"So, what's this I hear about you having a cute little girlfriend?" Shinobu asked teasingly. "It's all over town, you know."
"I am currently dating someone," Shutaro confirmed. He looked quizzically across the table at her. "What are people saying?"
Shinobu shrugged and took another bite before responding. "Just that you've been sighted all over town with her." She abruptly shot him a glare. "How come you haven't said anything to me about her?"
"We're just getting serious," Shutaro protested. "And besides, I don't see you much these days." He leaned back in his seat. "Isn't this the first time we've had lunch together in forever?"
"Well, yes," Shinobu admitted. "But you could have called me, you know." She frowned and leaned in close. "Just how serious are you two?" she asked with a knowing look.
Shutaro shook his head. "We're not doing anything inappropriate," he replied irritably. "Just going on dates and such."
"You've at least kissed her though, right?" Shinobu asked slyly.
He blushed and looked at the table. "Not yet," he admitted quietly.
"I see," she continued to tease him. "So, do you think she's the one?"
"I've only known her for about a month," he protested. "But yes, I've got a feeling that she might be," he admitted in a low voice.
"Well, I'm happy for you," she told him sincerely. "You've been way too much of a shut-in ever since you broke up with Asuka. If this girl can get you out of that mansion, then she's gotta be something special."
"She is," Shutaro agreed. "I've never met anyone quite like her."
"So, spill it," Shinobu commanded. "I want to know everything. Who is she? What does she like to do?"
He chuckled. "Her name is Aoki Sayomi, and she goes to school with Ryoko,"
"Oh?" Shinobu replied with mock surprise. "You're dating a high school student?"
"She's only a year younger than us," he protested, looking embarrassed.
She giggled. "I'm just teasing you," she said. "Keep going."
"Well, she just moved here from Kyoto this summer," he continued. "And she's wanting to attend here after she graduates."
"Is she smart?" Shinobu asked.
"I'd say so," he replied. "We've studied together a couple of times, but she just goes through her homework like it's nothing." He thought for a moment. "As for what she likes to do, that's hard to narrow down."
"You're such a typical guy," Shinobu commented. "You've been together over a month and you still don't know what her interests are."
His brow furrowed. "It's not like that," he protested. "I just haven't really found anything she doesn't like to do. I know she likes movies a lot, and she loves going on walks." He thought for a moment. "She doesn't seem to like swimming, but other than that she's been pretty well up for anything."
"Sounds like a fun girl," Shinobu said, glancing at her watch. "Well, I've got to be getting back. My last class starts soon."
"I'll see you later then," Shutaro replied. "I'm going to head home after this."
"Bye!" she called back wistfully as she rushed off. It seemed like they never got to talk for long anymore. She could only hope now that Shutaro was seeing someone he would start being more sociable again.
Shutaro finished his lunch slowly, keeping an eye on the clock on the wall. Sayomi wouldn't be out of school for another hour, and he intended to walk her home. He hoped she wouldn't mind that he hadn't said he was coming this time, but she always seemed happy to see him.
He was just leaving the university's cafeteria when the first tremor occurred. He barely felt the ground shake for a few seconds, and then it was over. No big deal, minor earthquakes were a fairly common occurrence. It wasn't until he was leaving the train station near the school and the third tremor hit that he started getting worried. This one was much harder than the previous two, though still not enough to cause any damage.
Jogging the rest of the way, he found that the students were already starting to mill out the doors. No doubt classes had been let out early just in case. Leaning against the gate, he scanned the mass of girls, hoping to catch sight of both Sayomi and his sister.
Soon he saw Ryoko coming out with a cluster of her friends. To his dismay Sayomi wasn't with them. He raised his hand hesitantly, hoping Ryoko would notice.
Ryoko's smile quickly turned to a frown when she caught sight of him. "I've got to go," she told her friends apologetically. Breaking free of the crowd, she quickly made her way over to Shutaro.
"Hi, big brother," she greeted him warmly. "What are you doing here? Did you get worried about me?" She patted him affectionately on the shoulder. "It was just a couple of little tremors."
"I was actually already on my way here," he explained hesitantly. "I was planning to walk Sayomi-san home." He kept his eyes on the door as the crowd of students thinned out to a trickle. "Have you seen her today?"
"No, I haven't seen her," Ryoko replied truthfully. "Did you let her know that you were coming today?"
"No, I wanted to surprise her," he admitted. "I hope she's not sick."
"She's probably fine," she assured him. "She seemed ok yesterday."
"Maybe I ought to go check on her," he replied.
"You should call first," Ryoko told him quickly. "Just stopping by would be kind of rude, don't you think?"
"I guess so," he agreed dubiously. "Those tremors just have me a little worried."
"Well, why don't you walk me home," she told him firmly. "And then you can give her a call."
"Or I can just call her now," Shutaro replied, reaching in his pocket for his phone. Quickly dialing Sayomi's number, he waited patiently as it rang several times.
"Hello?" she finally answered.
"Hey Sayomi-san," Shutaro greeted her. "I was just making sure that you're ok."
"Yes, I'm fine. Did something happen?" she asked curiously.
"Not really," he replied. "I was just worried that you weren't at school today."
Sayomi was silent for a moment. She shouldn't have answered his call so early in the day; she was supposed to still be in class. "Yeah, I stayed home today," she admitted. "My head was hurting this morning and I didn't figure missing one day would hurt."
"Do you think that you're getting sick?" he asked worriedly.
"No, I don't think so," she assured him. "I feel fine now."
"That's good," he replied. "You felt those tremors a little while ago, didn't you?"
"Yes," she answered quickly. "I don't think they were too serious though."
"Well, just make sure you're careful," he told her. "There's no telling if that was the worst of it."
"I will," she promised.
"I could come over there after I walk Ryoko home," he told her. "If you want me to."
"Actually, I'm still a bit sleepy," she told him hurriedly. "Tomorrow would be much better for me."
"Well, ok," he replied. "I'll talk to you later then."
"Sorry about that," she replied, trying to sound tired. "Bye, Shutaro-san,"
"She blew you off?" Ryoko surmised as he hung up.
Shutaro shot her an irritated look. "She just said she was feeling tired," he explained haughtily as he put the phone away. "Come on, let's go on home."
Shu-chan closed the connection regretfully. If he was walking Ryoko home that meant he had probably wanted to walk her home as well. Up until now she had just been showing up when they had something planned; she hadn't considered that he might show up unexpected. And now on top of disappointing him she was probably making him worried about her as well.
She sighed. Today was just turning out to be all kinds of fun. There had been five or six tremors already, though only the last three had been noticeable without instruments. On top of that her subspace receiver was totally fried. She'd tested it out a few hours ago at the request of the technicians, only to have the thing sputter out and die completely.
She'd been trying to fix it for hours now, but her repair arms weren't designed to work in so much gravity. She kept worrying that she was going to break one of her fragile manipulators. And the occasional quakes weren't making the delicate work any easier.
She was just about to start work on it again when the ground deep beneath Tomobiki buckled hard, sending massive shockwaves towards the surface. With her sensitive sensors she was the first one in the lab to realize that anything was wrong.
"A big one's about to hit," she yelled out over the radio less than a half second before the building started shaking.
The technicians glanced around wildly as the shaking steadily increased in magnitude. Shu-chan just tucked her repair arms in tight, hoping that nothing would get broken. It was of some relief that Sayomi was safely tucked away in Ryoko's guest room.
The R&D facility, like most large buildings in the country, was built to withstand severe earthquakes. The same couldn't be said of the structure that had been hastily constructed to support Shu-chan when she had first arrived. At the height of the tremors she felt herself start tilting forward.
With a loud screech one of the four metallic supports underneath her sheered clean off, sending her crashing to the floor. She hit the concrete hard, instantly shattering every one of her delicate mirrors and lenses, and driving her hull sharply inwards towards her internal components.
As soon as the shaking subsided, many of the distraught technicians swarmed around the satellite, trying to assess the damage. No one had been allowed to work on her since she had arrived, so they had really no idea how badly she was damaged. However the fact that the radio was ominously silent was not a good sign.
Shutaro stood up slowly, making sure to steady his frightened sister. They had almost made it to the front gate when the quake had begun, and he had quickly decided it was best just to stay out in the open until things calmed down.
It was only a couple of minutes after the shaking stopped that his phone started ringing. The first couple of calls were his father and mother checking on him. They were relieved to hear that Ryoko was there, and that they were both ok.
The next call sent chills down his spine. It was his projects' supervisor, calling to let him know what had happened to Shu-chan. She appeared to be in pretty bad shape, and they still weren't getting any response from her.
"I'll be down there as soon as I can," Shutaro promised. Hanging up, he started dialing another number as he headed into the estate.
"Who are you calling now?" Ryoko asked as she jogged to keep up with him.
"Sayomi-san," he replied tersely. "I'm just making sure that she's ok."
Ryoko looked away guiltily. If Shu-chan was badly damaged, it was likely that Sayomi wouldn't be around for a while.
"No one's answering," he spat out as he slowed down. "I should go over there first."
"She probably just went outside when the earthquake hit," Ryoko tried to assure him. "I'll tell you what. You go check on Shu-chan, and I'll go check on Sayomi-sempai myself."
"I don't want you out there by yourself," he protested. "We don't know if there'll be any aftershocks yet."
She pointed towards the small group of black clad men swiftly approaching them. "I'll be fine with my Kuroko," she told him firmly. "You know how much Shu-chan likes you. If she's hurt you really need to go be with her."
He stared at the ground for a moment, torn on what to do. "Ok," he finally agreed. "But make sure you call me when you get there."
"Sure, sure," Ryoko promised, waving goodbye as she headed for her worried Kuroko. Hopefully things weren't too bad in the lab, but there was no way she could let Shutaro go looking for Sayomi when she was already safely on the estate.
Shutaro shook his head as he surveyed the wreck that had been his friend. She was in a sorry state, with broken glass scattered all around her bent frame. At the very least she had to be blind now.
"Shu-chan, are you there?" he asked tentatively into the radio, but there was no answer. "Please respond, Shu-chan. This is Shutaro, please answer me." The radio remained silent.
"Do you think her antennae are just damaged?" he asked the supervisor
"At this close range, it wouldn't matter," the tech explained worriedly. "We won't know exactly what's been damaged until we open her up." He looked at the ground. "Do we have authorization to attempt repairs?"
"Of course," Shutaro replied irritably. "You should have been doing that as soon as possible."
"We've been getting everything ready while you arrived," the supervisor replied. "But we'll start work immediately."
Ryoko was just climbing the stairs to her room when she heard a loud thump on the floor above her. She rushed the rest of the way up and to her dismay found Sayomi sprawled out in the hallway.
"Sayomi-chan!" she cried out, trying fruitlessly to lift the heavy girl back up.
Sayomi slowly turned her head to look at Ryoko. Her eyes appeared unfocused, but she still managed to recognize her friend.
"Ry-o-ko," she slurred. "Need to get to lab now."
"Shutaro's already down there," Ryoko protested. "He'll figure everything out if he sees you like this."
"Doesn't matter anymore," Sayomi replied, her voice slowly returning to normal. "That fall caused extensive damage to a lot of things, including my main processor," she explained, carefully sounding out each syllable. I'm barely managing to reroute to an auxiliary, but there's no way they'll be able to fix it without help."
"Are you sure about that?" Ryoko asked dubiously, unwilling to end their careful charade after all the success that they'd had.
"Yes," Sayomi replied. "I'm the only one who understands my modifications."
"Well, can't you just tell them what to do over that radio?" Ryoko asked hopefully.
"I need these optics," Sayomi explained. "The security cameras don't have good enough resolution for me to see."
"Fine," Ryoko surrendered. "I'll have my Kuroko get you down there. But I'm going to try to get Shutaro out of there first."
"Thank you," Sayomi replied weakly. "It's taking all of my power just to keep this channel open."
"I can't find her anywhere," Ryoko cried hopelessly. "Big brother, can you come down here and help me look?"
Shutaro bit his lip and stared at Shu-chan. There really wasn't anything he could do here, but maybe he could be of some help out there. "Ok," he simply replied before hanging up.
"Shu-chan," he spoke softly into the radio, "I can only hope that you can hear this. My friend Sayomi-san is missing, and I really need to go look for her. I hate to leave you at a time like this, but you're in the best hands in the world." He turned away. "I'm sorry, Shu-chan. I'll be back as soon as I can. Please just hold on."
"Thank you, Shutaro-kun," Shu-chan's voice came faintly over the radio. "It means a lot to me to know that you care."
"Shu-chan?" he replied eagerly, clutching the radio tightly in his hands. "Are you there?"
"Go," she told him firmly. "Please, just go, I'll be ok."
He looked up at the now hopeful technicians' faces. "Please take good care of her," he pleaded. "I'll be back soon," he said, heading for the door. "Don't let anything happen to her!"
Shutaro had barely left the room when a loud banging sounded on one of the rear exterior doors. One of the technicians promptly opened the door to find four Kuroko carrying a covered stretcher between them. They rushed in, followed closely by Ryoko.
"I'm sorry, Ryoko-sama, but you aren't allowed in here," the project supervisor protested, moving to block their way. "Besides, we're having a bit of an emergency here."
"I know," Ryoko replied curtly. She saw a couple of technicians behind him starting to pry off one of Shu-chan's outer panels. "You shouldn't do that," she yelled. "You might damage something."
"Trust me," their supervisor tried to assure her, "We know what we're doing."
"Tell them to stop," Shu-chan ordered.
The supervisor's head whipped around, but the voice hadn't come from the radio. He looked curiously at the bundle that the Kuroko were carrying. The covering slowly slid away as a young girl sat up straight. "I'll direct you on exactly what to do," she told him firmly.
"Who is this girl?" the supervisor demanded. "And why does she sound exactly like Shu-chan."
"Um, boss," one of the junior technicians spoke up. "That is Shu-chan. Sort of." He stepped up and inspected her closely. "Anyways, we should do what she says," he told his superior firmly. "She knows what she's talking about."
"Will someone explain what's going on?" the supervisor asked irritably.
"Well, it all started a couple of months ago," Ryoko began hurriedly.
"How does it look?" one of the technicians asked worriedly.
Sayomi turned to him. "Not good," she replied weakly. "I'm not going to be able to salvage the original processor. And my hard drive's starting to skip really bad, I don't think it's going to last much longer." She paused. "I'm going to need some help in a moment."
She pointed towards one of the tiger striped boxes attached to her hull. "I'm in the middle of copying everything to a storage unit I salvaged from that relay station," she explained slowly. "I was already using it to hold my day to day memories, but this is the first time I've moved any of my essential programs over to it. I don't know if it's going to work yet." She fell silent, the strain of keeping her failing systems active while converting everything to the new storage format taking most of her concentration.
As soon as the data was copied, she ran a check to make sure there wasn't any data loss. There was some corruption, but it was mostly just observational data from her time in orbit. Nothing important seemed to be missing.
"Ok, listen up," she ordered loudly, speaking over the nearby printer spitting out page after page of diagrams and instructions. "I need you to follow those instructions to the letter. I won't be able to guide you myself, but I know you can do it."
The technician returned with a handful of her instructions. "Is this really necessary?" he asked tentatively. "If we can just reroute everything to those new components, there's no reason to move them.
"My optics are destroyed, my instruments are mostly dead, and this hunk of metal is more of a coffin than anything now," she growled. "Please follow my instructions. I've been thinking about this for this for a long time now; I was just too scared to go ahead with it. But now either way I'm going to have to risk not coming back up. Please just go ahead and do it."
"Ok, Sayomi-chan," the technician promised.
She smiled, knowing she could trust him. He was one of the few who had been secretly working nights to keep her going. "I'm taking myself offline now," she told him quietly. "Everything should be ready, just be careful and take your time." She weakly reached up and took his hand. "I have confidence in you," she told the nervous man. "But if this doesn't work, please do me a favor."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Make sure Shutaro-kun gets the page I just printed," she said. "That's all I ask."
Her voice faded away as what remained of the satellite slowly powered down. Her last thought was of Shutaro's smiling face. Even if this was the end, it had all been worth it just to see that smile directed at her.
Shutaro sank down heavily against a cracked wall, his face a mask of weariness. He was a far cry from his usual tidy appearance. His white clothes were ripped and stained from digging through piles of rubble, and his hands were filthy and scratched up as well.
"Don't give up," Ryoko told him confidently. "We'll find her."
He didn't reply. They'd been steadily searching a larger and larger radius around her house, but still they'd found nothing. No one had been there when they checked the house, but he knew that she'd been there just a few minutes before the quake.
"Her house wasn't damaged badly," Ryoko reminded him. "She had to have been alright."
"Then where is she?" he asked miserably.
"I don't know," she replied wearily. She wondered what was going on back at the lab. They hadn't had any word, and it was starting to drive her nuts. All the reassuring in the world wouldn't help if Shu-chan couldn't be repaired.
"I shouldn't be wasting time here," he sighed, staggering painfully back to his feet.
"You should rest, big brother," Ryoko protested, trying to shove him back down. "Between us we've got over a hundred men combing this area. If she's still around here, they'll find her." She peered unsuccessfully into the darkness beyond the light of the nearby street lamp.
"I've got to keep looking," he insisted, shrugging her hands away. He staggered slowly away into the darkness, his head hanging low from fatigue.
She considered stopping him, telling him the truth. He was rapidly wearing himself down out here. But if Shu-chan didn't make it, Ryoko doubted he would ever forgive her for the deception. What little time he could have been spending with his friend would have been wasted in a wild goose chase.
He had only gone about half a block when he spied a pale figure walking quickly in his direction. He forced himself to repress a faint glimmer of hope. He'd already had his hopes dashed too many times tonight. Even when the figure started running towards him he tried not to get his expectations up.
"Shutaro-san!" a soft voice called out to him.
He swallowed heavily, that voice well known to him. "Sayomi-san," he cried out, stumbling towards her."
"Oh, Shutaro-san," she sobbed, running into his embrace. "I was so scared."
"Shhh," he hushed her, pressing her close. "Where on earth have you been?"
"I tried to find you, but I got really lost," she explained tearfully. "I've been trying and trying to find my way back ever since."
He hugged her close until her shaking died down. "You almost made it back," he finally told her. "We're only a couple of blocks over from your house."
"Really?" she asked, trying to dry her tears. "That's a relief." She regretfully broke away from him. "Why are you so dirty?" she asked worriedly. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"I'm fine," he replied bashfully. "Come on, Ryoko's right down the street. She'll be happy to see that you're ok too."
"I'm really lucky to have friends like you two," she murmured as she snuggled closely to his side. On a whim she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Thank you for looking for me," she told him earnestly. "You don't know how much that means to me."
He blushed bright red. "It was really nothing," he protested, leading her back down the street.
Ryoko's eyes widened as she saw Sayomi pressed tightly up against her brother's side. "You're ok?" she asked excitedly.
"Thanks to you two," Sayomi replied happily.
"That's a relief," Ryoko responded.
"There wasn't anyone home when we went by your house," Shutaro told Sayomi worriedly.
"My father's off on a business trip," she explained embarrassedly. "If he'd been home I probably wouldn't have went blindly running off like that."
Ryoko had to keep herself from giggling. Sayomi's "father" was one of the many Kuroko currently pretending to scour the area for her.
"Would you like to come stay at our estate tonight?" Shutaro asked her tentatively.
"Big brother!" Ryoko exclaimed, surprised by his forwardness.
"She can sleep up there with you," Shutaro protested. "I just hate to think that she'll be going to an empty house after all this."
"That'd be really nice," Sayomi replied. "Is that ok, Ryoko-chan?"
"That's fine with me," Ryoko replied, hiding a smile. If only her brother knew that Sayomi already spent almost every night up there.
As soon as they reached the front gate, Shutaro excused himself. "I need to go take care of something," he told them, bowing apologetically. "I'll be back at the house in a little while."
The two girls, escorted by a large number of weary Kuroko, shared a look as he jogged off into the dark.
"He's going to check on Shu-chan," Ryoko spoke up, watching him disappear into the night.
"I know," Sayomi replied quietly. "He always keeps his promises."
"I'm guessing the damage wasn't too bad, since you're standing here," Ryoko mused.
"Actually, it was much worse than I thought," Sayomi replied. "What was Shu-chan is mostly just a pile of junk now."
"I don't understand," Ryoko replied with a distressed look.
Sayomi tapped a finger on the side of her head. "Everything that I am is in here now."
"So you aren't remote controlling this body anymore?" Ryoko guessed.
"That is correct," Sayomi told her.
"But you're still you, right?" Ryoko asked hesitantly. "You didn't lose anything, did you?"
Sayomi made a slight adjustment. "Nope," she said cheerfully in Shu-chan's more childish voice. "I'm still me." She quickly switched back to her more mature sounding voice. "The old Shu-chan's still going to serve a purpose though," she explained. "As soon as the transmitters are repaired, I'll be accessing them remotely from this body. And I'll still be able to talk to Shutaro as Shu-chan through it. With any luck he'll never notice that I'm not really in there anymore."