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Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Nene. She had the deepest purple eyes and the silkiest green hair. Nene was just minding her own business, playing some video games, when suddenly, her phone started ringing. The girl sighed and paused her game and reached for her phone. She read the screen. The person who was calling her was Rui Kamishiro.
Rui Kamishiro was Nene’s childhood friend. He was responsible for inviting Nene into a musical troupe, which helped Nene a lot in overcoming her trauma and finding happiness once again. Nene accepted the call and put the phone up to her ear.
“Hello?” Nene spoke through the phone.
There was a bit of background noise through the other side. The green haired girl didn’t know where her best friend was, but it definitely wasn’t his house.
Rui started cackling a bit like a villain. “Nene! Come over to Phoenix Wonderland now! Behind the teacups ride! I have something absolutely astonishing to show you!”
Nene was a bit suspicious and had a gut feeling that something was wrong. But she hesitantly replied that she’ll be there right away and put on her socks.
After a couple minutes, Nene arrived at the place Rui mentioned. There was no one there, so Nene wondered if she got the place wrong. She looked around a bit and then, Rui popped out of the bushes.
“There you are, Nene!” Rui enthusiastically exclaimed. “Come, follow me! There’s something I want to show you!”
“Wait, where are we going?” Nene asked. It looked like Rui was about to go into the green forestry behind the teacups ride, so Nene was confused.
The purple haired guy laughed and grabbed his friend’s hand. “Just trust me! Come on!”
Before Nene could respond, she was pulled into the bushes and dragged through the forest by Rui. “Let go of my hand! I can walk by myself you know!”
Rui didn’t listen and kept running through the forest. Nene could hardly catch up and still had no idea where they were going. Was this person a kidnapper disguised as Rui to lead her somewhere quiet so they could kill her silently?
Finally, the two friends came to a stop. They were in front of a delightful oasis with a huge pond and a waterfall. Nene took a deep breath. “Woah, so this is what you wanted to show me? It’s beautiful.”
“Like you,” Rui smirked. Nene blushed. Her childhood friend laughed. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you. The real beauty lies behind the waterfall.” “Behind the waterfall? What are you suggesting?” Nene had a bad feeling about this.
The yellow eyed boy ran through the waterfall, getting soaked. “Ehh? No way! I am not going through there!” Nene contradicted. Rui’s head popped out through the rushing water. “Come on Nene! You’ll be fine, it’s just a little water!”
Nene was hesitant, but she ran through the water anyway. The water was very cold, and the girl started shivering immediately. “I hate you…” Nene said sarcastically.
“Nene, look,” Rui gestured to something inside the secret waterfall cave. Nene looked up and spotted a machine of some sort, many papers scattered around, and a ton of tools and materials everywhere.
“What is this place?” Nene looked around in wonder. “It’s my secret base for my ultimate project,” Rui answered. “I have been working on this in secret for about 2 years or so. This robot doesn’t have an official name yet, but I have been calling it Ulti-Robo as a placeholder. Ulti-Robo can do anything, from baking a cake to folding your laundry. It is still in the works, so it’s not finished yet.”
“This is so cool!” Nene exclaimed while examining the robot. The robot had a ton of different colored metal patches all over it, and an open compartment filled with a ton of little buttons. It looked pretty scary, but Nene knew Ulti-Robo would look amazing when it was finished.
Rui was gathering some tools and papers from the floor. “Pretty neat, huh? Don’t touch anything, Ulti-Robo is far from finished.”
Nene looked at Rui, astonished by what he made. “Wait, but why are you showing me this? Shouldn’t you show me after it’s done?”
“Well, that was what I was gonna do, but this robot has been in the works for so long. I was dying to show it to someone. I might’ve lost interest and stopped working on it if I didn’t have anyone to expect it to be finished,” the purple-haired guy replied.
The green haired girl asked, “But why did you choose me to see it?”
Rui smiled. “You are my childhood best friend and I trust you more than anyone. You’re good at keeping secrets, so can you keep one for Ulti-Robo?”
Nene twirled her hair. “I-I guess so, but you could’ve shown your parents, or Tsukasa, or Emu, or even Mizuki. I don’t think I’m that capable of being shown something this powerful, a-and I feel honored you chose me.”
When he heard all of that, Rui put all the papers he was holding on the floor and grasped Nene into one big hug. Nene’s cheeks turned pink, and after a few seconds Rui let go.
“Fufu, I’m not going to answer what you just said. You already know that you’re my best friend, and I love you for it. Why shouldn’t I show you my ultimate project of my lifetime? You’re awesome, Nene. Don’t doubt yourself again,” said Rui.
With those words, Nene’s face turned bright red. She had never heard him say anything like that before, and the thought of it just made her heart flutter. Rui certainly is a unique, interesting being.
“Thank you, Rui.”
Nene turned to Ulti-Robo and kept staring at it and noticed all the details. There was this strange little hole below where the buttons were, and Nene was curious, so she poked her finger through the hole. What she didn’t know was that it was a button to an unfinished feature to Ulti-Robo.
Suddenly, the robot whirred and an arm came out. Two chainsaws were connected to the arms, and they started flying around like crazy. Nene didn’t have time to react. The chainsaws then cut right through Nene’s body like she was a piece of cake. Blood splattered everywhere. Nene’s body parts were spilled out onto the hard ground.
“NENE!” Rui gasped. His head whipped towards the robot when he heard it turn on, but he was too slow to react. He watched his childhood friend get shredded to pieces. Rui couldn’t make out any words. His jaw dropped and his eyes watched in terror as he saw blood pour out of Nene’s body.
Ulti-Robo still whirred and spun its chainsaws around. Rui dropped to his knees and couldn’t believe what just happened. All of this was happening way too fast. Did Rui just kill his best friend?
Rui didn’t know what to do. His heart was beating so fast, it felt like he was about to propel off the ground and fly like a hummingbird. He just watched Nene die, so what was he supposed to do?
Of course, humans usually grieve before doing something to get rid of the body. So Rui started laughing like a crazy maniac. It seemed like Rui was going insane. Then he burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.
“This was my fault. I did this. I’m responsible for this. Nene’s dead. Nene’s dead. Nene is dead.” Rui half-laughed, half-cried. “Wow. I didn’t know I’d experience death so early in life. And of course it’s my best friend who died. Of course. How funny. Heh. Haha. Ahaha. AHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA!”
After a couple minutes of crying, Rui got his mind to clear up. In a few days there’d be missing person reports about Nene and everyone would be worried. Rui couldn’t call the police or a forensic cleaner to clean up the body. If he did, then all suspicions would be on him and legal authorities would find out about Ulti-Robo. Rui would get arrested for unattempted manslaughter and possession of a dangerous weapon—--or something like that.
Right now the main suspect of Nene’s disappearance is Rui. Rui would go to jail and everyone would hate him. Tsukasa, Emu, his parents, every relationship would be broken. Rui couldn’t afford for something like that to happen. But hey, everything is crazy right now. His own robot that he built killed Nene. Rui holds full responsibility for Nene’s death.
Another few minutes passed, and Rui decided to dump Nene’s body parts into the oasis water outside of the cave. Rui dreaded each second of it, but it had to be done. Then, he looked at Ulti-Robo. Ulti-Robo was responsible for shredding up Nene. Blood stained the chainsaws and the robot.
Then, Rui made the hardest decision in his life. Rui swore to never build another robot or contraption ever again. Rui always made sure his machines never harmed anyone, but since Ulti-Robo was still in progress, it had the ability to injure people.
Dang it. Rui questioned himself on why he even showed Nene the robot. Why was he so negligent?
Suddenly, anger bursts through Rui’s veins. He turned off Ulti-Robo and dragged it out of the cave. Rui cursed at the robot and threw it into the lake. He had enough of robots and machines for today. There goes over 2 years of work, but Rui didn’t care anymore. That robot is a murderer, and what was the point of keeping it anyway? Rui dumped all his tools and blueprints in the water as well. He didn’t need those papers anymore, and he had a ton of tools at home.
Rui cried a little more and questioned his sanity for a what felt like an eternity. Then he rinsed some blood off of his hands in the oasis and left. He looked back one more time at the waterfall and cave where Nene died, and walked away.
The next day, Nene’s parents knocked on Rui’s door and asked if he and his parents had seen Nene lately. They claimed that she was at home yesterday when her parents went to work, and when they arrived home, Nene wasn’t there. Nene’s mom and dad were very worried and said Nene is still missing.
Rui felt guilty knowing about what happened to Nene, but he couldn’t say a word. Now he just has to bear the talking and concerns about his past-tense friend. Rui’s parents asked why he looked so gloomy and why his eyes were puffy, and Rui lied that he got stung by a bee and it brought his whole mood down. Rui realized that he now has to live his whole life lying and fibbing.
A few days later, there are now missing person flyers all over town.The police are working very hard on the case of Nene Kusanagi. Everyone is worried and anxious about Nene. No one knows the truth, sadly. Except for Rui. He’s a runaway criminal.
Tsukasa had arranged for everyone from WxS to meet up at Phoenix Wonderland to talk. When Rui arrived, he looked very broken down and looked like a depressed adult after a middle-age crisis. His hair was all messy and he had bags under his eyes. It looked like he hardly had any sleep.
Emu and Tsukasa looked normal. “Waaah, Rui? Is that you? What happened?”, asked Emu. “Rui, are you okay? You look like you haven’t slept in 100 years!” Tsukasa queried. Rui put on a fake smile and said, “Don’t worry guys, I’m fine. Just tired.”
“We all know about the disappearance of Nene, right?” Tsukasa said. “Nene randomly disappeared a few days ago and no one has seen her. There are no witnesses and the police are having a hard time finding clues to the vanished Nene.”
“I’m really sad, I hope Nene will be okay…” Emu said. She had a sad face, but then quickly changed to a smiley face. “I think Nene will be found in no time! I bet she’ll be found soon!”
“Yeah, don’t be sad guys! Nene will come back! She is not lost forever!” Tsukasa spread positivity to his troupe members. Emu and Tsukasa smiled and pumped a fist in the air. The sun was setting, and it was a wonderful scene to behold. Two energetic and happy gremlins staying positive even in dark times.
Rui’s heart broke into a million pieces. Everyone was so sure that Nene would come back, Rui felt an immense amount of guilt on his shoulders. Watching the remaining WxS members be super positive about Nene’s disappearance, it was enough to make Rui cry in front of them.
The blonde and pink haired group-mates looked at Rui. They felt bad for him, as he was the one closest to Nene here. “Hey Rui, it’s okay! Everything is going to be alright! I believe Nene will come back to us! She’ll be back! Then we’ll all be together again! Wonderhoy!☆” Emu said with radiating positivity.
Tsukasa added, “This must be super hard for you. But believe me, it’s super hard for us too. All we can do is just hope and pray that Nene is okay!”
Rui sobbed even more. He couldn’t get any words out, but he cried and cried. And the other WxS members were there for him.