9 Quan Beijia (Person B)

"Little girl, remember to order a meal for delivery," a digital replica of Lei Yinying's voice chimed from the small female avatar located in the corner of various computer screens.

"It's only 5pm," a raspy voice pouted which caused the childish whining to sound soft and seductive.

"Don't make me send another message to Mother, Quan Beijia," The avatar scolded with a combination of stern mother and older sister.

"I...ate...not too long ago," Quan Beijia complained and reached for her pipe once more. She took a long drag from it and the vaporous smoke slipped out of her mouth as she groaned in annoyance.

"That was six hours ago. Lei Yinying and Dr. Ma have told you to have three square meals a day. Every six hours per your 18-hour wake cycles," the avatar reiterated.

"Yinny-chan," Quan Beijia whined and reached for an empty bottle of sake. "How about another bottle of sake?"

"That is not within acceptable parameters, little girl," Yinny-chan expressed. The avatar was dressed in an anime maid's costume and her features resembled a black haired porcelain doll.

"Fine…" Quan Beijia caved and her voice faded out in a rasp as her lazy hands danced across her keyboard. A specialized application which had a list of acceptable meals prepared by Dr. Ma once a year was displayed. She gazed at it in boredom and selected a rice bowl before having the program order it for delivery to her address.

The application was specifically designed to simplify the ordering process for the lazy and irresponsible Quan Beijia as well as helping her to avoid human contact.

The program known as Yinny-chan was designed by Quan Beijia herself though Lei Yinying and Dr. Ma had a hand in determining the functions and predetermined personality of the avatar. After the completion of the AI assistant, Quan Beijia was only allowed to change the various costumes of the avatar. This was to prevent the woman from throwing a tantrum and forgetting to feed herself for two days as had happened in the past.

Quan Beijia was both thankful and easily annoyed by her AI caretaker and friend.

"Little girl, the food will arrive an hour from now. That is enough time for a therapy session with Dr. Otsuka," Yinny-chan chipped and already was dialing the psychiatrist.

Quan Beijia let out a long groan and was forced to pull up the edges of her loose fitting kimono. She had decided to live in Japan for the time being. She favored the kimono as it was layered and silky smooth. She disliked Dr. Otsuka's disdain for the opening clinging to the cusps of her breasts. She was always too lazy to put it on properly when Yinny-chan was the only one to see her. She felt he needed to get over himself and let her be. It would be even better if she didn't have to talk to him at all.

Quan Beijia was unaware or purposefully ignorant that she managed to have an hour-long session with Dr. Otsuka every week around the same time.

It was another task Dr. Ma had programmed into Yinny-chan after both Lei Yinying and her noted Quan Beijia conflicting desires to explore the world and her extreme fear of it. Both of them wanted for their resident computer expert to be able to settle down and enjoy life like anyone else. Instead of constantly running from it.

Quan Beijia, however, didn't view these sessions as helpful and found them to be bothersome. She had to dredge up memories that she had buried. And her Yinny-Chan would betray her on a normal basis by rerouting her meals or packages from her home to random public spaces. The worst event was when the package had been rerouted to a shopping mall. She had to navigate the parking lot and snatch her package from the front door. She spent the next week refusing to leave her bedroom in order to recover.

She never had been able to get an apology from Yinny-chan for that.

"Miss Beijia," Dr. Otsuka tapped his pen against something. "Have you been outside this week?"

She slouched in front of the screen, tapping her finger over the camera lens. "Yes…" she grumbled and removed her hand. "I went outside to try yoga and then I was forced to go to the convenience store."

"And?" He prompted with a gentle smile on his face.

"And it sucked," she gripped, already reaching to end the video call.

"But you've made progress. When we first started you refused to even go out in your backyard," Dr. Otsuka explained.

Quan Beijia took a long draw from her pipe, slouching in her chair like an oiran from the past. She blew the smoke out, aiming it directly at the camera. "Otsuka-chan…people suck…" she explained, hoping to be given a week off. "They always want to stare at me and if they knew more…they would bother me more. So I leave them alone."

"That's true. People can…suck," Dr. Otsuka expressed, trying to hide his displeasure at her addressing him so intimately. "But you're finally noticing the difference. Outside of your safe space isn't bad. It might be those who inhabit those places."

Quan Beijia groaned. The conversation was not going the direction she wanted it to. "What's the point of progress if there's nothing out there waiting for me?" She redirected the main point of her issues.

While this was a measure taken in order to avoid more pointless excursions to the dangers of the outside world, Quan Beijia did have a valid point. She was easily bored by those around her. Very few people were able to capture her attention and the few exceptions to the rule did not feel the need to build a place she could go.

The newfound center to her world was a mysterious figure that had employed her when she was at her lowest. She attributed the majority of her personality to Yinny-chan. The stern mother/older sister figure that she felt would be able to both protect her and push her past her own limits. But this figure would not deem it necessary for them to meet in person. This left Quan Beijia stuck with a sense of isolation and reinforced her disinterest in "normies."

She had talked, on occasion, with her two other associates. The annoyingly arrogant Dr. Ma and selfish, Bai Aiai. Both of them were able to exist in the world inhabited by "normies" and only felt the need to drag her with them when they had need of her. Nobody had ever needed her without her intellect or skill. This was another sore point that Quan Beijia refused to addresses with the various therapists she had seen over the past three years.

"How do you know nothing is there when you refuse to take anything?" Dr. Otsuka immediately refuted her. He had read the various files sent by Dr. Ma and by others who had spent time with the elusive Miss Quan Beijia. She had a difficult trauma that had been reinforced by loving yet misguided parents. It was a difficult task to foster independence in a person who wanted co-dependant upon someone.

"Then someone or something should come to me!" Quan Beijia snapped and took a long drag of her pipe. The unnatural elegance she exuded fell away to her childish reaction. The rushed air of vapor floated before her, blinding her from her computer screen.

Dr. Otsuka blew out a deep breath. "And that would be the end of our discussion for today. Miss Quan Beijia, I hope that we can have a more fruitful session another time." He cut off the call without any fanfare.

Quan Beijia stared at the now black computer screen. She set down her pipe and brought her knees to her chin. Nobody had came for her when she was in trouble. Despite the trust she held in her parents, they were too weak in front of the real powers of the world. She had to rely on herself to escape from her kidnappers. Then there was the time that her parents were called away by the government for important research. They had been forced to leave her in the protection of relatives as they went to do their duty for their country. Quan Beijia had been taken care of physically, but nobody had bothered to visit her either.

And the one time she found someone wanting to bring her out, wanting to interact with her. She had been told that she wasn't good enough. Quan Beijia hadn't felt such despair since her parents had told her that they were the kinds of people only able to bow down before others. Nobody ever needed her. Not really.

*Knock* *KNOCK*

"Quan Beijia! I've sent you at least ten emails, fifteen voice messages and twenty texts. Why are you not packed and waiting at the door like instructed?!" A voice shouted as a soft hand continued to pound at her front door.

She was forcefully pulled from her own thoughts when she began to recognize the impatient voice. Like a child hearing her older sibling returning home from college, Quan Beijia bounded for the door. She disregarded how flimsy her clothing was and immediately latched onto the person on the other side. "Ai-chan! You came! Take that Dr. Otsuka!" She beamed and grinned at the teetering figure of Bai Aiai.

"What are you wearing?!" The other woman exclaimed, her fairy-like appearance the stark contrast to the lazy seduction that Quan Beijia possessed. "No wonder you hardly leave the house. If you wore that outside what number of people would bother you," she tutted, her voice not carrying a trace of judgement that her words might suggest.

Quan Beijia didn't respond and remained smiling gleefully at her selfish associate. "Where are we going?"

Bai Aiai blew out another breath and fixed the sides of Quan Beijia's kimono. "Where we are called as always," she recited the words she always spoke when they were about to be given a special task by their boss.

"Mother has decided to see us?!" Quan Beijia exclaimed and immediately called her Yinny-chan to attention. "Begin to find me a new base of operations in China! And find me a better therapist than Dr Otsuka!"

Yinny-chan sighed. She hadn't bothered to inform Quan Beijia that she had already begun such preparations after the first message from Bei Aiai due to her creator's strange temperament. However, when it came to her "Mother," Quan Beijia was always quick to be called to action. "Alright," The AI replied without any indication of what had already been done.

Quan Beijia bounced about and a rare glint of determination lit her eyes. This time she would prove herself good enough to stay by her Mother's side. She wouldn't be sent back to one of her various rooms as always.