Eimi wasn't scared.  Eimi wasn't anxious.  She felt nothing. 
She had no fear.  Her emotions were blanked out as she watched the
tanks slowly approaching.  Flexing her fingers and her hands, she
watched, watched, watched as the slow tanks rolled towards her.

Version 1.02

    Akiko Natsume was nervous.  The tanks were 600 meters and
closing, the autopilots already aiming onto Eimi and ready for
the kill.  Despite this, the android didn't move at all.

    The turrents of the tanks made precise controlled movement,
the onboard computers compensating for range, wind drift, barrel
wear, the type of ammunition.  And still, Eimi decided to remain
a sitting duck.

    Hitoshi swore, putting his fist into the wall.  From his
remote terminal, he ordered a dump of synaptic activity from
Eimi's neural networking computer.  Tons of numbers spewed on the
screen, representing the dynamic changes to her neural network,
constantly taking input and processing it.  However, Hitoshi
noted with slight interest that a majority of her brain was not
processing data mindlessly.

    Eimi was merely waiting to test the limits of the
intelligence of the automated tanks. 

    At 200 meters, the tanks open fired at what would have been a
textbook kill, but Eimi had decided, the microinstant before the
six barrels spouted death, to run straight for the tanks,
disrupting the aim.

    The tank guns rapidly fired, deep with in the turrents the
autoloaders ramming ammunition into the breech of the mighty
cannon, the barrels slowly moving to track Eimi.  Eimi was too
fast, her movements unpredictable.

    Her eight parallel processors were a lot more intelligent
than the simple AI program driving the tanks.  As she passed the
line of tanks, the observers just got a taste of how stupid the
challengers were as they committed mass suicide.  Tanks blasted
neighboring tanks, turning the proud line into one big mess.

    Only one tank survived, but it's future was dim as Eimi
charged at the rear of the tank and pounded her way through the
thin rear armor, tearing out the vitals.

    Watching such a decisive victory was a moral booster for
President Natsume and her voice acquired her characteristic
overconfidence and ego.  "See!  SNK-98 clearly is superior to
modern tanks."  Kyusaku's head only sank as it was obvious, only
to him, that the tanks were rather stupid.

    Her voice, even though amplified, was drowned out by the
droning of helicopters passing overhead.  "Now, let's see SNK-98
in action against four AH-64D Apache's.  SNK-98 will be armed
with a high velocity gun, designed by Mishima Industries of
course."

    A tiny drone rushed forth from a hidden arsenal.  While
hovering a few feet over Eimi, the drone dropped a large gun in
front of her.  Kyusaku murmured.  "Mishima Industries my butt!  I
made that gun!"

    Eimi bent down, picked up the rifle and slide home a large
magazine, which also served as the stock.  But it was too late,
the four roaring helicopters rushed by, making a strafing run
with their chainguns and unguided rockets, turning the very spot
Eimi stood into a churning inferno of dust, fire, and heat.

    A hush settled over the crowd as the churned up dust
gradually settled, revealing a burnt robot, the psuedoflesh
charred off.  Half her face was missing, as well as her arms and
parts of her torso were missing, revealing metal.

    Moving so quickly that her motions were all but a blur, Eimi
targeted the nearest helicopter and fired a long burst into it,
the awesome muzzle blast, almost blinding.  The exploding bullets
ripped off the tail of the helicopter.

    As the mortally wounded helicoptor spiralled to it death,
Eimi swung in the other direction to empty her magazine into the
front of another Apache.  The bullets tore from front of the
helicopter to the back, rendering it dead.  It selfdestructed in
midair.

    Meanwhile, Hitoshi glanced at the digital gauges, and he
didn't like what he saw.  Apparently, during the strafing run,
Eimi had received damage to her circulatory system and was not
able to fully recover.  She was loosing her blood.  He grabbed
his toolcase and ran out the door.

* * *

    A couple hours later after a successful demonstration,
congratulations were given accordingly to Akiko for a job well
done.  Ryunosake and Kyusaku, on the other hand, had decided to
take a look at Eimi.

    Eimi walked slowly down the hall to her transport, her combat
suit burnt away, her endoskeleton completely visible, when
Kyusaku and Ryunosake caught up to her.  Both were quite
horrified by the view.

    "Eimi-chan!" said Ryunosake as he caught his breath.  She was
no longer the cute girl that he had known.  She was a thing of
metal, but that didn't prevent Ryu from being worried.  "I was so
worried!  I thought you had been destroyed."

    Eimi didn't know how to react, but her memory was perfect,
she knew that Ryunosake was someone who was inclined to be
positive to her.  She just didn't know how to respond properly. 
"I'm well constructed and armored.  My CPUs were not
compromised."

    That was when Ryunosake noticed the trail of dark fluid
behind her.  It looked like blood.  "You're bleeding!" exclaimed
Ryu as he touched her bare arm.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as alien
as it looked.  Her arm was still warm, moist, and slippery from
leaking fluid, the remaining psuedoflesh padding her hardness. 
He could feel a pulse.

    Eimi tried to explain further for Ryunosake's benefit.  "I do
not have blood therefore I can not bleed..."

    "SNK!  You are to report to be refitted and repaired,
immediately."  An impatient scientist stepped out of the
transport and forced her to board the armored vehicle.

    "But I haven't explained to Ryunosake..."  Eimi said flatly
as she was ushered away.

    "He doesn't have clearance.  You can't tell him," the
scientist, who was the new SNK project leader, didn't seem to be
a friendly person at all.

    "Yes," and as she walked, falling to her knees as sensors in
her circulatory system screamed about the almost total loss of
fluid.

* * *

    Dr. Maruyama swore as he stared at the tangle of wiring and
tubes that in no way made any sense to him at all.  According to
the SNK-98 specs, Eimi was not of the SNK-98 series.  Grumbling
at his inability, he typed up a short memo, explaining that the
"SNK-98" prototype was damaged beyond repair.

    Eimi was dumped into the trash.

* * *

    "You trashed her!" screamed Hitoshi as he was beginning to
scare Akiko.  He had spent an hour getting into the building,
which was a hard task considering his security clearances had
been yanked.  But thanks to Kyouko, he had managed to get in.  Of
course, her services had a price.  He promised to take her out
some time, his treat of course.  "How could you?  She's only
thirteen years old!"

    Akiko gave Hitoshi a critical look.  "What happened to
'Eimi'?  It wasn't even built to specifications."

    "Well she was a custom job," Hitoshi muttered, somewhat
angered that Akiko refered to Eimi as an it.  "She was based on a
SNK-90 chassis."

    Akiko stood up.  "So she was substandard!"  Hitoshi thought
hard as he wasn't willing to have Eimi classified as substandard. 
In fact, her current body was the best yet.  Her overheating was
controlled.  Her brain was significantly upgraded to handle the
tasks of interacting with others.

    But then again, Hitoshi wanted to keep Eimi, and not have her
in the hands of Mishima.  If they found out about his
modifications, he was sure that she would be reverse engineered. 
Against his gut instinct, Hitoshi managed to make himself nod
shamefully.

    Akiko growled at him.  "I knew it!  You were wasting my
company's money!  Get out now!"  Hitoshi retreated.  Now was the
hard part, finding Eimi and putting her back together. 
Fortunately, Eimi had an unauthorized internal homing beacon.

* * *

    Nuku Nuku sighed.  "Papa-san, where is Eimi-chan?"  She was
worried, despite the fact the two of them often had differences. 
Ever since that incident in space, the two of them had been
achieving a certain level of understanding.  Of course, the two
of them still liked to "play".

    "I don't know.  But if Akiko has anything to do about
this..."  Kyusaku imagined a warehouse filled with Eimi's all
ready to take over the world.  "She'd definitely know.  Let me
get in touch with her."  

    He crawled over to his computer and booted it up.  Typing a
few keys here and there got some instant results.  The screen
blurred as the familiar face of his wife appeared.  As usual, she
demonstrated her cheerfulness.  "WHO DARES TO BOTHER ME WHEN I'M
DOING WORK?"

    "Um, hi Akiko.  I hope I'm not interrupting anything." 
Kyusaku said quietly.

    Akiko sighed as she carefully turned off with her foot the
power strip that powered the hidden Playstation and the
television.  Of course, nobody knew that she had a Playstation. 
"Oh, of course not."  Her voice was more calm now.

    "Akiko, I was wondering.  Do you know where Eimi is?  Nuku
Nuku and I've been wondering.  Even Ryunosake wants to know."  As
soon as Kyusaku finished his question, he realized his mistake,
using the R word.

    The normally cold president leaned forwards on to the table,
her eyes shimmering as she thought of her only child.  "Um,
Akiko?" asked Kyusaku, but she was already daydreaming.

    Taking a deep breath, he shouted as loud as he could. 
"AKIKO!!!!!!!!"  That got results as his wife was shaken from her
dreams and thrown backwards into her chair.

    "Oh yes, you wanted to know about Eimi.  Well, she was
scrapped and dumped today as Dr. Maruyama found out that she was
an inferior design," Akiko said.

    Kyusaku was stumped.  He thought the demonstration was
perfect, everything that Mishima Heavy Industries could ask for. 
"If she was so inferior, why did she successfully completed the
demonstration?" he asked.  Moreover, he had met Dr. Maruyama at a
cybernetics convention before.  He wasn't a likeable person at
all.

    "Anyhow, Hitoshi asked about her as well, and he was
distressed like crazy," Akiko added as an after thought.

    Kyusaku rubbed his six day stubble.  "And who is Hitoshi?"

    "Just a lab tech for Dr. Yoshikawa.  I'm surprised that he
wasn't terminated when Dr. Yoshikawa passed away.  He hasn't done
much for the SNK project.  Look at the bad job he did on Eimi. 
She didn't even conform to SNK-98 standards."  She could go on
and on complaining about Hitoshi.

    The professor continued rubbing his chin, making scratchy
sounds as his stubble struggled not to be pushed around.  "Do you
know where I can find him?"

    "From what Mishima Intelligence tells me, he's back at the
University, working for a graduate degree."  Kyusaku almost
snorted when he heard the word intelligence coupled with Mishima. 
"And Kyusaku, do you know you look sexy with a beard?"  Akiko
asked.

    He seemed quite surprised that his wife would mention
something like that without reason.  "Really?"  He had thought
she wouldn't like the beard at all.  Of course, when one was
absorbed into pioneering cybernetics work, who needed to do
trivial things like eat, sleep, and shave?

    "OF COURSE NOT YOU DOLT!" Akiko screamed.  "Ok, Kyusaku,
you'd better get shaved and get down her for an inspection or
else I'll deem you unfit to be a role model for Ryunosake.  I
want him to be a well groomed, clean shaved young man!  Not a
slob like you!"

    Kyusaku's head dipped down.  "Yes."  If there was an
injustice in this world he could not stand, it was being forced
to shave.  In his mind, when shaving was weighed against the
important advanced in biotechnologies he made in his bed room,
shaving was nothing.

    But still, instead of getting flamed from his wife, he'd
rather put up with nicks and cuts.

    Nuku Nuku tilted her body over to get a better view of her
father as he was doing something in the bathroom that made him
scream a lot.  "Papa-san, what are you doing?"

    "Nuku Nuku, next time you going shopping, pick up a few
safety razors for me.  This straight edge isn't doing a good
*AHHHH!* job..."

    Kyusaku came out of the bathroom with a few bandages stuck on
his face, hiding the wounds of that hidden war he had just
endured.  "I need to go argue with Akiko a bit, so I won't be
back for awhile."

    Nuku Nuku seemed quite distressed.  "Papa-san and Mama-san
are not going to fight, right?"

    Kyusaku shook his head, proud that his daughter was capable
of a wide spread of emotions.  "Don't worry.  I don't think she
wants to start a fight this time."

* * *

    Some time later, Arisa grumbled as she walked alone with an
important telegram for the president herself from a foreign
division of the company.  Kyouko was nowhere to be seen.  "Damn
her," mumbled Arisa.  "She's finally abandoned me for a slob. 
Stupid traitor."

    Arisa walked down the dimly lit corridor until she reached
Akiko's office.  She pushed the door opened, and her senses were
assaulted by two people practically on top of each other making
out like crazy.  Papers were knocked astray, items pushed off the
desk in haste.

    "Akiko!"

    "Kyusaku!" (* This is as lemon as I'm getting in this fic...
^_-)

    She didn't want to see any more and shut the door.  "Everyone
around me is abandoning me!" she shouted to no one in particular
as she walked hurriedly down the hall.  "First Kyouko and now
Lady Akiko!"

* * *

    Hitoshi didn't like wading through trash, but he had to.  He
wanted to find Eimi quickly and patch her up before her backup power 
failed. Quickly adding numbers in his head and making
rough estimations, he felt that he had about an hour to two hours
before the voltage in her backup batteries would drop to the
point memory would be trashed.

    He groaned as sweat ran down his face.  His tracking
device was only good for locating Eimi within 20 feet. 
By roughly triangulating, he was able to isolate the huge mound
of trash that Eimi was in.

    His bare hands plunging into the heap of scrap metal, he dug
around constantly searching, working furiously against time.  The
sooner he could get Eimi hooked to a power source, the better.

    It took some thirty minutes of plowing through trash, when he
found the first part of Eimi.  It was her arm, missing the rest
of her body.  Shaking his head, he searched with renewed fervor
and soon he was able to retreive her head.  The rest of the body
was unsalvageable as it had been crushed and compressed.

    Luck must have been on his side as all the important stuff
was in Eimi's head, and not a single microprocessor had been
damaged.  Ignoring his scratched up hands, he grabbed the head
and ran to his scooter.

    Carefully ripping two wires from Eimi's head, he carefully
taped them to the scooter's tiny battery.  Hopefully, the surge
protectors would protect Eimi's brain from the excess voltage.

    Satisfied that the head was tightly secured, he gunned the
engine and sped off.

* * *

    Dr. Maruyama wasn't pleased.  The first zeta type SNK-98
android was walking around in the testing room, and it was
showing signs of serious heat spiking.  Sitting down at the
terminal, he accessed the various folders detailing the latest
work done on the robot.

    He bigsweated as he thought that he had just the only working
prototype trashed and sent to hell.  He immediately deduced that
the differences that were present in Eimi represented an
unofficial upgrade that Hitoshi had done, as all records of
Hitoshi's latest work had been formated, high and low, rendering
data recovery absolutely impossible.

    In fact there were other aspects of the project that he was not
able to duplicate.  Besides the heat problem, there was the
problem of the CPU.  It was apparent, according to the diagrams
of the ZIF socket in the head, the CPU was of a three dimensional
design, something that he had never heard of.

    He knew Akiko wasn't going to take this well.

    Maruyama picked up the telephone and decided to make report
of his lack of progress.  He waited for the phone to ring some
seven times before it was picked up.  "Hello, Lady Akiko, I have
to tell you I can't do anything with the SNK line.  If we are to
have any product, I'm either going to have to cludge the SNK or I
could always rush one of my designs instead."

    He heard a short moan, definitely Akiko's.  "Kyusaku!  Stop
it, I need to talk on the phone.  Afterwards..."  The doctor
winced as he heard a kiss.  Akiko's voice became all business. 
"Well, Doctor.  I don't care what you do.  Just give me a working
prototype you lazy bum!  If Hitoshi was here, he'd at least do
something about SNK."

    Maruyama grimaced as he took the verbal abuse without delay. 
But it was still good news as he now had full freedom in this
project, freedom to utilize one of his designs and not one of Dr.
Yoshikawa's pacifist plans.

    He grinned.

* * *

    Kyusaku glanced at the University listing, carefully looking
for a person with the name, Hitoshi, seeking a bioengineering
degree.  Only one name was to be found, and it surprisingly was a
Hitoshi...  Kyusaku blinked as he stared at the book as if it was
a mistake, the last name.  'It has to be joke,'  Kyusaku thought
as he slammed the book shut.

    Hitoshi grumbled as he carefully worked in the metal shop,
carefully programming the CNC machine to shave out the proper
parts for Eimi's new body.  It was a long work, trying to get the
CNC device programmed to exact specifications.

    Like Dr, Yoshikawa, he was a perfectionist to a fault, and
the litter in the room, composed of mostly parts that didn't meet
his stringent requirements, proved it.  He wanted Eimi's new body
to be just as good, if not better as the last one.

    On the floor of his tiny room, the individual components
started to make some sense, beginning to resemble a body, despite
many missing parts.  On his desk, attached to a power source was
Eimi's old head, it's brain waiting to be transfered to the
slowly forming head on the floor.

    "Well," muttered Hitoshi, as he screwed the frontal bone to
the parietal bones on the new head on the floor.  "It's only a
matter of time now." (*)

* * *

    Nuku Nuku sighed, saddened.  Her friend was gone, never to be
back again.  It was a huge drag, not only because Eimi was a nice
person, but she was quite possibly the only playmate that hadn't
fallen apart after a session of fun.

    "Eimi-chan's dead," Nuku Nuku said again, sighing again.

    Ryunosake and Kyusaku were silent.  As strange as it was,
Eimi was a big part in their lives, her cheerfulness something
that brightened the day, her feud with Nuku Nuku, something that
made them run for cover.

    "Well, Nuku Nuku, I talked with Akiko, and she told me where
to find Eimi's creator.  I'm sure if we contacted him, we'd be
able to find out about her," Kyusaku said.  His voice didn't seem
that positive as he had already tried before many times, but no one had
bothered to pick up the line.

    They stared at the rapidly cooling meal in front of them. 
Ryunosake made an effort to be cheerful, and he carefully chewed
on some sardine.  "Well, I guess we'd better eat dinner before it
becomes cold."

END

(*) Notes
- The cranium of a human head is composed of various bones: The
Frontal bone, the two Parietal bones, the two Temporal bones, and
the Occipital bones.  The occipital and temporal bones are held
together with the sphenoid bone.  The nasal bones, ethmoid bone
and part of the maxillae bone form your upper face.  The palatine
bone and the maxillae form your oral palate.  The mandible is
your lower jaw.


Author's notes.
-Here's the rough draft. :)  Someone was actually beginning for this, so I
took a bit of time to get rid of some mistakes.
-Any C&C would be loved.  (Quick before I set this draft into stone...)
-Am I moving too fast?  Of all the comments that I get, I seem to always
get a "you're going through the plot too fast" all the time.
-It's so great being devoted to a small number of projects for once...  I
don't have to stay up any later than I need to.  (Only El Hazard and this
fic, as well as a Ranma lemon... heh heh... I feel great)