Disclaimer: See previous chapters
I finally got this chapter done. How long has it been? ^^; Anyway, I'm sorry this is taking so long to finish, but with my GCSEs coming up, among other things I've been extremely busy.
My thanks to:
James Daly ( I am trying for a happy ending ^^; )
Joe Snow ( Sorry sorry, it's just been a bit difficult lately. Thanks for your reminder though, it prompted me to finish the last bit for this chapter )
NachtMusik ( Thanks to you too ^^ )
Without further ado, Chapter 6:
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"Kenichi-san! Kenichi-san it's time to get up!" Yumi shook Kenichi as he lay asleep in bed. The only response he deigned to give her was a grunt, and then he rolled over. Shaking her head in exasperation Yumi started to shake him once more, only to find Kenichi's hand waving in her face as he swatted blindly at the source of the disturbance. She humphed, then turned to Tima and shrugged before walking from the room.
Just before Yumi crossed the threshold, she stopped dead. A moment later a strange smile spread across her face, and she walked back into the room to bend down and whisper in Tima's ear. Tima in turn nodded and smiled a little herself, before walking over to Kenichi's side and leaning over him. Laying her hands on the side of the bed, Tima softly said his name. Receiving no response at all, Tima leant even further forward until her face was just an inch away from Kenichi's, and very quickly planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Tima!" Kenichi shouted and leapt from beneath the covers, much to Yumi's amusement. Tima jumped back in surprise at his sudden actions. "What? What's going on?" he asked feeling disoriented.
"Good morning." Yumi said through her laughter, "We've been trying to wake you for five minutes."
"Kenichi, good morning." Tima smiled.
"Oh, er… good morning." Kenichi said. Looking down at the grubby and crumpled clothes which hadn't been changed for almost two days with a look of vague distaste, he turned to Yumi, "Where…"
Yumi pointed at the washroom door at the foot of bed.
"Thanks."
* * * * *
The room was imposing. It was one of those huge offices that make you feel if you so much close the door wrong you'll get yourself in trouble. It made Kenichi think of the office of his old head teacher. He had only been in there once, but that was enough for it leave an impression. It had been a huge, dimly lit room with couches against the walls where you knew important people had sat in meetings, and would sit again. It always gave a feeling that you stood on the brink of a world that you would never be able to see, and that you would never be able to do more than stand meekly in front of the desk.
Shuishiro's office was different however. It was still huge, dimly lit and overbearing, but there were no decorations, and also, no couch. Whoever came into the office would have to stand, no matter how important they were. No matter how hard Kenichi tried, he couldn't keep himself from glancing at the breathtaking view out over the station from the wall window. Amidst such impressive scenery, the anger he felt towards Shuishiro seemed suddenly dulled, and the strong words Kenichi had been planning all the way from his quarters were rendered useless. He tried to bring back the strong feelings of hatred he had felt the night before by thinking about Tima, but just couldn't summon up the image of her crying in his arms. The best Kenichi could do was visualise what she would be doing right now, not very rage inspiring considering Yumi had volunteered to entertain her while he went and had it out with Shuishiro.
Kenichi had dressed into the change of clothes his uncle had given to him, a pair of denim jeans, a plain white shirt, and a dark blue sweater. He opened his mouth to speak, but Shuishiro cut him off, "What is it?" He asked gruffly, not even bothering to turn his chair away from the window.
Kenichi swallowed, "I… I came to speak to you about the way you treated Tima." Silence was the only response he received. Taking a step forward he tried to drag forth the courage to keep from creeping quietly out of the room, "Tima is not robot. I know she's not human, but that doesn't mean you should have treated her the way you did. She has the ability to think and feel just like a human, so…"
"What's the problem?" Shuishiro asked.
"What? But I just said-,"
"No actions can or will be taken as far as the past is concerned. Now is our agreement being violated, or not?"
Kenichi stood silently. He couldn't think of anything else he could say. He had come in with the intention of making Shuishiro regret how he had treated Tima, but it seemed just like Yumi had warned him. You can't win an argument with Shuishiro.
"Well?" the voice from the other side of the chair asked impatiently.
"No," Kenichi answered quietly. "Um…"
"What?"
Kenichi felt awkward. There was something about this man that always made you feel like you were committing some great crime by taking up his time, "I have… finished what you asked me to do. I know Tima can't leave yet, so I would like to stay here with her. I… I'll work if you want, just let me stay with Tima."
Shuishiro sat without saying anything for a while, and just as Kenichi was about to try and speak again, he said, "Cute. Hmph, alright. I guess it can't be helped."
"Th-Thank you Shuishiro-san!" Kenichi said. Up until then he'd been expecting a refusal.
The chair rotated slowly to reveal Shuishiro. He was wearing a pair of black trousers, and a white shirt. He stood up and walked slowly around the desk, coming to halt a couple of feet from Kenichi. Shuishiro stood there for close to a minute, and after several seconds in which Kenichi stood staring at him, he coughed emphatically.
"Um…" Kenichi suddenly knew something was expected of him, but unable to think of what, he simply stood gawping. Shuishiro sighed and walked back behind the desk, rooted about in one of the drawers for a moment, and then produced a sheaf of papers.
Returning to Kenichi, he shoved them into his hands then said, "Sign these and you'll be a First Class Technician-probate."
"What?" The legal terms were going over Kenichi's head.
Shuishiro spoke as Kenichi leafed through the sheets, "Kinasato Yumi's assistant. But you'll be on probation; if you try to get in the way of a project she assigns you to, you're going to be swimming home." Kenichi gulped. "Understood?"
"Y-yes sir." Kenichi looked down at the papers again, "What does this part mean? It says something about a review."
"You'll see. Now go ask Yumi for something to do." Kenichi hurried away leaving Shuishiro alone.
* * * * *
"…me so."
"Oh Tima-chan that was lovely!" Yumi said, clapping. Tima let out a little breath, and then turned to Yumi. Before she could speak however, the door to Yumi's office opened and Kenichi walked into the room, looking at a sheaf of papers with a blank expression on his face.
"Kenichi?"
"Kenichi what's the matter?" Yumi looked at the papers and gasped.
Looking up at her, Kenichi said, "He told me to ask you for something to do."
"That man…" Yumi shook her head and stood up.
"Isn't there anything?"
"Maybe later," Yumi drew Kenichi into the room. "Tima has something she wants to show you."
She had to laugh at how Kenichi's face lit up, "What?"
Tima ran over, "Kenichi listen, Yumi-san taught me to sing!"
"Really?" Kenichi said, "That's great Tima!"
Without any further prompting Tima took a step back, clasped her hands, closed her eyes, lowered her head and took a little breath, and then started to sing.
The words were almost perfect. To Kenichi, Tima seemed angelic as she stood there wearing an expression that belied a kind of inner peace.
Lavender's blue, dilly-dilly, Lavender's green;
When I am King, dilly-dilly, you shall be Queen.
Who told you so, dilly-dilly, who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly-dilly, that told me so.
"Tima…" Kenichi stood stock still as he watched her end her song, gracefully lowering her hands to her sides, gently breathing out, and then turning to face him. He could do nothing but stare, an unnoticed blush creeping across his cheeks.
"What was it like Kenichi?" Tima asked, smiling.
"Amazing…" Kenichi said. "Absolutely wonderful."
At his words, Tima threw her arms around him in the inevitable hug, "Kenichi!"
"Ah-" Kenichi gave an embarrassed gasp. He could feel his ears burning as he looked down at her. Not knowing quite what to do he awkwardly patted Tima's head, and then gently tried to remove her arms from his neck. Failing, he turned to Yumi, "Thank you for looking after Tima; and thanks for teaching her too," looking at Tima now Kenichi said, "Have you said thank you yet?"
Tima lowered herself from Kenichi and let go, and then she turned and said politely, "Thank you very much for teaching me to sing Yumi."
Yumi smiled, "Anytime Tima-chan."
"Oh that's right!" Kenichi said, remembering something suddenly. "I've got something to show you too Tima."
"Really?" Tima asked.
"Yeah I…"
Kenichi was cut short as the intercom crackled, "Ban Kenichi and Tima to the computer hall please. Ban Kenichi and Tima please come to the computer hall."
Kenichi apologised quickly for his sudden exit and he and Tima left.
* * * * *
Kenichi and Tima stepped through the double doors to the massive test hall, to find that the room was already filled with white suited men and women. Apparently they were ready for them.
"What do you want us to do?" Kenichi asked a technician that was passing by.
"We just received word from the chief that you would arrive soon. He said you were to pick up where we left off." The technician answered him. The expression on her face was condescending.
"You want me to extract all of the information that I can?"
"Yes."
Kenichi frowned, but nodded and said, "Okay, is there a spare terminal?"
The technician gestured to an empty seat away round the side of the hall, and Kenichi began to thread his way along between people and their workstations until he realised Tima was following him.
Kenichi turned back to her, "Sorry Tima, I need you to be in the pod."
"But Kenichi, I don't like it." Tima said, looking unhappy, "It feels horrible; can't I stay and help you?"
"Sorry Tima, but I need you to be in there." He turned to a young woman, "Would you help Tima into the pod for me?" The technician nodded and stood up, before taking Tima's shoulder and guiding her away.
After several paces, Tima suddenly stopped and turned around, "What if something bad happens?"
Kenichi grinned and said, "Don't worry, I'll be the one in control. There's no reason for you to try and stop my commands. Nothing will happen as long as you remember that it's me giving the commands."
Tima smiled, utter trust was carried by that look, "Okay Kenichi."
As Tima walked away Kenichi called after her, "And when you come out, there's something I want to show you!"
He sat down at his workstation, watching as Tima clambered into the little chamber in the middle of the room, and then a bare arm stuck out holding a nightdress. The technician took it away and then shut the hatch.
"Can I talk to her?" Kenichi asked the man next to him.
"Sure," his neighbour pointed at a grill alongside his screen. "Just login to the network, and you should have full control."
Kenichi nodded and looked at the sheaf of papers Shuishiro had given to him. At the bottom of the first page was written a username, 'Ban', and a passcode. Upon entering them, Kenichi's screen lit up with data readouts, the same as those that had appeared while he had been working on Tima before. His neighbour whistled, before making a comment about access privileges and turning back to his own work.
"Tima?"
"Yes Kenichi?" Tima's voice answered Kenichi from his screen.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm okay; it's just really dark. I can't see very much, except Ico's here beside me, she looks like she's asleep."
"Okay, I have to look for something in your mind. I have no idea what it might feel like, but just keep remembering that I'm here. That way everything should be fine." Kenichi actually had no idea what he was doing. His idea that if Tima focused on letting him in, she wouldn't defend herself was pure speculation. With a sigh he began to make requests of Tima's CPU.
* * * * *
"Whoa…" with a flash a longhaired figure appeared above the station. Several hundred feet below him, the complex's three platforms shone out into the surrounding darkness, reflecting a light source that didn't exist; and just behind, a tunnel like exit from a busy street distorted and faded away.
"It's taken so long to find this place. All I had to go on was that he was on a Japanese military base somewhere."
* * * * *
Kenichi had been working for two hours, and had had a great deal of success. Several sheaths of paper lay on the desk next to him, and a couple more had already been taken to Shuishiro. A short time before hand Kenichi had come up with the idea that if Tima concentrated on something like letting him in and it had worked, maybe she would be able to find things by concentrating in the same way. It hadn't been entirely efficient, but files that seemed to almost be hiding from his searches had been relatively forthcoming since Kenichi had put the idea into practice.
He was finding it more and more difficult to keep going as the work continued. Thus far, he had extracted two schematic diagrams of Tima's inner workings, a full status report from all of her systems, a file location tree that seemed to be lying to him, a copy of Tima's ever-growing emotion databank, a flow diagram describing her programming, and was currently waiting for a print out of Tima's complete program script. This had been printing for a long time now, and several techs had already left in search of more paper and a second printer so that Kenichi could continue his work. He was trying to make the best of this break that had been given him by trying to relax and chat with Tima. The job of invading her systems was not one that he relished and a moment's respite was certainly appreciated.
"I'm alright Kenichi…" Tima's voice came from the speaker set into Kenichi's desk.
"Are you sure Tima? You sound tired…"
"Yes. I just want to help."
"Please Tima, take a rest. I don't want you to push yourself too hard helping me find that A.I. file."
"Yes Kenichi…"
"…" Kenichi stood up, "I'm going to go and ask if we can stop for today. I don't like you having to work so hard."
"But Kenichi, I want to help you find what you want." Tima's voice crackled out again.
"Tima, stop it. This can't be good for you."
"But I want to help…" her voice sounded sad.
Kenichi sat down at his terminal again, "You've done enough. I'm taking you out again."
"But-" Tima's voice was cut off as Kenichi switched off the pod. With a loud hiss the door on its side slid away, and a technician hurried down to give Tima back her clothes.
* * * * *
The door opened behind Kenichi, and Tima walked into their bedroom. Behind her, the technician that had given Tima back her clothes quietly closed the door. Kenichi didn't turn round immediately, but Tima could see his shoulders relax a little.
"Kenichi…?" she asked reticently.
Kenichi turned around; he was wearing a black expression.
"Kenichi, um, you're not angry with me are you? I wanted to help you work but-"
Kenichi's look softened suddenly as he realised it had worried Tima, "No, no, it's nothing like that Tima. It's just I spoke to Shuishiro-san; he said you couldn't stop for the day. But at least you can have an hour or so off."
"Oh."
"Oh that's right," Kenichi turned away again and started to poke around under the bed.
"What is it Kenichi?" Tima was down beside him and peering into the space beneath their bunk beads.
"Uncle told me to give this to you. We had meant to give it to you when you got back but- ah, here it is." Kenichi extracted himself from the hollow along with a suitcase.
"What is it?" Tima asked, peering around him as he put it down on the bed and flipped open the catches.
With one movement Kenichi lifted a dress out of the suitcase and held it out at arms length to Tima by the shoulders, "Here, Uncle Shunsaku and I bought it for you so that you'd finally have some proper girl's clothes of your own, rather than having to keep borrowing my clothes and so on."
Tima reached out and took the dress from Kenichi, looking at it quietly.
"Why don't you try it on?" Kenichi asked.
"Can I?" Tima said, looking up from the dress. It was a knee length sleeveless pastel yellow summer dress, with bands running along its seams.
"Of course," Kenichi smiled and turned to face the wall.
From behind him he could hear ruffling noises as Tima changed out of boys clothes she'd been wearing up until now. Kenichi felt really strange, and swallowed as he felt a blush spreading across his face. He didn't know why, but suddenly he was experiencing an urge to turn around before Tima was finished. Feeling his head slowly turning, he snapped it back to staring at the blank wall in front of him and swallowed hard again.
"Kenichi, I'm done."
I mustn't look, I mustn't look, I mustn't-"Kenichi…?"
-look, I mustn't-
"Kenichi what's the matter?"
-mustn't look-
Tima tapped Kenichi shoulder, then pulled on his shirt a little, "Kenichi, is it okay?"
"Huh?" Kenichi stiffly turned on the spot to look at Tima, who now stood before him wearing her new dress. There she stood looking at him, awaiting his approval. "It… it looks very good Tima…"
"Thank you Kenichi," Tima smiled happily back at him. Suddenly Kenichi felt incredibly awkward, as if there was something he wanted to say, but couldn't put his finger on it. Tima walked closer, "Kenichi what's wrong? Your face has turned red."
"N-nothing Tima. Do you want to show your dress to Yumi-san? We've still got a little while left."
* * * * *
THUMP
"Ow!" The longhaired figure pulled himself out of the pile of data he'd been reading and rubbed his head. "What was…?"
He noticed the hollow thrumming noise and stopped short. It was a ways off, but there was definitely something big over there. Out of the window of the building he was in he could see the dome opposite glowing faintly. Chucking the file he'd been reading to one side, he started out in the direction of the noise.
* * * * *
"Do I really have to do is again Kenichi? The metal bits feel really weird…" Tima's voice said from Kenichi's speaker. She'd complained bitterly about having to go into the pod again when they got back, and he in turn felt miserable making her. But what choice did he have? Either he helped Shuishiro, or Shuishiro kicked him off the station and did entirely what he wanted. At least this way he'd be around in case something happened.
"Sorry Tima, but there's nothing else I can do… please, just help out for another few hours. I'm sure Shuishiro will let us off then."
"Okay…"
"I know, why don't we try something?"
"What do you mean Kenichi?"
"Well if we could work out how to let you take a little control yourself, maybe you could help too."
"Really? How can I do that?"
Kenichi gave an awkward laugh, realising he had no idea. "Well… let's try something simple. It's your mind, so you should be able to do practically anything. Why don't you try making something?"
"How?"
"Well… what do you want right now?"
"I want to see you Kenichi!" Tima said in a loud and enthusiastic voice.
Kenichi found himself blushing again, "Um… well why don't you start with focusing on trying to see my face. Just concentrate hard."
"Umm…" various strained sounds issued from the speaker as Tima at first tried thinking about Kenichi's face, then thought harder, and finally it was almost as if she was trying to force the picture out of her mind and into the air in front of her.
"Anything?" Kenichi asked.
"Not really…" Tima answered, staring at the ghostly image of Kenichi's smiling face that kept almost disappearing from where it hung in the air a few inches from her face.
"But, something happened right?"
"Yes, there's a little picture of you here, but it's not very good, and it's hard to see. And I have to concentrate really hard or else it tries to disappear."
"I guess you'll have to practice a lot before you can do things like that as well as Ico can. While I'm working, why don't you play around and see what you can do? Just remember to keep letting me in."
Tima's voice seemed happy as she responded, "Okay Kenichi, I'll keep trying to get your picture right."
Her answer set Kenichi off blushing again, but he turned back to work.
* * * * *
The throb was getting louder now. The dome in front of him almost seemed to be visibly pulsing. Whatever was in there, it was affecting network resources drastically. He was willing to bet there wasn't a machine outside that room that wasn't being lagged horribly.
Up ahead, an energy field was blocking his way. If he passed through it, the chances were that area would disconnect itself. Carefully, the figure reached out and put a hand against the field. He felt it give.
How to get through? Maybe if he ran at it really fast he'd be able to get through just before the connections in the real world were broken. Although effective, hard firewalls were always a little slow to respond if used on this scale. Walking back to get a run up, the figure charged full pelt at the field. It held for a moment, and then he was through.
* * * * *
"Kenichi, I made it stop flickering!" Tima said through Kenichi's speaker.
He grinned a little, glad to see that Tima wasn't worried anymore, "That's great Tima, I-."
Kenichi was cut off by an alarm in the ceiling beginning to blare. In the gantries that surrounded the mess of cables leading out of the hall a red light began to flash, and with a hiss of pressure seals breaking the two halves of the gantry began to pull apart.
Looking down at his screen, Kenichi realised the protection had started too late again. Filling the centre of his screen, and rapidly filling every status report for connected systems was the warning message 'Illegal System Entry'. Frantically, he began locking down connections around Tima's pod, trying to cut the machine off from the rest of the network while soft firewalls and counter viruses fought to buy him time.
"Kenichi? What's going on?" Tima asked.
"Something's forcing its way in," Kenichi answered. "Just focus on letting nothing near you. I need more time to seal you off."
"But I don't know how," came Tima's scared voice.
"Just concentrate Tima. I don't know what'll happen if it gets into the pod."
"I-I'll try Kenichi."
Calling up a tree showing responsive system areas, Kenichi watched in horror as the unknown program wrenched resource after resource away from his terminal. Tima's clumsy attempts to protect herself were slowing it down a little, but there was no way he could disconnect all of the pod's inputs in time. As he shutdown each route into the pod, the program immediately jumped onto another. It was almost as if the program was able to respond immediately to his actions, as if there was something intelligent behind it.
The final box on the tree diagram turned red, and a moment later all of the status windows that had occupied his terminal disappeared, leaving an empty space staring at him.
"Tima?" he shouted. "Tima is everything okay?"
The answering voice wasn't Tima's, "Uh… is someone out there? Where am I?"
"Who's there?" Kenichi asked. Everyone in the test hall was staring at the wall mounted PA.
"I'm looking for Kenichi Ban, is he there?"
"I'm here, what have you done to Tima?"
"Kenichi? Oh it's great to hear you! You don't have any idea how long it took me to find you!"
Kenichi suddenly felt extremely confused. The voice talking to him was familiar, "Who…?"
The voice kept talking, "Aki's been really worried about you! Although I guess I don't really know how she is right now, but at least I found you. You've got to come help!"
Kenichi finally realised why the voice was so familiar, "Koh? Is that you?"
"Of course it's me!"
"What are you doing inside Tima?" Kenichi shouted.
"Inside Tima? I thought this area was strong but… sorry Kenichi." Koh sounded awkward.
"Just tell me, how is she?"
"Um…" Koh was silent for a second, "I found her. I think she's fainted. Oh my- Kenichi that virus is in here too! What's going on?"
"I'll explain later Koh, just wake Tima up and I'll take her to our room. Find somewhere quiet and don't take up too much space."
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Well that was chapter six. I hope chapter 7 doesn't take such a stupidly long time as this one did ^^;