Irium 80 A Game Of Words Part 1

"So, Nee-san,"

"Adding a 'O' before 'nee' and '-chan' instead of '-san' would make it cuter." She remarks.

"Cuter, yes. Childish, also yes. And I wouldn't want that to be added to my image." I say and continue before she can retort, "Why am I here?"

"That's a good question. Unfortunately, I can't answer." Priscina says. Well, to be frank, Priscina's A.I. says but I'll rather just refer to her as Priscina.

"You can't answer?" I ask with a questioning gaze, "Is that because you don't know the answer or choose to not tell me?"

"The former – I don't know why you are here."

A swift answer, probably the truth.

"Fine, then what do you know, sis?"

"Stick with 'Nee-san', will you? It sounds better." Priscina says, instead of answering my question.

"Look, sis … Nee-san … whatever, could you please answer my questions more seriously?" I say with a slightly annoyed expression.

"I would definitely take it more seriously if you were asking the questions you really should be asking – instead of wasting time of gibberish like that." She says with a dark expression and stretches her wing, "Ask the right questions and I'll answer."

Oh boy! What are the 'right' questions, now? How am I supposed to ask them if I don't even know what they are?

"Seriously, cut your little brother some slack, sis." I say with a pleading expression (fake) and arms spread wide to show that I am at my wit's end (fake) and that I am desperately seeking her aid (sadly, not fake).

"Hah! No." And even after all that, she just blatantly refuses to help. Come on!

"Please, sis!"

"Try again." She says with folded arms and a smirk on her face. Fine, I guess I can be a little cringe once in a while.

"Please, Nee-san!"

"I'll think about it." She says casually brus.h.i.+ng her fingers where there is nothing to brush.

This … this … d.a.m.nit! I can't even feel right with calling her names. I guess there is no other way out now.

"Please, Onee-chan!" I finally admit defeat and say so and just as I do that,

"Sure." She says with a grin and, "How about we play a game?"

"I don't w-"

"Okay, it's a pretty simple game really."

"I'm not inter-"

"I will tell you a word and you'll have to say the first thing that comes to find when you hear it."

"…"

"Something wrong?"

You are forcing me to play a game in a crisis of a situation and are asking me if there's something wrong. Well, whatever!

"Fine!" I have heard of this game I guess. It's more psychological than I was expecting when she mentioned playing a game. Who knows? She might actually answer my questions after this game.

"Alright then, let's start." She says and points at me as she says, "You?"

"That's the first word?" I enquire.

"Yeah, what comes to mind?" She answers.

"Awesome!" I mean, to be fair, I am pretty awesome, right? Right!? Um … right?

Well, whatever! I won the favorite character poll. That makes me awesome!

"Okay then," she points to herself and says, "Me?"

That's probably the second word. "Cute." So, I answer.

"Aw … that's so sweet of you." She says and continues before I can say anything, "Jason?"

"Todd." I say.

"What!?" She makes a face like she doesn't understand.

"Todd. Jason Todd. He's a fictional character." Hearing that, Priscina sighs and looks disappointed, "I was kinda expecting a little more reaction. But well, let's give another try – Kylie?"

"Graceful."

That, as far as I know, is what Kylie means, so that's the answer. She again looks disappointed though. What answers was she expecting anyway?

"Okay, fine." She says and continues our little game with, "Kaylith?"

"Uh … well, no idea." I feel like there's something I want to say but nothing comes to mind. She would probably be disappointed again after hearing that answer. However, when I look at her, to my surprise, she is smiling and is slowly heading towards me. At about 2 meters away from me, she stops and asks the next, "Mage-craft?"

"… Angels." She looks at me with curious eyes, as if asking why I would say that, and so I tell her the answer, "An Angel was the reason I came to know about mage-craft."

She smiles and says, "No, that's not true." She asks the next before giving me time to say anything, "Glice?"

"This realm"

"That's the thing that comes to your mind? Not the fact that it's your surname?" She asks with a smile.

"I don't really have any connection with this name other than that I have to write it on my legal doc.u.ments."

"Hmm … okay. Next – Lucifer?"

"Nice guy." I say casually but she smirks at that and says,

"Yeah right. Aknin Vielos?"

"Well, uh … b.i.t.c.h!" I do have a fair amount of a reason to call her that I think.

Priscina looks at me and smiles like I'm a naughty child. "Memory?"

"Id."

"Really? Why id?" She asks with a curious gaze.

"Don't know. That's the first thing that came to mind so I just said it." It's true. I myself don't know why that came to mind.

I mean, memory and id are definitely two things that are not unconnected but I really doubt that was a normal response.

"Okay, that works." She moves on with the game and pulls out quite a card, "Roswaisa?"

"… Angel."

"You're lying." She says while narrowing her eyes on me.

"I'm what?" I try to act innocent but-

"That wasn't the first word that came to your mind." –it doesn't work.

"…" I try to stay silent but she keeps staring at me and seems to be intent on doing so until I say the word that first came to my mind, so I do, "Responsibility."

"Responsibility? Of what?" She asks.

"Of saving her. My plan got her killed. I have a responsibility to change that outcome if I can."

"You do? Alright!" Priscina walks two steps, closing a meter between us, and continues, "G.o.d?"