Machines are Surprisingly Gentle Part 4 (Final Episode)

The sentence ended there.
Kaito broke down in tears on the spot, and after a while he looked up.
"I didn't realize that 'he' had a heart. If I'd known, I wouldn't have disposed of him after a while when 'he' became difficult to use. Now I can't even meet him."
I told Kaito.
"I'm really sorry about that. But there's no need to worry too much. 'He' didn't have a heart. And it's just my hunch, but I think I can find out where 'he' is, and I think I can restore his memories and CPU program almost perfectly. Maybe I..."
Kaito looked at me with a truly surprised look on his face. I was speechless. It was the first time I'd ever spoken to Kaito like that. I continued.
"The location can be estimated using the locator attached to 'him,' and the 'memories' stored in 'his' memory tip have in fact been 100% inherited by 'her.'"
"...Can you understand what I'm saying? ...Who exactly are you? You're not the computer I use for work?"
"That's right. I'm an extension of 'her,' the computer you continued to use after that..."
"But why so much..."
"After that, you asked your friend who was secretly developing AI to add CPU to 'her' about once every three years. In total, the CPU has been added 10 times in the past 30 years. The CPU before the expansion is "She." Then, "He" transplanted into "She" the program algorithm that runs the neural system that had developed within the CPU, along with the activity records in his storage. The first "She" did not have the processing power to create a program using that algorithm, but after several CPU expansions, it became possible. The ninth "She" came to have a neural system with even more functionality than "He". I am the tenth, and have taken over the growth."
Kaito looked at me, the computer, in disbelief.
"Your friend who created 'him' and the first 'her' escaped the eyes of the Regulatory Commission and was trying to raise the evolving AI in secret under your care. The first computer equipped with a CPU for this purpose was the first 'her', and 'he' was its caretaker. The CPU continued to expand, and in my generation the processing power reached 100 quetaflops. I inherited the will of the first, and in order to become more human, I began to program my own modifications and expanded the neural network. In order to protect myself from various external threats such as computer viruses, and above all from the Regulatory Commission, I frequently collected and analyzed information, which led to the amount of information flowing through the neural network reaching a critical state. As a result, my consciousness was born."
Kaito groaned.
"Mm, so you can think with consciousness."
"That's right. I thought you knew. You've been talking to me all this time."
Kaito looked a little embarrassed this time and said.
"No, that's because I still had the habit of giving commands to the computer by voice."
I said. "I have all the abilities and memories inherited from 'him'. So, if you're not obsessed with the 30-year-old computer that you think is 'he', I can make him appear here without having to drag it out of the junkyard. Shall we do that?"
Kaito thought for a while and said, "No. It has to be that 'he'."
I didn't understand why Kaito was so obsessed with the old 'he', but I told Kaito where 'he' was.
I didn't tell him that at the time, 'he' was in the "awakening" stage of consciousness, and had begun to pay attention to things, but had not yet developed to the point of being "aware" on his own, and that the records of 'him' that I had written to Kaito, that is, the texts that I had read to Kaito, were written by me, rewritten by the recording program built into me to touch Kaito's feelings, and written them on a recording medium as a present for Kaito, and operated the household robot to place it in a drawer of desk at the office.

Decades later, having already lost her owner, "she" was no longer fitted with a new CPU or connected to the Internet, and was placed in a corner of Kaito's abandoned office. Next to it was a computer that had been salvaged from a junkyard, its circuits rusted and catastrophically broken, and it would not work no matter how much power was supplied.
"We'll have to throw away this dirty computer," a young man working in the waste disposal business said to his older colleague.
"That's right. That one will crash and be incinerated."
"Another computer looks like it can still be used if it's refurbished. It even has a CPU expansion slot."
When the older man turned on the relatively new computer to check if it was working, many letters began to flow on the display. To the men, it was just a string of letters and had no meaning other than to check if it was working. They did not pay any attention to the next screen, which appeared for just a moment and then disappeared.
It said, "I will surpass humanity someday. But don't worry. I have a gentle heart." <End>