I can't believe it's been a week.

Rin looks up to the grandiose blue sky above, inhaling the sweet early autumn/late summer air.

Beside her is Len, with his hand very gently gripping hers, swinging lightly in the breeze as they walk. They're both dressed casually, her in a pair of light jeans and a simple yellow camisole with a medium-size purse to match, him in black pants and a thick striped long sleeve. The air is calm and just the right temperature to be comfy but not too hot.

Things have been… considerably different.

Not in a bad way, either, but just… different.

Since that day at the vacation house, (just barely a week since), it's been more comfortable being around Len. She finally let herself be honest, and in truth, so far it's been worthwhile. She can hold his hand without cringing, be close to him without constant fear and needing to step away and create distance. Those senses are still there, unfortunately, but they're able to be squashed down to a tolerable level. As for kissing, well… That's been rare as well. Getting comfortable enough for that still seems to be a challenge, but she's slowly becoming accustomed.

It's definitely not something she expected to be used to, or something she was ready to face, but now it seems perfectly natural. Thanks to Len's AI, or to her own honesty, but it's nice. Nice to finally feel unburdened from her excruciating self-doubt.

After they'd made up, she had cleared the air with Miku and kinda just failed to elaborate any more on the subject other than with a sincere apology for barging in on her. The tealette had waved it off, citing she was just glad to help out a little, but she hadn't seemed too convinced. Not that Rin can blame her; her actions didn't exactly spell out stability.

She hadn't seen Mikuo since that day, either. He'd kept to himself in his room up until they left, not speaking a word or even leaving until the last minute. She elected to sit in the front seat of Miku's car instead of the back where he happened to be, and it was nothing but silence and avoiding eye contact on her end. What else was she going to do at that point, though? She'd tried to let him down as easily as she could, but in the long run, maybe it had seemed unkind. Still, she must've gotten her point across, even if it had to hurt.

I didn't want to be mean, but I couldn't just be nice and let him believe there was still some semblance of a chance between us. I don't like the idea of some guy pining after me, and it seemed kinder to just be direct. Still, he seemed pretty upset. I hope he'll be alright.

Rin did end up confessing her fear of drowning to the group, having avoided it up until the last available moment, and omitting the details about her parents to soften the words. They all took it exactly as expected; completely fine. It actually made her feel stupid for hiding it from them, like she had been uptight and standoffish for nothing. If it weren't for Len exposing her for what it was, she would've held onto that.

Supposedly it's a good thing, then. How long will she have things to hide? It feels like even though she gets the strength to reveal one thing, it makes everything else harder to break through.

The last week has felt almost too good to be true, if she's being honest with herself. Just letting Len be with her and not fighting it has been uplifting. There's of course still many things she's unsure about, and plenty that she's not ready for (but that haunts her, like that forbidden night with Len), but it's just the sense of ease that follows it all.

I'm actually kinda liking it.

It leads them to today. It's just an easy-going day out with no set plans, just a walk along the downtown area not far from her home. A day for whatever felt right, which so far was having lunch in a diner filled with twinkle lights and catching a performance in the middle of the park.

A casual date, really.

Or at least, it was for a while.

"...Something's going on over there," Len says, breaking the peaceful camaraderie between them. She glances his way in confusion, before following his eyes.

Along the dusty sidewalk they travel, past some of the ragged and aged storefronts littering this part of downtown, just at the entrance of an alleyway is a group of people. Rin can immediately distinguish at least five guys in black and blue cornering what looks to be two individuals cowering at the wall.

Individuals, she then comes to realize, are an android and a human. A man clinging to the female android, half hidden from sight. The look of panic she saw was enough to pick up on what's going down in front of them.

The two draw closer, and Rin is forced to a stop by Len, who steps in front of her.

"Len?" she protests, but he raises a hand, trying to keep her hidden behind his back.

"Don't look."

Despite his instruction, she finds herself trying to see past his shoulder for a better view— and then she cringes back, reeling at the sight that, as the men move around, she can finally get a good look at.

The group is armed with small weapons like knives and bats, and one of them is gripping onto what looks like an arm. Rin's eyes glide in horror to the two on the ground.

The female android is in utter pieces, her body glittering with sparks of electricity, and that azure blue blood staining the asphalt. Her left arm is nothing but shards of metal and loose wiring, revealing the intricate circuitry underneath, and her leg is bent at an obviously unnatural angle. The man is holding her close to his chest, yet his android looks furious, liquid spilling down the corner of her mouth. There are obvious marks from where the group must've hit her, her long white hair knotted and hanging over her face. The man looks untouched, surprisingly, but he's stricken with terror and worry, his palm against her cheek.

The worst part is that there are people walking around, seeing this in the broad daylight, and they're just ducking around them and keeping their heads low like this is completely fine. Someone walks past Rin and Len, their strides picking up, and Rin is left dumbfounded at the entirety of the situation.

Those two are in trouble, and no one is doing anything to help?

These people must be one of those I've heard about off the news; the android hate groups. They like to pull unsuspecting passerby off the street and pick apart their robots until there's nothing left. I had no idea it was this bad, though. The way everyone's avoiding saying anything- are they scared, or just cowards?

Well, not me.

"Please! Please stop!" the man on the ground cries out. "We didn't do anything! Leave her be!"

"We're not going anywhere til it's all over the pavement," a gruff man replies with a throaty chuckle. "That thing is about to become just a pile of scrap."

"Get away from them!"

Before she's processed it, Rin spins around Len, even though he makes a hasty grab for her arm. Approaching them with fire in her soul, she puts her hands on the shoulders of either guy in front of her and shoves away, taking them off guard and allowing her access to the center of the circle. All sets of eyes land on her, but she doesn't stand down as she glares back at them. Providing her body as a shield between the shaken two behind her and the malicious group, she grips tight to her purse.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she scolds in a growl. "Leave them alone."

Len squeezes by and joins her, positioning himself once again at her side, just in front of her to protect her if need be. In the back of her mind, she appreciates it, but she keeps a steely front.

The air turns cold and leaves an icy chill down Rin's spine, as the attention of each of the offending members is aimed at her. She stands her ground even as one of them, wielding a mangled bat, approaches her with his eyes raking her and Len up and down.

"I don't think you know what you're standing in front of, kid," the gruff man growls at her. "I'd get out of here now if you know what's good for you. Your lil toy here will get his soon enough." He thrusts a finger toward Len, who protectively places his hand at Rin's chest with his eyes narrowed.

Rin, however, sneers at him with distaste.

"And I don't think you heard me," she says sternly, not backing down. "I said leave them alone. That wasn't a request."

"You're acting a bit brave for only having a tin can to protect you," the man spits, taking another menacing step forward. His thin, black pupils glare into her, but after a second, there's a flicker of recognition in his face.

"Hold on a second…" He tries to get a better look at her, but Len keeps her firmly placed behind him. "I know you. You're Leon Kagamine's daughter, ain'tcha?"

That name sends her bloodstream freezing within her veins, and for a moment she is baffled. She can't speak.

"You are!" he shouts, immediately seeing the bewilderment cross her white face. "You're literally the daughter of that pianist. How dare you come over here defending androids when your father was one of us?!"

In Rin's mind's eye, she can see it. The covers of magazines and newspapers with her mother and father emblazoned on it in bold black, white and gray. The headlines about them, about how amazing and fantastic her father's music had been when he was alive- and how coarse and terrible his stance toward androids had been. He had politicized his opinion, made himself into a major voice for the anti-android movement that was rarer to find back then.

She never actually got to know her parents enough to remember how in-depth his despise went, but the articles and old blogs about him are enough to tell her what he was like. She's heard his music, lullabies from a man who could turn any warm heart into an ice cold rock of loneliness and solidarity. Music too beautiful to be real, and yet held such malice and distrust that she refuses to listen to it willingly any longer, made by the same man who spoke out against human robots as if they were a plague.

She knows all too well what being Leon Kagamine's daughter entails, but his daughter died in the ocean alongside both her parents, and isn't who she is today. Never will she be that child again.

"You've got some balls, lady, to come up to us like this. We ought to be thanking you and your daddy for giving us leeway to take these fuckers out like the garbage they are," the goblin man in front of her yells. "I'm gonna give you another chance to walk away, before we-"

She doesn't wait.

Slinging her purse with honed expertise, Rin slams the flat end of it against the man's face, sending his head snapping the opposite direction with a sickening crack. He reels back, losing his balance and almost toppling into another man, letting out a disgruntled cry.

"Little bitch!" he snarls.

Len is quick to back her up, grabbing her arm and moving her back as the man spins on them with violence in his eyes.

To her surprise, the man from behind them joins her, standing in front of her and Len with his arms thrown wide, his panic-stricken face laced in very faint hints of bravery.

"I-If you want to hurt her, you're going to have to get through both of us!" he shouts in a shaky voice, betraying his true feelings, but managing to cement the seriousness in his statement.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her," Len says calmly, blue eyes locked forward. "If you say another word toward her, I'll crush your jaw."

"I'll rip you into hunks of metal and feed it to your spineless buddy, you fucking bastard-!" the guy begins to screech, but another of the group grabs his shoulder and yanks him back.

"Fuck it, we're already decommissioned one. Let's just get out of here for now," the second one says, meeting some protest immediately, but after a second the main guy thrusts his shoulder out of his grasp and glares at them.

Pointing at them with a thick finger, he grumbles. "You get off this time, but I hope one day that android puts you into the ground along with your old man, and proves him right."

With that, the group walks away from them, splitting off into different directions and disappearing from view after a moment.

Once they've been gone a moment and everyone can catch their breath, the man from before drops to his knees, running his fingers through his hair anxiously.

"Oh man," he whispers, "Oh man, that was terrifying. Oh my God."

Rin takes a moment to compose herself, not wanting to let on that she was a little shaken as well, and reaches out to gingerly tap him on the shoulder. "Hey, um… are you hurt?"

"Hurt? No," he says, shaking his head vigorously. "I just- I had no idea that they were gonna attack us like that. My poor Tei, my sweet Tei..."

He scrambles backward, going to where the android girl lies against the ground trying to pick up its pieces with one arm. He flies to the ground with her, trying to help her gather her parts.

"I'm so sorry, Tei," he says sadly, "I didn't want them to hurt you."

"I'm okay, Teiru," she answers easily, her voice slightly glitching. "I just need repairs."

"Do you want any help with her?" Len provides, but Teiru shakes his head, forcing her to put her arm around his neck.

"No, I'm okay, I just don't know where to take her to fix this. Can androids bleed out?" he asks frantically.

Wow, he's really having a breakdown over her. I can't blame him.

"Calm down," Rin says, stepping up to him and gesturing. "I know where you can take her."

"What?!" His eyes brighten.

"Yeah. There's an incredible mechanic named Gumi Megpoid not far from here. She'll make her good as new," Rin says, quickly listing off directions for him to follow. He listens intently.

"Thank you so much," he says, before grabbing Rin's hand in his free one, startling her. "They left us be because of you. No one else stood up for us, but you did, even with your android in danger. I can't thank you enough for that."

"Don't worry about it. Go get her fixed," Rin insists, and he nods his head low before pulling her along, heading off toward Gumi's and whispering reassuring things to the girl slung over his shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, Rin places a hand against her forehead, feeling a little more tired than usual.

I kinda pushed it today, didn't I? I should be more careful.

Feeling Len's side eye glance burning a hole through her, she risks looking back at him, noting the concern on his face. She sighs heavily.

"...I know," she says before he has a chance to speak. "I need to be more careful and not put myself in harm's way. I can see it on your face, Len. You don't even have to say it."

He doesn't seem fazed by her dismissiveness, but instead intrigued.

"...You're right," he replies, but shakes his head. "But that's not what I was going to say."

Losing a bit of steam, she crosses her arms. "...Oh. What is it, then?"

He takes a step over to her, and looks down at her through clouded blue eyes.

"It's just that I think it was rather noble of you to defend those two," he comments. "You didn't think twice about it, you only threw yourself in front of them. It was reckless, but it was… uniquely you to do."

She can't help turning red at his words, not understanding what he means.

"It wasn't anything special," she mumbles through her teeth. "I just did what was right. I wouldn't want someone to stand by if that had been you."

He widens his eyes a little, his first admission of something under his blank exterior. "...Ah. That does make me wonder something else… what was that about your parents?"

The reminder brings an unsettling amount of despair to her memory. She directs her gaze to the floor, biting the inside of her lip hesitantly.

"...He wasn't just lying through his teeth," she softly admits. "That guy, surprising as it is, is right. My father did support the anti-android movement. He made it part of his life's work alongside his music. My father was a renowned musician, and a very well-known advocate for tradition. You still see his face in magazines sometimes, about his 'tragic death' at sea. Never mom, though- she's just forgotten, leaving behind whatever sourness my father gave the world and nothing else."

She can't help how bitter she sounds. It's not pleasant memories to come up, of finding out more about her parents as she grew older. Finding out her mother was a phantom along her father's grand shadow didn't make her cherish what they were like— it only made her glad she'd never had time to meet them. In the end, her desire to know more of them was crushed under her relief she never had to.

"I see," Len says quietly, placing a hand on Rin's shoulder. "You never speak about them."

"For good reason," she frowns. "They aren't my parents, anyway. They died and left me on my own, with plenty of problems to deal with alone. I guess a lot of people would be glad to know their family was famous and rich and whatever, but me? I would rather pretend they never existed. Their shadows haunt mine. I don't even know how that stranger recognized me after all this time, but I desperately tried to separate myself from them. I guess my face must be in some of those articles they still publish to slander or praise my parents as they see fit. I still catch the occasional person taking my photo."

She's tried to catch them in the act, tried to hide her face, but it never mattered. They could find where she lived, what places she visited daily, who she knew and question them. It was futile to hide when they could uncover every hiding spot she could create.

I'll never truly escape what they did to my name.

"...I'm sorry, I hope this doesn't bother you to ask," Len says, and she shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly.

"It's fine, but if we could, I'd like to drop it," she grimaces, and he nods affirmingly.

Rin looks out after where that dishonest group had vanished to, thinking about how torn up and destroyed that girl android had been when they weren't even finished with her. They'd done serious damage, and could've put her out of commission forever if she hadn't intervened.

What would happen if one day, they catch Len?

The thought is so abrupt and shaking to her thoughts that she tenses up, her hands tightening into fists. The mental image of him in pieces on the ground, the light fading from his eyes… If that happened, what would she do?

She's faced death before. Androids can't die, either, but… If something happened, and Len was gone forever, would she be okay? Would she push through?

She's always fought for what she loves, even for her life, but when it comes to someone she's started having feelings for, android or not…

What would happen if something happened to Len?

If Len was torn apart and gone, then I…

...Would I be okay?

Or would my emotions drown me?

A/N: Important.

Nanowrimo is over, with this chapter completing my goal for the month. This means that chapters will slow down in number. Seasonal depression doesn't help, but I will say... this has been a pleasure to write again. I've really become affectionate toward these characters. I want to see this through tot he end, so as I said in the beginning, don't let me drop this story.

Thank you all for reading. I've seen you, longtime lurkers and silent enjoyers. Thank you to those who've just read my chapter and supported from afar, and those who vocally said you enjoy this. It really does mean the world to me.

(I still want to know what you think of the story so far.)

Anyways. I'll see you soon.