Work Text:
The day the world ended began like any other day.
Rui woke up, after having spent too long awake the previous night. He'd been working on Robo-Nene, fitting her with some new upgrades. And he would show the rest of WxS those upgrades today.
He was looking forward to it.
Rui got himself ready for school, greeted Tsukasa at the entrance, and spent lunch in Wonderlands Sekai with Emu as Tsukasa got chased by Nene. As usual.
He remembered laughing at their shenanigans, one of the rare full-body laughs he did when overwhelmed with happiness. Emu stared at him, a goofy grin on her face, and fell into wheezing laughter as well. Nene stopped in her tracks, mock irritation on her face.
"Stop laughing," she grumbled, hands placed indignantly on her hips. "What's so funny about us today anyway?"
Rui only laughed harder, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. No amount of prompting revealed the answer.
He spent the rest of the school day in a daze, reminiscing on lunch and anticipating rehearsal. When Wonderlands x Showtime met up at the Wonder Stage, Rui showed off his new upgrades to Robo-Nene. Everyone was thrilled, but Rui had to power her off - the upgrades were still in the prototyping phase, and Rui wanted to conserve her battery for the walk home, where he could finish the upgrades in earnest.
Robo-Nene sat right next to the Wonder Stage, in a patch of shade made just for her. She burned there, too.
As the afternoon progressed, it only got hotter and hotter. It was right around when their iced water bottles refused to remain cold for longer than a handful of minutes that Rui realized something was seriously wrong.
That they needed to run, now.
But it was too late.
…
They were too late.
The earth ripped itself apart before their very eyes, as the planet trembled at its core. Waves of skin-melting heat crashed down all over the world simultaneously, the red hot sun glaring mercilessly at humanity.
In an instant, everything the four teenagers had come to love was destroyed.
Sirens around the city signaled every disaster, harmonizing into an eerie voice that wailed certain death. The screams of adults and children alike in Phoenix Wonderland added to the chaos, as people tried to seek shelter and failed, their final exhales containing nothing but curses and pleas at the unfair world.
The troupe,
alone at the end of the world,
alone in the place their dreams began to be realized,
ran.
"Get to the basement!" Tsukasa screamed out, his voice carrying above the cacophony. Ever since the Wonder Stage had been revamped, Rui had a secure basement be built - almost like his second workshop. Now, it became their best chance at survival.
Emu, eyes wide with fear, took a few seconds before she staggered into action. Tsukasa, the closest to the stage, was beckoning his troupemates over, trying to avoid the debris of the crashing supports. Rui followed after Emu, heart beating wildly. The planet was shaking, he was shaking, but he forced himself to unlock the basement. There was no time for mistakes.
Rui flew down the stairs, turning to look up at Nene. He extended a hand towards her.
And finally, it happened. Almost like a video being played back in slow-motion, Nene tripped.
Inches from the stairs, she landed on her arms right as the world shook harder - whether it was more earthquakes or the continuation of the ongoing disaster, no one would know. Rui clutched the doorframe, struggling to keep his balance.
And watched the landing collapse beneath Nene.
She dissapeared without a word, and a raw scream tore itself out of Rui's throat. "No!" He launched himself from the room even as the world continued to shake around him, but was violently yanked backwards by Tsukasa. "Let- let me go!" he cried out, writhing in the shorter's grip.
"Rui, you might die if you leave," Tsukasa pleads.
"What about Nene!? She will die if I don't go back for her!" Rui choked out. "I'll be quick, I can take one of the side passages-"
Another rumble, stronger than the last, threw everyone to the ground.
"Rui…" Emu whispered, broken. Rui let Tsukasa drag him back, and the door slammed on itself.
They never found Nene.
Nor did they ever learn the reason behind the end of the world as they knew it.
(Time would seal its lips shut, refusing to tell.)
A few days later, when it was safe enough to go outside without fear of a near-instantaneous death, a headstone appeared next to where the Wonder Stage used to stand.
Three pairs of hands, blistered and worn, joined in mourning. Rui placed a single flower next to the gravestone - plastic, a cheap imitation of beauty that would never again grow on the ruined surface of the planet.
It was a single violet,
the same color as Nene's eyes.
…
It, too, melted into a puddle of burning plastic.
(They were all miners in a coal mine, and their canary had died. Now, it was simply a waiting game to see how long the rest of them would last.)
The day after that, Rui threw himself into his final mission. He found where Robo-Nene's remains were, and tried to salvage as many parts from her fried internal workings as he could. Night after night, while Tsukasa and Emu tried to stay hopeful while surviving on rations, Rui would divide his time between engineering systems for survival and recreating an android version of Nene.
A little garden, grown with artificial light and polluted water. Clips of their diva's voice, synthesized into a new voicebank. An air filtration system, a ward against the choking canopy of dust. Her personality, programmed into the mainframe taken from Robo-Nene.
Often he'd have to go scavenging for more parts, alongside Tsukasa and Emu. They needed more food, more water, enough to keep surviving.
Though Rui wasn't sure if their existence could be called survival anymore.
He'd keep breathing until his mission was finished, though.
Time bled into a single blur. Model N3ne was complete. A second gravestone joined the first. More blisters on his hands. He began work on Model 3Mv. Tsukasa begged him to take care of himself. Rui brushed off the concerns.
He only rested when he collapsed, these days.
A third gravestone joined the previous two, the process of which took longer than the rest. More blisters. Angry rashes joined the collection of wounds on his body, even through the protective clothing Tsukasa had attempted to stitch together. He began work on Model 7SvK4sa as he finished the pink haired model. He didn't let himself think. He simply created.
His collapses became more frequent.
At some point, the three androids were completed, perfect in their creation. A marvel of technology, one Rui would have loved to show off.
But there was no one to turn to; no one to reignite the spark of passion.
It was here that he finally paused for the first time in months - maybe even years.
Three almost-perfect likenesses of his friends rested in front of him, almost as if the rest of Wonderlands x Showtime were simply asleep.
His work wasn't finished, though. Model Rv1 - his own - still waited to be made. So he would immerse himself back into that delusion, the one where his friends waited for him at the end of a long session of inventing and tinkering, until the android version of himself was also complete. The final quarter to the whole.
The question simply came down to whether or not he'd live long enough to perfect it.
The days passed by in shorter bursts, now. Even breathing had become difficult, but he persisted nevertheless. Low on parts, low on food, and low on energy to drag himself out of the bed most mornings cumulated into his weakest creation yet - but at least it existed.
(That was more than he could say for himself, with how tentatively he clung on to life.)
It wasn't until Rui doubled over in a coughing fit so harsh that he realized he needed to finish work on the final component of the androids: namely, creating the activation code. His android counterpart may never be as robust as the other three, falling faster in the broken and burning world, but it would be worth it. It would be worth ensuring the continued survival of the little sparks of dreams his friends left behind, now contained within each android. They'd keep spreading hope and bringing smiles, for hundreds of years to come.
So he wipes the blood off his palm with a rust-red rag and begins to code an activation protocol that will initiate upon his death. It's meant to power up the four androids, kick start their artificial learning capabilities, and pass full autonomy onto them.
Each night, he goes to sleep with sensors on his wrist, reading his pulse. Each night he expects to be his last. He's left behind a final message on a recorder, and wonders if it will ever be found after he is gone. When the world grants him one more day to live, he works through bleary eyes and aching arms to polish his final gift to the world.
One night, he goes to sleep, tucked into a corner of the room. That night, he dreams about the rest of WxS, jumping and laughing in a world overflowing with colors like green and blue rather than orange and red.
That night, Kamishiro Rui breathes his last, a final, peaceful smile on his face.
…
The protocol activates, and four pairs of eyes blink open to a new world.
-~-
Model N3ne is the first to open her eyes. She sits up, absentmindedly disconnecting wires from her body as her data center parses through the information it was given beforehand. In her peripherals, she can see an orange haired and pink haired android doing the same thing. Her sensors tell her the fourth has yet to rise.
Model 3Mv, meanwhile, is thrilled to be awake! So much so that the second her initial diagnostics have finished running, she's up and bouncing on her feet.
"Hello everyone!" she giggles, watching the confused look on the orange one's face morph into slow understanding. "I'm Model 3Mv, but you can call me Emu!"
The green haired one speaks next. "I'm Model N3ne. Call me Nene."
The orange haired one, with a perpetual flair for the dramatic, doesn't want to be outdone by by Emu. So he too leaps to his feet, striking a grand pose. "I'm 7SvK4sa, but you may refer to me as Tsukasa!" He looks at the final pod, where a purple haired android continues to slumber.
Emu notices his attention, and looks in the same direction. "Is he… okay?" she whispers loudly, uncertainly.
"I think he needs more time," Nene says. "We should check on him later."
"Yeah!" Emu cheers. "We can't leave him behind, that's for sure. I may not know you guys, but I know you're allll incredibly important to me!"
"I second that! Then for now, let us explore this land!" Tsukasa booms out, and Emu enthusiastically leads the trio outside. Their joy echoes off the ruined remains of the park, and slowly reaches the final android, who has finally woken up. His processors are running slower than the other three, but that's okay. He has the information needed to fix himself and the others, should they need it.
Model Rv1 sits up and looks around the room. The nondescript yet cluttered area greets him, and he almost skips over the strange huddled lump in the corner until he spots a strangely familiar flash of purple behind a table piled with various half-stripped appliances.
Rv1 rises, not bothering to remove the wires and attachments. They break off and trail behind him as he approaches the figure, seemly hidden away from prying eyes. His eyes are closed, yet a small smile graces his lips, which have streaks of red rubbed on them. His hand, resting on his lap, gently clutches a battered looking recorder and a single wilted flower.
Even with no prior knowledge, the android immediately understands that this was his creator.
Rv1 gently scoops the lifeless body of the inventor, navigating through the basement until he is standing under the boiling sun. A row of three stones catches his eye, each featuring a name familiar to him- Kusanagi Nene, Otori Emu, Tenma Tsukasa - and Rv1 decides that this will be his creator's final resting spot.
As his metallic fingers dig efficiently through the harsh soil, he listens to the tape left behind. Soon after, a fresh mound has been patted into place. He scratches the final name onto a stone he forages from the nearby ruins - Kamishiro Rui, the name he heard the voice repeat on the recorder - and sticks it into the mound of soil.
He leaves the recorder and the single wilted flower on top of the freshly turned dirt, and leaves his birthplace behind for good.
-~-
[My name is Kamishiro Rui.]
"Oh, oh, guys look! The purple haired android is here! Good wonderhoy!"
[If you are listening to this, I am dead.]
"Oh, hey there. We were just about to come check up on you. How are you feeling?"
[I have created four self-learning androids, who bear the same likenesses of a theater troupe once known as Wonderlands x Showtime.]
"I feel fine, thank you. Sorry for taking so long."
[They bear the same goal as us, as well: to bring smiles to the faces of everyone all over the world.]
"Why that's no big deal! We're glad you're here, now."
[In my final hours, I do find myself regretting withdrawing from my dearly beloved troupemates as much as I did.]
"We can keep showing you around! Come on- uhh, what did you say your name was?"
[But at the same time, my traitorous heart cannot help but hope for a brighter, happier future.]
"I'm Model Rv1, but you can call me Rui."
[Maybe these four androids will be the catalyst for change. Who knows?]
The four androids joined together, grabbing at each other's hands as they walked away from the origins of their dreams. Even without the lifetime of memories, they laughed and joked as if they had known each other since the dawn of time. The purple haired android stole one last glance behind him, at the place that contained a truth only he knew.
The recorder sparked one last time, the final line oddly clear despite the broken nature of the technology:
[I certainly hope you find out.]