The Ghost

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

This story is derived from a theme that I introduced in my fan fiction story, [I]"Prequel" [/I]

The Ghost

The library staff announced that it was closing time and the remaining children were urged to put away their books and videos. It was now late in the afternoon preceding New Year's eve, the facility's special anime and manga event for the day was now drawing to a close.

Uran walked through the library's front door and stepped outside. Cobalt followed her, and the two of them quickly picked up their pace heading back home. The weather had turned cooler during the few hours they had whiled away inside of the building, and a threat of rain was now obvious. The damp wind blowing in their faces punctuated that fact, and a few drops of precipitation dampened their skin.

“We should have left for home a hour or so ago, Ani” Uran complained. “You just HAD to sit though that anime TWICE, didn't you?”

“Gomen'nasai,” Cobalt replied, “I guess I sorta lost track of time. Besides, you managed to keep yourself occupied with that huge stack of rare manga books. Anyway we'd better hurry home or we'll get caught in the rain.”

No sooner that Cobalt said that, the wind picked up and a light rain began to fall.

“Follow me, Ani,” Uran cried out, dragging her brother by the hand. “I know a short cut!”

Uran darted across the street and took a quick turn into a narrow ally. She followed a narrow pathway though some tall weeds growing in the middle of a vacant lot and then made another turn that took them through another ally that ran between two rows of tall buildings. This led the into yet another vacant lot and into the rear entrance of a small play yard in a neighborhood park. Exiting the play area they found themselves on a street fronting several abandoned houses.

Cobalt suddenly froze standing in front of the burned out facade of a three story house. The dwelling had obviously once been a rather expensive home in a well to do neighborhood, but now it, and the other buildings within a a kilometer of it, were just empty shells. The pre-teenage robot boy stood in the walkway leading from the street to the front door of the small mansion, staring through the bare canopy of a tall tree at an upper story window of the house. Uran tugged at her brother's hand but Kobaruto remained as stiff as a statue as the light rain increased in intensity to a mild downpour.


Lying in the upper bunk of his bed, Cobalt was awakened by the cheerful chirping of birds, and the loud meowing of a cat. He turned his head towards the window and his ears told him the sounds were coming from the tall tree that stood in front of the house. He carefully got out of bed, trying not to disturb the slumber of the eight year old child lying in the lower berth of the bed just below him. Kobaruto leaned his elbows on the window sill and supported his chin between the palms of his hands as he gazed out of the window. High up in the tree, he spotted a small bowl made of twigs, leaves and fluff. Poking their heads out of the nest were two adult mocking birds who were merrily singing at the top of their lungs. Sitting on a bough on the other side of the tree was a young tomcat, clinging onto the tree limb by its claws. The kitten was obviously a tyro at tree climbing, and it seemed too scared to climb any higher to reach its pray, or to back away and try to return back to mother earth.

“You poor thing!” Cobalt sighed to himself. He turned to face the bed and saw that his human 'brother' was still sleeping soundly. He carefully pushed the window open a few more decimeters, giving himself just enough clearance to climb out onto the outer sill. The tree was now nearly in his grasp, Cobalt judged the distance to the closest limb and jumped toward it. He easily grabbed onto the bough and then wrapped his legs and arms around the trunk of the tree. He looked up and saw where the frightened feline was and began to climb up towards it.

“Don't worry, kitty!” Cobalt called up gently, “I'm coming to save you!”

The cat saw the boy robot climbing towards it, and slowly backed away along the tree limb that it was sitting on.

Kobaruto was now crawling along the same bough that the kitten was on. The tiny animal was less than a meter from his grasp, but just has he was almost close enough to grab it the cat took another few steps backward, meowing loudly.

“Don't be afraid!,” Cobalt cooed, “I'm here to help!”

As Koby inched out further on the limb, he heard a faint 'crack' as the tree bough strained under his weight to support him. Suddenly the kitten leaped forward, landing on Cobalt's back as it dug its claws into his neck.

“Ouch!” Kobaruto yelled, though mostly in surprise since the kitten's talons were not sharp enough to puncture his robotic skin.

“CRACK!”

Cobalt's jerking movement was the final straw. The bough he was sitting on snapped in two between him and the tree trunk.

“POW!”

The force of the impact caused him to blank out for a second. When Cobalt again opened his eyes he was sitting in a deep depression in the very well dented roof of Dr. Tenma's brand new expensive sports car. He then became aware of the damp, sandpaper like surface of a cat's tongue licking his face.

“COBALT!” The yelling voice belonged to a very mad Dr. Tenma who had just ran out of the front door of the house in his pajamas and slippers. “What the hell have you done to my car!”

Following his father, Tobio dressed in his footy PJ's, ran after his dad. “Don't hurt him, he didn't mean it!,” the boy begged.

The robot engineer grabbed the lanky boy robot by his ear and escorted him back into the house. “I'm going to take you apart, you good for nothing clumsy piece of junk!” Tenma yelled. “No, don't do that to my brother!” Tobio cried to his father.




“COBALT!” Kobaruto snapped out of his trance and felt the wet downpour on his skin. Uran was still tugging on his arm and yelling his name at him.

“Come on Ani!” Uran begged, “we have to get home!”

“Gomen'nasai,” Kobaruto said. “I don't know what came over me.”
The two of them quickly jogged away from the abandoned neighborhood, and turned onto the main street leading back to the Professor's house.



Uran walked from her room after changing out of her wet clothing. She went back downstairs to find the professor in the living room, waiting for her.

“What took you two so long?” Ochanomizu asked. “The library closed almost an hour ago, and it's only a ten minute walk from here.”

“I think there's something wrong with Kobaruto-Ani,” Uran said. “We took a short cut home by that abandoned neighborhood because it started to rain, and Koby froze up in front of the old burned out house and refused to move for almost a half hour. I kept trying to snap him out of it for a long time before he finally came to his senses.”

“Which house was that?,” the professor asked, “was it the three story one with the tall tree in front?”

“Hai, Hakase,” Uran nodded, “That was the one. Why?”

The professor turned around quickly, “Nothing, it's not important.”


Atom was in his room watching the new years festivities on television when his sister barged in though the open doorway. “There's something wrong with Kobaruto, and Hakase won't talk about it!” she huffed.

“What you you mean, Uran?” Atom asked.

Uran quickly told him about what happened on the way home from the library.

“Which house were you standing in front of?” Atom asked with a strange, look on his face.

“That old burned out one with the round windows in the attic,” Uran said.

“Oh,” Atom voiced, a far away look in his eyes.

“You too?” Uran gasped. “Boys! WTF is wrong with the two of you!”

Cobalt entered the room and sat next to his younger sibling. “I had that dream again, Atomu,” he sighed. “Only this time I was awake, and Uran was standing next to me.”

“Hai,” Atom sighed. “Did you see him?”

“Yes,” Kobaruto said. “He didn't notice me though.”

“There wasn't any body there!” Uran yelled at Cobalt. “It was all in your defective mind!”

“We've both seen it.” Atom sighed, looking up at Uran. “We can't help it, it's wired into our Kokoro.”


The professor had heard Uran raise her voice from the living room, and he climbed upstairs and entered Atom's room. Uran turned and glared at him. “Am I the only one here that isn't crazy?” she asked.

“I suppose I should explain things,” the professor sighed. He turned to face Cobalt. “I didn't realize that you remembered,” the professor said. “How long has this been going on?”

“Today was the second time,” Cobalt said. “The first time was a few days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night after experiencing a horrible dream, and I ran into Atom's room for comfort. I remember being deactivated and stuffed into a wooden crate, in pieces. Tobio was crying when my head was ripped off and put into a crate that wasn't quite tall enough for my body.”

The professor nodded. “It was just about a year ago that we found you in the sub-basement of the Ministry and revived you,” the old man said. “That may be what triggered the memory. You would have been susceptible to such recall, and seeing Tenma's old house triggered another powerful memory.”

“Just as it did with me, many times.” Atom added.

“Who is this Tobio?” Uran demanded, “And what does he have to do with my brothers?”

“He haunts us.” Atom said. “He is me, and he created Koby.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The rain stopped and the skies cleared about a half hour before midnight. Uran's ears perked up at the sound of fireworks, and she ran outside to look. “Atomu!, Kobaruto!,” she yelled, “Come outside and watch the fireworks!”

Her two brothers walked outside, followed by the professor. “That's nice!” Ochanomizu said, “The weather cleared just in time for the fireworks.” He pointed toward the eastern sky where the display seemed to be coming from, “It looks like they must be launching the fireworks from a barge on the river,” he explained.

Suddenly Uran face palmed and ran back into the house. She returned a minute later with baby Chi-Tan in her arms. “I forgot all about Chi-tan Otōto,” she said, “I know he'd want to see the fireworks!”

The baby bot cooed and smiled each time a new display burst upon the sky, spreading its colored flames.

Atom and Cobalt were strangely quiet. Somehow the sight of the fireworks triggered a memory in Atom's mind and he slowly walked down the street in thought. Cobalt followed, a similar vision formed in his mind too. The two boys found themselves standing in front of the burned out house where Kobaruto and Uran had been earlier in the day.

As a particularly bright star-burst from a launched rocket exploded in the sky above them, the wispy outline of a young boy darted across the yard in front of them and stopped in front of the house. The apparition was that of a nine year old boy with dark auburn hair.
“Tobio?” the two robotic brothers whispered together. Atom and Cobalt followed the ghostly image into the house. Their feet crunched on the broken glass lying on the floor as they followed the ghost up the stairs, and into a small bedroom. The boy was now lying on the floor, pencil in hand, drawing on a large sheet of paper bound into a sketchbook. The boy's hand moved the pencil rapidly, but with precision as he sketched. Now and then he'd stop and erase something, and then continue. The drawing rapidly took shape and its outline was clearly that of a robotic figure that looked eerily like Kobaruto.

“I figured you two would come back here!”

The sound of Uran's voice broke the spell. The spectral image of the child vanished as Atom and Cobalt turned around to see Ochanomizu, and Uran with Chi-tan in her arms, standing at the doorway to the bedroom.

“What's the matter with the two of them, Hakase?” Uran asked, “They look like they've just seen a ghost!”

“I suspect that in a way, they just have,” the professor replied, “Isn't that so Atomu?”
Atom and Cobalt nodded.

“I know his name, but I don't know who he was,” Koby said in a shaky voice.

“Atom knows,” the professor said, “and I suppose it's time I told the truth to Kobaruto.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Professor Ochanomizu carefully sat down on an old chair that remained in the room. The wooden seat creaked a bit under his weight, but it still appeared to be strong enough not to suddenly deposit his butt onto the floor.

“I'm surprised that you don't remember Ani,” Atom told his brother, “Since you lived in this house before I did, and while Tobio was alive.”

“Maybe Dr. Tenma wiped some of Cobalt's memories before he shut him down and disassembled him,” the professor said.

“Earlier in the day when I was in a trance standing in front of this house I did have a vision of being shut down and stuffed into a crate,” Cobalt said, “So maybe I do have memories of my past hidden deeply inside of me.”

“Maybe you could use hypnosis to get him to recall his past,” Uran suggested.

“Hypnosis only works on humans, Uran,” Atom laughed.

“That's only partially true,” the professor said, “there are techniques I can use on a robot's electronic brain that are similar to hypnosis. But I think between what Atom and I know, we can fill Cobalt in on what he's forgotten. That is, if he really wants to know.”

“Please Hakase, I want to know.” Cobalt sighed.

“Very well,” the professor began. “Dr. Tenma was once the most respected robotic scientist who ever lived, and he served as the head of the Ministry of Science for many years before I assumed that position. Tenma's marriage to his wife Hoshi was a rocky one, mostly because he was such a workaholic that he tended to ignore his wife and his two beautiful children.”

“Two children?” Atom asked. “I thought Tobio was his only son.”

“Dr. Tenma also had a younger daughter named Urania,” the professor said. “Her story is quite tragic, perhaps even more so that that of Tobio.”

“I was named after her, wasn't I?” Uran asked.

“Yes you were,” the professor smiled, “You know, I've never told you how you came to be, did I?”

“You built me,” Uran said, “Didn't you?”

“Of course I did!,” the professor said patting the girl robot on the head, “but your design wasn't entirely my own. You see almost two years before Dr. Tenma built Atom, Urania and Hoshi were both killed in a street accident when they were hit by a train. Tobio was quite upset over the loss of his sister, and Dr. Tenma was also grieving over her loss. Umataro started to design a robot to replace her, but he never did finish the plans or build it. Perhaps Tobio didn't like the idea of having a robot replace his dead sister. In any event, those plans were hidden away in the Ministry somewhere and I found them. I used Dr. Tenma's designs as a basis to build you, Uran. Since Dr. Tenma and his wife had asked me to be their children's god-father, I decided that I'd name you for Urania in her memory. Perhaps because you were to be Atom's sister it sorta made sense at the time.”

“What about me?” Cobalt asked. “I only have bits and pieces of events in my memory of what was before you activated me.”

“I'm coming to that, Kobaruto,” the professor said. “After Tobio died, also in a street accident, Dr. Tenma created Atom to take his place. Perhaps because he made Atom's kokoro too perfectly like that of his late son the doctor's own character defects led to the same rebellious spirit that soured relationships between father and son to reoccur between Tenma and Atom. In any event, the doctor went insane and destroyed much of his laboratory and tried to burn down this house. He deactivated Atom and sealed him up in a storage section of the laboratory where I later found him. Most of Atom's memories were off line when I reactivated him, which was a good thing as I was able to get his re-education going from a clean slate. Gradually though, Atom began to remember bits and pieces of his past, he still is in fact.”

“And me?” Cobalt insisted.

“Tobio was a bright boy who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps,” Ochanomizu explained. “I saw a bright future for the boy as a scientist and an engineer. Tobio might have been even more of a latent genius that Reno is turning out to be. Anyway, the lad wanted to impress his father so he drew up some 'blueprints' for a robot brother and presented them to his father. The boy's drawings were not actually complete plans of course, but they gave the Doctor an idea for a way to bring him and his son closer to each other. Together, the two of them worked in secret to build a child like robot that the doctor eventually brought home with him.”

“That was me, wasn't it?” Cobalt asked.

“Yes, Cobalt, it was,” the professor said. “Unfortunately, you were far from perfect, especially in Umataro's eyes. To Tobio however, you were perfect. I remember dropping in on Tenma shortly after he brought you home and I saw you and Tobio playing together. After losing his mother and sister, having a new brother, even a robotic one, really restored the boy's spirits. It didn't last very long however.”

“I remember how it happened!” Cobalt said. “That was the vision I had earlier in front of the house!”

“When you destroyed the Doctor's car by falling out of a tree,” the professor surmised. “I tried to talk Umataro out of taking you apart, I remember his son begging him to allow him to try and repair his brother so he wouldn't be so clumsy.”

“Yes,” Cobalt sighed, “Hakase, am I really so imperfect? “Am I clumsy?”

“Don't worry, Kobaruto,” Ochanomizu said. “There was never anything really wrong with you, at least nothing that a gyro re-calibration wouldn't fix. I took care of that.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

“Hakase, it's getting late and it's past Chi-tan's bed time.” Uran said. “I'm going to head home.”

“Yes, I agree,” the professor replied, “Let's all head back to the house now.”

“Hakase,” Cobalt quavered, “Is it OK if Atom and I stay here just a little while longer?”

“I suppose,” Ochanomizu agreed, “You guys know the way back. Just don't stay out too late.”

“Hai,” Atom nodded.

“You want to see if Tobio's ghost comes back don't you?” Uran teased.

“I don't think there is really a ghost haunting this house,” the professor laughed, “More likely the boys are seeing bits and pieces of old memories playing back in their background mental processes.”

The professor and Uran headed down the stairs and back home. Chi-tan was already sound asleep in his older sister's arms. They left the two boys alone in the silent house, which was now quite dark.


“Kobaruto!” The voice seemed to come from nowhere, and everywhere. Atom and Cobalt looked around but could see no one. Atom cranked up his hearing to 1000 times and flashed the lights of his eye searchlights and scanned about the room. Suddenly, Cobalt felt someone tapping him on his shoulder. He wheeled about on his feet and stared in front of him, but nothing was there. He carefully reached out with his hands, feeling the air in front of him for an invisible presence and his fingers detected something.

“Denkou, is that you playing tricks on us?” Cobalt asked. “It's not funny!”

“Who's Denkou?” the voice asked.

“Then who are you?” Cobalt demanded.

A shape slowly materialized in front of him. Atom saw it too, as his eyes widened. The figure shimmered like a mirage, taking the form of the young boy buried deep in Cobalt's memory.

“Tobio?” they both quavered.

“Yes, it's me,” the ghost stammered. He took a few steps toward Cobalt and gently felt him. Though his fingers were not solid and passed though the robot's body, Cobalt shook at the touch, which felt both icy cold and ticklish at the same time.

“Ani!” the ghost smiled. “Someone put you back together, didn't they?,” he asked.

“Hai,” Cobalt answered, “Ochanomizu Hakase found me where Dr. Tenma left me. He restored me as a brother for Atomu.”

Tobio drifted towards Atom, the ghostly image of the deceased child seemed to walk, but his feet didn't quite touch the ground. “My father must have created you to replace me after I died,” the boy stated, “didn't he.”

“That's what Ochanomizu Hakase told me,” Atom replied. “but I have only fleeting flashes of memories about Dr. Tenma. Like Kobaruto, most of the memories from my first activation are rather vague.”

“Do you have any of my memories?” Tobio asked. “I would have expected that father would have tried to implant them into a robot he'd built in my image.”

“A few, maybe,” Atom answered. “But it is confusing because I can not tell the difference.”

Several minutes past in silence. Perhaps because it is very difficult to know just what to say to a ghost. How do you have a conversation with someone who died a tragic death and can have nothing at all to look forward to? The only possible conversation you could have would be very depressing to both ends of the discourse. Indeed, the look in Tobio's eyes was quite somber. His facial expressions were frozen into a frown, traces of un-dried tear tracks permanently etched onto his cheeks. Finally, the spectral child broke the silence.

“Perhaps you two should go now, you both have family waiting for you.”

“But what about you?” Cobalt asked. “We used to call each other brother.”

“I'll be here.” Tobio sighed. “You can always come back another time if you feel the need.”

The boy turned around and drifted away, slowly fading from view as he went. Suddenly he stopped and turned about for an instant. “Sayōnara,” the ghost voiced. He then turned around and faded from view.

“ Sayōnara,” Cobalt and Atomu whispered.



They walked back in silence for most of the way back home.

“Was that real Atom Otōto?” Cobalt finally asked, “Or were we just imagining it?”

“Hakase says that ghosts are not real, and that it is all in our minds,” Atom replied. “But we both saw and heard him at the same time. That can't be the result of just imagination.”

“Maybe we should just keep it between ourselves then,” Cobalt suggested. “Uran and
Hakase wouldn't believe it and he'd probably want to have Reno run diagnostics on the two of us!”

“I could do without that experience!” Atom nodded.

“We will go back there again?” Cobalt asked.

“Hai!” Atom nodded. “If Tobio is real, he needs someone, and we are all that he has. If he isn't real and it really is a shared dream between the two of us, maybe it means that WE need him for some reason. Either way, I don't think we have much of a choice.”

“I agree.” Cobalt said.

The two boys locked arms around each other's waists and enjoyed a mutual hug for the rest of the short walk home. If nothing else, they now felt a lot closer, and both knew that they would always be brothers.

the end