The emotions in the young man’s eyes were a abyss-like despair, a molten obsession with life, and an empty, hollow heart that knew neither why it yearned to live nor why it dreaded death. Staring blankly at her fading memory data, Seira, reaching for a past crumbling to dust, smiled at Danan through the monitor.
Fate and chance intertwined to form a miracle. Even if accepting death was the only salvation granted to Seira, it was infinitely better than a life steeped in pain. Despair gnawed at her spirit, her body broken and decayed by ceaseless torment. The memory data stored in the Hakara Deck—the code of zeros and ones that birthed her clone—was being completely erased by the hack.
“…”
A single tear fell from Seira’s cheek, plunging into the black abyss. A virtual tear, composed of electronic data, was an empty droplet that couldn’t exist in reality. Her palm flickered in a mosaic pattern, the corrupted program code proving her body an uncertain entity, a non-existent being forbidden from living in the real world.
Clinging to the monitor’s pale blue light, Seira wailed loudly. Her eyelids swelled, her voice hoarse with sobs. She understood—her path would never cross Danan’s again. His tears, warm and physical, fulfilled the conditions of reality, while hers, stored in the Hakara Deck, were mere data. Reality couldn’t touch the virtual, nor could the virtual touch reality. So… Seira pressed her forehead against the monitor, the barrier between them, and wept.
I… might have loved him. No, I definitely did. Too clumsy for love, too immature for romance—an awkward, unformed emotion. I wanted to melt his frozen heart, those obsidian eyes filled with doubt, that unfeeling mask. I wanted to save the Danan crying out beneath his cold facade.
Even if their words were few, even if their hearts didn’t fully connect, the memories of sharing the same place and time were special. Too special to ever fade. He’d probably forgotten my request until now. But because he remembered, because he found the resolve, I can be saved. Freed from eternal pain.
Yet—Seira stroked the monitor, sobbing through tear-blurred eyes as she gazed at Danan.
By honoring her past wish, Danan had burdened himself with even greater sin. In his anguish and conflict, he killed her, the symbol of his normalcy, erasing her. Was it a farewell or a severance? Seira, seeking death for salvation, and Danan, granting death for her wish. Grappling with that truth, Seira apologized through tears, her heart aching that only she was being saved. She clasped her fading hands and bowed deeply.
“…I’m sorry, I’m sorry, only I’m being saved… I’m sorry, Danan!” she cried.
“Why… are you apologizing?” Danan’s voice startled her.
She spun around, shocked. There stood a girl.
Long silver hair gleamed in the darkness, her porcelain skin doll-like. Her features, perfectly balanced between youthful cuteness and seductive allure, marked her as an adolescent. Seira, wiping her eyes, had never seen this girl in the memory data. “…For hurting him, only him,” she murmured.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Him… you mean Danan?” the girl asked.
“…Yeah.”
“Hurting him… how?”
“…I asked him to honor my final wish, to kill me. Because… I was beyond saving.”
“…I see.”
Her tone was half-interested, half-indifferent. Gazing at the fading memories as Seira did, the girl stepped closer, staring at the monitor.
“This place…” she began.
“…”
“It’s not reality, is it?”
“…No.”
“Then I’ve no business here. Why am I connected to this place?”
Sighing deeply, the girl turned, her gaze drifting into the darkness. In that moment, Seira instinctively knew she wasn’t virtual. Grasping her slender wrist, Seira pleaded, “Wait… please, just wait…”
“Let go. I have things to do in reality.”
“Please… just listen. You’ll hear me out, won’t you? I’m about to disappear.”
“…Fine. I’ll listen. You’re fading soon anyway.”
“…Thank you. Um, your name?”
“Eve. Yours?”
“Seira…”
Taking two deep breaths, wiping her tears, Seira gathered her muddled thoughts to entrust a message to Eve for Danan, piecing together words with effort.
“…Danan,” she began.
“…”
“He’s always crying, always angry. Probably… scared and hating the world around him, the people hunting his life, thinking he has to kill them. But… he’s really kind.”
“…”
The raging passion within Danan was molten lava writhing beneath a frozen heart. His blood-soaked fangs, honed with beastly instinct, fueled his survival-driven killing intent.
But deep down, he was terrified of the world. Unable to trust anyone, seeing all as enemies through distorted eyes. He gripped his gun to eliminate threats, pulling the trigger to preserve himself. To others, he might seem a fool charging down a path of carnage, but Seira knew. Even as he rejected others, Danan yearned for someone to believe in him.
“I… never forgot the warmth you gave me. I always, always believed you’d come for me. I want you to live… don’t break… stay Danan. So… don’t worry about me. You saved me… My savior can crawl out of even the deepest despair and keep walking. If you ever feel like falling… check under the vending machine at our old spot. Please… live, Danan.”
No matter how she wiped or rubbed, her tears wouldn’t stop. Memories surged and faded, her heart emptying. As her body dissolved into a mosaic, Seira stifled her cries so Danan, beyond the monitor, wouldn’t hear. Eve gently embraced her.
“Anything else?” Eve asked.
“…”
“Anything more?”
“…One last request, Eve, please?”
“Go ahead.”
“…Believe in Danan. Even if everyone betrays him, even if he loses faith in trust, don’t betray him, Eve. Please.”
“…”
What about it? Eve bit back the words, swallowing them.
Listening to someone’s wish, especially a tower dweller’s, was incomprehensible to Eve. Forgetting their purpose, closing off their future with their own hands—such humans were trash, dust to be despised. Burning with hatred for the tower’s people, Eve hesitated at Seira’s words.
“…Seira,” she said.
“…”
“I’m someone who acts first for my own goals. If Danan becomes an obstacle, I’ll shut down the Lumina keeping him alive. If his actions conflict with my purpose, I’d have to kill him.”
“…But, Eve—”
“But,” Eve interrupted, her prismatic eyes locking onto Seira’s.
“He wishes to live, screams he doesn’t want to die. He’s searching for a reason to live, even without knowing why. So… as long as he’s cooperating, as long as he’s not an enemy, I’ll never betray him. Rest easy, Seira. I’m his ally.”
“…”
She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t uneasy. Eve’s words carried potential future risks. But her unwavering prismatic eyes held no deceit, only a rock-solid will burning bright.
“…Eve, please, take care of Danan, okay?”
“I will.”
“Never… betray him, promise?”
“I’ll keep that promise. Be at peace.”
“…Okay.”
Wrapped in the warmth of Eve’s programmed embrace, Seira was swallowed by the wave of complete deletion. In her final moment, she fixed her gaze on her beloved Danan, wearing the same smile as in the past, and vanished from the virtual world.
