The mood was heavy, you could cut a Mango with how heavy this was… Alexa wondered if she could pick this mood and carry it around to peel her mangos….

"...what do you mean it was my turn?" Glory was the first one to speak.

"Blackthorn…Glory, I am sure this is one of Alexa's.." Alan spoke quickly after Glory, placing a hand atop her shoulder, "...you know, Alexa is like that right? Maybe she is just asking after seeing something on the TV or some of her videos?"

Alexa…most certainly didn't see anything on TV or her videos! Her last video was about how to draw a summoning circle for Chtulu, after all! There was nothing about Glory there!

"...I know…But even like that, Alexa IS a Core User…maybe they can see things?" Glory said, shaking her head and turning to Alexa, "So? What do you mean it was my turn? Was it something I did? Or something I didn't? What was I supposed to do to trigger a Core?"

How was Alexa supposed to know?

"I mean…Last time I came, or well, the one before that. We found Meli-Meli in the ground, and carried her to the nurse's office. Then she went nuts and used her [Core Power] and turned all into a mess…" Alexa said pointing that out, thought, now that she was thinking about… wasn't that like…ages ago? It felt like ages ago? How many days had it been since then? Like…too many to count right?

"Yeah, we know. You had a bad trigger case in your class, so the class was hit with a Mind Core, so they sent your class all over the place while they were being monitored." Alan said, nodding, "To think that this was barely two weeks ago…"

Wait, was it that long? Or that short? Alexa could swear it was less than a week ago…

"And?" Glory said, biting one of her fingernails, "How does that relate to me?"

"Well…That time Meli-Meli was my only friend, and she had this event in which she became a [Core User]." Alexa said pointing to Glory after she had made her point, "So now that we had a new event, Alexa guessed that her next friend would be the one to get a [Core Power]."

It was obvious right?

"...So since your previous friend became a Core User after an event, you guessed that since there was an event going to happen, Glory would awake a Core?" Alan said, reformulating her whole phrase.

"Alexa…I am honored, but you have known me for a couple of days at most. That…" Glory said after Alan, blushing slightly.

"I know right!" Alexa said nodding quickly, "I have known you way more than Meli-Meli, so if someone was to get a [Core] it was obvious it would be you!"

Glory and Alan stopped speaking after Alexa said that, what? Was something wrong there?

"I mean, besides you the other people I know all have [Cores] or are [Grown Ups] so they don't really qualify? But then again, Meli-Meli already had her [Core]...So maybe it was more of her going on a rampage? Alexa guessed that Glory would have a [Core] already," Alexa said, thinking back on the people she knew; really, there weren't many people in the people she knew that weren't [Core Users]; some of the black-masked minions of course weren't [Core Users]. But she didn't speak that much with them. "So Alexa guessed that either Glory would get her [Core] or become a last boss like those Magmo's pet fights in stream."

"That…That is not how a Core User is formed, Alexa," Glory said, sighing and sagging, "You can't just predict this kind of things. The real world doesn't work like that."

It didn't?

"But Alexa was right on the disturbance…" Alexa said, pointing that one out, "Alexa didn't know Meli-Meli would come again, but she had guessed that there would be one."

"...I mean….yeah….but couldn't that be something that you guessed from your Core Powers?" Glory said turning to Alan, "She obviously has more powers than she told us right?"

"I mean….You can't join the class of the elites only with shapeshifting and a name…granted her name IS important." Alan said stopping for a second and placing one of his hands atop his chin, as if that would help him think more easily….

Surely it wouldn't…

Right?

DANG IT!

Right, Main Core was sulking…And Ale and Alexandra were running in the background, attempting to pull him out from sulking…Core?

….Nothing.

Alexa…did not think it would help him?

She put one of her hands in her chin like Alan and mimicked his frown, but she didn't feel particularly smarter or that her thoughts moved faster…She felt cute tho.

"You shouldn't tell us your Core Powers, the specific or the broader aspects." Alan ended up saying, turning to Alexa, "But tell us this, as a favor to be repaid by both the Harmonia and the Blackthorn…Do you have a way to guarantee that Glory will awaken a Core Power?"

"...Alan…." Glory said in a small voice as she grabbed her skirt and put pressure on it, "...you don't need to put your family in this…"

"You are someone important to me too. Glory; jokes and the silly politics aside, we will grow together, so this much is nothing." Alan said, turning to Glory for a second before focusing fully on Alexa, "So? Do you have a way?"

Did Alexa have a way?

Not really?

"I don't think so…." Alexa said, stopping for a second to think about it, "I mean…I could check if you have a [Core]? I can know for sure if there is something wrong with your [Blueprint], but as far as I checked before you are mostly healthy….genetic tampering aside."

Alexa shrugged at it really, she was not someone to judge about genetic tampering, when her own [Blueprint] was actively being tampered. But unlike theirs, hers was designed to withstand the tampering.

"...." Glory and Alan didn't say anything at her statement.

"Oh right!" Alexa said remembering their tampering, "I know you both are more propense to the [Core] triggering, you naturally accumulate Mana after all."

Right, that was part of their tampering, Alexa had almost forgotten about that fact. Really, she should….probably not do those modifications, she didn't need them after all, her [Core] actively…or not, it was Main Core the one doing that right?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Would she need to start doing it? She wasn't sure how Main Core had done it before, so perhaps she would need to….

Put Ale into modifying their armor and clothing, perhaps she could make use of her Shroomers for that? Using her Shroomers to refine and take in the ambient mana, then just harvest them at a later date! It was perfect!

"....You found out?" Alan was the first to say something, while Glory only stared harder at the floor, "That we aren't….humans…."

Alan seemed moved by this fact, as he stood by Glory and took one of her hands and squished it, "We didn't mean to hide it…most of those that are born from high society have some degree of…tampering…it is why we are all together in the same class, not so much because of our achievements and more because of our… circumstances…"

So all the class was like that! No wonder no one seemed to behave like [Child Stage], Alexa nodded at that, it made sense.

"...So we will understand if you…. don't want to speak with monsters like us…" Alan said in an even tone, but Alexa could see his lips trembling, something was afoot…

"Why?" Alexa asked confused.

"...we are used to it…We all find at some point….how different we are, and when other kids find out…well….it never ends well," Alan continued on, as if he had said all of this before.

Perhaps he liked to rehearse his [Human] interactions too? Alexa did that sometimes, rehearsing what to say in X situation, not that she used those speeches often, but it was a nice way to keep her Consciousness Stream busy.

"Alexa meant why would Alexa stop speaking with you." Alexa said shaking her head, "It would make being friends harder, wouldn't it?"

Alexa was confused by that fact, for some reason these [Humans] kept finding ways to say that they weren't humans, it was annoying Alexa. If even Alexa qualified as [Human], there was no way they wouldn't.

It was stupid.

"What?" Glory said, finally turning to stare at Alexa, "What do you mean why? We are monsters made in a laboratory, artificial data seeded into a sperm cell that was inseminated and inserted in our foster Mother's wombs!"

That was a couple too much complicated words.

Main Core!

…..Core?

……….Dang it, Cellphone!

…Oh, right, that one Alexa needed to use manually….Ugh….How was it…

[Test, Test, this is Alexa…]

[Hello World]

Yes!

Now…..

[Search keywords: Womb, Sperm cell, artificial insemination, insertion.]

And search!

[Results: Womb, the organ in the lower body of a woman or female mammal, is where the offspring are conceived and gestate before birth, also called the uterus.]

[Result 2: Sperm cell, male reproductive cell, or gamete. It provides half of the genetic material needed to fertilize the zygote or embryo during sexual reproduction with an egg in the female body.]

[Result 3: Artificial insemination, the medical procedure of injecting into a woman to artificially kickstart the gestation of a baby within the Mother.]

[Result 4: Insertion, the act of inserting something.]

Ah yes, this data was useful, especially the last one.

"But you are still Human even like that," Alexa said, pointing that fact out, "I mean, if your [Father] and [Mother] are [Human], you are too one. At least Alexa didn't see anything in the [Blueprint] that would suggest the opposite."

"But we don't know who our real Father or Mother are!" Glory screamed back as she started shedding tears, "....The current Lord and Lady of the Blackthorn didn't contribute anything…The sperm cell used and the zygote…they didn't come from the man I call father or the woman I call Mother…"

Oh…yeah…that could be an issue? Not really.

"Most of us don't know our real biological parents," Alan said as he pulled Glory into a hug against his chest, hiding her face as the girl cried, "We are born from the women we call Mother, but they are at best the carriers, the genetic data used to create us is artificial. In my case for example, they took a sperm cell, ripped the genetic data that it had and replaced it with the information that would make my body, then did the same with the zygote in which they seeded the sperm cell…Then after making sure the embryo was viable it was inserted into the woman who I was born from. They left some blank data, of course, enough to make me look like my parents."

….So….

"We are designed babies; we will never know who our real parents are. And even if we knew we don't have any resemblance to them anyway, we got designed to fit the possible trends of beauty and appeal to those in power." Glory said turning to Alexa, she had cleaned most of the tears in her face, "Even this, it takes pratice but I can quench my tears as long as I get my emotions under control. What took my Mother years of practice, I can do by merely twitching some muscles in my face that she doesn't even have…Monsters see?"

Glory said the last part with a sweet smile, it was…off, to Alexa it felt hollow. Even if she couldn't find any discrepancy there…

And Main Core was still sulking….

To the data!

[Start analysis……..reviewing previous data, going through memory files…opening memfile1 to memfile800856.]

[No matches…]

But Alexa had seen her smile before?

[Found one match, default smile set up within main Blueprint.]

Main Blueprint?

[Deemed inefficient since all the targets around found it odd, reason. Too symmetrical and stiff, some people's opinion was that 'It didn't have emotion behind it', no evidence of the absence of emotion, but it was deemed unsafe to use and, in turn, sealed away.]

…So that was an automated smile set up to activate at a whim? Like Alexa's settings?

"How many people do you know that can smile like this when they are crying internally? Not many five-year-olds can do this, can they?" Glory spoke, still smiling with that creepy smile; how was she doing it?

How had Alexa done it before?

[Searching….found file…Execute?Y/N]

[N]

[Open smiley.face.exp]

So it was activated using pressure points in the face? It manually tensed the muscles, and since it was doing it manually, they just used a symmetrical way since it was easier? This was sloppy work! Sloppy Alexa said!

"I know at least of another girl that can do that." Alexa said taking a step forward and raising her finger and pointing at herself, "Alexa can do it too."

And with that, she used the same Blueprint gimmick, mimicking the smile, it hurt to use. Alexa didn't like how her face moved against her will, it was wrong. Uncomfortable, and more important, it felt stupid.

One didn't need to push a button, or pull at some part of their body to smile, they should smile if they were happy! Only happy!

"Also Alexa knows more things!" Alexa said turning her finger and pointing at Glory, "Alexa knows that using that smile hurts, so Glory shouldn't strain herself!"

And after saying so, she extended her finger and shot it at the other girl's face, it sank a couple centimeters in the correct pressure points that the smile was using, and released the pressure. Breaking the automatic smile and making Glory's face return to normal, a face filled with sadness and tears.

"Wha….how…?" Glory said touching her face, and making weird gestures, Alexa noticed how the girl was moving her tongue as if wanting to touch something atop her mouth. Was that how she used that weird smile? Well, it wouldn't work now since Alexa had injected relaxing toxins there!

"Also, Alexa is sure that you aren't a monster, Alexa has seen them before after all." Alexa said nodding sagely, she knew of her monsters of course.

How?

Well, she used to be one!

By all definitions she had found Alexa used to be one of them, and if she was to be honest, she was probably among the best ones, nothing beats [THE CRAB]! After all.

"Also, even if you got made up like that….all [Humans] are made up like that anyway." Alexa said smiling sagely (Again), "As far as Alexa knows, the normal procedure to gestate a new [Human] is the same right?"

"What do you mean?" Alan asked as Glory kept fighting with her tongue against her palate, the girl didn't knew when to surrender.

"I mean….a normal [Human] is born when the [Male] injects their [Sperm] into a [Female], right?" Alexa asked tilting her head ever so slowly to the side.

Her previous search had said as much, and while she hadn't wanted or would search that again, she now understood why the lower part of the [Human] body was designed like that…

And it was disgusting. WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO HAVE THE SAME ORGAN THAT WAS USED TO DISPOSE OF THE BODY'S WASTE INSERTED IN THEM?!?!?

WHY WOULD THEY EVEN USE A CHANNEL SO CLOSE TO THE WASTE DISPOSAL AS THE MAIN DELIVERY MODE TO THEIR OFFSPRING?!?!?!?

WERE THEY STUPID? THE HUMANS WERE STUPID ALL RIGHT!

WHY WOULD THEY EVEN…..WHO EVEN THOUGHT OF, OH YEAH, LET ME USE THIS ORGAN THAT IS MAINLY USED TO DISPOSE LIQUID WASTE AND INSERT IT INTO THIS [WOMAN] TO SEE IF WE CAN MAKE NEW [HUMANS]!

….Madness, they were utterly mad. Alexa couldn't even think of a reason why she would want that, she closed that search thing and made sure to check, her own lower body seemed to be underdeveloped and couldn't fulfill that function.

So she was fine! She didn't need to worry about that!

"....Yes?" Alan asked confused.

What was Alexa saying before going into that rant about human reproduction? Oh right, that!

"Well, it is still the same, right?" Alexa said, pointing it out, "You are still made out of a [Sperm Cell] and a [Zygote]. They didn't make a new one, they may have removed the original data and put on new one. But the [Human Cells] are still there. They didn't use cells of anything else."

Alexa was sure of that, they weren't anything else, "Besides…even [Beast Core] and [Insect Core] users are still [Humans] anyway. So how could you not be [Humans]?" Alexa was annoyed at them, actually.

They were fine [Humans] and got all depressed about not being [Humans], what was she then!?!?!?!?

She was a [BioWeapon], and she was being called [Human] and [Alive] all the time, she was even starting to internalize it too! So being in front of actual [Humans] that didn't act or got all sad about that annoyed her.

She wasn't even supposed to get annoyed, that was Ale's work!

Dang it!

"....But….we…" Glory started to sound like she was going to say something dumb, so Alexa bonked her.

"Bonk!" And bonked her hard with her hand! "No!"

Glory's face was confused as she nursed her head, had she not been bonked before?

"Alexa's body is also like that," Alexa said doing a small spin, "Does she look like a [Monster]?"

"....of course not…but…I thought the Saintsworths didn't do design babies." Glory said confused.

"I don't know about that, but this body you see did come from a [Blueprint] and it used to have some of the same automatic emotions you have access to." Alexa said shrugging.

"This body? used to?" Alan latched into that, good. All according to keikaku!(Keikaku means plans)

"Yes!" Alexa said, nodding happily, "It isn't the first body Alexa had, and Alexa didn't quite like how it was, so she changed some things here and there!"

"Alexa….what is your actual Core Power?" Glory asked, finally stopping playing with her tongue, "It isn't…shapeshifting, right?"

"It is!" Alexa said, nodding happily at how they had bitten her trap, "Alexa can shift her DNA around and fix her body to match the [Blueprint]!"

Alexa had found many interesting words in her search about human reproduction, like DNA, the name for the cells that made up their body, she had been tampering with them without knowing their name, so that was nice to know now.

"....You…what are you?" Alan asked, looking at Alexa as if she had grown a third eye or something.

"Alexa is Alexa," Alexa said the obvious answer, "And she can probably fix your bodies into the same baseline a normal [Human] should have, if it is bothering you that much. If you have the same baseline as a normal [Child Stage - Human], you will stop thinking that stupid things right?"

Alexa wasn't sure if it would fix their issues, but it was a good start, so she extended her hands towards them.

"Alexa can prove it too, see?" Alexa said snapping her fingers…and then looking around, noticing how there was way too many people around, at least they gave them a wide berth….but some had probably seen Glory crying and playing with her tongue, "So long we find something more private….Alexa got scolded about using her [Core Powers] in public before."

Perhaps they should have had this conversation in a more private place before?

Tehe?

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