Chapter 1 Regrets We've Had a Few
"It's 2029, humanity is either dying off or 'escaped' to cyberspace. And here you are, before me again Danika" a woman angrily says to another, shorter person stood a few feet before them.
It's a virtual room they're in. Looks and feels, like onyx dark floors, with lights between incredibly large, hexagonal and triangle tiles that are 4m² (13.123 ft²) by 5cm (1.968in) thick. The area is lit up, everything's visible as the lighting between panels continues up the walls and onto the ceiling.
"I still never heard about that apology, Lilliya. It's been 4 long years." The person responds, looking and sounding already tired before they even spoke. "No." Lilliya responds. "What do you mean simply 'no'? After all you've done to me?" Danika motions forward.
Lilliya does the same, becoming more calmer, but still angry when she speaks "Someone punching a boulder out of rage, hurting their hands badly from that, then getting mad at and blaming the person that made them mad in the first place. Should the person who made them mad enough to hit rocks, apologize?" "This isn't like that, don't compare what we had to a crappy hypothetical." Danika hisses in anguish beating through their voice.
"'What we had' eh? What we had is a few short years of shared history, started as a nice friendship, ended in you blowing from not getting to have your cake and eat it too, n' fallout from it." "A few short years? It was 6 YEARS OF HELL!" Danika yells, stepping forward, with a balled fist.
"It was 4-ish. 5 at most, where about 6-8months was you being off-air mostly, until you went to an internet café to have the ability to contact me." (How was I surprised a 'no' wouldn't be enough with this human huh) "You fucking ruined me Lilly. You ruined me, and my body for those 6 years. I think I'd at least remember that through all the blocking out of memories from the trauma!" Danika more quietly but still angrily asserts, remining in a rigid stance in front of Lilliya. Who looks disturbed at this information.
(They came all this way out into my neck of cyberspace, just for this? Really? They're not even correct, I detailed everything, I have a documented record of almost everything). Lilliya wags her index finger, "I documented everything I could of what was left, after someone deleted much. August 2017-January 2022. 4 years, 5 moths and however many days, not including the time you dipped from the internet for a few months," She expels to her former friend with an unfamiliarity. "No, even if that's the case you told me to do so many things, while I was a minor." Danika retorts.
"While you were an adult." Lilliya retorts. "NO! YOU ABUSED ME WHILE I WAS A MINOR! Always acting so sweet then begging for sex or sexual stuff after!" "Huh. Look at that, you stuck to more of a script of consistent things this time. Rather than alternating." Lillya hisses take a step back and to the side.
"I AM NOT A FUCKING LIAR! DO NOT, LILLIYA!" "Mhm, mhm: counterpoint though." "No, no fucking counterpoint, you're evading the truth." Danika says snarling through partially gritted teeth. "Counterpoint is you are a fucking liar of a ghoul. Need I bring up Cedar?" "That's different and not related to you wanting nudes out of me all the time and me giving them.." Danika says backing off by a half-step.
Lilliya looks at Danika in cold manner. "You see, Takara, we were friends for a few years as I said." "It was 6 years." "It was 4. Anyway, I've had that amount of time from then until we spoke in 2025 and then the 4 years since that time. I looked at everything that wasn't deleted, or removed, from your actions." Lilliya says grimly, a building bitterness. "I didn't delete shit except the last year." "Exactly. The last or final year, where you rapidly escalated, then when you couldn't get what you want, poured the fire on it."
"What?" "Y'see I bring Ol' Zhil' for a good reason, not just to poke at a potential sore spot if you're wondering," "I doubt it." "Well, it shows a pattern, I've had years to confirm." "Pattern of what? Not liking and getting on with someone? Newflash, you groomed and extorted nudes out of me." "No. And no." "Yes you fucking did. It ruined me permanently. I can't look in the mirror without seeing your hands all over me." Danika exasperatedly says, raising their balled up fists.
Lilliya's calmness quickly is broken through when "YOU THINKING, WISHING AND FANTASISING ABOUT ME GROPING AND BIT YOU, WHILE YOU MASTURBATED DIDN'T HAVE ME MAKE OR ASK YOU TO DO ANY OF THAT. THAT IS NOT MY DOING!" Erupts from her chest in fiery fury that blows Danika backwards a half foot. "Yes it is!" They yelp back, "I got that way because of how you talked and acted sexual toward me! Now I really demand that apology." Danika stands both whole arms and shoulders full with tension as the air crackles.
"Again and again. You being attracted to me and horny about me and about me. From my voice, to the very point where just me talking in general vc made you horny and have to leave to go jerk it. That alone should speak volumes. Me cracking a flirt at another adult in my own server, isn't directed at you." "Are you saying you didn't ask nudes or any abuse, because I had a crush first?" "No, hell no. I'm saying you were berserk levels of downbad for me, that built rapidly to you get more and more pressing to me about dating each other. You were in high school at the time, I told you as much when turning you down."
"Tch. You didn't turn me down, you said you were concerned about our romantic relationship we had going forward, because of my age. Hell, you said you didn't want nudes from too far back, because of my age." Danika hisses in a deeply aggravated tone, grabbing something on their waist.
"[Lilliya curses and shouts in an unknown language]!" She paces back and forth in a small spot in front of Danika "Fuck you, I'll start from the top: Cedar, or Zhilganas 'Cedar' Cifolin, your cousin. You were jealous of the attention he got." "That's true unfortunately, but what does that have to do with anything here? What, are you gonna say I did something sexual to him now?" Danika says with a twisted chuckle "I'm not going to be you." Lilliya responds coldly, to which Danika tries to get up in her face. But is stopped. "Didn't read the rules before coming in?" Lilliya follows up with, uncaring. "Of course someone as twisted as you would be an Evo." Daniak says.
"My point is simple: You admitted to getting into physical fights with him and hating him out of jealousy of the attention he got over you, despite his having moderate autism and maybe other things I cannot recall exactly. You got jealous enough to physically hit, punch and kick a kid, over attention." "Ok, I'm not exactly proud of it and this is what I told you already. Where are you going with this?" Danika gets increasingly frustrated, grabbing the blade weapon on her waist more directly.
"Pattern recognition. Some human parts of my brain still work, such as that. And, well, there's the other part of the stuff with Cedar: you lied about him perving on you and being generally sexually inappropriate towards you, at least that's what you admitted in 2025. What with the 'he keeps finding reason to talk to me when I'm just out of the bath, or in a bath towel.' Stuff like that," "So? I admitted to this! For your attention a bit." "You kept that lie up for all 4 years, had me believing it the entire time we knew, enough for me to raise my voice when he was in the room for one call. Keeping up a lie about sexual misconduct for years, based on the fact you hate them and/or were jealous of them. Sounds mighty familiar." "No you're not. You're not trying to get out of this by saying that."
"It sounds a lot like, what happened with Misty." "What about them, huh?" Danika asks with an odd kind of anger, mixed with a tinge of sadness. "Y'see, as much as Misty might've incited it with 'hey you're really attached to Lilliya, I dont like it' and 'how she was worried about how you felt about me, how you were so incredibly jealous about being around me' later on. In your own words 'attached like a broken soul for a home' the pattern continues with them: You got jealous, even when I talked to my own girlfriend at the time instead of you or even your own gf instead of you, then that built into resentment. That resentment festered into hatred und vitriolic action: sending nudes to me, as an adult, to cheat on Misty as a punishing of her, via the hurt of betrayal of me and them actually being friends after a year of knowing one another. We both know I wasn't sober enough to-"
"No- I mean yes to a bit of that, but that isn't what happened between us Lilly!" Danika shouts with desperation breaking up their voice's ability to rise in volume. Lilliya becomes visibly agitated, as they now braces their hands for an exchange of violence, rather than a bout of combat.
But an energy swells around Danika, dark, flickering, like a candle's flame encased in an outline in black. "Don't think you can trample over me, again." Lilliya's adjusts her hands, an armament around them "Pff, you wish I'd've trampled on and consumed you, Kusatta Unagi," Before flicking a finger causing an unknown force to push toward Danika, who blocks with the sword on their hip, coated in the 'flame' they had, but still being pushed back a few meters.
"Slashes like that eh? Sukuna-like biz is too good for something like y- ngh" They try speaking before having to push the attack upwards as a way not get hurt. Though, in the upswinging of his two-handed european longsword, Lilliya blitzes in to close the gap between them, arm outwards coming in for an obvious, simple punch as her eyes are fiercely focused on Danika. Their heart skips a beat at noticing this, but slashes the sword downward, which Lilliya blocks via their armaments/gauntlets though this scratches them, as well as causing a brief flash illuminating both parties faces. Danika briefly sees Lilliya as a large canine creature, with its jaws about to snap him up. Lilliya sees Danika as a slightly smaller man, with ill-fitted clothing and armour as well as the sword being a bit too big for them to hold.
Both pull away, but Lilliya steps back into socking Danika in the jaw, trying to knock them to the ground with the angle. "Ngh! You...!" Danika winces, lip split, staggering. "You looked like a wolf there, you know... A real predator, not just a coward going after a minor." "[Deep Breath] Well, I outlined the pattern: you get jealous or begin to resent, then you attack someone to hurt them personally. First Cedar, then Misty, as their nicknames, then me."
"Then you, what the... No? Did you ever even love me?" Danika speaks, then asks. When Lilliya makes a quick motion, they tense up into a defensive stance to brace for another slash but nothing comes, as Lilliya's finger did not flick. She relents. "So you're asking about 'love' eh, after wanting an apology from me for what amounts to hurting yourself? Eugh, that twonk was right: 'There’s no curse more distorted than love,' ehh" Lilliya mostly says to herself, hand on her chin trying to think her answer over. This flatly angers Danika.
"DON'T BE QUOTIN' JJK WHILE- DON'T COMPARE WHAT WE HAD TO FICTIONAL CHARACTERS! I ALREADY TOLD YOU THIS ONCE WITH ANGEL DUST AND VALENTINO!" Danika screams, sprinting forward as energy completely envelops himself and their blade aiming with killing intent. "Gambare, gambare~" Lilliya mockingly answers before dodging the wild, furious strikes while making it look like a casual maneuverer, with her hands in her pockets or behind her back.
Then one of the swings 'catches' Lilliya, only to be stopped by an unknown force as well. "A barrier? No don't tell me you went for both strongest's sets? You greedy-" Lilliya punches Danika across the face, saying "You've got surprises built up in your arsenal, you're just mad mine makes it more difficult than to one-sidedly slaughter me, former treasure~" SLASH goes across Lilliya's torso, nipping across her shoulder with a tiny cut.
"If that's anything like the actual infinity, the brain taxing is too high to have that on without rct." Danika says in a colder voice, trying to slash the same again, but its stopped with an armoured hand letting off small repeated slashes. Her shoulder heals. "Hehehe," Lilliya laughs, close to Danika's face before forcefully shoving him away, almost to the entrance 'door' of the 'room.'
