Ame no Hi no Iris
Chapter 14 : Day Thirty-Two From the day when I arrived at the construction site, a month had alread

From the day when I arrived at the construction site, a month had already pa.s.sed.

I still mind about those two right until now. The chubby giant robot and the pet.i.te young robot girl— numbers Fifteen and Thirty-Eight.

A clearly contrasting duo.

First, the giant robot, number Fifteen.

He has a large body, but his movement is slow. Though he looks courageous, carrying a huge stack of waste materials with large steps, he would trip because of the mud on the next instant. Also, his appearance after he tripped, his face to the sky while waving his limbs like a bug— to put it bluntly, it looks quite hilarious.

On the other hand, the movements of the young robot girl – number 38 – are quite nimble. She pa.s.ses through the other robots like a gust of wind. She looks somewhat like a cat or a squirrel, giving others the impression of a small but lithe animal.

Whenever the young robot girl pa.s.ses by the giant robot, number Fifteen, they would always say something. Basically, they were all short responses like 'Hey!' 'Still okay?' 'I'm off!' and so on, and then she would lightly tap on the giant's waist.

Those two looks just like friends that know each other for a long time.

However, our paths do not intersect.

At the construction site, my robot colleagues do not have any notion of 'socializing'. They would just carry the waste materials from dawn till dusk, and their day would end right after their switches are turned off at late night. Here, there is only the 'longitudinal' relations.h.i.+p of robots following the humans' orders, and no 'horizontal' relations.h.i.+p between robots. No conversation, and no mutual aid.

Numbers Fifteen and Thirty-Eight are not the only robots who can talk. I saw many other robots answer 'Yes' 'Understood' 'My apologies' and so on after being ordered by the human inspectors. Some of them say 'sorry!' when they b.u.mp into the others as well.

Even so, I have never saw any robots talking to each other in the whole month that I've been here, except for numbers Fifteen and Thirty-Eight.

And that's why these two are the most special existences in the hundred over robots.