Chapter Three

Chi Sleeps

Ms. Hibiya watched Hideki as he talked with Chi. Tears of joy were rolling down his face completely unnoticed; Chi was alive and his heart was whole again. Ms. Hibiya turned back to her keyboard with a smile. She was glad to be able to reunite Chi and Hideki. However she knew that time was not on their side. She entered a few swift keystrokes and looked up at the display. No, time was definitely not on their side.

Despite the fact that the computers in the underground room were incredibly powerful, there were limits. Emulating Chi's hardware was putting an unimaginable strain on all connected systems due to the complicated nature and sheer size of her data. Ms. Hibiya looked at the display again and felt some of the happiness drain out of her as reality intruded. If Chi's data was not moved to storage soon, there was a real chance that the program would crash and she could be irrevocably lost. To prevent that, she would have to sleep until her body could be rebuilt. Ms. Hibiya felt the last of the joy she had gotten from hearing her daughter's voice drain out of her, as she realized that she had no idea how long that sleep might last.

Chi's systems were unique and complex. When she had been first designed and built there had been only a handful of research laboratories capable of manufacturing her parts. If Ms. Hibiya still had her contacts with old friends and colleagues she could have turned to them for help. However, with the death of her husband and her retreat to just being an apartment manager, she had lost track of her old life. She didn't regret that decision as it was here she had witnessed Elda's rebirth as Chi and it was here she had watched Chi find true happiness. No regrets, but also no one to turn to for help.

Ms. Hibiya frowned, her mood darkening further. Telling Hideki the truth, that she wasn't sure Chi could ever be rebuilt, would break his heart again. The only other choice was to make what could become an empty promise, something she resolutely refused to do. Honesty, then, but leavened with as much kindness as possible.

Turned back to Hideki, she gently interposed herself into his conversation with Chi, "Hideki, I am sorry to interrupt but I'm afraid that Chi must sleep for a while."

"Chi isn't tired. I want to stay with Hideki!" Chi whined, her voice so sad you could almost see her pouting.

"I know, my dearest. It can't be helped. If I leave your program running you could crash and we would lose you forever," Ms. Hibiya said quietly.

"It's okay Chi. I promise to be right here when you awake again," Hideki interjected.

"Hideki promises?" Chi said sorrowfully.

"That's right Chi, I promise."

"All right. I love you, Hideki."

"And I love you, too, Chi."

Ms. Hibiya was already at the keyboard. As soon as she heard Hideki and Chi say their goodbyes she inputted a few quick keystrokes. Chi's data was sent to storage and the emulation program shut down. The humming sound in the room had been growing louder, but now it faded back into the background. "Hideki, I am sorry," Ms. Hibiya apologized, "that program was only ever intended for short-term testing. I gave you as much time as I could."

"I understand," Hideki replied, a note of cheerfulness overlaying the exhaustion in his voice, "even though it hurts to part from her, I now know that it won't be for forever."

Her heart aching, Ms. Hibiya gazed up at Hideki. She had to tell him the truth. Chi was beyond her abilities to repair and if she couldn't find some solution Chi might never be awakened. Ms. Hibiya had to tell Hideki the truth, but she could not break his heart again so soon after it had been mended. She would wait for tomorrow and maybe she could think of something in the meantime. Decision made, she spoke up firmly, "I think it is best we get some rest. Chi is not the only one who needs sleep. You have been through a lot tonight, we both have. We'll start fresh in the morning."

Hideki couldn't argue. The last of the adrenaline had left his body, leaving pain and exhaustion behind. Getting some sleep seemed like a wonderful idea. With a nod and a yawn, Hideki walked wearily up the stairs and left for his apartment. Once he was gone, Ms. Hibiya paused for a moment to take a look back at the broken form of Chi – now an empty shell – and then made her way upstairs.

Hideki found the stairs leading up to his apartment an almost insurmountable obstacle. He could not remember ever being this tired, either mentally and physically, and overlaying the exhaustion was the pain. His arms itched and burned from the abrasions and scrapes he had gotten carrying Chi home. His right knee throbbed at the place Ms. Hibiya had removed the scrap of metal. All the muscles in his legs and back were solid knots of agony due to the overexertion of running while carrying Chi's weight. Only thoughts of how good it would feel to collapse into his own bed allowed him to climb the stairs.

Once up the stairs and into his apartment, Hideki faced one more obstacle standing between him and much-needed rest. Kotoko was standing just inside the door, somehow managing to be physically imposing despite being only sixteen centimeters tall. She had awakened when Hideki had come to change his clothes, but he had left again before she could ask him what was going on. She had since spent her time trying to puzzle out what had happened. Realizing Hideki had returned alone had worried her. The fact that the clothes he left behind were torn and bloodied just made that worry worse. Something had happened and she wanted an explanation..

"You are a mess," Kotoko said in her normal calm voice. "What happened to you? And where is Chi?"

Hideki knelt on the floor and then lifted Kotoko up in one hand, so she would be eye level with him. Hideki had always found it somewhat disrespectful to just loom over the two smaller persocoms when he wanted to talk to them. "Chi has been in an accident," he replied, "A car struck her as we were walking home."

Kotoko felt a chill run down her spine. Despite how strange and awkward Chi could be sometimes, Kotoko had come to consider her a friend. "I...I see. I am sorry for your loss."

Hideki frowned for a second and then smiled. "No, no. Despite the damage her body took, Chi's data survived," he said reassuringly. He then went on to describe in detail everything that had happened since he and Chi had left the apartment.

With growing wonder, Kotoko listened as Hideki's story unfolded. For a persocom to take as much damage as he described and have her data survive intact... it was nothing short of a miracle! On the other hand, Chi was a Chobit and her capabilities were beyond those of normal persocoms. Who knew what was 'normal' for her?

His tale complete, Hideki wished Kotoko goodnight and, after carefully placing her on the floor, staggered over to his futon. He felt a a pang go through his heart as he realized that this would be the first night he would sleep alone since Chi had first joined him. Shaking the feeling off, he collapsed into bed without even bothering to change out of his clothes. Seconds later, he was fast asleep.

Kotoko watched Hideki all but fall over on his way to bed. She had refrained from asking too many questions as he had obviously needed sleep more than she needed answers. Kotoko frowned to herself. Something about the story he had told her sounded off, although she couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong. She had a vague idea that Ms. Hibiya had avoided telling Hideki something important.

With a shrug of her shoulders and an internal sigh, Kotoko postponed her worries. She needed sleep, too. While she hated to admit it, her batteries were nearly drained. One of the trade offs that allowed her to have the computing power of a human sized persocom was a decreased space for her batteries. On top of that, unlike normal laptop sized persocoms like Sumomo, her electronics required more power. That meant that she could go only about two thirds as long, or less, without charging. It had been a long night and she should have been in standby mode long ago.

Kotoko made her way to where Sumomo was sleeping and prepared to shut herself down for the night. Right before going off line Kotoko suddenly remembered something. Sumomo would be waking up in a few short hours to do her normal morning exercise routines! Given how exhausted Hideki had seemed it would probably be a good idea to reset Sumomo's alarm to something more reasonable. It took Kotoko a matter of moments to hook up to Sumomo and change her alarm settings.

It did require a bit of hacking, but Kotoko was programmed for that. Sumomo's security was laughable compared to what Kotoko normally dealt with. Kotoko toyed with idea of erasing several of Sumomo's more annoying programs and rewriting her personality to be slightly less upbeat and relentlessly cheerful. Reluctantly Kotoko decided that would be overstepping her bounds. Even more reluctantly, she admitted to herself that she had actually grown fond of Sumomo, irritating mannerisms and all. With that disquieting thought, she unhooked herself from Sumomo and laid down beside her. In moments Kotoko was asleep as well.

After Hideki left, Ms. Hibiya began cleaning her apartment. Hideki had tracked in dirt and a little blood. Truthfully, the cleaning could have waited for the morning, however she found she did her best thinking when she was distracted by menial tasks. So she swept and thought, scrubbed and thought, and soon the apartment was sparkling clean again. Unfortunately, she had gotten no closer to a solution. Fixing herself a new cup of herbal tea, as the old one had gone cold, she sat down at the table to turn her full attention to the problem.

I need information, Ms. Hibiya decided. When she had left her old job two years ago, Chi's hardware had been too complex to manufacture outside of a few specialized persocom research laboratories. However, she knew that persocom technology had not stood still since. Kotoko was proof of that. Two years ago it would have been unthinkable to pack that much computing power into a frame so small and yet Kojima had managed it with today's technology. Minoru had achieved similarly amazing results with Yuzuki. While not the equal of Chi in respects to hardware, Yuzuki was still more complex and sophisticated than Ms. Hibiya had expected to be possible outside of a laboratory environment. Clearly she was behind the times.

Ms. Hibiya thought for a moment and made a decision. Trying to come to grips with all the changes the last few years had brought would be an insurmountable task if she worked alone. She needed someone who was current on all the new technology, someone who was smart enough to adapt Chi's old technology to be compatible with the new, and someone she could trust implicitly. There was really only one person she knew who fit all those criteria: Minoru Kokubunji.

Ms. Hibiya had been reluctant to turn to him, though. It had seemed silly to pin all her hopes on a boy who had just turned thirteen. Although the more she thought about it, the more she realized how unfair it was to dismiss him as a a mere boy. Minoru was more mature and responsible then many adults she knew. He was also smarter than anyone else she had ever met, besides her husband. Perhaps working together she and Minoru could find a solution. Two heads are better than one, Ms. Hibiya thought. Three, she immediately corrected. Wherever Minoru went, Yuzuki was always by his side.

Ms. Hibiya nodded to herself. In the morning she would call Minoru and invite him over. She would explain the problem and show him Chi's specs. Together, hopefully, they would either find a way to rebuild Chi... or she would have to have a long talk to Hideki. Getting to her feet and heading towards her bedroom, Ms. Hibiya offered a small prayer that Minoru would have the answers she needed. She was not certain she could bear to break Hideki's heart again. Prayer completed, she climbed into bed and was asleep shortly thereafter. Tomorrow would be a big day, one way or another.