“Nisa!”

No matter how hard she tried, Ritsue couldn’t get Nisa to wake up. Her body kept shaking and her head moved left to right. Her white tail stood on end and her hands twitched every so often.

“What do we do?!” Delia panicked as she looked at Ritsue for answers.

“Call Nick.”

She didn’t think he had an answer either, but at least he could possibly help calm her down.

Delia nodded and rushed to the door, but the moment she opened it—

“Sorry. Coming through!”

The small robot came rolling through the door.

The arm that was normally shaped as a claw was now a barrel familiar to Ritsue. Bob aimed the barrel towards Nisa and shot out a thin mist that covered her face.

Within moments, she went still.

“What did you do?” Deli asked.

“Was that the sleeping agent?”

“Indeed.”

It was the same thing he’d used on Delia when she arrived.

“This is its main use. To calm Nisa down.”

Calm her down? Why exactly did she have to be calmed down?

The real question should’ve been why that was happening in the first place. That was no normal bad dream or nightmare. That looked like she was reliving something. Something painful.

“And why exactly does she need to be calmed down?”

“To prevent her from harming anyone.”

She knew better than to expect the full answer from Bob.

If he didn’t even want to say where Hitoshi got his apples, why in the hell would he reveal something actually important. Ritsue had to imagine Nick was unaware of this too.

“Have you told Nick?”

“I’ve had no reason to, no.”

“Don’t you think it’s important for him to know?”

“Not unless it’s needed, no.”

Obviously, she was going to get nowhere with this. The best course of action was to tell Nick herself.

“Where are you going?”

“Where do you think, dumbass?”

She stormed out of the room and headed straight for Nick sleeping on the couch.

“Nick. Get up.” She shook him awake.

“…Hm?… What is it?”

“I think you’re little friend here has something to say.”

Bob rolled up to the two of them, head slightly downcast.

“Bob? What is it?”

The little robot looked up for a moment, then his body went stiff.

In a more robotic tone than usual, Bob said, “Info section two dash three. Manual entry: Code 0001. In the circumstance of—”

Ritsue slammed a fist onto Bob’s square head. “Speak normally.”

“I apologize…”

Then, Bob went into some detail about Nisa’s condition.

Although true to character, he didn’t reveal much, he did try revealing enough for them to get the gist of it.

The place she came from made her perform various “tests” where she would be physically harmed through various means. From electric shocks to scorching heat, freezing cold, and various other ways that even he claimed to not fully know of.

Her torture would continue every day for a span of a few years. Way before even Bob was created.

He didn’t explain why they did it, or even who they were, but in the grand scheme of things, that didn’t matter. All they had to know was that at times during the night, those experiences would come back to her, and many times she would go into a panic attack. It was so bad that her body registered her nightmares as causing physical pain, even if it wasn’t actually happening.

“I’m guessing Hitoshi knows.”

“Indeed.”

“Was he the one doing all that to her?”

“…”

The slight delay between his answers was worrying, but his answer surprised both Ritsue and Nick.

“Negative.”

“He…wasn’t?”

Bob shook his head. “I’m not allowed to say more than that.”

With that, Bob sealed his lips.

———

That morning, I awoke to a pair of bright blue eyes looking down at me. Two fluffy ears twitched as we made eye contact.

“Good morning, Nisa…” I yawned.

She let out a cute little yawn alongside me before saying, “Morning.”

I sat up on the couch and found a note placed on my chest. It was left by Delia saying she was leaving on the morning train. She apparently also bought Nisa some breakfast.

I crumpled the note and stuffed it in my pocket.

“How you doing?” I ruffled her hair.

“Good.”

I could only smile at her timid response.

There was nothing I could do about her past. The atrocities they had done to her, all of them, weren’t going to disappear. All I could do was give her a chance for a better life.

How I was going to do that was still up in the air. Still, I would try my hardest to make it work.

Speaking of which.

“Right! I have work today!”

Nisa turned her head, confused.

I really hadn’t taken that into consideration. Granted, I hadn’t taken much into consideration.

I didn’t very well know if I could leave Nisa alone for eight hours, especially after what I heard the night before.

Thankfully, my front door opened just as I was thinking that.

“How do people keep walking in and out of my room so casually?”

“Took your key,” Ritsue dangled my keys.

Unlike how I’d last seen her, she was now wearing a sports bra and workout shorts. Her hair was up in a ponytail and sweat glistened on her brow and exposed skin.

“Did you go running or something?”

“What, do you think I just wear this for fun?”

“Wouldn’t put it past you.”

She really never kept one style for very long.

Anyway, now that she was here, I wouldn’t imagine she’d be against taking care of Nisa for a while.

“Oh, right. That friend of mine is coming over today.”

She walked over to the kitchen, filled a glass with water, then downed the entire thing in one go.

“Friend?”

With a satisfied sigh, she said, “You already forgot? The teacher friend, remember?”

I faintly recalled her mentioning that. So much had happened in the span of a few hours that it felt like it’d happened long ago. But yes, she did say she was bringing a friend over today so she could help out with Nisa.

“And yes, I’ll take care of her while you work.”

“Thanks.” I sighed.

I looked at the clock and noticed it was already 6:15.

“Ugh,”

———

Nick left for work half an hour later, leaving Nisa and Ritsue by themselves. Nisa didn’t seem too keen on leaving the apartment room, so Ritsue stayed with her there.

“Alright!” She clapped. “I will now ask you a few questions.” She said to the girl sitting on the floor in front of her.

Something Ritsue had been curious about was how much knowledge she really had. It seemed she knew plenty of the basics, but then some things that should’ve been obvious to her weren’t.

It all probably had to do with being locked in a room for the majority of her life.

Ritsue had switched out of her running outfit and changed to a simple shirt and pants. Having taken a shower, she left her natural hair hanging down her shoulders.

“What’s your name?”

“Nisa.”

Simple enough. Ritsue wanted to slowly escalate the questions.

“Um…how old are you?”

Nisa responded by turning her head quizzically.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would know that.”

Time wasn’t something she seemed to have a grasp on. But who could blame her? As far as Ritsue knew, Nisa never really was taught that concept.

At most, she knew about how long it took between things like meals, time to sleep, and when the “tests” were being conducted. But that was more of an internal clock instead of actually knowing time. Once you got to the scope of years, an internal clock would be useless.

“Nevermind then.” She continued to the next few questions.

She went over simple things but eventually figured out stuff like her lack of knowledge in math, sciences, literature, or really anything that would be thought in school.

She kind of expected that, but it was still surprising seeing a girl her age—appearance-wise—barely knowing the numbers up to ten.

Nisa’s tail swayed side to side on the floor.

“Guess we have a lot to work on, huh,” Ritsue patted Nisa’s soft hair.

A light ding caught Nisa’s attention. She shot her gaze towards Ritsue’s pocket where the sound had come from.

“Is she here already?” Ritsue pulled out her phone looked at the notification. However, the message wasn’t from her friend.

The sender read: “Mom”

She sighed, locked her phone, and put it back in her pocket. She didn’t bother reading the message.

Nisa looked from the now stashed away phone to Ritsue’s furrowed brows.

———

Outside the apartment building, a certain girl was dashing from across the street. She quickly made her way through the door and up the stairs.

“Is it too early?” she asked herself as she made it to the floor her friend had told her to go to. “Why doesn’t she explain anything!?”

Not only was she not told why she should be here, but she was also given no time frame for when she should arrive. With nothing to go by, she decided the earlier the better. Maybe she was way too early though.

She checked every door number until she got to the one labeled: “346”

Whatever the numbering system was for that building, it bordered nonsensical. One would imagine the three hundreds would be on the third floor, but she was at the end of the fourth floor.

Either way, she was here so that didn’t matter anymore.

She sighed as she finally knocked on the door.

To her surprise, the person that opened the door wasn’t her friend, but a small girl with long white hair, blue eyes, and a pair of cat ears on her head—