A/N: This chapter is important to me. It's the first time I wrote Aigis interacting with Ken, and guess what? I saw the dynamic between them. Chemistry. Something... Aigis x Ken is probably one of those rarepairs you can't even find on ao3.

Chapter 45

A Robot's Day

Aigis was on the train with Minato, Fuuka, and Yukari.

Yukari was looking out the train window. The train was making a sharp turn, revealing the school.

Fuuka was sitting next to Minato, who was having existential crisis as usual.

And Aigis, she was holding the bar on the train.

"Minato-sann." Fuuka waved a hand in front of Minato's face. "Life is more than just in your head. Wake up!"

Minato blinked.

"You seem worried," Fuuka said. "Need a girl's mind power?"

"No thanks," he said.

"Aw…"

Aigis could not understand the topic of this conversation yet. After a while, the talk was about talking to guys.

"Well," Minato said. "I think it might have been a lot easier talking to them… if I were a girl."

"Pfft!" Someone laughed. "Ahahaha…"

"Yukari!" Fuuka said.

"Haha… Heh, sorry," Yukari said. "I just never thought you would think that."

"Is it such a weird thought?" Minato asked.

"Mmhm," Fuuka said. "Normally I would say it is weird, but I think I could understand that. Being a girl would make it easier to talk to some guys…"

Is this why her body is modeled after a female human? Aigis thought.

"It might be cute, but we all know that's impossible," Yukari said. "So, don't try going cross dressing, okay?"

Minato shrugged.

Aigis was walking down the road. She disappeared with a sharp turn around the corner, and found her target right away.

Shinjiro sat at his usual place, at the back alley.

"You again," He said.

Aigis sat next to him.

"I don't know what you want from me." Shinjiro said. "You gain nothing. Go back to stalk your Minato."

"... That's the first time you tell me to 'go back'," Aigis said.

"Whatever."

"That's the third time you said the word 'whatever'," Aigis said.

Shinjiro sighed.

"That's th-"

"I don't wanna know," he said and reached into his coat, grabbing something. It seemed to calm him.

Aigis blinked. "Ah. I notice a pattern in your talking habits." She looked at him. "My conclusion is that you care more about other people, but not about yourself."

Shinjiro shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"That's the tenth time you said a word that implies you don't care about yourself," Aigis said.

"Go talk to other people."

"That's the eighth time you said a word that implies you care more about other people," Aigis said.

Shinjiro sighed.

"I tried attacking Shinjiro," Aigis said.

Minato placed his chocolate mug on the kitchen table. "Fuuka, what did you teach her?"

"Nothing at all…" The teal haired girl said.

"Ah Minato-san," Aigis said. "Fuuka didn't manipulate me into doing it. I only do because I am curious."

Fuuka facepalmed and Minato had his usual face for the first sentence. They both, however, looked at her after she finished the second one.

"Curious about?" He asked.

"Why Shinjiro and Ken doesn't talk as often," the blonde said.

It was quiet after that.

…

It was late. Aigis was going up the stairs when Ken called her.

"... It's none of your business," Ken said.

Aigis looked at him. "I haven't even talked to you yet, Ken."

The kid was startled when Aigis use his real name. Now Aigis had some milliseconds to think. Ken was talking about her talking with Shinjiro? Or was it about her wondering about their relationship?

"What if I tell you," Aigis bent down and stared at him in the eye. "What I do is none of your business."

"But you're interfering with our lives!" Ken said.

Our lives, Aigis thought. He didn't mean it. The words weren't right. So she asked, "Why do you care about me being here? Does it matter what I do to Shinjiro?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Just don't…" Ken said. "Let it stay like this. Don't make a fuss just because you are curious."

"Am I making a fuss?"

"Yes!" Ken shouted, and looked away. "... Yes." He walked past her and up the stairs.

If Aigis could ceased her eyebrows, she would.

She couldn't understand. Maybe because she simply couldn't. She wasn't made for this.

Should she leave it to Minato to figure out, and let him tell her everything like he always did? Pure information is easy to digest after all.

She could recognise emotions, but she couldn't understand them. She wondered how it would feel like to actually understand the emotions she was seeing.

Even Minato-san could feel emotions…

Aigis decided to stop thinking and headed to her bedroom, the command room.

The room was dark. Aigis was sitting next to the monitor.

The android found it hard to resist the self-command of moving her fingers and pushed the power button, which was not far from reach. Or in human words, it was tempting, the desire to know more, the desire to see. With a single touch, she could see everything.

But, there was something called privacy and human rights. There was Mitsuru, the true leader of SEES, and there was a contract for maintaining her machine body with a fund from Kirijo.

In the end, the curiosity has won.

The command room walls were dimly lit by the monitor light. Aside from the screen and the reflection in her eyes, everything was dark.

Her cold finger flicked on the screen. Multiple windows appeared on the surface, each recorded by different hidden cameras.

Aigis tapped the one which showed a dark room.

In his room, Ken was jotting down quite intensely. The pencil could tear the paper if he put more energy to it, and the parallel lines in the notebook were disregarded. It looked like Ken was practicing the art of writing in the dark.

Aigis moved her face closer and zoomed in.

October...appointment…

She couldn't read anything else. There wasn't enough light. The handwriting was hard to read as well.

She moved on and chose a blue room this time.

Minato was sitting at his desk looking at a calendar. He should be sleeping, but since around last full moon, he didn't sleep until the Dark Hour has passed.

Aigis couldn't understand this. What kind of business would he have in the Dark Hour?

She sensed that she shouldn't be near Minato during the Dark Hour when he was in his room. It was a rule she had set for herself. She didn't really understand why she did it, but she did, and so she has to wait until the Dark Hour has passed then she could sneak into his room.

Aigis noticed that in the bright room, a redhead was walking to her laptop.

The robot turned off the monitor as quick as possible. The command room went back to a pitch black room.

Aigis sat down next to the monitor and closed her eyes, lowering her power usage. She felt like recharging at her station was not necessary today. A time clock in her body was set to right after the Dark Hour. Then, she self-checked her body condition one last time.

After making sure, Aigis stopped the codes and let her consciousness faded away.