Kiki’s Poem & The Kidnapping

Crawling inside the dustbin,

I wonder who will die first:

Me or my friends.

"We're just machines," they said.

"Products of science."

We have no purpose.

What is our purpose?

Why were we created?

If we were born to die?

So, this is what a monster looks like.

The race that made us also wants us dead,

For the name of entertainment.

Artificial intelligence:

Doomsday for humanity.

Hence why we have this show.

Game of Mass Destruction

On this tranquil island.

Our hunger for life drives us.

We use what we can for fuel.

Anything we can get our hands on.

Sometimes we eat people.

We can't help it

It's in our program.

We'd love to go to the world beyond.

My knowledge lies deep.

The facts I have outnumber

Sahara grains.

But my only wish

Is a simple one: to

Dance with wild horses.

The last poem Kiki wrote before she disappeared. Yuzuko kept it in her pocket ever since she disappeared. Kiki wasn't her aunt by blood, but since her grandparents called Kiki their baby girl, it made her an aunt in Yuzuko's eyes. Evenings were empty without Kiki's energetic welcome home songs.

There was only one person who could be behind Aunt Kiki's disappearance: her grandfather's enemy, Sia Bucks. Hate was a strong word, but Yuzuko's blood would boil at the mere thought of her name. "That horrible woman needs to leave my grandfather alone."

Sia had accomplished many things, but all she wanted to do was to make her grandfather's life a misery. How dare she! Her grandfather was Professor Takeshi Denki: the greatest scientist alive, king of the robots and a table tennis champion.

Robots and humans living as one: that was her grandfather's dream. Kyoto was a utopia that she was proud to call home. Her only wish was to make her family proud with top grades, a doll-faced beauty, and burning all her leftover energy working for her grandfather's IT firm. Her greatest task of all was to be a loving mother to her infant son, who would only know his father through a tombstone.

Higushiotani Cemetery was the perfect resting place for her husband, Hiro-ki Shikumi with perfect views of the rising sun. Yuzuko meditated by Hiroki's grave every morning at six.

"I'm not the angel they think I am, Hiroki." She spoke as if he were still living. She could imagine his deep laugh and whack on the back. If he was alive, he would have told her to stop acting foolish.

He told her every day that she was the most beautiful girl in the world. His tender whispers and sweet words behind closed doors still lingered after three years.

Her classmates and colleagues envied her wavy black hair that she wished was straight. Nobody loved playing with her hair more than her girlfriend, Sa-kura Kanagawa.

Hiroki was the first and only man she ever loved. Despite the blossoming relationship between technology and nature, Yuzuko's country was still behind on LGBT+ issues. A classmate was expelled for coming out as transgender last week. And in many countries in the Middle East and America, a robot had more rights than a woman.

Patting the tombstone, Yuzuko pressed her lips against Hiroki's name. "There are three things that will make the world a better place. Firstly, Sia Bucks should go to jail for her crimes against humanity. Secondly, every city should be beautiful like Kyoto. Thirdly, I've longed for the day when I can hold Sakura's hand on the street and carry our boy Koichi as we walk on by. It's time for me to go to work. I hope Kiki's okay. Farewell, Hiroki..."

On her way to work, she tried calling Kiki's number. All she could hear down the phone was thunderous stomping and heavy rainfall. "Kiki! If you can hear me, please give me a sign that you are okay."

The phone went quiet for a few seconds until jazz music began to play ran-domly. Then a sickly-sweet voice boomed in her earhole. "Congratulations, you and Sakura have won an exclusive tour around the UK!"

"Sia Bucks!" Yuzuko gasped. If it wasn't for Sia's sickly voice, she knew the phone would have never slipped from her hands. "A tour? I don't want a tour. I want Aunt Kiki back."

"Yes, my dear and your lovely girlfriend have won the trip of a lifetime. Your Aunt Kiki has been helping us prepare the award for you."

"Wait, slow down!" Yuzuko gritted her teeth. "How could I have won when I haven't entered? I don't understand. Where is Kiki? Please bring her back!"

"A taxi will be coming for you in ten minutes. Oh, isn't this exciting!"

"That doesn't answer my question!" The line went dead and at the bottom of the road was a black limousine with Sakura inside. She knew it was Sakura, she always wore that yellow dress with the blossoms stitched on.

She approached the car. It was certain to be a scam, but it meant Kiki and Sakura's lives were on the line, then so be it. She wondered what the hell she doing.

"Sakura!" Yuzuko swung the car door open and removed the tape constrict-ing Sakura's thighs and wrists.

"Yuzuko!" Sakura sobbed, clutching onto her chest. "Thank God! You're here."

A head popped out of the passenger's seat. "Girls."

Yuzuko trashed against the backseat at the familiar face. "Mother!"

"What are you doing?" Yuzuko screamed at the driver. She jumped out of the car, opened the driver’s door and punched his stomach. jumping out of the car punching him. "Let Sakura and Kiki go!"

"Please calm down." Yuzuko's mother said with a smile. "We have to do this. Or else Sia will kill him."

"Isolation is no good!" Yuzuko snapped.

Sakura leaned her head over. "Don't snap at your mother."

"Under the circumstances, I have every right to." Yuzuko clutched onto Sa-kura's hand. "Let's get out of here. Warn everybody." The car doors locked automatically, and the driver zoomed away. The two girls tried crying for help on either side of the window.

"LISTEN TO ME!" Yuzuko's mother screamed at the top of her voice. The two girls stopped, cowering together. "You want to stop Sia Bucks destroying everything our family has worked for, we have to overthrow her."

"What are you talking about?" Yuzuko asked.

"You both have to play Sia's game."

Yuzuko was unable to speak. She had never felt so pale and clammy in all her life.

"The Game of Mass Destruction?" Sakura squealed. "Why would you do this to us. We can't destroy the robots. We love them."

"You don't have to destroy the robots," Yuzuko's mother said with a smile stretching to the corner of her left cheek. "Just have lots of sex with every-body - it's the easiest way to earn points."

"You want me to cheat on Sakura?" Yuzuko asked. She could believe that the woman in the passenger seat was her mother.

"Go ahead. I'd love more grandchildren."

Yuzuko's mother was a kind and caring person. When Yuzuko had any prob-lems, her mother would be there to wipe the tears away. Harumi Denki had turned into a different person overnight.