A small, portable-type persocom sat in a window display, the bells at her pigtails shining in the sun. A large sign below her proclaimed her to be the first laptop persocom to have the full power and sophistication of the life-size models. Her model name was 'KOTOKO'.

A few days later, the little persocom was taken reverently out of the shop's window and placed in the trembling hands of a young man.

"She's top of the line sir, the latest laptop model with a CPU the equal of a life-sized persocom," said the salesman as money changed hands.

"I know," said the young man eagerly. "That's why I had to make her mine."

"If you have any problems with her, bring her back to the store and we'll take care of it. She comes with a two-year warranty."

"There won't be any problems."

The salesman nodded, smiling. All new persocom owners seemed to believe their purchase to be infallible. This guy doesn't seem to be new to the business though... he knew a lot about the exact model he wanted and her specifications. The salesman shook his head to clear it. "Have a nice day sir."

"Thanks," said the young man and walked out of the store, holding his precious purchase in his hands.

Later on that night, the young man had his new persocom spread on his desk, various wires connected to her ear-ports, which were actually located in the bells on her head.

"Ok baby, let's see what you can do," he said, pressing her on switch and leaning back in his chair as she stared to come to life.

The little persocoms eyes opened, flashed once, and turned a brilliant navy blue, almost the same color of her black-blue hair. She stood up, her pigtails swaying and bowed to the young man.

"Hello master," she said, lifting her head to look up at him.

"Hello Kotoko," said the young man, leaning forward again. "You can call me Dragonfly."

"Master's name is Dragonfly." Kotoko smiled. "Hello master Dragonfly."

Dragonfly smiled back at her. "Kotoko, I'm going to change your settings and do a little customization. Run up your OS stats for me please."

Kotoko bowed her head. "Yes master," she said as her vital statistics appeared on one of the plasma screens connected to her.

"Let's get crackin'," said Dragonfly with relish as he began to type away on his keyboard. Five minutes later, with 10 different custom programs of his loading into his new laptop at the same time, he grabbed his jacket and left, telling the persocom he'd be back in one hour when all her programs would be fully loaded.

Kotoko nodded and, once the door was closed, got up and looked around. Her master's room was pin neat, with a large bed, a desk, a chair, and a dresser being the only furniture. There were no knickknacks anywhere, nor any photographs. In fact, the only decorations where a series of black and white modern paintings that matched the black and white color-scheme of the room.

By the time all of the programs were done loading, Dragonfly had come back. As soon as he walked into the door, Kotoko jumped up.

"Hello master Dragonfly," she said. Although she was happy to see him, the personality data he'd given made her act more matter-of-fact and emotionless than she really felt.

"Hello Kotoko. I see the programs have all been loaded."

"Yes master."

Dragonfly rubbed his hands together. "Excellent. Do you know, you're now the first laptop in the world to have more CPU power than the average life-sized persocom?"

"Yes. I reviewed my new stats as soon as the loading process was done."

"Yes, that would be your programming to investigate new and unusual occurrences."

Kotoko sat still as her master put her cables away and closed her ear ports. "Master?" she said as soon as he was done.

"Hmm?"

"Is Kotoko my name?"

Dragonfly stood and looked at her closely. "No, It's the name of your model. Why?"

Kotoko felt a sharp sense of disappointment. If a persocom could be disappointed that is. "I like the name Kotoko. Can that be my name?"

Dragonfly shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. Call yourself whatever you like."

Kotoko nodded.

"Now, I want to set a password."

Kotoko's eyes flashed. "Master has chosen to set a password."

"Your password is-" Dragonfly bent down and whispered her password.

Kotoko's eyes flashed once more and a small bell sounded within her. "Master has set a password. Will master confirm his password?"

Dragonfly repeated it and the bell noise sounded again. "Master's password has been recorded."

Dragonlfy got up and yawned. "I bushed. I'm going to go to bed."

Kotoko stood up and jumped off the desk. "Can Kotoko look around master's house?"

Dragonfly shrugged. "Do as you like," he said, climbing into his bed and switching off the light.

Kotoko stood where she was for a moment, then left the room. The rest of Dragonfly's house was as bare and Spartan as his room, being all in black and white with no clutter anywhere. During her exploration, Kotoko encountered many life-sized persocoms.

"Data."

"Eclipse."

"Sunblaze."

"Advance"

"Light-speed"

"Advance 10.0"

Each persocom gave her name when Kotoko queried, and Kotoko discovered that each persocom had never been personally named; each had been given the name of her model. Filing this information away in her memory, Kotoko continued her exploration of the silent, moon-lit house. Just when she was about to go into her sleep mode, Kotoko reached the basement and decided to take a look inside.

She climbed down the stairs carefully, so as not to muss up her pristine white kimono, but when she got all the way down, she gasped in surprise despite herself. The shelves were full of persocom parts, many of them layered with dust, and upon closer inspection Kotoko discovered that many of the parts were very outdated. Why her master still kept them, she couldn't possibly guess.

As she looked through the shelves, Kotoko made a surprising find. In the corner, just behind the shelves of parts, sitting on a stool, was a dusty persocom.

Kotoko decided to explore this amazing find more closely. She climbed onto the persocom's lap and looked up into her sleeping face.

"Persocom," said Kotoko with authority. " What is your name?"

A rusty whirring sound came from inside the persocom, and with a dusty soft click, she opened her eyes. "Who are you?"

"I am Kotoko, master's newest and finest persocom. Who are you?"

The persocom smiled, dust falling off her cheeks in soft puffs. "I am Aimee. I was his first persocom."

Kotoko looked Aimee over shrewdly. "You're very old, aren't you?"

Aimee nodded gently, sending even more dusty into the air. "Yes. More than fifteen years old. Master was 10 years old when he received me. He was the first boy on his street with his very own persocom."

Kotoko shook her head. "Amazing. Why would he keep a persocom like you around?" Kotoko did not mean to be rude, her programming was simply to query others in a direct manner.

Aimee's smile turned sad. "It is true, I am no longer useful to him, and I am certainly no match for any of his other persocom's, especially you. But master loved me, and he named me, and he hasn't gotten rid of me."

Kotoko sat down abruptly. "He named you?"

"Yes. My model name was Persocom 001. He named me Aimee."

Kotoko sat silent for a while, then suddenly got up and left. She felt almost jealous, if a persocom could feel jealous, and it baffled her. Why would Dragonfly honor this old, useless persocom so much? Why had he kept her?

Dawn found Kotoko still pondering that question. At breakfast, while Dragonfly ate, Kotoko cleared her throat and breached the subject.

"Master?"

"Hmm?'

"Why do keep an old persocom in your basement?'

Dragonfly's spoon clattered against the side of his cereal bowl. "What?"

"Yesterday, while I was exploring master's house, I came upon an old persocom."

Dragonfly was silent for a while. "She's an original," he said at last. "A work of art. She's practically an antique. She's broken though, she no longer runs and she cannot move."

"She has a name," said Kotoko quietly.

"All she can do now is talk, and even that function is limited. If she spoke last night, it will be months before she can speak again."

"She has a name," repeated Kotoko.

Dragonfly slammed his fist in the table, his color high. "Yes, dammit, she has a name! I named her and I loved her and then-" He took a deep breath and stopped shouting. "And then she broke," he said quietly. "She broke."

Kotoko was silent as she processed this information and stored it away. That night, as Kotoko roamed Dragonfly's house, she went to each of his persocom's and named them.

"Alice. Annie. Alicia. Abby. Andy. Amy."

She named them all names that started with A. Herself however, Kotoko did not name. Master had told her she could choose her name, and she had chosen.

"He might name me someday," said Kotoko to herself, sitting on a windowsill and letting the cool moonlight wash over her. "He might love me someday."