Revenge Fantasy

"... What?"

The dark figure stares at Shortcake as it holds her neck. The android's statement has caught it off guard.

Happiness is not real because of you.

The audacity of this android to say such a thing. It dares to tell Kuroiwa these meaningless, mundane words as if they meant anything.

A lot is going through Shortcake's processors as she says those words. The sequence raises several flags of Shortcake's blacklist filter. It goes against her programming to make such an accusation.

But the words come out rather easily. Shortcake thinks about all the times Chouko's called herself a monster in the time they've known each other. Shortcake thinks about the times Chouko's life has been in danger, about the severe injuries Chouko endured, about the moments when Chouko's maniacally laughed in the dark... and about that moment, when Chouko herself cried in bed, admitting she didn't understand life itself.

Shortcake thinks about the words she told Chouko. Shortcake thought Chouko was someone who didn't understand her life to begin with. It brought her guilt to say such a thing to Chouko, and she didn't know what to do at the time. But now she does.

She has to stand up to Kuroiwa.

Shortcake slowly pushes herself up, her vents loud and heavy. She stares down at the faintly intangible floor, gazing at the pure darkness as she generates the words. "Chouko's happiness isn't real, because of you...!" Shortcake shouts at the top of her speakers.

Kuroiwa tries to push Shortcake back down, with the intention of bashing the android's face into the floor. However, Shortcake doesn't go down. Shortcake pushes more and more, mustering the strength to overpower this dark figure.

"Y-You're... you're the reason why Chouko cannot live!" Shortcake shouts, her shaky hands pushing herself up to stand. She stares the red eyes down and stands up, standing up to Kuroiwa for Chouko's sake. "Everything wrong with her life is all because of you! You're the one sabotaging her, making her... think she's you, making her think you're all she's worth!"

Kuroiwa backs away as Shortcake stands up. The red eyes watch the knife fall out of Shortcake's neck, dropping to the floor and disappearing.

This bewilders the entity. For some reason, this android is overpowering it. Its words resonate in this void, carrying a strength that lets her move.

Shortcake's arms dangle in front of her, and she glares at the haunting red eyes with no fear. "Well... you're wrong. Chouko is more than the monster you made her out to be. Chouko is... she..."

The words cross her circuits, scrambling about her processors, crossing images of her storage, and running through her memories. There's so much that she can say about Chouko specifically, so many words to say.

As Shortcake organizes her thoughts, her words begin to echo out. The sound of her words starts manifesting pictures, pictures drawn directly from Shortcake's storage into the void. Memories brought forth to show the monster before her.

"She's kind..." The image of Chouko hugging her back as they stand in the dark office building, by the stairwell.

"She's smart..." The image of Chouko putting on Shortcake's clothes, adjusting the hair while they're in that first truck.

"She's polite..." The image of Chouko eating the truck stop diner's food with good manners.

"And she's so... talented..." Shortcake's voice whimpers out, sobbing a little as she processes the image of Chouko...

... Little Chouko... playing the piano.

The moment that memory is shown, Kuroiwa's eyes tense up violently. "YOU... INCESSANT LITTLE...!" Kuroiwa's voice echoes out as the shape of a gun appears. It aims straight at Shortcake's head, locking onto the android and preparing to blow its brains out.

Shortcake's eyes are a pure yellow, seeing the gun. Her processors are triggering warnings from the sight itself, trying to make her feel fear.

Nevertheless, she walks forward, glaring the gun down without hesitation. "Think! Think for ONE second...! Think of everything Chouko Ashford could've been! Think of everything Chouko could have done! Do you think you're helping her in any meaningful way?!"

Kuroiwa tenses up, and the trigger of the gun pulls. A click echoes out, as the gun has no bullets. Not a single shot is fired. The gun is utterly useless as a weapon.

"You're not scary... You don't scare me! You're just a sick joke!" Shortcake shouts, throwing her hand out and slapping the gun out of Kuroiwa's hand.

Kuroiwa continues to back away. In the darkness, the dark figure pulls out a pocketed metal defense baton. Kuroiwa tries to knock Shortcake out with it, swinging at the side of her head.

However, somehow, Shortcake catches it. One single raise of the hand, and Shortcake's left hand catches the baton. It hits her palm, and it ends up trapped in Shortcake's fingers. Unable to move. Unable to be pulled away.

"You're just nothing, K... Kuroiwa! So... let me go! Let us all go! Stop this!" Shortcake demands, throwing the baton away.

The knife, gun, and butterflies aren't working. Kuroiwa's running out of tricks.

In a desperate move, Kuroiwa's eyes flash, and a swarm of butterflies covers Shortcake. These butterflies start trying to unleash the worst of what Kuroiwa's power did in Indianapolis: ripping Shortcake's brain apart with the sensation of a bullet. It tries to simulate a gunshot in Shortcake's mind, to try and put down the android, to silence it completely.

But that's not going to work on Shortcake.

Shortcake walks through the butterflies. Anger is on the android's face, her pink eyes glazed in a pure red to rival Kuroiwa's. Even as she registers the critical pain, Shortcake trembles forward and gets closer to this monster, enduring all the pain that Kuroiwa could ever do to her.

The android pulls her hand back, standing right in front of the red eyes. There's some hesitation in her artificial body, but she pushes through it with one last action.

"Stop... Stop killing Chouko!" Shortcake shouts, lunging her hand out with intent... to poke right through the red eyes.

A horrifying, wretched roar echoes out as Kuroiwa stares at the fingers. If Shortcake is not stopped, she's going to be stabbed in the eyes. Those fingers will penetrate her red gaze and stop her.

In this moment, Kuroiwa has nothing to lose. All of its power rushes out of her eyes, erupting into a storm of smoke to cover Shortcake. The butterflies are blown off of Shortcake's body, turned to dust that spreads outward behind her. Shortcake must be stopped. Shortcake cannot be allowed to do this.

Shortcake lets out a loud, screaming shriek as she pushes her hand further and further. She won't stop. She has the power to overcome Chouko's demons. She puts everything into this act, preparing herself as she's about to put an end to this monster!

And as Shortcake's fingers come closer and closer to Kuroiwa's eyes...

...

... the darkness is gone.

The veil of pure black disappears, releasing the room from its immense hold.

Shortcake is freed from this nightmareish void, a look of surprise on her face as the world comes back.

As the light returns to the room, Shortcake slowly blinks her eyes, looking around the room. Everyone who collapsed in the room is forced awake. The blood supplier, the blood doctor, John, and Yumi are all released from whatever this power was.

Relief starts to form on Shortcake's face, shaping into a happy expression. It appears that what she did managed to get Kuroiwa to stop. She's all happy and giddy, beaming with pure joy. She had the will to overcome that monster and save the room, and now they can continue the blood transfusion to save Chouko!

But... as Shortcake looks forward, Shortcake has a look of horror on her face as she sees that her hand is still out.

It only now crosses her mind that she's still standing, that her fingers are straight, and...

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... and Chouko is right in front of her.

Chouko's hand is on the android's wrist, tightly holding it in place as the fingers are right in front of her eyes. A cold sweat is on Chouko's face. Her face has gone pale, far paler than usual.

If the void didn't disappear when it did, Shortcake could have... Shortcake would have accidentally poked and stabbed Chouko's eyes out.

"I... I... I... uhm... I..." Shortcake begins to mumble, staring at Chouko with pure mortified panic on her face. That power to 'overcome' Kuroiwa became an attack on Chouko herself. This sends nothing but horrified chills down her spine, realizing that she could have killed Chouko.

Chouko, staring back at Shortcake, slowly lets go of Shortcake's wrist and stares forward with an equally mortified look on her face. Her eyes are wide open, and... and she... she locks onto the android, unable to take her eyes away.

Shortcake audibly gulps, feeling immense stress. Once Chouko lets go, Shortcake pulls her hand back and takes a few steps backwards. She tries to say that it was all an accident, that she genuinely had no idea that any of that was real...

...

But before she can, a metal hand grabs Shortcake's shoulder.

John.

Shortcake looks right over her shoulder, pure worry on her face. One look at his face, and Shortcake feels all the eye-twitching anger burning in his eyes. Is he angry because she almost killed Chouko? Is he about to yell at her and scream at her for almost killing Chouko?

Shortcake audibly whimpers, letting out worried sobs. "J-John! I—"

Immediately, John pulls Shortcake back, moving her behind him and standing in her way. No ounce of his anger is towards Shortcake. Rather, his angry look completely locks onto Chouko Ashford, his eyes twitching as he glares at her with pure scorn. "S... SOMEONE! GET HER RESTRAINED. NOW!" John shouts.

The doctor lets out a pained, agonizing groan. He is mustering the strength to open his eyes, and... and he retches in pain, gagging and trying not to throw up his entire dinner. A cold sweat coats his face as he's currently... unresponsive, with morbid terror practically carved into his eyes.

Yumi is still on the floor, her body twitching as it's mustering all it can to recover. Whatever happened to her did a complete number on her. She's completely out of action, coughing and wheezing, almost choking on her own saliva.

Grayson is on his knees, affected the worst out of everyone. Tears are trailing down his face, while his hands continue to cup and cling to his cheeks. Pure, mortal terror is in his face as he still... as he still sees the lingering nightmare.

John, tensely, shakes and stares at Chouko Ashford... backing away slowly, defensively keeping Shortcake behind him and his arm. Nobody in the room is available to restrain her. Yet, he doesn't move to hold Chouko down. He's simply getting him and Shortcake some distance from her. "Someone... SOMEONE!"

Chouko just sits in her chair, simply staring back at John and Shortcake. Her breath is slow and faint, her arms dropped to her sides. Everything is running through her head in an instant, mentally processing what happened.

"... U-Uhm..." Shortcake noises. "I-I can, if—"

"NO!" John shouts loudly, clenching his teeth. He has a slightly crazed look of utter panic on his gruff, bearded face. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANYWHERE NEAR HER."

Shortcake silences herself, squeaking a little. Hearing John shouting at her just... sends a chill through her. She doesn't seem to understand the gravity of what just happened, of what the others had gone through.

While Shortcake herself managed to overcome Kuroiwa, the four other people in the room went through worse hells. John's the only one who can even stand and walk, and even he's losing his shit over this.

Chouko stares straight at John, a faint breath coming from her lips as she sizes up the entire room.

Eventually, the first one to recover after John is Kusuri. The doctor lifts himself up, gulping as he's in puddles of blood and IV fluid. "W... What in the hell was that, Popovic?!" the man shouts, fear bleeding into his voice with an absolutely horrified and disgusted look on his face.

John continues to stare at Chouko, utterly panicked and overly paranoid about what she's going to do next. "It doesn't matter. You doctors have a, how you say, Hippocratic Oath. Don't ask questions, and restrain her, we—"

"No, verdammt, I'm not taking that bullshit!" Kusuri shouts, staring at Chouko with a repulsed look. "That was absolute hell, Popovic! This... this woman needs to... t... to...!"

He can't even say it.

Kusuri covers his mouth, backing away and trying not to throw up. He uncomfortably gags and glares at Chouko.

Chouko turns her head to stare back at Kusuri, taking note of the doctor's aversion to her.

"G... Ghhhhk!" Kusuri's eyes twitch, and a cold feeling shivers down his spine. "D-Don't look at me... DON'T LOOK AT ME!"

"A-AAAAAH! SHIT, FUCK, SHIT—!"

The next person to "recover" is Yumi, who forces herself awake. Now recovering from the nightmare vision she faced, her entire body shakes in place, jolting awake and letting out an uncomfortable wheeze.

Following this, Yumi's eyes flash. She disappears and reappears right behind Chouko, grabbing her arms tightly. "G-Got her, Pops, got her, she's..." Yumi tells John, her eye twitching lightly. "I got her."

Chouko can't look back at Yumi. She is now restrained by her, with no gauge on her reactions. As far as she knows, Yumi isn't as 'averse' to her as the doctor or John is.

However, Chouko doesn't panic. She already sees how frightened Yumi is. Her hands are weak and sweaty, with no strength behind those fingers of hers. Yumi is not an obstacle willing to get near her, either.

So, Chouko simply... pulls her arms forward, slipping herself out of Yumi's grasp.

Yumi tenses up upon seeing this. She tries to reach out and stop Chouko, but... a pain ripples through her arms, preventing them from moving. She's utterly paralyzed.

In silence, now that there's nobody to restrain her, Chouko moves to get up from the chair. Her legs are weak and shaky, and she's mustering what remains of her strength to even stand.

Even so, she drags herself forward, approaching John with a stoic face.

John holds one of his mechanical arms up, a light generating in his palm. "S-STAY BACK. I'LL FIRE!" he shouts.

Chouko briefly stares John down. His knees are shaking and quivering. He's scared.

... So, Chouko continues walking forward. Chouko continues to get closer and closer to him.

She isn't scared of his attack. At this angle, John's pitiful beams of light will cause collateral damage and burn alive one of the others. He won't risk that, and if he does... not only will someone else die with her, John will be cheated out of his money. No Chouko, no huge reward.

Once again, another pitiful safeguard, one that gives her full control of the situation. So long as she stands in the way of anyone, of any of the three people in this room, John cannot fire his attack. If even Yumi and this doctor are unable to stop her, this man certainly can't either.

Chouko moves right up to him, standing in front of him. In an act of pure intimidation, Chouko places her hand on his metal wrist, moving to stare the light down with a soulless look in her eyes.

John freezes up, putting all he can into not firing, into... not... burning her to a crisp. All of the focus builds up in his arm, his fingers twitching.

"Move aside," Chouko demands.

John... steps aside. He's utterly mortified, hearing Chouko's voice ring in his ears. He moves away, backing slowly against a wall, his eyes twitching as he's told to move. He slowly moves as far away as he can, his back pressing against a wall.

At this angle, he can get her, he can stop her, but...

... Chouko walks right up to Shortcake.

It's risky, but Chouko is taking note of the fact that John protected Shortcake. She guesses that he won't attack while the android is at risk. He won't unleash his light while the android is in range.

John can only remain against that wall, arms dropping to his sides as the light fades away. The Serbian Flashbang... a broken lightbulb.

Shortcake... looks at John backing away, seeing his face and staring with worry.

Then, the android looks at Chouko and looks into her eyes.

Those red eyes... they... they're Chouko's. The red eyes that the monster had, the red eyes that she almost poked and stabbed her fingers through, they're Chouko's.

The fear that Shortcake feels is taking hold. There's now an angle for Kuroiwa to take... that if Shortcake hurts Kuroiwa, then Kuroiwa hurts Chouko. Kuroiwa will have Chouko killed if Shortcake does anything. The monster still dominates over Chouko's life.

No matter what Shortcake does, she can't help Chouko. She's come across this situation again and again in the entire time she's known Chouko, and the scared little child begs for help, but Shortcake ultimately can't do anything.

When Shortcake can't, then someone else has to. They're in the storage unit with people who can help her. Intentions aside, they can protect her, they can heal her, and they can do all these things for her that Shortcake can't.

But they can't help either.

Nobody can help Chouko Ashford.

In this realization, Shortcake feels her knees go weak. Something about this information makes her processor malfunction. Her mechanical legs are giving up, and she starts to fall over, a look of utter despair on her face.

Immediately, Chouko moves forward...

... and keeps Shortcake up.

Her arms take the android, wrapping around the android, clinging to the android, and keeping the android standing in a hug.

Chouko stares forward, looking past Shortcake's head. Pure sadness is on her face, frowning and on the verge of tears as she hugs Shortcake. She's not going to let Shortcake go. She's not going to let Shortcake fall to her knees in fear. She is going to keep Shortcake safe.

The first step to keeping Shortcake safe is to do as... as what Kuroiwa said. They're going to leave the storage unit together. They're going to take advantage of this opportunity and leave while their pursuers are incapable of following. This is their chance.

"We need to leave," Chouko whispers faintly, starting to try to move Shortcake.

... Shortcake doesn't budge.

Shortcake doesn't move. A faint push can be felt by Chouko as Shortcake is trying to push back against Chouko.

Chouko narrows her eyes at this. "Come on."

"No... You need the transfusion..." Shortcake tells Chouko. "You need your blood."

"They're going to kill me," Chouko whispers, telling Shortcake this.

"You'll die anyway without the blood..." Shortcake whispers back.

"Better to be free and die."

"Better to not be free and live..."

Chouko's arms go weak as they... drop to her sides. Shortcake remains lightly against her. The two of them still stand in place.

"... It's okay... I'm here... I'm..." Shortcake mumbles quietly, the light in her eyes starting to waver. It crosses her mind again that she almost killed Chouko, that she's about to kill Chouko again by... acting like this.

If it's true that nobody can help Chouko... then there's... no use in... saying anything against it.

"... I'm sorry..." Shortcake whispers, ready to... let Chouko leave. There's nothing she can do.

...

Chouko looks down at Shortcake, in deep contemplation. The look in her red eyes softens, and...

... and tears start trailing from her eyes.

In this moment, Chouko begins to cry. Her tears drip down onto Shortcake's hair, trailing down and seeping into her shirt.

"I'm not leaving with you," Chouko finally says.

"... and I'll stay with you..." Shortcake weakly whispers. "We'll be captured together..."

"..."

Chouko slowly... steps backwards.

Shortcake, feeling this, falls to her knees. She stares down at the ground, a harrowed look on her face as her processors are coming to terms with what she's doing.

In this moment, Chouko stands by herself.

She looks over to John, staring at his terrified self, staring at him as there's... nobody behind her. If John wants to, he can kill her now and be done with it.

John only stares back with wide eyes, his hand... raising back up, light in his palm, staring back at Chouko in utter fear. He realizes what Chouko's doing, defensively preparing his hand.

Keeping this in mind, Chouko takes a deep breath... and finally admits defeat.

"Fine..." Chouko weakly tells John, staring at him. "You win. I'll let you hand me off to one of your buyers."