WRITER'S NOTES: And here's my third story, a semi-sequel to another favourite ASFR story, Dr. Goldfoot's Perfection. Again, this is not meant as an infringement on his work; in fact, while this story is set in that universe, the only character mentioned from the original story is David Houston.

For those unfamiliar with Sentimental Graffiti (shortformed as Senchi [the Japanese phonetic spelling of the first syllables]) it is a love simulation game where the player is the son of a salaryman who met twelve girls over nine years (during public and junior high school) and, two years later, now has to decide which one he wants. Chie Matsuoka is my favourite Senchi girl after Yuu Nanase, though all the Senchi girls are utterly adorable. In this story, Chie is 22 years old, five years after the time the game is set. Two Hearts is Chie's theme song. For more information, turn to Hitoshi Doi's anime website at www.tcp.com/~doi/.

The crowd roars as Thousand Black launches into a charged rendition of its signature song, Two Hearts. Eyes are locked on the black-and-blue clad woman strumming her six-string at the head of the band. Hands clap as she winds into the chorus, the tempo leaping to the roof as she winds up another sell-out performance at the Fukuoka Dome. "Thank you very much and good night!!!" she calls out over the thunderous applause.

As the curtain falls, the band winds their way to their dressing room. Awaiting the star performer backstage are a crowd of eager otaku, autograph books out. Chie smiles as she begins signing, drinking in their adoration. This was why she had joined Thousand Black, why she dedicated herself to music; their need to be free, even if only for a couple hours, from the everyday grind was paramount. Not to mention lucrative, but music was Chie's life and if she could earn money from that, so much the better.

Still...none of those adoring stares...

...were his.

Chie closes her eyes, then jolts as a familiar voice calls out, "Hey, Matsuoka-sensei, why don't you do a love song?"

"Yuu!!" she grins, embracing the Hiroshima girl. "Damn you, girl, what are you doing down here?!"

The auburn-eyed redhead snorts, gazing warmly at the taller ponytailed brunette with the warm chestnut eyes. "I never miss one of your concerts if I can help it, Chie! 'Sides, I was coming back from an astrology conference in Seoul and decided to take the ferry across from Pusan. How are you?!"

The crowds part as the friends stream to the dressing rooms. "Pretty okay, I guess. We're about to cut the new record."

"People still bugging you about doing ballads?"

Chie sighs, sinking into her chair. It was her vow; she would never do a love song until she did one for him. "Yeah. Ryuu-kun's already written one up. The test-demos look good and...hell, I want to do it, Yuu, but..."

"You'd betray your promise to him," Yuu crosses her arms.

"Yeah..."

Silence falls. Chie and Yuu were two of twelve women from across Japan who shared a special bond; they had met and fallen in love with Gioo Shigozei. One wouldn't find that unusual if they were ignorant of the whole story. Gioo was the son of a travelling office worker, one forced over a period of five years to move from city to city every six months or so, taking with him his wife and son. At each city, Gioo met a woman in school. They became close, but his father's job took the boy away, usually before some special event involving him and the girl he was with.

The women, all twelve, didn't forget, their love for him growing by leaps and bounds until one day in the third year of high school, they...as if drawn by magic or the whimsical Fates...went to Tokyo to look up Gioo and attempt to forge something permanent. Deluged by the return of these twelve ghosts from his past, Gioo felt it only right and honourable to keep them an emotional distance, not wanting to break eleven hearts if he was forced to make a choice between them. The girls were broken-hearted but understood. That was when Chie met Yuu, striking up a close friendship as the former pursued her career with Thousand Black and the latter got her degree in astrology and became an assistant researcher at Hiroshima University's stellar cartography lab.

"Chie, you have to let go of him one day."

"Would you?" Chie stares at Yuu.

"Not really," the redhead grins. Every time she saw a meteor shower, she too dreamt of the chance. "Still, wouldn't it be nice if we all could have Gioo-chan to ourselves?"

"Hey, it'd be a perfect world!" Chie snorts.

The door opens, revealing to the singer's surprise her brother Shingo, now a sophomore at Kitakyushu University. "Hey, Aneki (Big Sis), aren't you gonna finally let the dork go and get a life?!"

"Up yours!" Chie snaps, winking at Yuu. She couldn't fault her brother's concern; Shingo never liked his sister's infatuation with Gioo. "What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be studying for exams?!"

"Studied enough," he sits beside Yuu. "Actually, you'd be amazed as to what I just found on the Net."

"What's that?" Chie wonders.

Shingo hands her a slip of paper with a webpage address on it. "This just might solve your love problems," he grins, standing. "Let Yuu-san look at it, too. See ya!" he waves.

As the door closes behind him, Chie and Yuu exchange looks...

"Oh, gods, I don't believe this!"

Chie and Yuu gape at the webpage in question, now in a private booth at a local Internet cafe. On the page, the image of a very handsome man making passionate love to an impossibly beautiful woman is frozen on the screen. The former reads the caption, "When engaged in sex, the RealBabe's vaginal orifice closes completely around her partner's penis, forcing out all the air and creating very intense stimulation. A RealDude's penis, whose size can alter depending on his partner's needs and wants, may do the same thing, creating equally intense stimulation when entering a woman's vagina. Fuck me, is this for real?!"

"Must be," Yuu hums; she was long used to Chie's profanity. "You have to admit, the cost is pretty high, but..."

"Yeah, but this would be the perfect sex partner...perfect boyfriend if you want to push it that far!" Chie shakes her head, then clicks onto another page to call up the e-mail option. "So what do you think?" she stares at her friend.

Yuu bites her lip. "Well, it wouldn't hurt..."

A fortnight later, two nervous women relax by the front door of Chie's Hakata-ku (Hakata Ward) apartment block, hands tightly grasping their purses. The owner of RealBabe-RealDude Japan, a doctor named Tomohisa Kai, was going to be in Kyushu for business and would happily meet them to discuss a possible purchase.

Sure enough, a stretched limousine pulls up before them, the back door opening to reveal a handsome middle-aged man in a refined business suit. "Matsuoka-san, Nanase-san, a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he gracefully bows to them, then ushers them inside. "Why don't you join me for a while so we can do business?"

"Thanks," Chie nods as they step in, then blink in surprise on seeing the doctor's companion, a lovely blonde distantly reminding them of another of Gioo's would-be girlfriends, Akira Endou of Nagasaki. She is now dressed in a lovely kimono, looking demure yet still mouth-watering alluring. "Um...hello."

"A pleasure, Matsuoka-sama," she bows. "My name is Mariko Kai. I just purchased your last album. It was very enjoyable. In fact, would you mind...?" she produces an autograph book.

Chie laughs, jotting her signature, then handing it back. Yuu stares intently at the blonde as Kai sits beside her. "Forgive me for asking this, Mariko-san...but are you a RealBabe?!"

"Eh?!!" Chie gapes.

"Yes, I am, Nanase-sama," Mariko smiles, her hazel eyes glittering. "Dear, will you deactivate me and show them?"

"Of course," the doctor pulls out a remote.

Even after seeing it on the website, watching Mariko become rock-still after several buttons on a TV-like remote are pressed takes their breath away. Kai reaches up to open the android's cranial access port. "Well, are you convinced now, Nanase-san?"

"I am!" Yuu whistles. "You do excellent work, Sensei."

"While I'd love to take credit for what I manufacture, I must give the proper praise to a friend from America who introduced me to this form of sentience," Kai muses, closing up Mariko's cranial hatch. "In the meantime, would you two care to explain what you would desire? I confess, meeting a famous singer and a published professor of astronomy at the same time strikes me as unusual."

Chie and Yuu stare quizzically at the stilled Mariko. "Um, does she mind being shut off like that?" the former wonders.

"Actually, her power charge was getting very low; she asked me to deactivate her to conserve energy before we return home," Kai admits, gazing warmly at his frozen companion. "It has been quite a busy day, I assure you. So, what can I do for you?"

"Well, both of us would be interested in purchasing one of your male androids," Yuu begins.

"Ah, I see," Kai draws out a large binder and handing it to them. "By all means, take a look and see what you would desire."

"Thanks," Chie nods, then starts picking through the binder. What she sees makes her mouth water in anticipation. There were dozens of models available, spanning all the racial norms though most were Oriental, ranging in body shapes from the atypical bodybuilder to the more slender track runner types. There were even gangly nerds and overweight men, too! "Wow, you really cater to all potential customers, don't you?"

"I believed it to be the best approach when I started this business," Kai muses. "While my counterpart in America, David Houston, tends to keep choices for his customers limited, I believe that the customer must be the one who dictates everything, thus I try to give as much choice as possible."

"So we see," Yuu glances over Chie's shoulder as the latter gazes at a husky-skinned slender man. "How many androids have you constructed since you started your business?"

"Well over 200 males and 450 females," Kai reports. "That's in the last five years alone. I confess, I never thought it would take off this fast. Sadly, with the way society is changing around us, it seems for the best."

"Who buys them?" Chie wonders.

"For the RealDudes, they are mostly divorced mothers who need emotional support or help caring for children at home," Kai stares out the window at the passing Fukuoka cityscape. "It's a sad conclusion to draw about our drive during the last century to build the best society we could. With husbands gone all day, who helps the wife support the children, keep her emotional needs satisfied and the household intact? Believe it or not, a lot of my business in fact centres around old age homes and battered spouse shelters; my androids make excellent nurses and social workers. It wasn't what David had in mind when he started his business a decade ago, but there are some fundamental social differences between America and Japan."

"How'd he pull it off, anyway? I'd figure that androids like Mari-chan there wouldn't've come for years."

"Actually, I really would be hesitant to explain things to you before I'd get some sort of commitment," he warns.

In other words, the deposit money, Chie and Yuu exchange knowing looks. With that, both pour over the binder. "They're all very beautiful," the latter hums as her friend flips the page, then pales on seeing one model. "Buddha!!"

"Wha...holy shit!!!" Chie gapes.

Kai blinks as the two stare at the slender man with spiky hair combed over his forehead, displayed in form-hugging trunks on the beach. "Oh, that's Gioo..."

"Gioo Shigozei..." both women utter, their voices hushed.

Silence. "You know him?"

"How did you meet him?" Chie stares at the doctor.

"Actually, I try to model my androids after real people," Kai admits. "Shigozei-kun was in his first year at Tokyo University when I asked him to be a model. In fact, he's one of the few who's still willing to have body moulds done on him; it costs extra, but the customers really appreciate that."

Chie and Yuu exchange looks, stunned that their long quest to win their ex-classmate's heart had led to this. From a neverending dream, to heartbreak, to lonely wanting, to...? Both then stare at the doctor.

"He's the one," the former states.

"Both of us," the latter affirms.

"I see," Kai muses. "Well, let's get down to business..."

A week later...

"Matsuoka here."

"Ah, Matsuoka-san, this is Tomohisa Kai," the doctor's voice echoes over the phone. "Your android is ready. Since it's not so far from my factory to your place, I can have him driven down."

"You mean it?!" Chie gasps, eyes widening, then nods. "Okay, I can be here. What time?"

"Say about nine o'clock?"

"H-hai!" Chie stammers. "Thank you, Sensei."

"My pleasure," he replies, then clicks off.

Immediately, Chie begins a whirlwind cleaning of her basement apartment. While not a fastidious housekeeper, she did try to keep atop the junk that accumulated in this place, especially when she had the band over for practice. Fortunately, she had installed auxiliary solar panels in the veranda and on the roof to supplement her electricity needs; she had nearly a hundred million yen worth of studio and stereo equipment in the spare bedroom and the living room. Besides, he was coming to live with her. Even if he was an android, she wanted to make the right impression.

Finishing, she then prepares dinner. Even though she was no gourmet chef like Taeko Adachi (another of Gioo's would-be lovers from Aomori), she made do with what she could. Further, RealBabes and RealDudes needed to consume food; their nanite-driven silicon-based systems required matter they could use to keep things operating to par. Their solar batteries could look after their energy needs, but to save maintenance costs, their bodies came equipped with internal repair systems that easily handled daily wear-and-tear.

Setting a candlelight dinner, Chie sets out bowls of Tonkotsu ramen, kimch'i, mixed vegetables in sesame oil and steamed rice along with a bottle of expensive sake, then showers and dresses in a beautiful dark blue flower-pattern kimono. By the time she has sprayed perfume over her, the clock strikes nine. Right on the mark, the doorbell rings. Rising, checking her hair, she races over to the door, opening it. "Mariko?!"

"Konban wa, Matsuoka-sama," Mariko steps inside, now dressed in a scientist's smock, slacks and button shirt. Noting the singer's formal dress, she smiles. "You look ready."

"I feel it," Chie grins...then suddenly forgets to breathe.

Gioo steps in. Dressed in a men's kimono of dark blue with a red obi, he is every bit the wonderful man she remembers from those heavenly six months in the last year of junior high school. Dark brown hair shaggy cut over his forehead, chestnut eyes the same shade as Yuu's hair, a trim track runner's build. Taking Chie's hand, he gently rises it to his lips.

"G-gioo..." Chie gapes.

"As beautiful as a Hakata doll," he stares at her.

Chie's cheeks flame; to be compared to a Hakata doll, a fine porcelain doll of local manufature, was a profound compliment in the eyes of Fukuoka girls. "Arigato..." she shies away.

"No," he gently squeezes her hand. "Thank you, Siren."

Chie's mouth drops open. "How did you know...?"

"When the doctor did the life mould for him and Nanase-sama's companion, he learned about the times you spent with Shigozei-kun in school...including his nicknames for you," Mariko explains.

"Um...er...right!" Chie stammers, chuckling.

Mariko brings in Gioo's small suitcase, then discreetly withdraws. The two remain in place, gazing into the other's eyes. "I finally have my dream," Chie smiles.

"I'm glad I can help fulfil your dream," Gioo smiles. "Oh, I have a message from my Onii-chan."

The real Gioo, Chie realizes. "What is it?"

"Let them hear you sing a love song."

Chie shakes her head. "I won't sing one..."

"Let them hear you, Chie-chan," Gioo gazes intently into her eyes. "Your heart is full of love. You share everything else through your gift of song. Share that, too. He understands."

Chie bites her lips, then gently embraces him, swooning as his strong arms hold her in place. "Okay..." she sighs, then remembers dinner. "Oh, we better have something to eat before it gets cold!"

"Do you have Chris Rea?" Gioo walks over to her stereo set and begins flipping through CDs.

"Put on Looking for the Summer," Chie advises.

"Hai!" he nods, taking out the CD, then slips it in.

As the drums and guitar beat the pace, Gioo walks over, then guides Chie into the living room. They slide into a waltz, totally inappropriate for the face-paced song, but neither care...

Look deep into the April face,
A change has clearly taken place,
Looking for the summer.

The eyes take on a certain gaze,
And leave behind the springtime days,
Go looking for the summer.

This ain't no game of kiss and tell,
The implications how you know so well,
Go looking for the summer...

They gaze into the other's eyes, Chie's tearing as she finally allows her dreams and fantasies to burst forth, take control of her every action, direct her lips to his as they stop swaying, holding each other for all they were worth.

Chie grins. "To hell with dinner!"

With that, she pulls him to the floor, their lips passionately caressing as she lays beside him. Sliding over him, she directs his hands to her obi, allowing him to untie it and slip off her top, revealing her usual army-green tank-top. Another warm kiss, then she leans back as he slides his hands under her shirt, gently caressing her breasts, his fingers tweaking at her hardening nipples. "Oh, man..." she bites her lips.

Strong hands guide her over him as his lips begin pecking and stroking her abdomen. Chie gasps as jolts of sheer pleasure dance across her skin, then before she knows it, her top is gone. Gioo's lips find one of her nipples, suckling it as his hand gently kneads her other breast. He rolls her onto the floor, positioning himself to allow her hands to get at his kimono.

Chie is quick to oblige, deftly undoing his obi and loosening his kimono to reveal very sexy underwear. Grinning, her hand dives into his crotch, her smile broadening on discovering what awaited her. "Ooooh, hot time in the old town tonight!" she snickers, yanking down his underwear and stroking his hardening member.

"How large do you want me?" Gioo gently inquires.

"I'll leave that to you!" Chie winks, then kisses him anew.

He then undoes her skirt, revealing a pair of boxer shorts. Without hesitation, he starts kissing down to her awaiting love gate. "Hey, swing up, willya?" Chie grunts. "If you're doing me, I'm definitely doin' you!"

"Hai, hai, Ojou-sama," he smiles.

In a minute, both are coming down hard on their pleasure centres, Chie nearly gorging herself on his love stick while he was doing an excellent imitation of a vacuum cleaner on her lovebox. Grunting, both pick up the pace as the rush thunders through their bodies, building and building to eventual climax.

Chie strikes gold first, her throat suddenly flooded by a sweet-sour fluid which (according to the website advertisement) is designed not to induce harmful side effects on an organic lover. She gulps it deep down, then her own senses are overloaded as her legs lock up around Gioo's face, her south gate quivering as she hits the big O. Gasping for air, she arches back, allowing him to lick and suck her dry.

A minute later, Gioo swings up to gently draw her into an embrace. "How was that?" he kisses her.

"Get inside me," Chie orders.

"Hai!"

Still quite erect, he pulls Chie over him, then deftly sinks his joystick right into her awaiting gate. She gasps as that monster fills her to bursting, then blinks as she feels him slightly deflate. "I don't want to hurt you," he smiles.

"Shit, are you NORMALLY that big?!" she wonders.

They laugh, then begin anew...

A timeless eternity later finds them in bed, the covers haphazardly tossed over them. Chie dozes in the crook of Gioo's arm, her arm draped over his chest. The android's eyes are closed, turned down to secondary power to allow his companion the chance to sleep; it was still some time before he would need to re-charge.

Chie groans as the phone rings, then stares at the time. Three-twenty? Picking up the receiver, she mutters, "Do you have an idea what time it is?"

"Did I wake you up?" a woman laughs.

"Yuu?!!" Chie blinks. "Why the fuck're you calling now...?"

"I trust you liked what arrived tonight?!" the Hiroshima native titters.

Chie blinks, then smirks. Yuu would've got her RealDude at the same time; the factory was in Nara and Hiroshima lay between there and Fukuoka. "Yeah, I did! How are you?"

"Worn out," Yuu breathes out. "But I can't complain."

"Neither can I," Chie sighs. "Call me in the morning and tell me all the gory details."

"Hai!" Yuu laughs...

Over the next two weeks, Chie and Gioo settle into a routine, building a life which worked out for each other. Nights full of hot passion, days working out with Thousand Black and preparing for the band's second album and first nation-wide tour. The other band members learn of Chie's purchase, then begin treating Gioo as one of the guys. Of course, they and the record company really couldn't complain; on the new album, Thousand Black performs several romantic ballads, including the one Ryuu wrote...and the song Chie wrote long ago for Gioo to celebrate their graduation from junior high school, a song she couldn't play for him live because he had moved away the day before the prom.

Thousand Black's first nation-wide tour is a sell-out in every city. Even when the drummer had to drop out halfway through due to a family emergency, it didn't dampen the mood: as a precaution, Gioo was programmed to fill in anywhere in the band and, having attended the jam sessions, knew the songs inside out. When came time to introduce the band, Chie addressed him as her cousin Gioo.

"'Cousin?!'" Yuu railed over the telephone when the band was performing in Sapporo. "Chie, people are going to figure out what he is soon enough."

"Who gives a fuck?!" Chie retorted.

Unfortunately, someone did.

Manami Sugihara.

Another of Gioo's would-be lovers, the Shikoku native, a budding wildlife conservationist and best-selling poet, watched one of the concerts on television, then called Chie and demanded to know how she made Gioo choose her. Hearing the woman's mournful blubbering, Chie rolls her eyes, wanting to give the airheaded twit the bird, then simply said, "He's a robot, Sugihara! Geez, take a Valium, willya?!"

"Robot...?" Manami sniffles, then wails. "Oh, how could you, Chie-san?! You're treating him like a slave!!"

"No, dummy, he's a robot!!" Chie roars back. "As in something you make in a lab!!! Switch off and turn on, just like you do with a television?!! THAT sort of robot!!"

Manami STILL didn't believe her, so Chie arranged to have Yuu bring her companion down to the Takamatsu concert, then both would surprise Manami with TWO Gioo Shigozeis. To say she was stunned was putting it lightly. Then to smooth things over, Chie and Yuu ordered their lovers to give Manami all the pleasure they could.

The next day, Manami was so excited that she called Tomohisa Kai and arranged to have her own Gioo constructed!

Two weeks later...

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Chie stares at Yuu, both boarding the Tokaidou-Sanyou shinkansen (bullet train) at Hiroshima station, eastbound for Osaka. "Hai, I'm sure," the latter closes her eyes as they relax by one seat near the front of the train. "I've never been so happy, Chie-chan. But...I feel it's so unfair that he couldn't share that happiness."

"Neither can I," Chie admits. "Still, he wanted to ensure we wouldn't be hurt. Couldn't be avoided, I suppose."

"Yeah, not like a lot of men," Yuu frowns. "Other men'd play us all along like harps, date us as much as possible and prolong it as much as they can to get their rocks off. I'm glad Gioo-chan admitted he didn't want to hurt us right up front."

Chie sighs. "I am, too," she then slyly grins. "I just hope he doesn't mind this present."

Yuu laughs. An hour later, they pull into Osaka and change trains for Nara, the ancient Japanese capital in the hills east of Japan's second largest city. A while later, they disembark at Kooriyama station, hailing a taxi for the industrial district at the south end of Nara. Tomohisa Kai's workshop was located in an abandoned textile factory, its isolation from the other businesses ensuring that no one could accidentally barge in and discover something many in Japan still weren't ready for.

Chie and Yuu were told the whole story of how David Houston was hired by the American government and employed in Project: Tin Man, exploring alien science through various UFO crashes and discovering that the "aliens" themselves were very advanced artificial beings. How he used that science to create the RealBabe companion android, launching his business a decade ago. Kai had been his first overseas customer, Mariko (whom he treated as his wife and work partner) being built eight years ago.

Sensing excellent market potential for Mariko's type of companion android in Japan (and being armed with a cybernetics degree from Tokyo University), Kai convinced Houston to allow him to market RealBabes and RealDudes (the term for the male androids was Kai's idea) throughout east Asia. While most of his customers were Japanese, he also exported them to South Korea, Taiwan and as far away as Australia and New Zealand. So far, the American government authorities which ran Project: Tin Man hadn't risen an objection, content in observing how humans interacted with androids.

Arriving at a door marked KAI SCULPTURES (that was the term he used to describe his androids when they were shipped via parcel post), Chie knocks. The door opens to reveal Mariko. "Matsuoka-sama, Nanase-sama, there you are! C'mon in!!"

"Thanks, Mari-chan," Chie nods as they step inside, then look around. "Whoa, this is kinda plain, isn't it?"

The inside of the factory was a level concrete floor, steel frame shelves lining all sides. At one end of the room was an examination table, currently occupied by someone covered in what seemed to be a white plaster-like substance. Several opaque glass tubes lined another wall nearby, all of them occupied by a barely discernable humanoid form. Another examination table, this one empty, lay down from the first. At the other end of the room was a computer station and several seats with wires and power cables laid out, obviously for androids to recharge themselves. "It is quite plain, I admit," Yuu hums. "Where's your husband, Mariko?"

"Dear's out right now, so I'll handle your request," Mariko guides them to the reception area, several couches divided by a coffee table. "So, what can we do for you? How are you adjusting to your companion androids?"

"It's wonderful!" Yuu sighs. "Every one of my dreams came true the day he walked through my door."

"Ditto," Chie stares at her friend, then gazes at the android scientist. "Mari-chan, did Gioo-chan ever tell you about the time he travelled from town to town when he was in school?"

"When he met you two and the others?" Mariko blinks, then nods. "Hai, he did. He was...very sad when he decided he didn't want to face making a choice between you. He felt you were hurt enough when he was forced to move away from you. He...didn't want to be responsible for causing you any more pain."

"We understand that part, but you have to understand that were it not for him, our dreams might never have come true," Yuu bites her lip. "Chie-chan would've never pursued her career in music. Manami-chan wouldn't've become a poet or joined the World Wildlife Fund. Taeko-chan and Kaho-chan wouldn't've come together to form their restaurant chain. It goes on and on. We owe him a debt for making our lives better and...we want to repay it."

"How?" Mariko wonders.

"We want you to make android doubles of us," Chie reports.

Mariko blinks, then smiles. "You're kidding!"

"No, we aren't," Chie smiles. "We know you're running a business here, so we can guess that your husband would desire to make a profit from it. Therefore, Yuu and I are prepared to allow you to use us as models for new lines of RealBabe androids. We'll let you have total control over how they're exported...with one small condition: the prototypes are to be given to Gioo Shigozei, the REAL one, as presents. It'd be our way of saying thanks to him for making our lives better."

Mariko sits back, then muses. "Well, I will admit that androids modelled on you would be quite popular. Your popularity in the music business, Matsuoka-sama, would provoke considerable sales of Chie-model RealBabes, especially in the wake of your last tour. While you might not be as well known, Nanase-sama, redheads seem to be very popular with many of our Australian customers."

"Then you'll do it?" Yuu wonders.

"We'll be more than happy to," Mariko rises. "When we do a live moulding, we allow the template the chance to profit from sales. However, since you wish to have a prototype constructed as a gift, your personal profit won't show up for some time."

"We don't mind," Chie reports.

"Okay, then," Mariko draws some forms from a desk, then hands them over. "Please fill them out and give them back to me."

Chie and Yuu gaze at the forms. It was a general consent form, allowing Tomohisa Kai to use their image (via their RealBabe doubles) to construct androids for profit, a share of the sales automatically coming back to them. A clear space is provided below the consent form, Mariko asking them to detail their request for the prototype's use, then she makes a calculation of how much that would cut into profit share (if both the Chie and Yuu models became popular, their profit share could easily pay for the prototypes to be sent to Gioo with some money left over for them).

There was a complex questionnaire attached, detailing their personal and sexual interests. Customers wanted as real a person as Kai could produce in his lab, yet often couldn't decide how to influence their companion's personality. Chie and Yuu don't stint on details; each of these notes would be converted to complex program codes for their androids since the technology for memory copying from organic to silicon wetware was still some years away. Once done, Mariko slips on her smock and guides them to the "examination table," where they would be immobilized and scanned so the nanites could have a complete roadmap to begin construction.

After a bout of scissors-paper-stone to choose who'd be first, Yuu relaxes at a chair as Chie strips, then hops on the examination table. Mariko fixes an immobilizer on the singer's forehead, then allows the scanner to go to work. Yuu glances at the opaque tubes and their stilled cargo. "Are these done?" she walks over.

"Yes, they are," Mariko joins her. "These three and the one on the construction table are prototypes themselves. Once the one on the table is finished...she should be done while you're being scanned...she'll be placed in the storage tube for a couple of days while programming is installed. The chambers are for their privacy and to protect their bodies while they're being programmed."

"I'd think androids wouldn't be so shy around organics, especially if they're sex androids."

"You'd be surprised," Mariko notes. "Atop that, whenever we have people come in for live mouldings like yourself and Matsuoka-sama, it just prevents the templates from being distracted. We need people to be calm before we put the immobilizer on them; if they aren't, it could lead to adverse health effects later."

"Good point," Yuu nods. "So who are these ones for?"

Mariko feels her cheeks redden. "Um...Nanase-sama, I hate to say this, but you and Matsuoka-sama aren't the only ones who came up with the idea of having a RealBabe done for Shigozei-kun."

Yuu blinks, eyes widening. "What...?"

Mariko sighs, then touches a foot-pedal by one chamber. It opens, revealing a tall, shapely woman with wavy blonde hair and chestnut eyes, her trademark hairband gone since her cranial access plate was open to allow information to be programmed. "Akira...!"

"Hai," Mariko nods. "Endou-sama came here a few days ago; she ordered her version of Shigozei-kun a month ago and wanted to 'pay him back' as soon as she could."

"And the others?" Yuu points.

Mariko opens the second chamber, revealing a cute brown-haired girl with short side pigtails behind her ears and freckles between her hazel eyes. "Taeko-chan...!" Yuu gapes on recognizing the Aomori native, then slaps her forehead on seeing the last one, a well-exercised woman with brown eyes and brown hair drawn back in a stubby ponytail behind her head. "Oh, no, Kaho-chan too...?!" she shakes her head on recognizing the Osaka native.

"Hai," Mariko nods, then indicates the almost-complete android on the construction table.

Yuu notices the forest of long black hair, then gapes as Mariko peels the plaster away to reveal another of Gioo's would-be lovers. "Manami?!! When did she...?!"

"Sugihara-sama offered to do it as soon as she received her companion," Mariko reports, then blinks as a ding! is heard. Closing up the chambers, she taps controls to get the body mould constructed. A fine jet spray covers Chie from head to toe in the plaster-like substance. "This should take twenty minutes," she smiles. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go recharge myself."

She walks over to one of the chairs at the other end of the room, opening her cranial hatch to insert the power cable, then sits down. Her body freezes as her systems shut down to prevent a power surge from damaging her. Yuu remains in place, then returns to her chair...before a crack! is heard. Spinning around, she sees the mould around the Manami android cracking open, her eyes blinking. "Oh, shit!!!" Yuu gasps, then runs over to Mariko, trying to find some way to awaken the android scientist. "Damn, how long does it take you to recharge?!" she frets, then jolts as the sound of tearing plaster is heard.

Looking back, she sees Manami sitting up, staring at herself quizzically. Yuu bites her lips. Mariko was down, Chie was down, Kai nowhere in sight and this new android had just been born, now in a strange world and wondering what to do. Wait! They go into the chambers to be programmed!! she remembers, then walks over.

Manami stares innocently at Yuu as she opens Taeko's chamber. "I hope you don't mind this, Tae-chan," she muses, staring at the circuit board around her programming port. All the lights were green, which must have meant she was finished. Biting her lip, she extracts the jacks, then seeing a round white button, presses it.

Taeko jerks, then blinks confusedly at the organic. "You aren't Mariko-chan. Who are you?"

"No time to explain, Taeko-chan," Yuu sighs, indicating the awakened Manami. "She just broke out of her mould."

"Oh, dear!" Taeko hums, then steps out. Ignoring her nudity, she goes to a wall bank, calls up the programs on the monitor, then nods. "Good, it's all ready. Let's get her inside," she taps controls, then walks over to clear the plaster from Manami.

Yuu pitches in, taking a cloth and wiping the newborn android of the greasy-like film that remained of the nanite soup used in her construction. Manami stares at her, offering no resistance as Taeko and Yuu lift her from the bed, then place her in the programming unit. Opening her cranial hatch, Taeko shuts Manami down, then inserts the leads. "There, she should be fine," she closes the chamber, then walks back to the wall monitor to commence programming Manami. Once that's done, she sighs, then stares at Yuu. "Well, that little disaster's avoided."

"That's good," Yuu relaxes.

"Are you here for a companion?"

"Actually, I'm offering myself to be a template."

Taeko gushes. "Wai! That's neat!! An android of you'll be so cute! What's your name?!"

"Yuu Nanase."

Taeko blinks, the name coming back to her. "Um...pardon me for asking, but...do we know each other?"

"Your Onee-chan and I know each other," Yuu smiles. "We, not to mention several others, were attracted to the same man."

"Oh!" Taeko nods, staring at the chambers containing Kaho and Akira. "That makes sense. Kaho-chan and I were constructed at the same time. Excuse me, I should check on her."

"Shouldn't you get dressed first?" Yuu points.

Taeko blinks, then blushes as she races off to slip on a yukata before opening Kaho's chamber. Yuu shakes her head, then hears Mariko stand up. "What happened?!" the scientist wonders.

"Manami-chan decided she wouldn't wait to get out of her mould," Yuu grins as Mariko walks up. "I had to wake Taeko-chan up to help Manami-chan into a programming chamber."

"Oh, that's good!" Mariko breathes out in relief, then notes the time. "Well, Matsuoka-sama should be done soon. I'll get the table cleaned up and start work on her double as soon as we have her out of the mould, then scan you."

"They won't burst out right away, will they?" Yuu asks.

Mariko laughs as Taeko walks back in, now in a bathing yutaka, another in hand for Kaho. "What's wrong?" the latter blinks.

"Nothing, Tae-chan," Yuu smiles.

The android blinks, then shrugs as she opens Kaho's chamber...

Three days later...

"Shigozei."

"Ah, Gioo-kun, this is Tomohisa Kai."

"Sensei, what's wrong?!" Gioo sits down, gazing out the window of his studio apartment in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

"I hate to say this, but I'm afraid your other would-be lovers decided to give you a 'present.'"

Hearing that, the young salaryman tenses. "You're kidding."

"I wish I wasn't," the scientist chuckles. "How are you adjusting to having six RealBabes living with you?"

"Well, it gets interesting at times," Gioo admits. "I'm glad I've got the auxiliary solar panels set up here; my electricity bills'd skyrocket if I had to recharge them through city power."

"Well, they'll be there soon enough. Enjoy!"

The phone clicks off...just as a pair of lovely arms embraces him. "Gioo-kun, is there something wrong?" Wakana asks.

Gazing at the android double of his friend from Kyoto, Gioo wryly grins. "The others seem to've come up with the same idea your Onee-chans did."

"All of them?" Wakana's eyes widen.

"Hai, all of them."

The brunette android chuckles. "Don't let it bother you, Gioo-kun," she kisses his cheek. "They did it because they love you, as our Onee-chans love you. And we will love them because they love you and we don't want to see you unhappy."

Gioo sighs. "Who wouldn't be unhappy with you around?"

Wakana laughs...