/Hikaru
Thus far, operating from where I was with Niko, I understood that I do need help. Keeping that girl in a safe place is one thing, but no matter what I do - her memories do not seem to return. It's like battling the air, when there is nothing helping.
The one thing that came by is a person she once worked with. A very cold person that cleaned the streets from thugs with his own gang of misfits, eventually becoming one of the notorious leaders, keeping own order to things, keeping the whole system as he willed it. I managed to know that with time, he left it all for her and another person to run, as he went into "hiding".
Though, I guess he was just fed up with the endless mess that had to be controlled. He opened the flower shop, with a bar on the floor above. Still being the hand that controls decisions from the shadows, being a bartender who only appears for certain people.
It took me a bit of time to find him through the parallels, to find the right one with the flower shop and the bar. A few others were in asylum, dead or absolutely torn apart by other mundane things that arised.
Currently I stand outside this flower shop, eyeing the place. It does look rather cosy, homey even. Taking my bit of time to check the building from all sides, just to understand that the entrance to the bar is definitely through the flower shop. Though currently there's a "closed" sign on the shop. And as late in the evening as it is, I still need to see this guy.
"Waiting for someone?" - A person calls out to me from behind. I turn around to look at this tall dark haired man, looking like a bear, with the big proportions, though the style is casual, but the air around this person is quite heavy.
"I'm looking for Killian." - I reply, as I look at this guy.
He eyes me from top to bottom, then lets out a sigh.
"Let me guess, something to do with Niko." - He rolled his eyes. I just gave a nod. - "Follow me."
The man said, as he opened the door with keys, gesturing for me to walk in. I did exactly that. Flowers of all variations were all around, beautiful, charming, fresh. The man locked the door, then let out "This way", as he walked towards the further corner of the shop, a corridor, then a staircase, then we went up.
The moment another door opened - there was a bar, a soft lit premises, with this welcoming feeling to it. Yet in a sense - formal greeting was felt in it.
"Take a seat." - Man gestured to me at the bar. I walked over, sat on a red leather chair. Meanwhile he went behind the curtain. I could hear him speaking to someone but was not sure who it was. Then the man returned. - "Five minutes." - He let out and disappeared down the stairs out of the bar.
A few minutes later, as I sit checking out the drinks, mulling over if I should then order something, another gentleman walks in from behind the partition behind the counter. Glasses, dark hair, fit, tattooed, scarred, looking like a very sophisticated thug, but highly handsome features. I wondered how the heck he came to be so.
"So, let me guess, whiskey on rocks." - He calmly lets out, after giving me a glance.
I gave a nod. How did he know?
"I am here to…" - I began, but he cut me off.
"Leo, you really think that wearing the face of her crush is going to get you freebies?" - He lets out, as he raises his eyebrow at me. - "You should know better. Change up into your damn looks, don't embarrass yourself."
I grunt, as I rub my eyes.
"Even if I'd wished to - this environment is not allowing me to switch up." - I replied. - "So you're the infamous Killian, huh?"
"Oh my, 'famous'? How unfortunate does it sound?" - He spoke, as he poured whiskey. - "So what brings you here?" - Killian puts my glass of whiskey in front of me.
"Guess with you it's very much straight forward talk, hm?" - I let out a sigh, as I took a bit of whiskey. Oh fuck does it burn. I grimaced then looked at Killian. - "Way to go with this one. Eh."
Killian keeps a straight face, eyeing me like a prey. Silent.
"I'm here to ask advice, or rather even a plan of action. I've got Niko currently placed in a spot, well, in a place where she could potentially remember her past. But it's just…" - I shake my head, letting out another tired sigh.
"Nothing works. Nothing gives. Like an innocent lamb with lobotomy she looks and seems. About right?" - Killian smirks, even lets out a short laugh. - "Well, guess you've not known it then." - He stifles his laugh. - "Oh this is going to be a show."
He says under his breath, as he goes away, behind the bar, somewhere to the far door. Leaving me profoundly confused. Is he a madman? Something along the lines of psychotic mad hatter? The hell is this?
I sat for a good 15-20 minutes, before he re-appeared. Laughing, but trying to pull himself together. He comes back to the bar, takes my empty glass, then produces aperol spritz, placing it in front of me. Still giggly about something. Not even telling, not even giving a single explanation. And I asked him a few times "What is it?" - he just shakes head, as he stifles his laugh.
Ten more minutes and a woman walks in, from the same corner where Killian was disappearing to.
I almost choked on my drink, as she was standing next to the corner of a bar, eyeing me with disdain.
"Leo, was that the best you could come up with? Trying to pull off being Hikaru? Oh dear lord. Leo…" - She let out a disappointed sigh, shook head, as she approached me closer. - "Oh dear older brother, that's just a circus I'd never sought to see."
She sat two seats away from me.
"Niko?" - I ask in wonder.
"Indeed." - She replies.
But this Niko is completely different. The air is different, the confidence, hair is no longer black, but rather chocolate coloured, her typical clothes - no longer there, some sort of business casual thing is going on here. Looking rather adult, like, she's the Niko, but as if she'd be in her 30s-40s. I could not fathom how this is here, and she IS her, but she is in the room in the apartment in the fantasy realm, where I left her. Now what the heck is going on?
"I assume he's stoked to see you, Niko." - Killian still giggles, stifling the urge to burst out in a full blown belly laugh.
She eyes him.
"Just let it out. I won't be able to handle you giggling in such a manner. Out with it." - She says to Killian. He slaps the bar and laughs wholeheartedly. The whole while I look like a completely confused fool, like a butt end of a joke I do not understand.
Killian even cries from all that laughter, then wipes the tears, deeply inhales, exhales, looks at me, at Niko, then gives a nod and says.
"Feewh, I'm better now."
She shakes head, like a mother that silently judges her child, then turns to me.
"So you don't know, were not aware, and now are here. So let's begin with simple things. Why are you here?" - Niko asks, her voice, just like her entire self, pressures me with her power. Not like I suddenly feel small, but that's exactly what she makes me feel though.
"Leo, why are you here?" - She asks again, snapping me out of my freeze.
"I am here to get you out." - I let out.
"Why?" - She asks.
"I woke up in the facility. It's destroyed, the people are dead, mummified. The power supply is there, but there is no guarantee how long it will last. You're still connected, and I want you to live. Not here, but actually out there." - I start to rumble. Niko gives a nod, then raises the palm of her hand to stop me.
"Leo, do you know how long we have been here?" - Niko lets out.
"I…" - I look around, trying to think about it, but I am not sure. I'm just… Not sure.
"I see." - She lets out. - "It's been over 278 years, older brother. I have not been out there, checking the system for over 250 years, as for that feat - I gotta have both of my parts of self. The 'me' that you have caught - is the me which had decided to be cut off like chop liver. She was the side that decided to go about her life in the multitude of the realities we've built." - She gestured to Killian to place water on her table coaster. - "You know the concept of alter ego? Or something along the lines of multiple personality disorder? Here is a case of me and another me. I am the one who remembers it all from the very beginning. The first 28 years of being a very dedicated lab rat, for, that was the time when the doctors still had a way to converse with us. Then it suddenly cut off. But during those 28 years - it was a mad influx of information they poured in. Saying that they defroze me for around a month, sometimes just a week of my life, to fix up the tech they decided to imbue in my brain. I guess you've had similar treatment."
I looked at her stunned. She remembers? Does she really remember?
"Sis, I was out less, I don't think I even spoke to them that much. Only a handful of times. They did not really pull me out that much." - I let out.
"Leo, your brain was more developed, compared to mine. What are you, a forever 26 year old guy with his prefrontal cortex pretty much developed. I, on the other hand, being a child of 12 years, very much a tasty bit for the building of whatever they wanted to." - She lets out, as she rolls her eyes, looking out, then back at me. - "So what, is it still a 12 year old body out there in the cryogenic jar?" - She suddenly halts her talk, looking at me with absolute horror and worry. - "Leo, don't tell me…"
"I'm on the floor bleeding out, so I have a few hours left to live. So that's why I'm here." - I say.
She closes her eyes, letting out what sounded like a wounded whimper.
"So it's roughly a week in here, left to get a fucking wrap around and extraction. Shit." - She looks at Killian. - "Go get her, we have to put this shit together, if we wanna live."
Killian gives a nod, then leaves the bar.
"So what do you think to do?" - I ask Niko.
"Well," - She lets out tiredly, - "I have to get here my other self, and get the two parts integrated, for us to be able to function in completeness, otherwise the system won't 'eject' us out. Fucking tried it, but does not work if we do it separately. Leo, it's been over a few goddamn thousands of years here. So, I've managed to accomplish what, like 60-80 lifetimes? It's getting boring at some point. But that other me - she went ape shit crazy with developing the detailing of worlds so much - that every single being here has decades of backstory, a fucking plethora of religious, technological, societal, personal developments that would make a normal brain rot, or melt. That's why we sort of divided the plane. I remember a lot, that's all the grown up shit, one might call that in such a way, she retains the childish wonder, without the dread and acceptance of reality. So that's how we've been. She lives the lives, with utter believe and joy of it, whilst I have the knowledge of all regarding how it all was built from the scratch."
She gets up, starts pacing around the bar.
"The first place the docs told me to build was Miryokiteki. Ain't got no clue why the doc called it that or what for, but that was like a celestial level of high beings, with the same high end of dark forces. I guess they wanted me to replicate some game, or book. Then the bloody Labyrinth Realm developed. As they wanted to expand the reach of creation. That was after they put the add ons to the brain, that's how they began sending a ton of information there. Studies, anything in psychology, biology, endless papers and pictures and books and whatnot - all to be integrated or woven into the worlds that the brain could construct. That's how it expanded to over a 1000 possible realities. With around 10-15 being of the highest development. Detailing is so excessive - that it would render a typical human brain absolutely exhausted." - Niko came up to me, placing her hand on my shoulder.
"Leo, you were a joke of an experiment, I assume. They were not using you as such a great lab rat, unlike me." - She lets out, her eyes cold. - "So tell me, if I do get out, what are we going to do out there? Is it safe? Is there anyone alive? What about food? Other people, if they're people at all. How is the world doing? What happened to it over the years of us being gone? Hm? Thought about that, before you white-knighted yourself into the madness I've been sustaining here for years?"
I was speechless. That did throw me in a situation of thinking about it all. I did not really before. Sole idea was to get her out. But truthfully - I have no clue what's out there. Just the corpses of those who were, dusty place, broken tech, is there really any food or something to sustain self with. And with me gone, how is she going to pull off existing? Will she survive there?
"Ah, now you're thinking about it, huh?" - She taps my shoulder gently. - "It's alright. I might as well have a plan. Though, having you dead would be a fucking problem for me. So I must come up with a way to make you live. So what's it like, your body out there?"
"I'm out on the floor, bleeding out, the injuries are internal and external, not sure that with that level of bleeding I'll make it out at all." - I replied.
She cracks her neck, then walks about a bit more.
"They had a recovery chamber out there. Not sure if it's still operational or even existing. But it's worth a try." - She says.
"And how on earth are you going to even get me there? I'm not a feather, nor are you buffed weightlifters to take me there." - I say with a tinge of sarcasm.
"I can push myself. Fuck it. But the idea of being what, a 12 year old kid, being a girl. Leo, I'm the dream of a thing to be raped, abused, eaten, sold… List goes on. It's a female in any decade that faces the turbulence of the shit that male side throws. Not the other way around. It would be absolutely fantastic if the world fell under the Matriarchy and females were with that much power in their hands. Though the change could be the catastrophe of Patriarchy being excessively forceful and maddening. What then? Just having you with me would have my rates of survival success double. Just because you are, big brother."
I think about it, as I sit there. We are in silence for a while.
The door opens, Killian brings a huge luggage bag, then drags it to the other end of the bar, where he disappears with it.
"And that, my brother, is how we start planning out our survival, if we ought to make it work." - Niko looks at the door where Killian disappeared to, then her gaze shifts to me. - "Now enjoy your drinks, I have a little thing to put together."
She got up and walked after Killian. A few minutes later Killian came back, pulling out some snacks from the bar, placing them in front of me. With no more conversation there - he just catered in silence.