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Episode 5

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Two Android Hearts Beat as One Episode 5: Core Beat

White smoke still rose from the gaps in the rubble. The acrid smell of burnt oil and the sharp stench of scorched wiring filled the entire underground passage. Riku sat huddled in a corner of the shelter, his knees drawn up to his chest. His back was pressed against the cold concrete wall. On the floor before him lay the torso of a deactivated android, sprawled like a discarded doll. Its chest had been torn wide open, exposing the mechanical skeleton and shredded artificial muscle within. No one came to clean it up. That was how little room anyone had to spare. From further down the passage, two surviving androids came limping along. One was missing its right arm from the elbow down. The other had its facial armor peeled back, its optical sensors laid bare. "...Ever since that human showed up." A low voice stabbed at Riku's eardrums. "If it resonated with the core, it's as good as him calling it here." "Shh. He'll hear you." The two glanced at Riku, then hurried past. Riku couldn't say anything in response. ...There was no way he could. He had felt it himself — that Galdion had reacted to the core in his own chest. Olga was shuttling back and forth between the repair workshop and the command tent, reorganizing the surviving units. Nigou was still inside the repair workshop. She had lost her left arm and her lower body, and was now asleep inside a restoration pod. No one was beside him. For the first time since arriving in this world, Riku was completely alone. He tightened his arms around his knees. (*I'm... in the way.*) Getting in everyone's way. Riku could only feel that thought sinking, cold and heavy, deep into his chest. The next morning. "On your feet, brat." At the sound of Olga's voice, Riku lifted his head. He had apparently fallen asleep sitting on the floor without realizing it. His whole body ached fiercely. Olga stood right in front of him. Her face was harder than usual. Her golden eyes held no trace of humor, and her mouth was set in a tight, straight line. "We're going to the medical room. You're getting examined." ...Examined. Deep in Riku's chest, the mechanical core gave a single, heavy throb. Without waiting for Riku's reply, Olga turned her back and began walking. Riku scrambled unsteadily to his feet and followed after her. Along the way, the androids they passed glanced at him again. All Riku could do was hang his head under their gazes. The medical room was located in the deepest part of the camp. When the iron door opened, the sharp smell of chemicals, like disinfectant, stung his nose. A large scanning bed was set up in the center of the room, and various medical instruments lined the walls. A medical android guided Riku onto the bed with mechanical, impersonal movements. A long, slender scanner arm came to a stop above his body. "Beginning chest scan. Please remain still." A pale blue light traced across Riku's chest. Olga leaned her back against the wall, arms crossed, watching the scene intently. Her expression was like an iron mask. Riku closed his eyes. His heart was pounding a frantic drumbeat. But beneath that pulse, he could feel a deeper, mechanical rhythm beating. — *Beep.* The scan was complete. But the medical android said nothing. Silence stretched on for one second, then two. The quiet dragged on so long that Riku couldn't bear it and opened his eyes. "Give the results." Olga's voice resonated, low and deep. The medical android began to speak in a flat, emotionless voice. "The subject's heart is not biological tissue." Riku's mind went completely blank. "It is a machine lifeform core. Its resonance frequency band matches the known standard type. Its output waveform also perfectly matches the network synchronization patterns of machine lifeforms." What was it saying? The meaning of the words wouldn't sink in. "...No... way." A hoarse voice leaked from Riku's lips. Olga slowly approached. The sound of her boots against the cold floor seemed unnaturally loud. She came to a stop right beside the bed and looked straight down into Riku's eyes. "Your heart is the same as a machine lifeform's." Olga stated only the fact. There was no anger in it, no pity. Just the cold, heavy reality. "This is the truth." Riku placed a hand on his own chest. He could feel it even through his clothes. *Thump, thump.* A normal heartbeat, no different from always. But this... —This wasn't human. *'...That heartbeat... is very similar to the resonance frequency of a machine lifeform's core.'* Pascal's trembling voice resurfaced in his mind. The path they had walked together on the way back. That brief gesture Nigou had made, pressing her hand to her own chest. And Galdion's single red eye. Everything connected in his head, forming a single line. "...Ah." No voice came out. "Go back to your room." Olga gave the curt order, then turned her back on him. Riku couldn't even remember how he left the medical room. His legs tangled, and he bumped his shoulder against the wall again and again. The underground passage was dim, lit only by the hazy red glow of the emergency lights. On his way back to Room 11B. He passed by the repair workshop. From beyond the heavy iron door came faint mechanical sounds. The crackle of welding sparks, the low hum of a ventilation fan. And the voice of a medical android making a report. "—Unit Two lower body frame reconstruction progress: fifty-eight percent." All the strength drained from his body. Riku reached for the door's knob. But he couldn't pull it. Only the cold sensation of the metal remained, unnervingly vivid against his fingertips. (*...I want to see her.*) But he couldn't show his face. Nigou had lost her left arm, her lower body, to protect him. If he hadn't come here. If this heart wasn't a machine core. Galdion would never have attacked the camp. The one lying wounded beyond that door right now wouldn't be Nigou. "...I'm sorry." The voice reached no one. He let his hand fall from the knob. Riku leaned his back against the wall and slowly crumpled to the ground right there. He hugged his knees and buried his face in them. Nigou was just on the other side of that single cold door of the repair workshop. He wanted to see her, but he couldn't. He had no right to see her. Riku remained there, unable to move, for a long, long time. Night enveloped the camp. Riku slipped out of the underground passage, careful not to be noticed by anyone. No one called out to stop him. The android lookouts saw him and averted their gazes, as if no one was there at all. He opened the camp's hidden door and stepped out into the ruins. There wasn't a single star in the gray sky. The collapsed buildings melted into the darkness, standing in rows like enormous tombstones. Only the wind rolled shards of glass around, making a dry, clattering sound. Riku sat down on the rubble, hugging his knees. A heart like this. If he was running on a machine core, then what was he? But he remembered it all so clearly. School. Friends. The sound of the chime he'd heard on the twilight road home. The smell of the oil from the croquettes he'd bought on the way back. (*...Was all of that... a lie?*) Riku lifted his head. Before him stretched only a broken world. "...What..." His voice trembled. "What... am I...?!" His scream was swallowed by the darkness of the ruins. No one answered. Nothing answered. Tears spilled down Riku's face. He clenched his fists and struck the rubble in front of him, over and over and over. *Thud. Thud.* The skin on his knuckles split, and blood seeped out. Pain was the only sensation that told him he still existed here. "A heart like this... I don't want it..." Eventually, his strength left him. Riku pressed his forehead to his knees and stopped moving. His shoulders trembled faintly. And yet. Only the core in his chest. *Thump, thump, thump.* It kept beating, in the same steady, regular rhythm as always. As if Riku's emotions had never existed in the first place. The cold night wind of the ruins simply brushed through Riku's black hair. In his ears, only the beat of his own core continued to echo, like a foreign object. If this heartbeat denied everything he was — his memories as a human, his reason for living in this world, all of it. Inside Riku's head, a single thought slowly began to take shape. If he just... stopped breathing. If he could stop this heartbeat. Then he wouldn't hurt anyone anymore.