There were hundreds of robots all around you. Some were big as a house, some were a fourth your height. Some looked uncannily humanoid, some looked absolutely alien. And one looked quite a bit like Hotaru.
“Wait, is that her?” You ran up to the deactivated robot.
“Wait, really? You found her already?” Ai said surprised. She walked up behind you.
“I-I think this is her.” Something about her seemed different though.
“Are you sure?”
“L-let’s turn her on to make sure.” You remembered the button Hotaru showed you in one of your tinkering dates with her, the one that would activate and reactivate her as needed.
Once you did. “No gniog s'tahw? Huh ,tiaw! Em etavitcaed t'nod-”
The robot seemed to blurt random gibberish. “Uh, what’s wrong with Hotaru?”
You sighed. “Nothing. This isn’t her.” Now that your doubts were confirmed, you could see that her eyes were a different color and her batteries were smaller, subtle differences you didn’t notice in your excitement, or ignored in your desperation.
“Sorry, Shujiko. But Hotaru’s still a robot. This is probably just the same model as her. But one that’s actually defective.”
“-Eno wen a teg tsuj dluoc I fI. Nekorb tsuj si redoc egaugnal ym! Evitcefed ton m'I”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” you say disappointed.
“And what do you think are the benefits of running the facility with an android not a human?” Kiyoko asked.
“Why the answer is simple-” Sonya got an alert. “Oh excuse me.” She turned to the direction where you and Ai went.
“Woah, wait, where’re you going? I got so many more questions to ask.”
“Sorry. But I must address the fact that your two clubmates have activated a robot scheduled for decommission.”
What? Already? Even if they did find Hotaru, the fact that she could detect it meant that they were going off plan. “L-let me call them. You know how college students are? I’ll handle them.”
Sonya was silent but she allowed Kiyoko the chance to correct her ‘clubmates’’ mistake.
She pressed into her ear piece.
You heard a beep in your ear. You were confused until Ai pressed her finger near her ear, reminding you to do the same thing. “Kiyoko?”
“Hey girls. I know you’re super excited for your first club outing and all. But we’re still guests here, so I recommend you behave yourselves and not touch anything.”
“What? But I thought the whole plan was to access the facility’s-”
“Sonya here has detected that robot you activated,” Kiyoko said, trying to both hide and show the urgency in her voice. “So before you get us all in trouble, I ask you to turn it back off.” Kiyoko looked back at the android. “Like she told us, remember?”
“Uh… Okay.” You turned off your earpiece. “Sorry about this. I’ll turn you back off now.”
“Em evig tsuj! Uratoh wen ruoy eb ll'I! On, tiawwww…” The defective robot powered down, looking just as dead as it did before.
“Sorry, Kiyoko. I thought I saw Hotaru and-”
“It’s okay, It’s okay. Just keep behaving, like you’re supposed to, and go back to doing your ‘job’... as a journalist, okay? Good.” Kiyoko hung up. “Sorry about that, Sonya. Won’t happen again.”
“Not a problem, Ms. Kiyoko. You keep good control over your clubmates, although I prefer more ‘blunt’ means of enforcing discipline.” As she said that, Sonya turned her hip to show her whip.
“Why does an android need a whip to control robots?” Kiyoko accidentally asked outloud.
“Ah, why that’s quite simple. You see…”
With that distraction out of the way, you and Ai finally were able to find a maintenance terminal.
“Alright, where do we insert this thing?” you asked.
“Right here,” Ai said, finding the insert slot almost immediately. As she slid the floppy disk in, you went ahead and contacted Ayano.
“Hey Ayano, we installed your disk. Are you ready?... Ayano?”
“Hm? Sorry. I’m fighting a Crusader. What was that?”
“We installed your floppy disk. Now what?”
“It should be running now. Hold on, let me tab out.” You and Ai heard a variety of keyboard beeps and gamer girl grunts over the next couple minutes. “Okay, I have access.”
“Yes!” you said silently.
“Victory,” Ai said prematurely.
“Can you find Hotaru?”
“Yes, I see her. She’s on shelf 2B.”
2B? You looked behind you. That was the shelf you were next to! “It’s right here. That’s so convenient.”
“You’re right next to the shelf? Well Hotaru should just be on the edge. Palette R0-58, second one on the right side to you.”
You ran to where she said. And just as she said, right behind a big mecha robot, you saw the familiar Hotar-U model. You even recognize the various modifications she had compared to the other one you saw.
“Hotaru,” you said, tearing up. “I made it.”
Suddenly the entire shelf raised into the air, with loud mechanical whines at every movement. It had been picked up by a crane arm attached to the high ceiling. The crane carried the shelf along its rails out of the room into the walls that had opened for it and closed behind it.
“Hotaru!”
“Ayano, what just happened?” Ai said.
“Oh. Whoops. It seemed like that entire shelf was the next one on the queue to be recycled. The previous one just finished, now it’s their turn.”
“Y-You mean we’re too late?”
“No! The victor is not victorious until the vanquished consider themselves so!” Ai yelled. “Ayano, can you open the door to where Hotaru was taken?”
“You mean to the Dismantlement line? Sure, but it’ll attract attention.”
“Then we must be quick.”
“What’re you planning, Ai?” you asked.
“We are going after her. We are going to save Hotaru before she falls victim to the recycling process.”
“But what about Kiyoko and Sonya?”
“There’s no time. If we allow Sonya to take us with her tour, it could be too late. We’ll have to rely on Kiyoko to keep her distracted.”
“I… Okay. I have faith in her. And in you Ai.”
Ai nodded confidently.
“Okay, the door is about to open.” Ayano said.
Ai turned her back to you and bent down. “Hop on.”
Without hesitation, you jump on your girlfriend, riding her as she climbed the top of the shelves and jumped through the large doors that opened and closed for her.
“Hm?” Sonya definitely noticed the door to the Dismantling chamber open but none of the shelves going in or out.
“Um, Sonya? I asked you about the pollution levels of the facility,” Kiyoko said, trying to get her attention back.
“Let me ask you a better question.”
“Better than one about Martian environmental concerns? My, how suspicious,” Kiyoko said, trying to avoid looking suspicious.
“Yes. How come none of the security footage shows your clubmates actually taking any pictures of the warehouse?”
“Pictures?” As soon as she said that, Kiyoko realized her mistake.
Sonya raised her eyebrow. “Your clubmates are also spending a lot of time near an important maintenance terminal. Well, according to the security feed.”
Kiyoka was getting backed into a corner. She needed to think of something fast. “Well us, they’re just uh… finding out… what product do you use to keep your skin smooth?” She knew how bad that sounded but still said it anyway.
Sonya was silent for an uncomfortably long amount of time. “How do I keep my synth skin smooth? Why it should be obvious. My synth skin doesn’t need product to maintain its smoothness.”
Kiyoko sighed. Even with the android’s advanced tech, she’s still a machine bound to routine and algorithm. Hopefully you and Ai could finish what you were doing before she broke out of it.
“Wait, is that her?” You ran up to the deactivated robot.
“Wait, really? You found her already?” Ai said surprised. She walked up behind you.
“I-I think this is her.” Something about her seemed different though.
“Are you sure?”
“L-let’s turn her on to make sure.” You remembered the button Hotaru showed you in one of your tinkering dates with her, the one that would activate and reactivate her as needed.
Once you did. “No gniog s'tahw? Huh ,tiaw! Em etavitcaed t'nod-”
The robot seemed to blurt random gibberish. “Uh, what’s wrong with Hotaru?”
You sighed. “Nothing. This isn’t her.” Now that your doubts were confirmed, you could see that her eyes were a different color and her batteries were smaller, subtle differences you didn’t notice in your excitement, or ignored in your desperation.
“Sorry, Shujiko. But Hotaru’s still a robot. This is probably just the same model as her. But one that’s actually defective.”
“-Eno wen a teg tsuj dluoc I fI. Nekorb tsuj si redoc egaugnal ym! Evitcefed ton m'I”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” you say disappointed.
“And what do you think are the benefits of running the facility with an android not a human?” Kiyoko asked.
“Why the answer is simple-” Sonya got an alert. “Oh excuse me.” She turned to the direction where you and Ai went.
“Woah, wait, where’re you going? I got so many more questions to ask.”
“Sorry. But I must address the fact that your two clubmates have activated a robot scheduled for decommission.”
What? Already? Even if they did find Hotaru, the fact that she could detect it meant that they were going off plan. “L-let me call them. You know how college students are? I’ll handle them.”
Sonya was silent but she allowed Kiyoko the chance to correct her ‘clubmates’’ mistake.
She pressed into her ear piece.
You heard a beep in your ear. You were confused until Ai pressed her finger near her ear, reminding you to do the same thing. “Kiyoko?”
“Hey girls. I know you’re super excited for your first club outing and all. But we’re still guests here, so I recommend you behave yourselves and not touch anything.”
“What? But I thought the whole plan was to access the facility’s-”
“Sonya here has detected that robot you activated,” Kiyoko said, trying to both hide and show the urgency in her voice. “So before you get us all in trouble, I ask you to turn it back off.” Kiyoko looked back at the android. “Like she told us, remember?”
“Uh… Okay.” You turned off your earpiece. “Sorry about this. I’ll turn you back off now.”
“Em evig tsuj! Uratoh wen ruoy eb ll'I! On, tiawwww…” The defective robot powered down, looking just as dead as it did before.
“Sorry, Kiyoko. I thought I saw Hotaru and-”
“It’s okay, It’s okay. Just keep behaving, like you’re supposed to, and go back to doing your ‘job’... as a journalist, okay? Good.” Kiyoko hung up. “Sorry about that, Sonya. Won’t happen again.”
“Not a problem, Ms. Kiyoko. You keep good control over your clubmates, although I prefer more ‘blunt’ means of enforcing discipline.” As she said that, Sonya turned her hip to show her whip.
“Why does an android need a whip to control robots?” Kiyoko accidentally asked outloud.
“Ah, why that’s quite simple. You see…”
With that distraction out of the way, you and Ai finally were able to find a maintenance terminal.
“Alright, where do we insert this thing?” you asked.
“Right here,” Ai said, finding the insert slot almost immediately. As she slid the floppy disk in, you went ahead and contacted Ayano.
“Hey Ayano, we installed your disk. Are you ready?... Ayano?”
“Hm? Sorry. I’m fighting a Crusader. What was that?”
“We installed your floppy disk. Now what?”
“It should be running now. Hold on, let me tab out.” You and Ai heard a variety of keyboard beeps and gamer girl grunts over the next couple minutes. “Okay, I have access.”
“Yes!” you said silently.
“Victory,” Ai said prematurely.
“Can you find Hotaru?”
“Yes, I see her. She’s on shelf 2B.”
2B? You looked behind you. That was the shelf you were next to! “It’s right here. That’s so convenient.”
“You’re right next to the shelf? Well Hotaru should just be on the edge. Palette R0-58, second one on the right side to you.”
You ran to where she said. And just as she said, right behind a big mecha robot, you saw the familiar Hotar-U model. You even recognize the various modifications she had compared to the other one you saw.
“Hotaru,” you said, tearing up. “I made it.”
Suddenly the entire shelf raised into the air, with loud mechanical whines at every movement. It had been picked up by a crane arm attached to the high ceiling. The crane carried the shelf along its rails out of the room into the walls that had opened for it and closed behind it.
“Hotaru!”
“Ayano, what just happened?” Ai said.
“Oh. Whoops. It seemed like that entire shelf was the next one on the queue to be recycled. The previous one just finished, now it’s their turn.”
“Y-You mean we’re too late?”
“No! The victor is not victorious until the vanquished consider themselves so!” Ai yelled. “Ayano, can you open the door to where Hotaru was taken?”
“You mean to the Dismantlement line? Sure, but it’ll attract attention.”
“Then we must be quick.”
“What’re you planning, Ai?” you asked.
“We are going after her. We are going to save Hotaru before she falls victim to the recycling process.”
“But what about Kiyoko and Sonya?”
“There’s no time. If we allow Sonya to take us with her tour, it could be too late. We’ll have to rely on Kiyoko to keep her distracted.”
“I… Okay. I have faith in her. And in you Ai.”
Ai nodded confidently.
“Okay, the door is about to open.” Ayano said.
Ai turned her back to you and bent down. “Hop on.”
Without hesitation, you jump on your girlfriend, riding her as she climbed the top of the shelves and jumped through the large doors that opened and closed for her.
“Hm?” Sonya definitely noticed the door to the Dismantling chamber open but none of the shelves going in or out.
“Um, Sonya? I asked you about the pollution levels of the facility,” Kiyoko said, trying to get her attention back.
“Let me ask you a better question.”
“Better than one about Martian environmental concerns? My, how suspicious,” Kiyoko said, trying to avoid looking suspicious.
“Yes. How come none of the security footage shows your clubmates actually taking any pictures of the warehouse?”
“Pictures?” As soon as she said that, Kiyoko realized her mistake.
Sonya raised her eyebrow. “Your clubmates are also spending a lot of time near an important maintenance terminal. Well, according to the security feed.”
Kiyoka was getting backed into a corner. She needed to think of something fast. “Well us, they’re just uh… finding out… what product do you use to keep your skin smooth?” She knew how bad that sounded but still said it anyway.
Sonya was silent for an uncomfortably long amount of time. “How do I keep my synth skin smooth? Why it should be obvious. My synth skin doesn’t need product to maintain its smoothness.”
Kiyoko sighed. Even with the android’s advanced tech, she’s still a machine bound to routine and algorithm. Hopefully you and Ai could finish what you were doing before she broke out of it.
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March 23
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