Clone Girls

Mia was worried, ever since Ticinia and Vinia had been hurt, the atmosphere within Clone installation 3 had taken a weird turn, to say the least.

It had been four days since this incident, and things had yet to come back to the way they were, which made Mia sad.

“I wish things could go back like before…” She mumbled to herself as she walked around in the hallways, with no particular objective in mind. She woke up in the middle of the night, and did not manage to go back to sleep. She had wondered whether she should go see Nia, and sleep with her, since she already did this multiple times, but she didn’t want to bother her sister in the middle of the night, and waking up Ticia wasn’t an option for the shy Mia… So she decided to go on a night walk, hoping it would help her find sleep.

There were a lot of things to think about for the poor girl, and the first one was her little sisters' state. The both of them had yet to wake up, but fortunately, their state had been stabilized. A-4 assured them that the two clone girls would not have any problems later on so long as they did things in moderation for a while, that is if they woke up first...

Still, Nicia stayed in the infirmary, just in case, and apparently, Ticia was grateful to her. Mia did not feel jealous about that, how could she? Nicia had learned about medical stuff, so she could help, but her? Besides exploring the facility here and there with Nia, she didn't learn anything useful. Nia on the other hand, managed to understand technical things just by examining them.

Nia is such a genius, but me… Mia wondered about herself. She had similar genetic modifications to Nia, she also shared the same centers of interests, and yet, she was different…

She felt like her timidity and her speaking disorder were the things holding her back. If she didn’t have them, she might be more like Nia. After all, she too had sometimes jokes she wanted to share with her sister, but did not do so out of shyness.

I hate this part of myself… Why was I born with such a default? She asked herself. If she were to be honest, she felt inferior to her sisters. Although Licia didn’t have any gene augmentation, she was still the strongest of them, and Nicia seems to have found out her speciality already. Even Ticinia and Vinia, who also had problems, had cool abilities…

It was when her thoughts were going that way that she was reminded of what happened the day after the incident, when Ticia came to talk  to each clone girl personally.

***

Mia was in her room that morning, reflecting on the events that had happened the day before… She felt down, she was sure she could have stopped her sisters… But she got scared, and she hated herself for that…

Then, she received a notification, somebody was requesting to enter her room. When she saw it was Ticia, she panicked. She remembered the look Ticia had as she left the training room, and now she thought she was going to be punished…

Still, despite her fear, she opened the door to her ‘big sis’, and like usual, she could not look at Ticia without her helmet… However, contrary to what Mia thought, Ticia did not come to punish her.

“Are you alright?” Ticia asked, a face full of worries.

“Y-yes” Mia responded at that time, avoiding eye contact. She was surprised by Ticia’s actions.

“That’s a relief…” Ticia smiled weakly. She then looked Mia in the eyes with a serious face. “Look, I’ve seen the record made by A-4 of what happened.”

Mia shuddered when she heard that, and her hair antennas trembled. But contrary to what she expected, Ticia did not blame her.

“It’s not your fault, you did nothing wrong. Rather, you did well.” She was praised, and Mia felt a warm hand patting her head. “Instead of not saying anything, you told your sisters to stop, and this despite the fact that you have communication disorder.”

“B-but, because I didn’t stop them, Ticinia and Vinia! They got hurt!” Mia exclaimed loudly to Ticia, tears forming in her eyes. She felt guilt because she thought she could have stopped the match, but she backed off because of her communication disorder. At that time, Licia’s glare was so strong that it scared her, even though she had her helmet on…

“I know, but would your sisters blame you for this, Mia?” Ticia asked, to which Mia took some time to answer. She was reminded of her little sister’s faces of determination they showed at that time, refusing to stop.

“I… I don’t know…” She ended up saying.

“Well, I don't think so.” Ticia said with a smile. “They would thank you for the encouragement instead, I think.”

“R-really?”

“Yes, dear, so don’t make this face, and stop worrying about small things.” Ticia ended the hug with a peck on Mia’s forehead. Mia liked that, Ticia rarely showed this kind of affectionate signs to the clone girls.

“On a side note, it seems that wearing the helmet is showing some effects.” Ticia said with a smirk.

“Eh?” What was her big sis talking about?

“Hehe, you might not have noticed, but you hesitate less on your words, and you can even look at me straight in the eyes for a short moment. Big sis is happy.”

“Ah” Mia finally noticed, it was true that she could watch Ticia without feeling fear anymore. This was a great discovery to her, because after the incident, she thought Ticia would not bother to look at her anymore, and yet there she was, praising her because her speaking disorder and shyness lessened a bit. 

“Thank you, big sis!” She exclaimed as a new warmth filled her heart.

“No need to thank me.” Ticia replied with a warm smile, the one Mia had often seen on her ‘big sis’ when she was interacting with her. “You did all this on your own, Mia. Now then, I must go see your other sisters now, so take some rest.”

“Uhm, big sis!” Mia called out as Ticia was about to leave. Something had been left unanswered in the back of her mind.

“Yes?”

“I-I always wonder, how do you know how I felt?”

“Well that’s very simple, dear Mia. Since you’re all clones of me, your emotions and reactions are the same as mine! Of course I would know how you all feel!” Ticia said proudly as a big, confident smirk emerged on her face.

“...” Mia did not answer, just giving a deadpan look at Ticia for the first time. If that was really the case, then we would all be able to call you ‘mother’ by now…She wanted to say, but held herself.

“Ahem” Seeing Mia’s reaction, Ticia coughed embarrassedly, her face reddening. “How do I say… it’s kind of a seventh sense?” She ended up saying.

“Seventh?” Mia tilted her head, not understanding why Ticia said seventh and not sixth.

“Yes, seventh.” Ticia affirmed. “You’ll understand when you grow up… Probably…” The hesitance Ticia showed sprinkled Mia’s curiosity, but before she could ask anything,  Ticia left Mia’s bedroom as if she was fleeing, leaving Mia to hold her curiosity in her heart. She had a hard time concentrating on her activities that day because of her curiosity to know what this seventh sense was.

 

***

… In the end, she did not learn what this seventh sense was, even A-4 repeatedly said that there was no such thing as a seventh sense! But then again, her ‘big sis’ wouldn’t lie, right? Curiosity was slowly eating her…

But it was a good thing in a sense, as this curiosity led her to think about something else than the incident. Besides, Ticia’s words echoed in her head. She was healing, she managed to look at her ‘big sis’ in the eye without her helmet! Perhaps she should stop blaming herself, and look forward to what she would be able to do once her speaking disorder is completely gone…

“...Let’s try to be more positive…” She mumbled to herself.

“Mia.” A voice suddenly called out.

“Hya?!” Mia let out a weird short scream as she refocused on her surroundings. “L-Lidia, you scared me…” Lidia was standing there with her usual expressionless face, but somehow, Mia could tell the girl was in a good mood.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Lidia apologized, before asking. “What are you doing at this hour?”

“Oh, I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go on a walk…” Mia replied honestly, somehow managing not to stutter. “What about you, sister?”

“...I was going to spy on mother.” Lidia announced casually.

“Oh, I se-You what?!” Mia was taken aback by what she just heard. She immediately tried to stop her sister. “Y-you can’t do that! Big sis is gonna be angry!”

“...You can call her ‘mother’ too, you know?” Lidia said casually again.

“I can? No, wait wait wait, I can’t!” Mia nearly followed up on Lidia, this was too tempting to the clone girl. Still, she resisted the urge, and said in a sad voice. “Big sis allowed you to do that, but not me…”

“That doesn’t matter, mother isn’t there right now anyway.” Lidia replied.

Wh-what’s wrong with Lidia tonight? Mia was again surprised, not only was Lidia quite insistent, she also seemed to overrule something Ticia had asked them. So she timidly reminded her sister of that fact.

“B-but, this isn’t what she wants…”

“It’s going to be fine, trust me.”

There was a silence, as Mia mustered her courage and looked at Lidia in the eyes. What she saw was how serious Lidia was, and this filled her with a strange sense of confidence, and as a result…

“Ok…” She decided to trust Lidia.

I-it’s fine, just once, right? She isn’t there, so she doesn’t know I called her like that, right? She justified her act in her mind, as if she was already ready to face trial for her crime.

“So, why were you going to spy on ‘mother’?” She asked in a surprisingly fluid way, without even realizing it. Instead of getting an immediate answer however, Lidia started to move in a direction, and Mia silently followed her.

“I asked A-4 to help me with something because I wanted to verify something, and it just notified me to come to the bar.”

“The bar?” Mia asked to be sure.

“Yes, mother is there, apparently.”

They both knew what a bar was from her implanted knowledge, it was a place where you could enjoy drinks. Mia was curious about those drinks that would help to ‘relax’ and ‘have a good time’, but the implanted knowledge also strongly specified that drinking those wasn’t advised to kids, which made her wonder why…

Still, she had never heard of her ‘big-’ no, her mother, go to such a place before.

Lidia stopped as they reached a staircase that would lead them directly to the fourth floor, she turned and asked Mia.

“Do you want to come with me?”

“Fueh? But…” Mia hesitated, she feared repercussions.

“Aren’t you curious to know what mother is like when we aren’t around?” Lidia asked.

“That-” Mia did not finish her words. She was going to deny it, but her curiosity had already taken over, she nodded as she became embarrassed with herself.

Meanwhile, a small smile appeared on Lidia’s face.

“Follow me then.”

Lidia began to go up the stairs, and Mia hesitantly followed after her, looking around to see if anybody saw them.

When they neared their goal, the two accomplices began to slow down, Mia following every movement Lidia made. After all, Lidia was better than her at sneaking around. Fortunately, she had learned some tricks herself from all that sneaking around with Nia.

They reached the door, and the both of them could hear the voice of Ticia, it sounded different from what they were used to. The both of them looked at each other for confirmation about the next move, before peeking their head through the doorway, Mia being under Lidia.

“Whaddya mean~? My liver’s totally fine~! This isn’t the first time I’ve drunk this much, in fact, it's just the beginning~! Once, I even emptied a whole wine cellar with Rika~”

““...”” Both clone girls were speechless at what they were seeing. Their reliable ‘mother’, the one they had so much trust in, and that they loved for her seriousness, was acting weird.

… Is that really mom? Mia asked herself in disbelief. The Ticia she was seeing right now seemed more like a grown up Nia than anything else to her…

She looked up at Lidia for confirmation, only to see Lidia having the same expression. That… definitely wasn’t something they expected…

Meanwhile, the conversation between Ticia and A-4 continued.

“Correction: This unit does believe in owner Ticia’s capabilities, hence why this unit did not act wastefully.”

“Gah! I don’t understand how you work, tin can! You’re just making my head hurt more.” Ticia sighed as she finished her glass. “That’s why I refused promotions, having to care about subordinates is just asking for more trouble… All I needed to ever do was leave everything to Rika! Taking care of somebody isn’t my-”

What was mom about to say? Mia asked herself worriedly as she looked at the sudden change in Ticia’s expression. She felt like she knew it, but didn’t want to acknowledge it…

Ticia sighed as she filled herself another glass of alcohol, and the clone girls could feel the atmosphere had changed. Their mother slowly drank her glass of alcohol in silence, under the watch of A-4’s drone. She seemed to be reminiscing about something, and various emotions showed on her face…

Then, A-4’s drone suddenly looked in the direction of Lidia and Mia, startling them. The drone beeped, green light flashing.

“...Would owner Ticia like to answer a survey?”

“… What?”

“Repeating question: Would owner Ticia like to answer a survey?”

“No, that’s what I don’t understand, a survey?”

Mia had the same question as Ticia, she glanced at Lidia, who was just as bewildered as her.

“Affirmation: To improve the management, clone installations’ AIs are equipped with survey applications to gain effective feedback from users and owners.”

The AI replied, provoking another retort from Ticia. On the other hand, Mia and Lidia were having a hard time understanding what was happening…

There’s no such thing as a survey though? Mia though, that was what was the most bewildering to her.

A-4 then began its survey, and the questions left the clone girls in the same state as Ticia, they did not understand what those questions were doing there…

But then…

“Are you willing to use the cloning facility for its main purpose?”

The AI finally asked a question that made sense.

“There you go, that’s more like the questions I was expecting. I already told you, A-4, I don’t want to create clones of myself.” Ticia said firmly.

Mia was partaged on this, on one side this meant that they would be the only clones, and she would have more sisters. On the other however, it also meant that Ticia’s time would not be occupied by more clone girls…

“...Even if your close ones are in danger?”

“That, I don’t-'' Ticia stopped herself, Mia was wondering what her mother wanted to say when Ticia continued.  “... Maybe I would…”

“Answer received, proceeding with the next question: If you had the choice to let Null class clone girls to live or not again, would you still make the same choice?”

“A-4,” Ticia said, raising her tone and sending a death glare to the drone. Mia and Lidia were surprised. “I think we already had this discussion multiple times already. Whatever the case is, they have the right to live, and I would still allow them to do so. I would never kill them!”

“Answer received, proceeding with the next question: Are you satisfied with the current clone girl’s abilities?”

“A-4!” This time, Ticia yelled, standing up, clearly angry at the AI. “I already told you, I don’t care about those kinds of things! The girls are fine the way they are!”

This whole exchange made Mia feel warm, her mother was showing rage, she had protected them from their original fate, which they knew about, but they did not know why, now it seemed to Mia that Ticia saved them out of her own code of what’s right to do. Now she just wondered what her ‘mother’ thought of them overall…

The argument ended surprisingly on A-4’s side, and Ticia sat back on her stool. She filled her glass with alcohol before mumbling. “All of them are excellent.”

E-even me!? But… I’m not good at anything like my sisters… Mia was clearly shook by what Ticia had just said. The fact that Ticia’s comment just now wasn’t directed at her but at a third, neutral party, proved to her that her mother did not think of her as a failure.

“Answer received, proceeding with the next question: How would you like the clone girls to refer to you as?”

Ticia nearly spat out her drink, and Lidia and Mia nearly bumped into the door from the unexpected question.

“Didn’t I ask them to refer to me as their big sis?”

“Notification: Owner Ticia did ask the Null class clone girls to refer to her as ‘big sis’. However, this process could have been implanted in their knowledge before awakening, replacing the basic settings. Theory: Since basic settings have not been changed, the chances of the Null class clone girls thinking of owner Ticia as something else other than a ‘big sis’, are high.”

“Oh, Then, could you remind me what the basic setting is?”

“Reminder: Basic settings of clone affiliation is to consider the owner of the clone facility its ‘leader’.”

Ticia sighed in relief, but the AI didn’t stop there.

“…Notification: Since awakening of the clone girls is done at a young age, feedback from other clone installations have revealed that the clones who have this identification tend to identify the leader as a ‘parent’, due to a lack of anybody else to cling to.”

“Oh…”

What the AI said was right, Mia and her sisters all thought of Ticia as their leader, but since Ticia acted in such a warm way, they all associated her as their ‘mother’ and it was hard for them to think of her overwise…

Never had they considered Ticia as their ‘big sis’, although they tried. The yearning for a parent and Ticia’s association to what they defined as a ‘mother’, was just too strong. And from Ticia’s expression, she seemed to have realized that.

“Crap…” Ticia looked pensive, a distressed look on her face transforming into one of disgust before showing guilt and sadness. She drank her glass of alcohol, which was still half filled, in one shot, before mumbling to herself. 

“I should probably just accept it, but…”

“Answer received: From now on, basic cloning settings will make sure to specify owner Ticia as ‘mother’”

““!!!””

“W-wait a minute, A-4? I didn’t say that?! Please come back to basic settings!”

“Owner Ticia’s request is impossible to grant. Survey does not allow coming back on an answer.”

“That’s stupid, how could there be a survey like that?!” Ticia and A-4 began to argue again, meanwhile, Mia had nearly let out a gasp when she heard the exchange. Fortunately for her, Lidia had put her hands on her mouth as soon as she sensed Mia was about to let out her voice.

They stopped spying on Ticia, and the two girls looked at each other.

J-just now, mother was about to acknowledge us, right? Mia asked Lidia with a look asking for confirmation, and her sister somehow understood the meaning, as she nodded back happily. Lidia then proceeded to do hand signs, which Nia recognized from the implanted knowledge.

‘Let’s go back’ Was what Lidia was saying, and Mia nodded.

 

***

 

They walked for a while, Mia following Lidia without saying a word, Lidia took a turn and entered a room. After Mia entered, she closed the door, and Mia could not contain her excitement anymore.

“Sister, was this what you asked A-4 for some help with?” She asked, stars forming in her eyes.

“Kind of.” Lidia answered as a rare embarrassed laugh came out of her mouth. “I didn’t expect A-4 to go this far though. The plan was only to make mother admit she cares about us as something more than ‘little sisters’...”

“That’s still amazing!” Mia’s admiration did not diminish, rather, her excitement grew. “She said she might create more sisters!”

“That she did.” Lidia nodded in agreement.

“A-and, the basic setting…” Mia said, her voice diminishing as her whole body trembled from joy, and tears appeared in her eyes. She closed in on Lidia and took her hands. “Does that mean we can call her ‘mother’ now?!”

“W-well, um, yes?” Lidia was a bit surprised by the usually shy Mia’s actions, she did not expect her little sister to be able to be this close to her and yet not tremble. But she still thought there was something left to do, as Ticia technically wasn’t about to call them her daughters from there on just like that.

“Yes!” Before Lidia could say anything however, Mia jumped, she started to dance, obviously overjoyed. “Finally! I can call ‘mother’ mother~♪!” Now Lidia didn’t want to destroy her sister’s happy mood. She would tell her once she calmed down a little.

Mia suddenly stopped, a thought crossed her mind, she closed in on Lidia quickly.

“Lidia!” She exclaimed.

“Y-yes!?” Lidia answered, still not used to this new side of Mia.

“How did you think of this!? No, how did you know mom thought of us like that?!” Mia asked, the curiosity was eating her.

“Well, that was when I was outside with mother…” Lidia began to tell, scratching her left cheek, while avoiding eye contact.

“Wait, You went outside!?” Mia’s curiosity suddenly went into a different direction.

“Didn’t Ticinia tell yo- oh…” Lidia realized why Mia, who was supposed to know this already, didn’t know, and she began to sweat. That day, she had not let go of Ticinia until it was bedtime…

“Ticinia? No, was she supposed to tell me something?” Mia asked, but Lidia avoided eye contact. It was a funny situation, since it was usually the other way around…

“Uhm, no, sorry, it’s my bad…” Lidia ended up apologizing as her face became red, Mia’s head was just way too close! She wasn’t used to this!

“???” Mia tilted her head. Fortunately for Lidia, Mia's curiosity for the outside world outranked her curiosity to discover the truth of that matter. “Oh, I don’t care, please tell me what you saw!”

“S-sure, but could you distance yourself a bit first? Y-your face is too close…”

 

***

 

“Hehehe~”

Mia was giggling happily on the way back to her room. Lidia had just told her everything she had seen, and by everything, that was every detail possible and imaginable!

After what felt like a good hour and half, both clone girls had separated from each other, Mia was feeling refreshed, while Lidia looked exhausted, and took a detour somewhere before going to her own room.

She said she saw a rabbit! Kyaaa~ I want to meet one so much~!

Her mind was already lost in her own world, imagining herself petting a rabbit just like the one Lidia had described. She wanted to adopt one, and take care of it. Just imagining herself feeding the rabbit and looking at it eating some salad made her giggle once more.

“There you are, Mia~!” A voice suddenly called out to Mia.

“Mh? Ah.” Mia saw Nia standing in front of the door to her room, it seemed like the girl was searching for her.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t be able to sleep, so this sister of yours is going to sleep with you!... Is what I was going to say, but where were you!?” Nia asked, it wasn’t in Mia’s habits to disappear like that, not without her at least…

“Nia, listen, listen!”

“What is it, what is it~?”

“It’s about mom and Lidia!”

“W-wait, how did you, call big sis just now!?” Nia was surprised by how Mia called Ticia, it wasn’t usual for Mia to break a rule if she didn’t force Mia to do it…

“That’s not important, I’ll tell you later!”  Mia was too excited to explain, she wanted to tell her sister what she had just learned from Lidia.

“Nia, listen, Lidia went outside together with mom!”

“What!?” Nia’s eyes became round from surprise, she then quickly looked left and right, as if scared somebody was listening to them… When she verified nobody did so, she released a sigh, and, as if what Mia knew was the rarest information in the world, she whispered to her sister’s ear. “Let’s go to your room first…”

 

***

 

“So there really are rabbits outside!” Nia exclaimed after Mia finished telling the story Lidia had told her, with even more attention to details. The both of them were now sitting on Mia’s bed, where Mia had told everything to her sister.

“Yes! Isn’t that great?” Mia said, the stars had yet to disappear from her eyes…

“It's amazing! I want to pet one too!” Nia exclaimed, she too now had stars in her eyes.

“Me too, me too!” Mia replied, the two of them giggling at the fact they wanted the same thing.

The curiosity the both of them had for the outside world had overpowered everything. On one hand, Mia forgot to mention the fact that she and Licia had found out that Ticia was thinking of them as more than ‘little sisters’ because of it, while on the other hand, Nia’s curiosity onto why Mia called Ticia ‘mom’ had been overwritten by her curiosity for the outside world. The both of them hadn’t even realized Mia was speaking normally without being shy!

“Is that why sister Lidia is in such a good mood lately?” Nia asked, it seemed like she wanted to confirm something…

“It must be so!” Mia replied, but she felt like she forgot something in the back of her mind… Must not be important if I forgot. She ended up thinking.

“I see, I see~” Nia nodded, it seemed like she had come up with something in her head. She looked over at Mia and said.

“Hey, Mia?”

“Mh? What is it, Nia?” Mia  asked back, wondering what her genius sister had come up with this time.

“I’ve decided!” Nia took a pose as she said that, her ahoge stood straight in attention.

“Decided what?” Mia asked impatiently, she felt like her sister was purposely delaying what she was about to say.

“Tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow what? Come on Nia, don't be mean and say it already!” Mia reached the limit of her patience, there was no trace of the usually shy and reserved Mia anymore, this was a side only Nia knew about.

“Fine, fine!” Nia gave up her tension building strategy in the face of Mia’s relentless assault, and still with a smirk on her face, she declared loud and proudly to her sister.

“Tomorrow, I’m going outside!”