Melpomene’s will that nobody thinks I’m a person? Or is it a superior way to uphold that will, because it prevents any association to the truth of my nature?

I suppose I couldn’t uphold the cosplay disguise under scrutiny; I still can’t talk to people or do anything suspiciously humanoid because there’s always a chance rumors of it will spread. So fuck it, let’s get out of here. I pick up the pace, taking the road rather than the sidewalk as I accelerate well beyond a human run speed. People stare, but what can I do about it? I mean, I’ve already been seen on Earth fighting with Anath, so I guess there’s a good chance the general public is already vaguely aware of me? Oh god, I didn’t even think of that. I really need to get internet access. I’m completely out of touch with the world.

The door to the convenience store dings as I open it, the teenager behind the counter not even looking up from his phone as I head in and make my way directly towards the snack rack. I collect several cheese snacks and sports drinks before dropping them all on the counter, the clerk finally looking up and doing a startled double-take as I stare at him, waiting for him to ring me up.

“Woah,” he says. “That’s a sick costume.”

I do absolutely nothing. His smile gets a little strained, and he moves to check out the items without saying anything else. When he finishes ringing me up, I simply deposit all five twenty-dollar bills on the counter in front of him. He asks me if I want a receipt. I stare at him until he just gives it to me along with the change. I don’t take anything he hands me. He awkwardly shoves it all in one of the bags, and only at that point do I put everything in my backpack and depart.

It is only as I exit the convenience store that I spot Veritas, in human form, staring at me open-mouthed from the other side of the street. She looks to be a bit of a mess, honestly. Oversized, mismatched socks spill over the sides of her shoes, small tears opening up in her jean shorts as her curly hair spills into the hood of a jacket that I would have assumed it’s far too hot out for anyone to need. She looks just as flabbergasted to see me as I am to see her, but of course I process all of my shock and confusion in a fraction of a second and continue walking as if she isn’t even there. As I exit the convenience store lot, she quickly rushes across the street behind me, heading into the store I just left and probably interrogating the clerk. I, not wanting any part of this, quickly start running as fast as I can towards the liminal zone.

“Bʏ Mʏ Rᴇsᴏʟᴠᴇ!”

Oh, here we go.

“Hᴏɴᴏʀɪɴɢ Vᴀɴɢᴜᴀʀᴅ Dᴇғᴇɴᴅᴇʀ Vᴇʀɪᴛᴀs!”

A flash of blue signifies the transformation a ways behind me, and Veritas lights up on my magical energy sensors. Glancing back out of the corner of my eye, though, I find her not recklessly rushing towards me with weapons drawn, but instead chasing after me with a cellphone in hand.

Hmm.

I start chewing through the nearby phone traffic, and quickly find some audio data that’s a near match for Veritas’s voice.

“Yeah, a gas station!” she shouts into the phone. “I don’t know why! The guy at the counter says it got food!”

“Well, I guess if I had a robot servant I might send it to buy me food,” Aurora hums. “Is it hurting anyone?”

“No, it’s just running off. But it’s alone! This is our chance to capture it!”

“I think you’re going to need Minerva or Su-san for that,” Aurora says. “I doubt Minerva’s close enough to respond, and I don’t really want to bother Su-san. She’s still recovering.”

“I hate this!” Veritas growls. “We’re supposed to be the heroes, but it feels like all we ever do is lose!”

“We win against the monsters, and that’s what matters more than anything,” Aurora reminds her. “We’ve been doing great in all of the convergences lately. I’m frustrated that we lost to the witches too, but I don’t think that’s any reason to stop them from buying food. Everybody needs food! You said the robot even paid, right?”

“Ugh, never mind!”

“Veritas, wai—!”

The call drops, and Veritas puts away her phone and summons her weapons. God damn it, she’s gaining on me, isn’t she? That girl can definitely run. Based on her current speed, though, she won’t overtake me before we reach the liminal zone, which means I can hopefully lose her between buildings. I do just that, veering off to the left the moment I pass through the boundaries and hiding to let Veritas overtake me. She hops around the rooftops, furiously searching for where I went, but she has no idea where to look and I quickly slip away, making my way back to the Dark World. I swear, I must be the unluckiest girl in the world. How do these insane coincidences keep happening to me?

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I return to the castle, half expecting Anath to pounce on me the moment I open the doors, but perhaps just as predictably she has gotten bored and retreated to the media room to play games on a twenty-year-old console. She perks up the moment I enter, though, and then I get my requisite tackling.

“You’re back!” Anath cheers, squeezing me tight enough to activate my shielding before groping for the backpack. “Did you get them? Did you get them? I was really good! I never went outside at all!”

I almost, almost complain that she’s being ridiculously childish, but I decide to charge my batteries thinking about why exactly that might be instead.

“Yes, I got everything for you,” I promise her, pushing her lightly away so I can take off the backpack. “Here you go. Please try not to make this a habit.”

There’s very little I can do about it if you do. I suppose I can try to talk to Melpomene and get a clarification on where my orders stand in situations like this, but frankly that doesn’t seem likely to be an improvement.

“Y-yeah, sorry about that,” Anath chuckles awkwardly. “But, um, hey! I won’t tell anybody about this if you won’t!”

“That sounds like a much better deal for you than it does for me,” I answer flatly. “I actually know how to walk around on Earth without getting into a fight.”

But of course, it is at that very moment that I detect Veritas’s magical signature entering our fragment. Why would anything less happen to me? I should really stop opening my stupid, metaphorical mouth.

“Hehe… um, well, do you wanna play games with me?” she asks hesitantly before biting the top of the first snack bag and tearing it open with her teeth. If I still had eyelids, one would twitch at the sight of crumbs flying across the floor.

“I thought you didn’t like playing with me because I’m ‘too good,'” I answer.

Veritas being in the Dark World probably isn’t a huge deal, right? It’s not like she can see anything in the mist, so there’s no way she can find the castle. In fact, she can’t find anything. She would probably get lost the moment she took two steps away from the portal, so obviously the only logical thing to do would be to turn back and leave. There’s no benefit to doing anything else, especially for a person with no experience handling the dangers of the Dark World.