Chapter 66: Theory: Diverging Personalities

“She said all that weird stuff to me, like how there was no point to explain and stuff. After saying that, she said that even if I were to tell someone, no one would believe me!” 

Abyssal said towards a young woman who was sitting in front of her. She wore a victorian maid outfit and had long grey hair tied into a braid that went over her shoulder.

“...” the woman in question stayed silent with her eyes closed. She looked like she was listening closely to what Abyssal was saying. Maybe.

“She said that personality Abyssal’s intelligence quotient is not high enough to understand. And then she left! Can you believe it! Grrr that stupid Abby!” Abyssal yelled out.

“...” the grey-haired woman didn’t reply, only pouring Abyssal and herself a cup of tea. She then gave a respectful bow towards Abyssal and drank her tea with the elegance of a royal retainer. 

“Urghh… she’s so annoying,” Abyssal let out a sigh. “Why can’t she be more obedient…”

After sipping a nice cup of tea, Kuon opened her eyes and stared at Abyssal. “I’m not sure that I am the right... person to be telling all of this, Master.”

What Kuon saw was the image of a young woman with blue hair and futuristic clothing, sitting rather barbarically on the western seat, showing no concern for her womanhood. The two were sitting in a gazebo within a nice looking garden, facing a large mansion. 

They were within an interconnected virtual realm between two Living Cores.

“What are you talking about! You are the perfect person to tell all of this!” Abyssal retorted.

“Is that so… I’m not sure how I can help with the matter though. I don’t have any specialized skills to employ regarding your predicaments,”

“You can help by listening to me. Do your job as First Mate for once, jeez. It’s not like I can go to just anybody for this, you know? You are the only one I can trust,” Abyssal said.

“I-I see,” Kuon responded with a slight blush. She then let out a small murmur, one that Abyssal couldn’t hear.

“What?”

“Nothing. Back to the matter at hand, I’m not sure if I can believe any of this… Are you sure that you aren’t imagining all of this, Master? You have been on edge ever since we boarded this ship, after all.”

Abyssal only folded her arms and pouted at Kuon.

“...”
“...”

“Ahem. I see that this is your core?” Kuon looked towards her right. Seated on a chair was an imaginary skeleton, folding its arm looking at Kuon. 

“Yep. All evidence points to it being so.”

“Isn’t this supposed to be the remnants of your old captain? Why would your core be in this pile of bones?”

“Beats me,” Abyssal shrugged. “All I know is that somehow, someway, my core is somewhere inside this. Either that or my core is this…”

“I see. To think I once tried to get rid of it. Please forgive me for my transgressions at that time. I did not know.”

“Nah, it’s alright. I don’t even know myself either.”

The two then remained silent as they enjoyed the view of the nice garden.

Kuon took this opportunity to look around the place. The sound of birds chirping could be heard. The weather was nice and the garden area has a nice relaxing and calming breeze. Kuon took her time to enjoy the warm air on her skin.

“For someone like yourself, you sure have quite a decent virtual realm,” Kuon said.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean.”

“No. It’s just that I thought that your realm would be more… chaotic and more… logic-defying. That does seem to fit your style better, after all,” Kuon replied.

“That’s mean. I like to have a nice place to hang out, alright,” Abyssal pouted again as she looked to the sides. “You really have quite the sharp tongue, you know that. It’s hurtful! Do you always speak to others like that?”

“Speak, huh. Back in New England, I would be happy if I could even speak out my mind like I am doing right now. To have a master that I can speak my mind out like this without reservations… I’m truly grateful to have met you, Master,” Kuon said with a charming smile towards Abyssal.

“Wha?” Abyssal was taken aback at Kuon’s sudden words. “Pleasantry won’t make me any less angry you know!”

“I don’t expect you to be,” Kuon chuckled as she drank her tea.

“Urgh,” Abyssal grunted as she picked up her teacup. She took a small sip before letting out a small frown. “This is just water.”

“Indeed it is,” Kuon let out a small smirk.

“What the hell? What’s the point of being all fancy with the pouring if it’s just water!”

“You never said that you wanted to drink any specific type of tea.”

Letting out a sigh, Abyssal placed the cup down and massaged her temples. Kuon let out another small chuckle at this sight.

“Wow this maid…” Abyssal muttered, though her grunting only served to grant Kuon more satisfaction.

“Oh right! I almost forgot,” Kuon placed down her cup before showing Abyssal a small hologram containing a blueprint of sorts.

“I want to say that the prototype hybrid shields are almost done. Give us a few more days to finalise the design and we should be able to install it to the Shark-class. I’ve also done some changes to the main gun designs as well. Taking in information from Astral’s ship and her powerful weapon, I’ve drawn an upgrade that could very well give the already big gun a more powerful punch. The downside to this upgrade is that we would have to route all our Zenatonium from the radar towards the new gun, but I guarantee the results will be well worth it. You won’t be disappointed,” Kuon said to Abyssal. If one looked closely, one could see sparkles in her eyes.

Abyssal’s mood brightened up immediately upon hearing this. “Eh, really? That’s wonderful news! Share with me the blueprints later, we’ll install it on the spot!”

“Noted. When it’s done, you will be the first to see my new masterpiece, Master.”

“To be able to make the blueprints so fast. You are really amazing, Kuon,” Abyssal said with glee.

“Why of course. Expect nothing less than perfection from me, Master,” Kuon puffed out her chest. Accompanying her gesture was a face full of smug.

‘I did get some help from Meica though. But I’ll keep that a secret,’ thought Kuon as she reaped all the praises from Abyssal.

“Finally some good news. Things have been going really bad for us lately, I was wondering when we are going to get a break from all of it.”

“Indeed. Though it would be nice if we could also upgrade our detection system a bit more. I don’t know how those curs are able to get past the Zenatonium infused radar, but we will need to find a way to neutralize the threat of being ambushed in space. Too many times have we been hit that way,” Kuon gave Abyssal her thoughts.

“Yep. I’m kinda working on it. I might have to visit Doctor Julia though.”

“Or you could… sneak up to her fighter and steal more tech?”

“I could I guess.”

Abyssal and Kuon nodded to each other while drinking their cups of water. They let out relaxed smiles and enjoyed the breeze of cool fresh air in the virtual realm. There was that little nagging feeling telling Abyssal that she was forgetting about something though.

“Actually, wait. I didn’t bring you here to talk about that. It’s about my evil twin sister! What are we supposed to do about it!?”

Kuon clicked her tongue before looking sideways, giving out an annoyed look.

“Oi! I heard that,” Abyssal gave Kuon a sharp glance.

“I was hoping that we do not need to further discuss that matter.”

“You could have worded that better, you know…”

“It’s not a matter that I find enjoyment talking about, after all. Like I said, it is beyond my expertise. I would not know how to advise a person who has ‘separate personalities’ like yourself. As far as I know, I don’t have such problems with my logical processors.”

“Still you could at least bother to help a little bit,” Abyssal let out a sigh. “How do I even begin to get her to talk to me? I wonder how Abby even became like that? Is my sanity to blame for all of this? That’s how it usually works, right? Abby must have evolved from a normal logical processor to something of her own to protect my sanity or something,” Abyssal nodded as she tried to push out as many theories as she could.

“Perhaps you are looking at it the wrong way?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Maybe it is not this Abby person that was created to protect you from sanity. Perhaps it is the other way around, Master. Perhaps you are the divergent personality? Perhaps you are created so that the original would not have to suffer from extended periods of being alone. Maybe, all this time, you are th— hmm?”

Kuon's words were stopped halfway when she saw that Abyssal had dropped her cup. Her eyes and mouth were opened wide. She had a face as if she just received a revelation from God himself.

“Master?” Kuon asked in worry.

“Oh my god…” Abyssal brought out her hands to cover her mouth, she then looked downwards towards herself as she went into deep thought. Her eyes darted around without any pattern and she was breathing rather rapidly. Any actions made by Kuon to draw Abyssal’s attention was futile as she did not respond.

‘Well that’s a problem…’ Kuon thought to herself

Kuon had only wanted to tease her master. She didn’t expect her to have a mental breakdown like this.

Kotohood

I'm back after planning the next arc. Thanks for reading! I've seen quite a few people frustrated at how the story is going nowhere and I hope the next arc would fix that in a way.