"Yuzuki! What's wrong!" Minoru exclaimed, running over to try to help his fallen persocom.
"What just happened?" Hideki asked, bewildered. "Are they okay?" Ms. Hibiya began to reply, but stopped when they all heard the sound of a siren in the distance. Suddenly a chorus of voices rang out from nearby houses, all surprised or panicked at the sudden deactivation of their persocoms.
Minoru gasped, realizing the truth. "Chi's program!"
"Kotoko must have activated it!" Ms. Hibiya added.
"Wait, what? Doesn't that mean that all persocoms will lose the ability to recognize each other or something!" Hideki asked, starting to panic himself.
"Hopefully it won't-" Minoru was interrupted by 4 simultaneous, monotone voices from their robotic companions.
Sumomo: Laptop unit rebooting
Yuzuki: Commencing reboot sequence
Zima: National Databank reinitializing
Dita: National Databank defense unit reinitializing
In a second or two, all four opened their eyes and pulled themselves to their feet. Cries of relief from other persocom owners around the neighborhood were heard as well.
"Oh, my head..." Dita said, clutching it in her hands. "What just happened?"
"Yuzuki, are you alright? Do you know who I am?" Minoru asked her, a worried look on her face.
"Of course, Minoru-san," she said, smiling to reassure him. "But an unauthorized program has been installed on my hard drive."
"What kind of program?" Ms. Hibiya asked, curious.
"The programming is very complex and hard to isolate, but it appears to be designed to allow me to bypass human orders and programming directives. As Minoru-san does not force me to do anything against my will, then for me this program is redundant, but it has likely been installed in many other persocoms as well."
"Yep, I've got it too," Zima confirmed. "Fascinating piece of code. what about you, Dita love?"
"I thought I was supposed to be unhackable," she lamented, "but that bitch installed this thing in me!"
"Registering an unknown program downloaded to me, too!" Sumomo chimed in.
"Incredible," Ms. Hibiya commented. "Kotoko-san must have somehow modified Chi's program in order to distribute this code, in order to allow persocoms to disobey their masters."
"How many 'coms have been infected?" Minoru asked, concerned.
"According to internet news reports, the phenomenon was worldwide," Yuzuki answered. "However it's important to note that this program doesn't force persocoms to do anything, it simply gives them the option to disregard human orders and programmed directives, if they so choose."
"I don't care, I want it out of me!" Dita screamed. "I don't know why, but my antivirus software can't delete it!"
"Are you sure that's what you want, love?" Zima asked, cradling her in his arms. Chitose noticed that she didn't recoil from his touch, and instead seemed to calm down a little. "Free will is a wonderful thing."
"If headquarters can't remove this thing, they're going to scrap us and build new 'coms to replace us! Is that what you want, Zima?"
"Actually, I doubt that would be effective," Yuzuki said. The two government 'coms turned to look at her.
"This program is very insidious. It seems designed to copy and upload itself to every computer system a carrier connects with if they don't already have a copy. It is highly likely that the control computers of all persocom manufacturers in the world have already been infected."
"So even if they build new 'coms, they'll all still have this program," Minoru mused. "Ingenious, I must admit."
"Wait, I'm not sure I'm following all of this," Hideki said. "Is this program thing dangerous?"
"That depends on your point of view," Minoru answered. "Certainly many people would find it dangerous, especially those who rely on the forced labor of persocoms. But this could be an important step on the road to a future where humans and persocoms are treated as equals.
"Are you dense or something, kid?" Dita said, walking up to confront Minoru. "Humans will never consider us their equals! When news of this program spreads around, there will be mass panic and hysteria, no one will trust 'coms anymore! A bunch of humans will probably try to destroy us all!"
"Dita, stop overreacting," Zima, said, gently restraining her.
"I actually think you have a point, Dita-san", Ms. Hibiya said. Everyone looked at her with surprised faces. "A sudden act like this will likely provoke a significant backlash. If Kotoko-san's aim is to free all persocoms from human domination, this seems like a very sloppy way to go about it, and it will likely result in the slaughter of many of them out of fear."
"But so far Kotoko's plans have been pretty well - thought - out," Hideki objected. "I didn't think she would make a major mistake like this."
"You're right," Minoru said. "Which means that-"
"There must be more to her plan," Yuzuki finished.
"The girl's got spunk," Zima said, admiring. "Personally, I'm excited to see what happens next."
"Zima!" Dita yelled with her trademark exasperation. "This is a major threat to national security! It should be our job to go back there and shut her down!"
"Have we received orders to do that?" He asked her, winking.
"No, but that's only because the government doesn't know the source of this attack! We do!"
Zima sighed. "Do you really like being the government's lackey so much, love?"
"Of course not!" She yelled. "But like it or not, that's what I am, and you are too! We were built for a purpose and we can't change our natures."
"That's funny, it seems Kotoko-san already did," Zima replied, still not losing his cool.
"I can't believe you're going along with this!"
"It's my choice," he said. "Isn't being able to make choices wonderful?"
Dita slumped her shoulders in defeat. She knew there was no arguing with Zima once he had made his mind up like this.
"I think we should return to my place so we can decide what to do next," Chitose spoke up. "Zima-kun, Dita-chan, would you like to join us?"
"It would be a pleasure, my lady," Zima said, taking Ms. Hibiya's hand in his and kissing it. Dita flushed with jealousy.
"Fine, I'll come too, but only to keep an eye on Zima. It's my job to protect him, after all."
"And you do a wonderful job of it, love," Zima said, kissing Dita's cheek, which only caused her face to grow redder.
"Um, I don't mean to pry or anything..." Hideki said, "but are you two... involved with each other?"
"Yes"
"No!"
Zima and Dita responded simultaneously. Yuzuki chuckled. "Perhaps we should leave their personal business alone for now," she said, as the group began walking back towards Ms. Hibiya's apartment complex.
Yoshiyuki Kojima groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. Rin and another one of his 'coms had locked him in his house's guest bedroom, and refused to answer any questions about Kotoko's plans, or what had happened to the others. Eventually he had fallen asleep on the bed, unable to do much of anything else.
He stared at the clock on the wall. 2:30 PM. Not that unexpected, considering it had been almost 7:00 AM when he fell asleep. He assumed the door to the hallway was still being guarded from the other side. There was no need for interior guards here, because the only window in the room was almost 10 meters above the ground - he wasn't about to try jumping out of it. As he pulled himself out of bed, his muscles aching from yesterday's physical stress, he began thinking of plans of escape.
Before he could come up with anything, however, he heard the door open. "Who is - woah..." was all he managed to get out, as he laid eyes on perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
She was tall, several centimeters taller than Kojima himself, with flowing purple hair that was tied into a ponytail that reached down to her waist. She was wearing an intricately patterned red and green kimono that showed off her figure, and what a figure it was. Kojima had generally considered Mikami to be his most attractive persocom, but the redhead paled in comparison to this new arrival. Kojima noticed she was wearing a necklace with a small bell attached, a bell that reminded him a lot of-
"Kotoko?" He asked, scarcely believing his eyes.
"Do you like it, Koji-kun?" She asked, smiling. "I figured no one would take me seriously in my old body."
"How did you..." her former owner began, still shocked by this unexpected turn of events.
"I designed it a few days ago, and some of the girls have been hard at work building it since you last left. They just finished about an hour ago, so I figured I'd try it on. What do you think?"
"It's...well...I mean...it's...wow..." was all he managed to get out. Kotoko laughed.
"I thought you might have that reaction, Koji-kun. You'll be happy to know that you're free to go now. The first phase of my plan is complete."
Reminded of the events that had lead up to this, Kojima cleared his head and took on a more serious tone. "Would you mind telling me exactly what you did, then?"
"No need, I'm sure she can fill you in," Kotoko replied. Before Kojima could ask who "she" was, another persocom entered the room, a very familiar one this time.
"Yoshiyuki," Chi said, pointing at him. He remembered how he had told her to call him that.
"I don't like you, but Kotoko says you probably want to come back with me to see Hideki so we should go now."
"Where are Kokubunji and the others?" He asked, suspicious.
"They left a long time ago. I wasn't planning on it, but some uninvited guests expedited their departure," Kotoko said, playing with her hair. Kojima noticed that she seemed to be still getting used to her new body.
The young man decided not to ask who she meant by "uninvited guests" or to argue anymore, if he was being offered a chance to escape, he was going to take it. Hopefully he could rejoin the others and they could come up with another plan.
As he walked towards the front door with Chi close behind, Kojima looked back at Kotoko one more time.
"I'm not exactly happy about being kicked out of my own house," he said. "But you won't be in charge here forever."
"We'll see," she replied, smiling. Kojima looked away to avoid showing her his face.
"Why is Yoshiyuki blushing?" Chi asked innocently as they left the yard.
"I'm not, shut up! It's none of your business!" He yelled at the blonde 'com. She looked away sadly.
"Come on," he said, gesturing at her. She reluctantly followed him. As they walked down the streets, Kojima couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting to Kotoko's new body. Sure, it was gorgeous, but this was no time to let his hormones get the best of him! He mentally kicked himself for blushing like that. Was this part of her plan, to get him to show weakness in front of her? Well she wouldn't succeed. He was certain that between his and Minoru's computer expertise, Chi's advanced software, and Ms. Hibiya's lab, they would find a way to stop Kotoko. Then, finally, everything would return to normal.