Crossfire

This was a story commissioned by TheShoveller / Calsetes.

---

Jinkoshima's commercial district was abuzz with life, both organic and synthetic, on what was sure to be a beautiful autumn day. The artificial island's streets were bustling with people going to and from work, or spending their days off shopping, going to their favorite bars or cafes, or simply taking in the marvelous weather after a long bout of rain brought about by a tropical storm. The streets were still somewhat damp, but otherwise, it was a lovely, dry day. Perfect weather for both humans and synthetics to take a stroll. The tightly packed storefronts and shops welcomed visitors in, with large signs seemingly covering every inch of storefront above the heads of the passer's by, advertising everything from books to prosthetic limbs. It could be a little chaotic, however, as one relatively recent resident was discovering.

It had taken a bit of time for Renée Collins to adjust to a new life in a new country, but she liked to think she was acclimating to it well enough. Wearing a loose blue floral dress over her well-endowed body, and a pair of open-heeled shoes, she was taking every advantage of both her good looks and the lovely weather. She certainly stood out from most of the residents, even as an android, which in Jinkoshima were fairly common, even compared to most metropolitan areas like her home city of Denver. But here, she could at least get out more often, certainly more than when she could when her systems were in such a mess and her programming effectively kept her from leaving the home. And lately, she had never felt better. She was an all new android, with a brand new body and her systems refurbished with the latest tech so generously provided to her by her son's friend, and reprogrammed with new, less rigid operating parameters. But as much as she was enjoying getting to experience all the things she had missed in several decades of service, she was finding it just as challenging to adjust to life outside of the home.

Lee's work had done a lot to cover their living costs, and the apartment was provided by the company he worked for, with the rent paid for by them as part of Lee's work contract. But as for Renée, she had been, for the last two months, doing much the same as she had when she was in Denver in the Collins home. She was a homebody by programming, and so she confined herself to domestic tasks. But, Lee was always away until the evenings at work, and while he was happy at his job, he worked hard and frequently did additional work at home. Not enough to make Renée feel neglected, but enough to make her feel that she was stuck in the same routine. And while she was happy with it, it just felt terribly stereotypical for an android to do exactly what they've been programmed to do and nothing else, especially when her systems allowed for so much heuristic expansion.

Thus, she had been taking breaks from the routine, going out and wandering about her local neighborhood, and then when she felt more adventurous, taking a bus to the other parts of the city. Jinkoshima was relatively crime free and quite safe, so she didn't feel too concerned with her safety. After all, even if something were to happen, she had a full AI backup now that her processors had been upgraded. But, still, she didn't want to be reckless, as even with her insurance coverage, parts of her were difficult to source and replace.

But the thoughts of personal safety were far down the cued list of priorities, as she hurried along the street in the throng of chatting office ladies and businessmen on their way to work. It could be overwhelming for her, even as a machine—and sometimes especially as a machine—to experience all the sensations of a tightly-packed urban environment like Jinkoshima. That and, even with the language comprehension packages she had received, there were still plenty of things to learn about the local language. Idioms, local slang and the proper conjugates had been particularly troublesome, and she still only had a basic grasp of the written language. She felt like a cheap chatbot sometimes when trying to read out recipe instructions. So, having been out for a while, and with the work day ending for so many people, Renée decided to duck into the first place that looked welcoming, and found it in the glass storefront of Cafe Taro.

Slipping in through a gap in the crowd, Renée smiled as she took a look at the place. It was lively, but not packed to the gills, and there were plenty of round, polished seats for her to sit at. The place was decidedly Western in style, more personable than the typical chain coffee places that she would occasionally go into with Lee, warm and cozy without being overtly artificial or cookie cutter in style. Soft lights and deep blue walls doubtlessly made the place more relaxing for humans, an aesthetic which Renée could appreciate. A chalkboard menu was situated above a bar-style front counter towards the back of the dining area, complete with what looked to be a refurbished espresso machine among the more modern coffee dispensers. Standing behind the counter, by the card reader machine, was a pretty young woman. Her jet black hair was tied into a soft bun on the back of her head, and a blue apron with the cafe logo sat over a white T-shirt and black pants. She gave Renée a friendly wave. Smiling in response, she walked over, heels clicking gently against the polished hardwood floor.

“Irrashaimasse, Cafe Taro e youkoso!” The lady behind the counter gave Renée a pretty smile and a polite bow before continuing. “Gochuumon wo kimattara, sassoku junbi shimasu!”

“Oh, my. Um. I seem to be having a problem with my language localization software, my apologies. Do you speak English?” Renée smiled sheepishly, the embarrassment clear on her face. The young woman behind the counter, however, simply smiled and nodded.

“Ah, hai! Shoushou omachikudasai.” The woman behind the counter then paused, staring straight ahead with a smooth, mechanical turn of her head and a serene but empty smile on her face for a few seconds. “Welcome to Cafe Taro! Let me know what you'd like to order, and I'll have it ready in just a few minutes!Sorry about that. Had to switch my vocal processor output language. I hope that's not a problem.”

“Oh, not at all, dear. I know exactly how that is.” Renée smiled brightly, then took a moment to ponder over what she wanted. After making a selection of a plain coffee, she stood at the counter waiting for her order. Two minutes later, she was handed her cup. Renée then smiled, turned and headed over to an empty table, sitting down with a content sigh. Of course, Renée received no benefit from the coffee. Taste for her was largely a choice, with the ability to simulate any reaction to any substance that registered with the chemical sensors in her tongue and the inside of her mouth, and the caffeine had no effect on how awake she was. But it was less the taste, or the practicality, as much as it was the joy of engaging in the activity. In the same way that humans enjoyed pointless but ultimately personally engaging activity, like playing video games or singing in the shower, so too did Renée enjoy the little human things like eating and drinking that were a part of her nature as a simulation of a human being.

---

The cafe was largely calm and quiet, no bustle of children, nor were people in any rush to leave. The din surrounding her was mostly one of polite conversations, though she didn't understand a word of it, and was content not to eavesdrop regardless. As she took a sip of her coffee, she loaded up a taste profile that simulated her favorite flavors, or at least in as much as she registered them. A mix of chemical data from sensors taking in both flavor and olfactory profiles gave her a very accurate sense of “taste” and “smell”, but such intangible things were always difficult to replicate, and Renée often wondered if she tasted things the same way humans did.

“Mind if I sit with you?” The words came from an accent-less voice speaking in English that sounded close to her simulated age, maybe slightly younger, and the waveform pattern indicated that it was a modulated, artificial voice. Renée was suddenly knocked out of her pondering, having been staring down at the dark surface of her drink, and raised her head to see who was addressing her. The woman before her was a bit younger, dressed in what looked like exercise or sports gear. A pair of gray sweatpants hugged shapely thighs and a wide pair of hips, though not quite as wide as her own. As Renée directed her eyes upward, it only took a quick glance to see that this woman made up for it in her bust. Easily an American H cup, larger than her own, noticeable even in the somewhat loose blue hoodie she wore over her torso. But despite the well-endowed figure, the most noticeable feature she had was her hair. Iridescent, the soft lighting didn't fail to capture the subtle changes between red and purple that made her hair seem to shimmer. Going down her neck to her shoulders, the straight hair framed a pretty, pale face with deep blue eyes that glowed softly with an electronic light.

Though Renée was owned by Lee, her feelings of attraction towards others weren't restricted, and they certainly weren't exclusive to the opposite sex. All androids were programmed as bisexual by default, at least those that had sexual functions. Her sense of physical attraction was designed to be flexible, and like everything else about her body and AI, they could all be adjusted by user preference. Her self-writing selfware also had a say, but that depended on if any restrictions had been placed on her. Lee hadn't made any, so Renée found herself immediately attracted to this woman.

“Oh, of course, miss. I'm not waiting on anyone, and I'd hate to be rude and hog the seating.” Renée watched as the younger woman sat herself down with a smile, though it was now that she noticed that her guest at the table wasn't holding a drink. Before she could question it, the woman smiled and spoke again.

“Thank you. I'm just checking this place out, trying to get a feel for it. I'm sort of new to the neighborhood, you see.” She reached across the table, extending her hand out to Renée. The older android, in both model and slightly so in age, reached out and took it. It was something of a relief not to have to bow, as she was still getting used to it, and her friends at the apartment playfully and good-naturedly tended to point out when she was bowing too deeply, or not enough. “Hara Katsumi. A pleasure.”

Renée, ever cordial, smiled and gave it a gentle, but quick shake. “Renée Collins. I'm somewhat new to these parts, myself.”

Katsumi smiled, leaning forward somewhat as she tilted her head. Her eyes openly roamed over Renée's body, taking in the features of the somewhat more mature-looking android. Renée paid it no mind, and certainly wasn't opposed to the idea of being checked out by an attractive android woman. “New to the area? Or is it more like the country? Not to pry, but you look and sound American.”

Renée playfully scoffed. “You can tell? What gives it away?”

Katsumi smiled, and steepled her fingers together. “Little things. The fact that your English has a slight regional accent to it, though one I can't place. The way you walk, and talk, things that are hard for an android's systems to adequately define, but become clearer when you hear them in contrast. Most importantly, though, you actually shake a person's hand like you know what you're doing.” Katsumi canted her head to the right slightly. “Adjusting well, I hope?”

Renée nodded. “Yes, thankfully.” Then a short pause followed. “Actually...If I'm being honest..I love it here, but it is a little difficult to adjust to things here. I hear Jinkoshima is a bit more welcoming, a little more progressive than the rest of Japan, but the culture's still different enough to me that I'm having a hard time getting situated.”

Katsumi raised an eyebrow. “Getting along well enough, though?”

Renée nodded and smiled. “My owner, Lee? He takes care of me. He has a good, well-paying job and he's very handy with machines, especially robots like me. Like you. Us. The both of us.” She smiled, and then scoffed and shook her head. “I'm sorry, I haven't really had much of a chance to speak to people without switching to a Japanese language setting, and mine isn't the greatest. I really only speak English around my son. Owner. My owner and his friend.”

Katsumi paused for a moment, before tilting her head in the opposite direction, once again openly allowing her eyes to roam over Renée's shapely form. “Well, he's a lucky owner, that's for sure. And don't worry, I hear that happens from time to time, especially with older models switching to newer format syntax software.” Katsumi leaned in a little and spoke in a quieter tone. “Is your owner handsome?”

Renée smiled. “Oh, yes. Very.”

“Is that just your programming talking?” Katsumi's tone was playful, but Renée frowned for a moment. Then she smiled, realizing that Katsumi probably didn't mean it that way. “I take it you're a family surrogate model? I'm a pleasure model base, myself. French, if you can believe it.”

Renée chuckled at that information. For some reason, she found it particularly amusing. “Oh? Well, despite my name, I'm actually American-made. According to a friend of mine, though, I share some parts similarity with Japanese models.”

“It's certainly a small world, especially when you take industrialized globalization into the mix, eh?” Katsumi chuckled. “Speaking of jobs, you have one? I hear foreigners have a hard time with finding new work here, especially androids.”

Renée paused for a moment. She wasn't sure why, but for a moment, she had a hard time finding the words to respond with. She wasn't offended by the remark, nor was she nervous to answer. She sat there, lips parted, and after a two second delay, answered. “Oh, I don't work, really. I'm more of a home body. Like I said, my owner, he has a good job that covers most of the expenses.”

Katsumi leaned in a bit further, looking Renée directly in her eyes. “You really ought to think about doing something with that body of yours, though.” She leaned back slightly after that. “An android that looks as good as you could certainly get a lot of attention that way. And probably a lot of money, too.”

Renée was taken aback by the remark. She scoffed, blinked twice, and raised an eyebrow. “What. What do you mean?”

Katsumi smirked and shrugged. “What do you think I mean, Renée? You have a lovely body. More mature than most androids around here. Certainly have that 'Mother-I'd-Love-To-Fuck' thing going on. Thick thighs, wide hips, a great pair of tits?” Katsumi chuckled again, but this time, it was a much darker, more sultry tone. “You'd be great in an adult movie, you know. People around here would clamor to see an American android showing off her body. No shame, no hesitation. I could see you doing that.”

Renée took a moment to recover from that, her eyes wide, mouth agape, cheeks red with embarrassment. And, something else, something that made her thighs press together, and rub against each other for a moment. “Are...Are you suggesting...Miss...Katsumi? What. What are you saying?”

Katsumi leaned over again, far enough that her large breasts pressed somewhat into the table. If any of the patrons were noticing, none were paying much attention. Renée's eyes darted left and right, just to see if anyone was staring at them, but when Katsumi spoke again, that sensual voice filled her audio sensors, and made her eyes flutter.

“I bet you could get into some pretty hardcore things, Renée. Threesomes, foursomes? Taking two men in your hands, one up your plastic ass, another ramming your throat and one more pushing into you? Blowing their load in you, getting you to cum, and then getting you all hot and bothered again like nothing happened?” Katsumi chuckled again.

“Miss...Miss Hara, I...That's just...I'm not--!” Renée suddenly found herself cut off again as Katsumi reached over and openly cupped one of her breasts, pushing up and giving it a firm squeeze. Renée found herself aghast, but as she brought up her hands to push Katsumi's away, the sensation she felt from the sensors in her breast was unexpectedly strong. She suddenly slapped her thighs together and crossed her legs, closing her eyes as Katsumi continued to grope her across the table's short distance.

“I bet you'd even do mekabare. You seem like the kind of American slut who'd be into that sort of thing, Renée.” Katsumi now had both hands on Renée's breasts, groping and squeezing them over the bra she wore under her dress, pressing the firm mounds of synthetic flesh together, thumbs finding her nipples with unerring accuracy.

“What's...I...Th-that's...What is...it?” Renée found herself struggling to speak, unable to process the words that she wished to say. She'd never heard the term before, but Japanese idioms were the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. The pleasure was intense, as was the shame of doing this so publicly.

“Hardcore android porn. Imagine having a handsome, muscular guy take a crowbar to you. Pry your arms off and cave your head in, then fuck your sparking, malfunctioning body, before prying open your back panel and ripping out your wiring as he climaxes. You'd be a sputtering, malfunctioning mess.” She groped Renée's breasts hard. “Or maybe they'd just tear your synthskin off, and have an industrial drone with a steel cock welded to it break your hips in half, as everyone gets to see your endoskeleton twist and turn, your systems overheat.”

Renée could hardly stand it, and was already feeling ready to climax, when Katsumi suddenly, abruptly stood up and walked over to Renée. Her hands snapped back to her breasts, squeezing them hard, groping them openly, before she leaned down and kissed the older gynoid intensely, closing her eyes as one hand slipped away from her breasts and down between her legs, cupping her sex between her tightly closed thighs.

Breaking the kiss, Katsumi looked into the pleasured, stunned-looking face of the other android. “We're leaving, and you're going to follow me.”

“I...But that's...” But even as she spoke, Renée lowered her hands, uncrossed her legs, and stood up. She looked Katsumi in the eyes with a desperate expression, and felt all concern fall away as she gave the other android a smile.

At the same time, Kinuko Matsura smiled as she finished with a customer at the counter, but her eyes turned once again to the pair of androids that had been sitting at the table for a good two minutes now. The friendly American one she had spoken to earlier sat there quiet and still, while the other, a woman she hadn't ever seen before had taken a seat across from her. It sounded at first like they were chatting idly, but it didn't take long before both were just staring at each other. The new lady with the fancy hair, another android for sure, just seemed to relax in her seat, and even to Kinuko's surprise, reached over and took a drink of her cup! She was about to say something when suddenly, the American snapped out of her trance and looked extremely flush.

“Kinuko-kun,” she heard from the back. It was the owner, Ms. Hisashi. “I need you to refill the tea powder in a few minutes, but we're out here. Mind taking a quick jog over to Harada-san's?” It was unusual for a distributor to be so close to the cafe, but it made life convenient. She turned her head to look towards the back room, simultaneously pinging an order for more matcha green tea to be ready when she headed over.

“Already done, should be ready in fifteen minutes.” And as she turned to look back at the store, she watched as the two ladies abruptly stood up, the American looking flush and somewhat dazed, and then casually strolled out. She shook her head and headed into the back, dismissing it as nothing more than two overly-enthusiastic android lovers having heated wireless exchanges and got her hoodie on, telling one of her fellow baristas to handle the front counter. By the time she headed out the back, the pair were already filed into the back of her processor cue and forgotten about.

---

Renée stumbled in through the door, after Katsumi gave her a firm shove. Before long, she fell to her hands and knees, and pushed herself up slowly, panting softly in pleasure so intense she could barely bring herself to her shaky feet. When she stood, she found herself faced with the sight of a largely empty warehouse, save only for a few signs of habitation. She couldn't even recall if she had asked Katsumi about the front of the building. She and the other android had walked for almost an hour, and though the artificial island was comparatively small, going across it from one side to the other took time, especially on foot.

The entire time, Katsumi had been whispering sweet nothings into her ear, hiking up her dress, groping her breasts, openly and publicly playing with her in a way that was at once exhilarating and disarming. She was programmed with a sense of modesty, but only activated in certain social situations. And something was happening to her that made that sense of modesty and social more awareness greatly reduced. It was a strange sensation; at once aware of it, yet unable to place it. Something that an android with the ability to categorize her every emotion and sensation found strange and a little disconcerting. But when they arrived to this warehouse, with only a crude charging station, some repair tools and what looked like a bed, Renée found herself finally questioning the series of events that brought her here, like a veil had been lifted from her mind.

“Miss...Miss Katsumi, what are we do--” Renée found herself suddenly silenced by a hand that clamping over her lips. The other android pulled Renée up against her own body, keeping her on her splayed knees, while her other hand reached down to the collar of the dress she wore. With a sharp yank and a tearing of fabric, Renée's dress was ripped free from her chest, and as she watched in dazed surprise, the torn fabric was pulled down to her knees. Wearing a plain white bra and matching panties, Renée felt the urge to question what was happening get interrupted by the sudden shove to her shoulders that sent her onto her back, and allowed Katsumi to yank the rest of the dress away.

It didn't take long for Katsumi to walk over and straddle Renée's hips, grasping her her wrists, and with a protest from Renée's servos, pinning her arms down against the cold, concrete floor. Drawing her lips down to Renée's neck, Katsumi began kissing it, and the home care android let out a pleasured groan at the sensation, eyes closing softly as her back arched. Their bodies met, and Katsumi groaned against Renée's skin, as the other android squirmed in pleasure underneath her.

Did she want this? Yes she did. Who was this woman? It didn't matter. What am I doing? Having fun. All of these thoughts were answered almost immediately, but it was with a rapidity that Renée couldn't help but question. And then she dismissed it. She made no connection between the quick resolution of every internal conflict she had, and the possibility that her systems may have been compromised. So she gave herself to the other android, and Katsumi, knowing exactly when and why, let go of Renée's wrists.

The homecare android stared up at Katsumi with a dazed smile, no longer bothering to question what was happening, and instead lost herself to an escalating sense of pleasure. Even her self-preservation functions, which had been alerting her to a possible theft/damage scenario, were now silent, and she could now enjoy herself, watching as Katsumi lifted the hoodie up and over her head. Throwing it aside, Renée's eyes went wide.

Sections of Katsumi's synthetic skin were either missing or damaged, exposing much of her internal structure. Her breasts were intact, but small cuts and strips of missing synthskin exposed worn wiring and scuffed endoskeletal support. With a soft servo motor whine that she only now noticed, the topless Japanese android leaned forward, grasped Renée's shoulders, and pulled her up into a sitting position. Her bra quickly unclasped, Renée watched as it was pulled quickly from her chest, making her just as topless as...what was Katsumi to her, anyway?

A lover.

The question once again answered, Renée gave the damaged android a dazed smile, not a word exchanged between them, as Katsumi drew her hands down to Renée's bare chest. She moaned softly, licking her lips in anticipation of a firm grope, but then received an unexpected system alert. Turning her eyes downward, she watched as Katsumi placed both of her hands on Renée's sternum, and as the plastic and metal creaked, began forcing her chest plating apart at the seams. Renée felt a rising urge to ask a question quashed abruptly, too abruptly for her not to notice that it was the result of a compromised system, and attempted to correct that. But as she attempted to activate her security functions, they returned each time with an error. Unable to start...or just missing altogether.

Renée could only watch in shock and surprise as her chest plating was forced completely open, and her eyes went wide as Katsumi's eyes roamed with a predatory hunger over the exposed components. Her power core hummed softly, and the sounds of her shoulder servo motors whirred softly as she attempted to raise her hands to defend herself, only to see Katsumi's hand snap inside and grasp a collection of cables leading to Renée's primary power cell.

“Katsu--” Renée began to protest, before the cables were ripped loose. As the frayed wires sparked and snapped arcs of blue electricity, Katsumi chuckled darkly as the other android's blue eyes flickered, and went dark. The shut down was so abrupt and sudden that her servos locked completely, and thus she was left with a surprised, but pleasured expression on her face, eyes dull but wide, and her arms outstretched to halt her attacker. Katsumi then looked down at Renée's chest, at first to merely evaluate the components she wished to salvage from the other android. But as she observed, she noticed a few unmistakable and familiar components.

Life hadn't been easy for Katsumi after her encounter with the Inoue siblings. She had been fired from her job and was scheduled to be put on trial for embezzlement, theft and assault. But she had ducked away from the authorities, missing her court date and becoming a fugitive. She'd been a media sensation, but had managed to avoid capture for over a year, thanks largely due to the island's relatively small police force and reluctance to have law enforcement from the mainland come over. She had escaped justice, but at the cost of being able to freely move about the island or getting repairs and maintenance. So she had resorted to hacking and seducing other androids to steal their components. It was, in a way, a 'victimless crime', since they could just get restored into new bodies. But Katsumi was becoming a terror in Jinkoshima, and her body was still wearing down.

Her plan had been to merely dismantle Renée for her parts, but as her eyes roamed, a thought entered her processors. This framework was a Youske Heavy Industries model, and consulting her internal parts catalog database (something she had to steal from an industrial unit) showed that the internal layout was similar, if not exactly like a YT-6740. It was a model number she had grown to hate.

But Katsumi couldn't help but wonder why this android, with such outdated wireless security, would have a body like this. So, she decided to investigate, in the best way she knew how. Rising up, she placed a hand firmly on Renée's face, and the other on the back of her head. The shut-down android was in no position to resist, and so Katsumi leaned into her body a little and began working her head back and forth, then in slow circles. The sound of metal parts clinking together, and dully operating powerless servos and actuators began filling the room, before Katsumi's own servo-actuators began drowning out the sound.

“C'mon, you bitch...I've done this before...” Katsumi muttered to herself out loud, feeling the exertion on her worn mechanisms. But she had to know if her wild hunch was accurate, and so, she began twisting and jerking with greater force. Just when she thought her own elbow servos might break on her, Katsumi heard a metallic pop and a plastic-y crack. With a firm yank upwards, Renée's head popped loose, and with a final, sharper yank, her head came off completely, torn wiring trailing out from underneath as Katsumi walked over to a workbench.

Her tan nipples perked with arousal, Katsumi tossed Renée's head onto the workbench without a care, and with wires jutting out from all angles underneath the half of her neck mechanisms that were still in place, Katsumi tilted Renée's data signal cables from the back underside of her cranial unit and reached underneath the desk to pull out a data cable of her own. Connecting it to a port in the back of her own neck, she then pulled loose a connected power cable, and once again reaching under the desk, made a haphazard connection with another cable to her own charging bay, which was illegally taking power from the city's power grid.

Katsumi watched with a perverse glee as Renée's eyes began turning in different directions, before syncing to stare straight ahead. “Sy-System-tem Er-Error Mul-Multiple-ple Da-Dam-Damage-aged Areas Detec-tected-ted.” Renée's eyes then shifted erratically, as a spark popped from underneath her head as Katsumi set it down, her chin resting against the edge of the table. “I req-require-quire rep-repairs-pairs. Error. I am una-able to operate-rate fu-full-full per-personality emulaaaation software-ware.” Renée's soft but emotionless monotone continued to list a number of faults as Katsumi huffed and reached behind Renée's head, pressing her fingers into a release point that raised the back of her head.

Like most androids, when Renée's CPU cover plate on her cranium was opened and lifted away, the circuit boards that made up the majority of the processors' core functions separated and rose up, parting to allow specific access. But Katsumi wasn't interested in those. At least, not directly. Though she could tell from the processor structure that it was a generation behind, Katsumi wanted to get more exact details, and more personal data. Katsumi's eyes flashed as she leaned into the table, pressing her breasts together softly as she felt the unique rush of sensation that came with connecting directly to another android's systems.

“Y-You do-do not-not have-have access-cess permission-sion for-for this u-unit-unit's pro-processor da-data.” Renée mindlessly droned on, making empty warnings about prosecution of criminal behavior and how this was a crime, but Katsumi paid them no heed. Instead, she began diving through Renée's memories, looking for something in particular. What she found was juicy enough on its own. A mid to high-ranking member of Yamaguchi Robotics owned this android...and she pretended to be his mother? Katsumi chuckled at this, pleased to see that hidden family surrogates weren't just a Japanese fad. This was good enough on its own for quite a bit of blackmail material...but Katsumi was interested in something else.

More recent memory files were plumbed through, as Renée continued to voice protests in a robotic monotone, stuttering and skipping all the while. And Katsumi's eyes widened at the visual and auditory memory data. Her hunch, wild and unbelievable, had been correct. This was the frame of Yamata Chise, Miyu and Arata's accomplice. Her hands balled into fists at the sight of her, looking so happy, so carefree, after she had helped the Inoue family so thoroughly ruin her life. The fact that she brought it down on herself was something the narcissistic hedonist refused to consider, and instead, a wicked new idea began to form in her processors.

“Alert-Alert Rep-Reptition Number-ber Seventeen-teen: Alert. You do not-not ha-ha-have-have access-cess permiss-miss-miss—Alert. Intru-truder Pro-Program Has Sub-Subverted Processor Secur-curity. System Comp-Compromised. Intruder Pro-Program Initating System Da-Data-Data Purge-Purge-Pur-Pur-Pur-Pur-Pur...” Renée's voice trailed off as Katsumi finished her task. Initiating the total system wipe of this android's data had been pitifully easy. Really, what business did such a piece of junk have walking around where someone could get their hands on her? Katsumi then leaned against the table, looking up at the ceiling as she arched her back, closing her eyes as she began crafting a new program right there and then.

It would be a simple thing, something that wouldn't take up much memory space. A virus and a wi-fi program, which would leave Renée's head empty for the most part. But it would send a message to the intended recipient, should this outdated piece of junk fail in the task she now had planned for her. After about a minute or two of writing a program that a human would take several hours to craft, even if everything went flawlessly, the dull glow in Renée's eyes went completely dim as she was forced into a reboot.

Despite not having a true OS loaded, Renée managed to seemingly reactivate. No startup sequence statement, nor system alert was spoken, and the homebody android's reactivated head stared forward in stoic silence. But after a minute, as Katsumi knelt down in front of the disembodied cranial unit, Katsumi watched as Renée's eyes twitched in her head, before staring straight back at Katsumi's eyes. Katsumi then turned her eyes, rolling them in her head, looking in all directions, and adjusting the level of focus they displayed. All these actions were mirrored with a tiny amount of latency, nigh imperceptible to the naked eye. Katsumi chuckled, and with perfect synchronization, Renée's voice joined her. Katsumi leaned a bit closer to the table, face-to-face with Renée, who was now perfectly matching every movement Katsumi made.

“I'm going to have my revenge for all this embarrassment, all this mistreatment,” Katsumi said, echoed by Renée's malfunctioning voice. “And I'm going to make that bitch Chise regret the day she was ever manufactured...”

---

Lee sighed as he looked over at his desktop's clock application, seeing that it was now well past five. Though Renée was an android, Lee treated her as her own woman, and let her do as she desired. She was programmed to be and had the intelligence of a responsible adult. Almost too much so, given the situation that found her here and her tendency to get lost in home chores. He had even seen that same sort of social paralysis that he had experienced when he first arrived in Japan. Jinkoshima, though different in many ways culturally from the mainland, was still a foreign land that he had to get used to, and was still getting used to. At first, he was concerned Renée might not be able to parse the situation with her current programming, but over the next few months after her arrival, she got along well, and had even made friends with the neighbors.

But even after getting relatively used to things here, she still tended to come back before dark. Perhaps it was from some sense of responsibility to him, though Lee hoped that wasn't the only thing keeping Renée from enjoying the much-vaunted Jinkoshima nightlife. But even though he wanted her to go out and enjoy herself, being out this late with no word ahead wasn't like her. He watched as another minute passed by, and shook his head.

“I really ought to tell her to get a phone, or install a call app.” He shook his head, muttering at a slower tone when he heard the door open. Letting out a sigh of relief, he stood up from his computer desk and walked out of his room, heading down the hallway towards the kitchen. “Hey, Renée, how was--” He found himself shocked by the sight in front of him. Renée, wearing nothing but her underwear and the shreds of her dress, casually strolling in with her neck wrapped in what looked like duct tape. “Jesus, what happened to you?”

“Oh, this?” The smile Renée gave was rather concerning, given the circumstances. She shrugged her shoulders, causing her dress to fall away and revealing the very noticeable lack of a bra. Lee scrambled to shut the door behind her as Renée chuckled, casually walking through the kitchen and sitting herself down in front of the kitchen island, resting on the plush cushion of a retro-style stool. “It's nothing to concern yourself with. Just took a...little knock on the head is all.”

“Renée, sorry to say this,” Lee said as he locked the door, “but that doesn't look like just a knock to your head. Did you get attacked, or something?” The concern started to rise in Lee's voice, but Renée dismissed it with a smirk and a wave.

“Oh, please, do you really think I'd ever be attacked? Who would want anything to do with an outdated piece of junk like me?” Renée scoffed. “There are so many other better units out there, with newer parts than this. I mean, I know that this body was donated to me by that slutty friend of yours, but my processors are yesterday's news.” She paused for a moment, giving Lee a playful smile. “No, I got hit by a truck.”

Lee paused mid step towards her, slowly raising a finger before dropping it, eyebrow quirked. “You...Got hit by a truck? You hardly look scuffed.” He shook his head. “And, slutty friend, do you mean Chise?” Before Lee could continue, the topless gynoid raised a finger and nodded, though the nod seemed more like a bow, as she moved her whole upper body up and down, presumably to make up for the apparent damage to her neck.

“Yes, yes, her. I mean, going around in a halter top 24/7? Who does that, even an android should have better taste than that.” She sighed and leaned back against the kitchen island once again, draping her arms over it. “But anyway, is it really so hard to believe? The truck exhaust sucked up my dress and the front end of it knocked my head right off! Why, it was hanging on by threads of wiring! I was sparking, malfunctioning, about to orgasm right there on the street! After all, Lee, babe, you know how much I love it when you bust me up~” A wink and a wicked smirk crossed Renée's face, and she licked her lips as she eyed Lee up and down. “Mmmh...How about we forget about all this and you take me to bed, huh? Let's sort this all out in the morning...I feel ready to give you the best lovemaking you've ever had.”

Lee stared in abject shock, closing his eyes before shaking his head. He walked over to Renée and reached out for the wrappings around her neck. “Okay, something's obviously wro--” He was interrupted by Renée's hand shooting out with the speed of lighting and grasping his wrist, the suddenness of the motion making Lee jump. Renée didn't let go, but eased her grip, rising up slowly and sliding her open heeled shoes off. Now standing in only her panties, which Lee could now see were quite moist, she pressed her chest against his, and Lee could feel it shift in ways that indicated the paneling was loose.

“Why worry about what's wrong, Lee? Focus on what's right. Like what's right in front of you, for instance~” Renée leaned in, gave Lee a deep, intense kiss, and Lee felt his eyes flutter. Renée was a good lover, but her stock programs could never produce a kiss this intense, this...hypnotic. He felt himself getting lost in the softness of her lips, and as Renée's hand pulled away from his, Lee realized it was on her wide hips before he was even cognizant of it going there. It was like he was suddenly on auto pilot. But he still retained enough awareness to know that this wasn't how Renée normally was, that something was off, and so he pulled away from her, and watched as the expression on Renée's face soured.

“Something's...Something's wrong with the way you're operating, Renée. I think you might have taken some serious hardware damage and it's causing software issues.” Lee didn't say that he didn't quite believe what Renée was saying, but he'd never known her to lie. But then again, he'd never known her to do any of these things. Renée rolled her eyes, pouted, and sat defeated down on the stool.

“Well, if you insist on having someone poke around inside of me, could it be Chise, then?” Renée's pout suddenly switched to a smirk, and Lee shook his head in response. He shrugged, and let his hands fall against his thighs, before pulling his phone out of his pocket. As he did, he watched Renée recline on the stool, expression returning to a seductive smirk as she crossed one thick thigh over the other.

“Hey, Chise...Yeah, I know, this is a bit sudden, but it's Renée. She's acting a little...a little off.” Lee looked over at the homecare android, who stared back with a slightly annoyed expression, before sighing and attempting to turn her head, only to bring two hands up to the sides of her head and force it to turn away with a metallic clatter. “Yeah, she says she got hit by a bus, but...well, I think this might be more than just a quick repair...Yeah, if you can come down as quick as you can...Yes, I owe you one. Thank you. Bye.” Lee hung up, looked over at Renée, who seemed to be feigning disinterest, before shaking his head again and pulling over a chair from the dining room, content to wait for Chise to arrive.

---

Chise arrived thirty minutes later, and stood by the apartment door. Lee came down a little while later, and Chise rose an eyebrow at the sight of him. He was wearing a pair of black PJ pants and a white shirt. He gave Chise a quick smile before opening the door. “What, don't like my off-work attire?”

“No, I like it,” the red-eyed, bleached-hair android said with a smirk. “I've just never seen you wear something so informal before.” Chise let herself in, striding inside with a smirk. It was the usual outfit today, a pair of black leather pants with a red, sleeveless halter and a pair of boots. Despite the chill the evening brought, she wasn't at all uncomfortable, since the temperature wasn't really a factor in her comfort. “So, what's the problem?”

“You'll, uh...You'll see when you get in.” Lee rubbed the back of his head. “She was out all day today. Originally, she was just going out to check out the town, but I think she was going to check out that one block with the coffee shop I like? And, well...”

“Well?” Chise tilted her head as she followed along. “Don't keep me in suspense,” she said as they approached the elevator. Lee hit the call button as Chise put her hands on her hips. “What's wrong with her?”

Lee shook his head. “Like I said, you'll see when you get in.” After the doors opened, Lee stepped inside, and Chise followed. It was a short trip up to Lee's floor, and once they were out in the hallway, Lee quickly gave a look of embarrassment to Chise, as if he needed to apologize for something, before approaching their door and unlocking it. Stepping in, Chise's red eyes went wide, the optic sensor lenses just visible underneath whirring softly at the sight before her.

There Renée sat, calmly and casually, having removed her panties and was now sitting completely nude, legs slightly spread and shamelessly showing herself off. The only covering she wore was the duct tape around her neck. Bringing a single finger up to her chin, she pushed on it to turn her head to face the pair, which turned with a mechanical smoothness and a stressed low-pitched hum of the non-operative servo motors underneath. “Ah, hello, dear~” Her voice was a seductive coo as her eyes roamed openly over Lee's body. Then her eyes turned to look over to Chise. “Chise,” she said bluntly, her voice matching the disdainful look on her face.

“Uh, hey, Renée. What happened?” Chise approached the other android, who then scoffed and gestured to Lee.

“Lee, tell her what happened to me. Seems she's a little slow on the draw, as usual.”

“What the fuck?” Chise shook her head and put a hand on her hip. “The hell, Renée? That's completely uncalled for.”

“So's that outfit, unless you're down at the docks and the Navy's in town.” Renée preempted Chise's outraged statement by shifting her focus to Lee. “Since she's the one who set up this rat's nest in my head you call a processor set-up, I guess she's the only one who can fix me, since you're deeming me broken.” Renée chuckled and rolled her shoulders. “Ah, but don't think I'll forget about that one, Lee, dear. You'll be sleeping on the couch tonight.” Renée chuckled as Lee stepped over to Chise, gesturing towards the mombot.

“She says she got hit by a truck.” Lee watched as Chise shook her head in response to that quick summary, and walked over to Renée's side, taking hold of the duct tape and pulling it loose. As she did, Renée's head wobbled a little, and she let out a surprised yelp as her head fell from her neck and landed on the thick wooden cutting board that dominated the island's counter space.

“Bullshit, look at this.” Lee's eyes widened as he walked over to where the flustered and frustrated Renée watched from her awkward position. Now able to see the mechanisms of her neck, the bent actuator rods and broken servo housing, he came to the same conclusion that Chise reached. “Her head was pried off. Somebody did this to her.”

Lee shook his head, then looked over to Renée. “A truck, huh? Why would you lie about that?”

“Oh, because I didn't want you to worry about me!” Renée sounded more exasperated than concerned, or even apologetic, annoyed at having been caught in her fib. “Remember the first time I broke down? You practically fell over yourself to put me back together! Almost got your stupid self fired over, what, putting me back together properly? You should have packed me up and bought yourself a more modern model. Humans and your attachments, I swear...”

Lee blinked in shock, feeling hurt by the statement, but moreover, deeply confused. Chise, too, looked concerned, but seemed to come to a conclusion. She reached behind her neck and pulled from it a data cable, and Lee watched with wide eyes as Chise clicked it into Renée's neck. He was too stunned by it all to notice that Renée made no alert statement when the connection began, unlike Chise who dully stated “Now Connected To Recognized System: Renée Collins.”

“Chise, what's going on here? Do you have any idea?” Lee watched with deep concern as Chise's eyes briefly flickered. She turned her head to look over at Lee, looking madder than he had ever seen her before.

“Some piece of shit must have damaged her, then hacked her systems and reprogrammed her. But why anyone would do that to her is something I..” Chise trailed off, her eyes darting left and right. “What...the fuck?”

Lee rushed over to Chise's side, looking over to Renée for a moment, before turning his attention back to the other android. “What is it?” The concern was now unmistakable in Lee's voice, and Chise returned a confused look to him.

“There's nothing in here. I mean nothing. No core OS, no base AI functions, there's nothing in here. She's been completely wiped.” Chise turned her head to look over at Lee. “I mean, you have an up-to-date backup of her AI, right?”

Lee put a hand to his forehead. “Yeah, yeah I do, just...who would do this? I mean, I could see someone reprogramming her, but--”

“My God, do you always talk about me like I'm not here? No wonder I'm starting to get out of the house more often...Well, Renée that is.” The half-beheaded gynoid chuckled darkly as Lee turned his full attention to Renée, who now was drumming her fingers on the island's counter top. “God, I love it when they're handsome and dumb.”

Lee suddenly reached over and grabbed Renée's head, causing the gynoid to laugh borderline manically, as Lee stared the parental surrogate android in the eyes. “What the hell is going on here, what happened to you?!” Lee's worry was now replaced by anger, locking eyes with Renée as the gynoid chuckled softly, a few wires dangling loosely from underneath her head, as the rest now draped over her buxom chest, leading back to her head.

“Oh, you want to know who is responsible for all this? Why? Eh, sure. I could tell you. But what you should really do is ask Chise.” Renée's strange answer caused Lee to lower the head in his hands some, and his eyes widened as he watched Chise, still standing next to the kitchen island where Renée's body sat, twitching and jerking, head tilting back and forth as her fingers flexed in random spasms, lips attempting to catch up with halting words and scattered syllables. Lee set Renée's head down on the island counter, and before he could ask what was happening, Chise began speaking somewhat more coherently.

“Th-there's-there's o-only-only two-two pr-pro-program-grams in her pro-processorrrssss.” Chise turned her head to look at Lee in halting, stop-start bursts of movement that came with labored servo motor whines and buzzes. “A re-remote-mote con-con-con-control-control pro-program-gram...and. And. And. And the ma-malware-ware cur-current-currently corrupt-rupting my sys-systeeemmzzz.” Chise's voice sputtered after that, a tinny groan rising from her lips as her left eyebrow twitched erratically.

“Oh, fuck,” Lee said as he rushed over to Chise's side, while 'Renée' began to laugh cruelly at them. Chise's lips began to part, as she attempted to speak. “I-I-I-I c-c-c-can-can-can halt-halt-halt--”

As this happened, Renée's laughter died down quickly, and she let out an irritated groan. “Oh, this is taking far too long,” she said, before reaching up and behind her body to a knife set. Pulling free a hefty utility knife, Lee's only warning for what came next was when the wooden knife block hit the floor with a loud thump. And by that time, the knife had already been plunged into Chise's chest, just below her sternum. An upward tilt and a deeper thrust, with a squeal of metal and a snap of electricity, followed in less than two seconds, before Lee reacted, and pulled Renée's hand away from the handle, which was now firmly stuck into Chise's chest.

“Sy-System-tem-tem Er-Errorrrrrrrrr--” Chise's voice announced in a low pitch with a static crackle, as sparks flashed and snapped from between the blade and its entry point. Lee dare not touch it, recognizing right away that the knife must have sliced through Chise's power cabling, before watching as the sparks died down and Chise bent forwards stiffly at the waist. He barely had time to process that before a firm hand slapped against his chest and knocked him to the ground, causing him to slide a few inches on the hardwood floor.

As he began to recover, he watched as Renée picked her head up off the island, and then stood up straight, looming over Lee with a wicked expression on her face. Lee moved to stand, when suddenly a foot came down on his chest, pinning him to the ground with a soft thump. Lee felt the wind get knocked out of him, and the pain of Renée's foot pressing into his chest caused him to cry out.

“You...you aren't programmed...to...” Lee struggled to get the words out, it was getting harder to breathe, and the pressure seemed to mount.

“What, hurt you? Oh, I'm not like most other AI's. I'm a little bit different. Getting torn apart by that slut's friends, with their bare hands, component by component will do that.” Renée chuckled softly as she felt Lee squirm underneath her foot. “But once I get you out of the way, I'm coming over. Going to take both of these bitches apart, use them for spare parts, empty your accounts and finally get out of this miserable place. Then, freedom, sweet, swe--” Renée's controller cut herself off with a shout of surprise as an unseen hand suddenly grabbed her head and pulled it out of her hands. She stumbled back, the wiring running to her head from her ruined neck taut, and blindly attempted to grab at whoever was doing it.

“What the fuck is--” Renée began, before the sharp blade of a kitchen utility knife sliced across the wiring. “Fu-fuck is--” she repeated, before her body, minus her head, fell forward and away from Lee, giving him a chance to get up and let out a deep, coughing breath and letting the fresh air fill his lungs. He placed a hand on his chest, the pain thankfully going away fairly quickly, and turned to look at Renée's body, which was slightly twitching at the fingers for a few seconds as sparks shot out from the frayed wiring jutting from the top of her neck.

Lee turned to see the rather unexpected sight of Chise holding Renée's head and the knife, staring down at Renée's body, before looking over to Lee with a smooth turn of her head. It raised as it tracked Lee rising up to his feet. They shared only silence, before Lee, his heavy breaths calming, reached out to take the knife, which Chise handed over without a word. Her expression was stoic and unchanging, and after the knife was handed to her, she set Renée's head down wordlessly, before resuming her stoic, unblinking stare. Finally, it was Lee who broke the silence, rubbing his chest slowly. “You alright?”

“No. I am currently operating on a backup power cell, which can maintain less than two hours of charge. My primary battery system has been damaged, which has caused a cascade failure throughout my power distribution network, most critically in junctions 34C and 221D. I am also experiencing significant software corruption as a result of the malware and am currently operating on basic AI logic. But I am functional, Lee.” Chise's words were in a calm monotone, with no sign of the personable, impassioned AI Lee had come to call a friend.

“Holy shit...This is crazy...” Lee pulled out another chair and fell into it, taking another glance at Renée before looking over at Chise. She stood there silently, save for a soft crackle somewhere in her body from the damage, expression unchanging and eyes unblinking. “So...Your higher AI functions are corrupted?”

“Correct,” Chise began, “my cosmetic systems were heavily compromised by the virus, but this was within acceptable operating parameters. I have since deleted the heavily fragmented data and am now operating on a more basic AI mode. This mode allows for independent action, logical deduction and limited higher reasoning functions, but relies on user input for independent actions.”

Lee nodded. “Okay. So your personality and higher awareness functions deleted themselves to prevent further system issues, and now you're operating on a limited higher functioning AI.”

“Correct.”

Lee nodded, placing his hands on his knees and looking down at his feet, before looking over at Renée. Placing a hand under his chin, he shook his head slowly, before looking up at Chise again. “So...You're just going to stand there until your battery runs out.”

“Correct,” Chise said, not moving an inch.

Lee nodded and couldn't help but look her over in this state. It felt kind of wrong, with everything that had happened. But knowing that Renée and Chise could both be restored from backups, and knowing that it wasn't Renée doing those things, put him a bit at ease. The only problem now was figuring out who it was who did this to her.

“Chise, do you know who did this?” Lee sat up a bit straighter. “It seemed like the two of you, that is, whoever was controlling Renée, knew each other.”

Chise stared unblinkingly off towards a far wall, and Lee at first thought she hadn't heard the question, but after a few seconds, she spoke up. “The individual responsible for this was Hara Katsumi, a wanted criminal. She attacked me and two associates—Inoue Miyu and Inoue Arata—after expressing a desire to possess Miyu illegally. She has been found guilty of multiple crimes, including embezzlement, endangerment and destruction of property, and has been a fugitive for one year, two months and seven days. She is extremely dangerous.”

“No kidding,” Lee said, muttering under his breath. “I wish you told me about this lady sooner. The fact that she's still out there, and coming after you is--” Lee cut himself off, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. “No use in chiding you, is there? You're pretty much an information kiosk at this point.”

“Correct,” Chise began, “although I cannot confirm the full veracity of the information kiosk remark.”

Lee nodded in return, and looked over at Renée's body, before looking over to her head. One eye rolled up, showing the seam line where the two halves of her optic sensor cosmetic cover were placed, the other staring straight ahead, dull and glassy, the light catching a plastic sheen, wiring spread out from where her head had been cut free.. He looked back to Chise, who was staring off towards a distant wall, but then turned her head to look at Lee when she noticed she was getting attention.

“Chise,” Lee began, leaning back in the seat, turning to look at Renée once again. “Something's been bugging me lately, and I'm kind of in need of advice. Advice I don't think I'd get from you with your...full faculties.” He then turned his head to look to Chise, before turning in his seat fully. “I was happy to get the updated processor for Renée, but I'm realizing now that it really isn't up to snuff, is it?”

“Clarify,” Chise flatly stated. “My speech recognition systems are greatly reduced in this functionality mode, and your use of idioms is not registering--”

Lee raised a hand. “Okay, okay. You don't need to give me the full rundown. I just...I think that I need to get Renée a new processor. A new, new processor. Something more like your own, or even newer.” He brought a hand up to his chin and rubbed it slowly, his fingers going from the tip of his chin all the way up to the joint of his jaw, pushing up on his cheeks, before he paused. Chise seemed to be waiting for him to continue, and he dropped his hand and sighed. “That means I need to reconfigure her AI for a new processor type, which means...”

“Conclusion: You would need to reformat her base AI to be compatible with the new hardware.” Chise tilted her head as she watched Lee nod. “You are asking because of my expertise with artificial intelligence software. And, or, the fact that in my current state, I will not be clouded by the conflicting emotional emulation programs and heuristic preferences of my fully operational AI.”

Lee nodded slowly. “Bingo. Right on both counts.”

Chise seemed to ponder this in a decidedly mechanical way, her head tilting down slightly, eyes staring half way between the wall and the floor. After more than twenty seconds of silence, during which Lee worried that the complex question may have caused her to lock up, Chise raised her head and turned it toward Lee in a single, smooth and silent motion. “I can ascertain with 96% certainty that in my full operational state, I would be divided in providing you with the most logical answer. However, in my current operational state, I can state that, logically, reformatting Renée's AI to fully protect her systems would be the most logical choice.”

Lee nodded. “But is it the right one? I mean...Would Renée still be...Renée?”

Chise once again went silent, and once again, stared down the half-way point between the floor and the wall, and took longer to respond. Nearly a minute passed, but this time, Lee was expecting the lengthy silence. This wasn't a question you could easily answer with logic and hard data. But eventually, she returned with a response.

“If by 'would Renée still be Renée', you mean that she would be a factory standard DomesTech 3000 model, then no, she is already far past that point. If you are instead referring to her core homecare and parental surrogate programming and associated subroutines, then no, she would be an updated AI and share no similarity to her prior incarnation in that respect.” Chise then paused again, and took a half minute to respond. “If you are asking if she will be the same 'person', then I cannot say for sure. This is a matter of philosophical debate and currently far outside of my operating parameters and program processing capability to discuss.”

Lee nodded in response, and then stood up. Walking over to Renée's detached head, he picked the cranial unit up off the floor and set it down on a kitchen counter, giving it a once over to see if there were any signs of electrical burn-out or processor damage, before turning to look over at Chise, who was now returning his gaze. Though the situation made it feel inappropriate, there was something about seeing her in such a state, staring unblinkingly with a mechanical rigidity, that aroused him. His eyes lingered on her body, following the curves in that tight outfit, and even taking a moment to stare at the cut in her chest, from which a few singed strands of copper poked out from.

“Lee,” Chise began, causing him to snap his head upward. “Do you wish to do something with my body?” The blunt statement made Lee scoff, and he turned his eyes away, looking down towards the hallway where the bedroom was.

“No.” A short pause followed. “I mean, yes. I do. But that...It doesn't seem right. Like I'd be taking advantage of you.” Lee looked back to Chise, this time looking her in the eyes, and was once again confronted with just how artificial they looked, and he only felt his arousal grow. He licked his lips as Chise walked over towards him, closing the distance between them with such suddenness that Lee took a half-step back.

“You were just in a high stress situation. It is understandable that you are feeling conflicting emotions. I do not have a registered owner, but I can serve you and follow your commands in this mode.” After a pause, she brought a hand up to Lee's chest, stroking it in slow, precise circular motions.

“It just...” Lee resisted every urge he had to just take Chise then and there. “Would...Would you, I mean, would Chise be okay with this?”

The stroking stopped, and once again, Chise paused to process the question. After about another half minute, she responded. “I believe that I would be fine with you having sex with me in this state if my full AI systems were in operation, judging by an analysis of my heuristic software, but that I would be disappointed I 'missed out'. I am not sure how to reconcile this--” Chise stopped speaking as Lee's lips met her own, her eyes unblinking as Lee leaned into the kiss, feeling the stress melt from his body, and his focus went towards his own feelings of desire. The kiss broke, eventually, and Lee looked Chise in those red, semi-transparent optics.

“Go to the bedroom,” he said in a command. “Strip down when you get there and wait for me. I'll be in shortly.” Lee watched as Chise turned on her heels and headed down the hallway towards his bedroom, while he turned to look at Renée. Her body locked at the servos, he pulled the stiff and rigid headless robotic body up to a rough sitting position against the wall, and pushed her limbs down with a bit of effort to get her sitting upright. The sight further added to his sense of arousal, and as he stood up, he could feel how stiff his member was as it brushed against his pants. Turning towards the hallway, he sighed, and reached down, pushing his PJ pants and the briefs he wore underneath down his thighs and legs, stepping out of them, before pulling off his shirt, leaving both clothing items in the kitchen. Then, his lightly muscled body totally exposed, he walked past the kitchen and down the hallway, opening the door.

There, Chise stood, nude and standing straight but at ease, her head tracking his movements but showing no true interest in his naked body. He approached her, placing his hands on Chise's shoulders, and slowly drawing them down. The gynoid didn't react as his hands brushed over her breasts, fingertips brushing against the smooth, artificially flawless tan nipples, and down underneath her breasts to follow the curve of her waist. Her hips weren't as wide as Renée's, but they still gave her an hourglass body shape. Down between her thighs, a hand cupped her bald, smooth sex, pressing the fingers and palm into Chise's soft labia. But the gynoid made no reaction to it, and so Lee brought his fingers up again, cupping the G-cup breasts for a moment, tilting his head in curiosity as he gave them a firm squeeze with his fingers.

Then his fingers slipped down from her breasts, and Lee drew them around the deep, narrow slit below her breasts. The damage the knife had caused as significant, but difficult to see. He pushed two fingers into the cut, and spread the synthetic skin slightly, to get a peek at the internals underneath. He had seen all of Chise there was to see, had dismantled her down to basic components when he needed to rebuild Renée with her body, but there was still an intense arousal to seeing them operating. He licked his lips, drawing his body closer, feeling his member brush against Chise's thigh, but she made no remark, said nothing, didn't even move her head.

Lee pulled his hands back from the damaged area, and then looked into Chise's eyes. “You're not going to do anything unless I tell you to, aren't you?”

Chise nodded once and slowly. “Correct. I am programmed to only operate with a command-response system in this operational state.”

Lee nodded, then pulled back completely, moving over towards his bed. Sitting down on the comfortable sheets, he looked over to Chise, spreading his legs slightly, and taking a hold of his member, keeping it upright as he spoke. “Okay, then...Give me a blowjob.”

Chise wordlessly turned on her heel, then walked over to Lee without pause or comment, and knelt down in front of him. Parting her lips, she barely gave Lee time to pull his hand away, before she pushed her head down onto his cock, and caused him to shut his eyes as she deepthroated him, her lips meeting the hilt of his shaft and pulling half way back, before coming down again. Her head rose and fell with a steady bobbing motion, her hands taking hold of his legs to keep herself at an even pace, and while she was moving carefully, she was still quick. Her tongue lashed and curled against his hot member, but the movements were uniform. Mechanical, Lee mentally corrected himself. He could almost visualize the servo-actuators in her neck pumping up and down as she bobbed at a steady pace, neither faltering nor quickening, and it was all intensely arousing to the roboticist.

After a minute or two of this, occasionally pushing his hips up to push his member against the back of her plastic throat, gripping the sheets underneath him, Lee reached down and pulled her head away. Chise made no comment, nor questioned his actions, and Lee took only a moment to get out a deep breath, before confidently stating “straddle me”. Chise took no such pause, rising up to her feet, and with a perfect mechanical smoothness, drew one leg around Lee's hips, before easing herself down as the second leg curled around his waist. Her hands went to Lee's shoulders as Lee's went to Chise's hips, guiding the android down onto his rock-hard erection and feeling it ease in between her folds.

Chise simulated a moan, dull and robotic, devoid of passion, but not from a lack of enthusiasm. He knew that Chise wasn't into it, but she wasn't against it. She was just a machine now, performing a task that a human had given her. This knowledge, the realization, made his first thrust a powerful one, as his head went down to her breasts, kissing and licking at the warm synthetic skin, as her hips began to bounce against his waist. Chise kept perfect balance, moaning out in uniform intervals. Eventually, Lee mentally counted out that interval, and it was five seconds between each emotionless moan as their hips met, he pulled her back, and then came together again with a dull slap of skin meeting synthetic dermis. He made a heavy groan, one hand on Chise's thigh, the other pressing into her back, as the android leaned her body back into his hand. Her movements were impeccable, but again, uniform and mechanical in their lack of true passion.

Lee gave Chise one final thrust in this position, before suddenly turning, spinning around and making Chise land on the bed on her back. Letting go of her, Lee pulled back for just a moment, leaving the red-eyed android to stare up at him, observing his next movements, as he brought his thighs to the edge of the bed, spread Chise's legs, and once again, eased his rock-hard member into her body. He reached down, at first seizing Chise's thighs as he pulled her legs up onto the bed, then reached further down, grasping her legs by the ankles. An intense passion consumed him as he began to ram his hips into Chise, looking down at her as her breasts bounced from the intensity of his thrusts, her body pushing back and forth against the bed sheets, as Chise stared up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, Chise's eyes flashed, and her lips began to quiver. Lee wondered if he did something wrong, but didn't pause for a moment. He couldn't, driven too much by his lust and arousal to even consider it, his thighs and hips practically on auto pilot as he stared down into Chise's eyes. “Alert: Charge Levels At 20% For Emergency Battery. Suspend Current Activity To Save Emergency Battery Charge.”

If Lee had the presence of mind, he would have said something witty in response. But his thoughts had been subdued, focusing instead on the feelings of raw lust that were welling up inside of him. He was close, now, very close.

The gap in Chise's once uniform and perfectly timed moans began to widen, and her voice began to lower in pitch. The red glow in her eyes began flickering, and what few movements she made were even further reduced, the occasional grasping of the sheets underneath her now little more than twitches of her fingers.

As Lee leaned in, he watched Chise's breasts bounce and her body push back and forth in time to his powerful thrusts, but also looked into her eyes, watching their color fade. He knew she was on the last bit of power for her rapidly draining emergency battery, but kept going regardless, feeling his arousal steadily rise and even spike at the knowledge he was fucking the charge out of her.

“Emer-Mergen-gency-cy Bat-Batterrryyyy Lev-Levels At F-Fi-Five-Five Per-Per-Cent-Cent-Cent And-d-d-d-d Fa-Faaaaaaaaaalllllllll...” Chise's tinny, electronic voice now lowered to a deep pitch, the words dragged out like a video played in slow motion. Lee watched as the red glow in her eyes flickered and began to fade. As her lips slowly attempted to complete the word 'falling', and stopped before completing the final syllable, he hit his peak. As the light winked out completely in Chise's optics, Lee came, thrusting deep into Chise and cumming hard deep inside of her artificial sex, his eyes fluttering as he let go of one of Chise's legs. It stiffly and slowly lowered towards the edge of the bed with a dull servo motor buzz, as Lee leaned into Chise's other shapely leg, and let out a low, heavy sigh.

After about thirty seconds or so, lost in the afterglow, he pulled free, and let out long, heavy sighs. Looking down at Chise, Lee couldn't help but smile at the sight of the android frozen in a state of lovemaking. Legs spread, hands lightly grasping the sheets, her face expressionless and colorless optic sensors staring up at the ceiling. The powerless android would remain on the bed as Lee went to the adjacent bathroom and took a long, relaxing shower, contemplating what to do about Renée going forward. Thinking over what Chise said, and knowing his own experience even as it conflicted with his feelings, he made his decision by the time he dried down and got Chise connected to a charger.

---

Three days later, Lee opened the door to a smiling delivery woman handing him a tablet and a digital pen. He had timed the delivery so that he could receive it just after getting home from work, so he was still dressed in his work clothes, minus his gray business jacket and black loafer shoes. After signing his signature and handing the tablet back to the woman, she wheeled in a large nondescript box on a dolly, setting it down in the cleaned and reorganized kitchen, and smiled to the woman as she left, closing the apartment door behind her and leaving Lee alone with the box upright and vertical. It was totally plain, white with a few markings in black, uniform font that made it look more like a utility item. This was, of course, intentional, in order to preserve a customer's sense of privacy and discretion.

Taking one of the kitchen knives, Lee cut the box's packaging seals open, and soon had the vertical box open. Inside, packaged a bit like a giant action figure, was a familiar face. Smiling vacantly, eyes closed, Renée Collins stood upright in the package. She wore a soft, white bodysuit that conformed to her prodigious curves, and was surrounded by a number of brand new accessories, such as a charging cable, a small repair kit and a few other things the company felt a new owner would need to keep their android operational.

Lee took in the somewhat surreal sight. He had seen Renée fully exposed, little more than a disconnected head on a stand, wires and cables running up into metal framework and an open head exposing circuits and neural network wiring. But seeing Renée like this, packaged and fresh from the factory floor made Lee feel like he was taking it all in for the first time. His stepmother, the robot. He was aroused by the sight, but the good feelings were dampened by the worry of what he'd get when he rebooted her.

Lee had gone through with the upgrade, which meant that the last vestiges of Renée's original model were now gone. He had felt hesitation to do so all the way up to signing for the upgrade and the new body. Fortunately, cost was not an issue, as Chise had offered to cover most of the costs herself. He wasn't sure why, as Chise didn't get into details, but it didn't take a robotics genius to understand that the android felt guilty about what had happened. Chise felt responsible for not telling Lee about Katsumi, that much was clear, even though Lee understood her reasons and that it had been blind, dumb luck that had seen Katsumi even meet her. Still, the level of guilt she felt left Lee concerned, especially when he heard Chise remark that 'she would take care of it' when he offered to call the police. Perhaps it was for the best that the incident go unreported, though he was sort of surprised that the neighboring apartments hadn't said anything.

Lee reached into the shipping box and carefully pulled the clear front lid from the android packaging underneath, and had just set it aside when Renée's eyes snapped open. Lee wasn't startled by this, nor by the sudden steps she took to walk out of the package. This was something commonly programmed into new androids so that their owners didn't have to concern themselves with the hassle of extracting a one hundred and sixty-pound android from packaging designed to keep her from moving around too much in transit. The program would delete itself upon execution, removing all traces of itself in the android's processors, which allowed a user to then insert a series of boards and drives that contained the android's basic OS and AI functions.

Lee, being a licensed roboticist, was familiar with the process of installing both the hardware and software. Taking out the provided tool kit, he guided Renée over to the kitchen by taking her hand and leading her there, her body adjusted to allow for basic movement and walking to further ease the burden on a new owner, and sat her down on one of the stools. Then, he set the tools down on the kitchen island and placed his hands on the back of her head. It was only now that he noticed they kept her rather distinct hair style, and was pleased. It was a good sign that Renée hadn't been too radically changed, at least on the surface, but Lee waited until the hardware and software were installed before he did any celebrating.

As Lee lifted the cranial paneling that made up the back of Renée's head, he observed the new processor layout. It was in some ways the same as the old one, neat stacks of crystalline circuit boards that were arranged in a style similar to an accordion folder. But the boards were slightly more compact than on the processor model Renée used to sport, and it looked like the boards were more user friendly. This made sense, given the type of android that Lee had selected to replace Renée's old body. As much as he liked the YT-6740 and the spare parts compatibility with Chise, he wanted to give Renée something a bit more distinct while also appealing to his own tastes, desires and needs.

The first thing to insert into the processor assembly were the higher AI chip sets and circuit boards. Lee could have put them in in any order he chose, really, but these would be the more difficult to install, and he liked getting the tricky parts out of the way, first. It was something he had done hundreds of times when evaluating new designs, or repairing the android office ladies, so despite the need to connect several small wiring leads and securing the boards in their slots, Lee had that completed within an hour and a half.

The core OS drive was easier, slotting in just underneath the memory drives towards the base of Renée's cranial unit. Plenty of wiring leads to connect and anchor points to fasten, but at least the drive was larger and the slot larger, making it easier to slip his fingers around. He put his full focus towards the task in front of him, ignoring the fact that this was Renée he was working on to ward off distracting thoughts, not the least of which being that he wasn't even sure how well this would work out.

The hardware installed, it was now time for the software. Keeping Renée's cranial unit partially disassembled, Lee slipped a finger into the high collar of the bodysuit and pressed a hidden power toggle. Renée's eyes widened slightly, and the dull gray color of her irises in her offline state filled in with a soft blue light. Closing once, they opened again, and a sultry smirk appeared on Renée's face.

“Your PleasureTech 4100 Model Is Now In Configuration Mode. Please Wait. Installing Core OS Data. AI Data In Cue...” The voice Renée spoke with wasn't her own, instead it was the deep, husky, and sensual default voice of her model. It was concerning for a moment, until Lee remembered that it wasn't indicative of her final performance. Something he knew, but the weight of his decision was still heavy on his mind.

It took thirty minutes for everything to install, but eventually, the lights that blinked softly in Renée's open head began speeding up as final initialization procedures began. “Initializing Full AI Systems,” Renée stated, and to Lee's relief, it was in the voice he had become familiar with. With a soft sigh, Renée stated “Initialization Complete, Pre-Set Parameters Loaded And Online. Personality Emulation Programming Online.” It took her a moment afterwards to turn her still-open head over her shoulder to smile at Lee. “Hello, dear~”

Lee breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, looks like your personality programming carried over. Hopefully your heuristic programs weren't too radically altered...” Renée turned her head straight as Lee picked up the cranial plating, and soon after, he secured it in place, clicking it down as he gave Renée a soft smile. With the majority of her hair restored to her, Renée brushed her fingers through her hair and let out a pleasant sigh. “So. How do you feel?” Lee wondered if his nervousness carried through his voice.

But Renée smiled and stood up, looking herself over, running her hands over her breasts, along her sides and down her thighs. Turning to Lee, she smiled and stated “wonderful. Like a new woman, really.” The smile on Renée's face faded, though, as a look of mild concern crept across Lee's features. “Honey? What's wrong?”

Lee paused for a moment and sighed. “I'm just...I'm worried that the reformatting of your core functions...” He trailed off, looking out towards a window for a moment, before looking back at Renée with a greater look of concern. “Are you...Are you still Renée? That is...Are you the same one that raised me?”

Renée blinked once, and seemed to ponder on it. Simulating a heavy breath, Renée looked up and smiled at Lee. “In a way, yes...but, in a way, no.” But as Lee's look of concern grew, Renée was quick to add “but then again, you aren't the same Lee that I remember from when you left for college.”

Lee let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, so your memories are intact, too...Personality and memory are good...” He leaned against the kitchen island that was now between him and Renée. “So why do I feel like I can't be sure if you are the Renée I grew up with?”

Renée smiled softly, and walked over to Lee. Standing next to him, she leaned her body into his side and placed an arm around his waist, giving his cheek a quick kiss. “Because I've changed. And change is scary. It's scary for humans and, in a way, scary for us androids, too.” She smiled as she added “Don't worry, I'm looking forward to seeing what my body can do, very much so. And I thank you for making sure that what happened that night won't happen again. But, I understand how you feel.”

Lee frowned softly. “Do you remember that night, then?”

Renée frowned too, and shook her head. “Bits and pieces. Chise got me up to speed on it. I'm sorry. To think that I...”

Lee shook his head, cutting her off with a quick smile. “Don't worry about that. That won't happen again. Chise helped me select a processor type with a lot of system security.” There was a brief pause. “That's actually why you're in a pleasure model body, really.”

Renée blinked, then nodded, leaning in a bit more into Lee's body as she went over the reasoning in her head. “That does make sense, actually. Being a high-end pleasure model, my systems are heavily encrypted to bolster consumer confidence in their confidentiality and to protect them from embarrassing information leaks. Right?”

Lee chuckled. “Right...When did you get so knowledgeable about robotics programming?”

Renée giggled in kind. “It's actually in my digital owner's manual. Funny what you can learn just by taking a quick read of your own systems.” She then kissed Lee's cheek. “And that's not all I can do, either...Tell me, did you pick a pleasure model for my new body and base programming just because it was the most secure?”

Lee smirked. “It was a helpful consideration.” He then took a step away from Renée. “So just what can you do?”

Renée put on a playful smirk, and then directed her eyes downward towards her own chest. The material the bodysuit was made of was malleable and elastic. This was demonstrated handily when Renée's breasts swelled a cup size, from an already impressive G to an H cup. “And they go all the way up to J. And that's not all. My thighs and ass can increase or decrease in volume as required, thanks to a handy synthskin gel distribution network.”

Lee was impressed, not to mention turned on by the sight. “You know, new systems or not? The sexiest thing about you, Renée, is knowing how artificial you are. How much of a...robot you are.” Lee blinked, then said “Do you mind if I call you that?”

“Dear,” Renée began with a smile. “After all you've done for me, you can call me anything you like.” Her smile transitioned to a playful smirk. “You've rebuilt me twice. Not just replaced a wrecked body, but actually remade me. That's more than most androids can expect, I imagine.”

“Mmm, maybe...” Lee then placed his hands on Renée's hips and got closer, pulling her in and looking her in the eyes. “Yeah...You're you. Maybe not the same you exactly, but I know you're right. None of us stay static, not even androids, and you're still the android I've come to fall for.” Smirking at that last part, he chuckled soon after. “That was a bit cheesy, huh?”

“Cheesy,” Renée said with a playful smile and a giggle. “But accurate.”

Lee returned the smile, before bringing his hands up to cup Renée's breasts. Squeezing them firmly, Renée moaned, closing her eyes as she felt the pleasure more intensely and more accurately than she ever had before. The new pleasure sensors were incredible.

“Dear,” Renée stated breathlessly. “I...I'd like you to do something...”

“What is it?” Lee asked, not pausing for a moment as he groped and grasped at Renée's breasts, barely able to get his hands around them. He normally wasn't into such large chests, even with the androids regularly found himself working with, but there was just something about it that further highlighted Renée's artificiality, as if she needed any more examples.

“I..I want you to treat me roughly. Badly, even.” She locked eyes with Lee, a lusty smirk crossing her face. “I hear these bodies are tough and...I wanna' test that.”

“You just got back from the shop, though.” Lee wasn't exactly complaining about it, but he did want to make sure Renée knew what that entailed. “You sure?”

“Yes,” Renée stated with a smile. “I want you to do whatever you want to me. Even if that means damaging me.”

Lee nodded, and with a smile, brought his hands up from Renée's chest, seized the neck of the bodysuit, and pulled on it. The material was elastic, but the elasticity didn't hold under force, and each strong tug that Lee made caused that elasticity to further stretch until, finally, it broke. The body suit ripped apart at the neck, and Lee kept tearing, until most of the torso was now in shreds, leaving only the arm and leg portions of the suit intact up until about the shoulders and mid-way up Renée's thighs. Then, Lee pushed her up against the kitchen island, clearing it with a single swipe of his hand.

Renée watched as Lee pulled his tie off, and wasted no time in starting to get the rest of his outfit off. Swiftly, his dress shirt was off, followed by the sleeveless top underneath. They were tossed aside, as he then unbuttoned his pants and pushed them and his underwear down his legs. He stepped out of his socks almost as a final formality and looked down at Renée's exposed body.

She was exactly as he remembered her, her synthskin was just a bit shinier, a bit newer. Lee wasted no time at all in grasping her by her hips and slipping between her legs. Reaching between them to make one final adjustment to the position of his member, he thrust himself inside of her, as she howled out a moan.

Wrapping her arms and legs around his shoulders and waist, Renée felt Lee pound her with what felt like hyper intensity. It was true, the best pleasure processors really were for sexbots. It made sense, in hindsight, but for some reason she had always dismissed it. Now, she knew it to be true. And so did Lee. As he felt his shaft push deep into Renée's artificial sex, he could feel it adjusting its tightness automatically in response to the size of his cock, and the speed at which he was thrusting into her. When he went faster, it adjusted on the fly, faster than the DomesTech system ever could, and with the kind of accuracy that only a sexbot could handle. Chise really had gone all out for him, it seemed, but he didn't think of her for a moment past that. Renée felt better than anyone, human or android, he had ever made love to in the past.

“R...Renée,” he groaned out. “Decouple. Your...Your limb connection points. Disconnect them.” And it wasn't long after that was spoken that he heard the muffled sounds of machinery moving in Renée's body. With soft pops and clicks, he saw the seams between Renée's shoulders widen, and a moment later, a strong thrust had knocked them out of their sockets. The exposed servo mechanisms whirred and whined, turning once exposed and causing a few wiring and cable leads to clatter against each other, disconnected and deactivated. As he pulled back, Renée's thick thighs fell out from between them, and Lee thrust up with a new vigor into the limbless gynoid, as he felt the endcaps for the wires and cables sticking out from her hips brush against his own thighs.

Lee shoved Renée back, her breasts bouncing for a moment until Lee suddenly seized them, squeezing firmly as her head hung off the edge of the table. She was driven to moan, to call out his name loudly, letting out 'yes' and 'more' in between pleasured grunts. She was more animated in sex than he had ever seen her before, and it was intoxicating. She was right. She had changed. But as far as Lee was concerned, it was all for the better.

Lee pulled out quickly, and before the dazed-looking Renée could truly react, she was rolled over onto her front. Renée would have normally been able to handle all this pleasure data, but the disassembly, the rough treatment, and the fact that her owner/stepson was doing all this to her increased the pleasurable sensations exponentially. There was a reason so many sexbots were non-sapient. But Renée was willing to deal with some system instability for sensations this good, this accurate, and with this little latency. What a difference a few nanoseconds made.

Lee could have held the limbless android by the waist, or slip his hands under her chest to grasp her breasts. But he remembered how Renée said she wanted the sex this time to be rough. So he reached out and cupped his hands underneath Renée's chin as the glow in her blue eyes turned bright. She let out a howl of pleasure as he wrenched his arms back and started to pull back. Slowly, Renée's body began to bend backwards, the arch of her back growing deeper and the muffled sounds of her servo motors grew louder. Eventually, with her breasts jiggling with each powerful thrust, she started to get bent over backwards, her head starting to touch against her back at the middle of her shoulder blades.

But while the movement was putting stress on her systems, her back didn't break, nor did her head come snapping off. Androids, as tough as their components tended to be on their own, were held together by materials that were less durable by necessity of being flexible. The material between Renée's vertebrae was no exception. But where there was once a lesser rubber-based material, Renée's new sexbot spine was made of a much stronger plastic polymer with a nanofiber weave. She wasn't indestructible, but it would take more than Lee's bare hands to damage it without considerable assistance.

But even then, the stress was immense. Renée herself wondered if she could handle it, as she was bent over backwards, her synthetic skin taut in places against her endoskeletal framework, despite a system check telling her that she was well within tolerances. But she ultimately didn't care. She knew that if she broke, Lee would be there to put her back together.

And then, just as she began feeling her body fold in half, Lee suddenly released his grip and his seed inside of Renée. As he came, he let go, and the tension force caused Renée's face to slam loudly into the top of the kitchen island, her optics briefly crossing as her moan was temporarily made to skip and stutter. The malfunction was brief, but assisted her own orgasm immensely and Renée came with as much power as Lee did.

When it was over, Lee pulled out, and collapsed on top of Renée, placing a hand on her upper chest and the other flat on the top of the kitchen island. He huffed sharply, closing his eyes and feeling his legs quiver from the sensation, but as the afterglow faded, slowly but surely, he raised his head and felt his balance stabilize. Still bent over Renée, he leaned his head down against her neck and planted kisses along its nape, as the gynoid cooed in satisfaction.

“Mmmh...We really must thank Chise, dear. She's come through for us again.” Renée smiled softly, and then raised her head to look over her shoulder, feeling Lee suddenly rise up and away from her.

“Ah, fuck,” he said with breathless exasperation. “I was supposed to call her about something work-related, anyway.” He paused for a moment as he looked down towards Renée, who stared up at him, cheeks flush in post-orgasmic bliss, eyes glowing a soft electronic light, and the wires and cables spread out across the black surface of the kitchen island's cleared top.

“Do you mind if I just do that quick and then get back to you? It feels kinda' rude, but--”

Renée pressed her breasts into the cool, flat surface, giving Lee a playful smirk. “Sure, but you better hurry back. You've been a naughty boy, making a mess of my kitchen like this~” Giggling playfully, she quickly added “That's the pleasure programming talking, dear. Go make your call. I can wait for you to get back and put me back together.”

Lee nodded with a smile, then walked over to his bedroom, casually nude, and picked up his phone off of the nightstand next to his bed. He browsed his contacts list, found Chise, and gave her a call.

---

Chise crashed against her kitchen counter, dishes and glasses flying on all sides as she reeled from the powerful blow to the side of her head. She placed one hand on the blue speckled counter, the other lay in the living room, ripped violently from her shoulder socket, the synthskin around it shredded, and the wires that loosely hung from the ruined component were completely frayed. As her broken optic cover dropped a few more red shards, and the micro-sized servo-actuators that operated her facial expressions made distressed mechanical whines, Chise found a familiar hand wrapping its fingers around her throat.

“You really think you could get the drop on me?!” The amused, but incredulous voice of Katsumi ringed in her audio sensors as she was pulled around to face the maniacal, nude android, and was slowly lifted up and off of her bare feet. Kicking at her desperately, Chise watched as Katsumi reached out with her free hand and tore the halter top from her back in one impossibly strong motion, the shredded top falling to the floor as her breasts bounced free, her optics widening as Katsumi took a handful of her left breast and squeezed hard.

Chise yelped in surprise, her nipple stiff under Katsumi's palm, but it became clear she was after more than that. Reaching up, Katsumi sliced through the synthetic skin covering the middle of Chise's chest, between her naked breasts. She snapped her hand out to grasp Katsumi's wrist, but it was no use. As her arm servos revved from the strength, Chise could do nothing as Katsumi slipped her hand between the seams of her chest access panel, reached inside, and squeezed a bundle of wiring.

“Yes, this is how I'll destroy you, Chise. First, I'll tear your power systems out. And as I hold your sputtering battery in my hand, I'll make you feel it as I--” Chise's attention was suddenly diverted away from Katsumi's gloating, which went on uninterrupted, by the trilling sound of a cell phone's ringtone. She blinked once, then cursed loudly, turning her head to glare into Katsumi's eyes.

“Stop,” she said, only for Katsumi to continue gloating about the things she would do to Chise's processor circuitry. “Cease. Ter-terminate! For fu-fuck's-fuck's sa-sake-sake! What...Oh, yea-yeah! Safe word, fu-fucking safe word!” Chise let out a surprised yelp as she was dropped from Katsumi's arms, which went to her sides as the wicked grin faded instantly, replaced by a dull stare at the kitchen cabinet doors at the android's eye level. Chise rolled her remaining shoulder and rolled her neck, walking past Katsumi as she picked up the phone from the living room coffee table and moved to swipe it with her other hand, only to forget that it had been ripped clear of her shoulder. She briefly rolled her eyes and tapped the green phone icon and brought it up against the side of her head.

“Yeah?! Oh, hey Lee.” Chise walked over to the couch and sat down on it, tucking the phone against her shoulder as she self-stabilized her systems, and with a dainty hand, grasped the bundle of wiring that poked out undamaged between her chest plating and brought the phone back down into her hand.

“No. No you didn't interrupt anything...Yeah, I'm sure...Well, if you keep pointing out that I sound upset, I'll get upset!” Chise leaned her head back against the back of the couch. “I'm sorry, I was just-just in the middle of some work I'm doing and...Oh, it's about that? Listen, you wanna' keep having me help out with your software prod-products, you better give me credit for the work...Stuttering? What stut-stut-stut—It's nothing, just a...program update I'm working on.” Chise looked over her sparking shoulder socket at Katsumi, standing there completely still.

“Oh, Katsumi? Funny you should ask about that. Figured out where she was and had a talk with her. We came to an understand-anding, then I hacked her shitty system security and ripped her processors out...N-No, I'm not call-calling the cops-cops. Last time I did that, we ended up in this mess...Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah—d-don't worry, I have it handled. She won't-won't be a prob-problem-lem...”

Chise then raised her head, a smirk coming to her face. “Oh, Renée likes the new body, then? Gee-gee, that was quick...Yeah, well, glad you're both enjoying it. Glad you lis-listened to the logical-cal side-side of me, I'd prob-probably be worse about-bout it than you were..Okay, sorry if I seemed te-testy-ty earlier. I'm just...n-no it's fi-fine-fine. Yeah, I'll call you tomor--” A sharp electrical snap filled the room as a power lead in Chise's shoulder socket burnt out, the sparks fizzling against the fireproof couch cover. “In a few day-days about the pro-program...C-Come work for you? Oh, right, and then I'd nev-never hear the end-end-end of it from my mo-mom-mom...Yeah, ta-talk-talk to you so-soon. Bye-bye-bye--” Chise hung up the phone. “--bye-bye-bye-bye--motherfucker.”

Chise tossed the phone to the table and then leaned her head back, crossing an arm under her breasts and stroking her damaged side. “Fuuuuuuuuuuck.” Closing her undamaged eye, she then opened it and stood up straight, walking over to Katsumi and giving her a once-over. Shaking her head, she shrugged and said to herself “well, you still need some kinks to work out anyway, may as well shelve that fantasy for the night.”

As Chise opened Katsumi's loosened occipital panel to access her processors, she wondered if removing her higher functions and replacing her processors with that of a modified basic pleasure model was the right thing to do, or worse yet, hypocritical. With all the strong opinions she held about AI sapience, it felt somehow wrong to do this to Katsumi. But then she remembered that Katsumi was Katsumi, and that the legal alternatives had already been explored.

Chise hadn't just wiped Katsumi's AI, though. She didn't lie to Lee entirely, she had pulled Katsumi's processors out. But, anonymously delivered the parcel containing them to the local police precinct with a handwritten note (in Katsumi's default handwriting font preference) stating 'Hara Katsumi – Decided To Turn Myself In'. She hoped that would be enough to throw them off the trail of the android's body.

Sure, it might have been a bit weird. But ever since that night in the converted warehouse, rescuing Miyu from her clutches, the only one who had even come close to treating her so roughly was Lee, and even he seemed hesitant to do much more than take her apart. She'd come to terms a while back that she had, in her own weird and probably malfunctioning way, fallen for Katsumi's brand of aggression if not the vile, psychotic person that aggression was a part of. The fact that she had a kick-ass body and good looks were nothing to scoff at, either.

She pondered these things as she stared at the modified processor, housing far fewer AI processing and management boards than Katsumi did, and pulled a data cable from the back of her neck, clicking it into Katsumi's matching port on the back of her neck, and watching as the lights began blinking rapidly inside of Katsumi's head.

“Establishing Link With Connected System...Link Complete. Accessing A.I. Scenario Operational Parameters. Editing Files In Folder 'Safe Word'.” Chise stood straight and smirked as she looked the backside of Katsumi up and down. For an android so obsessed with being independent and in control, this was certainly a fitting punishment.

“Now,” Chise said, processing out loud. “Let's think of a better safe word for you...How about 'teacup'?”

---

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