I am Shinno

“Shinno Kitaki-san… Got it. Um, if you’d prefer Kitaki-san, that’s fine! Eheh, I’m used to referring to people by last name while speaking in Japanese, but in English, it’s always first names. Kind of funny, isn’t it? They don’t use honorifics in America, either— there’s some prefixes, but they’re a bit different. Language is pretty fascinating… “

Adeline then realized she was rambling, and not even on subject. At least her mood seemed to be more happy. She was glad that Shinno was using their real name— they seemed pretty happy.

“Eheh, sorry for rambling… um, names are strange, yeah. I like mine… Adeline means “Pleasant”, or “Noble”. I hope I can live up to that. But, I like it, regardless.”

She’d remembered being told how her mother and father fought over what language her name should be, and what name itself… Adeline was the only one they could both agree on. She smiled a bit, thinking of her parents. How were they, now?

“Names are strange things, aren’t they?” they agreed with a nod, “They’re just a string of sounds, but we get so attached to them...” Or unattached. And then reattached. “Th-there’s no need to be sorry, Koyama-san, it’s all really neat! I think your own name is a good one, it suits you well.”

Yeah. Names, and words in general, were definitely weird. Shinn had never thought too hard about it, since they weren’t exactly the philosophising sort - no, they were nowhere near smart of that. But little sounds made from vocal chords or voice processors strung together to make meaning... It was weird, wasn’t it?

They shook their head, snapping back out of their thoughts. No, that was far too weighty for them to deal with, it made their head swim to even approach that topic.

"Haa, Neo-san! Well— I’m glad you could make it, nonetheless!"

  She smiled at them, before glancing down at her ElectroID. The notification indicated they’d unveiled the next division belonging to the city, but Nikki knew that this was the expense of one of her peers. Or at least.. two. But none of that now!

"Actually! I think a new floor opened up, why don’t we check it out? A shift of scenery would be nice as a change in atmosphere is the best remedy in most cases!"

  But before Neo could even make a decision, Nikki had trotted over to the northern roots of the city. The sky dyed a pitch pigment, Nikki had been fascinated if not a little unsettled by the fact.   She glanced around—  well the restaurants were of no option.. she wouldn’t think food would be of much use to InOrganics otherwise! Alas she couldn’t help but feel drawn to the park. Despite their circumstances, this certainly seemed like the district’s centerpiece.. perhaps the city’s height of beauty if she’d live to see the next.

They stared upward, looking over the skyscrapers and the darkness in awe. They had never seen buildings so huge... They didn’t like it at all. It didn’t help that the place was so damaged.

“A park sounds nice, I think,” they nodded. A pocket of nature would be a nice reprieve from... this, even if the nature was surrounded by the unpleasant urbanity. Assuming that Nikki was headed that way, they gladly followed. “If any of the others are around, I wouldn’t mind hanging out with them either.” They tried their best to smile. It was an attractive thought, they werre just generally uneasy.

“That’s good! It’s, um, good to be good… even, well… yeah.”

Smooth reply. Adeline scratched her head under her hat a bit awkwardly as she waited for the android to speak their mind. She noticed they’d gotten a wardrobe update too; it looked really nice! She thought to compliment it, but it seemed Neo had something to say, so she just waited patiently.

Once they’d spoken, she blinked, mild surprise evident on her face. It seemed there was more than one individual on Apollo Luna with a false name, huh? And wasn’t someone secretly an android, too? There were a lot of secrets still left unsolved. Maybe it was better that way. She wasn’t sure. Either way, this seemed important to Neo— no, Shinno— and she would definitely honor their wishes.

“Ok! Um, Shinno-san, then…? That’s great! I’ll be sure to call you properly from now on, then.”

“Th-that is, my real name is Shinno Kitaki. First and last.” There, saying it felt... it felt good! Like a millstone had been lited off their chest. Oh, but-! They scrambled to continue: “B-but Shinno-san is fine too! I d-didn’t mean to imply otherwise.” They bowed quickly, not really for any purpose but just out of habit.

“Th-that said... I’m glad you understand, Koyama-san. I am not used to- to this sort of thing. Names are strange things, a-and I haven’t put much though into them ‘til now.”

The humming in their chest was finally going down. Their breathing slowed, and an odd sense of relief and lightness washed over them. It was nice to finally be honest with themselves. No more hiding behind a persona. Shinno could be Shinno and it felt good. Very good.

So instead of sleeping, she wandered out on the streets, stopping by the lottery to drop in a coin on a whim. Upon receiving a rather cute hat, she figured she may as well get an outfit update too. Shopping would probably help distract her, and new clothing would likely lift her mood. 

After trying on a few things, her new outfit was picked, and while gray wasn’t the cheeriest color she did feel a bit happier. She walked further into the district with a lighter step, until she heard a voice call to her.

“Ah, Neo-san! Of course. Um, how are you?”

“H-Hi, Koyama-san,” they said, their smile faltering a little. Their fans were starting to hum a bit, they took a deep breath to level their head. “I am doing alright, all things considered.”

They opened their mouth to just say the next words, but they weren’t quite there yet. They glanced downward, picking at their fingers. This new coat was strange, they mused idly; it didn’t cover their hands, and they could see the barcode tattoo clearly. They didn’t like it anymore than they had three weeks ago.

...After a significant pause that was doubtlessly keeping Adeline waiting they looked back up, and steeled themselves. And then, in a messy sentence, all the words tumbled out at once.

“Koyama-san I have been thinking a lot and I would very much appreciate it if people would begin calling me by my birth name which is Shinno instead of Neo this is important to me but if you can’t remember it’s okay I understand I just-”

“...uh...”

  She disliked it. She disliked her circumstances, she disliked watching her peers disappear before her in this dog-eat-dog world. But that wasn’t the thing she disliked most.

  She disliked— no.. despised that she was getting accustomed to these circumstances. Death was a common occurence in this world, it shouldn’t have been a big deal— but here it was a different. All in all it was a resulting sequence of murder, motive, suspicion, finger-pointing, and deceit to account for this grim ploy they’d call a mutual killing. Maybe, there was a more convoluted answer. Were they just part of someone’s sick social experiment..? The extents someone would go through in order to escape a lifetime of confinement, despite being granted the privilege of food, resource, and shelter? She’d gone calculating once more, dissecting her thoughts bit by bit. 

  Whatever it was, she begun to get tired of it.

"Oh—! Sorry about that! I wasn’t aware you were here. It’d be rude to be moping around company, yes?"

“Er- Hello, Nakano-san,” they muttered awkwardly, “Ah... N-nothing wrong with moping.”

They took a breath. C’mon, compose yourself, they thought furiously. Life goes on even if terrible things happen.

“I- I think I would like that, Nakano-san. Wherever you’d like to hang out, w- I’ll follow, I’m not picky.” They chuckled hollowly, as if that was funny, and then promptly kicked themself mentally.

“Really? The poem I was told had to do with the pond. And these were poems found in a book?” 

He couldn’t make sense out of the number of poems and how important they are, but Takashi does not buckle under challenge.The criminal wanted to play a game of pretentiousness with murder? Takashi would solve this riddle’s double-meaning, unless, of course, he is once again overthinking the situation.

“I know it’s cruel, Neo,” Takashi stated as he closed the gap between them, only trying to get to the door. “but I will not hesitate to bring sentence a killer to death. After the last trial, this monster know full-well what they were getting into when they took the life of, out of all the students, Moe. I… hypothesize that I’ll look back on this when we return to Earth and hate my actions, but for now, I’m adapting, and I suggest you do the same.”

“Neo supposes that... they will try,” they muttered, still unconvinced. Not only that, but they were... a little frightened by Taashi’s wods. They picked at their fingertips and looked away.

“A book? Really? It seemed pretty specific. Explore. The shore. Depths deep. Don’t sleep. Did the riddle in question sound something like that, or was it perhaps something different?” His answer to the riddle could have also been wrong, but Takashi would not accept that. The other statement made by Neo, albeit not as pertinent to the case of Moe’s murder, was just as questionable.

“Ah, no, the riddle Moe told us sounded completely different! I went like... uh...” Neo scrunched up their face in thought, trying to remember the riddle. Apparently the memory processors were chugging a little slowly. 

“It went something like... A quiet haven, much lie a raven... et cetera et cetera-” They punctuated this with a rolling hand gesture, “It was long, we’ll remember it later. The point is, Neo was having a very hard time solving it! But Takahashi-san got it right away! She’s very smart. She said it was talking about the study room.”

They nodded decisively, certain that their recollection was correct. “The boo Ito-san found it in was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- for the record Neo has never dreamed about an electric sheep. That would be so weird! And then she also said something about the Morpheus Lounge, but we can’t remember what...”

“But you’re right, Koiwai-san, we suppose there have been a lot of different reactions, huh... Neo is... well, we’re sad. Ito-san was our friend, just like Nanase-san and Tor- Sato-san. But... Neo also doesn’t want to see another of our friends die.”

“Hmm? Oh hello, Neo.”

Takashi’s attention turned to the sudden sound, not startling but notable enough to turn his head, to find Neo sidled up against the wall. Their small-talk wasn’t considered that by Takashi, who recently began to value the importance of words, and also served as a perfect transition for Takashi to continue his train of thought verbally. 

“You’ve noticed as well. Good. I have theory about that, which I’ll actively investigate when I feel I have the resolve to poke around another corpse for clues.” Which would also, coincidentally be when his coat has finished being laundered. 

Speaking of, a ding sounded and he yanked the door open to inspect his resolve. Looking closely he could see the stain smeared in the fabric, but he could deal with it in a couple-hours length of time after the trial. He went over to throw it and the towel to the dryer as he continued talking to Neo.

“Yes the riddles have been mentioned, actually. It almost makes me not feel so special. I was stuck thinking I was the only who had an experience with it. I’m not really saying that it’s a bad thing, it’s not really good either. It’s really… a, uuuhh…” Takashi sighed, “Never mind.” 

He slammed the dryer door shut and turned back to face the and- oh, right. He refused to have a repeat of E.L.L.A. with Neo. But it’s strange how although roughly ninety percent of his conversations were had humans, when you actively try to speak to someone like they are one, it’s an oddly difficult experience.

If that were true Neo supposed it would all come out in the trial. They decided not to press just yet, but they made a mental note of it for later. Maybe that mental note would even survive til the trial.

“Er- well, last night Ito-san asked Takahashi-san and us a riddle. She said she found it in...” They scratched their head, thinking. “Right! She found it in a book in the bookstore. It makes us wonder if there are more of them around here...”

Takashi, wet and cold, wandered throughout the entire courtyard. His effort was fruitless in the previous scenario where he was convinced something of note must have tossed outside in haste. Now the courtyard was the scene of the crime, and thus made sense to try again. But how does the saying go? A man who repeats the same action twice expecting the same result is the mark of a fool. Takashi left for inside, feeling foolish and marked with an overt brown stain on his white lab coat. 

The stain was a very minor thing that just happened to sit atop the rest of the problems, and so even though it wasn’t more important than the corpse of a friend, had to be dealt with immediately!.He headed for the laundry room with haste.

Once there, Takashi found an empty washing machine to take his anger out on by whipping his coat inside it, sounding a low metallic *tong* that resonated through the room. After finding a towel and drying himself, he tossed it in as well. He only needed to do a quick rinse and a dry afterwards. He set the timer for 15 minutes and hoped that the settings he chose were enough to save his symbol of- oh shoot his WA card! He forgot to unclip it from his coat! Oh well… it was laminated, and would survive - unlike…

There was the reminder of how selfish his petty clothing quarrel was. Moe was dead, murdered, no less, and he had stopped to do a load of wash. Takashi was no good at investigations, though! He scanned the entire room, as if anything would appear to him that hadn’t while looking anywhere practical- oh my? 

So there they stood, doubtlessly noticed by Takashi now, and sighed. So much for that.

“Ah... hello,” they muttered, and glanced around the room at everything but Takashi. “...huh, the clothesline is gone...” They were being a great help indeed.

Wait, no, they did have something to contribute to this! They took a hesitant  step forward.

No need to worry Neo further about that, though.

"Yeah, stress is like… no bueno. That’s for sure… I try to…. uh… avoid it. You don’t seem like a very stressed kinda person either though… the real chill-master Neo-kun, haha." She lifted up a hand to offer them a sweet high five, then noted their demeanor and slowly retracted it again. 

After listening carefully, though, she thought over Neo’s question before flashing them a more reassuring smile. 

They pulled out their ElectroID and stared at the secret on the screen, fidgeted their hands around the device. "Ito-san doesn't have to share her secret if she doesn't want to," they muttered.

God, why was this so hard? They sucked in a breath and just started talking before they could really check themselves and hesitate any longer.

"Neo's- er, our- er-" Shit. "M-my name isn't Neo. Neo is just m-my internet name, but I've been using it here because p-people actually know who Neo is." Their hands were shaking something fierce, almost dropping their ID card. "N-nobody has ever heard about Shinno Kitaki, you know? And m-my secret here is that I'm scared no one ever will know Shinno Kitaki... just Neo."