ER13-13 From Afar
<size=50><i>Oh, where, oh, where has my little dog gone?</i></size>
Do you stand here every day because you're a bad kid?
Does no one play with you?
Hey, I'm talking to you!
Me?
That's right, you.
Of course someone plays with me. Look, me and my little dog.
Playing house with a doll is childish. With two of us, we can play so many more games.
Like what?
Let me think... maybe try whistling? Like the workshop workers do when they head home.
Hoo, hoo— (Struggling to make a sound)
It's too hard...
Okay, we'll learn whistling next time. Today let's build sandcastles. You make the base, I'll top it off!
Hey, it fell... hahaha!
You got your clothes dirty... The old tailor's not gonna be happy about that, huh?
It's fine. He'd say, "You can just wash it clean, right?"
Look, the sky is so beautiful.
It's always this beautiful if you look up.
They don't care about us because we're not the protagonists. Our end, our erasure, our sacrifice—they don't matter.
Our secret hideout! No one will find us here, and you can sew in secret...
I'll sit next to you and whistle softly!
We have it too—this little freedom in a suffocating world!
You've never actually heard me sing, have you?
You helped me stand again and taught me how to dream.
No. I can't teach you what you don't know yet, and I can't force you to do what you don't want.
All your hopes and wants come from within you.
If you only know one song, I can teach you more!
What matters is... you're willing to make your voice heard.
No one cares about your story. Even if you tell it, no one but you thinks your doll matters.
I don't want you to get hurt, physically or emotionally.
If no one else will listen, I will.
I have... companions now. Maybe more in the future.
Congratulations. Then... let's not meet again.
I think your doll is very important.
Yeah. It's important—so is your being here.
After your brain surgery, did you become your ideal self?
Or are you still drifting, just forgetting the pain?
Go back. Maybe one day you'll remember me, but I won't appear again.
But I'll still feel lonely.
Loneliness makes every moment with the ones you love priceless. It turns memories into treasure.
But beyond memories, there's a wider world and many more choices waiting for you.
Now that you know your real name, you can change it back anytime.
No. I'm not ready to throw away my past. It hurts, but it's part of me.
Then leave room to weave new stories... and don't come looking for us.
Do you understand?
It's like opening a gift years ago. From that moment, "thank you" was already turning into "goodbye." We knew the farewell would come, but we kept guessing the time wrong.
Concordia unties the ribbon, eyes shining with hope.
The puppy plush lies quietly in the box, covered in rows of stitches.
Begin your journey from here.
Well then... goodbye.
I'll say goodbye properly.
From countless threads, new bonds form as she learns to say goodbye.
...
Discord opens her eyes to noise. She hurts all over, but her readings are normal and her frame's external damage is repaired.
There are lingering side effects in your M.I.N.D.—that's what they say.
Why do I keep running into you everywhere lately?
Huh?
How rude! Why make me sound like some house sprite that shows up everywhere?
I helped this time, didn't I? Didn't I?
Will you give me credit for that? Will you? Will you?
...
Can someone switch off this chatterbox?
Shh! Quiet, everyone. Discord's waking up!!
<b>YOU'RE the one who should be quiet!!</b>
As she half-wakes, she pieces the whole thing together.
During the Las Prados infiltration, an Ascendant knocked her to the ship's bottom hold. She fell into a deep coma. For a time, her condition had been critical.
M.I.N.D. disorders are complex. Once stable, all you can do is wait and trust.
Since Yata's legs could barely move, she first tried walking on her hands, then gave up. In the end, Egret's loud-and-lively Leia showed up and hauled them all back to Babylonia.
Against an Ascendant, getting away with 90% of your body intact is a decent outcome.
So one whole leg is only five percent!
And Shiva, when much needed, was racing nonstop against the ship's self-destruct signal, with no time to spare. The hidden crisis was worse than they thought.
Thankfully, all remaining data was preserved and extracted. The Ascendant Ephialtes hadn't modified the ship, and the backup bodies seen in past logs didn't reappear.
Scarab's results are recorded in the precise experimental data they brought back, which includes built-in shielding. Compared with current info, it greatly expands the Inver-Device data set.
The Inver-Device, huh! If it's too flashy, it'll totally clash with my look!
Leia grimaces as she imagines it.
Everyone trades looks, then eyes Discord's frame—Secator's head in particular.
...Your outfit?
If you want, I can alter your clothes when we have time.
She smiles a little.
Then I'm counting on you!
Hehe, Discord, wanna boost your style? Maybe tie a few ribbons in your hair. I have tons!
No.
At her unusually firm refusal, Yata and Shiva stare wide-eyed.
Surprisingly, Leia isn't discouraged by rejection and quickly sets her sights on them instead.
Wait! I don't want that either!
Stay back! I have short hair now!
Surrounded by her teammates, the blue-haired Construct no longer feels out of place. She's calm and at ease.
Looks like you don't need to worry about her anymore.
[player name].
She calls out to you as you watch from afar, ready to leave.
I have an answer to your question.
I want to... keep being a tailor, to pour my feelings into the clothes I make.
I want peaceful days to come sooner.
For what I cherish and the people I care about, I'll keep fighting.
<i>The last star of dawn heralds the approaching sunrise.</i>
<i>Before fate's loom, you were tugged by the wind... silently waiting for the cut.</i>
<i>But threads can be strings, playing the heart's poem and weaving tomorrow's prelude.</i>
She reaches out her hand at last.
A single, bright note.
