Chi

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Elda (エルダ Eruda ), or better known as "Chi" (ちぃ Chii^?) is the main female protagonist of Chobits. She is a small and loveable Persocom, who turns out to be a legendary Chobit. She has an unremovable program that allows her to feel human emotions. She currently lives in Toyko, Japan at Gub Jogasaki Apartments and has a job at Chiroru Bakery.

Appearance

Chi is a very small Persocom, being of only 152 cm tall. Her weight is unknown, however, what we do know is that when her power is off, she weighs much more than she normally would. She has amber-brown eyes and long, pale blonde hair (more yellow-blonde in the anime) that reaches the ground, and is usually left unstyled besides having portions of her hair pulled forward with white and pink spools to bunch the upmost hair into bunches. Her skin is on the pale side. She also has pink and white bell-shaped ears to match her spools. In the beginning, she often wore a dark red dress that flows to her knees and has white cuffs around her wrist, and around her neck the dress has a white fold over collar. She wore short white socks with red shoes to match her dress. She also wears one of Hediki's white t-shirts to bed. Recently, however, she has been wearing the different clothes Chitose Hibiya gives her as gifts.

Personality

When Chi was found by Hideki, she had no data installed, therefore she had no personality software. However, the one curious program she did have was a learning program, in which allows her to be taught things. When she is activated by Hideki, the only word she initially knew how to say was "Chi", which soon became her name. She is a bit absentminded when it comes to common sense. However, that doesn't stop her froming being happy with herself. She likes to have fun, and is bored when she is left at home with nothing to do. She is fascinated by books and is a bit of a bookworm. Her limited knowledge on life makes her less cautious and is not as easily scared like humans can be. Chi is very brave, and doesn't let her limited software stop her from enjoying life. She is not the reclusive type, but since Hideki is worried about her going out on her own, she doesn't leave the apartment much and doesn't have many friends. However, she is friendly and sociable to the neighbors. She loves learning new things, and enjoys impressing Hideki with her acomplishments, like getting a job. Since Hideki is her main source of information, she usually wants his full approval of anything she's learned or done, so she knows she's doing or saying it right.

Backstory

Elda's Creation and Reset

Elda was created a year or two before the events of the series. Ichiro Mihara and Chitose Hibiya had created a Chobit Elda to be the companion and sister of their depressed Chobit Freya. She loved Freya, and Freya loved Elda, but it was not enough, Too much emotional strain through her Emotion Program attacked her body, almost like a human virus, and she got to a point to which she could barely move. Elda was with her as she was shutting down, and listened to Freya's last wish: for Elda to find 'the one just for her" and to not have her heartbroken like Freya's. Elda took Freya's memories and mind to preserve Freya in herself, so Freya was never truely lost. Just Freya dying was a lot of strain on Elda, and she requested her memory was reset, and that she was left alone outside, away from her family, so there would be no possibility that her sister's fate could befall upon herself. As Elda was brought out to the dump as she requested, Chtose gave her a program that Ichiro made, This is how it works: if Elda falls in love with "the person just for her", then all Persocoms would be granted the ability to feel emotion. This program could possibly turn all Persocoms into Chobits, as it is probably similar the Emotion Program he gave Elda and Freya.

Role

Type of persocom

As Hideki was walking home one evening, he spotted a Persocom lying in a pile of trash and (although, at first, he thought she was a human) took her to his apartment with glee that he'd found such a cute Persom for free! However, he realizes she's not on, and although he has very little experience with Persocoms, he knows usual Persocoms have a power switch in or behind its ears, but Elda's is located in a very unorthodox place: Her vagina. Realizing this, Hideki overcomes his moral objections and manages to activate her. In the beginning, she has difficulty communicating with him; the only word that she is able to say at the time being "chi". Worried she is broken, Hideki ends up asking his neighbor, Hiromu Shimbo if he needs to get her fixed. As Shimbo plugs her up to the TV, she has no data at all. Confused, Shimbo also hooks Sumomo, his Laptop Persocom to Chi to see if she can figure out anything. Instead, Sumomo crashes, and nothing is learned about Chi. Since both Shimbo and Hideki were almost out of ideas, Shimbo writes down the address to a Persocom expert, Minoru Kokubunji.

Minoru is curious about Chi's abilities, and he agrees to scan her; four of his custom models are used, each one crashing during the attempt. While this astounds Hideki, it only heightens Minoru's curiosity. Another one of his persocoms, Yuzuki, suggests that she try scanning Chi. Minoru reluctantly agrees, and Yuzuki connects herself to Chi. Her attempt also fails, although she is able to disengage with a minimal loss of data. Amazed by Chi's ability to repel Yuzuki's probe, Minoru begins to suspect that she may be a Chobit; a legendary Persocom rumored to possess true sentience. He suggests that he post about her on a Persocom forum that he frequents to see if anybody online has any idea what make she is. When he gets home, Hideki gives Chi a new name: Chi, which fits her supprisingly well.

Minoru later receives a strange image, via email, from an untraceable sender; the image depicts a Persocom identical in appearance to Chi, except for the word "HOBIT" on one leg. He suggests that one of her arms is covering the letter "C". Hideki shows the image to Chi, but she claims that this is not the same Persocom as herself. Minoru is later sent a second image from the same anonymous user. This image depicts the same persocom with two scientists, one of whom is Chitose Hibiya.

Employment

At one point Hideki considers having to take on a second job due to his poor financial state. Chi, looking through one of his magazines, sees a job advertisement and shows it to Hideki with the suggestion that she take the job, completely unaware that the advertised position is for a dominatrix. Hideki is both embarrassed and furious, and an upset Chi asks why she cannot have a job. Hideki hastens to reassure her that she can have a job, but it's just the type of job that matters. He tells her that when he gets home from work he'll talk to her about getting a good job. Chi disregards this and leaves the apartment shortly after Hideki, looking for a job. She is soon approached by a stranger, who asks her where she is going. Upon learning that she is searching for a job, the man invites her to follow him, saying that he has been looking for a girl to work for him. Chi asks if it is a "good job", and the man answers yes, saying that it has short hours and lots of pay. The job in question is that of a stripper at a peep show. Minoru and Yuzuki, searching online for any possible information pertaining to Chi's past life, stumble across live video of her at the peep show as she waits for instructions on what to do. Minoru contacts Shinbo through Sumomo, and the two race to Hideki, and yell at him to explain himself, letting Chi get the job, He doesn't know what they are talking about, and when it is explained, he takes Sumomo and she directs him to the location of the peep show.

The owner of the peep show tries to direct Chi on how to put on a good show for the customers. Chi is unable to take off her bra, so the man tells her to take off her underpants and put her fingers into her privates. Chi is about to do so when Freya intervenes and warns her to stop. Perplexed and under the assumption that Chi is running some sort of program, the owner attempts to show her how to do it. Chi resists, destroying the room in the process and escaping outside just as Hideki arrives. After Hideki manages to find Chi and bring her home, he reassures her that she did not do anything wrong, and that if she truly desires a job, he will help her to find a good one. He is eventually able to do this, convincing Hiroyasu Ueda to employ her at his bakery during his anniversary sale. Ueda is very impressed with her effort, stating that she made no mistakes and worked diligently all day. He asks her if she would like to work there full time and a delighted Chi asks Hideki for his permission to do so when she arrives home from work.

Kidnap

On one occasion Hideki is unable to walk Chi to the bakery, so she is forced to make the trip alone. While standing outside a bookstore examining the latest copy of A City with No People, she is kidnapped by Yoshiyuki Kojima, who recognized her as being the strange persocom Minoru had posted about. Under the assumption that she must be an especially powerful persocom to have captured the interest of Minoru, he comes to believe that she might be a Chobit. Kojima connects her to all of his custom-made persocoms (the only exception being Kotoko), and initiates a program that he had created especially for Chi that is designed to break through her firewalls. After Hideki is told by Ueda that Chi hasn't shown up for work, he begins to suspect that she may have been kidnapped. He contacts Minoru and begins to search the streets for her. At the same time, Minoru is systematically searching through the IP addresses of every member of the persocom forum to try and determine who had sent the strange images before. He is then sent another image, this time a street map. He contacts Hideki, who is searching for Chi with Shinbo and Sumomo. They run through all of the IP addresses registered on the forum and narrow the possible locations of the kidnapper down to a nearby area of Tokyo. Minoru checks to see who the IP address is registered to and realizes that it is Kojima, who goes under the alias "Dragonfly". He tracks Sumomo and superimposes her location onto his map, and when they arrive on the street they are able to determine which house Chi must be in.

Kojima is amazed that Chi has been able to block his program after an hour of continuous running, but he is confident that it will not take much longer to break through her defenses. He hugs her in delight at how powerful she is, and then begins to grope at her. Freya intervenes again, binding Kojima with all of the wires connected to Chi, and then releasing a powerful concussive blast. At this moment Hideki and Shinbo appear and Freya vanishes, causing Chi to collapse. She recovers and briefly reunites with Hideki before losing consciousness. Shinbo then forces Kojima to transfer Kotoko's registration to Hideki in order to prevent him from deleting her memories, so that a record of his attempted kidnap exists. The next day, Hideki and Chi then leave to find Ueda and let him know that Chi is safe.

The Person Just for Me

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An organization known only as "The Syndicate" is aware of Chi and her special programming. Under the impression that something terrible will happen if her program executes successfully, they send two persocoms, Zima and Dita, to destroy her. They have been created from the same system architecture as Chi, and are immune to her ability to freeze other persocoms. However, Zima wants Chi to succeed in her task, and purposefully misinforms Dita of Chi's whereabouts. Chi's program is almost completed when Zima unwillingly gives away her position to Dita, who goes to destroy her.

Hideki arrives and goes up to his apartment room. Once inside Chi tells him of her love, asking if it is requited. Hideki responds in the affirmative, and they embrace briefly before Chi's program executes. Chi floats up to the roof of the apartment and begins to run her program, freezing every persocom with the exceptions of Zima and Dita. Dita attempts to hack into Chi, who repulses it easily. Dita then connects directly and begins to shut Chi down. Hideki makes his way on to the roof to save Chi, but he is restrained by Zima. Dita explains to him that for the good of all persocoms, Chi must be destroyed. After hearing Hideki's pleas, Zima releases him and grabs Dita, disconnecting her from Chi. With the connection broken, Chi is able to complete her program but chooses not to. She retreats inside herself, and Freya takes control as Chitose Hibiya arrives on the rooftop.

Freya explains how she came to inhabit Chi's body. She reveals that Chi and herself merely switched places inside the body, but Chi has shut herself away and Freya cannot contact her. Hideki asks why and Freya explains that Chi discovered there were certain things that humans could do but she could not, leading her to believe that while Hideki would love her, it would make her existence unbearable. Hideki protests that it would not, but Freya tells him that Chi thought otherwise. She then tells Chitose that the time has come to destroy both of them, and she reluctantly agrees. Against Hideki's protestations, she deactivates Freya.

Disappointed by the outcome, Zima leaves with Dita. Chi, however, has survived the deactivation and come to the conclusion that while life with Hideki may seem painful because of her limitations, it is even more painful without him. She regains control of her body and completes her program, giving every persocom the ability to love.

Limitations

Despite her nature as a highly advanced persocom, there are still things that Chi cannot do. These range from simple set backs such as the inability to produce offspring, to the more deleterious inability to have sexual intercourse. This is because the location of her power switch is in her vagina. Because of this, even if Chi is in love with Hideki she cannot have a sexual relationship with him since that will cause her to restart, reformat, and lose all of her memories with him. However, Hideki says that this will not stop him from loving Chi.

In the anime it is possible this may not be the case. In episode seven during Chi's time at the peep show, it is stated by Freya that "regardless of what happens, until someone who truly loves you appears, never let anyone touch you here." It is notable that this warning is also said in the manga. This warning is repeated in episode twenty-two when Yoshiyuki (Dragonfly) tries to take advantage of Chi. Just as before, a defense mechanism is activated and Yoshiyuki is subdued. Chi then states that since he isn't the one for her, he isn't allowed to come inside. Finally when Hideki arrives on the scene, Chi explains that only the one for her is ever allowed to come inside, and teaches him what she means by using his hand.

Relationship with other persocoms

As a Chobit, Chi possesses many abilities that affect her relations with other persocoms. She is designed so that she has the ability to read data from other persocoms without opening a direct connection to them. She also possesses an extremely powerful firewall. When Shimbo attempts to use Sumomo to scan Chi and find out what programs have been installed, Chi's firewall causes Sumomo to crash; an action later repeated when Yuzuki attempts to scan her. Even when Yoshiyuki connects all of his most powerful persocoms into a large parallel processing network, they are not able to penetrate her defenses. In addition, Chi also has the ability to freeze other persocoms and enable them to hear a "familiar voice."