Hiroyasu and Yumi: A Revised Version Of Their Love
Characters
1. Hiroyasu Ueda
2. Yumi Omura
3. Yumi Ueda
Once upon a time, there was a young man who had a girlfriend. His name was Hiroyasu Ueda and his girlfriend's name was Yumi Omura. They dated a few times and he really began to like her more and more, but Yumi died later in a car accident. He was distraught over losing her until he saw a commercial on TV advertising a company's products, robots. These robots were life-sized and looked almost entirely human. They offered custom-made robots with nothing more than a picture or drawing of what he or she wanted them to look like. He sent in an old picture of Yumi Omura and soon after, they delivered a robot that looked just like her. He uploaded information into her system, simple basic information including her name, birthday, and his name and birthday.
She looked so happy to be with him. He read more about these robots and found she was programmed to look and act happy. Robots cannot feel real emotions. Still, he was happy again, first time in a long time. He was depressed for so long ever since his girlfriend's death, but now he felt great. A powerful strength and even better sense of motivation, he aimed to achieve his life's dream of being a baker and one day owning his own bakery. He and his new robot named Yumi would go on dates often, take walks in the park, and generally have fun together everywhere they went. He felt like he was falling in love with her more and more as time passed. She didn't act the same way Yumi Omura did. Though she looked the same, she didn't act the same. It was like he didn't just replace her with a fake version of her. More and more, he felt like she was her own person. He would even often forget she was a robot. After he bought an old restaurant and renovated it, his new bakery made its grand opening. The two celebrated and worked together, he would bake and she worked the cash register. Soon after, the happiest days of his life arrived. He proposed to her and she said yes. They married. She told him she loved him, but the words didn't quite sound real. They were hollow, as if she was just pretending. Still, he ignored it as he felt the happiest he had ever been. All over the news were reports with headlines like 'A Human Married A Robot' and 'First Person To Marry A Machine'. He ignored them and continued his happily married life with the robot, Yumi Ueda.
One night, he found she was not in the bed and went looking. He caught sight of her in the living room, the TV was on and she was watching something. He thought of going to see what it was, but it wasn't long to realize from afar that there was a cord connecting her to the TV. She was watching recorded memories of past events. The dates they had spent together, the celebration of the bakery's opening. The wedding. He decided to leave her to watch them and went back up to their room. The next night, he found her watching the videos again. She would watch them nearly every night. He saw the look on her face, almost like she was entranced by them. It was a little unsettling, but he ignored it.
Soon after though, something bad happened. At work, she began to stutter and her hands would shake a little. He didn't think anything of it, until she got even worse. She would be in the middle of serving and stop, forgetting what she was doing. Sometimes, she would ask for desserts to serve without noticing she had them already in her hands. He began to get very worried about her and went to see an employee at the robot company that made her. After testing, they told him she had bugs in her system that were causing these malfunctions. The only way to get rid of the bugs was to reset her whole CPU. It would result in all her data erased, including all memories of all the times they spent together. She wouldn't remember him. She would act the way she did when he first got her, as a robot. On the other hand, leaving these bugs would eventually cause a malfunction powerful enough to make her CPU crash and she would die for good. No resetting her after that. He asked her which she wanted and she looked at him with a sad look on her face. She said "No. I want to keep my memories." He didn't force her into anything and would not have her reset.
During a lunch date in a restaurant, he had to ask "Yumi? Why do you watch those videos every night?" Without the smile leaving her face, she simply responded, "They make me feel happy when I watch them." He knew robots couldn't actually feel emotions and this must have been just her programming to pretend like she did, but something about the way she said it surprised him. It almost sounded like she was sincere and honest, not just saying it because she had to. It made him feel happy, but at the same time, a little sad too.
The malfunctions continued everyday. She would totally space out and not respond for almost up to a minute. He shook her and she would suddenly realize he was shaking her. She told him not to worry too much, but it was only making him more worried. He feared more than anything her system crashing and he would lose her. She continued to watch the videos at night and he could see her eyes as she watched. Like she really did feel happy.
One night, they closed the bakery and went for their nightly walk. It kept her mind from going blank. It began to rain heavily just as he knew it would and brought out the umbrella he had prepared with him. They walked side by side with his arm around her. She even had an arm around him. She had a smile on her face, but he sensed something else too. She looked comforted and truly happy. Not noticing, they crossed the street when they saw a strong light to the side. A large truck honked its horn as it quickly drove up to them. It only took a couple of seconds for her to suddenly grab him and kick him away.
The truck had stopped as he looked down at her, holding her in his arms. His tears wouldn't stop flowing. His heart wouldn't stop beating so fast. He only looked down with a shocked expression as she placed a hand onto his cheek and stuttered out the words he had long waited for. "I... lo...ve y...ou..." Her last words as she suddenly fell limp and he screamed in emotional pain.
People recommended him to simply replace her with another "Yumi Ueda", but he ignored them. Nobody could ever replace her. And unlike most people who had their robots thrown away or even incinerated and recycled, he had her buried in a graveyard with a tombstone that read 'Yumi Ueda, beloved wife'. "They said you had data malfunctions caused by bugs in your system. They can say whatever they want. I know what it's really called. Those bugs... they're called emotions. They said the shock of the truck hitting us caused a malfunction overload that killed you. I know it's actually called love. I know you said you loved me many times, but they all felt kind of fake. Like you didn't really feel it and you were only programmed to. But when you said it in the middle of that street, I knew they were real. You looked and sounded like you were really human. I don't care if you were just a robot. I'll always love you. You were the love of my life. My wife. You saved me when I felt so depressed. And you motivated me to be better and strive for my dreams. You helped me throughout and made me happy everyday. I'll never forget you. And I'll never forget everything we did together. Even now, I won't ever stop loving you." He got up and walked away from her grave, leaving a vase of flowers in front of the tombstone.
Back home, he looked around and caught sight of some video tapes near the TV. They were labeled after different events they had spent together. She downloaded them from her memory to make these tapes. They were the videos she watched...
