Yes. I have a trope page now. One of my fans made it (in exchange for spoilers) and I am in a good mood. However, I would appreciate some Wild Mass Guessing on the pages soon. And so without further stalling...the next chapter awaits.

P.S. If you're wondering how Amber maintains her legs and other science facts, then repeat to yourself "It's just a story, I should really just relax." 'Lalalas' optional. However, I might just reveal all of that. I read a lot of sci-fi, so you never know.

The circles circle, the circles circle

They surround us now, as they twi-rl

The circles circle, they go in circles

Spinning around a tiny gi-rl

.

The Game must finish, she must be caught

It must end, so we were taught,

Her Past Life wove this cursed game,

She lives then dies, then lives again

.

She never died, that was a trick,

For she is the key to Elysium,

Many may play but most will lose

The winner must be The One…

Chapter 13: A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives

Somewhere, above it all, a pink-haired goddess smiled. Everything was going according to how she foresaw it.

…

Overhead, the sky was clouding over, and the sun was quickly becoming obscured. Freya sat with her foot's sole flat on the wooden stool and glanced backwards at the gate she was leaning against. Inside was a vast garden spanning an unmeasured amount of land. However, one thing that dominated the skyline was a massive tree around 150 kilometers tall. Its branches reached upwards like someone grasping towards heaven.

How ironic, considering that it was heaven.

Freya closed her eyes, the wind blowing the strands of platinum hair before her gently. The sun was coming out now, and its light shone upon the endless green fields, pooling around Freya and giving her a ghostly aura.

The entire environment was nearly dreamlike in its design…all of the perfection, all of the serenity and peace. It was the place, the one and only place that it could possibly be.

This was Elysium.

条約

"I should really hurt you," said Kotoko. Her arms were folded across her now quite impressive chest, an action usually reserved for standby mode in the past. She was still glaring at Kojima as if she were going to hit him once again.

The reasonably perplexed programmer flinched backwards from her glare. "What? Why?"

Kotoko's eyes darkened in anger as her glower became even more threatening. "So you haven't told them it seems."

Kojima held up his hands, mostly to try and block whatever attack she might throw this time. "Kotoko, hold on now, I.."

She cut him off.

"No, Master, let me finish. When I rebooted after the transfer, I got down to thinking..."

He gulped. Lately when she got down to 'thinking', things became more strained between him and Minoru.

"That Persocom you handed over to them looked far too familiar to me."

Shit. She was going to rat him out after all! He had to stop her. Kojima stood up and was about to order her into silence. "Ko—,"

Kotoko already anticipated that, and stood as well, moving her face close to his own. "Do. Not. Test. Me," she commanded, her eyes boring holes through his skull through sheer force of anger.

His mouth snapped shut with an audible noise. "..."

"Now I noticed that she seemed to look an awful lot like the 'Eve' model from Gala, but then I got to researching." She was presenting her case like a high-class lawyer in front of the grand jury of the century—emoting and gesturing grandly. "It was then I realized that you hadn't led them to a Persocom made by Gala Inc." Kotoko wagged a very stern finger at Kojima Yoshiyuki, as if he were naughtiest child in existence. "No, instead you gave two creepy guys the heir to Gala Inc.!"

His face went grey. "I WHAT?"

It was true that Kojima knew close to pretty much everything to know about computers, but he didn't waste time learning everything to know about CEOs of computer companies—especially not their daughters.

"So it is true," said Hideki, glancing at Amber. He knew that Kotoko was programmed to tell the truth, so he believed her on the spot.

Meanwhile, the young heiress continued to listen to the Persocom's thought processes with a certain apathetic interest. Her legs were crossed and her left eyebrow arched rather subtly. This Kotoko was as interesting as Yuzuki had mentioned.

Chii smiled, wrapping her arms around the twin-tailed girl and grinning. "Kotoko-chan came through again!"

Kotoko struggled against her for a moment, but then conceded. Chii had already latched onto her, and it didn't seem like she was going anywhere. A sudden wash of depression overcame her as she realized the reason for that acute case of Déjà Vu.

"Oh no," Kotoko muttered. "First that idiotic dancing laptop, and now the ditz."

"Please," said Amber, happy that she needn't explain herself further, "continue."

Surprised, Kotoko straightened up once more and nodded nervously in Amber's direction. She decided to continue to proudly rattle off the information she had found, despite the blonde leech that was stuck to her side. Chii held steadfast in her hug, and the amusing sight induced a snigger from Garrett.

"Amber Lee-Young, barely genius level IQ, age 17, and apparently the most ruthless gamer since some guy named RAVENcLaw5."

Amber's eye twitched at that 'barely' remark, but nodded in agreement.

Embarrassed, Garrett began to blush and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, am I really that famous?"

Amber's mind suddenly realized the meaning behind his words. 'Wait. Hold the radio…'

"RAVENcLaw5 is you?!" blurted out, not only Amber, but Minoru and Kojima.

Garrett scratched his cheek. "Uh, yeah."

"That's cheating!" shouted Minoru and Amber at once, both gamers appalled that their winning streaks had been tarnished by the same person.

He narrowed his powder blue eyes and flipped his light brown hair. "Says who?"

Well that definitely derailed Kotoko's presentation.

"Me!" shrieked Amber; the beginnings of a full-scale rant were forming. "I've lost to him—er, you six times!"

"AHEM."

Everyone looked to Hideki, who was actually very visibly upset. His eyebrows were scrunched together and his lips were slightly pouty. "Could we please settle down and try to sort things out?"

Apparently his temporary insanity had worn off—Hideki was now a force of balance in their little group.

So they all decided to calm down and talk things out.

Minoru demanded that Kojima tell them how he was involved with the kidnapping incident. There was the question of why the Americans had requested that the programmer be included in their circle, but Minoru figured they had some overreaching plan. Considering that he had told them that Kojima knew about Chii being a Chobit, he concluded that it had something to do with that.

In any case, the man gulped and began to tell his tale. They were surprised to hear that it wasn't a long story at all. Basically there was a phone call from some anonymous, untraceable number that asked him to do the job. They promised him cold hard cash, and for reasons he dare not disclose, Kojima accepted. Not long after the agreement, he spotted Amber in town, put a tracer on her, and bam, mission accomplished.

Kojima, however, was still skeptical about a lot of things pertaining to Garrett and Amber.

True, he did semi-believe that the Persocom was what he claimed. However, that heiress couldn't be magical in nature. Why, magic didn't exist!

…did it?

"Why should we believe you two anyway?" Kojima joked. He took in their mixed reactions to his apparent breakdown of character. "I mean, you may have Kokubunji convinced, but magic? It sounds like a giant practical joke."

Garrett sat next to Amber on the couch and nudged her in the arm, grinning fiercely. "So, how about we prove it?"

"Alright then," challenged Kojima, hoping that this would distract them from his earlier grievous lapse in judgment.

Amber glanced toward a certain blue-eyed boy wonder. "Minoru, care to help?"

He blinked. Slowly, methodically, not comprehending at first. Then it sunk in. "Me?" said Minoru, pointing toward himself.

She rolled her eyes towards the heavens. "You're the quickest learner I've seen in a while. You might as well flaunt it while you can."

For once, Minoru had to wholeheartedly agree.

. ジャンプ！.

One, no two targets, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Their objective? Unknown. Both were in identical flowing dresses and had cat-like data ports. Their innocent appearances were deceiving all by themselves. 'A red demon and a blue demon' would be an interesting comparison to the two. The suspects had split up in an effort to confuse them, and Zima was now following the girl in red.

He bounced from the rooftop with a single powerful leap, landing on top of yet another home.

The mission: corner and disable them, then interrogate the suspects.

However, this high-speed rooftop chase was becoming tiring. He couldn't seem to keep up with the girl no matter what. His reactions had been sluggish at best, and his main processor felt like it was running at only half its normal output.

Zima could only begin to speculate as to why this was happening to him.

The Persocom in red suddenly disappeared from view, causing Zima to pause in his pursuit. The higher-end models always had faster reflexes than usual, but this was ridiculous. He played back the footage he had just saved in his memory.

Incredibly, she had just vanished into nothing.

He cursed at the impossible action and hoped Dita was having a better luck.

魔女

It was a clear, crystal blue—the sky. No birds, no clouds, just blue. The layer of white whipped cream that had covered the sky this morning had been blown away by the wind while everyone had been inside. Smiling broadly, the brunette Chobit stood in the middle of the courtyard, hands crossed over his chest.

"Now this will be a standard Mage's Match. I shall be the referee," Garrett announced rather flamboyantly as he pointed to himself, causing Chii to giggle at his bravado. "The only spells allowed are the four basic elementals."

The rules were simple. The two parties were to face back to back, walk ten paces, and then cast a spell of their choice. Basically it was magical rock-paper-scissors.

Both duelists took their positions. The others stood and watched, some with awe, some with skepticism.

"Ready?" Garrett raised his hand high. "Set." He brought down his hand, waving an invisible checkered flag. "Go!" Then he backed away quicker than a cheetah set on fire.

Minoru and Amber took their paces, counting as they did. The younger boy held his wand in front of him with a jittery grip. As for Amber, she was glad she had brought an extra wand with her; a plain metal rod that resembled a radio antenna with a large red heart attached to the end of it.

At the count of ten, they turned, power building in the air around them. Their spectators had positioned themselves quite a ways away in case anything really did happen.

At the very same time they shouted their spell.

'Like a violin bow, like a violin bow…'

Minoru was so nervous he was trying to remember how exactly to hold his wand.

"Ventus!"

By coincidence, it was the same spell that echoed from both of their mouths at once. The air before them gusted forward from the tip of their wands.

'Feet apart, stand your ground; anchor your 'mana' to the earth…'

They were at a standstill, for the opposite blasts of air cancelled themselves out for the most part, but the rest of it agitated their clothes and hair. Chii, Hideki and the others were not exempt from this. Most everyone had to shield their eyes from the result of the collision of air.

For a couple seconds they were tied. At this point it was a battle of wills. But then Minoru decided to put some more power into his spell. He wanted to show Lee-Young-sempai and the others how much he had learned, and defeating her would certainly be something to talk about later on.

However, there was still something else bothering him. Something in the back of his mind that he couldn't help remember.

His sister. She was the one that was whimsical, the one that believed in the unbelievable. Kaede always had a smile on her face and a spark of hope in her heart. She had always believed in magic and miracles, and now Minoru could too.

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, the heiress stood her ground and tried her best to hold off his attack.

"Well sh*t," mumbled Amber, realizing that the spell was beginning to dematerialize the edge of her sleeve. The wind surged again, and her eyes snapped closed when the dirt stirred upwards to circulate around her face. For a boy of his age, this was astounding. A beginner that was already able to wordlessly change their elemental spell into something else?

Amazing.

Though, it was probably an unconscious effort on Minoru's part, so she saved her surprise for later on.

Or so Amber thought.

"Min-kun, wait!" She tried to stop him, but his intent on winning was morphing the spell in a very undesirable way.

"Chii!"

Amber could hear the blond squeal in the background, and in that instant her concentration was broken.

From Minoru's side the wind surged once more.

It was over.

A dark red cashmere and cotton blend blouse, cherry plaid skirt, and high-knee socks…all of it suddenly disappeared. Very unceremoniously, they were transformed into thousands of beautifully soft pink petals. A shower of cherry blossoms swirled around her before being whisked away in the wind.

The girl had nothing on but shoes and her undergarments, as everyone could plainly see. Three very red-faced boys turned away from the scene.

Damn her love of cute anime characters! Why did she have to have bear-underwear like many of her favorite heroines?

The inevitable happened; she dropped the wand. This resulted in an attempt to cover her underwear with her hands, but it was no use. Amber was still mostly-naked in the middle of a courtyard, after all. Incidentally it was this development that also made it very easy for Garrett to sneak a few pictures into his personal "stash" of photographs, since it would be very hard for the perverted Persocom to try something of that nature while around her normally.

Amber set off running back inside.

"N-n-n-nooooo!" She wailed, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and a blush appearing despite her dark caramel skin.

聞く

"State your name."

Minako was held up against the wall by short-haired Tsundere brunette whom she had just gained the displeasure of meeting. Usually Dita would simply ask Zima for a Persocom's name and other info, but he wasn't here. She had already tried hacking into her OS, but the elf-eared 'com was more stubborn than she looked. The attack programs were blocked and neutralized rather quickly, and it was more of an irritation than anything.

Third flipping time it had happened to her, and Dita was boiling mad at that fact.

"I don't see why I should," said Minako. She had been separated from Junji while they were pursuing the latest suspects. Usually a District Chief of his status would leave this grunt work to one of his Captains or other subordinates, but there was an unusual amount of cases pouring in lately, so they were short on staff.

Cheeky. Very cheeky. Dita was beginning to dislike this one more and more.

She narrowed her eyes and glanced at the connector cable protruding from her suspect's port. "Okay. Would you care to explain why you two were pursuing our suspect?"

Minako was equally annoyed by this Persocom, especially because she knew who she was.

"Your suspect? That was our suspect!"

The two strong-willed women glared at each other, locked into a staring contest to end all staring contests.

謝罪

After she had calmed down, Amber was ready to venture outside once more. However, she did have to borrow some clothes. She couldn't wear any of Yuzuki's because of how loose and long they would fit her, so she borrowed one of the shorter model's outfits. Specifically it was a petite dog-eared 'com with lavender eyes. Her name was Anthy, and she didn't mind at all.

It was a maid-outfit of course, but one that was surprisingly modest. It was black and white, and the bottom was puffy like a princess' dress.

Embarrassed as he was, Minoru had apologized as soon as he saw his friend. She didn't seem too upset on the surface. In fact, on the surface, she was quite cheerful in demeanor. That was obviously a façade. It made him more nervous than it should have, but he knew Amber was holding a grudge the size of Mount Fuji.

Minoru twiddled with his fingers as they sat outside on the patio furniture near the koi pond. Chii knelt near the edge of it, playing with some of the fish while Hideki watched on. Every few seconds she would chase one of the bright red fish with her fingers as each of them passed by, attempting to tickle its belly. The fish were irritated by her innocent actions, but said nothing. She merely giggled at their wriggling.

Kojima, Garrett and the rest were around a table with an umbrella that had blown away during the duel, but it landed not too far away. Anthy and Yuki had spotted it, and the former replaced it.

Kojima found himself asking Minoru and Amber so many questions that the two magelings wondered if the man was a closet otaku for fantasy anime and manga.

"So why did you use that particular spell?"

"You see, I had tried to plant a suggestion in Minoru's mind earlier by saying he would be good at water-based spells." Her eyes flashed mischievously. "That way you would fight against that and use a fire-based spell. Then I would use aquos or ventus against you,and thus ultimately win."

Minoru was taken aback by her strange logic. Even he would not count on such a ridiculously convoluted plan. "Quite the diabolical scheme, I must admit," he drawled. "Still, I didn't count on you using a wind-based spell."

"I didn't count on you using ventus either." Amber placed her shaking fists on the table. Her left eyebrow was twitching, and it was giving the other two a cause for concern. "I'm still wondering how you managed to turn it into a disarming spell," she said huffily, her jealousy and anger unconcealed.

The others at the table could only look at their bellybuttons and contemplate.

PROXIMITY ALERT: BARRIER HAS BEEN BREACHED.

Garrett frowned and let his forehead fall into his palms. "Not again." The announcement had reverberated around them the second after he was alerted within his mind.

The action only meant one of three things: either someone was about to attack them, or another ridiculous attempt at attacking his OS. That or someone was flooding his inbox with spam. It wasn't that it wasn't very enjoyable spam, but at the moment he didn't have time or patience to sift through the thousands of pictures of naked women.

Minoru beat Amber to respond. "Kupari?" asked the boy, remembering the last incident involving him and his Assertor Famuli.

"Yes. It seems Miimii and Fiifii are waiting to attack any second." A few flashes of light flickered in his eyes—tiny explosions of sunlight against the morning sky. "They've already broken both of the rune barriers."

Amber already was muttering something under her breath, and had picked up the wand she had been using earlier. She was standing next to Garrett at the moment, and he was focused on tracking the newest threats. They both had gone to the middle of the courtyard where the Mage's Match had occurred only minutes before.

Minoru looked at the preparations she was making and began to panic. He instinctively reached for the star-tipped wand and stood. "Where are they? Can you find them?"

The male Chobit nodded sharply. "Somewhere in the vents." His eyes darted to the left. "Probably only fifteen seconds left."

Amber twirled the wand in tiny circles, and continued chanting.

Hideki, who had been silent up until now, held Chii closer to him. His eyes were wide with fear, and the little blonde next to him was just as confused as he was. "Until what?" said Hideki.

"This!" Garrett spotted the Lolita's dress before he even saw her face. Miimii's feet were on a collision course with his face, and he stepped aside to avoid her by only millimeters. Miimii, his bitter rival. Miimii, the one who distracted him while her sister attacked Amber.

God, did she infuriate the heck out of him!

"Holy Pentagram!" Amber shouted, a wave of air stopping them in mid-air. It was already over. The incantation was complete, and the energy cracked around them all, while the two Persocoms were still suspended above the ground in front of them. From below them a spell-circle around four meters wide lit up. It had a five-pointed star in the middle and the zodiac symbols lined the edges.

In about five seconds the Persocoms were stunned by the spell. A minute later, Garrett was able to restrain them using some rope that Yuzuki, Anthy and Yuki were able to acquire.

The others watched as he tied the girls to one another, back to back. Garrett began explaining the reason for such a strong defensive move. "This morning we took the liberty of installing a magical security system using runes and sigils. Gesturing to their new captives; "These two," he said 'these two' with enough derision to kill, "were smart enough to disable two layers of security, but they didn't count on me being wired into the system. All I had to do was detect their presence and signal to Amber the moment they were going to attack. She fed me the magic to trigger the next level of defense."

Kotoko was standing near Fiifii, analyzing the efficiency of the system while she examined the fellow machine. Her eyes weren't closed, but they were unfocused, dull and barely glowing.

"Is she…?" whispered Kotoko. The thought of being fried herself by a spell like that was suddenly a very scary thing. Well, the same could happen if there was a power surge, but she considered what the Americans had told them. If little over 6% of the world really was magical, then that changed things. Now that she had calculated the chances of this happening…it was indeed a frightening prospect.

"There's no permanent damage," said Garrett, catching sight of her worried expression. "They're just stunned."

Miimii reactivated, her eyes coming back into focus. Rather abruptly she sat upright and looked around, her eyes resting on Amber and staying there. Her look of ire was almost on par with the tranquil, but boiling on the inside smile that Garrett was giving her and Fiifii.

Her sister followed suit only a second later, but she was more interested in looking at Garrett with the same venomous look.

"Now, on to business," quipped the Chobit. Garrett still had that serene expression on his face, and was beginning to unnerve Hideki and Minoru. Amber had seen it before many times, so she wasn't too surprised at it. "You two. Kupari is near, isn't he?"

The girls shouted in unison once and kicked their feet. "Like we'd tell you!"

Those twins really were in sync, weren't they?

'I didn't want to have to do this,' thought Garrett, lying to himself completely. In fact, He had wanted to do this for the longest time. He yanked at one of his connectors and brought it close to Miimii's face. He put his hand under her chin and leaned in close to whisper in her ear.

"Oh? What's this? My data ports are connecting with you it seems."

Miimii flinched away, blushing. "D-don't you dare."

Oh, but he did dare. Very much so. Click. In went the port.

Miimii cried out. He didn't need a password or any other type of authorization. No, he was just going to take and take. But still, she fought him as best as she could. Kupari may have been an inept Mage, but he was pretty good at computers. He made sure his girls were safe from most threats.

The girl's leg kicked involuntarily, an error created by her straining against his attack on her firewalls.

"Ane-san!" Fiifii wanted to help, but she could barely even move let alone help. Besides, something was blocking their wireless transmitters.

"URGH!" There went a chunk of data. Miimii was fighting him to the death, all of her processing power put into locking him out. Oops, another sector of information was lost...

One would wonder how the Persocom would react if she found out he was merely toying with her? He could have easily hacked through her security, but this was much more fun.

"The more you struggle, the more it will hurt," Garrett warned her.

'This seems wrong, somehow…' thought Hideki from the sidelines. The way he was talking, the way he was acting, it was just…

"Wait."

Garrett actually paused his hacking to pay attention to Hideki. "Hmmm?"

Hideki gulped. He didn't think he'd be on the spotlight too suddenly, but here it went. "G-Garrett-kun, I don't think you should do this."

It took Garrett three seconds to process the request. His logic center wanted to display "SYSTEM ERROR", but he continued to pay attention to what Hideki wanted to say. Especially since it was the first time he addressed him by first name; at least, without internally correcting himself and distancing himself by using the fake last name Garrett was going by.

"What."

Hideki noticed his lack of formality for once and became embarrassed on the spot. "I-I mean, it just seems wrong." His eyes looked to the slumped over Miimii, who, had a flushed face and was 'breathing' heavily.

Kojima for some reason butted in with his five cents. "It did sound wrong. I mean if I closed my eyes and listened to the same exchange, I could've sworn that—,"

Garrett cut him off, his voice like glacial ice. "The President of Gala is known for not being so kind to those who threaten his daughter." His eyes' expression matched the tone, and the others had the subconscious urge to step back a few feet.

'Is he a mobster?' collectively thought the whole crew.

It started with a black butterfly beating its wings

Don't examine this too closely, or you'll go mad, like me! Reviews are like sunshine on cold, bitter day with no heat: welcome and much needed. And yes, Minoru's koi are not normal. I may not mention it later, but they're actually high-level Youkai. Oh, and I also drew to pages of manga for this chapter. It's on my DevianArt page.

Bonus- The Official List of Active Chobits

Chobit X- Meroko

Chobit 00- Freya

Chobit 01- Chii

Chobit 02- Rima

Chobit 03- ?

Chobit 04- Garrett

Garrett is "4" because he "died", get it? No? Aw…the Japanese puns are so funny, but I wish you could understand.