Little reason.
It seemed weird that life continued the way it did, after all that had happened, all that could have happened, the city just reset itself for another day. Zima took off his glasses to capture the sunrise; it dappled over Dita's face and stirred her eyes. Almost human, Zima though. How different are we really? A buzzed sound indicated someone was contacting him, he put on his glasses and the word appeared before him.
"Hello..." Someone was contacting him from central, but who? This wasn't anyone he knew. Intrigued he relied.
"Hello."
"You are a persacom?"
"Yes."
"And you can feel love?"
"Yes."
"How about hate?"
"Yes."
"Jealously? Anger? Joy?"
"Yes."
"So what makes humans and persacoms different?"
"Many things!"
"But you have souls, personalities.... Hearts. You are not different."
"Who are you?"
They were gone. Zima was left with nothing but the sun awakening the city and the uncomfortable feeling that something had started.
Kaori stared at the computer screen wondering what she was doing. Did she think that he would have all the answers for her? Just because he was the national data bank didn't mean that he could even comprehend her situation.
"Miss Meada?"
Kaori turned to see a persacom, she smiled prettily, her golden hair curling around those deer ears and falling just on her shoulders. Her perfect body, squeezed into her skirt-suit, could not help but shove the image of her father's persacom into Kaori's mind.
"Yes?" Her voice was slightly choked.
"Mr Naruda wishes to see you in his office right away." Kaori's eyes widened with panic.
"Umm...well, I don't think I can right now...umm I have something very important that if I don't see now it will...umm...blow up?"
"Mr Naruda said you would say that!" She smiled as if aware of the situation. Kaori felt her heart stop and she considered this for a moment before the fear of her boss returned. Her fate was sealed; she walked behind the pretty robot to her boss's office. She felt like she was back in school in front of the principle's office only he couldn't have chucked her out of her apartment with one word. Since her father had thrown her out she had been given a small place near work. Kaori was only 17 still a child in herself. Gifted in mechanics she had been a help in the hand held units for three years though this was the first year she had officially worked for PCN, the leading company in persacom advancement. She caught a glance of herself in the black shine of a picture's glass, she hardly looked presentable. She was always tucked away in her little office with only Jet for company, a hand held unit she had made herself, she saw no reason to look smart. She was wearing some old blue jeans baggy worn away at the knees, a grey T-shirt and a blue shirt that was way too big for her that she had found in a charity shop. It had made her smile as someone's mother had stitched the name in the collar 'Hideki Motosuwa'. Her black hair curled over her right eye blocking it from sight then went straight down to half way through her back. Her one visible eye was violet like the petals of a foxglove. From her left ear hung a black spike reaching down on black string through the hole on her ear.
"You can come in now."
She bowed nervously at the door not daring to look up to see the expression on Mr Naruda's face.
"Ah, Kaori Meada! Just the girl I wanted to see. Please sit!"
"Thank you Mr Naruda sir." She sat and her eyes crept up to see his face. Mr Naruda was in his thirties, his hair was gelled back to a dull brown and he wore a plain blue suit over his intimidating build. He was still a handsome man, the executive type, and the older office girls always giggled around him. Kaori was oblivious to any charm he had; to her he was scary.
"Kaori, we have a job for you. We are considering giving you a promotion and a raise, your work has greatly advanced hand held units and their applications."
"Really?" Things had been a little tight lately it would be nice to be able to relax a little. "Thank you sir!"
"We are going to upgrade you into the field of human based units, it will mean a dramatic increase in pay and of course a new assistant persacom and..."
"Excuse me sir, but I have a persacom."
"Ah, yes Jet, well I meant a human unit. It would be much more effective. I am sure we can find you a handsome one, what's your type?"
"No sir, I don't like human models."
"You don't like human models?"
"No! I phrased that wrong. I don't not like them I think they are efficient and I enjoy very much working with them but I don't want to own one. Because of what happened..." An uncomfortable silence.
"Oh! I see. Of course you can keep Jet. Kaori? You went to Kiyonzono school right?"
Minoru watched the girl at the front of the class. He could not believe that that was the famous Kaori Meada, the girl who had excelled right through the top magnet school Kiyonzono, the school where even he was challenged. He could hear some of the girl's laugh at her. She looked like she had just walked in off the street. Her jeans had holes in them and her shirt was far too large for her, and oddly enough looked familiar. She was shaking and her one visible eye was large but her voice was producing the most genius he had ever heard. From her pocket she pulled a small hand held unit. Could this be Jet? Minoru wondered. It had spiky hair, black with one bolt of blue through it. He wore a sleeveless top and baggy black trousers, his eyes were yellow.
"This is Jet, the most powerful persacom ever made." She said and slid the small thing onto the stand behind which she was talking.
"How can that be more sophisticated than my human unit?" Narumi Takeda stood up and demanded, she showed very little respect for the much older girl in front of her, but that Minoru thought, is what money does to some people. The persacoms of course sat by the side of the class as it was running late after school as they had such a special lecturer; Yuzuki sat there smiling peacefully. Life had been so great with her since she no longer talked like his sister, Minoru was getting so much pleasure out of getting to know the real Yuzuki, little by little there relationship was growing.
"May I ask which is yours?" Kaori asked her eyes passing over the line of coms. Narumi pointed it out, a boy of course, very handsome and tall with perfect hair and very human like ears. Kaori nodded at Jet, those yellow eyes opened wide and then the brown eyes of Narumi's com seemed to melt into a bright shade of yellow. He moved around and smiled walking towards Kaori. "Jet now has complete control over the persacom, he can break even complex security in seconds." The persacom came out of its daze confused. "He can now store all information found within the persacom. Example, Jet, what is written in her schedule for tomorrow?"
"Tennis-with-a-Miss-Yusuke-Kakinouchi."
Minoru was impressed he knew that Narumi's com had amazing security facilities that even Yuzuki could not break easily. With that girl in the field how long would it be till humans and persacoms were virtually the same?
"Excuse me I have a question." Minoru politely raised his hand.
"Yes, Mister Kokobunji?" Minoru was slightly taken back by the fact that she knew his name.
"Do you have any other coms apart from Jet. I am sure that you could make an outstanding human unit given the larger space and drive to work with?"
"I...I don't want to own a human com." She looked away. "I think they replace human contact..." There were tears in her throat, she turned her face away completely gathering jet into her hands she went to go. "I'm sorry I have to go." She walked from the room.
Kaori stared at the calendar pathetically, she wondered where this year had gone, was it really that time again? The anniversary of her mothers death. The twenty second of June.
"Do I have to go, Jet?" She had known this time was coming but had buried all thought of it under her work.
"That-was-the-deal-Kaori. Plus-don't-you-want-to-see-your-dad?" Jet spoke so fast that his words gelled together the little boy unit could hardly keep still. Just over a year ago Kaori's father had given the family a gift that had nearly killed her. She shut her eyes and could not help but relive that moment. Kaori's mother had died years ago from cancer, the disease had consumed her mothers body and little Kaori stood by and watched as her mother got sicker and sicker nothing made any difference. Soon the golden curls were lost to the chemotherapy that made her sick to her stomach and then one day she had just died, in the night, no one was even there. The family was just getting back to normal her and her father were coping, it was hard but they had each other. As it was June they were in the garden even though it was morning. Kaori was still at Kiyonzono but this would be her last few weeks. Her father was so happy, and then she walked in. Blond hair curling over her shoulders her eyes blue like the sea laced with green, the very image of her mother. No detail had been spared, even the light blue dress she wore had at one stage been hung in her mothers cupboard. Just like that her father didn't need her mother any more, he had replaced her. Kaori could still feel her heart crush inwards with the pain, still feel her mind swim with disgust and bending over and being sick. For a while she pretended it wasn't happening but he called her Sakura she had yelled at him.
"That is not Sakura that is not my mother!" He had turned to her with a severity that she had never seen and struck her across the face hard telling her that if she did not except this than she could not except living in the house. Kaori had given him one last chance to choose between her and the com, he had chosen and she was left alone in the city at only sixteen. Tears threatened but would not come, Kaori felt that she had cried so much that it was not possible for her even to have the ability to cry anymore. She sighed and picked up her bag, threw it over her shoulder then carefully picked up Jet and put him in the front pocket of her shirt. They rode the train through Tokyo, Kaori noticed that a com sat with its head down on the seat, it must be being taken to get repaired, she thought no more of it other than at this distance it was very handsome.
Kaori nearly turned back nearly walked away, but no she wanted to spend this day with her father, this day was hard enough without being by herself. The door opened and a girl walked out carrying the garbage. The girl was wearing a purple T-shirt and black trousers that seemed very familiar. Her hair was black and curled over her right eye and meant that only one cat like ear was viable from the straight mass that travelled down to her back. Her one viable eye was purple.
"Hello?" She said smiling. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sorry I must have made a mistake, I am looking for Mr Meada?"
"Oh, you mean Daddy!" The persacom even smiled the way she had used to.
Kaori felt her heart sink deeper, this seemed surreal.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, I'm Kaori Meada! Can I ask who you are?" Kaori turned her heart to stone, to rock her heart pushed granite with her blood all around her body till she couldn't feel the pain any more. Till it didn't matter that her father had replaced her. She nodded at the persacom and tried to give it a smile.
"Oh, well can you tell him that someone he used to know stopped by and that he is not to worry he shall never see me again." Anger filled her, she wanted to pick up a rock and lob it at the house, the large pleasant house that he lived in with his fake wife and his fake child. That is what Persacoms could do, replace humans, who wants to live with a human when you can programme a persacom to do whatever you want, to love you unconditionally. To never tell you that your wrong or being silly. Kaori felt like she was living just millimetres in front of her eyes, like she wasn't controlling anything this body did but just watching. She walked into an off-licence and pulled a bottle of whiskey from the shelf, when the man questioned her she used her security badge from the company as proof after all what seventeen-year-old worked for a large company like that? She sat on the train, unable to take his words she had put Jet in sleep mode now she could destroy her body in peace. She had no where to go, she couldn't go home, couldn't face the calendar reminding her where she was meant to go, so she just sat and rode the train slowly getting more and more drunk.
As the train got less and less crowded she saw the dark head of the persacom again, she went and sat next to him.
"So!" She slurred. "You weren't gettin' fixed! You were gettin' ditched! Yep, same here. We 'ave a lot in common! I'll bet your owner 'as a new persacom way bett'r than you! Just like my dad had a way better daughter. We have been replaced! You are a handsome thing though, but you all are!" The persacom had black hair it hung in little tendrils from his forehead and as he slumped over hid his face from her. His ears were human shaped but boxed in appearance so you could easily tell he wasn't human. Kaori lifted his head to see his face, it was soft like a child sleeping though his appearance was of a nineteen year old boy he had an innocence to him. He wore a black shirt loose over his body, he was much taller than her even sitting it was very obvious. For some reason, she could not probably think why at the time most probably the drink and depression set in, but her hands went to the ears and opened up the connection. "Now, don't you go gettin' any ideas buddy! I just wanna wake you up." Expert hands touched wires and his head lifted, his eyes looked at her sleepily, they were so light a blue they looked white entirely, a jolt rushed through him and his head collapsed again. Kaori frowned with confusion she pulled Jet from her bag and woke him up, she had to shut him up as he automatically criticised her drinking, and she hooked them up.
"He-has-some-mild-damage-nothing-that-you-can't-fix-but-it-means-he-won't-come-on-line-till-you-re-wire-his-drive." Kaori nodded, it was easy to get him back to her house once Jet plugged himself into the persacom.
Kaori tossed the calendar in the bin, and looked at the persacom as it lay almost sleeping on her bed. There was no where else in her small flat for him to go. Drink over took anger and sorrow and she simply pulled off her trousers and shirt and slept on the floor with her duvet wrapped around her.
"Thank god I move soon I don't think I can take much more of this." She said to no one.
Minoru looked at the picture in his hand. He had been obsessed with finding this girl since he had upset her. Minoru was a gentleman and had never been able to apologise for his question in class. Plus he seemed to enjoy getting mixed up in these sorts of things, he thought how different things would have been if he had never been in contact with Hideki. Curious Chi looked over his shoulder, so speaking of the devil Hideki must be here.
"Hello, Minoru, I came like you asked." Minoru offered him a seat. After all the normal routine of tea and getting settled Minoru started on why he had brought Hideki here.
"I am looking for a girl..." Minoru started typically Hideki went bright red and started to protest going on about something like he didn't know any girls Minoru's age. "No Hideki, I am looking for Kaori Meada the scientist, I need to speak with her about a lecture she gave at my school. You have been in Mrs Hibiya's house have you not?"
"Well yeah!"
"Did you see this picture?" Minoru passed Hideki a picture, three adults stood in lab coats, Mrs Hibiya was the only one he recognised. But the picture did seem like one he seen resting on the wooden table in her dining room.
"Yeah, I think so. Why don't we just go ask her?" Minoru smiled and Hideki led the way nervously knocking on his landlady's door. Chi skipped off to work Hideki let his eyes follow her, he never liked the idea that she was on her own.
"Yes? Hideki? Come in." They sat down and Minoru was introduced to Miss Hibiya the whole story was explained and then Minoru passed the picture to Miss Hibiya, she looked at it sadly.
"Yes that's Kaori Meada." She said pointing to a small girl of about nine. "That's her mother." The woman had a kind face, her hair was short and blond and her eyes little reflections of the sea. "She worked on the persacom project with us, some of the original data selection for the personalities of my two children came from Kaori, she was always running about the lab, such a good girl never caused any harm. It was probably from seeing be watch her that my husband got the idea to even make the girls. A few years ago her mother passed away though terribly sad. Her father, a bit of a misguided man, bought a replacement for her. Kaori ran away shortly after and I haven't seen her since. Such a shame. I think I've got a newer picture." Miss Hibiya got out a small picture framed in black, it held a girl noticeably the same girl as before, she was dressed all in black, her hair swooped over her right eyes like a shield and her face was downcast, in her hands she clung to a lily, it was raining and water dripped off her. "She refused to come in even after it started to rain, I went out to get her and she said that she wasn't herself anymore, now her mother was dead. She told me to take this picture so at least one thing about her old self could still exist. I took it, I think I took her at the same time." Hibiya looked so sad, her life was full of loneliness, everyone left her. Her husband was dead, one of her daughters doesn't remember her and the other is locked up where she can't get to her. Hideki felt a stab of pity, no just that sympathetic feeling he always got when people around him were sad. Soon after they left. Miss Hibiya was so quiet afterwards there was little to say. Minoru went home and got back to his computer still running at search on the tech expert of the PCN Kaori Meada.
Kaori woke up with a huge headache and gave a silence thanks for it being Saturday, she turned over and realised she had slept on the floor, she sighed and got up, her back ached as badly as her temples, then she saw the persacom, he was laying so still and happy, so content.
"Ah!" She yelled at herself, her hands cushioning her head. "How could you be so stupid, you gave him the bed!" Reluctantly she turned and went to him and sitting on the bed, her legs either side of his chest she opened up the circuitry of his left ear and started to assess the damage. Then Jet 'woke up' he looked at her and beamed a great big smile. She smiled back weakly, and arched her back to connect her computer to the persacom, she sat for a whole hour hacking into all his systems, Jet helping with the more complex things, a good deal of memory data was saved but needed to be translated from 1's and 0's. That was the hard bit, it was easy to trace down the loose wires and such that she would have to re-connect to get him moving again. She decided to do that before she continued with the main drive, most of it was ok, but some of it was heavily encrypted. She soldered the wires and re-sealed the ear unit, then looked at herself and realised she was still in her T-shirt and panties, in a rush she pulled her jeans back over the top, then turned him on. Only then did she realise that he was just a machine but still there was something about having a strange boy see her in her underwear that made her feel uncomfortable no matter that he was only a robot.
"Uh, hello? Where the hell am I?" He asked, his eyes fixed on her. "Who are you? Where is Jenna?" Quickly Kaori realised that Jeena must be his old owner.
"Hi, I'm Meada. "She didn't really know why she chose her last name. "I found you."
"Found me?"
"You were damaged."
"Oh, I don't remember. What happened was there an accident? Is Jenna ok?"
The feverish way in which he asked made it was obvious that he cared a good deal for his master.
"I don't know. I just found you on the train at last stop." She was covering for someone she didn't know. Why?
"Last stop. There must be a mistake. I never go anywhere without Jenna. I'm her persacom. She couldn't have..." Realisation dawned on him and his face crumbled, he looked as if he was about to cry.
"No!" She butted in abruptly, he looked so much like a person, she didn't want to know if they could cry, just in case they could. "I'm sure there was a misunderstanding. I'll help you find her. Tell me where she lives."
He opened his mouth to tell her but nothing came out, he opened his mouth again.
"I can't remember! I can't even remember what she called me." Panic seemed to set into him, viciously as he tried to work out what he knew.
"Yes some of your data was lost, and some in encrypted, nothing I can't fix. I'm a persacom tech."
"Really." Hope this time, she preyed silently that this show of emotion would stop.
"So-we-need-to-do-some-repair-work. Anything-I'm-not-up-for?" Jet said cockily. The persacom turned to Jet for the first time and smiled his welcome. Jet climbed onto the boys shoulder and looked at Kaori.
"I don't know...." Jet nearly fell off with surprise. "Persacom, this is Jet my unit." Kaori said in an off hand manner.
"You don't have a human unit?"
"No. I don't like human units." Kaori replied defensively. Jet swung around to the persacom's collar and waved him arms in a no gesture.
"She-doesn't-mean-any-offence!" He protested weakly. "Kaori-you-can't-call-him-persacom-it's-very-rude." But already Kaori was off thinking of improvements she would have to make to access the data.
"The trouble is, the firewalls that have been activated were not originally put in place they were accidentally activated when whatever happened happened. This means there are no regular procedures that we can take since it's never been decoded before, because it has never existed before. "I may need..." She turned to Jet, who had been watching her with a faint smirk. "How would you feel about some company?"
"Company? You-mean-this-guy?" Jet sounded almost hopeful.
"No I mean real company." Kaori said without thinking.
"Again-she-means-no-offence."
"I'm going to make a new handheld unit. You realise that this won't be a quick job though. I need to design a persacom with a set goal of decryption, and even them it's going to take all we've got."
"Why are you doing this then?" he asked her.
"I..." In reality she wasn't even sure herself. "I like a challenge." It wasn't true but no one questioned her. "For now we'll just called you persacom. Understand?"
"I'd-rather-we-didn't-Kaori, I'm-a-com-too-you-know. I-find-it-a-little-offensive."
"Call him what you want Jet." Kaori dismissed the idea and started to work. Jet had named the persacom Shinji Kaori was happier to just call him com. Kaori was running herself down working a nine hour shot at work, and her new job did mean more pay but also more work, and working on a specially designed com. Often Shinji would sit with her when she was staying up late and smile at her.
"Why are you doing this?" He would ask again and again. "How can you be so nice to me when you don't even know me?" Kaori knew why now, it had come to her slowly it had very little to do with any affection for the handsome persacom she was projecting her selfish wishes through him. Making sure that he could not be abandoned was somehow a substitute for resolving her own situation. She was glad that she never had to tall him that though. She would ignore him and stick bluntly to her work, however as they were living in close quarters it was impossible for Kaori to have nothing to do with Shinji and a sort of friendship was built up. Every now and then Kaori would catch herself forgetting that he was a com, and stare into those eyes and involuntary lean forward to be closer to him. Whoever made him was good, she could find out but her time was so precious she couldn't think about giving him an exam. Any data the company would have on the owner would be useless, merely a name and a serial number. Pointless. Plus it stopped her thinking of the wires under the coverings that looked so much like skin that she was beginning to feel the urge to touch it, to make sure.
It took Minoru a whole week to find Kaori, as she had so recently moved at first he had gone to the wrong house. It was after school when he and Yuzuki knocked on the plain indescribable door of the flat. A laugh came from inside, a boy's, Minoru wondered for a moment if he had come at a bad time.
"Hello!" A smiling face peered around the door, his face was cheerful but there were the unmistakable boxed metallic ears exposing him as a persacom. Minoru was a little taken back, the girl who didn't like persacom's owning this?
"Hello, I'm looking for a Miss Kaori Meada?"
"Oh, you gonna have to wait a while then mate. She won't be back for another three hours. She works late. If you give me your name then I'll let her know you dropped by."
"Wait!" The unmistakable voice of Jet called out and soon his face looked up at Minoru from the floor by the door. "Your-that-boy-at-Kiyonzono! Kokobunji? Yeah-you-asked-Kaori-about-having-a-human-com."
"Yes and I've come around to apologise."
"Kaori-won't-be-pleased-if-he-gets-the-wrong-end-of-the-stick. Shinji-do-you-remember-what-we-do-with-a-guest?"
"We let him in and offer him a drink. I know. But Kaori has been so tired lastly I thought she could do with a rest tonight."
"If-you-keep-doing-these-things-she's-going-to-get-mad-at-you."
"I know." He hung his head, then brightly opened the door fully for Minoru and let him in. "Won't you come in Mr Kokobunji." Minoru's head spun a little with the rather confusing conversation he had just heard. Amused he walked in. Now the other side of the door he could look at the persacom more fully. The boy was about nineteen, very tall and hunched over at the moment, his hair was crow like, black and in feathery tufts, a black shirt draped over his chest and a pair of battered jeans were his only clothes, no T-shirt or even socks. Paint skimmed the surface in little streaks now and then over his body. Easels stood around the room all showing one thing, a girl, about sixteen, bright blue eyes and blond hair, twirling around in light coloured dresses with large summer hats. It was strange Minoru had never known a com to paint before. Minoru sat down on the only thing in the room not covered with heaped junk, he was sitting at Kaori's desk, papers and little pieces of wire littered the desk. The computer was very old and looked dead now it was off. He criticised everything in the room one by one, then to his surprise found he liked this space, it was relaxed and lived in.
"Now," Minoru saw by he way the two coms were already starting to forget about him and play with the paint, that he would have to take charge. "Could you explain to me why a girl who hates human coms has one, Jet?" Jet looked up at him for a moment then answered.
"It's-complicated. Not-sure-how-much-Kaori-would-let-me-tell. Basically-Shinji-is-not-ours. Shinji-isn't-even-his-name. We-don't-know-what-it-is-we-found-him-broken. Kaori-is-going-to-fix-him-then-take-him-back-to-his-owner." Jet pointed at one of the pictures. And Shinji let his eyes dwell on it with love. It took a few hours for Jet to tell Minoru everything, like the little persacom was prone to doing. Everything that Kaori took so much pain in keeping to herself was now raw in the air. Even Shinji had not known about her father. Jet had been created then and told about how her father clearly needed metal help believing this persacom now to be his wife and trying to force Kaori into his fantasy world. When she refused he simply made a new version of her and forgot all about his real daughter. Minoru was shocked and he felt guilty, Yuzuki had been a replacement for his sister but never to the degree this man had replaced his wife. As if sensing his unrest Yuzuki moved her hand onto his and squeezed it slightly. Shinji made tea and everyone sat in silence, then breaking the mood the door was flung open.
"Hi, Jet, I'm home!" Kaori stopped dead to see the boy staring at her with unreasoned pity. "What?" She looked at Shinji and Jet then realised. "What have you told him?" She demanded her face hardening. Minoru could tell she was tired, her one visible eye seemed hooded and grey from lack of sleep, her clothes were rumpled, more than normal, and her whole body had a well concealed doped quality.
"Kaori!" Jet started but already she was off.
"Really my affairs are none of your business Mr Kokobunji. Now was there some reason you are at my home or did my talkative little Jet simply want someone to blab to."
"I wanted to apologise..."
"Apologise? What were you feeling really bad for making me upset! So you decided to some and make yourself feel better. Kind of backfired on you didn't it. Now you know why you made me upset. Well don't worry about it! Apology excepted. Now if you don't mind I have a lot of work to..." Her eyes latched onto Yuzuki and she immediately went to her, Yuzuki smiled uneasily as the girl examined her. "Very good work. But then I was told that. Very human ears, but still that's not where they draw audio messages from. Can't quiet imitate the natural system to be comprehended. The vibrations don't turn into sound the same way, they work on familiarity, that's why they have so much trouble with dialects." Minoru was shocked the girl obviously had a great fascination with technology. "Yes, we're working on that at the moment, a working ear, seems simple but it's really not. When we're done I'll give you a copy of the work."
"Why would you of all people want to make human's and persacoms similar?" He asked the question more to himself than to her.
"Because I want to know that I can." She said still half dazed, her mind was whirling with possibilities. She smiled at Yuzuki and backed away. "Sorry about that Technology just gets me excited. I tend to black out everything else." She laughed nervously, she seemed to have forgotten about being angry, Minoru guessed due to the lack of sleep he had seen in her face.
"Did that come from working with Ms Hibiya?"
"Chitose? I suppose so. Well you certainly have done your homework Mr Kokobunji."
"Minoru please, and this is Yuzuki."
"Well you know me and Jet but this is a persacom Jet calls him Shinji after a character in a book he liked. What was it?"
"Battle-royale! Shinji-Mimura-was-my-favourite."
"Oh, how is Chitose? And Ichiro, and what were the girls names...Elda and Freya?"
"What? You don't know."
"Know what?"
"Ichiro is dead." Kaori's face was drawn into sorrow. "Freya broke and lives inside her sister, who was reset. She's now Chi."
"Did Chi find the someone just for her?" She asked with intensity.
"Yes."
"Then it's all over and the data that should never have been installed is inactive." She spoke again to herself. "Will you take me to see her, to see this Chi and Hibiya!"
"I suppose I could." He though for a moment. "I'll have to ask for your intentions. A lot of bad people tried to get their hands on Chi not too long ago."
"I bet they did, with that kind of software I'm surprised that she didn't get disassembled by the new owner."
"No Hideki's a simple guy, he doesn't know about computers and such things, he's just an ordinary guy."
"Hideki? Hideki Motosuwa?"
"Yes?"
Kaori laughed again, it was a pleasant sound and when she smiled she did look like Chi but maybe not as innocent. "You tell Hideki that my intentions are pure. Thank you Minoru for stopping by, I'm sorry if either for theses boy's caused you any rouble." Minoru was right, she had blocked out what he had heard from her mind. As she escorted him to the door she swayed for a moment and Shinji caught her, she smiled a thank you at him then angrily threw his hands away from her shoulders. Minoru tried to keep the pity for her show in his face. He had seen something in her face that he saw when Shinji looked at one of his pictures. 'Poor girl.' He thought, he wished her happiness though knew it would be out of her grasp.
Hideki opened the door to let the girl in, it was true her face looked a little like Chi's and her voice was similar but she was most defiantly her own person. No one could come close to being like Chi not even Freya.
"Welcome." Hideki said, glad he'd had enough warning to clear the porn off his floor.
"Hello!" Chi called, the girl looked at her for a moment.
"You sound different." She mused. "Elda always had a lower voice, you sound lighter. Oh, sorry, I tend to do that. I think it comes form living alone. I'm Kaori, It's nice to meet you." Hideki took an immediate liking to her.
Kaori was told the whole story, it took a while but soon she understood, she took a moment to digest the information.
"And so the programme is inactive?"
"Yes." Hideki put his arm around Chi and she smiled at him, he couldn't help but notice the darkened look that crossed the girls' face.
"Do you know what the programme was?" Kaori asked, to Chi more than to Hideki who after a few bumbles over technical terms, she had dubbed so be an idiot and so directed more of her questions to Chi and even to Kotoko. Chi shock her head violently and nearly fell down. Then she turned to Kaori and looked at her for such a long time that Kaori had to look away from the scrutiny of those amber holes.
"Freya says that you are a nice person. Chi doesn't not know you but if Freya says you are nice than Chi likes you. You may access the data if you want."
"No that's ok Chi. Thank you very much." Kaori couldn't help smiling, Chi was such a sweet girl, and Freya's approval had put her in a nice mood. She put her hand on Chi's head. "It will not matter, you have found happiness just as everyone wished. You have succeeded where your sister failed. I hope you are happy for your whole life." She turned to Hideki and smiled. "In a few years if you want to upgrade her appearance I'd be happy to do the work."
"Upgrade! There is nothing wrong with Chi. I would never change her."
"Ok, just thought that you might not want to look like a perv. You are going to age and she is not. You'll look very strange when you're fifty."
A look of realisation passed over his face, it was true that he could never grow old with Chi but the idea that she would be a teenager for life was strange. He wanted to share this with her. To get married maybe later adopt children, he couldn't do these things if she looked this young forever. After he didn't say anything Chi turned to him with concern over her face.
"Hideki is unhappy with Chi?"
"No, never with you Chi."
"I'd make sure that she would still be her and besides I wouldn't need to change her data. She will always be Chi." That made Hideki feel better he even gave a smile, plus it was nice to know that he knew someone who cared for Chi that would be able to help them if they did ever need to make her look older. He loved Chi so much he didn't want their relationship tainted by the fact that he would look older and older and older than her.
Next stop for Kaori was Chitose. The woman welcomed her in with great pleasure. It was good to see her mothers friend.
"I wished that I could have worked at Piffle Princess Enterprises but I was on the street and PCN offered me a job. What could I say."
"I'm sure you've done some great work. Now why have you come to see me?"
"First I want to say how sorry I am that Ichiro passed on. He was a good man and the world suffers for his loss. But I need to talk to you about the programming that nearly damaged the city only a month ago. The programme you installed into Chi. It was going to stop recognition wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was put in place to protect persacom's from the pain of unrequited love."
"What about humans?" Hibiya looked confused. "What about if a human loved a persacom and were not loved back? Why did you protect robots and not humans?"
"It was to protect your children."
"I understand."
"No you don't. You can't. You're only 17 Kaori. You're a child yourself. Stop pretending to be so grown up. It doesn't suit you."
"Sometimes we need to grow up."
"I kept that picture of you, at Sakura's funeral. What happened to the girl I used to know before that picture was taken?"
"She was replaced, by one of your children." The words were brutal form her mouth. Not accusing just slashing at herself.
"So you hate them all do you?"
Kaori opened her mouth to say yes, that she hated them all that they destroyed the bonds between people. To yell at Hibiya that she had broken families with her children, with no thought to people. But strangely Shinji's face smiled in front of her eyes. Reminding her of the fact that she did not hate all persacoms, she could not.
"Yes." She said weakly without conviction. Hibiya smiled and welcomed her into her arms.
'So you have found the someone just for you' Hibiya thought to herself. 'I hope that you find happiness, Kaori, I really do.'
It took Kaori five whole weeks to finish her new persacom, a hand held unit she called Sakae. It was a small girl her head large in Chibi form, her hair was long and straight tied into a plait down her back. She wore a small Kimono of white her pink heir the colour of cherry blossoms flowed over it as strands strayed from their confinement. Her eyes were a brighter pink the colour of children's crayons. She smiled and bowed demurely when she was introduced.
"Pleased to meet you." She had a slight country accent giving her an unusually mixed character.
"Pleased-to-meet-you-too-babe!" Jet took an immediate fancy to her and would loll about her as he waited for her to crack the codes on the computer to decode all the information. The lost data would never be inside Shinji, it was impossible to put back. It would be decoded on the computer and then they would take him to Jenna and she would fill him in. It was simple. Kaori looked at him, he had worn the same black shirt and jeans since she found him.
"Com, I think we should get you some new clothes if you are going back. We can't have you seeing Jenna in rags. Jet are you coming?"
Jet was staring at Sakae, who politely smiled back. "Maybe-later."
Secretly Kaori was glad. Part of her wanted Jenna to have replaced him then he could stay here with her. They walked about the shops, Shinji linking arms with her, she felt like they were a young couple going to town together. Her imagination slowly conjured up a make believe world in which Shinji loved her. She leant against his arm and he smiled pulling her closer to him. They had a great time together, laughing and joking trying on ridiculous clothes and getting chucked out of a rich boutique for making too much noise (and because Shinji tired on an expensive ball gown, he did look lovely in it though!) Eventually they bought him a new shirt, blue this time to bring the colour into his eyes. And a new pair of jeans. They were just walking home when it happened.
Hideki would blame himself later, he had become lax now that he and Chi were together but the same slime covered the streets and Chi was far too innocent to tell good from bad. When someone offered her a ride back to her place from work she saw no reason why she should not take it up. She thanked the man and got in.
"No!" the voice called, surrounding persacoms looked around to see where the voice came from. Even Shinji shook his head to try and stop the strange call. "You may not touch me there. You may not! Chi is Chi, she will not be reset!" Chi bounded from the car and, her dress half ripped off, stood on the top of a large industry building and the persacoms on the street blinked up at her, going off line.
Hideki was a work, he wouldn't have known unless the bosses com hadn't reacted. He rushed outside and followed the masses of coms heading towards her, at his call she snapped out of it, Chi once more, he swore into her neck that he would never let her walk home from work again. Scolding her for getting into a strangers car.
"Shinji!" Kaori cried and twisted his shirt into her hands, she was about to cry only she couldn't. "Shinji, no please, please wake up! Please don't leave me! I don't want to be alone anymore! Please!" She yelled at him and threw her arms around his chest, clinging to him with a desperate need. He came back on line slowly, his head tilted down, feeling the movement, Kaori looked up, honest relief was too strong to be disguised as she sighed before hiding behind a scowl once more. But Shinji could not forget the look in her face that he had seen. He was sure he had seen love. They walked back in silence, neither sure what to say. This awkward avoidance of the other lasted for the whole week, and then Sakae got a fix. Shinju was just getting his coat on to leave when he turned to Kaori, he had to get this out before he left.
"Kaori, I like you but the things is..." Kaori felt the knife twist inside her and silently begged him not to go on, she knew what her was going to say, he didn't need to say it. To make everything she wanted impossible, if he said it it was real, and she wouldn't be able to live in fantasy any more. "I love Jenna."
"Of course, now lets go."
Jenna was pleased, no that's an understatement, Jenna was over the moon. Her family hadn't had enough money to fix him after a car accident. Jenna was meant to take him to the dump but just couldn't, she left him on the train in the hope that someone would fix him and at least he would live. She never dreamed that he would come back. The look of love between them was starting to make Kaori feel sick, she wanted to go and it was getting harder to maintain this happy face. After what seemed a year she left with promises to visit though she knew they were lies. Walking back, a new bottle of Vodka clasped in desperate hands she passed Chi and Hideki, she didn't even see the pretty com and her concerned owner, coming back from work, her eyes were blind. Chi stopped and shut her eyes, her sister came into step with her as they walked home. Her dress was black, the ends ragged with little pearls, the petticoat spiked like bat wings and the sleeves past her hands with large holes half way down for her soft hands to slide through. Purple string tied the corset over top to dig the curves of her body.
"Why was she so sad?" Chi asked.
"The someone just for her does not love her."
"What will happen to her?"
"I don't know, if he really was the someone just for her then there will be no other person in the world for her now. She will be alone and unhappy. If her heart really hurts, then she might just stop living."
Chi opened her eyes and ran back to get Kaori, her hand was clamped to her heart and her face wallowed in pain. Hideki, confused stood a moment before following Chi back to Kaori.
"Does Kaori have pain?" Chi asked, the girl nodded dumbly. "Where?" Kaori pressed harder on her heart.
"I don't; understand." She whispered. "Is there something wrong with me. I...I don't want to be alone any more." She started to cry, little drops lining her face a bleak white. "Why do people leave me. Mother, Father, Shinji. If I can't even get my family and a com to love me, then...who will?" A total abandonment fell on her and crushed at her heart. She couldn't bear this pain anymore, no she didn't want to bear this pain anymore. And then she fell to her knees and couldn't get back up.
Kaori knew she was dreaming, she didn't really know how she knew. A confused list of contradiction lined her head. If she was dreaming how would she know it was a dream. But if she wasn't dreaming then why did it seem like she was. She was standing that was the first thing she noticed, in the street people rushed around her ignoring her calls it seemed. She asked where she was, her hand reached out to a mans arm to grab his attention and phased right through. She gasped and back away only to find her lower body passing through a small child. Then slowly they appeared, just one or too at first, little lines thinner than a spiders silk, they crossed over the street all around, as they appeared Kaori had to get out of their way .She looked around desperate for the source of these strings. Then she saw the truth, they were attached to the fingers of people passing by, attaching then to...to what? A couple walked past hand in hand, their string as one lopping over their hands and wrists. Now it made sense, they connected people to the someone just for them. Every person in this city had a someone just for then and a string to tie then to that person. So that no matter what they could find them. Persacom, human it didn't matter, everyone had these strings. She looked at her own finger, it was bare. A small dig of pain rushed through her. By now more and more strings were visible it was hard to find a space in which she could stand without being in ones path. Then she saw how irrational she was being, if the people could pass through her so could the strings, she reached out to touch one, the fine edge caught her hand and sliced at the skin, red trailed down in inevitable lines. She pulled back but it was too late like a swarm of bees they had sensed her attach the strings came and crossed all about her all around her, tying her to this space squeezing at her skin and cutting her in small cuts no bigger then a paper cut each one. Her wrists were bound, her arms, her legs she couldn't move. These strings just tightened on her.
"You do not have a string?" A voice called.
"Freya?" Kaori had known it at once.
"Yes, look at my hand." Kaori looked, around her finger was no string. "You are like me. You do not have a string, everyone else does but you do not."
"What does this mean?"
"It means you will love but no one will ever return your love."
"Why?"
"I don't know." Her voice was sad and toneless.
"What should I do?"
"I don't know. It depends how great the pain is." At that moment a string shot right through Kaori's heart passed through her body to the other side. Her body jolted with the shook then was proceed by a chilling ache that seemed to grind at her body. "Do you know whose string this is?"
"Shinji's."
"Yes, It passed through your body, it was not meant to. It caused you to love him when he loves another. Just like me."
"Like you? You loved Ichiro!"
"Yes, the pain was so great that the string tore a hole in my heart and I bled to death."
"Is that going to happen to me!"
"I don't know. It's up to you."
The dream stopped, there was no haze into reality it simply stopped then black then waking. She knew she was in a hospital bed even before she opened her eyes, it was so uncomfortable that it could be nothing else. Chitose was above her bed she gave her a smile.
"Kaori, It's good to see you awake."
"You used to tell me a story Chitose, do you remember?" Kaori whispered in mumbles, Chitose leant in to try and work out what she was saying. Her violet eyes fixed on the ceiling the bright neon light that gave the room a gaudy yellow glow. "A 'someone just for me' do you remember?"
"I remember."
"The one who you love more than any other. The one who you know everything they can't do and everything they can and you love then still. Not in spite of these things but because of them."
"Yes."
"I found the someone just for me." There was a pause, though the hospital was full of noise there seemed for that moment a vacuum of silence. "And he does not love me." Chitose bowed her head in sorrow for the girl.