However...
With yet more grinding and creaking, Fred tilted its head.
“It’s...”
There were generally two reasons things that were out of production were discarded: because they were broken, or because of lost interest.
This Fred likely fell into the former camp. It wasn’t completely broken, but it had passed its service life and several small defects had appeared; the unpleasant noise and needless stiffness to its movements were proof of that.
There would be no point in keeping something that was supposed to give the same soothing as owning a dog when it moved so blatantly mechanically.
Even so...
“Hurray!” Pamil shouted in joy.
Fred’s LED eyes blinked at Pamil, and its tail—with accompanying squealing, of course—waved left and right.
To Kyouhei, those unnatural movements seemed forced all together. He didn’t know whether they were due to defects or how it had originally been made.
“It’s good that it moves, but what are we doing with it, Kyouhei-kun?” Kaoruko asked.
“You ask me that, but...” Kyouhei frowned.
As previously mentioned, Kyouhei had brought Pamil here to have her give up on it. He’d thought she’d give up if she knew if it was broken or ‘dead.’
Contrary to his expectations, though, the robot dog had started to move. And on top of that, Pamil was overjoyed at the result; she seemed to like Fred.
“It’s not like I can tell her to throw it away now...” Kyouhei muttered, prompting Pamil’s ears to prick up.
Her expression burst into happiness. “I can keep him? Really?!” she asked, looking at him with eyes sparkling hopefully.
Normally, she wasn’t very expressive, so her expression now, happy from the bottom of her heart, was all the more blatant; it was adorable and hard to go against.
Kyouhei, for his part, could only give a strained smile and laugh. Though, of course, he didn’t forget to add “...You’ll need to look after it yourself.”
Regardless, unlike a real animal, it wouldn’t make a mess or get ill, so there wouldn’t be much to look after.
“I will!” she nodded quickly and deeply, happier than Kyouhei had ever seen her before.
● ● ●
It was a hot summer’s day, the kind that on a low-humidity day would be called blazing, and sweltering on a high-humidity one. And... on those sweltering days, there were frequently large rainstorms during the evening. These were generally called evening showers. Because of how suddenly the heavens would open, many people panicked, not having an umbrella with them.
“Uhyaaauu!” The girl screaming as she ran under the shelter in front of her door was one of them.
She had an old-fashioned bobbed haircut and round glasses that could have been drawn by a compass. On close inspection, she was fairly cute, but her beauty was counteracted in a few ways by her subdued gloominess, which made it seem like she’d call gravesites her favorite places.
This was Sanae Murata. The downpour had soaked her through.
“Aw... I’m sodden...” she mumbled, water dripping from her hair.
“In a weird way, you being dripping wet actually kinda suits you,” said her friend, Youko Minebe, with a wry smile. She was also sopping wet after being caught in the shower. “You know, put your hair like this and let your hands droop.” As she spoke, she posed like one of the traditional willow spirits.
“Youko-chan...” Sanae muttered with her eyes downcast, “you know I’m not giving you anything other than tea cakes, even if you do flatter me, right...?”
“I wasn’t, not at all,” Youko said as she waved her hand. “...Anyway, I really don’t get you sometimes.”
“Y-You don’t?”
“Like, I don’t get what you like about Nanbu-senpai at all.”
“Eh? But he’s so wonderful,” she protested, pulling a bunch of keys out and opening the door.
Even though it was the summer holiday, they had met so they could finish their homework together.
“I think our definitions of the word ‘wonderful’ are a bit different.”
“I... I think that might be a good thing, though... If you fell for Nanbu-senpai... I don’t know what I’d do.”
“I’m not, not at all,” she denied with a strained smile. Then, she looked at Sanae out of the corner of her eye before continuing, her tone meaningful: “Though I think Pamil-chan might be a bit of an issue?”
She was probably trying to spur Sanae on considering her late awakening to romance for a teen nowadays.
But...
“Hmm... I don’t think so...” Sanae shook her head as they stepped inside. “Senpai... doesn’t look... at Pamil-chan... like that... I think...”
“How come you think that?” Youko asked, stepping inside with a quick “’Scuse me.” Though, at that time of day, both of Sanae’s parents were still at work, so there was no one to answer. They’d picked Sanae’s place because it would be easier to do their homework with no one around.
“...Umm... I don’t really have a reason... I just... kinda do...”
“Even though they’re not blood-related?”
“They’re... not, but...”
Sanae’s fantasies would usually head off into R-18 territory at the slightest provocation, but... when she thought more calmly about things, the ones involving Kyouhei and Pamil weren’t particularly realistic. And if something could possibly have happened, it already would have.
...I kinda think... Senpai has a line in the sand with Pamil...
Sanae’s usual stal—I mean, heavy observation, had let her draw that conclusion.
Anyway, their relationship was more that of a lodger and guardian rather than one between the sexes, so she didn’t feel like Kyouhei saw Pamil as a target for romance. And that wasn’t because they were legally siblings.
...Maybe... she thought, it’s got something to do with Pamil-chan calling herself an android.
Whether or not she was an android, the claim might have solidified their relationship into a strange one.
However...
What if the reason for that solidification went away?
“What’s up?” Youko asked curiously.
“Ahh, sorry, it’s nothing. Nothing at all...?” She covered up the vague unease building within her heart and forced a smile.
● ● ●
Kyouhei heard his phone go off as he stood in the kitchen getting ready for dinner.
Mizuhito had changed his ringtone to Pixel☆Maritan’s opening theme, and it was too much of a bother to change it back, so he’d just left it be. It was a little risky, but if you didn’t know what the lyrics meant, it was just a marching song with a good rhythm.
Ignoring that, though.
“Hmm...”
Kyouhei checked the clock on the wall as he shut off the tap, seeing it was already past 6:00 p.m.
Currently, he was in the Nanbu household, commonly called a warehouse. Well, it really was just a warehouse that happened to have houseware inside.
As ever, the kitchen was only one in name; it was an area in a corner of the mass of Shuuhei’s goods. Kyouhei’s phone was on a table in the area.
Drying his hands on a towel, he reached out for his phone.
“...Ah.”
But the instant he touched it, the phone stopped ringing, like it was waiting for that exact moment.
Fiddling with the buttons, he saw that the caller was Sanae Murata.
“...Murata-san, huh?”
Once more fiddling with the buttons, he opened up his voicemail. He put the phone to his ear and the usual words issued forth. “You have reached your voicemail. You have one unread message...” and so on.
“What’s happening, Kyouhei, you’re on the phone?” Pamil asked as she approached.
That much was normal, but there was something following her.
Fred.
The recharged puppy was following along after her with mechanical whines and creaks. It might have been mechanical, but when it came around Pamil and sat at Kyouhei’s feet, looking up at him, he could still call it charming. Well, its LED eyes were behind a visor thing, so he couldn’t exactly tell, but it was still kinda cute.
But then...
“Time, six, thirty, nine—”
“Hyah?!” Kyouhei cried out reflexively as the dog started shaking its head back and forth and speaking.
“Replaying, first, message.”
“It’s talking! Wait...” Kyouhei panicked for a second. It turned out that was just the voice from the voicemail. “What the...”
“Well, the USB Bluetooth system looked like it would work so I connected it.”
“Don’t just set that stuff up!” Kyouhei yelled.
Incidentally, Bluetooth was a protocol that enabled phones to connect to headsets, or PCs to other peripherals, wirelessly.
Regardless, after a shrill beep, a voice came out of Fred. “Um... Senpai... it’s me... Murata...” Even over the phone, she was as halting as ever, and coupled with the mechanical nature of Fred, it made the whole thing rather surreal. “Umm... it’s nothing big... but... um... I wonder if we could meet up for a while... um... I wondered whether you’re doing okay... that’s all... I’m sorry to call you for something so weird!”
The message cut off there.
“End, of message. If you wish, to replay, or to save, then—” Fred continued with the voicemail’s voice.
“Indeed, it works well,” Pamil nodded proudly.
“...Where’d you even get the Bluetooth from?” Kyouhei asked, glaring at her.
“It was in Shuuhei’s things. Fred doesn’t have a USB cover, so I was looking for something I could use as a ‘lid’ for it,” she explained. Now that he looked closely, he saw a crest-like thing on Fred’s head, like a captain unit. That would be the Bluetooth adapter. “And since he’s got Bluetooth, I decided to connect it to your phone. Looks like it works fine. It’s really useful and practical. Good boy, Fred, I’m proud!”
“Don’t go messing with people’s phones,” he scolded her.
What did Mizuhito and Pamil think his phone was? It was a real invasion of privacy too. Well, Pamil had no phone of her own, so if she wanted to test things out, it would have to be with his.
“Anyway, get rid of it!” Kyouhei demanded.
“Hmm... And you’d just gotten more functions... Kyouhei’s a narrow-minded man,” she said to Fred. It started wagging its tail, as if in response.
“Me? I’m the one that’s wrong?”
“By the way, Kyouhei,” Pamil began in answer to his grumbles, suddenly realizing something, “was that a message from Sanae?”
“Eh? Well, yeah,” he admitted, though he didn’t think the message really needed a reply.
“If you’re going to phone her, can I speak to her as well?”
“You want to talk to her about something in particular?”
“I want to talk to her about Fred, a bit at least,” she answered.
She probably wanted to brag.
“...Fine then,” sighed Kyouhei.
He pulled up Sanae’s number and hit the dial before passing the phone to Pamil.
“Thank you!”
She pulled out a chair and sat at the table. Fred sat next to her, the dial tone coming from its speaker.
“H-Hello!” came the answer.
“Hi, Sanae, it’s me,” Pamil said.
“H-Huh...? Pamil...chan...?” The slight confusion in her voice was probably because she’d thought it was Kyouhei calling.
“Indeed, I’m currently borrowing Kyouhei’s phone,” Pamil explained.