Chapter Two: Your Smiling Face
"You really need to stop working so hard... You should take this vacation time to relax go to a resort! Somewhere warmer than your lab Otaoko-san!" Aimina's doctor scolded her looking at her test results. "You're literally working yourself to death it seems and I can't condone it!" His face was red with frustration because of Aimina's light smile.
"Let me ask you something... As a doctor you take people's lives into your hands every single day and help them live a better life do you not? You're doing something that is truly incredible and life changing as the case maybe... All I do is make robots that give people some joy for a time... Eventually in most cases that joy fades away... However... now... I have the chance to give someone lasting joy... Someone who deserves it more than anyone I can think of... I'm not going to stop working until I've given that person their happiness back..." She seemed to be off in some other world as she spoke. It might have been the drugs but her doctor had never seen her like this... Actually happy.
"Can you do it in six months? If you keep up like this that's how long you have left... If you sleep more and eat better though you can stretch it out to several years easily. And wear some warmer clothes and a scarf when you're barricaded in your lab... Can you do that for me?" He sighed in defeat as he plopped down in a chair.
"Yes... I think so..." Aimina answered standing up and slipping her coat on. "Thank you for your time doctor and your concern. I know what I'm doing I promise." With that she left the room and headed home. Her doctor shook his head and wondered to himself what could possibly be so important to her.
With a new set of clothes packed including her warmest sweaters, some gloves and a scarf she headed back to the Kronos Heaven headquarters. She felt silly walking around in a long sleeve shirt and jacket on such a bright and warm Spring day but it couldn't be helped. She had to at least take better care of herself for the next few months. It would take at least three for her to build Night's new body so she certainly couldn't drop dead before then.
As she drove down the road her phone rang it familiar chipper tune. "Moshi moshi!" She chirped into the phone happily as she turned down the radio. "I see... Thank you for keeping me updated... Yes definitely call me if she gets better or worse." She flipped closed the phone, the call had clearly dampened her spirits. She bashed a fist on the steering wheel and tried not to cry. "Damn it! Please Riiko give me just a little more time! Get better so I can finish Night's new body! Please..."
"So Ariia-kun... Did the red light blink while I was gone?" The evil scientist faced Otaoko pondered as she stopped at the front desk.
"No ma'am! All's well on the western front!" Ariia replied happily handing the remote back to Aimina. She was still very uneasy about having it and wondered if it did what her idol had said.
"Excellent thank you very much for your help Ariia-kun! Let me know when you're ready for that internship!"
"Hi Aimina-san! How was your check up!" Night beamed as she opened the door. He couldn't tell that she had been crying or upset at all. She hid it from him very well.
"Oh! It went very well! He did lecture me about dressing warmer though since my office is so cold so I brought some warmer stuff." She replied locking the door. "Speaking of which did you find some clothes you'd like?!" She stashed her suitcase under her desk for the time being and sat down at her lap top.
"Yes! But you really don't have to do this! You're already doing so much for me!" Night said in protest to all her kindness.
"I want to Night-sama! What did you think was going to happen I was going to put you back together then leave you high and dry? I thought to that you could live with me until you graduate college and get a nice job if that's what you choose to do... I could just keep you around as a cook though if you'd like!" She teased sticking her tongue out at him. Night was silent and looked confused and sad. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have teased you..." Her happy face looked concerned now as she clicked the buy button for a whole wardrobe of clothes in Night's size. "I know it must be hard for you to accept my kindness as genuine since you've seen so little of it... And I'm sorry if I keep bringing up painful memories... I'll try to be more conscious of your feelings in the future."
"It's okay... Isn't it? It's OK to hurt because I'm hurting than it is as you said... I am actually alive right? So If I have to hurt it's OK... I have to learn to deal with it because all humans have to learn to deal with it... So please don't change how you act around me... I'll learn to cope with it..." Night was still very sad but Aimina couldn't help but smile.
"I think you're going to be an absolutely stunning person inside and out Night-sama..."
"Can I ask you something?" He looked quite awkward now and wouldn't look at her. "Why do you keep calling me 'sama?' It seems a little weird..."
"It is a suffix applied to someone you respect is it not... I respect you very much for what you have accomplished and your spirit. But I'll call you something else if you want." She replied in a far off voice as she slide down in her chair and looked up at the ceiling.
"Just plain Night is fine..."
"Then you should just call me Aimina." She added an involuntary cough at the end. She was obviously not feeling well.
"Have you eaten anything today Aimina-kun?" Night prodded in a lecturing tone.
"I was going to stop on the way back but I forgot..." She replied sitting up again.
"How do you forget to eat!" He teased as he popped a browser window open. She winced a little knowing she couldn't tell him about the doctor's visit or the phone call.
"I can be very absent-minded when I get to thinking about working and my projects... I'm going to buy a maid figure when I'm done building you... Or maybe a 'Life Partner' figure when they go into production..." She mused watching him order a pizza... She took over and added the address and billing information. "You know I can't eat a whole large pizza myself..." She laughed as she hit submit.
"You can have some leftover for later!" Was all he said as the window closed. "Aimina-kun... Why don't you use your vacation to try to find some you find interesting! Or ask your friends to help you find someone!" He beamed with a cheesy smile. "I'm sure there's someone out there who would love you for just who you are!"
"HAHAHAHA!" She coughed then cleared her throat. "You might be right but I'll be an old maid by the time I find them! You see Night all I have ever done is scared people away by being too smart... And if I didn't scare them away I got bored of them and broke up with them or distanced myself from them as the case maybe. There was one guy that I really liked in college but he wanted someone who would make him look good not shine beside him... Or outshine him..." She explained as she got up and moved her suitcase over to the chest of drawers in the corner.
"Then I guess he wasn't worth your affection... Someone that selfish..." Night sounded mad though she couldn't see his face. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the eyes on his body narrow. "You can do much better than that if you just look a little Aimina-kun."
"Perhaps you're right... Night-kun... Think or something that makes you very very happy..." Her voice trailed off as she wondered over to the case with his body. A moment later a smiled jerked on to his voice. "Night-kun... Have you... Been thinking or wanting to get up and move around?"
"Yeah... why?" He replied slightly confused.
"Nothing... Just... Never mind..." She was ecstatic... The will to try to make your body move when it can't, to her, was yet another vindication to her cause. "I'm going to start laying out your skeleton so the table can start assembling it tonight!" She gleamed scurrying over to one of the wooden boxes. Almost as soon as she started she realized she would have to go get her pizza... "Awe crap..." She mumbled remembering that they official work address was for the building you had to drive through to get there. "I'll be back I have to get the pizza." She laughed getting up and working her way to the door. On her way out she dropped the remote off with Ariia who looked at it warily. To her delight she wasn't left in charge of it long.
Back in the safety of her lab Otaoko set about eating the pizza and taking the skeletal parts out of their cardboard boxes. For obvious reasons she left the bubble wrap on... After a few hours of careful placement she plugged in the table and pushed a disk into the drive. After taking a second to boot up, the mechanical arms started moving on their own and began the delicate task of lining up and putting together the base of Night's new body. With a full stomach and the quiet humming of the mechanical arms whirring, Aimina crawled into the bubble wrap filled box and fell asleep. Night laughed to himself about it but was happy she had put a warm sweater and some gloves before she nodded off.
By the time Aimina woke up the whirring of mechanical arms had stopped and the skeleton had assembled. She wasn't sure how but she had gained an extra sweater at some point... She shrugged it off as her absentmindedness getting the better of her and crawled out of the box. "Good morning Aimina-kun!" Night chirped in his usual morning greeting. She smiled and waved to him on her way to the assembly table.
"It looks like everything went perfect! I'll have to do a range of motion test on all the joints and a stress test but that shouldn't take long." She beamed with her evil scientist smile. "Next step is installing the locomotive systems... That is going to take awhile..." She added with a sigh. As she was about wander over and dig out her leftover pizza there was a tap on the door. As if it were a practiced reaction she threw a black sheet she produced from nowhere over the case with Night body and switched off her lap top screen. She slowly pried the door open and peered out. To her delight and surprise Ariia was there with a large box.
"Ariia isn't it a little early for you to be here?" She wondered pulling the door open and letting her in.
"I figured when you brought a suitcase yesterday that you were going to be spending a few days here. Usually that means you going several days without eating so I set up a tab and meal deliver schedule for you at the cafeteria... They'll charge it to your expense account if that's all right..." She was being unusually meek as she looked around the room nervously. "I... I hope you don't mind but... you left the door unlock so covered you up and locked it on my way out..." Aimina looked as if someone had pierced her heart and she would die of shock. "You still have the rogue 01 series figure... Can I... Can I see him? Ever since I heard of him I wanted to see the figure that became alive..." Her voice was full of genuine and sincere which set Otaoko at ease. She smiled gently as she closed the door and locked it. She took the box of food and put it on her desk. She flipped on the monitor to her lap top on the way to the vacuum case.
"Night-kun... I would like you to meet my most trusted friend and hopefully soon to be intern, Ariia Tsukiuko... Of all the people in the world she's the only one a I trust so you can come out. Ariia-kun... Night Tenjou." As she said Night name his face popped up on the screen and she pulled the sheet away. Ariia gasped at the sight of Night on the screen when his body was lifeless in the box.
"Very nice to meet you Tsukiuko-san." Night beamed with a smile.
"H... he's awake?! For how long?!" She gasped looking for the screen to his body and back several times.
"He never fully shut down... He regained consciousness quite sometime ago but didn't have the juice to function until I installed this battery." She pulled the girl over to the case so she could see.
"Ah! The battery is so you could fully download everything and not have to worry about system failures! So is that all that's wrong with this body?" Ariia wondered still in awe.
"No there was a major meltdowns of key circuits when the power supply blew... So rebuilding this body would require almost as much time as building a new one..." As Aimina said that Ariia noticed the skeleton on the assembly table.
"Otaoko-sama!!!" She squealed then quickly contained herself. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?!" She was clearly very very excited as she started jumping up and down while holding Aimina's gloved hands. "Please tell me that's for him!" Overwhelmed by her prodigy's super enthusiastic response the Director just nodded yes. Since garnered another squeal and moment of containment for Ariia. "Please please! PLEASE! Let me help you! It would mean so much to me to be a part of something as wonderful as this! I read your report on your study you did on him and I agree! He's totally alive and deserves to live!"
"Really? But don't you have to work and school?" Aimina wondered still unsure of how to react to her friend's enthusiasm.
"I have a month of vacation built up and it's summer break! Please please?" She was so excited it was clear she could hardly contain herself and she would be crushed if she got a no. Besides this girl really was the only person Otaoko trusted... If she couldn't trust her to help with this then she couldn't call her a friend anymore...
"All right but on one condition... You CAN NOT tell anyone about the true nature of this project. I told the board I was building myself a figure of my own specifications... OH NO! Night-kun!" She gasped realizing something she had never even considered before. "Night! I never even thought to ask you if you wanted any changes to be made to your body's dimensions I just duplicated your old body!" She said rushing to her lap top teary eyed.
"No no! It's fine! I liked the way my body was just like that!" He soothed as best he could. His voice was genuine but that still did little to reassure Aimina.
"It's really okay it will only take a day to craft a new skeleton and have it delivered really!" Aimina pressed still clearly upset.
"No really Aimina-kun... It's fine... I like the way I am and I don't want to change... I was really happy when you told me I would stay the same..." He soothed with his gentle smile. Aimina nodded slightly and sat down in the chair.
"I really am sorry Night-kun... Please tell me if there is anything you want to change though... I'll do my very best to accommodate you." She still seemed very troubled by it all.
"And I'll be helping so it definitely won't be an issue!" Ariia added flashing him a wink and a smile. "So how about you eat up and I'll start on doing the range of motion and stress test on the skeleton... Or are you ready to start installing the locomotive systems?" She beamed weaving through the debris cluttered floor to the assembly table.
"I was about to do the tests when you knocked... Here's the disk!" Otaoko answered gently tossing a dick to her new assistant. Tsukiuko swapped out the disk and fired up the table again.
"I made sure I brought your favorite! Milk and strawberry muffins! I don't think theirs are as good as the ones you made me for my birthday though... I hope they're o...kay..." She trailed off as she spied her idol devouring a muffin in two bites.
Strawberry jam ran down the side on Aimina's face which made it look like she had just done something gruesome as she spoke. "These are really good actually!" She mumbled between chews. Ariia burst laughing and shook her head.
"It's kind of strange seeing you like this... I'm used to 'game face' Otaoko-sama... The one that has an answer to everything that no one can refute and that super cool face. You're always so composed... I hope that I can become as successful and popular as you... Otaoko-sama..." Aimina was completely stunned by her remarks.
"No one has ever called me cool to my face before..." She was blushing a lot now. "Thank you Ariia-kun... That means a lot to me!"
"Anytime! Wow these programs and this table are awesome! I can't imagine how long it took to do this before you developed them!" Ariia squealed overseeing the table work its magic twisting and bending every joint over and over. "No abnormalities to report... It seems the skeleton is in perfect order!" She added moving over to the wooden boxes and rummaging a little to find the locomotive systems.
"If you don't mind me asking... How did you learn so intimately the procedures for proto-type construction? I thought you just worked at the front desk..." Otaoko wondered curiously as she watched her assistant contently dig out the parts and carefully lay them out on the table.
"I snuck into everyone of your company training courses and took lots of notes... I even studied them in hopes of getting a job under you in the R and D department..." This time Tsukiuko was blushing. "You're clear and thorough with your explanations I could probably do this alone... Although I would probably mess up a few times along the way first..."
"Wow Ariia... I knew that you looked up to me but I never realized you were even in any of my classes... I'm sorry..." Aimina felt bad as she got up and threw her food wrappers in a trash can by her chest of drawers.
"Oh you wouldn't have seen me! I hid in the supply closet so they wouldn't kick me out..." Ariia laughed trying to hide her embarrassment and failed.
"Hahahaha... I couldn't ask for a better assistant! Night-kun you're in good hands!" Otaoko gleamed with a giggle as she joined her assistant in laying out the intricate locomotive components. "I hope you have steady hands Ariia-kun... This is going to be a long day..."
"Oh yeah we need to apply all the control circuits by hand and wiring by hand since the table can't..." Tsukiuko mused eying the large case of carefully packed circuits and wiring.
From his place on the desk Night watched the two woman contently while they worked. Suddenly Ariia looked up to him and smiled. "Tenjou-san... Would you tell me about yourself? I only know what I've heard about you from Otaoko-sama's report... I would love to know about you as a person!" Night looked shocked for a moment but quickly recovered and smiled.
"What would you like to know?" He wondered trying to think of how to tell someone about himself.
"Anything and everything you would like to tell me!" She beamed flipping down a sauntering mask down over her face.
"I don't know where to start when you ask like that!" He laughed awkwardly,
"Well how about I ask you a question and you answer?" It seemed like a very reasonable suggestion so he agreed. And so for many long hours she asked him question and he answered. They all shared the lunch the cafeteria sent over and pondered how much longer it would take to finish this phase of construction. It was at that point that Aimina revealed her plan to use the nanotech organs in Night's new body. This spurred hours of conversation about their development.
Night noticed how happy it made Ariia to talk with Aimina and vice versa. He thought that maybe Ariia could be a good friend to Aimina, one that she wouldn't grow tired off. It was then he wondered if they could come to love each other like he had read about on the Internet the day before... It did seem to him like Ariia reacted to Aimina's kindness the same way girls would when he would flirt to gain data. He had decided today to take Otaoko's offer to live with her until he decided what to do. For some reason it made him very happy to see their smiling faces... Not only that but he could tell that there was some other reason Otaoko wanted a companion figure and it worried him... He knew though that she wouldn't tell him if he asked... But maybe Tsukiuko would...
Late that night, much to her dismay, Otaoko took Tsukiuko home. The deal had been made though that she would also have to go home. She need to though to wash some clothes and shower. Having an extra set of competent hands had helped her make a lot of progress and she felt she could afford at least a little break. It seemed to make Night happy that she was going to sleep a real bed that night as well so she couldn't really say no. She was pleasantly surprised as she drove back to her apartment by how much fun she had that day. It made her look forward to tomorrow which was a sentiment she hadn't felt in a long time. The weight of not finishing in time had been lifted with this gift and she wasn't going to waste it.