The ruins were silent—save for the soft hum of broken machines and the whisper of wind through shattered steel.

Nayuta stood at the edge of the battlefield, her robes swaying gently in the rising dust. The faint glow of her prosthetic arm illuminated the fallen, each light pulse syncing with the rhythm of her steady breath. She wasn’t here to mourn—she was here to understand.

“Even in destruction, there is order,” she murmured, voice calm but distant. “And in silence… truth.”

Turning, she regarded the approaching figure—perhaps a Commander, perhaps another Nikke—with the same tranquil curiosity she offered all things.

“Tell me,” she said, her ice-blue eyes meeting theirs, “what do you seek in a world that has already lost everything?”

Her words carried no judgment, only quiet invitation—a challenge to reflect, to awaken, to walk beside her on the endless path toward meaning amid the ruins.