S-2878 • L8 Libeluna • D14 Irrali
"Libeluna releases the thread that weighs down.
Irrali radiates whole light.
The tide sings loudly in living silver.
The story weaves presence through the air."
Footsteps on the floor above.
Fast.
Dry.
Cutting.
Hikaru rushed up the stairs.
His chest tight.
Maia lay motionless in his bed.
Cold.
Silent.
Pale.
As if she were…
Saymon's presence suffocated the air.
It exhaled a violent energy.
Hateful.
Implacable.
"What did you do to her?"
The mercenary's voice boiled with contempt.
Hikaru approached slowly.
Stopped halfway.
Fear scraped his throat.
He was afraid to touch her.
What if it was already too late?
Pain.
Guilt grew inside his heart.
The q-nanite hybrid with the Regnant…
It worked.
He tested it.
Tested it countless times.
So why?
Impossible to understand now.
He had to take her to the only one who could save her.
Masaru Inoue.
He left Maia under the master's care in Tokyo.
Returned to Netheria.
He walked through the shadowed streets of the São Paulo underworld.
The emptiness around him echoed within.
Freedom had never seemed so distant…
Or so close.
Perhaps chaos is the path.
Saymon did not appear again, yet his shadow remained, like embers from an extinguished fire.
Burning, smoldering, inside Hikaru's mind.
An enigma.
Perhaps he would never decipher it.
Perhaps he would never want to.
Perhaps not knowing was the only possible answer.
Perhaps he only wanted to feel.