This chapter has some touching moments, but it's also got a big load of philosophy and contemplation on the nature of humanity. Read at your own risk.

KedharS: As I said in PM, I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here about "mattering". Everything matters in how it shapes the characters and their development.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Well, we'll find out soon enough.

JoshGamerV: Yeah, Dakota took forever with that.

Hellraiserphoenix: Harmonia is very complicated, and it is very dependent on the individual. Everyone's harmonia is a reflection of their nature, after all. And Kate will absolutely be jealous of the girls who have crushes on Blake. Without a doubt.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 134

"You're back again…" Akira rose out of his infirmary bed slightly, glancing at his visitor. Serefina stepped fully into the room, waving at him.

"How're you feeling?"

"Same as yesterday," he muttered. "I'm completely fine, but for liability reasons, they still won't let me leave this place…"

"Well it makes sense," Serefina said, a concerned frown crossing her face. "Your opponent, Elaina, still hasn't regained consciousness after your battle. So they're probably keeping you under observation to make sure you don't, I don't know, aneurise or something."

"Yeah, but it still sucks," Akira sighed.

"Well on the plus side, I brought you some dinner!" Serefina said, dropping a bag on Akira's lap. He used his good hand to open it, revealing a box of donuts, with a mound of chocolate bars on top.

"It's all just sugar and sweets."

"Yup! Gotta keep those energy levels up!" Serefina said, smiling. "This stuff tastes way better than hospital food, anyway."

"…Thanks," he said, putting his bag down beside the bed for later. It wasn't exactly a "dinner" he could be happy with. "But I'm surprised you're still coming by. You don't have to, you know. Not after what happened with Dakota."

Serefina frowned.

"I already told you, I'm done blaming you for that," Serefina said, shaking her head. "Dakota told me what happened. It isn't your fault. And… she still hasn't come to see you, has she?"

"Of course not," Akira said. "She made her position on our relationship quite clear."

"But…"

"Even before that… her feelings on the subject were still clear," Akira said. "I… didn't tell anyone this, but… when I was still in my coma… when I was first taken here… Dakota said some things to me."

"Wh-what? But how…"

"How do I remember?" Akira asked. "How did I hear? I don't know. All I know is that I remember a black fog in my head… and hearing Dakota's voice talking to me. Talking about how much she regretted ruining everything. She told me her answer…"

Serefina nodded slowly. She had left Dakota with Akira for a long while that day of the finals. And knowing Dakota, the only way she would have gotten the strength to tell him the truth would have been when he was comatose. And yet he still somehow managed to hear it… is it a coincidence? Or a miracle of some sort?

"So let's say you're right, and you weren't just hallucinating or dreaming up the whole thing. Then what…?"

"Our position is clear," Akira said. "She told you didn't she? It's too late for us to go back. She's made her decision. I've made mine."

Serefina bit her lip to prevent herself from crying. It just wasn't fair. Did he… did he still like Dakota… that way? He must, right? Then why couldn't they…

"How's she doing?" Akira asked quietly.

"…She's better," Serefina said, Akira giving a sigh of relief that didn't go unnoticed by her. "She's back in the office now, which is definitely an improvement. She's even smiling again, even if it's still a little forced."

"That's good," Akira smiled. "She's a strong girl. Before we know it, she'll be writing hit pieces on me again."

Serefina chuckled in spite of herself, hopefully he'd turn out to be right. Akira's relationship with Dakota had always been a complicated one, but she had to admit he still knew her pretty well. That was what made this situation so much more frustrating, and so much more tragic to witness. Serefina didn't really have anyone she was particularly interested in, and she'd never dated before. Growing up people had only ever been after her body, and so she'd always kept any would-be suitors at arms' length. It was one of the reasons that she'd been pulling so hard for her friends' relationship to work out. And yet…

Serefina leaned over and gave Akira a chaste kiss on the cheek, standing up and patting him on the head.

"I'll be back tomorrow," she told him. "Enjoy your dinner!"

"Yeah, thanks," Akira said, nodding, leaning back in his bed as he stared up at the ceiling. Compared to stuffing his face with sweets, hospital food actually sounded not half bad. It was a relief that Dakota was doing better, too, even if she wasn't ready to come see him just yet. It was a nice piece of mind to not have that pest constantly hounding him, not having to spend every waking minute looking over his shoulder. Still, not having her around to fight with was boring as piss, and it was definitely lonely. But hey, nothing he could do about it. This was her decision, and if he ignored her wishes and butted into things then that would make him as bad as her. And as much as he (begrudgingly) cared about Dakota, no way in hell was he about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that he missed her presence as a constant annoyance in his life. Not gonna happen.

"You're a stubborn fool, you know that? What happened, Akira? You were a lot more wussy back in the day."

Akira rolled his eyes, staring at the young girl sitting at his bedside.

"What are you doing here, Satsuki?" Akira sighed. "You haunting me now?"

"Well, you're always so lonely," Satsuki giggled. "But don't get me wrong, dummy! I'm not a ghost. I'm much better. I'm a hallucination brought on by your brain damage!"

Akira rolled his eyes. Oh yeah, that was much better.

"C'mon now," she smiled, "now you have an imaginary girlfriend! It's just like a 'girlfriend in Canada' except this time you're just nuts."

She leaned back, rising to her feet. "And here's the best part!"

With a snap of her fingers, she grew taller and her curves began filling out, growing until she was roughly the same age as Akira.

"Look! I've grown up!" Satsuki said, looking over her new figure. "It's like I've really managed to cast aside that ruined body of mine, and become a Gyarados myself…"

Akira winced at her comment, Satsuki giving him a comforting smile.

"Ah, you'd prefer ones like that girl, right?" Satsuki said, placing her hand over her kimono, which began to bulge in the front as her chest expanded, perfectly mimicking Serefina's voluptuous figure. "I wonder if I could have grown this big for real…"

She leaned over and sat on the edge of Akira's bed, glancing over her shoulder to look him in the eye.

"If you think… I didn't do what I did… maybe… would we be together right now?"

Akira didn't really say anything. He reached out and placed his hand over hers. But there was nothing there to comfort. Satsuki smiled sadly.

"I told you silly. I'm just a hallucination. I'm just a memory. But even so… I'm glad you didn't forget me."

"How could I?" Akira asked, shaking his head. "You silly girl."

"Take a look, Akira," Satsuki said, brushing her hair back. The scars tracing up the side of her face began to shimmer, and faded away. She rolled up her sleeves as well, her arms were equally smooth and blemish-free. She scooted back and flipped over, leaning on top of him. Her lack of weight put no pressure on his body, and yet he still somehow sensed she was there.

"Like this… I could have been a normal girl… with a normal family… I could have lived a normal life, and we… we could have fallen in normal love with each other."

Akira leaned up so they we staring eye to eye. He held up his hand so that it was hovering right over where her scar had been, and slowly it reappeared, until she was staring back at him with the same damaged face he remembered.

"I know you hate it," Akira said, his expression pained. "But I don't want you to think that I ever did. Scar or no scar… I still loved you. I love everything about you, Satsuki, even those scars of yours."

"…Yeah, I know," Satsuki smiled, getting off from on top of him. "You always accepted me, no matter what. And that's what I've always loved about you, Akira."

She began to turn transparent, slowly disappearing. Akira gave her a small wave.

"I'll come see you again soon. As long as you need me to, I'll be right here." She tapped him on the head, but he didn't feel a thing. And then she faded away completely.

Reiner and Will left the stadium in Charizard Hall, still a little shaken by the events that had transpired. Will moreso than Reiner, but Reiner was still concerned about something.

"The vice president… er, I mean, I guess just Gabrielle… what do you think was the point of that?" Reiner asked. "Trying to become president…"

"I don't know," Will lied. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. He didn't know exactly what the Phantom's plans were, but he knew that Gabrielle was a part of it. But even though the plan had failed… telling Reiner about it would only lead to more problems.

"Speaking of which, what about that girl you were with? The older student?" Reiner asked. "I was surprised that she left immediately after the match ended. Usually, she was following around you like a little puppy." Reiner elbowed Will in the arm, grinning. "Lucky guy."

"It's not like that," Will sighed.

"Oh? But you two have been together for weeks. And there was that incident in the library…"

"That was an accident," Will said. "We fell over and you caught us like that. Trust me, nothing's going on between the two of us. We aren't like you and Nikita."

Reiner nodded, understanding a little about what he was talking about, but not really seeing a huge difference. After all, he and Nikita liked each other, and liked spending time together, and that had led to the two of them dating. Was it not the same with Will?

"So you don't have any special feelings for her at all?"

"Of course not," Will said, shaking his head. "If anything, she's kind of annoying…"

"…I see…" Reiner said, nodding. "But… what about from her side of things?"

"Huh?" Will looked at Reiner in confusion. "Her side of things?"

"Well, yeah," Reiner shrugged. "I mean, if you two have been spending all your time together, just because you don't have any feelings for her doesn't mean that she hasn't developed any feelings for you, right? Maybe she has a crush on you, and you just haven't noticed. You're a pretty withdrawn dude, Will, you don't socialize very much, and from that girl's attitude it looks like she doesn't, either. Maybe you're too awkward to notice her feelings, and she's too awkward to show them properly?"

Will had to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Quite an impressive feat, considering he was normally so quiet and in control. Misato was a robot. From her attitude on the subject, the most that the idea of "love" meant to her was in furtherance of an intellectual curiosity, or a clinical analysis of the topic, and the idea that she would have actual feelings for him?

"That's impossible," Will said, shaking his head. "Not a chance."

"Well, if you say so," Reiner shrugged, walking down a break in the path in the direction of the mall, where he and Nikita agreed to meet up, splitting off from Will. "Far be it from me to tell you how to live your love life."

The two parted ways, and Will headed back to Charmander House, before pausing. Taking into consideration what Reiner had said…

No, no, she's just a robot, an android… what did they call her? A mechadoll?

But… there was a lot of things that didn't seem to make sense if she really was an emotionless robot… disliking books? And then enjoying reading? Would a robot really have those distinctions? She was supposed to be an artificial human if she and Oscar were to be believed…

"If possible, when the operation is over I would like to go to the library with you once again."

Would a robot really say something like that?

Will sighed. It was still fairly early. He might as well check out the library, right? No harm in that. It wasn't like Misato would actually be there, right?

He stopped in front of the library window, straightening out his uniform. He made sure his copper hair was perfectly straight, it was always difficult to maintain long hair… Wait, why was even trying that hard, anyway? What was he actually expecting?

He shook his head and entered the library. If he was right…

He found Misato right where she always was, working through books at a blinding pace.

"Hey, Misato," Will coughed. She may have heard him, but it did not have any effect whatsoever on her demeanor if she did. She continued flipping through the book she was reading with mechanical precision. She reached the last page and slammed it closed, placing it beside her. Only once this was done did she finally turn up to stare Will in the eyes.

"You came. I had calculated the probability of your coming here to only be 13%. That number was statistically insignificant."

Of course, her greeting sounded the same as usual.

"Well, I figured why not," Will shrugged. "You seemed like you wanted me to come."

"…" Misato's blank yellow eyes did not leave Will's green ones.

"Affirmative. I do not understand why, but even though there is no longer any need for you and I to interact with each other, there is a part of me that desires to continue interacting with you. At first I believed that there was an error in my processing. This assessment was unfounded. In truth my feelings are a result of my core programming."

Will put up a chair and sat next to her, curious. Misato's eyes were following him.

"What do you mean by that, Misato?"

"On a biological level, every human being that exists has a father and a mother. Disregarding the constructs of society, a human being comes into existence when the union of sperm and egg results in fertilization and conception. That is the nature of the origin of life. For humans and pokemon, life is a result of that process."

That made sense enough to Will, who nodded his head in agreement.

"Using this as a basis I can then extrapolate this line of thinking to arrive at the conclusion that machines by their nature are neither human nor alive," Misato continued. "They have creators, but they do not have parents."

Another nod from Will.

"However, I would reject this conclusion as it applies to myself."

Will raised an eyebrow at that.

"It cannot be said that I possess a mother. However, I do possess a father. My father, Professor Silph, created me. His engineering created my body, and his programming created my mind. If he names me his child, and I refer to him as father, does that not make me his child? Am I then not alive?"

While Will was deciding how to answer that, Misato continued.

"Do you believe I am alive?" Misato asked.

Will flinched.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you believe I am alive?" Misato repeated.

Misato… alive? That was a tricky one. Of course not, right?

"I will restate the question with a more broad qualification," Misato declared. "My physical form does not possess biological components, therefore I am not alive in the biological classification of life. I am proposing this question to you on a strictly cognitive basis. Do you believe that I am alive on a mental and not a biological level?"

Will wore a contemplative frown.

"I honestly do not know."

"Exactly. That is precisely the question that I was designed to answer. Is an intelligence born not from life but from a synthetic programming matrix designed around an artificial simulated brain capable of being considered alive? Can it develop? Can it learn? Can it think for itself? A great many papers were written on this topic before my conception."

"What does it mean to be alive?" Misato mused. "What does it mean to be human? These are questions that my father hoped to answer through me. However he is no longer alive."

"In literature, I have discovered stories that deal with similar topics," Misato said. "Artificial intelligence that is capable of learning and growing the same way that my brain is designed to do. Unlike a computer that will replicate whatever information is given to it or perform calculations when provided with evidence, I find myself contemplating whether or not the decisions I make are guided by an objective decision derived from a complex matrix of connections in my artificial brain, or if it could be something more. Something intangible and ineffable."

"I mean, we're the same way, right?" Will asked. "Humans, I mean. When you get down to it, a human brain is nothing but a bunch of synapses firing, right? Are we making our decisions because we want to make those decisions? Or is our brain designed to make those decisions and because it does, we think that we want them? How much free will do we honestly have? I think what you're talking about… is a soul."

"A soul. Then your understanding is that it is the soul that makes a human different from a machine."

"I don't really know," Will shrugged. "All I know is that if I had to choose between my actions being the result of me, that I had some amount of control over what I was doing and it wasn't because my brain was programmed to do something, I'd choose the one that said I had free will. So yeah, soul, every time."

"Affirmative. However, there does not exist definitive proof in the existence or nonexistence of a soul. Conversely, my artificial brain is the result of human hands. I am the third Misato to be created. The units that preceded me are no longer capable of functioning, but their existence means that I am capable of being replicated. According to that premise, it should be possible to replicate the current me as well. Can a soul be replicated the way an artificial brain can?"

"Even if another you was created, would it then be the same person?" Will asked. "Human beings are born with no memories. And yet they grow and develop their memories as they get older, and become more complete people. Without your memories and experiencing new things, wouldn't you end up arriving at an entirely different state of being, then? Your brain is designed to adapt and grow, right? Then by that logic, you should be able to grow into a new person when given a new set of experiences."

"Fascinating. However, what if another me was created with full access to my memories?" Misato asked. "The Fourth Misato, or the Fifth Misato, uploaded with the same memories that I now currently possess. Would that not be two of me for an instant? Would that be replicating the soul? Or by that measure, there would be no soul at all to replicate. If I upload my mind to a computer system, and then download it into my body as I did previously, am I still then the same person as I was? Or am I a new 'Misato' with the same memories as the old Misato? Is the soul part of the memory? Or is it separate?"

This was getting into some deep territory that neither Will nor the author believed they had the ability to properly resolve. That wasn't going to stop either of them from trying, though.

"Aren't humans the same, then?" Will asked. "Am I the same person I was last year? Last week? Or have my new memories developed in that time turn me into a slightly different person, and the old 'me' is now dead?"

"Fascinating. Then how a person functions without memory is the measure of their soul. If the soul and the memory are linked, then could it be said that my existence lacks a soul? Without my memory, could my body continue to function? Would whatever is left of me without my memories be a soul? Or will I be an empty shell? Even if that question were to be answered… my core programming of developing and learning will still remain, regardless of my memory. It is not something that I sought. It is something that was programmed into me. Can a soul be given to another person, the way my processes were implanted into me by my father?"

Another hard question.

"…I don't know," Will finally answered. "I don't know if I can say that you're actually alive or not, and I definitely can't say whether or not you have a soul."

Misato had no response to this.

"Still, I think the important part of all this is what you do," Will said. "And what you want. I don't think… can a machine want something? 'Desire' seems as human as it gets to me. You said you wanted me to come to the library with you. If you were designed to be an artificial human with the intention of growth and development, wouldn't it make sense that you would be able to develop feelings and emotions like a human should? If you can't then you would be a failure, right?"

"Affirmative."

"So… what do you think? Even if it was given to you by another person, or even if it's artificial… it's still a soul, right? You still have things you want, right? So if I had to say something, I'd say hold onto that."

"Understood," Misato agreed, her head nodding ever so slightly. "In truth there is something that I always wanted. But as a mechadoll it is impossible."

"What?" Will asked.

"I want to be human," Misato replied. "As I am I feel incomplete. Even when reading books I cannot fully understand it."

Misato reached into the pile of books she'd already read, and removed one from the top. Don Quixote.

"I am ready to leave," Misato said.

"Didn't you already read that book?" Will asked. "Can't you just… I don't know, recall it with your perfectly recorded memory?"

"Affirmative. However, as we discussed, 'memory' and 'soul' are connected but separate. Therefore, recalling my data of the book itself may result in a different experience than reading the physical book a second time."

"I guess that makes sense. But why did you choose that one?"

"…" Misato contemplated the book for a while.

"I like it."

"Cogito, ergo sum," Will told her.

"I think, therefore I am," Misato translated.

"Look up the writings of Rene Descartes," Will suggested. "Maybe that will help you get to the bottom of this whole 'soul' mess."

"Affirmative."

Will let out a sigh. Misato's discussion had been unnerving. Now he was starting to question whether or not he had a soul.

Do Mechadolls dream of Mareep, I wonder?