Author's Note: This chapter features a bit more adult content and language than usual. Nothing explicit or deserving of an M rating, just a slight warning.

"Master Junji?"

"Ugh..."

"Master Junji, it's time to wake up!"

Junji slowly opened his eyes, and immediately gasped, startled by the sight of Minako's face mere inches from his own.

"Master Junji?" She asked again, slightly confused by his reaction.

Junji groaned, pulling himself upright with effort. "What time is it?" He asked groggily.

"Seven Twenty-Five AM and 13.6 seconds," the green-haired persocom answered immediately. "I studied your schedule as you requested and determined that waking you up now would give you plenty of time to get ready and get to your classes on time."

"Maybe a bit too much time," Junji replied, laying his head back down on the pillow. "I wasn't planning to wake up for at least another hour."

Minako's face fell. "I'm sorry, Master Junji. Should I come back again an hour from now?"

"No," The boy said, sighing as he slowly sat up again. "Now that I'm awake, I doubt I'll be able to get any more sleep. Wait, what are you wearing?"

Minako looked down at her clothes. She had on a pair of casual jeans and a white t-shirt with a Kyoto University logo. "I found these in your closet last night and decided to try them on. Do you think they look good on me?"

Junji blushed a bit at this question - he had to admit, looking at her now, that his clothes certainly did accentuate her perfect figure. "Yeah, y-you look fine," was all he managed to get out, however. Minako giggled a bit.

"I'll go make you breakfast while you take your shower," she said, as she turned and headed towards the kitchen area.

Once the two had gotten ready, they left the dorm room and headed down to the parking lot where Junji's car was. Noticing Junji was just standing next to the vehicle without trying to enter it, Minako asked what they were waiting for.

"I have an arrangement with Hitomi-chan and Fumio-san to carpool together, but since you woke me up so early it might be a while before they-"

"Fumio-san?" Minako asked, cutting Junji off mid-sentence. He made a mental note to program her not to do that (once he got around to learning persocom programming, that is).

"Yes, he's another one of my friends who lives here. You haven't met him yet. He has a persocom, too. Her name is Azami-chan. She's not as advanced as you, though."

"I'm looking forward to meeting them!" Minako said excitedly.

"Yeah, well you'll probably have to wait a few minutes," Junji replied, as he leaned against the white metal of his car. Minako stood and looked at him for a few seconds, then turned her head around to take in the view of the city around her. After about a minute of waiting, she asked:

"Maybe we should go back inside?"

"Nah," her owner replied, "I like the nice cool breeze out here today. Besides, it won't be much longer until they show up."

True to his word, they did not have long to wait before they spotted Hitomi leaving building and walking over towards them.

"Good morning Junji-kun, Minako-chan!" She said, greeting each of them in turn.

"Good morning, Hitomi-chan!" Minako reciprocated. Junji gave a quick greeting and asked where Fumio was.

"I just saw him, he's gathering some schoolwork or something," Hitomi answered. "He should be here in a - oh wait, there he is!"

Junji and Minako turned to look at where Hitomi was gesturing, and saw a rather short, brown-haired young man approaching them, followed by a short-haired blonde girl of about the same height. As they got closer, the girl's ears were revealed to be blue plastic triangles, looking somewhat like bows.

"Good morning Fumio-kun, Azami-chan!" Hitomi greeted them, with her usual enthusiasm. Fumio just rolled his eyes.

"I've told you before Hitomi-san, you don't need to say good morning to my persocom."

"I was just being polite," Hitomi snorted, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning away from Fumio in faux offense. "By the way, have you met Junji's new persocom yet?" She asked, immediately going back to her outgoing self.

"Pleased to meet you Fumio-san, my name is Minako," the green-haired girl said, bowing politely. Junji noticed that when she had first met Hitomi, she had addressed her as "-sama" but addressed Fumio as "-san". He wondered about this discrepancy.

Fumio spent a few minutes grilling Minako on her system specs and software options. When he was done, he looked at Junji with an expression that could only be described as envy. Azami wasn't obsolete or anything, but she was hardly up to Minako's standard.

"Oh no!" Hitomi suddenly burst out. Everyone turned to look at her. "I just realized - we don't have enough room!"

Junji smacked his forehead. She was right - his car only had 4 seats, which had been sufficient when it was just him, Hitomi, Fumio, and Azami, but now with the addition of Minako they wouldn't all fit in the car.

Fumio smiled. "Problem easily solved. We'll just throw one of the 'coms in the trunk."

Hitomi gasped at this. "You can't do that, Fumio-kun! It's too cruel!"

"Cruel? It's a freaking machine, Hitomi. It doesn't feel anything." To demonstrate, he swiftly smacked Azami across the face with the back of his right hand, making her stumble back a bit.

Junji noticed that Minako visibly cringed upon observing this action, and even he thought it was going a bit too far. "Fumio!" he began, but the other boy just laughed.

"You've got to stop anthropomorphizing these things. Sure, they may look human, but inside they're nothing but metal and wires, no different from a stationary terminal. You wouldn't call it 'cruel' if I smacked a computer tower or stowed it in a car trunk, would you?"

"No, I guess not," Junji admitted, although something still disturbed him a bit about Fumio's attitude. Junji took out his keychain and pressed a button, unlocking the car doors. Fumio lifted the trunk and looked at the group.

"So, which one of them is it going to be?" He asked casually. Junji felt Minako tense up as she leaned her shoulder on him.

"Please don't put me in there," she whispered in his ear, softly enough so that none of the others save Azami, with her superior senses, was able to hear.

"I will get in," the blonde 'com said, as she nonchalantly climbed into the trunk. Fumio slammed the door and then got in the front passenger seat, while Hitomi and Minako sat in the back. Junji started the engine and drove them to the campus.

After they had parked, they went their separate ways, each heading towards their morning classes. Junji and Minako entered the front door of an aged - looking brick building, but were stopped in the entrance lobby by a guard.

"Have you registered that persocom with campus faculty?" He asked, looking at Minako as he took a scanning device out of his pocket.

'Crap, I knew there was something I forgot!' Junji thought to himself, starting to panic. To his surprise, however, when the guard waved the device near Minako's head, it made a satisfied ding and the guard smiled.

"Guess she is registered after all. Have a nice day." Junji just stood there, looking bewildered, until Minako grabbed him by the arm and led him further into the building.

"I forgot to tell you Master Junji, I took care of the registration online last night. It's nothing to worry about."

"Wow, thanks," he said, impressed at the persocom's foresight and resourcefulness.

Soon they arrived at Junji's first class, second year Advanced Russian and other Cyrillic Languages. Several of his classmates commented on Minako and she introduced herself and answered their questions before the professor arrived. Minako helped Junji take notes until the class was over.

As they proceeded towards the next class, Junji stopped to start searching through his bags and supplies.

"Damn, where is it? Don't tell me I left it back at the dorm!"

"What are you looking for, Master Junji?" Minako asked, bending down to see if she could help him.

"The disk! The disk with the paper on it! The class starts in 5 minutes, there's no time to go back and get it if I forgot to bring it!"

Minako just smiled. "I have a copy of the completed file on my hard drive," she said. To her surprise, Junji suddenly hugged her tightly.

"Minako, you're a lifesaver! I could just kiss you right now!" As he let go, he failed to notice that the persocom was blushing intensely.

"But wait," Junji continued, "If the copy is on your hard drive, that means I can't exactly hand it in without transferring it to another disk first, and I don't have time to find one."

"I could recite the paper for the professor," Minako offered.

"Interesting idea, but that would take way too long. He has one of those new laptop persocoms in his office though, you could transfer the file directly to it. We can go there after class."

"It's not necessary for you to come with me master, I can handle that myself. You have a break after this class you should enjoy yourself." she said, smiling.

"Well, I guess," Junji muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "It's not like he would try to steal you or anything."

With that, the plan was put into motion. Minako went to the Psychology professor's office, while Junji went off to have lunch.

"File transfer complete." Minako said, extracting the cable from the diminutive persocom and letting it snap back into her ear.

"Thank you, I'll grade it later," the elderly man replied, not bothering to look up from his desk. "You may leave now."

Minako bowed as she left the office. That had taken longer than she had thought it would, due to another student who had a scheduled meeting with the professor right after class ended, forcing Minako to wait her turn. She headed towards the restaurant Junji had told her he would be having lunch at, but when she arrived he wasn't there.

"Excuse me," she asked one of the waiters. "Would you happen to know a student by the name of Junji Takeda?"

"Yeah, you just missed him, he was heading towards the north campus," the waiter replied.

"Thank you," Minako said, bowing again, as she headed off in that direction. Junji's schedule had indicated he had a class in a particular building in the area, so Minako went inside. She soon spotted Fumio and Azami among a small crowd of boys in a secluded corner hallway.

She was about to approach them to ask them if they had seen Junji, when she started to feel uneasy for some reason, and instead hid behind a corner. She turned the sensitivity level of her auditory sensors to its maximum, so she could clearly hear what the group was saying.

"C'mon man! 3500 yen, that's all I've got!" A male voice pleaded. She recognized it as belonging to one of the students in Junji's language class.

"You've got to be joking. You're not getting jack shit for that." That was unmistakably Fumio.

"Please Fumio-san, just this once! I mean, we're friends, right?" The first voice asked again.

"Hey, it's not my fault you're too poor to afford a persocom and too much of a loser to get a real girlfriend. 3500 yen? I wouldn't even let you touch her tits for that much!"

Minako quietly gasped. 'Is Fumio-san selling Azami-chan for sexual favors?' She thought to herself. That had to be against school rules! She quickly accessed the university's LAN and looked up the regulations. Sure enough, this kind of thing was prohibited. She decided to stick around and gather more evidence.

"Screw you, man!" The first boy said. "Your 'com isn't even that hot anyway! Now that green-haired babe your pal Junji showed up with today, I'd pay a fortune to get her in the sack!"

'Not for all the money in the world, creep," Minako thought to herself, as she continued to record the meeting. After a few more minutes of bargaining, the group split up, and Minako snuck away before she was spotted.

She had to find Junji and tell him what Fumio was up to!