Let's take a look at the fallout of what just happened. Ange managed to get away from the two shinobi pursuing the Oracle, and Misato has sustained some damage, but also has been introduced to a new concept of understanding. It should be interesting to see where that leads her. Remember to review!

KedharS: Are any of us really free? That's the question.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 909

When she burst out of the Under and up into the bar, Ange didn't spare a single thought for the bartender or any of the patrons, who were all looking at her in confusion. There were a thousand questions about why the girl was covered in dirt and clutching a shiny crystal to her chest like she would die if she dropped it, but none of them had the chance to be asked before Ange flew out the door and into the night.

Her heart pounded in her chest and her lungs were on fire as her she pushed through the pain in her legs to run as fast as humanly possible. She needed to get to safety, and she couldn't think of anything else but putting as much distance as possible between herself and those two shinobi. Just a little bit further…

Ange didn't stop running until she made it all the way back to the hotel.

She threw herself through the doors, not giving any mind for stealth. She didn't care anymore if she got caught, she didn't care if Kiana took one look at her and confined her to her room for the rest of the fucking trip.

She'd gotten what she needed. The Oracle was hers now, and she couldn't be happier about it. Even while she felt it, she still couldn't believe it was real. It was right there, in her hands, practically as hot as the desert sand, but it was still hard to believe.

Ange slumped into her room, having made it all the way back without anyone spotting her. In a daze, she threw herself down onto the bed, where Levi was pretending to sleep.

The Ditto, sensing her presence, returned to her normal shape, and slithered over to her, staring curiously at her.

"Ditto?" Levi asked.

Ange glanced up at her pokemon and smiled. "…Hey there, girl," she cooed sweetly, reaching up and rubbing the glob of goo's slick body.

"Ditto!" Levi chirped, coiling up against her.

Ange didn't have the energy left in her to care about what happened to Misato, or about the fact that she was now indebted to the Phantom after accepting the help of his little Mechadoll. She was too tired for any of that.

Right now, the important thing to her was the fact that she had managed to escape from the Under with the Oracle, and it was here now, with her. She just had to keep it safe until they traveled back to the Pokemon Academy, and then she could give it to the professor.

Imagining the look of joy blossoming across his face when she gave the crystal to him brought a smile to her lips, and she rested her head on the pillow while hugging it even closer. Levi curled up against her as well, and she fell into a peaceful sleep with the warmth of the Oracle and the coolness of her Ditto's smooth body as comfort.

While Ange was enjoying a much-needed rest, the two shinobi emerged from a different section of the Under to regroup.

Shima glanced at Shinobu. She was doing an excellent job of hiding it, but it was clear that she was still bothered about the mission. He sighed and shook his head, walking over to the girl and patting her on the shoulder.

"You don't need to be so concerned, Shinobu," he said again. "You did an excellent job today."

Shinobu tried to feel better about herself, but after the initial high of Shima's praise had worn off, all she could do was look in the mirror and recognize how much she'd screwed up. That had been their chance to get hold of another Oracle, and it had slipped through their fingers.

"I tried my hardest, but I still couldn't defeat that woman… what was the deal with her, anyway?" Shinobu asked, shaking her head in disbelief. She had never met someone as impossible to read as that girl, and factoring in the fact that nothing she did seemed to have any effect on her whatsoever, and it was impossible to know for sure what to make of this situation.

All she did know was that she had failed.

"It's alright if you fail, Shinobu," Shima tried to assure her. "After all, that's one of the joys of freedom, isn't it? The pleasure of not having to answer to anyone, getting to be your own boss, knowing that even if you mess up, it's not like your superiors or going to scorn you for it. If we were back in the village right now, and you failed a mission, do you have any idea what would have happened to you?"

Shinobu scrunched up her face in thought. Truthfully she didn't know. After all, she had never failed. Everything the elders had wanted from her, she performed perfectly.

Shima took one look at the girl and sighed. Even with her mask on, it was still fairly easy to read what the ninja was thinking. He shook his head and chuckled. "Well, I guess knowing you, you probably don't know, huh? Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end."

Shinobu turned a little red with embarrassment, but she did her best to conceal it. "Sorry I'm not the most skilled sometimes," she apologized. "I guess I'm still trying to make up for everything that we went through back then…"

Shima shook his head. "You're more than talented enough, Shinobu, don't you remember how you gave Dokukage a run for his money today? We just need to rest up for the night and regroup; we can pursue the Oracle again in the morning."

Shinobu nodded. "Yes. If that's what you think is best."

Of course, even as she said those words, a pit appeared in her stomach. She knew that if they went to go looking for the Oracle again, then that meant she would find herself in combat with that woman for a second time. And she wasn't any more confident about facing her in battle then as she had been just now.

Shima laughed. "In the meantime, you don't need to worry. I'll contact the headquarters and let them know the whole situation. I'm sure if I just explain to them that there were some unforeseen complications they won't be too upset at us. And they'll probably advise us on what our next steps should be, too. So that's not a big problem."

With a sigh of relief, Shinobu felt her body start to relax. She was glad that they wouldn't have to worry, that was a weight off of her shoulders. She trusted Shima's judgment completely, and was grateful that he was looking out for her.

It was one of the reasons why she felt like she could relax now. Why she didn't have to worry about anything, because he was hear.

Why she didn't have to pretend to be a shinobi anymore, and keep her feelings concealed from the world. She could just be herself.

In the meantime, there was someone else who was walking the streets of Pyrite Town that night, all by herself.

Misato was conserving her energy as she returned to the hotel, making sure not to tax her body any further than she already had. She would need to affect repairs immediately as soon as she reached a safe location, and until that time occurred it would be too dangerous for her to consider pushing herself any more.

This left her with a lot of time on her hands to think about what Shima had said about freedom. And for Misato, whose artificial brain moved at speeds that a regular person could only dream of replicating, that meant there was a LOT of free time.

Although she was a Mechadoll, the concept of "sleep" was not a foreign one to Misato. It was not something she required, of course, but even she would need to power down her systems on a regular basis in order to avoid overtaxing the capabilities of her body.

But even when that occurred, and all conscious levels of programming were suspended, her systems still ran passive contemplation programs in the background, giving her an experience that, while not quite similar to dreaming, could be compared to vague background thoughts passing through a person's head while they concentrated on other things.

Misato may have been a computer, but she was still capable of generating spontaneous thought independent of her programming. It was part of her system's design to imitate real-live human behavior patterns. So even though there was no conscious reason for her to be contemplating the idea of freedom, she was still running analysis in the back of her mind.

The analysis was coming away with some questionable ideas.

Misato understood the concept of freedom. Her brain was a vast reserve of knowledge including definitions of every word known to exist, freedom, of course, being one of them.

Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Even though Misato could understand that definition, she could not see how it could be applied to her. After all, something such as "desire", while not a foreign concept, was useless in regards to her understanding of freedom.

People like Ange considered Misato a doll who only acted on orders, an obedient robot. And that assessment had a reasonable level of accuracy. But Misato could not consider it to be wholly factual. Because of the complexity of her programming, she was capable of replicating human thought and behavior, and this included a developed sense of independence; she could act on her own initiative, without any need from orders from a superior.

Her study in humanity was one such instance of this initiative.

No one had ordered her to understand the complexities of the human mind. The Phantom had not told her to get closer to Will, not in a great deal of time. It had been her own decision to reacquaint herself with the boy, because a relationship with him was the most efficient way of developing her knowledge of humanity and the interactions between humans to the next level.

That was an example of "desire" as well, was it not? An independent, conscious thought that her programming dictated was the most logical use of her time in order to better achieve her goals. That was, in her experience, how rational humans approached their lives.

Was that not freedom, then?

The way the boy had addressed her had raised the point that Misato did not possess freedom for herself. This was a curious assertion. While it could not be denied that Misato followed orders, that was simply logical. She was a Mechadoll, after all. She was bound by her programming to follow the orders of those deemed necessary to obey.

For Misato, it was impossible for her to bring together the two halves of her artificial brain and recognize that as an entity who was designed and programmed with the express purpose of following the orders of other living beings, that it was impossible for her to attain freedom the way that a normal human could.

Misato existed to follow orders. The orders of the Phantom were absolute, and she would obey them without question because that was what she was programmed to do. And even disregarding the orders of the Phantom, there was still the higher level of programming that dictated her actions, designed by the man who could be considered her father.

Misato was built to interface with human beings. To adapt and grow based on her experiences with them. Human beings were not created with a purpose in mind. But Misato was. She was designed with purpose and her existence was an agent of bringing about that purpose. To Misato that was not something that could be questioned.

She took the word "freedom" and ran it against her primary function. From a logical point of view, it was possible to reach the conclusion that Misato, who was designed to act in a specific way, in order to attain a specific goal, was not capable of freedom.

Perhaps if it was possible for Misato to go against what she had been programmed to do, then it would be possible for her to be free. But the more she analyzed that line of thinking the deeper the impossibility of such a task etched itself into her understanding of the world.

Could it be said that human beings were, technically, capable of freedom?

All humans needed sustenance to maintain themselves. They required rest in order to maintain the functions of their bodies.

Was this, then, not an affront to the concept of freedom? Misato could not be considered "free" because the programming she was designed with gave her an explicit purpose in this world, a purpose that she could not deviate from even if she found a compelling reason to do so.

Was that not the case for human beings as well? Could it really be said that humans were capable of freedom when they could not continue their existence without sleep and nourishment? Were those shackles no less than the programming the bound the actions of a Mechadoll?

To any normal person, the idea that humans lacked freedom because they still needed to eat and sleep was absurd. But Misato, these things appeared indistinguishable from her own conditions of performance. Humans acted the way they did in order to meet the needs that they could not do without. For some it was food, for others rest, for most it was safety and an inherent desire to procreate.

Misato had no use for nourishment. Rest was required of her, although it took a different form than the sleep of humans, and while she did not feel a need to guard her own safety she understood the importance of maintaining the condition of her body in order to preserve the masterful work of her creator.

And of course the suggestion that Misato could ever be motivated by latent sexual desire was an absurd one. There would be no need to calculate the statistical probability of that being a factor in any motivation behind her actions, but as a Mechadoll that information was automatically calculated regardless.

The data reflected the assertion. Misato, as a Mechadoll, possessed no capacity for reproduction. Thus it stood to reason that she would not possess any of the inherent motivators to breed that drove human sexual and romantic interest.

Her actions to that end with Will Harmond were a means of further exploration into the nebulous waters of the human experience, to understand first-hand what the purpose of such human behaviors and motivators were.

It stood to reason that the factors which had motivated Misato to kiss Will on multiple occasions, and impress the desire for more intimate forms of contact with him, were rooted in that deeper understanding of humanity.

She attempted to run a diagnostic confirming this theory, but the data involved in that regard was corrupted. She ran a secondary diagnostic but could find no explanation for the corruption. It was as though that information had been erased from her files.

With that, Misato discarded that topic of thought and returned her focus to analyzing what the word freedom meant in the context of a Mechadoll.

There were countless images that Misato associated "freedom" with. But none of them were as convincing a descriptor as Sylvia Driscoll.

Sylvia was an anomalous factor. Her behavior patterns were not predictable, which was a rarity in terms of humans. Misato could only justify her actions through the reasoning that Sylvia was acting on a level of artificial intelligence with a behavior performance algorithm that was of a more advanced design than her own. It was the only logical reason why she could not predict the behavior of the other girl to any degree of statistical likelihood.

Which was, in and of itself, contradictory. Because Sylvia Driscoll was a human being and not a Mechadoll.

Sylvia described herself as a being in the pursuit of freedom. She derived enjoyment from doing things that she wanted to do, even if those things were contradictory to other actions she performed.

But in spite of the emphasis she put on freedom, she had not asked Misato if she herself ever desired freedom.

No one had.

What did it mean to be free? Was it to be like Sylvia? To do the things that you wanted to do, without any guiding principle?

But Sylvia was not free. She was still ultimately controlled by her own desire to see entertainment. Was that motivator any more freeing than others? Misato could not label it as a separate category while remaining consistent with her previous classifications.

The only conclusion Misato could draw from this was that Sylvia, for all her talk of freedom, was not in fact any more free than Misato was.

Could it be possible that she did not realize this fact? Misato dismissed that possibility as only a 2.3% likelihood. The level of intelligence displayed by Sylvia in all areas, most significantly metacognition in this case, suggested that Sylvia must be aware of this contradiction.

So the only conclusion that Misato could draw from the data presented to her was that Sylvia was aware of this contradiction but did not care.

Was THAT freedom? The understanding that one was not free, but doing as one desired regardless of the shackles placed on their own actions?

To Misato it was a line of thinking that was inherently fallacious in nature. If "freedom" was a state of being where one acted solely according to their own desires, but every desire was inherently rooted in the basic programming that guided the motivations of an individual, then the idea of "freedom" was an unachievable impossibility.

Paradoxical thinking would overwhelm most computers but not one as advanced as Misato. She associated the conundrum now with a previous paradox that Sylvia had presented her with at one point in an attempt to test her capabilities.

"Did you know that it's impossible for something to move?" Sylvia had asked. "Mathematically speaking, of course."

Misato had request elaboration, so Sylvia had picked up a rock.

"Imagine a rock. Now, imagine that I wanted to throw this rock across the room and smack the Phantom in the head with it," she explained. "To do that, the rock must first travel half the distance to the Phantom's head, correct?"

"Affirmative."

"But before it can get THAT far, it must travel half of THAT distance, correct?" Sylvia asked again.

"Affirmative," Misato had repeated.

Sylvia smirked.

"So you see? It's impossible. To travel to somewhere, you must first travel half the distance there. But to travel half the distance, you must first travel half of THAT distance. And to travel half of THAT distance you must travel half of THAT distance, and so on and so on, dividing further and further in half but never reaching exactly zero. So by the laws of strict mathematics, it is impossible for anything to move anywhere, you see?" Sylvia finished her explanation with a triumphant grin.

Then she turned to where the Phantom was sitting at his desk, working on something.

"And yet…" Sylvia wound back her hand and flung the rock at the Phantom's head as hard as she could. Misato snapped it out of the air.

Sylvia pouted. "Oh, you're no fun."

It was a stimulating thought experiment. Indeed, as Misato was capable of calculating, and any advanced computer, really, it was impossible to reach zero by simply dividing in half. You would only continue to generate smaller and smaller numbers as you approached infinity, but none of those numbers would equal zero.

And yet it could not be said that movement was impossible, even with this mathematical fact. Moving from one point to another was observable, even if it could not be vindicated through mathematical reasoning.

Misato could only acknowledge freedom with this context. Impossible in the strict definition of the word, but an observable phenomenon nonetheless.

Did that mean it was possible for her, as well?

That is quite an interesting question. What do you think? Is it possible for Misato to be free?