This was by far the most requested update, I honestly wasn't expecting this book to become this popular 😍. I will try to update more frequently again!

PIXAL may appear a bit cold and manipulative in this chapter, but she wasn't too impressed with Zane at the beginning of Rebooted either. And I promise this will change fairly soon 😉.

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Difficult Decisions

Nya could hardly believe her ears.

While she herself had not managed to get even the tiniest piece of information from her usually talkative boyfriend - and had carelessly offered to check the blue Ninja's bike at the Samurais' headquarters the next day – PIXAL had almost effortlessly received an invitation to the tea shop and, presumably, the rival team's secret base.

She almost felt sorry for the other Nindroid, as Zane was so obviously smitten with the silver haired girl. However, Nya had no idea if PIXAL liked him as well, or if she was just using his affection to find out more about the Ninja...

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." She announced. "You want to come as well, PIX?"

"I don't need-" Nya interrupted her friend with a little kick at the shin. "Oh, of course. I will join you."

"Sorry, I've kicked you." Nya apologised as the girls were on their way to the toilets.

"It is fine, nothing was damaged." PIXAL replied. "I forgot that 'going to the bathroom' together sometimes is a social event rather than a necessity."

"Yeah, something like that..." The Samurai X chuckled. "So, what do you think about Zane?"

"He is a well-mannered young man." The droid stated. "Or robot, if you prefer. And rather handsome."

Nya smirked. "So, you wanna see him again?"

"Of course." PIXAL nodded. "Thanks to your boyfriend, I have heard so much about Zane's culinary abilities that I am now very much looking forward to experiencing them myself. Also, it will be a good opportunity to find out if Steep Wisdom is indeed the Ninja's base, as we suspect."

"Yeah, that's all very nice." Nya waved her hands. "But what about him?"

"I-I do not understand." The smart android gave her a confused look. "What about him?"

"I know that the Ninja are our rivals, but I still don't want Zane to get hurt. He's a really nice guy, and good friends with Jay. Please don't use him to spy on the Ninja. And who knows... you might enjoy his company more than you expect." She winked.

"I am perfectly fine the way things are." PIXAL insisted. "I am not looking for a new friend, and especially not a romantic relationship."

"But even if you're not looking for one, you might still find both." Nya retorted. "I know that quite a lot of people haven't treated you well, which is why you're rather wary of strangers. But we already know that these guys aren't normal people. And you would never voluntarily hurt another person – or another robot. And trust me, you will hurt Zane if you spend time with him without giving him a chance to at least be your friend."

"I do not want to hurt him, he is very nice." PIXAL agreed. "And I have finally found another highly advanced droid, so it is only logical that I would want to get to know him better. Yet, I am worried if being friends – or possibly more – with a Ninja will affect me being a loyal Samurai. How can this work in the long run?"

"I don't know." Nya sighed. "I keep asking that myself..."

——-

After their dinner, Nya and Jay went home together to his place. As the Samurai had taken the bus to the restaurant, she rode with her boyfriend on his motorbike – which had luckily started without any problems.

"Admit it, there's actually nothing wrong with the bike. You were just running late and needed something to blame it on." Nya teased him.

"You know I'm never running late – unless I have a very good reason to." Jay replied. "The bike's probably just behaving now because it's scared of you doing the check tomorrow."

No, Nya was not going to get out of this promise. But maybe she could at least have him visit when the other girls, especially Harumi and Seliel, wouldn't be around. Even though they didn't even know about her dating a Ninja, Nya's teammates were generally not too happy about her having a boyfriend, i.e. a distraction and a risk of revealing her secret, at all.

"When do you have classes tomorrow?" She asked. "I only have lectures in the afternoon, so I'll be at the autobody shop until 2pm."

"I have a course at ten, so I can take you and the bike to the garage, if you want." Jay suggested. "We can get a coffee on the way and, if it's not too busy, you can maybe show me around?"

"Yeah, sure." Nya replied, not too excited about this plan. Sure, getting a lift to work (which also meant getting to sleep a bit longer and spend more time with her boyfriend) was a great perspective, but hopefully, she'd be able to get through the 'other bit' without raising any suspicions... and before that, she still had a job to do.

But she was not going to let either ruin tonight.

——-

The next morning

"I've just realised that I forgot to print my essay for my class later, can I use your laptop?" Nya asked, as Jay was just about to get up. "Misako doesn't like us using the printer at work..."

"Sure." He sat back down on the bed and leaned down to his girlfriend. "I'll tell you the password for a kiss."

"Deal." Nya lifted her head to place a little kiss on his lips. "Now spill it."

"It's 'password'." He said. "With a capital P."

"Seriously?" Nya raised an eyebrow. "Who are you and what have you done to my super creative boyfriend? Can't believe you've made me trade a kiss for that..."

"You didn't seem to mind." Jay smirked. "Also, 'Nya' didn't have enough characters."

"Oh, I have a lot of character." She laughed. "But with this kind of password, I sure hope that you have no state secrets on your hard drive."

"Uhm..." Jay's eyes widened. "N-no, of course not." He quickly recovered. But not fast enough for the Samurai not to notice. "A-anyway, I better go take a shower, we don't want to be late for your work."

As Jay disappeared into the bathroom, Nya rather reluctantly left the warm and comfortable bed and sat down at the desk under the window. She opened the laptop and entered the password. As the machine started, she noticed two things: (I) His desktop was a mess. And (II) the background picture was a photo of Jay and her first date (not counting Kai's birthday party where they had met) at Mega Monster Amusement Park – coincidentally the same place where Samurai X had befriended the blue Ninja.

Trying to ignore the sharp pang of guilt, Nya took a USB key from her bag and inserted it into the laptop.

First, she opened a web browser to download the paper from her online drive and send it to the printer, before she opened the File Manager.

She selected the Documents folder as well as everything on the desktop and right-clicked on the selection.

"Is everything working?" Jay called from the bathroom, just as she was selecting 'send to'.

"Yes, it's fine." Nya answered. "I'm just checking my emails until it's done printing. Okay?"

"Sure." He said. "Do whatever you want. I trust you."

With a sigh, Nya closed the file browser and removed the empty flash drive.