The next morning I awoke to the familiar sound of reveille being played over the base's loudspeaker system. I quickly dressed in my PT uniform and ran outside to meet with the rest of the team for our physical training. While it was extremely strenuous at times, we all managed to push through it and keep going. However, it was a new sort of pt. To help us get used to our combat chips Kagamine had explained. After pt, we were given an hour to eat, shower, and be ready for training. I quickly showered after returning to my quarters. I still found myself constantly thinking of Rin. "She will certainly make a good friend if nothing else" I thought to myself. But there was more to it than I dared to admit for certain. I had no sooner finished breakfast and was on my way to formation with my team when I ran into Rin and the other two androids. "Morning John!" she greeted me warmly. "Morning Rin!" I smiled as I replied. "How was your first pt session? Is your chip working like it's supposed to?" she asked. "Great! I can definitely tell the chip is working fine too. I was able to do more this morning than I ever have." I replied. "Excellent! I'm really glad to hear that, and I know the doctor will be too!" she said warmly with that same bright smile. I was still awestruck at how well Dr. Kagamine had done with replicating the vocaloid version of rin into Rin herself. It was then that I noticed the other two androids leering obviously at me and saw them giggle slightly. "Oh, these are my friends Miku, and Teto." Rin explained as she introduced us. "Miku is assigned to Specialist Howard, and Teto to PFC Rogers." She explained. "Pleasure to meet you both." I said as I shook each of their hands. Again I noticed that same liveliness I had seen in Rin. "So where are you headed?" asked Miku, the blue haired android. "Formation, which I need to get to." I said as I looked at my watch. "Ok, well I'm supposed to show you around later today, so I'll catch you later!" Rin said as she caught me for a hug. "Say hi to Rogers for me if you don't mind…" Teto said before I walked off. "Will do girls! I'll see you a little later Rin!" I called as I walked off. It was then that I heard them all giggle and Miku say to Rin, "You never told us your WARRIOR was so cute!" I saw Rin blush out of the corner of my eye. Now I was really wary of all of this. My God, they were just like a bunch of real teenage girls! I swore they were so real at times, the only way I could tell that they were synthetic was by the red numbers stamped on their left arms. Rin's number had read "02." I could only assume that this was no coincidence because my call-sign in the team was Shadow 2. I still pondered all of these things as I walked to formation. Finally after our formation we went into some individual weapon shooting. It was then determined that I would receive corrective eye surgery the next day because of how poorly I had shot. 27 out of 40 targets was not satisfactory to myself, or the program. Though I was thankful that I'd be receiving the surgery, I was still frustrated with myself. The rest of the day was given to us to clean our weapons, and for our assistants to show us around the base. Shortly there-after, Rin came knocking at the door. "Hey, ready for the grand tour?" "Yep. Lead on." I said as I stood and followed her. While in the midst of the tour I took the opportunity to ask her some questions I had been curious about from the start. "So what is it you do here exactly?" I asked. "I'm kind of a personal assistant to the doctor mostly, but more recently to you now as well." She explained. Odd. I would have guessed that she would have been created for more than just that. She certainly seemed to be capable of so much more. "Cool. But what about that number on your arm? What does it mean?" I asked. "Oh that's my assignment number. I've had it ever since I was created. Dr. Kagamine says it corresponds to our team members, and I'm assigned to you, Shadow 2." So I had been right. "So what about Dr. Kagamine though, what's his story?" "He's one of the smartest people I know." She beamed. "He's originally from Japan, but he moved to the U.S. when he was in his twenties to study neuro-science and cybernetics. I think that was about the time that he did your surgery." Rin said. "Wow. Impressive." I said. Then finally it all slipped out, "What about you though? What's your story?" "Me!? You really wanna know about me!?" she asked in surprise. "Yeah I do. If you're gonna be my friend I gotta know a little about you." I said warmly. "Well, there's really not much to tell." She said sheepishly. "I was created on December 27th, 2012 according to my internal records, and was created for what I'm doing right now." She said with a smile. "That's it?" I asked. "Yeah, basically. But I do sometimes wish that I could really be human…." She said as her voice trailed off. Was I hearing right? She really wanted to be human! An android that wanted to be alive. But by God, how alive she already seemed! "You already seem pretty human to me." I said speaking my mind. "But it's all just pre-programmed…." She said. "I don't know. I don't think wanting to be human, could be pre-programmed into an android," I said. "Besides though, I'd say you basically have everything you need to really be human anyway." I said comfortingly. "No. I'm missing something." She said saddened. "What could you possibly be missing?" I asked. She then placed her hand in the center of my chest, and listened quietly, and then breathed the word, "Kokoro." "Koko-what?" I asked confused. "Kokoro. It's Japanese for heart." She said. "So that's what you're missing then? A heart?" "Yes." She replied as her eyes hit the floor. "I want to know what it feels like to have a heart-beat, to be able to feel, to be happy, to hurt, but most of all to love…." She said. "I see." I said as I again was awestruck. "But why is this so important to you?" I asked. "Because there's someone I want to be able to love, but how can I without a heart.." she said staring at my chest. I began to wonder who it was she spoke of, but it didn't take me long to figure it out. "Well heart or not, you're still perfect the way you are to me." I said trying my best to cheer her up. "You really mean that?" she asked. "Every word." I smiled. She smiled and hugged me tight in approval. I know it sounds strange, but I felt the best I ever had when I was around her. We had nearly everything in common, she was beautiful and kind, and we just seemed to click. I wondered was this simply part of her programming, or was there more to this than I, and maybe even Rin knew?