"Hey, wake up."
Kiara called.
"I bought what you asked for."
Kiara?
No.
Her voice vanished.
Kiara?
Metal against flesh.
Someone kicked Denden.
I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
No.
Not again.
Bound.
Blood ran from my mouth.
No time to breathe.
A punch struck my head hard, throwing it back.
Something in my neck gave way.
I bit my lip in excruciating pain.
Slap after slap landed on me.
Tears fell.
My life evaporated with them.
I tried to breathe so I could scream—
"WAKE UP, AKIKO!"
Kiara's familiar voice returned.
"You're here now, with me!
Hey, listen to my voice.
It's me, Kiara."
A comforting warmth wrapped around me, but that cruel place kept trying to pull me back.
"N-no…
S-stop.
Please, make it stop."
I held onto that comfort, even though it felt impossibly far away.
"Make it stop… please… please… p—"
I choked.
"Look at me.
I'm here. It's okay.
It's me, Kiara.
Come on, come back to me."
Her warm touch wrapped around me more fully.
I cried my soul out, and yet something soothed my heart.
I wanted to rescue myself from the dark.
"P-pleas—"
Kiara lifted my head.
"Open your eyes. Come on."
She asked gently, but I refused.
Opening them meant returning to that atrocious place.
"It's me. You're safe.
That's it. You're okay. Shh, shh."
I woke slowly.
My blurred vision found Kiara.
Her eyes were shining.
Even being an android, it looked as though a tear wanted to fall from her face.
Her lips opened into a faint smile.
"See? It's okay."
I embraced her, burying my face in her neck.
I clung to her as if she were the only anchor keeping me from sinking.
"I-I'm sorry.
I'm not strong like you or Maia.
I can't handle this…
It's too… it hurts… it hurts so much."
She held my face carefully.
"You survived all of that for all this time.
I know it hurts, and I know it's hard to get past it, but you can.
I'm here."
Kiara hugged me back.
Do I really have someone with me?
I wiped my tears.
"T-thank you. For everything.
A bath is all I need right now."
I smiled weakly.
She answered with a calm smile.
I was too weakened, so she helped me stand.
When my feet touched the floor, pain shot through my body like lightning.
The first time I had stood after so much suffering.
Kiara sat me in a chair.
She turned on the bath and added the salts.
Then she turned to me.
"May I?"
I nodded.
She undressed me carefully.
Started with the bandages.
When she finished, I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
The tears came, immense.
Cuts covered my swollen face.
Wounds dotted my scalp.
A few strands of hair remained.
Blood covered every skeletal, injured part of my body.
Across my back, two large wounds formed an X.
My eyes were sunken.
My face marked. Swollen.
But the worst of all… was my gaze.
Empty.
Dull.
Dead.
What…?
What did they do to me?
My reflection returned a stranger.
How could anyone do this to someone?
I trembled.
Unable to support my own weight, Kiara caught me before I fell.
She tried to hide her expression, but failed.
Her eyes traveled over the scars.
Her jaw locked.
Her hands, normally steady, trembled when they touched my skin.
She lowered me into the bath with care.
Red, black, and brown stained the water.
The warmth seeped into my skin and warmed me.
It revealed new pains.
Even the faint cramping merged with the others.
The sting purified me.
It was pain. But a different one.
A cleansing pain.
The pain of survival.
The water slid over my back.
The heat touched the wounds, and for a moment I thought I was back there.
My chest tightened.
I gripped the edge of the tub.
Panic tried to rise.
But Kiara stayed there.
Patient.
Present.
Anchoring me.
She handed me a sponge and mild liquid soap.
"I'm going to wash your hair."
Her soft, skillful fingers massaged my scalp.
I closed my eyes, taking in that comfort that felt almost like a dream.
"You're going to be okay."
Her warm tone was music to my injured ears.
I came out of the trance.
Smiled, faintly.
"You know… Denden told me about Maia."
Silence settled between us for a while.
I almost turned to see Kiara's face.
"What did he say?"
"H-he said that… "
I searched for the memory in my mind.
It cost me effort to hold my concentration.
Vertigo came.
"He said… when Maia arrived in Nobody's Land—"
I lost the thread.
White flashes blocked my thoughts.
One of Sinaptic-V's side effects.
Unfortunately, they lasted for moons.
Shit.
Losing control of myself like that tormented me.
Kiara stopped moving her fingers.
Something strange crossed her face:
a mix of guilt, sadness, rage, and resentment.
She lowered her head.
"Did he tell you what they did to her?"
I shook my head.
Kiara looked like someone who wanted to cry.
I saw her as a complex nanotechnological being.
Armed with the deepest form of feeling.
I accepted that.
Her nature rose to another level.
"Do you want to know?"
Her voice carried an uncertain invitation.
Hearing about Maia would bring me comfort.
It would connect me to her, to what remained of her world.
Kiara began massaging my scalp again.
The silence between us felt heavy.
Dense. Alive.
For a moment, I almost asked her to stop.
Almost ran from what was coming.
But I wanted to hear it.
I wanted Maia.
The truth about her might be the only thing capable of keeping me alive.