As Kotoko, Rin, and the others returned to Kojima's house, they were greeted by an odd sight - Kojima tied to a chair with a thin rope in the front hallway, looking none too pleased. Standing guard near him were two persocoms.
"We caught him trying to sneak through a window," one of them, a short, green-haired girl, said matter-of-factly.
Kotoko chuckled lightly. "I see you've been a naughty boy, Koji-kun," she said teasingly, stroking his chin with her right index finger. He looked away, trying to avoid blushing.
Rin was confused. "What is Kojima-san doing here? I thought we just sent him back to his friends."
"She lied to you," Kojima started, seeing a possible opportunity to drive a wedge between Kotoko and her follower. "She sent an imposter - a persocom duplicate of me, back to them to spy for her. That was her plan all along. I guess she didn't think you were important enough to be let in on it, Rin."
"Oh stop being so dramatic, Koji-kun," Kotoko responded, frowning. She then turned to address the orange-haired 'com. "I didn't tell you in case they tried to hack you for information. Plausible deniability and all that. You understand, right?"
"Yes, but..." Rin responded, a bit nervous about expressing displeasure with her new master's ideas. "I don't think I would have enjoyed it if they had hacked me."
"You can bet you wouldn't have," Kojima started again. "That government 'com, Dita I think was her name, she probably wouldn't have left anything remaining if she had gone through your files."
Rin shuddered, remembering the red-eyed girl who had threatened to do just that.
"Relax, Rin-chan," Kotoko said, sending a sideways glare at Kojima before continuing. "I know the psychology of those people - they would have never allowed you to come to any real harm."
"O-okay, I trust you, Kotoko-sama..." Rin said quietly. Kotoko smiled and gave the cat-eared persocom a hug, before sending her off.
"Now Koji-kun, what to do with you," she began, addressing her former master. "Trying to turn my disciples against me isn't going to work, so I suggest you stop trying."
"How do I know you're not just saying that because you're afraid it will work?" The boy asked, allowing himself a smug smile.
The purple-haired 'com just laughed. "Koji-kun, you continue to amuse me. I could leave you tied to that chair all night, you know. I'm sure that wouldn't be too comfortable."
Kojima snorted. "Do it. I don't care."
Kotoko sighed. "I would have thought you would know me better by now," she said, as she reached back to untie him. Kojima stretched his muscles, finally free to move after being confined for a good half hour.
"Ayame, Mari, show Koji-kun to his room," she gestured at the two persocoms that were guarding him. "I have some work to do."
Yoshiyuki didn't bother resisting as the two girls escorted him upstairs.
The next morning, as Kojima awoke in his bed, for a split second he hoped that this entire thing had been a dream. The more rational part of his brain, however, quickly freed him from that delusion. He slowly dragged himself out of bed and out into the hallway, doing his best to ignore the persocoms standing guard at his door, as he walked down to the bathroom.
When he had finally gotten dressed and presentable, he headed downstairs, running into Mikami near the front hall.
"Hey, do you know where-"
"Kotoko-sama is in the lab," The redhead finished, anticipating the rest of his question.
"Thanks," he said gruffly, still groggy so soon after waking. He was halfway to his destination before he even realized that he had bothered to thank a persocom - something he would never have done just a week ago. 'Huh, I guess I really have changed,' he thought to himself.
When he arrived in the room, he had a hard time finding Kotoko at first, until he spotted her sitting at a small terminal in the corner. The room he had unofficially dubbed 'the lab' was where he had conducted most of his work on persocoms. It was full of spare parts, old computer terminals, instruction manuals and other guides, complex charts, and various other detritus. To someone unfamiliar with the precise placement of all of the equipment, it would look like a miniature junkyard. This was the place where he had first built Kotoko, and, he presumed, where she had built her new body as well as that copy of him.
"Kotoko?" he said, addressing the seemingly oblivious 'com, whose attention seemed to be focused entirely elsewhere.
"What? Oh! Koji-kun, I didn't hear you come in," she said, smiling kindly at him.
"Would you mind telling me what you're doing?" He asked, genuinely curious.
"Just a few side projects," she said casually. "After I secure equal rights for persocoms, there's still a lot I can do to benefit the world. I'm currently working on a new source of infinitely renewable, clean energy based on quantum vacuum fluctuations. All the math is sound, as far as I can tell, but I still don't have the actual equipment to test it for real yet. I'm moving onto genetic engineering next, I think I'll be able to eliminate most diseases as well as old age pretty soon."
"Quantum...what? Eliminate old age? Huh?" Kojima was baffled. Seeing his obvious confusion, Kotoko laughed.
"It's okay, Koji-kun, this stuff is out of your area of expertise. Like I said, I've been learning as much as possible over the last few months, and even I'm surprised at how naturally these things come to me now."
"I still don't really understand how this happened, Kotoko, but it's kind of scary, knowing you're this smart now..." Kojima said nervously.
Kotoko reached over and hugged him gently to reassure him. "To be honest, Koji-kun, I'm a bit scared myself. But I figure the least I can do is use my newfound super-intelligence to help people."
At this point, Kojima recalled Yuzuki's words. 'Emotions can be confusing sometimes, and they can cause us to do illogical things.' Just now, Kotoko had shown an emotional response - she was upset that Kojima was scared of her, and tried to comfort him. He knew that she wanted him to like and trust her. If he was going to try an emotional appeal, he had to try to play on that, but to a much higher level.
"Excuse me for a moment," the young man said, walking to the door to the lab and looking both ways. He saw the path to his front door was clear - Mikami had vacated the front hall. He could try making a run for it now, but Kotoko would instantly send a signal to the other 'coms, and they would intercept him before he could get far. He had to distract her first.
He felt a hand on his shoulder as he noticed Kotoko had walked over to stand next to him. "What's wrong, Koji-kun?"
"I was just... making sure no one else was around to see this," he said.
"See what?" Kotoko asked, as he turned around to face her.
"This!" he responded simply, suddenly putting his plan into action, as he kiseed the purple-haired 'com deeply on the lips. She gasped a bit at first, but as he wrapped his arms around her, her resistance melted away and she returned the embrace. Kojima kept his lips locked to hers for a good while, surprised at how realistic her tongue felt.
'Dammit, you're not supposed to be actually enjoying this!' He thought to himself, as he finally pulled away.
"Ko-Koji-kun...?" She asked, confused. He smiled back at her, and decided to ramp up her confusion all the way.
"I love you," he whispered into her ear. He then backed away, making a quick exit.
"I-I love you t-" Kotoko managed to whisper, before she noticed that the target of her affection was no longer there - and the front door was hanging open!
"What!" She screamed in anger, finally snapping out of her trance. "He tricked me!" She quickly ran to the front door, and spotted Kojima sprinting at top speed down the street. She knew she would never catch him at this rate.
But she was less upset about him escaping than she was about how he had accomplished it. How dare he play with her feelings like that? Especially after admitting that she did have real feelings! She suddenly had a flashback to a conversation she had had with Chi, shortly after they had first met.
"Is there someone just for Kotoko?" The naive blonde had asked her. "Someone who likes Kotoko just because she is Kotoko?"
"My master used to be good at finding things that were special about me," she had replied cynically. "But these days he's more interested in you."
She was pulled out of the memory by Mikami, who had run over to the door after hearing her master's shouts.
"Kotoko-sama, how did Kojima-san escape?" The red-haired 'com asked, closing the still-open front door.
"It - it's not important," Kotoko answered, looking depressed.
"Kotoko-sama, are you crying?" Mikami asked, as she wiped a tear off the purple-haired persocom's cheek.
"What?" Kotoko asked in confusion, as she felt the moisture on her own face. She had built her new body with the ability to shed tears, but she was unaware she was doing it now. This was so embarrassing!
"Mikami, weren't you coordinating our efforts with the persocom rights groups in South Korea for the upcoming referendum?"
"Yes, but-"
"Go back to work," Kotoko said, not wanting to be seen in a moment of weakness.
After Mikami had left, Kotoko returned to the lab, and sat down on the ground, still crying.
"I hate you, Yoshiyuki Kojima!" She spat, loud but not loud enough for the other 'coms to hear.
After a solid two minutes of running, Kojima finally stopped to rest, hiding behind a house. He checked to make sure no one was pursuing him.
"That worked even better than expected," he said to himself, sitting down on the grass to catch his breath. Still, something was troubling him. While every rational part of his mind was telling him he had only said those three words to Kotoko to shock her, in order to facilitate his escape, there was one small part of his subconscious that was saying they meant something more. Thinking back to the kiss, he had to admit it had been pleasant... much more pleasant than he could have imagined kissing a persocom would be.
But it wasn't just the physical aspects that he remembered fondly - something about them kissing like that just felt... right, for lack of a better word. When he had told her he loved her, this mysterious feeling had only intensified.
Could... could he actually be in love with Kotoko?
"No, that's ridiculous," he said to himself, as he got up and began walking toward Ms. Hibiya's apartment complex. The sooner that imposter was exposed, the better.