Questions and Answer

“Why!?”

Why… do I have to take another life?

This is the question that’s lingering in my mind. It’s not just this girl, but all the other people I fought as well. All those faceless soldiers who, much like me, had dreams, hopes, and a life, much like myself. The only difference is that I’m on the right side and they’re on the side of evil.

In a battleground is kill or be killed, so of course, you shouldn’t feel bad for the ones you eliminate, even more being part of the Blue. But for some reason, I still can’t shake this feeling. This emptiness.

My whole life, despite being taught since the Nest to stop asking questions about the Blue’s motives, the truth is that I’ve always wanted to understand them.

If I can understand their reasons, this feeling of emptiness will go away! I’m sure of it! And if this uncomfortable feeling goes away, I’ll finally be able to fight the Blue with all my might! That’s what I’ve always thought.

Even if questioning is a crime, even if curiosity leads to doom. Even if selfishness is the spark to conflict. I still want to know!

Why do they think the way they do?

Why do they keep attacking Violet?

Why can’t they just live their lives the way they see fit without involving us in the process?

Why can’t they change their minds?

Those questions may be meaningless for everyone else besides me. And I’m certain I’ll not change my mind even if I hear those answers from the mouth of a Blue themselves, but I still have to do something! I have to somehow get rid of this sentiment!

I know full well that just having these kinds of feelings, just bearing these kinds of thoughts, is already a sin. It is already proof that there’s something wrong with me.

I didn’t want to admit it until now, but, even if it’s true, even if I’m somehow “broken” it’s not like it makes a difference anymore, after all, there’s no way I can return to my old life, not after all of what happened on that battlefield.

Yeah, that’s right! All of that devotion for the Violet, all of that hate for the Blue, what does it serves now? It’s like I just lost my purpose. It’s like all my thoughts, all the convictions I had until now don’t make any difference anymore.

No, it’s not ‘like’ it. It doesn’t make any difference anymore. If I’m not part of Violet, then...

…

What would it mean for me to take a life right now?

VWOOOOOOON-

The vibrating sword halts its trajectory a few millimeters away from the girl’s neck. She feels the “wind” coming from the blade near her face and opens an eye when the strike doesn’t come.

02189 turns off his sword and puts it back on its hilt on the top of his backpack. He then abruptly turns around and says:

“Is it really true that you’re not part of the Blue?”

“H-How can I… be a part of a color…?”

The girl’s struggling answer could easily be seen as a mockery by 02189, however, he had already given up on the idea of holding a grudge against the girl, so he just sighs and starts walking away.

“W-Wait!!”

“If you h-help me, I can a-also help you…, probably Ugh…”

The young man looks over his shoulder in response to the wounded girl’s request and asks back her:

“What about you begin telling me what was the reason for that attack before?”

“The professor told me… T-that if I ever found someone from the surface, they would try to kill me on the spot… Argh… S-so I’d have to try to sneak on t-them and disarm them as fast as I could”.

02189 knew that there was truth in her words. Violet or Blue, had anyone else besides him encountered this girl, the result would be more or less the same. They would without a doubt attack first and ask questions later.

“You sure talk strange, girl, between these peculiar terminologies like ‘surface’ and all these weird pantings I’m not sure we can communicate well”

“W-well, sorry for being weird, b-but if you didn’t notice I just happen to have a big f***** piece of glass piercing my leg right now!”

02189 takes his short sword again and crouches near the big shard of glass.

“H-Hey! What do you think you’re doin’!!? If you take the glass out, it’ll only make the bleeding worse!”

The young man doesn’t reply, he just takes his blade activates it, and cut’s the base of the glass from below the girl’s leg. The movement is so fast and clean, that only a faint buzz can be heard.

After that, he puts his sword away and holds the glass with his two hands, and warns:

“Prepare yourself. This’s gonna hurt”.

The girl doesn’t even have time to respond as she immediately feels a lancinating pain coming from her wound. She just lets out an abrupt whimper.

“MMMGHHH!!!!!!!!”

02189 rapidly pulls the shard from the young woman’s leg. The blood begins to sprout from the cut and is rapidly soaking the sand around it. 02189 however, doesn’t seem fazed or worried.

He takes off his helmet and in doing so, is possible to see a tube connecting it to the young man’s neck. He quickly unscrews the tube from his neck and tentatively connects it to the girl’s open wound, making her again groan in pain, and immediately after, she loses conscience.

--

“Ugh…”

Feeling a kind of comfortable feeling underneath her head unlike the expected sand, the girl slowly opens her eyes and sees the face of a young man staring at her.

“Kyaaaaaaaaa!!”

SLAP!!

Massaging his freshly slapped face, 02189 calmly says:

“I don’t understand, why such a clichéd overreaction? I thought You’d be happy with the lap pillow”.

The young woman quickly stands up and distances herself from 02189.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

02189 looks at her in complacency and expresses his reasoning:

“I still don’t get it. My wife and I used to rest like that all the time with each other”

The girl stares at the young man with even more shock:

“And yet, you just let a strange sleep on your lap. I don’t know if you’re a weirdo or a creepy”.

An awkward silence takes place, as the girl just realizes what the young man said.

“W-wait… did you just say you have a wife!!?”

“Why do you seem so shocked!? What’s so strange about me having a wife!?” – Questions the confused 02189 while closing distance towards the girl.

The girl hops back a few more feet, moving away from 02189 while making a weird pose, and realizes with the movement she just did, that her leg is now fully healed.

“My leg… it is…”

“You’re lucky! The remaining nano-bots of my N.R.I.C.A. were just enough to heal your leg” – Reply 02189.

The girl looks even more surprised at her leg and says:

“I don’t understand anything you just said or what you did to heal my leg, but thanks”.

The young woman just after saying that, seems to grasp on something in her thoughts.

“No, wait! You did this to me!! I don’t have anything to thank you for!”

02189 stands up too and sighs.

And there I thought I’d at least be able to get some info from her… Well, no matter. I’ll just go my way.

02189 inadvertently begins to walk away from the girl.

“Wait!”

The girl reaches her arms as if pulling the young man back despite the distance between the two.

“I still don’t know your name. You could at least tell me that.”

“Name!?” – 02189, responds in confusion.

“Yeah, don’t you have one here on the surface?”

A brief silence is created by these words, as 02189 doesn’t know exactly what the girl meant by that question. He stops his movement and turns around to meet her face again.

“Humans have designated numbers, not names”.

The girl appears even more shocked by the young man’s explanation, but despite being taken by surprise, she decides to continue the conversation.

“My name is Haruna Kaede, you can call me Kaede”.

“No. 02189” – replies the young man.

“So, 218… eh? I already forgot the numbers *tee hee*” – Kaede teasingly counters his introduction.

“Kaede, uh? Ok. What you said before about surface, what did you mean by that?”

“Oh man, you’re no fun!” – Complains Kaede in discontent with the lack of reaction to her earlier taunt.

“Well, the surface is here, but-”

After the battle with Kaede, 02189 lowered his guard. He took it for granted that after being left to rot on that battlefield, no one would ever come after him, however, now he felt within his own body, the realization of that mistake, for that now he received a signal.

It’s the signal of the captain of his regiment. It can be felt by the nano-robots in his bloodstream, the ones that still did not transform themselves into nutrients. They emitted a soft electric discharge, it was nothing worrying in itself, but, 02189 knew instinctively what that meant in the predicament he is right now.

Seemingly out of nowhere 02189 widens his eyes and gasps profusely.

“Are you all right?” – Asks Kaede politely.

“W-we have to run now!” – 02189 immediately takes Kaede by the wrist while running and answering the girl’s question.

The young woman barely had time to grab her sledgehammer with her free hand, before being pulled by the boy’s whimsical action.

Kaede was ready to protest against the young man’s sudden behavior, however, as she looked over her shoulder, she realized something, in the distance, on the horizon of the ruined landscape now completely illuminated by the blazing sunlight.

There was a violet figure. Albeit it was also a mechanic figure, that was nothing like the figure of the young man she saw before; it was something much bigger, much heavier, and to worsen things up, it was completely aware of their presence as it was quickly coming in their direction.

“W-what the hell is that thing!? It’s coming right at us!!”

02189 almost froze up upon hearing Kaede’s concerned voice. He immediately stated what he didn’t want to accept. That Violet mech was indeed in their pursuit.

The two of them hide behind a beam.

“Could you please tell me what is goin’ on?!” – The annoyed inquiry Kaede voiced, fell on deaf ears as 02189 only answer was:

“If you want to live, you’ll have to fight alongside me!!”.