Lovey Doll: Neon Days

Under thousands of lights brought by the night and the sounds of all kinds of people crossing each other's paths in the streets, the clouds of winter had already begun to slowly embrace the city.

This day was particularly cold, the typical weather that made a human heart seek the comfort of a warm bed. The smell of tobacco was constantly mixed with the taste of coffee.

Between cups of cappuccino and extra hours of hard work, normal people kept living their monotonous lives, hoping each day not to be dragged into any tempest of problems.

In this coffee shop, a young man in his late twenties with tired eyes smoked a cigarette while observing the empty store.

Usually, the number of customers would be quite high at this hour. However, due to the recent wave of storms in the region, people seemed afraid of getting caught on their way back home and made fewer unnecessary stops.

"Tch, what a pain. I thought it would be a good idea to invest my savings in this coffee shop. Since social media trends are overflowing with influencers making content in places like this, I guess luck is not on my side."

The young man cursed inwardly while watching the thin threads of smoke flowing from the cigarette in his hand until they disappeared from sight.

"Sigh... what a waste. Is it still too late to open a maid café or a strip club?"

While having such random thoughts, someone interrupted him.

A woman who appeared to be around the same age as him, with tanned skin, blonde hair, and colorful nails. She was what was well known in old Japan as a gyaru.

"Ah, ah, here you are sighing again. You'll lose too many years of your life by doing that, you know?"

She said with a playful smile.

"Well, it wouldn't be so bad if I could exchange some years of my life to pay my debts."

"No, no. That type of trading would be illegal in any country."

She replied in a playful tone to his negative comment.

The man didn't respond. He took another cigarette and lit it.

"Neh, Micchi, how about we become a maid café?"

The man asked after taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Wait, wait, where did that come from?? No way you're putting me in a maid dress!"

She said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Then I guess I'll have to wear it and serve the customers."

The man replied with the cigarette in his mouth.

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!"

She protested at his absurd suggestion.

The man gave a soft smile upon seeing her reaction. They had worked together for some time, so they had gradually developed a good friendship. From time to time, he would spare a moment to tease her.

"Anyway, you can go home now. We're going to close earlier."

He said as he dropped the cigarette.

"Ah, ah, look at him, trying to make up for his mistake by making me imagine such a traumatizing scene."

She said in a teasing tone while making an arrogant face. If you looked closely, you could almost say she was imitating some rich noble from a historical drama or something.

"Wanna work some extra hours?"

The young man asked, annoyed, as he lit another cigarette.

"No thank you~. See you tomorrow, Boss~."

He had barely finished speaking when she disappeared from sight, heading to the back room of the café to change her clothes. A few moments later, she came out wearing her usual clothes and carrying her work bag.

"So I'm going. See ya~. Ah, and don't forget tomorrow is my payday."

"Yeah, yeah. Take care on your way home."

He replied, and after saying goodbye, she finally left the store.

"I guess I made the right choice hiring only her. One more energetic person like that around here, and I would surely go crazy."

He said, smiling.

"What a waste. If this place had gone as I planned, maybe neither of us would have to waste our energy on nonsense conversations like this."

Saying that, he stubbed out his cigarette and turned off the lights of the coffee shop before leaving. He locked the door and checked it once more to make sure it was really locked. That had become an involuntary habit after he forgot to lock it during the second week after the grand opening and found the place in a complete mess the following morning.

Fortunately, he had emptied the cash register the previous day. Otherwise, the losses wouldn't have been small.

He had just locked the door when he felt a drop on his head, followed by another, and another.

"There it is. Maybe the customers weren't so wrong after all. Good thing I brought an umbrella."

As he walked through the streets along his usual route home, he couldn't help but notice that, even though it was storm season, the city looked more deserted than it normally would.

Lonely wasn't exactly the right word to describe the feeling. It was more like being lost, like a child who had become separated from their parents in an unfamiliar place. If he got into an accident in the middle of the storm that was about to come, it was almost certain that no one would appear to save him.

While thinking about it, he realized something strange. An alley about two streets away from his home usually had an old neon sign that had been there for so long it had practically become part of the scenery.

It was a large rectangle with a red outline and two words written vertically in large blue neon letters:

DEAD END

Who owned it or what its original purpose had been, no one knew, and since it stood between two abandoned houses, no one had ever bothered to remove it.

In fact, that street lacked orientation signs, so it served as a useful landmark at night. Maybe because of that, he immediately noticed that its lights were off.

He decided to take a closer look. The rain was still light for now, so he could probably afford to stop for a moment and see what had happened.

However, what he found was far beyond his expectations.

"Are you okay?"

He asked the person in front of him.

She was a girl with shoulder-length hair split evenly between red and black. Her eyes were red as well. She wore a white shirt and a black skirt, both dirty and completely soaked. But even so, she was beautiful. Small face, long eyelashes, clear skin with no scars or marks; under different circumstances, it wouldn't be hard to mistake her for a model.

However, that wasn't what caught the man's attention.

Both her arms and legs were metallic prostheses.

But the strangest part was that a power cable descended from the neon sign and was connected to the back of her neck.

"A robot? I thought they didn't exist anymore."

He thought to himself before asking,

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?"

She didn't respond. She simply kept staring into the void.

"Ooi, can you hear me?"

He crouched down to look into the eyes of the girl sitting on the ground.

"Maybe you really are a robot... but how did you end up here?"

He wondered.

Suddenly, the neon sign lit up.

<< Partial charge complete. Recovering primary functions... >>

The girl's eyes finally moved and fixed on the person standing before her.

"Who are you?"

"That's my question."

The man replied as he stood up.

"Unity X-766563."

She said.

"That's quite a name. So, are you a computer?"

The young man under the umbrella asked curiously.

"You can say so. A computer placed inside a doll that no longer has any use."

She replied with an empty gaze. In fact, it was impossible to find any trace of emotion in her words. One could easily say that her voice was being produced by a machine trying to imitate human speech.

"Is that so?"

The man replied indifferently while lighting a cigarette beneath his umbrella.

"And you are?"

The girl asked.

"Just someone passing by. Listen, little doll, a heavy storm is approaching. Whatever you were doing—charging your battery or something—I suggest you go home. Otherwise, you may not be able to escape it anymore."

He replied.

"I don't have one anymore. The ones who once owned me discarded me, and now I have nowhere to go."

She continued. However, even while talking about those who had abandoned her, she showed no trace of sadness or rage.

"You don't look sad. Were the people you lived with that bad?"

He asked, intrigued by her expressionless face.

"I don't remember. Once I was discarded, they removed the memory chip responsible for storing information about them. It is part of the purchase contract. Since it may contain sensitive information, once they no longer need the product, they have the right to remove it. So I can't feel sadness or anger toward someone I can't even remember."

The man remained silent as he listened.

"Product, huh? What a bunch of trash."

He said as he threw his cigarette into the rain.

"Can you stand up?"

"Yes."

"Then follow me. I don't know what you'll do tomorrow, but if you get caught in this storm, there won't be a single screw left in place tomorrow for you to figure it out. So stay at my house for tonight. I have an empty room from my former colleague anyway."

The man said while closing the umbrella and handing it to her.

"Why go through all this trouble? I can accept it, but I don't understand why you're doing this."

For the first time during their conversation, the girl showed a confused expression. Until now, nothing but indifference had been visible on her face.

"You're already getting soaked by the rain, yet I gave you this umbrella. Do you know why?"

The man asked, taking it back from her before turning to leave.

"Because this rain is no different from all the emotions that fill a human heart. When you find someone drowning in it, you must let yourself drown as well. Otherwise, you'll never be able to reach their true feelings."

Having said that, he walked away, and the girl followed him.

She made a motion to open the umbrella, but after staring at it for a while as she walked, she decided to keep it closed.

And so, the two of them walked home together, caught in the middle of a storm that would only grow more dangerous from that point on.