PROGRAM Nezumi

by Demons of the arch angel

[AU?] Nezumi was living a normal and perfect life. Well, it was perfect up until he finds the white-haired bright-eyed boy hiding inside his covers who tells him his whole life is a lie. What the hell is going on? Who is he supposed to remember? Whatever he needs to remember, he has to do it fast or lose all his memories. - Anime

1. Chapter 1: DELETE FILES

Rating: T+

Pairings: Nezumi x Shion (eventually)

Warnings: OOCness, OCs, rantings from a mad author, inconsistent updates, implying sexual content, grammatical errors, no beta.

Disclaimer: Whims of Anime does not own No. 6, only the plot and the OCs. They belong to their rightful owners. Please support the official release.

Dedication: To nezushijustwantstobefree, who supported this idea.

Anime: Hi guys. I know that I should be updating other stories for this fandom (Story of Evil, DRAMA Is Now In Session, Trick and Treat) but this idea has been in my head for some time and so I decided to upload this story as my first story of my March 2017 comeback. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think. Without further ado, to the story!

~~~ProgramNezumi~~~

1: DELETE FILES?

In a laboratory far from prying eyes, a young man was typing away into multiple laptops. He pushed his glasses on his nose, the sleeves of his lab coat rolled up. He looked nervous, his hands flying through the keyboard rapidly.

He was handsome young man with black hair that was currently slicked back so his bangs wouldn't get in the way of his work. His golden eyes glinted from the reflection of the laptop he was currently working on. He gave out a cry as it shut down and turned to the next. All the laptops, save for one, were flashing a red pop-up that informed him of a virus that was infecting his system.

"Shi, Nez, On, Umi, I'm sorry," He muttered as he glanced at the only virus-free laptop. Something was loading on the screen and the current percentage was eighty-nine percent. He steeled himself as he tried to fix the other laptops. If any of his programs would work, it'd be him, he was sure of it.

"Doctor~." A voice sang from outside his lab door and he froze. He heard knocking and closed the screens of his laptops before he began to put them away, fixing all the papers he had sprawled across his desk.

"Yes, Dr. Kirishima?" He asked, closing the loading laptop halfway. He fixed his hair before he headed to open his door. Once he did, three men entered the room immediately, all of them dressed in black suits before being followed by a middle-aged man in a lab coat. The young doctor's eyes widened, looking distressed, "Dr. Kirishima, why are you-?"

"My darling Haou, how are you today?" A voice called out and Haou froze as an old man was wheeled inside the room. He smiled, "It's not every day that you grace us with your beautiful face, my little prodigy."

"Chairman, if I knew you were coming, I would've cleaned my workstation!" Haou said as he tried to fix his papers. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw it was Dr. Kirishima. The man shook his head and gestured for him to sit down. Haou looked down before nodding, sitting down on his desk. He glanced at the laptop. Only eighty-nine percent left, huh?

"Now, now, Haou, this untidy workstation just shows me that I was right to pick you in this project," The Chairman responded with another smile that was more devilish than anything Haou had seen before. He wheeled in front of the young doctor, "Who could help this operation more than the greatest prodigy No. 6 has ever produced?"

"You flatter me, sir."

"This is not empty flattery, my sweet Haou," The Chairman announced gleefully, "You were able to recreate that blasted boy's system with just one glance at the plans and improved on it greatly. You can do more with it than Shion ever could."

"Really?" Haou said, trying to glance at the laptop. He was nervous. He tried to glance at the laptop without showing interest so they wouldn't notice it. He cleared his throat and fixed his glasses, "So, what is the occasion, Chairman? Someone like you doesn't needlessly visit his lowly workers."

"Well, Haou, I've been having a problem with creating an eighth realm of sleep for our subject so I've been wondering if you could help with that." Haou's dark circles appeared to grow darker as he understood what that man had asked for. He cleared his throat while the Chairman smiled, "It wouldn't be hard to do so, right? So, I ask you-."

"No."

The guards all tensed and seemed to want to raise their guns but Dr. Kirishima stopped them from doing so. The Chairman stared at Haou in shock, who looked at him with what appeared to be anger. Haou shook his head, "We can't keep doing this. We are hurting that boy and for what cause? Just for your sick pleasure in getting rid of the person that toppled down No. 6. Well, I can't do this anymore! He's a human being, dammit!"

"Dr. Haou, compose yourself," The other doctor told the young man before Haou grabbed a screwdriver from his workstation. All the guns the guards carried were lifted and pointed at the young man. A guard even went so far as placing one of his fingers on the trigger. Haou glared at them, his laptop currently forgotten.

"I am done with this project."

The Chairman sighed, "Haou, please reconsider. You know that what we've been doing has been for the best for the restoration of No. 6-."

"I don't want to restore No. 6!" Haou answered, glaring, "Not after everything I've learned in these labs. I know what you did to the people of the forest to get the power of Elyurias. I know what you did to the people of No. 6 in order to revive that goddess. I'm sick of No. 6. I'm glad it collapsed and made way for the world Shion now rules."

"You don't mean that, Haou." The Chairman said before looking at the laptops, "Don't believe everything you read."

"Reading gives you knowledge; why would I not read and expand my knowledge?"

Before anything else could happen, there was a sudden tremor and a blaring sound echoed throughout the building. Surprised, everyone jolted, including the guard that had his finger on the gun's trigger.

The gunshot alerted everyone and they all saw Dr. Haou crumple to the ground. Dr. Kirishima cursed, "You fool, that boy was our unreplaceable asset!" He turned to the other guards, "Take him to the infirmary and try to save him!"

"Sir, he's not breathing!"

"Just take him to the damn infirmary!"

Two guards nodded and, between the two of them, began to carry the limp body of the doctor, everyone else hurrying after them. The Chairman stopped in the doorway to look at the blinking laptop before hurrying after the team that had Haou.

In the lonely laptop that had been abandoned by the human occupants, a message appeared in the screen. It only read:

ASTER . exe successfully installed into PROGRAM_VC-103221

PROGRAM_VC-103221 RAM Eradication at 87%

Nezumi woke up after a long, dreamless night. He yawned, stretching, before he turned to see his alarm clock. It was eight forty-five in the morning on a normal Saturday. He got out of bed and looked down to see his slippers were missing. His sister Eve must have taken them last night after the fight they'd had over who was a better band – Root Five or Linked Horizon – and he and Linked Horizon had won.

His little sister was so petty, he thought as his bare feet touched the cold tile. It was the middle of winter in their simple town of Yamimori so the loss of his slippers was affecting him. Luckily, his heater was on so he didn't really feel that cold.

"Nice try, Eve," He muttered to himself as he headed towards his bathroom. In there, the mirror in front of the sink showed that his shoulder-length slate hair had a serious case of bed hair while his grey eyes were heavy for oversleeping. He yawned and began to comb his unruly hair because he was going out with his friends today.

He had finished his homework last night so he wasn't going to be pressed to finish it Sunday night. The work had been rather easy. He hummed a small tune as he fixed his hair into a small ponytail. He stretched then began to change into the clothes he had picked out last night.

He was wearing a black shirt, a gray coat, dark blue jeans and a gray scarf. He nodded and went to his room to put on his shoes and didn't waste time in putting them on. He left his room and sneaked downstairs to not wake up Eve. His parents were already eating breakfast and drinking coffee in the kitchen. He grabbed a donut and ran out, shouting a goodbye to them before heading to Green Square.

Green Square was the middle of town and named because it also served as the town's park. Trees grew and seemed to mask the beauty of the silver water fountain. People, mostly teenagers, used Green Square as a place to meet up with during the days they had no school so that's where Nezumi was going to meet up with his friends.

"Nezumi, wait!"

He turned to see it was none other than Ayame chasing after him. The girl was one of his close friends from school, someone he had known since he was eleven. She had long auburn hair and violet eyes and was a pretty looking girl. The two had dated once during middle school but they decided to end it after they realized that it'd be better to just be friends. She was dressed in a white coat, a light red scarf and a black skirt that made it up to her knees. Safu always told her to roll them up but Ayame was a shy girl and didn't do so.

"Good morning, Ayame." Nezumi said as he took a bite of his donut.

"Good morning yourself!" She said as she stopped in front of him, panting loudly. She fixed her wind-tossed hair into a high ponytail that reminded him of his own, "Safu and Inu are waiting for us already so we should get going. They're not going to wait for us forever. A shame because I made them bread."

"Hand it over," Nezumi said, still chewing on his donut.

Ayame laughed, swatting his outstretched hand away, "As if. You barely ate breakfast and this is a treat for us for later." She hummed, moving past him. He huffed and the two made their way to Green Square. Ayame sounded cheerful and Nezumi felt annoyed by that because he was not a morning person. Unfortunately, everyone he hung out with was a morning person. He sighed because that was his curse.

The two didn't need to walk long to make it to Green Square. Since it was mid-winter, the trees were bare of leaves so this was the only time of the year where Green Square was called Dead Square. A morbid name but it was fitting for the dead winter landscape of the park.

"Hey there!" Ayame yelled out to Safu and Inukashi, waving rapidly. She rushed to their side, Nezumi walking behind her slowly. He was in no rush to hurry there, after all. Safu and Inukashi were sitting down on the benches next to Kiyoshi and Kadan.

The twins waved at Nezumi, "Tumbled out of bed, princess?"

Nezumi rolled his eyes at them, "At least I bothered to show up."

"Ain't that the truth." Inukashi said. Her long dark brown hair was currently in a braid – a shocking development since she always wore her hair down – so her gender-ambiguous face was visible. She was dressed in a baggy dark purple shirt, black coat and dark blue jeans that were ripped at her knees. The only feminine quality she possessed was her braid and he knew it was most likely Safu that had done it for her.

Safu, unlike Inukashi, had her brown hair down – as her hair barely made it up to her shoulders – while she was dressed in a purple hand-knitted sweater and a black skirt that made it above her knees. She didn't seem to mind the cool weather as she was dressed in such a way but she was able to handle extreme temperatures.

Kiyoshi and Kadan were both black haired boys with hazel eyes but, while Kadan had shoulder-length hair like Nezumi's, Kiyoshi had hair that barely made it past his nape. Kadan had an earring on his right ear and was wearing a black sweater, dark blue scarf and black jeans. Kiyoshi, on the other hand, was wearing a white sweater, green scarf and dark blue jeans.

The nerd, the rebel, the sweetheart, the jerk, the emo and the slacker. That's what they were and no one believed they were friends because of their clashing personalities. Alas, they were friends so arguments in this friendship circle were quite common, some arguments being quite odd. One such argument was the argument between Kadan and Ayame over the topic of Kadan getting another piercing. What an odd group they were.

"Want some?" Inukashi asked, offering some of her cigarettes to Safu. Safu sighed and was about to start another rant that she was killing herself when Kadan took one of them and lit it expertly. Inukashi frowned at him, "I didn't offer them to you."

"You were going to eventually." He responded, blowing the smoke upwards. Kiyoshi coughed and elbowed his brother. Another argument they had was over Inukashi and Kadan's obsession with smoking and neither side had backed down from the fight.

"Don't smoke here, idiots." Nezumi muttered as Inukashi lit up hers as well, "This is a public place. You're gonna kill the kids with second-hand smoke inhalation or something."

"Nezumi's right." Ayame said, crossing her arms, "I don't mind you two smoking but not in places where kids are around." Seeing Ayame angry was a pretty scary sight since she wasn't a person that got angry easily. Being scared by Ayame was also pretty laughable since the girl was about five feet two, the smallest in their group.

"Fine. Then let's get going." Kadan muttered, walking towards the shopping district of Yamimori. Kiyoshi followed after him. Inukashi shrugged and followed suit, Safu walking by her side and looking at Inukashi's braid with the eyes of an expert hairdresser.

Ayame sighed then smiled up at Nezumi, taking his hand, "Let's go then, Nezumi."

PROGRAM_VC-103221 RAM Eradication at 90%

They made Kadan and Inukashi get rid of their cigarettes to get inside the shopping mall, something the two didn't seem to mind as this shopping mall contained the greatest stores in Yamimori. There were a lot of people in so they all headed to the bookstore first.

"Nezumi, let's check out the horror ones first!" Kadan said with a grin. Safu and Kiyoshi went to the non-fiction section and picked up two books, their eyes filled with wonder. Inukashi sat down on the edges of the store while Ayame went to the cookbooks.

Nezumi, on the other hand, went to the books that were on sale. He put a hand on one of the spines of the books and smiled. If it was up to him, he'd end up buying the whole store but he had to be mindful of his money. He paused and gasped, "Collection of Shakespeare's plays?! What are you doing here?"

"Did ya find something?" Inukashi asked him, looking at him in confusion. Nezumi grinned back at her and headed for the counter. There was no way that this great book was on sale.

"Yeah." Nezumi grinned before going to the counter to see if this book really was on sale. When the counter girl - a friend of his named Rita - declared it was true, Nezumi was so happy he almost screamed of joy but he was able to retain himself. He immediately bought the book and waited for the others to finish. He waited with Inukashi as the others took their time. Kadan came by shortly after with three books, all of them from Stephen King, and Ayame followed with six cookbooks.

Safu and Kiyoshi came after them twenty minutes later with five books in hand each, Safu's related to the many sciences while Kiyoshi's were about witchcraft, superstitions and the like.

"Planning on cursing me, little brother?" Kadan asked as he noticed Kiyoshi's book load.

"You wish you were that important." Kiyoshi answered with a laugh. The group all left the bookstore after wishing Rita good luck and headed to other stores. Safu and Ayame dragged Inukashi to a girly store while Nezumi, Kiyoshi and Kadan went to a game store. At one point, Ayame called them so they could see Inukashi in a dress.

"Delete that picture now, Kadan!" Inukashi screamed as the young man held his cell phone high in the air, Inukashi trying to reach up to grab it.

"But you look so adorable, Inukashi." Kadan teased, suddenly hugging her, Inukashi screaming with all of her might to be released. He smiled at the saleswoman charmingly, everyone else just chuckling at the sight, "We'd like to buy this right away."

"Give me back my dignity!" Inukashi yelled, kicking as hard as she could.

"But you look so pretty in it!" Ayame said sincerely. Inukashi cursed at Safu for putting her in the dress before Kadan dragged her out of the store while Nezumi bought the dress.

"You're all assholes." Inukashi announced while Kiyoshi patted her back in reassurance. He must have known what she was going through because he was often the model for Safu and Ayame's dresses.

"Come on, Inukashi, you do look nice in it." Safu told the girl while Nezumi heard his phone give out a small 'ding'. He saw it was a message from Kadan and opened it to see it was the picture of Inukashi in the dress. He snickered, Kadan looking at him with a smirk.

"Boys," Ayame chided, "don't make fun of her. She looks very nice in that dress."

"Whatever." Nezumi said as they headed towards one of their favorite restaurants named Wicked World. Nezumi had barely made it inside when there was loud sound and confetti fell from the ceiling.

"Welcome, one millionth customer!" The workers announced. Nezumi stared at them in confusion before a man that was probably the store owner appeared. Nezumi recognized him as that guy that had a huge crush on Ayame's mother.

"Hello, Rikigia." He said.

"Congratulations are in order, Nezumi," The man said before looking at the group that had followed him, "Hello, Ayame, Safu, Kiyoshi. It's good to see you here in my establishment."

"What are we, chopped liver?" Kadan whispered to Inukashi.

"What is this about one millionth customer?" Nezumi asked.

"Exactly what you heard," Rikigia answered, "As the one millionth customer, for today, you get to eat for free." No way. This had to be a dream. There was no way this was really happening. Those thoughts ran through Nezumi's head while the others cheered and headed to the line, urging him to do the same.

Why was this day filled with such good luck?

PROGRAM_VC-103221 RAM Eradication at 94%

"I'm home!" Nezumi yelled. He checked the time to see it was barely 5:59 p.m. so his family hadn't eaten dinner yet. He smiled and entered the house. His mother came out from the kitchen with her slate-colored hair up in a simple bun and wearing an apron.

"Welcome home, dear." She said gently before Eve followed behind her. His twelve-year-old sister had her slate hair in a messy ponytail while her apron was dirtier than their mother's. Their mother patted Eve on the head, "Eve was just helping me make dinner. It is a special occasion, after all."

"It is?" He asked, taking off his shoes and scarf. He hung his coat on the coat hanger and noticed his father's coat was on the hanger as well, "Dad's here too? Now I'm really curious over what this surprise is."

"You'll see." Eve replied before she took off her apron, "Time for dinner, Dad!"

Nezumi and Eve's father came out from his study, his black-rimmed glasses not hiding the dark circles under his grey eyes. His hair was grey, the same shade as his eyes and Eve's hair, but it wasn't for his age. In fact, his father was just thirty-eight years old while his mother was thirty-seven.

"The man of the hour arrives." He said, ruffling Nezumi's hair before heading into the kitchen, "You're going to love this surprise."

"I'd love it even more if you told me." Nezumi said as his father placed a chaste kiss on his mother's lips. Eve pretended to gag at that and Nezumi rolled his eyes at them before the family of four went inside the dining room.

"Mom, you cooked my favorite. What is the occasion?" Nezumi asked as they all took their seats on the table.

He noticed his parents share a grin while Eve also looked excited. He frowned before his father spoke, "Guess who has been enrolled into Harada Academy."

"No way!" Nezumi yelled while his mother and Eve cheered. Harada Academy was a prestigious university that only allowed six students per school to enter its gates. It had been his dream to enter this school ever since he was a child. He was in it now?

"The acceptance letter came in." His mother said, excited, "I'm ready to frame it already and I've reserved a spot Eve's when she's in her third year." She patted her daughter's head, "I know she's just as brilliant as her big brother."

"I'm proud of you, Nezumi!" Eve announced, clapping her hands, "You're so smart, big brother!"

"This feels too good to be true." Nezumi said with a grin. He'd had incredible luck today. First, his favorite books are on sale, then he was the one-millionth customer of Wicked World and ate for free and now he was enrolled in his dream school.

Life was perfect.

PROGRAM_VC-103221 RAM Eradication at 97%

Nezumi gave out a groan of contentment and got inside his bed. Tomorrow was going to be a slow Sunday where he's just be cooped inside his room either studying or finishing his homework so that would provide him with the time to be away from human interaction. He yawned. Tomorrow was going to be a slow, normal day.

He turned on his side and stiffened when he felt something hiding in the covers with him. His first thought went to Eve – she was still annoyed over the argument from last night, right? – but he remembered she had been asleep when he had gone inside his own room. Fear made his heart beat faster as he lifted the sheets.

Green eyes stared back at his own.

Nezumi prepared himself to scream.

PROGRAM_VC-103221 RAM Eradication PAUSED

CONTINUE Eradication?

~~~ProgramNezumi~~~

Anime: What fun. Now, if this was confusing and seemed choppy, it's because it's meant to be like that. Things will be cleared next chapter. See you guys then. Hopefully I'll update this soon. Bye!

Stage 1 Part 1 END