The Missing Mother and the Awakening Heart
Searching for my mother? "So... a heart is something that was divided into many pieces... and only when you piece all those fragments together can you truly obtain one."
The siblings, their souls' edges tainted by lust even while receiving the blessing of the Morning Star, had given a heart to a machine that craved one. They were the children of the forest guardian, Robin Hood, and the new heroes—the hope—who had received the final blessing of Tinkerbell.
Is a heart what comes out when you split a skull and crush the brain? Is it what spills out when you tear away the ribs and burst the heart? The answer the mechanical doll realized was a third option, neither of those. A heart is divided among a woman's hole, a man's rod, and the rear entrance that possesses both; it is something that can be given and received through those three places.
With that realization, a flame unlike any other was ignited within her cold, steel heart. A pale pink flame burning inside a small stove. It flickered with an ominous hue, inherited from the siblings whose souls were stained by desire, but what did it matter? It was the warmth she had been craving, after all.
They had satisfied their own lust through rape and, incidentally, vented their anger, but the result was, in the end, a good thing. It was ironic that such a wicked act could lead to a positive outcome.
"Did you tame her?"
"It would be more accurate to say I hacked and reprogrammed her."
"Sometimes I don't understand what Hansel is saying. But I don't need to know, right?"
"Yeah. There's no need to know. If it's something you need to know, I'll tell you, so don't worry."
The siblings were hunters. Tamers of beasts. In the eyes of Pinochia—whom the two had joined forces to defeat and subject to the humiliation befitting a loser—life had actually returned, making her look a bit more like a real human. They hadn't gone through the process of catching her, starving her, beating her, giving her scraps, and beating her again whenever she resisted, as one would to tame a dog, yet Pinochia submitted to the siblings. She had realized the heart she had been longing for, even while pretending to despise and loathe them. If she stayed with them, she could obtain a truly complete heart and transcend humanity. She could escape the confusion and agony of her identity—not knowing if she was a failed, fake daughter Geppetto had made, a son, or a killing machine in human form.
The mechanical doll declared herself the hunting dog of the siblings who had defeated and ravished her. This was a great step forward, moving closer to becoming a real human who chooses whom to follow, rather than a machine that couldn't move without orders. As a tribute to that great stride toward transcending her limits, the siblings decided to leave their revenge against the mechanical doll—who had become the enemy of their father—at this point. After all, the true enemy wasn't this mechanical doll, but the Snow Queen who lay beyond.
"I shall gratefully accept your generosity in forgiving your enemy. Such magnanimity to forgive the one who killed your father and move on."
"We didn't forgive you. If there's an opening, we'll fuck you again, and if things go south, we'll kill you for real." Gretel’s reply was sharp-edged.
"That’s a rather brutal response for a new sister. Robin Hood’s situation is quite laughable, too. The one who killed him somehow became his other daughter. I have two fathers instead of a mother. Geppetto and Robin Hood. By the way, your mother must be quite dumbfounded. To have a child she never gave birth to appear. Is this what you call a child born of the heart?"
Pinochia returned the remark with a sly tone to the glaring Gretel. A mechanical doll that had realized its heart could now use humor, not just answers born of hatred and jealousy. No matter what answer came, she was prepared with a counter-attack that would baffle the two and invite curses of "Are you insane?"
'How will you get angry? Tell me once. What kind of reaction do you intend to show to make me enjoy this pleasure you’ve helped me realize even more?'
Silence. Stillness. Quiet. No answer came from the two. They were lost in thought, wearing blank expressions. Was it that hard to come up with a response to Pinochia’s absurd nonsense? Or were they planning to sharply return her humor-laced mockery with another joke? It didn't look like they were pondering a fun riddle or a clever strategy at all.
"Why are you like this? Don't tell me Robin Hood was a hermaphrodite and you are children he birthed himself?"
The original thought had been, 'Did Robin Hood have both genders, put his own dick in his own pussy, and get pregnant to give birth to you?' It was much more refined compared to that, but the point remained the same. Was it a statement so absurd it went beyond being ridiculous, making them so angry that their blood boiled and then instantly turned cold? Shouldn't they be exploding with rage at hearing something like this? Why were these people acting like this?
Just as she was about to say something else to the siblings, who had frozen as if they had wandered off into their own imaginary dream worlds, it was Hansel who broke the silence.
"By the way, who is our mother?"
"Why are you asking me that? If you two don't know, who would?"
"Now that I think about it, we know absolutely nothing about our mom. We only know she died before we could even remember, and there isn't a single trace of her." This time, it was Gretel who answered. And then, the siblings realized it. If even the mechanical doll had noticed the incongruity, it would be strange if the siblings hadn't.
As if erased from the world, there wasn't a single trace of the siblings' mother to be found. Everything, including the small family photo that should have been in a frame, simply did not exist. Searching through all their memories, from when they crawled on all fours to when they started toddling, there was nothing—not even a longing for a mother. It wasn't as if a hole had been gouged out of the frame of their memories and minds, as if a person who had existed had been cut away. In fact, the absence of a mother, while tragic, is common enough that it wouldn't even count as a tragedy. It is common for a family to lose one parent, or for a seven-year-old child, after the tragedy of losing both, to become overly precocious, holding their younger sibling's hand with their right hand while pretending to beg with a tin can in their left, only to pickpocket. Such cases are common. It is not entirely unheard of for children to be poorly cared for because their parents died early. But this case was strange.
If it were natural for their mother to be absent because she died or left early, then when Pinochia brought up the topic of their mother earlier, a response like, "How would we know how someone in the afterlife reacts?" should have come out immediately. Instead, Hansel and Gretel went through a process of exploring their origins with questions like: Who was our mother? When did she die? When did she leave? Was there any keepsake she used at home? Had our father ever told us? The siblings finally realized the unnaturalness of it all.
"That guy Antonio never once asked Dad, 'How is your wife?' He didn't even say the usual things like, 'You look like your mother,' when he saw us. Something is wrong."
"Even if Dad didn't bring it up so as not to hurt us... it's too excessive. What is this?"
It is common for a single parent to avoid talking about the absent father or mother to avoid hurting their children, but this was too much.
"I guess we were picked up." Gretel’s clear answer. If there wasn't even a trace of their mother and no one ever spoke of her, what other reason could there be? That was the simplest answer.
'Could it be that the reason for this tangled relationship is my own transmigration or possession into this strangely twisted world? Or did the world change strangely because of a foreign substance like me? Perhaps I am the foreign substance, inserted into Robin Hood’s family tree like a bookmark?'
Hansel, who had transmigrated or possessed this body, went through a complex process of thought, unlike Gretel, who had reached a conclusion on her own. His very existence was a foreign substance, far removed from the residents of a fantasy world with typical fairy tale motifs. The mere addition of a small foreign substance could completely change the result. Perhaps the world had completely transformed due to the ripples caused by a single foreign substance added by the whim of a true divine being. There were many other possibilities, too. Brains in vats, and so on. If you think about all the cases, it just becomes infinitely complex and tangled, but no answer emerges.
"So, the confusion of identity and the doubt about one's roots were not problems I alone was experiencing."
Pinochia watched Hansel, who was still deep in thought, with her finger on her lips as if interested, observing the confusion of identity triggered by the absence of a mother—whom they hadn't cared about at all until now—and the fact that even their father, Robin Hood, hadn't cared about the memories and traces that didn't exist.
"Hansel?"
It was the voice of his beloved Gretel, a ray of light for Hansel, who was wandering in a fog of infinite thoughts and agony.
"Yeah. Even if everything about me isn't real. Even if I am a created being. Gretel, this heart that cares for you is true. That, at least, will never change. I think, and therefore I love. So, I exist as myself. That is enough."
That was it. Where they were born, whether they were Robin Hood’s biological children, whether they were foreign substances tainting this world—what did it matter? They were here, they could think, and they could love. That was the undeniable truth, so he existed as himself. That was enough.
"So you exist as a person because you can think. The process of your upbringing, your family relationships, and even the suspicion that you might be a created being rather than a human are meaningless in the face of that grand proposition. Was it a problem you could decide so easily?"
Pinochia nodded as if convinced, perhaps preferring Hansel, who had reached a bundled conclusion after some agony, over Gretel, who had made a clear decision on her own and neatly ignored the dilemma after falling into confusion for a moment.
BOOM!
The heartwarming atmosphere was shattered by a thumping sound from outside. What followed the thumping was the sound of countless beasts crying, and then—
"Did the beings who defiled this forest dare to build a den and wait for me? Your leisure is truly overflowing to the point of being the height of arrogance."
The voice of a woman filled with murderous intent. There was no mistake. It was the Sleeping Forest Witch, whose existence was certain, but whom almost everyone who had faced her directly had died. Finally, the owner had arrived in person to punish the ones who had set fire to the quiet forest and caused such a commotion.