Number 4 - To get to know her
"That's weird. . . Why is it that I can't track the location of 20102012?" Asami mumbled to herself as she stared intensely at her computer screen, trying to locate the precise position of the robot through the GPS system she had installed on the latter. Tapping lightly on the touch screen, Asami screened the angle of view to another district, hoping the GPS detection would appear blinking on the screen. However, non as such she hoped to happen had happened. She sighed deeply and inwardly before switching the map back to its original focus.
"Konno-sama!" The bursting of an unexpected figure into her workroom caught Asami off guard, causing the poor girl to fall heavily onto the ground from the chair she was seated in.
"What are you doing here?" Asami asked with panic as she struggled to get herself off the ground surface. That was prove fruitless, due to the lack of her muscle strength at her lower limbs. Just as Asami was troubled about the location of the robot, the robot had just appeared right before her now.
"I need help!" Risa answered, still standing at her position at the door, with the door wide open.
"Close the door and help me up." Asami ordered gently. Risa followed as what she was told, closing the door after her before she reached over to where Asami was and helped her back onto the chair. It took Asami a while to calm her racing her from the sudden intrusion of Risa into her workroom. And when she finally did, she turned around. "What help?" Asami asked in a calming voice. It was so calming that one could not tell she had just suffered a shock moments ago.
"About Master." Risa started off. "She - "
Before Risa could express what she had wanted to, she was interrupted by Asami by questions. "Wait a minute, 20102012, were you being switched off during your stay with A- Takahashi Ai?" Asami interrupted.
"How did you knew about that?" Risa asked, amazed that Asami had knew, even without her saying anything to her. Indeed, that was something Risa had wanted to inform Asami about, in this visit for SOS.
"Well, I am able to track your whereabouts through the GPS via the Wifi receptor I had installed within your brain." Asami answered effortless as she turned her attention back to the computers where she hooked Risa back onto the system. "How is she convinced to switch you on again? That's so not-" Asami was mumbling to herself and halted in the mist of the sentence when she remembered the fact that Risa possessed the ability of super hearing.
"It was raining, and I was standing alone outside the rain. She thought that I might be damaged by the rainwater, so she had decided to switch me on again," Risa answered, even though the question was not directed directly to her. "How does Konno-sama knew that Master is not going to switch me on? From what you have mentioned just now, you seems determined that that something Master will not do."Risa continued asking curiously.
"What was your reason for visiting, 20102012?" Asami ignored the question raised by Risa and raised another new topic, hoping Risa will not pester onto her in explaining the reasons for her knowing. And indeed, that had work.
"I need SOS." Risa answered straightforwardly.
"For?" Asami asked casually as she tapped onto the touch screen panel of the computer.
"Everything."
"Everything?" Asami raised half a tone, sounding off curiously.
"Everything." Risa reassured.
"So fast? Are you trying to tell me that you have failed your mission, just merely 20 hours into it?" Asami turned around and looked interestingly at Risa. "You have 3 months for that, do you remember that?"
"Not that. But it's just. . . .I was being threatened." Risa explained vaguely.
"You learnt the word 'threatened'? That's amazing. Considering the time you had spent out there." Asami continued, not getting the atmosphere of the situation correctly. "About what were you being threatened?"
"Master. . . She threatened to scrape me into metals if I continue to pester after her." Risa explained without much emotions.
That made Asami burst into huge fit of laughter, sending Risa into waves of confusion. She did not thought that what she had just said was funny at all. But to Asami, it was due to the words Risa had learnt to use once again, and her expectation of that to happen.
"What is so funny, Konno-sama?" Risa asked innocently, still without much emotions.
"Nothing." Asami tried to tone down her laughter, and she had finally did so after a long 5 minutes of internal war with the giggles that popped every second.
"I really want to know if she has the ability to do that, before I plan my next move, Konno-sama." Risa continued, failing to notice the internal struggles Asami had within herself.
"Yes, she do, 20102012." Asami answered honestly.
"Am I supposed to be wary about her then?" Risa asked, yet once again in her innocence.
Asami chuckled at the question. "Maybe you will need to. But I'm pretty sure you will not have to., I think." Asami answered ambiguously, though there were attempts of reassurance within the sentence.
"So what should I do?" Risa continued asking.
"Hmmm. . . That's a good question. But with Takahashi Ai being a real stubborn personnel, I'm suggesting you, 20102012, to approach a soft approach." Asami advised.
"Soft approach?" Risa repeated.
"Yes. Soft approach." Asami reassured.
"Which is?"
"You can look into the reasons why she is rejecting the idea of the technologies created by NST." Asami further on explained, with Risa nodding her head slightly as the data was registered in her memory chip. Just then, a figure on the CCTV image caught Asami's attention. With not gentleness, Asami shoved the humanoid under her desk before pushing her chair slightly in. "Stay quiet." Asami ordered. Just as so, the laboratory door swung open, revealing a taller figure with a silky long black hair standing at the doorway. "Sayu, what are you doing over here?" Asami asked in a clam voice before continuing again. "You should have the courtesy to knock on the door before entering though."
"You should know what am I here for. And Why do I need, when you are already expecting me through this?" Sayumi replied harshly as she pointed her finger over at the CCTV screen.
"Why should I know the reason for your coming?" Asami feigned innocence as she leaned her back against the back of the chair, which Risa were hiding behind after.
"The unaccounted request for increase funding." Sayumi brought straight into business, being not in the mood to play the game with Asami right now.
"Like I had told you, it was for a research for a new product I've been working on." Asami replied clamly.
"Which is?" Sayumi was slightly irritated by now, judging from the tone when she continued her questioning.
"Since when do I have to report my research projects to you, Sayu?" Asami persevered on, refusing to give in to Sayumi.
"Tsk." Came the clicking on the tongue from Sayumi. Though that, the expression Asami carried had not changed at all - no smile nor frown.
"You will know it, when the time comes, Sayu." Asami finished. "If you are done, could you please leave right now as I would wish to continue on my work." Asami requested.
Sayumi rolled her eyes slightly at the request made by Asami. Checking the time on her left wrist, she made a quick turn on her heels. "Be sure that you are not doing anything that is against the company, or something that is going to hurt Eri. If not, I'm going to hunt you down." With that, Sayumi began to head towards the door where she had came from and out into the hallway.
"That was close." Asami mumbled to herself as she limped a step forward, pulled the chair away and allowed Risa back onto her feet.
"Why is there a need for me to hide, Konno-sama?" Risa asked curiously after she had crawled out from the underneath of the table.
"I don't have to answer that." Asami replied stubbornly. "Shouldn't you be going back to your Master right now?"
Risa glanced at the time that were located at the bottom of her vision. "Yes, I should be going back."
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Ai was surprised when she had returned back into an empty mansion. "Where's that thing?" Ai mumbled to herself as she walked herself down to hallways to the different rooms, checking if Risa was in any of them, only to return back to the living room in a slightly disappointed feeling. "Why are you feeling sad, Ai?" Ai slapped herself mentally when she realised her emotions. "It's not like you had wanted her in the first place. She was the one who insisted to stay when you have refused the trail usage." Ai continued to scold herself as she paced herself into the kitchen where she dropped the lunch box from afternoon in the sink and headed for the water flask, where she poured a glass of water for herself. "Perhaps she's afraid that I'm going to scrape her into metals and had retreated from her trail usage period." Ai let off a bitter laughter before sipping a small sip of the water. "Isn't this for the good?" Ai continued on her bitter laughter.
"What shall I eat tonight?" Ai asked herself. Placing the transparent glass on the countertop, Ai turned away from the countertop and towards the refrigerator and opened it, only to be shock at the amount of food that was stocked inside. "Since when did I have some much food inside?" Ai asked herself in a stupid way, only to remember the conversation she had with Risa earlier this morning. "Oh, she had ordered the groceries for me." Ai mumbled to herself. She squatted down onto the floor and began to flip through the food stocks in the vegetable drawer. "Eggplant? Why is it in my fridge? Who eats such horrible food?" Ai groaned in surprised when saw the purple fruit in lying at the corner of the drawer.
She had the urge to throw the purple fruit right into the bin, but some unexplainable forces stopped her to do so. 'It's too sinful' was what the force where telling her. "It's all because of that robot." Ai grumbled. "Eggplant had never ever appeared in this house before and there's not even a need to worry about wasting food." She continued. Pretending that she had not seen the purple fruit, Ai reached her hand for the carrots and potatoes, and brought them back to the countertop. "I shall have curry tonight. . ." Ai decided. After she had peeled the skin off the root vegetables, Ai ran them under the water before she chopped them into pieces.
Just then, the door flipped opened.
"Sorry! I'm home late!" The figure announced.
"R-?" Ai mumbled when she heard the voice.
"Master, you shouldn't be doing all these work. It's my duty." Risa hurried over and snatched the knife from Ai. "You should go wash and rest for awhile while the dinner is being prepared. You had a long day at work, didn't you?" With that being said, Ai was being pushed out of the kitchen and into the living room. "Dinner should be ready in an hour time, so Master you can take you sweet time in the shower..." Risa continued.
Ai remained stilled in the living room. She turned around and stared at Risa through the glass window that separates the kitchen from the dining and living room. Something was different with the humanoid. Her motions and speech was absolutely different from the one that had arrived at her house last evening. A wave of familiarity grew within her, bringing tears brimming at the corners of her eyelids.
'No, Ai. No, Ai.' Ai thought repeatedly in her mind. Bitting on her lower lips, Ai made her turn back to the direction of her bedroom, leaving Risa alone in the kitchen to prepare the former's dinner.
When Ai got out of her shower and returned back to the dining room, she saw Risa, standing by her own usual seat, holding onto her chair, with a plate of warm curry rice seated at the table. "Master, your dinner is ready." Risa informed as she pulled the chair out for Ai. Ai slipped onto the seat and was guided nearer to the table by the gentle push of the chair Risa did. "Enjoy your meal." Risa continued as she hopped over to the opposite side of the table where Ai sat and settled herself into it.
Awkward silence filled the place. Risa was just watching intently at Ai, who was bringing small bits of the food on the spoon into her mouth. She swore that she had saw Risa was about to speak, but nothing as such had happened.
'Was she going to ask me whether the food was nice just now?' Ai thought. When Ai finished almost half of the food that was on her plate, she placed her spoon back down on the plate.
"What's wrong? Is the food not to your liking?" Risa blurted out immediately upon seeing such action from Ai.
"Not that." Ai replied with a two worded sentence. "Is there something that you would like to ask me? Cause you seemed so." Ai confronted.
"How - " Risa stuttered, which had amazed Ai. She had never imagined a robot stuttering and Risa could probably be the first one she had seen. "I'm curious."
"About?"
"What are you so against the technologies from NST?" Risa asked, just as what Asami had told her to.
"I'm not telling." Ai replied monotonously.
"But - "
"I'm done." Ai interrupted. Placing her palms together, she continued." Thank you for the food." With that, she stood up from the seat and headed straight back to her room. Just as she do so, she head a familiar voice ringing at the back of her mind.
"Why are you so not interested in the technology I'm trying to introduce to the students?"
Sorry for neglecting this story!! =X
But I'm here with an update, after
2 week!! heheh
edited: gosh! I realised it has been a month plus since I last updated this story!
@ arisa03 : Well not really, since Risa is a robot, she won't be able to feel all these
yet. hehehe Thanks for encouragement. Just 3 more weeks of hell and holidays will be here
@ rndmnwierd : yupps. . .i do too
@ alwaysYou : [i got it right this time round!] hahah. I understand where you are coming. too naggy? lol yupps, it's super cute ^.^ hahaha. Ai . . . will . . . .
yupps! hopefully i can really update this more often after I finish with Strawberry Penguin. so yupps ^.^
de wa, until the next time then!
Topic: Devolution : Homo sapiens {Number 6 5th September 2012} (Read 14833 times)