This is set after ending A [Flowers for Machines] 9S finds himself transported back in time to modern day Japan where he can finally buy 2B a t-shirt!

"9S… I'm sorry."

9s lay sprawled on ground, eyes fixated upon a face embodying an expression of torment too substantial to be the consequence of a single lifetime. He tried to tell her everything was alright with what he hoped was a smile, but in reality was no more than a weak twitch of the skin at the corners of his mouth. 2B's face flickered and glitched against the cerulean backdrop.

The virus was ripping into his databases and setting ablaze his data as easily as a wildfire could consume a forest. It wasn't long before 9S's visual projection of the world disintegrated into static pixels, and then complete darkness.

He felt cold droplets splash onto his cheek.

"2B," he tried to say. No words came out as his communication systems had long since shut down. Despite all else being gone, his pain and temperature sensation was still intact. His neck was beginning to burn from the fingers wrapped tightly around it. It felt foreign, although he knew the fingers belonged to none other than his closest companion. There was no other hand he would rather die from but he still was unable to refrain from trembling.

Was this how it was supposed to end?

There were things they had yet to do. He'd promised to take her shopping. 9S didn't know how he'd do it, but he'd buy her... a t-shirt. Yes, that's right, a t-shirt. She'd look good in one.

His delirious thoughts were interrupted as his final thread of connection to the material world was severed. 9S tumbled through a dark void. Time and space warped around him as he drifted, fragments of his past flashing across his eyes in blur of colours.

A bright memory passed by, it was the first time he had met 2B, on an mission assigned to them by command. They had almost always been together since then, but he had never had the opportunity to observe her in action. He was always far too preoccupied by the heat of the battle. Now, as he floated in timeless space watching from afar, he marvelled at her graceful dodges, at the fluidity of her perfectly timed swings, at her toned muscles propelling her body forward with each powerful bound...

The next memory was when it slipped out of her mouth. "...Nines..." The sound leaving 2B's lips made him freeze up. She had never said it again after that. 9S reached towards the memory, but the precious moment dissipated between his fingers.

Then came other moments. Foreign moments he could not recall. They were running along the rocky terrain of a cliff and 2B was laughing, so carefree, her fingers interlocked with his. Then, he was lying on the sun-baked sand while refreshing cool water lapped against his toes. 2B's head was on his chest. Despite it being an illusion, 9S swore he could smell the scent of her hair.

"I've been collecting more old world data," 9S watched himself say to her, "About how humans expressed their feelings. They didn't have ways to transfer data to each other like us after all. They'd write things like poetry-"

"What's poetry?" The 2B in the memory asked.

"It's a collection of words and phrases, strung together like a story, but less complete. They also did..."

He had no recollection of the words that left his mouth. Could these really be his memories?

The scene transitioned. 9S was lying on a bed of white luminous flowers lining the ground with a soothing glow. 2B was wrapped in his arms. 2B whispered something, but before she could finish, the scene shifted again.

9S found himself facing her, both of them in battle stance, a few meters from each other.

"Don't you understand? I have to follow orders!" She yelled. "You really think we could survive with Yorha hunting us down? We'd end up like those defector units. Dead. This is the only way forward, our way to be together..."

9S let go of his weapon. 2B was gripping her sword with such ferocity her arm was shaking.

"2B?" Just as the words left 9S's mouth, her blade dug itself into his chest. Crimson liquid seeped through his clothes. He didn't feel anything.

Then he was in the room Anemone generously offered them at the resistance camp. He was reading the old documents he'd found locked away, After finally completing his collection, he thought he should take some time to make sense of it. As the pieces of information fell into place, a chill ran through his sensory system.

He felt a presence behind him. 2B was looking solemn. Before 9S could react, her lance had cleanly pierced his skull.

Wham! He smacked down onto a solid concrete surface. Pain shot down his back. The pain was real now. He groaned, rolling into his side, head throbbing not only from physical impact, but from all the new information he was able to access. There was so much new data, his memory drive was almost full. He had experienced memories which were ever so important, memories he had once lost.

9S opened his eyes.

"I'm dead," He said to himself.

"No, you just tripped over some loose machine parts," 2B entered his field of vision. "I would have caught you but I assumed you wouldn't lose your balance that easily."

"Huh..."

2B waited for him to get up. He didn't move.

"I remember! I remember everything!" He burst out.

"I don't understand," 2B said after a pause. "What do you remember?"

"All our first encounters... all our last words... I've lost count how many times we've done it."

They stared at each other.

"Done it?" 2B looked away hiding her embarrassment, "My data would suggest an average of XX times per month."

"Huh? Isn't that a bit too frequent, I don't recall dying that much..."

2B looked at him as if she was about to say something but then shook her head. 9S had a feeling they weren't exactly on the same page.

2B started walking.

9S bounded to catch up, "So I figure you don't feel like talking about those XX times?" He wasn't sure if he was sad, angry or hurt, whatever the emotion, it was easier to cover up with jokes.

"If you wish to engage in conversation about our physical relationship it is preferable to do so in a private location."

"Come on, there's nothing but rocks around, which come to think of it, there was a time you

"Kill you? I would never do such a thing."

9S snorted. "You don't need to pretend, I told you I remember it all... no hard feelings though, I was the one who asked for it last time..."

2B looked at him as if he was crazy. He knew his comrade didn't joke around. She was acting as if she knew nothing about all the times she had to kill him. Maybe she was putting up an facade to protect them, to prevent command from acknowledging their situation. Or maybe this model really didn't know their history. It seemed one of them was cursed to perpetually be in the dark.

For the first time, he realised this was how 2B must have felt. He didn't want to think about it.

"Hey 2B, you know, I remembered some pretty interesting stuff. Like old world information about how humans used to express their love through p..."

2B looked at him sheepishly trying to hide her eagerness, "I know... so you want to do it?"

"Huh? Sure! You have to admit I'm good with words. I'll give it a go. This one's called Sonnet 116." 9S cleared his throat.

"The marriage of true minds is... is not love which alters alterations... or bends umm... erasers to erase. It's not fixed and unable to be shaken... it's actually the star to wandering dogs. Love isn't fooled by Time, who has rosy lips and cheeks but also a death scythe... and a compass! Love doesn't change in brief hours and weeks, but bears out to the edge of doom. If this is proved corrupted, I never wrote, nor man ever loved!"

After his extravagant speech, 2B looked concerned. "Maybe it's best we return to the bunker to run a full system diagnosis."

9S was hurt. He was only doing his best to recall the poem by a man named William. There might have been a few minor inaccuracies here and there, but he still reckoned he did a good job.

"That was uncalled for! I'm completely fine!"

2B sighed. "Let's just go."

9S realised he didn't have a clue where they were aiming to go, nor what their mission was. He trailed after 2B as she made her way across a bridge.

"So where are we headed?" 9S asked.

"You've forgotten already? The mall."

"And what about the objectives?"

"Shopping."

"Umm okay, but what need would command have for that?"

"Command? You were the one who planned this..."

"What? I did? And... you're just going to accept it?"

"Yes."

9S guessed 2B had changed a lot since they last saw each other. The 2B he knew would completely reject the proposal of something lacking contribution towards the cause. This new 2B wasn't bad, she seemed a lot more fun.

He looked up. What stood before his eyes was far from anything he expected. The shopping mall was no longer an array of fallen concrete slabs and crumbling walls, but a giant glass building with gleaming white beams towering over them. This had to be some sort of mistake. As they walked closer, the planes of glass slid open.

Sunlight no longer leaked through overgrown foliage that resided in the cracks between concrete slabs. Instead, rays shone through the glass windows, lighting up the interior. The areas sunlight couldn't reach were illuminated by the artificial blue-white glow of LEDs.

9S gasped. There were figures adorned in thin fabrics, exhibiting bright eye-catching colours, not suitable for combat in the slightest. Their chipper voices echoed in the large indoor chamber. There weren't machines. There was no way they could be androids either.

"2B what's the date?" 9S asked. His voice wavered.

"March the 3rd," 2B replied, "2020."

9S was stunned. That couldn't be right. He tried to check the network but found it was offline. There was no network. He was 9925 years in the past.

"Year of the Rat... Tuesday 11:38am JST," 2B added for extra measure.

"We can't... Yorha hasn't been established... how are we even here?"

2B put a finger to her lips. "I don't know the details, but our data was sent back in time as a last resort... we can't risk revealing information about Yorha to people here. As far as they're concerned, we're the same as them."

The pair stood in the middle of the mall, clad from head to toe in black robes and leather gear, shouldering their heavy metal weapons. People stared at them as they rushed past, leaving a radius of a good few feet.

A little kid pointed at them. "Are those strange people in a movie?" He asked his mother, who shot them a condescending glare and quickly pulled her child away.

"We're not doing a very good job blending in." 9S stated.

"That's why we're here. You said we should collect data about current fashion so we can buy clothing to blend in with humans."

"Oh!" He exclaimed, "I suppose that makes sense." They decided they should start by taking their blindfolds off, nobody around them was wearing one after all. Seeing 2B's eyes felt strange, since they spent all their time with that part of their face covered up, it felt like she had revealed a very private part of her herself to him. He shook the thoughts away.

9S gestured towards a busy store. "How about this place?" The red and white sign above the entrance read 'UNI QLO'.

"Okay," 2B said.

Stepping inside, they found themselves overwhelmed by choice. Shelves and racks of colours bombarded their senses, much to the contrast of their usual environment. At the bunker, they didn't have any freedom with their uniforms, identical models always wore the same black design without question. Yorha didn't care much for individuality.

2B ran her hand through a rack of fabrics, the material was much softer than what she was used to. When she looked around, 9S was holding a pink coloured item of clothing and acting as if he had stumbled across an entire herd of rare white moose. Except the herd of white moose was actually a T-shirt aisle.

"So this is... a T-shirt!" He said, eyes filled with excitement. He held it up against 2B, and to his delight, it looked like it would fit.

"Whachya think?" He asked. 2B wasn't impressed.

"This variety of prehistoric clothing does not suit my taste." 2B said dryly, eyeing the pink kitten design. 9S was too absorbed in pursuit of t-shirt discovery to mind 2B's lack of enthusiasm.

"I would prefer something more... subtle." She suggested, "Like this."

"Aw come on 2B that's playing it too safe!"

"Fine, then how about this?" She asked, swapping the plain black T-shirt for a plain white one.

9S sighed and handed her the kitten shirt. "Why don't you try it on? You might change your mind." He said, ushering 2B over to the area labelled changing rooms.

When she stepped out, 9S couldn't stop staring. 2B looked entirely different, she was no longer the image of the war-hardened battler she was designed to be. If he didn't know any better, he could almost mistake her for a harmless kitten, just like the print on the shirt, hanging loosely over her shoulders.

"Wow," He breathed, eyes drifting down her body. He could see the outlines of her curves though the thin fabric.

"It looks perfect!" 9S said. She was so beautiful, he wanted to keep staring at her forever.

"I've come to a conclusion I prefer my original getup."

"We've got to get something that doesn't look out of place in this world!"

"Find then I'll take it," 2B said.

"Oh I didn't know there was a convention on, those weapons look so realistic!" The girl at the counter said as she scanned the barcodes of the pile of clothes they picked.

"These are real." 2B said in a deadpan voice. 9S scowled at her. What happened to not raising suspicion?

"That's ¥4830 please, cash or card?"

"I'm guessing you don't take G? Perhaps I could sell you something and we do a sort of trade." 9S flashed his most charming smile. This civilisation probably didn't accept G as payment, but 9S was sure they'd be flexible. The girl giggled, thinking the white haired boy was hitting on her, but 9S was already pulling out a machine core. "These usually fetch a fair amount, I'm sure it'll cover the cost."

9S waited. There was silence.

"Are you serious?" the girl asked, eyeing the strange glowing object on the palm of his hand.

"It's worth at least 15000G," 2B confirmed.

"Umm... I can't, I don't think my manager would be too happy," the girl explained.

"Then is there a place we can exchange items for currency?" 9S asked.

"Well, there's a pawnbroker's just down the road..."

When they entered the pawnshop, the owner of the shop didn't look very interested in their offerings of machine cores but when 9S showed him the pearls, he immediately perked up.

"Where did you get these Akoya pearls?" He gushed, "I've never seen ones so big!"

"They're from the flooded city ruins," said 2B, "How much will they fetch?"

The man didn't seem to know where that was, but offered a price anyway, "I can do ¥3000."

9S worked out they could buy 3 T-shirts with it. "For all of them?" He asked.

"No each."

9S bounded out with ¥24000 in hand. He paid the girl at the 'UNI QLO' counter for the t-shirt, which she put in a paper bag with the same sign they saw at the store entrance.

"I've finally got it," she exclaimed as she handed the bag over. The androids stared at the counter girl.

"It's that really old game with those cute machines, you're cosplaying that!"

"Err..." 9S had no idea what she was talking about. "Thank you," he said and they left.

"I quite like clothes shopping," 2B stated as they walked past windows filled with mannequin displays, "Let's go in this one!"

He reluctantly followed her inside the store named 'Victoria's Secret'.

"In what situation would you wear this type of garment?" She asked.

"Umm... I believe humans wear these underneath their outer clothes." 9S was feeling rather hot under the collar.

"Oh," said 2B, "I'd like to try one on."

9S was about to suggest that may not be such a good idea, but 2B was already walking into the changing rooms. After a few moments, she began making her way out. Catching a glimpse of her skin 9S realised something.

"No wait!" He yelped. Panicking, he pushed her back into the cubicle, "You can't just walk out like that! There are people around..." he trailed off, glancing down. He was inside the small space with 2B. The thin lace of her lingerie revealed more than what he was prepared for. He couldn't stop his eyes running down the smooth skin of her navel and along the gentle curve of her thighs. 9S backed away, pressing against the door which had somehow slammed shut.

"So, what do you think?" 2B asked rather neutrally.

He swallowed, "It's... okay."

"Only okay? Hmm... perhaps I shouldn't get it then. 9S, I'm detecting a core temperature rise of 1.67 degrees Celsius from your body. Are you alright?"

"Y... yes...! Let's go try some food!" He said. 2B moved towards him to get a more accurate temperature reading, but 9S was faster, dodging his way out the cubicle in mere milliseconds. He breathed out a sigh of relief. After a while, 2B walked out wearing the kitten shirt. She handed the lingerie to 9S, who was about to return it when 2B grabbed his arm. "Wait," she said, "I've changed my mind, let's take it after all."

Riding up half a dozen escalators, which once in 9S's memory were rusted from thousands of years of disuse, they found themselves at the food court. They walked around, ogling at the strange dishes filled with produce they had never seen before. Androids didn't need require nutrition from food sources, they obtained their power through other more sustainable means, but they were still able to taste. Since they were here, they may as well experience human food.

They settled for a place lit up with a giant yellow M. It looked rather welcoming.

"Jeez their interface is so slow," 9S complained as he selected some random items from the digital menu.

"That's no surprise, it's actually pretty advanced given the era we're in."

After sitting down at a table, 9S bit into a cylindrical pile of various foodstuffs sandwiched between two white buns.

"Tastes a bit like moose meat," he noted. 2B agreed. They sampled the thin golden sticks contained in the bright red packaging next. It wasn't bad. 2B had taken a liking to the dark coloured cold drink. She analysed the contents as she sipped through the straw.

"64% H2O, 4% H2CO3, 2% C8H10N4O2, 21% C6H12O6, traces of H₃PO₄..."

"I heard, there's this fun activity which humans do, called Karaoke." 9S interrupted her, "It involves singing songs stored on a machine together, would you like to try it?"

"Alright," she said. 2B took 9S's drink too and sipped it as they walked down the mall. They made their way into the dimly lit karaoke room.

"I don't know any of these songs," she said as 9S scrolled through the list of titles.

"You're right, me neither." He didn't consider the fact songs they knew most likely had not come into existence yet. "They don't even have the song of the ancients! Wasn't that meant to originate around this period?"

"Then what should we do with the hour we have this room?" she asked. "You know, it's been such a long time since I've done any combat, I haven't fought a single enemy since we've come here. I feel so... deprived..."

She was of course, talking about the rush they experienced in battle. 9S hadn't been feeling the withdrawal but he supposed he hadn't been here as long.

"I think I'm going to go crazy if it goes on like this..." she sighed.

"I suppose if it gets too bad, we could have a friendly duel-"

"But the best part is the kill! I can't just do that to you!"

Yeah right, you say that now... 9S thought to himself.

2B suddenly hiccupped and giggled uncharacteristically. 9S stared at her, perplexed as she spoke.

"You told me once, humans, they derive pleasure through food and…"

She leaned towards him and whispered, "this…" She pressed 9S down onto the sofa, and pushed her knee up against his crotch.

2B slipped her hands under his top and stroked down his abdomen, smoothly dipping her fingers under the waistband of his shorts.

9S wondered what version of him had told 2B that. He certainly didn't remember saying of the sort. He was sure the other android could detect his core temperature rapidly escalating as his systems frantically tried to compute the appropriate course of action. He did not have an algorithm for this situation, probably because it was so unlikely to happen.

He gazed past the giggling 2B and at the empty drink cup discarded on the table. Was it some component of the drink exerting a strange affect upon her processing? He wondered but thoughts were overridden by a strange pleasure. It gave him a thrill he was used to experiencing in battle, but it wasn't quite the same. This felt more intimate, intense. He wondered if 2B felt this way every time she killed him.