It was Hideki's birthday, and Chii wanted to bake him a cake. She had seen it on TV, and she KNEW that cakes made people happy. And she so wanted Hideki to be happy.

So Chii went online and found a good recipe. Chii went out and bought all the ingredients. Chii did everything right. And then... Chii died.

A lose wire, from behind the stove, came into contact with the metal. Chii touched the metal handle of the oven door when she was about to take the cake out. The skin of her hands was burned black, its surface damaged beyond repair. Her hands themselves, and her legs, ceased to function and she collapsed in a confused heap, little sizzles of electricity all over her body.

"Chii does not understand," she said weakly. "Chii is baking a cake..." Chii's eyes slowly blacked out, and faint whirring sound could be heard from somewhere inside her, a sound that was winding down and soon turned to silence. Her eyes became dark and empty.

Chii opened her eyes suddenly, startled. She sat up roughly, concerned about her cake, but she wasn't in her kitchen. She was in a hospital, though she didn't know it yet. She looked around curiously.

"Where is Chii? This is a place Chii does not know."

Knowing she wanted to find Hideki, Chii got up, unmindful that she was clad only in a paper gown, and went out the door. She was stopped by several nurses, but none could stop the determined Chii from her quest to find Hideki.

Finally, one of the nurses felt a glimmer of understanding, and a connection was made. That connection made her gasp. "Oh my god. This is Chii. Chii. She's the persecom I've been reading about on the net..." She trailed off. "Chii, stay here. I will locate Mr. Motosuwa for you."

Chii nodded. "Chii understands. Chii will stay right here and nurse will find Hideki."

The nurses nodded and patted Chii's shoulder awkwardly. "Yes dear. I will find Hideki."

A while later, Chii saw Hideki and immediately launched herself at him. "Hideki, Hideki, Hideki!" She bounced up and down, squeezing his neck. "Chii tried to bake a cake for Hideki, but Chii's cake was no good."

Chii let Hideki go and cocked her head. "Chii?"

Hideki still made no response. He would only look at her. "Why doesn't Hideki say anything? Is Chii no good? Is Chii... bad girl?" her eyes became sad, and finally, Hideki moved.

"Chii," he said, his voice breaking.

Chii hugged him, unsure of why he seemed so unhappy. "Hideki is angry?"

Hideki hugged her tighter. "No Chii," he whispered, "Hideki is not angry." He let her go, but maintained a firm grip on her hand.

Chii smiled at him. "Is Hideki all right? Would Hideki like to sit down?"

Hideki nodded and sank into the bench she led him too. The nurse that had helped Chii was nearby.

"Mr. Motosuwa, I must contact the family."

Hideki nodded. "I understand. I will try to make her understand." He turned back to Chii, who was humming some happy little song of her own making. "Chii? Chii, listen to me."

"Chii is listening."

"What happened Chii? What's the last thing you remember?"

Chii put a finger to her mouth. "Chii was baking a cake for Hideki. But the cake was no good." Her mouth turned sad, and Hideki leaned over and hugged her fiercely.

"it wasn't your fault Chii."

Chii's smile brightened. "Chii will try again!"

Hideki shook his head, and Chii noticed the sadness in his eyes. "Chii? Hideki, what is wrong?"

Hideki sighed and pulled her close to him. "There's no simple way to say this Chii, so I'll just tell you what happened. You were severely damaged by the electricity Chii. It's stronger in our building than... anywhere else, practically. I was so afraid you'd been erased... the building was blacked out, you'd channeled all the power into your body; a lot of your circuits were fried. So I took you to the hospital. They have a lot of power Chii, they have Persecom terminals. I called Kokobunji and he came immediately. We hooked you up and attempted to run your maintenance program, to see if your date was still safe. It was. You even regained consciousness. And then... you went completely offline. We couldn't restart you for an hour Chii..."

Here, Hideki had a lot of difficulty going on. One look at Chii though, he found the strength to continue. "When we did manage to hook your cable up to one of the TV's in the room, the screen told us that your data hadn't been erased, it had been transferred."

Chii looked confused. "Where did Chii's data go?"

Hideki shook his head. "We searched all the hospitals computers Chii, there wasn't a trace of you anywhere. I thought... I thought you were... gone."

Chii touched Hideki's cheek. "But Chii is here."

Hideki pressed her hand tightly to his cheek. "yes, Chii, you're here. But you don't look like Chii anymore."

"Chii?"

"Somehow, your data got transferred into a girl's body, a girl that had been in a coma for the past year. She had been on multiple life support systems, including a new experimental one that involved her brain being constantly stimulated by electrical currents. It seems your data was transferred into her brain."

Chii held her hand in front of her face. "So who is Chii?" she asked, her voice distressed. "Is Chii still Chii? Is Hideki still Chii's special someone?" Her voice broke, something the Chii of old would never have been able to do. "Is Chii no good?"

Hideki hugged her fiercely. "I still love you Chii. And you're still Chii, no matter what you look like. But you're human now. And you're in another girl's body. I don't know what her family will do, they might take you."

Chii clung to Hideki like one drowning. "Take Chii?" Tears started to form in her eyes, a surprising event she missed in her distress. "Chii does not want to go!"

Hideki comforted her as best as he could. "I'll explain as much as I can to them Chii. Besides, we don't know if this is permanent. Surely... surely there must be a way to get you back into your own body." Hideki shook his head. "You being human has been my dream Chii... but not like this. Not like this."

Chii nodded. "Chii understands." She snuggled into Hideki as much as her new, organic body would allow; she was bigger now. "Chii must stay with Hideki. Chii cannot go away."

"Yes Chii. We'll be together."