Tokyo: Become Human

Chapter 20: System

"Why am I holding a murder weapon?" was Miku's first question as she gingerly held out a long survival knife away from her face.

The former idol stood in the middle of a wide, vibrant field. Or an imitation of a field. In reality, everything that looked like it could be natural was completely artificial. Though it took her a few long seconds of intensive material analysis (which was something she picked up when shopping for stage clothes), she learned the components to nearly everything around her. The springy green lawn below her feet was actually turf grass, thick and stretchy. The various colorful assortments of tulips, the pale violets, sparkling white daisies, and sun-golden daffodils were made out of plastic and paper, the yet-to-bloom sakura trees secretly just tall lumps of painted rubber.

The sky above her had the appearance of a cloudy day, a blanket of stone gray blocking out the sun. Miku knew that the real reason there was no sun was because the sky itself was really a dome, surrounding the meadow and enclosing over their heads. The wind in the air, blowing Miku's pigtails around her face, was actually a series of breezes from filter fans. Even the natural smells in the air were fake, resulting from what basically amounted to giant, underground air fresheners.

Regardless, Miku stood and breathed in the (un)natural oxygen around her, steeling her nerves for something she knew would come, much as she didn't want it to.

Mayu stood in front of her a mere yard away, the amber glow of her eyes amplified by an unsettling aura that surrounded the her and caused a bout of chills to overtake Miku. The blonde wore a different outfit today. Rather than any sort of casual clothes, she donned what was claimed to be her "favorite dress", which could best be described as something you would see on a creepy doll. It was mostly black and had a voluminous, skirt, the frills of which were lined with what appeared to be piano keys, and decorated with bows of a dark pinkish hue. They matched the bow that rested on the top of her breastbone, which highlighted the surrounding frills that encompassed the sleeve holes. Similar frills cascaded down her front, along with large silver buttons that gleamed beautifully. Capping off the look was a pair of oily black heels with similar socks made of dark silk, the ends of which were touched with gray lace, and matching gloves. Actually, the gloves had always been there, or at least some variation, but since this is Miku's first time seeing her with short sleeves, she never really noticed until now.

But back to the topic at hand: the blade.

Mayu addressed it nonchalantly. "In short, I'm gonna teach you how to not die if you run into some asshole on the streets. Once you know how to do that much, we can move on to more combat ready stuff."

"But why—"

"Because Teto asked me to, that's why."

That... made a lot more sense. Back when she had asked Teto about what their plan was, the twin drill girl merely told her that they did in fact have a plan, and that they would tell Miku the whole thing in due time. But as of now, she only had half of an answer:

"The plan is to rebel. America, Mexico, and every other independent country came to be as a result of a revolution. Though we don't wish for innocents to get hurt, I feel as though violence is the best way to communicate out message."

Ruko was the one that had said all that, even though Teto was the one whom the question had been directed at. The smaller girl had merely smiled brightly, without a care in the world. Miku found herself wondering how it was that this kid was any sort of leader.

"You were the one who wanted to help," Mayu argued, looking unimpressed, "so the best you can do is join the fighting force. We need as many as we can get."

"But I'm an idol android. It'd be different if I was a servant bot or something, cause then my hardware would be designed for labor, but the closest thing I have to martial arts training is months worth of dance lessons."