A Mundane Week’s End  

After what had happened on Ophelia's unannounced visit, getting back into the previous enthusiasm about a new life had turned near impossible. Even the girls would all huddle up in my room at night, terrified over the prospect of another surprise visit by our overseer. Although, surrounded by beauties, not a moment of comfort comes to grace my heart.

Lying over two conjoined beds moved from an empty room to mine, I had one Mercy in one hand and Rin in the other. Hugging my hands tightly, their bare skin brushed against mine. The others were right beside them, but their distance was often too far after the fleeting moment of distraction we relished in.

Grazing my lips with a finger, I could still feel their tongues, their lips, and the warmth of their round breasts. But that was the extent of intimacy I'd allowed us to venture on. With no way of knowing what would happen if any of them ended up getting knocked up by a human man, I didn't want to risk it despite their desperate attempt to make me reconsider. However, there was one, the only person who didn't try to make me pursue those desires–Senya.

'She knows what's wrong with me, yet won't tell me what it is.' Casting my gaze downwards, I saw her frail-looking frame snoring by my feet. Her pixie hair fluttered even under the faintest wind from the windows, and her moonlit violet skin made her look akin to a fallen angel rather than a demon. Her horns were the only giving feature, but with short they were if she truly desired, she could easily hide them if she let her hair grow taller. 'Something that shouldn't exist, that's what she told me. But the way she grew jealous when the others hogged me to themselves, assured me that it wasn't what she thought herself, but a simple fact of the matter.'

"What am I missing?" Resting my hand over the heart, I could've sworn I'd felt my heart pounding much faster when I was but a child. "What did they do to me?"

Flashes of haunting memories ran through my head, but no matter how much I searched the answer has either faded or was never there.

"A soulless husk," those words rang in my ears once more, but this time it was me speaking to myself out loud.

'Do I not have one, a soul? Is that why I don't crave anything? No food, no love, no lust, just a never-ending thirst to belong with someone? Is that why I flutter wherever the moment takes me with no set path of my own choosing?' The questions spanned wide, but I wasn't far from the truth. I could feel it not far, the reality of my situation. Like a forgotten word at the tip of the tongue, it kept me anxious and wide awake at night. 'Sleep, for now, that's all you can do.'

At the crack of dawn, I was still awake. The sound of clicking steps from the downstairs hall made their way to my room. I had no clue who'd barged into the hotel, and neither did the girls as I woke them up to make sure they were all aware of the situation. Putting on a furry coat, I made my way downstairs in just a pair of shorts covering up my lower side.

On my arrival at the lower stairs of the staircase, I noticed the sunlight seeping in through the opened doors, and a trail of rustic brown water dragged along the carpet and tiles. Following the stains towards the kitchen, I was left aghast as I realized who it was that had arrived.

"Ophelia?" I muttered, glancing at her drenched navy coat from the back.

Ransacking the pantry, she was desperately looking for something as though her life depended on finding it. Throwing every container, every piece of silverware out of the cupboards, she took a transparent jar filled with hard-oat cookies.

"Ophelia, are you–" Before I could finish, she lifted her right hand over her shoulder as if to hush me.

Her back still turned to me, she opened the glass jar and reached inside. I heard those cookies crumble under her teeth of bronze and before long the whole jar was empty. By the time it all transpired, the girls had made their way down the stairs as well. Standing behind me they watched as the Marionette turned around to finally look at us.

Her wax had drained completely and that false face of a girl underneath was rotting with puffs of green powder gathered on its surface. Had it not been for her clothes, we could've easily seen through her mechanism, but her suit kept everything under her neck well hidden.

"What in the world happened to you?" I couldn't believe I was feeling concerned for someone who was trying to murder me not too long ago.

"I-I…" Her voice stuttered with a buzz like an ill-implied microphone. "Was pu-punished f-for attempt–ing to kill y-ou!"

Her head jittered left and right, and sparks of electricity flew out of her like fireworks. And yet, she began to walk once more in our direction, but before letting her pass, I had one last question.

"What did they do?" I asked her.

"Theyyyyyyy—Theyy," her voice jittered again, but this time it cleared up after a second. "They dropped me at the bottom of the western ocean. I walked here."

"W-walked?" Uttered Maiko from over my shoulders.

She wasn't the only one surprised, but what shocked us even more were Ophelia's next words.

"Time for me to prepare this week's report for this establishment. To the reception, now!" Loyal to a fault, the marionette's devotion to the human collective was eerily terrifying.

"She walked through the middle of the western ocean to here for a report?" Saying that in visible disbelief Rin's eyes followed Ophelia's back like the rest of us.

Watching her stumbling her way to the reception, I could not help but wonder. Why did she care so much about humankind and its superiority above any other race? Perhaps in this broken state, I could string out some answers. Dousing my heart with those ambitions, I followed the machina that almost killed me off.