Life After Doomsday

Chapter 15: Discussions

"Seriously," Tsukasa said. "Shijima's gone."

"Are you absolutely certain there's no fixing her?" Nene asked.

Tsukasa nodded. "I'm absolutely sure."

Nene stumbled back and ran out of the Shinkansen. Amane looked at all the others for a while before sighing and following her. He gently touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'm meant to repair androids," she said. "I'm meant to bring everyone back. But two androids have already died on my watch now."

Amane glanced back at who Nene was talking about: Sousuke and Mei. "It's fine," he said awkwardly, trying to comfort her. "It's not your fault. You can't save everyone."

"That's right, I can't save everyone," Nene said, "but I should be able to. It's what I'm built to do."

Amane shook his head. "Nobody can save everyone, even if you're meant to."

Nene shook her head and hugged Amane. He thought that if she were human, she'd definitely be crying, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with someone who was crying. He awkwardly hugged her back. "It's... okay?" he muttered, not knowing what he was meant to say in a situation like this. He eventually decided that he shouldn't say anything at all, and so the two of them stayed still like that for a long time in silence.

"Where's Tsukasa?" a voice suddenly asked.

Nene and Amane turned to see Sakura standing beside them with a blank expression.

"Is he on the Shinkansen?" she asked.

Nene nodded and Sakura strolled toward the Shinkansen without another word. A few moments later, she came out, dragging Tsukasa behind her. "I take it the simulation didn't work out?" she asked, dropping him and turning to face him.

He nodded. "Yeah, and don't be so rough. If you want to talk, just say so, okay?"

Sakura cocked her head to the side curiously. "Okay."

Sousuke walked out of the Shinkansen. "What's up with her?" he asked Tsukasa, motioning toward Sakura.

"Me?" Sakura asked. "What do you mean?"

Sousuke gave Sakura a funny look before looking back to Tsukasa for an answer, ignoring her. Tsukasa sighed. "I tried tweaking her programming a bit just before we went into the simulation, so I guess she's sentient or something now?"

"Oh. Huh," Sousuke said. "What about Natsuhiko? Is he sentient as well?"

"Oh, Hyuuga was already sentient."

"Really?" Sousuke asked, a little surprised. "I couldn't tell. He was always a little weird."

Sakura was about to say something when Nene suddenly cut into the conversation. "Alright, you know what? This is ridiculous."
Everyone looked at her. "What is?" they asked.

Nene shook her head. "How does Tsukasa just... do stuff so quickly and often? Everything he does should take weeks, but he's always done with whatever it is in, like, less than a day!"

"Maybe I'm just really fast?" Tsukasa said with a shrug.

Nene shook her head again, and so Tsukasa said, "Maybe the things I do are just a lot easier than they seem?"

Again, Nene shook her head.

"Okay, well maybe the author has problems with pacing this. Ever think of that?" Tsukasa finally said.

Nene sighed. "Ugh, you're probably right."

Just then, Kou suddenly burst out of the Shinkansen and approached Tsukasa. "We need to talk."

Tsukasa looked at Sakura. "See, this is what you do when you want to talk to me, yeah?"

Sakura nodded slowly and stared at Kou. "What are you going to talk about?"

Kou had a complicated expression. "Tsukasa, you... why did you reset Mitsuba's memory chip?"

"I already explained it earlier, didn't I?" Tsukasa replied. "It's much easier to put in an empty memory chip than one full of memories."

"But you stored his memory on a separate hard drive, so why didn't you give his memories back afterwards?" Kou asked.

Tsukasa sighed. "Do I have to explain everything to you? It's because I'd have to remove his memory chip for that, and I'd run into that same problem again when putting it back in."

Kou furrowed his eyebrows. "You wouldn't have had that problem putting his memory chip back in if you had never taken it out in the first place," he muttered.

Hearing this, Tsukasa's expression didn't at all falter; not a trace of guilt or regret was shown on his face.

Kou turned and disappeared into the Shinkansen.

Nene looked back and forth between Sousuke and Amane. "Uhm, does anyone want to go talk to him...?"

Sousuke scrunched up his nose. "Why can't you?"

Nene frowned. "I don't think I'll know how to comfort him."

"And what makes you think I'll know what to do?" Sousuke asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

Nene didn't quite have a response to that, so she just stared at him in silence.

"Fine, fine," Sousuke sighed, walking into the Shinkansen.

"Minamoto-kun?" Sousuke called, searching up and down the aisles. He didn't receive a response, but he quickly found Kou curled in on himself in the back of the train.

Sousuke frowned and sat beside him. "Are you, uh... okay..?"

Kou slowly lifted his head to look at Sousuke. "I'm tired," he said.

"Androids can't get tired," Sousuke replied, raising an eyebrow.

Kou looked away. "I don't like Tsukasa."

"Right, yeah, I think most of us feel the same way," Sousuke said, rolling his eyes. He then scooted a little closer and placed a hand on Kou's back. "Listen, you can talk to me about what's bothering you."

Kou stared forward in silence for a long while before finally saying, "He didn't have to reset your memory chip."

Sousuke took his hand off Kou's back. "Yeah, no, nevermind, I'm not listening to this, sorry."

Kou abruptly sat up straight, shock painted on his face. "Are you serious? God, you suck at comforting people."

"Hey, it's not like I wanted to be here! Yashiro made me come!"

"You probably shouldn't admit that to someone you're trying to comfort," Kou replied with an airy laugh.

Sousuke glanced at Kou. "All you ever talk about is him."

"Him?" Kou's expression twisted up in confusion. "You mean Tsukasa?"

"No, not him. I meant Mitsuba," Sousuke said, and before Kou could reply, he further clarified, "the other Mitsuba– the original."

END OF CHAPTER 15