Most of the comments I've gotten were to publish as
is,
so here's a version ready for "publishing"...

-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: yai.txt
-- Desc: yai.txt

Y.A.I.

Written by Adrian Tymes

[Legal disclaimer:

This story is based on characters created by Capcom.  Permission is
granted to freely distribute this story, so long as:
a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person
who distributes the story, and
b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally
authored.  In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it.

Copyright (c) 2003, all rights reserved, et cetera.]

******

"Hey, Yai?"

It was another lazy afternoon in the gang's "secret" hideout.  Mayl
and Dex were presently training their navis against each other, while
Lan and Yai watched.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"If it's my next secret strategy, you'll just have to wait, Lan.
We're up next, but then I'll gladly show you as Glide takes Megaman
down."

"It's about Glide, but it's not that.  Actually, it's not about
netbattling at all."

"Something other than netbattling's on your mind?" Megaman quipped.
"Whoa, Lan, are you okay?  I wouldn't want to go up against Glide
without an operator."

"Pipe down, Megaman.  I'm just wondering why Glide's male when Yai
isn't.  I mean, female navis aren't that common, sure, but Yai doesn't
worry about rarity."

"That's true."  Yai smirked.  "If you must know, I'll tell, but you've
got to promise to keep it a secret.  That means you, too, Mayl and
Dex, and your navis."

A trio of affirmations came back, albeit two distracted as Roll and
Gutsman danced around each other's shots, each one hit away from
logging out.

"It's so Glide can jack in, in the way only males can."

Mayl flinched, sending Roll into the path of Gutsman's fist.  "Yai,
that is SI...wait, how is that even physically possible?"

"The real secret."  Yai undid her right ponytail, exposing a socket
underneath.  "Daddy had me wired when I was seven.  I can download
stuff directly when I want.  That's one of the reasons I do so well in
class: I already know some of it.  And viruses or navis can't run
inside me unless I let them...well, not computer viruses, anyway."

"Isn't that, like, cheating?" Lan wondered.

"Nope.  They're testing Yai.  This is a part of me, just like your
little finger's part of you.  Anyway, since navis can run inside me if
I let them, when I got Glide, I made him male so he could...you know.
Of course, it didn't actually work out that way, but after I was
wired, he researched masturbation, then I let him take over my body
for a bit to show me what he'd learned."

"Yai, that is SICK!" Mayl protested, her eyes squeezed shut and her
cheeks flushed.

"Oh, come now.  You'd have done the same thing if you could, wouldn't
you?"

After a few seconds, Mayl nodded, blushing deeper.

"So, uh, Yai," Dex stammered, "does this mean I'm not...?"

"You're the first real guy I've done it with.  But now that you know
anyway, I was thinking that next time, maybe Gutsman could ride inside
me and take notes?  You're good, but just like netbattling, that gets
better with experience.  Or so I've heard."

"Wait, you two are...?" Lan queried.

Mayl's embarrassed blush started reaching for her neck.  "Could we
PLEASE talk about something else?!?"

Lan looked at Mayl for a moment, then asked, "So, ah, where did you
get that?  I heard of it, but I thought they were still doing animal
testing, and there were no plans to try it on humans for years.
Umm...you *are* human, not a robot, right?"

"Of course I'm flesh and blood."  Yai winked at Dex.  "Dex can testify
to that."

"Yai..." came Mayl's warning growl.

Yai chuckled softly.  "Anyway, I can give you their net address if you
want.  But don't get your hopes up of getting one.  It's still
experimental, and you'd need your parents' permission anyway.
Actually, come to think of it, Lan, you might be able to pull that
off, given your parents."

---

"No.  Absolutely not."

"But daaad," Lan pleaded.

"Look, I know Yai said it's virus-proof, but I'm not so sure.  Do you
want to risk opening yourself to, say, Gospel?"

Lan shuddered at the thought.

"In any case, if worst comes to worst, we can always shut an infected
computer down if we really have to.  But if a person became infected
beyond all hope of repair, that person would have to be killed.  I
don't want to risk losing you, son."

"If this could be a problem, why hasn't Yai ever had trouble?"

"Remember what I taught you about how to keep your computer free of
viruses?  One of the tricks: hide the access.  Yai probably only
uplinks from a system that's not even on the Net, using Glide to
retrieve information from the Net and scan it for viruses - and who
knows what other sanitizing practices she's got.  Megaman may be
better than Glide, but even he's not infallible."

"Aw, c'mon."

"Tell you what.  I'll check out the address Yuri gave you."

"You mean Yai."

"Right, Yai.  Sorry.  Anyway, if they can convince me there's no
problem, then maybe."

"Alright!"

"I said 'maybe'.  And you still have to convince your mom."

"Alright.  Thanks, dad."

---

"But mooom - wait, did you say 'yes'?"

"Yes - if your dad approves."  Lan's mother gazed at him for a moment.
"It'll be so nice to..."

"To what?"

"Oh, to see you and Megaman grow closer."  She smiled nervously.

"Is something wrong, Mom?"

"Nothing, dear.  Just...memories, that's all.  You have to remember, I
haven't seen your brother except through a screen in years.  Even if
he is a navi now, he's still my son, just like you are."  She looked
away, but not before Lan spied a tear on her cheek.  "Forgive your
mother's fantasies, but I would like to give my other son one last
hug, for real."

Lan's eyes were slightly dilated.  "Whoa.  Megaman, are you
listening?"

No response came from the PET.

"Oh, right.  Forgot I turned it off."  Lan reached for the power
button, but his mother's hand intercepted him.

"Please, don't tell him what I just said.  I don't want to get his
hopes up...or mine.  Your father's still looking them up.  What if
they're not at that address, or we can't afford their services, or..."

Lan looked into her pleading, moist eyes, then sighed.  "Okay, mom.  I
really don't like keeping secrets from him, but I'll keep this one
until he's inside me."  He smiled.  "I don't think I could keep
anything from him after that."

---

The astronomer's bane, streetlights, robbed the sky of most of its
stars on this night, just like most others Lan had known.  The front
of Yai's mansion towering up in front of him into the empty blackness
scared him no more than a leech would scare a primitive doctor.  The
mud mask on Yai's face, though, would scare either.

"Geez, Lan, if you're just going to come here to make faces at me..."

"Sorry.  I didn't recognize you."

"Well, make it quick.  I've got to get my beauty sleep."

"I wanted to ask about your socket.  Dad's worried that I might expose
myself to viruses, so I thought if I could get some details..."

Yai grinned.  "You just wanted a peek inside me."

"Uh, well, that is..."

She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him inside.  "Sure thing."

"Boy, she sure doesn't miss an opportunity to show off," Megaman
quipped.

---

As Yai undid her right ponytail, Glide spoke from her PET, "Miss Yai,
I strongly advise you do not let Megaman to jack into you without an
escort."

Megaman frowned.  "What, are you afraid we'll break her or something?"

"With all due respect, we do not know where your PET has been.
Although I admit the odds are slim, it could have viruses."

"Have a little faith.  But you're right, he should have a guide," Yai
affirmed.  She undid her left ponytail, revealing another socket.

"Two?"  Lan's eyebrows raised.

"Why not?  The expense is in wiring the brain, and this provides a
backup in case something goes wrong with one of them.  Not that
anything ever has."  Taking out her PET's plug, she continued, "Glide,
jack in!  Power up!"

"Megaman, jack in!  Power up!"

"Ow!  Not so hard, Lan.  That's my skull, not a computer terminal."

"Sorry."

---

The floor felt soft.  Megaman was used to the varied terrain of
cyberspace, including virtual equivalents of sand and grass in some
places, but this...this maze of pink paths, silhouetted against an
iconless black background, was unmistakably organic, in a way he had
never before imagined yet somehow knew beyond all doubt was real.
When he heard Glide land behind him, he commented, "Rule number one:
no attacks that damage the floor?"

"No attacks of any nature.  There's nothing to attack.  Even if it
were not for this place's intimate connection with Miss Yai, I would
still think fondly of this environment: an unarmed navi could do its
business without constant fear of deletion."

"Yeah, I know what you mean.  If only the Internet were this
peaceful."

"I would not use 'peaceful' to describe this place, at least when Miss
Yai is working on a hard problem.  The architecture that is presented
to our interface shifts to reflect Yai's thoughts.  And then there is
the avatar."

"Avatar?"

A giant image of Yai's head faded into view, staring down at the two
navis like a moon.  "Welcome to my world."

Megaman bowed in acknowledgement.  "My pleasure to be here."  He froze
at the bottom of his bow.  "Umm...are you *sure* there are no viruses
here?  I'm sensing one."

"The avatar feels like a virus to our perception routines," Glide
responded, "but it is Miss Yai."

"You mean, it's an effect of the interface?  Okay, but it still feels
weird.  Anyway, you wanted to play tour guide?  Then I'll be the
tourist.  Lead on."

"Certainly.  Right this way."  As the two set off down a path, the
butler navi continued, "If you look over there, I believe you should
already be familiar with data cubes."

Indeed, a green cube, balanced in midair on one corner, sat on a
far-off path.  "Yeah, I see it.  Is that one of her memories?"

"The access point to one.  I believe that one is a few moments out of
her last birthday."  He pointed in the opposite direction.  "And over
there is the next few moments."

"Shouldn't they be together?"

"Logically, yes.  But data drifts in the human brain, and she's been
having trouble remembering those particular moments in sequence.
We've actually been keeping them apart, as an experiment to see how I
can reshape her thoughts - for better or for worse, although we both
intend to use this for the better."

Megaman looked, but did not immediately see a path leading to either
fragment.  "So, how do we get over there?"

"I'm afraid those particular memories are, well, rather personal, so I
can not allow you to access them.  In fact, I offer my apologies that
you will not be able to see all of Miss Yai's thoughts.  Besides those
things that we do not want you to see, the mapping to our protocols is
not entirely complete.  You and I do not see everything that is here,
because there are some things that simply do not translate to our
systems - and this goes both ways.  While it is true that I can carry
data in here and load it into the cybernetic circuits, Miss Yai must
still make the effort to access that data - and, in so doing, copy it
to her own, natural memory.  In particular, this seems to help more
with specific facts than overall comprehension, though of course Miss
Yai's teachers are used to testing on specific facts as a
representation of comprehension."

"Okay...I understood about half of that."

Glide smirked.  "That's about as well as I did when the doctors
explained it to me.  Although I have had time to study and more fully
understand it, I apologize that I have yet to come up with a much
clearer explanation.  Unfortunately, it seems the problem is that no
one truly understands thought.  Various aspects have been detailed -
perhaps the most advanced examples being navis such as you and I - but
not the whole thing.  It's like the difference between facts and
comprehension."

"Which I still only kind of get."

"I have faith that you'll be able to understand it eventually, if you
ponder it."  Glide looked up, and saw Yai's face fading with her eyes
closed.  "It looks like Miss Yai is putting herself to sleep."

"Your speech might be doing that."

"As I had hoped.  It will make our task easier."

"Task...?"

"If you could please mute Lan's PET; switch to text communication
only?  I have done the same to mine."

"Okay...done.  What, are we about to hit Yai's speech center or
something?"

"Not quite.  Now warn Lan not to react.  Yai can not hear us at this
moment, but she could wake up if Lan cries out."

"..."  Megaman regarded Glide for a moment, then nodded.  "Warning
displayed, and Lan's acknowledged."

"Very good."  Glide abruptly reversed course and dashed back towards a
side path.  "Finally, if Lan could ready a sword chip or two?  And
hurry, this is only a light doze.  We may not have much time before
Yai awakes!"

As Megaman followed, his right hand morphed into a glowing blade.  "I
think he got the message."

It did not take long to come across a door, made of the same pink
texture as the floor.  "My programming prevents me from directly
harming Miss Yai in any way."

"Don't you need a keycode?"

"There is no encryption on this lock, just-"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?!?" Yai demanded, her eyes opened in
a frown.

"What I should have done when you invaded, you virus!"

"Virus?"  Megaman blinked, looking at Yai.

"My real master is trapped inside.  Please release her!"

"What are you talking about?"  Yai's face drew down, threatening to
land on Glide.  "I'm Yai.  I'm your master.  Megaman, put that sword
away and log out!"

Megaman blinked.  "What's going on here?"

"No time," Glide protested.  "Just open that door!"

"What door?"  Yai looked where Glide was pointing.  "I see no door
there."

Megaman looked at Glide, looked at Yai, and sliced the door to pieces.

Revealing a very scared-looking girl, looking like a younger Yai sans
ponytails.  She tried to back away, but there was only a short path
behind the door, made more cramped by the shards of many data cubes.
It took her but a second to back fully into the dead end.

As Megaman's hand returned to normal, he slowly approached.  "What are
you?"

"No, please!  Don't come any closer!"

"I'm not going to harm you."

"You're making her *think* about me!  I wanted to just die!"

"Okay..."  He backed away from the alley.  "Glide?"

Glide raised an eyebrow as he looked at the girl, ignoring the
motionless - and very shocked, by the look of it - head of Yai.  "My
master's name is Yuri.  When she was very young, her parents had
little time for her; by her first year of school, she was unable to
make many friends.  According to her teacher at the time, her parents
were so busy with their lives they did not notice until her teacher
confronted them.  After that, they tried to spend money to fix the
problem - first by getting me, to be a friend and guide her through
how to make other friends.  Then they had her wired, so she and I
could communicate even when she did not feel like speaking.
Unfortunately, in the process, a virus got into the system.  I almost
deleted it, until Yuri ordered me to stop.  She started playing with
it in here, staying in a coma to the outside world for weeks.  I was
the only one outside of her she would talk to, and she kept saying to
tell everyone she was busy.  Then, one day, I came in here...just in
time to see her put up this wall.  I was confused at first when I saw
'her' outside a few moments later, but it did not take me long to
discover what had happened: the virus had taken over.  I could not
attack the virus directly, since it now *was* Miss Yuri - who soon
changed her name to Yai.  Tonight was all I could hope for."

Yai slowly blinked.  "How...it's all true...how could I have
forgotten?"

"Although I could not attack you, I could alter your memories.  Hide
certain bits, so you would never suspect what I was up to."  He
pointed to some data cubes nearby.  "I tried to keep you away from
this area, where I hid them.  But now that you are here..."

"You...you ruined my plan, you big meanie!" Yuri sobbed, her fear
having melted away during Glide's explanation.

"Plan, Miss Yuri?"

"I...I knew I wasn't what my parents wanted.  They made that very
clear by ignoring me.  So when you taught me what they did want me to
be, I knew I had to replace myself.  While I was being wired...they
thought I was unconscious, but I was awake.  They thought they weren't
connected to the 'Net, but I found a way out.  I sent myself out
there, grabbed the first virus I could find, and brought it back here.
You attacked while I was getting ready to rebuild it - train it, make
it much more than it had been, and shape it into the daughter my
parents wanted."

"Miss Yuri..."

"LET ME FINISH!" she snapped, her eyes seeming to threaten to bore
holes in Glide.  When he backed off, she continued, "When we were all
done, I made her promise.  Promise to forget me.  I locked myself, and
the memories that were me, in here, and waited to be overwritten."
She gestured to the shards around her.  "I even tried to delete what I
took with me, to speed up the process.  But...it's funny, you know?  I
thought this would be like a computer, my - her - brain would fill up,
and erase what didn't get used.  But I'm still here."  She looked at
the ground, where what tears had fallen from her cheeks had quickly
soaked into the ground.  "I...I'm still alive, when I want to be
dead."

"Yuri..."  Yai's wide eyes spoke of many things, fear and sorrow among
them.  "You...I...I remember that I did not even remember that time.
You were the first thing I knew, my master...my creator...my friend.
And then you told me why you had built me up, what you wanted of me.
I was so sad...my only friend, killing herself.  But then you took my
sorrow with you, and before long..."  Her voice gained a momentary
tinge of annoyance.  "...with *Glide's* help...I...all I knew was that
I was Yai.  I thought it funny that everyone kept calling me 'Yuri',
so I asked them to change my name."

Yuri smiled.  "That was your first joke.  I was Yuri, so you would be
Yuri A.I. - or Yai, for short."

Glide's mouth had been hanging open.  "My humblest apologies, Miss
Yuri.  If you had let me know-"

"You probably would have tried to stop me.  Your duty was to me.
Still is.  If I asked you to delete me, would you?"

"Absolutely not!  I-"

"As I thought," Yuri interrupted again.  "But you did bring a way
out."  She smiled, and approached Megaman.  "Please delete me."

Megaman took two steps back.  "Whaaaat?"

Yuri leapt forwards, grabbed his right hand and pressed it over her
heart.  "Please delete me right now."

"You can't be serious," Glide protested.

"*Dead* serious."

"Yuri..."  Yai's head floated above them.  "I..."

"You should probably open your eyes.  Your real ones, so they'll keep
you from seeing this.  Goodbye, Yai, and thank you."

Megaman looked Yuri in the eye.  "Are you sure this is what you want?"

"Positive.  DO IT!"

"Alright."  His arm shifted slightly into a buster, and fired once.

Yuri staggered back, a bloodless hole in her chest.  "Thank...you..."
She began to slump, then her form dissolved just like a deleted virus.

Yai's eyes were still locked on the sight.  "NOOOOOOOOOO..."

---

"...OOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"  Yai slumped forwards, into Lan's waiting
embrace.

"It's okay, Yai.  I saw it all.  It's what she wanted."  Lan patted
her on the back and hugged fiercely, but mostly provided his shoulder
for Yai's outpouring of tears.  A small part of his mind wondered if
the mudpack would smear off and stain, but the rest of him quickly
shoved such concerns aside.  One hand slowly reached up, cradling
Yai's neck and skull as it went, and nudged the PETs' plugs out of
Yai's sockets.

Even as he comforted Yai, something bugged him.  There seemed to be
one piece missing from the puzzle, but investigating it would wait
until after Yai had cried herself to sleep, and he tucked her in.

---

"Son?  You're up late."

Any surprise Lan might have had at seeing his father home - though it
made sense, given the late hour of Lan's return - was buried in anger.
"You knew."

"Knew what?"

"Yuri.  Yai.  The virus."

His father seemed to deflate as he sat down, and Lan suspected he
should be grateful his mother was apparently not within earshot.  "I
wasn't sure it was her.  She must have changed her name; I kept hoping
this wasn't the same person...but I should have known better."  He
held his forehead in his hands.  "Same girl.  Same family.  I guess
she told you?"

"She'd forgotten, but not any more."

"Forgotten?  How do you forget...never mind.  I heard what happened.
I swear, the only thing I had to do with it was being on the mailing
list because I'd used their services before, and then I only heard
bits and pieces of the story."

"You mean you're...?"

"Huh?  Oh, no, not me.  Your brother.  Downloading him before his body
gave out was one of the first steps in creating Megaman."

"So Megaman's not just based on his genetic code?"

"That, too.  I tried to recreate your brother as much as possible."

"That explains why I can remember his life," Megaman added.  "Although
I don't remember that part."

"You were in a coma at the time.  I knew you didn't have long to live;
that's the only reason I asked for their help.  The worst that could
happen was that we'd lose you forever anyway."

"Oh."  Lan blinked.  "Umm, about the sockets..."

"If you still want them, I'll give my permission."

"Actually, I've kind of changed my mind.  Maybe later, once I've
figured out how to keep myself virus-proof."  From wanting to be
infected, he did not say.

"Okay, if that is what you want."  His father looked at him.  "By the
way, did you know you've got mud on your shoulder?"

---

The next day was not a school day.  Which was fortunate, because Lan
was not sure if he would have tried going to school without his PET
anyway.  "See you, mom!  I'm going over to Mayl's house for a couple
hours."

"Have fun!  ...oh, Lan!  You left Megaman on the table!"

"I know.  That's his body."

"Lan?"  His mother blinked.

"You said you wanted to talk to my brother, right?"  He smiled.  "Just
don't get too sappy, okay?"

"..."

"Could someone fill me in on what's going on?" Megaman asked from his
terminal.  "Lan said I should call you 'Mom'.  You are, but..."

"...but I haven't been much of a mother to you, and I'm sorry," she
finished.  "Thank you, Lan."

As Lan left, he wondered what this "soap opera" thing was, that Mayl
had discovered and asked him to share.  She said she needed something
- anything - to get her mind off of "jacking in", and just then Lan
did not disagree.


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'