Stelle and March 7th were squeezed in front of the computer, four eyes locked on the screen.
Kiana opened the worn, battered diary and read aloud from its pages.
"The doctor told me to start keeping a diary today. But I've never written a diary before."
Kiana looked up and glanced around the small, cramped room that looked uncannily like a prison cell, her eyes filled with confusion.
"A doctor?" she murmured. "Isn't this a laboratory?"
Stelle and March 7th exchanged a look.
"Why would a laboratory have a doctor?" March 7th whispered.
"No idea," Stelle shook her head, "but something feels off."
On screen, Kiana kept reading.
"It hurts so much. Today's treatment hurt so much too. But I won't cry. Because I have the magic spell Mom taught me."
Kiana's brow furrowed. She kept reading without thinking.
"Every time I felt sad, Mom would whisper the magic spell in my ear."
"The magic spell that can make any wish come true, if you say it in your heart. The spell that can let me see Mom again, just by saying it."
Kiana looked at those words, and read them aloud on instinct.
"Ich liebe dich."
She froze.
"Wait, I just said that?" She looked down at the crooked, uneven handwriting in the diary, completely baffled. "But I don't even understand what this says."
She murmured, "So why do I know how to read it?"
Stelle and March 7th were equally stunned.
"Ich... what?"
Stelle tried to repeat the sounds, and her tongue immediately tangled itself up.
"I have no idea," March 7th shook her head. "But why does Kiana know how to say it? Didn't she just say she couldn't understand it?"
Just then, "Kiana."
A gentle voice came from behind her.
Kiana spun around.
Cecilia had appeared at her side, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Did you find something here?"
Kiana's heart skipped a beat. Mom! Mom is talking to me!
She nearly leapt up on the spot, barely managing to hold herself back.
She held up the diary with both hands and offered it over, the way a child would present a treasure.
"Lady Cecilia, look at this!"
Cecilia took the diary and turned through its pages, her brow furrowing slightly.
"A diary." She murmured, "A child's. I didn't expect something like this to have happened in this facility."
"Oh?" Kiana was about to respond.
Then something struck her head like a blow, and a wave of searing pain crashed over her without warning.
"Ngh." She instinctively pressed her hands to her temples, her face draining of color in an instant. "My head... it hurts..."
Cecilia looked up, took one look at Kiana, and her expression shifted sharply. "Kiana?!"
When Kiana opened her eyes again, the first thing she felt was a softness she had never known before.
The warmth of someone's arms.
She blinked, and her vision slowly came into focus.
Looking down at her was her mother's face, tender and full of concern.
Those blue eyes, so much like her own, brimming with worry and care.
Silver hair fell loose and brushed gently against her cheek, carrying a faint, familiar fragrance.
Mom. Cecilia.
Kiana's breath caught.
Stelle and March 7th both inhaled sharply at the same time, and without a word, each pressed a hand over their own mouth.
On screen, Kiana lay completely still in Cecilia's arms.
She knew. She knew that Cecilia, at this point in time, could not possibly believe she was her daughter.
The real Kiana was somewhere else right now, being looked after.
And she was nothing more than a girl of unknown origins. A stranger who had appeared out of nowhere on the battlefield, who somehow knew the Kaslana style of combat.
If she said "I'm your daughter," what would Cecilia think? That she'd lost her mind? That the Honkai had eaten away at her sanity?
So she couldn't say it. She absolutely could not.
But the impulse rising from deep inside her, in that moment, nearly shattered every wall she had.
She wanted to hold her.
She wanted to call her Mom, just once.
She wanted to tell her that she was the daughter Cecilia had never met, the daughter who had spent her whole life longing to find her.
Her lips parted.
Cecilia looked down at her, those gentle blue eyes reflecting her pale face.
"You're awake?" Cecilia asked softly.
Her hand reached out, slowly and tenderly, and began to stroke Kiana's hair.
Once. Then again. Then once more.
Kiana's tears, in that moment, spilled over without any warning.
This was a scene she had never even managed to dream.
A mother. An embrace.
Everything she had never had, brought to life all at once.
Even if it was an illusion. Even if it was not real.
Even if it was only a dream, the warmth of this moment was real.
"Mom."
Kiana said it softly, her voice barely above a breath.
Cecilia looked down at her, and her lips curved into a gentle smile.
"Mm?"
But Kiana said nothing more.
She simply lay there, quietly, in the warmth of those arms.