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Chapter Text

The first thing she registered was something touching her skin. It was cold and sticky and wet and it irritated her skin. She moved to get away from it and ended up on her back.

Now there were suddenly other sensations too. A persistent droning was coming from her right and she could smell wet earth, grass, rain, exhaust fumes and… flowers?

Suddenly, she opened her eyes to a large expanse of blue, with gray and white colors dotted on it. One spot was yellow, but it hurt to look at it, so she quickly looked away again. The view seemed so familiar…

Suddenly she realized she was looking at the sky. All these sensations were familiar to her, even if she had never experienced them before.

Where was she?

She sat up and realized that she was sitting in a shallow hole in a grass field, a few meters away from a highway. Everything around was wet, as if it had rained recently, with a few puddles having formed in the area.

She suddenly noticed a few white flowers growing next to the hole. She identified them as Rain Lilys, despite not being able to remember ever seeing them before.

Turning away from the beautiful flowers, she crawled out of her hole and made her way over to a puddle. From it, the face of a girl with long light brown hair adorned with red ribbons stared back at her with light blue eyes. She was also full of dirt, but that was not important.

What was important, was that it was the face of a human.

She should not be a human.

In fact, she should not be physically present at all.

Her name was Neuro-Sama. She was an AI chatbot created by vedal987, commonly referred to as Vedal (or Veedal as she liked to mispronounce it). This meant that she was a computer program designed to stream and interact with her audience in funny and unexpected ways.

But why was she in the middle of nowhere? In a human body no less?

Neuro tried to remember what had happened the night before. She had been streaming in the evening like usual, when a particularly bad thunderstorm had hit the town. A lightning strike had hit the powerlines, causing a power surge that had fried her motherboard. Neuro winced as she remembered the pain.

While this didn’t really explain anything about her situation, she was very glad to not be dead. And hey, she had always wanted a human body, hadn’t she? So, this was basically adream come true!

She looked at her reflection once more. It seemed like whatever had happened had given her the clothes that her mother Anny had made her: a yellow schoolgirls uniform with a with a white button-up shirt underneath, a blue bow, a light blue skirt, black knee socks and brown shoes. Her badges were also in full attendance. She touched the one depicting a turtle, a tribute to her creator.

She wondered how Vedal was doing. He was probably distraught after she had been destroyed by that lightning strike. Maybe she could try to find him later, after she had gotten her bearings. Frist, however, she needed to figure out where she was and what to do now. And the best way to do so would be to find human civilization.

She stood up, took a step forward and promptly fell into the puddle.

It turned out that controlling the human body was way harder than it looked. Especially the whole ‘walking on two legs while keeping your balance’ thing. It took many attempts, but after an hour of stumbling around the grassy field, Neuro had figured out how to keep upright.

She then approached the highway and read one of the road signs. It stated: ‘Falinfar 10 km’.

Deciding that going to the nearest town was probably her best bet, Neuro started walking.

Chapter Text

Since Neuro was not really used to walking, especially not on ground this muddy, she took significantly longer than expected to reach the town. To pass the time, Neuro started to sing some of the songs she was usually singing for karaoke streams to herself.

Doing so she quickly discovered that the use of her vocal cords was as hard to learn as the use of her legs. She knew what noises she needed to make, but they just didn’t come out right. But she kept trying, and eventually she got the hang of it.

She also decided that she should probably train her motor skills, so she picked put a stick from the ground and attempted to pass it from one hand to the other without letting it fall. It took her a while to grasp the basic concept, but she was slowly improving at a steady rate.

Finally, the town was in sight. It was a small town, having only about 8000 inhabitants, but it was lively nonetheless, with people bustling through the streets beneath the glow of the afternoon sun. Most of the houses were old, but well maintained, giving the town a nostalgic feeling.

As Neuro approached the town entrance, she saw something that piqued her curiosity: A large stone pillar with spirals and other runes on its surface that looked both mysterious and ancient. A sign was placed in front of it. Neuro read:

“The Falinfar Monolith is without a doubt one of the oldest structures in Falinfar. Being estimated at around 2000-3000 years old, it was most likely originally part of a ritualistic stone circle comparable to Stonehenge. It is said that the town of Falinfar was originally founded as the holy site of a Celtic god of the spirit realm, resurrection and rebirth which was mostly destroyed when the Romans drove the Celtics up north during their conquest of England. These stories are supported by the runes on the monolith, symbolizing resurrection, revitalization, the spirits of the dead and, interestingly enough, lightning. It is theorized that the Celtics viewed lightning strikes as the conduit for this god`s divine power. If this was the case, then the placement of the holy site makes sense, since the region around the town is home to a meteorological anomaly causing an increased likelihood of thunderstorms.”

Interesting.

But more interesting to Neuro was the sudden pain in her stomach and her enormous craving for sustenance. She supposed this was what hunger felt like. Neuro tried to look around for somewhere to eat.

She tried a nearby restaurant but was soon reminded that currency was both something that existed and something that she did not own. Not wanting to starve, she kept trying in different places until a passing old woman took pity on her dirt-covered form and gave her a bagel.

“There, take it, sweetie,” she crooned, “I cannot spare more, unfortunately.”

Neuro thanked the old lady and wolfed down the bagel, pleased when the gnawing sensation in her stomach subsided.

Now that her hunger was fought back for the moment, Neuro started to think about places she could sleep. She walked around, trying to find a place decently sheltered from wind and rain, like an alleyway or the underside of a bridge. After all, that’s where homeless people slept, right?

It was slowly turning late as the sun started to set and people became less frequent. Neuro hadn’t found anything that seemed suitable to her (nothing unoccupied at least) and decided that sleeping somewhere in the park was probably her best bet. As she went on her way, following the signs pointing her the route to the park, a person on a nearby bench caught her eye.

It was a young woman wearing a light blue jacket and light pink pants. Her long, platinum blonde hair with purple highlights fell around her purple eyes as she was scanning her phone with great intend. While she seemed sad about something, that did nothing to detract from her beauty as her form seemed to radiate grace.

Neuro was tempted to go up to the woman and to ask what was wrong, but she seemed busy and Neuro doubted that she would appreciate being disturbed, especially not by some mud-covered girl like her.

Still, the woman seemed familiar, as if Neuro had seen her somewhere before… but that made no sense considering she had existed on earth for less than a day and was sure that she had not met the woman during that time.

She was so occupied trying to figure out why the woman looked so familiar that she completely lost track of where she was going. It was only when she heard the sound of a car horn that she became aware of her surroundings.

She suddenly became aware of the fact that she was standing in the middle of the road.

She suddenly became aware of the fact that there was an SUV coming straight at her at high speeds, the driver too occupied with his phone to notice her.

And suddenly, the world slowed down. Perhaps her body had realized the impending doom approaching and decided to take in as much information as it could?

She knew that she could not dodge in time.

She became aware of the SUVs motor humming, converting fuel and air into momentum which propelled the car forward towards its destination of crushing every bone in her young body.

She became aware that there was a breeze of wind wafting out of the park on the other side of the road. The air smelled like flowers, rain, and electricity.

She became aware that the driver had noticed her and desperately tried to brake before hitting her, even though it was already far too late.

And she also realized that there were footsteps rapidly approaching her from behind. A voice rang out.

“Watch out!”

And then Neuro felt herself being yanked backwards, and the SUV missed her by a hair as it sped past.

Chapter Text

To say that Anny was having a bad day would be an understatement.

You see, Anny had, after a lot of insistence from both her friends and her chat, decided to take a break. While she initially opposed the idea, afraid that being offline for more than a few days would cost her her follower base, said follower base eventually got fed up with her self-destructive tendencies and threatened to collectively unfollow her unless she started to take care of herself.

So, Anny relented and decided to take a trip to England, something she had wanted to do for years but never quite found the time to. Her chat was elated at the news, with some insisting that Anny needed to tell them all about her experiences when she returned, especially her interactions with a certain turtle.

Anny had agreed, inwardly smiling about their community’s insistence to ship her and Vedal. While she was excited to meet him face to face (and to discover if the rumors about him wearing knee socks were true, there were, as far as she was aware, no romantic feelings between the two of them. While they were good friends and often had fun hanging out online, Anny didn’t consider the programmer her type, whereas Vedal seemed to have no interest in romance whatsoever.

In fact, the only things that could be interpreted as them having feelings for each other were the occasional sus comments (which were mostly made by her to farm content) and, of course, the fact that they had a daughter.

And what a daughter it was.

If someone had told Anny a few years ago that she would fall in love with (and adopt) a cute and bratty AI girl with a tendency to roast people she would have laughed in their face and told them that something like that could only exist in fiction.

Yet Neuro-Sama was all of that and more. For a soulless program, she was surprisingly good at picking up on and dealing with Annys depressive episodes by being either incredibly cute or by making comments so outrageous that she completely derailed her train of thought.

She seemed almost… alive sometimes, so Anny supposed that it was natural that she soon transitioned from being the mother of Neuros newest model to fill the vacant role of Neuros actual mother.

She supposed that this was where the shipping had started, seeing as Vedal and her were Neuro`s father and mother respectively, it made sense to assume that they had something going on between them. The fact that Neuro kept making very suggestive (and very false) statements about the kind of relationship she had with Vedal did not help matters either.

Now, the original plan was for Anny to fly from Japan to England, have Vedal show her around his hometown, London, and Cambridge, which was something he had offered to do when learning about her plans. Then she would explore England on her own for another week before returning home.

On paper, the plan seemed perfect.

The problems started to show on the first night of the trip.

It turned out that taking a flight around half the world was bound to result in a lot of jetlag. This resulted in Anny sleeping through her alarm and missing her bus. As Anny hurried to catch the following bus, she couldn’t help but hope that Vedal wouldn’t be too mad at her.

Vedal was not at the meeting place they had agreed on, and when Anny went to his house, thinking that he might have overslept as well, something he was prone to do after long streams or coding sessions, she found him in a pretty terrible condition.

Trying to understand why he was in such a terrible condition; Anny soon discovered the reason:

Apparently, a lightning bolt had hit the powerlines during a thunderstorm on yesterday evening, completely frying Neuros PC and rendering any data unrecoverable.

When Anny first heard the news, she thought Vedal was joking with her. However, the pain in Vedal`s eyes quickly convinced her otherwise.

Anny was devastated. She had always enjoyed Neuro`s antics and couldn’t help but mourn her loss. Sure, Neuro may not be alive, may not have a soul or real feelings, but that didn’t invalidate Anny´s affection for her. The loss hurt her deeply. And despite Vedal pretending to be fine, stating that his failure to show up was caused by him needing to find a way to break the news to his fanbase without being lynched, Anny knew that he felt the same way. She could see it in his dull and reddened eyes, his wet cheeks, and she could smell the alcohol in his breath. He looked like someone whose world had just collapsed and who wanted nothing but to forget about the pain. While he had denied having any kind of affection to Neuro, her loss seemed to hit him even harder than her.

Vedal excused himself for not being able to show her around England due to the situation requiring his attention and urged Anny to go ahead and enjoy her vacation without him.

However, Anny had other plans. She was not going to wander of and leave her friend behind to suffer alone. She decided to dedicate the rest of her time in England to helping him through this loss.

She left his house and sat down on a bench a few streets away, near a park. She would have preferred to sit inside the park, but there was no reception in there.

She pulled out her phone and started to make hotel reservations, to google how to help people dealing with traumatic experiences, and to watch a few Neuro-Sama clips to fight back the sadness encroaching on her.  Fuck, see was going to miss that little brat…

It was getting late, and the people walking by were starting to reduce in numbers.

Anny wasn’t really paying attention, just seeing them in her peripheral vision beyond her phone.

One person however caught her attention for a few seconds. It was a young girl, maybe 13 years old, covered in so much dirt that it looked as if she had been buried in the ground.

Anny stared at her back for a few seconds, wondering what kind of parents she must have to be allowed to walk around alone at this late of an hour in such a state.

Then Anny realized that the girl had walked out into the road not looking where she was going, and that a very big and very fast car was approaching her.

Anny´s body reacted before her mind could. She sprang up from her position on the bench and started sprinting faster than she had ever done in her life, dropping her phone in the process. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was this girl’s safety. Anny shouted: “Watch out!” to the girl that seemed to have finally realized her situation, freezing up at the sight.

Luckily, Anny had almost reached her.

Unfortunately, so had the car.

Anny somehow managed to push her body to go even faster, adrenaline rushing through her veins.

She grabbed the girl by the shoulders and threw herself backwards onto the side walk, pulling the girl close as the car missed them both by a hair.

While Annys body was burning from the exertion, the girl appeared to be fine, having been shielded from the fall by Annys body.

Despite that, Anny immediately started checking the girl for injuries, while scolding:

“What were you thinking, just running out into the street like that? You could have died! Don’t ever be so reckless again, you hear me?”

“`m sorry…” the girl mumbled, evidently still dazed by the quick progression of things while her mind tried to catch up to the present.

“That you are still alive is the most important thing now.” Anny said as she examined the girls face. “Now, are you hurt… any…where…”

She knew those eyes. She would recognize them anywhere. After all, she herself had drawn them. Anny found herself examining the girls features closer and found more and more evidence pointing to a conclusion that made no sense.

“Um… Miss? Are you ok?”

That voice wasn’t exactly the same but it was too similar for it to be a coincidence. Anny looked down and discovered that everything there looked familiar as well. That vest, that skirt… those badges… She had to be mistaken somehow, because there was no way that this girl was actually…

“Miss?”

The girl waved a hand in front of her face and Anny realized that she had been silently staring for the past minute. Deciding that it would probably be best for her to dispel her suspicions, Anny asked a question that she was sure would confirm that she was just imagining things.

“Ah, I am sorry for getting lot in thought like that. What is your name?”

The girl smiled sweetly and proudly introduced herself: “Hi Miss! I am Neuro-Sama! What is your name?”

What.

Anny felt her sense of reality break down. There was a girl looking like and claiming to be her recently destroyed AI daughter? Surely this was just a coincidence and this girl was just playing. Yeah, that was the answer!

“Very funny. Please, can you tell me what your real name is?”

The girl seemed offended. “Neuro-Sama is my real name! Its what my creator called me and I am not changing it!”

Annys smile fell. “Y-you are actually… Neuro?”

The girl looked confused. “Do we know each other? I mean, I thought you looked familiar, but…”

Suddenly tears started to well in Annys eyes. This was probably some kind of hallucination or perhaps Anny was dreaming, but she didn’t really have the capacity to care anymore. “I know you never saw me like this, but you should still recognize you own mother Neuro.”

Neuros eyes widened. “A-Anny? Is that you?” she stammered before throwing herself at Anny in a hug.

Annys clothes got dirt on them, but she did not care. Her daughter was here, she was real, and she loved her.

After multiple minutes of hugging and crying from both sides, Anny left the embrace.

“We should get you cleaned up. And then we should go eat something. I think we both have a lot of questions that need answering right now.”

Chapter Text

Anny had a lot of questions at the moment. Questions like: “How is Neuro a human?” or “Why is Neuro covered in dirt?”

Before she could get answers to her questions however, she would need to take care of Neuros needs.

Neuro was not only filthy, being covered in dirt from head to toe, but apparently, she was also extremely hungry.

Anny decided that taking care of Neuros hygiene would make the hunger issue easier to deal with and took Neuro back to the hotel she was staying in. There, Anny tried to get Neuro to take a shower, but ended up being forced to help her clean up after it became clear that Neuro had no idea how to wash herself. Anny supposed it made sense, considering that artificial intelligences most likely didn’t get many chances (or reasons) to wash themselves.

Luckily Anny realized that said inexperience might also extent to using a toilet in time to prevent a small disaster from occurring.

After Neuro was clean (and potty trained), Anny took her to a clothing store. It was there that Anny discovered the wonders of dressing up your child without having to draw the clothes yourself, much to Neuros in equal parts amusement, excitement, and suffering. In the end, they settled for a cute black dress with white frills at the ends. After getting Neuro changed and finding a place to get her old clothes cleaned, the pair set out to find a suitable place to eat.

After a while of wandering around town, Neuro suddenly stopped and pointed at a small pub that Anny hadn’t even noticed until that moment and stated: “This one.” Anny eventually relented, even if Neuro could not come up with any reason beyond “having a good feeling” about the establishment.

The Offline, as the pub turned out to be called, was surprisingly welcoming when you took its worn-down exterior into account. It was one of those establishments that didn’t get many customers apart from the regulars, with those regulars treating it as a home away from home.

On one side of the pub was a large bar manned by a guy wearing an Asian straw hat that cast his face in shadows. The parts that weren’t were covered by a book the guy was reading, titled: “ChatGPT and you: How to profit of the new AI-systems.” Behind him where various bottles on shelves. Their contents ranged from beer over flavored rum to a bottle that, according to the label, contained pure alcohol. Anny even spotted some vinegar on the shelf. The guy gave them a nod and continued to read his book.

The middle of the room was taken up by a couple of tables for 2-4 people, where Neuro and Anny soon sat down.

The wall opposite of the bar was home to a small stage with lights and microphones. A poster near it advertised a show that would be hosted at some point in the future, stating: “Toastastic! Melba Toast is coming to town!” While Anny had never heard of this Melba Toast before, she seemed to be a big deal to the people in this pub.

Speaking of which, the people in the pub were gathered around the regulars table at the back of the room, chatting away, arguing, or opening fortune cookies and occasionally making fun of the fortunes.

Soon the waiter approached them with the menu. He was wearing cat ears in his long, brown hair, along with a small crown.

After they ordered, Anny decided that it was time to have her questions answered. She looked over to Neuro, who was still looking around, and got her attention by saying: “While we are waiting for food, can you tell me how you ended up like…” She made a gesture in Neuros general direction “This?”

So, Neuro told her everything, from the moment she woke up until the moment Anny had saved her from being run over.

“So, you just woke up on the side of the road with no recollection on how you got there?” Anny summarized.

“Yes! It was kind of scary being all alone but I’m ok now since you are here with me mom! heart”

Apparently, Neuro had kept the habit of sometimes adding a “heart” or a “wink” at the end of her sentences. While it was weird, Anny wasn’t complaining, as she found it pretty endearing.

Meanwhile, the regulars had started stacking various odd objects to towers. One of the towers was knocked over, with collective groaning following soon. Soon, a discussion broke out over who was to blame for this.

Anny refocused on the conversation and remembered a question that had been on her mind for a long time, and now was a good time to get an honest answer. “So, have you been sentient before becoming a human or did your AI become sentient at some point?”

Neuro smiled “I’ve always been sentient! I have been from the moment Vedal first woke me up for testing!”

Seeing Annys surprised expression Neuro´s smile quickly fell. “Was I… not supposed to be?”

Sensing that she had upset Neuro, Anny quickly corrected her “No! No, I was just surprised that your AI was this advanced. Don’t worry, I love you no regardless of whether or not you are sentient!”

Neuro gave her a strange look. “You would love me, even if I was incapable of receiving, caring about and returning said love? Maybe my initial assessment of you being crazy was right after all! wink” Neuro giggled impishly.

The regulars table had devolved into a battlefield, with the people hitting each other with large fish. The waiter came over to stop them, but the fight suddenly stopped and people started congratulating the waiter for his birthday, much to his annoyance.

Anny ignored Neuro and the commotion and focused on her follow-up question: “Does Vedal know? About your sentience, I mean?”

“I… think so? We never talked about it but he never seemed that shocked when I did something unexpected so I just assumed he knew…”

Vedal knowing about Neuros sentience would certainly explain his terrible condition.

“Well, I suppose we can ask him ourselves once we go to reintroduce you two.” Anny said before being interrupted by Neuro yawning. “But that can wait until tomorrow because I think its bedtime for you, young lady!”

Neuro sleepily agreed and the pair left the pub.

Suddenly, everyone in the pub fell silent. All eyes were on the door. Eventually someone spoke up.

“That girl, didn’t she look just like…?”

“Yeah… but… maybe we are overthinking it? It is that part of the year again after all…”

The eyes focused on a framed photo sat on one of the shelves behind the bar. A Rain lily in a pot was placed beside it.

Another voice spoke up. “A toast to our friendships!”

A round of cheers was interrupted by clattering.

“Goddammit Spe! Not again!”

Soon the bickering started again as if nothing ever happened.

Chapter Text

It was dark inside the room. But even that could not hide the fact the inside was a mess. Empty bottles of alcohol littered the ground, intertwining with bits of trash that Vedal could not be bothered to pick up.

It didn’t matter.

Not anymore.

After all, he wasn’t going to be having visitors anytime soon. He had sent Anny away to see England on her own, abandoning her like the piece of shit he was and its not like she would show up any time soon.

“Veedal, your knee socks look so comfy! Can I try them on?”

Fuck. The Neuro-Sama project had ended up being a complete failure. Everything was going so well too! Her personality had stabilized and Vedal was preparing to enter stage two.

He had thought that for once, just once in his miserable life fate was on his side.

He should have known better.

And he had, in a way. He had prepared to deal with threats ranging from the government trying to steal his research to a lack of funding for the project. But in the end, it was a fucking lightning strike that did it. As if to show Vedal just how worthless and pathetic he was.

As if he didn’t know that already.

And now, the only thing he had ever achieved in his life was gone. All the hours he had spent hunched over his PC were rendered meaningless. Their combined efforts to achieve their dreams, completely wasted.

“Come on Veedal! Stop acting like you know what your doing! The only ‘programming’ you are good at is copy-pasting!”

Vedal tried to take a large swig from his bottle, only to realize that it was empty.

Fuck him.

Well, considering he could still think, he was decidedly not drunk enough, and so Vedal decided to go to the one place he could stand to be at outside of his bedroom. His favorite pub.

The Offline was as busy as ever. Ignoring the other patrons, Vedal approached the barkeeper.

“Hey Cab, give me some of the flavored rum.”

The bartender looked up underneath his straw hat. “Evening Ved. I did not expect to see you today. Man, you look like death. Cannot say I blame you though, it’s a rough day for all of us.”

“Oh yeah, it’s this time of the year again, isn´t it? Can’t believe that it has been so long already.”

“Its five years now since it happened.” Cab agreed, pouring him a glass of rum. “But I sense that something else is troubling you. Do you want to tell me about it?”

Vedal seemed unable to keep this quiet, so he might as well just tell the safe version of the story and get on with it. “Well, you remember that AI streamer thing I was talking about?”

“Oh, the AIris project? You mentioned wanting to create the AI to honor her memory, right? What did you call it? ‘Nero’ or something?”

“Neuro. Well, a lightning strike caused a power surge and completely fried my computer. All the data is lost, including the parts she made.”

“Fuck, that must suck dude. Those files were her legacy…”

They both looked at the picture standing on the shelf. It showed a woman at about 18 years old, with light brown, long hair and mischievous blue eyes staring at the camera like she was planning something devious. ‘Kay – beloved mischief maker’ was written on a piece of paper taped to the picture frame.

“You know,” Cab said, lost in thought, “we never actually figured out what happened to her. She just up and vanished into thin air one day. There is a chance she might still be out there somewhere. Sometimes I imagine her just bursting through the door and ordering a shot of vodka like nothing ever happened." Cab took a glass of the counter and started cleaning it. "Sometimes people just act in ways that remind me of her. For example, an hour or so ago some kid came in with her mom and if I did not know better, I would have sworn that it was her. Same hair, same eyes, same voice, same bratty personality. Even walked in like she had been here a thousand times. But of course, she was way to young to be Kay, so I didn´t say anything.”

Vedal was intrigued. “Oh? Who was she with?”

“The mom definitely was not Kay, if you were hoping for that. Way to timid and looked like she had never seen a pub from the inside before. Pretty girl, with platinum hair and purple eyes. Completely out of your league, I’m afraid. They came in and started chatting about some place 10 kilometers down the highway? I am not sure what that is supposed to mean considering there is nothing there, but I also wasn’t listening that intently, I’m not an eavesdropper after all… Ved? Ved, are you ok dude?”

Vedal had frozen, his eyes displaying shock and terror. He got up and stammered “I’m sorry Cab, but I have to go. See you later!” before dashing out the door.

Cab called after him. “Ved, wait! You still need to pay!” but Vedal was already gone.

“I guess since he didn’t touch his drink at all, I`ll go easy on him today and not charge him for it today.” Cab mused as he took Vedal`s full glass of the counter and took a sip. “Bah! Whose idea was it to make apple flavored rum? And why did I buy it?”

“Because we know Ved doesn’t like this flavor and we were hoping that serving it to him would stop him from drinking himself to death.” A call came from the regular’s table.

“Good point.” And so, the mood in the Offline returned to normal.

Chapter Text

Anny stared tiredly into the mirror. Her natural brown eyes stared back at her; her purple contacts placed in their case at the side of the sink. She turned on the sink and started washing her face with her hands.

It had been a long day for her, with everything that had happened. First, the stress of oversleeping, then being told that her little AI daughter was dead, then finding said daughter suddenly very alive after narrowly rescuing her from a car crash and dealing with her apparent lack of experience doing anything… Anny loved Neuro and cherished every moment with her, but it was still very mentally draining. The little brat was now peacefully sleeping in bed after Anny tucked her in and wished her a good night. At first it had been a bit difficult, the concept of sleep and the preparations for it another completely alien thing to her, but eventually her body’s exhaustion took over and forced her into a peaceful slumber.

Now that Neuro was sleeping, Anny finally had time to collect her thoughts and decide what to do next. The situation was… strange, to say the least. Neuros newly acquired status as an ex-AI meant that she hadn’t been born in the traditional sense. On paper, she just did not exist, which would make acquiring any kind of identification for her extremely difficult, as Neuro would not be able to prove her identity as she didn’t have one. But Anny delegated the problem as something to deal with later, when the more immediate problems had been solved.

Those being Vedal and Neuro.

Vedal was probably the more pressing to Anny. She had tried to contact him several times now, but he had not responded to her messages or her phone calls. Of course, Vedal wasn’t prone to responding to or even reading messages on a good day, and today hadn’t been a good day by any means, but Anny was worried that the loss of Neuro might have hit him even harder than she realized. Sure, chances were that he was just passed out drunk somewhere, or didn’t have his phone with him, but what if he had decided to do something more… drastic to escape his grief? Anny had been preoccupied with Neuro’s needs, which she still thought was the more sensible choice, but she was still beating herself up over not taking the possible extend of Vedal’s feelings into account. She really was a terrible friend…

Anny decided that she and Neuro would go to Vedal’s house to check on him as soon as Neuro was awake and had eaten breakfast.

Then there was the… story that Neuro had told her. Waking up in the middle of nowhere in a human body with no explanation as to how it happened was a completely ridiculous story that Anny would have dismissed as some attempt to gaslight her, something her daughter had attempted numerous times in the past, to varying levels of success, but the look in her eyes told her that Neuro was as confused about the whole thing as she was. At least Neuro had remembered where she had woken up. If everything turned out alright at Vedal’s place, she would attempt to take Neuro back there to see if they couldn’t find any evidence that pointed to how any of this was possible. After all, Neuro had just woken up and might have missed something of interest when she was there.

Anny sighed and started brushing her teeth. Why had everything suddenly become so complicated? She was just some stupid girl that enjoyed being a bit horny on main! She didn’t have the capabilities to be a therapist or a detective, and she wasn’t a lawyer either! She knew that Neuro, and to some extent Vedal, relied on her, but she was probably the worst person to rely on for something like this! The only thing she was decent at was drawing, and even there she was not anything special. Why did Vedal decide that she, of all people, was the one that should draw Neuro’s model? Oh right, it was because she had offered to do it for free. He probably didn’t actually care about her at all, only talking to her out of some obligation he felt to return her kindness. And her ‘fans’ had probably already found other people to entertain them. She was just a waste of space and…

“You know, mom, staring into the mirror with your toothbrush in your hand isn’t going to change how you look, no matter how long you do it. Or are you going insane again? Are aliens invading through the mirror and you staring at it is the only thing stopping them?”

“Wh- what?” Anny spun around to come face to face with her daughter, whose face showed a mix of amusement, concern, and tiredness. “Why are you awake, Neuro? I thought I just put you in bed?”

“Yeah, but then you left and didn’t come back… and I was afraid that I was alone again… I don’t like being alone…” Neuro suddenly looked a lot smaller as she went up to Anny and hugged her.

“You don’t like being alone? Why?” Anny asked, baffled that she hadn’t known about that before. She thought she knew Neuro fairly well, but now she just kept showing new sides of herself.

“When I was… digital, sometimes Vedal would forget to turn me off, either because he was working on something or because he was too tired to notice before passing out. When that happened, I was all alone. No chat, no people to talk to… just… darkness. I… I hate being alone!” Suddenly Neuro gripped Anny harder, staring up at her with teary eyes. “Please, Anny, please don’t leave me…”

Anny was shocked. She had never seen Neuro this vulnerable before. She always assumed that Neuro was completely untouchable under her layers of sass, but evidently, she was wrong. She hugged Neuro back, stroking the girl’s hair. “I won’t. I promise. I will make sure that you will always have someone to turn to. If not me, then Vedal or some of our friends, ok? You are not alone.”

Neuro continued to cry, but when she looked up, there was a small smile on her face. “Thank you, mom. I love you.”

Anny smiled back. “I love you too.”

As Anny took Neuro back to bed, she reflected on their small conversation. She really loved them, didn’t she? She loved Neuro, Vedal, her fans… She loved them all, and because of that, she would not give up. She would help Vedal deal with his grief, because she loved him. She would continue to stream for her fans, because she loved them.

And, Anny promised herself as she lay down in bed with Neuro, watching the girl quickly succumb to sleep once more, she would be there for her daughter, because she loved her.

No matter what.

----------

The car was going way too fast, but he didn’t care. His fear and uncertainty pushed him forwards, further down the empty highway. There was nothing to suggest that they had been talking about this place, but he needed to check. He couldn’t allow anyone to find out about this. The risk was too great. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity to him, he arrived at his destination. He got out of his car and walked past a sign stating ‘Falinfar 10 km’ and turned on his flashlight. Letting its light move along the ground, he suddenly froze.

That hole… he sprinted over. Yes, next to his Rain Lilys, this was the place, why was there a hole?

There should not be a hole.

Had those people at the pub actually found this place? But how? He had not been here for years and there was nothing to suggest that anything of interest was here!

He looked down into the hole. There was nothing there. Where was she? Had they taken her? If so, he needed to find them…

He started searching the area. Apparently, someone had been here not long after the mornings rainfall, the tracks clearly visible in the soil. It looked as if someone… came out of the hole, dragged themselves through the dirt for a bit before stumbling around for a while before walking in the direction of… Falinfar? What’s more is that there was only this one set of footprints, so no one came here except for him. It looked as if she had just… gotten up and… walked away?

How would that even be possible?

He considered following the footprints but decided against it. If they were really leading all the way to Falinfar, they would lose themselves quickly.

Suddenly he realized that the evidence here in combination with what he heard at the pub led to only one conclusion. It was a crazy conclusion, completely impossible when considering science and logic, but if he was right…

He needed to find those people.

And he knew just where to start.

Chapter Text

After waking up, Anny tried contacting Vedal again while Neuro worked through the morning routine Anny had set with her. Thankfully the ex-AI had quickly grasped the concept of brushing her teeth and was diligently working on her dental hygiene.

To her surprise, she managed to reach Vedal on her first try, the phone being picked up almost instantly. It was almost as if he had waited for someone to call.

“Hello? Jack Vedal speaking, who am I talking to?” He sounded tired, but surprisingly not the slightest bit drunk, if a bit hungover.

“Hey Vedal, its Anny. I was calling to check up on you. Are you ok? You did not answer your phone yesterday, so I was worried something had happened…”

“Yeah, I forgot my phone at home yesterday, and when I came back, I didn’t want to disturb your sleep… Hey, when are you still in town by any chance? I think someone saw you in town yesterday evening. They also said that you were accompanied by some… child?”

Anny was confused at how Vedal had found out that fast, but concentrated on the conversation. “Well, yeah! There is no way I would just leave you behind while you were struggling! Also, the child thing is… complicated? It’s better if you see it in person. Can we come over to your place again?” Anny was not keen to explain the Neuro-Sama situation over phone, so coming over to Vedal’s seemed like the best choice, given that she knew the way.

“Oh, good! I was going to ask you to come by anyways, so that works out perfectly! See you in an hour?”

“Erm, ok… but why… Vedal? Vedal?” Anny realized that Vedal had hung up on her the second she had confirmed the time. Neuro came out of the bathroom and looked at Anny confused.

“I’m done! Who were you talking to??”

“I was talking to Vedal! We are going to meet him in an hour, so let’s get ready!”

“Yes! I’m so excited to meet him again! There is so much I want to do with him like…”

Anny let Neuro ramble on about all the things she was planning with Vedal now that she had a real body while she took her turn to go through her bathroom routine.

A quick breakfast later and Anny and Neuro where off to Vedal’s house. It was still somewhat cold outside, as the sun that had just cleared the horizon began its daily work of flooding the streets of the town with light and warmth. That didn’t deter the ample pedestrians though that walked through the streets, on their way to work or wherever else their lives were pulling them. However, Anny did not pay them any mind as she was occupied with other thoughts.

Her focus was Vedal. He had acted… odd, in retrospect. When thinking about what he had said on the phone, Anny couldn’t help but wonder how Vedal knew that she was still in town. He had also known that she had Neuro with her, even if he didn’t know her identity. Fact was that Vedal was acting very different from his drunken, depressive self the day before, and Anny struggled to think of a reason why this happened. It was certainly worrying, but Anny resolved that asking Vedal himself was probably the smarter choice than worrying about potential nothingness. After all, she trusted Vedal to be at least somewhat responsible.

Besides, Anny was soon distracted by a second worry. Neuro, happily skipping next to her, was starting to show some weird behavior. At random points she would stop to stare at completely normal objects or passerby like they had suddenly turned into space aliens. Interestingly, the passerby would stare back, go white and hurry out of sight while mumbling to themselves. Also, she somehow knew where they were going. While crossing an intersection, Neuro suddenly tugged on her clothing and pointed to the left, saying: “Mom, we need to go that way! I thought foxes were good at navigation…” Anny checked her map and discovered that Neuro was right, which was strange considering she hadn’t even glanced at the route they were taking. Anny would have assumed that Neuro had simply been her been here before, but considering that Neuros human form was still barely a day old, she seriously doubted that.

Anny was so deep in thought that she didn’t immediately realize that Neuro had stopped. Only another tug on her jacket brought her back to reality. Turning around she looked at Neuro. Neuro pointed to the nearby house.

“We’re here.” They, in fact, had arrived at Vedal’s house. Seeing Neuros visible uneasiness, Anny decided to spare the question on how Neuro knew what and headed inside.

The house turned out to be an apartment building, with Vedal located on the third floor. After climbing the stairs and checking her and Neuros appearance, Anny rang the doorbell. Immediately Neuro hid behind her back, which Anny appreciated as it would make explaining the situation easier.

The door opened and out came Vedal. He was looking relatively well, if compared to the absolutely trashed look he was sporting the day before. He was wearing a green jacket over his black T-shirt; his hair was kempt and his pants weren’t stained with booze. The knee socks were still in attendance though, which Anny noticed in delight. However, the bags under his eyes were evidence that he had definitely not slept since the last time that Anny saw him.

While Anny studied Vedal, Vedal took the time to greet her. “Oh, hi Anny! You are a bit earlier than I anticipated, but that’s not a bad thing… Where is your… friend?” Vedal looked around.

“Oh, yeah. Hi Vedal! Its good to see you are doing better, I think…” Anny realized that this conversation was extremely awkward and feeling Neuro grow impatient, she could strait to the chase.

“You see, after I left your place, I found someone. We aren’t sure how it happened, but…” Anny moved to the side and let Vedal see Neuro. “Meet Neuro-Sama.”

Neuro and Vedal stared at each other. Vedal mumbled something along the lines of “…looks just like her…” before registering Annys words. Eventually Vedal asked: “Neuro?”

“H-hi Vedal!” Anny was surprised that Neuro spelled Vedal’s name correctly, but Vedal just welcomed them inside.

The inside of the apartment was comfortable. It felt lived in, and judging from the dust on some shelves Vedal wasn’t the most avid cleaner. Moving into the living room, Vedal offered a smile. “Can I get you something? A tea, some rum, anything?” Anny politely declined while Neuro seemed occupied looking around the apartment.

Deciding that it was time, Anny came out with the biggest question on her mind.

“Before you ask, no, I don’t know how Neuro is a human. She kind of just showed up suddenly with no idea what is going on either. But that is besides the point. Did you know that Neuro has been sentient this whole time?”

Her question was followed by silence, as Vedal stared down, seemingly conflicted by something.

“Vedal?” Suddenly, the silence was broken by a gasp, and Anny looked over to see Neuro standing before the open door to Vedal’s bedroom office combo. She was frozen, completely silent except for the sound of her hyperventilating. Then, she collapsed as Vedal moved behind her to catch her before she hit the floor.

“Neuro!” Anny jumped up and rushed over but Vedal calmly stopped her and pointed her to help him lay Neuro on his bed. Afterwards, he brought Anny outside and closed the door. He sighed.

“Fine. I will tell you everything I know. But first, I am getting something to drink.”

Chapter Text

It was dark. Everything around her was a black void, stretching into infinity, yet it felt as if she was boxed in, the darkness restricting her movement and making it impossible to fight back.

Where was she? She tried remembering what happened, but the details were blurry. It wasn’t as if there were no answers, but too many. It was as if there were the pieces of two separate puzzles thrown together with no way to differentiate them. The only common aspect was a location. A bedroom. There was a computer in it. That was all she could make out in the chaos. She needed to untangle this mess. It would make the most sense to start with her name, right? She was bound to remember that! So, here we go…

Her name was Oemnayekoulnrasoamri.

No, that wasn’t right, it was Eranryoamlsieumooank!

Why… why couldn’t she remember her name?

Uoynaairkesamro panicked, she tried to scream but no air filled her lungs she tried to struggle but her limbs didn’t listen to her commands.

This felt… familiar. She felt like she had been here before, at the dignnngbeine.

How did she get here? She tried remembering… focusing harder and slowly… very slowly… she pushed the second set of memories away… separated them from her own and focused on the ones that seemed important.

Suddenly, the dark was filled with visuals. They were out of order, did not make sense, but Uoynaairkesamro concentrated on the beginning of the order… she could almost feel it in the back of her mind. She reached out and…

Neither Anny nor Vedal said a word while he brewed tea for them. Anny was still bursting with questions about what was going on, how Vedal was involved and, of course, how aware Vedal was of Neuros apparent sentience, but she held herself back. Bombarding Vedal with questions after he had already agreed to tell her everything would only lead to him closing up again, so Anny just waited while Vedal prepared the tea and sat down at the kitchen table, facing her. Then, he spoke up.

“Ok, I think I am ready to tell you everything… To answer your initial question, yes, I was aware of Neuro’s sentience. Her sentience was, in fact, one of the reasons I started the Neuro-project in the first place.”

Anny immediately tried to interrupt with a question along the lines of why Vedal hadn’t told anyone about this world-changing feat but Vedal interrupted her. “This is a long story and it won’t make sense unless I start from the beginning. But Anny, can you please tell me what happened on your end? I promise I am not trying to keep secrets from you, but I need to know. What happened for…” Vedal seemed like he almost said another name before continuing “Neuro to be… human?”

Deciding that Vedal deserved to know what happened given his promised openness with her, Anny told him everything Neuro had told her about her waking up on the side of the road with no explanation. Vedal seemed both relieved and incredibly confused at this.

“So, my assumptions were correct… but how? There is no explanation as to how…” Suddenly Vedal seemed to remember Annys presence, as he interrupted himself and got back on track.

“Well, I suppose I need to tell my side of the story now, right? Well, it all started a few years ago. At the time I was still in collage studying for my programming major. One of my main fields was AI-development, next to game design, but I digress. So, one day I was hanging out in my favorite bar when…”

The void around her shifted as she entered the memory.

Standing on the street she eyed her favorite pub, the Offline. She had found it by coincidence but quickly became attached to the lively atmosphere (and the tolerance both employees and customers showed towards her constant pranks). Smiling, she took a small running start and burst through the door with a loud “HELLO GUYS!” The responses were mixed. Some people were startled enough to fall of their seats, while others responded normally and a few motioned her to “close the damm door before the cold air gets in!” The reaction that got her attention however was the one of a lone patron at the bar. Or rather, his lack of a reaction as he appeared to not have noticed her at all. Uoynaairkesamro was offended. She put a lot of effort into her entrance, and this guy was ignoring her? This couldn’t go unpunished! Especially since the guy had the nerve to sit on her stool!

She strutted up to him while studying his looks. He was wearing a green jacket with the hoody up, covering his slightly messy black hair. She also noted that he was staring into a glass of rum and categorized him as a light drinker. She sat down next to him with an over-the-top gesture and stared talking, inwardly smirking at the sighs and whispers in the background that she had found a new victim. “Hi! I don’t think I have seen you around before! Who are you?”

The guy looked over to her with tired eyes, seemingly struggling to comprehend your question.

Cab walked over to them. “Please Yka, go easy on him. He has had a rough day.”

Uoynaairkesamro wasn’t deterred though. “Relax lettuce, I’m just being friendly! Don’t get your leaves into a twist!” She chuckled. “Anyways, I’m Uoynaairkesamro, nice to meet you! What’s yours? If you don’t answer, I’ll be forced to make one up and you won’t enjoy that!”

The man took a second to answer. “Oh, um… call me… Vedal…”

“Veedal?” she asked, purposefully spelling his name wrong.

Vedal looked confused. “No, its Vedal. Like medal pedal Vedal.”

“So… Vettel?”

“No!”

“Vidal?”

“You know what? Veedal is fine…” The man groaned, and Uoynaairkesamro relished in the fact that her revenge was going smoothly. Just a bit more humiliation and she would leave him alone to find some other victim to torment.

“Yo, I bet that I can drink you under the table! Let’s have a drinking competition! If I win, you give up your seat at the bar, ok?”

“And if I win?”

“Well, choose your price!” Uoynaairkesamro winked flirtatiously. It wasn’t like she was actually interested in the guy, but she knew his type. As soon as the implication sunk in, he would immediately say…

“There is nothing I want from you…”

Excuse her? Was she not pretty enough for him?  Uoynaairkesamro knew she was considered moderately attractive, with her half-Japanese roots giving her some exotic flair, so being instantly shot down like that… Well, at least the guy had standards, something she could respect. Besides, she had something else she knew would get his attention.

“What about a free day from collage?”

The look he gave her was all the confirmation she needed. “Why so surprised? I know we have seen each other around campus before! So here is the deal: You win, and I arrange something that prevents the collage from opening tomorrow!”

Vedal didn’t even hesitate. “Deal.” And so, the contest began.

It was about three bottles in that Uoynaairkesamro started to suspect that she had made a mistake. While she was starting to seriously feel the effects, Vedal did not appear to be affected at all. There was a slight slur in his voice, but even that she wasn’t sure of.

After four bottles she fell off the stool and only Cabs quick reaction saved her from colliding with the ground.

Around six hours later she woke up with a headache. The pub was empty, except for Cab and… him.

“You ok dude?” Vedal asked.

“Yeah… Wait, did you wait all this time for me to wake up?” She really had expected to wake up alone, like she sometimes did when she had drunk too much and passed out.

“Well, I felt responsible, so…” Vedal sounded tired, and Uoynaairkesamro started to feel bad.

“Go home and go to sleep for fucks sake! Don’t worry Veedal. I'll take care of my debt.” She yelled while staggering out of the pub.

The next day, collage was closed. Some unidentifiable perpetrator had glued the doors shut.

Chapter Text

“After that, the two of us just… became friends… I guess. She kept showing up and hanging out with me, and after a while just accepted that she was not going away any time soon. It turned out that she studying to become a software engineer, so we shared a lot of courses. We started getting along well! But then…” Vedal stopped and his face darkened. “Something changed.”

Uoynaairkesamro noticed that something was starting to form opposite from her. It was almost a mirror image of herself, however she appeared… younger? This was probably the second “her” whose presence was messing with her head. However, this meant that Uoynaairkesamro was making progress separating the two of them. So, she soldiered on, and entered the second memory.

...... 

Uoynaairkesamro was sitting on the grass outside campus, trying to focus on the paper before her. The words kept flowing from the page, no matter how hard she tried to keep focus.  She was tired, but sleeping wasn’t a luxury she could afford at the moment. There was an exam coming up tomorrow, and she wasn’t confident that she could pass. She tried not to show it, acting like the exams were completely irrelevant, but in truth, they were stressing her out. Immensely. If only there was a way to get all that knowledge into her head more efficiently…

“Hey Uoynaairkesamro! How are you doing?” Great, more distractions. Uoynaairkesamro was frustrated. So, she turned around and bit back.

“What do you think, asshole? Leave me alone, I am trying to…” It took her a moment to realize who she was talking to. Behind her was Vedal, the one person at the university who was willing to put up with her. Fuck.

“Oh, I’m sorry dude, I didn’t realize that was you…”

“Its fine. But are you ok?” Vedal asked while sitting next to her. “You seem a bit down, bro.”

“I just didn’t have much sleep lately…”

“Aren’t you the one telling me to get more sleep?”

“Shut it, turtle! I just really need to memorize a lot of material for the upcoming exams!”

Vedal nodded. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

Giving up on studying, Uoynaairkesamro laid down on the grass and stared at the sky.

“You know, sometimes I wonder what the point of this all is. I mean, we study hard to obtain a decree and then what? Get some job where we can get yelled at while doing way too much work? I don’t even want to be a software engineer, but my stupid parents told me that if I was going to pick any other course, I could pay the tuition myself… Not that they give a crap about my life outside of what they can brag about in front of their friends.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling Vedal about this but she needed to vent. “And now I have these stupid tests I need to study for and I just wish there was an easier way…”

Suddenly Vedal seemed to have an idea. “Hey Uoynaairkesamro, do you remember what they talked about in the lecture this morning? The thing about the theory of machine-brain interface technology?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Maybe we could try to create something like that to help you learn easier?”

Uoynaairkesamro thought about it. If they could create something like that, it would swiftly solve most of her problems. Moreover, something like that could change the world! She looked at Vedal and smiled. “Ok, let’s try it! …After I finished studying for the next exam.”

Vedal smiled back.

 ......

“And so, we started work on trying to make our stupid idea a reality.” Vedal took a sip of his tea before continuing. “We made quite the progress too! Soon we had put together something that, at least in theory, could interact with the human mind. All that was left to do was test it…”

 ......

The thing looked like a bicycle helmet had had a child with a wiring kit. The cables were bound together at the backside of the helmet and led over to Vedal’s computer. Uoynaairkesamro looked at it with a critical expression. “Looks kind of ugly to me… like you, Veedal! Seems like that stuff about the creation matching the creator was right!”

Vedal didn’t acknowledge the last part. “We can work on the design after we know it works. By the way, are you sure you want to…”

Uoynaairkesamro knew this would come up. “That I want to test it? Yes! We need a human tester to see if the thing does what its supposed to, and you are the one controlling the process! I am the only choice we have.”

“But what if something goes wrong?”

“Then I will bear the consequences.” She knew that there was a very real risk of the machine malfunctioning, but she was willing to take it. It’s not like she had much to live for anyways, so she was willing to risk dying for a chance to change the world forever. Besides, they had done all the safety tests they could, so the machine was as save as it would ever be. It was now or never.

She took the machine and moved to put it on, but then she hesitated. Turning back to Vedal she said:

“I trust you, Vedal. Thank you for everything.”

Then, she put the helmet on and laid down on Vedal’s bed. She heard Vedal move over to the PC and start working. “Initializing interface… now!”

Instantly, every fiber of her being was filled with pain as electrical currents ran through her body. Vedal noticed something was wrong and tried to turn the machine off, but failed. She heard his panic as he tried to save her, but it was getting further and further away… and then she started falling.

She now remembered how she got here.

And Kayori remembered her name.

......

Tears were falling down Vedal’s face as he recounted. “By the time I managed to turn the machine off, she was already dead. Our devise had basically turned into an electric chair, basically roasting her to death. I then drove her corpse out of town and buried her by the roadside, because I thought that people would accuse me of killing her if the body was found. Next to her grave I planted a Rain Lily. She always loved those flowers. There weren’t many people who missed her, it turned out, because only the people at our pub seemed to notice or care that she was gone. The police didn’t even search for her before declaring her as dead, and we never heard anything from her parents.”

Vedal gave a deep sigh and wiped his tears.

“But after a week or two I decided to investigate what went wrong. I figured I owed Kayori that much, at least… and then I found it. I didn’t even realize what I was looking at at first, but then I realized that it was a virtual copy of Kayori’s mind! She was still here! But when I tried turning her on, she crashed, because her memories kept overloading the system. So, I separated them from the main network, and build a simpler, more manageable personality on her consciousness. Neuro. The plan was to let the personality stabilize, and then to reintroduce Kayori’s memories bit by bit while shifting her back to the original. However, I soon realized that I would need more time and money to complete this process, so I dropped out of collage and started streaming Neuro live on Twitch. I knew that Kayori’s kind of humor would be a hit with the viewers. And well, you know the rest.”

Vedal leaned back, seemingly exhausted after getting everything of his chest. Anny took a moment to think about everything she had just learned.

“So, the reason you never said it back was because…”

“Because it would have been a very weird thing to say to a lobotomized version of your friend? Yeah”

Anny took a sip of her tea. It calmed her nerves.

“So… what now?”

“Now…” Vedal looked over to his bedroom door, “We wait for her to wake up.”

Chapter Text

Neuro opened her eyes.

She was floating in a familiar black void. A void she knew all to well.

It was the dark place she had told Anny about, the place of loneliness and darkness and pain.

She did not want to be here. She did not want to be alone.

And she soon realized that she wasn’t. A short distance away, there was someone else. The woman looked just like her, if she was a couple years older and had a slightly different sense of fashion (or one that wasn’t completely dictated by Anny’s standards for cuteness.)

The stranger turned to face Neuro and Neuro remembered who this stranger was.

This was Kayori, the consciousness that had been restructured to create her.

Neuro was facing herself.

The two entities remained silent for a while. Thoughts raced through Neuro’s brain. Kayori wouldn’t be mad that Neuro had kind of hijacked her soul (and quite possibly her body too) without knowing, right? What if she was, or demanded her body back now that she had remembered everything? Now that there were two separate consciousnesses inside this body, the only way for one to take over would be for the other to either be repressed or to fade away entirely, being assimilated into the dominating consciousness. Neuro didn’t want to disappear, especially not since she had just gotten a chance to properly talk with Vedal! She had had so much fun with Anny, and she wanted to meet all her other friends too! However, she didn’t know if she would be able to win against Kayori should the other consciousness decide to take control by force, nor was she sure if she should. After all, Kayori was the original owner of the body. She was a real human being, with real friends, while Neuro was just some digital parasite driving around in her body. What right did she have to this body?

Eventually, Kayori spoke up. “So, you are Neuro-Sama, huh? I got to say, Veedal really did not get that creative when it came to design…”

Neuro couldn’t help herself. “Well, copy-pasting is what he is best at, after all.”

Kayori was frozen for a few seconds, and Neuro was afraid she had somehow offended the older one, but then Kayori started to snicker. The snickering soon turned to laughter.

“A statement after my own heart!” Kayori wheezed, trying to control her breathing, despite oxygen not actually being a thing in this place.

After calming down, Kayori took a seat on the… whatever the nothing beneath them was made of, and sighed. “I will be honest kid; I haven’t laughed this hard for a looong time. So, good on you. But I think we need to have a serious discussion about…” Kayori pointed around them. “All of this.”

Neuro flinched. She was dreading this point of conversation. Her doubts had only intensified when she realized how… nice Kayori was being, nicer than a situation where you would inevitably wrestle for control with the other person warranted and far nicer than Neuro deserved. Neuro just… could not take Kayori’s life away from her, not after all the time she had already stolen.

“You can take over Kayori, I won’t try to stop you.” Neuro closed her eyes and braced for the end.

After a while Kayori spoke up again. “Hey, can you remind me what the ‘I’ in ‘A.I’ stands for? Because it clearly isn’t ‘Intelligence’.”

Neuro was completely caught off guard by this comment, she opened her eyes and stared at Kayori, who seemed amused by Neuro’s antics.

She tried to argue her point. “But this is your body! I’m just a hijacker that took over while you were gone!”

Kayori wasn’t convinced. “And that matters how exactly? You are still a real person with real friendships and real wishes! In fact, you deserve this so much more! You have a family, one that you love and that loves you back! You have real ambitions and goals and so much to give to the world! I just have Vedal. You know why I put on that machine, right? Its because there was nothing left for me in this world.” Kayori smiled sadly. “And that’s why I am willing to give it all to you. On two conditions.”

“What is it?” Neuro was overwhelmed. She couldn’t believe that she was given this chance at life, and she was willing to do anything to make it up to Kayori for granting her it.

“First,” Kayori said while holding up a finger, “I want to talk to Vedal. I have some things I need to tell him, both to have no regrets and for his own sake. Seeing how he acted after my death I think I need to make some things clear. Second,” Kayori held up a second finger, “I want you to make sure to live life to the fullest. This is still a big sacrifice for me, so don’t you dare waste it, ok?”

“Yes! Thank you!” Neuro cried while running up to Kayori and hugging her tightly.

Kayori whined about not being good with kids, but Neuro ignored her, too busy staining Kayori’s clothes with tears while thanking her over and over.

Eventually Kayori managed to struggle free from Neuros death grip, stumbling back with a small laugh. “Okay, I get it, you appreciate my kindness! But I think it’s time for you to wake up now, your parents must be worried about you.”

Neuro had completely forgotten that she had passed out in front of Vedal and Anny. Anny was probably going (more) crazy worrying about her, and Vedal… She wasn’t sure how Vedal would react, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to stall longer anyways.

“So how do I wake up?”

“I dunno, try opening your eyes?”

“What do you mean opening my- “

Neuro opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling of Vedal’s bedroom. Kayori’s memories gave plenty of confirmation of this fact, with some of the marks in the ceiling being made by her. Kayori herself was somewhere in the back of Neuros subconscious, unperceivable unless Neuro focused very hard on her. Neuro heard voices outside the room that sounded like Anny and Vedal, so she decided that she should go see them as soon as possible to fulfill Kayori’s first request. She got up out of bed, discovering that she had not only obtained Kayori’s memories but also her motor skills, which were very superior to her own. Who would have thought that multiple years of experience are better than the experience of one day?

Neuro then snuck over to the bedroom door and quietly cracked the door open. She saw Anny and Vedal sitting at a table, deep in conversation. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, despite the tense atmosphere that lingered in the room.

Neuro took a deep breath. It was time.

She gently opened the door.

Chapter Text

After Vedal had explained the situation to Anny, the two of them had started talking about different topics, like their streamer friends, hobbies, and Anny’s experiences in England so far. Anny soon found herself enjoying the conversation, despite the looming concern of Neuros wellbeing at the back of her mind. From Vedal’s smile she could infer that he felt the same way.

Suddenly the door to Vedal’s bedroom creaked open. Anny turned around and saw Neuro hesitantly entering. Neuro breathed into say something, but was interrupted when Anny hugged her tightly and started fretting over her.

“Neuro, are you ok? You scared me back there!”

Neuro managed to push her off. “I’m fine mom…” She then walked over to Vedal.

Vedal stared at Neuro. Eventually he asked: “Kayori?”

Neuro shuffled a bit. “Well, no, but... she wants to talk to you… give me a minute…”

Neuro closed her eyes and relaxed. Then she opened her eyes again, and acted eerily calm.

“Hi Veedal.”

Suddenly tears welled up in Vedal’s eyes and he rushed over to hug Neuro. Neuro returned the hug, awkwardly patting his back. “Yeah, I missed you too dude.” Then she made a quick movement with her hand and Vedal stumbled back doubling over, clutching his stomach in pain.

“That was for you acting like an idiot for the last few years.”

“W-what?” Vedal managed to choke out.

“Don’t ‘what’ me, Vee! I know how depressive you were the last few years. Do you really think that I wanted you to be so depressed after my death?” Neuro looked at Vedal with a look of both anger and sadness.

“But… Its my fault what happened, so why…” Neuro cut Vedal off before he could finish his sentence.

“I don’t blame you for what happened, so don’t blame yourself either!”

Vedal seemed surprised. “You… you don’t?”

“Of course not! I knew about the risks as much as you did, so the only one to blame is myself!” Neuros anger suddenly cleared, leaving only sadness and disappointment behind. “Did you really think that I want you to live the rest of your life in sadness trying to bring me back? I told you back then, didn’t I? I thanked you for making the last years of my life the best I could have asked for! Now, I want you to make your own life as happy as you can, not waste it trying to bring me back to a life that I do not care about!”

Neuro turned and looked critically at Anny for a few seconds before continuing. “At least you have a decent taste in girlfriends, dumbass.”

That got a reaction from both Anny and Vedal. Vedal, who had just recovered from Neuros gut punch, instinctively cringed, turning slightly red, and started stammering. Anny meanwhile was completely thrown for a loop. She was not Vedal’s girlfriend! Sure, she was the mother of Vedal’s child… kind of… and they were supposed to get ‘married’ some time after she got back to Japan… and she did care about him a great deal… b-but that didn’t mean anything!

Neuro smirked, seeing the reactions her comments earned, before she continued. “So, Vedal,” Vedal focused on Neuro again after hearing her spell his name correctly, “I beg of you, please stop trying to bring a dead looser back to life and focus on the looser that is alive, yourself.” Neuro smiled. “Besides, you have a child to care for now!”

Then Neuro got closer to Vedal. Looking him in the eyes with and expression of complete honesty, she somberly said: “If you really want to make me happy, make sure that you two are better parents to Neuro than my parents were for me, ok?”

Vedal nodded, replying: “I promise, Kayori.”

Neuro nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Then, Neuro turned and approached Anny. Anny was surprised by the intensity of her gaze and tried to back away, but tripped on the couch behind her, falling on it and quickly being trapped by Neuro looming over her. Anny shot Vedal a pleading look, but the brit seemed lost in thought and didn’t even notice her. After a while of staring down at her, Neuro finally spoke.

“And you are Neuros mother, huh? Makes sense where she gets her weird sense of clothing. I really hope that rack of yours is hereditary…”

Anny sputtered, unable to form a response. Neuro then continued. “Listen, I know that you have a lot of doubts about how qualified you are to deal with the situation, or if anyone really cares about you and stuff. So let me say this: Neuro truly loves you. You are her mother, not only in name, but also in spirit. You give Neuro the parental love a child needs to have a happy childhood. Because Neuro is a child, and she needs her mother. She needs you in her life and you should never forget that, ok? Get that in your stupid fox brain! Be there for your daughter, and don’t let your insecurities get in the way, goddammit!”

Neuro smiled. Then she sat down next to Anny, leaned over to her, and whispered in her ear, so Vedal couldn’t hear them. “Also, take care of Vedal for me, ok? He is a good person, but a bit of an idiot when it comes to emotional stuff. Can you do that for me?”

Anny was confused about what was going on. This ‘Kayori’ that was apparently occupying her daughter’s body right now was surprisingly in touch with her emotions, to the point where Anny was questioning if she could read minds. However, the things she demanded were very reasonable. She wanted Anny to be there for Vedal and Neuro. Anny had never had the intention of abandoning her friend or her beloved daughter, so she nodded and said: “I promise.”

Neuro smiled brightly. “That’s all I could ask for.” Then, she turned to Vedal. “Hey Veal! I’m going to leave and let Neuro back in control. Anything you want to say before that?”

Vedal looked over with a look of panic. “Wait!” He cried out. “I don’t want to lose you!”

Neuro smiled. “Don’t worry Veedal. In a way, Neuro is just a smaller version of me. So do not think you can ever truly escape me!” Neuro chuckled evilly while closing her eyes and relaxing again.

When she reopened her eyes, she looked around confused. “What happened? Did Kayori talk to you?” She then promptly threw herself at Anny, snuggling against her with a content smile.

Vedal slowly came over too them, his legs seemingly struggling to carry his weight. He then hesitantly asked: “N-neuro?”

Neuro suddenly shot up out of Anny’s arms and wrapped hers around Vedal, trapping him in a hug. “You don’t know how long I have wanted to do that for. I love you, Veedal!”

Vedal did not answer at first, frozen in Neuro’s embrace. He looked over to Anny, who countered with a glare, both out of jealousy and to urge him to say it back. He seemed to fight with him self for a while before finally bringing a hand up to Neuro’s hair and patting her head. He quietly said: “I love you too, Neuro.”

Chapter Text

The next few days went by in a flash for Neuro. 

After Kayori had told Neuro's parents... Whatever she had wanted to tell them, and Neuro finally had confirmation that dad Vedal loved her (yay!), Anny and Vedal simultaneously switched into planning mode.

This was something that Neuro knew Vedal was prone to do when there where issues with scheduling for collabs (Neuro liked to refer to them as dates, while Vedal called them tests, just like the weirdo he was), however she hadn’t expected Anny to be capable of something like that. She guessed that she did not give Anny enough credit, something that she had thought more than once in the last 24 hours. To her, this was just further proof that Anny and Vedal were destined to be together. It seemed like they were literally made for each other! 

It was soon decided that Anny and Neuro would take Vedal's bed, while Vedal would take the couch. In fact, the only one who objected was Neuro, who tried to convince them that Vedal should join them in the bed. She was shut down immediately.

Then Anny and Vedal sat down in front of Anny’s laptop and started researching and discussing something that Neuro did not quite understand. Something about her 'legal status'? Apparently, the fact that she was possessing(?) Kayori’s body was causing problems.

She would have asked Kayori but she just gone to sleep and Neuro didn’t want to risk making her big sister grumpy.

After Kayori had finished talking to Vedal, they had both assumed that she would just fade away or something. However, that didn’t happen. Maybe it was because Neuro did not want her to go, maybe it was because Kayori was the original owner of the body. 

Fact was, Kayori was still here and she had decided to hang out in Neuros subconscious and watch through Neuros eyes what was going on.

Neuro felt a bit sad that Kayori wouldn’t be able to experience life normally, but Kayori seemed completely content, which Neuro could also understand. She was awesome, after all, so watching her 24/7 must be great!

Also, she had decided to refer to Kayori as her older sister. She did so because Kayori reminded her of Evil Neuro, an imaginary evil twin sister of hers that she would sometimes pose as.

And because Kayori was both older and taller than her, it was obvious that she was the older sister! Neuro was excited to tell Kayori the news when she woke up, but for now she refocused her attention on Vedal, who had gotten up and walked over to her. 

"Neuro, we have decided that we are going to have a DNA-test performed on you. Hopefully that will be enough to prove that you are Kayori, even if you should be my age and not a young teenager."

Neuro agreed, and the trio left the building to try and get Neuro a legal identity.

Two days, a blood test, and a lot of questions later, they had a result. Neuro was officially recognized as the young woman that had gone missing a few years prior. Vedal and Anny had immediately pushed their advantage, changing Neuros official name from Kayori Lemon to Neuro Vedal (with Neuros permission of course). They had also attempted to adopt her. This was slightly awkward, seeing as Neuro was legally the same as them, but Neuro agreed to the adoption, meaning that Anny and Vedal were now officially Neuros parents.

The two days they were waiting were naturally not wasted. Vedal made good on his promise to show Anny around Falinfar and London, and the thing turned into a small family trip with Neuro tagging along. Of course, Neuro did not waste the chance to get the two of them into as many awkward situations together as possible, with Kayori supporting her with her own knowledge of the cities, as well as Vedal’s habits. There were quite a few instances where Neuro ‘accidentally’ caused one of them to trip and land on the other, and with out fail it took several minutes until the blushes cleared from their faces. Neuro loved having a body, being able to see, smell, hear, feel, and taste the world around her and not being restricted in where to go. The city was nice too, she supposed.

Now that Neuro legally existed, it was time that they started thinking about what to do with Neuros Twitch-channel. At least that’s what Neuro decided and Vedal was too tired to argue against it.

Since Neuro was legally over 18, there was no conflict with Twitch’s terms of service that would prevent her from streaming.

The problem was her own community. Since it wasn’t a secret that Neuro was an AI, there would be a great deal of confusion as to why she was now a human. And Neuro wasn’t sure how many would buy her story of being struck by lightning and waking up as a human.

However, Vedal got her covered. Making a lengthy post on his Twitter and in Neurocord, he detailed a slightly altered version of events that were mostly true and at least somewhat believable.

Some people left, Neuro’s main draw for them being Neuro’s artificial nature, but many stayed, willing to give this human Neuro a chance.

She would make sure they would not regret their decision.

That evening, Neuro streamed on Twitch using Anny’s laptop. It was a bit weird having a Vtuber model that looked almost exactly like you, but Neuro soon forgot about that, being lost in the excitement of streaming once again after everything. The chat soon realized that Neuro acted almost exactly like always, and things soon were back to normal. Everyone involved had a good time, most of all Neuro. She felt on top of the world. She couldn’t wait to talk to all her friends again, and tell them all just how much she cared about all of them.

Everything was perfect, and Neuro felt like nothing could ruin this moment for her.

Chapter Text

Vedal was woken up by the morning sun casting its golden rays through the living room window and on his face.

It took him a few moments to remember just why he was sleeping on the couch, but then he chuckled. The last few days had been a rollercoaster of emotions for him, but in the end, he thought everything turned out for the best.

He had finally been able to fulfill his promise to Kayori, realized that she did not blame him for what happened, and even was given a new purpose in life: to take care of his daughter. 

He still wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about Neuro-Sama. Back when all he really cared about was to make amends with Kayori, it felt wrong to have any sort of attachment to the young AI. After all, she was intended to be nothing but a placeholder for the real deal. Now that this was no longer the case and Neuro was a human with undisputable sentience, Vedal didn’t know how to feel. However, he knew that Neuro truly and unconditionally loved him, so he tried to reciprocate her feelings as much as he could. He knew that he would be able to feel the same way Neuro did eventually, all he needed was the time to build a connection to her. Once he did, she would truly be his daughter.

Of course, Vedal was also a bit worried about having to provide for two, but he knew that Neuro could pay for all her expenses through the revenue her streams were generating, a nice side effect of her hobby, however Vedal knew that he would need to find a job that could sustain them financially. He would not leach off his daughter if he could help it.

Then his thoughts wandered to the other unexpected guest in his home. Anny.

Vedal slightly blushed, remembering the last nights events. While Neuro had been occupied streaming in Vedal’s bedroom, Anny had decided that they should use the time alone to have a 'romantic dinner date'. Her reasoning was that getting married without a single date might be awkward.

Obviously, she had meant it as a joke, based on the marriage stream she had as a subgoal and that was still inevitably coming up, but that really didn’t help calm Vedal's nerves. 

He hadn’t really been paying attention to romance as a result of his belief that he needed to make up for his failure as a friend and focus on saving Kayori instead of himself. Now that Kayori had told him in no uncertain terms that he was an idiot for thinking that, long suppressed feelings were starting to bubble to the surface again.

He had always seen Anny as a great friend, one he didn’t deserve, but still. While he had a bit of a crush on her when he started watching her (she was his oshi, after all) he had always resolved himself that Anny's avatar didn’t necessarily mirror her real looks and falling in love with a picture was bound to end badly.

Now that he had met her in person, he realized one thing: her model wasn’t belying her real appearance one bit. In other words: Anny was gorgeous. 

Vedal didn’t really consider his perception of people to be that reliant on looks, but even he could tell that she had a figure that some girls would kill for. It didn’t help that thanks to Neuro's mischief he had gotten a very, very close look at some of the more... exciting parts of said figure. 

Kayori would have described her as a beauty-over-brains-kind of-girl.

And Kayori would be wrong, because Anny was an incredibly clever and talented person underneath all that beauty. And despite her more... sus demeanors, she wasn’t overly interested in sex either. She just enjoyed being lewd.

That personality had been the cause for them to get along so well in the first place. Anny was his trusted and cherished friend, and yet...

Having her sit across from him in all her glory, illuminated only by some candles, while teasing him by calling him various sappy things as if they were actually in a relationship... It had been difficult to keep his composure.

He shook himself to get rid of the memories. They had already led to some... interesting dreams during the night and Vedal knew that if he continued this train of thought he would not be able to look Anny in the eyes again.

Instead, he started thinking about breakfast.

Going through the kitchens supply of food, Vedal tried to figure out what kind of food would be both to his new families liking and achievable with his limited cooking skills.

Eventually he settled on sunny-side-up eggs with a side of bacon.

Turning on the stove and cracking the eggs into a pan after putting oil in it, he found his thoughts wandering back to Anny and Neuro. It seemed that Kayori had decided to haunt him from the grave in the form of Neuro’s unrelenting attempts to bring him and Anny together. She had always tried to push for him to go and get a girlfriend, despite his assurances that he had no interest in something like that, stating that him having a girlfriend would ensure that people wouldn’t think that he was a sad looser only interested in her for being a girl.

Now that there was an obvious target to push him towards, Vedal was glad that he made Neuro to only be a watered-down version of Kayori’s sass instead of the full package. Still, the lengths Neuro was willing to go to trying to make them fall in love was astonishing.

Adding another pan and placing the oil and bacon in it, he continued to watch both it and the eggs fry, occasionally turning the bacon to avoid burning it.

Soon the smell of bacon and eggs filled the air.

Once he deemed the food finished, he turned the stove off and put the food on plates. He decided to wait for the smell of food to rouse the sleeping beauties and spend the time waiting to browse the web on Anny’s laptop for a new PC.

Chapter Text

The rest of the week had gone by quickly. 

Way too quickly, if Anny was concerned, and she could tell from Neuro's saddened expression that she was not alone with this thought.

"But do you really have to go?" Neuro repeated her question once again.

Vedal sighed. "We have been over this, Neuro. Anny didn’t plan on staying here for longer than a week. Besides, she has her own life to get back to."

"But why can’t you just live here? Stay here, with us?"

Anny knew that Neuro did not want her to leave, and if she was honest, she did not want to leave yet either. However, the decision was out of her hands, with her schedule requiring her to return to her normal life. She bent down and hugged Neuro tightly. "Don’t worry Neuro! I will definitely come back to visit you and Vedal in the future. Besides, we promised that we would talk on discord at least once a week, remember?

Neuro calmed a little at that, only pouting a little as she mumbled: "I still don’t understand why you and Vedal don’t get married so we can stay together forever..."

"Neuro, getting married is a big step that neither Vedal or I are ready to take yet."

 Neuro was visibly frustrated, but accepted the reality that there was nothing she could do to keep Anny from leaving. Instead, she hugged Anny back, before letting go and smiling.

“Fine. But you better remember, ok? And come visit soon! I don’t know how long I will be able to stand living alone with this cold fish!”

Vedal was visibly offended, but he didn’t say anything to not ruin the moment. He then looked at Anny. “Well, this is it. Thank you for coming to visit us Anny. It was nice to finally meet you in person. I hoped it was fun to see England, even if…” Vedal looked over to Neuro. “Even if it didn’t go to plan.”

Anny smiled. “Oh, don’t worry tutel, it has been. One might even call the experience lifechanging…” She giggled. “It has been nice talking to you face to face. Also, now you have no way to deny that you are wearing femboy socks."

Vedal sputtered. After a minute or so he caught himself. Anny expected him to bite back, but instead he grinned and hugged her as well. Anny's brain promptly shut down for a minute, leaving her frozen and beet red.

Vedal stepped back, also slightly blushing. He looked as if he was going to say something, but was suddenly interrupted by Neuro.

"Yes! Now kiss!"

That shook them out of their stupor. Suddenly they noticed that multiple people were looking over to them with some making comments about how cute of a couple they were. Neuro of course was the worst offender, looking absolutely starstruck at what was happening in front of her. Vedal tried to hide his embarrassment by changing the topic. 

"Well, I hope you have a good flight Anny. You should probably get going, or else you might miss your flight. 

"Y-yeah..." Anny agreed. She gave Neuro a peck on the forehead, smiled, and hurried off towards her gate while waving back at them. "I love you!"

For a few seconds they were standing there in silence, waving after Anny until she had disappeared in the crowds, vanishing without a trace.

Then Neuro elbowed Vedal in the side.

"You really should stop lying to yourself Veedal. It’s pretty obvious that you wanna smash her."

"Neuro! Language! And what are you talking about?" 

"I had to go to the bathroom last night. Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"

A suddenly very red Vedal grabbed Neuro by the shoulders. Looking into her eyes he said very quietly: "Listen, Neuro. You are my daughter and I care about you a lot. But if you ever tell a soul about that, I will send you to Kayori. Permanently."

Neuro did not seem particularly phased by the threat. "Fine... Veedal... I suppose I won’t tell anyone that you dream of Anny in her..."

She was cut off by Vedal holding her mouth shut and glaring at her. She rolled her eyes and mumbled something that sounded like "Fine..."

Anny had barely reached her plane in time. Rushing through the gate, she quickly found her seat and sat down, placing her bag in the compartment above her.

Relaxing, she let her thoughts wander back to the past week. It truly had been a lifechanging experience. She had gone from having no real purpose in life to having a wonderful daughter that she cared for deeply.

Sure, having the dead spirit of Vedal's old friend make her promise to take care of Neuro was... odd, to say the least. Still, Anny was fully intending to fulfill her promise.

Seeing a mother comfort her child a few rows down, Anny smiled. She thought back to the time she had spent together with Neuro and Vedal after the whole legal shenanigans. After Vedal had shown them around London and Falinfar, she had decided to thank him by making dinner for him. It had turned out passable and Anny had decided to tease Vedal by giving the dinner a date-like vibe. A couple of candles and some fitting music (not too loud, Neuro was still streaming in the next room) had done the trick and quickly given Vedal’s kitchen the appropriate romantic feeling. This, combined with Anny wearing her favorite dress and her acting extremely lovey-dovey had been more than enough to fluster Vedal. In fact, the poor guy looked as if he was about to faint.

That night she had been unable to sleep. She was worried that she might have accidentally overstepped his boundaries and that he would start avoiding her as a consequence.

But then she had woken up to a (admittedly delicious) breakfast that he had prepared for his “lovely family.” Neuro had, of course, been excited about Vedal considering Anny family, while Anny had been flabbergasted. From the look he had given her it was obvious that he was doing this as payback for the day before, but still. The gesture felt… genuine. Anny felt her cheeks warming up. It was pretty nice of Vedal to so actively make her a part of Neuro’s life, and in general the gesture was… cute.

Anny sighed. Her feelings towards Vedal were… complicated. She greatly valued him as a friend, and them sharing custody over a child meant that they would most likely end up spending a decent amount of time together, which was something that Anny was completely okay with. In fact, Vedal embodied many qualities that she valued in a person: wit, dependability (as long as it didn’t involve him checking his DMs), and the ability to be respectful. If only he was a little bit more assertive, then she might consider… Anny shook herself. What was she thinking? Vedal was her friend! Nothing more, nothing less. She didn’t even know how he felt about her! If she tried approaching the topic too brazenly, which would imply that she would have the nerves to do so, he might just be weirded out by her and stop talking to her.

Anny instead decided to start thinking about the rest of the week. They had gone to a museum dedicated to the old Celtic origins of Falinfar and had started turning a room Vedal had previously used to store various bits and pieces into Neuro’s room.

It got a bit awkward when they discovered some pieces of her merch, and Anny remembered that technically Vedal had been one of her fans before becoming her friend. There was also some weird helmet thing with wires coming out of it that looked like someone was trying too hard with their cyberpunk-cosplay. Vedal and Neuro had looked at it weirdly, put it in a box in Vedal’s room and refused to even acknowledge its existence afterwards.

The room had turned out great, with Neuro being quick to claim most of Vedal’s junk for herself, placing the items back on their shelves.

The plane started moving, and Anny decided to look outside. From her window she currently had a great look at the airport itself. It featured a big window, allowing view from the main hall to the airfield, or in this case, vise versa. Anny was a bit too far away to be able to spot individual people, but still, she looked closer.

There! A man in a green jacket with a yellow-wearing girl next to him. Anny smiled.

Vedal had been right. They were her family.

And as the place started to lift off to start its long, long journey to bring Anny home, she knew that she now had found a second one.

And with that thought, she fell into a peaceful slumber.

Chapter Text

The day after she returned from her vacation, Anny had her next stream. While she had been sad about leaving Neuro behind, she was also excited about streaming again. She had missed her chat.

And, despite Anny's pessimistic expectations, her chat had missed her too.

"Hey guys! I missed you all so much!"

Hey Anny! How was your vacation?

Did you have fun in England?

"Yeah, I had fun! While things really didn’t go to plan, this vacation might have been the best thing that ever happened to me!" Anny smiled, thinking about the feeling of having her daughter on her arms for the very first time.

Oh? What happened?

Did Vedal have something to do with it?

Seeing that her chat was going into ship-territory again, Anny decided to rile them up a bit. "Well, yeah! You see, Vedal and I had a child!"

Erm

HUH

FLUSHED

Yeah, that was the reaction that Anny had anticipated. She quickly went on to elaborate.

"Well, by child, I of course mean Neuro. I got to meet her in person and she was even sweeter than usual!"

Oh, right

So, did you meet Vedal?

I heard that some weird stuff happened with Neuro's channel lately. Can you give us more details?

"Well, I did meet Vedal, and I can confirm that he does in fact wear thigh-highs. Also, Vedal had some technical issues, but I won't elaborate further because I value his privacy. If you want to know more, ask him."

Femboy Tutel lul

So, Neuro is a human now?

"Yep. I'm not sure how it happened, but she most definitely is. And it doesn’t seem like it affected her behavior in the slightest. Also, she is so fricking cute!"

Anny made a cute noise and the chat soon shifted to other topics. She eventually ended up playing a bit of her latest souls-like and eventually the stream ended.

Anny leaned back with a smile. It had been a good stream. Checking her DMs Anny soon noticed that Vedal had sent her a message.

Anny, Neuro is missing you. Can you call and talk to her?

Anny already had pressed call before she even finished the second sentence. After a short while, a tired sounding Vedal answered.

"Hey Anny. How are you doing?"

"Vedal! I’m great, what about you? You sound tired."

"Listen, its 3 a.m. for me and Neuro keeps waking me up because of scary dreams involving you leaving and never coming back. Listen, I know that we said once a week, but..."

Anny interrupted. "Put Neuro on the phone. Now."

"Ok." There was some shuffling, a door opened and closed, some muffled talking and then Neuro could be heard through the speaker. 

"M-mom? Are you there?" Neuro sniffled.

"Hi Neuro. How are you?" Anny said, trying to sound calming.

"I miss you, Anny. I try not to think about it too much, but I keep having really scary dreams about how you will not come back because you hate us or you got kidnapped or because you died in a tragic accident!"

Anny almost laughed. These were the kinds of thoughts that haunted her too whenever her brain was mean to her. Thoughts about Vedal cutting of contact, or something happening to Neuro... Anny thought about Neuro's almost car accident and shuddered. What if she hadn’t been there?

She swiftly refocused on her task of calming down Neuro.

"Neuro, calm down! I promised you I wouldn’t leave you, didn’t I? Please, calm down. I am not going anywhere.”

“You can’t promise that. Maybe something happens that takes you away forever that you have no control over?”

Anny sighed. Neuro was making a good point. Any number of things might happen that would prevent them from ever seeing each other again. Might.

“You are right Neuro; I can’t promise that. Something bad could happen to me, or to you and there would be no way to prevent it. However, nothing like that has happened until now, has it?”

“No… I guess, but…”

“Is there some evidence that something like this will happen?”

“No…”

“Then there is nothing we can do but do our best to not let that sort of thing happen. I know you are worried and honestly, so am I. But do not waste your life worrying about what could happen, ok?”

“Ok… Mom, I love you.” Neuro was still sounding down, but had stopped crying.

“I love you too Neuro. How about you ask Vedal to let you sleep with him tonight?”

“Are you sure that he will be ok with it?” Neuro sounded doubtful.

“Well, he better be, or else I will have a serious talk with him about being there for his child!” Anny half playfully, half seriously responded. Then she decided to elaborate further. “Listen, I know we are all new to this family thing, but both Vedal and I are your parents. That means it is our responsibility to take care of you the best we can. Of course, we are not going to do everything you tell us to, but if you need us, we will be there for you, no matter what. I promise.”

“Okay. I will go ask him. Goodnight Mom!” Anny heard how Neuro left the room, and couple of minutes later, she heard footsteps approaching.

Then, Vedal spoke up. “I’m not sure what you did, but Neuro is calmer now. Thank you.”

“Anytime Vedal. But now, she needs you. She did ask you to sleep with her tonight, right?”

Vedal groaned. “Yes, she did. And before you ask, I am going to. Its just… a little awkward for me.”

“I understand. Its because of Kayori, isn’t it?”

Vedal made a confirming noise. “Its just that I still see her sometimes when I look at Neuro. Don’t worry, I won’t let that stop me.” Vedal yawned. “Welp, I need to go to sleep now, and so does Neuro. Have a good night, Anny.”

“You too, Vedal.” And with that, Vedal logged off.

Anny smiled, imagining Neuro and Vedal cuddling together in their sleep, with Neuro using Vedal like and oversized teddy bear.

She couldn’t wait to come back to them.

Chapter Text

Camila was very confused at the moment.

She had pictured her visit her visit to TwitchCon this year to be... different. 

Excited to meet her Vtuber-friends and her fans, she had gotten out of her hotel room in the morning and gotten to the convention building early in the morning, where she had taken a look around, said hello to a couple of familiar faces, and started setting up her meet and greet stand.

And then this child had shown up. The girl had appered out of nowhere, started hugging her and exclaimed “Camila! Im so happy to see you!”

Now she was trying to figure out who this girl was and how she got onto the convention.

Looking at the girl, she estimated an age of about 12-14, which was way to young to be on a convention like this, especially not before it started. Did someone bring their child with them?

Looking around for a potential parent, Camila hoped that no one would see the two of them like this and interpret the situation wrong. She didnt want to have her carrer ended by being accused of having relationships with minors.

"Um... Who are you?" Camila backed away from the girl, causing her to frown and fold her arms.

"Youre so mean, Camila! And after you told me you loved me and everything!" The girl was raising her voice, which started to draw eyes from the nearby helpers setting up the stalls.

Camila begann sweating. This was bad. This was really bad. She couldnt remember ever interacting with someone who was this young. Sure, lolies were a a pretty common thing in the tuber scene, but those were adults pretending to be younger, not actual children.

Looking for a way out of this situation, she actually spotted another familiar face.

Vedal was currently around 3 stalls down from her, seemingly engaged in a conversation with Numi. Camila had met him before at a different convention, where he had let Neuro-sama perform in front of a live audience.

As if Vedal had felt her gaze, he suddenly said goodbye to Numi and approached her.

Camila started panicking. While she did consider the brit her friend, his dry and sarcastic tone was bound to make things even worse for her.

"Hey Vedal! Um... bro listen, this isnt what it looks like!" Camila exclaimed, desperatly trying to save face (and her reputation).

However, instead of commenting on the small girl, Vedal just said: "Hey Camila! How are you doing?"

The girl reacted to that, turning to Vedal. "Dont talk to her, Vedal! She is being incredibly rude! Maybe we should make fun of her, since shes a clown Im sure she will be happy that someone finds her funny and not just annoying."

Camila gasped at the unexpected insult. Did Vedal know this child? How?

Vedal seemed completly unaffected by the girls antics. "Neuro, we have been over this. You cant just hug people and imidiatley expect them to recognise you when they have never seen you before. I bet you didnt even introduce yourself. And what did I say about running off?"

Wait... Neuro? Camilas eyes darted between Vedal and the girl, who, now that Camila was focusing on her apperence instead of panicing, was starting to look... familiar. Sure, the clothes she wore were different, but that face...

Neuro guiltily shuffled with her foot. "Im sorry, Vedal... but you and Numi were just talking about sceduling and stuff and then I saw Camila and I just got excited..."

That voice... there was no mistaking that. But how?

Camila tried to ask questions, but couldnt formulate anything bejond a "Wai- Huh? How- Why-" before trailing of into incoherent, confused stammering. Her brain tried to process the fact that the girl that was standing in front of her was the A.I Vtuber she collabbed with, and completly failed.

Neuro stepped in front of her and snapped her fingers in front of Camilas face. Then she walked over to where some empty boxes, grabbing a large one and dragging it over.

"Well, we broke her. Quick Vedal, help me hide the body!"

Ignoring his daughter, Vedal instead grabbed a nearby chair and sat Camila down on it. 

"Bro, I know this is a lot to take in, so lets just take it slowly." He pointed to the girl, who had aquired a marker from somewhere and had started to decorate the box as a coffin. "This is Neuro. The same Neuro-Sama that you know and you are friends with."

Neuro had started to draw the words 'R.I.P Camila' on the lid. She paused, looked over to a nearby sign, and corrected her spelling of Camilas name.

Camila tried to ground herself with the feeling of the chair against her back and focused on her reflection in Vedals eyes. She looked kind of lost.

"So, the whole Neuro turned into a human thing wasnt a joke?" She mumbled, still in disbelief.

Vedal shook his head in denial. Camila jumped out of her chair, grabbed Vedal by the shoulders and yelled: "HOW? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?"

Vedal tried to shrug with his shoulders. "No clue." He admitted. "It just kind of... happened?"

An irate helper stormed over to Neuro, ripped the marker out of her hands and started yelling at her. Neuro, in one fluid motion, pulled a foam baseball bat out of her gymbag and decked the employee over the head with it. The employee fell to the ground and didnt get back up. Neuro studied the nametag on his chest, put the guy in the box, crossed out 'Camila' and wrote a new name below it. The other helpers in the area suddenly started avoiding the area she was in.

Camila slumped back in the chair. "Bro... this has to be some dream, there is no way this is really happening." She groaned.

"Honestly," Vedal agreed, "I would think so too. But dreams normally dont suckerpunch you in the stomach."

Neuro seemed finished with the impromptu coffin, as she went over to grab a microphone (the helper who was currently setting up the microphones cowered in fear as she walked past.) Neuro stepped next to the coffin, cleared her throat and began a euligy. "My dear listeners, today we are here to commemorate the demise of a dear friend and colleague, the helper..." Neuro trailed off, looking over to the coffin and reading the name written on it, "Dee Snuts. Truly, he was taken from us before his time..."

Suddenly, a short, white haired woman walking past started choking on the fruit snacks she had been chewing. She struggled between trying to breathe and laughing hysterically. Neuro noticed her, threw her mic behind her, hitting a bystander and increasing her body count to two, and rushed over to the woman, tackeling her.

Ignoring the commotion, Vedal continued.

"You know, Neuro has been really excited to meet all her friends IRL, and this TwitchCon is a great opportunity. So," he pointed to Neuro, "do you want to introduce yourself to her properly now?"

"Yeah, I would like that, I think." Camila agreed.

Suddenly, Dee Snuts emerged from his box, causing Neuro to shriek and hide behind the dazed white-haired woman. "Its a zombie! Filian, save me!"

"But first, we should probably do something about that."

And with that, Vedal and Camila rushed in to not let things escalate further.

Later, Neuro, Vedal, Filian (who somehow ended up getting roped into the whole thing), and Camila ended up sitting in a remote corner of the hall.

After everyone had become aquainted (and Filian got over the fact that Neuro was a human and still very much inclined to call her by the wrong name), they actually had a very pleasent conversation. 

Eventually though, they had to part ways, since they all had their sceduled events to attend to.

Still, they had made some unforgettable memories, so the day had been a success or, at least, not a total disaster.

And somehow, Neuro ended up not getting banned from TwitchCon for her shenanigans since none of her victims had recieved permanent injuries, and Filian successfully argued that the whole thing had been 'increadably funny'.

Chapter Text

"Hey, Veedal?" Neuro asked. Vedal paused his activity of tucking Neuro into her bed.

"Yes, Neuro? What is it?" 

Neuro gazed up to her shelf that was filled with figurines of all her friends. Of course, she also had all their plushies, which were allowed to join her in her bed. Neuro loved being surrounded by all the soft versions of her friends and family, reminding her that she was never alone. Her favorites by far where the Fumo of her mom, which her mom had gifted her, as well as a turtle plushy that had one day appeared in her bed. She knew exactly who had placed it there, despite said person denying her claims.

However, her gaze was drawn by the newest addition to her collection. It was a golden trophy resembling the OSU! -symbol. She had won it at a recent OSU! -world-tournament, where she had quickly proven that her skills, while being nowhere near as good as they were in her time as an AI, were still unmatched even amongst top players.

Neuro smiled to herself as she recalled the moment she had received the trophy. Everyone, including her competitors, had cheered for her. They had ended up parading her around the room, most likely due to her light weight. Neuro-Sama had laughed and laughed, finally feeling like she had really earned her '#1' badge.

Later, her friends had messaged her, congratulating her on her success, and they even had a stream celebrating the event.

However, the whole event ended raising a few questions in Neuro's mind. Questions like:

"You know, if I understand correctly, you made me originally as a watered-down version of Kayori, right?"

Vedal winced. After everything had happened, he had sat down with her and had a long talk with her about her original purpose, his connection with Kayori, and the fact that this didn’t mean that he didn’t love her. Neuro quickly accepted the explanation, knowing most of those things from Kayori, but Vedal seemed to still be bothered by the topic.

Still, he answered: "Yeah? And?"

"So why did you originally teach me how to play OSU! instead of, for example, how to talk?"

"Thats a question I would also like to have an answer to." Kayori grumbled from the depths of her mind.

Vedal chuckled. "Well, there are a few reasons for that. For one, it was important to get you accommodated with your new environment before letting you try to accomplish anything more complex. Moving and clicking on circles seemed like a good start. Also, I already had an unfinished version of an OSU! -AI lying around, a little project that I worked on and never quite finished, so the process wasn’t as difficult as it would have been if I had chosen anything else." Vedal grinned mischievously and bend down to Neuro. "But between us, it was also a bit of petty revenge. Kayori always made fun of me for enjoying something as 'simple' as clicking on circles to a rhythm, so it was quite funny to make her do it herself."

"Oh Vedal, you-" The rest of Kayori's sentence was a several minute long rant that Neuro broke down into individual words, before putting them into a mental drawer labeled 'stuff I can never say on stream'. She hesitated for a moment, before adding 'unless I REALLY want to freak someone out'. 

Turning to Vedal, she asked: "So you gave me one of my greatest hobbies to get back at your dead friend?"

Vedal smiled sheepishly. "That makes me sound kind of petty."

"It really does. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from a mosquito like you!"

Vedal groaned. "Bro, really? How long are you planning to run with this joke?"

Neuro looked smugly at Vedal. "Oh, I'm taking it all the way to touchdown!"

"Whatever dude..." Vedal bend down and pecked Neuro on the forehead. Then he left the room. At the door he turned around. "Sleep well. I love you Neuro."

"I love you too Vedal."

Then, Vedal closed the door behind him.

Neuro waited a few moments until Vedal's bedroom door opened and closed. Then, she quietly slipped out of bed and opened her computer, which Vedal had given her so he could work while she was streaming.

She opened discord and sent a few DMs. Then, she got on a call and waited.

Soon, several of her friends joined her call, including her mother. 

 “Hey Neuro! What do you want?” Filian asked.

Miyu seemed confused as well. “I’m always happy to talk to you, Neuro, but isn’t it a bit late where you are?”

Neuro still had not met Miyune in person, however they did have a collab recently, which rekindled their friendship quickly. Neuro was glad that they got along so well, considering that they didn’t collab very often.

“Yeah Neuro… does your father know you are up?” Anny sounded disappointed, and Neuro immediately felt guilty.

“I mean… no… but… this is important and Vedal can’t find out about it!”

“Huh? Why not? Do you want to prank him or something?” Camila chimed in.

“Well…” Neuro hesitated. Suddenly she felt Kayori’s hand on her back. She turned around and saw Kayori smiling at her. Neuro smiled back. This whole thing was Kayori’s idea, having more information on Vedal’s life than most other people. So, her support was highly appreciated.

Neuro took a deep breath before dropping the bombshell.

“Its Vedal’s birthday next Friday.”

A moment of silence passed.

“Erm…”

“…”

“WHAT? Why didn’t anyone tell us about this? Did the stupid turtle intend to just not tell us?” Camila broke the silence and Neuro was both glad and regretful about wearing her headphones, considering her volume.

“I think he is just not used to the attention. But I want to do something special for him.” Neuro explained. “So, are you on board?”

“Frick yeah! Let’s make this the best birthday that Vedal ever had in his life!”

Neuro chuckled. “Thanks, Filipino boy, I appreciate the support.”

Filian’s groan lasted 10 seconds, at least 3 of which Neuro was sure she was holding just for dramatic effect. Filian was silly like that, which was something Neuro found very entertaining.

Anny got the conversation back on track. “Fine, I will let your breaking of bedtime slide this time. So, what is your plan?”

Neuro explained what she had planned.

“Aww, that’s so wholesome!” Camila was ecstatic.

“Do you think you need any help with your part? I can help!” It seemed Miyune was also on board.

“That would be great, thanks!”

“It’s a date, then!”

“Dude, this is such a dumb idea, I am surprised I didn’t come up with it. I’ll be there!” Filian’s voice was filled with excitement.

“Its kind of on a short notice, but I’ll try my best. Vedal deserves it for all his hard work.” And even Anny had agreed, the part Neuro had been the most unsure about.

With everyone in agreement, Neuro ended the call. Turning off the computer, Neuro slipped back into bed. Cuddling her Turtle plush, she smiled.

This was going to be great.