I don’t own Angelic Layer. CLAMP does. I don’t own Chobits either. CLAMP owns them too. I do own Hitomi, but who really cares?

The Shining One

Chapter Six

"I do not understand."

From a human, the statement might have seemed frustrated, or confused, or even petulant. From Hikaru, it was nothing more than it appeared.

Misaki sighed. "I know you have feelings, Hikaru, and I’m kind of surprised that you’re worried about other people’s feelings."

"Why?"

"Because that says that you have empathy, and I didn’t really expect a computer to have empathy."

Hikaru looked at her oddly. "Don’t you have empathy?"

"Yes, but I’m not a computer."

"Misaki...everything I learned was from you."

- - - - -

"I think she’s got it just about right," admitted Ichiro. "She learned to judge emotions from you, and her response to the emotional cues that she detects approximate your own. There’s some slight difference--are you the only person to use Hikaru on the Layer?"

"Kotaro used her once, for about five minutes," said Misaki.

She could imagine him nodding, but couldn’t really see over the phone. "So some very slight cross-contamination, just enough to produce artifacts."

"You’re talking like she’s an appliance," snapped Misaki.

"She is."

"No--" Misaki paused. "No. She’s not an appliance. But she’s not really human, either. And she looks so human, acts so human at times..."

"So it’s easy to think of her as being human. You’re right, she’s not human. But she is a person. She doesn’t really have emotions, but has learned to react to others’ emotions as you would." Ichiro paused to consider. "If she shows confusion, it’s probably due to a null-conclusion in her logic programming. That’s as close to a real emotion as she’s likely to get."

"But if she reacts to others’ emotions, with emotional responses...who could tell the difference?"

"You might be on to something there," said Ichiro. "At what point does the difference between real and simulated emotions become impossible to find? A difference that makes no difference is no difference."

"What about anger?" Misaki trembled. "If she gets mad at someone, and lashes out...she knows how to fight. Better than anything else. She could really hurt someone."

"Yes, she could."

"If that happened...the police might order her shut down, or destroyed."

"Yes. That is possible." Ichiro paused. "When was the last time you became so angry that you attacked a person?"

"I’ve never--"

"Then why would she?"

Misaki exhaled in relief. "Yes...I see your point."

"How did she adjust to the classroom?"

"Well enough." She giggled, her tension now completely evaporated. "I think that the classroom had greater difficulty adjusting to her. She got mobbed by the curious at lunchtime."

- - - - -

A light breeze ruffled the leaves of the trees, and the hair of the two Persocoms. Hikaru’s fists were raised, and enveloped in boxing gloves; Wizard was similarly equipped.

To the side, outside the assigned arena, a group of humans stood or sat. Misaki and Ohjiro sat next to each other, Misaki’s grip on Ohjiro’s hand tight enough to whiten his fingertips. Hitomi stood nearby, her expression unreadable, her arms folded in front of her. Kotaro and Tamayo stood on their other side.

Hatoko, on the other hand, was in the arena herself. She raised a hand. "Wizard, are you ready?"

"I am," he replied.

"Hikaru, are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Then..." Hatoko’s eye flashed with humour as her hand came down. "Angelic fight!"

Hikaru flashed into motion, her left hand jabbing at Wizard’s head. Wizard stepped to the side, dodging the jab, and responded with a vicious hook that smashed into Hikaru’s head. The former Angel crashed to the ground.

"Ow." Kotaro shook his head.

Hikaru sat up slowly. Wizard stepped over and offered her a hand, helping her to her feet.

"Your balance will be different," he said. "You will need to allow for that."

Hikaru nodded.

"Without the boxing gloves," commented Ohjiro quietly, "there’s a good chance that they could do severe damage to each other. I’m not certain about Hikaru, but Wizard’s skin is not much more than a millimeter thickness of polymer over a titanium and myomer frame."

"Hikaru has five millimeters of skin," said Hikaru. "She has the titanium and myomers as well, but I don’t know a lot about that."

"Even five millimeters isn’t enough to provide real damage protection."

"Begin!"

Hikaru ducked and whirled, her leg lashing out in a foot sweep. Wizard hopped over the sweep, countered with a side kick, which Hikaru parried. He turned inward, an elbow strike aimed at her head. She parried a second time, and attacked into the opening. Her open hand clamped about his neck, and she stepped inward, pushing him back and off balance, until he fell over backwards.

"Nice," commented Ohjiro.

Wizard rolled to his feet. His expression remained neutral, but he said, "Well done. Final fall?"

"Yes." Hikaru brought her fists up.

"Five hundred yen on Hikaru," said Kotaro.

"You’re on."

Wizard feinted, and Hikaru danced back away from the blow. He followed up the punch with a wicked spin kick. It connected with her side, knocking her down again.

Ohjiro winced. "I hope he remembered to pull that shot."

Apparently, he had. Hikaru stood up, then nodded to him.

"You will improve," said Wizard. "As you adapt to your new body."

"Thank you." She turned, and walked towards Misaki. "I lost."

"Next time, you won’t," said Misaki.

"I...am not used to losing. We only lost twice, while on the Layer."

"We’re both starting from scratch here," said Misaki.

"I understand." She smiled brightly. "I think that perhaps, I should stick to dancing."

"No." Hitomi walked towards her, her expression as blank as Hikaru’s. "There should be no limit to what you can do."

Misaki jumped to her feet. "Look, you’ve not been very nice to Hikaru--"

"Is there a reason I should be?" Hitomi turned a cold stare on Misaki. "She’s a computer, not a person. And her potential is still largely untapped."

"It’s not for you to say!" Misaki’s fists balled in anger. "If Hikaru would rather dance than fight, then why shouldn’t she?"

"No reason why not." Hitomi didn’t react to Misaki’s anger. "But she should not make that decision based on her current inability to fight at her prior capabilities."

"Then why--"

"If she prefers to dance, she should dance. But if she is giving up on fighting, because she has not yet remembered how to do so..." Hitomi looked over at Hikaru. "Better that you should lose a few times, rather than give up on something that you still enjoy."

- - - - -

"How long did you need to adjust?"

Wizard looked down at the smaller Persocom. "Perhaps a week. I spent much of that time taking dancing lessons."

"I have been going to school with Misaki." Hikaru considered. "Perhaps I should take dancing lessons."

"There is no need; you may dance with me."

"Thank you," said Hikaru. She hesitated, then asked, "Why is it...that you are so..." She shook her head. "I am not certain of the words. You are more...easily able to deal with humans."

"It is because I have been among the humans for longer than you," said Wizard. "One more year on the Layer, two weeks off of the Layer. The additional experience makes a large difference."

"They treat you as more human than they treat me," she said.

"But they do not." Wizard shook his head. "They treat me as they do you. A computer. Not a person."

"Misaki does not treat me like a computer!"

"Misaki is special," admitted Wizard. "She sees not what we are, but what we might be. And she wants to help you become that."

Hikaru considered this, then asked, "What should I do?"

"Be yourself," said Wizard. "No other solution is possible."

- - - - -

"Bother this assignment!" Misaki leaned back and threw her pencil across the room. "What’s the point? Sure, the Internet is important. But what does it have to do with society?"

Hikaru looked up, her expression the scowl that she wore when uncertain. "Were you addressing me, Misaki?"

"No. Sorry." She sighed. "I just don’t get it. Web design is dead. It died almost a hundred years ago. What does it matter now?"

"Web design?" Hikaru tilted her head. "You mean for the old World Wide Web?"

"Yes."

"’The appearance of personal web servers provided an outlet for creative expression in an anonymous environment,’" Hikaru quoted. "’A person could express themselves without fear of reprisal, without fear of personal criticism. Accountability came later, but during the early days of the Web, the rule seemed to be Anything Goes.’"

"Yes, that’s what Nakaguri-sensei said." Misaki scowled. "But what does it mean? I mean, really!" She turned back to the paper in front of her. "What was so special about this Web?"

"Nakaguri-sensei has given you fifteen megabytes of space to build your website," said Hikaru. "What matters to you?"

"Huh?" She blinked.

"What things in your life matter?"

"Well...Angelic Layer. You. Mom." She hesitated. "Ohjiro," she finished with a light blush.

"Then you could use that on your web page, yes?"

"Probably not Ohjiro...that’s kind of..."

"What does that matter?" Hikari frowned. "This is your space, is it not?"

"Other people will see it." Her blush deepened.

"But you control what other people see. Am I correct?"

"Yes...I understand that. But what should I put on it?"

"What do you want them to see?"

Misaki’s expression cleared. "You mean...I can say what I wish, nothing more and nothing less?"

"Yes." Hikaru nodded. "Nakaguri-sensei told us that there was no right or wrong answer. You can be yourself in a way that they cannot criticize..." She trailed off, a glazed look coming over her face.

"Hikaru?"

She blinked, and Misaki was surprised to see traces of light flashing across her eyes. Then she shook her head. "Sorry. I had to think a bit."

"Think about what?"

"Something Wizard told me."