Hololive: Reflection

Part Thirty: Why I Care

As Roboco quickly sidestepped to avoid a flurry of daggers thrown by Spade Echo, Kaoru took his red Beyblade and shot it towards the robot girl, the holographic dragon creature emerging from it as it charged towards her. Reacting quickly, Roboco crossed her arms in a Wonder Woman-like fashion in order to block the spinning top. She grunted in pain as the flames from the top singed her arms. In time, she managed to burst her arms open, sending the Beyblade hurling back towards Kaoru and hitting him in the stomach at full force. He toppled to the ground, blood gushing from his mouth. Spade Echo dashed towards the boy and checked his vitals.

"He's alive, but his breathing's a bit unsteady," Spade Echo informed Nozomi, "Can you do this on your own?"

"Piece of cake," Nozomi said with a grimace, clutching his sword, "Guard him over there, I'll make sure the fight stays away from him."

"Understood," the phantom thief nodded, carrying Kaoru to a corner in the barrier and setting him down. She quickly stood in front of him and summoned two daggers, ready to do battle if necessary.

"Hehe..." Kaoru coughed with a small grin, "You have a really pretty bed of hair, Miss Echo... how 'bout we try out a different style when we get home...?"

"I think I'd like that, Kaoru-kun," Spade Echo smiled, looking on at the duel between Roboco and Kaoru.

"Roboco-san, come on!" he said in between sword strikes, "This isn't the you I know!"

This statement caused Roboco to recoil, jumping backwards and giving a fierce expression.

"What do you know about me?" she questioned, her voice significantly deeper than her usual tone, perhaps due to this 'KEY' that 004 had activated.

"So you can talk... that's good..." Nozomi said, keeping his sword in a fighting position, "I'll admit, there is a lot I don't know about you, Roboco-san."

"Then why are you wasting your words?" she asked, her face scrunching up a bit from anger, "Let us fight already."

"You didn't let me finish," he chuckled, his battle stance becoming less cautious, "But I do know that you're a very kind person. You put others before yourself and you always manage to put smiles on the faces of others. You're also quite the shy one, aren't you? Which is not to say you're not an extrovert, but you sometimes struggle with bringing up your feelings. And you've got some pretty heavy emotional baggage, if what I heard right before that 'KEY' thing activated was right."

"You absolute idiot..." the robot girl muttered under her breath, her right eye slowly turning from purple to yellow. She promptly dashed towards the boy with her axe-arm. Nozomi's Survival Instinct kicked in as he brought the sword to the axe's blade, fighting it off.

"You know nothing about me..." she murmured, putting her full strength up to the blade as beads of sweat ran down her face, "You have no clue of the horrors I've gone through."

"You're right, I don't!" Nozomi shouted, struggling to keep his balance as the robot girl kept her strength up against the blade, "But I want to know you! I want to help you! I want to comfort you!"

"You... goddamn bastard!" she cried out as tears formed in the corners of her cheeks, her voice slowly turning into the higher pitched voice Nozomi loved, her eyes flickering purple and yellow, "You don't want me! Nobody wants me! I'll just cause problems for everyone! How crazy it is to think, the high-spec robot idol will bring about the world's cataclysm!"

"Shut UP, Roboco!" Nozomi took his foot and forcefully shoved it into the robot girl's abdomen, sending her stumbling backwards, "You don't know how much you're appreciated! How much you're loved!"