Chapter 4:
Brothers
-----
Two more days flew by. After that first evening, Chi seemed to have more-or-less recovered from her angst about being a persocom. Actually, I think our talk helped settle some things that had been bothering her for a while; for the next couple of days, Chi was all smiles, and I did my best to stay by her side as much as possible.
Almost immediately, Chi and my mother hit it off. Ever since their first conversation, I think Mom had known Chi was more than just a PDA with a pretty face, although she still didn't have any idea just what kind of relationship had developed between us. p>
In fact, on Tuesday, Mom made a trip to the grocery store in town, then asked Chi to help her make dinner. When Dad, Aki and I came in, we were in for a real treat: Mom had made this great stir-fry on a bed of salad, and Chi had put together some of her very best desserts. It was probably the best meal I've ever had, before or since - partly because it just tasted good, but mostly because it had been prepared by both my mother and my fiancee, with heaping helpings of love from each.
Dad, of course, was my biggest concern. During our initial talk when I first arrived, I knew I had left the impression in his mind that Chi was just a machine that I was using - I hadn't had the guts to tell him otherwise. Worse, my father has never really trusted automation. I guess, having seen self-guided tractors and robotic farmhands taking jobs away from farmers like himself, it makes sense that he had developed a kind of prejudice towards robots, persocoms, and unfortunately, Chi. I think that, when he let me bring Chi out to help with our chores, he was only humoring me, expecting that when I found a "real" girl, I'd just go back to using Chi as a personal computer.
At some point soon, I was going to have to face my father and tell him about my engagement to Chi.
I was dreading it more every day.
As it turned out, it was Aki that I told first. Ever since we were kids, Aki has had a kind of fascination with machines - Mister Kuwashima, the manager of the little grocery store in town, always orders one of each new Transformers toy as it comes out, then holds them until Mom or Dad come down for their weekly shopping trip. Aki has always used about half of his allowance to pay for his toy-collecting habit, saving the rest for "big" purchases, like his XBox S9 and the secondhand PC in his room.
I guess it was only natural that, when Chi and I arrived, Aki took every chance he could to talk to her. At first, I think he was more interested in what Chi could do - the only persocoms he had ever seen were the ones in TV ads, and to him, having Chi around was like a chance to see his big brother's Ferrari.
Two days after we arrived, Aki asked if Chi and I wanted to play a game of chess. I jumped at the chance, of course. Before I'd left, Aki and I had been like two sides of the same coin - one a little more scuffed up than the other, but still, we'd been close. I'd been a little worried that Aki would resent my going off to school and leaving him alone with our parents, but obviously, I shouldn't have worried. Whatever happened, we'd always be brothers.
Chi just smiled and followed us up to Aki's room. Once he opened the door, I realized that he hadn't been kidding when he'd told me his collection had grown; the bunch of trucks, cars, jets and robots that had taken up one set of bookshelves when I'd left home had expanded to fill three sets of shelves and about half of his bedroom closet. One big red-and-blue figure was even standing heroically on top of his computer monitor, as if to say, "I claim this land in the name of small, plastic robots everywhere!"
Yep, same old Aki.
While Chi and I were looking around at the clutter, Aki dug out a chessboard. "Okay!" he said. "Ready to play?"
I cracked my knuckles. "Only if you're ready to get beat!"
"Hey, Chi," Aki asked, "do you want to play in the first round, or do you want to play the winner?"
Chi just held up a green-and-silver jet. "Aki, why is this plane so small? Hideki says that planes are for carrying people, but this plane is too small to carry anyone, even Sumomo."
"'Sumomo'?"
"Oh," I said, "my friend, Shinbo, has this little mobile persocom. Whenever he and his wife drop by, Chi and Sumomo usually hang out together. She's kind of ... well, scatterbrained, I guess, but she's still a good friend."
Aki smiled. "Neat. I guess even persocoms need friends, right?"
"Chi!"
"Chi, can I see that jet for a second?"
Chi handed my brother the little plane, and in the space of ten seconds, Aki had turned it into a eight-inch winged action figure shaped like a young woman. Chi's eyes lit up. "Chi! The plane doesn't carry persocoms - the plane is a persocom!"
Aki smiled, handing the toy back so that Chi could look it over. "Not really. Slipstream is just a toy; she doesn't have any electronics inside or anything. She doesn't move on her own like a persocom. You have to move her pieces around by hand, then use your imagination and pretend that she's a real character."
"Slipstream can't move?" Chi looked thoughtful for a second. "When Hideki found Chi in the garbage, Chi couldn't move, either." She smiled hopefully up at Aki. "But when Hideki touched Chi, Chi could move and think and feel!" At this, Chi reached down and, to my horror, stuck her little finger right between "Slipstream"'s plastic thighs. Of course, nothing happened, and while Aki and I looked on with gaping mouths, Chi's brow furrowed for a moment, then she tried again. After another couple of seconds, Chi looked up, a sad look on her face. "Aki, is Slipstream broken? Is that why Slipstream isn't moving, even when Chi touches her switch?"
"I ... well ... no, she's not broken. Like I said, she's not real. She just wasn't made to move or think or ... well, you know."
Chi looked at the little action figure, with its fixed plastic smile and a body that could never carry it anywhere. Then, even faster than Aki had, Chi rearranged the figure back into a jet, then handed it to Aki with a smile. "Slipstream looks nice, but Chi is very happy to be real."
I smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "Believe me, Chi, I'm glad you're real, too."
Aki looked at me, then at Chi, then back again, smiling mischieviously. "Oh, man! Hideki, you'd better not let Dad catch you hugging her like that. I mean, it's as if you're in love with your persocom or something."
I took a deep breath. Part of me wanted to say something easy and inoffensive that would get me off the hook, the way I'd done with Dad, but I suddenly realized that the time had come to start being honest with my family. I looked at Chi, and she looked back at me, a questioning look in her deep brown eyes.
If I could lie to my own brother, with Chi sitting right next to me, then I didn't deserve her.
"Uh ... actually, Aki, Chi isn't my persocom. I found her in a trash pile, and we've been sharing an apartment for a while, but I don't own her. And ... well, can you keep a secret for a while?"
Aki just gave me a blank look. "Um, sure, I guess."
"Well, you're right - Chi and I are in love. In fact, that's the big reason we came out here. I mean, I've been dying to see you since I left, and I'm glad that we're getting to spend some time as a family again, but I also wanted you, Mom and Dad to get to know Chi, because, well ... "
I could feel sweat start trickling down my forehead. Come on, Motosuwa, you can do it! For crying out loud, you're a man now! Act like it!
"Chi and I are getting married."
I don't know what I had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't for my brother to burst out laughing. "Ha! 'I married a persocom'! That's a good one! Hey, don't worry, you may be the world's biggest pervert, but even I know you're not one of those persocom nuts who marries his computer!"
"'One of those persocom nuts'? Hey, Chi is the nicest girl I've ever met, persocom or otherwise, and we're already engaged!"
Aki just bawled harder.
"I mean it! Aki, c'mon, I just poured my heart out to you! I'm serious!"
Finally, my little brother got himself back under control. He looked at me, then at Chi, then back again. "Uh, you're kidding, right?"
"Nope."
"You're serious?"
"Er, yeah."
Before Aki could ask me anything else - probably something along the lines of, "Are you out of your mind?" - Chi came to the rescue. "Aki, Hideki proposed to Chi three weeks ago. Hideki loves Chi, and Chi loves Hideki, too. That's why Chi and Hideki are getting married."
Aki blinked. "Whoa. Hold on. You're in love with him?"
"Chi!"
"But ... but that's impossible! I mean, you're a persocom. Persocoms just follow their programming; they don't have real feelings. Hideki, did you tell her to say stuff like that?"
Chi shook her head. "Chi loves Hideki because Hideki is nice. Hideki saved Chi from the garbage. Hideki brought Chi home and gave Chi a name and taught Chi to be real. Being with Hideki makes Chi very, very happy, and when Chi and Hideki are married, that means Chi and Hideki can be together forever!"
Aki stared at us for a while. Finally, he looked straight at Chi. "You're serious? You actually feel love and stuff?"
"Chi."
"Actually, Aki, all persocoms can," I said. "It's ... well, it's kind of complicated, but Chi was actually the one who fell in love with me first, before I had even figured out how I felt about her. I mean, you've seen how she smiles, right?"
"Yeah, but I figured she was just following a program or something ... "
"Nope."
Aki leaned back in his chair. "Whoa," he said. "Just ... whoa! So, you're saying that persocoms are humans, but people still sell them?"
"Well ... I wouldn't say that persocoms are totally human - heck, Chi and I had a long talk the other night about that." I gave Chi a look, and she smiled back at me. "But they're definitely people, and from what I can tell, most of them are pretty decent folks."
Aki looked thoughtful for a few seconds. Finally, he spoke. "You know Dad's gonna have a fit when you tell him, right? I mean, you know his thing about robots?"
I sighed. "Yeah, I know, but Chi and I have been dating for a while, and I know she's the only woman for me, persocom or not." I put my foot up on the table, my face set in a determination. "I'm going to marry Chi, and if anyone doesn't like it, then tough!"
"Uh, Hideki? You just messed up the board."
I looked down, realizing that my "heroic" stance had knocked half the chess pieces over. For crying out loud, why do I have to do this kind of stuff when I'm excited? "Um, sorry, Aki."
"Heh heh. You always were a wierdo."
"Hey!" I said, reaching over and shaking him playfully by the collar. "You'd better take that back!"
"No way!"
"Take it back!" I said, giving him a fierce noogie.
"Nevah!" he cried in his best movie-villain voice and laughing.
Eventually, Aki broke free and started a wild chase around his room. Chi looked on and giggled at the two of us, then joined in with a happy "Chiii!", until all three of us wound up on the floor, laughing like crazy. We never did get around to that game of chess, but in the end, it didn't really matter. I was just glad to have finally told my brother the truth, and that he understood. I knew that Mom and Dad weren't going to be quite as thrilled about the decision Chi and I had made, but at that moment, I was just happy to be spending time with two of the most important people in my life, with no secrets between us.
-----
