HospitalForSouls ((Pt II))

“No, please, no,” Miu replied.

So much of this was her fault. Without knowing it, she had killed Yuki again and again, whittling away at the integrity of his mind and the crystal that was powering his continued existence. All of that had led to a shortened timeline that she was now witnessing end.

“But your crystal changed. The other day. It changed color? You said you felt different?” Miu begged in desperation.

“M-manufactured obsolescence…” Yuki replied.

Miu shook her head in defiance as she tried to steady her voice.

“I can try to save you… Please. I can, I can… I can try to bind your crystal to The Aether so it won’t degrade anymore…”

Taki and Emi stayed silent and slowly backed away so that the two companions could be alone.

“Please… I don’t want to lose you again,” Miu cried.

“N-Neither doooooooo I. I-I-I stilllll love you. I willllll f-forever,” Yuki replied.

Words were already becoming harder to speak. Something in his programming was unraveling. He wasn’t sure if it had been caused by seeing himself, or by the sheer trauma of everything, but Yuki could feel his essence collapsing. There was no way to know how long he would have, but at this rate, it felt like months at best. If he died again, he wasn’t sure he would be able to come back this time. Finality hung over his steel skeleton like a sickness, and this time he couldn’t shake it.

canyoufeeltheinfernogrowing?

Miu reached Yuki and held out her hand.

“Please, let me heal you. Let me fix you. I’ll fix everything, I swear,” Miu frowned.

Yuki tried to nod. It was more of a bobbing droop at that point. But he steadied himself enough for Miu to touch him. She moved close as Yuki slowly wobbled lower until his Manu-Crystal could meet her eye. The crystal chunks met and Miu inhaled.

“Let the broken heal. Even if it’s a new form. Please come back to me…” Miu whispered.

Then the most terrifying sound ever heard by any of them exploded across the room. Every person trapped in the beds began to scream in gagged, unrestrained suffering. Yuki’s human body jolted upwards as though it was being set on fire. Every inch of Miu’s body felt like it was being flayed. She tried to pull away, but she couldn’t.

Across the facility, the glyphs turned yellow. Torrents of enchanted code burst forth from each glyph and snapped onto Miu, who began to scream in terror.

Every line of hexed code felt like a jagged blade as it tore into her skin. She tried to pull away from Yuki’s metal body, but she couldn’t move. Behind her, human Yuki was convulsing. Though there was no one to speak, Miu could hear a voice in her head.

<<<tsktskyou’renotsupposedtobehere>>> it taunted.

Its voice sounded familiar, but she had no time to dwell because her flesh was now threatening to rip itself from her bones.

Medical dials screamed. Emi knelt and began to read.

“Heart rate skyrocketing! Brain activity illegible!!”

“Miu!!” Taki screamed.

“S-s-security …. P-p-p-p-rotocol!” Yuki grunted as his head tried to pull away.

“HELP US!!!!” Miu screamed out.

Taki rushed forward and dove. His only option was to forcibly rip them apart. Momentum carried as he threw his body into the air with full force. Miu absorbed all of his shoulder, and it was enough. The two of them crumpled to the ground as Yuki collapsed beside them with a thud. All of the dials calmed, and all of the bodies returned to their rest within the prisons of glass and metal. Beside Emi, Yuki’s display lit up once more.

“‘Manu-Crystal integrity rating: 39.53 percent…Fail,’” Emi read.

“‘Unit psyche stability rating… 41.88 percent… Fail.’”

Miu gasped in shame as spasms shook her core. Beside her, Yuki’s pistons were shifting his legs, causing them to kick to his side in random rhythms. Seeing it was like seeing a wild animal that had been struck by a vehicle and was still trying to walk.

canyoufeeltheinfernogrowing?

“Yuki?” Miu called.

“MMMMMMM” he muttered.

Within his mind, he was weeping. There was no way for him to unleash his pain or tears, and now, the words were struggling to articulate themselves.

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

“MMMMMMMiuuuuuuu mmmm sorrrrrrry…” he muttered.

Blood dripped from her eye once more as she crawled to him.

“I d-doooooooon’t think youuuuu save… can… meeeeee….” he shook.

She couldn’t speak anymore. The gulp in her throat refused to rise, and all Miu could do was spit up a sobbing lament. Something about these crystals was different than normal Manu-Crystals or even the Arcan stones. There was a layer of malicious human interference that was smarter and stronger than her. And it seemed like attempting to get rid of it would kill Yuki right then and there. For the first time, she was truly outmatched. There would be no stopping this onslaught.

Strain was undoing Miu’s remaining strength. The Aether began to break, and the facility’s sirens slowly started screaming once more. Reality was returning, and they had not made any progress.

“Miu! The power! We need you to give us power now!” Emi shouted.

Taki immediately hoisted Miu onto her feet.

“Come on! Say your magic, Miu! You have to keep us safe! You have to keep Yuki alive a little longer!”

Canyoufeeltheinfernogrowing?

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

Miu’s sobs couldn’t stop. Fire sparked and ignited in her eye. Only now it was harsh, and cruel. As it erupted across her body, the sapphire faded until vermillion red and orange took its place.

“Miu?” the voice whispered from the beyond.

She kneWthat101110011vo.i.c.e…

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 killthemall 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

“MIU!!” Taki shouted.

EVERYTHINGWASUNRAVELING

ITWASTOOLATE

“MIUUUUUUU!!!!” Yuki screamed as he reached out and grabbed Miu.

His touch.

Cold.

Metal.

Shaking.

But familiar.

It was him. 

It was Yuki. 

No matter what, this was Yuki. 

He was still alive. 

She had to save him. 

She had to control herself.

Violent punches from her crystal fist struck her head until she returned to reality.

“Light never-ending. Screaming to keep us alive. Thunder never sounds!!” Miu shouted as she slammed her fist into the ground.

Hundreds of bolts of energy shot out across the space and bound themselves to every bed just as The Aether snapped and reality returned in full force. Miu’s storm of electricity overpowered the building’s systems and everything went silent. Overhead lights exploded and darkened. Everything shut down, except for the beds and their displays. All of them remained active. Emi darted between several beds to confirm.

“Everything is stable. Everyone is still alive! You did it, Miu!”

Yuki’s shaking hand finally released Miu’s ankle, and he forced himself up. Looking at his fingertips showed him they were still glowing. His Manu-Crystal couldn’t be remade, but his soul could be unshackled. He was standing there now, surrounded by those he knew, full of memories. As much as he wanted more, that might be all he would achieve. But it was better than continued death on the battlefield. And that homeless man from Osaka…

If he could be liberated from his code, maybe others could as well. It wasn’t something he could do alone, but as he looked down at his declining body, that thought was as vibrant in his mind as the desire to spend as much time with Miu as possible.

Miu…

Yuki turned to see that Miu was already gone. In a single second, she had vanished. Screams and explosions outside the facility told him where she had gone. Reinforcements had arrived, but they were being received by a monster.

“Please s-stay here with myyyyyyyy other f-f-friends,” Yuki said to Taki and Emi.

Both of them simply nodded and continued to check on the other beds as Yuki left the hall.

Without the aid of a portal, Yuki was forced to drag his body through the corridors. Every step was labored and threatened by instability. Even as a murderous manufactured robot, Yuki was cursed to meet existence with unreliable limbs.

Concussions shook Yuki’s bracing as he neared the exit. Gunfire sounded without end. Horrified cries rose and fell. Then everything was quiet.

Opening the door revealed it was raining. Steam rose from the wet grass as neon red fire scorched the land as far as the eye could see. Glyphs the size of skyscrapers were tearing across the mountainside, ripping stone and earth apart until nothing remained. Their path continued without remorse, heading down towards the lights of civilization in the far distance.

Miu was there in the center of the fire. Before her, hundreds of bodies were impaled by ravenous black shards. Every writhing figure was aflame. Some were still alive, screaming in horror without end. Seeing the hellscape gave Yuki no pause. All that mattered was Miu, who was still aflame herself. Nearing her revealed she was weeping once more.

“M-M-Miu,” Yuki said.

She shook her head and looked away.

“They took everything from us. All of them. And I don’t even know why. But I want to kill them all. I want to rip apart everything they held dear…” she sobbed.

This was the moment that mattered the most in their existence. For so long, whenever Miu was close to falling into the everblack, Yuki had been there to pull her out. Now, true oblivion was threatening to consume her once and for all. The light of her soul hung in the balance, and for the first time, Yuki was not there. Even though he stood beside her, his own mind had been too tormented and shattered to find redemption this time.

Screams echoed in the air as the pink sky glowed with embers from Miu’s wrath. And Yuki’s hand raised once more, but not to stop her. Instead, it rested on her shoulder, spasming and devolving.

“I do too…” he whispered in defeated peace.

“I h-hate this world… I d-don’t want to b-b-be alive in it annnnnnnymore, and I dooooooon’t want it t-to exist any-any-anymore.”

Hearing his agreement simultaneously brought Miu relief and waves of sorrow. She was falling into the dark, and to her terrified comfort, Yuki was falling with her. They would greet the emptiness together.

Before realizing it was happening, Miu was wrapping her arms around Yuki in a gentle embrace. Gears turned and sockets shifted. His arms raised in focused effort and came to a soft rest around her waist and back. Miu finally allowed herself to feel him as Yuki. If their time together was limited, she would not let the world rob them of the comfort of each other’s touch any longer.

“But Miuuuuu, first I-I waaaaaant to h-h-help the others,” Yuki said.

Miu looked up at him.

“Hm?”

“I want t-to destroy allllllll of this, b-but first I waaant to f-free the other G.A.K.I. units. Soooooo they can say g-goodbye to themselves as welllll. Then, w-we caaaaaaan kill everyone whoooooooo evvvvver h-h-hurt us…”