A few moments ago, I was listening to the pink-haired bombshell—er—researcher as she talked about the persona of these humanoid units 01-B and 02, that these two were people of high importance. This unsurprising surprise made me flinch in all of a sudden, realizing that the numbers that appeared on my wrist were one of what Luka mentioned. I mean, it would make sense after the abduction and bombing Yuu pulled through, right?

However, watching Yuu and Len's form walking ahead of me, observing how they animatedly talked to each other like colleagues, I wondered if the blond boy actually knew that...well, I was his parent's humanoid? I remembered that he never knew how his parents looked. Heck, he didn't even know their names. As I ponder about this now, I could not help but ask myself a few questions. What would happen to me once my persona woke up? Was there any guarantee that my persona is biologically female? What did she look like, if 'twas true that she has been asleep for five decades now? Was I designed after her? Were all humanoids created identical to their bodies?

Most importantly, who is 02?

Wait.

O'-two?

I jumped in surprise. Damn, squirrel.

"Hey, Miss Luka," I ran and pulled the researcher to my side while flashing an apologetic smile to her boyfriend. Clearly, the purple-haired dude did not like his girlfriend being dragged away from him. Quite possessive, aren't we? Like I'd say that. He needed to cure his separation anxiety ASAP. He was no kindergarten.

I shifted my attention back to the bewildered Luka, my smile faded away. She was pretty and all, I admit. I felt so ugly standing next to her. Well, whatever. Looks hardly mattered to me, though. "Come again. I quite didn't catch it right. When you talked about 01-B and 02, do you mean they were Yuu's parents? Things were kind of confusing, I'm sorry." I smiled.

I already got a bad feeling about this since obviously there could only be a person who literally flaunted who he really was by using his humanoid's unit as an alias. However, I needed a confirmation. Knowing who is 02 would not crush me or anything, though. Basically, ever since I woke up with no memories or even after Yuu told me about Cloture being populated by mechanical people, I was a bit...apathetic. I cared and worried; I was shocked; I was nostalgic over a few matters. I felt things. Hence, I could say that I was not completely indifferent about all these things. But then again, I did not exactly felt a strong emotion about these things. I could care less, that would be a nice way to put it. All the times I spent with Diva and Xin as a florist, nothing but a feeling of discontentment had filled me: discontentment, dissatisfaction, confusion and nostalgia. I couldn't even remember being happy, like the happy, happy? You know.

The rest of the guys walked ahead, leaving us behind. Currently we were looking for Len's astronave. I didn't have a great deal of knowledge about flying cars or what, but I knew for sure that it was an expensive car. Flying cars were always expensive, anyway. I think I had seen that astronave in some ad from the telly. Wherever the blond genius parked his car, if ever flying cars were being parked, we needed to find it soon.

My eyes glanced back at the blonds walking far ahead. Yuu had a holographic screen flashing before him, its screen showing a map. I heaved a sigh, dismissing all thoughts I had in my head. Just in time, Luka put her hand on my head and ruffled my already messy hair.

"You've been staring at Yuu and Len now," whispered Luka low, her mouth next to my ear. "Don't play naive. I know you'd grasped what is this all about. You and Len, your biological bodies are Yuu's parents. Among the five of us, only Yuu had no single clue about that. You should have known by now that in the time where he was from, mentioning his parents' names are strictly prohibited. All pictures of them were burned too."

"Say, Luka," I glanced sideways but soon I looked downward, suddenly taking interest in the way the cobbled ground glistened against the morning sun. "If I am Yuu's parent, why didn't I recognize Len from the tram? Shouldn't I be excited to see him or some sort? Why no sparks at all. I mean, that's how it's supposed to work, no? Yuu told tall tales about his parents' romance, you know. There should be at least…a spark? All this blond hot stuff show me is plain, raw hostility."

Luka burst into a laughter, loud and graceless. This didn't make her less attractive though. She had a natural aura of comeliness going around her, and I couldn't argue about that. She was a beautiful girl whatever she was doing, and she was not trying hard to look cool. I bet all girls wanted to be like her. Who wouldn't kill to have such nice long hair and voluptuous body?

I narrowed my eyes at her, a bit puzzled with her reaction. Yeah, sure, it was a funny thing to ask. But her reaction was a tad exaggerated, I think.

"You're such a curious one," she sighed, twiddling a tress of her wavy, pink hair. "You know why the prototype failed? Of course you don't know. Silly me for asking."

We continued to walk, turning down to an alley.

"Dr. Hoshine programmed her to self-destruct once her system came in contact with water. 01 would have lasted longer if she was not emotional. In human terms, what she did was a suicide. To avoid the same thing this time, SELF recreated 01 and stripped off her memories and emotions." Luka slung an arm on my shoulders and pulled me with her quicker strides. "I made sure you can still feel though. Sympathy and a sprinkle of empathy. I don't want to make you an outright robot. Emotions are quite a headache when they interfere so much with the rational thought, so I made sure you were more of a thinker than an empath."

I flinched. "What? You made me?" I focused on her previous statement. She said it, didn't she?

She winced her head and beamed. Well, now that's confusing.

"Nope, nope. The higher ranks of SELF made you. So technically it was not just me, but the entire team. We're under the General's command so he did all precautions to keep you subservient...and Len, too."

"Is his memories still with him?"

"He wouldn't lose them ever."

I sighed, looking at the blonds again, fixating my gaze more on Len. Staring at his strong and broad back, I frowned. Did this guy have an awesome wardrobe? I mean, his leather jacket looked so badass. "Why is he acting like he doesn't have any memories?" I kept my eyes on him. He was laughing with Yuu now, his hand reached out to ruffle his hair like what a father would do. "Why is nobody telling Yuu that his parents are always with him all this time?"

"Len wants to act rational. He is aware that what he is doing right now is mere acquisition of experiences," she let go of my shoulders and I slowly fell behind her. "He will introduce himself to his son once he is a human like Yuu. The boy is alive. He came back to this time to find his parents in flesh. He had enough of abiotic beings in the future, yep?"

It was disagreeable but I didn't say a thing. Human or humanoid, a fraction of the truth was right under Yuu's nose and yet nobody would do the honour to tell him that. Didn't humanoids acquire their current personality from the memories they once have as humans? Shouldn't that make humanoids a replica of their human bodies? But why was Len putting up that façade? If he hadn't lost his memories at all, he should have felt happy seeing a boy who claimed to be his son from the future.

"So?" I caught up to Luka's side. She was staring far ahead of us, her eyes lost somewhere. "What's the point? His parents are here after all," said I.

"You and Len, everyone; we are programmed beings, Miku. We don't possess genuine emotions. Not you, especially." Luka took a wisp of her hair and tucked it behind an ear. Slowly she hastened her strides, meaning to tell me that we have to stop this talk here and find the astronave. After all, Len said it was five minutes away. However, how long was five minutes exactly? We'd been walking around the downtown for some time now, attracting attention from people around us. Couldn't blame them at all, these people with me were ridiculously beautiful.

Well, what I wanted to say is that: Luka's explanation wasn't making sense. Or perhaps I was too slow to grasp what she was meaning to say. Though Luka dismissed the talk earlier, I still have various questions I wanted to be answered. They remained unspoken, nonetheless. There was a loud boyish scream from ahead of us, Yuu - I'm guessing, and the much awaited astronave finally showed up - or rather, was found. And yes, it was parked on the ground like normal wheeled cars, other than this one had no wheels.

I was never fond of heights, but I didn't fear it either way. Seeing the world below us kind of set me off, made me feel ill in the pit of my stomach. It was sensible though, for this was my first time to ride an astronave. Even Diva, who was a little affluent (but perhaps not as rich as these SELF researchers with me) never brought a car (nor a flying car) at the shop, even once. If I was a little impressed with the floating trams due to magnetic levitation, you could guess how much mind-blown I was when we took off. Aerodynamics at its finest, people.

Luka, Gakupo and Len were engaged in a deep talk as the blond hot stuff drove the flying car. Blueprints of this so-called Lower Grounds were flashed on the left windshield, Gakupo was drawing a line on the corridors with his interactive pen. They were trying to sort the plan they came up with so we could break in the underground facility, take the bodies and flee before the two days deadline Len set ends.

"Everyone's doing so much for me," the blond kid mumbled next to me, his eyes almost fluttering close. I was reminded that he was just a kid, a human kid, and all these happenings were quite tiring him out. "I know it's a bit selfish, but I'm glad. If we have two days to steal my parents back, I have four days in total to spend with them. That's more than I can ask for."

He sighed. I cocked a brow, wondering why this boy was thinking out loud. Not to mention that his words were hinting something. "Why four days only? Aren't you happy that you can live with them from now on?"

The boy smiled, shaking his head and messing up his hair purposely. "Didn't I tell you? My time's up. Atoms need to follow the laws of nature."

"I don't understand, Yuu."

He chuckled and turned his body to face me. The boy took my right hand and held it against his chest. He was a warm boy, literally. I could feel his heart beating, and it was actually the first time I got excited over heartbeats… his heart was a real human heart, after all.

"Then let us talk about basic biology, Miku. What do the antibodies do when a foreign body enters the system?"

I frowned. No good. "The heck you're talking about, Blondie. The universe doesn't work like leukocytes and stuff in a bloodstream." Yes, especially when nobody but Yuu had them for real.

"Oh," his hold on my hand tightened. His smile widened, too. "But it does when it comes to time travelling. One cannot stay for too long in a time and place he doesn't belong to. Like a white blood cell trying to eat up an unrecognised protein, the universe will conspire to remove an unrecognised entity. Believe me. I can feel them working on me this past weeks. Lately, the forces had got strong."

I leaned towards him to pat his head, to feel his hair underneath my palm. This boy would go back to his time, right? I hope the future's fixed when he comes home.

"You'll surely have a good future once you come back." I said, unsure how to deal with a melancholic boy.

"You don't understand, do you? I will cease to exist after this, Miku. I have no future, it's already my past. All I have is now and I am to spend it wisely. With mom and dad."

That's melancholic. If I am swayed with words easily, I'd be sniffing back my snot and wiping my tears already. Sadly, I wasn't that kind of person. However, what he said stung a little. It was making sense now, but still confusing at some point.

I reached out to him, his smooth—unbelievably cute—face trapped between my palms. His face had the same shape with the blond hot stuff's face, but his eyes, damn those greenish blue pools. How the hell his parents did produce such a beautiful product?

"Yuu," I cleared my throat, brushing away the funny thoughts I had about genes and human reproduction. "You're a brave boy. I know your parents will love you and treasure you, so we'll make sure that you will live a fine, peaceful life in the future. Okay?"

"That's kind of you, Miku. Thanks," he said, his hands covering mine. This time he was yawning loud enough that it made the three researchers look at him.

"Hey, I'm serious. I'll make a better future for you so kids wouldn't go back in time to look for their parents," I grinned at him, but he only yawned and leaned forward to hug me. Was it weird being hugged by an adolescent?

Yes. Our ages were quite close, making it awkward.

I noticed Luka and Gakupo smile when I waved my hand to dismiss them. Meanwhile, Len kept staring. His face was expressionless as ever, cold as a stone, unchanging like change itself. However, I knew he was keeping an emotion behind that empty look he was giving Yuu. I looked down at the boy who was almost asleep. His eyes were half-lidded, and his eyes were fluttering close now.

"I hope mom is a great mother."

I smiled. In the future where Yuu was from, his parents were robbed off the opportunity to play their roles. I bet the human me would love to be Yuu's mother, too. My hands patted his back, and I began to hum a melody that suddenly entered my head. This song was never played on radio or telly before, but this was something playing in my head for a while now.

"Yuu," I called, humming the melody in between our silences. I looked up to see Len standing now, while Gakupo was piloting the astronave. It seemed like the blond hot stuff heard me humming so I mouthed him to go away. I was kind of enjoying my motherly side here. Len just rolled his eyes and remained standing, watching us like his favourite specimen under the microscope.

"…yeah," Yuu's voice was faint. Len was walking towards us when I decided to tell Yuu what his biological mother would want him to know all these years that he lived alone.

"I love you," I smiled and kissed the top of his head. Maybe this so much of an improvement, I was shocked, too. I mean, I just wanted to say those words to console him. But the moment they slipped off my tongue, I felt like a different person was saying those words. It was as if…the real me was telling this blond kid her affection towards him. I automatically hummed again. Yuu didn't respond, but I felt him tighten his embrace.

When I looked up, I began singing. "Even if we fall apart, feeling your memories escape my heart…and it's hard to see the light because the world without you is dark…"

"Miku," Len was staring hard at me, his brows knitted as if to show he was displeased…wait, displeased with what? "Stop singing. Your voice sounds like a dying mouse."

"Bastar—" I bit my lips, unsure if I really wanted to argue with him or let Yuu sleep in peace. Why must he be so rude? If anything, I kind of liked how my voice sounded with that unknown song, but should he really interrupt to say something so rude? He was just nothing but a pretty face. I wish Yuu's dad wouldn't have such a mean nature like 02. That bastard...

a/n. i'll put my lenku works on a hiatus. this draft has been (sleeping) for a year in my a files so i decided to post with this little notice.