A sound somewhere between a laugh and a mrow left the NEK0 as the first questions were jotted down in her notebook. “Well, Kiyomi has a looot to say. She at least thinks, she can begin with a summary?”Her first actual answer came out more coherently than most of her thoughts. The truth was, she’d had a lot of time to think on her life before the island. In therapy, for one thing. For another, the people at the clinic had done their best to explain it to her too. The subject also popped back into her head at random times during the day; in the shower, walking to and from school, and other idle moments.
Deep breath.
“Okay. So! NEK0 happened because other people wanted us, which means like other NEK0, Kiyomi had an Owner. Owner was not mean to Kiyomi,” she added thoughtfully, nibbling the tip of her glittery pencap. “Did not hurt her. Which means, he was not as bad as other NEK0 went through. But, she is learning that he was not… a good caretaker? Oh, she lived in a nice room. But, very small. Got tired of catfood. Got bored, too.”
Was that it? Oh! There was one other thing. “Kiyomi was not a person. Not to Owner. She was a doll, and also, a cat.” Toy, pet, distraction, there were a lot of other words to describe it. Something that could be picked up and put down whenever one liked. It drew an uneasy chuckle out of her. “She is still getting used to being a person.”
Here, she paused, ears aprick as she took in Natalie’s reaction.
