Chapter 1

A Chapter by Brittany

I stood in front of the store window, staring. She was the best and cutest thing I had ever laid my eyes on. She stood about five and a half feet tall. Her long brown hair draped over her shoulders and went down to just above her shorts. The pink shirt she wore draped over her bust and showed a bit of skin, just above her pant line. This was the best model I think they've produced. If it wasn't for the barcode on her wrist I might not have known.

About two years ago, a company called Nekai started. At first, they just created little robots for kids. They weren't anything special, your typical boxy robot that stood about a foot high. After about a year though, they began to produce things of a much higher quality. The robots grew to the size of a full grown adult and began to look like a normal human. Of course, it wasn't perfect, could still tell it was a robot. It didn't have hair, skin, or even facial feature. But, it had hands, feet, and could walk just like us. Gradually the robots became how they are today. However, the company still wasn't very large, despite being the only creator of androids and how widely accepted they were. The company claimed that they didn't want the androids to be widely used because it would hurt the economy, which was true. If androids took our jobs, we'd be out of luck.

But anyway, back to the shop in front of me. It was 3 stories high and fairly large. A very modern looking building. Smooth, off-white walls on the outside with several long, rectangular windows which allowed you to look at some of the merchandise. However, the second and third levels each had their windows blacked out.

I walked through the simple glass doors and into the shop. As soon as I stepped foot on the tile that was within, I was surrounded by Nekai electronics. There was everything from androids to microwaves. Each thing with the same calligraphic 'N' surrounded by a red circle, the symbol of the advanced Nekai company.

As I wondered the store I glanced back to the window where the android was. It had moved. Now it was walking around and cleaning up other parts of the shop. Most likely it was an android the shop had for personal use, and to show off one of their highest quality products, that would most likely cost not only an arm and a leg, but a kidney too.

As I made my way to the back of the shop, where the register was, I could feel the androids eyes on me. It felt no different than if a fellow human had stared at me.

When I got to the register the familiar face of my Uncle greeted me. "Hey there, Kent!" He said, his loud, deep voice filling the room.

He wasn't my biological uncle, we weren't related at all. But, he was the closest thing I had to family in this place. He's the one that has been helping me out since I've gotten here. If I needed anything, he was the person to go to, especially if it had to do with technology, he did work for Nekai after all.

I smiled. "Hey." My voice was much softer than my uncles, but he could hear me. I leaned over and put my elbows on the counter. "Is my package here?" I questioned, getting excited.

He typed some things up on computer in front of him. A moment later, he nodded. "Yep, it's here alright, let me go upstairs and get it for ya."

He began to walk over to the door to my right when it swung open and out popped a girl who was two years my junior at 17, Lux. Her raven hair was pushed back with a grey hairband which accentuated her grey eyes, she was still in her school uniform. "I've got it for ya, Kenny." She said rushing over to me with a white cardboard box.

I took the box from her and placed it on the counter, patting her on the head. She was average height for her age but she was still about a head shorter than me, making her an easy target for harassment.

"Thanks Lux! Maybe I'll buy you some milk as a reward." Both me and my uncle laughed at this. Lux only got mad and stuck her tongue out at me. Despite being 17 she acted much younger, it was cute though.

"Ah, so how much do I owe?" I asked, pulling out my wallet.

He scanned the box."That'll be eight hundred dollars." he stated, placing the box back on the counter.

I pulled the money out of my wallet and handed it to him. He then handed me my receipt. As I was putting it in my pocket the android came over to us.

"Kent, this is Nikki." He began, pointing to the beautiful robot in front of me. "She's the latest model of S-rank androids from Nekai." She then gave a slight bow and smiled towards me, which was rare for an android to do. I nodded my head and smiled back.

"It's 6:30 Kent! Don't you have to be to work soon?" Lux suddenly shouted

"No, I'm working on some tech stuff at home so I took this week off." I smiled.

"Gotta work hard! You have to be good to be part of the technology group at Nekai!" Uncle yelled.

"So far I'm doing good, working on some programs right now." I stated, patting the white box in front of me. "Well I should be going now, lots of work to do even if I'm not working."

I waved goodbye as I walked up the aisles and through the doors again. I hopped on my bike, putting my white box in the basket in the front, and pedaled down the road.

My apartment complex wasn't very far, and I reached it quickly. Once there I chained my bike up and grabbed my box. I unlocked the first door and went straight for the elevator, riding all the way up to the 23 floor. I walked down the hall to my apartment, number 233.

I pushed back the heavy wood door and took my shoes off taking in the sight of my messy abode. The first place I went was my bedroom, which was towards the back, passing through the large living room. It was my second favorite room in the house, and very minimalistic. All that was in the room was a queen sized bed, with black and blue sheets and pillows covering it, and some drawers filled with with clothes I was too lazy to hang up, pajamas, socks, and underwear. I opened one of them and pulled out a pair of black basketball shorts and a red t-shirt. Once I was changed I walked over to my bathroom, and washed my face. From there I went back to my favorite room, the living room.

Since I didn't have another room and the living room was the largest, it was also used as my computer room. Both titles fit the room though, I lived in this room, and it was filled with computers and other electronics. Against the wall was a giant black desk, topped with 3 computer monitors, all of which were currently off. But, underneath the desk, was my baby. I had just built her several months ago, the tower of my dreams. It had the best everything. I had spent a year saving up to buy all the parts I needed to buy it. However, last week Nekai put up a new graphics card for sale. In spite of having a new graphics card, I bought this one, and it was what was laying in that white sitting on the ground.

I pulled the tower out from underneath my desk and began the process of swapping graphics cards. Once complete, I put it back underneath the desk and took a seat on my comfortable black, mesh computer chair. Full of anticipation, I hit the power button and watched the grey Nekai logo appear. It spun on the screen for a second or two before going off with a small flash, taking me to my lock screen. I quickly typed in my password.

Soon enough all of the drivers were installed and the graphics on my computer were top notch. The HD wallpapers, the eroge games from Japan, everything looked better.

After several hours of toying with how my computers looked and making a single wallpaper go across all six of my monitors, I decided to get down to business. Those programs weren't going to write themselves.