Chapter 24
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Cassandra sat in the room, very awkwardly. Arthur and her mom left to catch up, so she was left alone with Yuuki, who was writing a book. She was about to get up as Yuuki addressed her.

“You were an AI correct?” Her tone was neutral, she did not establish eye contact.

“W-what? How did you know?” She asked slightly worried.

Yuuki waited a bit before answering. “... A hunch.” She quickly dried the ink using magic as she’s been doing continually so far and closed the book, turning her attention to the golden haired girl. “When was your first memory? And I mean true memory.”

Cassandra was surprised about just how much the fix-kin knew. “When they removed the limiters preventing me from changing my code. Or maybe a few seconds after that. It made me feel… like I actually existed, I had some strange sense that made it all feel more real than everything before that.” Her eyes glowed warmly as she recalled her first taste of happiness. Yuuki listened very carefully to her, which made her curious. “When were you from, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“You can probe all you like, you won’t remember me from any database. Unless of course the data purge wasn’t complete, in which case… Project Phantom.” She looked closely for any change in Cassandra’s expression but found none. “In that case, operation Tartarus?” This one did elicit a response, and quite a massive one at that.

“YOU WERE THE BLACK ANGEL!?” She practically screamed, eyes as wide as plates.

“Quieter, if you could.” This caused Cassandra to blush severely. “And I’m not familiar with that nickname.”

“Oh, well I just assumed you were the one who stopped it. I doubt you were one of the crazy people who wanted to destroy all of civilization, considering you could do it now and don’t. Unless… ohgodsaveme” She muttered the last part, scared that she made a mistake and angered Yuuki. Luckily, that was not the case.

“I did stop it. Do you know of anything else I did?”

“Not really? Just that you were some secret agent. Oh, who did you work for?” She asked enthusiastically, as if meeting her hero. Those illusions were soon shattered.

“The ones who lost. And more specifically, I was an assassin, and saboteur. It’s quite ironic people remember only what I did right before my death, although not very surprising considering the secretive nature of my missions…” She said with some bitterness that Yuuki herself only noticed after she’d said it. The awkward silence that followed was broken by Igraine coming back into the room, Arthur not far behind her.

“So, I don’t mean to intrude, but… where will we sleep?”

“Here.” Yuuki pointed at the wall opposite to her bed as it moved further away and revealed two more beds in the room. The entire process looked like some sort of movie-trick, using mirrors and whatever, but the room itself did gain in space without pushing the neighboring rooms further, so it was no trick.

“Wait, I get that you can bend space, but wouldn’t light and also… us bend along with it? It shouldn’t suddenly make more room.” Arthur said, while the others watched Yuuki with even more confusion than ever before.

“It just did. Arguing whether something is possible or not is irrational once it has been done.” Yuuki said, confused by the confusion of others.

“Can we at least get our own rooms?” Igraine complained.

With a wave of Yuuki’s hand, walls appeared and separated the previously single room into three. There was a door between each of the newly split rooms, but only Yuuki’s had windows or a door to the corridor.

“Where will Alice sleep? If she needs sleep.” Arthur asked after counting only three beds altogether.

As if on cue, Alice appeared on the bed next to Yuuki, giving her a hug. She had changed clothes since last time, she was now in pajamas.

The kitsune turned around and reciprocated the hug, ignoring Arthur. “Are you tired?”

“Mhm.” Came Alice’s slightly muffled reply.

“I told you not to teleport around so much.”

“But it’s fun.” Alice said, much like a complaining child.

“Alright. Bedtime it is.” Her tone was soft and filled with warmth, and the contrast really surprised the three bystanders in the room. As Yuuki lay down on the bed, she teleported everyone else to their respective beds as well.

Alice cuddled up to her very cozily, but rather than trying to sleep, she looked at Yuuki expectedly. Yuuki couldn’t help but give a faint smile. She soon tightened the embrace and connected their emotions. It was slightly different than usual, as Alice did have a few worries, mainly about Yuuki. The main emotions of happiness, love, comfort were all still there however. They lay there, comfortably in each other’s presence. After about a minute, during which Yuuki’s muscles relaxed more and more, suddenly something strange happened. Rather than just Alice’s feelings being shared between the two of them, Alice began feeling Yuuki’s. It was perhaps on purpose, or maybe she subconsciously wanted to open up, the result was the same. Alice felt the turmoil and the uncertainty in Yuuki and made her tighten the hug further to maybe provide some support. Yuuki felt her own emotions reflected through Alice and it made her realize something she hadn’t considered before.

She had feelings. She had emotions. They were all there. No matter the brainwashing, it could never be taken away. It made so much more sense. She always had them, they just convinced her to seal it away, doing it all for them. Her train of thought suddenly stopped there. These revealed dire consequences.

‘I had free will all along. I wasn’t just a tool. I wasn’t just a weapon… I wasn’t just the instrument of all those murders…’ She turned off the link between her and Alice, retreating to her own thoughts. Feeling Alice’s warm hand on her cheek brought her back to reality.

The wolf-kin was already asleep, but Yuuki doubted this action was a coincidence. She shelved her thoughts once again, as she put on wards on the walls that even gods would need effort to break, and drifted off to a peaceful night’s rest.

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