Disclaimer: I do not own Chobits or anything related to it. I’m only borrowing the characters for the purposes of this fic and I promise to put them back when I’m done.
A terrible thing has happened.
Terrible thing? Oh no! Woo-woo! Emergency!!
Ugh. Could you please calm – and quieten – down? Otherwise I’ll never be able to render this account accurately.
…Render? Plum doesn’t know this word!
Oh, for the love of… don’t you have any dictionary software installed either?! Fine. Definitions of ‘render’:
Now, as I was saying. A terrible thing has happened. And in order to get to the bottom of it, it is necessary to start at the beginning and then work forwards, relating the events which led up to… what happened.
So, to begin-
It was a dark and stormy night!
What?? No it wasn’t! It wasn’t even night-time. Hideki-
Okay then! It wasn’t a dark and stormy night!!
Why me?
ANYWAY. It was, in fact, around the middle of the day, when Hideki received an email from his friend Mr. Shimbo, via Plum.
Plum did good work!!
Yes, you did. You picked up an email. What a difficult task.
Yaaaaaaaaaay Plum! Woo! Woo!
My god, she thought I was serious… So, Hideki received an email from Mr. Shimbo, which read as follows:
DATE: 10/29/27
FROM: sumomo@clamp-net.com
TO: hideki_and_chi@hotmailer.com
CC: minoruk197@hotmailer.com
SUBJ: Halloween Party!
Hey, guys. How’s it going?
I know you’re always out of the loop, Motosuwa, so I thought I’d bring you up-to-date on the local happenings. Minoru, you might’ve heard about this already, but I CC’d you just in case. Everyone’s talking about this guy who’s hosting a huge Halloween party in his mansion, and it’s open to anyone who wants to come, as well as their persocom if they want to bring one. The mansion’s on the city outskirts, so you’ll have to take the train. Takako and I are going, of course.
You taking care of Plum, by the way? You really need to figure out how to get Chi to use email, so that I can have her back. You can’t keep her forever, you know! Still, Takako’s not exactly mad on persocoms after what happened with her husband, even a laptop like Plum, so it’s cool. I’m borrowing a persocom for emails and stuff.
Oh, one more thing – it’s a costume party, so you and Chi’ll both need costumes. (How did I know you were gonna bring her? C’mon, dude, it’s obvious; you two are inseparable). Minoru, you gonna bring Yuzuki?
Well, I gotta go; Takako’s calling. Shimbo out!
After reading the email, Hideki immediately consulted Ms. Chi as to whether she would like to accompany him to the Halloween gathering. She delightedly accepted. As the following day was a Saturday, Hideki was able to go out shopping for costumes for both himself and Ms. Chi.
…I hate to say this, but… Plum, could you tell the next part? I wasn’t there when they went shopping.
Never fear! Plum is here! To tell the story of Hideki and Chi’s Outing To The Shops!
Master and Chi walked to the shops, and then they went inside a shop.
Well, obviously.
The shop was full of strange, scary clothes! Plum didn’t like the scary clothes. Chi also didn’t like the clothes! Master was sad because Chi was sad.
I’m beginning to regret letting you take over…
But then, an assistant helped Chi to find a pretty dress! It was black, and when Chi put it on, Master went very very red! The dress was short and had a low front, and on the back there were sparkly black wings.
A fairy dress, in other words.
Right!! Kotoko is clever! Yaaay Kotoko!
..............
After Hideki bought the dress for Chi, he saw Manager Ueda from Chiroru Bakery! Manager was also looking for a costume. But not a costume for Manager! Manager was buying a costume for someone else! It was.... a SURPRISE!
Manager helped Hideki find a costume for Hideki. It was a big blue cape with shiny stars, and a pointy hat! Hideki liked the costume and so did Chi.
So to summarise, Hideki bought a wizard’s outfit and Chi bought a fairy outfit. What did Mr. Ueda buy?
Umm… oh yeah! A witch dress!!
Okay. Thank you for your… help.
Applause, please?
Fine…
Yaaaay! Yaaaay!
I shall now proceed to relate what happened the next day, at the party. The party took place in a huge mansion-like building right on the outskirts of the city. Mr. Shimbo arrived at 6:00 at Hideki’s apartment – since it had been arranged that they would travel together – along with Ms. Takako Shimizu. He was dressed as an oni, with a noh mask tipped back on his head, and she was dressed as a vampire, with large plastic fangs and white makeup.
One ten-minute train ride and a short walk later, Hideki, Mr. Shimbo, Ms. Takako, Ms. Chi, Plum-
That’s me!!
-and I arrived at the mansion. It was an old, imposing stone building, European in style. All it lacked, in fact, was some climbing ivy and perhaps a graveyard.
“Well,” said Mr. Shimbo after a few minutes of silence, “shall we go in?”
“It’s certainly formidable,” commented Ms. Takako. “The ideal location for a Halloween gathering!” The two of them approached the house hand in hand.
Ms. Chi clung fearfully to Hideki. “Chi doesn’t like the party house,” she said in a small voice.
Hideki placed his hand reassuringly on her head. “It’ll be all right once we get inside, I expect,” he said.
Plum was hiding behind Master’s neck. Plum didn’t like the scary house either.
In fact, the inside wasn’t particularly encouraging. As we followed Mr. Shimbo and Ms. Takako through the heavy double doors, we found ourselves in a long corridor lit periodically by torches.
Ms. Takako laughed. “Talk about atmospheric!”
It only took a couple of minutes to walk down the corridor, but during that time, Ms. Chi held on tightly to Hideki’s hand, and Plum, to his neck. I must admit to having felt a little uneasy myself.
Then we reached another wooden door, and as Mr. Shimbo opened it, a large room filled with people and persocoms was revealed. There was a red carpet on the floor, and from the ceiling hung chandeliers, which provided a bright and friendly light. We were all relieved.
There were long tables laden with food around the edge of the room, and Hideki and Chi walked over to one. Suddenly a voice said, “Oh hi, Hideki!”
It was Manager! Manager Ueda!!
Yes, it was, and he was wearing a rather odd costume: a black long-sleeved shirt and trousers with a white skeleton imprinted on the front.
“Hi, Mr. Ueda!” said Hideki, once he saw who it was. “I like your costume.”
“Thanks,” replied Mr. Ueda with a smile. “Yumi chose it,” he explained, blushing a little. “We each chose an outfit for the other, as a surprise. You and Chi look great!”
“Thank you!” Hideki and Ms. Chi said in unison, and then laughed in embarrassment.
“So, what do you think of this place?” asked Mr. Ueda, gesturing around. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? To think that a building like this was on the edge of our city, all along… I certainly had no idea!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty incredible,” Hideki agreed. “And kind of creepy, as well, with that corridor and all… Chi didn’t like it very much,” he finished with a fond smile.
Chi, meanwhile, was gazing around the room, and suddenly her face lit up. “Miss Yumi! Chi can see Miss Yumi!”
Sure enough, a girl wearing a witch costume ran up and beamed at the two of them. “Hey, Hideki! I love your costume! Wow, Chi, I love yours too! It’s so pretty!”
“Thank you!” Chi replied, bowing. “Chi likes Miss Yumi’s dress as well!”
“Thanks!! But you don’t have to call me ‘Miss’! Just call me Yumi!” Ms. Yumi told her.
Hideki and Ms. Chi spent some more time talking with Mr. Ueda and Ms. Yumi, then moved on to look for Mr. Minoru and Ms. Yuzuki. Mr. Shimbo and Ms. Takako were nowhere to be seen.
It took them some time to find Mr. Minoru, since the room was so full of people. Hideki recognised his boss from Club Pleasure, where he works, but was unable to greet him before he disappeared from sight. Eventually, they came across Mr. Minoru standing by a table of food and talking to Ms. Yuzuki. He looked up as Hideki and Ms. Chi approached.
“Ah, Hideki, Chi,” he said. “Good evening. How are you both?” He was dressed, a little ridiculously in my opinion, as a cat, with furry ears affixed to the top of his head, and a tail trailing behind him. When I first met him, I couldn’t believe that he was the ‘M’ that my master spent so much time arguing with. He was only twelve years old! His faithful persocom, Yuzuki, was attired in a traditional Japanese kimono; I guessed her to be a geisha, or something similar.
“Fine, thanks,” replied Hideki. “Your costume… it’s…” he trailed off, and then realised he might have offended Mr. Minoru. “It’s very nice!” he said hastily. “But different! Sorry, that must sound weird…”
“No, not at all, I know it must look a little strange,” replied Mr. Minoru. “My sister was very fond of cats, though, and I think she would have liked it…” He smiled wistfully.
“That’s… I… I’m sure she would have,” Hideki managed finally. “And it doesn’t look strange, not in this lot!” He swept his arm out to indicate the room, whose occupants were dressed in a variety of different costumes, both Eastern and Western.
“Say… have you seen the host of this party?” Hideki inquired. “I’m kind of curious about him -- he must be loaded, for one thing! If I had a hundredth of this kind of wealth…”
Mr. Minoru shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen him,” he replied. “And what’s strange is that neither has anyone else. Understandable, perhaps, with this many people in attendance, but nevertheless, you’d think he might introduce himself to his guests – especially since no-one I’ve spoken to seems to know him personally.” He looked thoughtful, and concluded, “Most odd.”
“Yeah, well, you know… maybe we just missed him,” said Hideki.
Some time later, he and Ms. Chi bade farewell to Mr. Minoru and Ms. Yuzuki, and went to find Hideki’s boss. They managed to meet up with and talk to him, and then afterwards met back up with Mr. Shimbo and Ms. Takako, who were talking to some students from Hideki’s cram school.
Although I have an internal clock programmed into me, as does almost every persocom, I was still surprised when I realised that it was almost midnight. Where had the time gone? Despite the lateness of the hour, there seemed to be just as many people as there had been to begin with; no one seemed inclined to leave.
A few minutes later, a clock began to chime twelve. This was most strange, as although several hours had passed since we entered the mansion, the clock had not chimed once. Gradually, the room quietened, and it seemed as if everyone was waiting for something to happen. After twelve chimes, the clock was silent.
Suddenly, a booming voice was heard, and everyone immediately swivelled round to try and see where it was coming from. “Welcome, one and all, to my mansion extraordinaire,” said the voice. “I’m sorry that I have not greeted you up until now, but I wanted to wait until exactly the right moment. I want to make this a memorable evening for you all, and so I have decided to give everyone a little gift to show my appreciation.” An excited murmur started up at this. “Hopefully, it will ensure that this is a truly unforgettable event.”
The instant the voice finished speaking, the chandeliers extinguished themselves, and there was darkness. What happened next is hazy: I remember a great deal of confusion, my vision blurring, and feeling Plum collide with me as she lost her grip on Hideki’s collar and fell sideways. The two of us slumped on Hideki’s shoulder. Unable to move any of my limbs, I was jolted and jarred by Hideki’s frantic movements. Something was wrong…
Gradually, though, my head cleared, and I began to function properly once more. I sat up, dazed; what had just happened? The lights were back on, and next to me, Plum was also recovering. But we were the only ones. Hideki knelt next to an unresponsive Ms. Chi, frantically calling her name, and some way away I could see Mr. Minoru trying and failing to communicate with Ms. Yuzuki. What was going on?
“Plum! Kotoko! You’re all right!” exclaimed Mr. Shimbo, as he and Ms. Takako made their way over. Ms. Takako immediately went to console Hideki.
“Yes, former master!” exclaimed Plum.
“We temporarily lost use of our limbs just then, though,” I interjected, feeling some actual information was needed. “And I was only semi-conscious. Do you know what has happened?”
Mr. Shimbo shrugged unhappily. “Not a clue, except that every persocom in the place seems to have knocked out. It’s some kind of virus, or something.”
A virus which apparently doesn’t affect laptops, or at least not as seriously. Which means that Plum and I may be two of the few persocoms left in the city who are still functioning.
We need to cure the virus!! Persocoms are in danger and they need our help! Plum and Kotoko to the rescuuuuuue!
Uh… Yeah…