Okay, everyone. I hope the length of this chapter will make up for its delay. Hopefully Minoru isn't too OOC. More revelations and more oddities, including Garrett's true last name! Though, if you've been watching my Deviantart, it's already been spoiled though his blank Pactio card I uploaded. Which reminds me: links to the Pactio cards and the cover are on my profile. If you want those downloadable goodies/bonuses, then I suggest you click my profile link after you read the chapter! Lots of love, and sorry for the long author's note.

Tell me what you want

I think I know your heart

But if we soon shall part

I wonder what's in that heart

For if we meet again

I want to know if you love me

Not just some approximation

But are you just a player?

Chapter 8: Why so Serious?

The red spilled across the cottony white fabric. Tick by tick, the seconds counted down...the seconds slowed down...the seconds…stopped. Time had stopped.

In that moment, everything seemed to make complete sense.

Maybe I was fated to die this way. All the time in the world wouldn't save me. Even if I willed it to be so, this was always how it was to end.

This was a cornerstone of Fate.

6:40 PM

"Meroko, you sure you want to perform tonight, honey?" A gentleman with dark, slicked back hair, and a neat taupe suit stood in the doorway of the dressing room. Earlier this week, his star had disappeared mysteriously in the middle of the day, and he had been walking on thin ice since then. From the moment she and their entourage arrived in Japan, Meroko had been acting really…off.

"You sure you're okay then?" said the man for the 12th time in forty minutes.

Dramatically rolling her bright pink optics, Meroko sighed. "For the last time, Grinswald, I'm A-Okay." Her index finger curved to meet her thumb to form the 'OK' sign. Each individual nail was a different color of the rainbow, with red starting on her thumbs. Nail polish was even more of a pain when you were a Persocom, so instead they were press-ons.

"You ran a self-diagnostic?" said Grinswald.

"Only about 27 times since we took off from Toronto." Meroko made a point of pouting at her persistent-to-a-fault manager.

Even if Meroko was a Persocom, she acted so much like any other performer he had managed before, that in a way it was scary. Who knew what she was opt to do? A least he didn't have to worry about drugs or alcohol, but viruses, worries of crashing, and other computer-related ailments replaced all the regular human ones.

"You know, Mrs. Black, I'm just worried because—,"

Meroko waved away his worries, and the silver bracelets around her wrist jingled. Every time she did this before a performance, he had the same reaction.

"I know, I know, I disappeared for some fresh air, and you informed my husband, and then he threw a fit. Same old, same old. That's why I have you, dear."

Gregory Grinswald felt a vein pop in his forehead. He didn't need so much stress in his life. It didn't help his ulcers a bit. What was worse was how flippant she always was about things like this! What if she had gotten herself broken? Or worse, stolen? He'd heard of the rise in Persocom-theft in Tokyo lately. Oh, her husband would make sure he'd suffer if his precious little wife-bot was harmed.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting," said Greg in a grave, grumbly mumble.

It was then that a short young woman in an all grey sweat suit barged in through the open door. She held the speaker on her headset as she addressed Grinswald and his, er, 'charge'.

"You're on in ten!" she said quickly, and scuttled away just as swiftly.

Well, that was her cue to leave.

"Tell my worrisome hubby that his little bunny is fine, Grizzy," said Meroko. Her hair swayed a little and her ears at the top of her head twitched once.

Greg was slumped over, his expression less than thrilled.

"Copy that," said her manager, massaging his temples. He could feel another migraine coming on. They had plagued him since, well, forever, and the extra stress wasn't helping them either. Right now he needed a vacation. A real one this time; none of those expensive virtual ones.

Meroko, meanwhile, was on her way to the stage. Performance was her passion, and it was Showtime in three minutes. She hoped her sister had gotten the tickets, Meroko hadn't seen the rest of her family very much after the wedding, and the few emails she did get were always assuring her that things were fine.

That was always a Sign.

But she shrugged it off for now. No need to water down the quality of her show because she was overly-worried.

Meroko stepped out onto the stage and stood at her starting position, several backup dancers filing in behind her.

'If Miku Hatsune can do it,' she thought, 'so can I.'

2 Hours Earlier

Standing on the nightstand, the little Persocom that Kokubunji had sent earlier awoke from her nap and rubbed her little green eyes. A dreadful loud ringing from deep inside her own head had roused her from Sleep Mode, and she knew it wouldn't stop unless she sprang into action. Immediately she stood upright, and from her tiny pockets, produced petite pink pom poms.

"Message for you!" she cheered, shaking the little pink puffs. "Message for you! Someone is calling."

Amber stared at the ceiling for a few groggy moments. She rolled onto her side, facing the wall. Right now she wanted to ignore the world, and just because someone was calling didn't mean she had to answer.

The Persocom, a feisty doll-sized unit Garrett had named Amu, was not amused by her new master's lack of enthusiasm. Her tiny lips pursed.

"Hey!" The mobile unit stomped her foot and put the pom poms on her hips. "Wake up! Kokubunji is calling!"

Stuffing the pom poms back into her pockets, Amu bounded over to the bed, and scampered up the comforter. She crawled over to Amber and latched herself to the front of the girl's face in a flying leap.

"What the—?"

"Me~ ssage~," chimed Amu, blinking innocently.

"Fine." There was an exaggerated groan. "I'll answer," sighed Amber.

After a couple of moments Amu's face went blank, and Minoru's voice greeted her in its usual, stoic manner. Though, she noted, it held a hint of relief. Just a hint.

"So we meet again," said Amber in response.

"What?" asked the incredulous young voice on the other end.

"Oh, it's nothing, Min-kun," she replied, rubbing her temples. Even though she never drank, well at least in this life, she felt like she had a hangover.

In actuality, it was quite possible to have a pseudo-hangover from the level of exertion she had displayed the other day. In fact, she glanced at the clock at this point and arched an eyebrow. "It's just a headache. Anyway, what day is it?"

"Oh, well, it's Monday."

Her mouth twitched into an ironic frown. "Monday? Really?" She'd really been out of it this time, hadn't she? Last time, the worst had been five days. Before that, a week. The seal was going to be gone soon, huh? Really? Really? When the heck was it going to disappear, never?

"Is something wrong?" said Minoru. He stole a glance at Yuzuki, who smiled good-naturedly.

"I've been asleep for two days," admitted Amber.

"A-Asleep?"

"Yes, now what is the purpose of this call, Minoru-san? I'm still very tired." At the moment her fatigue was winning out over her patience. In the back of her mind, she faintly remembered that today was Monday. Judging by the vacancy of the apartment, Garrett had left her to take notes at school today.

"I wanted to ask some more questions," he said. "I finished translating the book and—,"

"You what?" sputtered Amber. "I-I mean you're smart and your Persocoms and and and" The idea that he had already finished the book was odd on quite a few levels.

"It wasn't as difficult as you earlier let on. I even made a pact with Yuzuki."

'Prodigy indeed,' thought Amber. She was about to have another meltdown, but instead she bit her lip and took a deep breath. Obviously, he had more important things to discuss, but there could be unsavory characters monitoring the call so…

"Why don't you come over, and then we can talk more comfortably?" suggested Amber with another sigh. With her left arm she wiped away the sweat on her forehead, for it was suddenly very hot in the apartment.

After a moment's pause Minoru agreed, probably realizing her thinking. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

"Be sure to bring chocolate," she mentioned anxiously.

He was about to argue about the reasons for doing so, but as if she were reading his mind, Amber told him that she had no sweets around, and that it was imperative that he comply. Well, it wasn't a terrible request at all, so he made sure to bring some.

…

Yuzuki and Minoru were not prepared for what they were seeing at the moment. The two had arrived at Gub Jogasaki only a minute ago, and from what they knew, this was not typical behavior for a young woman of seventeen years. When they arrived, she had allowed them entry, but for some odd reason, she had been sprawled on the bed, wearing a dark red yukata sloppily fastened around her petite frame.

Minoru held the grocery bag of chocolate bars for dear life. At the moment, he was being spun around and around, for some inexplicable reason, and Amber seemed more or less inebriated, from what he could tell.

Well, it wasn't a bad guess.

"Excuse me, Miss Lee-Young," said his well-meaning 'com. "But could you please release Minoru?" Yuzuki pointed to the bag of sweets. "We brought the candy as you requested."

Amber paused for a moment from her so-called "waltzing" and stared at the bag Minoru held. The boy was dizzy, and stars were floating above his head, like in one of those American cartoons. His eyes were large, rotating spirals.

"Nyahaha~," said Amber, "I nearly forgot!"

She took the bag from Minoru and set to work at eating one of the bars. Amber ripped open one large rectangle and bit a huge chunk out of the chocolate. Once she had gotten a taste of the sweets, her face made a drastic change from her previous, slightly dazed but still odd, state. The heiress held her head and sighed, falling onto the bed with a large puffing noise.

"That was close," she muttered, taking another bite and holding the chocolate close, as if it would be stolen any second.

"What was that about?" said Minoru, who had recovered quite quickly.

"Just a sec," said Amber, "one more bite."

Minoru waited as she savored another mouthful of chocolate and swallowed.

"Okay," she said, wiping her brow and sitting up, "I think I'm back to normal."

"As you were saying?" said Yuzuki.

"Well, remember how I said I had been asleep?"

"Yes," said Yuzuki and Minoru together.

Minoru had a feeling she was going to start teaching him something, and sure enough he was right.

"When a magic-user loses all of their power," she began to lecture, "usually the body is able to either, one, generate more magic, or two, gather the energy from their surroundings. Unfortunately, in my case, I was unable to do both while I was unconscious."

"I don't follow," said Minoru. "It shouldn't matter if you were unconscious or not."

Yuzuki had the same line of reasoning. "Please explain, Ms. Lee-Young."

"I have a seal placed on me," Amber took another bite of chocolate and continued to talk with her mouth full. "It happened a few years ago, when I was growing into my powers. It makes it difficult to gather, store, and release magic, so…"

"So that's why it was so hard for you to restore the book?" The young boy folded his arms.

She nodded, licking her fingers of excess chocolate.

Well, it did appear that she had used quite a lot of energy that day, so Minoru could validate her claim. But why did she need chocolate?

"Oh, well magical energy depends on either will or blood sugar, and I haven't eaten in quite some time, as you know." Amber smirked, fishing another bar out of the grocery bag they had brought with them.

"How did you…?"

"Seem to read your mind?" A cat grin emerged on your face. "I was just looking at your face. You don't control you emotions as well as you think you do, Min-chan."

He rolled his eyes, something that looked very out of place on his usually serious face.

Silence seemed to overtake them, but it didn't last for very long. Amber began unwrapping the bar of chocolate, with the words "CRANKY" in large white block letters.

"There are many unusual things in this world," she began to mumble, half to herself. "Everyday events occur that cannot be explained. Bizarre phenomena that often go unnoticed because people close their eyes to what they don't understand." Her eyes met with Minoru's and seemed to peer deep into the navy depths of his soul. "Kokubinji, the truth of the matter is, there are many unusual things in this world." She wagged the bar of chocolate around in the air in his direction like it was a magic wand. "And people... People are the most mysterious of them all."

Minoru broke her gaze and folded his arms. He was still a skeptic at heart, despite all that he'd seen. Even the pact with Yuzuki he had rationalized as being sufficiently advanced technology. "Where did you hear that from? It sounds like something out of a paranormal fantasy novel."

"Would you believe I made it up myself?" The next smile was sadder than the others he'd seen her crack. Her voice became smaller as her eyes fell to the floor. "A…long long time ago."

"I have more questions," said Minoru, who, frankly wasn't satisfied with waving his hands and explaining everything by saying 'it's magic'. He wanted to experiment; he wanted the cold, hard data. He was a man of science, damn it, not a wizard! "Your friend said the book would be enough, but I can't seem to understand it in its entirety."

"That's because of many reasons, Min-chan," said Amber, shrugging.

"Which are?"

"You still don't believe." She jumped off the bed and strolled to the closet. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to pick out an outfit!"

"For what, Ms. Lee-Young?" Yuzuki was interested in what the young lady was planning, considering the crazy things they'd already seen from spending some time with her.

"Just visiting my sister." Amber took out a cerulean jumper and white long-sleeved shirt, but quickly put it back and muttered something about being 'preppy'.

Minoru had forgotten about that. She had mentioned once before that she had a Persocom that she always referred to as her 'sister' but thought she was joking about it at the time. With the way she so offhandedly mentioned her right now, it had to be true.

"What happened to your sister Meroko, by the way?" asked Kokununji. He also wondered why she had a Japanese name, but justified it by comparing Chitose and her husband's choice of names for their daughters. "I remember you mentioned her quite a bit when we were younger."

Amber held up a short red skirt and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"The typical thing," said the teen. "She fell in love, got married, and now she's touring across Europe."

"What?" said Minoru in a flat voice. He knew Europe allowed that sort of thing with Persocoms, but still, it was quite a shock. America (surprisingly) still hadn't caught on.

His tormentor looked at his face and giggled. If she'd been speaking in English, she would have put on a Jersey accent to add to the story. "Y'see she met this British businessman who is the heir of this old cell phone company," drawled Amber, flipping her hand. "Real old money, right? They recently got into the Persocom business, and they're even richer now, but that's not what I was talking about." She shook her head and the curls did a half-hearted bounce. "Anyways, Dad always had these big parties for his CEO buddies. He introduced Meroko and I as his daughters, the poor shmuck fell in love at first sight, and he swept her off her feet." A pair of off-white boots came flying out of the closet as she continued to rummage around for a matching belt. "Still, when he realized the truth about her, he was even more madly in love."

"Wait, the truth?" said Yuzuki, beating Minoru to it.

"Meroko is a Chobit," said Amber bluntly, giving her eyelashes one innocent flutter and going back to digging around in the closet.

Minoru sunk into a puddle on the floor. Yuzuki peered down at him to see if the boy was alright. He looked up at the ceiling rather abstractedly. "Are you just surrounded by a legendary computer series on a daily basis?"

"Well it's a computer series for a reason. There are more than just one or two. You really thought Elda and Freya were the only ones?" It did make sense if you thought about it, actually. "Hey, Kokubunji, why don't we do something fun today?"

"Fun?"

What did she mean by that? Fun was video games. Fun was building computers. Fun was… what was her definition of fun?

"Yeah, fun!" Honestly, for genius, he was sometimes very slow on the uptake. "You, Yuzuki, Chii, and Motosuwa could go to the concert with Garrett and I."

"Concert? I mean..." he looked around nervously. Minoru wasn't fond of crowds, or people for that matter. His fingers poked together nervously, a slightly frightened expression on his face, for once in his life finally acting his age.

Yuzuki decided to chime in, hoping that he would take her advice this time. "You have been working hard to translate that book. You need a break, Min-kun." She looked to Amber with a knowing smile and had the strange sudden urge to giggle, but kept silent after her suggestion.

In reaction to her proposal, the twelve year old paled. She had used his nickname; the one Amber had given him when they were younger. This was odd. More so than that, it was downright abnormal. What was going on?

And why the hell was he blushing so furiously when Yuzuki called him that?

Indeed, his cheeks were like two traffic lights saying 'stop'. "Wha-wha-where are we getting tickets from?" said Minoru, trying to ignore the abnormal behavior and keep calm.

Four pink rectangles of paper materialized in front of his face. Amber had pulled them out of a questionable compartment in her yukata around the vicinity of her chest.

'Meroko Black, Live in Concert, Two nights only!'

'Watch the Pop Diva tear up the stage!'

"And we've got front row seats," announced Amber proudly, a huge grin on her face.

Minoru groaned, dragging a hand over his face, which actually made a rather cute image despite his apparent anguish. "You wouldn't happen to have any sake hidden in there too, would you?"

Amber tried to hide the hint of sadness that shadowed her face when he mentioned alcohol.

"No. Why do you ask?" she said, a tad puzzled.

"I've considered taking up drinking," admitted the boy, sarcasm undisguised for good reason.

Meanwhile…

"A concert?" Hideki paused in thought as he retrieved the shoes from his locker above him.

"Yeah. I figured you and Chii might like it," said Garrett. The entire morning he had tried to put on a little extra charm while around Hideki. Of course, he and Amber hadn't decided the exact time they were going to tell them the truth, but he hoped that by the time he got back home that she'd be awake, and then they could talk it over.

Which reminded him, he really needed to stop by the grocery store for some food. Amber was bound to be starving by the time she woke up. Sweets were a good idea, because her blood sugar would be low, and she enjoyed anything sugary sweet.

"I've never been to one before, I don't know." Hideki had no extra money to be going to something as expensive as a concert. Tickets in Tokyo cost about 15574¥ each at minimum, and times that by two, and he'd be in the red for quite a while. It wasn't worth the splurging.

"It'll be fine. I'm buying anyway," said Garrett, hoping to reel him in with the offer.

'Maybe,' he mused, 'after the concert would be a nice time to present the truth.'

"Well, when you put it that way, sure," said Hideki. They were ahead on their project, and there was more than enough time for a little fun.

"Great," said Garrett, "Meet you at 7?"

"Sure thing."

Ravensdale Ravensdale, must you hide your feelings?

Yes, my dear, or do you know not of what the day brings?

But your name! Your name! Stop hiding yourself!

Only you would bring that up...

6:35

Yoshiyuki Kojima, A.K.A. Dragonfly, A.K.A. the Bell Master, A.K.A. the Sleeping Tyrant, A.K.A. Koji-kun.

God, was he bored.

Of course, there were a lot of things to do, especially since he'd gotten Kotoko back. Yes, his lolita little laptop had been sorely missed, despite all the other full-sized models roaming about his home, but he would never admit that to himself. No, no, he loved to be a male Tsundere and deny that Kotoko was, more or less, very fun to debate with because she herself was quite an interesting little person in her own right.

Today, though, she was getting on his nerves for a great deal of reasons. He was losing the argument, for one.

"Koji-kun, you know I'm right," said the mobile unit. Her purple pigtails bounced, causing the tiny bells they were attached to, to jingle.

He knew she was right, but Kojima was being stubborn yet again. The young man sighed and looked away from Kotoko and her piercing stare. It probably could cut through steel, with how intense it was, and Koji-kun could feel guilt creeping up on him.

Damn his conscience! Why did it have to listen to her all the time?

"Look, Kotoko, all I did was tell them where to find—,"

"And that's exactly where the problem is!" said Kotoko. "They asked you to find this Persocom and you just tell them?"

He grimaced. Another lecture. When did she get so…so…troublesome? He certainly didn't program her to nag like a housewife.

"Well yeah," he admitted for the 100th time. "I figured why not help them out? They gave me enough money. Now I can buy you that full sized body and get even more memory."

"But what about that Persocom?" added Kotoko, not letting the subject drop despite her interest at finally being able to look Kojima on a more level playing field so to speak. "What if they plan to steal her? Surely her owner will be upset!"

Another sigh escaped his mouth. Ethics and whatnot, that's all she talked about these days. In a way she was more of a conscience than his own. He looked at the screen to his left, the picture of the Persocom his newest employers had supplied him almost four days ago. It seems that they had been trying to track down this certain model for a while, and he just so happened to see her the next day hanging around near the bakery. It was lucky, alright, and he wasn't going to take any chances this time. Last time he had tried kidnapping, it hadn't turned out so well in his favor.

No, he just had to use good old spy skills.

More specifically, tracer dots. Kojima was a fan of gadgets, and for some odd, creepy reason he carried around tracer dots in his pocket. Mostly it was for fun; he'd attach it to a subject of his choice and trace where they went from home at his computer station. Once he had attached it to an unsuspecting cat, and watched the tiny red dot on his screen zip around town just for the heck of it.

Yes, other than his computers, gaming, and snarky internet persona, Koji had virtually no life, pun unintended.

The picture of the 'Persocom' stared at him from the screen—innocent and unknowing. What these guy wanted with her was beyond him, and the guilt was getting to him, but it wasn't so bad that he wasn't going to tell them where she was.

Ignoring Kotoko's voice of reason, he picked up his cell phone and dialed the number.

"She's at the Tokyo Dome."

On the other side of the line there was a deep, throaty chuckle, and the confirmation of his payment. Kotoko gave him one last stern frown before turning away from her master. It gave Kojima the shivers to admit to himself that maybe this wasn't the best idea.

'Those sweet brown eyes won't have a chance,' he thought, staring at the picture of Amber stepping out of Tirol with Garrett by her side. 'Not one chance.'

Fool me once, shame on you

Fool me twice shame on you

Fool me a third time,

I might as well be dead, now, shouldn't I?

R&R! Can you guess what Meroko's 'Special Program' is? More guesses are appreciated. Sorry for being away so long…computer troubles. I'll read and review your guys' stories very soon!(You know who I'm talking about) I'll be updating a few more things soon!