6O was secretly discussing something with 2B and A2: what kind of birthday present they should give Lord Kain.
Yes, a birthday present.
According to information A2 had shared earlier, Lord Kain's birthday was coming up soon.
"Based on the records I've reviewed from humanity's past, there are all sorts of things people gave as birthday gifts."
6O projected a huge list of categories into the air.
After further sorting and investigating from multiple angles, she finally narrowed it down to three possibilities.
"What is this?"
2B tilted her head, staring in confusion at the projected character model.
"This is a kind of statue called a figure."
As she said that, 6O carefully noticed a subtle reaction from A2. A2 seemed to understand what a figure was, at least a little.
"It's when some men secretly like a woman, but maybe they don't dare confess, or maybe they know she'd never return their feelings, so to satisfy some of their longing, they create a model identical to the woman they love and keep it by their side. That's what a figure is."
At that explanation, 6O once again noticed A2's lips twitch slightly, as if she wanted to say something. She seemed to disagree a little, as if 6O's explanation wasn't quite right.
"And now, look at this!"
6O pulled up another set of materials.
"This?"
2B was confused again, because the new projected image showed three women bound up and packed into three separate boxes.
"In human history, beautiful women were often treated as goods to be given away…"
6O began showing off just how much she knew about human history, flaunting her knowledge.
Well, fine. There wasn't much point explaining too much to these two blockheads.
So instead, she projected three-dimensional images of herself, 2B, and A2, along with related "figure production methods."
Even after seeing that, the other two still looked lost, so 6O finally stopped being coy and revealed what kind of gift she was planning to give.
...
The single day Kain spent at the YoRHa Bunker had come to an end.
Now, he had arrived at the base where the upper echelon of android leadership was gathered.
"They may be a little troublesome, but they absolutely won't mean you any harm. And I think, Lord Kain, you'll probably be quite surprised. The so-called android high command is a little different from what you imagined."
The mature, blonde android woman greeting him, White, said that in a faintly mysterious tone.
And one word in that sentence also revealed a piece of information: the android higher-ups all seemed to be female. Otherwise she would not have referred to them as "they" in that way.
And yes, the conversation taking place right now with him was actually in Chinese.
"Different, is it? Then I'm looking forward to it."
After walking for five minutes and passing through a large gate into the interior of the base, Kain truly did freeze for a moment at the sight before him.
Inside, it was not a space filled with sci-fi aesthetics or metallic textures. Instead, it was a world with sky overhead and land underfoot.
Of course, merely constructing an ecological zone that imitated the planet's surface would not have been enough to make him stop.
What truly left him slightly dazed was the school built within that space. It was unmistakably a high school, the kind of modern high school from the twenty-first century. It gave him an overwhelming sense of déjà vu and familiarity.
The school was obviously empty, however. There was not a single student in sight.
After entering the school and passing into the main building, the entire way remained silent except for the footsteps of their group. Not one student could be seen anywhere.
When they finally stopped outside one room, Kain looked with some amusement at the three plaques hanging beside the door.
Student Council Room.
The instant White pushed the door open a crack, the noise from inside spilled out at once.
"Your welcome plan is complete garbage. If we really used your idea, we'd be humiliating ourselves."
"What did you say? You think your proposal is any good? You want to turn a welcome party into one of those old human memorial services? What do you think that would make our distinguished guest think? He'd trust us even less."
"That's nonsense. Yours is the one that looks like a memorial service."
The two loudest voices drowned out all the others, making them easy for Kain to hear clearly.
And it sounded like they were doing more than just bickering. They were getting physical too.
No, they really were getting physical.
The half-open double doors let him see two figures facing each other like fighting bulls, foreheads pressed together as they tried to shove the other one backward.
Besides those two, he also caught sight of several others.
One was rather short, with the build of a loli, speaking in a soft, syrupy voice. She looked like a mascot of some kind, with the air of a timid girl, and she was trying to break up the fight.
Another had a figure similar to 2B's and dressed like a flashy gyaru. Her tone was full of schadenfreude, and she looked like someone thoroughly enjoying the chaos.
Another was a black-haired beauty with long straight hair, carrying herself with composed dignity, like a refined and graceful traditional lady. She watched the scene with visible worry.
And then there was one more...
Before he could get a good look, one of the two fighting girls sent something that looked like a dart flying straight toward him.
He did not even need to dodge. A2 knocked it right back.
Whether it was coincidence, an accident, or A2 doing it on purpose, the dart flew back and struck its owner right in the rear, apparently dead center, making her let out a shriek.
"Wh-Who? Isn't this a YoRHa android? Who gave permi…"
The angry, disgusted voice cut off as abruptly as if someone had throttled it.
The noisy student council room became like a scene frozen by a pause button. Every single person in the room stopped moving.
In the blink of an eye, Kain, now seated in the student council president's chair, finally understood what White had meant earlier. It truly was far beyond what he had expected.
Including White, there were thirteen high-ranking members in total, and all of them were members of this school's student council.
They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this roleplay setting, which was why every last one of them was dressed in a schoolgirl uniform.
And those uniforms were not fixed either. Whenever a new student council president was elected, the design could be customized all over again.
But that was not the part that surprised him most. What truly surprised him was that he had overthought the android leadership in this world. He had imagined them to be much more complicated than they really were.
To put it simply, they were actually very straightforward.
Because androids did not have a human history filled with endless cycles of slaughter, mutual betrayal, struggles over resources and interests, and all the countless schemes that came with it.
Although betrayals and coups had indeed happened among the androids, even those were relatively pure in origin. It was simply because this endless war against the Machine Lifeforms had exhausted some of them.
More accurately, it was not just exhaustion. They had genuinely begun to question whether they were really fighting for humanity at all.
After all, no human had ever appeared before them. It made their actions feel meaningless.
So among the androids, there was not nearly as much deception and intrigue.
They did not harbor the kind of worst-case suspicion Kain had initially imagined, such as believing that humanity should exist only as a creator in history, not as a living creator in the present that might become an obstacle to the androids' future.
So now, it was time to discuss the matter he had already talked over with White the last time he came to the NieR world, before he left.
They were going to plan a massive operation targeted at the androids themselves.
A scam of the century.
(End of Chapter)
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