Extra Chapter 6: Dollchild

[Extra Chapter 6: Dollchild]

[TW: Sexual Assault, Nihilism, Mentions of Suicide]

6 years ago,

Toubi, a 15-year old, was walking home from a normal day of school. Suddenly, she was dragged into a room in an alleyway, and vile things happened…

She was bullied for being a victim.

Toubi was embarrassed by it. She had to ask Sephine for help, and Sephine was the school president at the time. Sephine had Toubi drop out of the school, and Toubi had to take care of the situation alone.

She had to work in order to take care of her newborn child, Nil.

Nil was born with no senses. No sense of smell, sound, touch, sight, or even taste.

Because of this, Nil had nothing to think about.

Toubi had to bring Nil so she can be taken care of by the Naiko Hospital, because Nil can’t eat. Nil had to be given nutrients manually…

“...Nil… Someday, I’ll give you back your senses, if I have enough money, okay?”

“...” Nil heard nothing, but Toubi pretended she did. Just to make herself feel good.

6 years later, it’s Nil’s 6th birthday, and Toubi is 21 years old.

Toubi still did not have money to give Nil some senses, but she treated her well. Nil has fancy clothes, and Toubi would take Nil on a wheelchair to walk everyday. Toubi has managed to get money to move to Natoruyo.

“Thank Natoruyo and those heroes that Natoruyo is safe again…” Toubi worshipped Natoruyo. “Please make my child happy again, I believe in you…”

When Toubi came home, she continued her usual routine: Eat, take care of Nil, work, cry, and sleep.

But while crying, she was interrupted by a knock on the door. Toubi answered the door.

“...Do you want to die?” The strange woman asked.

“Of course not! I have to take care of Nil.”

“Sorry… You mind if I come inside?”

“...Sure, but don’t touch anything… It’s to make my sweet Nil happy.”

“Thanks! Name’s Akaya Nanomaru. Your house looks well-decorated…” Akaya sat down next to the child. “She’s asleep, is she?”

“Ah, she’s always asleep… Nil doesn’t have any sense.”

“I see… That’s a good thing.” Akaya smiled, proud of the child.

“How can that be a good thing?” Toubi frowned in confusion.

“She has nothing to think about, so no matter what you do to her, she doesn’t feel sad, nor does she feel happy. I’ve encountered so many people who wanted to die, people who wanted to be released from the burden called life…”

“So, Nil’s in a better condition than I think?”

“Yes. You don’t need a sense restoration surgery for her… Leave her this way, just like this, forever. She’s basically living in nirvana.”

“I see… Why’d you ask me if I wanted to die?”

“I kill people who want to die… I’ll leave them alone if they don’t. Some people pretend to be suicidal, but when death is in front of them, they don’t want to die anymore. Still, there’s no purpose for us to live.”

“Then why do I exist?”

“Life doesn’t have any meaning, so I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t? I…” Toubi started crying.

“There, there… You don’t have to believe me. Just do whatever you want, as long as you enjoy life, you can continue existing.”

“But…”

“Come on, life has meaning, you can do whatever you desire, that’s your goal.” Akaya tried to speak at the opposite of her views in hopes for Toubi to stop crying.

“Whatever I want to come true, it’s for Nil to be with me again.”

“It’ll be cruel to give Nil any sense. See, she’s gonna experience something cruel someday. Do you have something cruel that happened to you?”

“...I was raped.”

“Oh my guardian, that’s worse than one of my assisted suicide patients, maybe the worst of them all. I’m sorry about that, sexual assault has gotta be one of the most traumatizing, but in other countries, NO ONE gives a shit when you got sexually assaulted while you’re male. I’ve killed some girl who felt guilty for killing a bunch of foreigners before… That child is gonna be traumatized one way or another. It’ll be better for you to get an android.”

“...What’s an android?”

“It’s a human-like robot. You can get some money and ask Zach for a robot, then put Nil in some cryogenic freezer. Zach is the Head Mechanic of the CSFU, so he’ll give you a nice one for sure.”

“All I want to see is for Nil to smile…”

“I’ll pay for you, alright? You take care of Nil, I’ll commission Zach for this.” Akaya patted Nil, and walked outside.

“What a weird girl…” Toubi continued crying and taking care of Nil.

As they both sit on the couch, they both fall asleep.

One day, Toubi wakes up, and Nil suddenly wakes up.

“Aaah! Since when could you wake up?”

“...Today?” Nil said.

“You look beautiful…” Toubi patted Nil, and hugged her.

“I’m glad I finally get to see my mom…” Nil smiled.

Toubi looked aside, and found another Nil inside a cryogenic freezer. She doesn’t feel like the Nil she’s talking to was genuine anymore, and she appeared to be an android Akaya commissioned for her.

But Toubi still felt happy, but sad, and she doesn’t know how to feel about it.

Her heart demands that Nil get sense restoration surgery immediately, until Akaya goes into the room.

“Akaya… I want to get sense restoration surgery for the real Nil.”

“No, Toubi, it’s fine. This robot is all you need. Let Nil rest.”

“I just feel like she’s not genuine…”

“Of course she’s not. You’ve never seen her do anything. It made sense that Zach is using an AI to make a Nil android, so he didn’t need to transfer Nil’s consciousness there. Mr. Reiko presented this, too, but it goes against my request.”

“...You should’ve made me do the request.”

“Of course not! You’re gonna make Nil witness bad stuff.”

“I can just keep Nil from seeing them!”

“Whether Nil will see bad stuff or not is almost not preventable. It’s better safe than sorry.”

“Almost…”

“The thing I meant is, fate will throw bad stuff at you, and you don’t know how, so it’s almost impossible to prevent it!”

“Then why not just transfer her consciousness into the robot right now?”

“There’s no personality to start with, so Zach just created a brand new AI!”

“Then what if you transferred consciousness? Would Nil think like that?”

Akaya punched Toubi out of anger, but was blocked by Nil. 

“Please don’t hurt Mama…”

“No, Nil, go to your room…” Toubi told Nil to go to her room.

“Okay…” Nil complied, but hoped Toubi and Akaya wouldn’t hurt themselves.

Unsurprisingly, Toubi and Akaya continued fighting, and Akaya was stronger, punching Toubi until she coughed blood.

That was when she stopped.

Toubi was bleeding with a lot of bruises and wounds.

Akaya got the first-aid kit and treated Toubi’s wounds. “Please don’t die…”

Even if the wounds were treated, Toubi was still coughing blood, and was choking on it. Eventually, she fell unconscious, and stopped breathing.

“No, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Akaya did CPR on Toubi. 

But it was futile.

Toubi’s heart stopped. She was killed, and that was because Akaya couldn’t control her anger.

“Sorry… I couldn’t control myself…”

This was Akaya’s first time killing someone who didn’t want to die.

Luckily, she could call the necromancers to bring Toubi back to life, but she apologized to Toubi.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t control my emotions. I was so foolish, but regardless, you shouldn’t give Nil any senses…”

“You got so angry, so I guess I wouldn’t do that… Thank Natoruyo that necromancers exist.”

“I’m leaving now…” Akaya runs away, crying.

Eventually, Akaya caught up to the Necromancers, and admitted that she killed Toubi, and wanted to be turned in.

“Do you want to join the Necromancers to, hopefully, repent for your sins?”

“I don’t want to. I deserve jail.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. We’re not the police, and we can’t get you to prison. You’ll have to go to the police station yourself and turn yourself in.” The necromancers left, and left Akaya alone. 

Akaya went back to Toubi’s house, and asked Toubi to lock her up in a room.

Toubi did so, but the “prison” was well-decorated, and Toubi treated her well.

Maybe Akaya could learn to not be angry again, but still, she wants to kill people who want to die.

In real life, well,

there are no necromancers.

So, control your wrath, and maybe you won’t make a situation worse than this.