Life After Doomsday

Chapter 18: Broken

"Nene!" Amane cried. "Are you okay?"

"What do we do?" Nene asked, shaking her head. The movement made a few more shattered pieces of metal fall to the ground.
Amane looked up at Sakura, and she met his gaze for a moment. That moment didn't last long though as she quickly lifted her eyes and raised her arms as she blocked an attack from a stranger.

A gasp escaped Amane's mouth as he stared at the sudden flurry of movement. It took him a while to realize just who it was exchanging blows with Sakura: Akane.

Nene quickly stood and lifted Amane up, dragging him away from the action. "Akane said he was an experimental military android, right?" Nene said. "He can handle Sakura. When the time comes, I'll slip through the door."

Amane began to nod, but quickly stopped himself. "Just you? What about me?"
"You can stay here," Nene replied. "You're human. If you get hit once by either of them, you're dead."

Amane found himself at a loss for words as Nene turned around, but he quickly grabbed her arm and spoke, "Tsukasa wouldn't let me die."

Nene frowned. "But would Sakura?"

Amane threw Sakura a glance. "She's following Tsukasa's orders."

"Even so," Nene replied, shaking her head, "we can't be certain. Just stay here."

With that, Nene stepped away without waiting for Amane to say anything more. Amane thought about following her for a moment, but decided that she was right and backed away from the fighting.

Nene tried to sneak past Sakura, but paused to look at how the fight was going before entering. Sakura and Akane were still facing off. Both were injured: Sakura's right arm had been torn off and Akane had several holes bored through him. Nene couldn't help but stop and analyze their fighting styles– it was programmed into her to learn, after all.

Sakura's technique was obvious; she was trying to destroy his memory chip. Akane, on the other hand, was more focused on making sure Sakura could do no more damage, or, in other words, to make her incapable of moving.

For the most part, it wasn't clear who would win. That was, until Nene noticed a figure sneaking onto the scene. She squinted her eyes to see better against the glare of the sun, but by the time she realized who it was, it was too late. "Akane-kun, look out!"

By the time Akane turned his head around, Hyuuga's fist was already through his chest. Nene felt her face go pale as Akane went limp. She quickly turned around and rushed into the building, but she ran into Tsukasa as she entered.

"Oh, wow, didn't expect to see you here," Tsukasa said, stumbling back from the impact. "What's up?"

Nene was incredulous. "What do you mean 'what's up'?! Are you crazy?! Where's the bomb?!"

"The bomb?" Tsukasa asked. "Why would that be here?"

"Sakura said–"

Tsukasa laughed. "Sakura said it was here? Sorry, that's my fault. I didn't properly explain things to her," he said. "You see, the detonator is here, not the bomb."

"Then show me where the detonator is!" she shouted, grabbing his shoulder in desperation. She quickly let go of him though, as she realized he was staring at her chest with a curious expression. She slowly turned her eyes down and realized that a pole had been stuck through her chest. Before she could say anything, she collapsed to the ground, feeling her consciousness fizzle out.

Elsewhere...

Kou slowly stood up and exited the Shinkansen, thinking that Nene and Amane would probably be leaving the range of his tracker soon. He took a moment to locate them before setting off in the direction. Just as he left the area of the Shinkansen, though, he noticed Sousuke sitting by the side of the road.

Confused, Kou looked back and forth for an explanation before approaching him. "What are you doing?" Kou asked.

Sousuke slowly looked up at him. "Excuse me?"

Kou frowned and crouched down beside him. "I asked what you were doing."

"Oh... I'm..." Sousuke paused for a while, his eyes blank. "What am I doing? Oh, right. I was looking for someone."

"Who were you looking for?"

"I was looking for... What's his name? Min... Minamoto? Right, Minamoto. Wait, that's you. I was looking for you."

Kou frowned. "Are you okay?"

"But why was I looking for you? I don't remember..."

"Mitsuba," Kou said, lightly touching his shoulder, "are you okay?"

Sousuke stared up at him. "That's right, yeah. I love you, that's why. That's why I was looking for you."

Kou frowned. "What happened to you? You're acting strange."

Sousuke cocked his head to the side. "I... I did something. At the repair center– the one Tsukasa always goes to. There, I was there, and I... I did something. Opened up my chest."

"What? You're not making any sense. What exactly did you do?" Kou asked, growing concerned.

"I opened up my chest, and I... That's right, I took it out. Carefully. I took it out. For the memories, I think."

"The... what?"

"The memories. His. Mine. Mitsuba's... Isn't that me? Right, they're mine. My memories. In the... Ugh, what's it called? Right, a hard drive. My memories in the hard drive."

Kou felt his heart drop as realized what happened. Sousuke had taken out his memory chip– carefully, without disconnecting it from himself– and downloaded the memories from the hard drive. "Why... would you do that?"

"That's right, I did it. Because... Oh, yeah, because I wanted it to be both of us. All of us? Just us? What? Whatever, I wanted you to answer the confession to both Mitsubas. Me and me, not just me. Wait, that doesn't make sense... Or does it? Does it? I mean, it's Mitsuba's feelings, after all. Not just one Mitsuba or the other Mitsuba, but both of them. So both of them should get an answer, right?"

Kou frowned and turned his gaze away. "Were you careful when you put your memory chip back?"

Sousuke shrugged. "How was I meant to do that? Not even Tsukasa knows how to put back full memory chips. That's why he reset me, remember? Wait, did he do that? No, nevermind, he definitely did."

Kou recalled what Tsukasa had told him:

They're pretty safe to remove any way you like, but you have to be careful when you're putting them back in. If you accidentally damage the memory chip, and therefore the memories within, you'll probably end up with an unstable android. They'll usually have problems listening, remembering, and following orders.

Sousuke damaged his memory chip trying to put it back in. That idiot.

END OF CHAPTER 17