Queen of Anamnesis

The glass door opened, a rough but firm footstep made itself known on the front mat of the store.

A woman with a layered pale green cloak tied above her brown vest and white blouse. Horns twisted out from the sides of her head, coiling around the sides of the wide-brimmed felt hat. She was armed, boldly hugging her musket with the barrel pointed at the floor.

Despite this, her eyes were covered by a blindfold, wrapped around her face and behind streaks of light blonde hair that brushed her clothing.

That is really impeccable for a cosplay. She even used a real musket!

Hosua acquired a second revelation.

Wait, a musket?? Am I going to get robbed here!? This is not the 16th century, isn it?? ”

Feeling rather anxious, Hosua gazed sharply at the strange customer as she scoured through multiple sections of the displayed products.

Should I call the police? It is the most logical thing to do, yet why do I feel like it would lead to an unnecessary problem if I do it…

The blindfolded women lightly glanced at Hosua from the snack section before throwing a suspicious smirk.

Well, my body is also durable enough for self-defense if a shooting would occur, no need to rush to apprehend a schrodinger criminal that may or may not be hostile.

I don want anything to disturb Manager Hana either.

Due to the peculiar situation, Hosua couldn help but to have its eyelid twitch while trying to contain the anomaly customer in sight. After a while, the lady with horns arrived at the cashier with a carton of milk, smirking as she faced at Hosuas face despite wearing a blindfold.

The musket was leaned onto the counter.

Without further ado, Hosua worked on scanning the barcode behind the product.

”That will be $2.99, dear customer, ” said Hosua while donning the friendliest service smile. ”Do you want to pay in credit card or cash? ”

Without moving her lips, the weird customers voice could be heard. As if she was speaking telepathically.

”Are you an individualist, or a collectivist? ”

Hosua flinched for a moment. More of a clueless than shocked kind of flinch.

”Im afraid that I can understand what you
e referring to, dear customer. ”

”You
e a Tsukumogami. ” The woman playfully pointed her index finger. ”A conscious entity who is born through melding hope, belief, emotion, and an inorganically inanimate or animate object. ”

”Pardon? ”

”Let me reiterate my question. ” The weird customer giggled, as if she was highly amused by all of this. ”Have you heard of fate and destiny? ”

That is not a reiteration, that is a whole change of destination!

Hosua decided that the best course of response was to stay silent. Getting such treatment, the strange lady widened her amused smirk as she pushed her point.

”While they may sound synonymous, their meanings are a bit different. ” Using only her index and her thumb, she picked up the candy bar displayed near the cashier counter. ”Fate is thrust upon you by the world. Whereas destiny is created by your decision. ”

Uhm, mam, but that is not universally true—

”Just think of it as a matter of preference. ”

With a wry deadpan, Hosua proceeded to scan the candy bar as she let the woman go on with her speech.

”Fate is like a bland healthy food that humans force themselves to consume to stay fit, while destiny is like the junk food theyd rather have. ” The horned lady picked up another candy bar from the display as she maintained her blindfolded eyes to the robotic cashier. ”If theres a real difference between the two. You can avoid your fate, but not your destiny. ”

Sounds deceivingly complicated.

”Destiny is forged from your own desires, after all. ” The woman giggled again.

She then picked the third candy bar from the display. But instead of putting them on the counter like she did, the lady sharply threw it on Hosuas face like a dart.

The movement was so fast, that even an enhanced visual input device of a high tech android couldn keep up.

When the candy bar was only one centimeter away from crashing on Hosuas face, it stopped.

Everything stopped.

As if the time itself had stopped.

The candy bar was there, suspended mid-air.

The clock went silence, and the ceiling fans froze.

Hosua could still process those information. In fact, it was still able to move any part of its body normally. Just like the strange pretty lady who exhilaratingly snorted after seeing the android reaction.

Laughter filled the halted space. Although it was only filled by a single person

”Hahahahaa~ Everyone has their own fate and destiny. You grow stronger as you overcome them, one at a time. But there is no guarantee youll end up where you want to be.

”If anything, the opposite is often true. So some people wish to fetter their own fate and destiny. Of course, there are those of others whom they wish would not change.

”Whats with this boring rambling, you ask? ”

A, actually, Im interested in that subject matter… Aside from the fact that the time in this store has been halted like the internet speed on a newly battered wifi router.

”Its simple. ” The blindfolded woman leaned her arm on the surface of the counter, resting her cheek onto her hand with a snarky smile. ”The fetters on your destiny are about to break~!

”Well, it was already cracked due to my presence in this little convenience store. Although, it was bound to break eventually. ”

”… What do you mean by that? ” Hosuas tone was the same but its gaze was fiercer, fearing for something that was probably important to be tampered. At Least in its head, or processing chip… ”Reiterate that statement for me, dear customer. ”

”Why? ”

”Because Im afraid of something I don know to be tampered with something I don know. Whats this fetter? Why did you crack it?? ” said Hosua with an innocent yet overly serious frown.

As much as Hosua wanted to think that this was all just a joke, it couldn and showed genuine concern.

This event was too bizarre and real to be deemed as a joke. And with the wisdom of limitless potential that the media of entertainment in the internet possesed, Hosua didn want Manager Hana to be included in this.

Despite the blindfolded woman expanding her smile after getting another reaction from the android employee, she didn take any break from the conversations topic and ignored Hosuas question.

”If youd like, I could restore the fetters for you. ”

She doesn even tell me what in the world is this feather thingy…

”By repairing and leaving the fetters, it would prevent you from despairing what the future holds for you~

”But if you wish to protect all you hold dear right now… and not regretting your destiny. ” She then picked up the suspended candy bar, putting it on the counter. ”I will free that very fetter here and now~

”So, chop-chop, its time to make a choice. What is your answer, Living Tool? ”

”… Who are you, in the first place? ”

”Perscythe, ” the woman uttered. ”Refer to me as Percy, if you will. ”

”What in the digital-overlord are you? Where did you come from?? Why is everything suspended like that one scene from that specific mangas chapter??? ”

cv

”Ah right, I forgot to pay. ”

”Thats not what Im asking, dear customer! But yes, you should definitely pay! Everything will be $5.65!! ”

Before saying anything further, Percy tugged the left side of her collar

Afterward, she thrusted her other hand through the flesh in between her neck and shoulder, down to her upper spine. The sound of gurgling flesh echoed through the store, it sounds both wet and dry, rummaging the surrounding bones.

AAAAAAAA! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!??? Hosua put on a face of utter disgust. Should I call the ambulance!?? A normal human should have been screaming and twitching like a cold turkey under the snow in that situation!

She pulled out a vibrant purple piece, presumably to be the piece of her cervical vertebrae.

Ewwwwww!

As that thing was extracted, the skin reversed its damage as if nothing ever happened.

”Oh right, Im currently in the 21st century. Hmmm~ that is nostalgic. ”

Since when did people in the 21st century become unhinged and have a super regenerative ability??

An electrical current bursted from the tip of the purple piece, reforming the tip into a USB connector for a storage drive.

Percy then placed that object onto the counter, leaning her head forward.

”If you want to become another background prop, casted by the shadow of blissful cluelessness, innocent as white, and darken by obliviousness.

”Then you might as well remove every bit of data regarding this event and put this Storage Drive into the trash.

”In the other scenario where you consume the content within it, youll be set on another whole destination.

”A whole different trip! A whole different world! There will be no more stepping back. Not even your temples and their gods can reverse your action. ”

Rather agitated and confused by the whole thing, Hosuas index finger twitched.

The android then glared at the woman with half-lidded eyes. ”… Your brain really, inexplicitly lacks the ability to be any sort of comprehensive, dear customer. ” Frowning one eyebrow, Hosua gestured its open hand. ”While you
e able to compromise the gravity of the situation onto the table, I see little to no reason why I should take this thing at face value, really.

”Especially since Im still barely grasping what you
e trying to convey in this over-the-top performance. ”

”A choice driven by pressure and responsibility is not ideally a self-will. It wouldn be fair if I did otherwise, hmm~? ”

”No, but it will make much more sense. ”

Percy smirked. ”Whether you
e an individualist who takes things for self value, or a collectivist whos part of the greater mind.

”Regardless of both, freedom is still the scariest place you have never seen~ ”

At the end of her word, the world flashed in white for a millisecond. The ceiling fans started spinning again, and the ticking of time could be heard once more.

Hosua began to shiver. If not for the fact that it wasn programmed to have weak knees, the android would have fallen to the ground.

”Scary… Meeting with a stranger is scary… ”

It felt like an acid trip of daydreaming under the sheltered moonlight at midnight. Whether it was up to Hosua to post this story on the internet or kept it under its mainframe, the result was the same.

”… Regardless, I managed to survive. ” Hosua nodded wholeheartedly. The store is fine, and its all that matter.

The purple weird-looking USB flash drive on top of the counter however, was still there. As for the three candy bars and the carton bag of milk, it was gone.

… I got robbed.

Sheering with grief and annoyance, Hosua looked at the shady object used for the exchange of the lost product. After glaring for a few minutes, the android began to calm down.

Still, what was all of that…? Hosua wanted to sigh like a human would, but it was very much incapable to do so. She said that Im a Tsukumogami, guess she knows more things than most people would. I might need to research that subject even further. Doesn change the fact that a bizarre thing has happened.

Hosua did a quick search,

Tsukumogami are tools that have acquired spirit… I see, I guess its closer than what Ive initially theorized.

Then again, don these kinds of living-tool apparitions take an extremely long time before they could form a spirit? My model wasn even three years old, nor was my Operating System… I couldn really trust that person and this hypothesis yet.

Hosua trusted that hypothesis anyway.

What I found strange is that, Tsukumogami is a Japanese folklore, how come that lady doesn look like a japanese? Did I miss something? Or did I not read enough manga and light novels?

Hosua somehow ignored the fact that the very same woman had a pair of twisting horns and a musket.

Truth to itself, Hosua was filled with great curiosity like it normally would. As much as a young robot wanting to know the value of its own existence and the origin of consciousness itself, letting the weird flash drive discarded without any digging would lead to a regret that even a human would never recover.

But there is one thing that began to expand within the machinery carcass of the android.

Anxiety.

Whether it was because the machine was no longer a normal machine, but a supernatural one, or maybe because there was a simulated chain of complex information, replicating human behavior for the tsukumogami.

Right now, what Hosua experienced was Xenophobia.

Fear of the unknown.

The universal instinct that amped up the survival for every species imaginable. But for Hosua…

While it might not be guaranteed, this obnoxious thing might be another clue to the truth of this foreign warmth that resides within me.

The curiosity reigned stronger.

A one way journey, Hosua would have never thought that it would take the risk for something to be so virtually vague and confusing.

Opening the lid of the USB port on its wrist, Hosua connected the piece of spine onto her digital frame.

There was a single sound file named Default inside of it. So far, there was no sign of malware and virus, so it was pretty much a green light in Hosuas case.

The file itself was a seven minutes long audio. The shady thing however, was the fact that the file had 777 gigabytes size for its length.

Hosua put on a wry smile.

Yup, definitely malware.

To ensure its own safety, Hosua created a backup preset in case things went haywire the moment she opened the audio file.

No turning back, huh.

Not hesitant, Hosua played the Default file.

A raspy yet cheery voice of a woman was heard.

”Greetings~ to my chosen martyr, and the first Apocalypse that humanity will ever face. ”

Instead of a clue, what Hosua acquired was a revelation for a harrowing reality.