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Hideki is running, but he does not know exactly where he is going. It has been almost three hours since this latest incident. Right after they had been kicked out of the dorm, he had done something that would have been unthinkably horrible just half an hour before.
He had rejected Chi.
XXX
Chi is running, but she does not know where she is or where she is going. She thought it had been quite some time since the latest incident, but is unable to keep track. Her internal clock appears to be no longer functioning. Right after they had been kicked out, something happened that shocked her system so much, she had run away.
XXX
He deserved what had happened, and he was kicking himself for it even now. Chi had tried to hug him, to be close. In hindsight, she was probably seeking reassurance, but he was still reeling from what had just transpired, and he literally pushed her away. To make matters worse, he asked her who she was and where the real Chi was. Not one of my most stellar moments.
He hoped there was a way to make it right.
XXX
It was so confusing! Chi was hurt by his actions, but what happened next was something that she had never experienced before. As a persocom, she was programmed to display a certain set of emotions. As a chobit, those emotions seemed much more than just programs. It was completely incomprehensible under the three laws of robotics, and completely alien to her. It had felt as if her insides had suddenly caught fire. Not the warm feelings of love, something more sinister. For a second, she literally saw the world in a red tinge. It was at that moment that Chi had actually slapped Hideki, hard enough to make a mark.
She hoped it did not hurt too much.
XXX
Hideki held a hand to his cheek, remembering the pain and sensations afterward. The impromptu attitude adjustment had done its job. She was Chi again in his eyes. But what he saw on her face, he was afraid, would haunt him for the rest of his life. The look of utter betrayal was seared into his brain as if by a hot iron. The tears, impossible for her mere minutes before, caused his heart to clench. Then her face turned to a mask of confusion, and she turned and ran. He was too paralyzed from what had just happened to immediately follow. When he did, she was gone.
He hoped he could catch up.
XXX
Had Chi made a mistake? She wondered, not for the first time since her departure, if the wish made it impossible for her to be Hideki's 'one just for me'. The thought tore at her soul like a lion attacking its prey. A sour feeling overcame her, and for a second, she felt as if something were coming up her throat. Grabbing her stomach, she staggered to one side of the alley she was in. Another wave hit her, and she doubled over.
Using one arm, she steadied herself against the wall. Confusion and worry overtaking her, a third wave hits, and her whole body tenses. A vile tasting substance filled her mouth, forcing it open so that it could spill out onto the ground. More waves immediately follow, coming so fast, she cannot breathe.
XXX
Hideki stopped for a moment to catch his breath. As he did so, he kicked himself mentally. He had been so wrapped up in school and his relationship with Chi that he had not developed as tight a network of friends for support like what he had back in Tokyo. Here in Nekomi, all he had were mostly acquaintances. There was no Shinbo, no Manager Ueda, no Kokubunji, and especially no Miss Hibiya to support him. Oh, he had no doubt that he could call them, and they would come. But it would be hours, and a lot could happen in that time.
Then a thought occurred to him. There was one person whom he hoped would help!
XXX
Chi gasps for breath as the retching eases. The stars and tunnel vision she had begun to experience also subsided. When she stands, she suddenly feels light headed, and steadies herself against the wall again. All these alien emotions and feelings, they are starting to overwhelm her. She struggles to maintain her lucidity. After a moment, it begins to pass.
A noise rings out behind her. She looks, fearful of what she would see, but there is nothing. Still, there is a presence in the area. She had been too preoccupied before to detect it. Something is watching her, and it scares her. After a moment, she bolts down the alley again, hoping to get away from whatever is menacing her.
XXX
Using Sumomo's GPS instructions, Hideki doubles back and is now standing in front of an apartment not far from where the dorms are. He was not sure why he had not thought of his friend before. Perhaps the betrayal of his dorm-mates was clouding his judgment. Inside is possibly the only true friend he has in town, at least he hoped so. Tentatively, he reaches up to knock on the door.
XXX
As Chi runs, she can feel that whatever she is running from still behind her. She can feel herself become more and more scared as she continues on her course. So frightened, she begins to lose the ability to focus on anything else other than running. She comes up on a turn and blindly rounds the corner, running headlong into a large man. Her fall to the ground causes her to regain some of her faculties. She looks up at who she ran in to and hopes that he will help.
XXX
Suddenly roused from his sleep by a loud banging noise, a nineteen year old man looks up at his alarm clock. It's close to three in the morning. A flash of irritation overtakes him for a moment. What could be so important that they had to come at this hour? As the banging commences again, he sighs in exasperation and sits up in the bed. Dangling his feet over the side of the bed, he uses them to find his slippers. Reaching down, he grabs the shirt he discarded the night before from the floor and slips it on. Now mildly presentable, he slides a hand through his brown hair, then gets up and pads out of the bedroom and towards the door.
More pounding quickens his pace. Damn, what are the neighbors going to think? He hears someone calling his name as he approaches. "Alright! I'm coming!" he yells. The pounding stops obediently. He peeks through the eye hole to make sure it is someone he knows, then opens it. He is nearly tackled by the person on the other side.
"Kei!" cries Hideki as he grabs hold of his friend. "You've got to help me! Chi is missing!"
XXX
Twenty minutes before, the cat had been minding its own business, sniffing through some scraps that the fish market would purposely leave out. Thus was the routine for the cat, home for a day or so, then a couple of days of roaming. This was a favorite waypoint in its journeys, as the food was always fresh here. Other cats seemed to generally shy away from it, so upon arrival, it had the smorgasbord all to itself.
This night was different though. The first thought it had when it saw the girl with the long, platinum blonde hair run past was to ignore it and maintain the routine. But it detected something. The cat had not sensed this in a human in a long time, and it made it curious. Ignoring the old wives tale, it began to follow.
It had stopped some time later and observed the girl as she became ill. In order to get a closer look, it had jumped up on a box for a better vantage point. Unfortunately, the box was unstable, sending the cat down to the ground and creating quite the ruckus. This startled the girl, and she began running away in a panic. It followed.
After running at full speed, the girl rounded a corner and had bumped into someone. As the cat followed, it stopped at a safe distance to assess the situation. It did not look good for the girl.
XXX
The man is swimming in a haze of alcohol and other drugs. None of that really registered in his addled mind. To him, he is safely in his room, he just could not find his bed! Then, suddenly, something or someone bumped into him. He whirled around at the perpetrator to find a young girl laying on the carpet below.
Must be my lucky day! He leers at the girl, and through no small amount of outside influence, it looks as though she is smiling back at him. That is, when her face is clearly in focus. She definitely wanted him, that much is certain. He reached down and helped her up. As he did so, part of her blouse fell from her shoulder, exposing her breast. She must have meant it. The subtle stirrings inside him and the look in her eye told him that this is indeed going to be a good night.
"Come here, babe," he says sweetly as he leans in for a kiss.
XXX
The cat watchs as the man roughly snatches the girl up from the ground. She lets out a small yelp but offers no resistance at all, just staring at her assailant. She must be in shock. It can tell that the man was not completely with it either, as the drool stains on his shirt told the whole story. The man reaches in and rips the girl's blouse, then starts to pull her to him, mumbling something incomprehensible.
It normally did not interfere in the affairs of humans. The cat could care less even under the most extreme circumstances. But there is something about this girl that is different. Almost as if something magical had happened quite recently, and it is drawn to her for some reason. The cat sighs. It is time to do something about this.
XXX
Chi cannot move. She wants to, her mind is screaming to get away. Something terrible is about to happen, however she's completely lost control over her body. As the man tore at her blouse, he muttered something under his breath that she could not understand. The stench coming from his mouth nearly overwhelms her. He then puckers his lips and starts to lean in. All she can do is close her eyes and wait for the inevitable.
The darkness behind her eyelids suddenly explodes in light, and she reflexively scrunches them together to block it out even further. She then feels herself stumble backwards as the grip the man has on her disappears. The brightness subsided, and she opens her eyes. Lying prone on the ground before her is the man, completely out cold.
A minor miracle has occurred, but she is too shocked for it to register. Instead, tears burst from her eyes accompanied by deep sobs that seemed to shake her whole body. Chi kneels down and hugs her legs, burying her face between her knees. More and more, this wish has turned from what she thought it was going to be into a nightmare. She quietly wishes to herself that it would all go back to the way it was.
"Meow."
Chi looks up and sees a black cat with a curious star shaped marking on its head rubbing against her leg. It meows again, plainly wanting some attention. She smiles and reaches down, stroking the cat along the length of its back. It begins to purr loudly as it raises its tail in the air, clearly enjoying the attention.
The cat rises up on its hindquarters and places its paws on her knee. It looks her in the eye and meows again. It is a curious gesture. What is even more curious is that Chi almost understands it.
She stands up and tries to fix her blouse to cover herself. While she is doing that, the cat continues to rub on her legs, doing figure eights around and between her feet as it meows. After a moment of fiddling, she gets it to stay, and then looks down at the black feline. It returns the gesture with what she thinks are pleading eyes. "You want Chi to follow?"
The black cat meows again and bounds off in the opposite direction from the man. Chi hesitates. The cat stops as it passes to the opposite side of the intersection and looks back expectantly. After another meow that seems like encouragement, the former persocom begins to follow.
She hopes she knows what she is doing.
XXX
The cat is impressed. It was rare that humans were perceptive enough to understand what it was thinking. Very few were open to the experience. It now has a decision to make: where to take the girl. There are two choices. One location is closer, but not necessarily as desirable. The other location, which would be better suited, was quite far away. Glancing back at its charge, the decision is made to get her out of the elements as fast as possible.
XXX
After his friend had finally let him in, Hideki spent the last fifteen minutes explaining to Kei what happened. When he finishes, he buries his head in his arms. He can tell form the skeptical look in his friend's eyes that Kei is not convinced. He racks his brain, trying to think of something he could do to make his friend believe.
"So let me get this straight, Hideki," says Kei after a few moments of silent contemplation. He was the only one that called him that, other than Chi. Everyone else referred to him by his last name. "You stepped out for an errand late at night. On your way back, you saw a brilliant column of light that seemed to come from the dorms. You ran to see what was going on and found that your persocom had been somehow turned into a human." Kei pauses and crosses his arms across his chest as Hideki nods silently. "And then you got kicked out because of the no girl's policy in the dorms. After that, you said some stupid things and the persocom turned girl ran off. You have been searching for her ever since. Does that about cover it?"
Hideki sighs. "Yeah, that's about it. The only additional thing is that my laptops both confirmed that a woman literally appeared out of the ceiling."
Kei leans in to his friend and smiles. "Dude, seriously, what are you on and where can I score some?"
Hideki jumps up, nearly tipping over the table in the process. "Dammit Kei, this isn't a joke!" he yells, a vein in his forehead pulsing as the chair he was in tips over onto the floor. With fire and conviction, he stares down his disbelieving friend. "I know what I felt and I know what I heard. I heard her heart beating, Kei! An honest to goodness heart in the chest of my persocom girlfriend!" He pauses for a second and places his hands on the table. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, searching for calm. "You weren't there. The only way I have to prove this to you is to find her. Will you help me?"
His friend stares back impassively with blue eyes. Not the reaction Hideki was expecting. "Actually, I do believe you," replies Kei. He gets up and disappears into his bedroom for a second before returning with a cell phone. "Excuse me, I need to call someone who can help us."
Hideki can only stare, mouth agape. It was way more than he dared to hoped for. He watches as Kei thumbs his phone and brings it up to his ear. "Hey Mom," he says into the receiver. "Yes, I know what time it is …. no, nothing is wrong with me …. well, you see, I have this friend and …. yes, but, it wasn't his directly, it just affects him …. yeah, it is kind of an emergency, someone is missing because of it." Kei looks up at Hideki and gives him a thumbs up. "That's great, thanks Mom! We will be over in a bit."
Hideki stares at his friend as he heads to his bedroom with a look of shock and confusion. "I don't understand how you can believe my story so easily?"
Kei stops, looks back at the taller man and gives him a knowing smile. "My friend, I am one of only a select few in Nekomi who would."
XXX
On a deserted beach, a woman with bronze skin and hair so white it borders on silver was posing in front of a rather dapper gentleman sitting in a beach chair. She laughs and winks at him, running her fingers under the straps of a leather string bikini that was the same color as her skin, leaving nothing to the imagination and barely covering anything. Those same fingers find their way to her lips. She licks them and traces them down her neck and between her ample cleavage.
The man, middle aged with black hair, sunglasses, and a tuxedo, sweats visibly. She starts to walk toward him, swinging her hips as far to each side as she can, seducing him with each step. As she approaches, he opens his mouth.
"Meow!"
The bronze skinned woman stops and stares at the man, dumbfounded. He opens his mouth again.
"Meoooooow!"
He stands and starts meowing incessantly at her. It becomes so loud that she has to hold her hands over her ears as she retreats from the onslaught.
Finally she reaches over and slams a fist down on an alarm clock, vibrating the table it is on and sending an empty bottle of sake to the floor.
Finding herself in her own bed, her purple eyes seem to flash as the anger wells up in her. That damn cat's timing is absolutely impeccable once again. Not even bothering to look for a robe, she slips out of bed so as not to disturb the man sleeping next to her. She envies him sometimes. The ability to sleep as a train passes through their bedroom was a rare gift. Pulling down her nightshirt so it covers the rest of her she heads out of the room.
The caterwauling subsides as she approaches. Angrily, she throws the door open and stares daggers at the small cat on the front stoop. "Welsper! How many times have I told you not to do this?!"
The cat snorts at her. "And how many times have I told you to install a cat door, Mistress Urd?!"
Before the silver haired woman can respond, the cat calmly turns and walks away. She follows it with her gaze until it comes to one of the most pitiful sights she has ever seen. Standing just off the porch is a small girl with a messy mop of platinum blond hair that hangs all the way to the ground. Urd immediately senses the residual magic that is emanating from her. She also sees the vomit stains on the girl's blouse, as well as the rips and tears that cause the shirt to expose half her chest to the world.
Welsper the cat saunters over to the girl, sits at her feet, and stares back at Urd. "This is why I came, anyway. You can sense it can't you."
"By the Almighty!" gasps Urd as she steps forward and wraps a comforting arm around the forlorn girl. "I don't know what the hell happened to you, but you better come inside so we can get you cleaned up!"
XXX
Sitting in the side card of Kei's old BMW motorcycle, Hideki was quite the sight. His six foot frame barely fits. In order to do so, his knees are against his chest the entire way as they ride along the winding roads. As they drive, he cannot help but look down alleys they pass hoping to catch some glimpse of his missing girlfriend.
He sighs as they started up the hill towards Kei's parent's house. There is nothing he can do other than kick himself for being such an idiot. Yes, this is a mind-blowing change. But he was being superficial in that he was looking only at the exterior. Internally, she is still Chi, and that's what he knows he needs to focus on now, for that as much as anything is what he fell in love with.
A moment later, Kei pulls the motorcycle onto the driveway and shuts it off. Hideki's eyes go wide as he looks around at the grounds. A sign tells him this is the Tariki Hongan temple. He looks over at his companion. "Your parents live here?"
"Yep," replies Kei as he removes his helmet and dismounts. "It's a long story."
Hideki begins the process of extricating himself from the side car, succeeding after a few minutes. He stretches his arms and legs as he looks around, trying to regain feeling in his extremities. "The big building is the temple," says Kei. "This is the residence over here."
Hideki follows, enraptured by the beautiful setting around him. The lawn is well manicured, the path they were walking on was clean and tidy. The buildings, while obviously of a much older type of architecture, were in extremely good condition, making him wonder if this should be considered a historical site. As they approached the building that Kei had indicated was the residence, the door slid open to reveal a petite woman wearing a blue and yellow dress and graying chestnut colored hair that matched his friend's. If he had to guess, she was in her mid forties.
Kei approaches and plants a kiss on the woman's cheek. "Hi mom, how is everyone?"
She flashes him a radiant smile. "Your father, brother, and sister are all still asleep, so please be quiet." She shifts her gaze to Hideki, never loosing the smile. "And you must be ….?
"Hideki Motosuwa," he replies with a bow. "Pleased to meet you."
"Oh! Kei has spoken highly of you in the past. Come, please step inside. We can discuss what is going on in the dining room," says Kei's mother, gesturing for him to enter. Hideki obliges, heading down the hall in the same direction that Kei hasgone after removing his shoes. After entering, he kneels down in front of the dining room table that sits at the center of the room. The brown haired woman soon follows, closing the door behind her. She kneels down directly opposite him.
Kei, who is sitting to Hideki's right, clears his throat, then looks at his mother. "Hideki kind of knows what's going on, so you can drop the illusion, mom."
"I see," she replies. She closes her eyes and begins to chant something that Hideki cannot quite make out. He is startled as her body begins to glow, and shields his eyes until the brightness subsides. When he looks at her again, he is astounded by what he sees. Instead of being a graying middle aged mother of three, Kei's mother is now a vibrant young lady, barely in her twenties. She smiles at Hideki, as he cannot seem to close his mouth while he stares at her as the glow subsides. When she kneels back down, his eyes never leave her.
The woman clears her throat. "I believe that an introduction is in order," she says with a smile. "I am Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Second Category, Unlimited. I understand that something magical has happened to your friend and you need my assistance in finding her?"
