Hey. It's been a while.
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Chapter 5 - Lost data
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After a long and hectic night, the girls decided to retire to bed. Sakura stared at the ceiling as she couldn’t forget the ordeal that just happened. On top of Nana temporarily going rogue, more mystery began to accumulate around the ANGEL Jurina.
“My prime directive is to protect you.”
“Silly. My ‘prime directive’ is to be your sister!”She sighed, turning to the side in her bed. The sudden personality switching Jurina had been experiencing was making Sakura question which one was the real Jurina.
“Jurina… just who are you really?”
Meanwhile, Jurina was finishing up cleaning the apartment while Nana and Anna just relaxed. Nana, however, couldn’t let go of the thought of her being hacked and turned into a rogue.
“Nana, it’s okay,” Anna said. “Jurina said she made sure you didn’t hurt anyone.”
“Yeah, but… How can she be so sure?” Nana looked over at Jurina, who stretched her arms with a smile. “Jurina… she’s said some strange things to me before.”
“Like what?”
“She said… she was alive.”
Anna’s eyebrows furrowed. “Alive?”
“Yes. And she said I was too. I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant by that.”
“Does she think she’s human?”
Nana shook her head. “I don’t think that’s the case. She’s aware that she’s an ANGEL. But, maybe she thinks of herself differently. As more than just a machine.”
“Do you think it’s because she was programmed with human memories?”
“Perhaps.”
“Nana~ Annin~” Jurina walked over to the two. “I’m done cleaning, so what do you guys wanna do now?”
“Um… I don’t think there’s much else to do.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right. Well then, I’ll just go to sleep then,” Jurina grabbed a blanket from the couch. “Where are you two going to sleep?”
“We’ll just sleep on the couch.”
“Alrighty then,” Jurina wrapped the blanket around herself. “Good night.”
She sat up against the wall, closing her eyes. Nana and Anna grabbed their own blankets and laid against the couch.
As they closed their eyes, they started to shut their systems off, until Nana heard something.
“Sakura…”
She opened one of her eyes and saw Jurina was talking in her sleep.
“Sakura… protect.. Sakura… I promise… uncle Shinjiro…”
“Eh? Shinjiro? Sakura’s uncle?”Jurina adjusted her position, a soft sigh escaping her lips. Brushing off the sleep-talking she had just heard from her, Nana closed her eyes again as she switched into Sleep mode.
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The next day...After breakfast, the girls hurried to the train station to get to school. Once they got to their classroom, they heard excited and curious voices from the students.
“A transfer student? Is that so?”
“Yeah. I heard she used to go to a school in Sakae.”
“I wonder why she transferred here. I heard that some of the schools in Sakae were some of the best in the country.”
“A transfer student, huh?” Naanya said. “That’s interesting.”
“Yeah, I wonder what’s up with that. We rarely get transfer students during the middle of the year,” Mako said.
Soon the teacher came in, with a young girl following behind her.
“Alright, class, starting today, we have a new student.”
“Kitagawa Ryouha desu,” the girl greeted, bowing.
“Kitagawa-san has moved to Tokyo due to her father’s work. She’s still adjusting to her new surroundings, so please make her feel welcome.”
“Hai~”
The teacher looked around for an empty seat and saw one next to Mako and guided Ryouha to sit there. She took her seat down, she smiled at Mako, who smiled back.
“Nice to meet you, Kitagawa-san.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Class then began with homeroom, which was English class. It was Yuria’s least favorite class, since she wasn’t good at English. Ryouha, on the other hand, only concentrated on the tasks she was given and completed the with some ease.
“Kizaki-san, could you read the sentences from page 38?”
“Ah, crap…” she whispered as she stood up. “Um… Pu-pureezu… h-hando mi zaa…”
A few students snickered as Yuria tried to pronounce the words. Yuria kept trying until the teacher cleared her throat, signaling her to stop.
“That will be fine for now, Kizaki-san.”
“Hai…” Yuria sulked as she sat back down.
“Alright, Kitagawa-san. Why don’t you try?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ryouha stood up, looking at the sentences. “
Please hand me the pencil.”
“Oooh~” A bunch of her classmates exclaimed, impressed by her pronunciation.
“
Do you have a spare one?”
“Ooooh~”
“S-she’s good,” Yuria said, surprised. “She’s really good.”
“
Would you like to copy my notes?”
The teacher smiled. “
Very good. Well done, Kitagawa-san.”
“Thank you,” Ryouha bowed respectfully and sat back down.
“Maybe I should get her to tutor me…” Yuria thought, placing a hand on her chin.
The next class was math. The teacher put out a few equations for the students to try and solve. Haruka was called up to the board to try and solve one of them.
Haruka placed the tip of the pen on the whiteboard, trying to figure out the equation. She leaned her head against the board, a frustrated sigh leaving her.
“Kitagawa-san, why don’t you come up and help Kodama-san solve this problem?”
“Yes, sir.”
Ryouha walked up to the board, taking another pen and started writing out a method that will help her solve the equation. She wrote down the answer at what seemed like lightning speed to Haruppi.
“Woah, woah, how can she do something this complicated?!”Even the teacher stared amazed as she completed the equation with ease. She then set down the pen and went back to her seat, Haruppi left standing shocked.
“She must be some sort of genius!”After math and history class passed, it was time for P.E., so everyone got changed into their P.E. uniforms and headed to the gym.
“Race ya guys!” Yuria said with a giggle.
“Hold up, Yuria!”
As they were running off, Ryouha looked at her Holo-watch and turned on Nagi.
“How’s everything going so far?” Nagi asked cheerfully.
“Good, so far. Nobody suspects anything about me. Once classes are over, I’ll be heading out to investigate the scene and see if I can get any information on the case.”
“Alrighty.”“Kitagawa-san, hurry up!” Sakura said as she and Mako made their way down the hall.
“Coming!”
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While waiting for Mako, Nana decided to do some research on Sakura’s uncle, Shinjiro. She accessed the Internet and typed in Shinjiro’s name.
She found some links of some news articles related to Shinjiro and an ANGEL project. The project was under the codename “Guardian ANGELs” and had several other people listed. Scientists, mechanics, programmers, all sorts of people.
“So Sakura’s uncle was involved with this… Could Jurina have some sort of connection?”
She decided to search up Jurina’s name, but found no links relating her with the project. She tried typing in Jurina’s model number, but again, no results came up.
“Was she a secret project?” she thought.
As she looked at the screen, she thought back to what had happened last night.
“My prime directive is to be your sister!”“Sister..?” With those words in mind, she cleared the search box and typed in “Miyawaki Jurina”.
The first thing she saw was a news template from several years ago. The article talked about a car accident involving a young Sakura and a girl identical to Jurina. Nana remembered Sakura talking about this accident, and that her sister had died while she had survived.
Nana sighed, leaning back in her chair. “This is too weird…”
It was then that she got a video call from Jurina. She answered it and was greeted by the familiar smile of the ANGEL.
“Hey~ Whatcha doing, Nana?”
“Oh, nothing. Just surfing the web.” Nana minimized the window of the article and looked at Jurina. “Hey, Jurina, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I was wondering… Do you know anything about a project called ‘Guardian ANGELs’?”
Jurina developed a confused expression, tilting her head. “Huh?”
“I was researching it and found out Sakura’s uncle was involved with it. I was thinking maybe you knew…” Nana saw Jurina’s eyes turn blue, flickering as if she were glitching. “Jurina? Can you hear me?”
Jurina’s eyes returned to normal, staring at Nana as if she just woke from a daze.
“Uh, sorry. What did you say?”
“I was wondering if knew anything about a project called ‘Guardian ANGELs’.”
“Mm, nope. Can’t say I have.”
“Alright. Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later. I’m gonna continue my research.”
“OK~ Talk to you later,” Jurina said as she cut off the call.
Nana crossed her arms. “That was odd. She froze up when I first mentioned the Guardian ANGEL project… Maybe that was part of her missing data.”
She decided to search up what happens when an ANGEL’s memory chip is reset or has data erased from it. She found a link to a web post written by a programmer for ANGEL’s memory chips. She scrolled down and saw what he wrote about lost or erased data.
“When an ANGEL’s data is accidentally removed from their database, usually, there would be a backup installed into the memory chip that would have to be recovered by either the programmer or the ANGEL itself.”
“Backup data… So she’s trying to recover it?” She saved the site link into her mainframe. “I’ll tell Sakura about it.”
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“Agh, gym tired me out…” Haruppi groaned as she sat down in the changing room with the others.
“Yuria, how can you be so athletic? Don’t you ever get tired?” Mako asked.
“Nope. It just makes me even more energized!”
“Man, I’m jealous…” Sakura groaned. “Again, my running…”
“Mou, don’t get so down about it, Sakura-tan,” Yuria said. “If you ask me, I think it’s cool you run like Evangelion.”
“How?!”
“Alright, Yuria,” Mako pulled her back. “That’s enough of that.”
“Hey, I know. What if you install one of those personal trainer programs into Jurina?”
“Eh?”
“If you get that application, you could do all sorts of exercises and improve in P.E.”
“Cool! That kind of application exists?!” Mako exclaimed. “Maybe I can install it into Nana so me and Naanya can do the same.”
“Sakura-tan, I’ll email you the application so you can look at it.”
“Thanks.”
Meanwhile, Ryouha happened to overhear their conversation as she was changing back into her school uniform.
“So, those girls have ANGELs…”
“Cool! I wonder how they got their own ANGELs~” Nagi giggled.
“Ryou-chan, maybe you should ask them about it yourself!”“Maybe. Perhaps since the incidents have occurred around this area, they’ll know something.”
“Plus I bet their ANGELs are really nice!”“Ryouha-san, were you talking to someone?” Naanya asked as she looked over to Ryouha. The girl quickly hid her watch from where Nagi was speaking.
“Oh, no! Just talking to myself.”
“Hm? But I thought I heard someone else…”
“Naanya, let’s go,” Mako called out.
“Oh! Okay~”
As the other group started to leave, Ryouha followed behind them, trying to hear the rest of their conversation.
“Seriously, why didn’t your uncle install any cool apps into Jurina?”
“He probably just didn’t have the time. Plus, he’s more into the older programs; he never really used the more advanced devices.”
“Sheesh, your uncle needs to get with the trends,” Yuria chuckled.
“Hey, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Yeah. Plus, there are people who can’t afford the newer models. Sakura’s uncle is smart, but he probably can’t use the more advanced devices because he doesn’t have the money for them.”
“No… I doubt that’s it,” Sakura then said. “Because, Jurina has 5,000,000 yen stored into her mainframe.”
“5,000,000?!” They all exclaimed, starling Ryouha.
Yuria happened to notice the girl there and smirked evilly.
“What? You eavesdropping?”
Ryouha jumped slightly. “N-no.”
She stepped closer, chuckling. “Hehe, come on, just say if you’re curious!”
“Oh, uh… well, I guess I am curious. This Jurina… is she an ANGEL?”
“Yep! Sakura’s ANGEL, actually! You should see her; she’s super cool~”
“Really?” Ryouha approached Sakura. “What’s she like?”
“Hmmm… she’s kinda like a sister to me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah… You could say we’re close.”
“I didn’t think someone could be that close with an ANGEL. I’ve never had one, so I wouldn’t really know, though.”
“Oh, I see.”
They walked back to the classroom, with Ryouha secretly starting to type notes on her watch. Without her noticing, Yuria noticed her movements and smirked as she snuck behind her and caught a peek of the Holo-watch.
“Sup, Kizaki-chan!” Nagi suddenly said, making Ryouha jump.
“Woah, your Holo-watch can talk?!”
“Oh, that’s, uh…” Ryouha tried to explain, but then Nagi’s hologram appeared out of the phone.
“The name’s Nagi! Nice to meet cha~”“Woah, an A.I. program!”
Everyone gathered excitedly to see Nagi. The A.I. posed like a model, smiling and waving at all the girls whilst Ryouha blushed.
“Oi! Can you all calm down?”
“Ah! Are you getting jealous, Kitagawa-san~?” Yuria asked, the others giggling.
“I-I am not!”
“Oh, Ryou-chan, you’re blushing!”“Fuu~” Ryouha puffed her cheeks as everyone poked them playfully.
“MOU!!!”
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“Ya wanna go?! Oi! Bring it!” A loud delinquent spoke as she was taunting some other yankee girls, looking for a fight.
“The hell you want, kusogaki?”
The girl threw a punch, hitting the other’s cheek. The rest of the delinquents started to gang up on her.
“Yosh. Let’s do this,” the girl said as she cracked her neck.
Her opponent moved forward to hit her with a bat, but before she could, someone step in front of her and blocked it.
“Hey, what the f--?!” she couldn’t say the rest of her sentence as the bat was ripped away from her. The mystery girl tapped the bat on the ground several times, glaring at them.
“All of you… should behave yourselves better.”
“Haa?”
“Fighting out here is stupid and pointless,” she said bluntly. “Make some use with your lives and don’t waste it baring your fists.”
“The hell was that, you..!” The girl dropped the bat, grabbing the delinquent’s wrist and dragging her away.
“Oi, Juri! What the hell?!”
“You really should stop getting into fights, Ryoka. I wouldn’t call it the best hobby.”
Ryoka clicked her tongue. “Why do you always butt in?”
“Because it’s my prime directive to keep you out of trouble.” Juri’s eyes twinkled blue for a moment.
“‘Prime directive, prime directive,’ so annoying… I know my mom gave you to me so I would stay out of trouble, but you aren’t a replacement for her!”
“And I’m not. I’m just here to make sure you stay out of trouble.”
The delinquent girl groaned, finding it needless to try and break her hand free from the ANGEL’s grip. As this was going on, the other yankee girl just clicked her tongue.
“Let’s go. This sucks…”
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“Jurina, I’m home~” Sakura said as she returned to her home.
“Welcome back,” she heard the ANGEL say.
“Anything happen while I was gone?”
“Nope, not much. But I did chat with Nana, though, through Holo-chat.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Sakura threw her bag on the couch. “What’s for dinner?”
“Hmmm… tempura!”
“Okay~”
As Sakura sat down on the couch while Jurina went about her business, she then received a text from Nana.
“Nana texted you~” Jurina said. “Want me to read it?”
“No thanks, Jurina,” she said, getting out her phone. “I’ll read it myself.”
“Oki doki!”
Sakura opened up the text from her phone, seeing a link that Nana sent her.
“This might explain Jurina’s lost memory data.”
“Eh..?”
Sakura opened the link and saw a site explaining how ANGELs who have had data lost due to glitches or damage. She saw how they would need to recover their data manually through their memory chip or have a programmer access it.
“Maybe Sayanee can…” she wondered, calling up the woman’s number.
“Hey, Sakura. What’s up?”“Could you come here?”
“Eh? Why?”“I was wondering… maybe you knew a way to repair a damaged memory so Jurina would be able to recover her lost data?”
“Sorry. I already did what I could, but I know of someone who might be willing to help. Her name’s Oba. She’s a skilled programmer; she even gives college seminars about computer programming.”“Please contact her!”
“Gotcha. You take care, alright?”“Yes, ma’am,” she said before hanging up, smiling wide. “Jurina!”
“Eh? What, Sakura?” Jurina asked, surprised a bit as Sakura came to her.
“We might be able to recover that lost data of yours! Sayanee said she knows a programmer who might be able to find a way to re-access it!”
“Re-access… lost data..?” Jurina’s voice suddenly trailed off.
She backed up, holding onto the side of the table.
“Jurina?” Sakura grew worried as Jurina’s eyes started to flicker a bright, electric blue. She began to speak in a robotic tone.
“Nova Special Project: Guardian ANGELs. Number 002-310-J, ANGEL 01. Owner, Miyawaki Shinjiro. Prime directive, care and protection. Special feature, self-learning and self-updating mechanism.”
“Jurina? Snap out of it,” Sakura said, trying to shake her awake as she kept talking nonchalantly.
“Nova… We are Nova,” she stated before collapsing to her knees. “Ugh… m-my head…”
“Jurina, are you okay?”
Jurina looked at her sister, rubbing her temple.
“Sorry.. I don’t know what came over me. I blacked out there for a moment…”
“Jurina… what’s Nova?”
However, the ANGEL just raised a brow. “Nova?”
Sakura frowned, seeing that Jurina has forgotten again.
“Nevermind…” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Hey, don’t look so down,” the android then said, pinching Sakura’s cheeks. “Smile!”
The girl couldn’t help but chuckle at the cute movement. Jurina then moved to the kitchen to begin preparing dinner. As she did, Sakura sent a text to Nana on her phone.
“Find whatever you can on Nova and project Guardian ANGELs. It might be a lead to Jurina’s origins.”
After a few seconds, she got a reply.
“Already on it.”
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To Be Continued
Topic: REBORN 2016 Reboot - Chapter 5 (042517) (Read 90692 times)