Kiana stood in a daze amidst a thick fog, feeling like she was probably dreaming.
But why would she have such a strange dream?
Aimless fog everywhere—this wasn't like her usual dreams...
The dreams Kiana used to have were always very clear. Although they definitely possessed that nonsensical dream logic and she couldn't clearly remember what she actually did in them, one thing was certain—this dream was far too strange.
She squinted her eyes in the dream, trying hard to clear her mind.
Then, the hazy gray world before her truly began to condense into a concrete space.
She was standing in a living room.
The living room was large and brightly lit. Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting reflections on the carpet.
And in the living room were two small figures.
A little boy, and an even younger little girl.
There was also an adult... an adult looking down at some certificates.
Kiana blinked hard again, completely squeezing the remaining fog from her eyes.
She recognized him...
That boy was Shu.
A young Shu.
That face, those eyes... although much more immature, it was definitely Shu. Kiana couldn't be mistaken.
And that girl...
Must be the one she had seen in Shu's memories... that...
Shu's biological sister.
And that adult must be Shu's mother...
Kiana stood frozen in place, not moving.
This scene before her... she had seen it.
This was Shu's dreamscape, and also Shu's memory.
...A memory... that wasn't very pleasant.
She wanted to step forward and interfere, but it seemed she hadn't yet regained control of her body, only able to watch.
She just stood there, looking at that young Shu, looking at his mother, looking at the little girl named Xu Xi.
Watching those certificates being flipped through one by one.
Watching the mother's smile grow ever more radiant.
Watching Xu Xi being picked up and carried past Shu.
Watching Shu stand alone in place, smiling like an entirely unrelated bystander, watching as Xu Xi raised her hand to point at Shu, asking their mother to praise her big brother too.
And then—
The mother spoke.
"Why can't you be more like your sister?"
Kiana's brows furrowed.
She didn't like that sentence.
She didn't like it at all.
"...Why can't you be more like your sister?"
The instant that sentence fell, everything around them changed.
The living room was still the living room.
The certificates were still the certificates...
But something was struggling within the outlines of those objects, and then overflowing from them.
The large, gold-stamped words on the certificates were melting into strands of thick, black, viscous matter, squirming and flowing onto the floor.
Those glittering golden trophies also began to twist and deform, turning into twitching monsters.
And that young Shu... he stood frozen there, staring blankly ahead, staring in the direction of his mother and sister, completely motionless.
He seemed entirely oblivious to the hideous monsters closing in on him.
Those black things slowly crawled up young Shu's ankles, moving up his calves, covering his knees.
They coiled around him, wrapped around him, as if trying to turn him into a part of the darkness as well.
The monsters twisted from the trophies were expanding, baring their fangs at Shu, opening their blood-red maws as if unable to wait to taste this despairing child.
And that young Shu, who had stood there blankly the whole time, gradually began to show a trace of... disgust... toward the direction of his sister.
"How could Shu make that kind of face—!!"
Kiana violently grabbed young Shu's wrist and, face burning with fury, directly "yanked" the young Shu who was about to be completely swallowed out from amidst those monsters!
She stared into the astonished face of "Shu" with her pure blue eyes, gritted her teeth, and repeated her belief word by word.
"The Shu I know—would ab! So! Lutely! Never! Make that kind of face—at someone he loves!"
Her words were full of wrath, yet not a single spark of anger burned the child in front of her.
Her voice was loud, but it only shook the heartstrings of one person.
Never...?
The monsters began to roar; the thick black liquid began to writhe violently.
Kiana grabbed Shu and turned to run.
The black monsters behind them seemed enraged, surging forward madly from all directions.
Kiana didn't look back, dragging that small figure along, running for all she was worth.
Dodging the tentacles reaching from the left.
Jumping over the fissures cracking open beneath their feet.
Smashing through the black shadows blocking the way ahead.
She didn't know how long she ran.
She only knew she had to run.
She had to take him and run.
Run out of this darkness.
Run to a safe place.
Run to—
She suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Because there was nothing left around them.
Only a realm of pure white emptiness, seemingly boundless.
Kiana stood there stunned, panting heavily.
Then she turned around.
That young Shu was standing right behind her.
Standing quietly.
His wrist held by her, neither struggling nor speaking.
Kiana looked at him.
He looked at Kiana too.
Those eyes—
Kiana suddenly felt a bit strange.
They were clearly Shu's eyes, but it seemed...
Seemed like something was missing.
Too quiet... no, it should be described as "placid."
So placid it hardly seemed like a living, breathing person, but rather a meticulously cared-for, exquisite sculpture.
Kiana tried hard to look at that face, only to find she couldn't see it clearly no matter what.
The outline... was right. The features... were right. The placement... was almost exactly the same as the Shu in her memory—
But she just couldn't see it clearly.
It was like looking through frosted glass.
Kiana stared at him for a long time.
That young Shu just stood there, letting her look.
Not speaking, not moving, hardly even blinking.
There were only the two of them in the empty white world.
A panting intruder.
A child placid to the point of being eerie.
Kiana suddenly spoke... she didn't know why she wanted to ask this question.
Just... she just felt she had to ask.
"It won't be like that, right?"
Her voice was very soft.
"You won't become like that just because of those words, right?"
The young Shu looked at her.
That face was still unclear.
Then... he nodded at Kiana.
A very, very slight nod.
Kiana smiled.
"I knew it..."
The surrounding white began to twist, and that small figure also began to blur amidst the distortion.
Like a drop of water falling onto the surface of a lake, slowly spreading out, until it eventually disappeared completely.
Then, time seemed to flow backward.
The scene flashed.
She was standing in the corner of that living room again.
The scene before her started anew.
The mother carried Xu Xi past Shu.
That sentence drifted down lightly once more.
"Why can't you be more like your sister?"
And this time...
That young Shu still stood there in a daze.
But those black monsters did not appear.
Nothing appeared.
Only a little boy standing in place, his head lowered.
Quietly, solitarily, bearing the weight of those words.
Or perhaps...
He hadn't perceived any weight at all; he simply took it into the bottom of his heart, and then... agreed with it completely.