Title:Chobits
Chapter:24/?
Pairings:OhnoxNino, JunxOC
Extra Characters:Ishihara Satomi (as Jun's persocom wife)
Genre/Rating:AU, Humor, Fluff, Romance, Sci-fi/PG-13
Disclaimer:Idea taken from original manga Chobits by Clamp. Almost all the quotes are from the manga as well.
Word Count:3149
Summary:Ohno Satoshi, the computer illiterate young man who lives in the 22nd century full of androids everywhere?! What will happen when this young man meets one android that was meant to be thrown away?
A/N:The plot will go exactly like the manga, but there will be some changes cause this is my story. I don't plan on making chobits seem weird. Just decided to share because it was my first manga that I came to love. If you don't wanna read this, then don't.
Fanfic Masterpost “Thank you very much!” Jun bowed respectfully towards the leaving customers. He watched them leave with a smile on their faces, glad that he was able to make people happy through baking. Sighing heavily, he headed towards the kitchen but was stopped when he heard the bells ring, indicating that someone had entered the bakery. He turned around, expecting another loyal customer, but instead was surprised when he saw Ohno standing at the entrance. “Satoshi!” He gasped.
“Good evening,” Ohno greeted Jun as he walked up to the front desk with a frown on his face.
“Have you found Nino?”
Ohno lowered his head and frowned. “No, I haven’t. Also, I’m sorry, after pushing you to hire him--”
Jun waved both of his hands from side to side in front of him and shook his head. “Please, don’t apologize,” he interrupted Ohno. “It was a huge help when Nino was working here… and I can’t wait for him to come back!”
Ohno sighed in relief, glad that Jun didn’t impose on Nino on his behalf.
“Now, you said that Nino couldn’t remember anything about his past, didn’t you?”
“Yes…”
“And I’m sure he didn’t meet any strange people… what could have happened to him?” Jun frowned at the thought of something horrible happening to Nino at the moment. No, he couldn’t think of such a thing, especially when Ohno stood before him worried sick about Nino. It would be unpleasant, knowing that Ohno might possibly lose Nino forever, just like what had happened to him before… He’s not going to let that happen to Ohno, even if he himself couldn’t do anything about what happened in his past.
“I’ll help you look for him.”
“What?! But--”
“It’s almost closing time, anyway. I know a lot of people around the shopping district. Who knows, someone might have seen something,” Jun cut him off as he yanked his cap from his head before heading to the back room.
Ohno watched Jun go, surprised that his old boss had suddenly offered his help. He felt bad enough that Nino wasn’t around to help Jun around with the bakery, and for Jun to help him… The man was too kind. He admired that part about him, which is why he enjoyed working under Jun before.
Meanwhile, Inoue was coming back from work and was heading towards Chiroru bakery. She hoped that she can see Jun before closing time, and see if he was doing well. However, she stopped short when she saw two familiar figures walk out of the bakery. She gasped. “Satoshi and… Jun-san...”
“You’ve already looked around your apartment, right?” Jun asked just to make sure so they could limit their search.
“Yes.”
“The day Nino disappeared he was supposed to work at Chiroru…” Jun hummed thoughtfully as he worked out how they were going to begin searching. “Let’s start at the bakery and backtrack from there. Maybe someone saw something.”
Inoue frowned and realized that both Jun and Ohno were talking about Ohno’s persocom. She heard that Ohno’s persocom disappeared at the start of the week, (not that she was eavesdropping, but she heard Ohno talking to himself about it) and that Ohno was unable to pinpoint exactly where Nino had disappeared to. Inoue frowned and brought a finger to her bottom lip. They were both talking about persocoms…
Ohno handed the florist a photo of Nino, the one Okamoto had first given him where Nino was curled into a fetus position with weird connections going out of his back. However, the florist shook his head and frowned as he handed the photo back to Ohno.
“No? Well, thank you for your time,” Ohno sighed dejectedly and took the photo back. He stared at it for a second and slipped it back in his pocket. What a strange way for this photo to come in handy…
“A Persocom with dark hair and ear units the color of white on top and yellow on the bottom…” the woman in charge of the produce stand hummed in thought. “I haven’t seen him, but I wasn’t working yesterday. Have you asked everyone else here?”
“Just the people in the shopping district,” Jun replied.
“Maybe the girl who’s off today would know… There’s a message board for the shopping district, you know. Why don’t you try asking your computer?” The woman suggested and pointed to the general direction towards a bright billboard standing in the middle of the shopping district. “Oh!” The woman gasped and covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I forgot that you don’t keep a persocom anymore, Matsumoto-san.”
Jun smiled bitterly and nodded his head. “Yes…”
Ohno couldn’t help but glance and Jun and wondered if something had happened to Jun’s persocom.
“Well, I’ll ask around and I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” the woman smiled.
“Thank you so much,” both Jun and Ohno bowed their heads as the woman left to tend to her stall.
“She’s right. Maybe someone on the message board will know something…” Jun suggested.
Ohno suddenly turned and bowed. “I’m sorry for dragging you around with me like this.”
“Hey, I asked to help you, remember?” Jun reminded him. “Besides, you must be worried sick about finding Nino.”
Ohno’s frowned deepened and Jun noticed right away.
“Satoshi, is something wrong?”
“Yeah, I’m worried… but when I start to worry, I can’t help but wonder how Nino’s feeling right now.”
“I’m sure he’s worried about you, too,” Jun reassured him as Ohno stood up straight. “Nino really cares about you, Satoshi.”
Jun was right. Whenever Ohno came back home from school or work, Nino was by his side right away, asking him how his day was and if he was feeling alright. He smiled a little, thinking about how considerate and kind Nino is.
“Maybe… but no matter how painful his situation, if the memories are erased from his hard drive, it’s like they never happened.” Would Nino still be the same? He wanted to ask out loud, but he couldn’t bring himself to.
“Would you like to go somewhere to talk?” Jun asked. He couldn’t bear seeing Ohno in such a distressed situation. If anything, he was glad to lend an ear to Ohno, for someone to hear out his problems and at least lift a small weight from his shoulders. He figured that it’s what Ohno needed at the moment, to keep his stress level on a minimum.
They walked to a nearby park, glad that it was that far from the shopping district. After Ohno was seated, Jun bought hot cans of coffee for the both of them and sat beside Ohno.
“When Sho told me that… I… I didn’t know what to do…” Ohno continued his earlier statement. “I want to find Nino, and I hope to God that he’s not going through any hardship…”
Ohno sighed and took a small sip from the can. He wasn’t much of a coffee person, but he needed it now, especially after having sleepless nights since Nino’s disappearance. “I mean, Nino must have had an owner before… and yet he doesn’t remember anything before I turned him on. No matter how human he acts, Nino is still a persocom and his memories could all be wiped clean at the press of a button…”
Ohno scratched his head furiously. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what I’m saying! I don’t even know what’s what anymore!”
Jun sighed and patted Ohno on the back. “I understand…”
Ohno stopped scratching his head and gave Jun a surprised look. “What?”
“I was just as confused as you are now.”
“Jun…”
And there it was again, his bitter smile. “I was once married… to a persocom.”
Ohno gasped. He’s worked for Jun for three months and he learned about the man within those few months, although he was curious if the man was in a relationship because Jun was fairly attractive. But he never once thought that Jun had been married before, and to a persocom!
“Married? As in…”
“We didn’t have a certificate. It was a common-wealth marriage.”
“You can do that?!” Ohno asked out loud.
“You can’t lawfully marry yet, but you can leave your estate, your life insurance, and power of attorney to a persocom,” Jun explained, his lips forming a sad smile. “You know how there are people who leave their inheritance to their dog or cat?... It’s the same thing.”
“B-but persocoms are--”
“Machines,” Jun continued for him. “Yes, well, that depends on the person. To some people, they can be much more than just a household appliance.”
Ohno thought about Nino, and remembered how he began to see Nino as a person, too, and not just some household appliance. Just thinking about Nino again… Ohno’s lips trembled, but he bit it to keep himself from losing it.
“Such was the case with me… I found her in a computer store on the day I opened Chiroru,” Jun began and looked into a faraway distance as if he was reliving the memory in his head. “I waited ten years after going to pastry school before I opened Chiroru. Of course, that was seven years ago.” The man chuckled lightly. “Wow… time really does fly.”
Ohno hummed in thought and counted his fingers. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t even know the man’s age. “Ten plus seven plus the time you spent in college… how old are you now?”
The man grinned. “I’m turning thirty-nine this year.”
“What?!” Ohno jumped back, surprised. He always assumed that the man was in late twenties, or his early thirties because of how young the man looked.
“I have a baby face,” Jun chuckled. “People still think I’m twenty.”
“Anyway, I was so happy to finally have my own store,” he continued. “When I opened the bakery, I made a promise to provide the community with the best cakes possible and I wrote it on the board outside for everyone to see. Everything was great, but...I’m not good at math.”
“Tell me about it!” Ohno laughed. “I could tell numbers weren’t your thing. You used to make a lot of mistakes even when I worked there.”
The man smiled a little. “I can deal with measurements for baking, but…”
“You probably get stressed when you’re waiting on customers. I understand.”
“I used to make the same mistakes at the bakery where I worked before, so I wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t be a problem at my own store… That’s why I decided to buy a persocom...”
Seven years ago
Jun couldn’t decide on a persocom, even if the sales manager explained and described about every model displayed in the store. There was one that took his interest: it was a blonde persocom that had girlish features, but he was thrown off when he learned how expensive she was. That is, until, they passed by a lonesome persocom, resting on a pedestal wrapped around with a simple sale ribbon.
He walked over to the model and was surprised when he saw that the model had dust collecting in her hair. She was cute, and she had curly long locks. When he had asked the sales manager about her, he said that she was a good deal. Except the only drawback was that she was a three-year-old model with a slower processor and less intuitive interface. He thought that it was strange, how she was the only old movel in the store… By the end of his browsing, he asked the manager if she would still be there if he came back another day.
“She takes up space and the warehouse is full,” the sales manager said. “So we’re thinking about getting rid of her soon.”
Without thinking, Jun bought her on the spot.
It took him a while to turn her on, even if he read the manual. Finally, he found out that her own switch was behind her left ear. As soon as he pressed it, her eyes flew open and she smiled widely.
“Konnichiwa!” She exclaimed happily and Jun was taken back at how cute and beautiful she was. He decided from then on to call her Satomi. It fit her just right.
The same night, he worked hard on creating a uniform for Satomi. After he finally finished it, he asked her to put it on and was flustered when it fit her right. He couldn’t help his heart pounding loudly against his chest as she flounced around and displayed the uniform he made her.
“You’ll work with me from now on,” he told Satomi with a huge grin.
Since then, Satomi had been a great help and his bakery ran fine without him making mistakes ever again. While Satomi was in charge of the math, Jun was in charge of creating pastries and hoping that it will bring others happiness.
Without realizing it, Jun started to fall for the persocom. So what if she was a machine? Jun saw her more as a woman who brought him nothing but happiness ever since the day he met her. He decided that he wanted to be with her forever and loved her with all his heart.
So he married her.
He didn’t care about the gossips, the teasing, and the strange looks he was getting from everyone around him. That didn’t stop him…
It was a very sunny day on a June when they married at a small restaurant. Although there was nothing legally binding them, they exchanged wedding rings. It was a very happy day, and Jun couldn’t be more happier just beside Satomi, the person he loved the most. They were happy for a year when things began to change…
It started with her memory.
At first, Jun thought that it was just him. However, the following day, she would forget what happened just happened, or the day before, or where things were kept in the store. It gradually got worse and worse… Before long, she began to forget what type of cake a customer had just asked for.
Desperate, Jun searched everywhere for a way to fix her. Albeit books, the internet, the custom BBS… there was nothing. So on a vacation day, he took her to a persocom repair shop.
“Her hard drive is friend and her CPU is being over stressed. It won’t be long until she crashes altogether,” the repairman told him.
“Can you fix her at least?”
“Her hard disk needs to replaced… but because she’s such an old model, we may not be able to transfer all her data successfully to the new disk.”
“What do you mean?”
“All the data she acquired after startup will be lost.”
“But… wouldn’t she be sad if she lost all her memories?”
“Don’t worry,” the repairman shrugged nonchalantly. “Persocoms don’t really feel sadness or pain. ONce her new hard drive’s in place, she’ll forget anything was ever wrong.”
Jun scowled and left the repair shop without paying for the services. He just wanted Satomi to be happy again, for her to be Satomi again. So he took her from repair shop to repair shop, but they all said the same thing as the first. By then, however, her memory had worsen even more. She began to forget things that happened just seconds before.
And then one day, she smiled widely just like when he first turned her on and said, “Konnichiwa! Who are you?”
Jun had cried that night and couldn’t avoid the pain that was forming in his heart…
In the end, he still couldn’t find anyone to repair her at all.
One day, however, he decided to take her shopping. It was a very rainy day and Jun couldn’t risk on getting her wet so he lent her his new umbrella while he used his old beaten up umbrella. He wanted to do what’s best for her, seeing that she could no longer function in daily life. He thought that maybe, she would be happy if he took her out shopping and also because he didn’t want to leave her alone, afraid that she’ll be gone before he even knew.
That very day, he was sleep deprived because she was all he could think about. He wasn’t paying attention at all as they crossed the streets and didn’t notice a car racing towards them. By the time he noticed, it was too late.
She pushed him aside to the sidewalk and he heard a loud bang and crash.
He didn’t care if he got wet as he immediately stood up and ran to Satomi’s side. He cried when he saw that she had scars all over her body, but despite it all, Satomi still smiled.
“Konnichiwa...” She muttered in his arms.
“...In the state she was in, she probably didn’t even realize the danger of putting herself in front of a moving car,” Jun continued as he stared at the concrete floor. “But… to me… it felt like she had died saving my life. It’s stupid of me to think that! She didn’t understand anything anymore…”
“It’s not strange,” Ohno clenched his fists on his lap. “I believe that she knew what she was doing… that she was saving your life.”
Jun smiled bitterly and it hurt Ohno to see Jun that way. “Thank you…” he mumbled. “Right after the accident, I took her to the store where I had purchased her. The manager told me ”Her hard drive’s completely crashed, her CPU is shot… even if there was anything salvageable, her frame is beyond repair. Hey, if you like the way she looks, we can always track down another one of this model.”
“To me she was unique. Even if I were to find another with the exact same appearance, it wouldn’t be her,” he bit his lips, trying to keep himself from crying as he remembered holding her hand on her deathbed. “She was a persocom, not something living. But to me, she died that day. I took her body and held a funeral for her. Her memories are gone, and she’ll never feel anything again, but I’ll always remember her.”
“She’ll always be a living creature in my mind. Her face, her voice, her gestures, the good times, the bad… I can’t possibly forget. You feel the same, right Satoshi?” Jun asked and turned his body towards him. “Even if Nino didn’t remember, you would remember, wouldn’t you? If Nino felt pain, you wouldn’t forget it, would you?”
“Yes…”
“So it would never be as if he never had feelings. Even if his hard drive is totally wiped clean, you’ll still know. That’s why if you’re worried, you’d better hurry up and find him.”
Ohno gave Jun a determined look. After hearing Jun’s disheartening story, it gave him hope somehow and he wasn’t about to lose Nino. Not now, not ever. “I will!”
~~~~
A/N: Comments are <3!!