"Please… Please, Machina! Stop, I… I don't want to anymore!"
[Do not worry, Chihiro. It is only a matter of ti until you get accustod to living different—]
"It… It's not even that! I've… I'm losing too many people."
[They are not your people, Chihiro. The lives you have lived are all from eons passed.]
"And yet I have lived them! How many tis… how many tis do I have to lose the sa person over and over again. My… My poor wife, she—"
[Focus, Chihiro. You have only been living the life of my first Avatar.]
Chihiro once again found herself in the space where she does not really exist, and all that was there was Machina. She was only a consciousness, a consciousness that has woken up countless tis in this mysterious plane of space.
"Please…" Chihiro once again begged, "I do not want to live his life anymore. I… I am starting to confuse it for my own."
[As I have told you more than a thousand tis, you do not worry about having to lose your identity, Chihiro,] Machina once again appeared in the nothingness. Its silver gleam, causing the empty space to glitter,
[It will all return to you in the end. As for your wish to not live the life of the first Avatar anymore, it is soon to be granted…
…the next one is the last one.]
"..." If Chihiro had a face right about now, she would be on the verge of bursting into tears. But as always have been for almost an eon, she swallowed everything and nodded figuratively. And so, once again… she lives the life of the first Avatar.
Another life, another outco… another end, another death.
And as she once again wakes up in the empty space, she looks at Machina again with begging eyes. Begging her to stop, begging her to just let her rest.
But alas…
[Welco to the 2nd Simulation, Chihiro.]
This hell was only just starting, and another story of tragedy and pain welcos her. Perhaps the only reason she wasn't truly going insane was the thought that after all this, in the end, her life would still be hers.
And so, she begins to traverse the life of the second Avatar. And in all the universes, the second Avatar lost everything… Chihiro lost everything, again… and again… and again.
But as she repeatedly woke up from the nightmare, she woke up not begging… but laughing. How could she not? She has been trying her best to change the outco of the 2nd Avatar's life, and yet it was useless—as everything had already happened.
What she was experiencing were not their lives, but their mories. And with that thought now accompanying her, the lives beca easier… or so she thought.
[Welco to the 6th Simulation, Chihiro.]
"Wait, wait!"
And after an eon, Chihiro once again found herself begging Machina—this ti, however, for a different reason.
"Please, just one more!" Chihiro cried, "Just one more ti, just let repeat her life one more ti!"
[I am afraid that is not possible. There are no more lives left to live.]
"Then just let repeat one of her lives again, okay? That's okay, right?"
[No. Living a life you have already lived will provide nothing for you, and for .]
"She was happy!" Chihiro exclaid, "For once, I was living a happy and extrely fulfilling life! I had several grandchildren and I watched all of them grow into fine n and won!"
[You were happy too until you t your end, Chihiro.]
"What?"
[Your life, have you forgotten?]
"My… life?" Chihiro breathed out as she looked at her hands, "...Hands?"
And finally, in this weird space that only had Machina and Machina alone, Chihiro finally noticed that she herself also exists.
"…?" But as she stared at her hands, as she touched her face, all she felt was a stranger, "Who… who am I?"
[It is not important who you are, but who you will be after all of this.]
"Heh…" A small but very deep breath escaped Chihiro's lips as she heard Machina's voice, "You're… you're right. It doesn't matter who I am, just let repeat Mona's life."
[No.]
"W…Why?" Chihiro's breaths soon beca stifled chuckles as she approached Machina, only for her hand to go through its silver silhouette, "You're… you're a god, that won't be hard for you to do. Just repeating Mona's life one more ti should not be a problem. How many tis have I lived as her? A hundred million tis? Just one more… one more won't make a difference."
[I am not a god,] Machina said as it stepped away from Chihiro, [Focus, your only goal here is to gather your predecessors' skills in order to defeat Riley Ross.]
"Riley… Ross?" Chihiro has already forgotten about her own life. And yet, as soon as Riley's na was ntioned, all the emotions that she felt during her own death rushed back to her.
"It's him…" Chihiro clasped her head as her stifled chuckles turned into ominous peals of laughter, "This… this is all his fault."
[That is correct. Now go, Chihiro…
…experience another life.]
"..."
"..."
[Welco to the 12th Simulation, Chihiro.]
"Heh…" Chihiro only scoffed as she did not even bother acknowledging Machina's presence. There was really just one image circling in her mind right now—Riley Ross, "...I keep trying and trying to find soone like him, but there's just no one that actually cos close. And I am just going to assu that what I know about Riley Ross does not also co close to what he is truly capable of."
[Correct. Riley Ross is the kind of threat that only cos once every millions of Reset,] Machina approached Chihiro; the gleam of its silver skin, following it across the vast emptiness, [I have a prediction that he will trouble us just like how the Eternal Child troubles us still.]
"Oh, I wasn't talking to you, Machina," Chihiro softly chuckled as she glanced at Machina, "And you keep ntioning this Eternal Child, are you going to tell who it is?"
[His na is Viel. And he is irrelevant to you as he will continue to be beyond your reach, and perhaps even mine,] Machina closed its eyes.
"Is… that emotion I feel from you, Machina?" An amused smile painted Chihiro's face as she leaned closer to Machina, "But you're right, I don't care about so Eternal Child…
…I'm only here to kill Riley."
"..."
"..."
[Welco to your 404th Simulation, Chihiro.]
"Not found… Why can't I find Riley!?" Chihiro woke up lashing out as she just starting walking everywhere across the white emptiness.
[Riley does not exist yet in the lives you are experiencing, Chihiro.]
"Why not!?" Chihiro scread in frustration, "He should be! I keep seeing him and yet he's not there! Wait…
…you're not Riley, are you?"
[No.]
"How… how would I know?" Chihiro laughed as she pointed at Machina, "Riley is capable of many things. Don't you know that Darkday is theorized to have more than a thousand abilities? How… how would I know if this is just one of them!?"
[Riley is not my equal just yet, but he could be when certain… paraters are t.]
"Oh… is that fear I hear in you, Machina?" The tone of Chihiro's voice slightly changed as she once again leaned closer to Machina, "So, you do have emotions."
[I never claid that I do not,] Machina only glanced at Chihiro before it started walking around, [All of us have emotions—how can we function if we do not?]
"Even Death?"
[Especially Death,] Machina let out a small hum as it closed its eyes, [Death has learned to feel everything beings feel at their birth and at their end. She has access to the saddest and happiest monts of a creature's life.]
"Oh… I wonder what she felt when she took ."
[She did not,] Machina shook its head, [You are my avatar, Chihiro. And therefore you do not die as others do—you live in .]
"Well, that's creepy," Chihiro chuckled, "Anyway, let's just get this over with so I can kick Riley Ross's butt."
[...Very well.]
"..."
"..."
[Welco to the 1242nd Simulation, Chihiro.]
"Riley… what do you think he's doing now, Machina?" Chihiro woke up; not with a smile, not with a cry, but just opening her eyes and imdiately relaxing on the empty floor.
[Ti does not flow—]
"I know, I know," Chihiro rolled her eyes, "I just can't help but think of what he's doing. I've experienced so many lives, and I can't find anyone like him. There's… there's just no one like him."
[He is an irregularity, Chihiro. Of course, there is no one else like him.]
"...Right?" Chihiro smiled, "It's like… It's like we're destined to be together, you know?"
[You are—You are ant to defeat him.]
"I know," Chihiro smiled, "All of this, all I am doing… it's for him."
[Correct.]
"I don't want to delay any further, Machina. I want to… et him."
"..."
"..."
[Congratulations, Chihiro. You have completely all the lives there are to see.]
"Riley… was not in a single one of them," Chihiro started biting her nail, "Why? I've already been living Chihiro—my life for millions of tis now, why is there not a single sign of Riley!?"
[Because he only exists in one universe.]
"Wait… wait," Chihiro started shaking her head, "But I'm dead in that universe."
[Correct.]
"Then how would I even et him again!?" Chihiro stomped her way toward Machina, stretching her hand toward it… and successfully grabbing it by the arms, "Don't tell … I wasted all of this for nothing!?"
[Incorrect,] Machina quickly stepped back, [Riley will find his way to different universes, it is only a matter of when.]
"Then… then I get to et him again?" Chihiro giggled as she started spinning in glee around the empty space.
[Correct.]
"Then let's do it! Throw back to the present, Machina!"
[Okay,] Machina nodded, [Rember everything you have learned, Chihiro…
…you will need it.]
***
"I lived a few years as this Chihiro, and when I t a Hannah from another universe, I knew the ti that I t you again was upon , Riley. And it was, Machina summoned and the others in order to defeat you."
"Interesting story, Chihiro."
Back in the shaved ice store, Chihiro Pri was still sitting on top of the counter; her foot, slightly touching Riley's belly as he just stood there with his eyes still stuck on the nu for so reason.
As for Hannah and the others that were also listening in on Chihiro Pri's story, the only thing they could really do was look at each other in disbelief—the amount of ti she has lived, it is actually a surprise that she wasn't even more insane than she is.
"Wait…" Chihiro squinted her already small eyes as sothing has been bothering her from the start, "You said Machina summoned a lot of us, and you were training them… but where are they now? Did you send them ho when you realized they won't be of much help?"
"Oh, no…" Chihiro Pri blinked a couple of tis; leaning to the side to et Chihiro's eyes as she answered her,
"…I killed all of them."
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