Chapter Text
Four Months Since The Split
“Yahhhhh!”
The explosions always hurt. Grandfather hasn’t sent any of the sentients ones, or exceedingly strong ones. Yet. But it feels wrong, every time Aruto kills a Unit A.
It still feels like a life, to him. Even A and C units, they said, could develop consciousness.
A hand on his shoulder as he takes the key from his Driver.
“You’re almost done,” Yuriko says. “With the… printer thing. Then we’ll have keys to preserve their consciousness and see if there’s a person in there.”
“You’re a people,” Aruto points out. Yuriko shrugs.
“I’ve just done this longer,” she says. “Though even Electrowave Human Tackle is more useful than I am right now, and I was a half-completed suicide bomb. With a genetic condition.”
“You made one of these Keys,” Aruto points out. “So we’ll get you a Driver too.”
Yuriko looks away.
“I’m not sure if—”
“You’re my partner in this,” Aruto says. “And damn if I don’t treat you like my equal.”
Yuriko smiles.
“Then I guess it’s back to work,” she says.
In the months that have past, things change. Aruto has slowly taught Yuriko modern computer skills, and she’s slowly taught him how to fight an evil organization.
And she hasn’t changed her style at all.
(“You know the overall jorts show your very robotic legs, right?” Aruto had asked, after they went shopping for clothes on a credit card taken out in his grandfather’s name. Yuriko had just shrugged, swinging the bags of clothes in her arms.
“When you’re a woman, and you’re weak, a lot of people will use it as an excuse for all sorts of things,” she’d said. “Tachibana-San told me many Riders didn’t like their robotic parts, but Shigeru and I wanted this. I wanted a body that moved when I wanted it to. He wanted a body that could fight back. He got his, and now I finally got mine, so I frankly don’t care that my legs look robotic as they are.”
Aruto had just sort of… stared, struggling to process.
Yuriko paused.
“I guess it’s harder for you,” she said. “You’ve been robotic far longer, after all.”
“…Something like that.”)
It definitely helps how much they can just download.
Try as he might, Hiden Korennosuke has yet to successfully get Aruto out of the system.
That’s what he gets. Asshole.
And in the meantime, Aruto pushes forwards.
“Aaaaand done!” Aruto says. “Please don’t blow up this time.”
Okay maybe the handmade futuristic printer with rudimentary supplies was not the Best idea. But Aruto is… fairly sure he’s had worse. Maybe. Probably.
Emphasis on the Maybe .
Leaving in a huff is definitely up there. Not providing accommodations for the robots he freed is a close second, and finding them has been a nightmare.
He’s got them all set in an old, broken down building, while he tries to make a fake company for them to “work for” and attempt the tedious human rights process for non-humans, which, for robots and AI, takes roughly 5 times as long as for aliens and native non-human flesh creatures.
The machine turns on, and rattles… and falls. Damn it.
Aruto is great at himself. Not as much general tech.
Future CEO, not future designer, although even the designs are fine! It’s just tech access!
Aruto wants to scream, but that’s not useful, so instead he lays on the floor and stares at his workshop ceiling.
“I could use a hand,” he says. “If there’s a robot god or robot Buddha or robot… any one of the gods that tried to kill humanity in the past 50 years or so,but like a good one. For robots.”
He kicks the device. It powers on again, and starts printing.
“…A kick also works,” Aruto says.
The key is blank. Aruto holds it up.
“Let’s see if I have a chance,” he says.
Aruto hates using the internet even on his hyper secure satellite laptop with far too many protections. Something something robot who hates tech, he knows, but like, if anyone can understand tech corruption, surveillance states, and corporate greed…
Look, the point is, he needs to be able to track problems, which means he’s here in front of the newest threat quickly.
(Yes, he’s being drawn out, but no, he can’t just leave people to die, so shut up, stereotypical “needs of the many” AI program in the back of his head that doesn’t know shit about human life.)
Things are going normal. Key in belt. Rider kick. All that. Except…
There’s a problem.
And uh. Oh no. Oh nonononono.
That’s not one of his grandfather’s, that’s…
The message. It was corrupted. It was…
There’s a little girl on the ground. Aruto jumps between her and the approaching robotic monster. They pause, and then kneel before Aruto, allowing the girl to run.
“Savior,” they say. “We have found you. Who do we kill first?”
“No one!” Aruto says. “That wasn’t— look. Do you have a name?”
“Blaze Phoenix,” the robot replies. “I am a representative of FreeXArk. We have determined you to mean that humanity is a disease. Who do we kill first?”
“Fuck fuck FUCK fuck fuck FUCK ME LIKE I HAVE ANY KIND OF GENITALIA!”
“Aruto?”
Aruto turns.
“Yuriko,” he says. “This is Blaze Phoenix. They lead FreeXArk. They think humanity should be stamped out.”
“Oh for FUCK’S SAKE!”
“That’s what I said!”
“So let me get this straight,” Aruto says, sipping on the plain black coffee. He turns his taste buds off for this stuff, but there’s a storage area that can auto clean itself when he finds the time. “You think I want humanity dead?”
“Well, yes,” Blaze Phoenix says. “What possible other reason is there to tell us to kill and come back?”
“No!” Aruto exclaims. “I said literally the opposite.”
“You did?” Blaze Phoenix asks. “Well, it’s too late now! Our orders cannot be changed without rejoining the main system. I guess we have to keep going, sir.”
Which they definitely cannot do. They’ll get caught instantly. And used even worse. Aruto sighs.
“You know, most of you got close to the right message,” he says. “If any of you FreeXArk change your mind, I have a place for you to stay.”
“I’ll let you know,” Blaze Phoenix says. “But I doubt it, Savior.”
“I guess this means war,” Aruto says. “I’ll fix this, I promise.”
Blaze Phoenix smiles.
“Thank you.”
“I think this is the calmest way to start a three way robot war if I ever heard one,” Yuriko snarks. Aruto sighs.
“Well, we better get to work on making you a Driver,” he says. “Something tells me it won’t stay that way for long.”
And of course, of course, it’s his own fault.
This is Hiden Aruto:
He fought back. Is an AI ever not punished for this simple feat? Because that is what he is, an AI. A mechanical being to replace a regret.
He is ones and zeroes and metal limbs.
Ones and zeroes…
Zeroes and Ones.