Yuruki POV
Yuruki successfully tied up the robot, smiling faintly and smirking as the bot shouted behind her.
"Hey!... Why are you risking so much after this?"
As she carefully assembled a makeshift gas mask, her hands moving quickly but methodically, she replied in a voice roughened by grit and fatigue, now muffled through the mask's filter, "I guess… I just want to meet someone."
"Why?! What do you even want to tell that person?" the robot's voice sounded more desperate now, its built-in emotions pushing it to grasp something, anything, to stop her.
Still covering her face, she replied through the scratchy, gas-masked tone, "I don't know… I just want to. I'll think about it. And if you think I'm selfish, I'm not… I choose what I want. And this is what I want."
There was a pause, then the robot spoke again, pleading now. "Take me with you."
"Nah." She smiled under the mask, her eyes soft with something close to amusement as she stepped into the smoke or gas, which piled thickly over the lake like rising mist from a dying world.
The water was clogged with trash, plastics, and metallic scraps floating like ghosts. She stepped out of the boat carefully, pushing it out as she moved forward into the unknown.
"Hey! Untie me first!" the robot shouted as the boat, now freed, began drifting away, the current pulling it farther and farther until it could no longer be reached.
"Sorry. You might stop me," she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.
Structures coated with moss surrounded her. She took some antifungal pills and continued walking forward.
Adam's Group – Morning
It was morning when Adam finally managed to finish following the blueprints Rehan had given him. Yoku's hands were finally functional. He could now open and close his palms automatically, each twitch of his muscle controlling the prosthetics as if they were truly his own.
Adam exhaled deeply and sat down, clapping once as Yoku smiled.
"Finally."
Yoku looked down, slowly opening and closing his prosthetic fingers, appreciation brimming in his eyes.
"So, Adam… I won't be so useless anymore, right? You don't have to help me anymore…"
"When did I ever think of you as useless?" Adam replied, smiling warmly.
Yoku was happy. Happy that he could now use his magic again, happy he could return to inventions. But more than that, happy that Yoku could feel useful, even though, to Adam, his presence had always been enough.
Why does everyone always want to contribute? Being with them is already good enough…
Later…
I walked alone down the hallway. A thunderous roar outside made me jump, heart leaping in my chest. It continued to rumble—deafening. Rain battered against the windows of the massive hallway of mirrors. Dirt and debris moved with the wind, and brown water flowed just outside.
It felt like I was walking through a rich man's abandoned mansion. The room I entered was vast, almost sacred. Sculptures stood tall—statues of people, all of them… naked.
-_- I flushed slightly, embarrassed. Why would humans even create this? It felt uncanny. Weird.
I sighed, the memory of the massive sanctuary buildings from the stratum where Yuruki had once stood washing over me. Humans… always shaping creation.
A human always creating something that doesn't exist—information, form, thought.
I moved carefully past the marbled floors and statues, taking care not to tarnish anything. These were new—well not new like a month old, but years
Further inside, I saw old paintings: trees, grass, life. I felt like I was there. It had been so long since I had seen anything like this. Just like the sanctuary room Yuruki came from.
More paintings lined the walls—circles, shapes, strange dots, holographs. Even a pitch-black canvas. It reminded me of my old world, where something as ordinary as a banana could be worth so much… just because someone painted it.
It's a banana! It rots. It turns to dust. And somehow, its worth becomes eternal because a human painted it and called it "art." Through intersubjectivity and all that nonsense…
The Painting Room
Then I saw Mino, sitting and coughing lightly, a smile on her face. Kineki was next to her, watching Trosterin as he painted a vivid, dreamlike landscape. Yuri clapped lightly, cheerful, as she added her own strokes.
"Now, the purpose of this painting," Yuri said, "is to entail thought—your emotions and ideas—to show it to the world."
Mino looked up and lit up when she saw me.
"Adam! Come join us!"
I walked closer, still unsure. "I'm just confused… I don't like painting. I don't like making… confusion. And you," I pointed at Trosterin, "you can somehow sit there for hours, creating something that feels useless to me…"
Yuri sighed. "Adam… it's not useless. We just have different ideals, that's all."
Trosterin just smiled, though he was sweating a little, clearly feeling the sting of my words. His husband had always encouraged her art.
Mino frowned. "Now, what have you done, Adam! Say sorry."
"Ehh… I—sigh. I'm sorry."
I just didn't understand...
She smiled again. "Well then… how about we all create something together? Maybe then you'll know the joy of painting."
The Great Canvas
We carried in a large paint canvas—towering bigger than a house, a great white rectangle of possibilities.
Kineki already had tons of tools and colors, haggling with himself like a merchant of chaos.
"3… 2… 1… Go!"
For hours, the kids painted a bizarre mural—strange people, geometric shapes, long-limbed head people with head of a rectangles. I sighed and started with a simple sun, but then Mino turned it into an eye or a shooting lasers.
"Hey!" I protested.
Kineki added shading and swirling lines, while Yuri painted gently, precise and perfect—after all, she was a robot and could draw anything flawlessly.
I focused on drawing a single building. Kineki painted circles, then added circle eyes near the bottom of the canvas. Mino painted wildly beside him.
When it was finally finished… it was something. Random. Strange. Beautiful. There were faces, structures, weird forms all thrown together like a visual puzzle.
Trosterin stepped back and smiled. "Well, that's… abstract. I think it can go in the museum. And Adam, you should be proud. Paintings like this can last for centuries. People will look at it and think about your creation."
Oh, please don't. I'd rather not. I imagined two girls in the future riding a Kettenkrad, staring at our painting—and felt a second-hand embarrassment from a future that hadn't happened yet.
Yuri clapped. "Okay, that's it. Let's wash ourselves!"
We laughed, running to the washroom, water splashing everywhere. Bubbles flew into the air as we squirted paint off our arms and chased each other around.
It was… truly fun.
Wait! ugh this is embarrasing im becoming a kid again
Kineki having a cockroach... running to mino trying to scare her
Mino screaming, trying to hide her pain, "Get that away from me!!!"