Untitled as of new...
by Key.

Bored as hell, and watching Nuku Nuku yet again...  I think my tapes are
beginning to wear out...  much like my El Hazard tapes...

    The SNK series of battledroids.  As heavily armored as the NK
series without the liabilities of an organic brain to power to
logic.  The primary weakness of the NK series was the brain
itself.  Destroy the brain, whether through viral, bacteria, or
chemical attack, and the NK cybernetic battledroids would be
nothing more than almost half a ton of metal.

    Of course, that was only in war that the SNK would appear to
be a winner on paper.

    Eimi moaned, as she fanned herself in an attempt to beat off
the heat.  "I'm so hot."  Heat was a constant killer of robots. 
High heat, and CPU's would malfunction, eventually leading to
meltdown.  Being under the relentlessly burning sun didn't help
her at all.

    Ryunosake Natsume laughed as he glanced at Eimi.  "If you're
so hot, why don't you join us?"  He cupped some water and
splashed it at her.  She felt the refreshing spray of water hit
her, but even that amount wasn't enough to quell her heat.

    Water and Eimi didn't mix.  She was a robot, and she fully
understood what it meant when someone mixed integrated circuits
with salt water.  A short circuit wouldn't look good at all. 
Yoshimi had similar thoughs.  "Ryu-chan, I'm not sure whether
it'll be good for Eimi.  She might short ciruit or something..."

    Seeing Ryunosake give her an apologetic look, and the fun
died down in the water, Eimi's emotion algorithm kicked in. 
According to Hitoshi-san, the lab tech at Mishima Industries who
had finished her, the real Eimi was a loving girl, if not
stubborn at times and hard to control.

    Consequently, her emotion expert system(1) was preprogrammed to
react appropriately.  Eimi flexed her legs, and without warning
leaped into the water, her heavy but small body tucked into the
perfect cannonball, splashing water over everyone.

    A godsend, as Eimi felt her body cool off instantly.  Ryu and
Yoshimi were coughing up seawater.  Eimi smiled and declared
shyly.  "See, I'm well built.  I won't short circuit."  That was
when the lights turned out, and she slumped into the water.

    Ryunosake and Yoshimi screamed.


Version 1.01

    Hitoshi, the "novice" scientist who had been Dr. Yoshikawa's
lab assistant up to his untimely death, stared at Eimi, who was
lying on his workbench, her soaked hair dripping water of her
schematics, his own ideas, his plans for the SNK series.

    Glancing at Eimi, he let out a sigh as he carefully cut
through her thick skin to her underlying machinery and stripped
off her human appearance.  Carefully feeling around her head, he
jacked her into his computer.  The voltage would keep her alive
as he prepared to transport her into a new body he had
constructed just for her.

    Unlike the crude SNK-98 endoskeleton, whose design was
countlessly modified by a board of scientists who never had any
experience with biotechnologies, SNK-99 was his own design,
unmolested by others, keeping in with the philosophies of his own
teacher.

    It was a masterpiece of design, featuring an efficient
circulatory system that mimicked that of humans.  The SNK-99 model
breathed with purpose, not for emulating a human as in model 98,
but as an efficient means of making the design run cool.  SNK-99
also used its skin as a means of furthur dissipating heat.
Generally, the electronics ran on half the voltage the SNK-98
series required, decreasing heat production drastically.

    Still considering the number of advances he was able to make,
Hitoshi still dreaded the simple fact that he wasn't satisfied
yet, Eimi's limited power supply being one of his main concerns. 
Dr. Yoshikawa had infected him with that sickness that forced him
to work hard on the SNK series, the desire to create a life from
nothing.

    Of course, the two of them had to lie a bit with Chairman
Mishima when it came down to the objectives of the SNK project,
establishing an elaborate ruse by equipping Eimi with a
comprehensive line of external weaponry, ranging from a hightech
laser rifle to the lowtech battleax.  It was amazing how quickly
the Board of Directors accepted their veiled proposal.

    With careful hands, Hitoshi carefully transplanted the fist
sized cube that functioned as Eimi's brain, a solid block of
silicon through which was millions of pathways in all directions. 
The three dimensional approach saved space and conserved power
consumption.

    It was Eimi's heart and her brain in one simple little
cuboidal unit.  With the application of pressure, he snapped it
into place in SNK-99, along side some seven other cuboidal
microprocessors in her head.  Then with held breath, he activated
the droid.

    Eimi groaned as she sat up slowly, her eyes blinking rapidly. 
"Well, you certainly took a long nap.  Did you like it?"  Eimi
turned and focused her eyes on Hitoshi.

    "Hitoshi-san." she stated flatly, all emotions drained from
her voice.  It was like listening to a monotone version of Eimi,
like she had been brainwashed.  In a sense it was true.  Hitoshi
had dumped all of her emotion expert system in exchange for a 
neural network.  He hoped that Eimi could build her own emotions
in time.

    "Eimi, I just placed you into a new body," he started, as he
tried to explain to her the importance of consuming liquid.

    With the mention of new body, Eimi looked down at herself,
expecting a drastic change from the last time she changed bodies. 
That time, it was her dear old grandfather who had overseen her
change.  Hitoshi was in the background, busy cleaning, sweeping
and stuff.  There was no major changes that she could see.

    Although she found it weird that she could feel something
coursing throughout her body.

    Eimi didn't seem that emotional.  "There is no difference at
all."

    Hitoshi laughed.  "Oh not that.  You're not scheduled for a
revamp until you're 17.  Yoshikawa was very strict about that,
the old man didn't want guys swarming over you until later.  Just
keep in mind, try to drink at least a liter of water a day.  Two
liters would be great."

    "Yes, Hitoshi."

* * *

    Ryunosake grumbled as he heard the familiar sound of wooden
spoon crashing into a pan.  "Time to wake up, Ryunosake!"  It was
worse than an alarm clock as Nuku Nuku lacked the holy "snooze"
button.  But it still didn't prevent Ryunosake from trying as he
rolled over and buried his head deep into his pillow.

    In an instant, his bed covers flew off, exposing him to the
cool morning air.  If there was anything more annoying than
waking up in the morning, it was having someone pull his covers
off while he was having a nice dream.

    "Good morning," he croaked, as he watched the all too
familiar toothbrush in front of his face.  He noted that the
bristles were getting a little too worn out.

    And thus started another inspired day in the lives of the
Natsume family.  Of course, Akiko was elsewhere, handling
protests of boardmembers who had heard some details about
Hitoshi's unofficial experiments.

    "Miss Mishima!"  cried a disgruntled person.

    Akiko Natsume unleashed her fury on the unwitting fool. 
"It's Mrs. Natsume!  Since when have I decided to divorce my
husband?  Have you forgotten that I have a son?"  Her voice
bordered on angry as she pointed at the photograph of her, her
son, and her scratched out husband on the desk.

    The man continued.  "Mrs. Natsume.  Is it true what you've
reported on the SNK project?  We demand to have some data on it's
effectiveness.  Do you have actual physical data that 'making the
android sweat' would improve it's combat statistics?  We demand
the lab technician working on the project be removed.  His
idealistic endeavors are wasting even more money on this
project."  A funny choice of words as Hitoshi on occasion had
showed to be more knowledgeable than some of the scientists on
staff.

    Another voice agreed.  "I agree.  We should remove the
slacker and place SNK-98 into production.  It's about time we
stop wasting money to the developmental costs.  The prototype
runs fine, right?"

    The crowd around the desk started murmuring, all in favor of
such a move.  Akiko Natsume had nothing else but to comply with
the boardmembers.  "Your complaint have been noted, and we will
take steps to generate profit in this project soon," she replied
sweetly.  "NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" she screamed, making
everyone run in fear.  

    Only two were left, her faithful secretaries who had been
recently rescued among the wreckage of a Mishima space shuttle in
the Pacific.  "You showed them!" said Arisa as she clenched her
fist.

    President Akiko sighed as she sank back into her chair, her
breathing slowly returning to normal.  Anger wasn't good, no it
wasn't, but on occasion it got the better of her.  "Showed them
what?  We know that the latest prototype SNK-98 has a heat
problem.  Hitoshi is wasting his time trying to humanize the
robot.  His SNK-99 hasn't even been completed yet.  Inform him
that he'll be off the project this afternoon."

    The two secretaries seemed not too sure.  "Why do you want
him off?  Although he is only in the design department, he's the
whole reason this project has remained running..." Kyouko said
meekly.

    "Never mind that!  He's too idealistic!  We need to deliver a
working production line model soon, or else..."  Akiko looked
around carefully and motioned the two girls to come closer.  "Or
else I'll have to inform my Great grandfather our quarterly
loss..."  Her face filled with horror.

    Blood drained from Kyouko's and Arisa's face as they thought
about the last time Mishima went through a poor spell... 
Corporate downgrading was a stretch of words.  Axing people was
more accurate of the tactics used to maintain the Board of
Directors' wealthy incomes.

    "So you see, he's too much of an idealist, like my estranged
husband.  He hasn't even been a major part of the project since
SNK-43.  Make sure he's out and we get the production line tooled
up to produce SNK-98's."  

    As she continued speaking, she leaned closer and closer to
the two secretaries, he voice becoming less and less harsh.   "If
you save Mishima from a terrible embarrassment, I'll give you a
bonus at the end of the month and forget about the space shuttle
you two trashed, is it all right?"  Akiko practically grabbed
onto the two girls and begged.

* * *

    Eimi didn't know how to react.  Well, she really didn't have
feelings, but she just felt puzzled over the recent turn of
events.  Hitoshi purposely dumped her emotion database, replacing
it with a neural net and a set of basic emotions, opting for the
joy of letting Eimi develop her own feelings.  She was ushered
into President Akiko's large office and forced to sit down.

    Eimi decided to remain calm.  Akiko seemed surprised at the
unusual lack of, quite frankly, aggressive behavior bordering on
violent hostility.  She made a mental note, and continued
speaking.  "Tomorrow at noon, we are to have a demonstration of
your capabilities to the head of the JDF at our testing field. 
Just to inform you."

    Eimi blinked once and stared at Akiko.  "Demonstration?"

    "You are to engage targets of increasing difficulty.  We have
some remote controlled tanks, helicopters, and based on your
performance,"  Akiko emphasized the next few words.  "Which had
better be perfect, the Japanese Defense Force will place an order
for some 100 units, and we will just barely make profit this
quarter."

    Akiko was obviously living in some dream, as she was already
thinking of how to express her humility to the Emperor who was to
give her a national gift.  Of course, it wasn't real.

    Eimi noted the enthusiasm in Akiko's voice and nodded.  She
could argue with her superior.

    Elsewhere, a young man stared at his computer screen and
shouted loudly at the monitor.  "Baka!  Don't go along with her
plans!  You're much better than army equipment!"  Hitoshi cried
out as he pounded his fist on top of the armored monitor.

    But somehow, he managed to get control of himself and
resisted the urge to go load the backup of Eimi's emotions into
her.  He trusted that the Fates had something good in store for
her.  

    Right now he had the trouble of worrying about tomorrow's
performance.  He had cut corners in SNK-99 by minaturizing the
target acquisation gear and removing redundant hardware to make
Eimi's combat abilities bare minimum.  He prayed that his
untested redesigns of her combat algorithms would prove potent.

* * *

    Tomorrow whirled around, and important personages were
present at the demonstration.  Chairman Mishima was present,
chatting with some friends in the JDF, sharing some tea.  The
entire Board of Directors were present.  Hell, even Kyusaku and
Ryunosake showed up at Akiko's request.  Nuku Nuku on the other
hand was stuck at work, the newly reconstructed Akies.

    Eimi stood alone in the field, far enough that the visitor's
observation area seemed a tiny box in the distance.  Of course it
made no difference to her.  She consciously overrode her vision's
limits and zoomed as far as she could see.

    Her view of vision cut down from a giant panorama down to one
face, whether it was random luck or Fate, she unintentionally
zoomed in on the concerned face of Ryunosake Natsume.  He was
saying something to a nearby person.

    "Father, why is Eimi doing this?  I thought she had that
problem with overheating and..."  Ryunosuke asked his father.

    Kyusaku brought up his pair of binoculars and focused in the
distance.  "I wouldn't know.  But if I knew better, your Mother
has decided to end research and development and sell the SNK-98."

    "But I never thought Eimi would want to do this," Ryunosake
spoke as he stared through his binoculars.  In the distance, Eimi
seemed to be staring back at him.

    "Will you please stand back from the windows, and focus on
the screens instead.  Mishima X-4 reconnaisance drones will offer
us unparalleled views of the demonstration from safety."  Akiko
Natsume spoke loudly, her magnified voice echoing in the hall. 
As if to emphasize the audience's safety, armored shutters
slammed shut simultaneously, blocking all the windows, removing
the sunlight.

    Eimi recoiled slightly as her view of Ryunosake was suddenly
cut off.  She was puzzled at his selection of words, as if he
expected her to behave in a certain way.  She would have gone on
ruminating on his words if it wasn't for the sound of main battle
tanks rumbling, coming closer.

    "As you can see, we present six of the world's best combat
tanks, the American M1A1 Abrams.  SNK-98 is not armed," said
Akiko, confidently.

    Hitoshi sat in his tiny room, staring at his computer monitor
like a man possessed.  He mumbled, "Come on Eimi.  I know you can
beat those poor excuse for a scrap heap."

    Eimi stood still, staring at the six armored beasts.

Notes:
- The fic was unplanned.  This chunk is more of a pilot thing.
- Inspired by Colliding Symphonies and their great Nuku Nuku fic.
- Inspired by my love of all "underlings" in anime.  Among my favorite
non-main characters...  Misao/Pixy Misa in Pretty Samy...  Fatora from El
Hazard (figures, ne?)...  Sakura from Key the Metal Idol...  Ayako from
Devil Hunter Yohko...  Well not quite, but they're not the main
characters...  I guess it's close enough.
- I like Eimi-chan.
- I like to write about heavy weaponry...  I'd like to use heavy
weaponry... but my parents were sort of against me joining ROTC and stuff
like that.


(1) Ah well, for those who do not know, and expert system can be thought
of as nondynamic neural net.  It will not learn from experience.