Kokoro

Chachamaru stood outside her master's lab, staring out towards the giant cherry blossom tree where her master went, as he put it, "To rest before I continue work."

Her face had remained impassive as she watched him go, accepting a soft pat on the head from his old, gnarled hands. With a grin, he stumbled back to where the giant tree was.

That had been a century ago.

During that time, Chachamaru began to think. Why had her master worked so hard for her? It was then that she began to recall all of her memories, starting with her 'birth'.

Flashback

"Okay, the energy's stabilizing," said ten year old Negi Springfield. "Just gotta make sure her face doesn't get distorted now…and perfect!"

With that, Chachamaru opened her eyes for the first time.

"Yes!" cheered the happy scientist. "I did it! This is a miracle in the making!"

The gynoid didn't understand what that had meant at the moment, but all would be understood in due time.

"Hi!" Negi said, extending out his arm. "I'm Negi Springfield! Nice to finally meet you, Chachamaru!"

The recently created Chachamaru merely stared at his extended hand, unmoving. Negi pulled his hand back, looking a little hurt while clutching his heart, but then went back to being happy as he said, "Don't worry; we'll work on that."

End Flashback

Yes, if she were able to admit it, she found her master quite…interesting to say at the least.

During their first year together, he had tried many things to attempt to coax out some form of emotion out of her, a majority of them being failures. When he first showed her how, her voice was flat, unmoving, and unemotional, but it seemed to spark some kind of drive in him. From that point he had made it his life goal to make his creation a program called 'Kokoro'.

For fifteen straight years, he worked endlessly on this program to make Chachamaru feel the sadness and joy that all humans felt at their core. Yet, none of them seemed to work for her.

Thinking back, Chachamaru recalled an incident when she got a slight glimpse into why she was born, but was unable to understand it even now.

Flashback

A thirty five year old Negi Springfield was at his desk, spinning a pen over his thumb while he listened to Chachamaru sing. It was a great improvement from when she first started (with some fine-tuning over her vocal chords on his part), but it still lacked that emotional content that could only be found in the heart.

Clutching his own, he pondered what his next step should be until he felt a tug on his back. Turning around, Chachamaru was handing him a note sheet, looking at him with a questioning look on her face.

"Can you please explain what these lyrics mean?" she asked in her flat voice. "I do not understand them." She looked up at him, with those dead looking, unfeeling eyes of hers, where Negi could see himself, both literally and figuratively, in those blue eyes.

Without warning, he grabbed her into a tight hug, scattering her papers all over the floor.

"Master?" Chachamaru asked.

"You know," Negi said, sounding a bit choked up while holding her close. The gynoid could feel a tear falling down his cheek and slowly rub onto his. "Why can't you ever smile, at least once? Even if you're just copying my face, that'd be good enough for me."

"I do not understand the request, Master," Chachamaru replied.

With a sigh, he said, "Don't worry. I didn't expect you too." Still holding her close, he continued, "You know, with the way you're growing, I see myself in you. Does that mean anything to you?"

"I do not understand the question, Master," the robot replied.

End Flashback

For the next fifty years, he continued tirelessly to perfect the kokoro program for her. The flow of time eventually caught with him, transforming his young visage into that of an old man, relying on a walking cane to walk from place to place within the lab.

When he left her alone, she had done nothing to help him nor stop him. She just watched him hobble along the beaten path to the tree that they had planted two years after she was born, and saw him lie there, unmoving.

She stood that way for a century.

Now she was fed up with waiting. Walking up to the giant tree, she had half the mind to search for him, but something else caught her mind. She realized that she wanted this 'heart' that her master worked on so hard for her, and decided, against the rationale that was built in her, to make a wish.

'I want to know what that person worked on continuously for all these years. I wish to have made this kokoro that he promised to make.' Chachamaru thought, holding her hands together.

With a slight bow to the tree, she went back to the house, feeling slightly foolish about what she just did.

Upon entering the lab, the old computer screen that had been dormant all these years suddenly flashed to life. The glare of the computer screen flashed on and off, its timing matching that of a heart beat. Unsure at first, Chachamaru pushed her hand on the screen only to feel…

…

…to feel a great rush throughout her body. The nerves that connected her hands to the screen were filled with some sort of energy, one that she couldn't easily identify.

She held her chest, closing her eyes, as if to somehow ease the pain that was now growing there. Opening them, the floor before her was soaked with water, which were her own tears. Her arms were trembling, something that never happened before. Falling back on her legs, she wondered if this was what she had wished the tree for.

Then as soon as the pain came, it was washed away and replaced with happiness and relief. Chachamaru found herself grinning like a loon, running out of the house with her hands above her head, finally being able to appreciate the beauty that was part of the cherry blossom tree.

Thinking that she would see her master again soon to show off her newly acquired heart, she went to the base of the giant tree to pick flowers, something that she had read about while she waited for him. As she picked, she noticed a skeleton hand, its bones darkened by the soil.

Then it hit her.

Her master was an old man when he left her in the house. He was gone for a century now, and she had done nothing in that time. The pain returned to newly acquired heart, but it wasn't physical pain, but that of realizing that he had died right before her, and she did nothing but stare. In her anguish, she let out a cry as the tears cascaded down her cheeks, down onto the flowers that were growing there.

As she cried, she realized why she was created. The scientist was a lonely man who wanted a companion, someone who could be by his side. She had failed in that aspect.

Making another wish, she wanted to see him again, to make up for her past mistakes, even if it was just for a day. She prayed as hard as she could to whoever would listen to her…

And it seemed as if a kind deity was watching over her that day, as the tree did something mysterious. Right where she was sitting, a hole opened up in the bark of the tree. Peering inside, she saw the form of her master, old and wrinkled, lying against what looked like a younger version of the tree.

Seeing him cough and hack, she cried out, "Master!" Trying to reach out to him, she found her outer skin of her arms burnt off, but she persisted.

Then out of nowhere, she felt a weight crash into her, sending her onto her back. With a groan, she looked up, only to find her master, as his fifteen year old self, looking back at her with a grin on his face.

Unable to face him, she turned around, a rosy red blush on her cheeks.

She felt him hug her from behind, and she snuggled into it, feeling the warmth for the first time. "I'm glad I got to see you develop your heart, Chachamaru." he said.

"I really have you to thank for that," was the now emotional gynoids replied

The two shared a kiss, and they went on the rest of the day doing what they could, from climbing the huge tree to resting in each other's arms. When they sang together, they sang of different things, yet their melodies tied in with each other beautifully. Chachamaru sang of all what she was given and thankful for, while Negi counted off the miracles that were created between the two of them. Their words may have overlapped each other, when heard, they created a melody of love and devotion to each other.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to last.

As the sun set, the two of them were resting together in each others arms. Both had contented smiles on their face, and could hear each other's beating hearts.

Holding back a cough, Negi smiled and said, "I guess this is it," Holding her close to him, he kissed her again, looking straight into her eyes. The two held eye contact as Negi's body slowly faded away into nothingness, but Chachamaru heard an, "I love you," in the wind.

"Master," Chachamaru said, holding her arms close to herself again. The pain had returned, this time it wasn't unbearably so the first time around, but still there. As it turned out, her newly acquired heart was now taking its toll on her body; her body simply couldn't keep up with its demands. With a smile gracing her face one last time, she followed him on his next journey.

If one heard close enough, they would make hear someone saying, "I love you," in the winds.

The End

A/N:

I truly having nothing to say about this. (Though I do feel the need to blame DavidLADarkStryker for getting me into the Vocaloid music).

This fic was based off Rin and Len's mixed Kokoro song. Did I do it enough justice? Tell me what you all think!