This was another memory.
The group of four followed the two heliobi, watching this woman's past from the perspective of observers. Sorrow flowed slowly, staining the walls before becoming peeling murals...
By this time, Kokona seemed to have already started working at the luxury boutique.
Standing outside the shop was an elderly woman dressed in elegant clothing. She appeared to be waiting for someone.
Kokona came out to greet her.
"Mrs. Gerwin, you're here. What would you like to look at today?"
A smile appeared on the old woman's face.
"Kokona, you're finally here. I've been waiting for you for so long."
"I'm sorry. I was... checking the inventory just now. Were you satisfied with that coat from last time?"
"Don't even mention it. After I wore it out, everyone said it suited me. It was like I suddenly looked years younger.
"Finding clothes that truly suit you is just as hard as finding a soulmate. Thankfully, thanks to your recommendations, I've found quite a few soulmates lately."
From the old woman's words, it was obvious she was very satisfied with Kokona's service and had become one of her regular customers.
"That's wonderful... Cooler colors suit you especially well. They match both your complexion and your figure perfectly," Kokona said.
The old woman's face lit up with a smile, every wrinkle gathering together.
"Your voice is still as pleasant as ever. If I remember correctly, you like singing, don't you? My son studies vocal music too. You two should chat sometime if you have the chance."
"I..."
A trace of melancholy crossed Kokona's face. She stared blankly at the elderly woman for a long while before finally saying,
"I'm afraid you've remembered wrong. I've never really studied vocal music."
A silent sigh drifted through the air.
The old woman didn't seem to mind and continued, "Ah, I was only joking. The older I get, the more I like to ramble... Come walk around with me first. It's been so long since I've heard your voice. I've missed it a little."
"...Alright. Please come with me."
Kokona nodded.
That day, Mrs. Gerwin returned home with her arms full of purchases.
The scene before them shifted rapidly, as though countless years had passed in an instant.
Within this memory, the four watched as the capable, hardworking young Kokona was quickly promoted to store manager.
But gossip and malicious speculation followed close behind.
Her coworkers looked down on her. Their smiling words hid knives filled with jealousy and resentment. Every malicious guess and mocking remark was spoken openly, shattering Kokona's still-young heart among the crowd.
No one apologized afterward.
Instead, under the guise of seniority, they dumped work that should never have been hers onto her.
The world before Kokona gradually lost its color...
Amid quiet snickers, she returned to reality and began fearing the arrival of the next day.
Then there were coworkers who reported on her behind her back, bosses who deliberately made things difficult for her.
This environment tormented Kokona.
She lacked the self-interest and slight selfishness that everyone else seemed to possess. The extra kindness in her heart made her like a tiny boat caught in a storm within Penacony's illusory dream...
Working seriously earned the jealousy of her coworkers. Taking responsibility for customers put her job at risk.
Some people simply didn't want you to live well, while the boss cared only about squeezing out more profit.
Each person was an expert in their own field. They spoke grandly, justified themselves with those same arguments, pressured her as those who had come before, and explained the society they believed in along with the rules hidden beneath its bubble-like surface.
Kokona felt like a thief who had wandered into a mansion by mistake.
Infrared beams seemed to shine from every direction. Even crouching in place and breathing required care not to trigger the alarm and be devoured by the vicious guard dogs.
As they continued forward, the four seemed to reach an important place.
Another Kokona appeared.
She looked exactly the same as Kokona.
But Kokona stared at her for a long time.
She stared into the same wine-red eyes as her own.
She stared at the same dark skin.
She remained silent.
Silent.
Only after a long while did she finally speak, and her first words were a question.
"Who are you?"
She could hardly recognize herself anymore.
The storms of life had bent her to the ground.
Kokona made her move.
She tried to kill the version of herself that had never changed.
She said, "In the face of ugly reality that can't be escaped, every virtue falls apart."
Everyone was like a frog soaking in warm water.
But life wasn't warm water.
It was an endless shadow.
It was the lid covering the pot above your head.
Another flash of light swept past.
Everything before the four stretched, twisted, and reformed into a new scene.
They arrived somewhere else.
It was still a rooftop, but the flower beds here were filled with color and blossoms, and a cool breeze drifted through the air.
A man named Bond stood before Kokona.
Within her memories, he occupied a space all his own.
Inside her empty heart, he had found a corner filled with color.
Bond entered a dangerous competition because they needed money.
They were birds longing to fly into the sky.
They couldn't stay inside a cage forever.
At least, they couldn't.
They longed for freedom.
They wanted to chase their dreams.
The two of them had even chosen the planet they wanted to go to, a place covered by oceans with four distinct seasons.
They had promised to stay by each other's side.
But Kokona worried.
Her lover responded by making ridiculous faces to make her laugh.
For a brief moment, there had been sweetness here.
Back then, inspiration came to Kokona.
She found an ending for her song...
Imagine a rose of the future.
The two happily made their promise, filled with hope.
As they looked toward the road ahead, everyone's eyes shone.
But the future was not always as bright as people imagined.
Kokona never waited for her lover's return.
Even after the Taikion tournament ended, she received no news about him.
In the end, at the place where they had promised to meet, Kokona did not see her lover return.
She received only two old tickets and news related to him.
Bond... wasn't coming back.
According to the stranger who delivered the message, Bond had borrowed a large sum of money from the Family in order to fulfill his promise to Kokona.
He bet everything on winning that competition.
In the end, he only placed second.
He had no way to repay such an enormous debt.
The messenger never explained exactly what had become of Bond.
But Kokona had long since grown used to seeing the wreckage left behind by shattered dreams in the Golden Hour.
She didn't believe the Family would deal with Bond mercifully.
Of course, there was another possibility.
Perhaps everything was false.
Perhaps Bond had simply left on his own.
But to Kokona, that was impossible.
And regardless of the truth, Bond would never return.
Whatever news she heard now, what difference did it make to her?
The bird that longed for freedom and flight had finally left its cage.
Yet its life vanished in an instant.
Natural disasters, man-made calamities, or predators lurking in the darkness...
Countless accidents filled the world beyond the cage.
In the blink of an eye, they broke the bird's wings and sent it crashing to the ground.
At last, they reached the end of the memory.
At that moment, Kokona threw away the two old tickets.
She also threw away her record.
With the sound of it striking the ground, Kokona became trapped forever within the boundaries of sorrow.
With that same sound, the scenery before them lost its color.
Grief surged in like the tide.
Despair drained all color from the world.
Within that endless grayness, someone drowning in the deep sea slowly sank lower and lower, giving up all hope and struggle.
Nero and the other three walked through the gray world.
The wind here was filled with sorrow.
It clung to them like thick paste, dragging at their footsteps and making it difficult to move forward.
After passing one colorless corner, they saw Kokona.
She stood alone at the edge of the rooftop.
A silent breeze lifted her hair.
"..."
Tail spoke for the first time since falling silent.
"Little ones, it's time to make your choice."
"This girl's heart is already full of despair. Look, even the wind is thick as paste," Cirrus said.
"Whether you save her or not depends on your decision. This isn't just a simple case of losing the will to live... If this girl dies here, then in reality she'll probably fall into brain death at the same time. Though personally, I don't think there's any need to save her. Look, she doesn't even want to live anymore."
"A person's suicide always contains some degree of chaotic impulse," Nero shook his head and said.
The four slowly approached Kokona.
Tears drifted toward them with the wind.
When they brushed across their faces, they were still burning hot, becoming the only warmth left in this place.
"Kokona."
Nero called out to her.
Kokona's body trembled slightly as she stood at the edge of the building.
She slowly turned around and silently looked at them.
Looking at Nero, she forced a gentle smile onto her face and spoke softly with a wistful tone.
"You've all been here the whole time..."
After another long silence, Kokona spoke again.
"Please allow me to leave... At this point, I've heard every argument there is. No matter how hard I try, it's all wasted effort."
"M-Miss Manager... do... do you still remember your song... 'Imagine a Rose of the Future'..." Huohuo asked anxiously. She didn't know how to persuade someone, and could only hope the record Kokona had asked them to bring back would awaken even a small desire to keep living.
"That song..."
Kokona fell silent for a while before letting out a self-mocking laugh.
"Heh. Perhaps it doesn't even deserve to be called a complete song... It's just a flawed piece."
"...Just like me now. In order to survive in this world, I kept cutting pieces off my soul and throwing them away... Until in the end, all that remained was a shell that even I found disgusting."
"On the road to becoming a store manager, I learned many qualities that I despised. I kept betraying myself... in exchange for success in other people's eyes."
"But I couldn't completely change. Guilt always caught up with me. The questions that came from the bottom of my heart always returned. I'm too twisted, too miserable. There is no place for me in this dream."
"Miss Kokona, there's no need to go this far," Yanqing urged.
"As long as you're alive, everything can still be made right. The Xianzhou has a saying: when the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a road; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will straighten itself. As long as you keep moving forward, the road will appear beneath your feet."
Kokona looked at Yanqing.
"...Make it right? You don't understand... This is how I make it right. This is my release."
After speaking, Kokona smiled again, as though letting out an almost inaudible sigh.
She looked at the four kind people before her.
The four sincere people who had helped her and reached out to her time after time at the end of her life.
"Thank you for your sympathy. But perhaps you can't understand... For someone like me, this isn't a choice I get to make. A voice inside me has always been leading me. I have no freedom. I can only let it control me."
"It won't hurt to follow it just this once. It promised me... As long as I follow it, all my misfortune will disappear."
"In that case... Kokona, could you also grant my request?" Nero looked at her. "Since you don't want to make your own choice or decision, then whether you follow it or follow me, it makes no difference to you, right?
"Kokona, I'm standing right here in front of you. So don't follow those sighs and thoughts that scatter as easily as the wind, alright?
"I learned here that you can sing, and about the song you wrote.
"Sing it for me."
"I..."
Kokona looked at Nero and fell silent once more.
After a while, she shook her head.
Lowering her eyes, she murmured almost to herself, "I can't win, little one. I can't win.
"I've tried... too many times. Sometimes I begged. Sometimes I fought. Sometimes I let the black tide swallow me.
"No matter how many times I try, the result never changes."
Suddenly, her expression became distant.
"Listen.
"It's here."
Low whispers filled with temptation circled through the air like the wind.
They lingered beside everyone's ears, almost freezing their thoughts.
"Come with me, Kokona."
"Leave this place. Leave behind all your troubles."
Nero's gray eyes almost blended into this sorrowful world.
Ripples spread across those clear, clean eyes, reflecting nearly all the grief within this place.
Among it all was Kokona.
A smile suddenly appeared on the boy's face.
His beautiful eyes curved into crescents.
His voice, full of life and vitality, rang out.
It was like waking one morning, pulling open the curtains, letting the dawn light up a dim room. Outside, sparrows stood along the windowsill.
The wind sang with all its heart. The birds answered in harmony. At that moment, life's melody began to play, and with it came a new day and a new life.
"Then that's settled. Since you can't win by yourself, Kokona...
"...then we'll help you win!"
Kokona froze slightly.
Warmth seemed to spread through her, driving away the cold, returning warmth to the world and restoring color to everything.
When she came back to herself, the knight in silver armor with fiery red hair had already reached out and taken her hand.
The broad hand wrapped in silver armor wasn't cold.
Instead, it was warm, as though speaking of the blazing heart within the knight.
The biting chill slowly faded away, slipping across her body like fine sand passing between her fingers.
Kokona slowly turned to Nero.
"You think... I should be helped, don't you? But little one, someone once did the same thing. It was only a moment of self-satisfaction. It wasn't helping me. It wasn't..."
Nero looked at Kokona and said, "Kokona, do you think a bird is happier staying inside a cage, or flying freely outside?"
He didn't wait for her answer.
After a brief pause, he continued, "You don't have to answer. Because instead of asking people, it's better to ask the bird. Those who long for freedom will leave. Those who love comfort will stay."
"In truth, everyone is a bird longing for freedom and flight. Before leaving the cage, everyone must make a choice."
"Everyone has the right to choose freely. No one else has the right to interfere with that choice. And when you prepare to make that choice, you should already be ready to bear its consequences."
"I have no right to interfere with your choice, Kokona. But in the same way, you have no right to interfere with mine. I've already prepared myself to bear the consequences."
"We reached out to stop you not because of a moment of self-satisfaction, but because we wanted to save you, so we chose to save you."
Kokona stared blankly at Nero before letting out a sigh.
"Little one... do you know that what you're facing now isn't a real person? It's only an illness. A nightmare... an enemy that can't be seen or touched."
"I know you're all very strong."
"But no matter how strong you are, you can't defeat an invisible enemy."
"That isn't true, my lady."
Argenti shook his head, looking at Kokona with complete sincerity.
"You see? I am holding your hand right now."
Kokona: "...You're... such a strange person..."
"Naturally. I've heard many people describe me that way." Argenti smiled. "My lady, now please answer one question.
"Do you acknowledge that the Aeon of Beauty possesses peerless beauty unmatched in all the world?"
Kokona looked at Argenti in confusion.
She couldn't understand why the knight would ask such a question at a time like this.
But after hesitating briefly, she nodded.
Her gaze moved across the four people before her.
No matter what, these four had already become the brightest light in her life.
If the Aeon of Beauty still existed, then she felt it must be these four people standing before her.
Kokona smiled.
"I acknowledge it. The Aeon of Beauty possesses peerless beauty unmatched in all the world!"
Almost instantly, magnificent and dazzling radiance burst forth from the heavens, scattering gentle light across the entire world.
The grass became soft.
Flowers released their fragrance.
The wind began to dance.
Living creatures stirred once more.
Small animals cried out.
The sun rose from the distant horizon, breaking through the endless night.
A glimmer of dawn lit the edge of the sky, pouring warmth across the world once again.
The world.
Heaven and earth.
Every living thing.
Life flourished.
Ghostly flames suddenly flared up.
They burned, sweeping over everyone.
Kokona still stood before the luxury boutique.
No one noticed anything unusual.
There weren't even any pedestrians nearby.
Dark blue and pale green flames ignited within her eyes before drifting down.
The illusory fire set the ground ablaze.
Within it, four figures gradually became solid and appeared.
Only a few seconds had passed since those flames had last burned here.
Nero and the other three had returned to the Golden Hour.
A few more seconds passed.
Only then did Kokona, standing before the boutique with vacant eyes, come back to herself.
She stared blankly at the four of them.
Then she crouched down and gently hugged the white-haired boy before her.
"Thank you, little one."
"And thank all of you."
"Just now... I think I had a very long dream."
"A very long... very cold dream..."
"You were there too."
"I can't remember many of the details anymore."
"I only have a faint feeling left."
"But... thank you."
"Thank you."
Kokona smiled.
She almost felt as though her heart had never beaten so clearly before.
Even though this was a dream, she could almost hear the pulse of blood flowing through her body and feel her heart beating inside her chest.
She suddenly realized that she was alive.
Alive so vividly.
It was as though she had forgotten the feeling of her own heartbeat for a very long time.
As though she had already died long ago.
"It's alright," Nero said. "Then, Kokona, can you sing that song for me now? That song... 'Imagine a Rose of the Future.'"
"Huh?"
Kokona froze for a moment before a faint blush spread across her face.
"Though I don't know why, I really do want to sing my heart out right now... But... I'm not very good..."
"It's alright. Sing. I want to hear it," Nero said.
"There's no need to worry too much, my lady," Argenti said with a smile. "Even if you truly aren't particularly skilled in music, we will still understand its meaning through the sincerity of your emotions."
"In fact, among those who walk the same path as I do, there are many who know nothing of music. Quite a few of them love performing despite that."
As a man who truly wasn't very good at music and who could produce nothing but disastrous, tearing notes no matter how earnestly he played an instrument, Argenti's words carried some weight.
"Oh? O-Okay... I'll try...", Kokona said hesitantly.
Under Nero's expectant gaze, she cleared her throat and began to sing.
Her voice was gentle.
Her singing was beautiful.
It was nothing like she claimed.
She simply lacked confidence.
The four listened quietly.
Argenti felt that Kokona's skill in vocal music was at least eight or nine times greater than his own.
As her singing gradually drifted into the distance, people were drawn in by the song and gathered around.
Then more people came.
And then even more.
Wave after wave, the crowd grew larger.
At one moment, applause burst out among the crowd.
More and more people began clapping and cheering.
Their voices gathered into waves.
Every moment, they praised Cocona's singing. Within that tide of applause, her voice gradually steadied.
She began to enjoy herself.
Her singing slowly grew more confident.
And so, her gentle, graceful voice became even clearer and brighter.
When she began singing with confidence and enjoying both the stage and the audience...
When, for one brief moment, she reached a temporary reconciliation with her past self...
When the future once again held hope...
When she sang with all her heart... her entire body seemed wrapped in a dreamlike glow.
Though this wasn't a stage, and those below weren't an audience, at this moment she shone as brilliantly as the stars.