Track 10: Outer Science

By setting to work immediately and studying into the night, he had managed to free up the following evening. Hideki had no idea how much longer he could keep juggling school with investigation, along with so much time wasted on social outings. Finding out what Minoru had planned for Freya, however, took precedence over almost everything.

Chi skipped along next to him, smiling as she glanced around at the trees and buildings. Hideki had spent most of the day debating whether he wanted to bring her along at all. He felt guilty leaving her home alone for so many evenings, but having her involved with the Lola investigation was out of the question. Even without the possibility of someone else kidnapping her, he did not want her exposed to anything he might come across. Minoru's warnings had stuck with him, and so had the image of Freya in Undertaker's morgue. He was not sure how seeing her sister's lifeless body would affect Chi, but he was not eager to find out.

Hideki almost tripped over the small box on his way in through the gate to Minoru's house. Someone had left a package out front rather than delivering it to the door. Picking it up curiously, he approached the door with his companion in tow.

Yuzuki met him at the door. "Good afternoon, Mr. Motosuwa, Chi."

"Good afternoon to you too!" Chi cheered.

Hideki held up the box. "I think Minoru has a package here."

Yuzuki briefly examined it. "Oh, this is mine. Thank you very much for picking it up."

Hideki blinked. "Yours? I didn't know you bought things on your own."

"I'm authorized to purchase items to help with upkeep of the house," she explained, "as well as self-maintenance and personal development."

Hideki was slightly taken aback. He had seen Chi purchase things for herself before, but had no idea that Yuzuki did the same. Presumably it was something all persocoms could do, but it seemed a sudden change for a persocom otherwise completely devoted to her master. Hideki tried to sound casual. "What did you buy here?"

"A few self-help materials, she replied, "so that I can better serve master Minoru in the future."

That made sense. "Alright then," Hideki said. He did not want to pry too deeply into Yuzuki's business.

"The others are waiting in the Drawing room." The persocom motioned for Hideki to head in, then turned to his companion. "Chi, why don't you come with me while they discuss their business."

Hideki breathed a sigh of relief as Chi followed Yuzuki away down the hall. Thanks to the blue-haired persocom, he had sidestepped a potentially traumatizing situation for Chi. He wondered whether she had come to the same conclusion as him and acted on it. Whether intentional or by accident, she had averted that for the time being, and he was grateful for it.

Inside the drawing room, three men were seated around the table, cups of tea in front of each. Minoru sat in his usual spot, Shinbo across from him. Hideki's eyes narrowed when he realized who the third person was.

The brown-haired man adjusted his glasses. "Motosuwa! It's been a while."

Hideki pointed at the man angrily. "What's he doing here?"

The man held up his hands defensively, pleasant smile never leaving his face. "Calm down, I'm here by invitation, same as you."

Hideki turned to Minoru. "You invited Kojima?"

Kojima Yoshiyuki was an acquaintance of Minoru's from the Custom Persocom BBS. The man was among the brilliant builders on the site according to Shinbo, having built over 20 custom persocoms including Kotoko. He had also once kidnapped Chi and attempted to hack her. In the three years since their disastrous meeting, however, he had interacted with Kojima more directly a small handful of times. Hideki had to admit the persocom builder had a roguish sort of charm, laughing off personal insults and usually ready with a witty comeback. He could see why people would like the man; were it not for what he had done to Chi, they might even have become friends.

"We'll need him," Minoru explained, "As much as I hate to admit it, his expertise is going to be invaluable."

"Did you bring Sumomo and Kotoko with you?" Shinbo asked.

Sumomo leapt from Hideki's bag as soon as he opened it.

"Former master Shinbo!" she shouted happily.

Shinbo's face lit up as he caught the miniature persocom. "Sumomo! How's my good little girl doing?"

"One hundred percent operational and good to go!" She began to dance on Shinbo's palms.

Shinbo patted her on the head. "That's good to hear!"

Kotoko poked her head out of the bag. "Hello, master!"

Kojima barely spared Kotoko a moment. "Hello Kotoko."

Only Hideki saw the crestfallen look on the small persocom's face. To completely lose the interest of her own creator, he could not imagine what that was like. Especially after seeing Sumomo's reunion with Shinbo.

Once all of them were seated, Minoru cleared his throat. "I've called all of you here for a very important project. Several days ago, Hideki and I met with Undertaker for a job we've been working on. While talking, we found out he had dug up a very unusual persocom."

At that moment, one of Minoru's maid persocoms opened the door, wheeling in a gurney. Resting atop it, covered only by a draped towel, was Freya. The four young men crowded around her.

Shinbo gasped. "Incredible! She's almost identical to Chi." He turned to Hideki. "Is this the 'Freya' that you told us about?"

Hideki nodded. "That's right. Chi's older sister."

Kojima laughed as he shook his head. "That swindler! Undertaker didn't tell me he'd found anything like this!"

"So what's the plan? Hideki asked, "You said you figured out what you wanted to do with her."

"The first thing we're going to do is examine her components," Minoru declared, "We need to know her processor architecture and general specs before we can hope to do anything."

Hideki fidgeted. "Should we be doing this? I mean, Ms. Hibiya and her husband buried her."

"Why are you getting so squeamish?" Kojima asked. "She's just a broken 'com. You see them all the time these days."

"I know," Hideki replied, "I still don't like the idea."

"We weren't the ones that dug her up," Minoru comforted him, "And it isn't as if we won't treat her with respect."

"If we can learn how she was put together, we could fix Chi if she ever broke," Shinbo pointed out.

Minoru nodded. "Keeping Chi operating is the primary goal. Who knows, maybe we could even bring this one back.

Hideki thought Minoru was being a little optimistic. "I don't know about that," Hideki replied, "Her own creator couldn't even fix her, and he was the inventor of all persocoms. What makes you think we have a better chance?"

"We don't" Kojima admitted, "Which is what makes this all the more interesting. Fixing something no one else can is a mark of prestige."

"We also have the other BBS members if we need extra help," Shinbo added. "I'm sure Brackets would have some good input, at least."

Hideki still was not convinced that what they were doing was right, even if it did have a chance of working. He could not help but think of Freya as a dead body. They used human cadavers for medical research, he tried to reassure himself. Granted, those were donated by the people themselves, not just dug up, but the principle remained the same. Perhaps in death, Freya could help her younger sister continue living.

"Alright," Hideki finally said, "Just be careful with her."

"Of course I'm going to be careful," Kojima retorted, "Who do you think I am, you?"

Shinbo cut in before Hideki could reply. "All of us are going to be careful. If Ms. Hibiya's story is true, then Freya is the prototype for all persocoms everywhere.

They opened a small hole on Freya's abdomen, barely two centimeters across. Minoru produced a camera probe for them, which they routed through Sumomo to an external screen. All of them crowded around the monitor to watch the video feed.

Seeing a persocom from the inside was a strange experience. Freya's internals were a mix of computer components, plastic and metal structural pieces, and artificial flesh. Hideki barely understood most of the conversation which followed. He kept quiet, letting the three persocom builders talk undisturbed.

Shinbo jabbed his finger at the screen. "There, that board just to the right of the graphics card. Sumomo, focus on that and zoom in, would you?"

Sumomo obliged, revealing a component the size of a credit card. Hideki could see four large chips on its surface. Three separate ribbon cables attached to various points.

"What do you think that is?" Shinbo asked.

"The primary controller for the body?" Kojima suggested. "Or possibly a coprocessor? It's hard to tell without looking around more."

"Undertaker was right about custom components," Minoru mused. He pointed to the edge of a much larger board. "I think that's the motherboard. Sumomo, turn the camera 30 degrees right, and retract 5 centimeters."

Sumomo obliged, changing their view.

No manufacturer's mark," Minoru muttered. "Did her creator custom-make her motherboard?"

"That makes sense, actually," Kojima pointed out, "pre-persocom boards weren't meant to be housed in humanoid bodies."

Minoru glanced to the other miniature persocom. "Kotoko, do you think you could build a circuit diagram of this?"

"Halfway done already," Kotoko replied, "I'll need a back view as well."

"Some spots here look discolored," Shinbo commented, "she must have overheated something fierce."

"She wanted to stop working," Hideki muttered.

Kojima let out a snort of disbelief, but Shinbo and Minoru shot him curious glances.

The group fell silent as Kotoko worked. Occasionally she would tell Sumomo to change the position of the camera, giving different views of the motherboard and Freya's other internal components.

"So," Kojima said in a conversational tone, "What sort of project did you go to see Undertaker about?"

"It's confidential," Minoru replied, "We're investigating something for Yanaha Cybernetics.

Kotoko spoke up. "One of the Vocaloids is missing, aren't they?"

Hideki looked at her incredulously. "How did you know that?"

Kotoko shrugged. "No one goes to see Undertaker unless they're looking for reclaimed or stolen materials. The Vocaloids are Yanaha Cybernetics's most unique assets, one of the few things which would be the target of a major theft. Really, it's not that difficult to figure out."

"Fascinating," Minoru said thoughtfully. "What are your thoughts about it?"

"Have you considered this might be an act of industrial espionage?" The miniature persocom suggested. "It could have been the work of their rival, CeVIO, or another company eager to break into the persocom musical market."

"The Vocaloid in question is one of the older models," Minoru explained, "more than five years out of date. It seems unlikely she would be the target of reverse engineering."

"Oh," Kotoko replied. After a moment, she said, "reconstructed motherboard Circuit diagram is 90 percent complete. Its estimated accuracy will be 85 percent."

"That's a start at least," Shinbo replied, "Should be enough to figure out the basics."

Kotoko nodded. "It's the best that anyone could do with the components in situ. Removal would be necessary for better accuracy."

"That was a good idea about the missing vocaloid," Hideki reassured Kotoko, "We'd already come to a different conclusion, though."

"Insufficient data will yield unsatisfactory results," she said. "I would need to know all the pertinent information to draw accurate conclusions."

"Your investigative skills might be useful, actually," Minoru said thoughtfully.

"I would be interested in your problem," Kotoko replied, "It would be my first chance in a while to be useful."

"We'd have to make sure you weren't sending data to your master, though," Hideki added.

"That would just be a settings change," she replied, "my master can disable it with a few commands."

"Wait just a minute!" Kojima exclaimed, "You can't just tease me with a puzzle like that and not take me along!"

"Have to," Minoru replied, "NDs don't cover persocoms, but they do for humans."

"Come on, don't just leave me high and dry. At least give me a few hints. I won't tell anyone!"

Minoru crossed his arms. "And what have you done to show that we can trust you?"

A silence passed between them.

Minoru nodded. "That's what I thought."

Kojima sighed. "Fine. Kotoko, go into your investigation software, into settings, disable email reports."

Kotoko nodded. "Confirmed."

"That's it?" Hideki asked incredulously. "That's all you needed to do for all these years?"

"I have no authority over my own programming," Kotoko replied, "it's coded into me at a fundamental level." She grumbled. "Trust me, if I could have done it myself, I would have done it long ago."

Hideki jumped as the doorbell rang. After a few moments, Yuzuki entered, ushering another guest into the room.

"Ms. Omura," Yuzuki announced.

"Yumi!" Hideki exclaimed. "I didn't expect to see you here."

Yumi smiled apologetically as she approached. "Sorry for intruding, Mr. Kokubunji. I didn't realize you would have guests already."

"No trouble at all," Minoru replied. "It's been a while since we last met."

Yumi nodded. "Well over a year, I think."

Minoru motioned to the gurney. "Your intrusion causes no inconvenience. We're just doing some preliminary inspections here."

Yumi gasped as she saw the blonde persocom. "Chi! What happened to her?"

"Nothing," Hideki told her, "This isn't Chi."

"What do you mean? I see her three days a week," Yumi replied, "I think I'd recognize Chi if I saw her!"

"I never told you," he realized. "Chi had an older sister. Her creator built one, then a few years later the other."

Yumi looked from Hideki to the persocom on the gurney and back to Hideki. "Then this is…"

Minoru gestured to the persocom. "Ms. Omura, meet Freya."

Yumi leaned in and began to examine the persocom. "Uncanny," she said, "they're almost perfect twins."

"So, Yumi, what was it you wanted to see Minoru about?" Hideki asked.

"Oh, right," she said, remembering the purpose of her trip. "I want some help on a project. I need to build a persocom, but I'm not any good with that sort of thing. Do you think you could help me?"

Shinbo seemed immediately interested. "What did you have in mind?"

Yumi fished a notebook out of her shoulder bag. The entire thing was filled with doodles and sketches. These ended in a full-page illustration of a girl with large breasts and short-cropped pink hair. Large, floppy rabbit ears emerged from the top of her head. Yumi was no artist, but she had clearly taken a long time drawing it, adding in little details to the outfit. In a way, through the somewhat crude rendering, it reminded Hideki of Yumi herself.

"Very nice," Shinbo commented.

"I'm planning to buy an Utau kit," she explained, "I want to make her a singer, maybe have her perform special events at the bakery."

"We could certainly give you a few pointers at least," Minoru replied, "And we'd be willing to help."

"Count me in too," Shinbo spoke up, "I haven't worked on a 'com in way too long."

Yumi beamed. "Thank you so much! I promise I won't take up too much of your time."

"We can start today if you'd like," Minoru replied, "If not, Yuzuki can give you my contact information."

"Give me a week or two to get things prepared." She turned to Hideki. "Could you and Chi spare a night one week from Thursday? There's a Vocaloid concert, and Hiro and I wanted to go." She smiled. "Don't worry, we'll pay for your tickets."

He sighed. He had hoped he could begin focusing on his studies again. But Yumi seemed excited, and he could not forget how Chi had looked while watching the concert on TV. "I'll see what I can do."

Yumi blushed. "I'm sorry, you're probably very busy with school and your new job. We probably couldn't afford very good seats anyway."

"It's alright." He managed to force a smile. "Actually, I think I could help with that. Let me talk to someone I know," Hideki replied, "She said she would get us VIP passes."

She beamed. "I'm so jealous!"