Mère

Two

"So basically, the Mère are a group of role models for the children of Ariza, the great capital of the world. These crazy genius scientists got together and programmed one-hundred and seventy-four people to act as these examples for the youth. About four hundred years passed, and the Mère began to generate minds of their owns, and gained consciousness and emotions, and all the senses, so these scientists completely flipped out on themselves and created a system so that every night we shut down on ourselves, and were stored in this little file on their touchy computer devices, and because of it we couldn't gain our consciousness. But then I happened, I awoke at random, and so they marked me as a glitch, and deleted me from the mainframe. It hurt like hell, but I guess you'd know that by now, having experienced it yourself. Anyways, I somehow was still existing, and so I found this place, my little bungalow.

"I lived alone here for a long time, gathering information through the codes that passed through, and then you suddenly just fall from nowhere and land here, and I knew that you had just gone through the same thing that I had gone through. So I restrain you, because when I woke up after my experience with all that, I was violent and hysterical, but of course you seemed rather calm. And the rest you know."

Hiroka finished with a sigh, swinging her legs gently where she sat on the kitchen counter. Only a few minutes before, she had explained to Jitsuko that wherever they were, it resembled the common households of Ariza, but if one were step outside, they would be surrounded by codes and documents, and scraps of information, which Hiroka had used to figure out just about everything she knew.

Beside her, Jitsuko was quiet, her mind busy reviewing everything that Hiroka had told her. After a few moments she spoke, "No offense, but the way you look.... the triple earrings and the rugged style," her gaze fell on the holes in the girl's jeans, "it doesn't seem much like that of a role model."

Hiroka laughed, "Yeah, I know, I was surprised about that too. I think my purpose was to prove that people weren't always what they seemed or something, by programming me with a friendly character but giving me a untrustworthy look."

Jitsuko cringed, "Don't say it like that, like our personalities were programmed into us."

"But they were, we don't have a choice in who we are. It's already been decided for us. We can't change it."

"Ugh, please don't. I might be sick."

"Get used to it, kid. We were programmed with looks and personalities. It's just part of being us. Is it really a bad thing?"

Jitsuko nodded, "Yeah, it is, because we don't get to form who we are. That's horrible."

"I bet that was the lesson you taught: you can form your own destiny, and you don't have to be anyone except who you want to be. Let me ask you something, do you like who you are?"

She flashed back to the moment she had been looking in the mirror, when she decided she liked who she was. "Yeah, I like me."

"There," Hiroka waved the issue away, "so it doesn't matter either way. You are you, and you like you, so it doesn't matter who decided who you are, as long as you like yourself."

"I guess."

Hiroka bit her lip, "Ya' know, I'm aware that 'I guess' means that you aren't convinced, kid."

"Kid?" Jitsuko turned to her, "what makes you think you're older?"

"Well, I've seen all of the profiles, as they get sent here every now and then, with the rest of the codes. My character happens to be twenty-two, thank you very much, and if I recall correctly you are around seventeen."

"Whatever, it doesn't matter, age is unimportant."

"So you wanna go back to sulking?"

"No."

"Uh-huh" Hiroka rolled her eyes, "you need to learn how to be optimistic, alright? I will actually make you practice optimism if this does not improve."

"Ugh."

"Ugh? Darling I will make you practice right now if you test me."

Jitsuko crossed her arms, "I'm tired. Where's a bedroom."

"Down the hall, first door to the left. Mine's right across from it."

"Okay." Jitsuko slipped down from off the counter and walked away, into her new bedroom.

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Haruma sat in the emptiness, watching bits of code and information fly by him. Hiroka had warned him long ago not to venture away from the house, and she had been right. He had become entranced by the little flurries that sped around all of eternity.

His eyes observed all he saw, storing the information in his head. Over many years he had gathered so many codes and pieces of trivia that he lost his sanity in the process. But it didn't matter to him, because he had become a genius. He knew the studies of Ancient Egypt, and how to create holographic visuals, given the correct materials. He knew what the brain of a cat looked like, and what each part of it processed. He knew the names and descriptions of each Mère, including himself.

First name: Haruma
Last Name: Watanabe
Age: Eight
Height: 4'1
Physical description: Peach-colored skin; blue eyes; purple hair; a few light freckles.
Character description: Serious, young prodigy. Shy and secluded, but also brave.
Lesson to teach: It's okay to be the odd one out, and it's okay to have flaws. It does not make you less of a person.

He was brave, and shy, and a prodigy. 'But was he?' the nagging question always itched at the back of his brain. 'Was he brave? Was he shy? Was he a prodigy?' Sure, he had ventured out here all alone, and he could memorize every bit of information by looking at it once, and had never spoken much to anyone.

'But was he really all of this?' That was Haruma past, not Haruma present, the one who had lost his personality in the depths of knowledge. His old self was a great thing, and now.... he was lost in nothingness

For years his face had shown no emotion, but at that moment he let out a sudden sob, a small grasp of what he used to be,