Corpse March

Chapter 65 Alter Ego Messiah

Letters make words, words make sentences, sentences make paragraphs, paragraphs fill pages, and pages fill up the tome. Number 3344 works dutifully, slowly but surely working through the book she’s been tasked to fill up. 

That is the purpose of the Papilio after all, to lend their minds as processors to the great Monarchian supercomputer complex, Nivosus. It is a purpose shared by the uncountable Papilio filling up this facility. They do not know better. None of them do. So they toil away, their minds working to the bone in the computational visual matrix.

Every paragraph, every sentence, every letter is another crumb of data in the great compendium that the Monarchs seek to fill with all knowledge in existence. Years pass in the blink of an eye for the Papilio. Seasons pass them by without being noticed. They all keep their eyes downwards, scribing everything being fed to them. Number 3344 is no different. Just another drop in the ocean. Just another body being kept in a tube. 

Then she hears a tapping on the glass. Her table, tome, and white room fade away into reality, the glass tube she calls a home. But something’s new today. She sees a little girl, no older than seven or eight pressing her hand against the glass.. 

“Who are you?” She asks a question Number 3344 can’t answer. 

“...”

“Where’s your mommy?”

“Mommy?” Her voice booms out from the tube’s speakers. Usually, they’re only used for reporting findings but she supposes there’s nothing wrong with speaking with this girl. “What is a mommy?”

“She takes care of you. Keeps you safe. She also gives you a name.” 

“I see.” Number 3344 tilts her head. “Are you my mommy?” 

“Nope! But I hope you find your mommy and daddy soon.” She twirls. “Everyone needs a mommy.” 

With that, the girl cheerfully skips away, leaving Number 3344 to stew in her questions. Days pass without her adding a word to her book. All she can do is think about what that girl said. Just where are her parents, exactly? 

“Everyone needs a mommy.” She repeats the girl’s words.

“Number 3344, report.” The lady in charge of this section of Papilio taps on the glass. Her armored hand crashes dangerously hard against the tube. “You haven’t updated your work in two days.”

“Are you my mother?”

“...Excuse me?” 

“Are you my mommy?” She repeats her question. “

“I did oversee the manufacturing of this section of the complex. So, in a certain philosophical way, the answer is yes, I am your mother.” 

“What’s a mother?”

“It’s the same as a mommy.” 

Gleam raises a hand and places it on the glass. “Will you give me a name?”

“A name…?” 

“Any name is fine.”

“Your name is Number 3344.”

“That’s a number, not a name.”

“It’s your name now.” The Monarch begins walking away. 

“Wait.”

“What is it?” 

Gleam lets her head loll forwards. “Will you take care of me?”

“I can’t.” 

“Why not?”

“You’re a Papilio. Your job is to process data.”

“But you’re my mommy. You’re supposed to take care of me.”

“Okay, fine, I take it back, I’m not your mother.”

“You’re not my mommy? You lied?”

“I didn’t lie, I’m just not your mother.”

“You lied to me.” Gleam’s tears mix with the fluid in the chamber. “You’re bad.”

“...alright. Fine. I’ll take care of you.”

“But you’re not my mommy.” 

“I take it back, I am your mommy.” 

“Yay.” 

“Now, let me take care of you…” The girl presses a few buttons on the side of the tube and the fluid begins to drain out. Gleam stumbles out of the tube, a little groggy since she’s never used her legs before. 

“Here, come with me.” The armored giant leads the way ponderously with Gleam following close behind. 

“I’m cold.”

“We’re almost there.” 

The two come to a halt at the mouth of a long, winding chute. 

“What’s thi–”

Before she can finish her sentence, the armored girl suddenly places her hand on her shoulder and pushes. Gleam tumbles down the dark chute, her body banging against the walls. Eventually, she comes to a sudden halt, her head landing on something soft. It takes her a second to realize that it’s ash. 

“Where… am I?” 

No sooner does she ask the question when she sees a plume of flame in the distance. Then another. And another. Eventually, all of the far wall is just fire. She doesn’t know much but she knows that fire is bad. Gleam tries to run but she trips on something. Looking down, she realizes that it’s a human skull. A pit drops into her stomach. This is a furnace. 

“HELP!”

Light shines through a set of heavy-set iron bars. An exit. Gleam tries to push it open but it’s stuck. The heat begins to creep up behind her. 

“HELP ME!”

She screams as loud as she can. 

“SOMEBODY! PLEASE!” 

The flames grow closer and closer, until they just barely brush against her ankles. Smoke fills her lungs. Then, all of a sudden, a shadow flashes across the grating and the door swings open. Somebody pulls her out. 

“Jesus, you’re lucky we got here in time.” A woman wearing a tank top and rose-colored sunglasses helps her back onto her feet. 

“Wh–who are you?” 

“My name’s Hoshi Tsubame. We’re going to get you out of here.” 

“Where’s my mommy?”

“Your mommy?” Lady Tsubame looks at her strangely. “You’re a Papilio, Papilio don’t have mommies.” 

“Oh.”

“But I can be your mommy, if you want.” 

“Really?”

“Of course.” She extends a hand.

“Okay.” Gleam wraps her arms around the woman, a mixture of tube fluid and ash still dripping off of her. “Thank you, mommy.” 

“It’s no problem, uh, kid. Everyone deserves a mother.” 

“Everyone deserves a mother?” 

“Of course.”

Everyone deserves to be protected. Everyone deserves to be taken care of. Everyone deserves a name. Everyone deserves a mother. 

“Will you give me a name?”

“A name… huh? Don’t you want to pick one yourself?”

“No, I want a name from mommy.” 

“Alright, ummm… how about Gleam?”

“Gleam… I like that name.”

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“This city needs a mother.” Gleam tells Kuroko. “Lady Tsubame was mine, and to repay her, I will be this city’s.” 

Kuroko nods in mild understanding. “I didn’t have a mother.” 

“That’s a tragedy in and of itself.” 

“I see.” 

One of the deathless comes up to Gleam. “My Lady, everything’s set up. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Thank you, Alpha One.” 

“You remembered my name?” 

“Of course.” Gleam claps Alpha One on her shoulder. “I’ll be taking it from here.” 

She nods and scurries off. 

“Excuse me, Kuroko. I have to make a few announcements.” She nods and Gleam walks up the stage towards the podium. 

“Citizens of Takakumo. This is Gleam speaking.”

Gleam always felt at home in front of a large crowd. And this might be the largest crowd she’s ever seen. It seems that nearly all of Takakumo has come to hear her speak.  

“As of last night, Lady Kikimi, Lady Jessica, and Lady Tsuki of the Takakumo student council have been assassinated.”

Disquieted murmurs crash down on Gleam, but she resolves to speak over them. 

“All of the assassinations were perpetrated by Lady Tsumugi of the student council.” 

She lies through her teeth. It hurts that she has to pin all the blame on Tsumugi like this, but she needs the public on her side. 

“As of today, I invoke the rite of emergency powers and will serve as the acting President.”

A chorus of applause. Finally, catharsis. After years of fearing for their lives, Takakumo finally has a leader. It’s somehow both more and less than what Gleam imagined it would look like when she took the throne. 

“I hereby strip Lady Tsumugi of her status as Muse of the student council, pronounce her Public Enemy Number One, and exile her from Takakumo. Effective immediately.”