#akasine

Petty. That was what everything boiled down to. At every atom’s core roamed not protons or neutrons, but particles of pettiness. The cause for the space’s curious expansion was not due to heat or dark matter, but pettiness. Every reaction and counteraction, motive and sensation, truth and lie ––– all of them could be measured in various degrees of pettiness. 

That was the ultimate fact Daisuke believed, absurd as it may sound. How else would the boy explain the bizarre behaviour of the robot he manned? Obviously, without any outside influence, 122-7605 must have advanced beyond the limitations of its code, created a personality matrix that would contain its desired traits, and became petty. The short trip it undertook had expanded into a tiresome forty-minute endeavour, chock-full with constant problems that were nearly identical to a bratty child throwing hissy fits. 

At the moment, 122-7605 was absolutely static. Standing on the edge of the sidewalk, the machine ignored all of Daisuke’s submitted commands. Its leg remained elevated, looking ready to take another step. For all it’s worth, at least the robot hadn’t frozen in a crowded area. A few kilometres away Daisuke groaned tiredly, then set off to type down some direct command lines. With his attention away from the live feed, the boy hoped nobody would be petty enough to topple 122-7605 down.