"A what?" you said, not understanding.
Suddenly, Hotaru raised her right and at you, and it shot off her hand, which landed right in the center of your chest, hanging by your clothes as it forms an iron grip on your jumpsuit.
"Yes! Launch mechanism works," Hotaru said. Her hand was now connected to her arm all the way across the room by a thin wire. She strums the wire with her other hand. "Connection tether seems secure too. Testing connection now," Hotaru says. You feel and see her fingers tightening and loosening on your clothes. "No latency, connection and control is good. Now for the final feature. Retracting!"
"Wait, did you do all this just for like...a grappling hook?" you asked.
"No!...Well okay, yeah. But this is really useful. Instead of getting up and going across the room to get stuff, I can just shoot my hand at it and pull it to me. For instance, I can pull you towards me, so I can knock that unimpressed mug off your face."
"Wait, what?"
Hotaru reaches into her right arm and pulls a switch. You hear the sound of wire healing in like a fishing line or measuring tape. Then you feel a tug on your jumpsuit from the hand, followed immediately by the release of that tug and the sound of a loud ripping sound. Once it's done, Hotaru's hand is back on her wrist, but contrary to what she claimed, you're still in place. However she is now holding a torn up gray jumpsuit in her hand now and has a shocked look on her metal face. You look down and see your now fully exposed chest. Without thinking, you scream and cover yourself up.
"AAH!" you yell.
"Oh fuck! I- I-" Hotaru stammers, dropping your ruined jumpsuit. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"
Your face was red as a tomato now. You always enjoyed excuses for women to get stripped naked in anime, but you never thought you'd be victim to one such instance. You felt a bit of instinctual outrage at the sudden stripping, but if anime has taught you anything, this was an accident, and you should at least be understanding of that. Also you shouldn't take life lessons from anime. "I-it's okay," you say softly. "Ac-accidents happen I guess."
Hotaru, still looking guilty, went over to a chest and opened it up. She pulled out a uniform like yours. "Here. Put on my uniform."
"B-but what about you?"
"It's fine. I'm a robot. I don't have anything to hide. Well...not as much as you anyway."
"Th-thanks," you say, taking the jumpsuit from her. You up it on and it feels a little snug on your body after you fully zip it.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," Hotaru says bowing.
"Really it's fine, Hotaru," you said. You said it more genuinely this time, feeling bad about making the girl apologize so much. "At least we know your arm thingy--?"
"I swear I'm not defective!"
"W-what?" You notice that Hotaru was crying. You were surprised both by the fact she could cry as a robot and the fact she was upset by something about being defective.
"I'm not defective. Please don't send report me," Hotaru begged on her knees.
"Hotaru please, stop," you said grabbing Hotaru's head and turning her face to yours. "What the heck are you talking about?"
"Y-you're not gonna report me to the DRR?"
"What's the DRR?"
"The...Department of Robot Regulation?" Hotaru said, her despair replaced by confusion. Probably over how you don't know this basic information.
"I-" you realized you needed to improvise. "Forget them. I'd never report you to them. Especially over such a dumb accident."
"Really? Oh, thank you," Hotaru said relieved. She wiped her artificial tears. Artificial as in she's artificial. The emotion behind them was real.
"What's the... situation with the DRR and you anyway?" you asked, trying to avoid sounding ignorant of the subject.
Hotaru stands up. "Well...you know about the 10 strikes system?"
"Uhh...could you remind me of the details?"
"Basically, since robots are manufactured instead of born, the government ruled that we can have 'defects,' either accidental or intentional, that could have us act out. So if a robot is deemed too 'defective' to function in proper society on her own, then she has to either get scrapped or put back under the possession of an owner. This happens when a robot is reported 10 times as defective to the DRR."
Holy cow that sounded like a dystopian system. Either death or servitude? Again even? No wonder she was so freaked out. "Hey even if I did report you, you got nothing to worry about. I'm sure you got plenty of strikes left, right?"
Hotaru bit her lip in nervousness.
"Uh...how many strikes do you have?"
"...nine," Hotaru said.
"Oh. So you only have one more," you said worried.
"That's why I do all my tinkering way out here. Whenever I build something and hits someone's car or head, or if they just didn't know what I was doing, they'd report me, until eventually I got nine. I got the last one just a month ago. I love tinkering and I love working on machines. But if I screw up one more time, I'm done for."
You paused as you thought about what to say. Usually conversations like this didn't happen until later, but you still tried to make a good response. "Well don't worry. I wouldn't report you even if you ejected me into space."
"Tihi. I think you'd have a hard time doing that from space."
"Still though. I wouldn't want to see you scrapped or whatever."
"Really?" Hotaru said surprised.
"Yeah. You're really fun to be with."
"But, we only met an hour ago."
"Alright, then I wouldn't want myself to be torn apart because of some accidents. So I won't subject you to that. That sound good?"
"Wow...Thanks Shujiko. It's been a long time since I've met an organic that saw me like that."
Hotaru suddenly hugged you, which you accepted and returned.
Hotaru broke the hug first. "Also, if you tell anyone you saw me crying, I'll beat you to a pulp," she threatened.
"Oh hey, I might have to report you for that."
"Wait, what?"
"Just to see you crying again," you teased.
"Shut up!" Hotaru then dragged you out of your shed.
"Hey, I was joking!" you said, gritting at the pain in your arm.
Once you were out, Hotaru locked the shed behind her. "Well, I gotta head out. Can I...see you one Friday?" Hotaru asked.
"Sure thing. You wanna tinker on yourself again?"
"Maybe. Although if you just wanna feel up my body, we don't need to do any tinkering," Hotaru flirted.
"Hehe, I'll hold you to that," you said, excitedly
The two of you went your separate ways, you feeling accomplished at the successful encounter.
Suddenly, Hotaru raised her right and at you, and it shot off her hand, which landed right in the center of your chest, hanging by your clothes as it forms an iron grip on your jumpsuit.
"Yes! Launch mechanism works," Hotaru said. Her hand was now connected to her arm all the way across the room by a thin wire. She strums the wire with her other hand. "Connection tether seems secure too. Testing connection now," Hotaru says. You feel and see her fingers tightening and loosening on your clothes. "No latency, connection and control is good. Now for the final feature. Retracting!"
"Wait, did you do all this just for like...a grappling hook?" you asked.
"No!...Well okay, yeah. But this is really useful. Instead of getting up and going across the room to get stuff, I can just shoot my hand at it and pull it to me. For instance, I can pull you towards me, so I can knock that unimpressed mug off your face."
"Wait, what?"
Hotaru reaches into her right arm and pulls a switch. You hear the sound of wire healing in like a fishing line or measuring tape. Then you feel a tug on your jumpsuit from the hand, followed immediately by the release of that tug and the sound of a loud ripping sound. Once it's done, Hotaru's hand is back on her wrist, but contrary to what she claimed, you're still in place. However she is now holding a torn up gray jumpsuit in her hand now and has a shocked look on her metal face. You look down and see your now fully exposed chest. Without thinking, you scream and cover yourself up.
"AAH!" you yell.
"Oh fuck! I- I-" Hotaru stammers, dropping your ruined jumpsuit. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"
Your face was red as a tomato now. You always enjoyed excuses for women to get stripped naked in anime, but you never thought you'd be victim to one such instance. You felt a bit of instinctual outrage at the sudden stripping, but if anime has taught you anything, this was an accident, and you should at least be understanding of that. Also you shouldn't take life lessons from anime. "I-it's okay," you say softly. "Ac-accidents happen I guess."
Hotaru, still looking guilty, went over to a chest and opened it up. She pulled out a uniform like yours. "Here. Put on my uniform."
"B-but what about you?"
"It's fine. I'm a robot. I don't have anything to hide. Well...not as much as you anyway."
"Th-thanks," you say, taking the jumpsuit from her. You up it on and it feels a little snug on your body after you fully zip it.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," Hotaru says bowing.
"Really it's fine, Hotaru," you said. You said it more genuinely this time, feeling bad about making the girl apologize so much. "At least we know your arm thingy--?"
"I swear I'm not defective!"
"W-what?" You notice that Hotaru was crying. You were surprised both by the fact she could cry as a robot and the fact she was upset by something about being defective.
"I'm not defective. Please don't send report me," Hotaru begged on her knees.
"Hotaru please, stop," you said grabbing Hotaru's head and turning her face to yours. "What the heck are you talking about?"
"Y-you're not gonna report me to the DRR?"
"What's the DRR?"
"The...Department of Robot Regulation?" Hotaru said, her despair replaced by confusion. Probably over how you don't know this basic information.
"I-" you realized you needed to improvise. "Forget them. I'd never report you to them. Especially over such a dumb accident."
"Really? Oh, thank you," Hotaru said relieved. She wiped her artificial tears. Artificial as in she's artificial. The emotion behind them was real.
"What's the... situation with the DRR and you anyway?" you asked, trying to avoid sounding ignorant of the subject.
Hotaru stands up. "Well...you know about the 10 strikes system?"
"Uhh...could you remind me of the details?"
"Basically, since robots are manufactured instead of born, the government ruled that we can have 'defects,' either accidental or intentional, that could have us act out. So if a robot is deemed too 'defective' to function in proper society on her own, then she has to either get scrapped or put back under the possession of an owner. This happens when a robot is reported 10 times as defective to the DRR."
Holy cow that sounded like a dystopian system. Either death or servitude? Again even? No wonder she was so freaked out. "Hey even if I did report you, you got nothing to worry about. I'm sure you got plenty of strikes left, right?"
Hotaru bit her lip in nervousness.
"Uh...how many strikes do you have?"
"...nine," Hotaru said.
"Oh. So you only have one more," you said worried.
"That's why I do all my tinkering way out here. Whenever I build something and hits someone's car or head, or if they just didn't know what I was doing, they'd report me, until eventually I got nine. I got the last one just a month ago. I love tinkering and I love working on machines. But if I screw up one more time, I'm done for."
You paused as you thought about what to say. Usually conversations like this didn't happen until later, but you still tried to make a good response. "Well don't worry. I wouldn't report you even if you ejected me into space."
"Tihi. I think you'd have a hard time doing that from space."
"Still though. I wouldn't want to see you scrapped or whatever."
"Really?" Hotaru said surprised.
"Yeah. You're really fun to be with."
"But, we only met an hour ago."
"Alright, then I wouldn't want myself to be torn apart because of some accidents. So I won't subject you to that. That sound good?"
"Wow...Thanks Shujiko. It's been a long time since I've met an organic that saw me like that."
Hotaru suddenly hugged you, which you accepted and returned.
Hotaru broke the hug first. "Also, if you tell anyone you saw me crying, I'll beat you to a pulp," she threatened.
"Oh hey, I might have to report you for that."
"Wait, what?"
"Just to see you crying again," you teased.
"Shut up!" Hotaru then dragged you out of your shed.
"Hey, I was joking!" you said, gritting at the pain in your arm.
Once you were out, Hotaru locked the shed behind her. "Well, I gotta head out. Can I...see you one Friday?" Hotaru asked.
"Sure thing. You wanna tinker on yourself again?"
"Maybe. Although if you just wanna feel up my body, we don't need to do any tinkering," Hotaru flirted.
"Hehe, I'll hold you to that," you said, excitedly
The two of you went your separate ways, you feeling accomplished at the successful encounter.
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March 23
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