Mechanical Hearts

Chapter 4

Fragments of memories: Lime's unconditional love.

"Otaru?" The young man heard his name being called at a distance but paid no importance to it as he was comfortably sleeping in his warm bed. "OtaruOtaruOtaruOtaruOtaruOtaru!" The voice repeatedly called as there had been no source of response from Otaru.

"Wha- What?!" He quickly sat on his bed, blinking his eyes looking around the dark room faintly illuminated from the lamps outside and the moonlight coming from the window. Forcing his eyes to get used to the darkened bedroom, he saw Lime's figure sitting in front of him dressed in her black bodysuit. "Is something wrong Lime?" He asked lazily, his eyes almost closed from sleepiness.

"Otaru, what is a hottie?" Lime innocently asked, smiling at him.

"What?" Otaru's eyes now widened at the question. If he had been sleepy a second earlier, he was now totally awake. "Lime, did you just wake me up to ask me that?"

"It's that Bloodberry is always arguing with Cherry about how she's a hottie and Otaru thinks she's a hottie and Cherry is not a hottie!" Lime informed. "I still don't understand what that word means!"

How the hell… "Well…" Otaru sighed scratching the back of his head and looking down blushing. "Hottie means… Well, when someone says 'she's hot', means the girl is… pretty. Yeah, that's it."

"Oh…" Lime looked down thinking for a minute. "Otaru, do you think I'm a hottie?"

"What-"

"If you think I'm pretty!" She leaned forward an inch, getting too close for Otaru's own comfort.

"Well Lime…" Otaru started talking, embarrassed and avoiding her green-eyed gaze. He swallowed and finally looked up at the girl kneeled in front of him. Sure, she was pretty. The faint light coming from the street shined on her hair making it a dark blue reflecting the silver moonlight, her green eyes a piercing curious stare and finally a small mouth with thin pink lips pressed softly forming a gentle smile as she eagerly waited for his answer. He watched as she blinked a couple of times and opened his mouth to speak. "Of course I think you're pretty." He looked attentively at her.

"Otaru thinks I'm pretty!" Lime giggled clapping her hands lively and stretching up her back away from Otaru, he could breathe again. Suddenly, loud running footsteps could be heard from the corridor, the second later the sliding door of Otaru's bedroom opened revealing a glaring Cherry with sparks on her eyes.

"What is going on here?" Cherry asked fuming. "I heard Lime saying that, you, mister, think she's pretty! I want to know what you think about me!"

"Cherry I- I- I-" Otaru choked.

"Yes Otaru what do you think about me too?" Bloodberry joined the conversation passing by Cherry and kneeling down on the floor but above Otaru's legs, her face getting closer to his.

"Hey, get off!" Cherry pulled Bloodberry by the shoulder, away from the sweating young boy in the middle of his sheets. "Tell us master Otaru!"

"I think you're all pretty I swear!" Otaru smiled nervously.

"But you must think one of us is prettier!" Bloodberry insisted.

"Girls, I have to work tomorrow, I should get some sleep."

"Tomorrow is Sunday master Otaru!" Cherry informed. "We need your answer!"

"You are all beautiful I'm telling the truth!" From crawling back on the floor Otaru realized his back touched the wall, nowhere to run now. "You three were the best thing that has ever happened to me. Before you came to my life, I was bored, angry, tired of the life I had but now… Now it's different, I have something to live for, I can be happy around you all. I couldn't imagine myself living without you. It doesn't matter who is prettier, to me you're the most beautiful girls in the universe and I feel so lucky to be with you."

"One day, master Otaru, you'll be able to tell us who completes your heart fully and is not just equal to the others." Cherry spoke smiling warmly.

They ran through the corridors of the Castle, pushing complaining guards to the side until the men received orders from Faust to let the girls search as they wished. From then, the guards gladly stayed out of the girls' way afraid of getting hurt. Reaching for the very same room Cherry had been sleeping once, Bloodberry kicked the door open with all her might causing it to burst into the room, fly all the way across and shattering the walls in front.

"Seriously, you have to stop kicking doors open and use your hands." Cherry coughed and waved her hand as a cloud of dust formed from the damages.

"I'm too passionate at what I do." Bloodberry replied.

"Here!" They heard Lime's voice from the inside, just realizing that she wasn't there with the two but had already gone to search the large room. Glancing at each other, they rushed in following the blue-haired marionette's callings. "They left something here!"

It was raining that afternoon. Lime sat cross-legged on the little wooden porch at the back of their house, watching in amusement the rain fall gently on the ground. The air was filled with the smell of wet dirt and the sky was a cloak of grey clouds. She stretched her arm out of the wooden told protecting her above from the rain and opened her hand with the palm up letting the raindrops hit her fingers multiplying into smaller water drops as they did. She giggled as she felt the cold water. Otaru soon joined her on the porch amazed at how the smaller things in life were so important to the girl. It was as if she was looking at the rain for the first time.

"Do you like the rain Lime?" He asked looking at the dark clouds gathering in the sky.

"Once in a while I like that it rains! If it ran everyday I couldn't play outside." Lime answered.

"True." Otaru smiled.

"I like the smell the rain leaves on the ground." Lime turned at him smiling.

"Yeah me too…" Otaru looked to the horizon thoughtfully. "Lime… I've been meaning to ask you something..."

"What is it?"

"Are…" Otaru paused. "Are you happy?"

"Of course I'm happy!" Lime blinked at his question. "I'm surrounded by good friends and I have you as my master! It's great that the person I love is with me everyday."

Otaru smiled at her, glad to hear her answer and feeling exactly the same.

"Otaru…" Lime's eyes widened as she looked down at the white piece of cloth on her hands. "This is a piece of his shirt."

"What? Let me see." Bloodberry asked taking the white fabric and analysing it attentively. "It is from the shirt he wears to sleep. Poor Otaru… He is being kept with only his white sleeveless shirt and sleeping pants!"

"Let me check!" Cherry reached for the cloth and smelled it, heavily breathing in. "It still has his smell… Oh Otaru, what are they doing to you?"

"There's more." Lime crouched on the floor and picked up a white paper written with the same black ink letters, only this time they could read:

"Midnight, Japoness main bridge."

"Finally they decided to show their faces." Bloodberry scanned the white paper more than once. "We'll be there."

"Otaruuuuuuuu!!" Lime yelled jumping on Otaru's back, placing her arms around his neck causing the cup of tea on his hands to balance letting some drops of tea fly onto the table plus a spray of the liquid spit out of Otaru's mouth. "Come play hide and seek with me!"

"You scared me." Otaru recomposed looking back at the girl. "Again Lime? Go ask Bloodberry or Cherry."

"Cherry is busy, Bloodberry said no." The marionette quickly replied.

"Bloodberry can you go play with Lime?" Otaru asked the red-haired who was across the table boringly reading a magazine.

"No." Was her simple answer.

"Fine…" Otaru sighed. "Go hide and I'll count to twenty."

Lime excitedly breathed in heavily letting out a high-pitched squeak and grinned while getting up before leaving in a blink of a second to go hide.

"Aaaaaaand twenty! Here I come!" Otaru got up.

"Upstairs in the closet." Bloodberry informed, her eyes not lifting from the magazine, her left hand supporting her chin.

"Thanks." Otaru replied, headed for the stairs and directed to the girls' bedroom where Lime was hiding inside the closet, sitting down holding her knees to her chest and peeking out from a small breach left between the door and the wall. "Where could Lime be?" Hearing that, Lime lifted her hands to her mouth in order to control a nervous giggle, and turned her head to the side so she wouldn't sidetrack looking at Otaru from the breach while he was looking around the room for her. It was then she noticed something shining at the tiny light coming from the bedroom's lamp, there on the closet's floor. A photograph. Curious, Lime reached for it and held it close to her eyes letting the light coming from the breach illuminate it so she could take a better look. There on the photograph four people grinned happily at her. Otaru in the middle, waving at whoever was taking the picture, Lime was at his right holding his hand down joyfully, while Cherry at his left held his waving arm and at the same time greeted her teeth at Bloodberry whose arms were wrapped around Otaru's neck and was smiling widely as she kept her cheek next to his. Looking at the photograph Lime's eyes started watering, she never realized how much she could miss Otaru to the point of hurting her inside. She sobbed and lifted her hand from the photograph to clean her eyes. We're so happy together…

"Lime…" She heard a voice calling while sliding the closet's door open to the side, letting the bedroom's light shower her and allowing Lime to see a dark silhouette in front of her. The silhouette kneeled down in front of her, red eyes looked just the same as her own, sad. "Lime, he's not here..."

"I was just remembering when we played hide and seek." Lime sniffed, tears coming down from her eyes faster. "As soon as I find whoever is doing this…"

"I know…" Bloodberry interrupted, the same feeling of revolt inside her stomach. "Come out of the closet, it's almost time." Bloodberry stretched her hand out to Lime who, accepting it, slowly crawled out from the closet and jumped to Bloodeberry hugging her close, letting the tears fall as she cried. In an ordinary day Bloodberry would already have pushed Lime aside and started complaining about how lame that was, but those were no ordinary days, not anymore. She hugged Lime back.

Night had fallen smoothly, the streets were now silent as a tall dark figure watched from the window of the higher tower of his castle. The uncomfortable feeling on his chest that things weren't as quite as he wished them to be. The feeling that something wasn't right. The disappearance of Otaru filled his mind every day now and the thought that he didn't have any idea of the responsible of that crime troubled him deeply. The room he was standing, lost in his deep thoughts, was dark, no light was on but the moonlight outside.

"Faust!" The door opened behind him revealing a small figure of a long haired girl supporting a body joined by another shadowy figure helping the body in between them up. The voice calling his name seemed worried, almost in panic. "Faust, help us." Lorelei cried. Faust turned around to see the sickest vision he never thought he would experience. Luchs was head down, her arms around Lorelei's and Panther's neck, her legs were numb, couldn't support her body alone. In her chest where her maiden's circuit once was stood a big hole letting out her wires and circuits sparking and leaking fluids. Faust ran towards the girls, taking Luchs in his arms.

"No… Luchs." He called in a cry getting on his knees with the broken marionette on his lap. Her heart had been ripped out as if a hand had dipped into her chest, get a hold of her heart and pushed it all out. Faust couldn't imagine how that must have been painful to her. Luchs body was flabby, lifeless, her eyes were grey, looking blank at Faust. He lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it softly. That was too much for him, his heart beat fast and his hands closed into fists, shaking. He had made many mistakes in the past toward marionettes but he had changed his point of view, they had changed him into a better person, a person who cared about them. He thought about Tiger, he already had her without her maiden's circuit, he couldn't bare having Luchs without hers too. He turned at Lorelei, eyes contracted in a glare. "Who did this?"

"We found her like that outside the castle." Lorelei cried. "No one saw who did it."

Faust rose to his feet, carrying Luchs in his arms and headed towards the door.

"Come with me Lorelei, Panther. I'm taking her to the builders, she needs to be fixed and I need you by her side." Faust spoke. "After that, I won't rest until I find her maiden's circuit and the responsible for this cruelty."

Otaru moaned painfully while getting his torso up from the floor. He felt his face sore and his eyes puffy. His wrists were burning from the tight ropes and his legs were sleepy. He was covered in dust and his mouth felt dry. No one was in the room and he couldn't hear anyone outside. The perfect opportunity to find freedom. Looking around, he noticed there were some pieces of glass from the broken window pane on the floor. He tried to get up leaning against the wall, noticing he was in worse condition than what he thought. With tied ankles he jumped little by little to the other side of the room where the glass was laying, shining in the dark room. Sitting down once again, back turned at the pieces of glass, he managed to catch one with his fingers and get it into position to cut the ropes. As he sliced them from his wrists at his back, he found himself thinking that he hadn't notice those glasses on the floor earlier. Lucas seemed like the kind of psycho that doesn't let anything pass by him. Must there be someone trying to help Otaru? Who could it be though? Cutting free from the last round of rope seizing his wrists the lack of strength in his body took the best of him, he cut his finger causing it to start bleeding. Able to move his arms again he quickly lifted his finger to his mouth so it would stop bleeding. Now it was time for the feet.

The three marionettes approached the bridge pointed out on the paper they had found earlier. It was time to meet whoever had taken Otaru from them. Or so they thought that was it.

Laying Luchs down on the capsule where she would be repaired, although she wouldn't have a new maiden's circuit like Faust order it to be, he repeated to himself in his head he should have been more careful, his saber dolls should always have been by his side. He could have been able to protect Luchs. No, he wouldn't let that happen. He watched the hole on her chest, the wires showing out from it. Who could be able to do such cruelty. He noticed her opened eyes staring blankly at the roof. With his hand he closed them gently. Rest…

"I'm going to find your maiden circuit. You'll be the same Luchs again. I promise." He whispered looking down at the lifeless body.

Standing still at the entrance of the bridge, silently and not moving the marionettes awaited for whoever was coming. Slowly it started raining, though this rain brought sadness unlike the other rain Lime liked. Minutes later, the marionettes heard footsteps in front at the other side of the bridge. Three armed men appeared carrying shotguns on their hands aiming at the marionettes so they wouldn't get close, three dark shadows dressed in black clothes with faces covered. They stopped moving face to face at the marionettes with the wooden floor of the bridge in the middle.

"Where is Otaru?" Bloodberry finally yelled, her voice over the sound of the falling rain.

"You will receive instructions from our master soon." One of the men replied.

"Who is your master?" Cherry asked, loosing her patience.

"You will know soon enough. Until then, I suggest you stay put if you don't want your precious master Otaru to get hurt." Another one of the three answered.

"We won't follow instructions from anyone!" Bloodberry yelled. "We need to be sure Otaru is ok!"

The man in the middle of the three, reached for his pocket and took out a small square-like thin object that he threw at the marionettes in a ninja star. Lime caught it in between her fingers, not moving from where she was standing, analysing the men. Taking the object in her hand she looked down at it to see a photograph of Otaru with tied hands and ankles sitting down on the floor with back leaned against the wall. His eyes were opened although he looked tired and weak. As Lime lifted her head to look at the men they threw a smoke bomb at the floor meaning they were about to leave.

"No, you won't." Lime flashed towards the man in the middle, between the brown smoke she was able to reach for one man's shirt and pulled it back as they jumped away towards the houses past the bridge. The man started shooting randomly at the air desperate to hit Lime who struggled to get the man down. A bullet hit her arm making her scream as another bullet hit her leg. She reached for the shotgun and with all her might she threw it to her back, sitting down on the man's stomach, her knees on the ground holding the man in between her legs.

"Tell me where he is!" She punched the man's face strongly. The man looked up at her and started laughing uncontrollably. She punched him again on the other cheek, followed by another one and another one. "Tell me where Otaru is!" She yelled again, tears falling from her eyes, her clothes wet from the pouring rain. Still laughing, the man spit blood at her from his mouth. She greeted her teeth and kept punching him on the face unstoppable. Soon, the man was no longer moving, she turned the palm of her shaking hands at her, and the rain fell on her hands blending the blood with the water. Lime had never killed a man before. She had hurt many but never to the point of killing.