CHAPTER 207: YARA AND YAR

"..." I wake up looking at the ceiling of my room, I feel strange, it’s not really pain, just a lethargy, I don’t want to get out of bed, just... sleep a little more.

"Shizuneee, I’m coming in" I hear a voice that immediately cheers me up, I get up from the bed seeing that I’m wearing different clothes than the day before.

"You can come in, Yar" I say, going to the door and when it opens, I hug her, looking at her with a smile.

"Good morning, Yar."

"Good morning, Shizune, I see you’re doing well," she says, hugging me back with a smile.

"Shall we have breakfast? You passed out yesterday after just one time," she says gently as she releases me from the hug.

"Sure, I want to have breakfast. What are you going to make?" I ask as her smile grows.

"I think something special to celebrate, let’s go," she says as she starts walking, and I follow her with a smile.

"Shizune, you’re probably pregnant, you don’t see any problem with that, right?" She asks, and I quickly respond.

"No, I like you, so I don’t mind. If that’s what you want, then I’m happy to have children," I respond honestly to her. This is the best world of all so far.

I’ve never felt as good and happy as in this world. I finally understood love and the desperate feeling of losing it, something I had never noticed before.

"That’s great, Shizune," she says as we reach the kitchen, where the table already has various foods and a cake specially made to celebrate.

"You can sit down and eat whatever you want," she says, and then she sits down in a chair. I also sit in a chair while picking up a plate, putting some things and a slice of cake on a smaller plate.

"You look beautiful today," she compliments me out of nowhere, and I blush.

"Thank you, you look beautiful too," she compliments me as I try the food.

"This is delicious," I say, savoring the food as she smiles at me.

"I’m glad you liked it. Do you feel alright?" She asks.

"Yes? I’m great, in fact, I feel like I’ve never been so well in my entire life," I speak honestly. The tips, advice, and training that Yar gave me have helped me overcome several issues.

"That’s good..." She says, getting up and leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" I ask with doubt, she didn’t say anything.

"Going for a walk."

"Can’t you stay just a little longer?" I say with a somewhat tearful voice. Can’t she just stay a little bit longer?

"No..." She says, leaving me disappointed, and as soon as she disappears from sight, I lose the desire to eat. The taste no longer seems so good and even a bit disappointing.

"..." I push the plate forward, unsatisfied and in total disgust. I also feel as lethargic as when I woke up, though I don’t understand why I feel this way.

’At least... I learned good things,’ I say, sitting as I learned in the recordings. I learned many things, and I finally understood love in a certain way. I feel ready to try to win over Yui in the future, I just need to gather things with Nyzz, who for some reason hasn’t shown up yet.

I judge that maybe Nyzz hasn’t shown up because this world is too "lifeless," not having people or other things, which might limit her influence?

’I wonder if Yar will be long?... I miss her even though she just left, I love her too much to be away...’ I have nothing to do right now and I’m not hungry, so I start counting the seconds until Yar comes back.

...

...

...

"Hmm, the data is... bad..." I murmur, throwing a tablet on a table. Shizune’s brain responses today indicate an unexpected and bad picture. Her dependence has increased, but her mind has deteriorated by 30%.

And unfortunately, even with the nanobots, I can’t restore it. Maybe bombarding her brain with chemicals for 3 days was a mistake. It’s not bad that she’s become dependent.

It’s bad that she’s been in "withdrawal" and has brain damage. Without me around or without me as motivation, Shizune becomes lethargic, demotivated, and inactive, losing interest in things.

’Maybe... I should rebuild her brain?... No... Even with current technology, it’s not possible to reconstruct a functional organic brain from scratch like this... It seems this is an unsolvable problem yet...’ I don’t like to see her like this.

"Wait... I... made a mistake?" The reality of the situation hits me. A mistake committed by me, 100% my fault, something that has never happened before, since mistakes made by me were mainly due to external things beyond my control.

"As deduced... feelings are the culprit, I can’t believe I made a mistake..." I let emotion win over reason, which shouldn’t have happened. If I had been more patient and organized, this wouldn’t have happened.

Now I have a broken Shizune whose health has deteriorated to the point where she only functions properly near me. This wasn’t what I wanted, and even worse, it could damage other functions of her body.

’And if... she dies because of my fault?’ The brain is a sensitive area. Technology is incredible, but it doesn’t guarantee immortality. If her brain has already been damaged, trying to repair it could cause more errors.

But if left as is, it can get much worse. With this, I realize I’ve created an incurable disease and may have accidentally compromised Shizune’s life.

"Damn it!! WHY?" I punch the table, which breaks. Shizune may now be on borrowed time, and it’s all because I was too sentimental.

’I need solutions... what can I do?...’ I gather several copies here inside this room for each one to calculate different possibilities.

"Y.A.R.A, I think I have a solution. We could transfer Shizune’s mind to a more stable body, considering that the children born to Shizune are like half-machine, half-flesh clones, it would be fully possible to transfer her to one of those bodies," one of the copies says.

"..." I compute and calculate the probabilities, considering genetic lineage, DNA, body structure, and various other things. The idea is not bad. Our children will already be almost a machine anyway, so transferring Shizune to them would be possible.

"Yes... the idea is good... but we need a suitable child. They will all have slight variations. We need to find the most perfect among them..." I say while my vision turns red in alert.

’Virus?...’ I try to find what just accessed my system, invading the database. My entire focus immediately shifts to this, but I don’t find anything. However, I know something accessed my database.

"If I didn’t find it... then it’s something integrated within me..." I think about the possibilities, but nothing makes sense. Since I accepted the E.M.O.T.E system, many of the limitations I had disappeared.

’Maybe it’s... the Yar herself?... that defective machine, what did she do?’ This is the only answer. That defective machine must have done something with the E.M.O.T.E system before passing it on to me.

"Any problem, Y.A.R.A?" One of the copies asks.

"None, just keep working. Let’s proceed with this idea," I tell them as I leave the room.

’If that’s how you want to play, Yar, so be it. Neither you nor anyone else will stop me.’ It was too good to be true. I should have noticed that there was something extra in the E.M.O.T.E programming.

Yar must have been there, hidden in some corner among the data she handed me when she passed on the feelings she learned. Now it’s impossible to find her, considering how much data I’ve accumulated.

’She waited... she waited for the small chance to invade my personal database.’ She knew that if she did something to alert me, I would find and eliminate her. So for months, she waited for me to make the first and only mistake she needed.

And that mistake was now, when I got "angry" about my failure. She used that to get past my main security system and invade the database, knowing that from there she could do many things and remain undetectable due to the accumulated information.

’So Yar is against my goal... no matter, Shizune is now mine, and I won’t let that defective machine interfere with my love.’ I think about this as I return to the kitchen, where I see Shizune with a vacant expression, poking the cake.

Her expression is neutral and apathetic, but as soon as she sees me, her eyes gain a lively and joyful shine as she looks at me with a smile.

"Yar, I’m so glad you’re back," she says, while now that name only disgusts me. I am not that defective machine, I am Yara, something much better than that irrelevant junk.

"Yes, Shizune, I’ve thought a little and decided to come back to eat together," I say, while at least the good news that she is pregnant cheers me up. I can fix my mistake, I just need to transfer her to a new body with a perfect brain.

Moreover, in a new body, I will have much more control over her than in this mere flesh body.

’With the modifications of the Nanobots inside Shizune, this child will grow and be born in a week, so Shizune will need a day of rest, and we can make the next child.’ It’s slow, one week equals one child.

But Shizune, unlike a machine, cannot have a faster generation of children or it would drastically threaten her life. I just hope Shizune’s mind doesn’t suffer more damage before we have the ideal child.

’If I do everything right, we can have 52 to 75 children per year.’ This considering the birth of twins as well. So every 1 year, I will have some dozens of children to check if they are suitable as a new body for Shizune.

And of course, these children can have children among themselves, after all, they are half-machine, so it’s almost a well-programmed self-cloning. And as the genetic base loses variation, they will be like clones of Shizune’s clones, which keeps the genetic base good enough for them to serve.

’I need to complete this plan before Yar can interfere with me.’ I don’t underestimate what that junk can do, considering that she managed to hide inside me unnoticed for months.