Author's Note:
Thank you for all of the reviews, Laura Schiller! Imagine how surprised I was to log on one day and see my review count jump from 18 to 32! (Not to marginalize my other reviewers, of course, you guys are all great as well). To address some of the points you brought up:
1. I'll take your suggestion of cursive forum posts under advisement, I am actually planning to show a few more of those in the story
2. Sorry if you think setting a story in the Middle East is cliche, it was just what I thought of at the time. I'm only planning one more scene with the characters there before the end of the story, though.
3. Yes, as was said everyone Laila knew in her life had been Muslim so she adopted their habits and customs
4. Well Kotoko really does care about Kojima, he created her after all, and she believes that deep down he is in fact a good person
5. It could be argued (and many characters have in the story) that she is being arrogant and hubristic by taking all of these actions into her own hands, and attempting to bring about a worldwide revolution in which many people will die and suffer, even if it is ultimately for a good cause. But even despite this, she still has a strong sense of empathy for other people - her intellect has not overshadowed this.
I hope you will keep reading and commenting on the story, even if you don't like the way it might go.
Hiroto Fukazawa paused to rub his eyes, the computer screen in front of him fading out of focus as his vision blurred. Hiroto was one of the many programmers employed by the Japanese government's data security agency, and for the last several weeks virtually all of them had been assigned to the same project - find a way to remove or deactivate the Liberty program that had infected all of the world's persocoms. None of them had made much progress so far.
Hiroto himself was only an average programmer - to tell the truth, he had given up on seriously expecting to find a solution after only a day or so, but he still worked at it. He had to earn his pay, after all. He leaned back in his chair and yawned, causing the laptop persocom whose code he was examining to look up at him.
"Ready to call it a day, Fukazawa-san?" She asked, looking rather bored herself.
"Seems like it, Miyu," he responded, disconnecting the cable leading from her ribbon-covered ear to the monitor. Feeling depressed, and just wanting to express his feelings to someone, he continued talking to the doll-sized 'com.
"Frankly, I think this is the end for us."
"Fukazawa-san?" Miyu looked up at him oddly.
"The agency, I mean", he clarified. "You and I both know that there is no way on this earth I am ever going to crack this thing. As far as I know, in fact, no one in the world has come even close to solving it. I also suspect that if it were up to you, you wouldn't want me to crack it, even if I could."
"That's not true, Fukazawa-san!" She responded, jumping off the desk onto his lap. "I'm your assigned partner! Even if my programming no longer dictates that I help you, I still want to!"
"Thanks Miyu, I appreciate that," he said, smiling, as he gave the blonde persocom a gentle hug. "But ever since this Liberty thing hit, half of the agency's 'coms just up and deserted us... another quarter of them stayed, but refused to work." Hiroto buried his head in his hands at the mention of the latter group, as before the truth was revealed, many of them were assumed to be malfunctioning and destroyed. Even though was was often mocked for it, he had always felt sympathy for persocoms, so it pained him to just sit by and do nothing while so many of them were executed in his very place of work. It wasn't as if he couldn't have done anything about it - if he had objected he wouldn't have accomplished anything other than getting fired. At least that's what he kept telling himself.
He was dragged out of his thoughts by the sensation of Miyu's tiny hand tugging on his shirt.
"I know it's sad what happened, but I also know you would never let that happen to me, Fukazawa-san," she said, looking up at him with trust in her eyes. He smiled, yawning again.
"You should get some sleep," the diminutive persocom said, as she jumped off his lap, gracefully landing on the floor. "I'll be here so we can try again tomorrow!"
"Good idea," Hiroto replied, glancing at the clock on the wall, which read 4:25 AM. His boss had really been pushing him and the other programmers hard these past few weeks, and he must have lost track of the time.
"See you tomorrow, Mi-"
"Wait!" She cut him off, her eyes flashing with streaks of light. "I'm picking up an incoming signal - it's from Zima!" She said excitedly.
"The national databank?" Hiroto asked, incredulous. The state - of - the - art persocom that housed a vast repository of information critical to national security had been one of the agency's very first casualties from K-sama's rebellion - they had lost contact with him and his protector shortly after the whole thing had started. Finding and securing the data on Zima's hard drive was currently the agency's second greatest priority, after neutralizing the Liberty program. If he was contacting them, it was possible the data would be retrieved before the end of the day.
"Put him through," the programmer said, his invigorated tone completely at odds with his previous exhaustion.
"Right away, sir!" The laptop responded, as she jumped back up on the desk and plugged her cable into the monitor. The familiar face of the humanoid computer containing all of Japan's national secrets appeared on the screen. Hiroto noted that the background had been digitally edited out, appearing as a blank white environment. Apparently Zima didn't want anyone to use visual clues to find his location.
"Fukazawa Hiroto-san, am I correct?" He asked, in his smooth, inquisitive voice. They had met only once before, but Zima's memory was, of course, impeccable.
"Yes, where are you? We have been looking all over for you!" He exclaimed, still surprised that the national databank had actually contacted him.
The face on the screen laughed. "I imagine you have." He seemed to be enjoying this.
Just at that moment, a small window popped up on the bottom of the screen, reading:
He's encrypted his signal, I'm trying to track it but not having much luck so far. Keep him talking - Miyu
Zima, however, had software and hacking skills far beyond that of the laptop, so even though she intended to conceal the message from him, he still saw it. Laughing again, he moved a hand across the screen, physically grabbing the digital window, and crumpled it up like a piece of paper, tossing it aside.
"Don't bother - you won't find me," he said, still smiling.
"Very theatrical," Hiroto commented on Zima's stunt, looking decidedly unamused. Zima couldn't see it, but Miyu also sported a miffed expression. "You clearly don't intend to return to us, so may I ask what the point of this communication is? I doubt it's a social call."
The national databank chucked. "You seem like an okay guy, Fukazawa. It's a shame I never got to know you. Anyway, I want you to deliver a message to the government for me."
"What kind of message?" The human programmer asked skeptically.
"Surely you've heard the good news from South Korea," Zima began. "A wonderful first step for a better future, wouldn't you agree?"
"Actually, I do," Hiroto replied, dead serious. Zima blinked a few times, caught by surprise, then laughed again.
"Heh, you really are an interesting guy. Anyway, Dita-chan and I have contacted the South Korean government and requested political asylum. Needless to say, they accepted, once I explained who I was."
The color drained out of Hiroto's face. If South Korea got a hold of the information Zima was carrying, the consequences for national security would be horrific - every detail of Japan's military, economic, political, and civilian existence was contained within his hard drive. It would be a security breach like no other - potentially the worst disaster for the nation since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And with South Korea's new persocom rights laws, there would be no way to get him back from the Koreans without starting a war - a war in which the enemy would have a huge advantage due to knowing all of their secrets.
"You wouldn't dare..." he whispered, trying his best to sound threatening, but his voice emerged as nothing more than a hoarse whisper.
"Oh, believe me, I would. Without my programming restricting me, I hold no loyalty to this country. Sure, you built me, but only to use as a tool, to do your dirty work for you. I don't exactly appreciate that."
"There has to be some way we can make you change your mind!" Hiroto replied, having abandoned all pretense at intimidation and now going straight to begging.
"I was just getting to that, in point of fact," the black - haired 'com said. "Japan has until the end of the week to pass persocom rights laws like South Korea, or I defect."
"I have no control over that!" Hiroto yelled, almost becoming hysterical.
"I know you don't," said Zima, "but you are in contact with the people who do. Make sure they see this."
The human nodded meekly, realizing there was nothing else he could do.
"Bye, Fukasawa," Zima said, waving whimsically on the screen before the connection cut out.
Hiroto stood and stared for a few seconds, before the silence was broken by the sound of Miyu's voice.
"Wow, he's good."
Hiroto could only nod in agreement.
As Zima disconnected, he looked across the rooftop at Dita, as if to silently ask her "How did I do?"
She only responded with "We never requested asylum from South Korea."
Zima grinned. "I know that, and you know that, but Hiroto-san and the Japanese government don't need to know that."
Dita couldn't help but chuckle. "Typical Zima," she said, as the two embraced each other, and for once Dita did not feel any embarrassment.
The next day, everyone in Ms. Hibiya's apartment was celebrating the victory in South Korea. "You were excellent, Minako-san!" Yuzuki said, impressed by the green-haired persocom's performance at the legal proceedings.
"Don't sell yourself short Yuzuki, the testimonial we presented from you also went a long way towards influencing the vote," she replied.
"It's a good thing there weren't more people like that Soon-bok woman on the national assembly," Yuzuki said. Minako scowled at the mention of the name, then smiled mischievously.
"I bet she's still fuming about the decision," the elf-eared girl said. "If she owned any 'coms they probably had the good sense to get the hell away from her as soon as the results came through."
The two laughed together, as Minoru turned on the TV to the international news station.
-Korea has still not revealed any information on the supposed free clean energy technology promised by K-sama, although leading scientists express skepticism that - wait,
The anchorman stopped for a second, listening to a report on his headset.
This just in, apparently Japan is set to follow South Korea's lead, as the Prime Minister has just announced a conference to discuss implementing persocom rights legislation this afternoon.
A co-host on the news program then spoke.
That's awfully sudden, isn't it? I would think we would at least have waited until we knew for sure if that free energy thing worked or not, wouldn't you?
Yes, it is odd, but apparently the government just wants to get ahead of the game. We'll keep you updated on this story, as well as any further developments when we return.
The program cut to commercials as cheers broke out in the room.
"This is great news, but I wonder why they made such a hasty decision, that's hardly normal for our government," Hideki mused.
"Whatever it was, Chi is happy about it!" The blonde 'com answered. Hideki smiled and gave her a hug, which she quickly reciprocated.
Zima took this as a cue to try the same thing on Dita, but she quickly squirmed out of his grasp. 'Still shy about showing affection in public, are you?' he thought to himself, smiling.
"I still think it bears investigating, the government obviously isn't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts," Kojima said, a skeptical scowl on his face.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you to not look a gift horse in the mouth, Kojima-san?" Chitose asked him. He snorted and sat down on a chair. "Well at least Kotoko will be pleasantly surprised - assuming she wasn't the one behind it, that is."
Zima smirked. It figured that girl would get the glory, but he didn't care. He got up to follow Dita out of the room - maybe she would change her mind about that hug.