The first step

"So, did you two get everything?" Shirou asked from above to the women approaching him, noticing the lack of objects they brought.

Shirou was sitting on the roof of a dilapidated building overseeing the ruined city, he had been waiting for the sisters to gather their things. This was the usual place he stuck around to hunt or just to oversee the local androids, not that he had gotten much information in general about this place. He wondered how long it had been since he had gotten stuck here.

"Yeh." Popola said smiling brightly as she put down her one bag "We don't really have a lot to bring anyway, we also gave our notice that we weren't coming back."

"Oh, and how did that go?" Shirou asked looking back at them.

"About as well as you'd expect, most of them were happy to see us gone and the others were a bit suspicious." Devola this time answered, she didn't have the full-blown smile of her sister, but her eyes showed that she was content "Not to worry though, I don't think they care much."

"I see." Shirou stood up and removed his hood, walking towards the two other redheads "Good work."

Popola and Devola stiffened at that, their eyes widening slightly, just a few simple words could bring them this level of happiness. "N-no need to worry we just did what you told us." Popola said twirling a finger in her hair, looking at the ground embarrassed.

Shirou noticed their reaction "Actually I have something to ask the two of you." giving the two a worried look "Remember when you told me to stop hacking you, it was because you were having weird reactions towards me right."

The sisters shared a look before nodding.

"Well, will that happen to any android? I'd rather not be discovered as a human that easily." Shirou said scratching his cheek.

"You don't have to worry about that." Devola said waving her hand in dismissal "Popola and I were built for a different purpose to other androids we worked directly for humans, any other android has been built for this war."

"Though I will say that any pods should be able to notice your heartbeat but those are only used by Yorha units." Popola interjected "If you truly want to stay away from the limelight, I would try to stay hidden from any Yorha android."

They weren't lying about that, a yorha team should be able to easily notice he was human but they weren't fully saying why they wanted him to stay away from them. Any other android would've contacted them by now even if against the human's wishes their main objective was to keep humanity safe, it was intrinsic to their existence but… It was the first time they had been happy. They were being selfish, another sin to put up with many others but if they were allowed this happiness if only for a little while it would be worth it.

"I see." Shirou said before smiling softly at the two, yes that was it, that was their goal now, making sure he could smile at them like that forever "Thank you for everything."

Popopla smiled back while Devola decided to question further "If you don't mind me asking Shirou why is it that you want to stay away."

Shirou sighed and walked to the edge of the building "If I'm found out right now, I'll lose out on seeing this world and helping its people, right. Considering how important my life is supposed to be they'll probably just keep me locked in so that I don't hurt myself." He turned back to them his red headband waving like his hair on the wind. "Don't get me wrong I will eventually become an active piece. You can feel it too can't you, this is the lull before something big happens. Once it does, once one of the sides fully strikes I'll reveal myself. If for nothing else to end this war before it completely destroys this world."

The two sisters looked worriedly at him, Shirou simply chuckled "Don't worry about that for now, okay. We have a lot of time before something like that happens."

"If you say so, Shirou." Popola said before clearing her head, smiling brightly at him again she went through her bag "I wanted to ask you something."

Shirou watched as Devola shook her head in amusement "What's this about."

Popola suddenly came close to him, putting herself on her toes to look closely at his face, if he weren't near the edge of the building he would have taken a step back "Have you been eating well?" she asked with a serious look on her face as she suddenly brought out what looked like canned food from her bag.

"Huh?" was the only thing Shirou could say before Popola overwhelmed him with questions.

She put the canned food back in her bag and grabbed a handkerchief turning his head to the right she suddenly started cleaning his cheek with it "Have you taken a bath? You seem pretty dirty." when she stopped he moved his head back in place slowly his eyes showing nothing but sheer surprise, still, she continued "Have you been drinking plenty of water, due to the heat you should drink more. How about sleeping I hope you haven't stayed awake all this time, you need to rest you know."

Popola continued as she brought more stuff out from her bag, suddenly Devola started laughing her sister turning back to her in annoyance "C'mon Devola this is serious, what if he caught something or is without energy."

Devola stopped laughing though still looked at her annoyed sister in amusement "Dearest sister don't you think you're overwhelming our Shirou a bit much." as she walked to both of them and much like her sister looked right into his eyes though she put a hand on his chest "Sorry about that, but she wouldn't stop talking about this stuff." Devola looked back at her pouting sister "I know I promised to not talk about that, but any more of your questions will probably fry our Shirou don't you think."

Popola sighed "She's right sorry I overwhelmed you Shirou, I was just… worried you know."

Shirou simply scratched the back of his head "It's fine I just wasn't prepared for that." he said before noticing something "Wait is everything you brought for me?"

"Who else would it be for?" Popola said as if that was obvious.

He hadn't thought about it until now, but they were living for him weren't they, due to his own mental issues it wasn't something he could easily allow, he wasn't worth it. Still, if it made them happy to take care of him like this…

Shirou sighed and smiled at them "Thank you again for taking care of me."

Both sisters stopped and sighed in contentment over the words. They weren't given much appreciation by her fellow androids and hearing it so much from a human was doing funny things to their emotions.

"It's no problem Shirou, It's what we were built for." Popola said giving him a reassuring smile.

"Aaaaanyway, what's the plan Shirou. How are we going to tackle our little adventure?" Devola said walking back to retrieve her bag, wanting to get things going.

"Not much of a plan really, I just thought we would walk and help whoever needs it, what better way to understand this world and its people." Shirou said wishfully, it's been some time since things have been that simple for the man.

Popola tilted her head in confusion "That's it huh." before shaking her head and smiling "It doesn't matter, we'll be happy as long as we're doing it with you."

Shirou still wasn't comfortable with that level of devotion, but he simply let it slide more of a reason to not let himself be found out.

"Alright then let's get going shall we." He watched them nod, before looking back at the city in full for a second. How many people lived here before he wondered, how many had died, how many did he fail. He clenched his hand before stepping away and going to the two girls.

As they reached the ground floor his arm was grabbed by Devola "You don't mind do you?" Devola asked hesitantly leaning into him, he merely shrugged at her not that put out about it he did look at Popola but she just sighed at her sister.

The entrance to the building was in front of them now, their start at a new life for the three of them, at least for the time being.

Deciding to take the plunge Shirou moved forward without hesitation as he always has "Let's see what this world has in store for me."

And thus the first step was taken.

A rather small chapter but this is mostly a continuation of the previous one, the story will start in full next chapter whenever that is. I wasn't really expecting much of a response towards this story but I'm glad to see people still want nier fanfics.

I should explain my thought process on a few things especially about how androids react to Shirou, it's mostly headcanon since I wasn't able to find much information about it but I can't really have every android go through what devola and popola did so I tried explaining it. Every android will fill a sort of "pull" towards him but since the sisters are different (they were built to focus on the revival of humanity) they are much more susceptible to it.

Another thing is where I'm taking this story. Well the first part of this fanfic which happens before automata and during the beginning of said game is mostly going to be like an episodic anime, there won't really be an arc in full until the game's story begins. For now it'll just be Shirou and the sisters going in adventures meeting people learning about the world that type of stuff. It will eventually go into the autotama story and it'll be more story structured once I get there of course (I have a lot of ideas for that portion).

I wonder if this sounds fun to me it does.