I woke up and saw a white ceiling. My whole body ached and trying to get up was already one hell of a chore. How long has it been since I felt like this?

"Where the hell am I?" I asked myself. the only response I got was being tackled by a blonde blur. Can't… breath. Blur…has…too strong… grip.

"Thank god you're awake. " The blur sobbed. Wait, I know that voice from somewhere.

"Cecilia?" I asked hesitantly. She let go of me and I saw her worried face with tears in her eyes. I (finally) recognized the place where I was as the infirmary. Why am I here, lying in a bed? At that moment Orimura-sensei walked in.

"you're finally awake. I got some questions for you about the match." She said sternly. How cruel, I just became conscious, my body hurts all over and I barely remembered what happened. Have some mercy please. Oh wait, you don't have it. Stupid of me to forget that.

"Sensei, can't it wait until he recovered some more?" Cecilia tried to defend me. A valiant attempt, but it'll be in vain knowing the Demon Instructor. Don't glare at me like that Chi-chan, you know it's true.

" What did you use during the match? Normally it's impossible to steal the equipment of another IS." She asked me. Cecilia also looked in anticipation at my response. Oh right, I stole her BITs.

"G, run a system check and give me a line to Nee-san. I've gotta ask her some questions." G materialized right next to my bed being very busy with a screen. Cecilia and Chifuyu looked at her in shock. I looked surprised at her hair. Her fiery red hair gained a blonde streak in her bless.

"I'm running a system check, but I'm having some trouble here as to what I have to classify the program." She said seriously concerned.

"Who are you?" Cecilia asked baffled. How am I going to explain this one?

"I'm the personalization of his IS Core, so basically I'm his AI. Just call me G." she said while studying the rogue program. Well, that's one way of introducing yourself G.

"what do you mean you can't classify what the program is?" I asked her.

(Warning, the following explanation written here is partially based on a video game and does not hold any real scientific credibility. You get a virtual cookie if you can guess which video game)

"This Program has changed my most basic runtimes, but instead of completely changing all the programs, he used that opening to add an advanced processor with a more accurate calibrator, which improves my runtimes, a stronger firewall to the other files and a few new programs that could be used for further advancements and upgrades."

"And now in normal English with an explanation about what that runtime is please? And did you do something with your hair, cause that streak of blonde looks pretty good on you." I asked her.

"I'll explain it as simple as possible then. My calibrator calculates equations which define how my programs run. For example, the result of an equation is 1.3385 and thanks to that I act as I do now. However, if the result of the same equation comes back as 1.3384 my behavior will be completely different. So if a virus gets in there, I might completely crash. But the Program that activated itself during the match, improved that calibrator and thanks to that one improvement all of my programs improved and I received those new programs and processor."

"So basically you got a big upgrade thanks to that program. Is it that worrisome?" Cecilia asked.

"The problem lies somewhere more delicate. Normally, I'm able to retrace the origins of the programs and I can determine if it's a safe program or not. But this one doesn't have a origin. It's like it created itself in my core." G looked really anxious. With a good reason. A mysterious program came out of nowhere in the thing that keeps me alive? I'm either blessed or screwed and I really hope it's the first one.

"And what about the 'borrowed' equipment? Can you do something about that?" I asked G.

"How should I say this? The BITs became umm… a part of our equipment and we can't give it back."

"…"

"…"

"You serious? Didn't I ask you to temporary control them, not to steal them?" I asked G.

"It all happened because of that Program. I can't help it!" G exclaimed.

"So what are we going to do about the BITs? This is becoming a problem." I sighed.

"Hmm, that is a problem indeed. Can you send me a copy of the data Haru-chan?" I heard Nee-san's voice. A screen popped up and we all saw her. She saw Orimura-sensei and waved at her.

"Hey Chi-chan, how are you doing?" she asked.

"Nee-san, please focus. Can you do something about the BITs that I control now?" I asked her.

"Why not just keep them? I can always send her better ones within the next four days." She said nonchalant. We all looked in surprise at her.

"Would you really do that?" Cecilia asked. Nee-san nodded with her goofy grin. A ping came from G as a sign that the date was sent.

"Well, then I have to get to work. See you later Haru-chan." The screen disappeared. Well, that was random. The three of us just stood there, looking at each other.

"Well, if there isn't anything else, I'm going to eat something. Are you coming along Cecilia?" I asked her while getting up. She must have seen how my legs were shaking, because she helped me getting up and let me use her as a support. The walk to the cafeteria was silent.

"How long have I been out?" I asked her.

"Only a few hours, but he doctor said you would be out for at least two days." Cecilia said softly. Wow, this core gave me High Speed Regeneration. I think that's the most useful perk I got from it.

"They obviously have never met me if they thought that." I tried to cheer her up. She looked a bit assured.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest in bed?" she asked me.

"After I ate. I'm really hungry." As to prove my point, my stomach let out a low grumble. We entered the cafeteria and all eyes were on us. The girls started whispering to each other as we passed. Ichika came to me worried.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, just pushed myself a bit too far." I said with a sheepish grin. I got hit on the back of my head. Dammit G, you could at least have let the shields on. I saw Houki with an angry expression.

"Are you trying to get me back to the infirmary?" I asked her.

"You deserved it with making us worrying like that!" Houki yelled back.

"oh please, it was nothing serious to worry about." I scoffed.

"then what do you call serious?"

"Things like losing a limb, a lot of blood loss and not passing out from a bit of overexertion."

"Normal people don't think like that!"

"Well sorry for not being a normal person !" I yelled angry at Houki. She looked at me with wide eyes realizing how she hurt me with that simple sentence. This was the first time someone heard me yell with that tone. I detached myself from Cecilia and walked away to my room. I slammed the door behind me and just let myself fall on my bed.

"you don't have to remind me that I'm not normal, you idiot." I said softly. Honestly, she knows my secret and my past so why does she think I have the same mentality as other teenagers? After a few minutes of a comforting silence, I heard someone knocking. When I didn't respond, I heard the person calling from the other side.

"Haru-san? Are you in here?" I heard Cecilia ask. When I didn't respond, she opened the door to see me lying on my bed. She walked to my bed and sat down next to my face. After a minute of silence she started speaking.

"You're quite the hypocrite, you know?" she said with a small smile. I lifted my head and had a deadpanned face.

"how so?"

"You told me that you never talk with your enemy until the fight is over, and yet we talked during most of the match." She pointed me out. I thought back to our fight.

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it…" I said nonchalantly. This is what was inside my mind at the moment : "How could I have let myself fall in that stereotypical trap during battles that only happens in anime?"

"Haru-san?" Cecilia asked me. She was close to my face. I jolted backwards because of the surprise and somehow she ended up right on top of me, our faces only inches from each other. How did this happen? She gained slight blush on her face and looked like she wanted to run away embarrassed, but her eyes shine determined like she wanted to do something that could change everything. WHY THE HELL AM I IMAGINING CECILIA AND ME NAKED UNDER THE BED SHEETS? STOP! BAD HARU, BAD!

"Haru" she called my name softly. I tensed up and looked at her. She wasn't going to… if she does I'm not going to complain. I'll be freaked out, but I'm not gonna complain.

"The reason you acted like you did against Shinonono-san, is it because of the IS core in your body?"

I froze. "H-how…" I asked, not being able to make proper sentences.

"I saw the core when you fainted in the landing zone. Shinonono-san quickly covered it up before anybody else saw it but me. Haru, what are you ?" she asked me.

It's a good question. What am I? a man, machine, neither or just an experiment that was finished by someone else than that organization? Cecilia noticed my tenseness and cupped my face in her hands. She gently kissed my forehead. I looked at her in surprise.

"your actions from the fight should've proved you're human." She said with a gentle smile.

"I could also be the Terminator, although I don't have the same amount of muscles like Schwarzenegger." I joked. She smiled and left the room. At the door she stopped for a second.

"That kiss was to say thanks for saving me." She said with a wink. She left the room and I was left in a daze. I'm pretty sure that if girls leave with giving you a kiss and a wink that it means something, right? At that moment Houki walked in.

"Haru, I came to… what happened?" she asked me. I didn't hear her and just sat there. Houki looked at me for 3 seconds and then slapped me in the face with her trademark scowl. The 'I'm going to send you back to last week' kind of slap, not the soft 'hey wake up' pat on the cheek.

"Thanks for bringing me back. What's up Houki-chan?" I asked her with a smile. She came close to my face and sniffed.

"There's been another girl here with you." She said quite emotionless.

"You can smell that?"

"Well, you don't wear perfume so it was kinda obvious." She said with a straight face.

"So why did you come here again?" I asked her, trying to change subject.

"I came to apologize for what I said. I forgot what you have been through and thought you were a normal guy." She said embarrassed. She looked surprised when I gave her a quick hug.

"I overreacted because of the hunger and tiredness, so you it's not ENTIRELY your fault." I told her.

"W-what was that hug good for? This isn't like you." She exclaimed.

"Sorry, but you, Nee-san and Genki are the closest thing to a family that I have, so I thought I should be a bit more affectionate towards you guys." I said sheepishly.

"you think of me as family?" she asked me.

" as the way too strict tsundere-sister who can't be honest with her crush and herself." I said with a grin.

"What?" she asked me.

"Oh please, Ichika may be too dumb to notice it, but I know you like him. It was kinda obvious." A shinai was pressed against my throat by Houki, which had a dark purple aura coming from her. DAMMIT G, REACTIVATE THE SHIELDS UNLESS YOU WANT ME KILLED! AND WHERE THE HELL DIT THAT SHINAI COME FROM?

"You are NOT going to tell him that I like him, understood?" she threatened me. I nodded.

"Good. Well I'm gonna take a shower in my room." She said calmly as she left. G materialized next to me with a grin.

"You sly fox. I like your plan." She said with a grin. I grinned to. Fortunately she never told me that I'm not allowed to find out what Ichika feels toward her. This is going to be fun.

"Fufufufufu, I can't wait to see the results." I heard Nee-san's voice. I looked sideways and saw a screen with her face on again.

"You were spying on us again?" I asked her.

"G told me what you were up to, so I just came to wish you good luck. That and the new BITs will be ready in two instead of four days, so you can help that girl train and spend some time with her." She looked at me with the same sly smile G had.

"Wh-what do you mean with that?" I asked with a red face. They just laughed while disappearing slowly. It really scared the crap outta me. They really are people to reckon with. I ate something and went to bed after a shower, still feeling exhausted.

I was standing on barren grounds, completely withered and with dead plants. A bit further was a small oasis. I walked towards it. Right next to it stood G with the BITs ready to fire. The one she aimed at was.. wait am I seeing it correctly? She's aiming at a wolf with a metal arm and claws, each one 6 inches long. One leg was mechanical. It had a partial breast plate and a mechanical eye that was blood red like the natural one. It's fur was as black as the night. It saw me and kneeled.

"Greetings Master." It spoke, ignoring G and her BITs.

"Master?" I asked confused.

"Watch out Haru, he's the Rogue Program." G told me.

"I am and yet I'm not." The cyborg werewolf spoke. I looked at it, him, her, whatever its gender was.

"Then what are you?" I asked.

"Allow me to explain. You know that this girl here the personification of your IS Core is, right?" I nodded. It continued his explanation, ignoring G's tantrum about being called a girl and not young lady and blah blah blah.

"I am the personification of your instincts, your feelings and your mind. You could say that that while she functions as your Mind, I function as your Instinct. And that resulted in the creation of the Survival Program."

"How can his instincts create a Rogue Program?" G asked skeptically.

"The human's ability to adapt is truly an amazing thing. Over their existence, they have come across animals stronger and faster than them, yet we can hold them in cages now. Some people whose ancestors lived in Africa are more resistant against sunburns because the previous generations adapted to the climate. And most important for you, your body adapted to the Core. It became a part of you." He took a small pause, probably to annoy G. while she tried to control herself, I thought about his words.

"just continue your story already!" G yelled.

"I will not. Master is on his way to figure out the answer himself." It said with what looked like a smile. He left hints in his story that was the purpose of it. 20.000 years ago, we weren't top of the food chain, yet we adapted and found ways to beat them. The reason that humans look different is because they adapted to the climate of their home.

We adapted to survive…

Adapted…

"So you're trying to tell me that the Survival Program was created by the core itself out of my instincts and the human ability to adapt?" I asked it. It smiled at my response. G just looked dumbfounded at us.

"Are you shittin me with that explanation? I am the personalization of that Core I would've know it if I was making a program." She said angrily.

"The Core has given you a consciousness, but that means that it also developed a unconsciousness. I am the result of the program unconsciousness wrote." It explained. G couldn't leave it at that.

"And then why are you here?" G yelled at him. I think it's a him at least. What if my instincts are actually female? Would that mean that I was born with the wrong gender? I'm thinking too much about it.

"Like I said, are the two sides of a coin." He explained while tossing a coin. Where did he get that?

"You are his Mind and Reason, and I am his Heart and Instincts. We can't live without the other because those things together are what make humans human." He's kinda poetic. Does that mean I have a hidden talent for poetry? Again, I'm thinking too much about it.

"you still haven't explained what the Survival Program is." G said annoyed.

"It's simply the human ability to adapt. In this case, the IS in him. It evolves when it finds something he can use to survive." Explained the cyborg werewolf.

"I can still change the color and the pieces of equipment right? " I asked him.

"You can do that. Think of it as an inventory from an RPG. Do you have any more questions?" He said.

"What is your name?" I asked him. He was thinking before responding.

"My name is Superstes, Master." It said

"It's Latin for survival." G said quite calmly. Have you finally stopped throwing a tantrum?

"A name from a dead language for a part of the human who is supposed to be dead." Superstes said with a smile. I got an idea. I have to keep up the farce of having a personal IS, so it'll need a name to.

"G, what's the Latin word for Thief?" I asked her.

"Latronis, why do you ask?"

"From now on, my IS-armor shall be known as Latronis." I said dramatically. The clouds disappeared and sunlight shone through, before it started to slowly fade away.

"Looks like you're about to wake up. Have a nice day Master." Superstes said with a bow.

"Don't call me that please, it's way too formal to my liking." I responded.

"Very well then, Haru-dono."

It's a beginning. I'd rather have him sound like a ninja or samurai than a butler.

I woke up in my bed at the IS Academy. I got up and noticed something on my arm. A black gauntlet covered half of my forearm. with engravings that looked like vines that came together at a dark red ruby. Superstes was engraved in it. After looking at the gauntlet for a minute and admiring its looks, I heard Superstes' voice.

"A simple reminder for you to be more honest with your feelings. Like with that girl a few hours ago." I heard Superstes advise me.

"What, you mean with Houki?" I asked him with our mental connection.

"The one you had perverse thoughts with." He stated bluntly. My face became red.

"I've only known her for two days. It's too early to consider those feeling seriously."

"Very well, then I will ask you the same question within one week. Could you then please give a decent answer?"

"One week." I confirmed. After that little mental conversation I smelled under my armpits. Ugh, I really need to shower.

me: okay, this was a kind of a slower

Haru: *cough* boring *cough*

me: *ignoring Haru's 'coughs' * chapter to explain things.i'll try to make the next one a little less serious and more interesting to read.

Haru: you better. and what's the point of giving me 2 persons in my body?

Me: too keep it balanced.

Haru: you just want new ways to torment me, don't you?

Me: not really, it was just an extra that came along with it. the real reason stands in the chapter.

Haru: i fell asleep during reading it.

Me: You fell asleep during your own story?

Haru:... this conversation is over.