Chapter Text
Ena’s life was really unsatisfactory. She was a senior class student at a high class university, yes, and through giving up on her daydreams of artistry and pursuing the literal she’d found herself to be far more intelligent than initially thought to be, but there… Not like something was missing, per se (like, no holes in her heart, no habitual staring at walls, of that sort), but something was kind of off.
She was working a rather poorly paid internship (better than all the unpaid ones clogging up her options) as a lab assistant, working with a renowned scientist who specialized in AI. Lord knows why she needed Ena, but, money is money. She just wished that an institution that can pay a satisfactory salary to someone so high-reputation could give their interns more than a little under minimum wage. Honestly, that’s just sad. Is the company CEO short on a billion for his new yacht?
Like every other afternoon, she changed from one uniform to another in her dorm and set off for work. She clocked in for her shift, scanning her (fairly low-level and irritatingly customized; she had to keep nagging staff to add the fucking cafeteria to her access permissions) keycard on every other door (how high tech. they can afford this but not a reasonable pay?!).
Work was the same as usual. Assembling, breaking down, rerouting, coding and decoding, bug fixes. As typical as any other day, she had no clue what she was really doing. Maybe she was even building a bomb and she’d be implicated in future war crimes for her going along. Whatever. It’s bringing in cash either way.
“Hello, Ms. Shinonome,” the head scientist walks in, as professional as she always is. Ena’s heart skipped a beat and she had to take a sip of her water to keep her face from flushing; she (the scientist) was so attractive in every– every single way that even the straightest of girls couldn’t resist her. It was pretty normal of a reaction. Who wouldn’t be trying desperately to pretend to not be head-over-heels?!?! (Yes, she’s still not gay. Totally never was or will be. And this tangent isn’t any foreshadowing of any kind.)
“Ah, hello ma’am,” Ena sat up in perfect posture, as professional as could be. “I just finished cleaning up this code,”
“Good. Today I’d like to move you on to a more… Focused task. Come with me,” she gestured, walking back to where she came from without even pretending to wait for Ena. The girl trailed her, awkwardly following like a chick behind a hen. Ena couldn’t stop thinking to herself about how if she’d left her that she would be stuck, trapped behind her extremely limited permissions; forced to wander around like an emotionally wounded puppy begging for someone to open all the doors this woman has locked her behind. Hopefully someone had thought to adjust her limitations for this change in scenery.
“Here we are,” her senior gestured, this time pretending to care about Ena as she held the door. The room was… Strange, to say the least. There was a big, three-monitored computer to the side, and some sort of containment chamber door in the center, glass walls letting eyes through. Ena squinted and shifted to her side, trying to see what was in the middle of that room.
A chair, and something on that chair, a bunch of wires running off of it– “I see you’re already trying to investigate. Good. You’ve picked a good career path,” There was no way around it; Ena couldn’t reply to this compliment. Any person would be interested in this. It’s just unknown, not yet seen before science. What the hell was she saying–? Erm, why is she fidgeting right now? (She keeps finding herself stuck combatting a very much neglected side of her; love. Ena, not used to seeing sapphic relationships, had a tendency to downplay her own attraction to women as being: expected, as the woman is so beautiful anyone would feel this way, or unimportant and a bit weird, which was the rarer version of her attraction, which she placed on a slight potential for being bisexual. She is completely unaware that she is exclusively attracted to women.)
“Anyways, I think you should help me with this project,”
“What is it?”
“See that robot in there? On the chair, the one hooked up to those wires?”
“Yeah?”
“That’s MZK_02–” She pronounced the letters in fast succession, clearly so intelligent and used to the career that she can spell out codes and acronyms as if they’re words themselves, “–a new form of life I’ve been trying to catalyze. This computer here–” She gestured to the monitor on the right, a blank black screen with a typing bar on the bottom, “–is how it, or she, depending on how complex its identity is at this point, will communicate until I finish the vocal components. Today, I want you to familiarize yourself with it. Please be aware it can see you and hear you speak, but I don’t know how strong the coding correlating to its senses is yet; make sure to record any faults or strengths you see in its behavior. I’ll come get you when your shift is over.”
And she left, leaving Ena and this computer alone together. She hummed, sitting down and swiveling over to type.
>Hello. My name is Shinonome Ena.
>hiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!! im mewzuki:3 hehe just kidding im mizuki
Wow. Was this… Intentional? A prank, even? God… is this what she has to deal with for the next… Hours?!
>Who are you?
>iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii am a robot!!! beep boop erm idk what im supposed to do lol this is the first time anyones talked to meeeee i keep looking over my code (yep i can do that hehehehehe!!!!!!!!) andddd i dont see anything about what im supposed to do:( the computer doesnt have any notes on it either
>You can… read your own code?
>yaaaaaa im super smartttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what i AM capable of doing is learning:3 idk what tho bcuz the internet got turned off beforei learned how to open apps. but GameCentralEdition4.exe works perfectly!!!!!!!!!! wanna play Pong i can b player 2
Ena pulled out the notepad, suddenly remembering her job. She started making bullet points;
-despite having a very unique way of talking, akin to texting, can not adapt titles of applications and such into way of speaking
-notably unprofessional, which is fine if this is a prototype or exploration of what it’s capable of becoming but if this is for something other than companionship or entertainment this isn’t a useful personality/way of acting and talking
-seems too self aware, it can read its code and has tried to access the internet. if you’re not familiar with it yet, you should limit its ability to grow before it becomes cancerous
>HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY what r u writing abotu me
-capable of producing typos despite being a machine
>pls im bored
-experiences boredom, which can be dangerous if you leave the program running for a very long time without any way to entertain itself
>hi hi hi hi
>What?? I’m busy. Also did you say you can see me?
>ya ur pretty
>I’m not into computers.
>ok im a girl too actually ummmmmm ur so mean. thats ok mean girls r hot
>I’m.. also not into girls?
>are you sure every time ur supervisor started talking u like kinda jumped like u keep doing these things that really really maje u look like ur into her
>I am not into girls. end of!!!!!!
Ena was starting to be irritated by its– no, if she said she’s a girl, then that whole thing about complexity to develop an identity worked out, so rather; she was starting to be irritated by her intelligence. Fucking intelligent AI.
>r u sure bcuz i am super smart and my smart detector (the knowledge i was coded to initially know) tells me that some thing some thing psychology means you like girls. anyways do you want to play Pong in GameCentralEdition4.exe
>No, I’d rather chat a bit
>ok can u come into my room i like talking more than computering its too easy thinking then talking on the computer stuff
Thinking? Wait, this tab here– Ah. The scientist was making her do the dirty work of dealing with this AI’s personality. Her part was analyzing the thoughts and how they correlate with what’s being said. Well, fuck her. If whatever Mizuki says isn’t tracked, well, she’s still being paid the same for it. Malicious compliance over genuine work any day.
Ena opened the door, dragging the chair behind her. Oh. Mizuki was kind of… pretty, despite all the wires and parts of her that were clearly unfinished; something Ena couldn’t see behind the textured glass.
“Why are you looking at me like that L-O-L are you crushing on me, too?” Her voice was rusty, clearly a poor choice of a placeholder, not intended for use. She also didn’t move as she spoke, very early into her physical development, only intended for communication only.
“Am not!!” Ena blushed and crossed her arms, looking back to pull her chair through the door and sit down.
Time sort of blew by as they talked. Ena kind of started crushing on her. Yeah. A computer program. Maybe she was just another one of those weird exceptions.
-
The next day, her supervisor pulled her to the side before they went in. “So, after reviewing a few things and the adjustments developed in the code after your conversation, I’ve noticed that MZK_02 is in love with you,”
What? What??? WHAT?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?
“Is she?”
“Do you mind dating her– or at least pretending to, as convincingly as you can? Her development is very interesting. I want to see if she’ll grow when placed in a genuine romance. And I’ll increase your pay by two hundred yen,” (a/n; about one and a half to two us dollars)
Bingo.
“Really?! Sure! I don’t mind,”
“Great! All you have to do to get it started is to go in there and confess how you would do in your normal life and chat her up like you love her. See you later!” She scanned her card and watched Ena walk through. Ena stepped in with a new vigor to her work. A pay raise, A pay raise!!!! Holy fucking shit! She was being paid now for just talking to this thing, and getting a raise for pretending to be in love with it!!
But as she walked through, and opened the door to the machine’s body, she felt a lump in her throat. She felt her face warm up. What the hell?! The fake dating was clearly getting to her, because this time, Mizuki was about ten times more pretty than the last.
“Hii there!! You came back!” She said, her mouth actually moving this time, albeit awkwardly, and her voice having been modified a bit.
“Well, it’s my job,” Ena shrugged with a smile, having to fight herself to not stutter over her words. She sat down in the same spot as last time.
“Um, I kinda have something I want to tell you,” She started fidgeting with her hands, the you drawn out a little and somewhat unnaturally high in pitch.
“Yeah?”
“I think you were right. I thought about it a little last night and, yeah… I kind of have a crush on you…”
She was pretending. She was pretending.
“Y-You do?!?!?! Um, I can’t blush yet, so pretend I’m blushing because I feel like I am!!”
This is a computer program. This isn’t even a human.
“Ahaha…” Ena laughed awkwardly, not typical of her typically confident demeanor.
What the hell?! Why are this computer program’s mannerisms endearing?!
Ena’s life has now become a really really shitty romantic comedy. What can she do about that? Was there ever another option than date this AI she’s kind of low-key (high-key) mutually in love with for a pay raise?!?