Part I - Summer - "... she drove us to Lazumere."

"She's just messing with you," stated Elegia, stone-faced.

Miyu giggled. "I mean, we do actually still have a long way to go. I'm just kidding about the 'halfway' part. Yuka-tan is meeting us."

"Yuka … tan?" repeated Cameron.

"Yeah, our cousin! Oh, speaking of which, you might want to duck."

"Uh … 'Duck'?" asked a confused Cameron, who failed to do so, and as a result ended up with a flying dropkick directly to the spine.

Over Cameron's crumpled-up, still-twitching corpse ("Uh, no—I'm still alive, actually …") on the train platform, stood, triumphantly, hands on her hips, the aforementioned cousin.

"Well, well, well," the elf said, "I suppose this is the boyfriend I've heard so much about. Tsk, tsk. No situational awareness, this one. Now how's someone like this going to protect you in the scary big city, Miyu-Miyu?"

(Heinrich, slightly aggrieved: "I mean, no reason why it couldn't've been me instead. Right? Do I not look like someone who could be someone's boyfriend? Well, so sorry I don't fit your typpie archetypes …" And Elegia, deadpan: "Sorry, did you want to get kicked?")

Miyu grabbed her cousin's hands and squeezed. "Yuka-taaaaaaan!"

Yuka reciprocated in kind. "Miyu-Miyu~!"

"Yuka-taaaaaaan!"

"Miyu-Miyu~!"

This exchanging of the other's cutesy-fied name went on for a good while, long enough that Cameron was able to recover from the critical hit and now, standing back upright, trying to rub feeling back into his lower back, he took a good long look at the red sash across the newcomer's chest that read, in faded gold lettering, LAZUMERE TOUR GUIDE.

Yuka explained, embarrassedly, scratching the back of her head as she did so, "The Lazumere village council had this made a few decades ago, when they were still trying to get the village tourism initiative off the ground. Our failed expansion as a tourist town … Well, that never worked out, obviously, as I don't have to tell you."

Yuka cleared her throat and flipped her hair, and then, head tilted up smugly, eyebrows V'd with a level of self-assuredness unmatched by any other known lifeform, introduced herself, declaring, "Name's Yuka Yuuni! Lazumerian born and raised, of course, of course. Heh-heh. Hobbies, you ask? …" (Heinrich: "Nobody asked her that." Elegia: "Don't talk to me. We're not friends.") "… Why, I enjoy eating, swimming, hiking, eating, kicking, boxing, and running around the school courtyard!" (Cameron, to Heinrich: "She said eating twice." Heinrich: "Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?") Yuka then began hopping on the spot, shadow-boxing as she wrapped up her introduction. "Pleased to meet ya, human folk!" She switched stances, and jabbed at the air in front of her. "I'll be takin' y'all to Lazumere!" She switched stances again, roundhouse-kicked an invisible opponent. Then she pointed to a horse-drawn cart that, for some reason, Cameron hadn't noticed until now. "Come on! Let's go!"

As Cameron, Heinrich and Elegia began loading their belongings onto the back of the cart, Miyu climbed up next to Yuka on the front seat.

"I'm loving this new Miyu," remarked Yuka, reins in hand.

… Which comment had yet to be, at the time it was spoken, accorded its due significance in the mind of Cameron Callihan—a mere five words; and ones that he merely happened to overhear, no less: the first occurrence (the First Instance, so to speak) of what Cameron would hear repeated, if not articulated in those exact same words then at least in sentiment expressed, over the next two months, up until the full truth of why the Instances were and what they represented; what they meant with regard to who exactly Miyu Nocturne was … and what she wasn't … the aggregation of Instances in direct correlation to the growing sense of not unease so much as a kind of burgeoning dissonance that grew with each Instance that reared its head—not that Cameron could point out such a thing at this point in time—because how could he? It was still only the First, a non-chalant off-the-cuff remark—… and not until the end of summer would it all come to a head, and with it his ability to retroactively distinguish each Instance for what it was …

(Now then. The question was, looking back, knowing what he would know come the end of summer: How much did the pre-Lazumere Cameron know, and how much had he not wanted to know? … What exactly had Cameron thought, when he caught her crying in her sleep in those occasions when he woke up a little bit before she did and watched her sleeping face in the morning light? …)

… But seeing as how this was still the very start of summer, and the First Instance of an old and new Miyu being mentioned, Cameron barely registered what Yuka had said, as he had only ever known one Miyu; and relationship-Miyu didn't seem all that much different from the one he met, for the first time ever, standing directly in front of the large map on the ground (… which she would learn very soon, was an extremely relative word …) level of Crystal City Academy, her eyes a pair of spirals as she tried her best to decipher and trace through the endless labyrinthian grid of intersecting lines and pathways that supposedly represented the university grounds; and who smiled warmly at Cameron when he, on seeing the confused freshman (… not that he wasn't one himself …), approached her and offered to help her get to where she was going. ("Um … Hi there. Do you need some help? …" "… Hmm? Oh! Oh, yes … How awful kind of you. I have this lecture, see …")

And hey, wouldn't you know it, they both happened to be heading to the same lecture. … And if Cameron had been just about anyone else other than who he was, he might have taken this coincidence as more than just mere coincidence; but as he was who he was, he was more pre-occupied with the fact that he had, after mustering up an uncharacteristically high (… for him, at any rate) amount of courage to offer his help to a random stranger (an elf girl, no less!), to keep a conversation going.

And so as they took the winding paths through Crystal City Academy, navigating through (… and up … and down … and then up again, timing their jumps as the crystal-powered platforms hovered into place to take them to another level) the maze-like route to their lecture hall, the two strangers talked about how unusual it was for an elf girl to be studying here. Oh, was that so? But she didn't think it unusual at all. Did she grow up in the city? Oh goodness no, she was from a place called Lazumere. Lazumere? How interesting, he had never heard of it before. Well, that's no surprise, really, it's pretty remote. So remote, in fact, that not even most of the elves in the Elfen Kingdom would've heard of it! Ah, ha ha! That's funny! Eh … Funny? It wasn't supposed to be … Oh, sorry. No, don't apologize. Say, what was she studying? Crystal Engineering? Wow, that's a bit unexpected of an elf. Was it, now? What made him say such a thing? Oh, uh—not that he was making any sort of assumptions about how elves view crystals or anything like that …

"I mean," the elf girl giggled. "You kind of are."

"Y-yeah. I guess I am. Sorry. I—I don't actually know that many elves. I just always had it in my mind you all … worship crystals."

"No, no! I mean, it's a fair question." The elf girl rubbed her chin. "I wouldn't use the word 'worship'. We do have deities that guard and protect us, and crystals do play a role in that, yes … Well, there are differing views on how crystals should be treated throughout the elfen territories. There's definitely some who would take issue with using them to power machines and whatnot. It's fine where I'm from, though."

"Ah … 'Lazumere', was it? Am I pronouncing that right?"

"Yup! You got it!"

"He-eeh …" vocalized Cameron, intriguedly. "Is that so …"

"My name is Miyu, by the way."

"Cameron."

"Okay. Well, it's very nice to meet you, Cameron. Thank you for showing me the way! It was very kind of you."

And once they had reached their lecture hall, where Introduction to Basic Crystal Mechanics I was taking place, Cameron—unsure whether he should sit next to Miyu and risk annoying her, or leave her alone—chose the latter, and shuffled off awkwardly, without a word, all the way to the other side of the room without so much as a, It was my pleasure! See you around!

"Why didn't you just sit with me?" laughed Miyu, in the front seat next to Yuka, the cart bouncing along the jagged dirt road, the three boys in the back of the cart next to all their luggage, as Cameron finished telling, at Yuka's behest, the story of the couple's first meeting. "You moved so far away. It was so weird. We were having fun talking, and then you just shut down and drifted away the moment we walked in the lecture hall."

At the hearing of which neuroticism Yuka, driving the cart, exploded in laughter.

"That's no good, Miyu-Miyu! You need someone with more confidence! Who's willing to assert themselves more! You don't want somebody weak-willed. How's he supposed to be able to protect you when the chips are down, huh?"

(At which Cameron, in the back, on hearing Yuka's assessment of his character, shrank several tunic sizes.)

"You know," continued Yuka, "if I had to date someone, they'd have to be way stronger than me. And I'm already plenty strong, so … Nah. I don't think someone like you would do, Cameron. … No offense."

"None, erm … taken?"

(Heinrich, on hearing Yuka's use of the conditional: "Wow, you're so cool, Yuka-tan. And strong. And energetic. And—"

Yuka, deflating Heinrich's hopes slightly: "Please don't call me that. Only Miyu-Miyu can call me that."

Elegia, dashing them entirely: "I'd quit while you're ahead. She's getting married in a few weeks."

Heinrich, defensively: "C-can't I just compliment an elf for no reason? … Wait—if she's getting married, why did she say 'if' …")

Miyu looked back at Cameron from the front seat, and smiled. "Well, I don't know about all of that, Yuka-tan. But he did manage to get all four of us into first class, so that ought to count for something."

Yuka yelped. "First class! Yowzers!"

"It was great. We had our own private cabin."

"Well, schucks, human boy. My opinion of you just went up. A little."

Wordlessly, Miyu winked back at Cameron from the front seat. Cameron smiled back.

After that first meeting, Basic Crystal Mechanics I became the highlight of Cameron's day. He even began showing up to the lectures early, trying not to make it seem too obvious that he was looking at the entrance each time somebody walked in, hoping it was Miyu each time … those brief pre-lecture conversations, talking about nothing in particular … all the time spent saying nothing, sitting next to each other, Cameron trying (but failing) to pay attention to the professor, trying to ignore the warmth of Miyu's arm brushing up against his, the smell of her hair, the delicate way she had of clearing her throat when it got too dry … and of course the down-time dialogue whenever the class hit a lull, brief unrelated snippets of which would appear in Cameron's head from time to time, even after they started officially dating …

(M: "Hobbies? Eh? I don't really have any in particular …"

C: "… Why live in the dorms, when my parents also live in Crystal City? Hmm … I dunno. New experiences, I guess? Dorm life sounded fun. …"

M: "… Oh, ooh! Have you ever seen the Mother Crystal in person? I want to go to the top of Crystal Tower someday! Can you really see all the way to the Elfen Kingdom from the top!? …"

C: "… Lazumere sounds amazing, Miyu. … I'd love to visit there some day …")

And now, three years later, he was finally getting his wish, as the horse drawn carriage drew near the village, the collection of thatch-roofed cottages and one-story wooden houses visible now, at the foot of a small mountain range (M: "Mountains? I mean … they're more like big hills." … C, who had only ever seen the flat dirt nothing that stretched from Crystal City to the horizon in every direction: "Yeah, that's … a mountain …"), surrounded by vast fields and crops of golden-green starchgrass swaying in the light summer breeze. Above all a pristine blue sky. Not a single cloud to be found.