Beyond This Place

Chapter 6

After waiting what seems like several hours (and Rin admits she manages to catch up on lost sleep a little), Neru approaches from the opposite direction from whence they came. Rin sees her and stands quickly, fixing her eyes on the other girl. Neru steps over and sees Len on the floor and can't help but gasp a little.

"Len?" she asks, her voice filled with muffled fear. She stoops over the mangled body and Meiko holds out the pitch-black machinery she took out. Neru takes it and holds it to her chest as she feels Len's forehead.

"Not good," Neru mumbles. "It seems like all his functions have stopped, or at least most of them. There doesn't seem to be any heat coming from him."

Rin bites her lip until it bleeds as Neru digs her hand into the hole in his chest and feels something within before taking her hand out and sorting the various wires and chains. She grabs onto the end of one chain and plunges it into his chest, then takes her hand out. The chain is connected into whatever's inside, but Neru sits back and frowns.

"We'll need to take him to a room with proper equipment," Neru sighs. "I'll have to work alone on him, so it'll take a while." Rin looks at Neru anxiously and is not at all reassured when she sees the fear and anxiety reflected on her face. Neru sits back and looks around.

"Where's Miku?" she asks, and it feels as if a rock has plummeted into Rin's stomach. Once again, she feels useless, small, and naked. Suddenly the floor is very interesting and Neru's prolonged silence reigns around her shivering body.

"I…I don't know," Rin finally manages, her voice catching in her throat. "After…after that green-haired woman attacked us, Miku managed to get away, and when Len and I got through she was already gone."

Neru is silent for a while, and then brushes some of her dirty blonde locks away from her eyes. "Miku…I hope she's okay. I really, really do. Oh god, we better find her before Mikuo finds out."

"What's the deal with Mikuo and Miku? He seems really attached to her," Rin asks, trying to move the conversation away from the disappearance of Miku. Neru glances at Rin for a second before hefting up Len's limp body into her arms and walking down the hallway. Rin struggles to keep up, holding Meiko's hand to guide her.

"He's her brother," Neru says simply with certain finality to her tone, and Rin knows that she will say no more. Rin holds back the welling questions that begin bubbling up her throat and clamps her mouth shut, thinking about Neru's proclamation. She can't comprehend how Mikuo could be Miku's brother, but eventually she gives up in attempting understanding and hustles up to Neru's side, walking briskly.

"Go in this room," Neru instructs, turning to a door. She fumbles with a card and slides it through a sensor and the door clicks open. Neru turns her head slightly to talk to Rin.

"I'm pretty sure there isn't going to be anyone in here," Neru says. "This is where Len was developed, so it has the proper materials, I would think. I know this room because I was allowed into it a lot to help with development, though most of the time my dad deploys me to do daily checks on robots in cells instead of actually making robots."

Neru taps her blue pen on her clipboard as they enter before sliding the pen into the clip and setting it down on a metal table set off to the side. Meiko closes the door behind them, fumbling slightly with the doorknob.

Rin can't help but peek over to glance at what the mysterious clipboard has on it as Neru goes off and places Len's ragged and torn body into a metal tub attached to the wall.

Rin notices barely any writing, contradicting what she previously assumed Neru was doing. The first piece of paper has several lines ruling it and a few notes scribbled across. "E56-008 doing fine, mostly functional. A88-233 has injury on arm." A corner of the next page is peeking out lopsidedly from beneath the first, and Rin notices strange markings on them. Rin eyes Neru and sees that she's messing with wrenches and extra wires, plunging the tools into Len's chest and pulling out strange things she doesn't understand. Quickly, inconspicuously, Rin flips the first page upward to see what's below.

It's a picture, sketchy but definable in blue ink. Her eyes flick across the picture and she sees that it looks remotely like her and Len, but much younger. They're smiling and he's holding a banana while she gnaws at an orange slice, and no mechanical appendages are anywhere. Both of Len's blue eyes shine naturally and his outstretched fingers are made from flesh and bone, as well as her own fingers that grasp the orange slice. It is clear that they are not robots.

Rin stares at it a while, staring in awe at how real they look before she remembers she isn't supposed to be peeping. She flips back to the first page quickly, glancing at Neru. Neru is still working over Len, and Rin walks over to look.

"Lucky," Neru mumbles as Rin approaches, sensing her presence. "None of his memory data is damaged, so hopefully he'll still be the same person when he wakes up again."

Rin can't help but smile at this suggestion and peeks over the rim of the tub. Neru is attaching the wires and chains back into his body, tightening and snipping ends of some of them to get them to fit in snugly. To the side, a frame is set on a small metal table, the wires in the frame thick and made of steel. Rin watches with subtle interest and Meiko hangs in the back, sitting in a warmed chair almost regally.

Rin turns back to Neru, constantly glancing at Len. He looks so peaceful and calm, despite the disgusting, almost disturbing hole right through his body. Neru shrugs at Rin.

"You better rest while you can," Neru says without looking at her. Her hands and eyes are busy working with Len. "You probably won't get to sleep very much other than now."

"True," Rin admits, though she's worried for Len. Reluctantly, she slides over to one of the chairs and nestles her head into the covered, heated arm, enjoying the emanating warmth. She looks at Neru working there, bent over the metal tub for a while before her eyes grow heavy, lulled by the heated warmth of the seat, and she sleeps.

All is silent when Rin awakens again, roused by a soft sighing and wheezing in the corner of the room. She shifts uncomfortably, and as the sound continues she eventually opens her eyes, blinking rapidly as the lights shine into her eyes. When she looks around her, she sees Neru sleeping quietly, her mouth slightly agape on a chair as well as Meiko curled up in another. The room is mostly silent other than the noises coming from the corner and Neru's soft breathing, and Rin gets up slowly to investigate.

She finds the noises are coming from the tub and she walks up almost apprehensively, suddenly a little scared. She peeks inside.

Len is curled up in the bottom, sighing and wheezing as he breathes softly, and Rin notices the hole in his stomach is mostly gone, though the fabric of his shirt is still ripped. She reaches out to caress his face and he twitches at the touch. Rin can't help but smile suddenly when she realizes he's alive and well.

Rin scoots a chair close to the tub and almost guiltily grabs Neru's clipboard off the metal table and begins flipping through the pages. Most of them are drawn in blue pen, while others are sketched in pencil. Neru seems to draw a lot—sometimes it's of her and Len playing, years younger than they appear. Sometimes it's of Miku, also looking younger and not mechanical, holding a leek, sometimes with Mikuo, who is also younger. There's one dynamic picture of young Miku wielding a sword, the background colored darkly to make her stick out.

Rin peeks closer and sees that's it's the very sword in the frayed backpack. Rin looks around and is reassured when she sees the dirtied white backpack (which is no longer so white) tucked in the corner of the room.

Suddenly someone stirs and Rin snaps the papers on the clipboard back into place, quickly placing it back on the table. She feels relieved when she sees it's only Len. He sits up groggily, then yelps sharply and drops a little before catching himself.

"It hurts," he says, his voice husky from sleepiness. He puts a hand to his side and gasps heavily. Rin looks at him sympathetically and with concern. His heavy, wheezing breaths resonate in the enclosed space of the room.

"Shh," Rin soothes, placing her hand on his chest. She feels a sharp jolt of surprise when he feels his bare skin and how it's ridged by stitches, but she realizes Neru most likely had to sow his skin together to seal the wound. She strokes his skin and Len sighs, curling towards her touch as he whimpers softly under his breath. He flops down again with a resounding thump and Rin stands up to reach down to stroke his soft blonde hair.

After a while of silence, Len speaks and his voice is thin and wheezy, as if there's a leak in his throat. "I'm alive."

Rin looks at him in surprise, then strokes his hair some more and laughs softly from relief. "Yeah. Neru's a real genius, isn't she?"

Len sighs and smiles weakly at her, his face tired and weary. "It hurt a lot when that lion stabbed me, Rin. It really did. You don't even know.

"It was like—like fire. Everywhere," Len says, gripping his chest wearily. Rin soothingly strokes his hair continuously, patting his head gently to comfort him.

"I know, I know. But it's going to be better now," Rin whispers, taking his hand and holding it tightly in her own, pulling it close to her chest. "I'll be here for you."

Len looks at her and finally smiles a little, wheezing out a trill of thankfulness. He curls up, still gripping her hand and squeezing it tightly. Rin is still slightly concerned about his voice and pain, but he decides to wait until Neru awakens to ask about it or give his wound time. For a while, everything is silent, and Rin grasps his hand knowing she's holding onto one that's alive.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Len breaks the silence. "D-Do you really actually like me?"

Rin looks at him, amused by his embarrassment. She squeezes his hand with hers and he squeezes it back hesitantly, still awaiting her answer.

"Do you think I would lie to you?" Rin asks. Len hesitates and looks at her with uncertain eyes and suddenly Rin feels bad for all those moments she's been afraid of him, hesitated around him and acted as if he were a monster.

"Of course I like you," Rin says, smiling subtly. Len croons with delight and sits up to nuzzle against her, making her feel almost awkward. She hugs him back lightly and she can feel him wheezing out of a ventilation slit in his back. She pats him gently and holds him back to look him in the eye.

"We'll need to get Neru to look at you once she's awake," Rin says firmly, and Len tilts his head at her. "You're wheezing a lot, and you're not talking so well."

"Okay," Len says, looking back at her, right into her deep blue eyes. Rin looks back at his and into his glowing red eye as well, assuring herself she won't falter in loving him exactly how he is. Len sighs and curls up again on the bottom of the metal container, wrapping his back legs around himself to fit into the somewhat small tub.

Rin exhales softly through her nose and continues absentmindedly stroking Len's hair until his breathing calms to a soft wheeze and his eye closes. Finally, Rin falls into a light sleep as well until minutes—or is it hours?—later she feels Len nudging her with a curled wheel.

"Wake up," Len says. He's sitting up, albeit lopsidedly, nudging her with his raised back foot. Her eyes gradually move into focus and she finds Neru standing by her.

"Sorry," Neru says apologetically. "I needed you to move so I could work on Len for a bit. He says he's wheezing when he breathes and has some pain, so I'll try to fix it."

"No, it's okay," Len says. "We really should go. People might come looking sometime soon."

"Are you sure?" Neru says, studying Len's face. After a while, she sighs and nods. "Yeah. I'll go with you guys for a while, at least until you guys find Miku."

"We should look for her," Rin agrees, nodding as well in agreement, and then she gives Neru a somewhat skeptical face. "Isn't anyone going to wonder why you're gone?"

"No, not unless I'm gone too long," Neru says. "I take vacations from time to time because I'm not really a real worker, so that's what people probably think I'm doing."

Rin nods to show her understanding and then takes Len's hand to support him. His hand is shivering slightly and Rin realizes he's probably in pain.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Rin whispers softly into his ear. "You're shaking."

"I'm fine," Len insists, and Rin sighs as Neru opens the door. She grabs the backpack and Neru grabs her clipboard and pen.

They slide into the darkness of the hall.

"Hey, Gumi."

Neru is clutching her yellow cell phone in her shaking hand. Rin is struggling to keep quiet so there's no sign of her being there—she knows Gumi is the head of the Development Wing and is also the green-haired woman who attacked them, judging from Neru's description of her appearance.

"Tough looking, with short, lime-green hair? That's her," Neru had described, her face unreadable. "She's really scary when she needs to be serious."

"What is it, Neru?" she hears Gumi's mature voice flowing from the speaker phone, surprisingly calm but preppy through the speakers. Rin realizes she's probably a lot nicer to the workers than the escaped robots. Neru fumbles with the phone in her nervous, sweaty hand.

Rin knows why she's so nervous—Neru told them how Gumi has a dog, who she calls Hiro, usually by her side. The dog can apparently hear and sniff out many things, and if the dog can hear their even slightest movement from the phone it will probably alert Gumi.

"I'm just wondering," Neru says, laughing loudly, attempting to hide her anxiety. "I'm working in the Storage Wing now, as you know. Those three robots—they're from some cell rooms I've been checking for the past year."

"Mm," Gumi says contemplatively from the other side.

"…So I'm wondering, have you seen them?" Neru asks. She knows—everyone knows—of how Gumi found them and attempted to capture them, but she's pretending she wants more details. Gumi exhales slowly from the other side of the phone.

"Well, Neru," Gumi says. "As you probably know, I encountered them when I was walking by the cell where we keep that giant mechanical lion that escaped a few years back. Um, it was all three of them. S20-756 and B25-757 and C11-983. I tried to get Hiro to stop them, but the bodyguard one—B25-757—retailiated. Hiro's still being repaired because of those wounds.

"After a while, S20-756 managed to get the door to the lion's cell off and C11-983 rushed away. I'm under the impression that she was pretty terrified. After that, the other two, S20-756 and B25-757, got away as well. I felt pretty bad about that, but I wasn't going to just go into that high level danger area.

"They probably just were destroyed by that lion," Gumi says, sighing. "It's really dangerous, and I doubt they could have survived."

Gumi's voice suddenly grows sympathetic as she speaks from the other side of the line. "I'm really sorry about that, Neru. I know those three were all modeled after—"

"Yeah," Neru says suddenly, cutting Gumi off sharply. Her words are stiff and her voice is tight. "I know. Don't talk about it."

"Sorry," Gumi says guiltily, her voice still ladled with that apologetic sympathy. "Well, that's all I've got to say."

"Thanks for your help, Gumi," Neru says, her voice low. Gumi mutters a goodbye and Neru hangs up by pressing a glowing red button on the keypad of her cell phone before sliding it back into one of the pockets on her lab coat. She turns to Rin, Len, and Meiko again. Meiko is leaning against the wall, and Len is curled up against the wall on the floor, his face unreadable. Rin is standing close to him, her eyes concernedly glancing from him to Neru.

"Gumi says Miku was most likely destroyed, but you guys weren't…so…" Neru pauses, looking at them almost hopefully.

"She's probably fine," Len whispers from where he's curled up and gazing into nothingness. His voice is barely audible and Rin is really worried for his condition. "She—she left a message for us."

"When we went into the forest, there was a parrot who told us to be careful. I think she left that for us, and if she knew a lion was in there she probably got past it to relay the message." Len explains, his voice raising a little and becoming a bit louder as he speaks. Neru nods, her face slightly relieved.

"We'll see if we can find her," Neru says carefully.

Rin is wondering about Gumi's cut off sentence despite it all, but feels nosy and says nothing. Neru gestures them to follow her and Rin grabs onto Meiko's hand to help her, and then bends down and takes Len's hand to help him up. She feels almost as she's leading around everyone, with Meiko gripping onto her hand for guidance and Len gripping her other hand for support. She struggles to keep up with Neru's constantly brisk pace.

"Looks like I have no choice," Neru mutters, suddenly stopping with some realization. "This might not be the best decision, but it looks like I'll have to do it, at this rate."

"What is it?" Rin asks, peeking over Neru's shoulder to see what Neru is doing. Neru pulls a strange, screened contraption out of her pocket and begins hitting buttons. The screen flashes words several times before at last arriving at a screen with many options. Neru presses one and hold the device to her ear. Rin presumes it's most likely a phone of some kind. Once again she recognizes the symbol that is emblazoned on various parts of her and Len's bodies—a large circle with a solid dot in the middle. It's on the back of the contraption, and she suddenly realizes it's probably the company logo.

"Hey, dad," Neru mumbles, her voice low and trembling slightly. Rin freezes as she suddenly remembers Neru's dad is the boss of the company, and she squeezes Len and Meiko's hands nervously. Meiko squeezes it back reassuringly and Len hangs close to her, his glowing eyes large in the darkness. His ponytail stands up on end and lights up like earlier.

Neru's dad seems to mumble something on the other side of the phone, and Neru speaks again. "I need to the password to the main database computer."

More mumbling, this time louder. Neru purses her lips and speaks again, her voice firm. "I need it to find the escaped robots! What do you mean it's too dangerous? I can handle it—"

Neru stops and her father on the other side of the phone mutters something quickly. When Neru speaks again, her voice is quieter. "Thanks so much. Bye."

"Huh," Neru says, hanging up and slipping the blocky phone device away before turning to stare at the others. "I'm going to get into the main database computer. My dad seems to think it's dangerous because it's very high-tech and could possibly get a mind of its own, almost. It has a lot of confidential data so my dad doesn't want it getting any viruses and sending the data off."

"Okay," Rin says, blinking. Neru nods briskly and then begins walking again, this time with more purpose. Rin struggles to keep up, as always. Len nearly suffocates her with how close he's hanging to her.

They walk for a while and Neru seems to know the Development Wing pretty well with the way she confidently walks down the halls. They twist and turn around, as always, for a long,

long while.

It seems like forever, and they pass through many doors. Rin begins to get tired and she can feel Len and Meiko tiring alongside her, their steps slowing. Neru sighs and begins slowing down as well, glancing behind her at the others.

"I guess it's farther away than I thought," Neru admits. "I guess we can rest if we find an abandoned room to stay in—it shouldn't be too hard, there have been a lot of unused rooms in the development wing since the beginning, for ambitious projects in the future."

Rin hopes they stumble upon one of those rooms soon, and eventually they do. She feels immensely grateful—her feet are tired. Len plops on one of the chairs lined up on the side of the very empty room and flexes his ankle joints that connect his four metal legs to his four wheel-like feet, lifting them up to look at them and flopping them around.

Rin looks around the room—it's mostly empty, just with chairs lined up on every side, a table, and a small door fitted into the back. She doesn't bother to wonder what's on the other side of that door as she yawns. It's not the most comfortable thing to rest on, with only chairs and without a bed, but she scoots her chair right next to Len's and rests her head on his shoulder. Len smiles and makes a noise from the back of his throat in relief and delight and scoots closer to her.

Neru smiles faintly at them from a chair on the other side of the room, her clipboard a few feet away from her chest, her blue pen poised to write—or draw, Rin realizes. Meiko is on yet another side, curled up in one of the chairs.

Rin raises her head slightly when she thinks she hears a noise, like a thump, coming from the other side of the room, but Neru is drawing quietly and Meiko is fast asleep. She looks at Len quizzically and he looks back at her, tilting his head. Rin shrugs and presumes she's been hallucinating and rests her head down again.

Rin's eyes are heavy from constant walking and she at last lets her eyelids close, her head nestled into the warmth of Len's shoulder.