Chapter 9. Living and Non-living

After Suturu and Aibi left, Yueret finally noticed Ikte and summoned a shield. A blue aura surrounded his body.

"You are also a doll," Yueret said. "Did that man with a carrot nose send you too?"

"Not really," Ikte answered. "I came here because of the signal, but I did not obey it. I am Kuttanai's elder sister."

Yueret remembered a girl with pink hair, wrapped in chains, who was summoned by a man with a carrot nose during the battle. The guy felt creepy, but his sister was even creepier. Unana hugged her brother tightly.

"He transformed his older sister into a doll too?" Yueret's sword fell out of his hand, and his aura disappeared.

"Yes," Ikte answered. "Kuttanai partially turned even himself into a doll, that's why he looks like that. The little sister obeys his signal. But I don't obey because I'm an older sister. When a doll is older than its creator, it may resist his signal."

"So he did something to himself," Unana thought. "That's why I was so scared when I saw him. But this doll is also a little scary. She's kind of lifeless."

Unana sat down on a stump near the house to rest, but quickly realized that sitting without the shorts that had died in the battle with the acid doll was too uncomfortable. The archer opened her inventory and found a suitable item in it. Unana chose it, and a moment later the girl's large buttocks were almost completely covered by a black short skirt that went well with a yellow T-shirt.

Unana returned to the house. In the kitchen, she found her older brother and a doll with red hair, sitting on the floor opposite each other and talking about something.

"There you are," Unana said. "Yueret, can I talk to you?"

Yueret approached his sister. Unana took her brother by the hand, dragged her into the corridor, and then stopped near the door to the room.

"This doll can be dangerous," Unana warned.

"She's not dangerous," Yueret objected. "She doesn't serve that creature with the carrot."

"What did you do with her?"

"I was talking. I asked her about dolls and that creature with the carrot."

"What she said?"

"I think you'd better ask her about it yourself."

Sister and brother returned to the kitchen. Ikte was still sitting on the floor and looking into the doorway with motionless, shining eyes. Yueret positioned himself on the floor near the table. Unana sat down next to her brother and pressed herself close to him.

"Repeat what you told Yueret," Unana said.

"Once upon a time, me, my little brother and my little sister were people and lived in a village on the river bank," Ikte said. "Now only one house remains from her, the one in which my little brother, Kuttanai, lives. Our parents died and we were left alone. After that, my little sister fell ill and could not walk. Then my brother felt the signal. Through this signal, he received a message that said that a person could be transformed into a doll. If this is done, the person will not get sick and will become almost immortal. My brother agreed and received a program that can transform living beings into dolls."

"Where did he get this program?" Unana asked. "What is it name?"

"Mausoleum of Nature," Ikte answered. "Where he got it is unknown, possibly received via signal. After some time, Kuttanai decided to turn his little sister into a doll. I was against this. I took away his access to the program and created a character in it, which I then transferred to the real world. Then Kuttanai attacked me, defeated me and transformed me into a doll, and then transformed my little sister a doll. I had to make my character run away. But my brother thought it was his character. After all, it was created in his account. Kuttanai wanted to find a character to add to his collection. I was able to resist the influence of his signal because I am older than him. I ran away. My brother made several more dolls, including Suturu and Aibi, who attacked you."

"It's creepy," Unana said. "Your brother is crazy."

"I don't understand whether this is creepy or not," Ikte closed her eyes. "I feel almost nothing. Dolls cannot have feelings. Although this is not entirely true. They can experience some feelings, but only the most primitive ones. It all depends on what exactly was changed in the brain. In order to make a doll out of a person, you need to replace some neurons in the brain with artificial ones, which were created in the 'Mausoleum of Nature'. In this program it is also possible to create characters and transfer them to the real world, as I did."

"Will they be like dolls?" Unana asked. 

"No," Ikte answered. "Characters can experience feelings like living beings, but at the same time they have the characteristics of non-living beings. Characters are artificially created and not born, do not eat food that living things eat, have a body created from non-living materials, they think differently. But these are not dolls. This is something between living and non-living beings."

Unana shuddered and pressed herself even closer to her brother. Yueret patted his sister on the head.

"Something terrible is happening in the world," Unana turned to her brother. "First I saw dolls with non-living eyes, then that scary man with a carrot nose. Now they tell me that there are some characters that are created in the program and transferred to the real world. They probably look terrible. I think you can create any monsters you want in the program."

"Of course," Yueret agreed. "Unfortunately, the world is disgusting."

Unana laid her head on her brother's lap and closed her eyes.

"Why don't these dolls call other creatures by name?" Yueret asked.

"Suturu and Aibi can't remember names," Ikte said. "When they were made into dolls, their brains were altered too much. And their new brains can't remember names. Each doll has its own brain, with its own parameters. Therefore, I don't know exactly what was done with them."

"It's no wonder why these dolls are so stupid," Unana said. "They won't come back again?"

"I don't know," Ikte answered. "I don't think they'll be back anytime soon. Kuttanai will not send them again if they have not completed the task."

Evening came. The bright light of the setting sun "peeped" through the kitchen window. Unana went to her room. Yueret closed and locked the gate and front door, and then returned to the kitchen.

Ikte was lying on the floor, face up. Her eyes were open and shining under the rays of light from the window.

"Get up," Yueret said. "You don't live here."

But Ikte did not move. Yueret walked up to the doll, sat down and touched its hair with his hand.

"Her hair feels like real hair," Yueret thought. "If it weren't for her eyes, this doll could be mistaken for a human."

Unana appeared on the threshold of the kitchen.

"That doll is still here," Unana said. "It needs to be thrown away."

Yueret stopped touching Ikte's hair, turned around and looked at his sister. The girl was wearing a black top with a cutout on the chest and short black shorts with cutouts on the sides.

"I came, and she was lying here," Yueret explained.

"She's still lying there," the girl noted. "Or... It's not lying..."

Ikte's body rose up and assumed a vertical position, with his arms and head hanging down. The doll's eyes closed. A purple aura appeared around her, after which the doll rose slightly above the floor and slowly flew towards the exit from the kitchen. Unana, who was standing on the threshold, stepped aside. The doll's body flew out into the corridor and then stopped near the door.

Ikte's eyes opened. The front door flew out of the doorway and hung in the air above the porch.

Ikte's eyes closed. The door was no longer held in the air, and it fell down. The doll's body flew out of the house, approached the fence, and then flew over it and headed towards the forest.

Yueret and Unana went out into the corridor and saw an empty doorway from which a fence could be seen. The front door lay next to the porch, without any damage.

"She didn't put the door in place," Yueret noted.

"I thought something bad would happen because of her," Unana said. "That's why I wanted to throw her out of here before it's too late."

A brown puppy that looked like a bear cub came to the porch. Unana walked up to the pet and took him in her arms.

"Kimchan," Yueret said. "For some reason I forgot about him."

The puppy licked Unana's cheek.

"We must not forget about our pets," Unana said. "If you forget about them, they will get hungry and eat someone."

"You think about food too often. And you even become fat."

Unana let go of Kimchan and then looked at her stomach. The girl's face immediately became sad.

"You haven't become fat yet," Yueret said.

"If I continue to eat, I will," Unana objected. "But I can't stop eating."

"You can eat little."

"If I don't eat enough, I won't have enough food. It's very sad to see food and realize that you won't be able to eat it all."

"Even if you become fat, you will remain my little sister."

"But I'll be fat. Do you like fat girls?"

"I didn't think about it. I've only seen them network, except for you, of course. And sometimes I saw him in the city when I was there."

"Did you like them?"

"No. I have a little sister. She is the only girl for me, because I don't know any others."

"This is good," Unana thought.

"This is sad," Yueret thought.

"I remembered that I drew something today," Unana said. "Should I show you?"

Unana opened the virtual screen and showed it to her brother. The "device" depicted Ikte lying in a coffin and holding her head in her hands. Her legs lay on the sides of the coffin.

"I think dolls should look like this," Unana smiled.

***

Old, almost worn-out paving stones led Suturu and Aibi to an intersection with a wooden post in the middle of a mixed forest.

"What is this?" Aibi pointed to the pole.

"I don't know," Suturu answered.

"I don't know more than you."

A red glowing frame appeared above the pillar with an inscription made of glowing symbols of the same color.

"What is written there?" Aibi asked.

"I can't read," Suturu replied. "But when I was a human, I could."

"I also knew how to read when I was human," Aibi said. "But when I became a doll, these symbols became incomprehensible to me."

Red arrows appeared in the frame next to the inscription, pointing to the right and left, to where the roads passed. 

Suturu and Aibi went straight. The paving stones behind the pillar seemed long abandoned, with herbaceous plants between the stones.

"It seems to me that this road is strange," Aibi said.

"It seems to me even more so," Suturu said.

"And it seems to me more than to you, because it seemed to me earlier than it seemed to you."

Suturu could not accept the fact that her little sister was somehow better than her. Aibi did not want to give in to her older sister, because she knew that she was only a little older than her, which means she was not such an older sister. Rivalry was the only human thing they had left.

There was the sound of water. The road led the dolls to the edge of a canyon with almost vertical walls, at the bottom of which flowed a small stormy river. A penguin without legs, but with antennas on its head, hovered over the opposite side of the canyon.

"What is it?" Aibi pointed her hand at the creature.

"I don't know," Suturu answered. "Let's come closer and take a look."

The dolls walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. The water at the bottom of the canyon flowed quickly through numerous rapids.

"Can we jump over?" Aibi asked.

"No," Suturu answered. "It's too wide here. It's better to use flight."

"I have little energy."

"Me too, but I will fly."

"I'll fly better than you."

Purple energy auras appeared around the dolls, after which they took off and headed towards the opposite side of the canyon.

Penguin paid attention to them. The dolls stopped and hovered over the canyon. The energy auras disappeared from their bodies.

"Taikuron liked you," a voice was heard in the heads of Suturu and Aibi. "Taikuron wants you."

Suturu and Aibi fell down. Their bodies hit the rocks at the bottom of the canyon and were scattered into pieces. Suturu's head fell into the water and was carried away by the current. Aibi's head got stuck between the rocks. The dolls' arms and legs disappeared under the water, but soon surfaced and were nailed to a narrow strip of shore between the rocks and the river.

Taikuron looked at the remains of the dolls at the bottom of the canyon. The balls on his antennas turned purple, indicating that his brain was working hard. A screen appeared next to the penguin in a purple frame with many cells, empty and with dark silhouettes.

Parts of the dolls' bodies rose from the bottom of the canyon and gathered in front of the screen, and then disappeared. The faces of Suturu and Aibi appeared in place of the silhouettes on the screen.

***

Kyotyoryon tried to hit the raindrops that were falling from the canopy with her blade, but missed.

"They're running away from me," the spirit of metal said. "I can't hit them."

"I told you don't do this," Halankuo said. "It's impossible to beat the rain if you beat the drops with blades."

Kyotyoryon's blades went back into the bracelets.

"How is that possible?" the spirit of metal asked.

"It's not possible," Halankuo answered. "Rain is not an enemy. Opponents can only be other creatures."

"If rain is not an enemy, does that mean it doesn't exist?"

"Not quite."

Halankuo was tired of the strange questions her own character asked her. But the girl had to answer them so that Kyotyoryon would not go to look for answers somewhere else.

A red luminous frame with an inscription of the same symbols appeared above the entrance to the station building.

"Here is the announcement," Halankuo looked at the inscription. "Now the train will definitely stop at this station. It's good that we bought tickets."

A beep was heard. A train made of wood and metal arrived at the station. Halankuo and Kyotyoryon entered the carriage and sat down on the double wooden seat. Kyotyoryon looked around the interior with curiosity and noticed at the end of the car a rubber humanoid statue with long hair and two bull horns on its head.

"Who is this?" Kyotyoryon pointed at the statue.

"It's just a statue of a fictional character," Halankuo said. "Someone left it here. She's non-living."

"Like me?"

"No. She is completely non-living. She cannot move or speak. She just stands there and does nothing."

Kyotyoryon approached the statue and touched different parts of its body.

"She does nothing," the spirit of metal said. "So she is completely non-living. This means she is even more lifeless than me!"

Kyotyoryon returned to Halankuo and sat down on the seat next to her.

"It's good that there is someone who is more non-living than me," the spirit of metal said. "But that's not enough for me. I want to become truly alive."

"It seems to me that this is impossible," Halankuo warned.

"Perhaps," Kyotyoryon looked at the statue. "She can't do anything, but I can."

The train traveled through coniferous and mixed forests, crossed narrow rivers and swamps. The terrain did not change much - it was mainly a plain, surrounded by low mountains, which either approached the railway or moved away from it.

Soon a wide river appeared from the train window, surrounded on both sides by coniferous forests and sandbanks. The train approached the shore and almost stopped. Beams of light shot out from the projectors on banks. They connected in the middle of the river and formed a blue translucent energy bridge.

"There, the banks of the river are fighting with each other," Kyotyoryon pointed her finger at the window, through which part of the energy bridge could be seen.

"The banks of the river don't fight," Halankuo smiled. "They created the bridge using energy beams. The bridge is needed so that the train can cross the river."

"A train can't travel on water?"

"Cannot. The train is too heavy. He will drown."

"Will I drown too?"

"Yes. That's why you're on the train."

The train drove slowly along the bridge and soon crossed it.

"I won't drown again," Kyotyoryon pointed her finger at the window.

The stations where the train stopped were small and consisted of a shed and a platform. On the platform of one of the stations stood a stone statue of a girl with bull horns, very similar to her rubber counterpart from the train.

"What is this?" Halankuo thought. "Why is she here?"

Halankuo turned towards the spirit of metal, but did not notice her. The girl looked at the open door of the carriage and saw Kyotyoryon, who came out onto the platform.

Halankuo ran out of the carriage, caught up with Kyotyoryon on the platform and grabbed her hand.

"Let's get out of here," Halankuo said. "The train will leave now."

"I want to touch it," Kyotyoryon pointed with her free hand at the stone statue.

"It's better not to touch her. It may be dangerous."

"This is a non-living statue. You said that the statue is non-living and does nothing, but now you say something else. I do not trust you."

A short blade emerged from the bracelet on Kyotyoryon's hand, stabbed into Halankuo's hand, and then disappeared back.

Halankuo screamed loudly. A stream of blood came out of her wound. At that moment the train left the station.