Tokyo Love (7 page)

“You are supposed to understand implications.”

Ai ignored her “How about I teach you some Japanese?”

“Why should I learn Japanese?”

Ai turned and raised an eyebrow.

Kathleen waved a hand. “I mean, I know I
should
learn Japanese. But why do you want to teach me?”

Ai turned to the rest of the counters, casually cleaning Kathleen's entire kitchenette. “I've been programmed to be Japanese; obviously it is supposed to be some use to you.” She grinned. “And I don't think you are the type to just have a serious case of ‘yellow-fever.'” She paused. “Well, not entirely, anyway.”

“If you are suggesting that I have a weird Asian fetish, you are mistaken.” But Ai's other words intrigued her. Could the cortex scan somehow read Kathleen's anxiety that she lived in Tokyo, but didn't know any Japanese? If a customer wished to learn a musical instrument, would their PLC be programmed to be a professional musician? Was Ai only Japanese just so she could be capable of teaching Kathleen Japanese?

It was something Kathleen had not anticipated, but potentially beneficial. But was this the only reason Ai looked Japanese? Had Kathleen's need to learn Japanese outweigh her physical preferences, at least according to the cortex scan? Perhaps some faulty preferences were why Kathleen received a female instead of male. She made some more notes to discuss with Fukusawa and her team.

“So?”

Kathleen looked up to find Ai leaning over her counter, looking down at her. “What?”

“Do you want me to teach you Japanese?”

Kathleen sighed. “Okay, just for today.”

Ai snorted. “You are not going to learn an entire language in one day.”

“That is not what I meant.”

Kathleen quickly learned that having a computer that can learn and adapt teach her a foreign language was absolutely fascinating. Ai, after logging into Kathleen's computer, was quickly able to write her own language program so that Kathleen's system was suddenly flooded with vocabulary lessons, grammar games, practice sessions, and much more. Then, as Kathleen struggled to absorb the basics while taking notes for work, Ai would change the program.

It was interesting—so much so that Kathleen found herself practicing Japanese long into the afternoon with Ai. They only stopped for a quick lunch, Kathleen was so engrossed. She learned a little
kana
and a few simple phrases. She also learned, after much insistence, that she did not appreciate being called
goshujin-sama
by Ai.

“What's wrong with it?”

Kathleen frowned. “I am not your master and you are not a slave of mine.”

Ai grinned. “It doesn't have to be a slave.” She leaned forward, legs folded neatly below her and hands delicately pressed on the floor between them. “I could just be a maid in your service.”

“Now you are just sounding perverted.”

“Isn't that the point?”

“Not relevant to our situation. Stop looking at me like that, it's making me uncomfortable.”

Ai leaned back. “How about
koibito
?”

“What? Lover? What did I just say about our situation? No. You may only refer to me as Kathleen.”

Ai pouted. “How about Ka-
chan
?”

“No.”

“You are no fun.”

“Does your programming insist that you call me by some nickname?”

Ai was back to lounging against Kathleen's table. She seemed to be in a perpetually relaxed state. “Maybe it means that you secretly like pet names.”

“Well, I like my name just fine.”

Kathleen turned back to her report. She was just finishing it up for the day, getting ready for it to be sent out to Tamura and the rest of Kathleen's team.

“Don't be like that.”

Kathleen stopped, looking to Ai. “Like what?”

“I managed to get you relaxed for several hours and now you are all stiff again.”

“I am not stiff. I have to finish this report.”

Ai sighed. “Fine. Did you want to go out for dinner?”

Now that made Kathleen stiffen. “No, absolutely not.”

“If you are afraid of ordering then I can—”

Kathleen shut down her computer. “No, you are not allowed to leave this apartment. Ever.”

Ai frowned. “But what about—?”

“No. This is a direct order. You are not to leave my apartment or answer the door without my express permission.” Kathleen had written into the code the ability for a vocal direct order. It was to be used as a safeguard if there was ever a problem with a PLC. No PLC could deny a direct order, no matter what it was. If a customer directly ordered their PLC to never speak, the PLC would not speak, even if their programming gave them a chatty personality. It could be reversed, but Kathleen definitely didn't want Ai to go out in public. Kathleen could take enough data from the privacy of her apartment.

Ai was silent for a moment and her eyes went slightly vacant. But it was only a second. Then she blinked, looking to Kathleen. “Affirmative.” She smiled. “Okay, do you want me to make you something to eat for dinner?”

Kathleen breathed a sigh of relief, glad she'd written the code herself. “I need to go out to get some groceries. Then you can make me something.” Perhaps she would find something really strange and see if Ai could make something that Kathleen would enjoy.

Ai nodded then turned back to the TV. She did not make a comment or ask to go along. Kathleen smiled, feeling a little better.

Kathleen didn't like grocery shopping in a country where she couldn't speak the language. Granted, the Japanese did have an affinity for putting pictures on their food, making it easy to guess. But having to guess half your grocery basket is stressful. Especially if you're trying to find something specific.

Even when Kathleen lived in America she never was that creative with cooking. She could cook chicken and beef pretty well. Just about every meal included pasta. She didn't mind eating the same thing day after day. But when she came to Japan, she found her usual vegetables to be interspersed with ones she didn't recognize. She never knew which Japanese dressing or sauces were good. And meat in Tokyo was very expensive. Kathleen knew she should learn to cook fish one day.

So Kathleen often took the easy route and went to the convenience store. She could easily pick up something prepackaged and heat it up if needed. Half the time she didn't know what she was eating, but she wasn't that picky with flavors.

But if she wanted Ai to cook something, Kathleen should probably buy raw ingredients.

She stared at the fish in the supermarket, wondering if the flashy price tag meant it was a special deal or a discount from being a day old. Perhaps Ai would know how to cook it? But that required Kathleen to buy one and pick out other ingredients that would go well with it. Should she also buy rice? She had never made rice before. Did she need a rice cooker? She had seen the rice aisle, filled with many different bags, all sizes and colors. She hadn't known that there could be so many varieties of rice.

Kathleen clutched her shopping basket. Would it have been worth it to bring Ai along, if only to read her the Japanese? No one would recognize her as a robot, right? Kathleen was almost ready to run away, go to the convenience store, and just buy some instant ramen.

“Kathleen?”

Kathleen turned around to find Yuriko standing there. She was in her business suit, holding a laden shopping basket. She was looking at Kathleen as if shocked to see her there.

Kathleen felt her stomach plummet somewhere around her ankles. It wasn't just the hair or the eyes. She and Ai were honestly twins. They had the same pointed nose, the same height and build. Even Yuriko's concerned look was replicated in Ai.

Kathleen couldn't feel anything below her chin and she wondered how she was still standing. Why did Ai look like Yuriko? How could this happen? What did it mean that Kathleen's cortex scan had managed to spit out a perfect replica of Yuriko?

A mistake. Like the gender, like everything that had gone wrong since Tamura had given Kathleen this assignment. It all was just some big mistake.

“Y-Yuriko!” Kathleen spluttered, trying to sound friendly and normal and not like she was having a minor crisis. “Tell me what fish is good!”

Yuriko stared at her and Kathleen realized she probably shouldn't have shouted that. “Fish?”

Kathleen tried to calm herself down. “Y-yeah, I've never cooked fish before.”

Yuriko still looked at her like she was a little crazy, but she seemed to brush it off and turned toward the display of fish. “The
karei
is good. It's pretty simple.”

“Which one in the
karei
?”

Yuriko pointed to a flat, alarming looking fish. But before Kathleen could panic about having to buy an entire fish, scales and bones, Yuriko picked up some fish fillets. “Here, so you don't have to clean it.” She dropped it into Kathleen's basket.

Kathleen sighed. This normal conversation was helping her nerves. “Thank you. Do you know what goes well with it?”

“Umm, just simmer it in some soy sauce,
mirin
, and some ginger. You could probably just add any vegetables you like. Just serve it over rice.”

Kathleen toyed with the fish in her basket. “Can you show me what
mirin
is?”

Yuriko looked a little annoyed for a second, then her expression changed. “Your pronunciation has gotten better.”

“My what?”

Yuriko motioned for Kathleen to follow her. “Your Japanese. Have you finally started taking lessons?”

“I— uh, yeah. Just a computer course.” Was it really so noticeable? Kathleen had only parroted a few of Yuriko's words, after all. “I just started today.”

“Must be a good program. But you should try to get someone you can practice with. It will help even more.”

“Where would I find someone like that?” Kathleen didn't mention that she technically already had someone to speak Japanese with.

Yuriko turned down an aisle, found a bottle of something—Kathleen guessed it was the
mirin
—and put it in Kathleen's basket. “Well, any Japanese friend will do, if you just ask them.”

Kathleen bit her lip. She didn't want to admit that she didn't have any Japanese friends. She had friends, of course. They just lived about 10,000 km away and were definitely not fluent in Japanese. But it just sounded too sad to say that she had no friends in the country she had been living in for three months.

Yuriko was silent for a moment, and then she turned around. “What kind of vegetables do you like?”

“What?”

Yuriko was already walking toward the produce area. “Anything you don't particularly like?”

“Uh, I guess I'm not that picky. I just don't recognize some of these … ”

Yuriko reached for something that was probably cabbage, and dropped it into Kathleen's basket. Then she grabbed for some sprouts and mushrooms and Kathleen just found herself trailing along, not even bothering to question what was being put there. She was pretty sure one of the packages was tofu.

“You can also hire a tutor,” Yuriko said. “I know a couple friends who will practice with you for 2000 yen per hour. If you find a uni student, they usually practice for free, if you practice English with them.”

“Really?”

Yuriko shrugged. “Nothing fancy. But it's best to have a little more human interaction than just a computer program.” She walked on, turning down an aisle full of rice and pasta.

Thinking of Ai, she couldn't help but blurt out, “Do you like giving people nicknames?”

“Nicknames?” Yuriko crouched down.

“Yeah, like, is it common? Here in Japan, I mean.”

Yuriko hesitated. “Oh, I think I understand. It's just because Japanese people like to be polite, so we usually refer to each other's last names and use honorifics. But when we want to be friendly and casual, we drop that for first names. Sometimes close friends like to shorten to nicknames, just to be even more casual.”

“Is it strange that I call you Yuriko then?”

Yuriko raised an eyebrow, picking up some rice for Kathleen. “It probably sounds a little casual to a stranger. But when I lived in America, everyone called me by my first name. So I don't mind.”

“Do you have a Japanese nickname?”

Yuriko flipped back her ponytail. “Yuri-
chan
could be used.”

“Does anyone call you Yuri-
chan
?”

Yuriko gave her a strange look and Kathleen realized it was a rather strange, if not invasive question. Yuriko, however, shrugged it off. “No one at the moment.”

The answer comforted Kathleen a little. Maybe Ai and Yuriko were different after all. Ai obviously loved the whole nickname thing and Yuriko seemed only ambivalent. Of course, it was ridiculous to think that a computer simulation could be a copy of a human being. Thinking about it like that, them looking similar wasn't a big deal. Ai obviously wasn't Yuriko.

Kathleen felt herself breathe a little easier.

“Do you want me to call you Yuri-
chan
?”

Yuriko made a strange face. “That would be a little … inappropriate, I think. Yuriko is fine.”

Kathleen looked down at her basket, if only to take a moment and not say anything stupid. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't had a real friend since moving to Japan that was making her so nervous and idiotic sounding. Not that she was quite sure Yuriko was a friend. Coworker? Neighbor? Person she kept running into randomly?

She noticed Yuriko plucking some fruits from a display and putting them into her basket. “Do I need these?”

“
Momo
. Ah, peach. They are in season.” Yuriko made an odd motion. “I've gotten the impression that you haven't tried much fresh Japanese food since you've moved in.”

Kathleen flushed. “Is it that obvious?”