Purpose

9S heads into the shower, and his mind remains silent.

However, although his thoughts include no dialogue, his imaginations run wild, hyper-immersed in his daydreams and anticipations of what sort of forever meaningful memories he could make together with 2B.

However, since his imagination runs on its own, almost autonomously, the world in his daydreams begins to naturally include A2.

Although his impulsive reactions to her appearance are typically ones of rage, after what happened to the three of them he didn't get distracted by his own ego, and simply went with the flow of his imagination despite them going against his beliefs - he felt like A2 was a potential friend to have fun with too where he could share the same adventures with 2B together.

There were so many possibilities that they could explore together, and his daydreams slowly shaped into dreams to strive for, goals to achieve.

After 2 hours of using the water, A2 finally forced herself to leave the shared bedroom to knock on the bathroom door, despite her not wanting to leave 2B's side.

She became worried after how long he spent in there, that she began to wonder if the effects of the flower were contagious, and that he could be passed out on the shower floor.

As a matter of fact, she thought of this possibility an hour and a half ago, but she easily chose not to care about him either way, especially when she justified to herself that he deserved it after the whole mirror incident in the changing room.

*knock knock*, "9S? Um…, is everything ok in there?", she feels the frigid air of the night hit her temperature sensors, built into a mechanical system similarly designed like the human nervous system.

9S's attention is grabbed by her voice, and he quickly thinks to himself, 'How long have I been in here?! I'm becoming delusional…', "Um, yeah, just give me a second."

A2 shrugs it off and decides to wait for him in the bedroom to interrogate him once he's out of the shower, now that she knows he's alright.

9S looks into the mirror while the shower water trickles over his plenty damp hair, and begins to play with his hair to see what styles he could make with it, enjoying to see how his fringe can cover up a bit of his eyes.

Distracted again from the comfort of the warm water, he gets the courage to leave the shower, realising that he has to increase his discipline if he doesn't want to disappoint 2B in the future.

*squeak squeak*, the shower is turned off.

"Ever since I woke up, I haven't had any sense of direction and have settled down for long enough to the point that I'm developing bad habits… I've always had something to do, or something to explore, but without a commander, I've been lost."

However, as he dries his hair and thinks about the possibilities he could experience in real life and not just his imaginations, he feels like the commander is working her magic despite not being around anymore, giving him orders on what his next mission is to fulfill.

"Humanity…"

His hair gets styled and dried back to its usual state, and he puts on his clothes that surprisingly haven't become moist from the steam of the heat of the shower.

The moment he opens the door, the cold air and the darkness of the night hits him all of a sudden, and he quickly shivers in response to this.

…

*creak*, the door opens slowly and quietly, aware that the others could be asleep.

He turns around and carefully closes the door behind him, and notices an A2 getting ready to fall asleep glaring at him while in close proximity to 2B on the other side of the room.

"Why did you take so long?", she points to him and whispers in frustration.

"I'm sorry.", he says knowing he's in the wrong.

"…That's strange, I didn't expect you to start treating me like a normal person?"

"Well, p-", about to say that 'people change', his ego resurfaces instinctively and pointlessly, thinking about the moment that he will never forgive her for, resurfacing his hate towards her.

He notices this internal conflict, this unwillingness to let go the same way that he did while going with the flow of his imaginations earlier, and wonders if his hate towards A2 is even worth it regardless if he has reason to or not.

He could just move on, but he wonders if the act of 'moving on' is a natural way of going about things, or perhaps it's an educated expectation.

Being an analyst-type android his whole life, he can't help but to explore his own nature, fixating on the habits that possess him, and where his intentions even come from.

"…?", the sudden silence as 9S walks over and tucks himself in his bed confuses A2, but having already been through a phase in her own life where she's experienced what it's like to be someone like 9S, she expects this phase of internal conflict to reach its conclusion after he accepts that things have changed since their alliance.

After all, what else can they do but have the three of them band together if they are the only three non-machines people who exist in the world.

'Well, five if you include the two sentient pods too.', she thinks to herself.

Resting her head on the same pillow as 2B's as she holds her in her sleep, she watches her sleeping face and feels like her chest is about to burst, holding back squeals from accepting her fate with these persisting symptoms that come from the flower.