"And know the place for the <<first>> time"

Barren trees coated in crystal snow looked down on Miu as she floated across the wintry realm in a daze. Even though her feet were not moving, she was.

Once they were children.

Cold, rigid bracing was beneath her, cradling her back and legs. Machined whirs churned as metallic steps crunched along the icy and crystal.

Once he laughed, and it made her feel like maybe the world wasn’t so cruel.

Miu’s eyes slowly parted to let in hints of reality. She was being carried. It felt safe. It felt familiar. It felt like…

Once he was alive, but then everything changed that night in Sapporo.

Yuki.

But Yuki was dead. Miu’s eyes ripped open as consciousness flooded her vitals and she realized she was being carried by the strange automaton.

“You!!” Miu blurted as she shoved herself from his arms.

The automaton let out a confused grunt as she fell from its metal hands and crumpled onto the ground in a delirious heap.

“Miu, it’s m-me. IIIIt’s Yuki…” the automaton said in an attempt at comfort.

“You died!! YOU DIED!!! YOU’RE NOT YUKI, YOU’RE A TRICK!!! PLEASE BE A TRICK!!!” Miu cried as she glared up at the empty, polished faceplate.

In place of facial features, only the glowing lines of Manu-Crystal implants and intentional bracketing were seen. Miu glared at the visage in disdain and despair. This was not Yuki. Yuki was dead. But if he was, why did every part of her body feel some manner of gentle longing for the being that was before her?

“You died. You died. I said farewell to you. You died…” Miu cried.

“And I was left. I remained. And look what I’ve become…” she choked.

The automaton’s head twitched as it observed the broken warrior. Gears spun as it squatted before her in silence.

“You’re still as beautiful as you a-always were…” the robotic voice whispered.

A grimaced flinch pulled Miu down further as she struggled to find her thoughts. Yuki measured his words as he watched her sob. He realized it was all very strange.

“For w-what itttttt’s worth… I’m very confused m-myself…” he said.

“B-but I caaaaan finally carrrrrrrrrrrrrry you. Aaaand that makes me ha-p-p-p-py.”

Those words shook Miu even more, because it felt like something Yuki would say. Through it all, he had always hated his body and felt like he didn’t do enough. From not being able to run, to wanting to cook and clean even though it took hours, he had always tried to overcome his limitations, mostly out of vindictive spite. Now, this automaton was echoing such sentiments, and the gnawing dread in Miu’s stomach dared to believe that Yuki might actually be in that metal beast somewhere.

“What are you?” Miu asked.

“I… I don’t know… I remember the explosion, looking attttt you, then e-e-everything going black. I woke up and my mind was being flayed. Then I slept. Then I was killed. Again. A-and again. Then I was put in a machine, and y-you killed me. Then you killed me again and again. Over thirtythirtythirty times…” Yuki sighed.

Miu gasped in shock and horror.

“I killed you? Thirty times?” she asked.

Yuki nodded.

“But I kept coming back. Through it all, m-my memories slowly snuck through the p-p-programming, until I remembered everything. I remembered you, and I haaaaaad to get back to you…”

Looking up at the twitching, unstable automaton felt like observing the ruins of a once proud city. But Miu also felt horrified. With every word it spoke, she could not help but sense Yuki. Now, she was being told she had played a part in creating this unraveling, wounded being. She had hurt the only person she had ever truly cared for without knowing it. She had killed him. Again and again. Yet through it all, his mind and heart stayed strong enough to lead him back to her.

“Is it really you?” Miu asked.

“In whatever way I understand it… yesssss…” Yuki sighed as he knelt to offer Miu his hand.

With that, Miu’s fortitude collapsed once more and she fell into his arms and wept. Her body was hot, even in the frigid cold. Fever was taking hold of her strength as exhaustion and hysteria finally won. Above them, the glyphs sputtered. Yuki watched them and immediately realized they were from Miu and were weakening with her.

“You’re much more powerful now,” he said.

“I had to be,” was all Miu replied.

Yuki slid his arms under Miu’s body once more and hoisted her into the air to continue moving.

“We can’t stay here. The military and Arcans know about you. They will return.”

Miu sighed and nodded.

“I’m too weak to keep the glyphs up. I can’t stay here anymore…”

Yuki looked down to see that Miu was frowning with her eyes closed. He knew so little about what was happening, but he knew they had to leave. So his mind settled on the one location that called out to him. It was the one place Miu had sworn she would never return, but before Yuki even proposed it, she knew where she had to go to hide. Further into the destroyed mountains. Back where it all began. A place that had never felt safe or nurturing, but had at least brought him into her life.

“The orphanage…” she sighed.

Yuki nodded.

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“You ‘think’?” Miu muttered.

“I think I do,” Yuki tried to jest.

To Miu’s discomfort and relief, his attempt at humor once more seemed to feel like Yuki legitimately. She didn’t know if she trusted this being, and she didn’t know what it even was. She had mourned Yuki for lifetimes now, yet here was this thing saying it was him, and with every sentence, she believed it more. There was so much to understand and learn. If it truly was him, there was so much to say. But for now, she needed to rest. The portal opened before them, and neither wasted a moment in saying goodbye to the place where they had supposedly died and lost everything.

They vanished from Sapporo’s center and immediately arrived at the ruins of the place they had once called home. Miu grimaced at the sight of the familiar exterior. Though it was a shell of a structure and the world around them was still silent, their old orphanage would now be where they recovered. For now, she would let this automaton stay, even if she did not yet fully believe what it said.

Yuki set Miu down, and she immediately raised her hand. The sapphire staff appeared as she closed her eyes. Unsteady knees caused her to sway and Yuki caught her. Glyphs appeared, then more beams of light drifted down from the heavens.

“Shield us from their eyes. Letting no voices wake us. Sleeping till we heal…”