◊◊ Chapter 10 – Right VS Might ◊◊

In the previous chapter, Hideki came back with the power pack but upon returning he met with the man in black. During the showdown, he revealed his name to everyone and his name was Soulithe. He tells Hideki to bring Chii here at noon tomorrow or else he will suffer. Hideki and Chii together again and Chii recovering from the power pack have a peaceful night together. The next morning comes…

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Hideki and Chii wake up to the sound of birds chirping near the window. It was a long sleep for the two of them and it was a much needed rest as well. Beep-Beep-Beep. Hideki turned to Chii and noticed that she was still wearing the power pack that he put on yesterday. "Oh, it must be done charging. I thought Minoru said it would take 3 hours to charge? Well it's done anyway. How do you feel Chii?" "Chii's power supply is at 99 Solar mechanisms are automatically enabled." Chii replied. "That's wonderful news! Now those beeps mean that I need to take it off and disconnect the S. Cable." Hideki said.

Hideki unplugged the S. Cable from the power pack and opened Chii's ear shell so the plug can spring back inside Chii. He then removed the power pack from Chii and placed it on the ground. Hideki then gave Chii a hug. Chii hugged back and closed her eyes. The two hugged each other for a long time not wanting to let go as today was going to be a very tough day for the two of them. "Hideki…will protect Chii?" Chii spoke while her head was resting on his chest. "Yes I will…" Hideki answered softly. Chii…I don't know how I'm going to be able to defend myself against this guy. He's certainly not human. How am I going to stop him? I can't do it alone. I need help with this one Chii. Hideki hugged Chii one last time so the feeling wouldn't fade.

Deep down Hideki was nervous and he did not know how he was going to handle this. Hideki then held Chii's chin with his hand and kissed her on the lips for a while. Chii closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Hideki's shoulder. The feeling of love and fear was mixed in the air in Hideki's room. Now Hideki had to experience a situation he rarely ever dealt with, fighting. He always avoided a fight whenever possible but now…he can't run away.

Hideki got up from the bed and stretched his arms out so he could get ready for the day. "Boy this is some way to begin my day. Waking up feeling refreshed only to end up being in a fight later today." Hideki said out loud. He then went over to his dresser to change clothes. Chii got out of bed and went over to Hideki to do the same thing. Chii took off her long shirt that she wore to sleep last night and put on a dress that she found on the middle shelf. "You know…it's always going to be hot isn't it Chii?" Hideki said with a look of frustration in his eyes. Chii was halfway in the process of putting on the dress she found. "I mean I may as well not wear pants since I'm going to more than likely roast in them." Hideki said while looking at Chii.

Before saying anything else, he began to notice Chii in this black dress she just put on. Hideki never seeing Chii in black before made him think for a bit. "What do you think about that one Chii?" Hideki asked. Chii looked down at her dress to see how it looked on her. "Chii!" she said with a smile. "Ha, I think it looks great on you too. I don't know though if black is the color you want to wear when it's going to be another scorcher out there." Hideki replied. "Chii…feels cool in this dress. Chii feels…different in this dress." She answered. "Different? How so?" Hideki asked. Chii looked down at the ground with her mouth open a little trying to search for an answer to give to Hideki.

Before Hideki could get an answer out of Chii, the two heard knocking at the front door. "Ah, who is it?" Hideki said loud. "It's Soulithe and I've come to get Chii. Open up Hideki!" the voice from outside said. Hideki walked to the door already recognizing the voice of this person and opened the door. Hideki stared with an un-amused look on his face. "You do poor voice acting Shinbo! That wasn't even funny. You know how nervous I am about this situation." Hideki said. "I know you are, just trying to loosen you up." Shinbo replied. "Loosen up! Loosen Up!" Sumomo repeated. "Yea thanks." Hideki said. "Anyway I brought some company for you." Shinbo said as he stepped aside. Shinbo had brought along not just Chitose but Minoru and Takashi as well. "Ahh you brought them along too?" Hideki said in surprise. "Of course, we are here to comfort you and stick alongside with you until the end." Shinbo said cheerfully. "Thanks Shinbo! Come on in everyone." Hideki said. Everyone was inside Hideki's place and they all got comfortable.

"Well I wasn't expecting all of you to be here at once. I really appreciate this everyone." Hideki said with a smile. "Hey we gotta stick together on this one. If this affects Chii, then this affects all of us. You won't go through with this alone." Shinbo said. "We know Chii means a lot to you, so we are here to do the best we can." Takashi added. "Hideki, Shinbo has informed me about this person's name. Soulithe is it?" Minoru mentioned. "Yes that's right." Hideki replied. "I did some research last night about that name. Something struck me as familiar when I heard that name. On the BBS, several people said that was the name of a one-of-a-kind persocom whose creator had a determination to control all persocoms." Minoru explained. Everyone turned their attention to Minoru as he began to explain about this person.

"I don't have all the information about this person but HE is certainly a persocom." Minoru added. "A persocom like Chii is?" Hideki asked. "Yes and no. He is not a Chobit, he is a regular persocom. However, he supposedly has two large programs running in him that can "emulate" a Chobit. This means that the way he acts seem to be independent and self-thought. He is actually emulating what a Chobit would do. The other program is to feed the program with the information to emulate a Chobit. You said that he drained all of Chii's energy on the train yesterday morning didn't you?" Minoru asked. "Yes he did." "Soulithe draining the energy from Chii was the process of that program feeding the information to act like a Chobit. Why he is emulating a Chobit I do not know at the moment. I am expected to get several posts in a topic I made about this subject." Minoru explained.

"So he's a persocom but he's trying to emulate a Chobit?" Hideki replied. Minoru nodded. "I personally believe he is trying to emulate a Chobit because Chobits possess astronomical power than a regular persocom. The act of draining energy was one of the many things a Chobit can do. Chobits are legendary and Soulithe being a persocom was able to detect that in Chii. This is probably the main reason why he wants her so much. He is using the powers that are gifted to him for wrong." Minoru explained further. "How are we going to be able to stop him though? If he is this powerful then there must be something we can do." Takashi said. "I'm afraid we are powerless against Soulithe. There is nothing we can do. Really, only Chii is able to do something." Minoru answered. "How can you say that? There has to be something I can do before he shows up!" Hideki said. "Hideki, it's not about you. It's Chii that he wants and he wants to be able to fully emulate a Chobit. Like I said, I'm not able to…" Minoru stopped in mid-sentence.

Everyone in the room heard the front door make a thud. Hideki looked at the door trying to figure out what made that sound. Chii walked over to Hideki for safety. "What was that!" Shinbo said. "Something is out there…" Chitose added. Hideki turned around and looked at his clock on the nightstand. There it displayed "12:00PM" and Hideki felt butterflies in his stomach upon seeing that. Hideki looked at Chii and then back at the clock as to get Chii's attention to the clock. Chii saw the clock and then looked down at Hideki. Hideki hugged Chii and kissed her on the forehead to assure her that she will be all right. "Hideki be careful. Remember that we are with you on this!" Shinbo said trying to bring Hideki's confidence up. Hideki smiled back and walked to the front door to open it.

Hideki walked up to the balcony with the others following behind looking down to the ground. Everyone was looking at Soulithe and he was looking right back at them as well. "Well Hideki? What are you going to do?" Soulithe yelled out to him. "Remember Hideki, I have the power to let you live…or to make you suffer along with everybody else. It's your choice." Soulithe added. Hideki stood there trying hard to think of something he can do to defeat Soulithe. Minoru got closer to the balcony so he could observe Soulithe from afar. "Chii…let's go" Hideki whispered. Chii held onto to Hideki and both of them flew slowly down to the ground with Soulithe. The scene was quiet and the only sounds being heard here were the wind occasionally howling and several birds chirping. Hideki took a deep breath and held onto Chii who was holding onto him tight and was behind him.

"Take me instead!" Hideki yelled. Soulithe stood there staring at Hideki after hearing what he just said. Soulithe laughed hardy and put his hand on his head. "Oh Hideki…you make me laugh. What a quality you have. And might I ask how that benefits you in any way? I said I wanted Chii...you're just a human. I don't need you for anything. So don't go for the heroic acts Hideki, it doesn't suit you." Soulithe said with the same smirk he's been making. "Then you can't have Chii Soulithe. She's done nothing to you to deserve everything you have been doing to us!" Hideki said angrily. "It's not that she's done anything to me Hideki. I'm not going to reveal fully why I need her." Soulithe replied. "I know why you need her so much!" Hideki answered with a smirk of his own. "You want to emulate being a Chobit don't you? When you drained Chii's energy yesterday on the train, you tried to get information from her didn't you?" Hideki yelled out. Soulithe stood there stunned to as what Hideki was saying. "I know why you need Chii and that's why I'm not going to let you have her." Hideki finished. "Well…I'm surprised Hideki. How did you find out that information Hideki?" Soulithe asked with a cold stare.

"I told him that." Minoru said out loud. Soulithe focused his attention to Minoru up on the balcony. "I knew your name was familiar so I asked several other persocom experts about you. From what I've gathered, you are indeed bad news. All of this just so you can run in full emulation of a Chobit and to use those powers for destruction?" Minoru added. Minoru's expression hardly changed whenever he spoke and for that reason, it bothered Soulithe. "So…you got yourself a persocom expert eh? I knew a human like you wouldn't figure something out like that all on your own." Soulithe said. Hideki clenched his fists and gritted his teeth after what Soulithe said.

"Well expert, you are half right. Since you are such a know-it-all, why don't you figure out the other half you are wrong about. Now enough wasting time…hand over Chii now!" Soulithe said focusing his attention to Hideki. "I'll never let you have her!" Hideki said why spreading his arms out to further protect Chii. "Hideki. Everyone is going to suffer horribly because of your decision. Your friends will receive a personal vendetta from me. Like I said, you don't need to be here!" Soulithe said.

Soulithe held out his hand and a glow of green light began to emit. The energy and intensity of this light was growing and Soulithe aimed his hand toward Hideki. He then clasped his hand releasing the energy beam so it head for Hideki. Chii pushed Hideki out of the way and the blast ends up hitting the wall to the apartment causing major damage to it. Hideki quickly stood up to prepare for Soulithe. Soulithe was walking towards Chii while she was staring at him back. Chii slowly began to tense up her shoulders and before Soulithe got too close, she let out a glow of white light similar to what she did before to heal Hideki. Only this time this light was protecting Chii and it caused her to float. Soulithe stood back shielding his eyes from the intense light Chii was giving off. Chii then threw her head back which caused the light to scatter into beams that went straight toward Soulithe. He tried to fly out of there before the beams hit but they were way too fast for him to dodge. Soulithe took damage from the light beams and the impact of them sent Soulithe up in the air as the other beams flew in to crash on him. Chii still looked up in the sky with her eyes glowing white and her long hair scattered about floating as if she were in space. Hideki was shielding his eyes from the light but he saw what Chii was doing to Soulithe.

Chii's light began to fade and her eyes returned to normal. Chii flew over to Hideki and said "do…not…harm…Hideki." Hideki looked at Chii and she had an expression he'd never seen before on Chii. Her eyebrows were lowered as she looked at Soulithe with an angry face. Soulithe hovered high above the ground looking down at Hideki and Chii. "That's Impressive Chii. And thank you for the new information regarding some of your energy attacks. Concussive beams of light…now I can do that. I hope you figured out the other half by now expert." Soulithe yelled out. Hideki and Chii held each other as they looked up at Soulithe. "This is not over yet Hideki. Far FAR from it!" Soulithe said with anger as he teleported out.

Hideki gave out a sigh of relief as he continued to hold Chii. "Chii…are you ok?" Hideki asked. "Chii…is ok" she replied. "I'm glad! We're ok everyone!" Hideki shouted out to the others on the balcony. Shinbo, Chitose, Takashi, and Minoru all went down the stairs to see Hideki and Chii. "I'm glad you guys are ok!" Chitose said first. "Yea but what was that she did?" Takashi added. "Chii is able to produce energy like that and turn it into an attack. It's a defense mechanism most persocoms have." Minoru answered. "He said he'll be back though. What should we do when he does return?" Hideki asked out loud. "Knowing full well that we'd run into him, I brought along a small persocom of mine.

This persocom was recording this entire scene the whole time. I've already sent everything we've seen Soulithe do to my computer. Now I will post this on the BBS for further information. I'll cut some parts of it and make separate pictures of it in Photoshop." Minoru said. "Ahh that's awesome Minoru, I didn't know you brought along a persocom with you." Hideki said. "I kept it hidden until I actually saw him" Minoru replied. Everyone was happy for Minoru for recording the fight scene. "I'm going to go do more research on Soulithe. I'll report any new finding I get to you Hideki ok?" Minoru said. "Sure thing, I'll have Chii remind me if you send it through an email." Hideki replied back. "I'll try to make it a video conference instead but look out for emails anyway." Minoru said. With that Minoru left the area and headed back to his mansion.

"What do we do now?" Shinbo asked out loud. "We shouldn't let Soulithe run our lives. We must try to live our own lives. The heat isn't bad at all at the moment so those attacks must have stopped Soulithe from changing the weather. From here on we must stay strong." Takashi said strongly. Everyone nodded and agreed with what Takashi said. "If the weather isn't so bad tomorrow or it's not as bad as it has been, then school will resume tomorrow. So you two better be present!" Takashi said to Hideki and Shinbo. "Yes ma'am!" both of them said while saluting. The others laughed at what Hideki and Shinbo did.

"Well…I'm going to have to call someone about that wall of the apartment. Fortunately no one lives in those units." Chitose said as she looked at the wall that Soulithe damaged earlier. Everyone looks at the wall and made a face showing how bad it was. There were people that came out of their units to see what that loud explosion was and they too were gawking at the wall. "I don't want to think about this. Hey you up for something since there is no school today?" Shinbo asked Takashi. "Sure I have time to kill." Takashi replied. "Well see ya everyone, you too Hideki!" Shinbo said. Shinbo and Takashi left to go do something together. Hideki, Chii and Chitose were left standing outside where Soulithe was. "Please, if there's anything I can do to help you fix that wall then let me know." Hideki offered to Chitose. "Thank you Hideki. I will let you know." Chitose replied back.

Chitose walked back to the apartments to see what she can do about the wall. Hideki and Chii looked each other and smiled. "Come on Chii, let's go walk around for a while. I don't want to be here myself; I'd rather be with you." Hideki said. "CHII!" she squealed as she hugged Hideki tightly. Hideki felt a little confident as he now knew more about Soulithe. However he was still bothered by the things he said that felt personal. Moreover, he still wished he could be able to do something to defeat Soulithe. At least today would be a nice day to be out.

To Be Continued…