Priceless
AN: This is my first Chobits fic. Please review.
She felt herself standing on the edge of a precipice. An edge of cold, hard metal was under her toes. She slowly, cautiously opened her eyes. There was a mechanical whirr from somewhere in the back of her head as her eyes adjusted to the obsidian darkness. Something almost…painful?
What are these words? She thought, as they streamed effortlessly through her head. What is pain?
She looked down, another lance of sharp, grating pain resounding through her head. Empty looking eyes focused, and she saw ahead of her a black abyss that stretched for miles.
Who am I? Where am I? She was on the edge of panic now, yet strangely calm. Something, like a push from behind, jolted her, flowing through her being. A figure emerged from the darkness, pale and ethereal. She peered at the contrast of the pale silhouette as it drew closer. It was a girl; she was beautiful, in every possible way, like a porcelain doll. Her eyes like glass, her skin polished marble, her hair in creamy wavelets, cascading down her back, framing a face delicate and beautiful. But yet, there was something not quite right about her. She smiled the perfect smile of an airline attendant. Superficially pretty.
She walked up to her, and presented a hand, outstretched, palm facing her. Still teetering on the metal edge, she reached out. To the gentlest of grazing touches, the girls hands was perfect, smooth and soft, with the delicate long fingers of a piano player. But her hands where cold as the metal beneath her feet. The Perfect girl cocked her head to one side, with another small and perfect smile. Then she noticed her ears. They where llama-like, sloping downwards, white on the outside, sugar pink within. They didn't fit her face, somehow. The girl was suddenly overcome with revulsion. She stumbled away from the perfect thing, and it just smiled at her in a rather puzzled manner.
The girl, shaken, realized something then.
Her heart wasn't beating.
Her skin was cold.
And when she reached her fingers up, she felt hard, chrome llama ears.
Hideki Motosuwa's hands trembled. After 30 years of work, he was almost done with his masterpiece. In his hands, he held a small, metallic device. The silvery, translucent material that covered the thing seemed almost like liquid. Tiny gears and intricate metal systems made up the inside. They would shift every few moments, making the oval thing pulsate like a living thing.
The development of persecoms, simulated humanoid figurines with computer abilities, and increasingly humanlike attributes, had been at a virtual standstill over the past few years. While the array of things that persecoms where capable of doing, and their internet and hookup capabilities continued to become better and better, they had not changed in the human perspective hardly at all. A law that had been passed years ago had forbid the development of persecoms with humanoid ears, and all of these within circulation had been destroyed. Companies where also banned from trying to give the 'coms "feelings" or making them more human. With these laws in effect, it was all too easy to distinguish, as fearful companies made their computers less human, with less personality than before. There where even fewer persecoms marriages than before, and Hideki was scorned for his. The government was not ready to deal with the moral issues of robots.
But here Hideki was, ready to disobey every one of those laws. He looked down at the prone figure of a girl in front of him. She looked to be about 20, young and pretty. Shoulder length black hair shined glossily at her shoulders. Hideki had taken every pain to make her as human as possible. Regular human ears stuck out from beneath her ebony locks. Hideki glanced over at his Wife, Chii. She smiled warmly at him.
"She is beautiful Hideki. Chii is happy to have a daughter, even if she cannot be with Chii." Something akin to sadness shone in the amber depths of his persecoms wife's eyes. While he was older than he had been, she still maintained the beauty of youth, but her circuits where deteriorating, and she wasn't as fast or powerful as the newer coms on the market today. He walked over to her and gently kissed her on the top of her head. He then turned back to the beautiful 'com in front of him, then down at the device in his hands. He reflected on what he was about to do.
He was about to give life to a persecoms that resembled a human in every way, illegally. He was about to give her a heart, the ability to feel….a soul? His hands trembled as he reached for the exposed skin in her chest, where a neat incision marred her perfectly pale skin. He pushed the flap of skin up to reveal metal circuits, the inner workings of one of the most elaborately created and unique persecom on earth. Tiny veins laced their way through her insides even, filled with fake blood. If she was cut, she would bleed, just like a human. He bent and connected the metal heart up to the circuits and veins that cut off in her chest. He closed the flap of skin, and then reached a finger into her inner ears, flicking a brilliantly concealed switch the size of a pinhead.
"Wake up, Darla."
Author's notes: sorry this chapter was so short, but I really want to get the story up and get reactions on it. If you read, please have the kindness to share your thoughts about my story with me. Please review.