Nero blinked as he looked at Black Swan walking over.
"If that's the case, then I'll have to trouble you to send Stelle and Sister Firefly back to reality. As for me, I still have something to do here."
Black Swan didn't speak. She simply looked at Stelle beside her.
Stelle nodded and said to Nero, "We'll wait for you in reality."
Seeing that they had settled everything so quickly, Black Swan raised a hand and drew out a card. She gently tossed it aside. The next moment, a section of space shattered like a sheet of glass.
Light and darkness collapsed into one another, forming a vortex. The vortex slowly expanded before finally becoming a doorway connecting to the Memory Zone.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Stelle and Firefly stepped into the vortex. The vortex then began to shrink before disappearing completely, and the dream space returned to how it had originally been.
Only then did Black Swan look at Nero.
"What about you? Where are you going? I can help."
Nero shook his head.
"No need."
The boy looked at his companions.
"Let's go back the way we came."
No one objected.
So they bid farewell to Black Swan, turned around, and walked back into the wall Nero had kicked open earlier.
———
Brilliant, multicolored light suddenly shone across the streets of Oti Shopping Center. Four figures emerged from it.
In this neon-lit city of midnight revelry, where people drank and celebrated, the crowds coming and going seemed completely unaware of the astonishing sight, or perhaps they had simply grown used to it. They walked right past.
The four of them appeared from the dazzling light. Then the radiance that had outshone the city's night lights gradually faded away like a receding tide across the shore.
After coming out, they headed straight for where Kokona was.
Kokona, her eyes filled with exhaustion, watched the group approaching. Looking at those four familiar faces, she forced out a smile.
Faced with these four warmhearted people, Kokona's feelings were complicated. For someone like her, who had spent such a long time inside this dream and had gradually become numb during that time, she felt gratitude and admiration toward them, but even more than that, she looked at them as though they were rare animals.
Although this place was called the Land of Dreams, it wasn't necessarily as wonderful as people imagined. It was filled with dreamlike colors, imaginative architecture, and an exceptionally developed economy.
But the lives of those living here were not necessarily just as wonderful. Beneath the glow of the city's neon lights, the Land of Dreams was still full of gangs, conflict, chaos, criminals... Beneath its glamorous exterior lay a darkness that might be even deeper than anywhere else in the universe.
To meet four people this sincere in such an environment was exceedingly rare.
When the four of them came closer, Kokona greeted Nero.
"Welcome back, little one."
Nero nodded and took out the record. The record, which should have been old and tattered, now looked as clean, neat, and intact as the day it had first come into being.
"Here, Sister Kokona."
Kokona froze when she saw the record.
She slowly reached out and took it into her hands. Her hands began trembling from the violent surge of emotion. Her fingers gently brushed across the surface of the record, and a familiar yet somehow distant melody seemed to begin playing beside her ears.
She stared at it absentmindedly and murmured, "You've already found it... That's wonderful."
"Miss Kokona, is this record very important to you?" Yanqing asked.
Kokona came back to herself. Her eyes were filled with nostalgia.
As she gently stroked the record's surface, she softly said, "...The time it carries... is something I still miss... I lost it a long time ago... I never thought it could still be preserved so completely."
As soon as Kokona finished speaking, Argenti, Huohuo, and Yanqing all looked toward Nero at the same time.
They had found the record together. Every one of them had clearly seen what it had looked like at first.
Worn out, old, battered, covered in cracks, as though it had long been abandoned at the end of time, weathering away year after year... Little Yu possessed a mysterious power that had picked it up from the garbage dump of memories.
Kokona took a deep breath, and there was a sense of relief in her voice.
"Thank you... Tonight, I want to fall asleep listening to it... It would be best if I never woke up again. For a soul that's already covered in scars, that's probably the best ending."
Nero looked at Kokona. Listening to her faint, sigh-like voice, he sensed that something about her was wrong.
Suddenly, ghostly blue flames burst out from the shadows. The flowing fire instantly ignited Kokona's shadow. The tongues of flame spread, surging upward like a rising tide. The flames weren't hot. They were almost illusory, yet they swallowed Kokona in an instant.
The dreamlike fire immediately spread across the ground, quickly engulfing Nero and the other three.
At that moment, Cirrus's voice rang out, "This girl's already made up her mind to die. If you really want to do something, you might as well take a look into the depths of her heart."
The next instant, the ghostly blue flames vanished.
Nero and the other three vanished with them, as though they had never appeared in the first place.
Only Kokona remained standing where she was. She stared blankly ahead. Her wine-red eyes were empty, yet a faint ghostly flame flashed through her pupils before disappearing.
Illusory flames flowed freely, their heatless light spilling across the rooftop.
Then the flames swelled, spiraled, and condensed into four human figures.
After a brief inversion of their senses, the flames dispersed.
Nero and the other three had left Oti Shopping Center and arrived on a rooftop beneath the night sky. The faint blue ghost fire began to contract and gather together before finally turning into a single eyeball.
"We're here. This girl's inner world," Cirrus said.
Tail swayed as he floated down from Huohuo's shoulder and looked around.
"Heh, this place has changed a lot since the last time I came."
"Her memories are no longer sealed away, and her emotions are no longer suppressed. Since she no longer forgets, her inner world has naturally become fuller."
"The atmosphere here still isn't very good, but it's much better than that bare cave from before. At least it feels like a place a person would live in," Cirrus said.
Then her gaze shifted to one side.
Not far ahead stood a young woman. Judging from the back, it should have been Kokona.
"Look, there's our target."
"A towering building, standing at a dizzying height, sways in the howling wind. Miss Kokona's inner world is not broken, yet it gives one the illusion that it stands on the brink of collapse."
"Like a flower growing from a crack in a cliff, it could wither at any moment within the most dangerous illusion. But should it bloom, it would become the most beautiful sight upon the cliff," Argenti said after observing the surroundings.
"M-Miss Shopkeeper?" Huohuo called out.
But the Kokona standing ahead didn't respond. She simply ran forward on her own.
"Let's follow her," Yanqing said.
The four hurried after Kokona.
Suddenly, Kokona's body collapsed, transforming into raging waves. The surging tide rushed toward them as though it would swallow everyone whole.
Tail and Cirrus flew to the front. Illusory ghost fire rose like a wall, blocking the tide of memories. Then, amid ripples, it merged together with the waves. Reflections gradually formed within those ripples.
A faint song softly drifted through the air.
It was the voice of a young girl singing.
The notes danced with the melody, quietly rippling outward like a gentle breeze brushing across one's face.
The old man's voice was like flower petals carried on that breeze as he spoke in delight.
"Kokona, wonderful! Whether it's your pitch, rhythm, or emotion, your singing is far beyond others your age. Your understanding of music is especially outstanding. You can quickly grasp the spirit a song is trying to convey... That's truly rare!"
"And your tone, soft as silk. From the low notes to the high notes, you maintain remarkable consistency in your timbre. Such talent is truly uncommon..."