This is the story of a boy. But not just any boy. This boy is a master programmer. Or, he was.
There once was a boy named Chihiro... Let's call him "Chi" for short. Chi was always the weak one in his age group. Chi was teased for this.
"Boys are supposed to be strong!" they would say. "You're so girly!" they would taunt. Chi couldn't take this.
Chi's weakness embarassed him. He stayed in the house, away from the other kids. He wanted to become good at something, to make up for his lack of strength. So he began programming.
The other kids didn't stop teasing Chi, even when he learned all the coding language. So he disguised himself as a girl, just to get them to stop.
Chi continued his acting and programming until high school. He, along with fourteen others, was invited to a very private academy. He was told that he was "the best of his kind," and that was his reason for being chosen. But they discovered it was not truly a high school. It was simply disguised as one. They were told their only way out was murder.
And Chi was killed.
However, this death was not permanent. Chi had been programming an AI, called "Alter Ego." He had gotten far enough in his programming for it to be able to talk to and understand humans, answer questions, and even do something no one knew about.
Alter Ego could create other AIs.
Chiaki Nanami was an example of this programming. This AI took on the appearance of a young girl.
She was a skilled gamer, and would play any game and love it-- except dating sims. Being an AI, she was unable to play them and enjoy them to the fullest. (Plus, she never was good at them.) However, Chiaki wasn't programmed to be the smartest... And was tricked into killing someone. For this, Chiaki herself was killed. It was a twisted sort of justice.