The next day, as Junji returned home from work, he was surprised to find his dorm room deserted - Minako was nowhere to be found. After checking every corner where she could possibly be, he started to worry. What if someone had stolen her? He had remembered to set up a password shortly after activating her, so it wasn't like they would be able to easily access her data, but still it was a troublesome thought. Suddenly another idea occured to him - what if she had run away? Considering her actions and attitude lately, that was certainly possible, especially if she was malfunctioning. Junji wouldn't have admitted it at this point, but he was starting to worry about Minako for her own sake, instead of just as his missing property. As he prepared to go back out to look for her, he heard a knock at the door.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he spied Minako through the peephole, standing behind an irate-looking Hitomi. He opened the door, his dorm mate continuing to scowl at him, while the persocom had a slightly embarrassed look on her face.
"Hitomi-san, thanks for finding Minako, I was-" He was rudely interrupted as she slapped him directly across the face.
"Ow! What the hell?" He asked in confusion, cradling his stinging cheek with his right hand.
"Junji-kun, how could you be so awful to Minako-chan!" She yelled, giving him a scowl that could intimidate a bear.
"Hitomi-chan, that's really not necessary-" Minako tried to intervene, but the other girl ignored her.
"Minako-chan told me about all the horrible things you said to her yesterday! You really hurt her feelings!"
"Not this again, Hitomi-san," Junji began in, an exasperated voice. "I've told you a million times already, persocoms don't-" He stopped as he now noticed that Minako was giving him the evil eye, and remembered their agreement.
"Why don't you go smack Fumio-san and yell at him?" Junji asked, quickly changing the subject. "I'm not the one who was whoring out my persocom!"
"I was going to give him a stern talking to," Hitomi responded, "but by the time I heard what had happened he had already moved out of the building."
"He did?" Junji asked. He hadn't noticed - he guessed he had never bothered to check. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Fumio since he came in and accused him of ratting him out. He hoped the former student was doing okay and had a place to live.
"Anyway, what are you doing with Minako in the first place?"
Hitomi seemed to have calmed down a bit by now, and explained that she had encountered the persocom taking a walk in the hallway and invited her into her dorm room to talk.
"And you just went and told her everything that happened yesterday?" Junji asked Minako, sounding annoyed.
"Well," the green-haired 'com blushed slightly. "I wasn't planning to, but Hitomi-chan kind of dug it out of me. She can be very persuasive."
"I suppose I can't argue with that," Junji answered, knowing that fact about Hitomi was completely true.
"Anyway Junji-kun, you shouldn't be so mean," the black-haired girl reiterated.
"Hey, I agreed to treat her more fairly," the young man objected. "I still think she's just malfunctioning, though."
"I am not!" Minako said.
Hitomi laughed. "I'm sorry for hitting you, Junji-kun. I might have been overreacting a little."
"A little?" He repeated sarcastically, but she ignored him.
"If he ever mistreats you again, just tell me, Minako-chan, and I'll set him straight, okay?" She told the persocom, winking.
Minako smiled. "Thanks Hitomi-chan, I appreciate it, but I'd rather deal with him myself."
"Okay, but just remember that if you ever need anyone to turn to, I'll be here for you."
"You're a good friend, Hitomi-chan."
As the two girls gently hugged each other, Junji cleared his throat loudly.
"You do know that I'm standing right here, don't you?" He asked, annoyed. The girls both laughed.
"I've got to get started on my coursework, see you guys later," Hitomi said as she left.
"Hitomi-chan is really nice," Minako commented, as Junji sat down on the couch. "She believes I have feelings."
"She believes a lot of weird stuff," Junji replied. "Anyway, next time you run off like that, you should leave me a note saying where you went. I was worried, Minako."
"Worried that your expensive appliance was missing?" She asked cynically.
"Yes." Junji stated simply. Minako's scowl grew deeper. "Partially," he continued, "but also I was worried about what might have happened to you."
"Really?" The elf-eared 'com asked, her expression softening. "But I thought you don't consider me to be a real person."
"I don't," Junji replied. "But one thing is for sure - whatever you are, you're unique. I don't think I could ever find another persocom just like you, and to be honest, your personality has kind of grown on me."
Minako beamed at him, looking happier than she had in days. "Thank you, Junji-san! I suppose that's the best I could hope for at this point."
Junji chuckled nervously. Damn, she was cute!
"Junji-san, are you blushing?" Minako asked, a teasing tone starting to enter her voice.
"What? No!" Junji said, scrambling to hide his face. "Just - just fix me some dinner, okay?"
"Say please."
Junji sighed. "Please fix me some dinner, Minako."
"Right away, Junji-san!" She said, skipping over to the kitchen.
Junji chuckled under his breath. 'Yep, she's grown on me, all right,' he thought as he watched her prepare the meal.
One Month Later
Junji and Minako had mostly kept to their agreement (in part because Junji didn't want to be chewed out by Hitomi again). Minako had tried to engage him in conversation several times to try to convince him she was sapient, but he had always found some way to divert the conversation away from the topic, as he didn't want to waste time thinking about it. However he knew he would have to confront the issue eventually, so he decided to do some investigation on his own. Minako was currently out buying groceries, so Junji logged into his terminal and opened his browser to a search engine.
He typed in "How does a persocom's brain work?". When he clicked enter, the screen immediately filled with a huge list of results. He clicked on the first one, which looked promising - a wiki article on "Persocom AI Systems" and began reading.
There are a wide variety of operating systems and cognitive programs employed in persocoms, but they all have their origin in the original artificial intelligence code developed by. Drs. Ichiro Mihara and Chitose Hibiya. This programming revolutionized the field of AI theory and computing in general. Unlike the primitive "chatbot" programs of the past, the first persocom AI systems could pass a Turing test with a success rate of over 90%, and that margin has only increased in recent years. These systems required an entirely new class of programming languages, allowing advanced, dynamic learning capabilities, individual initiative, and realistic simulated emotions. The first prototypes needed to be refined to eliminate the problem of adaptive code failure, which-
Junji stopped reading at this point - the rest of this section was mostly a bunch of boring technical details. He scrolled down until he found the article's table of contents, which included a section titled "self-awareness". He clicked on it and read:
Most experts agree that a fully - realized Persocom AI system does possess a form of consciousness, being able to comprehend logical principles and follow them to logical conclusions. It has also been agreed that they are self-aware to a certain degree, being able to perceive and understand their surroundings and adapt to them, as well as responding to external stimuli.
'I guess I was wrong about that detail,' Junji thought to himself, as he continued reading.
Some have even argued that persocoms possess the necessary qualities for sentience. However, they are not considered sapient, as they cannot perform truly creative innovation and do not have genuine emotions or the capacity for true independent thought, although they can present a convincing illusion of all of these properties.
'Well, I guess that settles that,' Junji thought as he closed the window. 'Of course, fat chance I'll get her to believe what that article says.' He was about to log off, when suddenly he had another thought. Opening the browser back up, he searched for the names "Ichiro Mihara" and "Chitose Hibiya". After a bit of navigating through articles and websites, he found Dr. Mihara's phone number.
'I guess I've got nothing to lose,' the college student thought as he took out his phone and dialed. He heard the line ring several times, until an automated recording picked up.
"Hello, you have reached the residence of Dr. Ichiro Mihara-san and Dr. Chitose Hibiya-san. We are sorry, but due to the high volume of information traffic being routed through this location, there is no space for you to record a message. Please call again." The line then went dead.
'Screw that,' Junji thought. 'It seems the only way to get these stuck-up scientists' attention would be to visit them in person'. He went back online and soon found their address - a small apartment in a suburb of Tokyo.
At that very moment, the door opened, and Minako walked in, carrying several bags of groceries. Junji quickly closed the browser window and got up to help her with the bags.
"What's this?" he asked, eyeing a box of ice cream of an unfamiliar, extravagant - sounding flavor.
"Hitomi-chan told me that you and her always used to enjoy eating ice cream together when you were younger," Minako explained as she put more of the groceries in the refrigerator. "I thought maybe you would like it."
Junji took another look at the box. He had to admit it did look good. "Sure, I could try some of this. Thanks Minako."
The persocom smiled and gave him a hug, causing him to blush again.
After the groceries were all put away and he had finished his dinner, he sat across the table from Minako, eating a small bowl of the ice cream she had bought. He noticed that she was watching him intently, seemingly curious about something.
"Do you like it, Junji-san?" She asked.
"Yes, it's delicious," he said in-between bites. The flavor was a vanilla base with various fruit flavors mixed in. It was actually really good.
"What does it taste like?" The persocom asked.
"I'm not sure I could describe it to someone who's never had food before," Junji answered, laughing. Just then he noticed Minako turn her head down, looking sadly at the floor.
"I wish I could eat and drink, and do other human things like you, Junji-san," she said in a melancholy voice.
"Hey, I didn't mean to upset you-" he began, but soon realized the implication of what he had just said.
"Upset me? I thought you said I didn't have emotions?" She asked slyly.
"You have realistic simulated emotions," Junji countered. "It's easy to get confused sometimes. But they're still not real."
"If you can't even tell the difference, how can you say-"
But Junji cut her off before she could launch into another one of her speeches. "Look Minako, it's been over a month now and we're still not getting anywhere with this. Instead of wasting our time arguing, how about we settle this matter once and for all?"
"What do you mean?" The green-haired girl asked, somewhat apprehensively. Junji took the time to finish his last spoonful of ice cream before responding.
"I've told you before, I'm no persocom expert, but if there's anyone that can tell me whether you're a real person or not, it's the scientists who invented persocoms in the first place - Ichiro Mihara and Chitose Hibiya."
Minako quickly accessed the net and looked up the names - indeed, it did seem that they were the two originally responsible for the creation of her kind. She also discovered they were both retired, and not on the payroll of any of the persocom corporations, so they wouldn't have as much of a vested interested in denying her sapience.
"You have a way to contact them, Junji-san?" She asked.
"Not in particular, but I figure if we pay them a visit we might be able to get some answers. I don't have school or work tomorrow, and it's not that long of a drive. Then you can finally hear from the authority on these matters - that you are really just a machine."
Minako snorted. "Or maybe he'll tell you that I'm more than that, and then you'll have to accept it!"
"I doubt it, but there's only one way to find out. You up for a road trip tomorrow?"
"You bet I am, Junji-san!" The persocom replied excitedly. Junji laughed as he cleared the dishes off the table. He wouldn't admit it to her, but he was planning this trip as much to try to reassure himself that he was right about Minako as he was to try to convince her she was wrong.