That Wasn't Supposed To Happen

Novus Socius

Byakuya had been waiting in the dressing room of the bathhouse for a few minutes when Chihiro walked in.

"So, what is so important that you have to tell me in the bathhouse of all places?" Byakuya asked bluntly, wasting to time.

"I-I wanted to show you something that I've been working on..." Chihiro said softly, walking towards one of the lockers.

Byakuya watched in silence as the smaller boy pulled a laptop of all things out of one of the lockers and set in down on one of the benches.

"A... laptop?" Byakuya asked, getting closer to the bench on which the laptop sat.

Instead of responding, Chihiro turned the laptop on and opened a program. A nearly identical version of the programmer's face appeared on the screen.

"Master! You're here again! And who's that with you?" The face asked curiously.

Chihiro typed something on the laptop as he spoke.
"This is Alter Ego... I made him while we were trapped here..."

"Alter Ego? As in another me? Is it an AI then?"

"Yeah! I programmed him onto the computer we found in the library and he has been working on decoding the files on here! I believe he might be finished!" Chihiro responded excitedly, finally stopping with typing.

Before Byakuya could respond to the smaller boy, Alter Ego spoke again, this time addressing Byakuya.

"Oh! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chihiro Fujisaki! You're one of Master's friends, right?" The AI asked, tilting its head slightly.

"...Friends?" Byakuya questioned while looking at the programmer.

"Ah, sorry! I didn't think he'd say that..." Chihiro responded, blushing slightly from embarrassment and typing something again on the laptop.

Alter Ego's eyes widened in embarrassment before it spoke.

"Oops, my bad! It's just that Master has been quite insistent with keeping me a secret..." The AI trailed of, looking quite a lot like it's creator at the moment.

"That is something I wanted to talk about. Why did you show me this?" Byakuya asked, arms crossed and the slightest hint of curiosity in his voice.

The brown-haired boy's whole demeanour changed as Byakuya asked that. All of the confidence Chihiro previously had seemingly disappeared and the timid side of him appeared again.

"I-I, well..." Chihiro began nervously, looking at the ground. Then, suddenly, he looked the taller boy right in the eye, seemingly having a bit of his confidence regained.

"I trust you with this! You may not want to be my friend, but I know that I can trust you with this, just like with my other secret," Chihiro finished, every word coming out more confidently.

"It's not the worst reasoning, I'll give you that," Byakuya said in response, using one of his hands to push his glasses back up.

"Now, you said earlier that Alter Ego might have decoded the files on the laptop, right?" Byakuya asked, getting back to the more important subject.

"Y-yeah! I'll ask him!" Chihiro responded, turning back towards the laptop, and beginning to type something on it. It didn't take long for the AI to respond.

"I did, Master! It took some time, but I decoded all of them!" The AI answered cheerily.

The programmer typed something in response and Alter Ego started speaking again.

"Sure! I analysed the files and extracted all the useful information I could find. And one particularly important fact I discovered was that a certain plan had been put into effect here; ''" The AI began while looking at Chihiro.