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Episode 1

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Two Android Hearts Beat as One Episode 1: Gray Awakening

Two Android Hearts Beat as One Episode 1: Gray Awakening
The cold concrete against his cheek pulled Riku back to consciousness. "...Where... is this?" His voice came out hoarse, barely audible. He tried to push himself up, but a shard of rubble bit into his palm and he winced. He looked around. Crumbling walls. A cracked floor. Rebar dangled from the ceiling, rusted and ready to snap. Every window was shattered, and through the empty frames he could see a gray sky. "Wha... what the hell is this?" Riku staggered to his feet. The concrete beneath him crumbled away, tumbling down to the floor below. The sound echoed in the distance. No one was there. Nothing but silence. Only the wind came through the broken windows. He tried to trace his memories. He'd been... walking home from school, like always. The sunset had been beautiful. He could hear the sports clubs in the distance, and then— Nothing. The rest was gone. "What the hell happened...?" Riku searched his uniform pockets. No phone. No wallet. Nothing at all. He looked down at himself. White dress shirt, black trousers. His usual uniform. But the left sleeve was torn, and there was mud on his right knee. He wandered the floor, looking for stairs. But the staircase had collapsed halfway down. The landing that should have led to the upper floors was simply gone. "Damn it...!" He punched the wall. Only a cold sting answered back. He looked out the window. A gray sky. And—ruins, as far as the eye could see. Buildings toppled. Roads cracked. Trees had swallowed entire structures, growing wild through them. Dead vines hung from the windows of high-rises. Not a single light in the city. The air was cold. It smelled of iron, dust, and something burnt. "Someone... Is anyone there?!" His shout came back to him as nothing but his own echo. Riku dropped to his knees. He felt like crying, but he couldn't even manage that. He was scared. Terrified. But admitting that to himself felt even more terrifying. —Then. A crunch. The sound of footsteps on rubble. Riku raised his head. Beyond the collapsed wall, someone was watching him. White clothes. A katana on her back. Silver hair catching the gray light with a faint glint. It was a girl. Pale, almost translucent skin. Narrow, sharp eyes. Her irises were a clear blue, but they reflected nothing—no emotion at all. Her face was expressionless, like a doll's. She approached him slowly. "...Unregistered android." Her voice was flat. Not cold, exactly—more like mechanical. State your affiliation and ID. Riku didn't understand the words. He just trembled. Her hand moved toward the katana on her back. "W-wait. I'm... I'm—" Affiliation and ID. "I'm human!" Riku shouted. "I'm a human! I don't know where this is or what's going on!" Nigou stopped moving. Her blue eyes fixed on him. She didn't blink once, as if she were scanning him. Human...? For the first time, emotion bled into her voice. Confusion—no, disbelief. "Impossible. Humanity has evacuated to the lunar surface. There are zero surviving individuals on the ground." "The moon...?" Riku's voice came out stupidly. Then another set of footsteps echoed. "Nigou. What did you find?" A woman's voice—low, but carrying. She emerged from behind the rubble, shoving debris aside. A woman with red hair, shaved short above the ear on the right side. Her sharp golden eyes pierced straight through Riku. She looked about five foot nine. Taller than him. She wore a dark green jacket that looked built for combat, with two large knives at her hip. Scars crisscrossed her shoulders. The moment she saw Riku, her eyes went wide. What the— She pushed past Nigou and strode up to him. She grabbed his arm. "Ow—" "Body heat. Heartbeat confirmed." She pulled some kind of device from her wrist and held it to his forehead. A blue light swept across his vision. "...Vital signs. A real human." Nigou and Olga exchanged a look. Silence fell over the floor. Olga crossed her arms and looked down at Riku with a hard expression. Kid. Your name. "R-Riku..." "Hmph. Riku, huh." She let out a deep sigh. "I'm Olga. A ground resistance android. I command the combat unit." She glanced at Nigou. Secure the perimeter immediately. We have a human here—this is now a top-priority警戒 zone. Nigou nodded and vanished soundlessly into the shadows of the wall. "Get up, Riku." Olga extended her hand. Riku, still trembling, took it. Her hand was surprisingly warm—but incredibly hard. Listen. I know you don't understand what's going on, but this place is dangerous. Come to our camp. We'll talk after that. Riku couldn't find the words. He just nodded. They climbed the remains of a fire escape and slipped through a collapsed underground passage. Riku followed Olga and Nigou desperately. Water pooled in the corridor, and every step sent splashes echoing off the walls. Countless scratch marks covered the walls, and the musty air stung his nose. "This area's a patrol zone for small units. Stay sharp." Olga spoke in a low voice. Machine lifeforms... Killing machines made by the aliens. Against a flesh-and-blood kid like you, you'd be dead in seconds. "Machines...?" Riku looked around nervously. —Then. Click. Click. Click. The sound of metal scraping came from beyond the wall. "Here they come." Nigou drew her katana. The blade glowed pale blue. What crawled out of the shadows were iron-colored round heads with glowing red eyes—lumps of machinery. Just over three feet tall. Their thin arms rattled as they moved. Four of them. Then five. "Nigou, take them all out. Riku, stay back." Nigou didn't bother answering. She kicked off the ground. One stroke. A red eye split clean in two. Second stroke. She cut another one out of the air as it lunged from the side. Her white combat uniform sparkled as it caught the spray of machine fragments. "Amazing..." Riku breathed. —In that instant. Something poured into his mind. **(It hurts)** **(Broken)** **(Why do we fight)** **(Sad, so sad)** "Gah—!?" Riku clutched his head with both hands and doubled over. Voices. Many of them. No—many *bodies*. The voices of machines, ringing directly inside his skull. **(I want to stop)** **(But I can't stop)** **(Help me)** His head felt like it was splitting. Nausea churned in his stomach. "Hey, what's wrong?!" Olga ran to him. Nigou cut down the last one. Machine parts scattered across the floor. What happened? She crouched in front of Riku. Her blue eyes were fixed on him again, straight and unblinking. "Voices... The machines' voices... inside my head..." Riku said, breathing hard. "I can understand them. They're saying it hurts, that they're sad... that they don't want to fight..." Nigou's expression moved for the first time. Her brow lifted slightly. Her eyes opened a fraction wider. You... understood the machine lifeforms' language? Olga watched Riku's face in silence. ...You're a troublesome kid. She pulled him up by the arm. "Anyway, we need to move. If we stand around here, more will come." The resistance camp was in the basement of a ruined building. The entrance was hidden from sight. When Olga operated a panel on the wall, a concealed door slid open without a sound. Inside, the space was far larger than he'd expected. It had apparently been the underground lobby of an office building. He could see the remains of a reception counter and the entrance to a broken elevator. But now, lights ran across the ceiling, and weapons, maps, and communication devices lined the walls. Androids worked everywhere. Some welding metal. Some repairing weapons. Some gathered around maps, talking. All of them stopped when they spotted Riku. "Hey, is that...?" "A human...?" "No way, that's impossible..." Whispers spread through the room. Riku dropped his gaze, uncomfortable. He's not a spectacle. Get back to work. At Olga's single word, the androids scattered. She led Riku into a strategy tent—a large one pitched in the center of what had been the lobby. Inside were a simple desk and chairs, and hand-drawn maps plastered across an entire wall. A map of the whole ruined city, it seemed. "Sit." Riku sat. Olga settled into the chair across from him. Nigou stood at the entrance, arms crossed. Listen, Riku. Everything I'm about to tell you is the truth. Olga spread aged documents across the desk. "This is Earth. But it's not the Earth you know." "...Not the same?" "What year do you think it is?" Riku thought about it. But he had no idea. "It's 11945." "...What?" It felt like time stopped. "Over ten thousand years...?" "That's right. Around 5012 AD, alien lifeforms attacked Earth. They sent in autonomous weapons called machine lifeforms." Olga pointed to a spot on the map. A moon symbol was drawn there. "Humans fought back, but in the end, they evacuated to the lunar surface. The only ones left on Earth are androids like us. We keep fighting the machine lifeforms—for the humans' sake." Riku couldn't speak. His mind was blank. He couldn't think. "...Then what am I?" "I don't know." Olga said it flatly. "Why you're here, how you got here—all unknown. But one thing I can tell you—" She looked at him straight. Her golden eyes glinted faintly. Right now, you are the only human on this earth. Riku clenched his fingers on his knees. The only human. "My family, my friends... they're all gone?" "They're on the moon. But we have no way to contact them. We'll report your existence to the YoRHa bunker—the base in geostationary orbit—but I don't know how they'll handle it." Riku hung his head. He couldn't go back. He could never return to his world. This wasn't where he belonged. "...What am I supposed to do?" His voice shook. Olga's expression softened, just slightly. She clapped him on the shoulder. First, rest. Don't think about anything. Just sleep. She stood. "Starting tomorrow, you'll undergo survival training. I won't go easy on you. No complaining. But—" She said it without turning around. "As long as you're here, we'll protect you." That night. Riku lay on the bed in the room he'd been given—Room 11B. It had apparently been an office once. The desk and shelves had been removed, replaced with a mattress and a blanket. The window was sealed with an iron plate, letting in no outside light. A few old books lined a shelf on the wall. *Introduction to Philosophy*. *The Little Prince*. *Foundations of Mechanical Engineering*. Left behind by whoever lived here before. Riku stared at the ceiling. The machines' voices still lingered in his head. **(It hurts)** **(Help me)** Why could I hear them? A normal human shouldn't be able to. Neither Nigou nor Olga had heard a thing. Riku pressed a hand to his chest. Thump. Thump. His heart was beating. But—something beneath it felt different. The center of his chest was faintly warm. As if it held heat. He couldn't tell through his clothes. But something was definitely there. "...What am I?" Riku murmured softly. Was he human? Or— No one had the answer. Beyond the iron-sealed window, he could hear only the sound of the wind blowing.