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Sailor Moon: The DELETE Key

By Chris Jones
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	"What's wrong, Hotaru-chan?" Haruka asked after noticing the
malevolent glare the young woman was directing at the computer
screen.
	"I do *NOT* believe that Ryouko and Ayeka would just...
share... Tenchi like that."
	Haruka shook her head in disbelief. Of all the... "If you don't
like the story, why don't you just delete it?"
	Hotaru turned toward her and grinned. It wasn't a nice grin. It
was a grin that reminded the off duty Sailor Uranus all too much of
'Mistress Nine'. It was the kind of grin that one never wanted to see
from one's friends, let alone someone who you had just about raised
from infancy.
	"Yes," Hotaru replied. "I will *delete* the story."
	Haruka shook her head and sighed. Sometimes she just didn't
understand Hotaru.
	Hotaru's finger reached out, almost of its own accord. It
hovered over the key, trembling slightly. The file's fate hung in the
balance of that wavering finger. Whether it would exist a second from
now was entirely up to her.
	*click*
	"Did you delete it, Hotaru-chan?"
	"Oh yes. I've *deleted* it. It's gone now."
	"Okay. Why don't you find something a little better to read if
you don't like stories like that, okay?"
	"Okay, Haruka-poppa." She smiled that same, evil grin. 
	Haruka decided that it wasn't worth worrying about. She left
the room for her garage. A nice ride through the country would make
her feel better... Yeah...
	Hotaru chuckled silently as she looked for something else to
delete.
	The Delete key was her most favorite key on the keyboard. It
was her favorite thing to do when using the computer. Sometimes she'd
set up for hours simply... *deleting* things.
	When ever Pu or Haruka-poppa or Michiru-mama ever deleted
anything, it went into the 'Recycle-bin' or the 'Crapper' as Haruka
had renamed it. 
	Not Hotaru. When ever she logged on to the computer, she always
changed the settings so that when *she* deleted something, it was
*gone*.
	She had even written a script that would do nothing but create
hundreds of small, unique files with random names in random
directories on the hard drive. She would delight in spending hours
seeking them out one by one and... deleting them!
	She tossed her medium length black hair as she found an old
letter to the bank Michiru-mama had written last year. With relish,
she waited... pounced upon it with her mouse cursor, and deleted it
until it was gone.

* * *

	"Haruka?"
	"Hmmm?"
	The green haired woman had a slightly concerned expression on
her face. 
	"What is it, Michiru-chan?"
	"Do you think that Hotaru is spending too much time on the
computer? I'm starting to worry about her."
	"Nah." The blonde woman pointed through the doorway, where the
younger girl was sitting in front of a programming interface. "She's
just getting into the machine's guts. She's learning about it the way
Ami does. She already knows more about the thing than I do."
	"Are you sure?"
	"Yeah! Don't worry about it."
	
* * *

	It had upset Hotaru to no end when she learned the algorithm by
which the computer deleted files. It didn't actually destroy the
file, but merely removed the first character of the file's name,
making the space it was occupying available for other files.
	That was no way to do things! Just... waiting to be
overwritten. That's not right!
	With a hex editor, Hotaru started going in to each file and
deleting it line by line. While it was fun, it was so slow that she
could only delete a few files a day that way. There were so many
gigabytes and so little time.
	With a little bit of research, Hotaru had learned of a thing
called a 'military' file delete. She downloaded the source code from
the internet and integrated it into the computer's operating system.
Now, whenever she deleted a file, the computer located the first byte
of the file, and started writing "1's" until the end of the file.
Then it went back to the beginning and wrote "0's" over the "1's".
	Sure it was a little bit slower than a normal delete, but it
was *much* more satisfying. It was almost as satisfying as the time
Ami had let her format the hard disk on her computer. Not the Mercury
computer, of course, but Ami's home computer. Hotaru hadn't yet
figured out *how* to delete files on the Mercury computer... yet.

* * *

	"Have either of you seen a copy of that letter I wrote the bank
in September?" Setsuna asked. "I looked on the computer, but you know
how Hotaru likes to keep the hard disk cleaned off."
	Both Haruka and Michiru shook their heads. "I thought you kept
paper copies." Michiru stated. "Is it important?"
	"Not really. I was going through the finances and accidentally
spilled some coffee on it. I thought I'd print a new copy."
	The three were about to separate again, when Setsuna stopped
the other two women. "Does it seem like it runs a little slower to
you?"
	"It's that damned display upgrade," Haruka explained. "It's got
some nice features, but it really slows the machine up. I'll let
Hotaru un-install it this evening."

* * *

	It was hot... just a little too hot, so Hotaru had removed her
clothes. It was after midnight, anyway, so no one would notice.
There, in front of the computer, she sat completely naked, except for
the black nail polish she had finally persuaded Michiru-mama to let
her wear. Oh, and she held the Silence Glaive as well, although that
didn't cover her very well.
	She was almost done with the un-install. There was a script to
do it for her, but Hotaru much preferred to do it file by file. She
even went in and changed the entries in the configuration files by
hand.
	It was so much more.... personal that way.
	With the Silence Glaive held in between her knees, so that she
could type two handed, Hotaru could *feel* each file... *die*... as
she hit the Delete key.
	She would only do it one file at a time, too. She knew that she
could highlight several files and send them all screaming off to
their deaths at the same time, but it just wasn't the same. It was
over far too quickly.
	File by file, she deleted. Sometimes she went to the command
shell just so she could type out "DELETE". She used all the
variations: "DELETE", "DEL", "COPY NUL", and one of her favorites,
"RD", for when a directory was completely empty.
	The Glaive thrummed like a taunt wire as each file faded from
existence. Resting against her naked thighs like that... with the
files disappearing on the computer screen... Hotaru started breathing
heavily. The thrill was almost... sexual.

* * *

	With a thoughtful expression, Haruka stepped into the bedroom
and closed the door. She shrugged off the terry robe she had been
wearing and hung it over a chair. Naked, she sat on the bed.
	"What's wrong?" Michiru asked from underneath the thin silk
blanket.
	Haruka shook her head. "Ummm... I think you're right. I think
Hotaru may be spending too much time on the computer."
	"What happened?"
	"I went in to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and caught
her masturbating in front of the computer."
	"Oh, my."
	"She was using the Silence Glaive."
	"You're kidding!"
	"I wish I was." Haruka ran a slender hand through her short
blonde hair. "I mean, most people do that from time to time. But...
Hotaru? Our little Hotaru?! And the Silence Glaive?!?!"
	"You didn't say anything, did you?" Michiru asked.
	"I don't even think she noticed me. She was pretty occupied
with what she was doing." The woman pulled at her hair slightly,
trying to clear the images and sounds of the younger girl's
activities from her brain.
	Several seconds of uncomfortable silence passed between the
two.
	"It had to happen sooner or later," Michiru suggested. "We'll
have to talk with her tomorrow because I just don't think it's very
healthy in front of the computer like that. What was she looking at?
Ecchi photos?"
	"Now that's what really gets me," Haruka replied. "She's been
reading some pretty raunchy stories off the internet lately, but when
I was in there just now, there wasn't anything on the screen."
	"Just the desktop?"
	"Un-uh. Just a blank screen. There wasn't a thing on it."
	
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Characters of 'Sailor Moon' and the
likenesses thereof are used without
permission.

* * *
C. Jones
http://www.furinkan.net