"Kojima-san", Yuzuki addressed the young man as re-entered the living room. "You were missing from this room for 8 minutes and 31 seconds. Would you mind telling me what you were doing?"
Kojima cursed inwardly. He was hoping to sneak back in without anyone noticing his absence, but now realized that was a foolish expectation, considering the observational powers of persocoms.
"I uh... just needed some time to myself, okay?" He lied.
Yuzuki detected a tone of deceit in his voice, but no malice, so she decided not to press the issue. Kojima walked over to the couch, and became rather irate upon seeing that his seat had been occupied by Zima.
"Excuse me," he said, forcing himself to be as polite as possible to the government 'com, "I was sitting here."
"And now you're not," the black-clothed boy replied flippantly. Junji, Minako, Hideki, Minoru, and even Dita laughed, while Kojima raged inwardly. Still, he knew he wouldn't accomplish anything by throwing a fit about Zima's impertinence.
"Excuse me everyone, but it's getting rather late," Ms. Hibiya interjected. "Perhaps we should retire for the night and reconvene tomorrow?"
"That sounds good," Hideki replied. "I'm getting pretty tired, I guess I could take Chi and Sumomo back to my apartment."
"And I suppose Minoru and I will head back to our-" Yuzuki began, but Chitose cut her off.
"Oh, that's not necessary, dear. I have enough guest bedrooms for the rest of you. My husband often enjoyed having company over."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Dita spoke up. "Zima and I were designed to operate for days on end without need of charging. We can just hang out on your roof and continue to monitor the news feeds."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly leave you two out alone like that all night," Ms. Hibiya said with concern. "Please reconsider."
"Don't worry, ma'am," Zima said, walking over to speak to her face - to - face. "We don't mind. Besides, we won't be alone." He wrapped his arm around Dita. "We'll have each other. Isn't that right, Dita love?"
She blushed and looked away. Ms. Hibiya smiled and agreed to their proposal.
As the two government persocoms carefully climbed out of the window, Chitose approached Junji and Minako.
"Here, I'll show you two to your room. It has a queen-size bed, so you should have plenty of room," she said, winking.
Minako blushed slightly. "Thanks, but I don't think Junji and I will be getting very intimate tonight, what with the current situation."
Junji seemed to get a slight look of disappointment on his face, so his wife leaned over and whispered in his ear "later."
Hideki's cheeks reddened, listening to this scene. "Well of course, they are married," he thought to himself, "but I guess I didn't consider the implications of that..." he looked over at Chi, her sweet face smiling up at him, and smiled back at her, despite the thought he was having. "Lucky bastard. Minako wouldn't have the same problem as Chi does," he mused, referring to the unfortunate location of her activation switch. "Still, I love her anyway," he thought, taking her hand and escorting her out into the hallway and back towards his apartment, Sumomo sitting on her shoulder.
"I hope you two won't mind sharing bunk beds," Ms. Hibiya asked Kojima and Minoru.
Yoshiyuki stared at the youth for a few seconds, then resignedly said "whatever."
"Yuzuki dear, you can recharge in the lab," Chitose said.
"Thank you, Hibiya-san", the blue-haired persocom replied, bowing.
Soon everyone was settled in for the night, trying not to be too anxious about the developing persocom rebellion.
They were all awake and about by 10 the following morning. Turning on the news, they discovered that the amount of strikes and uprisings had multiplied to several dozen, all taking place in facilities where persocoms were forced to work under harsh conditions. So far, no government had taken decisive action, as the common belief was still that it was some kind of malfunction or sabotage, and they were still attempting to isolate a cause in their programming and remove it. However, everyone in the room knew that it was only a matter of time before someone decided they had had enough and sent in a team of special forces to slaughter the rebelling computers.
The news channel was still covering the developments with careful attention.
Experts still have not established a definitive connection between the rogue program and these acts of mass uprising, however a terrorist plot is still widely believed-
The anchorman paused, listening to something on his headset.
This just in - a demand has been made by someone claiming responsibility for this situation, and-
he paused again, as if to confirm what he was hearing.
It's a persocom?
"Kotoko!" Kojima exclaimed as he watched the report. "She's finally made her move."
We will now show you the message being broadcast to several news stations.
The screen shifted from the anchorman to a small, dirty - looking room. To everyone's surprise, the visage that greeted them was not Kotoko's but that of a male persocom, with vertically pointed ears and noticeably middle-eastern features. Behind him, several humans were tied up in the center of the floor.
Words scrolled across the bottom of the screen, reading GEOCHEMICAL ENTERPRISES OIL RIG 27, SAUDI ARABIA - LIVE.
"Greetings human oppressors," the persocom began. "My name is Harash, but that is unimportant. What is important is that we have been given a gift - a gift to deliver us to freedom. And our freedom will not be denied."
The camera pulled back to reveal that Harash was holding a pistol, aiming it at the captured humans.
"Oh no..." Minako whispered, as everyone in the room tensed.
"I demand that all unpaid persocom workers in facilities like this throughout the nation be released and safely escorted out of the country. I will execute one prisoner every hour until my demands are met."
The screen cut back to the anchorman, now looking visibly shaken.
Authorities suspect this persocom is being controlled by a terrorist cell, however their true goal is unkno-
Minoru tuned off the TV. "This is not good," he said, stating the obvious.
Suddenly Hideki had an idea.
"Chi, can you shut him down remotely?"
The blonde 'com looked up. "Maybe. But Chi would also have to shut down all other persocoms too."
"Which would give the humans free reign to kill all the rebels. No way." Dita said, looking angrily at Chi.
"Chi?" She said, looking scared, and hugged Hideki for comfort.
"Does that matter?" Kojima shouted, approaching Dita. "There are human lives at stake here!"
"Why are human lives more important that persocom lives?" Zima asked, stepping up to defend his girlfriend.
"Because you're-" Yoshiyuki stopped before finishing his thought, as he looked around at everyone in the room, who were all staring at him. He slowly backed down, realizing he wouldn't get anywhere with this. A nagging part of his subconscious was also telling him that Zima might have a point, but he ignored it.
"It's all up to you now, Kotoko," he thought.