KOKORO

Summary: After losing his girlfriend, Kikyou, in a car accident, Inuyasha just hasn’t been the same. Self-proclaimed ‘genius’ and Inuyasha’s best friend, Miroku, along with his girlfriend Sango, decide to give Inuyasha back what he lost – someone to love.

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Miroku continued typing, taking another swig of Mountain Dew from a two-liter bottle. Two empty bottles of said liquid lay next to his desk. He had to get all this data entered before he slept; after all, it wouldn’t do to forget even the most minor detail. If he did, it might not work at all, let alone be perfect. The clock on his computer read a quarter past 3 AM. He’d been here for nearly twelve hours straight, and hadn’t slept in two days. He and Sango had been too busy.

He entered in the final piece of the probability data. This was one of the most crucial things – no, the most crucial thing; it would control nearly all the actions, thoughts… This would be everything that would direct the project. He downloaded to the memory a picture, a name, and a single emotion:

Love.

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Sango wiped her forehead, and pulled the cloth away from her sewing machine. Miroku had just sent her the measurements, so she was doing final adjustments. The dress was made to her exact measurements; after all, they wouldn’t really have much money after this to buy her clothes, and Miroku had made her too short to just wear Sango’s clothing. They might as well make her a good dress.

Thankfully, she wouldn’t grow out of it.

Sango wondered how her programming was coming along? After all, it didn’t matter how cute she looked if she didn’t work properly. That was Miroku’s expertise, though; he concentrated on the mechanical aspects, and Sango on the looks.

For example, Sango had been the one to make her clothing, to model the face – with some strange material Miroku had found that felt and looked like real skin – and all other look-related aspects of their project. She’d made sure to make the project look like Kikyou in some respects (the long black hair was a good example, as were the eyes), but made it different in others. After all, it would only hurt Inuyasha if she looked exactly like his dead girlfriend.

She prayed that the project would be a success. After all, they’d been working on it for nearly half a year… Well, OVER half a year.

The phone rang.

Sango picked it up before it could wake her parents up. “Hello?”

“It’s done.”

Finally, their goal was nearly complete.

Sango zipped up the back of the dress, slightly peeved at Miroku; he’d sure paid attention to the project’s chest area. Pervert – they were even soft to the touch. And he’d gotten her the most revealing, lacy pair of panties and a matching bra she’d ever seen… And just why she had to wear them while he worked on her, well, it didn’t leave much to the imagination. Though she was slightly grateful that she was wearing something.

Miroku unhooked the power cord from the project. A plug was hidden in her ring (which Sango had made cuter by turning it into a panda), which allowed her to be powered up and remain running. Her circuits were covered in a breathable material that mimicked the feel and look of human skin, and didn’t conduct the flow of electricity (reducing the risk of shock to persons touching her, of course). A thin mesh of wire running with currents under it made it warm to the touch – a necessity, if she was going to blend in.

Her face was exquisite. The long eyelashes framed brown, glass-clear eyes, in which two small camera lenses were hidden in the pupils, able to be adjusted by the project at will. Pink lips, slightly open, were charmingly pulled up at the corners in a sleeping smile, and her cheeks were rosy and youthful.

Most amazing was her programming; she could think for herself, to some extent, though she couldn’t go outside her programmed skills and abilities. She did, however, have a learning program that allowed her to learn new ones, given time. Miroku would have to save her data every once and a while to keep it from being lost, however.

He reached down, and clicked the panda back into place on the ring.

The project’s eyes open. She sat up stiffly, and looked at him with curious eyes.

Sango smiled down at her. After spending so much time working on her, Sango had even named her. Miroku had agreed, mostly because, if they were to fool Inuyasha, she would need a name anyways.

And so, the project, at the moment she opened her eyes, became Kagome.

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Kagome felt strange. Her circuits ran with a white-hot energy, and she felt full of it. After being stationary for so long, she could move; more importantly, she had a purpose now.

The one with short black hair had given her this purpose. She gave him a small smile. She was grateful to him. Maybe now, he would help her find the thing that was her purpose. After all, he wasn’t here; and why wasn’t he, anyways?

“Where… is he?” she asked quietly. She knew how to speak (it was in her programming, after all), but the foreign movement was strange.

“Who?” a girl to Kagome’s right asked. This girl Kagome recognized as well. Her data banks said that she was to be her ‘cousin’, Sango. It also said many things about their ‘childhood’ (whatever that was) together, all of which she may need to know to tell others.

“My purpose,” Kagome said quietly.

“Inuyasha,” Miroku, Kagome’s Creator, chuckled. “You’ll meet up with him tomorrow, Kagome… Well, a few hours, now,” he admitted.

“Inuyasha.” Kagome liked the feeling of that name coming off her lips. Her purpose – her Inuyasha… and her name – Kagome… That was nice, too.

Kagome closed her eyes, and her lips parted in a smile – she knew that was what she was supposed to do when her thoughts came to Inuyasha. She was programmed to love him, after all – that was her reason for existing in the first place.

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Miroku watched as Kagome hesitated, unmoving. She was looking at Sango’s beaten-up car as if it were terrifying. Well, there were certain things that you couldn’t program into her – after all, some things only came from experience.

“Kagome, you’ll be fine,” he assured. “After all. If you deal with this, you get to see Inuyasha, right?”

Kagome bit her lip and nodded, her resolve strengthening. Good. She was following her programming perfectly. If he got extremely lucky, this day would go without a hitch.

And, if he were lucky, Inuyasha and Kagome would kick it off. After all, Miroku had done as much research on Inuyasha’s likes and dislikes in a girl as he could – such as forcing Inuyasha to take a ‘perfect girlfriend’ quiz on a dating site that would supposedly tell him who was his ‘perfect personality-type match’ to quizzing him discreetly for hours about his preferred body types, hair and eye colors, and if he preferred an innocent girl, who hadn’t had a boyfriend before, or a more experienced one.

Inuyasha had called Miroku an idiot, but answered his questions to shut him up.

Black hair. He didn’t really care about eyes, but something dark would be nice. He thought large breasts were a bother (they got in the way, and they just said ‘look at me’ to other men), and narrow hips were cuter. He’d prefer an innocent, since then he’d know he’d be one of the few (if not only) to kiss her.

And so, Kagome had been ‘conceived’ in Miroku’s mind.

Miroku had been working on a project in secret for years – a program that made robots incredibly human-like. He’d even made a rough frame for said robot. While he hadn’t gotten a degree in robotic engineering, he was a genius when it came to science, mechanics, electronics, and pretty much anything in-between. Soon enough (about three months after the beginning of the project), he’d gotten a fully mobile robotic girl.

That was when Sango joined in. She had spent hours helping Miroku mold the robot-girl’s ‘skin’, adding in the facial features, and making everything as lifelike as possible – such as the lips and mouth, which had been the most difficult by far. Sango was also the one who came up with the idea for her ‘eyes’. She even managed to go in and buy fake, life-like eyelashes and everything.

To say the least, Miroku was grateful. Sango knew more about ‘girlish’ things than he did. However, he did regret that Sango made him make the girl a B-cup; a C wasn’t that much bigger… or a D…

Sango glared at him, as if she knew what he was thinking.

Miroku smiled at his girlfriend innocently.

In any case, Kagome was now nearly complete – now if only his KOKORO program would be done, then she’d be perfect and nearly indistinguishable from a human girl. But to make her completely identical, perfect, her emotions had to be perfect, too. Programmed ones were controllable – with the click of a mouse, Miroku could make Kagome hate Inuyasha, or love him, or anything in-between. With the KOKORO program, she could form her own opinions of people. Miroku could control her emotions too much, and he knew that; after all, it would be a bother to have to enter opinions on nearly every student in their school once she met them…

But the KOKORO program had some bugs that Miroku hadn’t quite figured out how to fix yet. He wouldn’t be able to get it done just yet, so her pre-programmed emotions would have to do for now; he’d made her programming so that she’d be indifferent towards all those not entered into her databanks.

Kagome was currently playing around with her skirt, bouncing as Sango’s car hit bumps. She glanced up at Miroku, like a lost child.

Miroku gave her a smile. “Inuyasha will be waiting for you at the school.”

As soon as Inuyasha’s name escaped his lips, she brightened up.

Just as he’d programmed her to – she was running perfectly.

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Inuyasha tossed his books into his locker, bored out of his mind. His car had broken down, so he’d been forced to take the bus. And, of course, the only bus that would get him to school on time got him there an hour early. Perfect.

“Yo, Yasha!”

Inuyasha turned and saw his best friend, Miroku, jogging towards him. Where was Sango? She normally picked up Miroku before school.

“Hey. Where’s Sango?” Inuyasha asked, closing the locker and tossing his messenger bag over a shoulder.

“Signing in the new kid,” Miroku smiled. “Her cousin just transferred here, and so she’s a new student. Had to get her paperwork and everything.” The paperwork had been a pain. But he’d managed to make a convincing enough birth certificate for the principal to not notice… He’d given her a surname, too – Higurashi.

“New kid? Must be the first one we’ve had in years,” Inuyasha noted with some interest. “Most kids don’t transfer here. They transfer out.”

Miroku shrugged resignedly. “Whatever you say.”

Sango came down the hall, her long hair tied up in a ribbon on top of her head. Sango preferred to keep her hair out of the way. But the girl next to her had her hair long, flowing down her back. She had clear brown eyes and a pale complexion (extremely pale when compared to Sango, who was rather tan from spending so much time outside). “Wow. Who knew genes for cuteness ran in Sango’s family,” Miroku commented, chuckling.

Something was up, Inuyasha thought. He remembered Miroku asking him all these questions about his ‘ideal’ type all of a sudden. “Why the hell did you do it?” the half-demon growled at his idiot, perverted moron of a friend.

“D-did what?” Miroku stammered, gulping.

“You entered me on a dating site, didn’t you?” Inuyasha asked angrily. “God damn it, Miroku, I told you—“

“No! There was no site!” Miroku protested seriously.

Miroku was serious. And his gray eyes told Inuyasha instantly that the computer-whiz wasn’t lying. “Hmph. Well, then, Sango’s cousin’s eerily close to the ‘ideal’ type you made me talk about.”

Miroku smiled innocently. “Kagome’s perfect for you?” he asked, almost hopefully.

“I haven’t even said a word to her, and you’re already saying that I should ask her out?” Inuyasha said pointedly.

“Just saying…”

Kagome and Sango reached the lockers. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha, and instantly her porcelain skin turned a light pink, and her eyes rounded. She looked at him shyly, and then looked down at her feet, as if they were suddenly extremely interesting.

Sango smiled. “I told her about you, and showed her a picture. She thought you were cute.”

Kagome glanced at Sango, her skin turning a darker pink. “H-hey! Sango!”

Miroku smiled. Perfect. Her acting chip was good, too.

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. “Do you need anyone to show you around school?” he questioned.

Kagome looked at him and nodded eagerly. “Yes!”

Inuyasha had to admit… She was kind of cute.