((Source Code & Soul Align))

He wanted to find out what he was. He wanted to know how it had turned out this way. He wanted to hurt all of those responsible. Not just for his suffering, but for whatever had happened to Miu in the time he was away.

Though he would never admit it, in the days and weeks that followed their reunion, Yuki found himself grieving the girl he had known. This person was still Miu, and still had all of the memories and experiences that defined the heart he had known for over a decade, but she was also absolutely foreign. When her one good eye met his optic sensors, it was cold, lightless, hollow, and reserved. Gone were the days when seeing him would be the one thing that brought Miu joy. Now, seeing him only sent more waves of melancholy tragedy cascading into her spirit.

For that, Yuki would make all of them suffer.

First, he had to find them.

Thus, he spent every day trying to stabilize his mind to find some manner of answer. Whispers of teasing, spiteful code danced in the edges of memory, just beyond his reach. But he knew he had heard them once. Someone was mocking him deep in his mind.

Miu, to her credit, stayed true to her word and helped the being she still did not want to believe was Yuki. But try as she did to block out that potential truth, spending weeks and months with the automaton slowly revealed that it may very well have been hosting the mind of the boy she had loved and lost.

If that was true, she would rip apart every person and being that had been involved in his death and endless torment.

That morning, the two were sitting together in the former field of shibazakura near the orphanage. Now it was a pool of perpetually iridescent red, catching April’s sunlight in thousands of small crystal petals and flinging it in every direction. Miu didn’t need to carry Yuki up the hill to reach them anymore. That was what was on her mind as she sat beside the automaton.

“So the Arcans called their magic ‘ancient language’?” Yuki asked.

Miu nodded.

Yuki’s metal fingertips ran along the Manu-Crystal shards that lined his faceplate.

“Language… Language. I feel like there’s something connnnnnnnecting them.”

“What?” Miu asked.

“Language. Code is a language. Remember what I was studying in school right there at the end?”

“Language somethings?”

“Large language models. Generative AI. Code is nothing but varying languages, and you use language and speaking to cast true magic…”

Miu did not fully understand.

“...I think my code is powered by Arcan magic. True m-magic. Not the manufactured stuff. You said the Arcans were actually working with the humans, right?”

“Yes. When I was captured by the military, I’ah was there- the Arcan that trained me the most. They seemed to have some sort of deal. There were military people there. And a man in regular clothes. Like a businessman or something.”

Yuki’s voicebox released a noise that was similar to a sigh.

“Why would Arcan magic be powering my code? And why would it be so sloppy? My mind broke through the restraints. Or, I think this is my miiiiiiiind. I think I’m m-m-me…” Yuki sighed.

“You… you seem like Yuki…” Miu agreed.

Yuki glanced at Miu, knowing it pained her to say that.

“And why would they rush you out for combat so quickly, just for you to die in seconds. It’s like they didn’t actually care if you did anything as a soldier.”

Yuki nodded.

“Maybe just defense contractor profit padding?” Miu asked.

“Or were they testing something? Trying t-t-to get as big a data pool as possible?”

All Miu could do was exhale as she tried to make sense of it all. So far, their efforts at meditating into a breakthrough had fallen flat. Yuki’s mind would not settle. If there was anything that Miu understood, it was a lack of stillness. She had no desire to break Yuki the way I’ah had broken her, but she did believe it was time to move past meditating.

“Yuki, I think we need to try something else.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I think it’s time to try to hack my code. But, it will mean we have to touch,” Yuki cautioned.

Aside from clinging to Yuki as she slept, Miu was still very distant in her waking time. It had been hard to accept this form of Yuki as truth, so she had stayed guarded. The idea of intentional physical touch was unpleasant, but Miu dared to listen.

“How?” she asked.

Yuki paused.

“I… I-I think your eye needs to touch my Manu lines. I’m sorry. But I think your magic can match theirs and overpower it…”

Miu sighed as she processed the request. Being so close to this being was not something she was fully comfortable with, but she realized it was important. Yuki’s logic was sound. Direct contact between the manufactured shard and her true shard would likely be in their benefit.

“I’ll tell you what I’m trying to do, and you can translate it to your magic words, if that’s okay.”

Miu closed her eyes and agreed. With that, the two of them scooted closer together. Metal knee hinges met skin. Awkward angles made the effort uncomfortable. Frustration and a concoction of confused chemicals caused Miu to rise.

“Here. Stay still,” she groaned in feminine embarrassment.

Before Yuki could react, Miu was stepping over his waist and lowering herself to straddle him. Yuki did not dare speak and realized how humiliated and uncomfortable Miu was. All he could do was brace her waist as she leaned her head towards his.

As soon as Miu’s left eye met Yuki’s Manu-Crystal implant panel, there was a flash, and everything burned away. Miu let out a slight shriek as roaring sound cascaded around them in torrents of bits and commands. Yuki’s gentle grip stayed on her waist as her arms tightened around his neck unit to keep him close. He could feel her exhales on his faceplate as the world burned into nothingness, and they were left in a floating void of letters and symbols.

Glyphs mixed in with letters and input punctuations. Foreign shapes interrupted familiar kanji and hiragana. Miu could only see what was beneath her as she strained to keep her eye pressed against Yuki’s head.

“What’s happening?!” Miu shouted.

“I think it’s working!! I think this is my c-codebase!!” Yuki replied as he watched the parade of characters roaring by.

“It’s like The Aether!”

“Then you’re going to be stronger than it, Miu!”

His hands tightened on her waist. Her breath was intensifying. She did not like this. Something was wrong. But she could sense Arcan power. She could see their glyphs glitching in the distance. Without realizing it, Miu allowed her fingers to press against Yuki’s face.

“I need to reveal my secrets! I need to know where I came from! We need to remove any safeguards that have my information hidden away!!” Yuki ordered.

“Understood!” Miu replied as lines of invasive code began to spiral around them in glyphs of digital entrapment.

Digital hexes appeared above and below them.

“You can do it, Miu! You were always so strong! You were always so incredible!! And I’m here with you! You’re not alone!” Yuki shouted as more code began to spiral around them.

Focus almost evaded Miu, but she allowed herself to listen to his voice. Even though it pained her to accept that this was true and this was Yuki, she had to help him. She would find a way to accept that another day. Stillness would have to wait. For now, she had to break these shackles that were keeping him in the dark.

“Your soul in my eye…” she whispered as the blood returned.

Red streaks drifted down across glowing blue. Polished fingertips clasped skin and curves. Lips were near voicebox ports. Human hands held automaton panels. Whatever this being was, it was real, and in that moment, Miu felt it against her. And she wanted it to be real. She wanted it to be Yuki. He wanted to be Yuki if it meant she was in his arms, in his lap, pressed against him. In that moment, no matter what wretched creation had born him, he was still her Yuki, and she was still his Miu.

“Your soul in my eye. Your heartbeat breaks encryption. Your name sleeps in code.”

By now they were in the eye of a mystical hurricane of code. Howling winds of synthetic storms swirled around them as they clung to one another. Though they could not see it, the code began to change color, shifting from green to blue.

“Runes in firewalls. Ancient hex. Digital lock. Secrets locked no more!”

“It’s working Miu!!”

Error messages crashed into the hexes like runaway freight trains. Clashes of compiled lightning struck the ground around them as chunks of source code incantations unspooled.

“Between spell and byte. Tracing you line by line till memory returns!!”

Everything spiraled into unstable desynchronization. The hexes ruptured and glitched. Tapestries of code fell like ribbons. Hands held the other close as the rapture neared. They were almost done.

“Crystal servers hum! Source code and soul reunite!! UNLOCK WHO YOU ARE!!!”

Waves of blue command inputs spoke new structure to the glitching world, and all went still. Yuki gasped out in release as his true essence overrode the remnants of false commands.

Her lips were close as she panted in exhaustion. Trembling metal joints shook with nervous completion. Souls drifted into one another for the most finite of moments as reality returned.

Then they were back in the field of crystal red flowers.

“I know where I am. Or, where they’re keeping whatever is left of me…” Yuki whispered.

“Okay,” Miu quietly replied.

Her fingers remained against his faceplate. His grip kept her body pressed against his in a soft embrace.