[Operating Power: [%]]
When Kiana felt her vision return to normal, she was already on the ground.
Steadying herself, Kiana quickly looked up, surveying her surroundings.
The girl had told her this was where the person she was looking for resided.
The scrap of cloth that served as the anchor point had already dissolved into points of light in Kiana's palm. Kiana merely glanced at it before silently beginning her search within this memory space.
Compared to the previous spaces, this place didn't resemble a normal memory at all.
Could this also be another memory only he knows...?
How many times did he go through...
Kiana shook her head, continuing to scan the nearly pure white world.
Looking into the distance, there was no horizon. The sky and ground shared the same color, with no discernible boundary, making it impossible to judge distance.
Kiana even felt as though she had become a little 2D character who had entered a blank sheet of paper, unable to see anything beyond the white.
Kiana didn't know whether she should leave this spot to actively search for the person she sought, or stay put and wait for him to find her.
She stood there, hesitating. Finally, she took out the coin.
Clasping her hands together, she held the coin within her palms.
Kiana gently rested her forehead against her hands, offering the most devout prayer of her life in her heart.
Then, she tossed the coin upwards.
In this pure white space, Kiana stared as the coin spun in the air, waiting for it to point her way once again.
Then, the coin trembled almost imperceptibly in mid-air before landing vertically on the ground once more, rapidly rolling off into the distance.
Startled, Kiana abandoned any thought of staying put versus searching and immediately chased after the coin.
Normally, a coin would roll maybe ten meters at most before losing balance and falling flat. But this time, the coin defied logic, rolling far, far across the ground, moving so fast Kiana couldn't keep up even at a jog.
The coin rolled all the way to the corner of a wall before stopping. Kiana quickly crouched down, carefully picking it up. She examined it repeatedly in her palm, sighing in relief only after confirming it wasn't damaged.
Looking up, Kiana was dumbfounded.
In a place so overwhelmingly white, white enough to lack even a horizon, why was there a wall like this?
Though, admittedly, the wall was also white...
She tentatively pushed against the wall, then looked upwards.
On the wall... there was a drawing...
An unfinished drawing... very familiar. Kiana felt she had seen it somewhere...
She instinctively looked down. The surface of the coin, polished shiny by her, reflected her own image.
"This drawing... is it of me?"
Stunned by the enormous drawing before her, Kiana took two steps back. She tilted her head high, trying to get a clear view of the entire piece...
Wait... why aren't the eyes drawn...
In that instant, a sharp warning pulsed through Kiana's body. Without hesitation, she dove sideways, throwing herself out of the way.
A deep sword gash suddenly appeared on the pristine white ground. Kiana quickly rolled back to her feet, warily eyeing the gash and the direction the attack came from.
The sword mark on the ground was slightly off... Although powerful, even if she hadn't dodged, the strike wouldn't have hit her.
Looking at the attacker...
Short black hair, a face that wasn't exceptionally handsome, dressed in a white coat that swirled like a burning flame when he moved...
Kiana's eyes widened.
It was him... the person she forgot, the person she swore to find...
He was... who?
Kiana's expression turned slightly vacant, her eyes filled with confusion.
She looked at the person before her, wanting to say something. On her way here, she had imagined countless times what she would say when she finally found him.
But now, actually seeing him, Kiana couldn't utter a single word...
The corners of her mouth twitched upwards slightly, then quickly fell, then lifted again, then fell repeatedly.
Caught in this state of wanting to smile but being unable to, Kiana tentatively took a step forward, reaching out her hand.
A sword gleaming with golden light instantly slashed past Kiana's face, carving a clean line just before her toes.
Simultaneously, as Kiana's bangs stirred from the wind of the sword strike, the lost boy stumbled back two steps.
Kiana froze.
She had never imagined she would see fear on his face, see fright, see endless exhaustion...
She even saw a hint of pleading, begging her not to come closer.
A life clinging to existence, its instinct is fear, fear of everything that appears before it.
...
[Breathe], [Blink], [Activate Ability]... [Live].
He didn't know why he wanted to live so badly... He wandered here, before this drawing. Every time he looked up, the thought struck him...
He had to [Live]!
But what was the purpose of living?
He didn't know, but he had to [Live]... Just [Living] was enough...
[Memories]?
He didn't want to remember anymore... Too painful... Something hard-won discarded... something hard-won escaped... something hard-won fled...
He didn't want to go back...
But... but... there seemed to be something important... something he couldn't forget...
...
He still chose to [Live].
The boy waited here, submerged in this blank world.
Until a similarly pure white girl burst into here.
Kiana lowered her hand, glancing down at the sword mark at her feet, silent.
The gash was a clear warning, meant to halt her advance.
But... the boy's two stumbling steps held no warning. Instead, they laid bare the myriad emotions swirling within him.
So this is what Mei meant by wearing all emotions on his face?
Glancing again at the sword mark, Kiana clenched her fists, then resolutely lifted her foot and stepped over the line.
"Please believe me..." But Kiana had barely begun speaking, her raised foot not yet touching the ground, when three more sword slashes instantly appeared before her, etched into the ground ahead.
Kiana's steps faltered. This time, the slashes truly could hit her... if she hadn't stopped in time...
But the hesitation lasted only a split second. Then, Kiana firmly planted her foot down onto the sword marks on the ground.
"I mean you no harm... I came to—"
"Take you home!"
[Operating Power: [%]]