Ranma glanced around the store. He may not have understood much about persocoms, but he did know that anything high-tech was bound to be expensive. Time to break out the old Saotome haggling skills (No, not the ones that Genma taught him--rather, the ones that he had been forced to learn because Genma had been so pathetic at it.).
"So, um, what's the price on these things?" he asked cautiously.
Kumiko replied, "Well, we are currently having a special on our most popular models, starting at only six hundred thousand yen.
Ranma blinked. Six hundred thousand was a bit more than he had, even counting what he took from the bullies. He counted his funds again. "Um, you got anything I can get for four hundred twenty thousand?"
Kumiko accessed the stores records. "Well, we do have one. Her previous owner was very fond of her and wanted to make sure that she went to a nice home. Would you like to see her?"
Ranma shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Kumiko led Ranma to the back of the shop. There, sitting in a chair, inactive, was a persocom with long, blonde hair and pink-and-white ear covers. She looked to be about sixteen to eighteen, and was slightly smaller and more slender than Ranma's girl form.
Ranma examined the persocom. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her that he could see, but then again he probably wouldn't be able to tell if there was. Deciding to switch her on and see what happened, he began searching for the power switch. However, try as he might, he could not find it.
"Hey, uh, where's the switch, anyway?" he asked.
"Well, it's, er..." Kumiko leaned over to whisper in his ear.
"WHAT?!" Ranma yelled. "I have to touch her there?!" If Akane heard about that, then she would definitely accuse him of being perverted.
Gulping, Ranma reached between the persocom's legs and pressed. Something moved with a click, and the persocom came to life.
"Chii!" The persocom blinked, looked at Ranma's hand between her legs, and then looked up into his face.
Ranma drew his hand back like it was on fire and made warding gestures. "Hey! I didn't mean it like that! Honest!"
"Chiiiii." The persocom girl looked downcast.
"Hey, no, I mean you're cute and all, but--" In his panic, Ranma used the infamous Saotome foot-in-mouth maneuver.
"Chiii!" Now smiling, the persocom girl wrapped her arms around Ranma in a glomp.
"Hey, uh..."
"Chii?" The persocom girl looked at him questioningly.
"You got a name or something?" Ranma asked.
"Chii!" The persocom stated succinctly.
"I guess 'chii' is all you can say. Mind if I call you that?" Ranma asked.
"Chii!" The persocom girl, now dubbed Chii, smiled and nodded in approval.
"Hey, uh, how come she can't talk, anyway?" Ranma asked Kumiko.
"No need to worry," Kumiko replied. "She has self-learning software, so she will learn whatever you teach her. You just have to train her in anything you want her to learn."
"Train her, huh? Well that's not so bad. I mean, how hard can it be?" Ranma, of course, was unaware that such a statement ranked up with "what could possibly go wrong" as a harbinger of trouble.
He decided:
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(Posted Fri, 09 May 2003 22:08)
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