Chapter Text
It’s a beautiful day outside.
Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, 120mm main cannon of Centauro II tank destroyers are firing.
In a day like this, an adult like him, should be working his ass off in the office.
“……” But now, Sensei feels like he’d rather be burning in hell.
Why? Because there’s a hat on his coat hanger.
A comically LARGE white hat, with a piano black brim. So large that it takes up almost an entire coat hanger and shrouds what’s underneath.
The worst part is that he knows exactly who that fucking gigantuous hat belongs to. My fucking god, that’s a big hat.
“Good morning, Sensei.” Ah, speaking of whom.
A slender woman, draped in pristinely and perfectly #FFFFFF colored hair, sits on his ergonomic throne, hands on her knees.
The… distinctive garment that covered almost everything except for the important parts bear the same color scheme.
Not that the design matters since her body is also in a bleak white, with no discernible external body parts other than her feminine curves.
Her yellow irises resemble no natural colors such as ember or honey, but an artificially bright and almost sterile yellow.
Dead steady with zero micro-movements, the Xs representing the pupils find their target and dilate in an instant like camera lenses.
Sensei immediately sobers up from his morning grogginess in a millisecond. “Malkuth.” And he mutters the venerable name.
“How did you get in?”
“I landed on the heli-pad. And took the elevator.”
“When?”
“4 hours 13 minutes 44 seconds ago and counting. I believe you can generalize it as last night.”
“O… Okay?” Blinking a few times as he struggles to process the information, he lifts his eyebrow. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“……” Malkuth falls quiet. Her expression remains neutral, but her gaze droops down.
“I am low on power.” After several seconds of silence, she finally speaks again. “And my Meshrashs are damaged. Need a repair.”
“And... where are they now? You’ve got like, four of those, right?”
“That is correct. I left them on the heli-pad, for they have been completely out of commission. It was a hard landing.”
Sensei rubs away the remaining blur of his eyes to take a better look at the super android that gave him more than a run for his money.
And surely enough, there are spidering cracks on her “skin”, and small patches of torn fabrics on her “clothes.”
The dust on her dainty limbs and svelte body is exceptionally apparent, given her overall color scheme.
Oh, and her hair can definitely use a combing. Lots of combing, actually. Morning Arisu and Kei-chan level of combing.
“Couldn’t even reach Millennium?” Sensei asks, scratching his almost equally messy hair.
Malkuth robotically shakes her head. “But I am still mobile.” As if to demonstrate that, she stands up from his seat.
And man, she is tall. Taller than Tsukuyo, even. Perhaps the tallest student (if one can call her that) he’s seen so far.
Around 6 feet, maybe more? He guesstimates at a glance.
She does rock a pair of ridiculous stilts, though. What the hell were the trio thinking when they designed this body?
Nee-sama must have insanely tall high heels and an insanely LORGE hat!
Must be Aur, who was being sarcastic, but Ain took it seriously, and Soph got caught in the middle. He can totally picture the dialogue.
“Well, good for you.” Regardless, he replies, putting away the image of who's gone and never coming back.
Sensei gives the former Prophet a quick dust-down with his hands as he further examines Malkuth's condition.
It’s a good thing that she doesn’t sweat, which means whatever debris she has on her goes away easily.
Plus, he’s not entirely sure if the trio ever thinks of the possibility of their beloved Nee-sama needing a shower with a damaged body.
Is she even waterproof? She should be, right? Steel Continent was snowy, after all.
Meanwhile, Malkuth just lets him do his thing, standing perfectly still and unbothered like a mannequin.
“You have yet recovered.” She instead hovers her eye over to another thing.
“Yeah, uhm, I had my repairs already.” He scans the bandages on his arms; the latest and perhaps the worst injuries from the Arctic trip.
Other than his burned-out eyes that need a timeout from all thaumatic practices for the time being, at least.
“Recovery, on the other hand, takes a while. Such is life.” He brushes her off.
“……”
“Life of blood and flesh, I should add. And like I said, scars and sufferings build character.”
“…I don’t understand. Scars are scars, nothing else.”
“It’s a joke.” Sensei gestures to his seat after he’s happy with the initial cleanup. “You get it eventually.”
Malkuth follows suit and sits back on the comfy and supportive office chair of his.
She seems to like that chair. Maybe that’s why she picked it to wait for him to wake up? Cause it’s the most “optimal” of all?
“Coffee?” Nevertheless, Sensei asks as he walks towards the coffee machine that is just as overworked as himself.
But Malkuth glances around, and her emotionless face finally cracks and shows a slight confusion. “…?”
“Coffee.” He points to the machine with a finger while reaching for the mugs. “They come from more than just sentient vending machines.”
“They do?”
“Watch me.”
Technically, coffee is already in the pot, for he always prepares more than he needs every time he makes any.
So all he needs to do now is just heat it up, grab the condiments, and fill the mugs.
That’s exactly what he does. “Milk and sugar?”
Sensei offers his sudden visitor a couple of packs of sugar, a stir bar from the counter, and a box of milk from the fridge.
Malkuth takes it, stares at it for a short while. “……” Yellow eyes are scanning the foreign objects in her hands curiously.
And she opens them and pops them into her mouth. First, a pack of sugar, then-
“-Heyeyeyeyeyey…” Resting the #2 Sensei mug on the desk next to her, Sensei stops her in her tracks from making another mistake.
It only raises more questions for Malkuth, however. “???” And her head tilts to the side like a confused cub.
“You add these, in there.” He demonstrates with his #1 Sensei mug of coffee: add the condiments, and stir. “Simple enough.”
And as he does, the dark color of the liquid slowly brightens up to a light brown.
“…I’ve never seen this before.” She comments. Her eyes widen by a near-indistinguishable degree.
“There’re plenty of things you’ve never seen.” Sensei takes a sip before he continues. “Try it yourself.”
Slowly and meticulously, Malkuth pours the milk down from the stir bar, which is held up at the center of the mug.
Then, she moves the stir bar to the 12 o’clock position of the mug, and with an immaculate pace and consistency, gives it an 1800-degree spin.
Auburn imagines that if there is such a thing as a dedicated coffee-stirring robot, this is probably what it would do.
Malkuth takes the mug to her lips and takes a sip, ignoring the fact that it’s fresh out of the pot and is smoking hot.
Once again, her stoic expression is broken. “…It’s not as bitter.” Pleasantly surprised, she comments.
“You actually drank coffee before?”
“I try, every time I run into a vending machine.”
“And they just… pop a cup for you? With no coins inserted?”
“Sometimes.”
Sensei purses his lips; though he’s curious about why, he knows what kind of answers he’ll get out of a robot that just started her new life.
“Lucky.” He retrieves his #1 Sensei mug from the desk and sips along.
And as he does, silence continues to brew between them as they share their (mostly his) morning fuel.
It doesn’t last long, however; Malkuth just downs the whole mug without stopping. Not a cat tongue. Sensei notes in his head.
Much like he should also note to find a chance to inform the former doom machine before him that she has a staring issue.
“……” Yup, those yellow eyes are definitely glowing as they bore into him blankly.
Sensei curtly clears his throat between his coffee sips. “I’m not that interesting to look at, do I?”
Malkuth rests the #2 Sensei mug down on her laps. “I apologize.” Her gaze lowers a little, looking at his shorts instead.
“I’m not blaming you.” He lets out an airy chuckle. Are those sad puppy eyes I’m seeing?
“If you’re interested in something, you can just ask. Nicely, I may add.”
“Ask nicely…” Malkuth repeats as she blinks to process the new information. Her sad puppy eyes go away in real time.
And as they disappear completely, she stands back up on her (absurdly) high heels again, seemingly out of determination... for something.
“Mr. Auburn Sensei… sama?” The first sentence almost breaks Auburn’s slightly wavered composure. Just pick one, silly.
Still, he suppresses a laugh by taking another sip of his #1 Sensei coffee. “Go on…?”
And there, Malkuth asks, connecting her eyes with his. “Can you show me your heart?”
“Heart?” Another laugh out of the ridiculousness of the question is suppressed, no coffee sipped. “I don’t follow.”
“During my travel, I heard someone say that,” Malkuth pauses, evading eye contact briefly.
“That... the difference between a man and a robot lies in having a heart or not.”
“While that is true in a literal sense, I later found out that it was not what they meant.”
“The ‘heart’ in this context stands for something different. Something other than the organ human beings possess.”
“But…” A light frown surfaces on her face. “But I don’t know what that is.”
“Mm,” Sensei nods sagely. “So you think seeing a physical heart would help you to understand what this… philosophical heart is?”
“That is the current plan.” Malkuth closes the distance between her and Sensei down to less than an arm’s reach.
“Pretty please, Mr. Auburn Sensei-sama?”
“Well, it’s not like I can just rip it out for you to have a look-see…” With his mug, Auburn tries to shield his chest from her.
And oh, he also finds that Malkuth smells like a mix of sea salt and car exhaust, a bit smoky, even. That’s not from inside you, is it?
She points with her right index finger. “Just the outside.” More specifically, pass his mug and at the very center of his chest.
Auburn pauses for a full second. “Ohforfucksake…” Did she just tell him to strip?
There are only so few occasions where innocence can be so… difficult to deal with, and this is certainly one of them.
The last thing he wants is Malkuth poking a hole through his ribcage with her finger because she wants a physical examination or something.
That, or she wants to see what’s under his pants as well. For researching purposes.
“…?” But his mumbling filler only leads to the inquisitive android leaning closer.
And there, Auburn sees it. The absolute calm and unwavering look that hides nothing underneath, other than her curiosity.
Oh, what is he thinking?
It’s obvious that she means no harm, and certainly means no the kind of things dirty adults like him would think.
In other words, it’s a him issue. She doesn’t even have those holes to begin with!
“Fuck it,” Sensei rests the mug on the counter behind him, where the coffee machine resides. “I need to change anyway.”
The only layer of defense between his torso and the outside world (and now Malkuth) is a black sleeveless hoodie.
Made with soft and breathable material, it has worn out and therefore retired from his workout outfit roster and become indoor clothes instead.
Now, that piece of old and loose fabric has gone off his body, crumbled into a ball, and been chucked across the room and onto the couch.
“Oh.” Immediately, Malkuth gets handsy, pawing and poking all over his pecs, collar bones, and parts of his shoulders and deltoid.
Auburn goes Ærgh! and Öoh! to her touch; she’s gentle, sure, but her hands are cold at best.
Still, he tries his best not to wince and maintain a decent posture for now, a much more active and curious Prophet.
Who is busy testing the elasticity, resilience, and surface temperature of his skin in multiple body parts with her fingers.
“Having fun?” It takes a while to get used to, but he eventually does.
“Define fun.”
“…Nevermind. Got any interesting results?”
Malkuth doesn’t answer, but locates her target: between his pecs, a small area with little muscle, and underneath, a column of hardy bones.
“…...” She nurses her sleeved palm over it. “It’s warm.”
Sensei can feel her cold hand pressed against his sternum, even though there’s a layer of fabric between.
“Humans are warm-blooded.” And that pressure only increases after his words.
Inching her face closer and closer, Malkuth’s golden eyes narrow, black Xs fixating on where her right hand gives way.
It’s a good thing she doesn’t breathe; otherwise, Sensei would feel every single inhale and exhale in this distance.
“……” The tip of her nose grazes his chest. You don’t have X-ray vision, do you? He thinks, trying to breathe shallower.
All he can see from his perspective is her messy white hair, and it’s difficult to tell what’s going on under that dome.
And it’s definitely not helping when Malkuth, in all her wisdom, decides to hunch over further and put her ear onto him next.
“I like the sound it makes.” Before any retort can escape Sensei’s mouth, she says. “My power supply doesn’t do this.”
“Wowee,” The adult agrees absent-mindedly. “Probably a design oversight from our creator. Who knows.”
“Your creator? Who?”
“…Let’s not get into that for now.”
“Mm.” Malkuth hums airily and resumes enjoying the metronomic music of life from under his ribcage. “The BPM has increased.”
“Maybe it’s because it knows,” He holds on and cracks a half-joke. “There’s an avid listener out here since… forever.”
Malkuth pauses, bringing her gaze back up. Black Xs constrict to regain focus on his crisp silver eyes.
“You never let anyone listen to your heart?” And so she asks.
“Wellifyouputitlikethat-” Sensei recoils backward by several inches in defense.
Dealing with innocent questions that sound way too deep than they are supposed to be is far from his forte.
“Ugh, never mind…" He can only bet on Malkuth means it in a literal sense. "I keep that right for only a handful of people.”
“Including me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Oh.” If the trio gave Malkuth an ahoge, it’d be drooping down in sadness, much like what her expression is displaying.
With her sleeved hand, she gives his sternum a gentle petting. “Sorry for bothering, Heart.”
“……”
“What does it say?”
“It says apology accepted and a bit of heads-up next time.”
Feeling the end of another topic, Sensei lands his one hand on Malkuth’s shoulder and reaches for his coffee with another.
“There’s next time,” He gets back on his feet and lightly pushes back her for some space. “And when the next time comes, ask nicely.”
“……” Malkuth seems to accept that well. As well as a learning robot can be anyway; no more droopy eyes.
“Sensei.”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask your heart if I can listen to-”
“-It says it’s been too short to be ‘next time’, sorry.”
He finishes off the rest of his morning fuel; the temperature is just right after a small conversation, good.
“In the meantime,” Sensei picks up the #2 Sensei mug his guest left at the desk, and puts both mugs into the sink at the counter.
“Can you wait here for a minute- Actually, several minutes?” He corrects himself, in case she takes it in a literal sense again.
“Imma go get changed, then we fire up the heli, pick up your laser-thruster-thingys left on the roof, and- oh!”
“Gotta notify Himari and Rio for the repair.” A metaphorical light bulb pops up above his head.
“Aaaand, We’ll get you a phone and a Momotalk account. Try to come up with an ID yourself. Later!”