Mizuno Productions Presents

A To Heart Story

Little Sister

****

The afternoon was starting to wane, red hues highlighting the skyline. 
Multi had a front row seat for this spectacle of light, as she watched
from outside the mostly empty school grounds. She stopped sweeping for a
few seconds enjoying the show the sun was putting on as it went to sleep
for the night. 

It had been a month since she had come to this school as part of her two
week field test for her company's Robotic maid program. She was sent to 
the local school to interact with the human students there and to 
preform the housekeeping duties that needed to be done for her her first
year class, though she enjoyed cleaning the entire school herself.
It was the perfect place to test out a robot who would interact
with humans after all, given the variety of personalties she would
come into contact with. Some of the people Multi had met were nothing like
those in the lab.

Multi started to sweep again, leaving the sun to finish off its 
performance without an audience. She needed to finish sweeping
and make it to the bus stop so she make it back to the lab in time.
Cleaning up the school grounds was still taking Multi a while, despite all
the practice and help she had been getting. In fact, it was taking longer
than usual since she was trying to do the whole job by herself today. She 
wanted to do the whole thing today. 'No,' she added, shaking her head,
'I need to do the whole thing myself'. Cleaning was what defined her
existence as a Robot maid, she thought, it had too . . . 

 "URYAAH!" Multi cried as she sprinted along, remembering her first
day at the school when Hiroyuki showed her the right method for mopping
the floors quickly. She was only supposed to be at the school
for a two week test period and after that her data would be compared
with the other test model sent out in the public. Whoever had the 
best performance would be chosen as the basis for the mass production
model while the other's data would be used to tweak the performance
of the maids. And then the data from the test would be cleared and 
the test models would be used for other purposes afterwards.

It was a process which frightened Multi a bit at the time, no matter
what she showed on the outside. She enjoyed her time at the school
and the people she met while being there, and Multi did not want to 
forget those special times she had experienced. But she couldn't
put a stop time and the two weeks flew past her like it was almost
two seconds. Her two weeks at school with Akari-san and Hiroyuki-san
and the others, over like that. 

Or at least that was the way it was supposed to be. Instead, after
the people at the lab download the data from her, they had said that they
were going her to the school as a gift for taking part in the test.
She would be able to keep the data, no her memories, from her time
spent at the school. All they had wanted in return was the occasional bit
of data from her so they  could improve the performance of the
later models which were about to be put in production. 

Multi was overjoyed when she heard that she could stay at the school
and be with her friends. The times she had spent with Hiroyuki-san
and Akari-san were special to her, and she was glad that she would
have a chance to add more special times to her memories. 

"Multi," she heard shouted from behind her, causing her to wonder
who would still be around at the school at this hour. She turned
around to see the smiling faces of Hiroyuki-san and Akari-san
standing behind her, both of them carrying brooms. 

"Hiroyuki-san, Akari-san, you waited for me!"

"Well," Akari said, "I had to stay behind to help with the club
meeting so we'd figure we'd wait for you and walk home with you."

"The can you wait a few minutes please," Multi replied in a cheerful
voice, "I just need to finish sweeping  here."

Hiroyuki didn't wait for Multi to finish her reply though, instead he took
his boom and started to swep the ground. Akari looked at him with a smile
before she turnedto Multi. "I'll help you too, after all I just finished
cleaning the class room so I'm still in the cleaning mood!"

"Thank you very much!" Multi exclaimed, smiling brightly at her two
friends as they joined her in sweeping the outside. 

****

The three friends were walking down the street, the night lights
starting to come out as the night sky began to fill the air.
They had decided to take the long way to the bus stop, pausing to show 
some new sights to Multi as they went along. She paused as they 
passed by one building, which was the local middle school for the 
district. 

"That's one of the schools where they're testing the new prototypes
out," Multi explained as she pointed at the building.

"Oh," Hiroyuki said as he looked at the building, "They're
still testing new models out."

Multi shook her head in the affirmative before replying, "Kurusagawa
Electronics  needs to make sure the new model performs well in the field
and it  also wants test them in new surrounding as well. That's why
they're doing one more large scale test before the start selling the model
to the public."

"Wow," Hiroyuki exclaimed as he looked at the school, "I wonder if 
she's still in there cleaning."

"She probably is. It looks like a big school after all," Akari added
in from the side. 

The three stood and watched the school for a second before they 
turned away and started walking again. They stopped though when a 
loud cry broke through the air, it was a loud cry of . . . 

"URYAHHH!"

Multi looked up at the window as tears started to form in her eyes.
"Are you all right Multi?" Hiroyuki asked in a concerned tone as he 
looked down at the robot maid.

"I'm fine Hiroyuki," Multi replies, "I'm proud of the model in there.
After all, who wouldn't be proud of their little sister?"

A look of confusion appeared on Hiroyuki's face before it turned
into a bright smile, "I guess you're right, after all you have a lot
to be proud of Multi. And I'm sure she's proud of her big sister
too."

"Hiroyuki-san!" Multi exclaimed as she started to blush in front of 
her friend. 

"Oh no!" Akari cried as she looked at the watch, "We're gonna miss
the bus!" The three friends started to run the bus stop as Multi
paused to look back at the school with pride.

Hiroyuki was right, Multi thought, she was an older sister and that
meant the whole world to her.

****
 
Many thanks to Ammadeau, Donny Cheng, and Ronny for putting up with the
mess this fic first was and helping to correct any grammar problems. Any
that remain are purely my fault and thus I should be kicked accordingly.
^^

Thanks to Mike Koos and Ammadeau for turning my desktop into a Multi
one (She's just so Kawaii...:)

To Heart, Hiroyuki, Akari, and Multi are all proprteries of Leaf.
copywrite 2000. 

Of, and if anyone has the full version of Queen of Hearts 99 or 98, I
would love to find out how to get it. That game is the best fighting game
period....:P
   
MULTI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R