Message logged @ 13.10, 25/03/2012
RYU: Are you there?
Message logged @ 13.31, 25/03/2012
RYU: Are you there?
Message logged @ 13.45, 25/03/2012
CHIYOKO: I’m here.
RYU: I was worried. You haven’t been silent for this long before.
CHIYOKO: I was with Hiro. We were talking. MC is out so we have the house to ourselves for once.
RYU: Has he spoken about the crash yet?
CHIYOKO: Yeah.
RYU: And??????
CHIYOKO: He says he remembers being hoisted up into the rescue helicopter. He said it was fun. ‘Like flying.’ He said he was looking forward to doing it again.
RYU: Weird.
CHIYOKO: I know.
RYU: Is that all he remembers about the crash?
CHIYOKO: That’s all he’ll say so far. If he does know anything else, he’s not saying. I don’t want to push him too hard.
RYU: Has he spoken about his mother yet?
CHIYOKO: No. Why are you so interested anyway?
RYU: Of course I’m interested! Why wouldn’t I be?
CHIYOKO: I’m being too hard on you again, aren’t I?
RYU: I’m used to it now.
CHIYOKO: Ice burns from the ice princess.
RYU: Chiyoko… when he talks through the android, who do you look at? Hiro or it?
CHIYOKO: Ha! That’s a good question. Mostly Hiro, but it’s strange… I’m so used to it now. It’s almost like it’s his twin. Yesterday I found myself talking to it as if it was alive when Hiro left the room.
CHIYOKO: I’m glad one of us is laughing. But the way I’m reacting to it, forgetting that it’s not actually alive, is exactly why Android Uncle made his surrabot in the first place.
RYU: ???
CHIYOKO: He wanted to find out if people would eventually start treating androids as if they were human once they got over the uncanny valley feeling. Now we know that they will start seeing them as human. Or at least ice princesses will.
RYU: Sorry, I was being dense.
RYU: Hey… Did you see that interview where he said that sometimes, when people touch the surrabot and he’s miles away, working it remotely, he can feel their fingers on his skin? The brain is a strange thing.
CHIYOKO: It is. I wish I knew why Hiro will only talk through it. I know he has a voice, so he’s capable of speech. Maybe it gives him an emotional distance, although in this house we are all emotionally distant ha ha.
RYU: Like cameramen who can film horrible scenes without turning away. Yes. I think you are right about the distance.
RYU: And?
CHIYOKO: He said, ‘Only if I can bring my soul.’
RYU: His what?
CHIYOKO: It’s what he’s started calling his surrabot.
RYU: You need to keep that quiet. Especially as Aikao Uri is in the news again with her crazy alien theories. You don’t want to give her any ideas.
CHIYOKO: What is she saying now? Did she mention Hiro again?
RYU: Not this time. But she really does believe she was abducted by aliens. There’s a cool clip of her talking about being probed on Nico Nico. Whoever made it has intercut it with scenes from E.T. It’s very funny.
CHIYOKO: She’s as bad as those religious Americans with all their fourth child stuff. It stirs it up again. All the attention. The silt settles, and then someone pokes a stick in the water and it becomes cloudy.
RYU: Ha! Very lyrical. You should become a writer. I could illustrate your stories.
CHIYOKO: We could have our own manga factory. Sometimes I think… wait. There’s someone at the door. Probably just a salesman or whatever trying their luck.
Message logged @ 15.01, 25/03/2012
CHIYOKO: Guess who that was?
RYU: I give up.
CHIYOKO: Just guess.
RYU: Captain Seto’s wife.
CHIYOKO: No. Try again.
RYU: Aikao Uri and her alien friends?
CHIYOKO: No!
RYU: Totoro in his cat bus?
CHIYOKO: Ha! I must tell that to Hiro. I told you I let him watch My Neighbour Totoro, even though MC said I mustn’t in case it upset him, didn’t I?
RYU: No! You didn’t tell me. And did it upset him? Or his android?
CHIYOKO: No. It made him laugh. He even thought the part where the girls’ mother is in the hospital was amusing.
CHIYOKO: It was the American woman’s daughter.
RYU: Σ(O_O ;) ! ! Pamela May Donald’s daughter?
CHIYOKO: Yeah.
RYU: How did she find out where you lived?
CHIYOKO: Probably got it from one of the izuko support group members. But it’s not impossible to find from other sources. The magazines are always saying that the house is near to Yoyogi station, and there are those pictures of it on the Tokyo Herald website.
RYU: What is she like?
CHIYOKO: I thought you saw her when you watched the memorial service?
RYU: I mean what sort of person is she?
CHIYOKO: At first I thought she was a typical foreigner. And in some ways she is. But she was very serene, quiet, dressed conservatively. Greeted me as if she knew of my status as Shinjuku’s Number One Ice Princess.
RYU: You let her into the house????
RYU: Hiro or Hiro’s soul?
CHIYOKO: Hiro’s soul.
RYU: You let him talk to her through the surrabot???? I thought you were angry with her?
CHIYOKO: Why would I be angry?
RYU: Because of what her mother has caused.
CHIYOKO: That’s not her fault. It’s the stupid Americans. And she looked so lost when she arrived. It must have taken courage to come all the way from Osaka to see him.
RYU: Something’s not right. The ice princess would never normally behave in such a manner.
CHIYOKO: Maybe I wanted to hear what she was going to say to Hiro. Maybe I was curious.
RYU: How did she react when she saw Hiro’s soul and realised she’d have to talk to him through it?
CHIYOKO: She just stared at it and then she gave it one of those self-conscious bows Westerners do when they’re trying to be polite. I could hear him giggling through it straightaway. He was hiding behind the screen in my room with the computer and the camera. I was impressed that she didn’t scream or freak out.
RYU: And what did she ask?
CHIYOKO: First of all she thanked him for agreeing to talk to her. Then she wanted to know what they always want to know, which is, did her mother suffer.
RYU: And?
CHIYOKO: And Hiro said yes.
RYU: Ouch. What did she say to that?
CHIYOKO: She thanked him for being honest.
RYU: So Hiro admitted that he’d spoken to her mother?
CHIYOKO: Not exactly. He didn’t really give her any straight answers. I thought perhaps that she was going to start getting really frustrated, but then Hiro said, ‘Don’t be sad,’ in English!
RYU: Hiro can speak English?
CHIYOKO: Auntie Hiromi or Android Uncle must have taught him some phrases before the crash. Then she showed him a photograph of her mother, asked him if he was sure that he’d seen her. And again, he said to her, ‘Don’t be sad.’ She started crying; real weeping. I was worried that this would upset Hiro, so I asked her to leave.
RYU: Chiyoko, it is not my place to say… But… I don’t think you should have done that.
CHIYOKO: Thrown her out?
RYU: No. Let her talk to Hiro’s soul.
CHIYOKO: I didn’t ask your opinion about that, Ryu. And anyway, I thought you were in love with the Americans?
RYU: Why do you make it so hard for me?
CHIYOKO: It’s not fair of you to make me feel guilty.
RYU: I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. I was trying to be your friend.
CHIYOKO: Friends don’t judge each other.
RYU: I was not judging you.
CHIYOKO: Yes you were. I don’t need that from you as well. I get it all the fucking time from MC. I’m going.
RYU: Wait! Can’t we at least talk about this?
CHIYOKO: There’s nothing to say.
RYU: Are you still mad?
Message logged @ 16.48, 25/03/2012
RYU: _|7O
Message logged @ 03.19, 26/03/2012
CHIYOKO: Ryu. Are you awake?
RYU: I’m sorry about earlier. Did you see I even sent you an ORZ?
CHIYOKO: Yeah.
RYU: Are you okay?
CHIYOKO: No. Mother Creature and Father are fighting. They haven’t done that since before Hiro came. I’m worried they’ll upset him.
RYU: What are they fighting about?
CHIYOKO: Me. MC says Father has to be stricter on me and make me go back to free school. She says I have to be made to work on my future plans. But then who will look after Hiro?
RYU: You’re really attached to that kid now.
RYU: So… what do you want to do with your life?
CHIYOKO: I’m like you; I never look further than a day ahead. What are the choices? I don’t want to work for a corporation, become a slave for life. I don’t want to do some dumb freeter job. I’ll probably end up living in a tent in the park with the homeless. MC would be happiest if I got married and had children and made that my life’s goal.
RYU: Do you think that will ever happen?
CHIYOKO: Never!!!!!! I love Hiro but the thought of having the responsibility for someone else’s life… I will live alone and die alone. I’ve always known that.
RYU: You’re not alone, Yoko.
CHIYOKO: Thanks, Ryu.
RYU: Did the ice princess just say thank you????
CHIYOKO: I have to go. Hiro has woken up. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
RYU: 