Chapter 225: 210

It was a two-story wooden house built 40 years ago.

The house had a triangular roof and a small courtyard. It was old, but built to be sturdy, and had undergone further radical renovations.

This was Yukikaze's home……

「From today on, this is your home」

……and also the home of "all" the A.I.s she had rescued.

『Understood, Makina will serve you wholeheartedly from this day forward』

「You don't have to be so formal」

Yukikaze smiled wryly at Makina's formal greeting.

『So, where do you want her? She's rather heavy』

Gunmerry put Makina, which he was carrying, down in front of the door.

「Makina, you can move autonomously, right?」

『But that's a function that's prohibited by law, so unless there's an emergency……』

「There's no need to worry then. My home is a licensed A.I. pod repair shop. That means that even if you move autonomously here, I can say that it's just part of our repair operations」

『Makina understands. Makina is only providing【Repair Assistance】by moving around in here. Then it's okay.』

A ball-like device emerged from the bottom of Makina. As if performing a ball balancing act, the pod began moving.

『That's just sophistry』

「You don't get to say that when you're illegal from head to toe」

『Hey~, we’re back』

Ignoring her retort, Gunmerry took off his boots and walked down the hallway. In no time, several 20cm mini-pods came bustling towards him.

『Welcome back~』

『Welcome home~』

『Welcome welcome~』

『Where are our souvenirs~?』

『The souvenir is the big pod back there』

When Gunmerry pointed to Makina, the mini-pods flocked towards her.

『Dirty』

『Old』

『Wash. Go get washed』

『Shoes not allowed』

They blurted out whatever was on their minds like children.

『Excuse me, Yukikaze-chan, is there a place where Makina can wash up?』

「We’ll do some maintenance on you in the back so we’ll get you washed up at the same time. All of your armor will need to be removed and repainted. What color do you prefer?」

Yukikaze took off her shoes and went in after Gunmerry and Makina.

『Myself prefers red』

『Red for me too~』

『Red~』

『Red like fresh blood~』

『Rip him to pieces~!』

Gunmerry stated his opinion and the mini-pods followed suit.

「Where did you guy's love of red come from anyway?」

Half of the mini-pods were painted red and the rest had red lines running across them.

『Red robots represent a romanticism that has lasted since olden times』

「I would prefer cuter colors. Like pink or something」

The walls of the hallway were lined with posters of old movies. One of them was a poster of a red robot with one eye and a single horn.

（I would hope not, but could it be that they were influenced by this?）

Yukikaze muttered to herself in her heart.

『This is something that women can never understand』

「Yeah, yeah」

To the wider world, an A.I. who talks about romanticism is harder to understand, was what Yukikaze thought but she swallowed back her words because they were uncalled-for.

『Makina, here we are』

『Okay~』

Gunmerry had led Makina into a room a little further down the hallway.

It was a large room created by tearing down the walls of several rooms. The smell of oil and disinfectant was strong in the air. It looked like a workshop, with massive machines and rows of electrical devices. There was a mobile crane mounted on the ceiling, from which hung a pod that was in the middle of being repaired.

The occupant of the room greeted Yukikaze and the others.

「Oh, you’re back, huh?」

「Yeah, I'm back, Gramps」

The man Yukikaze called "Gramps" looked to be well into his seventies or maybe even older. He was a small man with a hunch who had on dirty black work clothes. His beard and thinning hair were completely white.

He looked more like some kind of immortal sage than an old man.

『Repair Chief, replace her generic power cell and check the concentration of her circulating fluid. I need the drawings and schematics for the Makina type V16S5P. Also, I need a waveform chart of the aqueous brain and the percentages of chaotic activity』

The repair chief might be old, but his skills were solid.

He was the kind of person who would die at his workplace the moment his skills began to decline.

「Got it. V16S5P, huh? That's a type not available on the market. I'll draw everything up using the V16S's schematics as a reference and just use my instincts for the parts I don't know」

『There won’t be any problems. Myself trusts you』

『P, please take care of Makina』

「Yeah」

Makina seemed nervous as the repair chief started to touch her all over.

「President, where did you pick this up? I'm surprised you found one in such good condition」

「The Haunted Complex outside the city」

Yukikaze, who was addressed as the president, answered the repair chief.

「That's, ummm, maybe it's just my imagination」

「?」

The repair chief looked somewhat perplexed.

「Show me all the mechanisms that you can deploy」

『Understood』

Makina unfolded her arms, the tray, and other items such as heat exhaust and solar panels.

「Not bad. Nice work. This one's looking pretty good, but hey, Gunmerry, the balancer in your left leg is busted, isn't it? I've got a spare, so you should replace it」

『Understood. I've also tested the leap function』

「Oh-ho, how high did you manage to jump?」

『18 meters. The estimated limit of the function is 25 meters』

「Well, at this rate, you're gonna need wings, aren’t you?」

『Myself wants to fly freely~ in the sky. The sky is something else that men fantasize about』

「It's not easy to achieve flight with a humanoid form. It would require extensive modifications」

Yukikaze had a stupefied look on her face.

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「No no no, Gramps, there's no need to make Gunmerry capable of flight, I'm telling you. He's already all kinds of bad, so don't make it any worse」

『What a shame』

「Leaving that aside, missy」

『Missy? Do you mean Makina?』

The repair chief handed Makina a wrench.

「Fix the parts that you can fix yourself. That's the rule here」

『Ah, this is also a form of repair assistance, right?』

「Something like that. Alright, let's remove everything but the aqueous brain and the main arm, fix what needs fixing, then replace what needs replacing」

The repair chief got to work.

Makina started to remove her armor with the wrench.

Gunmerry helped to remove the parts that Makina couldn’t reach.

The mini-pods that had followed them there took the parts that had been removed and began to wash them with cleaning tools.

Yukikaze was left to loiter aimlessly, wondering if there was anything for her to do.

「President, the lady next door gave us stew again. The pot and stuff are in the living room, so could you give them back to her?」

「Okay. I'm off」

It wasn't exactly a task for a president, but having nothing better to do, Yukikaze was more than willing to do it.

The repair chief and the machines remained in the workshop.

The sounds of someone walking up and down the hallway were followed by the sound of the front door being opened.

For the next five minutes, they worked in silence, and then the old man mentioned something that had been bothering him.

「Hey, Gunmerry, there was dirt on the president's skirt. What happened?」

『She was briefly assaulted by thugs. Myself dealt with them without any problems』

「Hey! You were there with her, so why the hell did you let that happen?!」

Despite his age, he was furious.

He looked completely like a grandfather worried about his grandchild.

『That was the extent of it precisely because myself was there』

「Deal with it before any real harm comes to her! Is all that performance just for show?! You idiot!」

『Repair Chief, that would mean that all living things would be treated as targets to be dealt with. Human malice and spontaneous behavior are hard to predict, even with the performance myself has. It's better to act only after real harm has been done. Besides, myself is an A.I. who must hide from the world, so myself can't always be there to protect her』

「I'll mount a taser on you, those that can be used at distance」

『Yukikaze said to myself, "You're prohibited from equipping any kind of armament." Myself has tried reasoning with her in a number of ways, but she won't budge. It's hard to understand a girl's heart』

「You’re failing to live up to your name」

『Myself couldn’t agree more』

As the repair chief and a seasoned professional with over half a century of experience working with A.I., he should be more than aware of the dangers Gunmerry posed, but his desire to protect Yukikaze outweighed that.

He was what one might call a doting grandfather.

「So, did those thugs see you?」

『They did see me, but myself injected them with a Russian-made memory-deprivation drug without Yukikaze noticing』

「Is that stuff even legal?」

『Naturally, it's illegal』

「That's fine then」

『………………Just what part of that is fine, may Makina ask?』

Even Makina couldn't help but retort them at that.

『Rather than something unimportant like that, Makina……』

『Makina has a feeling that it's not unimportant, but what is it, Gunmerry-sama?』

『When we're done here, go draw something』

『Eh?』

『A drawing. A painting. Art』

『But that’s……』

To protect humanity's forte from being usurped, A.I.s had been prohibited from any sort of creative activities.

『This is yet another aspect of repair assistance. You also【dream】, do you not?』

『Yes, only occasionally though』

Gunmerry's face had no way of showing any expression, yet it felt as if he was smiling.

『Splendid. Myself will get you some crayons and drawing paper』

「Hey, missy」

The repair chief held up a part that he had just removed from Makina.

It was a 10x10x10cm box.

「Do you have any idea what this part is for? It doesn't look like it has anything to do with the pod's functions」

『Apologies, Makina has no idea either』

Gunmerry took the part and snapped it in half, spilling its contents out.

『A tracking device, huh?』

It was a miniaturized tracking device.

「Why would there be something like that in a pod you just scooped up? And missy, your power cell is practically brand new. Several of your internal mechanisms also show signs of having been recently repaired」

『Myself sees』

Gunmerry thumped his fist into his palm. The thump was just audio.

『Yukikaze is currently moving at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. She's presumably traveling in some form of vehicle』

「There's no need to drive when she's just going next door, isn't it? Is she going out for groceries or something?」

『The company car is still in the parking lot. This means that――――――』

「………………」

『………………』

The old man and Makina fell silent.

『It's a kidnapping~!』

『She's been abducted~!』

『What a tragic heroine she is……』

『It’s NTR~!』

The mini-pods kicked up a fuss.

『We've been had, haven't we?』

「Hurry up and go save her!」

Yelled at, Gunmerry immediately mobilized.

Okay, the thing about the color red is a reference that all old-school Gundam fans will absolutely get right away. For everyone else, just know that it’s a running joke in the Gundam universe that a red robot (sometimes with a “horn” as well) has 3 times the speed of the same unit in another color. This gag was so popular that it gained a life of its own and “went viral” in an era where internet usage wasn’t all that widespread. Nowadays, it has evolved into a joke about how anything red is 3 times more (whatever fits), and has spread to many other forms of media. Take for example this 3 times spicier “Red-Comet” curry (courtesy of soranews24.com)

You can see the mono-eye and horn referenced by the author above as well.

Just in case, “You’re failing to live up to your name” is just a simple reference to his name, which is “Gun” and “Merry” combined. His original name is also Guns-Memory, so it works for that too.

Abducted right off the bat?! Okay, this isn’t that long of a short-story so no long drawn-out plot-line haha. But who has planted the tracking device and tricked Yukikaze and gang? Stay tuned!

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