Work Text:
空の青さが
If the blue of the sky
涙の滲んだ跡なら
Is the trace of blurred tears
方々世界のプライドは
The pride of the vast world at large
微かな日常すらも重いだろう
Would make even ordinary days feel heavy
Looking ahead, a black ocean speckled with blue stars stretched as far as the eye could see.
Quackity, with porcelain skin and black hair falling in soft waves beneath a cap, gazed at the audience with dark eyes dim and empty, like an abyss capable of reflecting anything they looked upon.
He wore a blue corset adorned with delicate lace, elegant black shorts, and a tulle skirt that flowed from the waist of the corset, enveloping his figure with an ethereal air.
Then he smiled. A radiant, warm, perfect smile, completely at odds with the emptiness of his gaze.
The cameras focused on his every movement as thousands of aliens cheered for him with fervor.
"My beloved fans... Nothing fills me with greater joy than being able to sing for you once again. Please, listen to me and scream until your hearts are content. May my melody guide you to your paradises."
And so, another performance began. The monotony of routine repeated itself once more.
Quackity stepped onto the stage as the aliens, utterly enthralled, surrendered themselves to the euphoria, cheering and losing themselves in every note of his voice.
From a private balcony, a white bear with a mechanical voice watched the performance in silence, accompanied by other beings of immense privilege.
They watched their pet carry out his duty, drawing every eye toward himself as effortlessly as, according to legend, sirens once lured unsuspecting sailors with the irresistible enchantment of their song.
方々世界のプライドは
Even if painted in opaque colors
微かな日常すらも重いだろう
Would make even the smallest moments of everyday life feel heavy.
His room was white and luxurious, pure and immaculate. Gleaming marble covered the floor, while the walls shimmered beneath soft, warm lighting.
Towering windows overlooked a lush garden, where tall trees with blue foliage swayed gently above vast flowerbeds blooming with vibrant crimson flowers. White stone pathways wound through the vegetation, leading toward the Federation's elegant structures, their pristine white buildings rising from the landscape with an architecture as majestic as it was intimidating.
The furniture, refined and crafted from expensive materials, looked as though it had never been used. Not a speck of dust nor the slightest imperfection disturbed the image of perfection. Everything had been designed to satisfy every imaginable desire.
A perfect room for a star of his fame. A perfect cage to house his torment.
He had been informed by his owner, Cucurucho, that an important sponsor wished to meet with him. He was expected to be kind, accommodating, and agreeable throughout the entire evening.
Quackity already knew that story by heart.
He didn't need to search for the hidden threat behind Cucurucho's words; they both knew it no longer needed to be spoken aloud. After so many years, fear had transformed into obedience. Or, at the very least, the appearance of it. He never allowed the flame still burning inside him to show on his face. After all, dolls were made to be admired and manipulated, not to possess a will of their own.
Sometimes, Quackity wondered how everything might have turned out if, during that very first round, he had simply refused to sing and accepted death by default.
Perhaps it would have been a quick death. Perhaps he would have managed to preserve a part of himself.
Because the monotonous, lonely, and wretched life he lived was not worth the fame he had attained, nor the wealth he could never truly enjoy, nor the love he received from those filthy aliens.
Millions of voices screamed his name. Millions of eyes adored him... and yet, he had never felt as alone as he did whenever he sang for them.
不透明な色に塗られても
Even if it's painted in opaque colors
(彼方に) 汎ゆるもの投げ出せれば
(Into the distance) If I could throw everything away
体裁とか羽化不全の翅で藻掻くより
Rather than struggling with appearances and underdeveloped wings
蛹の衝動で溺れたい
I want to drown in the instinct of a chrysalis
本望 空っぽで
With an empty heart, just as I wished
His story began within spotless white facilities, surrounded by alien scientists who watched him in silence as they recorded his every movement on their tablets.
What he didn't know at the time was that he had never truly been human.
He was a creation of the scientific corporation known as the Federation. In their pursuit of perfecting cloning and the creation of artificial life, they had set out to engineer their ideal human. Of course, the words human and perfect meant something entirely different to them.
Using the DNA of another human and combining it with components from various species, they shaped a body with ethereal features, endowed with the potential to develop an extraordinary voice and a pair of large golden wings.
They had never intended to create a person. They wanted a symbol. A little bird. A canary that would sing for them.
After all, what could be more beautiful and exotic than a winged human adorned with golden feathers, whose voice could enchant entire crowds and who would sing again and again at the whim of his owners?
And so, from childhood, Quackity was raised and disciplined to satisfy his master's every desire: the President of the Federation, an alien of brilliant intellect and inexhaustible cruelty who concealed his face behind the mask of a white bear.
Quackity learned how to perform and how to pretend. He learned to smile, to be charming, and to speak for hours without saying anything at all. He grew up surrounded by people, yet condemned to loneliness.
The only blessing in his life, the reason he clung to it for so long, was meeting him.
Another human pet... or rather, another being who wasn't entirely human either.
A young scientist named Multi.
納得のできる生き方など
If everyone has a way of living they can accept
死に方さえも人それぞれならば
If even the way we die is different for each person
誰の声が必要なのか
Whose voice do we really need to hear?
いっそ何も考えなく
Let's just stop thinking about everything
答えようぜ僕ら
Let's be the ones to answer
夜闇の安らぎを消して
Erase the comfort of the night
朝を背に泣きながら
And cry with the dawn at your back
They met at Anakt Garden.
Cucurucho had sent him there to train. The competition that would take place a year or two later would bring Quackity the fame needed to propel the Federation's prestige to the very top of its field. Cucurucho never doubted for a second that his pet would win that ridiculous tournament.
And so, Quackity was forced to leave the facilities where he had spent his entire life and move to Anakt Garden.
Another place of endless white.
At first, of course, he was excited. The change meant more freedom, the chance to meet new people, and, for the first time in his life, a space he could almost call his own.
Those first few days felt like a dream. Even with the rigid training schedules, endless singing lessons, constant discipline, and relentless evaluations, everything seemed preferable to the suffocating monotony of the facilities where he had grown up.
Meeting the other human pets was as eye-opening as it was overwhelming. He believed he would never forget that moment.
There were children, teenagers, and adults. Boys and girls of every age. Some had arrived only a few months before him; others continued to arrive as he adjusted to his new routine.
He met many people some destined to rise alongside him, others fated to fall into disgrace and fade into obscurity with time. Luzu, Roier, Aldo, Molly, Tina, Jeremy... Each of them carried a future as uncertain as his own.
He loved them.
With all their flaws, arguments, and foolishness, they became the family he had never had.
Yet even surrounded by them, it was always clear that he was the outsider. The odd one among the flock. He belonged to the most prestigious master in the entire Federation and was regarded as a privileged pet. On top of that, his striking golden wings set him apart from everyone else at a single glance.
He never truly fit in.
The others accepted him, cared about him, and even loved him, but an invisible barrier always remained between them. Quackity was different. He had been different from the moment he was created, and Anakt Garden never let him forget it.
存外大人は子供へと
Adults can't become children again
戻れず雨を降らして過ごしてる
Unable to return, they live as the rain keeps falling
プレッシャー抱えた年下は
The younger ones carry the weight of pressure
愚直に幼さを包み隠してる
They stubbornly hide their youthful innocence
そして同じ空が広がってんのさ
And the same sky stretches above us
胸に広がってんだ
It spreads within our hearts
極論なぐらいに澄み渡れば
If it became clear beyond all reason
薄い未来なんて今さら
A fragile future wouldn't matter anymore
繭溜まりで望もうか
Shall we place our hopes within a cocoon?
晴れ模様か
Whether the skies are clear or not
寸前まで膨らませた風船の中が
Is it really wrong if the inside of a balloon inflated to its limit
詰まらぬ空洞じゃ駄目なのか
Is nothing more than an empty hollow?
なぁ
Hey
Open your eyes. You are thirteen years old. The youngest contestant in the entire history of Alien Stage.
Open your eyes again. Blood splatters across your face. Luzu's body collapses beside you with a dull, heavy, final thud. You smile.
You smile because that's what you're supposed to do. You bow gracefully to the audience, and as you straighten up, your gaze drifts toward one of the private balconies. A pair of radioactive green eyes meets yours, accompanied by a proud smile, while gloved hands applaud at an unhurried pace.
Open your eyes. You are sixteen years old. You already rule the entertainment industry. There isn't a single corner of the universe touched by technology where someone doesn't know your name or hasn't heard one of your songs.
Open your eyes. Breathe. You are nineteen years old. You hate the youth that was stolen from you.
You hate this reality with the same intensity your younger self had hated it from the very beginning. You are exhausted by this farce draped in gold, by rehearsed smiles and hollow applause.
But you endure. They endure. They have a plan. They only need a little more time.
Open your eyes. Smile. Sing. While your voice enchants millions, your mind drifts somewhere far away.
What do you do when the place you miss most isn't a place at all, but a moment? Or perhaps not even a moment, but a person?
The only thing Quackity longed for was to return to those days when he and Multi could see each other without worrying about time. As the years passed, their meetings had to be carefully arranged, as though life itself were determined to keep them apart.
They met by chance.
Multi was also an artificial human pet. He had been created using human DNA fused with samples of a strange material the Federation had discovered: uranium.
It had given him radioactive green eyes, extraordinary intelligence, and blood that glowed the same brilliant shade.
His abilities eventually placed him above most of the other human pets. The Federation stopped seeing him as a mere experiment and instead recognized him as one of its most promising scientists.
Of course, that didn't mean freedom. Only a slightly larger cage.
The first time they crossed paths was in the Federation's main facilities.
Quackity had just left a meeting with his handlers.
He was furious. Insults spilled from his lips as he vented his frustration by striking the wall over and over again.
When he turned around and found Multi silently watching him, the moment became strangely awkward. And yet Quackity simply smiled. As though that outburst of rage had never happened.
He introduced himself as effortlessly as he changed masks.
Multi was captivated instantly. That beautiful boy could completely transform his expression in a matter of seconds. He was an actor even when no one was watching.
Although they had spent years living in the same complex, they had never met. But once they did, they stopped losing sight of one another.
Jokes turned into long conversations. Conversations became walks through the gardens. Walks became impromptu dinners.
Every moment they shared became another brick in the home they were unknowingly building within each other.
Multi always believed he surrendered the first time Quackity sang only for him. It wasn't a song meant for a stage. It wasn't the polished voice he used for everyone else. It was a melody written exclusively for him.
Sung by the real Quackity. By the boy hidden behind all those perfect smiles. The passion with which he sang every word shattered Multi's walls with the force of an erupting volcano.
Quackity was beautiful. He was brilliant. He was absurdly talented. And beneath all that obedience burned a fire that could never be extinguished.
That very night, Multi made a decision. He wanted to take control of the Federation. And when that day came, he wanted Quackity standing beside him.
納得に代わる行き先など
There is no destination that can replace acceptance
後押しさえも矛盾の塊で
Even encouragement is nothing but a mass of contradictions
履き違えた実情だから
Because it's a misunderstood reality
いっそ全て抜け空だと
Let's just say that everything is empty
伝えようぜ僕ら
Let's be the ones to tell them
夜闇の安らぎを消して
Erase the comfort of the night
朝を背に泣きながら
And cry with the dawn at your back
Quackity lay stretched out across the lush green grass, one arm raised over his face to shield himself from the sun's glare.
Beside him, Multi sat quietly. His white lab coat spread around him in a wide semicircle, its edges swaying gently in the breeze. After several minutes of silence, Multi finally spoke.
"Do you know about God?"
Quackity turned his head toward him, curiosity flickering across his face.
"You mean the ancient human religion?"
Multi nodded.
"They used to believe in an all-powerful being called God. The creator of everything. A force beyond comprehension—never seen, yet always present. They found comfort, hope, and strength in Him. He was incapable of making mistakes. His words were law, and His laws were commandments."
A quiet chuckle escaped Quackity.
"Sounds rather fantastical. A fairy tale to explain the world."
"Maybe."
Multi's gaze drifted toward the sky.
"But do you know what else God was?"
Quackity looked at him with almost childlike curiosity.
"He was love."
He paused.
"And He was untouchable. Nothing stood above Him, and nothing could harm Him. His power was so immense that, to those who believed in Him, He was everything."
Silence settled between them once more.
"I've been thinking a lot lately."
The lightness vanished from his voice.
"I hate aliens. They're greedy, corrupt... rotten to the core."
A crooked smile tugged at Quackity's lips.
"Well, you're not wrong. There isn't anything more abhorrent than they are."
"I can't accept spending the rest of my life in a cage. I can't accept that this is supposed to be the fate of our lives."
Multi lowered his gaze to his own hands.
"I've been experimenting with uranium. I think it has properties no one has discovered yet. If I can understand them... I might be able to accomplish things that seem impossible today."
Quackity slowly pushed himself upright, supporting his weight on one arm. His eyes never left Multi.
"Enough dancing around it."
His expression turned completely serious.
"What are you trying to tell me?"
Multi looked up. The radioactive green of his eyes gleamed with an unsettling intensity.
"I want to become a god."
He paused for a moment.Then he smiled.
"And I want you to become one with me."