Happy pt.3

Lobert woke up in his bed again, with Reiko by his side sitting in her chair, watching over him. Lobert could barely remember last night; he had a serious hangover.

"W-what happened yesterday?" Lobert asked strained.

"How much can you remember?" Reiko gave as a counter question.

"The guy from Brimetz invited us to a party and offered us a deal. I declined, of course...I think."

"Bystryveter, not Brimetz. You guys talked for a little while longer...well, it's probably more accurate that Suranov only talked about himself. Not much more than that happened, you drank for a while and then I drove you home. And yes, it didn't come to a deal." Reiko clarified.

Reiko took a glass of water and a capsule from the bedside table and handed them to Lobert.

"Here, this will help with the hangover."

Lobert accepted the help and swallowed the capsule; after a few minutes, the hangover completely disappeared and he felt like a new man.

"Man, that works pretty well." Lobert was astonished.

Now with a clear head, he proceeded to brush his teeth.

While he was doing that, he turned on the TV; Lobert didn't usually watch TV, but today he kind of felt like it.

...residents at the Central City Lake observed a new mass fish kill...

...analysis results consistently showed that the toxic substances will continue from the lake down the river...

...experts believe this is due to one of the Arbiter's newly enacted policies...

"That's absolutely not true!" Lobert protested inarticulately, with a toothbrush in his mouth full of foam.

He couldn't be sure that Christina wasn't behind it, of course, but he thought that was highly unlikely.

For a mass die-off of this kind, the lake would have had to suffer for a very long while.

With as much bullshit as came out of there, he turned the TV off again.

Later he would ask Christina about it to make sure.

After breakfast he got another visitor.

The hum of a car got louder and louder until Lobert finally saw the sports car from last night and another car on the landing field; it was Sergei Suranov.

What did he want from Lobert?

Mr. Suranov let himself into Lobert's apartment, along with his henchmen.

"Did you sleep well, Mr. Natus?"

He didn’t wait for an answer from Lobert.

"You drank a lot yesterday. I don't think you can hold your liquor very well."

"I'm fine." Lobert replied.

"About that deal yesterday, I want you to take it." Mr. Suranov said insistently.

"I told you I'd think about it." Lobert replied, visibly annoyed.

"I would think it over again." Mr. Suranov said threateningly.

"I have a video here of you that better not get out to the public."

Mr. Suranov took out his phone and turned on a holographic video.

Lobert and Reiko silently watched Mr. Suranov's video that took place in the VIP area last night.

In this video that Mr. Suranov presented, one saw the body of Lobert, the face of Lobert and the voice of Lobert buying some children for immoral purposes, to keep it vague.

The public would tear him apart, even literally, if he was unlucky; government counter-movements were already more than willing to use violence.

"This video is fake, I would never do such a thing!" Lobert yelled in an upset voice.

"He's lying. You didn't do anything wrong, I was watching you the whole time yesterday." Reiko assured in a seemingly calm voice, but from which one could still hear her anger.

"Can you really say with full certainty that this didn't happen, Lobert? This video, the people in the VIP area and myself can all testify to your guilt. But I understand you. We all make mistakes, mistakes are human. I'm willing to turn a blind eye and look past it; if you'll take my deal, that is."

This audacity left Lobert speechless.

He turned away from Mr. Suranov and slumped into the couch.

"When I get back from my trip to the mountains, I want to see this thing done. Or else..."

Mr. Suranov put his phone on the table while restarting the video again.

"Then if you'll excuse me, I have a vacation to enjoy."

Mr. Suranov laughed loudly and then disappeared into the clouds, along with his minions.

Lobert sat mindlessly on the couch, his old life seemed perfectly fine to him at that moment after all.

"You are innocent!" Reiko complained.

"It doesn't matter."

Lobert lay down and stared at the ceiling.

He now knew better than to carelessly go along with things; maybe there was some kind of tool or a body modification could prevent such artificial forgeries and the problems that came with them. 

Reiko looked at Lobert with what must have been compassion; Lobert wasn't sure.

Time passed in this manner until the next visitor arrived.

Not a luxury car this time, but a van.

"Mr. Natus? Your package is here. Can you leave your ID here, please?"

The delivery man held a tablet in front of him, with a large box behind him.

Lobert briefly wiped his wrist across the tablet and his ID was registered.

Every citizen has a chip implanted in their wrist when they are born; with a Unique ID and tax number; for use cases like this, it was quite useful.

"Thank you very much and have a nice day." The delivery man disappeared again, leaving the box behind.

"Is that the android from Kirinumi you wanted so badly?" Reiko asked half-sarcastically; the mood no longer so somber.

"Seems like it. You want to open it up?" Lobert offered.

"Will do."

Reiko opened the box and removed the protective padding.

A female android, about Reiko's height, slept inside.

She wore a black maid's uniform and looked indistinguishable from a real human.

Her face was adorned with red hair in a ponytail where the hair was open in the front.

Her eyes opened and she came to life. She had emerald green eyes.

She briefly looked around until her gaze finally rested on Lobert.

"Lobert Natus, I am your new android. Would you like to give me a name?"

"Hmm..." Lobert thought aloud.

"Ryzeline?" Lobert suggested.

"Are you crazy? With a name like that, she'll still cry herself to sleep at night!" Reiko objected.

"Do you have a better idea? I have no idea what to call her. So how should I name her?"

"Not Ryzeline, anyway."

"Thank you for your help." Lobert said wryly.

But then Lobert had an idea.

"What's your mother's name?" he asked Reiko.

"Jenny."

"And your grandmas?"

"Shoko and Eleanor."

Lobert wrote the names on a tablet, along with a fourth name: Kotono, the name of a character from one of Lobert's favorite anime.

He turned the tablet around and presented it to the android.

"Tap on the name that speaks to you the most."

The android hesitated for a short while, but then tapped Kotono.

"So it shall be. You are Kotono now." Lobert said with satisfaction.

He briefly looked over at Reiko and she gave an approving nod.

"Lobert Natus, what do you prefer to be called by me?" the android Kotono asked.

"Lobert will do just fine."

Kotono immediately asked the next question.

"What is my purpose?"

Again, Lobert was a bit stumped; he had intended to let the android take care of his mother, but his mother was not here anymore.

"Just keep the place reasonably clean and do the laundry, the rest of the time you get to do whatever you want."

"Understood."

She promptly looked around the apartment and then came back with cleaning equipment; she didn't waste time doing the chores.

"So much for wanting an android for research purposes. That looks so much like research to me." Reiko remarked sarcastically.

Reiko didn't expect an answer, but Lobert justified himself anyway, "Let's just let her live with us for a while and see how things develop."

Lobert watched Kotono clean for a while, but he quickly got bored of that.

He could have just mindlessly browsed the internet or played a game, but he decided to use his time more meaningfully.

"You know what Reiko, let's go track down that Happy." Lobert announced.

Drugs weren't exactly Lobert's specialty, but he knew someone who had a bit of a clue in that area.

Lobert pulled out his phone and called Marc.

"Hey Marc, how are you doing?"

"Same as yesterday, I can't complain."

"Listen, for certain reasons I need to get some drugs, can you tell me where I can get some?"

"I hope they're not for you. But Dealers are a dime a dozen, especially in the outer districts, but there are still quite a few in the inner and even the central ones; it's more expensive there, though. Just find a dark corner where someone seems to be waiting and ask them for something."

"Thanks man, I appreciate your help."

"Don't mention it; you always help me out too."

Lobert hung up, now he had his first clue. He already felt a bit like a detective.

"Can you get us on the ground of the inner south district?" he asked Reiko.