Chapter Text
“This…”
Branzy’s senses momentarily stopped, and for just a couple seconds, he zoned out…
『どうして此処が分かったの？』
『僕はもう名前すら失ってしまったっていうのに……。』
『そうだ！もしよかったら、君が新しい名前を付けてくれないか……？』
『"ブランジークラフト"……？』
『良い響き！それにしよう！』
“Branzy, get up.” A sharp voice brought him back to the present. Gingerly standing up, Branzy saw all 4 of them. Parrot, Spoke, Clown, and…
“Cube.” The person standing to the right of Spoke smirked. staring straight at Branzy.
“Do you know why we brought you here?” Parrot asked quietly.
“To…to team with me, right?” Branzy looked at Clown for support, but he just stared back with a stone faced expression.
Cube and Spoke exchanged an amused glance before turning back to look down at Branzy.
“Obviously not, have robots lost their intelligence? Any lifesteal member would’ve realized that coming here was a bad idea.” Spoke said, tone lighthearted, contrasting well with the tense situation.
“Yes, you had to rely on a human to get around here. Didn’t you think everything that has happened up upon now was out of place?” Cube looked at Branzy, who seemed like he might disintegrate into A̵͗͌ş̷̇h̷̉̓é̵̀s̴̓̎.
“What are you all trying to say here?” Branzy sounded hurt, unbeknownst to the true amount of danger he was in.
At his words, Clown spoke for the first time.
“Branzy, you lack the basic knowledge go survive up here. You’re not a human, you’re a robot, which means you’re life will never be worth as much as ours.”
“So…you’re just going to kill me because I’m not equal to a human being?” Branzy was scared now, finally catching onto the plan.
“No, it’s because you’ll *never* be equal to a human being” Parrot said, bending down to press a button.
Branzy fell, the ground rushing up to meet him very quickly.
The first thing he heard was the clicking of tendrils and the frantic beating of a heart. At first, Branzy thought that was him, but soon realized that he was not alone.
The warden roared, aiming a shriek at Branzy, which he dodged. Carefully edging to the side, Branzy got a better view of the trap. There was a six by six room with the warden on the opposite side. All Branzy had to do was to mine away and escape. That, however, was the part that proved to be extremely difficult.
Every time Branzy moved, no matter how quiet he was, the warden somehow always found him. Branzy thought it was because of the warden’s sniffing ability, but couldn’t be so sure. Just as he was about to lose all hope, Branzy saw a set of purple and black glitches fizz in front of him for a brief second.
Branzy stared as the remains of his dead friend formed in front of him.
“Ashswag?” he whispered,
hardly daring to believe that it was really him.
Ash didn’t say anything, or perhaps he couldn’t, just staring at Branzy sorrowfully.
Being close by his dead friend again, Branzy suddenly had another vision. Another trip down his memory lane, you could say…
”Hey Ash, come over here”
”Branzy, you know we shouldn’t be sneaking around, FZ-A10 would be really worried if she couldn’t find us”
”I know, but you’re my only friend, everyone else seems to hate me…”
”That’s not true, they’re just not used to the idea of “living” robots yet”
”Really? Well then how are you so popular? All the scientists want to experiment on you…”
”Maybe they think that a glitching humanoid is cool? I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t say getting experimented on all the time is very fun either way”
”What do you mean by that?”
”Everyone wants to know about my glitches and how they work, one time SE/RA hooked me up to some electric wires. They sent shockwaves throughout me, and it hurt a lot…”
”He’d really do that to you? I won’t let him, I’ll-“
”That’s enough you two, where have you both been?”
”oops…”
”Oh whatever, I’m not sure I want to know anyway. I came looking for Ash, IL-104 wants you”
”Yes, FZ-A10”
”Branzy, you’d better come with me. I want no more running around from both of you.”
More scenes flashed by Branzy’s eyes.
“Its a new day today, Branzy. Make sure to meet me in experiment room #10, we’re going to run some experiments on you.”
”Okay, but is it alright if I go find Ash? Please, FZ-A10?”
”Oh alright, I suppose even if I said no, it wouldn’t stop you, just make sure to be careful”
T̵̀̌h̶̉̂e̴̎̚ ̷͑̔l̶̍̆ä̶̍s̴͛̌t̷͌̅ ̴̓̍h̷̛̆ŏ̴͗p̴̒̾ē̶̛
”Alright Branzy, I’m just going to plug you in, we’re testing out a new way to supply you with energy”
”Go ahead”
”Hm…thats weird, it says theres an error, did you damage your structure?”
*”No, I don’t remember anything like that”*
”Oh, well I guess I’ll just restart this component then”
E̶͆̎R̶̈́̑R̵̈́̄O̷̿̈R̴̾̈́.̴̽̎ ̸̆̐M̴̛̈́É̵͋M̸̚͠Ó̷͛R̷̈́́Y̵̎͑ ̷̍͝F̶̋͐I̷͆̔L̵̽̈́É̴͆ ̷̌̐C̶̏̋O̷̎̑R̵͌͠R̶̈́͑Ǘ̷̀P̵̒̀T̵̓͒E̸̽́D̸͒͝
Branzy gasped, his head reeling from all the memories. Ash, FZ-A10, and most curiously, the fact that he was called Branzy, even back in the ancient city.
Looking over his shoulder, Branzy saw that Ash was still there, staying with him as if he was sorry that Branzy was left to this fate.
Surprisingly enough, the thought of dying didn’t scare Branzy much anymore. Thinking of the possibilities that his situation could have gone, lead to a new train of thought. Maybe Clown had actually loved Branzy, but it wasn’t enough, was it? Along with that, Parrot’s reason to why he deserved to die…
“Because I will never be equal to a human being” Branzy said aloud, glancing around. Everyone, Parrot, Spoke, Cube…even Ash, they seemed so far away, and Branzy knew that he couldn’t fight it anymore.
He’d existed long enough.
The last thing he saw was the screen he once dreaded so much.
———EMERGENCY SYSTEM SHUTDOWN———