Tsuki ✔️COMPLETE

Chapter 15: Hiiro Hisai

"How could you read a language that you had never known before?" Rubi asked, confused.

"I'm not sure." Mimi answered. "Though there were a few books that had copies in different languages to compare. Mainlander did seem somewhat familiar to me, but I don't know why. When I think, I hear the words in Mainlander.

One day, I saw the word 'beauty' written on the cover of a book in Proper, and I decided that would be my name. It sounded right. The next place I went to after I finished all the books was a city to the west and it had a library. From there I had many books to study."

"So after a while, you eventually made it to Migiue?"

"Yes. I read about the vast library in Kusanagi, so I walked there over many weeks. Then, I met you."

"I never asked where you went when the library wasn't open."

"I lived in the park."

"No way, across the road?" Rubi exclaimed. "In the rose garden?"

"Yes. In a sycamore tree."

"That's so dangerous!"

"Not for me. I don't need to eat or sleep, and I can defend myself."

Rubi paused to think for a while.

"Did you ever have to fight someone, like you did at the dock?"

"A few times, yes. I scared them away. I studied some hand-to-hand combat books in the library which were very helpful."

"I know that now." Rubi said. "I've wanted to ask, since I suppose we don't really know. Do you think you're a golem?"

Mimi pondered.

"No. I don't think I am. I've read about them and it's the closest thing I can consider I might be. But I'm not made of mud or clay, I can speak and learn vast amounts with perfect accuracy, my skin mends when it is damaged. I'm like a person. But I know I'm not."

"Mimi, I want you to know you're as important as anyone else, even if you're not human. Even if we never find out how you came to be. You're family to me."

Mimi smiled.

"I know. Thank you, Captain."

"I just wish we knew. Then we might be able to figure out how to stop you from freezing up. I'm scared it will happen when you're in danger."

"I've been thinking about that." Mimi said. "There's nothing as far as I can see that stands out as strange. I think there's something on the inside of me that might be being disturbed. Within whatever it is that makes me function."

"And we don't know what you're made of, or where you were made." Rubi re-emphasised, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Meaning we've got nothing new to work with."

She wondered if she was too tired for this. All this conversation had brought to her mind was that something could happen to Mimi and she might lose her. Permanently. They might never know how to help her, or worse, how to save her.

"I'm sorry to jump you with the deep and meaningful stuff so early in the morning. I'm just worried about you. I don't want to lose you."

"It's perfectly alright." Mimi said. "I appreciate your concern. It is a valid thing to consider since we might be retracing my history."

"Back in Migiue," Rubi recalled. "Before I left and we had been talking at the library almost every day. You were the only person I wanted to go on an adventure with. You make me feel safe and understood."

"Then we really did go on an adventure. Just like in a book."

"Yeah. It's been hard, but I can't thank you enough for always having my back. But it's always been about me, my illness and my medicine. I want to help you find out who and what you are. You deserve to know."