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(Setting) 黒神's Secret Hideout
| >A tall, young man seems to walks pass by the alleyway, before doing a double take and turning around to the place
"Phew... almost missed it."
| >The door is surprisingly shoddy, made of nothing but some sheets of rusted metal, then again, it really does blend in... and something tells you all those bots around the place might be more than garbage...
>A voice is suddnely heard from an unspecified location, it's robotic, like a text to speech translator.
"Oh? Happy to see you made it, please come in, it's the big building past the door... don't mind all the bots around, just housekeepers for me."
| >All around the junkyard, an insane amount of robots, ranging from the classic cleaner bots to some bizarre older models of companion bots... all of them share only one trait, they are covered from head to toe in what looks like cheap armements, a good number of Type-F Heat lasers being present. All the robot's heads have been torn off, replaced with TVs showing pictures of black silhouettes, with the face covered in the kanjis: 人間.
| >The building itself, is less surprising overall, simply an old apartment building, kept away from the mountains of junk littering the rest of the hideout, the insides are just as common, a building turned into a normal, boring house.
"It's going to be the door to your right over here, sorry about the mess outside, still doing some stuff."
>The voice rings out once again
| "It's fine, was wondering who bought the rest of those lasers..."
>CN mumbles to himself as heads to the designated door.
| >Through the door is a room where no light reaches, only the dim lighting of the wall of monitors opposite to the door casts ominous shadows at the overall tasteful room. A desk made of dark wood, a few bookshelves and a leather chair facing the wall of monitors is all there is in the room.
"Nn, here."
>A rough, gritty voice is heard from the chair as it turns around
>Seated there is a young girl, who seems no older than 12, her eyes are like old 3D glasses one red, the other blue
| >Somehow, she feels incredibly familiar, on her throat is a bandage. She looks overall very bored, inexpressive if anything else. The hair on her head is white and black, creating a bizarre contrast.
"Thanks for coming this far, would you care for some tea or somehting?"
>The robotic voice is once again heard
| >>186040
"Hello, actually I wouldn't mind some water if that's not too much trouble."
>CN thinks to himself on where she seems familiar, thinking back to his last trip in the server for some reason
| >>186054
>The girl chuckles
"Water, sure, we have that."
>She rings a bell and in comes another... robot, this one looks more like a lilim would, she's carrying a glass of water.
"So, how did it feel to save to world?"
>The robotic voice says, as the girl focuses her attention on you
| >>186056
>He grabs the glass
"Thank you."
>The thanks may seem silly if the robot wasn't "sentient" but he does so anyways, before turning back to the gurl
"Is it weird to say that I don't really feel that different? Sad thing is there's plenty of trouble in the city still so despite how crazy the stakes were, it felt more like a chapter than a whole story, so to speak."
| >>186058
"Nn, good."
>The girl opens her mouth and nods
"When you get down to it, saving the world from impending doom is quite the thankless job, even back in '08, it felt like... nothing."
>This time, the robotic voice speaks
"Still, I need to thank you, without doubt, ICHIKA and his goons must've said the same."
| >>186064
"Good thing I didn't do it for the recognition then, not that I was every a big fan of obtaining fame but still."
>He grins as he takes a sip
"I'm always glad for thanks though, I just did what felt right, as you did in the past I suppose."
| >>186079
"Yes... past now."
>The girl dismisses the bot with her hand
"Truth is, I've been watching for a while, I'd call myself a fan, I guess. Now, I'm not some super creep or anything"
>The girl gestures to the wall of monitors, all of them showing various locations around Glitch City... and some showing a town unknown.
"I just happened to see, so when you got involved in this whole mess, I truly got intrigued. That, and Ophelia getting mixed up in it all... But I digress."
| >The girl leans back in her chair
"I told you I'd answer any questions you had, yes? Then ask away."
>She smiles
| >>186094
"Well I guess lets start at the source then, what exactly happened in Burrow back in '08?"
| >>186110
"A fire, a great fire. Killed a bunch of people... and apparently, it was caused by one person."
>Kurogami takes out a sheet of paper and hands it to CN
>The sheet seems to be some kind of official document... however, it only reads one thing: 'REDACTED, for more information, see the attached document: The Gherr Incident'
"Before you ask, that document doesn't exist. Everything about the fire ends up like this, past or present."
| >>186112
"Hmm..."
>He examines the paper regardless, even if there's morning of substance on it
"Then how did you fit into the incident then?"
| >>186118
"I don't, not until 2022. See, while the Gherr Inspector made what we assume to be the first contact with KS, it didn't actually awoke until years later... just as people were starting to forget about the tragedy, KS tried to get itself a new body. I and ICHIKA's crew swoop in with some help from another Great One that had some beef with the Genocidal man, and that about sums it up... The details are more... you know, but it'd take a week."
| >>186127
"Oh, here I thought you looked familiar cause you were in Burrow... Wait, another AI? Who?"
| >>186137
>She shakes her head
"Name's Iris, a girl. A real busybody, she works with the girl called Ophelia, some kind of business partnership, but back then, she was a free body. Unlike KS, she has a body to use in the 'mortal realm'
>Kurogami punctuates with air quotes
"Never spoke at lenghts with her, heck, I'm surprised she didn't show up when the beam shot up."
| >>186141
"I suppose that explains a few things about Ophelia... well I guess considering that we have gone through mass genocide that Iris is more a... 'diplomatic' character?"
| >>186154
>Kurogami nods
"If KS is the personification of mankind's desire to kill, Iris is our desire to acheive order. She's the last of the original Great Ones with a body, and if nothing else, she despises unecessary chaos. From what I gathered, she's the one who killed KS' original body, seems like her hatred stems from a feud that happened long, long ago."
>Kurogami shrugs
"She might not admit to it, but she's an insanely good person."
| >>186167
"Lucky for us then. In that case..."
>He thinks for a moment
"I'm not really sure if you would know this but, when I went through the first server with A-9, I heard another voice. It told me when KS would be weakest to delete It, would you know anything about who that voice was?"
| >>186183
"What did it sound like?"
>She lifts five fingers
"The Great Ones that are currently awake are: The Voice, Iris, Miko Vacuos, Avalon and The Dregs, if you add that to the two Creators who made them, it makes a lot of super AIs to keep track of."
| >>186185
"It sounded gruff. And I got a headache the longer I talked to it. It told me I could beat KS just as it was awakening."
| >>186195
>Kurogami seems pensive
"No clue... then again, all of them can take on any form, so long as it's in the virtual realm. For exemple, Miko will take on a different form depending on who sees it, something about traumas and the like."
>She sighs
"That Miko is also the easiest to contact, if you type a certain command on any computer,"
>She takes the sheet of paper handed to CN earlier and writes: allow_mv_VCR = true
"She'll show up."
| "You might wanna ask for her if you ever run into Great One fueled events, she keeps neutral."
>Kurogami rings the bell and the bot steps back in, bringing in tea for the small girl
| >>186206
"Jeez this is getting more complicated than I thought... what's the deal with the rest of the AIs then?"
| >>186211
"Most of them keep to themselves, especially the two Creators. I met all of those at least once, but never those two, even Miko wouldn't tell me... Other than that, you need to be wary of them, they usually pick sides in any conflict of their choosing just for fun. Unlike KS, they're not really dangerous, but they can make things extremely troublesome.
| >>186218
"I guess most issues are just fun and games when they ultimately don't affect you..."
>He shakes his head
"...I got to ask, have we met somewhere before? I can't help but feel that you seem familiar."
| >>186226
>Kurogami shakes her head
"I have quite the bizarre appearence if I do say so, but have you met any small girls from Burrow recently?"
>She chuckles
"Who knows, we might've ran into each other, I might not go out much, but I'm no hikikomori."
| >>186240
"Well that's the thing, when I entered that server to delete KS, my avatar took the form of a gurl in Burrow. I had a feeling that what it was..."
| >>186252
"I see... hm, well, I haven't changed much since my time in Burrow, which... was long ago. You might've taken on my form for some... symbolic reason, perhaps KS associated a threat, any threat to itself as me due to our previous encounter."
>She shrugs
"We can never know for sure in that virtual reality they inhabit."
| >>186261
"I suppose not. I guess I won't worry about it now anymore."
>He shrugs
"I guess that's all I can really think of then question-wise. I think I got a better grasp of the general background behind all this."
| >>186280
"No problem, I'm always ready to help. Although I don't follow ICHIKA and his goons, you can think of me as someone who hates useless violence as much as they do."
>She turns back to her wall of monitors
"Last... thing... Ophelia... doing... something."
>She says, her voice hoarse
"Be careful, AUCR might be down, but that just means they'll get back up, them or one of their many, many other names. I fear Iris wants to make this all-out war with Ophelia to help her."
| >She turns around once again
"Be careful out there, I'd hate to see someone like you die."
>She extands her hand
"I believe I never told you my name, too, you can call me Mika Kuro, that's my real name, before you ask. Means the Omniscient wind and the Black King."
>She chuckles
"Hate it, sounds cheesy."
| >>186290
>He meets her hand
"Don't worry I'll be careful, besides if the AUCR has any beef with me, they'll have to get in line with all the other megacorps on my ass."
>He grins
"Good to meet you Mika, and the name isn't that bad, it at least matches that mysterious confidant persona you got going on right now."
| >>186301
>She chuckles
"Nah, I'm not mysterious, just another one of the people who got fucked over by life in a tragic incident, I just happened to be ready to do more good than bad despite all that went down."
>She turns around
"Then, I'll see you around, my bots will, at least. You're free to come back any time you want. And you should try and contact that Miko if you ever cross something like KS again, she can help."
>Mika goes silent and seems to be now focused on the screens
| >>186302
"This place definitely needs more people like that, that's for sure. I'll try to do that next chance that I get. I'm definitely going to contact Miko about that voice as well. I'll see you sometime then."
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| >It's a common occurence in any town, there are some people who need to hide and places which can hide them, and although Kurogami's choice of hideout is a weird one, it's not exactly a bizarre one. Just another junkyard cleverly hidden and buried under years of urban expansion, shadowed by buildings all around and with an entrance almost invisible, tucked away in some alleyway, behind what looks like a pile of metallic corpses...