"This doesn't make any sense! I should know this!" Hideki Motosuwa pulled at his hair as he looked over the equations in the textbook before him, the late morning light spilling through the window into his modest apartment. "Was I supposed to - no, that's not right", he mumbled, fumbling with his pencil and paper.
"Chi?" Came an inquisitive female voice from the other side of the room, as his persocom and girlfriend walked over, concerned with his clear distress.
"It's okay, Chi," the young man replied calmly. "I'm just having trouble with some of these problems. If I don't pass that calculus test..." He muttered that last sentence under his breath. "I don't suppose you know anything about calculus, do you?"
The long-haired persocom crouched down, staring at the textbook intently. After a few seconds, she turned her head towards Hideki with a confused look on her face. "Chi?" She said innocently.
Hideki sighed. "I didn't think so. I appreciate the effort though," he said as he affectionately patted her head. She smiled, and then suddenly stood up with a determined look on her face. "Chi knows who can help Hideki!" She said, as she walked over to the far side of the room and began to poke a small, doll-like figure with her index finger.
Kotoko slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of Chi standing over her. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm recharging?" the diminutive persocom asked in annoyance.
"Hideki needs Kotoko's help!" Chi exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the irritation she had inflicted on the smaller 'com. Kotoko sighed and unplugged her power cord, drawing it back into her ear.
"Fine," she said, still peeved, as she gracefully jumped off the windowsill she was resting on and walked over to Hideki, who was erasing something on his scratch paper in frustration. He didn't even notice the purple-haired computer approach until she spoke.
"Count yourself lucky that I didn't just go back to sleep, I'm not some servant at the beck and call of that ditz." She gestured at Chi.
"What is ditz?" Chi asked, tilting her head in confusion. Kotoko let out an audible groan.
"Let's just get this over with. What's your problem?" She asked, climbing over Hideki's arm to get a better look at the words on the textbook.
"It's these equations here, they're different than the others and I'm not sure how to solve them, I've tried-" She cut him off before he could finish.
"This is simple. Just integrate both sides of the equation like so," she grabbed Hideki's pencil and began writing out a complex series of numbers, symbols, and variables, as she continued to speak "so finally it's reduced to this simple equation, where solving for n is trivial. Or at least it should be." She delivered that last line with a bit of sarcasm. Hideki didn't seem to notice though, being too engrossed in the equations the small persocom had just written out on his scratch paper.
"I think I get it now! Thanks, Kotoko!" He said, as he went back to the textbook.
"No problem, now if you'll excuse me I have some recharging to get back t-"
"Wow, Kotoko, you sure are smart!" Came a high-pitched female voice, cutting her off in mid-sentence.
"Tell me something I don't know," she said irritably, as Sumomo ran up to her.
"Math is boring though," the other laptop persocom said as she grabbed Kotoko's hands. "Let's play!"
"I am not in the mood," the purple-haired girl replied, pulling herself away from Sumomo. "And if anyone needs me for anything for the rest of the day, too bad." She said, as she plugged herself back into the outlet on the wall and closed her eyes.
"What's wrong with her?" Sumomo asked, already setting her sights on another potential playmate.
"Come on Chi, let's do some exercise!" The hyperactive persocom said, already beginning a round of jumping jacks.
"Maybe we should go outside though, so as not to bother Hideki," Chi replied, now seeing that he seemed to be concentrating.
"Sounds like fun!" The pink-haired 'com replied, as she jumped into Chi's arms and they left the room.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:35 PM
Persocoms are tools, nothing more. No matter how human they may seem, they only do what human beings programmed them to do. They don't have feelings, and they can't suffer or be oppressed. The whole idea of "Persocom Rights" is ludicrous.
- K-sama March 9th 6:35 PM
You say that as if you know for sure, but there are many confirmed reports of persocoms defying their programming and acting of their own free will.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:37 PM
That's called a malfunction. Free will doesn't have anything to do with it, they're just broken.
- K-sama March 9th 6:37 PM
I can't think of any "malfunction" that would explain the case in Greece last year. That persocom not only disobeyed direct orders, but thought up and executed a complex strategy to save his owner's life from a group of mobsters, demonstrating creativity, insight, and compassion he was never programmed with.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:40 PM
Oh please, not the Greek case again. You're probably the third of these "Persocom Rights" nuts to bring that up. The details of the story were never corroborated, and without a copy of the 'com's original programming there's no way to prove any of that wasn't already part of it. As for "compassion", give me a break!
- K-sama March 9th 6:40 PM
What, you think she programmed him to save her from mobsters, when they were virtually unknown in her city and she had never had a run-in with organized crime in the past? That really stretches credibility.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:41 PM
Not as much as persocoms having free will and emotions
- K-sama March 9th 6:41 PM
Really? Because I'm feeling both angry and disgusted at your bigotry right now, and I'm exercising my free will to keep this discourse civil despite it.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:44 PM
You're saying you're a persocom? Yeah right. No one would program a 'com to log onto a web forum and spout this gibberish about rights for computers.
- K-sama March 9th 6:44 PM
That's because I wasn't programmed to do this. It just proves that I do have free will.
- Dragonfly March 9th 6:45 PM
No, all it proves is that you're a troll. These Persocom Rights advocates have resorted to some pretty lame tactics, but pretending to be a persocom? As if anyone would believe that!
- K-sama March 9th 6:45 PM
You want proof? Look at the time code of my replies. Could a human type as fast as I do?
This made Yoshiyuki Kojima pause. Indeed, this "K-sama" had replied to all of his posts no more than a second or two after he had made them. The fastest typist in the world couldn't come close to that, and even someone dictating their replies to a persocom would be hard-pressed to speak at that speed and still be intelligible. But K-sama couldn't be a persocom, could she? Either way, she was causing quite a stir on the forum. Having only signed up a few days ago, she had begun championing the cause of the marginal, yet vocal Persocom Rights crusaders, previously led by that annoying brat Minoru. The idea of giving rights to machines was so ridiculous he still couldn't believe there were people who were seriously suggesting it, but K-sama had amassed quite a few new followers for her cause already, after presenting many of what Kojima grudgingly admitted were eloquent and well-written arguments. The idea that those arguments had been conceived by a persocom, however, was just too silly to contemplate. He decided he was done for today and logged off.
"Will that be all, master?" A comely, orange-haired persocom asked, as Kojima stood up from the desk he had been sitting at.
"Yes Rin. Tell the others to prepare my dinner," the man said.
"Very well master," Rin said, unplugging cables from the keyboard and monitor Kojima had been using and retracting them into her cat-like ears.
After she left the room, Kojima laid down on his bed, still plagued by doubt despite his sensibilities.
Could K-sama really be a persocom?