Hello peoples, it's Hollow. For some odd reason I had the urge to write this! Enjoy and review, please.
Kagami
They looked so real. How on earth had they been able to come up with this? Sure, Konata babbled about human-like robots from her anime time to time, but I never thought it would actually become true! I pressed a hand to the cold glass window that revealed the persocoms hanging limply on a rack, their cat-like inputs where their ears should be. If it weren't for those, the robots would be indistinguishable from actual humans.
"Oi, Hiiragi, we were going to lunch. Remember? Or do you fancy getting an expensive persocom boyfriend?" Misao teased, giving a fanged grin.
I felt a blush grow on my cheeks. "Shut up! I'm dating Minoru anyway, you know that," I retorted. I pulled away from the glass and returned to my coworker's side.
"And if he wants a robot, Hiiragi? Won't you get jealous?" Misao asked, smile retreating. She was serious—that wasn't normal. Worry flickered into her gold-brown eyes.
"N-no, of course not," I lied. "Come on, I'm getting too hungry to be thinking about this right now."
After some awkward silence, we continued walking down towards the diner where we usually ate on our lunch break. We worked together at My Pleasure, a bar that was rather popular around our parts of the city. It wasn't the best place to work during college, but there was a great university.
A car zipped by, kicking up a gust of wind, as soon as we reached the green door of the small restaurant. Misao opened it and we entered, a new waitress standing beside the 'wait for a table here' sign. She must have been recently hired, we had never seen her around before. She had blue eyes and green hair slightly shorter than the middle of her back. She wore the standard waitress uniform, the blue skirt and button-up yellow shirt with puffy sleeves.
'Minami Iwasaki,' her name tag read. Why did that ring a bell?
"Hello," she said somewhat quietly. It was barely loud enough to hear. "I'm Minami, I will be your server today."
"Ah, Minami-san, you must be new!" Misao chirped. "We always come here for lunch, I guess we'll be seeing you a lot, huh?"
Minami looked down, embarrassed she was being talked to. She shuffled the menus and replied, "Come right this way..." She lead us to an open table and was about to hand us the menus when she remembered we were regulars. "O-oh, my mistake. What would you like?"
"The usual," Misao said happily. She tilted her head to the side, close-eyed smile on her face.
I put my face into my palm before looking back up to Minami and explaining, "We get two cheese burgers with extra onions and lemonade on Thursdays."
"Ah, right away," Minami nodded, before turning on her heel and hurrying away to get our food.
"Aw dang, didn't realize my mistake," Misao grunted in frustration. "At least you're smart, Hiiragi!"
"You can call me Kagami," I told her, eyebrows arching slightly as I watched her drum on the table softly. "We've known each other long enough."
"Eh," Misao shrugged. "I suppose I'm used to it."
Minami came back, balancing our lemonades on a tray with ease. "Lemonades." She set one down in front of me, the second by Misao. Once again she turned and left without another word. I took a sip but Misao began to chug most of it down.
"So," I said, after putting the glass down, "What's your opinion on the persocoms? Do you want one?"
Misao laughed, her cup clinking on the table as she set it down sloppily. "I'm working at a bar, cramming for tests in a lesser college, and I'm broke! What makes you think I could buy one, Hiiragi—I mean, Kagami?"
"I dunno, it seems like you would want one," I shrugged. I stroked the table top, feeling the wood under my finger tips.
"Cheeseburgers." Minami was back with our food, also carrying a ketchup bottle under her arm. "Enjoy. The persocom is waiting at the front for your payment." She disappeared into the kitchen near the back of the restaurant.
We ate, discussing my roommate (and Misao's classmate) Konata, and different sports that Misao liked, and headed to the cash register to pay. Misao dug around for her wallet. "Crap, it's empty! Hiir—Kagami, can you buy my lunch? I'll pay you back!"
I knew she wouldn't but I couldn't refuse, right? I slid the money to the smiling persocom with bleach blonde hair. "Come back soon," the robot said before putting up the cash. Misao and I ran back to My Pleasure so we wouldn't be late.
Konata
I typed with somewhat superhuman speed, blowing my hair from my eyes any time they got in the way. I had two MMORPG games going on my computers, one including a headset. My job was simple: I was Legendary Girl A (only on Thursdays, I have no classes then), who bought three box sets of a manga series and stocked them somewhere in my room. I was visited by many closet otakus seeking advice. Nothing like a self-esteem boost when people came every other day wanting your help. But by night! I was a grand cosplaying bluenette who got over twenty people to move from my old town to Tokyo to see me.
Two were my friends, but they still count!
Hiyorin came in often for ideas with her doujinshi, and the fact Kagamin and I had moved in together sparked her interest. Patty, on the other hand, moved up a little later when the old Cosplay Café got too 'slow' for her. That was my doing, with the stealing of eighteen customers.
"What do I think about the new persocoms?" I echoed into my headset. "Well, I don't want one of course! If I can't play my online games, what's the point?" There was a knock on the door. I looked up with alarming speed. "Hold it, be right back. I have a customer."
I set down the headset, typed something on the other computer, and trailed away from my desk in the living room. I opened the door to see a person much smaller than me with red hair and blue ribbons. "Onee-chan!" she cheered, giving me a hug.
"Yu-chan? What are you doing in Tokyo? I thought you were still attending Ryouou," I said, confused.
"Oh, I am, but Minami had to move away to find a job," Yutaka nodded. "May I come in?"
I gave her my usual cat-like smirk and stepped to the side. "Right this way. Did Yui drive you here?"
"No, I took a bus up here, it wasn't that far," Yutaka said with a shake of her head. She stepped inside and removed her shoes before skipping over to the couch and sitting down. "So, this is your apartment? It looks wonderful."
A/N: Sorry if I got this wrong, I don't remember where they live so I just stuck it close to Tokyo to fit the story.
"I'll go make some tea," I offered. I stepped over to the small kitchen and began to fix it. "So, how's your classes? All of your friends moved up here! You must be lonely."
"And I'm still living with Sojiro," she sighed. "I feel like such a burden." She looked down at the ground, tears sparking at the corners of her eyes.
"Why don't you move in with Minami-san? She won't refuse," I suggested. "This would send Hiyorin into heaven!"
Or Hell, I thought, smirking.
"Oh...but then I'd be a burden to her to," Yutaka sighed.
"No way, go trigger some flags by arriving romantically on her doorstep, asking for a place to stay! It would be even better if it was raining and cold, and when Minami-san opened the door you hugged her tightly," I chattered eagerly, an idea forming in my mind. I would have to tell Hiyorin about it later.
"Flags?" Yutaka asked, tilting her head to the side.
I used the pony tail holder around my wrist to tie my hair back. "Nothing, Yu-chan. Here's your tea," I replied, smirk remaining as I handed her a cup of tea.
"Hm, I guess you're right, Onee-chan. You're so smart about things like this, about the real world," Yutaka said, smile back on her face. I snickered as she began to drink the tea.
"So you'll go talk to her?" I asked, still trying to stifle my laughter. As my Kagamin says, I always tried to make everything like an anime, so I had to know nothing about the real world!
And she was absolutely correct. I say this in the least shameful way possible.
"Yup, but I do have to pack my things back at home," Yutaka nodded. Then she faltered, pulling the cup away from her lips before she took another drink. "Oh, but the next bus comes tomorrow, it has a long round to make. Could I stay here for the night, Onee-chan?"
"Go right ahead, make yourself at home," I replied, throwing my hands up into the air energetically.
"Thanks," Yutaka smiled. "Let me see where Minami lives now, she should be registered at the school." She dug around through her bag before pulling out a small persocom.
"Woah, you got one of those?" I asked, once again seated at my desk. I was prepared to log off and play S**** M**** B******* with Yutaka but I didn't expect her to have a persocom!
"Y-yeah, her name is Natsumi," Yutaka said. "Natsumi, can you find Minami Iwasaki's address?"
I suppose this means my threshold has grown by plus two people.
Misao
"Y'know, Thursdays can get pretty boring," I sighed, sweeping a few peanut shells out from under the bar. "Without classes and Chibbiko there to keep ya busy, it gets too plain, don't you think so Kagami?"
I wiped sweat from my brow and began to clean off the counter top. Kagami simply shrugged and said, "Even though we don't have classes, it seems pretty cool to work almost all afternoon instead of alone and at home."
Chibbiko's at home and alone. She's so damn lucky! Not only is she a legend amongst the otakus, she plays on video games every Thursday and eats fast food. And she lives with my Kagami. She's mine, I saw her first! If you want a competition, I can give you competition.
I growled slightly under my breath. I didn't notice how hard I was scrubbing off one of the sticky spots on the counter. Apparently it was loud enough to make Kagami stop wiping down tables to watch me with a bizarre look on her face. "M-Misao, are you okay?" she asked, confused.
I faltered in my work and looked over at her. "Wha-?"
"You seem mad," Kagami explained.
"Nah, don't worry about it," I said quickly. I checked the time on the clock. We still had fifteen minutes on our shift left. Three costumers came inside, sat at the bar, and ordered some beers. I filled their mugs and gave it to them before resuming the clean up. The two girls, who took over our shifts next, entered My Pleasure with a, "We're here!"
"Hey," Kagami greeted, waving. She turned to me and asked, "Why don't you come over to my place today, Misao?"
I'd never been to her house before, so it was a surprising question. "Really?"
"Yeah," Kagami replied.
"Okay! C'mon, our shift's over so lets walk there together," I exclaimed happily, putting down the wet rag on the counter, taking Kagami's hand, and pulling her out of the door. We cut through the alley behind My Pleasure. I slowed down to a stride, mainly because I didn't know where her apartment was and because I was getting tired.
"Alright, once we're past this alley we take a right and then you can see my building," Kagami instructed. She threw a purple twin tail behind her back and continued to walk forward.
"Oi, Kagami! Look at this," I called, my attention pulled to the girl hanging half way out of a dumpster. Her hair was a pale orange, small elf-like inputs sticking out behind her head like wings. Somehow she reminded me of Ayano, but she was attending a college in England. Oxford or something. So this robot who resembled my friend was the only thing I could have left of her! And it was a persocom, the latest fad that had boomed a little over a month ago. I had to have it.
"What is it?" Kagami asked irritably, obviously frustrated that we had stopped. She turned around to see what I had found. She took a step back in surprise. It seemed as if she noticed how similar the machine and Ayano looked alike as well. "Woah, what the-?"
"I know, right? We have to get her out," I said, pushing the dumpster lid off of her. I attempted to haul her out but, since she was made of metal, that failed.
"Let me help." Kagami came over and helped me pull the persocom out. Once we had her spread out on the ground, I couldn't help but grin immaturely. "What? What's wrong?"
"She's naked," I chuckled. Other than bandages that wrapped around her, she was.
"Oh, shut up," Kagami groaned. "Show some maturity, will you? Let's get her to my house."
Okay, so what did you think about Chapter 1 of A.Y.A.N.O? I have much plans for this, so hopefully I shall be updating more often than not! Who is this mysterious persocom, why is she in the garbage, and what will become of her? Once again, please review!