One Week Later
The rain came down in sheets, giving everything under the dark clouds a decidedly dismal tone. In the midst of the downpour, a black-clad, umbrella-holding crowd gathered near an old wooden building. Although they all looked much the same from a distance, the throng was divided into two distinct groups, the first as morose as their appearance suggested, but the second much more animated. Several of the latter group, holding cameras and microphones, managed to surround one of the former.
"So a car accident has closed the curtain on your marriage to a persocom! How does it feel?" One reporter asked.
"The driver has said that the persocom pushed you of the way. Does that mean you owe your life to a persocom?"
"Do you plan to buy a newer model next time?"
"Are you thinking of marrying another persocom?"
"A lot of people these days have been holding funerals for their persocoms. What are you going to do with the remains? Are you going to cremate your persocom, or throw it away?"
Hiroyasu Ueda could do little but stare at the journalists flocking around him. He knew that they were, at least from their perspective, asking honest questions, and not being actively malicious like many of the hecklers he and Yumi had dealt with in the past, but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything but contempt for the ignorant interlocutors. Even so, that contempt was insignificant compared to the sorrow that currently permeated his being.
"She's not... an it." He managed to say.
"What?" One of the reporters asked, as Ueda's soft voice was partially drowned out by the rain.
"My wife... has a name," he continued, now speaking more clearly. "Please don't lump her in with the others. I gave her a name... and she smiled and told me she liked it. Her name is Yumi."
"But are you going to-"
"All right, break it up!" An angry voice shouted, as a green-haired woman in a black funeral dress pushed her way through the crowd. "The man is clearly distraught, have some sympathy for heaven's sake!"
"It's okay, Minako-san, you don't have to-" Ueda began, but Junji soon followed his wife, confronting the gaggle of reporters.
"I'm sure that Ueda-san will answer your questions when he's ready. But please, at least wait until the ceremony is over," he said in a calm yet firm tone of voice.
The reporters began to disperse, as Junji and Minako moved to console the widower.
"I'm sorry you had to put up with that... dealing with creeps like that at our weddings was bad enough, but at a funeral? They have no respect at all."
"Calm down, Minako-san," Ueda said, tears blending with the raindrops running down his face. She quickly moved to cover him with her umbrella. "It's not their fault. They honestly don't know any better. You also don't have to try to protect me like that. I'm not a kid, you know."
The elf-eared persocom's ears drooped slightly. "I'm sorry, Hiroyasu-san, I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine," he said, bringing her and Junji into a friendly hug under the umbrella. "I'm sure that Yumi wouldn't want us to be bickering amongst ourselves. I just hope that this ceremony is a suitable tribute to her memory."
"I'm sure that she appreciates it, Ueda-san," Junji smiled.
"Thanks, but she's not really in much of a position to appreciate anything right now," he said, frowning.
"I'm not convinced that's true," Junji said.
"What?"
"Junji has been contemplating the possibility of an afterlife for persocoms," Minako explained, trying her best not to sound dismissive of the idea.
"I know you think it's nutty, but I figure if humans can believe in an afterlife for themselves, why not persocoms too?" Junji said.
"I don't think it's nutty, Junji. You may very well be right. After all, how can any of us know for sure?"
"You're just saying that," he said, smiling faintly at his wife. "We've argued over this before, how many times I can't recall."
"Thirteen times," Minako replied instantly. "But I never insisted that you were undoubtedly wrong."
"Well no matter where Yumi is right now, what's important is that we keep her memory alive," Ueda said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Let's head inside and meet up with the others."
As everyone filed into the building, those without umbrellas doing their best to dry off their clothes, Junji was a bit surprised to see just how many familiar faces were in attendance. In addition to himself, Minako, and Ueda, he spotted Amethyst, Hitomi (with Tomoko perched on her shoulder), Kameko and Masahiko, and even his parents, with Aurora and their new persocom Sansho accompanying them. Then, over in a corner, he noticed his former dormmates Jushiro and Nanase. He hadn't been in touch with them that much for quite a while, so he began to approach the pair, as Minako and Amethyst engaged in whispered conversation.
"Hey," he said, addressing the two in a subdued tone.
"Hey, Takeda-san," Nanase replied, shaking his hand. Jushiro soon followed suit. They all stood awkwardly for a few seconds.
"I... well, I guess I really don't know what to say," the human woman broke the silence. "Even though we met several times at the KSPE, Yumi-san and I never really got to know each other all that well. Even though Jushiro-san and I were both invited to the funeral, I kind of feel like an outsider."
"Same here. From the few interactions we had, though, Yumi-san seemed like a wonderful person," the male persocom added.
"She was," Junji said, smiling. "Even when her memory loss started to overwhelm her, she never sank into despair. She had a bright outlook on life, and I found it inspiring."
"This is quite a large service," Nanase said, changing the subject. "I've seen videos of persocom funerals before, but never with this many people in attendance."
"I guess we can consider that a good sign," Jushiro said, pausing as Junji turned to look at him. "I mean, that persocoms are gaining more acceptance in society as equals to humans," he clarified, shifting a lock of his long, blonde hair to the other side of one of his conical plastic ears.
"The press is still treating it as some kind of novelty, though," Junji grumbled.
"Well we'll just have to hope that-" Nanase was cut off by a young man's voice, a bit too loud to fit with the solemnity of the occasion.
"Junji-niisan!"
Junji turned to the source of the voice, seeing his younger cousin approach the group at a brisk pace. Behind him, struggling to keep up, the doll-sized form of his laptop Rika chased after him.
"Honestly, Satoru," she began, an irate scowl on her face as she came to a stop and pulled out one of her small paper fans, "You could at least warn me before you go bounding off across the room like that. And keep it down, will you? This is a funeral, not a frat party."
"Sorry, Rika," Satoru said, rolling his eyes slightly as he picked her up. Junji noticed the laptop blush slightly as Satoru placed her on his shoulder. "It's just been a while since I've gotten to see my cousin."
"I'm glad to see you too, Satoru, although I wish it could have been under better circumstances," Junji said, as the two bowed politely to each other. "How is college treating you?"
"Like a-" he began, but Rika cut him off.
"His grades are improving, but of course they could still be better. It's his attitude towards his teachers that needs the most work." This elicited a chuckle from Junji, Nanase, and Jushiro alike.
Satoru looked like he was about to fire back with a snappy rejoinder for a second, but instead he sighed and changed the subject. "So... I'm so sorry about Yumi-san."
"We all are," Junji said. "The worst part is that we knew this would happen for months, but there was nothing we could do to stop it."
"Yeah... it's pretty sad. I'm not really old enough to remember when grandma was still around, but I guess it's kind of a similar thing as what happened to her, right?"
Junji nodded gravely. Their grandmother had died when he was only a child, after suffering from severe Alzheimer's in her later life. Junji still held pained memories of the day when she had forgotten his name. In fact, it was partially her plight that had inspired him to become a psychologist, and learn to help people deal with such mental issues.
By this time, Jushiro and Nanase had drifted away into the crowd, and Junji was about to go find Minako, when a familiar pair of white, feather-like ears popped into view.
"Hello Junji-san," Aurora said, bowing politely. "I'm so sorry about - oh," she paused, noticing the younger boy standing nearby. "Hello, Satoru-san."
"Uh, hi," he chuckled nervously, averting his gaze from his former crush. Rika narrowed her eyes, as if to say don't even think of trying to hit on her.
"Who's he?" Satoru asked, suddenly noticing the antenna-eared persocom standing next to her.
"Greetings, Satoru-san. My name is Sansho. It's nice to finally meet you," he said, bowing.
"Ah, I heard that Joji-Ojisan and Miki-Obasan got a new persocom, but I didn't know it was a guy."
Aurora stepped closer to Sansho, taking his hand in her own. "Sansho-kun and I have been getting along very well these past few weeks. I hope you're not uncomfortable with that, Satoru-san."
The young man's eyes widened in understanding, but then he smiled. "It's fine. You don't need to worry. Actually, I've, uh..." he began to blush slightly. "Kind of hooked up with someone."
"Really?" Junji asked. "Anyone we know?"
"No," Satoru lied. "Just a girl from college." He and Rika had agreed not to reveal the truth about their relationship, at least until the laptop upgraded to a human-sized body, in case anyone got the wrong idea.
"That's great, Satoru-san," Aurora grinned. "I hope you two will be very happy together."
"It - it's not like we're getting married or anything!" he chuckled awkwardly.
"Well, I'm just glad that you-" Junji paused, as he felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking back, he saw his wife, her face wearing her distinct We Need To Talk expression.
"Excuse me a moment," he said. Everyone nodded.
"What is it?" he whispered as he followed her to the side of the room, away from the crowd.
"We have an uninvited guest," she replied, pointing towards a raincoat-covered figure near the front door. Whoever it was, he seemed to notice them, and began heading in their direction.
Junji gulped, fearing the worst. If one of his or Hiroyasu's former classmates had shown up to harass them...
His train of thought abruptly derailed as the mysterious figure pulled down his hood, revealing two grey, pyramid-like plastic ears.
"You! You're..." Junji began, instantly recognizing the face, but failing to place a name to it.
"Seung-woo, alias Albert," he said. Turning to Minako, he added "humans have such poor memories, don't they?"
"What do you want?" Minako asked, glaring at the Korean persocom. "If you've come to disrupt the funeral-"
"Oh, far from it!" Albert replied, holding his hands out in a disarming gesture. "I feel just as bad about what happened to Yumi-san as anyone else."
"Did you even know her?" Junji asked.
"Well, not personally, but..." he turned to Minako again. "Listen, would it be okay for us to continue this discussion in private somewhere?"
"Same rules apply as last time," the green-haired 'com said. "Junji comes too, and that's non-negotiable."
Albert gave the human male a sideways glance and sighed. "You two might not like what I have to say, but I assure you, I'm not here to cause trouble. This is a very important matter."
"I just hope this is quick," Junji grumbled. "The funeral ceremony is set to begin in under twenty minutes."
"Eighteen minutes, thirty-seven point nine seconds," Albert said instantly, a smug look on his face.
"When Minako does that, it's endearing," Junji groaned. "But from you, it's-"
"-And as for being quick, this would go a lot faster if you weren't involved, Junji-san. Then Minako-san and I could exchange all the necessary information in under a second, without the trouble of the painfully slow verbal communication you humans are limited to."
"I'm sorry for being such a burden," Junji replied sarcastically.
"Come on, let's just get this over with," Minako said, leading the two of them through a door into an empty hallway. They entered an unused side room and turned on the lights.
"First, let me just say that I couldn't help noticing your outfit," Albert began, referring to the elegant, lacy black ensemble Minako was wearing. "It's not your usual style, but it looks good on you."
"I borrowed it from Amethyst," she said, unimpressed by the complement. "Now get to the point. What is it you want?"
"And if you're just here to flirt with my wife, you can leave immediately," Junji added.
"No, you've got the wrong idea. I was just trying to break the ice... I guess that wasn't the best way to go about it," the male 'com replied nervously. "I just... I don't have much experience when it comes to casual conversation. Another reason I wanted to do this via datalink."
Junji and Minako both looked like they were going to speak, but Albert beat them to it. "So I guess I might as well get to the point. For the last few weeks, I've been spying on you and your friends."
Husband and wife's eyes widened simultaneously. "Excuse me?" Junji asked.
"It was an order from Masaji-san and the separatist leaders," Albert explained. "They're afraid that you're secretly working to undermine them, discover their location, and report them to the authorities."
"As much as I'd love to punch that guy in the face," Junji began, recalling how the incident with Masaji's hidden weapons cache on the island had nearly gotten him and many others killed, "Minako and I have had more pressing matters to deal with as of late."
"Believe me, I know," the Korean 'com replied. "They also insisted that I keep an eye on Tomoko-chan, in case she still has any sensitive data hidden on her drive."
"What does Tomoko-chan have to do with-"
"It was you!" Minako interrupted her husband, putting two and two together. "Hitomi-san told me that Tomoko was previously registered to an owner named Albert. What the hell did you do to her?"
"Calm down," Albert said, slowly backing away from the now-furious Minako. "I actually rescued her from an abusive human owner. The separatists wanted me to use her to store a bunch of top-secret data, and when they no longer needed her, they wanted to kill her, but I convinced them to just let me wipe her memory. I left her out in public so hopefully someone would find her, and luckily it was your friend Hitomi-san."
"Why are you telling us all of this anyway?" Junji asked suspiciously.
"Because I want out!" he blurted, taking the two by surprise. "I was onboard with Ryuhei and Masaji-san's ideals at first, but ever since the incident with the guns at the island, they've been getting more and more paranoid. I've told them time after time that you two are no threat, but they refuse to believe me. I honestly think that they're verging on delusional at this point."
"Was Yumi's funeral really the best time you could think of to drop this bomb on us?" Minako asked.
"Look, I just want to make peace. I've disabled all of the hidden cameras I had set up, and disconnected all of the wiretaps. Here, I can even prove it." He began to reach into his pocket, and Junji and Minako tensed for a moment until he pulled out a small optical disk, held between his thumb and forefinger. "This has all of the data I collected and all of the security vulnerabilities I exploited in your apartment's network. With this, patching the vulnerabilities will be easy, so no one else can try this again."
Minako took the disk, contemplating placing it in her disk drive to check over its contents, but instead pocketed it. "You're taking a big risk by doing this."
"I know. It wasn't an easy decision. But I just can't keep this up any longer. The separatist leaders are fanatics - I've tried to reason with them but they won't listen. The only thing I could do was come clean and ask for your help."
"If they're really as paranoid as you say, then once they realize you've gone rogue, they'll think you're working with us to conspire against them," Junji pointed out. "That might give them cause to do something drastic. If my family and friends are now in danger because of you..." he left the implied threat unsaid.
"I take full responsibility for anything that might happen, but I couldn't just let this continue any longer. I don't know what they're up to, but I have a really bad feeling about it. Besides, I have a plan to get through to Masaji-san."
"You just said he was delusional and couldn't be reasoned with," Minako countered.
"Some of his followers are, but I haven't actually spoken to him since he left the island. I keep getting stonewalled whenever I ask to talk to him. I've relayed several messages, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they were never passed on."
"So we're supposed to just trust your intuition that Masaji-san isn't on board with this whole thing?" Junji asked. "There could be a dozen other reasons that he's not speaking to you. Hell, for all we know, you could be lying to us right now!"
"What would I have to gain by doing that?"
Junji paused, admitting that was a good question. He turned to his wife, but she simply shrugged.
"Okay, listen,' Minako said, after a few seconds of awkward silence. "We'll believe you for now, but we don't have time for this today. Get in touch with us tomorrow and we'll work this out, okay?"
"Ah, yes, thank you, Minako-san," he said, bowing graciously. He then turned to the human man, as if he had nearly forgotten. "And thank you as well, Junji-san."
"Yeah, sure," Junji grumbled, as the Korean persocom turned and walked away without bowing. "Can you believe the nerve of that guy?"
"At least he seems like he's trying to make amends," Minako said. "But if what he's saying is true, we could all be in serious danger."
"Why are they after us, of all people? We're probably the two biggest proponents of persocom rights in Japan. You even helped draft the contract that let the colony remain independent. You'd think they would be on our side."
"It likely has much to do with our involvement in their two biggest setbacks so far. I know that some of them still blame me for Ryuhei-san's death, and they blame both of us for forcing Masaji-san and the others to abandon their bodies and the island."
"It was his own fault for 3D printing all of those guns and lying about them!"
"I agree, but that goes back to the paranoia Albert-san was talking about. I don't believe it will be easy to convince the separatists that they're the ones in the wrong here."
"This is the last thing we need right now," Junji groaned.
"Come on, let's get back before everyone starts to miss us," Minako replied, gently taking her husband's hand and returning to the building's foyer.
The ceremony was closed-casket, and Ueda himself delivered the eulogy, eliciting tears from many of Yumi's close friends. After most of the crowd had dispersed, Junji and Minako gathered together a small group consisting of Hiroyasu, Amethyst, Hitomi, and Tomoko, and explained Albert's revelations.
Their reactions were mixed. Tomoko was actually the first to speak up.
"He says he saved me, but he still erased my memory! I don't think that was very nice!"
"You're right, Tomoko-chan, it wasn't," Hitomi said, a very rare scowl adorning her face.
"Still, I'm glad that he warned us," Amethyst added. "Now at least we know what's going on." She turned to Ueda, silently asking for his input on the matter.
He opened his mouth, but then paused, choking back tears. "I - I'm sorry, I just can't deal with this right now!" he said, beating a hasty retreat.
Hitomi and Amethyst began to follow him, but were held back by Junji and Minako. "I think it's best for Hiroyasu-san to be alone right now," Junji said. "Hearing this on the day of his wife's funeral has got to be overwhelming for him."
"Do you think we should have waited to tell him?" Amethyst asked.
"No." Minako replied firmly. "We don't know what the separatists will try or when they'll try it. We all have to be prepared as soon as possible."
"I'm scared, guys," Hitomi said, shivering slightly.
"It's okay, we've been through worse than this," Junji assured them. "I'm sure everything is going to be fine."
They all hugged each other goodbye and returned to their cars, pondering what form the separatists' interference might take as they drove home.
Author's Note: In case you missed it, check out the previous chapter for profiles on many of the major characters. I'll definitely try to start updating more frequently from now on, but you never really know what is going to happen. My plans for next chapter are a series of mostly unrelated scenes, catching up with various characters, before we move into the conflict with the separatists. Thanks for sticking with the story all of this time, for those of you who had.
