Program: Kokoro

Chapter 3
Feel

Rin traveled, far from the 'comfortable' home of where she lived. She walked several miles, leaving nature behind and entering the empty world of mankind's creation.

Concrete sidewalks, tall buildings, automobiles. "Truly a modern jungle in today's world!" the scientist had said with a laugh. Rin ignored everything and went to the other side of the city. What lied there was not a high way with paved roads and light fixtures. A cemetery sat there, with its crumbling signs and fields of buried corpses. To be honest, Rin only came here to see one.

She stood in front of the monument that contained Len's name.

"I do not understand, Doctor," she said. She knew that he could not hear her words, but she recalled him saying that talking about things that troubled you made people feel better.

Rin did not feel anything at all. She searched her memory bank, looking for a memory that could answer her question: Why?

The highest hill in the city held only one monument: Empty. A name had yet to be carved into the stone for the relatives to see, and there wasn't a corpse to be buried. Despite the (disappointing?) trip to the city, the hill did have an excellent panoramic view of everything. And that was all Len needed.

"Humans will die someday," he told Rin. "It's inevitable."

"Is that so, Doctor?" Rin asked. Len nodded.

"It is, Rin. Even I will die someday," he added. His voice was notably more mournful. Rin didn't bother registering this change of tone.

The memory began to get fuzzy. The voices lost a little, and the memory skipped some parts.

"You inherit music..."

"...just so...happy..."

"Doctor..." the present Rin suddenly called out. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. Had a virus infected her system? Did something break? What was happening?

"System check starting."

"..."

"System check complete. No viruses found."

Did that mean...?

"Power meter: 55%."

Ah, so it was just the power beginning to fade. Although as far as she knew, the power wouldn't affect her memory bank or cause static. She was sure that something was affecting the system somehow... No matter. It was time to head back and recharge before she shut down for good.