When Sylia mentioned a room in the mansion known as "the Chrome Shoppe", most of the group thought it would've been more shinier than they expected. Sure, the place was sealed with a blast-proof door that looked like it could take a pounding, but inside was less shiny chrome and lasers, and more antiseptic white and strange tools.
They stood in front of a large arrangement of beds, like in a military field hospital, except that each bed was equipped for both residence and operation. Each bed was separated with collapsible screens, and had small tables with various tools. Behind the beds was a railing mostly hidden from view, along with the part of the room that it overlooked. Around the room were several people, mostly gynoids with some humans and Sagussans, working on other gynoids or examining various bits and pieces of strange technology. Ranma and Akane recognised Shinobu, working on one young woman. Sakura stood beside her, helping oversee Shinobu's work.
"Here in the Chrome Shoppe," Sylia explained with all the perkiness of a tour guide, "we are able to tend to and care for our artificial sisters. We managed to develop the suitable equipment, either taken from Converter-controlled bases or derived from such technology, to make sure that all the gynoids here will be able to function in top condition. It also can be used for organic medical purposes as well, of course."
Ranma looked over at a nearby table, seeing the various tools spread out on top. "I wouldn't have known," he murmured to himself. "Why call it the Chrome Shoppe, anyway? Sounds like some weird Akihabara store."
Sakura turned to look at Ranma. "We wanted to bring you here first, to take care of Tendou-san's remaining problems and make sure that she's fighting fit again." She moved her gaze over towards Akane. "We also need to run some tests to see what was behind that imprint conflict earlier."
Akane stepped forward towards the bed. "Right now I just want to be fixed properly. Didn't you say you were going to give me an improved battery pack, too?"
Sakura nodded. "You and the rest of the new androids here. Soon, all of you would be able to last as long as Ranma does before charging, and everyone else in the facility would have that too." Sakura looked at the small gathering of people. "I've also got some other upgrades that I could offer the rest of you, too..."
Ranma raised his gaze, looking over the railing. "What's down there?"
Sylia followed Ranma's gaze. "There? Those are the conversion chambers, used when this mansion was occupied by the Converters. We usually use those for structural repairs now, things that can't be fixed by opening a gynoid up." Sylia suddenly perked up as a young woman with short brown hair stole past the group to approach her, wearing a white robe. "Though occasionally they are used for their intended purpose. We've got somebody scheduled to go through conversion today, in fact..."
Shinobu stepped away from the table after closing up the hatches on her patient. "Well, if Chigaiko-chan doesn't mind, I think I could let you guys stay and watch..." She looked towards the group. "This is Inui Chigaiko, everyone. She managed to avoid conversion during the first wave in Tomobiki, and she's been a friend with us from the very beginning. But she's been suffering from leukaemia, ever since she was a child, and she's not going to last for much longer. That's why she's here today." She looked back at Chigaiko. "You don't mind if they watch, do you? Me and Sylia will keep an eye on them."
Chigaiko, the girl with short brown hair, looked towards the group for only a moment, before nodding shyly.
Shinobu smiled. "Well, you better make your way down to the conversion chamber, Chigaiko-chan. I'll be with you in a minute."
As Chigaiko made her way down, the group walked up to the railing and peered over. In the lower part of the room was a line of large metal caskets all laid at an angle, all of them approximately the size of an old phone booth. Each of them had a door with a clear glass front, with which to see an interior of smooth metal, with holes of various sizes arranged in a symmetrical pattern.
Chigaiko looked towards the group as Shinobu made her way down the stairs and towards her. Surprisingly, there was little contempt or resignation on her face, as she looked more to be at peace with her fate than anything else.
"Are you ready to become one of us, Chigaiko-chan?" Shinobu asked.
Chigaiko could only nod in response.
Shinobu brought her hands up to pull loose the belt of her robe, letting Chigaiko slip it off carefully. "Maria-sama and me will be by your side. Don't be afraid." She turned and pulled a lever on the door, a hiss of air escaping from it before it rose upwards. Within the chamber, several shapes of metal rose upwards with the opening of the door, metal supports for Chigaiko's body.
Chigaiko nodded quietly, and stepped into the chamber, settling herself on the metal supports. One more metal support rose from the chamber above her head, to reach over and rest on her forehead.
"See you later." Shinobu said quietly, before the door lowered itself down and sealed closed again.
Shinobu stood by the monitor beside the chamber, and punched several commands in. "Initialising conversion. All systems green." The chamber lit up with soft blue light, illuminating Chigaiko's body. "Beginning brain upload to CCU."
A faint buzz of electricity rose in the air. From inside the chamber, Chigaiko's eyes seemed to become unfocused and blank.
After a few moments, Shinobu spoke again. "Brain upload complete."
"Brain upload...?" Ranma said to himself.
"Chigaiko's no longer in that body any more." A voice behind Ranma said. "Everything she is, her memories, thoughts and feelings... Her whole personality... Is in a little black box made inside that machine. The body's just an empty shell now. So she won't feel anything when we melt it down."
The group turned around to see Ryuunosuke, a large MUSburger bag in her hand. She waved lazily. "I brought lunch for Shinobu. I saw Chigaiko-chan when I was coming in, and she told me today's her big day."
"Beginning organic disposal sequence." Shinobu said, drawing the attention to the group once again to the conversion chamber, the light within now growing brighter. Soon, it was almost blinding; some of the group shielded their eyes as Chigaiko's body seemed to melt away inside, crumbling from the force of the light.
And then, in a second, the light suddenly shut off. What was once a teenage Japanese girl was now a mass of pink bio-matter, still bubbling from the intense heat.
Water filled the chamber and flushed the pink mass from it, before the metal rests receded back into the chamber. "Organic disposal complete." Shinobu said. "Beginning with rebuild process. Injecting nanomachines, and first stage structural materials."
Now the chamber was completely filled with water, and a deep blue light seemed to be glowing. That was, until the light seemed to disperse, and then the group realised it was the nanomachines swarming around within the water, hard at work building a new body. Within seconds a new skeleton was formed in the water, new and unmarked, different from a human skeleton while still resembling it.
"Injecting second stage foundation materials." Shinobu said. The chamber was filled with a strange pinkish fluid, thicker than the water, which swirled around the skeleton. The nanomachines swarmed once again, and the group watched artificial muscles slowly form on the skeleton's limbs and joints, leaving the front torso area exposed.
"Attaching core internals..."
The metal ribcage of the robot body opened outwards, as manipulator arms rose upwards from holes in the chamber wall. Pieces of machinery, which Ranma and Hayate recognised from Ryuunosuke's emergency repair of Akane as the android internals, including the battery pack, the regulator pump, and the stomach unit, slid out from a small pocket at the body's feet. Quickly and deftly the arms picked up the internal units and slotted them into place in the chest cavity. Two smaller arms took a pair of glass eyes and connected them with internal wires in the skull's eye sockets, before being inserted inside. The two arms then plucked up a set of ceramic teeth, and inserted them into the skull's empty jaw. Finally, the arms inserted in a CSAT into a diamond-shaped slot on the centre of the breastbone.
"Charging internal battery, and injecting skin materials..."
As the last of the internals were slotted into place and connected, they begun to glow softly with their own light. The regulator pump flexed for a moment, first hesitantly, before beginning to beat like an artificial heart. Once more the water was coloured with a thick pink liquid, before it slowly adhered to the body, forming more muscle and lifelike silicone rubber skin.
As the pink cloud was cleared away, what was left was unmistakably a hairless human, a dead ringer for the body of Chigaiko. A hatch in the top of the head opened, unfolding out, revealing an empty cranium with a small socket inside
"Inserting C3N and CCU into cranial cavity."
A small hatch opened above the head, and what looked like an artificial brain was lowered into the top of the skull. As the skull closed back up again, the metal arms all receded back into their holes, leaving the robot body--now definitely Chigaiko--alone in the chamber.
"Final cosmetic touches..."
Hair grew out over the top of Chigaiko's head, along with new eyebrows and eyelashes. Invariably, some in the group figured, hair would also be growing elsewhere. Slowly, the glow died out, and the water drained from the chamber. Now, what was left inside was a perfect duplicate of Chigaiko Inui, almost identical to when she stepped into the chamber.
"Operation complete." Shinobu said. "Chigaiko-chan's booting up now."
At Shinobu's words, Chigaiko's eyes fluttered open. They moved around, searching out the faces that she saw before. Her eyes seemed to glitter as datascreens flashed in her vision.
"I'm back..." Chigaiko said quietly.
"Welcome back, Chigaiko-chan." Shinobu said.
And now...
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(Posted Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:00)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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