When Mink awoke in his old home, his mind first wasn't willing to connect to what his eyes would show him, which left him in a short state of denial as to where he was. But then he remembered having come here yesterday and the reason having motivated him to this decision. He rose up from the sofa with a low groan, having not rested very comfortably during the night and long forgotten nightmares of the day his life had turned into hell haunting him during his sleep.
He needed some coffee now, badly. Thankfully that was something he had thought on packing in his bag before he came here. He got up and left the house to get some logs of coniferous timber from his stack of wood to use in the kitchen range.

As soon as he had stepped out of his door however, there it was again, that feeling of being watched he had experienced yesterday as well. He craned his neck, but could neither see nor hear anybody being there. Even if his assumption of the other day had been the wrong one, and it was no animal but a person watching him instead, he wondered what a stranger might want from him out here. His house hadn't been broken into and it hadn't seemed like anybody else had tried to make it their home during the time it had been empty either. A thought of simply asking whether there was anybody out there crossed Mink's mind, but was scrapped immediately. He didn't really care if anybody crept around these woods. He wouldn't even care if said somebody was out here to kill him for some reason - that would just speed things up for him, even if it would interfere with his original plans to a degree. Letting out a sigh he made his way back inside to heat up his stove and brew himself some coffee.

Clear was still sitting on the tree stump close to Mink's house. He had been awake, or rather fully activated since sunrise. It hadn't even been that long since then now, Mink appeared to be an early riser. But the man didn't seem to make his way towards any kind of graveyard as of yet. He had only collected some firewood and had vanished back inside his house again. He might be aware of Clear's presence, though, since he had looked around himself quite intently. But Clear was not that easily to spot where he sat and too far away for human eyes to recognize him as a person. Clear's eyes had no trouble making out Mink, though, and even if that had been the case, his ears wouldn't have missed the sounds he had made while moving around. With Mink not going out yet, though, Clear was back to face nothing but his own thoughts again. The beauty of the forest around him he had tried to take in since he had woken up only lasted so long and Clear didn't dare to leave his place in fear of missing Mink.

A short while afterwards, Mink's door opened again and the man left his house with a small bag slung over his shoulder. He headed behind his house at first, but reappeared in front of it only a moment later before he set out towards his destination.
Clear finally got up from where he had sat this whole time and followed Mink's footsteps. His ears picked up a gentle flapping of wings from somewhere, but he paid it not mind, since there were a lot of animals living in these woods and Clear's only objective was not to loose sight of Mink's back for now.

The tall man soon left the forest and headed towards some mountains. Mink was walking slowly but determinedly, pacing oneself while his eyes occasionally wandered around as if he would recognize a particular detail of his surroundings.
Clear had left quite a bit of distance between himself and Mink, like he had done it when he had pursued him before. When his turn came to leave the forest to step onto a rocky underground onto a path leading up a mountain he realized that Mink might see him this time for sure, if he were to turn around. Tailing Mink from the airport towards his home had given Clear the cover of Mink not knowing that he was followed then. But now Mink had recognized a presence besides his own twice before already, so chances were that he would spot Clear some time or another. Clear was fine with it this time, though. It was very likely that Mink was heading for the place to commit suicide and Clear planned to stop him then anyway, so he would have to reveal himself sooner or later.
Having gone up the mountain for quite some time, Mink suddenly stopped and paused for a moment. Then the fluttering of wings Clear head heard before became louder when a bird soared over his head in the sky and landed on Mink's shoulder. It was a beautiful, white-pink Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, Mink's Allmate.

Mink then spoke to the person standing a good dozen meters behind him without turning around.
"How long do you intend to follow me around?"

Clear continued on his way towards him until he was only a stone's throw away from him, before he finally gave him an answer.
"Until I'm sure you won't throw your life away, Mink-san."

"I wouldn't have expected you of all people to follow me, Gas Mask."
Mink said as he turned around and a faint expression of annoyance upon the revelation who his pursuer was flitted across his facial features. But the second Mink realised that the nickname for the white-haired guy didn't befit his image anymore, and his eyes perceived Clear's face that had been hidden behind his mask until now, his expression hardened significantly and the words rolling from his tongue then were cold as ice.
"Or shall I rather call you 'robot' now?"

Clear's eyes widened.
How did he know? He had hoped to stay friends with Mink based on the other's assumption that he was still human. But now Mink told him that he knew what he was already? How was that possible and why was he looking at him with so much hatred in his eyes now? Clear knew Mink's angry expressions already, he had seen them sometimes during their mission in Platinum Jail, but this was more than just anger, it was disgust, loathing, even something like a newly kindled fury that spoke out of Mink now.
Clear couldn't help himself from noticing a stab to his heart - or whatever might exist inside of him in its place. His chin quivered and he pressed his lips into thin lines. His eyes began to water as he looked back towards Mink.
"Since when did you know what I was, Mink-san? You never said a word."

Mink's brows furrowed deeper and his fists clenched while he looked back at him with ice-cold eyes.
"You revealed it to me just now, since you're not wearing that gas mask anymore. I know that face of yours, it's the same like that of those damn machines, those Alphas, under Toue's command. They were the ones singing that hellish tune and drove my half-crazy while I was their captive. Now it's no miracle to me anymore how you can possess such inhuman strength as well."

Clear made a step backwards with insecurity plastered all over his face. What had his brothers done to Mink? Had they used their Dye music on him? Had it been painful for Mink?
"I... I am sorry what happened to you, Mink-san, I had no idea..."
That was all that left Clear's shivering lips. He really had now clue how to approach Mink anymore.

Mink eyed him suspiciously and the bird on his shoulder cocked its head as if to muster Clear on its own.
"Don't tell me Toue is still alive and you were told to track me down to take me back? Is that why you are here and were so insistent on me not to kill myself?"

"Eh?"
Clear's face spelled confusion all over it. How had Mink even managed to assume any of those things? Was he really that mistrusting towards him now? What had Toue done to him for Mink to watch him with such hateful eyes?
"I am sorry, I don't know what you are talking about, Mink-san. I have not been with Toue since... I don't know whether I have ever been with Toue to be honest. The only person I remember ever being with is my late grandfather, the person whom I stayed with in Midorijima. We lived together by a junkyard. I think I have been... thrown... away, because there... must be something... wrong with me..."

Thinking up something like this as a possible scenario was one thing, but saying it out loud as if to make it a reality led to Clear's voice cracking and his body shivering while he appeared to be utterly crestfallen. He hadn't wanted to tell Mink any of those things, but more than the fact of having likely been abandoned by his old master a long, long time ago, was the prospect of Mink hating him for what he was now, too. He hadn't been with Toue, he hadn't been an evil machine, and he had never engaged into a fight against humans for other purposes than to defend himself if he was attacked first. He had not used Dye music either, the only sort of music that he allowed to come out of his mouth was a song he had thought up while still being with this grandfather and it contained nothing but peaceful images.

"Mink-san, please believe me. I have no ill intentions towards you. The only thing I want is that you do not take your life. You are my friend, Mink-san, so I don't want you to die."
Those were his honest feelings and he hoped that they would reach Mink while the tall man peered hard at him as if to stare right into his very soul - if he possessed something like that.

Mink didn't say anything for a long while, apparently thinking quietly. Then he moved his hand to signalize his Allmate to take off into the air for a little while before he closed the distance between the two of them and cupped Clear's chin with one hand.

"Mink-san?", Clear asked him with a baffled look on his face.

Mink remained silent while his stare still bore into Clear's pinkish eyes, but the anger and disgust in his eyes slowly began to fade away it seemed. If anything he seemed to look at Clear somewhat inquisitive, as if he wanted to reassure himself about something. Then he broke eye contact, closed his eyelids and leant forwards to take in a deep breath of Clear's smell while appearing to concentrate his whole attention onto his senses.

Clear didn't know what he should make from that but kept staying still and waited for Mink to reopen his eyes.

"You still smell the same as before.", he stated and the hatred in his eyes had finally vanished completely. "It's like a clear sky or a lake without any ripples on its surface. It's neither life nor death, just something akin to clarity."

Clear blinked and slightly tilted his head as soon as Mink let go of his chin again.
"Is that a good thing?"

Mink's facial features softened a bit when he answered him this time, even if his face still remained the same basic sternness as per usual.
"It shows me that you do not lie when you tell me that you're not involved with Toue. Toue's machines had a smell of emptiness about them, of nothingness like a deep pit. It was disgusting."

Clear simply took note of Mink's comment towards him and was thankful that he was no longer categorized as something evil from the man's perspective, even if his definition of "smell" was something he couldn't align with the usual meaning of the word.
"I am sorry for not telling you what I was before, Mink-san. You might not believe this, but I had no clue myself. I always had thought to be human, I had never questioned it. But then somebody took my mask off, showed me my face and suddenly I realized it."

"Is that why you aren't as chipper as before?"

Clear gave a small jerk and looked Mink in the eye again. Had the man just asked him that to cheer him up, or was he misinterpreting his words and the way the other's voice had sounded somewhat warmer than before? Clear gave him a sad smile in return and his brows furrowed in desperation when he answered him.
"I feel like... I have lost myself. I don't know what, or who I am anymore. It's like everything has crumbled inside of me."

"I see.", Mink answered curtly and then turned around on his heels to climb the mountain path some more.
When he didn't hear Clear's footsteps behind him, he stopped and allowed his flying Allmate to settle on his shoulder once again, before he spoke without bothering to turn around.
"I'm on my way to make me remember who I used to be as well. You can join me if you'd like to."

Clear's face lit up instantly now that he had been given permission to follow Mink officially and he made a few fast steps to close up to Mink.

They walked in silence for the most part with nothing but the sound of their footsteps echoing around them and the occasional intake of a bit more breath by Mink as the air grew thinner the higher they went up the mountain. Then the tall man stopped dead in his tracks at one point, and his eyes took on a sorrowful expression as he let them run over the landscape. The mechanic bird leapt from his shoulders and circled around the area from the sky.

"Is something wrong, Mink-san?", Clear inquired after a while and Mink gave him a long look as if to ponder if it was in his interest to answer Clear's question. But then he sighed through his nose before his voice was heard with quite a bit of strain as he formed words with his lips.

"There is no real sense in telling you any of this. But at the same time there is no harm in you knowing either, since we have come this far already. The land we're passing through now once belonged to my people and the place my village was once standing on is around here."

Clear took in the landscape and tried to imagine any kind of houses standing where only half-dried grass rustled now as the wind blew through it. Some of the trees had weird marks in their barks and Mink went over to the trees and let his fingers slide over the markings, seemingly remembering the reason they were there, but kept silent about it.

Then he turned around and his sky-blue eyes wore pain and sadness in them as Mink recalled what once was there.
"Our community was small and our lives were peaceful, simple, with not a single convenient device - we didn't need it. We took from nature what we absolutely needed and not more, sharing food supplies among us. That was our way of life back then."

Clear had trouble picturing that way of living as Mink had described it. The only surroundings he had ever known were the ones in Midorijima and what Mink described to him reminded him more of a book he once had read than of reality. In any case it was something that had been lost, that much he knew for sure, and that it saddened Mink to be reminded about it. It made him sad as well, but he couldn't come up with anything to say that would make Mink feel better and it kind of felt wrong for him to speak right now in general. Therefore he kept to simply listening to him and followed him when Mink moved onwards.
A meadow picked Mink's interest and a faint smile graced his lips for just a moment. He must have found a memory he had been fond of it seemed. But the thought was fast to vanish from his mind again and only a faint whisper of "Nothing left." passed his lips before he continued to walk through the grassland.

The next time Mink stopped was in front of a sparsely vegetated underground that featured a kind of square as if foundations of a house had once been there. Mink sighed heavily.
"My house stood here once. I shared it with my father, mother and my younger sister."

Clear let out an empathic sound, but didn't know what to say to this again. So Mink had not just one but three members of his family he probably missed dearly. Clear had only lost one person in his life so far and it had hurt beyond compare already. He couldn't even imagine how it would be to loose even more people you cared for. And Mink's family members hadn't been the only ones to die it seemed. There were other remains of houses around here, and Mink had told him there had been other people living here with him back then. And now the only one still left alive was Mink himself. Clear couldn't help himself but to shed tears over so many lives having been lost.

Mink noticed him sniveling and drew his brows together before looking away.
"You don't have to cry in my stead. They are long gone now."

"But the sadness is still there, right, Mink-san? A loved one is not something to forget so easily.", Clear sniffed and tried to wipe the tears away that rolled down his face.

Mink pressed his eyelids shut and balled his hands into fists for a short moment, but then he let out a long sigh through his nose, forcing down his tension and opened his eyes again.
"My family and friends have already made their journey towards death. They are now with the Gods and nobody can harm them anymore."

"But what about Mink-san?", Clear asked and gained Mink's attention.
Clear reached out towards Mink and softly grabbed at his hand, only getting hold of the man's ring finger and pinky in the process, and weakly held onto them. He expected Mink to draw his hand away, but the other man allowed him to touch him for now, his eyes resting on Clear's face, that glistened from the tears still running down his cheeks.
"Would you allow me to sing a song for you, Mink-san? Don't worry, it's not Dye music. It's something that my grandfather once taught me."

Mink didn't didn't give his consent but simply allowed Clear to do what he wished to do by not stopping him, even though he seemed wary what the result of the robot's song would be.

Clear took a deep breath before a calming and enchanting serenade poured from his lips, which told from jellyfish gently swaying in the sea. It was almost like a lullaby and Mink could feel his tension and frustration ease away while Clear's voice was accompanied by the gentle rustling of leaves and blades of grass all around them, as if nature wanted to join in with Clear's singing.
Mink had never heard something as comforting as this song before, much less from a product made by Toue, which he only knew to harm him down to his very soul. This outcast among his own kin surely was different from the others. It was as if the other androids just looked human, but Clear was the only one to feel human as well. It was hard to describe, but now that Mink thought about it, it fit with the smell of Clear's soul he had taken in earlier. Something vast with neither end nor beginning, but calming all the while, gentle in its depths and light on its surface.

"Mink-san, are you alright?"

Clear's question shook Mink out of something like a trance he had entered while listening to his song and he looked back at Clear with a subtle undertone of confusion on his features. But then he gave him a barely visible smile accompanied by a small nod.
"Your singing was nice."

Loosening his fingers from Clear's gentle grip on them, Mink began to walk away from the place where his village once had been and headed in another direction. The cockatoo soaring in the sky above them flapped its wings to follow his master. Since Mink hadn't told Clear not to follow him anymore, Clear went after him as well.
They walked for quite some time again, silence having settled between the two of them anew as both of them were lost in their respective thoughts while their feet carried them onwards.

They arrived at an area that was zoned by a few, short wooden poles somehow reminiscent of totem poles, but too worn down to make out distinguishable features. Behind them lay dozens of mounds of earth, each joined by a small stone plate with carvings of the names of the deceased on them. The carvings looked like they had not been done professionally, differing in depth and size as if an amateur had merely wanted for the deceased to be remembered somehow, even if he didn't know how to handle the material correctly, or like he had been pressed for time. It was very likely, that all of the burial mounds and name plates had been made by the same person. At least that seemed to apply to the graves being erected around the same period of time, judging by the state of the earth covering the remains of the people and the state of vegetation having tried to settle on top of it. If Clear estimated correctly, this included the graves of about four dozen people.

Mink hesitated to enter the graveyard at first, but then straightened himself up and gave Clear a look over his shoulder as if to tell him not to follow after him beyond that point. Clear understood him without words and gave him an affirmative nod, but was willing to rush to his side in an instant, if he so much as spotted any kind of a sharp blade or another kind of weapon Mink would turn on himself. The pink, mechanic cockatoo owned by Mink landed on Clear's shoulder this time, as if not daring to join his master either. Clear gave him an understanding smile and stroke it's feathered chest gently with the backside of his index and middle finger. The Allmate simply allowed the touch without a word, but seemed to appreciate it at the same time.

Mink went towards a grave with a special kind of decoration that highlighted the importance of the individual among his tribe resting there. He got down on one knee and produced the red and silver pipe he used to smoke back in Midorijima from the small bag he had been carrying around, along with a small wooden box, a bowl and a lighter. He placed the pipe on top of two protruding parts of the grave decoration that seemed to have been there just to receive the pipe. Then he opened the box, which contained incense of a certain mix made by Mink himself. He put some of the powder into the small bowl and placed it next to the pipe before he burned the incence, allowing the smoke to swirl around and for a variety of scents to ascend together with it. Then he looked like he was praying.

Clear watched Mink from the distance and felt terribly out of place, as if he shouldn't be here during Mink's private moment. Yet he feared to take his eyes off of the other's back, so he tried to wait patiently for Mink while he paid his respects.

And then it happened: A metallic, glossy thing like a dagger appeared in Mink's hand and he looked at it as if to consider his decision.

"Mink-san!", Clear whined with a pressed voice as he took first one, then another and then a lot of more steps until he could reach Mink's side, silently apologizing to whichever spirits he might anger by his intrusion on their graveyard. Mink's Allmate bird had taken off from Clear's shoulder the moment the other had entered the graveyard and was flying in the sky once more.
"Please don't do this."

Mink looked up at him with the dagger resting on his palms while his right hand only sightly curled around its hilt like he might either strike at himself or let go of it completely the next moment.
"What would you say what life is for you, robot? How would you define somebody, who is alive?"

Clear swallowed hard and was afraid that he would not be able to come up with a satisfying answer.
What was life? How could he ask that to somebody who technically had never been alive from the start?
According to the definition of being alive, it meant something along the lines of being able to do metabolism, to create energy, to regulate yourself, to produce offspring and to grow. But Clear doubted that Mink wanted to hear any of these things. He was pretty sure Mink sought a more spiritual answer from him, like a philosophical approach of some sort.

Clear swallowed again nervously, his tongue wetting his lips, but no words came out of his open mouth.
He didn't know what to say, how to form arguments right now.
He didn't even know why he existed the way he did it in the first place right now, how should he defend another person's existence in that state?
His chin quivered, his voice trembled and his desperation grew with every second that ticked by.

In the end he reached out towards Mink's hands to cover the dagger with his own shaky fingers while he hoped that Mink would reconsider what he was most likely about to do, even if he might not find the right words just now.
"The only... way I ever felt alive was... by feeling emotions awoken inside of me when being with other people, Mink-san. It made me happy to see how they would laugh, it made me sad to see them full of sorrow. I enjoyed their voices surrounding me, their gestures speaking to me instead of their words. I admired their creativity to find solutions to a problem and the fact that they would help each other out when they were in a pinch. For me life is spending time with other people and something that continuously flows towards an end. There will be an end, it's inevitable, I've witnessed that already. But the important thing is what you do as long as you are still among the living."
Clear looked back at Mink, who hadn't moved while listening to him and was still staring into the far distance.

Then the other man finally opened his mouth to speak to him again.
"I've been dead ever since my family was killed by Toue."

Clear bit his lip and felt himself panicking some more.
"But your heart's still beating inside of your chest and you're still breathing, Mink-san! How can you describe that as being dead? You are alive! And I want you to stay that way, please, Mink-san! You are still capable of doing things you want to do. Won't you hold onto your life for a while longer?"
With no immediate reaction from Mink, Clear finally began to cry.
"Please don't make me bury you next to your family members, Mink-san. I'm sure they wouldn't want for you to die. There's just no meaning in throwing your life away."

Mink sighed deeply and then finally looked Clear in the eye.
"How about ending my suffering?"

"Eh?"
Clear was surprised by Mink's new question and tried to read any change of mood on the man's face, but he seemed to be as disconcertingly calm as before.
"Are you suffering right now, Mink-san? Is it... physically or emotionally?"
Mink only stared at him and Clear bit his lip harder this time. He had asked on reflex, but the answer was so obvious, he shouldn't even have the need to ask this.
"No, I know the answer. Your heart must suffer at the moment from the memories awoken and the fact that all these people are no longer here. But still-"

"Why are you so insistent?", Mink asked him another question and his facial features seemed to have softened up a bit.
"What do you care whether I die or not? We barely know each other."

"You are my friend.", Clear simply stated, but earned a doubting look from Mink.
"It's true. We fought together side by side when we were on our mission to Oval Tower to help master-err, I mean..."
Old habits die hard, but calling Aoba master even now felt somewhat natural, so Clear just kept it that way for now and tried to evade the topic.
"You helped out somebody I cared about, so I cared about you in return and this makes you my friend, Mink-san."

Mink's blueish eyes held onto Clear's pink ones as if he tried to see either truth or lie buried inside of these glass marbles somehow.

"Are you planning to stay here, should I decide to take the longer route on my journey towards death?"

Clear blinked. He hadn't really taken that possibility into account the last time he had thought about what to do should he succeed to make Mink reconsider about taking his own life.
"Would you allow me to stay with you then?"

Mink smiled at him in an affirmative way.
He smiled!
Clear couldn't believe it.

Mink slowly moved his hands below Clear's in a way that made him let go of the dagger and added: "Let's go back, Clear."

Clear hugged Mink on the spot and gave a squeal of happiness before rubbing their cheeks together and chanting "Mink-san! Mink-san! Mink-san!" with an overjoyed look on his face.

The pink cockatoo soaring in the sky left out a soft sigh at the news that his master seemed to have abandoned his suicidal plans for now. He would have to respect any choice his master would have made, but he preferred the one that involved him staying alive for a while longer.