Hello!

So, my finals are finally over! I know this chapter is a little long compared to the others I've written so far for this fic.

Also, I've put up a picture of Linnea (on my profile) and I've modified the image of A2 again (also on my profile). Due to a sudden shift in traveling schedule, the new cover picture has been delayed and will be released with chapter 9 instead.

Anyways, a brief thank you to my reviewers from the last chapter, akin-'to38, Brillerai and Delirium1015.

Here is Chapter 8!


°¤~ ▪《{Arc TWO: Technological Frontier}》▪ ~¤°

PART ONE

~ 008: A2's Earring ~


Kai sits quietly at the back of the classroom, staring blankly at the face of his teaching assistant lecturing at the front about medieval history. Although much more interactive than his lecture the other day by his professor, nonetheless, he does not pay it any mind.

The night before, A2 had essentially told him to follow a set of directions that she will give to him today, shoved a new packet in his hands and then kicked him out of her suite. The most curious part was the fact that she was looking at his transcript right before that. However, despite his attempts, she would not give him any reasons for why she did so, citing the fifth condition of their contract as grounds to refuse him information.

'Why in the world would she need to see my transcript?' Kai wonders in his mind as his eyes aimlessly wander from the teaching assistant's face to the left outside the window. 'What could she possibly need me to do this time anyway?'

He then remembers her question about his skills with machinery and the machine she seemed to have been working on in her room. 'Does she need help fixing her robot?'

Not that he'd be much help in that; he has not the slightest expertise on robotics nor any fields related. He then wonders, 'But if it's the robot, isn't it in her room? Why would she need to meet with me at some arbitrary location? Don't tell me she needs me to go pick out parts for her at some junkyard…'

Kai sighs, cursing his luck for having to deal with all this. To the very least, A2 had assured him she intends him no harm in viewing his transcript.

'Then again…' Kai stares up at the clouds as he recalls what he had learned the previous evening and the state he had found A2 in just when he was about to leave. There certainly seems to be a high probability that something was wrong with A2 health wise. 'She can't do strenuous work. Is this another favor to compensate for that? And what could be wrong with her?'

He then forces himself to stop thinking about it. 'Even if she is sick, it's not like she ever plans to tell me what it is anyway…'

A small poke on his arm interrupts his thoughts. Kai turns to his right to discover Linnea, the girl from the day before sitting next to him. Not that he cared who was near him, but he was a little startled since he doesn't remember her being next to him.

"Hey," she whispers to him with a cheerful smile. "Good morning."

"Yeah?" he replies quietly.

"Uhm…I got here rather late, could you tell me what happened earlier in the class, please?" she asks politely.

"Sorry…" Kai apologizes. "I wasn't paying attention…"

"Oh…" she reacts with a bit of disappointment. "It's okay, just forget I asked."

Kai turns back to the window.

Soon the teaching assistant ends the class, but not without commenting on people chatting amongst themselves and arriving ten minutes before the end of the class. Gathering his things, Kai gets up to leave and makes his way down the stairs to the outside. He gazes up at the bright, blue sky for a moment. 'What should I do now?'

There is still about an hour before his next class, Quantum Mechanics. A2 still hasn't given him the directions she promised him yet. He also hasn't had his breakfast yet. Lastly, there is no guarantee that he will have a chance to eat anytime soon after his last class.

'Guess I might as well get some food while I can…' he decides.

...

Having arrived at the nearest dining hall, Kai browses quickly through the available food options. It wasn't that the choices were too limited but they weren't too vast either. In the week and a half that he had been here, he had already gotten tired of some of the things they offered. Quickly deciding on a random plate of sautéed meat, he grabs it and lines up to pay for the food.

It wasn't long after he had gotten on the line when he notices that it has stopped moving. Looking on up ahead, he notices the reason for the hold up: a girl stood by the cashier digging through her backpack. The cashier sat watching the girl's frantic actions impatiently. A few people behind the girl soon start moaning with dissatisfaction as well.

"I'm sorry," the girl ahead apologizes, "I seem to have forgotten my wallet back at my room…"

"Well I can't let you walk out with that…" The cashier says bluntly.

The girl's voice sounded familiar to Kai. Stepping off the line just slightly, he takes a better look to find that the person causing the hold up is indeed someone he knows. 'Linnea…?'

He steps off the line to approach her before the cashier could get the chance to shoo her off the line to allow the next person to pay for their meal. "Wait."

Linnea and the cashier turn to him as he approaches.

"Kai?" Linnea mutters upon recognizing him. She watches as he stops before the cashier's station.

"I'll pay for her meal." Kai tells the cashier, placing down his own food as well to pay for it all at once.

"Uhm…is this really okay?" Linnea looks up at him shyly. "I mean…I'll owe you…"

"I'm only doing this because I don't want to miss my chance to get lunch before my next class." Kai tells her.

That was only partially true. There were five other students before him if he had stayed where he was on the line but they were only holding small amounts of food and he saw at least two of them had their method of payment ready. Thus, ultimately, he hadn't saved much time at all. His real reason for doing this was mostly because seeing Linnea struggle to get a meal made him feel a little sorry for her.

"Well…then…" Linnea seems to be at a loss for words for a moment. "Thank you!"

Kai receives his card back from the cashier after she had checked out both their meals. "No need to thank me."

He begins to head toward a table in the corner of the seating area. He notices Linnea following along behind him.

"If you don't mind," she begins. "Could you allow me to keep you company for your meal as a way of thanking you? I know it's not much…"

Kai sets his food down on the table and glances at her for a moment. He then tells her, "I don't particularly care for company."

Linnea responds with a look of disappointment. "Oh…I see."

She stands there as Kai takes a seat before his meal.

"Well…I guess I'll pay you back what I owe you when I see you in lecture tomorrow then." She tells him as she turns to leave, the look of disappointment still present on her features.

Feeling a little bad about that now, Kai sighs. "If you want to stay, you're free to."

Linnea turns back to him.

"I didn't say you have to go eat elsewhere." He adds.

Linnea responds happily to that and immediately sets down her food across from him. In relative silence, the two of them begins eating. Whereas Kai eats his meal calmly, keeping proper table etiquette in mind, Linnea does not hold back her appetite at all. The sight in fact, reminds Kai a little of Tyson, only less sloppy and slightly more tame. By the time Kai finishes about half of his meal, Linnea had already completely consumed her burger, her fries, her pizza and her drink. Now with nothing to eat and apparently nothing to do, Linnea stares at Kai with the eyes of a curious puppy while he continues on with his meal.

"So…" she attempts to begin a conversation with him. "What major are you?"

Kai calmly continues to chew his food before swallowing. He then answers, "Business."

"Oh, so you're taking Medieval History as a general requirement then?" she asks.

Kai doesn't bother to answer to that as he finds it kind of obvious.

"I'm a biology major and also pre-med." She tells him.

Kai continues eating, again, not saying anything back. When he notices she seems to be waiting for him to say something in response, he says, "Let me guess, you want to become a doctor to help people."

"Yes, I do." Linnea goes on to add, "Although, my teachers throughout much of middle school and high school have said I'm not very cut out for math and science…"

Kai continues with his meal but her last statement did catch his attention. He asks soon after, "Why are you doing a science major if you've been told by multiple people that you suck at it?"

For a moment, Linnea appears a little offended by that but answers cheerfully anyway, "Well…It's because I have a dream I want to pursue."

Kai pauses his meal and looks up at her properly.

"You see, I was born with very poor vision." She tells him. "In fact, I was practically blind."

He was a little surprised to hear that but not too much. People are born with all sorts of disorders; the occurrences are just more common if they come from a poorer country or have poorer genetics. Besides he vaguely recalls her mentioning this before...

She continues on, "I stayed that way for the first few years of my life too, actually. All the doctors in my home country said that there's no way to fix my vision."

"You're not from here?" Kai asks.

"No, I was born and raised in Finland." Linnea tells him. "I'm here just for university."

"And then?" Kai urges her to continue nonchalantly as he continues consuming the remaining portion of his meal. He didn't really need her to say more; he could already see where this is going. Some amazing doctor probably came along and found a fix for her eyes…

"Well, some relatives invited me and my family to stay with them for one summer in Japan." She answers.

Although a little impressed that she had been to his home country, Kai nonetheless waits for her to confirm his guess.

"I hadn't met them before then though, since they are all the way on the other side of the world." she continues. "When my mother told them my about my eyes, they recommended I go to a very accomplished doctor there who specializes in ophthalmology."

"Ophthalmology?" Kai repeats the word.

"It's the study that deals with the physiology and diseases of the eye." She tells him.

"Let me guess, that doctor fixed your eyes?" Kai finally guesses out loud for her to confirm as he finishes the last bite of his meal.

"Oh, no, even he said it wasn't possible." She answers. "Or rather, he said that there was a problem inside my eyes that made the fix too risky."

Kai is a little surprised by that and he listens on.

"But then one of my relatives, my second cousin to be exact, told him a solution to the problem." She then adds, "My mom told me how amazing it was when she pointed out stuff on the image from the CT scan."

"I see." Kai acknowledges. Although not completely on mark, he did more or less guess right. "So from that you decided you'd become an eye doctor when you grow up?"

"Sort of but more like, I saw for myself how useful medicine is for improving quality of life." She says. "I want to become someone who would be helpful to the world…like my cousin was for me."

Kai gets up with his plate to return it to the proper place. "You look up to her?"

"I guess you can say that." Linnea follows him. "Actually, the funny thing about that is she was younger than me by about half a year."

Now this part, Kai is very surprised to hear.

"How old was she when she helped your doctor fix your eyes?" Kai asks of curiosity, now beginning to leave the dining hall.

"Hm…I was about eight years old back then and then I turned nine in the fall…" Linnea thinks for a moment, "Her birthday was in the spring so she was seven? No wait…eight!"

'This girl really shouldn't be doing math or science as a major…' Kai notes her struggle with basic arithmetic as he exits the door of the building.

"You have a class now right?" Linnea asks.

"Yeah," Kai responds.

"Are you free after?" Linnea asks him.

"No…" Kai replies, recalling what A2 had asked of him the night before. "I have some stuff to do."

"Oh…" Linnea looks a little disappointed. "Well, I very much enjoyed your company today."

Kai doesn't bother to answer as he just wants to go onto his last class already. He has about seven minutes to get there before class begins. Not that his professor would care much but he did not want to make a worse impression than he has already made.

"What year are you, by the way?" Linnea asks.

Kai is beginning to feel annoyed by this question as every time he is reminded of the name A2 had been calling him. He answers, "First year."

"Oh, so you're a freshman just like me." Linnea notes.

Kai twitches in irritation upon hearing the word 'freshman' but ultimately holds it in, knowing she couldn't possibly have known. He then tells her, "If you don't mind, I need to go onto my next class."

"Oh, okay." Linnea then bids him goodbye, "I'll see you at tomorrow's lecture then?"

"Sure," Kai says as he leaves.

...

The next lecture for Quantum Mechanics goes by quickly. The professor, as usual, did not seem to care. Interestingly, A2 is absent but sure enough she sent him the set of directions she had promised him by at the beginning of class via text. Once the class ends, he gathers his things and begins heading to the point designated by A2 at the northwest edge of campus grounds.

Arriving, he notices the place is completely surrounded by woodland. If anything he seems to be at the edge of a forest. Looking around, he quickly spots the person he is here to meet.

"You're late." She comments once she was certain he is in range to hear her.

"Well I'm here now, aren't I?" Kai replies to her comment. This has got to be at least the third time she has commented on his lateness. He quickly notices something about two thirds her height standing a little behind her.

Noticing him stare, A2 introduces him to it, "This is RE:Mordred."

"RE:Mordred?" Kai hasn't forgotten his conversation the evening before. He recalls that Mordred was the name of the housecleaning robot she had made.

"It's a remake of an earlier model that got heartlessly wrecked and butchered by some silly car and its coldblooded nincompoop of a driver." A2 explains. "The programming is the same though; I am merely using another copy of the same operating system that I had written for Mordred, the original."

She turns from him.

"So, what am I here to do?" Kai asks. He didn't particularly care about her robot although he did find it interesting that she seems to be referring to them almost as though they were alive.

Glancing back at him, A2 says, "Follow me and you'll find out."

She then begins to lead him into the forest. After a while of walking, Kai cannot help but notice that the forest just appears to keep getting thicker. However, despite that, they seem to be following a trail that is often walked upon. Once in a while, RE:Mordred would snap off a branch or twig sticking out somewhere for A2's convenience. They soon come to a small clearing where only a single tree stands in the center.

"We're here." She tells him.

Kai looks around. For the life of him he could not tell exactly what she means by 'here'. If anything, it looks more to him like he is in the middle of nowhere right now. He then watches as A2 and her robot approaches the tree in the center. He wonders, 'Does she need me to help her climb another tree?'

"Voice Activate: Pass Code 089165A054875SK01277." A2 announces. She then turns to Kai. "You might want to come closer to me."

Kai complies and walks towards her beside the tree.

A digitized voice then replies. "Voice Sample Verified. Appearance recognized. Pass Code Accepted."

Kai begins to scan his surroundings for sources of advanced technology where the digitized voice could have originated. Instead, his search is cut short by a growing quake beneath his feet. Looking around, he sees that a section of the ground seems to be rising and stretching some parts of it nearby, including where he had been standing. What appears to be an entrance to something underground soon fully opens.

"It looks strange to have the ground stretch that way, I know." A2 tells him as she begins to head inside. "This entire clearing on the outside is made from a temperature sensitive polymer that mimics the external appearance of plant life and dirt."

Kai looks around one more time and follows her and her robot inside.

The stairs leading downwards are narrow, but well lit. Kai wonders what kind of place this is. The technology securing it appears to be meant to keep this place's existence from being known.

"So what is this place?" he asks as he continues to follow her down.

"My private laboratory," A2 answers. "It's not affiliated with the university, hence why it is outside the university grounds. The location was chosen for my convenience and the land surrounding it is privately owned by my family although I'm sure they have plans to sell it back out once everything here is either done or relocated."

From this Kai guesses A2 must come from a very wealthy background. 'Explains why her room was such a mess. Must have grown up with someone picking up after her…'

"Does your family fund this place then?" Kai asks.

A2 remains quiet for a moment but then answers, "You could say that."

Kai almost bumps into A2 as she abruptly stops. Looking around, Kai could tell they have arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Still, everything was dark.

"Lights On." A2 says.

A sterile hallway comes into view. Kai immediately notices two doors: one directly ahead and one to the side beside it.

A2 begins leading him down the hall stopping at the side door. She opens up a small box on the wall beside the door and begins to type in a very long alphanumeric code.

Kai looks around him a little. There isn't much to see so far, but already, he can tell the place must be very hi-tech. They were also at least a good distance underground.

"Come in." A2 tells him as the door opens.

Entering, Kai notices the room seems to be some sort of a dressing room. A white sterile looking suit of some sort is lying around and more are hung on a rack in the corner beside another, unused rack.

"Put one of those on." A2 tells him.

"Why?" Kai asks. In his mind, he wonders, 'What in the world am I even going to be doing…?'

"If you don't want a shorter life expectancy, put one on." A2 repeats. "You don't have to take off what you're currently wearing."

Immediately, Kai guesses something must be hazardous if he has to put on a suit of some sort for protection. He asks, "What are you going to have me do here?"

"Just put on the suit already; it's just a few simple tasks. RE:Mordred will guide you through them anyway…" she tells him, putting on a suit over her dress. When she finishes, she then adds, "Don't worry, the tasks I want you to do aren't dangerous as long as you carefully follow my instructions and heed my warnings."

Kai picks a suit out of the rack in the corner.

"Of course, that only holds true if you don't randomly press buttons like a brainless monkey." She adds, pulling over the helmet of her suit.

They exit the room once Kai has his suit on. A2 then opens the other door, the same way she opened the previous one. As she leads him inside, Kai looks around. This room, compared to the hall and the dressing room, seems ridiculously large. In it, are also some of the bulkiest and strangest machines he has ever seen in his life. Not to say he's never been in a lab before; he's seen some very hi-tech labs so far already. He's seen the labs underground at the Abbey, some of the labs at the American PPB's facilities, and even the lab facilities run by some bitbeast hungry scientists, but this is something else. The place appears to be a combination of a factory, and a laboratory. What more is that the machines here seem to be greater than everything else he has seen previously – at least in size.

"Have a seat somewhere." A2 tells him, herself, taking a seat before an enormous monitor.

He complies and looks around for another seat. Finding none, he takes a seat on the closest thing to a chair nearby in front of some strange machine and its protrusions. He then watches as A2 sweeps her hand over what appears to be a touch sensitive keyboard of some sort in a peculiar pattern. Once the keyboard responds, she begins to draw or trace something with her fingertip.

'What is she doing?' he wonders while continuing to watch her.

She soon finishes and turns to him, about to say something. However, instead, she looks up at something above him.

"I was activating the keypad." She says.

Kai looks at her for a moment, waiting for her to say more since that statement was somewhat out of the blue. While it answered what he was wondering about, it didn't have anything to do with anything he said; he didn't say anything to her after all…

Hearing no further comments from her, he looks around some more. Again, the place is huge; machinery is everywhere and none of them he has seen before. He wonders how much funding was put into building the place. 'Did they buy everything? Or was all of this constructed here? But A2 can't possibly have been the one to build it all…not in her condition at the very least…'

"You should keep your nose out of things that aren't your business." A2 tells him.

Kai turns back to her, watching her tinker with what appears to be an earring in her hand. Again he is a little lost as to why she is saying that.

"And by the way," A2 glances in his direction. "For your information, I did build everything here. Or rather...I should say, everything here is designed and engineered by me – including the builders."

Kai blinks for a moment. 'Why is she telling me this?'

"You wanted to know, didn't you?" She responds to his thoughts.

Now, Kai is very perturbed. Yes, he had known that this girl, A2 is very intelligent. Compared to the general populace, she might even be considered a genius, but…

'Since when can she read my mind…?' Kai wonders. 'Or maybe she is somehow predicting what I'm thinking…?'

"Don't insult me, I can't predict what an inferior mind like yours could possibly be thinking and I certainly can't directly read the minds of others." She says, glancing somewhere in his direction. "However, I am reading something and if you're curious, it is right above your head."

Kai looks up. Sure enough there is indeed something right above him. It appears to be some sort of monitor. Getting off his seat and angling his head better, he reads it. Displayed on the messy screen is his thoughts from just moments ago.

"What is this?" Kai asks, backing away from the strange machine.

"An experimental brainwave interpretter. I've named it N-linker." A2 answers, continuing to tinker with the earring. "I was working on it as a compensator for the limits of a different design. It hasn't really been fully tested yet, so thank you for sitting there."

Kai leans back against the nearest empty looking wall of the machine instead now. In some sense, he feels as though his privacy had been invaded. However, he is also relieved that at least he wasn't thinking of anything dirty back there…

"It's too bad I didn't turn the settings onto maximum while you were there, though." A2 goes on. "If I did, I just might be able to read into your innermost thoughts…'

'What.' Kai looks at her astounded.

"I'm joking." She adds, standing up. She then approaches him.

Kai follows her with his eyes as she nears him.

"Stay still," she tells him once she is in front of him.

He complies as she opens his helmet. She then proceeds to fixing something to his left ear, presumably the earring she was messing with. As he is about to ask why she is putting an earring on him, she stops him.

"Don't worry, there's no health hazard opening your helmet here; all the dangerous things are further back." She says. "And don't move or I'll have to do this all over again."

Kai stays still as requested but feels a little strange. This is the first time he's ever allowed a girl to be so close to his face. From this range, he could not help but trace the girl's features with his eyes. Furthermore, her scent is now much more noticeable. Try as he might to resist it, he cannot help but become intoxicated by it quickly.

She soon finishes and pulls back from him. Reaching up with one hand, he tries to feel the earring she put on his ear but she stops him.

"Do me the favor of not messing it up; It's kind of delicate." She says.

"What's this for?" Kai asks.

"The exam next week." A2 answers.

"The exam?" Kai repeats.

"You need to pass this class with a good grade, do you not?" she reminds him.

Kai nods, still confused as to what this has to do with the earring she just put on him.

"You're not going to be able to catch up in time to get a good score on that exam." She tells him. "There's no way your brain will have the capacity to absorb the rest of the information before then even if I can write it up for you."

Kai is about to protest but she goes on.

"That earring will be a simple solution around that." She tells him.

He is still confused. "How in the world is an earring going to help me pass my exam with a good score?"

A2 smiles devilishly. "Oh, it won't be the one helping you."

Kai raises an eyebrow. If anything her statement just added to his confusion.

"I'm the one who will help you." She tells him.

Kai waits for her to further explain.

"I modified that earring into a transmitter and receiver." She goes on. "The main components are compact in design, thus they are well hidden on the back of the earring. I've also ensured that the phonons cannot propagate far in air so no one near you should be able to hear anything from it other than you. On the other hand, the microphone has a large pick up range. You should be grateful that I've modified such an important item of mine for your sake."

Kai looks at her for a moment. From everything he had just heard, it sounds like she wants to have him cheat on his test somehow. "Hey, wait-"

"And yes, it's called cheating…" she cuts him off and affirms his suspicion, looking away from him, annoyed. "Of course, it's something I am completely against, but what choice do I have when I have such a far-from-brilliant pupil; you'd fail horribly and I'd fail to uphold my end of the contract."

"And if we're caught?" Kai asks.

"We won't be." She answers. "I will be out of the room by seventeen minutes into the test latest. I'll be at somewhere safely away in about three more minutes after I get out. The remaining forty minutes should be enough for you to write down the answers I give you."

"And you're certain that no one will be able to hear this?" he asks.

"I tested it quite extensively this morning." A2 tells him. "In order to hear it, your ear must be within a maximum range of seven centimeters. No one will be sitting close enough to you."

Kai scans her for a moment, hesitant to trust her on this. After all, one mess up and they'd both be expelled…

Kai sighs.

"By the way…" A2 holds out a rectangular electronic item before him. He looks at her for a moment. For some reason, she suddenly looks awfully gleeful…

Kai accepts but asks, "What is this?"

"Your tasks for today; you will be working here in my lab for the remainder of the semester as a favor to me." A2 answers. "I'm not tutoring you and ensuring you pass for free, you know. So…"


As always, any feedback you have for me will be very welcome. I particularly want to know what you liked or disliked. Your input will help me write future chapters tremendously. I've also put up a poll recently on my profile page so feel free to vote on that if you want.