A human heart is made of flesh. When faced with such a hypothesis, it begins to ache.
The clamor of young voices gathering rises around you. The first figure to swim into view is a girl with silver-white hair.
She catches another girl her age with swift, sure hands, but her earphones slip free and clatter to the ground.
The silver-haired girl watches her leave, then touches her right ear. She hesitates for a beat, and starts scanning her surroundings.
...Thank you. Are you one of the first class too?
My name is Lucia.
...The world goes quiet for half a second, long enough for you to hear, with perfect clarity, the pounding of your own heart.
Your eyes blink, drinking in every detail of how Lucia looks now.
Your mouth slowly opens and at last speaks those words to her.
Before ever laying eyes on that cadet's name tag.
Before the capture-the-flag team exercise.
Before the punishment of five hundred push-ups...
Before the rotational training at the Airborne Command Post, before flying the aircraft past F.O.S...
Before the birthday celebration on the grassy field at night...
Before seeing the Earth rise from the Moon, just for the two of you...
Before all of it, before everything, perhaps the only thing you could truly grasp was that first "I like you" spoken from behind Lucia's visor.
But now, what has become unmistakable is the line that followed.
The words are trapped behind the visor, heard by no one but yourself.
Before a vow meant for Lucia was made ready, there in the F.O.S. auditorium...
As Joanne turns every gaze toward this corner, two figures rise as one as if on cue.
Alpha steps through the Gateway. The imagined drop beneath her feet never comes.
Instead, her foot meets solid ground, and a wave of disorientation so violent it nearly tears consciousness from her grasp.
She lifts her gaze. The magnificent dome of F.O.S. College arches overhead.
She then looks down. She is dressed in formal wear, the very outfit tailored for her graduation. She remembers, too, how she once took it out again, deliberately, for a moment of utmost importance.
...
A tremor runs through her as if she needs to confirm something. With shaking hands, she gropes through her pocket until her fingers close around something smooth, round, warmed by her own heat...
A ring.
Round as a closed circle. The final link in the loop.
In an instant, she feels it: the heartbeat she once had as a human. Every feeling she has ever known surges back into this body.
And the day that demands the greatest courage to return to.
Sound returns first. The irrepressible laughter and chatter of friends and alumni rush into the ears of the human named
Then sight. She scans the room, taking in face after face, flushed bright with excitement, all of them achingly familiar.
Ophelia. Adelyde. Cassandra... And Joanne, hands clamped over her mouth as if to hold back a scream.
Everything seems to move in slow motion.
The universe showed no mercy for that unfulfilled promise, yet someone who cared enough pulled her back into this moment.
...Hah.
From behind her comes the sound of steady footsteps.
The ring pressed tight in her palm, she turns back—slowly, so slowly—to look once more at the one standing before her.
For a breath, she wants nothing more than to run away. But this choice is her last. And it matters most.
So she raises her gaze and looks the person in the eye.
You... first...
She stumbles over the familiar line, forcing them out.
But the
...
She freezes.
Because in the human's gaze, she finds no trace of nervousness. No worry. No expectation.
Those eyes still hold countless unspoken things, but all the youthful emotions have faded. What remains is a quiet, knowing happiness.
But... it's no longer the same... as back then...
She doesn't even notice the tremor in her own voice.
...You know everything already.
She looks around, swift and searching, and only then notices that every face carries something subtly different from before.
They are all smiling too. Smiles of quiet release.
Even Joanne meets her eyes, offering a small nod of understanding.
Everyone...
...
The human takes a half-step forward, and it sets off a small stir among everyone watching.
Oh, it's happening, it's happening... Who's going first with the ring?
......
She draws her gaze back, no longer glancing around. There's no need for it anymore.
The one before her begins to speak the words that were meant to be hers.
...The... lunar rover ride?
I... know.
She swallows down the tightness in her throat and goes on beneath the gaze of hundreds of watching eyes.
We both remember. I shut off the comms first, then... I said something to you. Even now, I still...
Her face flushes a faint pink.
I told you back then, I'd only say it once. I lied.
There were so many times I wanted to say it again.
Lying awake at three in the morning in North Africa, I wanted to say it. Checking my gear before a mission, I wanted to say it. And when I saw those sunset photos you sent from the South Pacific... so terribly shot, honestly. But I still wanted to say it.
She adds something more.
Riding back to the monastery, when I found you on the road and pulled you onto my bike. At the coating shop during the festival. At that flea market in Constellia, picking out a bed for the cat.
Every single time... I wanted to say it.
Slowly, she draws her hand out from behind her back.
Once again, she is the first to bring out the ring, and the human follows without hesitation.
Two hands rise to the same height, each one holding a ring.
They stand facing one another, eyes meeting through a veil of tears.
[player name]... Under the witness of F.O.S...
She adds a witness to her vow, for this promise is one she will never take back.
I will... not spend my life with you.
Right on cue, a thunderous crack splits the air above. The dome fractures, and the last world begins its collapse.
I will not stay by your side forever.
The words of the vow are agony, splintering her more completely than the rupturing dome, and she barely stops herself from taking it all back.
(But you are the one who matters most to me. You always have been.)
Yet she leaves no room for retreat. She says nothing more.
Still, the human is as understanding and forgiving as always, and that gives her the courage to say what she needs to say last.
Will you...
A cascade of splintered glass descends in fragments, each shard refracting the glow above and carrying within it the image of two faces, side by side.
...not marry me... forever?
Video: v4.5阿尔法主线动态漫（男指）
Video: v4.5阿尔法主线动态漫（女指）
