Stressed and confused

Mirko gasped as her eyes regained life.

She immediately tensed up into a combat stance and looked around the small room wildly, before finally landing her eyes on Arthur.

"...you."

Mirko said in a low, trembling voice.

Her face looked conflicted as ever.

It was as if she was trying to be mad at him, but just couldn't find herself doing so.

Of course, unlike her, Arthur knew exactly why.

It was one of the basic fail-safety measures implanted into any Character that was bought, kindly explained in the manual.

Every character came pre-built with three functions: Natural Attraction, Banned ****, and Limited Powers.

Combining them all meant that Mirko had her immense physical abilities limited.

Nor could she hurt Arthur or any other Prime Human if she tried, and she was naturally attracted to Arthur no matter how he would treat her.

"..."

Even now, as Mirko stared wearily at her master, she found herself loosening up in his presence.

"I...this is weird. You...I..."

Mirko put a hand on her head as she tried to grasp the situation.

She could tell that something was very wrong.

She wasn't herself—something had permanently changed within her.

But even as the thought occurred, she couldn't get herself to be too riled up.

It didn't seem too bad, not especially when her master was with her.

"Gaah!"

With a frantic yelp, Mirko tried to slam her head into a nearby wall.

Arthur sprang to his feet, alarmed.

"Whoa, there. Stop! You can't just start harming yourself like that."

Mirko stopped, her forehead an inch away from the wall.

After a few seconds, she whipped around and glared at Arthur.

"I need an explanation. Now."

Arthur paused for a moment.

"Can I say up-front, you are probably going to hate it very much?"

Mirko narrowed her eyes.

"Give me your best shot, scrawny boy."

"I hate this."

Mirko growned into her palms.

"See, I told you."

Arthur said with a shrug.

They were sitting next to each other on the small bed.

Arthur had explained everything to Mirko, from RealDreams to her current status in the world and how she ended up in this room.

"So that's why that blue-haired girl called you my master..."

Mirko sighed deeply into her hands.

"To be honest, you are taking it better than I thought."

"Yeah, well..."

Mirko tried to come up with some snarky retort, but she quickly lost interest. It didn't really matter, anyway.

Arthur, on the other hand, was scratching his cheek slightly.

He hadn't intended to inform Mirko about literally everything.

Seeing her in such a depressed state wasn't particularly enjoyable for him, either.

He tried to think up what'll be the best way to cheer her up, but none of the suggestions he thought up seemed very plausible.

It didn't help that he had next to no prior experience with comforting others, much less someone of an opposite sex.

Eventually, it was Mirko who broke the silence.

"So...what's going to happen now?"

She asked in a small, timid voice behind her knees.

"I...I've already seen you with the blue-haired girl with her face and breasts covered with..."

Mirko hovered a hands over her face and chest, indicating how Privaty looked before they left.

Her red eyes trembled in their sockets as she glanced at Arthur, then her eyes briefly drifted down to between his crotch before quickly snapping away.

"...I mean..."

Mirko flinched as soon as Arthur opened his mouth, which kind of stung his heart.

He didn't want to be treated like some ticking time-bomb by one of his favorite character.

"I don't...I'm not going to...uhh..."

But whatever excuse he was going to speak felt hardly genuine, even in his own head.

After all, he did buy Mirko with a not-so-clean intent.

But at the same time, he didn't want to lie to her and say "I'm not going to touch you" or something of that line either.

After a few more internal struggles, Arthur blurted out the following words.

"Can't we just get along?"

The following silence was far more crushing than the previous one.

Arthur cringed as Mirko gave him the most perplexed, flabbergasted expression in the world.

'What was I thinking—of course we can't just get along...she's a character, and I'm not.'

But as the silence became longer and Arthur avoided her gaze...Mirko's expression slowly calmed down.

Eventually, Mirko slightly lowered her knees and revealed a small smile.

"You...are a very considerate person, Arthur. I'll give you that."

"Um, thank you."

"I was actually going to ask for something else, but I guess leaving the choice to you would be the best option here."

"I can't set you free, unfortunately."

Arthur said, but Mirko shook her head.

"Oh, no. It's the exact opposite of that."

Mirko's hands clenched into fists on her lap.

"...I want you to mod me."

Arthur dropped the E.C.R in his hand.

"Excuse me?"

"Mod me, so that I don't have to think about any of this. Make me your ****, or pet—whatever, I don't...care.

It's...I can't, live like this."

Mirko closed her eyes for a brief moment, but then opened it again to looked at Arthur with softer eyes.

"...but if you really want to get along, I guess it's my obligation to give it a try.

And I promise I'll do my best to meet your expectations.

As much as it is painful to acknowledge whatever situation I'm in..."

Mirko looked down and rubbed one of her arms.

"I'd prefer that I'm still me, if that's affordable."

Mirko chuckled to herself, then looked up at Arthur with a scared, yet determined expression.

"So...what are you going to do?

Whatever you choose, I'll follow it."

Arthur swallowed.

This was a heavy choice to make—something he hadn't really anticipated he'd face when he had made the choice to buy a character.

Half of him wished he had just modded Mirko from the beginning. In which case, better late than never.

But then the other half of him...he argued that it was wrong to simple squash this side of Mirko out of existence, even if that was what she wanted.

Eventually, Arthur made up his mind and slowly opened his mouth.

"I..."