"I'm here. Don't be sad..." Holding her hand a little tighter, Inori looked into her tear-brimmed eyes, a trace of heartache flashing through her own. She was having nightmares again? Just what kind of dream could make her so sorrowful?
"I know. But I really can't suppress the urge to cry. It's a feeling I can't explain, and I can't make you understand it either. It's like someone is saying, leave me—and yet I can't make them stay. It's a kind of helplessness so overwhelming that all I can do is cry. There's nothing else I can do." Her five fingers trembled lightly, revealing the unrest in her heart.
At this moment, no matter whether she was called a Valkyrie or a War Goddess, she was nothing more than a fragile girl—a girl who needed comfort, protection, and someone to wipe away her tears.
"Is it because someone Lian cares about is about to leave you?" Inori understood that at her core, Chu Lian was someone deeply afraid of being abandoned. Though she did not know what she had experienced in the past, she knew one thing—Chu Lian could lose everything except the people by her side.
That was the driving force that kept her moving forward. It was also why she had spoken those words last night. This was the one thing she could never give up, the direction she would always strive toward.
"Yes. But I've forgotten that person. I don't know who she is. The only thing I know is that if she leaves, I'll lose so, so much. If she leaves, my life will become incomplete. If she leaves, it will become a lifelong regret. That memory has been imprisoned and sealed away. I can't break through it. I can't hold her back. I can't even know who she is..." She bit her lower lip as tears surged once more. "I... have no way to keep her..."
"There must be a reason..." At this moment, Inori truly didn't know what to say. She released one hand and instead wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling her into an embrace so she could clearly hear the rhythm of her heartbeat—the one beating for her. Did she know that?
"That's right. I've been searching for the reason, but I can't find anything at all. It's as if she were only a dream—a dream that fell into the deep sea. Ahead is such darkness, such depth. I can't swim across it, can't catch her hand, can't tell her I won't let her leave, that she has to walk forward with me..." She closed her eyes, desperately trying to recall the dream, only to find it still pitch-black.
"Then the beginning of that dream must have been a fall from the sky," Inori said softly, closing her eyes as well, measuring her heart with her own.
"Maybe it was. Because it fell from the sky, I couldn't catch it. I couldn't..." Chu Lian shook her head gently, her voice hoarse. This sudden dream had thrown her into complete confusion.
In a daze, she thought of her previous life—of the two girls she could have embraced if she had only been braver. Because of her cowardice, she had lost them. The same helplessness, the same regret, self-reproach, sorrow, and despair.
"The sky is freedom. It's boundless. It's the beginning and end of all dreams, and the place where all wishes eventually scatter. I think she must be in the deep sea, looking up at you in the sky." Wasn't that how she herself had once been? The sky and the deep sea.
"But I don't want her to fall into the deep sea alone. It's too dark there—so dark you don't even know where you are. She must be very lonely. I'm afraid of loneliness. She is too... right?"
"Lian, you're someone who has always been flying in the sky. That's why you're so afraid of the deep sea..."
"No, no. I've lived that kind of life before. That's why I understand what it feels like. It's an emotion that destroys everything, leaving behind nothing but empty, gray memories."
"Gray is simply the intersection of white and black..."
"How many thousands of miles lie between the sky and the deep sea? I don't want to calculate an answer that doesn't exist. I just want to reach out and pull that idiot back to my side—to tell her I can't live without her, that I can't lose her, that I can't just watch her leave me like this."
"What if she doesn't want to come back? What will you do then? You can't change the mind of someone who's already made up their heart."
"Whether she wants to or not isn't what matters. What matters is her—not her thoughts. As long as I can bring her back, everything will be fine... won't it? Just like you, Inori. Back then, weren't you also trapped in a web of confusion, unable to see your direction? Wasn't it me who pulled you up little by little?"
"Yes. Because of you, Lian, I was able to live again—and understand why I should live." Inori smiled. She did not say the most important sentence: I live for you.
"So, Inori, you'll support me in pulling her back, won't you? You wouldn't want someone—just like you once were—to be surrounded by endless emptiness, unable to see the road ahead, unable to see a way back, not even knowing where she's supposed to go, or what her final destination is. That feeling is awful. It's terrifying. Right?"
"I've always supported you, no matter what decision you make. Haven't I?" If that person truly is like that, Lian, then save her—just as you once saved me.
"I will. I definitely will. She's someone I have to save. Just like you, Inori—I will never, ever give up..." As she spoke softly, her breathing gradually steadied. Surrounded by the girl's faint fragrance, she slowly drifted back into sleep.
This time, the dream would surely be beautiful... right?
Opening her eyes, Inori looked at the girl sleeping against her chest. A gentle curve lifted her lips—happiness for her, and happiness for herself.
"I don't know who you are, but thank you. Thank you for making Lian realize what she truly needs to do—and for helping me understand how I feel about her."
"Saved from loneliness, freed from deathly silence, freed from wandering, freed from aimless drifting—the first person I met, the first person who appeared by my side, the first person who taught me how to live, the first person to whom I entrusted everything—she is the one I will never, ever abandon."
"Even if the road ahead is filled with endless hardships, with enemies that inspire fear, with battles where survival is one chance in ten thousand—I will still stand beside her with a smile. Because she is by my side. She has never left."
"She never let my world return to gray. I will never allow her sky to be covered in gray either."
"The color of miracles should be the white that represents you, the blue that represents freedom, the purple that represents dreams, the orange that represents warmth, and the pink that represents longing. It should not be gray. It should not be black. It should not be some unfathomable darkness."
"Your dreams—I don't know them, and I can't peer into them. All I can do is let you know that if someone is willing to stand in front of you and block the spreading gloom, that person will certainly include me."
"In your dreams, you may cry. You may feel heartbroken. But after you wake up, I won't allow you to be like that. By my side, only I am allowed to cry for you. I won't allow you to cry like this."
"Even though sometimes my heart aches, even though sometimes I feel so sad, the moment I see that roguish smile of yours, none of it seems to matter anymore."
"If this is what feelings are, then I think this feeling must be like a star hanging in your sky—one that will never fall."
"My current life, my world, my dreams—they are all woven by you. If you were to leave, they would become flowers reflected in water, a moon mirrored in glass—vanishing without a trace."
"So for my sake, so that I can rely on you, pull yourself together. Even if I alone cannot become the wings that let you soar, then more of us surely can. There's Chu Chu, Xiu'er, Ya, Yanran, Satsuki, and the others..."
"Bravely do what you need to do. Face your heart. Let the world be built around you. Only then can you become the reason we willingly stand by your side and never give up. You are our protagonist, aren't you?"
"No matter how many flaws you have, no matter how lovable you are, in my eyes, you are Lian—the only person I can rely on, and the only one I love."
"Yes, it's very simple. Very simple. So simple that you might not even realize it..." Her voice gradually softened. A tear slid down from the corner of her eye, but her thoughts had already drifted into dreams. A life alone with her—in a dream, it would surely exist.
How could I possibly not know... She opened her eyes and murmured softly. Every word Inori had spoken, every trace of emotion, she had heard clearly and understood completely. She knew this was the girl's affection for her—her confession laid bare.
She only said these things when she thought she was asleep. Even if she might suspect that she was listening, she still continued to speak them.
This girl was far more sensitive and considerate than she had ever imagined. That was precisely why she felt she owed her the most. Yes... I'm so fickle, and yet you stay by my side without leaving. How wonderful. Truly wonderful...
She reached out and brushed aside the strands of hair covering her cheek. Gently, she stroked her face and wiped away her tears, silently gazing at her features as though lost in thought.
Outside the room, the white-haired girl who had been leaning against the door slowly turned and walked away. As she was now, she had no way of stepping into the conversation within.
This was a story between the two of them—their shared memories. If anyone else interfered, it would only alter the purity of that feeling. She did not want that.
Perhaps she felt she was still unqualified. Perhaps she knew there were many things that were not yet her place to do. At times, she was still a little too weak.
Even Chu Lian had never imagined that the white-haired girl would harbor such feelings for her. She had always believed that in the girl's eyes, only the martial path was her greatest pursuit, and that emotions were things she could discard without hesitation.
"If I can't step into your life, then I'll step into your martial path. I'll let you know that I've always been following in your footsteps." No one knew that this moment would become the true beginning of the girl's journey upon the martial path.
From then on, the white-haired girl would no longer draw a prison around herself within the vast seas and open skies. With her human body, she would begin in this turbulent world to write her own legend.
Was this unknown beginning the result of fate—or something inevitable from the start? No one could give an answer. But one thing could not be denied—the heart that no longer wavered within that girl was unimaginably resolute.