Chapter 37: Digging out

-Digdug, level 1-

"C'mon, ya little diva", the parks-and-rec guy grumbled as he led Freya towards the hiking-park toolshed. "You're working for me now!"

All suited up in her work outfit consisting of a t-shirt and jeans, Freya was reporting for her court-ordered community service. She'd trashed that park pretty bad with her crazy motorcycle stunts, and now she was going to have to fix it.

"Let's see how you like doing manual labor", he chuckled as he opened the creaky double doors.

Freya peered with curiosity at the extensive hordes of equipment and supplies inside the large and rather odd-smelling toolshed. She recognized the shovel and rake, and the bags of grass seed the judge had mentioned. Without hesitation, she grabbed the shovel and started out towards one of the deeply-rutted areas of mostly bare dirt that was supposed to be a smooth grassy meadow.

"Hang on a minute", the parks guy told her, grabbing at her elbow. "Before you start, lemme show you what I want done."

Unfolding a piece of paper he'd pulled from his shirt pocket, he showed her a printed picture of the park... including a rock-lined creek with several ponds joined by waterfalls.

"Pretty", Freya commented flatly, looking at the creek portion of the public-parks-committee printout. "Is this the water garden they've been planning?"

"It is", he confirmed, putting the printout back in his pocket. "I trust you have that image committed to memory?"

Freya nodded.

He led her next to a place near the upper fence where a creek that looked more like a drainage ditch flowed uninterestingly through the park along a lengthy straight-line graveled path, then continued down a steep concrete flume before exiting the park through a culvert that ran beneath one of Tokyo's lower backstreets.

Or rather, it was supposed to. With deep ruts traversing the creek in all directions, with its grassy banks torn all to shreds, with the gravels now strewn all over the place, the creek was overflowing, turning the denuded ground into a swampy mudhole.

"Looks like you've already started building that water feature", he commented haughtily. "All you have to do now is finish!"

So as her new boss made himself comfortable in a nearby gazebo with a can of cola and a box of pochy sticks, Freya, shovel in hand, began digging out for the park's new water feature. This was going to be a lot of work.

-the Impoundment Blues-

"Hello, I'm here for my persocom", a man told the guard at the impoundment building as he wandered in accompanied by two maid units dressed similarly to the Kokobunji ones. "Neko? You in there?"

"Um, you might want to come back tomorrow or so" the guard chuckled. "He seems to have gotten himself into a bit of trouble."

"What's the matter, Neko?", the man asked, having already spotted his persocom. "You download a virus or something?"

Neko looked up from the rug he was lying on, and groaned miserably. "What, are you out already?", he asked in a barely-audible voice.

"Yeah, I told them you were doing some research of your own into what causes humans to hurt one another, and you had no idea those videos were anything inappropriate", he explained sheepishly. "They let me go!"

Neko hadn't really answered his owner's question, but the several bottles of Perso-Clean strewn about gave him away. "Yeah, Neko!", the man laughed in an almost congratulatory tone as he turned and left, waving as he went. "Right, I'll be back for you tomorrow. Get well soon, okay?"

"Yeah, he's a PERV all right", Suzume teased snidely as she lay on a high shelf on her stomach, her chin propped up on her hands as she looked over the edge at Neko with the kind of look one would give a complete moron. "He's almost as perverted as YOU are."

"Shut up", Neko groaned.

"Suzume!", a voice called out from the door. "You in here?"

"Dita", Suzume greeted her as she hopped into Dita's hand. "So, is 'Captain Antenna' going on trial now?"

"Just starting", Dita told her. "We need to get you fitted with some special glasses that go opaque if he tries to make a hand gesture, and some earplugs that close if he talks. That way, he can't erase your data with some weirdo command."

"Wish me luck, Neko", Suzume called out as they were leaving.

Neko gave her a rather bored, irritated look in return. "Luck", he deadpanned.

-Digdug, level 2-

"What are you DOING?!", the park manager shouted, having come back from a late lunch to check on Freya, only to find his new landscaping bot relaxing peacefully on a sunny hillside in her underwear. "Sunbathing?! You goof-off! You lazy-ass! This isn't the beach! Get back to work!"

"I'm recharging", Freya replied somewhat indignantly. "My batteries may be good, but they're not inexhaustible."

"Digging out a pond is a LOT of heavy labor", she explained as she put her work clothes back on, "and you don't have any power run down here. I was just getting some solar energy."

"I don't want any excuses from you, bot girl", he barked. "I want my park fixed!"

And before Freya could say another word, he was off down the road again in his air-conditioned work truck.

Freya picked up the shovel again, and tired though she was, got back to work.

-the Missing Minds-

"Wh's up, M?", Kojima typed on the local internet chat. "got ur offln msg, somtn u show me?"

"Are you off the wagon, Dragonfly?", Minoru asked in response. "Your typing seems a little off."

"Olny slightly", Kojima replied. "Coupla beers. Smehow I manage dto leav it at just 2."

"Anyway", Minoru continued, "I rented one of those new persocoms, the ones that aren't conscious... You gotta see this in person!"

A few minutes later at the Kokobunji mansion, Kojima went in where Minoru had one of the new persocoms partially disassembled. "Check it out, Koj. See anything weird in there?"

"Hmm...",Kojima hummed as he took a look inside the brand-new persocom. "Power supply, servos, oil and coolant circulation systems... Huh? Looks like the CPU module is missing!"

"Actually, I removed it", Minoru announced, pointing to his workbench, and Kojima quickly turned to examine it. Not only had he removed the CPU module, he'd partially disassembled THAT as well.

"Aaand you've removed the neural-net subsystem from the CPU module, right?", Kojima asked, rolling his eyes at what seemed like an unnecessary chase. "What is it, some kind of proprietary thing now?"

Minoru shook his head.

"Well what IS it then?", Kojima asked with a note of annoyance.

"There isn't one", Minoru replied in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"None at ALL?! Oh...", Kojima responded, looking like he'd just realized something. "I guess that explains the lack of consciousness in these new automaton PC's..."

"Well, you'd have to install one", Minoru told him.

"Shouldn't be too difficult", Kojima commented confidently, examining the new CPU module closely. "Have to put in a data-bus splitter for it where the optical bus is, since they didn't leave a spare front-side bus slot for it..."

"It wouldn't be", Minoru replied. "But have you bought one recently?"

"Sora has", Kojima told him. "Wait... No, she got that from you. I guess we haven't. Why?"

"Because I've looked", Minoru sighed, leaning back against the workbench. "Suddenly, no one's selling them anymore, except a few individuals selling old parts off of dead persocoms."

"BUT... BUT...", Kojima stammered confusedly. "That's STUPID, why NOT?! People are gonna WANT those!"

"You're right, it doesn't seem to make any sense", Yuzuki cut in, having wandered into the room with a tray of healthy snacks. "Minoru-chan, at least have a granola or something", she told him in a worried tone. "You haven't eaten anything all morning."

"People DO still want the neural-net PC's", she told Kojima while Minoru was busily munching on a granola. "And who knows, in a few years I might be building one."

Kojima scratched his head nervously. "We gotta find out what's going on!", he declared.

"We've tried, to some extent", Minoru replied between bites of granola, "but we've been a bit busy on other things."

"Our new client wants ROM hacks to enhance the performance of the 3D material printers they're using", Yuzuki clarified.

"Anyway", Minoru added, "You're the big-shot researcher here. Find out why the big PC companies aren't selling neural-net hardware anymore. Spread the word. Get sponsors. Make money. Pay off that mortgage."

Then he leaned in, his expression turning fierce. "And if no one else'll pay for this research... Hell, I'll sponsor it myself, just to get the info out there. We need to know what's going on, and the public does too!"

-Discouraging words-

Freya's day at the park had been... well... no day at the park...

With no electrical power available, she'd resorted to doing the rest of the day's digging in her underwear for maximum solar energy absorption. It still wasn't enough for all the heavy physical labor she was doing, and her batteries were running pretty low.

Some of her fans had been there to cheer and wolf-whistle; but with no concert, no party, it just didn't feel the same. Worse yet, the park manager had returned, and had spent at least an hour giving her really stupid advice on how best to dig in the dirt.

With a slow, dismal shuffle, dead-tired and covered in caked-on mud, Freya made her way to the spa, only to be stopped at the door by the attendant. "You can't come in here you dumb dirtbot", the spa attendant spat venomously, pointing to a sign on the ouside wall. "Can't you read? Go around back!"

"Industrial robots and dirtywork persocoms use the outside wash area" the sign read, with an arrow pointing to a rough enclosure on the side of the building near the back.

Standing under a cold shower head in a fenced-in outdoor area with no roof and pavement for a floor, Freya shared the single large enclosure with several heavy industrial robots that had tank tracks instead of legs, and smelled just like the inside of the hiking park's toolshed. "Pip squeak!", they laughed at her, spewing diesel exhaust fumes in her general direction. "Puny humanoid!"

"...boy did I ever make a mess of things...", she mumbled depressedly to herself as she left the wash area where the industrials were having a lively water fight.

At least she was clean now... Although, somehow, she felt dirtier than ever.

After a hard day's digging, Freya had planned on spending a simple, quiet evening with her folks. But just as she was entering the Gub Jogasaki, she heard loud shouts from the window upstairs. The Motosuwas were arguing.

"DAMMIT CHI I SWEAR IT I THOUGHT SHE WAS YOU", Hideki was screaming in a freaked-out, exasperated sounding voice. "AAAUUUuuuooo you look so much ALIKE!"

Freya slunk silently into Ms. Hibiya's room. She could still hear the loudest of their shouts from there, echoing down the stairwell.

"How long have they been like that?", she asked in a worried tone.

"Several minutes already", her mother groaned. "I get the impression their argument is about you somehow."

"...GAVE ME BORKUMENSIS! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HUMILIATING..."

"I'm so sorry" Freya gasped, avoiding Ms. Hibiya's eyes, blushing beet-red at the sound of the word 'Borkumensis'. "Maybe I should go get a hotel room or something..."

"...BUT... BUT... It was only ONE RELAPSE! It was only ONE DAY! CHI, I..."

"Why not stick around, Freya?", her mother replied. "Hear the kind of problems that crop up when people do careless things."

"...ONE DAY, Hideki, I leave you alone for ONE DAY, and..."

"Mom, I...", Freya facepalmed, tears in her eyes. "It's my fault! This whole thing! Should I go up there? Try to tell them...?"

"...I SAID I'LL BE BACK, CHI, I JUST NEED TO GET SOME AIR! AND YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!..."

"At this point, I honestly don't know", Ms. Hibiya deadpanned.

Outside in the hallway, Hideki could be heard stomping his way down the stairs, Chi bellowing at him from the doorway of their upstairs apartment as he walked away. "YEAH WHY DON'T YOU JUST RUN OFF WITH MY SISTER AGAIN?! TYPHOID FREYA!"

At the sound of the name "Typhoid Freya", Freya looked up, her expression one of indescribable hurt. She was shaking, and if she were human, one might have thought she was choking to death. She even made a noise that sounded like choking.

"Freya?", Ms. Hibiya called out in a worried tone. "You're not crashing or something, are you?"

Freya didn't answer. She just stood there like a mannequin, her eyes glazed over, that stricken look frozen onto her face.

"C'mon Freya!", her mother shouted, shaking her daughter's shoulders. "Some of us may be mad at you right now, but that doesn't mean we don't still love you! Now pull yourself together!"

Something moved in Freya's eyes... and then she let out a loud and mournful wail.

Sobbing inconsolably, she turned and headed for the door. But before she could reach it, it opened, and there was Chi. "Ah Jeez, were you here this whole time?", Chi groaned.

"Chi, I...", Freya sobbed, dropping to the floor. "It's my fault, this whole stupid thing! He really didn't know it wasn't you!"

Chi walked slowly in, closing the door behind her. "Hideki says he thought you were me", she told Freya calmly, "and that you didn't recognize him at all."

Freya nodded. "Yeah, we were pretty messed up", she moaned.

Chi closed her eyes for a few moments, looking as if she had a headache or something. "There's an ANSA meeting at the hiking park this Sunday", she finally said. "And I guess for the most part, that ANSA stuff seems to be working."

"Sounds like a plan", Freya replied, still crying a bit. "I'll be there, I won't be going to Kyoto until Monday."

"AH DAMMIT SHE'S GONE", Hideki could be heard back upstairs. "DAMMIT!"

"I guess I should go back up there", Chi deadpanned, slowly opening the door again. She paused for a moment in the doorway, sighed at the floor, then headed back up the stairs. Quiet mumbling and no more shouts told Freya the argument was probably over, at least for now.

Freya sat there on the floor, tired as hell, her head swimming with the emotional pain of recent events. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep, and dreaming she was a big industrial persocom, spewing diesel exhaust fumes as she endlessly mucked around in the dirt.

"Wha'd we miss?", Zima and Akashi asked as they returned from the building-supplies store to find Freya asleep on the floor, and Chitose just sitting there in her rocking chair, staring blankly into that big white coffee table of hers as if it were a crystal ball or something.

"Huh?", she mumbled dismally, blinking back to reality. "Ah, you don't wanna know."

-Digdug, level 3-

"What's all that racket?", the park manager wondered aloud as he pulled up in his work truck the next day to find Freya already there. "Morning", she called out over the noise.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY DIESEL GENERATOR YOU PERVERT?!", he demanded, his arms waving about crazily.

"I'm working", she replied matter-of-factly, plugging cable after cable into the unit. "If I'm gonna be doing such heavy physical labor all day, I need power. Especially since you won't let me take any sunbathing breaks."

Before he could argue, Freya revved the massive generator up to speed; and connected to it by as many data cables as she had sockets for, all of which could double as charging cables, she got to work on those big heavy rocks, pulling them out of the muck and fitting them into place along the water's edges with a combination of levitronic finesse and sheer servo brawn.

For a while, the park manager just stood there watching her work. With all that raw diesel power flowing into her charging circuits, Freya was pretty amazing. He watched her until his phone rang, then wandered off somewhere where it was quiet.

When he came back, he found himself staring at Freya's shirt, which was just absolutely soaked. "I never knew persocoms could sweat", he blurted out.

"We can't, silly, I hopped in the creek to cool off", Freya replied almost flippantly. Then she opened a bottle of purified water and took a few sips.

"You did NOT just drink water", the park guy declared in disbelief. "You're a persocom!"

"You're right, I didn't drink it", she responded. "I inhaled it." Steam was coming out of her mouth as she spoke. "Little something to help cool my radiators off."

That evening, her batteries still fairly well-charged, she got in a big water fight with the industrial robots out back of the spa, and that was fun. Helped her forget her blues, at least for the moment.

Inside of a week, the park was finished, and the new water feature, an elaborate series of little ponds and waterfalls, was wowing the crowds of visitors. Hiking paths were all around the ponds, one of them even crossing the creek behind a waterfall.

-meeting at the park-

Freya spent Sunday morning at the hiking park, rechecking things... putting on some finishing touches... watching the water flow... She didn't much care for forced labor, or for the park manager's attitude. But somehow, the work itself, the process of actually creating that water garden from scratch, had made for a welcome distraction from all the bad thoughts she'd been having. Plus, if there was going to be some big public thing that everyone knew she'd built, she wanted it to be right.

Around noon, the local ANSA folks started showing up.

The Motosuwas arrived hand-in-hand; and after the way they'd been screaming at each other the last time she'd seen them, Freya was relieved to see them still together. Minoru's cousin had brought some new friends along; Kojima and Kotoko were there looking unusually cheerful; and Minoru, Yuzuki, Sai, and Ataru all arrived as a group, deep in conversation, something about a graveyard. Even Yatsumi showed up, leading Freya to wonder if she'd gotten addicted to crazy-code as well.

"You built this whole thing yourself?", Yatsumi asked, and Freya nodded. "Check this out", Freya replied, leading Yatsumi along the path that led behind a waterfall.

"Far out!", Yatsumi marveled, taking in the spectacle that was the new water garden. "You're good at music, AND art!"

Then she took Freya's hand, a more serious look on her face. "I've been worried about you", she said gently, looking deep into Freya's eyes. "When I saw that 'fail' video, just for a moment I thought you'd died. I'd never felt so panicked in my whole life!"

"Forgive me, please", Freya whispered back, pulling Yatsumi close. "I've caused so much trouble of late. I never meant to."

"I have a really bad confession to make", Hideki groaned, hanging his head before the group. "I got plastered, out there at the beach. And this time I was SO out of it, I thought Freya was Chi. And... Where'd she... Hang on... Hey Freya?"

Hideki headed for the waterfall where he could see a vague shape veiled in the mist... only to return blushing beet-red. "Ah, heh heh.. you tell yours first, Kojima", he mumbled embarassedly. "I'll do my confession later!"

"Looks like you're wanted at Confession", Yatsumi whispered with a note of disappointment at the interruption.

"Wish It'd been you, there at the beach", Freya whispered back.

"Next time it will be me", Yatsumi promised, her fingers in Freya's hair. "For now I'm busy with ROM hacks; but in the long run, I'll make a point of coming to see you whenever you're just a bus ride away."

"There she is", Kojima announced as the two persocoms appeared out from behind the waterfall.

Jaws dropped in the ANSA group as Freya and Hideki confessed their drunken beach escapade in all its idiotic detail... or at least, what they could remember of it.

"Holy crap, Motosuwa", Kojima blurted out. "I bet you got in trouble!"

"You have no idea", Hideki groaned. "What we did hurt Chi really bad!"

"I've been so irresponsible, Chi", Freya cut in, starting to cry again. "I wanna fix the damage I've caused, heal the hurt I've inflicted... BUT I DUNNO HOW!"

"Some hurts just have to heal with time, Freya", Chi told her gently as she hugged her tearful sister. "We'll be okay, even if we did say bad things to each other."

"...and...", she added hesitantly, blushing. "I'm sorry I called you 'Typhoid Freya'. I was mad when I said it, and I didn't mean it."

"You were looking to make a confession too, right, Kojima?", Hideki remembered. "Hope it's not as bad as mine was."

"I, um, well... I kind of had a bit of something to tell, although I wouldn't've quite called it a confession", Kojima began, still a bit shocked by the 'Typhoid Freya' disaster. "It's just... This past Monday I had two beers."

"I remember that", Minoru replied. "Your typing seemed a bit tipsy-looking."

"Uh, yeah, hahahah...", Kojima laughed sheepishly. "Had a little bit to drink yesterday, too... I feel kinda weird telling this right after Motosuwa's story..."

"It's not weird", Hideki assured him. "We just messed up a lot worse, that's all."

"Well, that's just the thing, see?", Kojima explained. "I didn't think I'd messed up at all. I was thinking, hey, I had a bit to drink, and left it at that. I can DO this! I can drink just a little, and it wont be a problem!"

Then he looked over at Freya, a weird look in his eyes. "But hearing what happened to you two, and how it all started with a beer, I feel like an idiot now! I shouldn't have been drinking at all!"

"Actually, a little bit might not be a problem for you, Kojima", Ataru told him. "Just make sure we know how much, okay? So it doesn't get out of hand again."

Once the usual booze talk was done, the group turned to idle chatter... That is, until Ataru mentioned outer space.

"It sounds like you're gonna be driving a garbage truck", Hideki chuckled. "Collecting trash, up there in space?"

"Well, it is a garbage truck of sorts", Ataru told everyone. "A bunch of us are going up there with levitronic thrusters... grab some of the useless, dangerous junk that's floating around up there... and take it all to a nearby asteroid for disposal."

"Levitronics?", Chi and Freya both asked at the same instant. "Are the new spaceships going to be lifted into space by that?"

"It's just for the thrusters for now", Ataru explained. "We'll still blast off from Earth with rockets like before. Maybe soon, though..."

"What- Wait a minute", Minoru blurted out. "Those asteroids have almost no gravity of their own. That junk'll just float off again, won't it?"

"Ummm...", Ataru replied, scratching his head in momentary confusion. "I think the plan is to stick it on there with GLUE or something..."

-going to Kyoto-

Freya resisted the temptation to run any crazy-code as she drove along the highway from Tokyo to Kyoto in her brand-new convertible, her medium-length blonde hair blowing in the breeze behind her. Sports cars were fun, but the last thing she wanted was a ticket, or worse, another crash. The next set of concerts in Kyoto wouldn't start for another week or so, but the first of Freya's court-ordered psychological counseling sessions was tomorrow. And so, as the afternoon rush-hour traffic quieted down to a relative calm, Freya picked her way through the streets of Kyoto to the hotel she'd booked in advance. Leaving her car in the basement garage, she grabbed her jolly-roger backpack off the seat beside her and took the elevator up to the top floor.

Looking out from the picture window of her posh hotel room at the bright lights of Kyoto and darkening skies, she thought of her fans. Or more to the point, she thought of inviting some fans over for the usual madhouse of wild parties that had accompanied most of her recent concert tours.

She decided not to. Not tonight. Not after the trouble she'd gotten herself into already. Plus, tomorrow she was seeing a shrink; and somehow, showing up all strung out from too much crazy-code just seemed like a bad idea.

What would it be like, she wondered as she lay down for a night of rest and recharging. She'd seen patients on TV lying on the couch, while some bearded old guy sat in a chair asking questions and taking notes; but it always looked so weird on those old TV shows... The very idea of being the one on the couch made Freya kind of uncomfortable.

The lights were out, and her eyes were closed; but Freya was still wide awake, her worries running circles in her mind like hamsters in a treadmill.

{Well if I'm not gonna sleep, I might as well work on my songs}, she decided, and she started editing the lyrics of one of her unfinished works, which turned out to be just the distraction she needed... zzZZzZZZzzzz...

Floating peacefully along in a creek, scenery passing slowly by, streets full of familiar faces, forests of half-remembered dreams, meadows buzzing with scented flowers; hands on the bank, follow the smell, the sound. Bzzzz... It's a bee. Clumsily on petals, antennae follow the nectar. Clamber anthers feet scratching pollen, reach the nectar and drink. Bzzzz... And off into the distance, to search for...

Let go of the bank, slip back into the slowly-drifting current, back into this warm gentle- why's the water so warm? What kind of a creek is...

Are they all mad at me? Did they throw me in this creek? This drainage ditch? Climbing out of the creek, a clearing in the forest, warm sun drying off. Who's there? Is there someone... OW! You again! Who are YOU?! And why do you keep KICKING me? Vaguely-remembered girl in the forest, why don't I know who you are? I know I've met you. Freya, Freya, Freya, you really are nothing but trouble. Why don't you just disappear again? Why don't you? Where are you going, vaguely-remembered girl? You haven't told me who you...

Why do I do this to myself? Why do I do this to everyone? I really am nothing but trouble. Maybe I should see a shrink...

Bright light of truth, shining deep into my heart, find out what I'm really doing, what I'm really hiding. Bright bright light of the immaculate couch of truth, shining deep into my...

Knock it OFF, Sigmund! You don't have to shine it in my EYES! DAMMIT!

"DAMMIT!"

Freya woke up screaming, the bright morning light pouring in through the big picture window. Her appointment wasn't for another several hours. But Freya didn't feel like going back to sleep. Right now, the only thing she felt like doing was crying.

The psychologist's office was a just few short blocks away, and Freya found it easily. Parking near the front entrance, she approached the door.

For a moment, she hesitated, her hand already on the doorknob. Did she really want someone probing into her innermost thoughts and feelings? {Make a run for it, Freya}, she thought to herself. {Sell that Maserati and take a jet plane to America.}

{Silly thought}, she decided as she opened the door and walked in. {All I have to do is talk to the guy}

"Um, I'm supposed to show you this stuff", Freya nervously told the receptionist, handing her the judge's signed order.

"Ah, you must be Miss Mihara", the receptionist replied, looking over the legal papers. "Just have a seat anywhere. Dr. Takeda is with a patient now, so it'll be a few minutes."

A human woman walked in. "Is my Kobi almost ready?", she asked as she sat down. The receptionist nodded.

Just then, the office door opened, and a persocom, presumably Kobi, wandered out. He looked plenty calm as he walked towards his owner.

Then he spotted Freya.

If Kobi had been a human, he would have peed right then and there.

"Kobi, I thought these sessions were helping you", the woman told her persocom who was now clinging to her in a full-blown panic attack. "What's wrong?"

Kobi whispered something in his owner's ear. And from ten feet away, Freya was sure she heard her name in his whisperings.

"So?!", the woman snapped at him. "It's just another persocom, just like you!"

"She's right, you know", Freya cut in calmly, approaching the panicking Kobi. "I'm just another persocom with problems, here to see the psychologist."

"B- Bu- But y- you... You're F.. Fr. F- F...", he stuttered profusely, still clinging to his owner.

"Yes, I'm Freya", she confirmed. "I'm nothing to be afraid of, Kobi."

"You're f- f.. famous!", Kobi stammered, finally coming out from behind his owner. "I... Um... th- that is... uh... wow..."

"Being famous IS one result of a successful singing career", Freya continued. "Although, I'm not sure I'm handling fame all that well..."

"Wh- why, what happened?", Kobi asked, his panic turning into something more resembling extreme worry.

"I got all doped up on crazy-code and acted like an idiot", she facepalmed. "Trashed a public park... wrecked my motorcycle... I think I might be addicted to the stuff."

"Addicted to crazy-code?", the woman repeated. "Didn't you invent that?"

"Ironic, isn't it?", Freya responded with a note of shame. "As reckless as I've been, maybe I AM something to be afraid of..."

This time it was Kobi who approached Freya, although very nervously. "Ih- it'll, uh, it'll be okay, Fr- Freya", he stuttered, trying unsuccessfully to make himself make eye-contact with her. "D- Doctor Tak- Taa- Takeda really knows his st- st- st- stuff."

Freya responded by giving Kobi a gentle hug; and in spite of himself, he returned the gesture. "Love your songs", he whispered.

When they let go of one another, Kobi and his owner waved goodbye and headed out the exit door. "Oh my GHAWD, Sama, that was Fr- F- F.. FREYA!", Kobi was heard to tell his owner loudly, looking back towards the building as they crossed the parking lot to their car. "Holy SHIT!"

"You must be Freya", a voice called out from the office doorway, and Freya wandered nonchalantly in.

Once inside, her hesitations returned. Glancing around nervously, she spotted several chairs and sofas. "I've, um... never been to a psychologist.. before", she told him, her expression one of near-panic.

"Well, to repeat what you told Kobi, I'm nothing to be afraid of", he explained as they exchanged polite bows. "I'm here to help."

Still looking really nervous, Freya sat down on one of the couches. "Um, okay...", she stammered.

Dr. Takeda sat down in a chair beside the couch. Looking over at the freaked-out, fidgeting Freya, he took a deep breath.

"Und now, Miss Mihara, vot zeems to be ze problem?", he asked.

"Huh?!", Freya grunted, turning to look with incredulity at her psychologist, only to find him with a devious smile on his face. "Gotcha, didn't I?", he chuckled.

"Aaahaheheh", Freya laughed in reply. "Yeah, I've been SO nervous about this! I got problems all right, I just don't know where to start!"

"So, I hear you've got a bit of a crazy-code addiction", Takeda prompted.

"Did your homework", Freya commented.

"I saw the 'Fail' video you were in", he replied. "I gather you've had a rough time of it lately."

"Yeah, well...", Freya responded, rolling her eyes, "I've had a rough time of it all along, really. Long before crazy-code."

"You weren't trying to medicate yourself with that stuff, were you?", Dr. Takeda probed. "Looking to dull the pain you were feeling?"

"Something like that", Freya told him as she lay back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. "Maybe not dull it so much as just completely distract me from it..."

"Well, if your addiction is just a symptom of something deeper", Dr. Takeda responded, sounding like he was really taking an interest in her case, "then I would say, it's time to delve deeper."

Freya just lay there for a moment, her eyes closed. "Um...", she hesitated.

"Okay", she finally replied. "I, uh... think I'd like to do that."

Next:
Psychotherapy for Freya, and I plan on going as deep as I can manage to go.
A bigger space mission gets under way, and people are acting all weird about it.
The data pirate makes a complete idiot of himself in the courtroom.

end-of-chapter notes:

The Psychologist Freya is going to is Junji Takeda, a character borrowed from someone else's Chobits fanfic here on the fanfiction website. "Coming to Terms" it's called, by ThanosOfTitan; it's a well-written story that stands on its own, with all-original characters. (well worth reading, and worth borrowing characters from, too)

Don't worry about Freya getting electrocuted with that big generator attached while she's cooling off in the creek; The cable-end connectors have a watertight seal. Plus, she didn't have to stay connected the whole time.

Normal persocom activities don't require daily recharging. But if you're doing heavy labor all day, it'll really drain those batteries quick.

Oh and that weird stuff while Freya was dreaming was because she was worried about things, and she was editing song lyrics when she fell asleep.

When I first started writing about a persocom singing, I had NO IDEA that vocaloids such as Hatsune Miku even existed. (just found out about her a week or 3 ago)