Chapter 2.1

Seeing Tundra fight, it reminded me...

There'a something I've yet to do, that could constitute a huge increase in my power.

So, later that afternoon, after all my classes--following a quick check-in with security--I take a ride on the shuttle elevator to Irorishiro's surface level.

In a way, it is like stepping back in time.

The surface is nothing like the clean, modern, industrialized air-conditioned innards of the subterranean levels: a scenic, stone-laid walkway, coursing through a tranquil, gated courtyard filled with wildlife--serving as a sanctuary to countless butterflies, as well as other insects, featuring a koi and frog pond--communicating between the multiple structures which comprise the old castle.

The largest of the buildings on the surface level is the one I'm most interested--referred to as the "Hall of Cultivation," it's where Irorishiro students go to develop their Charming Form's SYSTEM capabilities.

How it works, is a prospecting pupil enters inside to speak with the "Cultivators"--an elite group of Vorpal Knights who've dedicated themselves to a lifelong pursuit of enlightenment, through rigorous physical training, scientific research, and spiritual meditation, by uncovering the deepest secrets and sources of power embedded within the virtual plane.

Today, a group of them is gathered outside, performing a set of training drills on a staging area of paved stone, grunting and loudly exhaling, as they repeat the same, minute movements, over, and over again, in perfect unison. It brings to my mind the famous monks of the Shaolin Temple, and I wonder if they're still around post-Tea Time; whether they, too, would embrace the Charm Rings.

Immediately, as I approach the entrance to the Hall of Cultivation, the paper screen door is drawn aside for me by a smiling little girl with shaggy blonde hair.

"Welcome, my sister." She says to me, bowing deeply. "What brings you to our Hall?"

The interior is warm, decorated with china rugs and dangling, incense-burning censers. Rows of acolytes are sat cross-legged on the floor, bowing and chanting toward a collage of posters adorning the far wall, featuring...numerous young, female Anime characters, from various titles that were popular before the collapse.

"Which one is your favorite?" The girl who greeted me at the door asks, pointing to them.

"Uhm.." I don't wish to offend, so--

"All of them!" I quickly lie.

Revolting! As if being a lolicon wasn't bad enough--they're also OTAKU!

I tell the girl I need to see the Elders.

"Yes. Of course. Right this way."

She escorts me to a set of stairs leading to the upper floor, where the "Elder" little girls are all sat on mats, clinging tightly to their dakimakuras in a row in front of an old-fashioned DVD-R TV, buried in junk food, in what is a roomful of shelves and display cabinets entirely decked in otaku merchandise.

These...vile creatures...appear to be caught in a heated debate:

"Minako is best girl! Hands down."

"Nuh-uh! Hinata is the ideal wife--she can actually cook and clean!"

"No one ever brings up Haruhi anymore, but--"

"None. Producer-san is obviously the best."

All the while: loud, obnoxious, electronic music with squealing, high-pitched vocals, is blaring through an old stereo.

It's all quite...irksome, to behold.

Not to mention, it stinks worse than the barracks in here!

I have to press on, though:

"Gentleladies!" I declare, to gather their attention. "Quit fucking around, and tend to my needs right away!"

Gasp! That was DEFINITELY another Alice slip.

Am I slowly losing control to her?

The Elders all look at me curiously: variably dressed in food-stained Mockemon hoody pajamas, loose tanktops and shorts, frilly underwear, preschooler uniforms and swimsuits, and lolita dresses.

One wearing a red tanktop with white short-shorts blows a big, pink chewing gum bubble, until it pops, then smiles mischievously at me.

"You're new to your True Form, aren't you?"

"True Form? Do you mean...Alice?"

"Yeah. I can tell you're new, because you haven't fully synchronized yet." She jumps up--her long, flowing, pink rouge pigtails bouncing in the air behind her--and trots up to me, rushing to inspect my hands.

"Oh!" She looks at me, concerned, with her pretty almond-shaped eyes. "Where's your Charm Ring at?"

I chuckle. "Funny story..."

"I...kinda, sorta...lost it for a while, in a wager."

The roomful of elders giggle, and I can feel myself blushing.

They're all so friendly...

It's not at all what I was expecting.

"Too bad! I was gonna show you a way to check your synchronicity status, using an app on your Charm Ring." The pigtailed girl says as she returns to where she was sitting before, landing with a plop. "Basically, low synchronicity is the reason you're being surprised by your own words."

I'm amazed. She'd managed to deduce all that, just by observing me.

"Elder...erm, what should I call you?"

She gives me a rigid salute.

"Name's Jessa--everyone just calls me Jess!"

"Come join us! You'll learn a few thingals."

I nervously comply, and amidst their company will come to learn a number of fascinating things about the mechanics of the Charming Ring and Charming Form:

"The Charm Rings used by Vorpal Knights are modified versions of those used by civillians."

"For example, the vorpal weapons arsenal is a feature only available to the modified rings. And civillian rings, when activated, won't grant the wearer any System-based powers."

As well, I'm given an explanation for the cause of my recent mood swings...

According to them, it's because the Charm Ring's transformation process functions on a genetic level, altering every aspect of my being to make me become my Charming self: not excluding hormones, and neural pathways that affect mood--almost everything that defines an individual--to completely personify the digital entity that I know as "Alice," in the flesh, whilst still retaining all of Alex Strangelove's memories.

"It's...kind of creepy." I admit, curling into myself. "That whatever I am existing as now...isn't similar to anything that exists normally in nature."

"A bastard chimera of both Alex and Alice, not fully representative of either."

Before, I thought of it as being like wearing a skin on top of my own; but now...I'm realizing that I've been referring to Alex in the third person, even within the confines of my own head--a part of me I once assumed would always remain secure and consistent, even if I must change on the outside.

"What you're feeling is normal." An Elder--one of those wearing a Mockemon hoody pajama--replies. "The dysphoria will go away, as you become more synchronized."

"So, what happens when you become fully synchronized?"

Jess, who is seated next to me, cranes her head so that her face is directly blocking my vision, wearing a gleeful smile--like what she is dying to tell me will change my world forever:

"You'll be reborn, as your True Self."

I feel my breath catch in my throat, as I am momentarily stunned by the inexplicable weight of her words.

My...true self? I don't understand.

I stand, facing the Elders.

"What does that make the thing I am now?"

I clutch at my chest, feeling the warmth of my skin through the fabric of my uniform, knowing it's real. That I, by extension, am a real living being.

"So, is this really...the false self? Huh?"

I laugh, trying to conceal how anxious this conversation is making me feel, while all the Elders are staring at me, smiling slightly in what strikes me as anticipation--never seeming to blink, or rustle, with the light of the static-filled TV screen reflected against their faces in the dimly lit room.

"It makes you incomplete." The Elder in the hoody says.

I unconsciously fall to my knees, trembling.

Incomplete...?

Is this...the next step forward for humanity?

Being reborn as a little girl?!

Get me the Hell off this crazy ride!

After a brief passing of time in silence, the Elders resume bickering among themselves with the loud stereo and TV playing, just as I had found them, while I finally consult Jess about the main reason I had even come here to begin with.

"System powers." I say to her stiffly--by now bitterly divorced from the warmth I had felt, upon my initial engagement with the Elders.

"I need help, discovering my potential."

She smiles, snickering softly.

"Don't we all." She says, offering me her hand.

"Whether to meet, or to exceed..."

"You've come to the right place, Alice."

On that note, I leave with Jess--downstairs and out of the Cultivation Hall, to one of the other old surface buildings.

"This used to be the castle's keep." She says.

"Now, it's where we KEEP all of our technology!"

Have I mentioned I like Jess? She's cool.

Inside of the "keep," the rustic, traditional feel of the grounds and Cultivation Hall are done away with entirely.

I am, instead, immediately given the impression of an office at a big tech company, updated with our modern technology: shiny, chromium walls and flooring, busy little girls in lab coats, pacing around with their noses glued to their tablets, back-and-forth between rows of monolithic, onix black computer terminals with screens populated by numbers and graphs and text symbols, as well as...rough 3d models...of little girls...in varying stages of dress.

Jess explains, as we're walking by:

"Our technicians can decipher the metadata of every Charming Form that exists--to be used, among other things, to feedback an image of their physical appearance."

"What use does that serve?" I pose to her, raising a skeptical eyebrow. You perverts!

She giggles, pulling her arms behind her back.

"We have a specialized art team design the outfits worn by Charming Forms, whenever you first change into them. We even accept outfit change requests, from Knights that are C Rank or higher. "

"Otherwise, the Charming Forms would all be naked!"

I reflexively cringe.

Eugh! Guess I should be thankful, then.

However, this reveal does make me wonder...

"Who designed the Charming Forms to begin with? It doesn't sound like you Cultivators did, if you're having to scrounge through already existing data to make changes."

Intriguingly, she doesn't reply--despite her eagerness to address all my other concerns.

Our final destination is down a hallway, through a doorway that leads to a seperate, small room. Inside the brightly lit room is a tall, high-tech looking mechanical chair: run with wires and sensors connected to a terminal, and a dome-shaped piece of hardware that looks like it would be lowered unto a person's head.

"This is it." Jess says. "The Systems Analyzer."

"The way it works is that a Charming Form's System powers are the result of a random glitch, introduced into a segment of the Charming Form's coding when it is first activated through the use of one of the modified Charm Rings. What we call, in technical terms, a Destablizing Quirk."

"A scan of an active Charming Form with the Analyzer allows us to reconfigure your brain to be able to intuit precisely which segment has been altered, and thereby wield the powers it grants you."

I nod. "Sounds...simple enough." I lie.

"It's like relearning how to ride a break through physical therapy, only you never even knew what the pedals were beforehand."

Whatever--at least it's nothing existential.

Just plain old, simple and straightforward data.

I climb into the chair as instructed, and hear Jess perform a few lightning fast keystrokes at the terminal, and the domed piece starts to descend...

"It'll take just a second. You won't feel a thing."

"Hehe! Pretty soon, you'll be on the next step toward enlightenment!"

Sure I am, I think to myself jadedly.

She says it so cheerfully, even though I can't shake my growing sense of dread...

Am I Alex Strangelove?