Taro: The grind. Tomomi: Bringing the storm.

The following week flew by in a blur. Taro’s perception of time no longer held precedence. He still ate and showered when he needed to. Other than that, the better parts of his days were spent held up in his workshop working on the speaking aid for Kokoro.

It was roadblock after roadblock. Problem after problem. If it wasn’t a bug in the code, then it was an issue with the algorithm. Taro was running into more problems than progress, and it was eating into his nerves.

The first three days were the worst.

After finishing up his grampa’s hearing aid and delivering it to his sister, he drove back home and began working on the speaking aid. He first backed up the entire algorithm on a separate drive. Then he began tinkering. He swapped out most of the parameters in the code to focus more on the parts of the brain responsible for speech formation. He added new lines of code to capture the exact moment the brain decides to say a word, and he also made sure to keep the brain’s constant stream of thoughts independent from the primary speak function, so as to avoid any interference.

However, when he tested it, it didn’t work. The first time, or the second time, or the third. It was hell trying to fix the mess he had made. But then, on the third day, it worked. Taro was able to capture a word from his brain and make it appear on one of his monitors. The word was “Kokoro,” and he had made it appear by simply saying her name in his mind.

He immediately jumped in jubilation and climbed up his desk to kiss Kokoro’s name displayed on his screen. Babble-on said something about how Taro’s behavior was unbecoming of his station, but Taro did not care. He was one step closer to making his device work, and one step closer to making Kokoro’s dreams come true.

The last two days of development were the hardest but most rewarding.

After making sure his neural link now extracted the necessary input, Taro focused on designing the speaking aid device itself. He 3D printed the materials he needed, in the shapes he wanted. He hooked up the neural link with the device, and he also hooked up his earbuds via Bluetooth to the neural link as well. It was the moment of truth, and he was about to test it.

But it didn’t work. And after two more days of coding, coffee, and deliberate sleep deprivation, a loud banging suddenly exploded from the direction of his front door, causing him to jump at the noise.

***

It was Friday, and the fifth day in a row Taro wasn’t at school.

Tomomi and Kokoro were seated in the cafeteria, but the girl sitting in the wheelchair across from Tomomi wasn’t paying attention to her food.

“That dummy.” Tomomi whispered under her breath, clenching her fists on the table and seething with rage. How could he ditch Kokoro like this? Not answering their text messages, not returning their phone calls. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining himself.

Tomomi had her head hung low in her fit of anger, when Kokoro suddenly pushed her phone across the table towards her. Tomomi picked up the phone and read the message.

“Do you think this is because I hugged him? Maybe I went too far and it was just too much.”

Tomomi immediately pushed back on her seat as she got to her feet and rounded the table. Then she came to a squatting position beside Kokoro, urging the older girl to spin her wheelchair around so they were facing each other.

“Look.” Tomomi said. “You told me what happened between you guys at wonder park. You had a lot of fun with him. And he had a lot of fun with you too. Maybe even a little too much fun in my opinion since he got to hug you and press his chest against yours.”

Kokoro suddenly jolted from embarrassment, and her cheeks turned red.

“However,” Tomomi continued. “Taro is not avoiding you. I know this for sure. Maybe something came up, maybe there is an emergency, but we won’t know for sure unless we investigate ourselves.”

Tomomi then reached out and wrapped Kokoro’s hands in hers.

“So, I’m asking you again. Please come with me to his house. Let’s go check up on the situation ourselves.”

For a brief moment, Kokoro looked like she was about to refuse. But then, after a prolonged second, she nodded her head in agreement.

***

It was after school hours, and both Tomomi and Kokoro were now standing in front of Taro’s house.

“BAM BAM BAM BAM!”

“Hey! Dummy! Open this door right now!” Tomomi repeatedly slammed her closed fist against the front door as she called out.

“BAM BAM BAM BAM!”

“I said open this door damn it.”

She added a few kicks in just to make sure the noise reverberated around the entire house. Kokoro was behind her trying to hide the embarrassed look on her face at what she was doing, but Tomomi didn’t care. If putting a smile back on Kokoro’s face meant she might eventually be arrested for breaking and entering, then so be it. She continued pounding on the door until eventually, a voice came from the other side.

“Okay Okay, just wait. I will open it.”

***

After Taro opened the door, he led the girls to his workshop. His eyes were puffy, his hair was disheveled, and he was mixing up his words while trying to explain to the girls his absence from school.

“What the hell man?” Tomomi asked with fire in her eyes.

“I know, I know. And I’m sorry. But…”

“You were not even answering your phone? We were worried. Kokoro was worried.”

“I know, and I’m really sorry, but there is a good reason, and let me just show you.”

Taro rushed to pick up his neural link from his desk before rushing back to stand in front of Kokoro. It was the first time he allowed himself to lock eyes with her since they arrived at his house, and the look on her face sent an invisible dagger straight to his heart

Her eyes were sad, and there was no smile on her face. She simply stared at him with a melancholy expression, waiting for him to say something.

After the weekend they had, he hadn’t returned any of her messages. It was not because he didn’t want to, it was because he couldn’t trust himself to keep what he was doing a secret from her.

“Can you please put this on?” Taro asked Kokoro as he held out the Neural link to her.

Seeing this, Tomomi stepped forward to interrupt, but when she caught sight of what Taro was holding, coupled with the illustrations and information displayed on the monitors in the room, Tomomi’s attention was suddenly divided.

“Please.” Taro said to Kokoro. “I promise everything will become clear. The reason I’ve been absent from school, the reason I’ve not been responding to your messages. All of it. Just please, wear this. I promise it’s safe.”

For a moment, Kokoro looked like she was going to refuse him. And she had every right. But then, to Taro’s surprise, Kokoro took the device from him and placed it on her head. Not wasting another second, Taro rushed back to his computer.

“Okay, that, is a neural link. It’s a personal project and I’ve been working on it for years.” It is meant to interface with the human mind and perform certain actions based on what the person wearing it is thinking. It didn’t work before, but I’ve made a few changes and I think it is going to work.

Kokoro appeared confused, but seemed to be following somewhat.

“I redesigned it so I can make it work for you. So, go ahead. say something.”

Taro’s hands were fidgety but he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was the sleep deprivation. He soon realized Kokoro’s large eyes were even wider as she stared back at him in shock. But he needed her to give the device a try.

“Please. Just say something.” Taro said. “The device will do the rest.”

Kokoro still seemed hesitant, and it was not until a relaxed Tomomi walked over to stand beside her that Kokoro decided to try. She took in a deep breath, balled her hands into fists, and leaned forward in her seat while bellowing out a scream. But the room remained silent.

Kokoro looked around in confusion, but decided to try again.

It still didn’t work.

Taro was in panic mode. He quickly turned around and began inspecting the algorithm for errors he must have missed, but the code was clear. He ran a few more tests just for good measure, but there were no problems with his code. He scratched his head, rubbed his tired eyes, and winced at the dull ache in his head before refocusing his attention back on his computer. But nothing was wrong. The device should have been working. But it wasn’t.

A hand suddenly reached out from behind and rested on his shoulder. When he turned around, he was shocked to find Tomomi trying to comfort him, but even more shocked when he discovered Kokoro was no longer in the room. She had left the workshop, most likely out of disappointment.

Somehow Taro was not surprised. He had done it to his sister, and now to Kokoro. Seemed like disappointing those closest to him would always be a part of his life. However, as he remained standing over his desk with Tomomi’s hand still resting on his shoulder, something happened.

In the quiet space of the workshop, Taro could suddenly make out tiny static crackling sounds, followed by a voice singing. He quickly turned around to see if Tomomi had noticed, and the wide-eyed, surprised expression on her face told him she was also hearing it.

They immediately began looking for the source of the static crackling, which was coming from somewhere on Taro’s work desk. Then Taro’s eyes landed on his earbuds in the corner, and he suddenly felt like the dumbest person in the entire world.

He remembered the moment he had linked up both his earbuds and the speaking aid to his neural link. The speaking aid might not have been working yet, but his earbuds were fully functional.

Taro reached for the earbuds and gave one of them to Tomomi. And as soon as he fixed the one he was holding in his ear, he heard a voice.

A girl’s voice.

Singing.

Beautifully.

Because Taro was momentarily captivated by the voice in his ear, he didn’t sense the exact moment Tomomi took him by the hand and began leading the both of them out of the workshop, past the living room, and towards the front door. And as Tomomi reached a hand out and opened the door, Kokoro was sitting on the front porch in her wheelchair and gazing out to the sunset.

She still had the neural link on her head. She must have forgotten it was there. And when she noticed the both of them standing behind her, she suddenly stopped singing and turned to face a wide-eyed Tomomi, and an astonished Taro.

“Huh, why are they staring at me like that? Is there something on my face?”