It was still that same darkness, and still those two familiar little girls.
One seemed to come with her own gloomy backdrop, while the other still only knew how to cry loudly.
"Hello, I'm Kiana Kaslana. I don't know which number I am, but if I'm the eldest sister, I'd be very happy..."
If she was the eldest of the three, then she had the right to spank her younger sisters' butts in the name of educating them.
One of them clearly understood human speech but deliberately ignored people, while the other neither understood human speech nor knew how to read the room and only knew how to cry.
But upon hearing the name she gave, the little girl curled up on the ground with her knees hugged to her chest became furious.
"...I'm Kiana Kaslana! I am, I am Kiana!!"
The furious little girl climbed up from the ground.
Then, before she had even run halfway over, she spectacularly tripped on flat ground.
Face first, too.
She felt the pain on the little girl's behalf.
Especially since she looked exactly like the little girl—it was as though it hurt on her own body.
"Waaah..."
The little girl who had fallen did not get back up. Instead, she curled into a ball, hugged her knees, buried her face between them, and let out soft sobs.
Thus, the darkness once again echoed with shrill crying and low whimpering.
Though she had done nothing, she somehow felt sorry for the little girl.
"Don't cry, don't cry... There, don't cry. Let big brother... ah, big sister keep you company and chat with you."
She walked over and helped the little girl up.
But the little girl clearly did not want to expose her embarrassing state to anyone, stubbornly burying her little head between her knees.
"If there's something sad, tell big bro... big sister so I can laugh at it—ah, wrong thing to say. I mean, saying it out loud will make you feel better. Like me... I only just learned that I had a mother named Cecilia, and before I could be happy for long, I was told that such a beautiful mother was gone. And because of an accident during an experiment, I don't remember anything from before I was eight. See? Isn't that miserable?"
"That's my mom!"
The little girl, who had not planned to pay attention to her, bristled again.
And she proved that even a rabbit would bite when cornered.
Though the little girl had beautiful blue eyes, her bite hurt terribly.
Actually, I Was Only Zero Years Old
It took her a great deal of effort to pull the little girl off her arm.
Looking at the neat row of bite marks on her arm, she sucked in breaths from the pain.
It really hurt.
The little girl had neat, pretty teeth, but being the one bitten was not nearly so pleasant.
"I say, you... Uh, why are you crying? What are you crying for?!"
She rubbed the bite marks on her left arm and glared viciously at the little girl.
Who would have thought that the little girl would burst into tears the very next second?
(ノ=Д=)ノ┻━┻
Shouldn't she have been the one crying?
And as the little girl began to cry, the other little girl, who had only known how to cry from the start, suddenly cried even louder.
"How utterly unreasonable!"
She covered her ears and muttered.
After waiting for quite a while, the two little girls finally stopped once they had cried themselves tired.
One hugged her knees, curled up into a ball, and shut herself off, while the other lay on the ground, sleeping and softly sobbing at the same time.
"Hey, hey, don't be so quick to shut yourself off!"
She hurriedly spoke to the little girl who was extremely prone to shutting herself off.
Putting aside the little girl who reacted like a newborn baby, the little girl before her, who alternated between bristling and shutting herself off, was clearly the only one in this darkness she could communicate with.
The little girl who was burying her head in her knees heard her call, raised her head, and glared at her as though she were an enemy with an adorable... with a very fierce look.
"Anyway, let me ask a question first."
Seeing that the little girl had reacted to her words, she hurriedly stated her purpose.
"You said your name is Kiana Kaslana?"
"..."
The little girl silently nodded.
"Then your mother is Cecilia?"
"..."
The little girl nodded again, then prepared to shut herself off once more.
"But someone told me that my name is Kiana Kaslana..."
Hearing her words, the little girl's body trembled slightly before she buried her head between her knees.
"Wait, didn't I say not to be so quick to shut yourself off? At least explain yourself clearly."
If she did not clear things up while the other little girl was tired from crying, then once that little girl woke up and started crying again, she would not be able to ask anything even if she wanted to.
That little girl's cries easily resonated with this one. Then it would become a double performance of crying and whimpering again.
"...I don't know."
After a long while, just as she was about to give up and find a corner to shut herself off in too, the little girl hugging her knees finally raised her head and spoke.
"I'm Kiana Kaslana. My father is Siegfried Kaslana..."
"Huh? You have a father too?"
Σ(っ °Д °;)っ
In other words, she had a father too.
But how could a father compare to a mother?!!
Hearing her exclamation, the little girl glared fiercely at her.
But the little girl could not make a fierce expression at all. Instead, she looked more like an adorably acting white cat.
Ignoring the little girl, she muttered to herself, "The more I hear, the more this feels like the Misaka Sister routine. By the way, do you have any proof that you're the real Kiana Kaslana?"
"???"
The little girl looked utterly confused.
She was Kiana Kaslana. Why did she need proof to prove herself?
"Maybe I'm the real Kiana, and you're just a fake implanted with Kiana's memories?"
A fake would naturally never say she was fake.
So she felt that her reasoning made perfect sense.
It was just that everything she knew now lacked evidence. She could not produce evidence proving that she was real, nor could she produce evidence proving that she was fake...
"Wait, it seems there is evidence that can prove... I'm fake."
"???"
The little girl was even more confused now.
She really wanted to say that she was only eight years old. What she was saying was too complicated, and she did not understand a single word.
"Do you know K422?" she asked.
The little girl shook her head, indicating that she did not know.
"Oh, it's nothing."
Considering that this might be a Misaka Sister-style situation, she was not surprised that the little girl did not know.
Why would anyone let the original know that someone had secretly created clones of her?
But when she first woke up, she had heard the two designations K422 and K423.
Putting everything together, she should have been K422.
And the little girl who only knew how to cry was K423.
"Hmm, this guess makes sense. So Amber really was a liar. She said she would sleep with me, but she never got into bed even when I was about to fall asleep. What a big liar. No... the real big liar should be that man."
She naturally regretted that the white-haired woman had not provided bedtime companionship, but when she thought of the concern shown by the man called "Otto," her expression became complicated.
If she was merely a clone of True Kiana, merely a fake, then all of his actions had practically been adding drama for her.
What an utter drama queen.
And also, screw this "little princess" nonsense.
She felt nothing for that title that made goosebumps rise all over her body.
"Looks like I really am K422. Sigh... I thought Cecilia really was my mother. But since I'm a clone, there's no difference between True Kiana and me at the genetic level, so there's no problem with treating Cecilia as my real mother. Mm, I can do without a real father, but I absolutely have to acknowledge my real mother."
In this darkness, she felt that her mind was clearer than it was in reality. She even understood complicated-sounding words like clones and genes.
"By the way, kid, even though you're the real Kiana, that man will probably settle on Kiana Kaslana as my name from now on. Calling you Kiana would be confusing, so... what do you think of a nickname like 'True Kiana'?"
?
Logically speaking, as a clone, she should either have been the younger sister or the daughter, yet she still spoke arrogantly to the real Kiana.
"???"
True Kiana lifted her little head, her tiny face full of confusion.
How had she suddenly become "True Kiana"? Wait, the fake in front of her was trying to steal her name! And she wanted to steal her mom too!!
True Kiana bristled again, but her only methods of attack were scratching and biting.
Of those, biting was the most effective method of atta—method.
"Wait, why are you biting people?! Ahhh, stop biting! No, open your mouth!"
Girls who used their mouths were quite terrifying.
She surrendered before long, but True Kiana simply would not let go.
Hearing her wails, the little girl who had cried herself tired sat up and began crying again, unwilling to be outdone.
This dark space instantly became unbearably noisy.
Several hours later, she woke from the nightmare.
Yes, to her, it truly had been a nightmare.
Still, this nightmare had provided quite a lot of information.
First, she learned that she was a fake, yet Bishop Otto had placed True Kiana's name on her. Clearly, he had ill intentions.
Though she had never trusted that man Otto from the beginning for some unknown reason, she now had solid proof.
Second was True Kiana's current situation.
True Kiana remembered that when she was two years old, her father had wanted to take her away. But in the end, her father never appeared. After that, Bishop Otto brought her here, and the only people she usually came into contact with were Bishop Otto and a woman named Amber.
She had confirmed with True Kiana that they were indeed the same person.
The white-haired woman named Amber was clearly Bishop Otto's direct subordinate.
Otherwise, she would not have been able to come into contact with someone like True Kiana.
Although Bishop Otto provided an excellent environment and plentiful food, even giving her introductory books and assigning Amber to teach her arithmetic, True Kiana wanted to be with her father more.
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