[Multi-Chapter]: Chobits 3/?
Title:Chobits
Chapter:3/?
Pairings:OhnoxNino
Extra Characters: Kato Rosa (as Hibiya Chitose), Chinen Yuri (as Sumomo), Okamoto Keito (as Minoru Kokubunji), Kiritani Mirei (as Yuzuki)
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:3073
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. Edited in 2014
Fanfic Masterpost
The next morning, Ohno decided to wake up early than usual since he was going to meet with the persocom expert Sho recommended him to. According to Sho, the expert's name is Okamoto Keito, one of the leading people in creating persocoms. In fact, he created the persocom collection called Sisters and its function was to serve as a companion for those who were the only child. Within a year, the collection became a huge trend, due to its function and nature, and everyone, even though most weren't the only child, bought a model of their own. Ohno's heard of the collection before, but he's never heard of the person who made it. And to think that he was going to meet someone famous... Other than having knowledge about persocoms, Ohno became more impressed with his friend for having a connection to a famous maker. All the more reason for Ohno's exctement in meeting Okamoto Keito. After he helped Nino with his clothes and dressed himself up as well, they headed out of the building and came across the landlady at the entrance. As usual, she was sweeping the floor of diet and dust as she hummed a lovely tune.
Ohno stopped in his tracks and bowed politely as the landlady turned to face him. “Ah! Kato-san1 , Good morning!”
When he first met Kato Rosa, the landlady, he was mesmerized by her soft smile and her elegance. Each of her every action seemed so ladylike that she even made sweeping the floor seem like such a ladylike thing to do. And the way she spoke every word gently with enthusiasm made Ohno smile like an idiot. He admired his landlady for that since he's never seen a woman so graceful in his life, not even his own mother who was loud and careless. Kato-san still looked so young, and according to his neighbors (he didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he just happened to stumble across them gossiping) she was single, and she wasn’t even thirty yet. After hearing this, sometimes at night he would-- Ohno shook his head. This was not the time to be thinking like this!
The landlady smiled softly as she bowed at him and then gestured towards Nino. “Hello, Ohno-kun 2 . Who’s this?”
"Uh... He's Nino, a persocom."
Kato-san complimented Nino, mentioning how cute he was and Ohno couldn’t agree more, although he didn't say it out loud... He decided to stay a little longer so Nino could get to know the landlady more. It seems like they were getting along well, with the way they were interacting to casually and how Nino responded so well to every of the landlady’s question despite being unable to say anything but Nino.
“Well, we have to go now,” Ohno’s announced when he saw that Kato-san had nothing else to say. “We’ll be back by afternoon.”
“Bye!” The landlady waved as they walked from the building and into the streets. “It was nice meeting you Nino-chan3!”
“Nino!” The persocom waved back, a huge smile of his face.
When Ohno was sure they were out of the landlady sight, he cursed himself for answering too fast and even showed that he named his persocom. “I an an idiot!” Ohno furiously scratched his head, unaware that Nino was copying him. He didn’t want to give his landlady the wrong idea, and he’s pretty sure he already did. Then again, he couldn’t read minds…
Ohno took out the map from his back pocket, making sure that he was still in the right direction. “Sho-kun said it was just around the corner…”
“If I take a turn, then it will just be…” Ohno took a turn then stopped when he almost came in close contact with a huge wooden door. When Ohno walked back a few steps, he noticed that it was the only house in the street so he walked closer to the door, breathing and telling himself to calm down. But he couldn’t as he was going to meet someone rich and famous. “I’ve found it!” Ohno screamed at the majestic house before him, as if he had found treasure.
“This doesn’t feel right, though,” Ohno pushed a buzzer just beside the huge door. “Something about rich people makes me sick.”
“Yes, this is the Okamoto residence,” The intercom buzzed.
“I-I’m Ohno Satoshi,” he looked up at the camera hovering above the archway. “Umm, is Keito-san there?”
“Yes, please come in,” the intercom replied.
As soon as the intercom buzzed, the huge door opened, revealing a grand entrance towards the front door. Ohno felt like a celebrity as he walked on the red carpet leading to another entrance and fought the urge to pose on the walkway because there might be cameras. Instead, his eyes wandered to the scenery around him. To his right, he saw azaleas sitting around a maple tree, and a fountain with a butt-naked cupid standing in the middle. Then to his left, he saw a leisurely swinging bench and more maple tree was just behind it. This Okamoto Keito sure knew how to amaze his guests.
Once Ohno was on the front door step, he was about to knock when it suddenly opened by itself, revealing five female persocoms all lying down on a couch. It was as if they were waiting for him to arrive that all eyes were on him immediately. If this were a manga, Ohno’s nose would be bleeding by now. However, Ohno didn’t have the chance to react when the persocoms ran towards him and dragged him onto the floor. He could feel a touch here and there and Ohno couldn’t contain his excitement as he felt his lower half start to tense. But it didn’t last long when the persocoms released him, stood up, and left him alone on the floor. Was this some sick, perverted way to greet guests?!
“Don’t get a bloody nose because of my persocom assistants,” a boy about four-eleven walked towards Ohno and held out his hand. “Are you Ohno-san?”
“Y-yeah,” Ohno grabbed his hand and stood up as the boy pulled him up. After he took off his shoes and changed into the slippers, he eyed the suspicious boy. The boy seemed to have a cool air about him as if he wasn’t going to let anything faze him. Yet he seemed so boyish that his cool look didn’t fit at all. Was there something bothering the boy? “And you are…?”
“Okamoto Keito, pleased to meet you.”
Ohno’s eyes widened. “S-Sho told me to come here to meet someone who knows a lot about custom persocoms. You don’t look that old.”
Keito glared at Ohno coolly. “Middle school, first year. What about it?”
“I thought that-”
“Hpmh, no point in standing around talking. Follow me.”
Ohno nodded his head. Although the boy was way younger than him, he felt intimidated. After all, he was talking to a rich and famous person who knew more about persocoms than he did.
He followed Okamoto up the grand stairs and a bunch of hallway. He wondered how the student was able to find their way around because Ohno would be lost within this maze of a house. Still, it was a grand sight. Everything, from the floor to the ceiling was breath-taking. He felt as if he was in some movie set that took place in an English home, where everything seemed too precious to touch, or even look at for that matter.
They finally came to a stop in front of a door. It looked the same as the other doors they’ve passed, but he wondered why this was the only door at the end of the hall on the second floor. Was there something special about his particular room? When the door was opened, Ohno’s question was answered. On the far left side of the wall were nude persocoms hanging on the wall. Some were incomplete while most were almost finished. In the middle of the room, however, there stood a huge desk with some kind of huge screen on a wooden table, and there was a lounge area in front of it. Okamoto gestured the both of them to sit on the couches. “So,” Keito bent down so he was eye to eye with Nino. “This is the mysterious persocom Sakurai mentioned?”
Ohno nodded his head. He was glad that Sho told the student about Nino so he wouldn’t have to explain him everything.
“If he can move without an OS...” Keito continued, “then he just may be a Chobit.”
“a Chobit? What’s that?”
“ You don’t mind if I run a routine diagnostic on him?” Okamoto ignored him, his eyes glued to Nino.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Ohno had no idea what he said, but he was willing to offer anything to Okamoto as long as he could help him out.
Ohno was startled when the doors opened and the five persocoms from earlier came in. They sat on the couch beside them and Nino was asked to sit between them. After Okamoto hooked them into Nino’s ears, he nodded his head and the persocoms zoned out altogether. Five minutes had passed by and one by one, the persocoms passed out on top of Nino.
“What happened? All your maids just passed out! I thought you were just going to perform a routine diagnostic!” Ohno panicked, his eyes moving back and forth from Keito to Nino and the maids.
Keito sighed. “These units were incapable of processing her signals”
“B-but they’re four human-sized computers!”
“Would you like me to try, sir?” a sweet, yet gentle voice came from behind them.
The voice startled Ohno. When he turned around, he saw a girl taller than Chinen. She gave off a cool aura as she walked towards Nino, completely unfazed by the lifeless persocoms surround Nino. She reminded Ohno a bit of Okamoto, like how small their noses were and how they gave off the same aura, except the girl was more soft that Chinen. Were they siblings?
“I’m so sorry to disturb you, miss,” Ohno apologized and bowed. “My name’s Ohno Satoshi.”
The girl long, glossy lips curled into a smile. “Pleased to meet you too, Ohno-san. My name is Mirei.”
“So uh… You must be Okamoto-san’s sister, right?”
Mirei shook her head and answered, “I am a persocom constructed by Okamoto-sama.”
“What?!” Ohno snapped. “You don’t even look like it!” She didn’t seem like a persocom at all. She didn’t even have those noticeable ears! Then again, persocoms were built to look more and more like humans...
“I don’t know,” Okamoto said. “I don’t know if I can let you.”
Ohno turned his direction to Okamoto and noticed how his eyes look like they were a distant far away. His expression changed for the first time Ohno met him since his eyebrows were knit together like he was worried about something.
“You want to know what his abilities are, do you not?” Mirei asked him. She looked down and Ohno notices how Keito’s face seemed to droop down lower. He watched them in silence for awhile when Keito finally allowed her to do her work. He doesn’t know what was up with him, but depending on Keito’s expression, there must be something that happened between them.
A sound of zipping was made and Ohno snapped back to reality noticing how Mirei was taking out a wire from inside her locks of hair. She smiled as she plugged her wire into Nino’s ears and then told Nino that it was going to be OK. Ohno doubted that, though, since he was worried about the outcome for her.
It was only a matter of seconds when Mirei started frowning. Her eyelids were slowly closing so her eyes were almost barely visible, her body was slowly falling down when her eyes snapped open again and she jolted from her seat.
“Is…is that supposed to happen?” Ohno frowned. He wanted to tell them to stop, but Okamoto was too focused on what was happened with them.
But Keito ignored him as he ran to Mirei’s side, who had collapsed on the floor, and demanded her to disconnect.
Mirei held unto Keito as if she panted. “A portion of my data has crashed.”
“Which data?” Keito asked right away.
“Non-essential functions--housekeeping, accounting…”
The boy whispered something to Mirei, but Ohno couldn’t hear him. Then he brought a hand up to her cheek. “But your personality data is safe?”
“Yes.”
The kid seems to have a unique relationship with this unit. I wonder what’s so special about her…
“Nino?” The persocom finally spoke.
“Oh and what about Nino? Was he damaged too?” Ohno held onto Nino when the persocom turned his attention towards him.
“Is Nino his name?” Mirei looked up from Keito with a weak smile on her face.
“Uh…yeah.” Ohno could feel Nino’s arms snaking around his waist, obviously copying the scene that just happened.
“Don’t worry,” she smiled, “Nino was unaffected in our exchange.”
“Is it because there’s no data to crash? No OS or anything?”
“Your assumption is incorrect,” Mirei looks down, her smile gone. “He most certainly has data. In fact, his software was way beyond what I was programmed with.”
Ohno heard faint bells ringing on the back of his head. It was a good sound and hearing this news relieved him. “So, he’s not dumb?”
“But I cannot access it,” she continued. “There are many elaborate firewalls. Her data is encrypted.”
The faint sound of bells that echoed in his mind became a horrible sound and his head couldn’t take it anymore. “What?!”
He couldn’t understand any of this. What were firewalls4? What data? Didn’t the screen say that Nino didn’t have any at all?! Then again, he found Nino in the trash and there wasn’t anything attached to Nino when he claimed the persocom as his own.
\\\♥///
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ohno sipped ice cold tea from the glass of tea that Mirei gave him. He was feeling guilty for causing such a ruckus to Keito’s persocom, and he didn’t know if they were all doing fine.
“I’m quite fine, Ohno-san. My master reconfigured me.”
“But I thought your data was fried?”
“Master Okamoto backs up my memory everyday so it is simple enough to reinstall,” she explained.
Ohno nodded his head and understood the reason why the persocom seemed fine after.
“That way, if there is an accident such as this, very little is lost.”
Ohno nodded his head again, understanding how simple it sounded coming from a persocom. He took note of this in his memory, too, to back up Nino’s data just in case if some “accident” occurred. While taking another sip from his glass, Ohno turns his direction back to the silent person sitting in front of him and noticed how Keito was making the same face when Mirei interrupted them. There he goes again. That long, sad face. What happened to this kid?
“Yes?” Keito looked at him, his expression changed to the one before.
“No-nothin’,”Ohno stuttered. He looked down on his hands and it became quiet after awhile. Just then, Ohno remembered what Keito had called Nino.
“Oh yeah!” Ohno’s head snapped back up. “When you were looking at Nino before, you mentioned that he maybe a Chobit. What’s a chobit?”
Keito leans back in his chair and sighs. He dipped his finger in his glass of iced tea and wrote the word Chobits on the table.
“Chobits,” he began. “Computers of Legend. There’s a rumor circulating on the internet about a powerful new model of persocom with the codename chobits.”
“What’s so special ‘bout that, Okamoto-san?” Ohno stood up from his chair causing it to skid back a little.
“You may call me Keito,” he sipped from his glass. “Chobits are said to be artificial intelligences, capable of thinking and acting on their own.”
Ohno then remembered about another persocom the way Keito put it. “Isn’t Mirei like that too? She thought of checking Nino’s abilities on her own awhile ago.”
“Alas, no. Mirei only does what I’ve programmed her to do. She determines the best course of action in any situation based on her programming. Her programming may be more elaborate but she is still not capable of thinking herself. I created a self-teaching program for her. Everyday, she adds new options to her database. But in the end, everything she does is based on that program. And if that program should crash, Mirei would cease to function. But the chobits are different. They’re not reliant on outside programming.”
“So he’s that powerful?!” Ohno slams his hands on the table. “You mean to say Nino is an AI5?” When he was talking to Sho about persocoms once, he remembered Sho mentioning AI. Being the tech-deficient he was, he asked Sho what an AI was. Sho said that it stood for artificial intelligence, intelligence exhibited by machine or software, and he also mentioned how AIs were of legend since creating a persocom that could function on its own was nearly impossible.
“Yes, well… There’s really no evidence. It’s probably just an urban legend.”
“Aw, man!” Ohno hits his head on the table. “How could you lead me on like that?!”
\\\♥///
Ohno decided it was best to call it quits for today. He was glad that Chinen and Mirei walked him out because he was afraid that me might get lost in the mansion. Once he was at the entrance yet again, he slipped his shoes back on whilst Nino did the same. However, as he was putting his shoes on, Okamoto’s words about the urban legend loomed over him.
“What are you so upset about?” Keito asked him.
“I’m not upset! I just feel like an idiot!”
“Well, here is my dream,” Keito expressed with his hand opening wide. “I dream of a time when humanoid computers can think and act on their own. When the line between man and persocom becomes indistinguishable. Ohno-san, have you considered that whoever built her might come to get her back?”
Ohno paused for a good second and thought about it. However, there was no way that what Chinen had said was true. Besides, if Nino was in the trash then they really had a real and permanent reason to throw him away. “No way! If some laboratory comes for Nino, they’re gonna have to go through me! I rescued him from that trash heap!”
“Right on!” Keito gave him a thumbs up.
“Yes!” Ohno fists pumps the air. “This is what men live for!!”
It felt better that someone could help Ohno at the least. If it weren’t for Sho, he would have no one to turn to except for curious owners or people who would do anything to get their hands on a persocom, especially Nino because he was so special. And if it weren’t for the genius Okamoto Keito that Sho introduced, Ohno wouldn’t have someone to ask about Nino.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: OMG, they fixed LJ posts. I'm so happy, YAY!
Well, sorry for not posting soon, school got the better of me and my sister's been hogging the computer.
Comments are loved!
1: a Japanese honorific used to address anyone in respect and is used between equals of any age. lit. can stand for Mr.; Miss; or Mrs. A person cannot simply address himself or herself with -san because it’s not necessary and it’s just awkwardly wrong.
2: a japanese honorific used to address or refer to male children or male teenagers, or among male friends. However, it can be used for any gender as long as they are a personal friend or family member. In business settings, young female employees are addressed in this way as well by older males of senior status. Male teachers address their female student in this way as well.
3: a Japanese honorific used to address babies. young children, grandparents and teenagers. Used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, youthful women, or between friends. This honorific cannot be used towards a superior because it is seemed as a rude action.
4: a software program or hardware device that restricts communication between a private network or computer system and outside networks
5: Artificial Intelligence. Sho explained it, yo!
Chapter:3/?
Pairings:OhnoxNino
Extra Characters: Kato Rosa (as Hibiya Chitose), Chinen Yuri (as Sumomo), Okamoto Keito (as Minoru Kokubunji), Kiritani Mirei (as Yuzuki)
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:3073
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. Edited in 2014
Fanfic Masterpost
The next morning, Ohno decided to wake up early than usual since he was going to meet with the persocom expert Sho recommended him to. According to Sho, the expert's name is Okamoto Keito, one of the leading people in creating persocoms. In fact, he created the persocom collection called Sisters and its function was to serve as a companion for those who were the only child. Within a year, the collection became a huge trend, due to its function and nature, and everyone, even though most weren't the only child, bought a model of their own. Ohno's heard of the collection before, but he's never heard of the person who made it. And to think that he was going to meet someone famous... Other than having knowledge about persocoms, Ohno became more impressed with his friend for having a connection to a famous maker. All the more reason for Ohno's exctement in meeting Okamoto Keito. After he helped Nino with his clothes and dressed himself up as well, they headed out of the building and came across the landlady at the entrance. As usual, she was sweeping the floor of diet and dust as she hummed a lovely tune.
Ohno stopped in his tracks and bowed politely as the landlady turned to face him. “Ah! Kato-san1 , Good morning!”
When he first met Kato Rosa, the landlady, he was mesmerized by her soft smile and her elegance. Each of her every action seemed so ladylike that she even made sweeping the floor seem like such a ladylike thing to do. And the way she spoke every word gently with enthusiasm made Ohno smile like an idiot. He admired his landlady for that since he's never seen a woman so graceful in his life, not even his own mother who was loud and careless. Kato-san still looked so young, and according to his neighbors (he didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he just happened to stumble across them gossiping) she was single, and she wasn’t even thirty yet. After hearing this, sometimes at night he would-- Ohno shook his head. This was not the time to be thinking like this!
The landlady smiled softly as she bowed at him and then gestured towards Nino. “Hello, Ohno-kun 2 . Who’s this?”
"Uh... He's Nino, a persocom."
Kato-san complimented Nino, mentioning how cute he was and Ohno couldn’t agree more, although he didn't say it out loud... He decided to stay a little longer so Nino could get to know the landlady more. It seems like they were getting along well, with the way they were interacting to casually and how Nino responded so well to every of the landlady’s question despite being unable to say anything but Nino.
“Well, we have to go now,” Ohno’s announced when he saw that Kato-san had nothing else to say. “We’ll be back by afternoon.”
“Bye!” The landlady waved as they walked from the building and into the streets. “It was nice meeting you Nino-chan3!”
“Nino!” The persocom waved back, a huge smile of his face.
When Ohno was sure they were out of the landlady sight, he cursed himself for answering too fast and even showed that he named his persocom. “I an an idiot!” Ohno furiously scratched his head, unaware that Nino was copying him. He didn’t want to give his landlady the wrong idea, and he’s pretty sure he already did. Then again, he couldn’t read minds…
Ohno took out the map from his back pocket, making sure that he was still in the right direction. “Sho-kun said it was just around the corner…”
“If I take a turn, then it will just be…” Ohno took a turn then stopped when he almost came in close contact with a huge wooden door. When Ohno walked back a few steps, he noticed that it was the only house in the street so he walked closer to the door, breathing and telling himself to calm down. But he couldn’t as he was going to meet someone rich and famous. “I’ve found it!” Ohno screamed at the majestic house before him, as if he had found treasure.
“This doesn’t feel right, though,” Ohno pushed a buzzer just beside the huge door. “Something about rich people makes me sick.”
“Yes, this is the Okamoto residence,” The intercom buzzed.
“I-I’m Ohno Satoshi,” he looked up at the camera hovering above the archway. “Umm, is Keito-san there?”
“Yes, please come in,” the intercom replied.
As soon as the intercom buzzed, the huge door opened, revealing a grand entrance towards the front door. Ohno felt like a celebrity as he walked on the red carpet leading to another entrance and fought the urge to pose on the walkway because there might be cameras. Instead, his eyes wandered to the scenery around him. To his right, he saw azaleas sitting around a maple tree, and a fountain with a butt-naked cupid standing in the middle. Then to his left, he saw a leisurely swinging bench and more maple tree was just behind it. This Okamoto Keito sure knew how to amaze his guests.
Once Ohno was on the front door step, he was about to knock when it suddenly opened by itself, revealing five female persocoms all lying down on a couch. It was as if they were waiting for him to arrive that all eyes were on him immediately. If this were a manga, Ohno’s nose would be bleeding by now. However, Ohno didn’t have the chance to react when the persocoms ran towards him and dragged him onto the floor. He could feel a touch here and there and Ohno couldn’t contain his excitement as he felt his lower half start to tense. But it didn’t last long when the persocoms released him, stood up, and left him alone on the floor. Was this some sick, perverted way to greet guests?!
“Don’t get a bloody nose because of my persocom assistants,” a boy about four-eleven walked towards Ohno and held out his hand. “Are you Ohno-san?”
“Y-yeah,” Ohno grabbed his hand and stood up as the boy pulled him up. After he took off his shoes and changed into the slippers, he eyed the suspicious boy. The boy seemed to have a cool air about him as if he wasn’t going to let anything faze him. Yet he seemed so boyish that his cool look didn’t fit at all. Was there something bothering the boy? “And you are…?”
“Okamoto Keito, pleased to meet you.”
Ohno’s eyes widened. “S-Sho told me to come here to meet someone who knows a lot about custom persocoms. You don’t look that old.”
Keito glared at Ohno coolly. “Middle school, first year. What about it?”
“I thought that-”
“Hpmh, no point in standing around talking. Follow me.”
Ohno nodded his head. Although the boy was way younger than him, he felt intimidated. After all, he was talking to a rich and famous person who knew more about persocoms than he did.
He followed Okamoto up the grand stairs and a bunch of hallway. He wondered how the student was able to find their way around because Ohno would be lost within this maze of a house. Still, it was a grand sight. Everything, from the floor to the ceiling was breath-taking. He felt as if he was in some movie set that took place in an English home, where everything seemed too precious to touch, or even look at for that matter.
They finally came to a stop in front of a door. It looked the same as the other doors they’ve passed, but he wondered why this was the only door at the end of the hall on the second floor. Was there something special about his particular room? When the door was opened, Ohno’s question was answered. On the far left side of the wall were nude persocoms hanging on the wall. Some were incomplete while most were almost finished. In the middle of the room, however, there stood a huge desk with some kind of huge screen on a wooden table, and there was a lounge area in front of it. Okamoto gestured the both of them to sit on the couches. “So,” Keito bent down so he was eye to eye with Nino. “This is the mysterious persocom Sakurai mentioned?”
Ohno nodded his head. He was glad that Sho told the student about Nino so he wouldn’t have to explain him everything.
“If he can move without an OS...” Keito continued, “then he just may be a Chobit.”
“a Chobit? What’s that?”
“ You don’t mind if I run a routine diagnostic on him?” Okamoto ignored him, his eyes glued to Nino.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Ohno had no idea what he said, but he was willing to offer anything to Okamoto as long as he could help him out.
Ohno was startled when the doors opened and the five persocoms from earlier came in. They sat on the couch beside them and Nino was asked to sit between them. After Okamoto hooked them into Nino’s ears, he nodded his head and the persocoms zoned out altogether. Five minutes had passed by and one by one, the persocoms passed out on top of Nino.
“What happened? All your maids just passed out! I thought you were just going to perform a routine diagnostic!” Ohno panicked, his eyes moving back and forth from Keito to Nino and the maids.
Keito sighed. “These units were incapable of processing her signals”
“B-but they’re four human-sized computers!”
“Would you like me to try, sir?” a sweet, yet gentle voice came from behind them.
The voice startled Ohno. When he turned around, he saw a girl taller than Chinen. She gave off a cool aura as she walked towards Nino, completely unfazed by the lifeless persocoms surround Nino. She reminded Ohno a bit of Okamoto, like how small their noses were and how they gave off the same aura, except the girl was more soft that Chinen. Were they siblings?
“I’m so sorry to disturb you, miss,” Ohno apologized and bowed. “My name’s Ohno Satoshi.”
The girl long, glossy lips curled into a smile. “Pleased to meet you too, Ohno-san. My name is Mirei.”
“So uh… You must be Okamoto-san’s sister, right?”
Mirei shook her head and answered, “I am a persocom constructed by Okamoto-sama.”
“What?!” Ohno snapped. “You don’t even look like it!” She didn’t seem like a persocom at all. She didn’t even have those noticeable ears! Then again, persocoms were built to look more and more like humans...
“I don’t know,” Okamoto said. “I don’t know if I can let you.”
Ohno turned his direction to Okamoto and noticed how his eyes look like they were a distant far away. His expression changed for the first time Ohno met him since his eyebrows were knit together like he was worried about something.
“You want to know what his abilities are, do you not?” Mirei asked him. She looked down and Ohno notices how Keito’s face seemed to droop down lower. He watched them in silence for awhile when Keito finally allowed her to do her work. He doesn’t know what was up with him, but depending on Keito’s expression, there must be something that happened between them.
A sound of zipping was made and Ohno snapped back to reality noticing how Mirei was taking out a wire from inside her locks of hair. She smiled as she plugged her wire into Nino’s ears and then told Nino that it was going to be OK. Ohno doubted that, though, since he was worried about the outcome for her.
It was only a matter of seconds when Mirei started frowning. Her eyelids were slowly closing so her eyes were almost barely visible, her body was slowly falling down when her eyes snapped open again and she jolted from her seat.
“Is…is that supposed to happen?” Ohno frowned. He wanted to tell them to stop, but Okamoto was too focused on what was happened with them.
But Keito ignored him as he ran to Mirei’s side, who had collapsed on the floor, and demanded her to disconnect.
Mirei held unto Keito as if she panted. “A portion of my data has crashed.”
“Which data?” Keito asked right away.
“Non-essential functions--housekeeping, accounting…”
The boy whispered something to Mirei, but Ohno couldn’t hear him. Then he brought a hand up to her cheek. “But your personality data is safe?”
“Yes.”
The kid seems to have a unique relationship with this unit. I wonder what’s so special about her…
“Nino?” The persocom finally spoke.
“Oh and what about Nino? Was he damaged too?” Ohno held onto Nino when the persocom turned his attention towards him.
“Is Nino his name?” Mirei looked up from Keito with a weak smile on her face.
“Uh…yeah.” Ohno could feel Nino’s arms snaking around his waist, obviously copying the scene that just happened.
“Don’t worry,” she smiled, “Nino was unaffected in our exchange.”
“Is it because there’s no data to crash? No OS or anything?”
“Your assumption is incorrect,” Mirei looks down, her smile gone. “He most certainly has data. In fact, his software was way beyond what I was programmed with.”
Ohno heard faint bells ringing on the back of his head. It was a good sound and hearing this news relieved him. “So, he’s not dumb?”
“But I cannot access it,” she continued. “There are many elaborate firewalls. Her data is encrypted.”
The faint sound of bells that echoed in his mind became a horrible sound and his head couldn’t take it anymore. “What?!”
He couldn’t understand any of this. What were firewalls4? What data? Didn’t the screen say that Nino didn’t have any at all?! Then again, he found Nino in the trash and there wasn’t anything attached to Nino when he claimed the persocom as his own.
\\\♥///
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ohno sipped ice cold tea from the glass of tea that Mirei gave him. He was feeling guilty for causing such a ruckus to Keito’s persocom, and he didn’t know if they were all doing fine.
“I’m quite fine, Ohno-san. My master reconfigured me.”
“But I thought your data was fried?”
“Master Okamoto backs up my memory everyday so it is simple enough to reinstall,” she explained.
Ohno nodded his head and understood the reason why the persocom seemed fine after.
“That way, if there is an accident such as this, very little is lost.”
Ohno nodded his head again, understanding how simple it sounded coming from a persocom. He took note of this in his memory, too, to back up Nino’s data just in case if some “accident” occurred. While taking another sip from his glass, Ohno turns his direction back to the silent person sitting in front of him and noticed how Keito was making the same face when Mirei interrupted them. There he goes again. That long, sad face. What happened to this kid?
“Yes?” Keito looked at him, his expression changed to the one before.
“No-nothin’,”Ohno stuttered. He looked down on his hands and it became quiet after awhile. Just then, Ohno remembered what Keito had called Nino.
“Oh yeah!” Ohno’s head snapped back up. “When you were looking at Nino before, you mentioned that he maybe a Chobit. What’s a chobit?”
Keito leans back in his chair and sighs. He dipped his finger in his glass of iced tea and wrote the word Chobits on the table.
“Chobits,” he began. “Computers of Legend. There’s a rumor circulating on the internet about a powerful new model of persocom with the codename chobits.”
“What’s so special ‘bout that, Okamoto-san?” Ohno stood up from his chair causing it to skid back a little.
“You may call me Keito,” he sipped from his glass. “Chobits are said to be artificial intelligences, capable of thinking and acting on their own.”
Ohno then remembered about another persocom the way Keito put it. “Isn’t Mirei like that too? She thought of checking Nino’s abilities on her own awhile ago.”
“Alas, no. Mirei only does what I’ve programmed her to do. She determines the best course of action in any situation based on her programming. Her programming may be more elaborate but she is still not capable of thinking herself. I created a self-teaching program for her. Everyday, she adds new options to her database. But in the end, everything she does is based on that program. And if that program should crash, Mirei would cease to function. But the chobits are different. They’re not reliant on outside programming.”
“So he’s that powerful?!” Ohno slams his hands on the table. “You mean to say Nino is an AI5?” When he was talking to Sho about persocoms once, he remembered Sho mentioning AI. Being the tech-deficient he was, he asked Sho what an AI was. Sho said that it stood for artificial intelligence, intelligence exhibited by machine or software, and he also mentioned how AIs were of legend since creating a persocom that could function on its own was nearly impossible.
“Yes, well… There’s really no evidence. It’s probably just an urban legend.”
“Aw, man!” Ohno hits his head on the table. “How could you lead me on like that?!”
\\\♥///
Ohno decided it was best to call it quits for today. He was glad that Chinen and Mirei walked him out because he was afraid that me might get lost in the mansion. Once he was at the entrance yet again, he slipped his shoes back on whilst Nino did the same. However, as he was putting his shoes on, Okamoto’s words about the urban legend loomed over him.
“What are you so upset about?” Keito asked him.
“I’m not upset! I just feel like an idiot!”
“Well, here is my dream,” Keito expressed with his hand opening wide. “I dream of a time when humanoid computers can think and act on their own. When the line between man and persocom becomes indistinguishable. Ohno-san, have you considered that whoever built her might come to get her back?”
Ohno paused for a good second and thought about it. However, there was no way that what Chinen had said was true. Besides, if Nino was in the trash then they really had a real and permanent reason to throw him away. “No way! If some laboratory comes for Nino, they’re gonna have to go through me! I rescued him from that trash heap!”
“Right on!” Keito gave him a thumbs up.
“Yes!” Ohno fists pumps the air. “This is what men live for!!”
It felt better that someone could help Ohno at the least. If it weren’t for Sho, he would have no one to turn to except for curious owners or people who would do anything to get their hands on a persocom, especially Nino because he was so special. And if it weren’t for the genius Okamoto Keito that Sho introduced, Ohno wouldn’t have someone to ask about Nino.
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A/N: OMG, they fixed LJ posts. I'm so happy, YAY!
Well, sorry for not posting soon, school got the better of me and my sister's been hogging the computer.
Comments are loved!
1: a Japanese honorific used to address anyone in respect and is used between equals of any age. lit. can stand for Mr.; Miss; or Mrs. A person cannot simply address himself or herself with -san because it’s not necessary and it’s just awkwardly wrong.
2: a japanese honorific used to address or refer to male children or male teenagers, or among male friends. However, it can be used for any gender as long as they are a personal friend or family member. In business settings, young female employees are addressed in this way as well by older males of senior status. Male teachers address their female student in this way as well.
3: a Japanese honorific used to address babies. young children, grandparents and teenagers. Used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, youthful women, or between friends. This honorific cannot be used towards a superior because it is seemed as a rude action.
4: a software program or hardware device that restricts communication between a private network or computer system and outside networks
5: Artificial Intelligence. Sho explained it, yo!