"Biri-chan!?"
Nia rushed into the room where the life-support pods were kept. What she saw there was Yutsuki sitting on the sofa, completely unhard.
"Mm? What's wrong, Nia?"
Yutsuki turned toward Nia and asked in confusion.
"Haa... Biri-chan? You... you're okay?"
Nia looked at Yutsuki in confusion, still panting for breath.
"Compared to , you look like you're in worse shape. Did sothing happen?"
"...No, nothing happened."
Nia stared at Yutsuki's face with an uncertain expression. Only after a long while did she finally calm down, exhale, shake her head, and answer as if nothing was wrong.
"By the way, what's with that outfit?"
Nia looked Yutsuki up and down as she asked.
Unlike the outfit in Nia's mory, Yutsuki was currently wearing a researcher's white lab coat. A pair of black square-frad glasses had appeared on her face, and her long hair, mixed with brown and white, had been tied into a high ponytail with a star-and-moon-shaped hair tie. She no longer had her usual sharp, gallant air, but instead had gained an intellectual beauty that felt dignified and composed.
"Cosplaying as a mad scientist?"
"You've watched too much Steins;Gate."
Yutsuki lightly chopped Nia's forehead with her hand and explained helplessly.
"It's nothing. I was simply stuck inside for too long, so I tried changing my mood. And in this form, surprisingly, it's easier to focus on work."
"Work? Is it the Spirits's treatnt?"
Nia could not help asking.
"No."
"Then what?"
Yutsuki pointed behind her and revealed a aningful smile.
"Wh——"
Nia instinctively followed the direction Yutsuki pointed. The mont she looked, she held her breath in shock.
Inside a life-support pod, curled up like a baby and sleeping soundly, was a girl.
She had skin as white as mutton fat jade, a nearly golden-ratio figure, a delicate face, and long black hair that drifted through the culture fluid like a beautiful midnight.
Of course, none of that was why Nia was shocked.
The real reason was that the girl inside the life-support pod looked exactly like a certain girl in Nia's mory.
"To-Tohka?"
Nia shouted the girl's na in excitent.
The girl before her eyes was Yatogami Tohka, who had fought Yutsuki not long ago and had then been killed by Mio.
"Wh-what's going on, Biri-chan? Didn't Tohka turn into light and disappear back then?"
"Well, Tohka's situation is sowhat different from the other Spirits. She wasn't a human who beca a Spirit by having a Sephira Crystal implanted. Rather, she was a body constructed from spirit power by the Sephira Crystal itself. Her soul wasn't in her brain, but inside the Sephira Crystal."
Yutsuki explained from the side.
"At that ti, Tohka didn't actually die. She simply turned back into a Sephira Crystal and ended up in my hands. So..."
"So... as long as you create a new body for Tohka, she can co back to life?"
"Exactly."
Seeing Yutsuki nod so casually, the corner of Nia's eye twitched slightly. She could not help asking.
"How did you do it?"
"Mm... I won't explain the specific thod. In short, it's a cloning like technology realized through Realizers. Fortunately, the database here still had Tohka's physical examination data and blood samples, so I was able to create a body that completely matched Tohka's Sephira Crystal."
(Human transmutation... the Arusu Sisters cloning project...)
"Gulp——"
Lines from two famous works with terrible implications surfaced in Nia's mind, making her face turn pale as she swallowed.
"Hey... Biri-chan, I can't really put it into words, but isn't this really bad...? It feels like you're violating so taboo. Also, where did everyone else go?"
Only then did she notice that, aside from Tohka, the life-support pods that had originally held the other Spirits were now all empty.
"Don't tell , Biri-chan, you——!?"
"As if!"
Yutsuki punched Nia out of her wild imagination.
"Didn't I ssage you before? Everyone's consciousness has already recovered. I arranged for all of them to be moved to a dical facility on the ground. Sacrificing everyone to bring Tohka back? I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't do sothing that misses the whole point."
"Ow..."
Nia held her head and whimpered.
"Well, though, as you said, this technology really is sothing that can't see the light of day."
Yutsuki let out a long sigh and explained.
"Using dical Realizers to clone transplantable bone marrow and organs from a person's genetic data, or even an entire human body. This is technology Westcott developed through human experintation back when DEM still existed. Later, the board of directors banned its use on moral and ethical grounds. I have to say, even though Westcott was a hopeless piece of trash as a person, he was indeed a super genius."
"So... you used his technology and spent two weeks creating Tohka's body? Are you a god?"
Nia retorted with a speechless expression.
"Well, it wasn't as easy as you make it sound. After all, it was unknown technology. I wasn't sure whether it would succeed either. So during this period, I entered the virtual world and used Ratziel to conduct repeated simulations. Only after succeeding a thousand tis in a row did I dare test it in the real world. As for the actual ti I spent in the virtual world, let calculate..."
After a short ntal calculation, Yutsuki calmly answered.
"About seven or eight years."
"——!"
Hearing the number Yutsuki said, Nia's pupils contracted sharply.
Virtual world. Nia had heard that term before. It was a computer world made using Fraxinus's main computer, where ntal ti could be accelerated, similar to a "Hyperbolic Ti Chamber".
Now that Maria and Marina were gone, the only one who could enter the virtual world was Ryougi Yutsuki. In other words, to save Tohka, Yutsuki had spent more than seven years alone in a world with no one else.
Honestly, if it had been Nia, she probably would have gone insane long ago.
How many attempts had Yutsuki made in those seven years? How many failures had she gone through? How much effort had she poured in to reach this point? Nia could not imagine it.
And during that ti, Nia had left Yutsuki alone, choosing to numb herself with monotonous work.
"Why... didn't you tell ?"
"Because you didn't ask."
That perfectly natural answer instantly left Nia speechless.
Anger, self-bla, regret... countless feelings tangled together in Nia's mouth into a bitter taste, making her press her lips shut, unable to say a single word.
(I really am the worst...)
Only now did Nia finally realize it. She had always said she wanted to beco Yutsuki's support, but she had never once opened her heart to her. She had simply feared Yutsuki's abnormality, unconsciously drawn a line between them, constantly doubted her, wasted ti doing aningless things, and then told herself she was making an effort so she could feel at ease.
(But... even so.)
"Well, though the fusion with the Sephira Crystal succeeded, the current Tohka can't use spirit power or her Angel the way she used to. Her body will age naturally, and her lifespan should be about the sa as an ordinary human's."
But that was probably fine too, Yutsuki said with a sowhat bitter smile.
"Hey... Yutsuki."
At last, Nia squeezed out a hoarse voice from her throat.
"...There are a few things I want to ask you."
"What? Go ahead."
"Mana... Shido's real younger sister. I accidentally found her here before. Can you tell what happened?"
"Ah... Mana."
Hearing Nia's question, Yutsuki thought for a mont before slowly answering.
"I don't rember the exact details very clearly anymore. But it seems that before I assassinated Westcott, Mana had also been taking revenge against DEM. As long as soone belonged to DEM, she killed them without asking questions. When I found her, she had already been covered in wounds from overusing Realizers too frequently, so I forcibly subdued her and brought her to the life-support pod for treatnt."
"I see..."
After murmuring softly, Nia looked at Yutsuki and continued asking.
"Hey... Biri-chan. There's actually sothing I've always wondered about. Even if you successfully separated the Sephira Crystals and brought everyone back from Inversion, that doesn't an the wounds in their hearts caused by Shido's death would heal. When they wake up, won't they break down because they can't handle the shock?"
"..."
Yutsuki responded with silence. Though she did not answer, that reaction itself told Nia that Yutsuki had considered that question before.
Nia skipped over that question and continued.
"Biri-chan, after I ca to the airship today, sothing strange suddenly happened."
"..."
"Fraxinus suddenly announced it was disbanding. Everyone's reactions were strangely indifferent, and they even said nonsense like Kannazuki being the commander of this airship, that they didn't know Shido, and that they didn't know Biri-chan either."
"..."
"But soon, I realized they weren't joking. They had truly lost those mories. In my understanding, only Michael could make sothing like that happen."
At this point, Nia paused. After taking a long, deep breath, she finally looked straight into Yutsuki's eyes and asked.
"Yutsuki, the one who sealed everyone's mories... was you, wasn't it?"
"...Mm. It was ."
Yutsuki did not deny it. She nodded gently.
"The reason everyone stayed asleep until today was also because of sothing you did?"
"Mm. That's right."
"Then that ans... everyone's mories too..."
"Nia."
Suddenly, Yutsuki softly interrupted Nia.
She slowly walked to Tohka's pod and gently stroked the surface with her fingers.
Nia saw, in the reflection on the glass, that Yutsuki's expression was like that of a mother, filled with tenderness and affection.
"As you said, even if the Sephira Crystals were removed and they were no longer Inverted Spirits, that doesn't an Kotori and the others' wounds would heal. If the bottom plank of a barrel has a hole in it, then no matter how much water you pour in, it can never be filled. So, it's better to treat everything as if it never existed."
As Yutsuki spoke, she reached up and removed the hair tie from her head. Her flowing long hair instantly scattered down her back.
Dazzling lightning surged in her hand. Soon, the hair tie decorated with stars and moons turned into black dust and vanished.
A person dies three tis in their life.
Nia had heard such words sowhere before.
The first ti is when your heart stops beating and your breathing fades; then, biologically, you are declared dead.
The second ti is when you are buried, when people in black attend your funeral and rember your life; then, socially, you are declared dead.
And the third death cos when the last person in this world who rembers you forgets you. Then, you truly die.
And so, Yutsuki turned around and said with a cold expression.
"The existences of Ryougi Yutsuki and Itsuka Shido——the wounds left in everyone's hearts——I will erase them."
"——!"
The instant Nia heard those words, she turned around without hesitation and sprinted toward the door.
TL:(AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH stop it, even reading this again pain )
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