Just as I was beginning to process the raw, uncomfortable silence of my room, Pako's voice drifted in through the open window, startling me. She was hovering just outside, her Perman mask still obscuring her face, but her eyes held a strange, knowing glint.
"If you ever want another kiss, Mitsuo," she called out, her voice surprisingly light, almost teasing, "you just have to tell me!"
A wave of pure revulsion washed over me. "Never!" I blurted out, my voice thick with genuine disgust. "I never want that nightmare of a kiss again!" The words were out before I could stop them, a raw, unthinking response to the lingering violation I felt.
Pako giggled, a sound that grated on my nerves. It was a clear, confident giggle, not a hurt one. "Oh, you say that now, Mitsuo. But very soon, you'll feel incredibly lucky to have had that kiss. And you'll try very, very hard to get another one from me." Her voice held an almost unbearable self-assurance, a prediction that filled me with dread.
I didn't say anything. My jaw clenched shut. Arguing with her was pointless. If I said anything she didn't like, she'd probably just fly back in through the window and try to kiss me again. The thought alone made my stomach churn.
With a final, confident nod, Pako turned and soared away, a red and white blur against the deepening twilight. I watched her go, a strange mix of relief and lingering revulsion swirling inside me.
I flopped back onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. What just happened? My mind replayed the events, the unexpected hand-holding, the intimate confession, and then, the kiss. The unwanted, jarring kiss. It felt like a bizarre dream, a nightmare I couldn't quite shake off. After a long while, the sheer mental exhaustion of the day, coupled with the emotional whiplash, finally pulled me into a fitful sleep.
A rough jostle woke me. I blinked, disoriented, the fading light replaced by the dim glow of my room's nightlight. The Copy Robot stood over me, his Perman suit covered in what looked like mud and grime.
"About time you woke up, sleepyhead," he said, his voice surprisingly chipper. "You've been out for three hours."
Three hours? So Pako had been gone for a while. I slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "What happened to you?" I asked, a frown creasing my brow as I took in his filthy appearance. "Why are you so... dirty?"
He sidestepped the question effortlessly, his eyes, still so much like mine, studying my face with a strange intensity. "Never mind that for a moment. Why are you so... quiet, Mitsuo?"
I hesitated, then decided to just get it over with. It was easier than trying to explain. I focused, letting the memories of Pako's arrival, her comforting presence, her leading questions, and finally, the utterly unwelcome kiss, flow from my mind to his. Every awkward touch, every unwanted sensation, every moment of my internal panic.
He received the memories, his expression remaining utterly neutral, a perfect blank slate. After a long beat of silence, he finally spoke. "You know, you could have just told me about it, Mitsuo. Sharing memories is less efficient than verbal communication for such straightforward narratives."
I just stared at him, my mouth agape. I was reeling from the vivid replay of Pako's kiss, and he was talking about efficiency? But then, my own memories began to merge with the ones he'd shared with me from his absence. And what I saw completely dwarfed the Pako incident.
In the three hours I'd been with Pako, and then asleep, the Copy Robot hadn't been wasting time. Not even for a second.
He had flown out of my window, not towards the dense, sprawling forest on the outskirts of town. Once there, with the full, unbridled power of Perman, he had begun to dig. Not just surface digging, but deep, meticulous excavation. He carved out a cavern beneath the roots of ancient trees. He was like a mole on steroids, shaping the earth with his just shovels and the raw force of a superhero.
He had created an entire room. A secret hideout. It was rough-hewn, still smelling of damp earth and fresh rock, but it was unmistakably a room, complete with a flattened floor. It was a completely self-sufficient space, hidden from the world, a deep, silent sanctuary beneath the forest floor.
The scale of his hidden activity, the sheer dedication and power he'd put into this secret project, left me breathless. While I'd been dealing with a clingy girl and a shocking kiss, he'd been building a secret lair. My own problems suddenly seemed incredibly small, almost insignificant. The dirt on his suit wasn't from a trivial school day; it was from creating a fortress.
"You... you built a hideout?" I finally managed to stammer, the words barely escaping my lips. The implications of this secret base, this silent testament to his incredible power and planning, were staggering.