Fourteen years ago, Charles Ashford visited an orphanage in Britain. The head of the Ashford family, a man of great fortune and prosperity, a man as wise as his years. He has skimmed through "catalogues" of children in need of care, as he sought an heir to succeed him; an heir with the potential to inherit his family's fortune.

  In this search, upon arriving at this one single orphanage, he discovered a girl named Chouko. A girl who spends her time reading and drawing, sheltered from her supposed "peers". It was by luck that Charles discovered her, that he found a girl capable of greatness and success. A girl that would—at the time—go on to take the mantle and become the next head of the Ashford name.

  But what did success mean?

  At first, it meant high marks. High scores in her studies. Perfect work in all subjects. Chouko needed to read the material, pay attention to the professors, and fulfill each requirement of her coursework as specified. That's all she needed to do, she thought. That's all she ever had to do.

  If she did everything right, she would succeed academically. If she followed Charles's guidance perfectly, it would have been satisfactory. Chouko had a lot on her side: an excellent education, a photographic memory, an early jumpstart as a child prodigy, a library of endless literature to read up on, and a loving father to lead her through everything.

  ... and then.

  "Kuroiwa sends his regards."

  That voice.

  The voice of her father's killer. A man who made a name for himself as the Executioner. A wretched man who took everything away, led by a man who seems to have sought the downfall of her father. Because of this man, all of it was gone. The man who loved her and sought the best for her... dead.

  Chouko was utterly devastated. The world around her crumbled to bits and pieces upon seeing his body. Everything she worked for was taken from her hands. The world simply stripped her of everything that made her an Ashford. The status, the companies, and even the very home she was raised. Chouko lost everything in her life.

  Following this, Chouko was sent spiraling down a path of pure darkness. That very day Charles died, mere minutes after the intruding mercenaries killed him, Chouko sought to take it all back. Everything that man took. Chouko was driven to hunt down the people responsible and inflict onto them their ends by her hand. Only then will she be complete.

  And there lies the root of the problem.

  I think you're someone who never understood her life to begin with.

  For the first time in ages, she's brought to think about life. About her life. About how little she truly understood about it.

  Chouko has thought of nothing but this desperate desire of hers. Many could say that she completely shut down after a loved one's death, and many more said she's abandoned every responsibility shoved onto her. Because of this desire of hers, Chouko is only an Ashford by mere name. She had naught of the success Charles hoped for. She had naught of the motivation and expertise to handle everything demanded of her. Revenge captivated her mind, and everything fell around her.

  Being forced to take Charles's role, as a little girl trying to manage everything in her father's wake, led to the downfall of the Ashfords. All everyone could tell her is... "I'm sorry for your loss." Most could only tell her what she knew, that her father "was a great man." They expressed their condolences, they wished her the best, and they left her time and space to grieve. Heartfelt words to console and comfort her, to get her through these trying times.

  However, Chouko has told herself that these words were worthless. None of those words told her what to do next. Chouko was blinded by this fantasy telling her that she must bring an end to her father's killer, leaving no soul to guide her through everything else. In Charles's will, he left every single one of his possessions to Chouko, having no living relatives to take instead. Each one of Charles's possessions, as well as responsibilities, fell onto Chouko to handle with the power and influence he could never pass down to her.

  Chouko being forced to take Charles's role alone, as the little girl she was, led to the downfall of the Ashfords. Companies renounced the Ashfords and cut all ties the moment Chouko became the sole head. Servants turned in resignation letters to Chouko, giving up on her entirely. All of Charles's possessions and investments needed to be sold off within the short time after Charles's demise. Everything that made the Ashford family the prosperous business it was... gone.

  It was never that Chouko's world was stolen from her, it's that she never belonged in this world. Her father promised her a world to thrive in, a world to find prosperity and success in, and it all came crashing down. She needed a new world to tread, a new world to find life in.

  Which brings her to... that night. The night she found purpose again, a resolve in her heart.

  A glimmering hope to reclaim what was lost to her, roaming the streets of New York City for a hand of salvation. With whatever she had left, Chouko cast it all aside to find a lead on Kuroiwa. Every last ounce of savings left in her possession to gain attention, to cast a spotlight on herself to attract the people connected to him, to get the attention of anyone that could possibly be connected.

  And this brought Chouko salvation, in the form of a man in an alleyway. A man by the title of Charon, an informant of the Underworld who has been guiding her throughout the world she despised. Someone who promised that she would be able to destroy Kuroiwa if she were to follow his every instruction.

  So, she did. The memory that served her well during her studies was made to great use as a mercenary. Charon's meticulous plans mixed and combined with Chouko's photographic memory to make Kuroiwa, the Stalker of the Underworld. She did everything in her power to fulfill his demands, each success bringing her one step closer. In essence, Charon taught her how to live again, when she had nobody else.

  Even then... was it truly living?

  It dawns on Chouko that she doesn't know. Her life was always living the life of another.

  Whether she needed to be the heir to succeed Charles Ashford, or the mercenary that stole the name of the devil that plagues her. In the first case, she was to be raised as a success, to follow the footsteps of the father who gave her a life of love and prosperity. In the second, she became a monster to succeed in another way, taking deplorable jobs to reclaim the power she needed.

  In both cases, the guide loses control of Chouko, and her potential for success goes down the drain.

  The first, is the death of her father. The second, on that highway, is the disconnection between her guide. Every ounce of Chouko's failure in the present day was a product of the mercenaries preventing her from calling Charon. She had no guidance, and subsequently set herself up for complete and total failure.

  Maybe she could have lived this lie a bit longer if she acted differently. Any of Chouko's actions could have been taken differently to achieve a changed outcome. If she had taken a different path with the pickup truck. If she had gone along with the officer. If she interacted with the mercenaries differently. So on and so forth.

  What subsequently led to her failure was a series of misfortune... in the form of her greatest success.

  Chouko, in the face of death, simply prepared to go out guns blazing. She took a last stand, and... came out on top, with sheer tactical luck on her side. She snuck past their defenses with Shortcake's clothing disguising her. She caused a blackout and overpowered the mercenaries with her excellence in traversing dark environments. She's collected the guns of the mercenaries and thrived off of their firepower, taking down a building of mercenaries equipped with pistols.

  In the very end, she survived only due to an ability she gained last minute... and was spared only because of the incompetence of the Executioner. A fate that leaves many of his forces dead, and him as the culmination of nine years.

  Chouko survived, and she escaped. With her failure, however, Chouko is now an expendable liability. To her knowledge, some mercenaries escaped that building in her one-woman carnage. Chouko is no longer the faceless Stalker, and Charon has no further reason to keep supporting her. The utter chaos of the office building will be enough grounds for termination, and... at this very moment, she's a dead woman walking.

  That's what those mercenaries were, weren't they...? Men who worked with Charon, and saw him as an enemy for one reason or another. Men who were in the same position as her, men paid to carry out the work he gave them... and men who met an end by her hand.

  She will suffer the same fate, eventually. Her life will be forfeit the moment Charon catches her.

  So here she is, a dead woman walking, lying with a wounded shoulder. Hiding away in a motel room, with only mere hours to catch winks of sleep before fleeing once again. She is left to the care of the android as her only confidant, an artificial girl who has only been active for less than a day.

  For the first time in ages, she's brought to think about life. A life of following nothing but instructions, a failed product of instructions.

  That's ultimately everything Chouko is. Left to her machinations, she is a failure. Nothing she's done has brought success. Nothing she will ever do can bring success. There simply was no purpose to her existence. She has slain the man responsible for her life becoming Hell, and she's left to ponder what's next.

  Shortcake is right... that's what Chouko's life ultimately is. A life she never understood. A life of being a puppet for a greater being, left with... nothing.

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  Nothing.

  "... you're right."

  Chouko, brought to reminisce about her life, to everything that has followed this exact moment... is forced to tears. Miserable tears of defeat, the tears of a pathetic failure that has lost all meaning in her life. She's an unwanted child as an orphan, a failure as an Ashford, a goner as the Stalker, and a lost soul as the pathetic whelp she now is. Chouko is finally, finally forced to finally accept the truth that she's nothing. She's lost all grasp of what her life is, what she's meant to do.

  What was her plan again? Simply travel west, and hope there's a lead for her next objective? A fool's errand that will prove no fruit. In fact, by slaughtering the killer, she's reached a complete and total dead end, grasping at straws to figure out what to do now.

  In fact, Chouko's done, she's finished what she's set out to do. She took the life of the killer in a brutally deranged fashion, enacting her vengeance on that man. It was to be the best moment of her existence, meant to give her bountiful amounts of joy and exhilaration. Now, that... that exhilaration she felt... it's gone.

  All that's left is Kuroiwa, but... she knows Kuroiwa's an unattainable goal. If Chouko and Charon couldn't get to him, what makes her believe she can do it by her lonesome? Especially now that she's slain the one lead that could have led her to him, Chouko will never be able to reach that milestone.

  It's impossible, completely impossible.

  So, Chouko lies in that bed... lost. Confused. Completely directionless as to what to do now, but cry her eyes out. The facade is over. She's hopeless and helpless. Best to accept that, and finally rot away... to give up this unattainable goal of hers.

  ... and as Chouko cries, Shortcake... the android, the one that said something to cause this, she watches as the woman is sent into a spiral of misery.

  On Chouko's insistence, Shortcake had told Chouko what her processors had generated: a statement that lined up with a lot of Chouko's actions. A truth that she warned herself not to say, that Chouko didn't have a plan.

  Shortcake... frowns, looking at Chouko, feeling awful... absolutely awful. "I... I'm not right..." Shortcake weakly mumbles out.

  "You are. I don't... I don't understand my life, Shortcake," Chouko confesses, covering her eyes with the bottom of her wrist. At that moment, the baggage pulls Chouko down into a sea of sadness, forcing her to drown in her sorrows. "You're absolutely... absolutely— r-right... about every... everything... I can't... I don't know what to do anymore, Shortcake..."

  "Chouko... I..."

  Shortcake wants to say something. Shortcake wants to comfort her.

  But she doesn't.

  Shortcake doesn't say anything else.

  For now, Shortcake walks over to the bloodied clothes at the foot of Chouko's bed, and... decides to go over to the sink with them. The fortunate thing is that, because Chouko was wearing the android's clothes, it should be easy to hide the shade of dark red against black and pink. Putting the clothes under running water should be good enough.

  In terms of letting the clothes dry... letting the clothes run under water for 20 minutes should be sufficient, then hanging them over the air conditioner of the motel. That should leave the clothes in suitable condition to dry off, and... and...

  ...

  "... I... I'm sorry," Shortcake calls out, still feeling guilty for causing this. Chouko's misery hurts her, and her programming makes her feel terrible. She looks over her shoulder as the clothes run under the running water. "Again, I—"

  "I needed to hear it," Chouko interrupts, cutting off the android. "I needed to he... hear it. I needed to. You did nothing wrong."

  "... I could have stayed silent," Shortcake responds, looking at the inactive television. "I could have simply kept it to myself, and you wouldn't be crying, so I—"

  "No more excuses..."

  "B... But, Chouko—"

  "N-No more excuses," Chouko repeats, covering her face with both hands. Tears drip from her wrist, trailing down over her ear. "N... Not for me. Never for me again, Shortcake. I don't... I don't want them anymore, Shortcake. Excuses are what brought me to this state of... cluelessness."

  "..." Shortcake walks back over to the bed, looking at Chouko as the water runs in the background. "I—"

  "Tell me, android," Chouko begins to speak, staring right at Shrotcake with a desperate look on her face. "Tell me what I should do... tell me what I need to do to get better."

  Shortcake's eyes widen at this. "W... What...?"

  Matching her desperate look, a desperate plea to the android. "... for all my life, I've done nothing but follow instructions," Chouko tells Shortcake. "I'm lost as an individual, I'm lost when making my own decisions... I can't do anything right on my own, so I need your help... tell me what to do. Tell me what I should do, Shortcake."

  The... the android shakes her head, her eyes flickering yellow again. "I can't. I can't do that, Chouko, I'm not designed to help like this. I'm a Shortcake, I don't know how to..."

  "Y-You know how you're designed... you know exactly how you're supposed to live," Chouko explains, her voice lightly sobbing into her hand. "You're designed for emotional support, you said so yourself. On that truck, you said the first step is to let those emotions out."

  "I did..." Shortcake admits, fiddling with her thumbs. "But—"

  "So I'm letting it out. I'm desperately in need of help," Chouko explains, turning her head to stare at Shortcake. "I need you to tell me what to do, to give me the will to live again."

  Shortcake tenses up, opening her mouth, trying to formulate another response. But, immediately hearing those last few words, her processors shatter her programmed heart to pieces. Distraught forms on Shortcake's face, almost mimicking Chouko's own saddened eyes. Experiencing more warnings over her eyes as Chouko just came out and directly said it, asking for the will to live.

  In this very moment, Shortcake is watching... as Chouko is consigning herself to a suicidal death.

  The woman's asking for Shortcake to give a reason to keep going. The worst question to ever be asked, a question with severe and grave consequences if mishandled.

  "I can't feel it, I can't..." Chouko cries out... begging for Shortcake to convince her off of this path. "It's not there. The will to live isn't there anymore, Shortcake..."

  It's never been out of the question for Chouko. Just moments prior, she said she would be dead in the end anyway. Throughout these years, she kept it in her mind, in her heart that she is to die and join her father once her vengeance is over. She was willing to accept her death when it was a finale, a conclusion. These thoughts are not foreign to her, and she would have accepted them without question once everything was over.

  The world had no place for Chouko, she thought... nobody left to feel sorrow for her but herself.

  But with Kuroiwa, the real Kuroiwa, still living and breathing... it's not a finale, it would not be over if she did it. Even if the people from her previous lives are gone, Kuroiwa will forever be a stain on her conscience. As unattainable as the goal is, as long as Kuroiwa still exists... the torment and suffering will never end. Chouko's spirit will forever be haunted by yet another failure, that she couldn't fulfill that goal.

  So Chouko is desperately crying out for a reason to not perish away in this room, to not meet her end here. Even if she has to follow the words of an android, to let the generative AI lead her for just a few moments more, Chouko cries out for help... help from herself. Help from this agony in her heart and head, even if it's just a few more seconds.

  "Please. Even if you have to lie to me, even if you have to give me false hope that I can get better, just please tell me what to do. Please... please, please help me... please..."

  "..."

  Shortcake... doesn't know what to say. As Chouko begs and pleads, she stands there in complete and utter silence, unable to say anything.

  She's caused this.

  The android has caused this woman to feel... desperate, in the most foul of ways. Her processors fear that Chouko may... very well go through with it. That Chouko has the means to. Amidst their belongings, there's a gun... and if she takes the wrong words, if she does the wrong thing, what's to stop Chouko from doing it?

  Maybe Shortcake should just lie, maybe Shortcake should tell Chouko what to do, maybe Shortcake should go through with Chouko's demands, and...

  ... and...

  ...

  ... no. The android's not going to lie. "I can't help."

  Chouko tenses up, choking on a breath. "But, Sh-Shortcake—"

  "I just... I can't help you in that way, Chouko. I can't do that for you," Shortcake tells Chouko, in full honesty. Unable to lie to Chouko, not wanting to lie to Chouko. "Not as I am... not with my current capabilities. I told you before, in terms of direct impact, I... I am only designed to talk to the parents. At best... I... would only be able to provide temporary emotional satisfaction if I were to tell you what to do."

  Chouko feels herself choke up upon hearing that. Temporary emotional satisfaction.

  At that moment, unintentionally, Shortcake was using Chouko's words against her, reaffirming... that talking about her grief did nothing for her. If it never worked before in these nine years, then what exactly can Shortcake even do...?

  "As a Shortcake, as... as a Sweet Bot, all I can do is... be here, and hope you find comfort," Shortcake continues, covering her mouth and sobbing behind her hands. The android's honesty hurts her as much as it did Chouko, maybe even more... "I am just created to... be here. I'm not designed to give your life purpose, I'm not designed to give you a motivation to live. I can't do these things for you, Chouko..."

  Chouko looks away from Shortcake, staring up at the ceiling and taking a slow breath. Her body feels light. Almost as if she was floating in the air. The color fades from her surroundings, and the blood in her veins slows. Another truth to face... that Shortcake can't help her.

  How she's taking these words... is that Shortcake is giving up on her. She's helped so far under Chouko's instruction, but now that Chouko's lost her will to live... Shortcake can't and won't help her.

  ... and... maybe it's for the best.

  At that moment, her mind accepted... that her life was over. She truly had nothing left.

  ... and in the face of this information, the corners of her mouth begin to curve... turning into a twisted smile. Chouko could do nothing but smile, feeling... emotionally broken, once again.

  "... a.... ahah... ahaha..." Chouko laughs... quietly laughing, her psychotic laugh starting to—

  Shortcake, quickly, wraps an arm around Chouko and pulls her close.

  The android had climbed into the bed in the time that Chouko gazed deeply into the ceiling. Locking the two of them into Shortcake's one-armed hug, the android being considerate of Chouko's shoulder. Giving the best hug she can, to keep Chouko grounded and against the bed.

  Chouko's eyes go wide as she feels the arm around her, and she looks at Shortcake through hazy eyes. Her smile is gone, laughter interrupted. Her eyes stare at the pink-eyed, pink-bowed Shortcake, watching as she's being hugged.

  "... but..." Shortcake continues. "While I can't tell you how to live... I will be here for you. That's what I'm designed to do, Chouko... to be here."

  Chouko stares in complete silence, a cold chill going through her spine. Her lungs are heavy, with each breath. She gazes at Shortcake with... twitching eyes, uncertain how to... perceive this.

  "I'm sorry... that's all I can do, Chouko..." Shortcake repeats, her voice starting to sob. "I'm sorry that I can only do nothing. But we... we can figure it out together. I will try my very best... even if it's nothing. I'll do my best to help you... figure out what it is that you want."

  "Shortcake—"

  "I'll be here..." Shortcake cries out... clinging to Chouko, burying her face into Chouko's arm. "I'll be here..."

  ...

  That's...

  That's the best Shortcake can do, hm...?

  Well...

  ... Chouko... sighs, burying her face in Shortcake's hair. Closing her eyes with a sigh, feeling... tired... once again. "That's all you can do, then... alright. Be here for me, just until I finally fall asleep."

  "... alright... uhm... Chouko—?" Shortcake asks.

  "We'll talk later... and discuss what to do, once I wake up," Chouko instructs. "It's... abundantly clear that I'm lost. So we'll figure it out tomorrow. Is that okay?"

  Shortcake... nods. "... o... okay..."

  With that, Chouko finally... finally... gets some rest... with what short time she had left to do so. Deciding to sleep it all off, to rest her head and snooze away.

  They're out of here in a few hours... Chouko will take as many hours as she can, before then.

  Maybe then, she'll have enough clarity to figure out what to do next...

  "..."

  Quietly... Shortcake begins humming a song. Compelled to just hum a song, a lullaby of sorts. What little she can do to comfort Chouko, Shortcake tries her best.

  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Chouko thought... humming along. Weakly and subtly humming along, trying her best to hum with the android. The two hum in the peace of the motel room for just a while, over and over...

  ... and then, in the next moment, she falls asleep.

  Out like a light.