A twelve-year-old genius professor with a lab coat three sizes too big and a dream she's carried since age five: to bring a silver-haired, wolf-eared maid AI to life. Hana Takada has the brains, the prototype, and the stubbornness—what she doesn't have is an AI Ethics License, because apparently "silver hair, wolf ears, and a maid outfit" don't count as "legitimate freedom of expression" to the review board. With her grandmother's parting words in her heart and a pocket full of strawberry candy,
The Professor and the Assistant's Battle - Rock Bottom — The Vanished Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid
The first-floor laboratory of the Takada Research Institute.
Outside the window, it was already pitch dark. The northern research district had few streetlights, so at night the institute's lights were the only thing floating alone in the darkness. Over the past few days, the autumn air had turned suddenly cold, and the laboratory floor felt chilly too.
Takada Hana pulled a candy from the pocket of her lab coat and popped it into her mouth. Grape flavor. The sweetness spread slowly across her tongue.
In front of her floated a hologram in midair. A silver-haired wolf-eared maid girl gently swayed the hem of her skirt. Her silver hair, which reached her waist, shimmered like real silk. Fluffy wolf ears stood perked atop her head. On her back were small demon wings and a tail with a pointed tip. The white apron of her classic maid outfit was just slightly smudged—no, that was a texture Hana had deliberately adjusted to give it a "used" feel.
"Mm, perfect! The silver hair's reflectance, the wolf ears' fluffiness parameters, the tail's sway amplitude—all of it's the best! Data speaks for everything!"
Hana's ahoge bounced atop her short black hair as her big, deep-brown eyes sparkled. Dressed in an oversized lab coat over her small frame, she looked up at the hologram as if stretching on tiptoe.
"...How many times is that your line today?"
A exasperated voice came from behind her.
When she turned around, Minato Mina was standing in the doorway. The tips of her brown wolf-cut hair bounced energetically, and a small earring glinted on her left ear. Her slightly upturned black eyes looked a little sanpaku today as well. In her hand she held a convenience store plastic bag.
"I haven't counted! But it really is perfect, so I'll say it as many times as I want! Look, Mina, you too! These wolf ears—depending on how the light hits them, every single strand of fur moves all fluffy-like!"
"...I'm looking. I've been looking for three hours now. Every time you fine-tune something, I get dragged into checking it too."
Mina took a canned coffee and a strawberry milk for Hana out of the convenience store bag and set them on the desk.
"Here, take these. You haven't eaten dinner, have you. Convenience store onigiri, and yogurt too. Tomorrow's the real thing, first thing in the morning, so eat properly and get some sleep."
"Thanks, Mina! But I still haven't finished the final check on tomorrow's presentation materials. Just a little more, and once I adjust this girl's expression patterns—"
"No. You slept only one hour yesterday, didn't you. Tonight you're going to sleep properly. What are you going to do if you collapse during the presentation tomorrow?"
Mina put her hands on her hips and glared at Hana.
Hana looked miffed for a moment. But when she saw that Mina's eyes were serious, she reluctantly set the terminal down on the desk.
"...Fine. I'll eat the onigiri. But before I sleep, let me adjust for just thirty more minutes."
"Fifteen minutes. I won't allow any more than that."
"Twenty! Let's settle on that!"
"...Why are you negotiating. Little kids should just go to bed."
"I may be a little kid, but I'm also a doctoral researcher. Researchers don't need sleep. Data speaks for everything."
"That data's just your gut feeling again today, isn't it."
The two looked at each other and let out a small laugh.
These past few days had been like this the whole time. Ever since Himuro Reika had stormed into the institute and frozen the research budget and Gemini's external-use license, Hana and Mina had been together from morning till night every day. In preparation for tomorrow's Astralis AI Fest preliminaries, they'd been pushing forward with the final adjustments to the silver-haired wolf-eared maid and the presentation materials.
The distance between the two, awkward at first, had grown much closer by now. Mina managed Hana's meals, and Hana shared her candies with Mina. Little exchanges like that had become routine.
"...Hey, Hana-chan."
Mina said, her face a little more serious than usual.
"What?"
"Tomorrow, I'll properly support your presentation. The timing for projecting the materials, operating the terminal—I'll do all of it. You just show off what you love, with your head held high."
Hana looked up at Mina with a blank expression.
"...Mina, what's gotten into you? All of a sudden."
"Nothing. I'm your assistant too, after all. And I'd hate to let that Himuro Reika person keep laughing at your silver-haired wolf-eared maid."
Mina fiddled with the earring on her left ear, looking a little embarrassed.
Hana stared intently at Mina's face.
Then she broke into a beaming smile. Her fang peeked out.
"Thanks, Mina! Tomorrow we're definitely going to win! My silver-haired wolf-eared maid can't possibly lose to Reika's Siren! Data speaks for everything!"
"...Yeah, yeah. But to win, first you sleep. Come on, eat your onigiri, brush your teeth, and off to bed."
"Okaaay! Oh, Mina, what time are you coming tomorrow morning? Seven? Or six-thirty? Earlier would let us do a final check!"
"Seven's fine. That is, if you can actually wake up."
"I'll wake up! Researchers wake up properly on important mornings! Data speaks for every—"
"Yeah, yeah, enough already. Eat."
Mina placed her hand on top of Hana's head and ruffled it vigorously.
Hana narrowed her eyes and let her.
Between the two of them, real teamwork was finally beginning to bud.
—This was the quiet, warm time before the storm.
Late at night.
The first-floor laboratory of the Takada Research Institute was dead silent.
Only the low hum of the high-performance servers echoed through the dark room. Hana was asleep in her room on the second floor. Mina had gone home for the time being. They'd promised to meet again at seven the next morning.
On the central desk of the laboratory sat the Gemini customization terminal. The screen was asleep, completely black.
Then.
The terminal's screen suddenly lit up bright.
Even though no one had touched it.
A small window opened in the center of the screen.
[Remote access detected]
[Connection source: Unknown]
[Operation: Data erasure protocol in progress]
—Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep!
A sharp alarm rang out through the laboratory.
Hana, asleep in her second-floor room, bolted upright at the sound.
"What!? What's that noise!?"
Hana ran down the stairs barefoot.
The moment she burst into the laboratory, she couldn't believe her eyes.
The terminal's screen was moving on its own.
Files were disappearing one after another.
The silver-haired wolf-eared maid's appearance data. Speech pattern data. Personality data. The emotion transition engine's tuning values. The demo data for the presentation.
All of it, vanishing.
"Stop... stop! What are you doing!?"
Hana rushed to the terminal and frantically tapped the screen.
But it wouldn't accept any input.
On the screen, file names turned gray one after another.
[Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_Appearance Settings_v12.final → Deleted]
[Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_Speech Settings_v8.final → Deleted]
[Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_Personality Settings_v15.final → Deleted]
[Backup_Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_2024.10.11 → Deleted]
[Backup_Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_2024.10.10 → Deleted]
[Backup_Silver-Haired Wolf-Eared Maid_2024.10.09 → Deleted]
Hana's fingers trembled.
"No... no no no! Don't disappear! Please! My... my silver-haired wolf-eared maid!"
Hana clutched the terminal with both hands.
But the screen wouldn't stop.
The backup files too, all of them, disappearing.
The data in the servers too. The spare data uploaded to the cloud too.
All of it.
"Why... why is this happening...!"
Hana slammed the terminal onto the desk.
A heavy thud echoed.
But the screen was still moving.
[All data erasure complete]
[Initializing terminal]
[3... 2... 1...]
The screen went pure white.
Then, pitch black.
—Silence.
Only the hum of the servers echoed through the room.
Hana collapsed to the floor, still clutching the terminal.
"...No way."
No voice came out.
"No way... all of it... gone...?"
The strength drained from Hana's hands.
The terminal fell to the floor.
A dry clatter.
Hana sat on the floor, unable to move.
Tears spilled from her eyes.
"...No... no... Tomorrow... tomorrow's the contest..."
Hana's voice faded quietly into the dark laboratory.
The next morning.
Mina arrived at the Takada Research Institute at seven, just as promised.
But the atmosphere of the institute was completely different from yesterday.
When she opened the door to the first-floor laboratory, Hana was sitting on the floor.
Hunched over, clutching the terminal.
"Hana-chan!? What happened!? Why are you on the floor...!"
Mina rushed to Hana.
Hana slowly raised her face.
It was a mess of tears. Her eyes were swollen bright red.
"...Mina."
"What happened? Hey, pull yourself together!"
"...It's gone. All of it. The silver-haired wolf-eared maid's data—all of it's gone."
"What...?"
Mina took the terminal from Hana's hands.
The screen was pitch black.
Even when she turned it on, nothing displayed.
"What is this... what does this mean?"
"Last night... someone... remotely... broke into the terminal... and erased all the data. The backups too... all of them..."
Hana said, forcing the words out.
"Remotely...? Who would do such a thing..."
"...I don't know. But... the connection source was unknown. No traces left either. This is professional work. Something like this."
Hana hugged her own arms tightly.
Her small body was trembling.
"...Let's report it to the police. And to the university. And explain the situation to the contest organizers too..."
"I can't... it's over... today's the real thing... with all the data gone... how am I supposed to compete...?"
Hana's voice grew smaller and smaller.
Mina couldn't say anything.
That was when it happened.
Mina's smartphone buzzed.
When she looked at the screen, it was a message from a friend.
'Hey, isn't this Hana-chan's thing? It's going super viral online right now'
A link was attached to the message.
Mina opened it with dread.
What appeared there was a screenshot of Hana's silver-haired wolf-eared maid settings screen.
Wolf ears. Silver hair. Maid outfit. Demon wings. Tail.
The words "Succubus Police Princess."
And below that, countless comments lined up.
'The genius little-kid doctor's brain is broken'
'So gross'
'You're putting this in the AI Fest? Aren't you embarrassed?'
'So the grade-skipping prodigy really does have a screw loose'
'I'd like to see the parents'
'You're using national research funding for this? Tax thief'
'Silver-haired wolf-eared maid lolololol total chuunibyou lolol'
'Making this at twelve—concerning for her future'
'An AI recommended to the International AI Ethics Committee is this? Japanese research is finished'
'Seriously gross. I want her to disappear'
Mina's hands trembled.
"What is this... what is this!? Who would do such a thing...!"
Mina kept scrolling.
The comments went on for hundreds.
Every single one of them was mocking Hana.
"...It's her. Himuro Reika. It has to be her. She stole Hana-chan's data and leaked it online."
Mina gripped her smartphone.
"...Mina, it's okay now."
Hana said quietly.
"What?"
"...It's fine. You don't have to look. It's all true anyway. My settings are weird. They're gross. It's no wonder everyone laughs."
"What are you saying!? So your settings are weird—so what? That's not a reason to laugh at the thing you love, the thing you worked so hard to make!"
Mina raised her voice.
"...But you said it too, Mina. That if I used it outside, people would look at me funny. That it was unreasonable. So you told me so, didn't you."
Hana's voice trembled.
"That's why I told you! Because you made settings like that...!"
Mina had shouted.
She'd said it.
In her head, she
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