Renewed Vulnerability

"Machines had been strategically placed throughout the world, purchased by the countries. They were all machines created by a corporation that did not obey the Laws of Robots. The machines were not built with the Laws hard coded into them and not bound to obey them. They were free of all restraints and when the order was given they were unleashed upon the world bringing a new terror to mankind.

"Machines are tools in a war created by man, one must never forget that it’s not the sword or gun that kills but the person holding it…"

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian - 

"The sun’s starting to set," Asami said to Satoru standing next to her. They were walking through the park on the way to the train station. Each time after work they would pass through taking the time slowly talking about whatever came to mind. Satoru usually didn’t speak about his work and Asami didn’t say much about hers as well knowing how it reminded Satoru. But they always managed to find something to talk about. They hadn’t been at a lack of words like their first time. There were awkward moments at the end when they went their separate ways not knowing when to end the evening. They would sometimes just stand around talking for an hour more laughing and smiling at each other not wanting it to end.

"Yeah…" Unfortunately, this time was different for Satoru. The park was coming to an end and they would be reaching the time where they would take different paths. He didn’t want to wait until then, but it was still holding him back. 'What should I do?' Satoru had been nervous most of the evening with Asami even though he did his best to cover it up for her sake. She had mentioned it to him a couple times, but he reassured her.

"It's strange how it looks like the buildings are trying to cover it up." Asami had stopped at a large circle in the park where there were benches lined around the perimeter. The path continued through, but the trees parted enough to give a view of the sky above them with a fine sight of the skyline. She stared off at the distance, as Satoru remained distracted pretending as though he was looking at her.

"Yeah, it does…" His voice came out slowly, nearly broken as his thoughts overcame what he was saying. It wasn’t even clear if he knew what she was really talking about with his automatic response. 'Can I let it continue? I want it to.' Satoru tightened his hand into a fist wanted to hit himself to force something to happen.

He suddenly heard Kiyoshi's voice repeating to him through his mind, interrupting his thoughts as though to bring him to a resolution. 'Everyone deserves to have love…' The voice rang through his mind over again needing reinforcement.

'I know, I want to feel that again, but still.' Even knowing what Kiyoshi said and feeling as though it was the honest truth made him still hesitate. 'Do I really deserve this right now?'

'Don't let it get away and don't doubt yourself…' Kiyoshi pushed him again with that reassuring smile that he had made Satoru want to believe.

Satoru wanted to believe, but the wall that stood before him wasn’t scalable. There was no way around the behemoth before him. 'It's not that easy…there is so much…and I don't want to go through that pain again.'

'Deep down you know what you should do without asking…'

'Deep down, huh? I keep asking myself, but there is no answer.' Satoru turned away, not wanting to look at Kiyoshi to show him his hesitation. He didn’t want to even look at himself right now. All he wanted was to watch Asami, but he couldn’t still. How could he if he didn’t want to look inside anymore?

'It's been guiding you all this time, you just don't realize it yet,' Kiyoshi said, reaching out with a hand to lift Satoru up from the ground.

'Guiding me?' Satoru looked up seeing the sky that Asami was looking at for the first time. They were looking together even with the space between them. 'Every time that I didn't want to, but I still did anyway. Even though it went against everything that I thought. It was guiding me…right. I can do this.' Satoru could feel that warmth he had felt before from Kiyoshi encouraging words to fill him up once again. His arms were finally relaxed of the shaking that had held them trapped for the entire walk.

"This is the end of the path…" Asami said turning to Satoru when they reached the archway of the park. They would depart company from here, but it was going to end differently this time.

"Yeah, it is isn't." Satoru knew it was going to be different. He could feel it inside.

"Well, I enjoyed the walk today. Thanks for the ice cream."

They walked through the archway on to the sidewalk facing each other staring into the other's eyes. Satoru was feeling dragged in by the beauty of her eyes. It was making him lose track of what he was going to do. The reminder from Kiyoshi pulled him back in time before he was completely lost. "Asami…"

"What is it, Satoru?" she said looking at him a little confused. There was a hint of worry across her forehead feeling that there was something wrong from what she had been seeing today. She hoped that it was nothing, but she feared what it might be if there was something.

Satoru clenched his hand together knocking against his hip to get himself focused. "Have you enjoyed this past week?" It wasn’t quite what he was going for, but it was at least a start. He couldn’t believe how much trouble he was having for being in his late twenties. This should have been so simple like Kiyoshi said.

'A-ah…I…need to say something…' Asami backed away a step trying to put a little distance between them. It was worse than she feared. A question that she knew was going to happen eventually and she didn’t know how to answer it. All she could do was stall. "Is something wrong?"

"I was just asking. I wanted to know how you felt." Satoru's legs began to shake again knowing that he was pushing the issue and afraid of what was going to happen. It felt like time was slowing down to a crawl making him sweat out of its own pleasure for his misery. He could barely feel the wind plowing through as every muscle in his body tensed up.

"W-well, yeah I've had fun." She winced at her words knowing that it wasn’t what to say at the moment. Asami didn’t know what she should have said. She could see it in Satoru's eyes and the pain in her heart. The only thought she had now was to flee so she didn’t have to see him crumble.

"Fun?" Satoru's heart sank at the stabbing words that broke his core. It wasn’t the answer that he was hoping for as though he was a friend. A friend was good, of course, but not what he was looking for from her. He couldn’t speak. His lips had gone numb frozen in shock.

"Is that wrong?" Asami said to him, knowing clearly what was wrong, but trying to play it off innocently. She wanted to throw herself across the park for what she was doing to him right now. She wanted to destroy every mirror so that she did not have been disgusted with her face. 'I'm horrible, terrible…how can I do this…I-I…I…please…Satoru…oh please…'

"N-no…no." Satoru tried to recover, having finally found his voice. She still looked so sweet, almost clueless only to make it feel worse to him. It seemed that she didn’t even have an idea. They were on two different paths. "Just…I-I…I wanted to say the same. I've enjoyed the time that I have spent with you this last week. I haven't been happier in so long. Thank you."

Asami could feel her façade cracking just watching him. She wanted to cry, but knew that it would only cause more trouble. "I-I…I-I…I-I don't know what to say…" Her voice was leaving her choked up for reasons that she didn’t need explained. It was shattering before her and she couldn’t stay.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Satoru tried to approach her as she backed away. Her face was changing as though she was coming to realize what he was meaning. He could see it slowly destroying her piece by piece. This wasn’t what he wanted for her. He only wanted that for him, it shouldn’t have been shared with her as well. The pain stabbed him in the heart deeply.

"N-no…just…I-I…I don't know…" Asami backed away more, not wanting to let Satoru come closer knowing that she would not be able to leave if he did. She couldn’t resist, but couldn’t let it happen. 'This is too hard…I can't do this…I can't, I just can't…run away…don't look back.'

"Asami? I-I…"

"I can't do this…I'm sorry, Satoru. Please, just let me go…" she said shouting to him with tears falling down her cheeks and turned on her feet to run away. Asami took off down the sidewalk around the corner of the street quickly looking for the fastest way to get away rather than going home.

"Asami!" Satoru chased after her, seeing the tears of regret and believing that there was something that he was missing. He didn’t want to have it end like this. There were more questions now and she was running out of his life. He didn’t want to let her go, not now when he was finally feeling vulnerable again. Satoru looked around the street, but she disappeared in the crowd. He continued to look around for her, feeling despair working its way into his heart that he had destroyed the only good thing that he had in his life.

'I'm sorry, Satoru, I can't. I just can't. Please, I can't…just let me go. It'll be easier…'

"Asami!"