Video

[mangata]

[ The number on the network seems to be the same as a certain Marina Santana that people know - including a few newbies now. It's taken from a low-quality camera phone, and the background seems desolate, and the blue-haired girl the video is looking at has shorter hair than Marina and, quite notably, has both of her eyes intact.

She sighs, and waves at the propped-up camera. ]

So it looks like we're getting new additions to this network for the first time in a while - and from what I've caught looking over the network, it coincides with a new wave of oddities.

[ Not-Marina leans in closer, eyes narrowed. ]

To everyone new, if you notice that I look identical to a certain Marina Santana, there is a good reason for it. Over a year ago, our planet created copies - doppelgangers - clones - what have you, of some of the reincarnations. Mirrored selves... and some of us are still alive. You may call me Umi Ryuuzaki, the name of Marina's past life, because I was in a hurry to be my own person and the name stuck well enough.

[ Yeah Marina, she doesn't really care how you feel about people talking about your past life. Just sayin'. ]

To everyone else, if this trend of strange occurrences continues, you'll be hearing and seeing more of me than you have for the past year or so.

It's... a pleasure. Goodbye. [ Although she'll chat with anyone who wants to.

Comments

[mangata]

[ ....they should. Sure. ]

Th-thank you? It's quite the unnatural color, I realize.

[dictator_ko]

It looks good on you! And I wouldn't say that just about anyone who dyes their hair.

[mangata]

I can forgive you for believing that it's dyed, but this is actually the natural haircolor of that past Umi Ryuuzaki.

So, I was born this way.

[dictator_ko]

What, really? Past lives're weird. Mine had cat ears and stuff.

[And was also awful and gross, but that's just her experience with her own memories.]

[mangata]

How anime.

[ They really are though, seriously. ]

You'll surely have them on your head as well, given time.

[dictator_ko]

I already got them.

[She pulls off her hat, revealing cat ears.]

They're cute, I suppose but it sucks hiding them all the time.

[mangata]

They are, uh. Cute.

[ Right? That's what she wants to hear? ]

You could just not hide them.

[dictator_ko]

Thank you. ♪

[She's in a good mood now because of the compliment.]

I'm not ready for everyone to know I'm a Numbered.

[mangata]

That is fine as well. The stigma attached to it is quite significant.

[dictator_ko]

I don't know how they live with being hated by so many others.

[mangata]

Hated people still find a way to get by because that's what people do.

[dictator_ko]

...I guess so.

[She's already had to deal with being hated due to the incidents with her terrible temper. The incidents in which people got hurt. But she's not eager to add being a known Numbered on top of that.]

[mangata]

I haven't gotten used to it myself. That is why I am where I am.

[dictator_ko]

Where're you, then?

[mangata]

In the midst of the American wasteland.

[dictator_ko]

What, seriously? That's no place to be.

[For a cute girl, anyway. For ugly thugs, maybe.]

[mangata]

Precisely. We are avoiding people, because people suck.

[dictator_ko]

[She thinks about how everyone'd turned on her just because she lost her temper.]

I suppose.

[mangata]

You've seen it, I'm sure. Arbitrary hatred. And here I am, not just someone who is arbitrarily hated - but a copy with no past of her own, no life of her own, and my purpose, protecting the earth, already served.

[dictator_ko]

That's so sad! I'll let you stay at my place!

[Mina isn't very given to thinking things through--this is a rather impulsive offer.]

[mangata]

...um... thank you, but I have to decline.

[ Well that was sudden. ]

[dictator_ko]

[Mina had a whole script in mind. She'd offer, Umi'd accept and she'd have a new cute friend. So she's taken aback at the refusal.]

Why not?

[mangata]

[ Sorry for ruining your everything! ]

I have plans.

[dictator_ko]

Plans? Well, can we at least hang out sometime?

[mangata]

[ Sigh. ]

If it is convenient.