── 𝆹 🖍️🫧. ˚

He had watched her disappear before his very eyes. The last one to stay disappeared just as he thought he had one person left.

Darkness originating from Purgatory had swallowed the now angel whole, white, divine wings tainted with red sprouted from her radiating halo shone the love of God had crowned her sage wings rest atop her head. Her divine aura dissolved into the dark just as fast it lit up.

She had noticed his tired and somber gaze through the lily that had sprouted through her right eyesocket. Sage sclera and its comforting white eye opened itself to look into Yuki's for the first time. "One more time, I'll be fine. For in 3 days, I will rise again..."

Now standing alone in what used to be the angel's greenhouse full of lilies that danced in the angel's light, had it become a symbol of what was lost or what will come? Three days alone and somber, drowning in the silent lilies and wilted roses.

On the first day, he had prepared the greenhouse well for the angel's return. Her abode had almost grown lively again had it still had that silence it shown him, it would've shone the same way it did when the angel tended to them. He returned home with a new plan in mind beofre returning the next day.

On the second day, he tended to the lilied again before he moved some of his stuff into a corner of her greenhouse featuring a daybed which he had claimed as his own bed and desk — it seemed like it was left unused for some time anyway. Yuki was hesitant to start his inventing work in her greenhouse — he needed her permission first.

On the third day, Yuki prepared some of the angel's favorite food and snacks to the best of his abilities, recalling when he saw Ayumi making Columbina's favorite foods and trying to replicate her actions. Lemon green tea, sourdough avocado toast with cream cheese, slices of keylime pie. All he needed to do was await the angel's return.

—

A river and forest away stood the human image of the angel Yuki awaited amidst the lily field she awoke it ten times prior to the last time she ever would. Her sight had been cut in half by the twin lilies sprouting out of her left eye socket. Looking at herself with her lone left eye, she had noticed some stark differences in her own appearance.

Her hair has been shorter by the swipe of a divine sword with a part longer that had been a part of her braid at the time, now blonde and a dyed cherry red. Her eyes had turned into a sage green with a white sclera this time, and her arms saw no cherry red. She hesitantly opened her eyes to be met with a peaceful lily field free of decaying dust or a vision of a wasteland to come. Nothing decayed when she looked at it, nor did it turn into stone when she touched it... is this what it feels like to be human?

Her gentle steps made sure to not step on and crush any lily as she stepped into the forest and later crossed the river, her eye looking around in newfound curiosity, in awe ate everything she has yet to see in her time as a Virtue. Her eye laid on her greenhouse, oddly lively than the silence and sorrow she expected from her greenhouse since she had left.

Noticing the clothesline with her elegant cottagecore-like garments and dresses, she assumes someone must've taken care of her greenhouse while she was away, and her stuff apparently. Tilting her head at the curious thought, the angel smiled to herself as she knew who the culprit was.

Entering the backdoor of her greenhouse, she stepped foot into her lonely abode to be greeted by her favorite food when she turned to her desk as she wandered around. Looking just about next to her, her pale eye spotted Yuki. She could spot his jet black hair could easily be spotted from a mile away. He seemed to be busy tending to her lilies. He must've cared enough to do so...

Continuing to look around, her eye laid on his stuff settled around her daybed, her laughter echoed silently across the glass of her lonely abode. Looks like he moved himself in into her greenhouse.

Hearing the sudden gentle laughter of the angel he awaited, he turned his head and was met with Nina, albeit not looking at him but rather the daybed

As she turned to investigate his items and the daybed situation further, she felt arms wrap around her shoulder area in a mix of comfort of her presence and desperation for her to stay, a comforting backhug. He noticed a gentle smile tug at her lips as her arms moved in front of his elegantly. Her mannerisms never changed.

His tired eyes lay upon the lily angel's now short hair as he notices that something must've changed. Her hair was noticeably shorter — and her hair color looked human. The lilies growing out of her head was ominous but it soon felt like home after spending a few days in her abode.

Moving to pet her blonde-cherry red hair gently, she was the only thing he had left. He wasn't going to let her go. A few moments of silence passed were spent in comfort and silent happiness until the inventor spoke up just as the angel turned her head to her computer nearby.

"You can finish your game tomorrow, what you need right now is a week of rest and time for yourself.", he told her as he turned her around to face him, Yuki letting go of Nina. His hands moved to touch the twin lilies sprouting out of her right eye socket gently in curiosity that he easily hid. His eyes count easily spot a spark of joy and relief in her eye as a soft smile donned her lips. Nodding quietly, she chuckled to herself before moving to the daybed and laying her head on it, body laying on the surrounding grass. She sees him sit beside her just as she closes her eye.

The inventor sat beside her as he pat her head gently, noting from a while ago that her best friend did this and she seemed to enjoy it or be comforted by it. Nina opened her eye and gazed into his before she clearly nodded — was it permission that he could continue his work as an inventor here or was it confirmation that she was now okay and safe?

He doesn't care, because to him, it means both.

Pure and reborn white lily, renewed and buried into new and fresh soil. Blood wiped and watered away, soft showers of fresh water purifying the somber lily.

The lily imitated its own reflection in the mirror. The mirror lily was watered with fresh water from the springs of happiness — the pure lily was watered with tears of the lonesome angel.

Born on the divine soil sat atop the mirror lily, pure and rebirth. In the mirror it stood, a sinless, perfect version of the pure lily.

It stares into the mirror reflection as the mirror lily was burned by the abyss of fate.

The Final Judgement Day is a daunting shadow that looms over all creations of God.

The day that determines your fate in the afterlife, suffering or divinity.

"Stay with me. I can't see anywhere that we could go. "

Your answer was laughter, as darkness swallowed you whole.

"You'll be fine. You've already gone through the hard part."

"If anything, death is the most beautiful thing to someone who suffers purgatory. In three days, you will rise again as a new mirror."

The mirror maiden faded into darkness as a new mirror awoke in the same lily field it once was created in. The lilies are more silent than normal.

The pure lily swallows the soul's window whole with its vines, the bud blooming in the socket of what was once a curse bestowed as divine judgement. The vines convey emotion, an allegory for the tears of a fallen angel. The reminder of her past sins and her rebirth.

Admist the lily field, the new mirror found the mirror maiden's path and followed the footsteps once left and buried into the dirt. Nothing was familiar, but everything felt nostalgic. This has definitely happened before — not with her, but the mirror maiden.

The mirror maiden used to adore these pure flowers so much. Purity and rebirth, as pure as a white lily. Reborn amongst the flowers she adored so much.

But it felt saddening.

If it the mirror maiden never fell, would she shine as bright as the mirror of the sky? Would her reflection adorn the world and bask in her reflected light?

The new maiden waltzed into the somber forest. Dark and sorrowful, pure and lonely. As if darkness has swallowed it whole...

One more time. I'll be fine.

I can still hear her pure laughter. Sinless perfection, fallen and weak. A perfect wilted flower. Your beauty never scared me.

Repent, for blood rains from the skies. Purified will be the white lily in the mirror, and the shattered glass will return to the sands of God. On the day the pure lily drowns in the blood of the Mirror Maiden it once adored and whose light it once based in.

The caretaker of the balance has finally fallen and shattered into little, unsolved pieces, fragments of her purity and perfection sprinkled across the world as blessings and miracles. For the first time in eons, a new flower blooms on the tree where everything came. A pure white lily, the embodiment of purity and rebirth. Fertile with innocence, the scale of the split universe gazed somberly at the new lily.

A reminder of what one has lost, a beautiful but tragic representation of the falling of the scale's most adored angel. The most important angel in the split universe. Amongst the few flowers that was painted in sorrow and repentance sat the pure lily, pure of sin and drowned in fertile rebirth. Repentance in the rain of the Mirror Maiden's blood.

New eyes laid upon the aether's tree, contrary and distinctly aloof was the gaze of the distant mirror as he gazed on the pure lily, sat on the tree upon him. The distant mirror didn't want the llily to drown in blood, just like the rose.

The scale saw his eyes on the pure lily, eyes reflected desparation to keep the lily alive no matter how long it took.

Its tears fell as the lily's yellowed and bloody petals were blew in the wind, the rustling of the divibe tree filling the air.

You're too late. I'm afraid the flower's already dead.

For the lily had drowned in the blood of the Mirror Maiden eons ago.

On the other side of the world lies the new mirror. Amongst the field of white lilies rained the blood rain foretold by the Mirror Maiden, a wilted mirrored lily reflected into their eye as they shakily a mirror. But not every lily had the mirror lily's reflection. The held mirror faced a white lily, the mirror lily reflecting back onto the new mirror's eye.

Tears fill the new mirror's eye as the blood rain soaks the lilies. Looking up and crying its tears freely, the mirror falls onto the lily field as the blood stains the purity of the white lilies.

The mirror maiden depicts the new mirror reaching out to their face, wiping off what they had thought was tears.

...Had blood always been dripping out of the lily on their eye socket or was it from the rain?

Afternoon approaches one day within the lonesome lily's greenhouse, and Nina prepared to head to bed — she sleeps in the afternoon in order to stay productive in the night.

Luckily a certain scientist mechanic-boy-man wasn't on the daybed that day — busy roaming around the greenhouse, seemingly looking for something.

An alarm blares out Nina's ringtone, '12 AM — Sleep', marking the end the lonesome angel's morning working period. Nina looks at the daybed, expecting to see a tired Yuki working on an experiment or a mechanism, but instead seeing a surprisingly clean daybed for once. No small burns in the bedsheet... no mechanical oil stains... no electricity marks whatsoever... no mechanism or experiment near or on day bed... Did he clean her daybed? Did he clean it when Nina was working away in the morning? Speaking of Yuki, where is he?

It's like the universe was listening to Nina's thoughts — water started pouring on her head.

Nina jolted at the cold water she used to water her lilies not so long ago, stunlocked as her hair began going limp and losing its curl due to the flowing water, her wings flapping vigorously as it tries to dry itself under the water pouring down onto her. With a disgusting mixed feeling of her wet mesh and cotton stockings and green tights and gloves, she looks up, only to get water all over her face.

Nina then looks behind her, splitting her hair and wiping her face with her wet gloved hands to see... Yuki.

Turns out, Yuki had seen Nina working away under the White Wisteria tree of her greenhouse, and had figured out there were a bundle of two to three white lilies behind her head connecting the two wings hugging her head. He was looking for a watering can — which he held at that very moment and had intended to use to water said flowers.

"... Wha, huh?"

Yuki replies with a straight face, "Yeah, I don't want them to die.", continuing to pour water onto Nina's head.

Nina stared into his eyes as Yuki continued to water Nina.

Minutes into the "watering session", Nina turned her head back to face the White Wisteria tree, letting him water her white lilies.

Little did Nina know, a small smile had creeped onto Yuki's face. He just didn't want her to wilt away like her flowers might. He's known her long enough to piece together observations that those lilies mirrored what Nina was feeling at the moment. The fact that they were wilting meant Nina was pretty under the weather.

Anything to make her happy, Ayumi would like him doing this...

And thus, they were like this for about an hour until the watering can ran out of water.

Nina was secretly a bit upset because her sleeping schedule was ruined, and she had to change and take a bath in her river (that's normal for her i swear), but the lilies seemed to enjoy Yuki's little gig.

Yuki left on his own accord for a bit while Nina was bathing because he wanted to give a lady her privacy.

After Nina had informed Yuki he could come back inside, Yuki noticed the flowers on her head had appeared more alive.

After Nina dried her hair, she slept on the daybed soundly, lilies facing Yuki as he sat across the daybed, doing his own business. Occasionally he'd glance at the sleeping angel, noticing the lilies looked happier and more alive.

A small but genuine smile crept onto his lips knowing that he's completed his own little agenda — he's made her day brighter, less lonesome and sorrowful.

For at the river behind the angel's greenhouse which Nina had been bathing at, a smile bloomed onto her face. It made her happy knowing he cared for her enough to care for the lilies, and her.

What could she do to repay him?

(And no, Yuki was not watching her sleep.)

bonus!!; Later that night as Yuki made his way to the now empty daybed (spendind the night at the angel's greenhouse, practically his second home), he could smell a familiar aroma of coffee.

For on the bed sat a wooden serving tray with his favorite cup of coffee with a note.

"Thank you <3

- Nina"

She didn't need to repay him, but she did.

Smiling at the cup of coffee before making his way to the moth woman's desk, he could see her coding, stressed but coding.

Yuki moved his hand onto her head to give Nina headpats, "You didn't need to repay me, Nina." As Nina turned around to smile at him through tired eyes, Yuki smiles back at her before making his way to the kitchen.

Not that long after, Yuki returned to Nina's desk with a cup of lemon green tea and goldfish crackers in a small bowl — what he knows to be her favorites (because ayumi told him before she left).

Nina takes the serving tray and smiles a genuine smile to him, the lilies seeming to turn lively and bloom again. A happy lily scent filled the greenhouse rapidly as Nina's voice muttered, "You know my favorite snacks...? Ahaha, thank you..."

For the rest of the night, both were smiling as their backs turned eachother. For once, a day was filled with happiness and joy.

Dozens and dozens of lit candles silently flickered in the lonely greenhouse sitting just outside of town. The scent of lilies were undoubtedly recognizable, Yuki knew who lived here — it was that prominent.

Remember the ringing of her laughter that once radiated in these walls, the lilies would dance so happily that day. Remember when Bina would sleep soundly into the afternoon as Ayumi baked away into the day, she'd awake from such a deep sleep. Remember when the desk where Ayumi once worked her baking magic weren't filled with candles. In hopes that her sorrowful messages would reach her someday somehow, but what hope? What hope is there to hold onto anymore? It's as if everything was ripped away from her.

Nina worked into the night, drawing cutscene after cutscene as she rambled softly to a flickering candle sat idly next to her, decorated with a pink bow and a cutout of a black goo-like monster under it, stained with wax. Maybe if I talked to this candle enough, it would reach her. Wherever she was... Was there even a "she"?

Was there a time when I was truly happy? The lilies were always so silent and limp when it was only Bina in her greenhouse. It was saddening, to say the least — even the Tree of Tranquility looked uneasy and lonely when faced with the lonesome angel's presence.

The lilies appeared bittersweet, happier than the normal wilting sorrow, but still as sad as ever — because the angel wasn't alone today. Albeit asleep, an aloof scientist worked on one of his smaller creations a bit distantly on her greenhouse's daybed in the lonesome angel's daybed not as far from Nina's desk.

The ambience of his mechanical (and scientific!) work in the distance masked with the candles' fire flickering and Bina's drawing pad against her digital pencil were the only ones that were heard. Until an alarm on Nina's phone went off. '12 AM — Break'.

Yuki turned to look at Nina's direction briefly, before turning back to his little creation. The sound of her footsteps waving against the soft grass of her greenhouse echoed silently in the silent greenhouse, accompanied by the ruffling of trees swayed by the evening breeze and Yuki's mechanical ambience.

As she walked to the kitchen and sat idly to make herself a cup of lemon green tea, the nightly winds blew a neatly written note off the coffee maker atop Nina's countertops across a exposed wall made of bricks with a lily's cage-like design holed out. Nina looks down as she catches the note with her two fingers, seeing the pink ribbon as her gaze softens. She reads the lily scented note (which just happens to about every note and paper that Nina keeps), detailing how to make Yuki's favorite coffee and when to make it for him, one of the last things Ayumi left Nina in her greenhouse before she disappeared.

Nina looked behind her to Yuki, working tirelessly on whatever thing he was working on, and back to the note. Stepping out of the kitchen after finishing her tea rather quickly, she could hardly listen to whatever he had to say to her when she sat beside him on the greenhouse daybed. Yuki looked at Nina, and she looked at him in his eyes, cherry red eyes swirled with vanilla seeming to swirl mysteriously with a divine aura, as if she was reading his soul. She could see it in his eyes (and read it from his soul) — that tiredness her sunstorm mentioned in the note blew by the night wind.

"Don't stay awake for too long. It'll mess with your head." The lonesome angel smiled distantly as she spoke to him. Her tone sounded distant and aloof, but as soft-spoken and vaguely sophisticated, similar to how she used to be. "I'll make you a cup of coffee for your head..." Nina stood up before Yuki could say a word, her hand stopping him and she caressed the back of his shoulder comfortingly, "...and I promise one day we'll be fine once more."

Nina stood up with the intention of heading to her kitchen, before turning to him and smiling softly. "I don't know how long I'll stay with you, but we'll be fine in the end. I... can't guarantee that but the hope is there, and if you just trust me and be patient, I'll make it happen for you." She assured him one last time before stretching out her hand to help him up, black mesh gloves ruffled from constant arm movement and white opera gloves (under black mesh gloves) folded down to her wrist, the other wrist on her hip, covered with a high green glove adorned with white vines. Placing his work softly on the ground along with his tools on the soft grass sat under the daybed, Yuki takes Nina's hand and stands up before turning around and dusting off the bed a bit before laying down on the daybed, muttering an apology for ruining her daybed's sheets by burning the cloth with the flying flashes of electricity he used.

The lilies looked so sad today, it wasn't like this when Ayumi and Cal were till around.

Even the lilies attached to the back of Nina's "headpiece" looked like they were about to wilt and drown in their own sorrow at any moment.

His eyes continued to follow the elegant moth lady, his eyes picking up some details that weren't there in the past. Her wing-like mechanism was gone — he always silently respected and commended her in awe for it, sometimes asking how she made her wings-like mechanism when she'd watch him work in the past briefly. Her hair was shorter — the longer part of her hair was gone, and her hair color was more natural-looking. It used to be pure white, platinum silver even, tainted with an ever growing bright cherry red at the very ends. Now it was a more natural vanilla blonde-like color with a duller cherry red at the ends of her short hair. The cherry red gradient taints on her limbs were gone, it was normal and skin-colored, as if it was never there. She used to always have this soft and graceful smile on her lips, recalling to recent events, she hardly ever smiles that happily anymore. It always looks so sad and even a bit forced. Looking at her now, things have changed...

Almost everything they had was gone, and we too have changed.

So much.

It's only us two left.

Nina came back with a cup of his favorite coffee about five minutes later, the smell oh-so familiar, and another cup of lemon green tea for herself. Yuki takes a sip, and as he glances up to look at Nina again, gloves and white lily dress stained with drops of the coffee used in his cup of cofee, the coffee hits his tastebuds and nostalgia kicks in. Memories flashing back to when Ayumi used to make it for him when she noticed he looked so tired, 'How did you get the recipe?'

Nina replied to him, with that soft and bittersweet smile on her lips, "Babu gave me the recipe with detailed steps." She smoothes her white lily dress down under her as she sits down beside him. "I thought I'd make it for you. You looked very tired..." The two spent the night in bittersweet silence, basking in each other's presence. "Remember to sleep later, it's not good for you to stay up for long periods of time... and I do care about you..."

As time passed in bittersweet silence, the sun rose in no time, and the coffee was finished. Nina noticed that, and once Yuki looked at her, she looked at him. She could read his soul, "Do you want more?"

Not even having any time to say anything, Nina stood up and took the cup gently with a soft and caring smile, knowing the answer already. As she walked into the kitchen, he layed back down. So much has changed, is the lonesome angel whose making him his favorite coffee that looks like she's holding onto whatever hope there is left that she can still find happiness the same moth woman that used to teach at that kinetic magic school her sister used to own? The same moth woman who was always so elegant and graceful with every little move and action?

Wait... Speaking (or rather, thinking?) of her sister, where are they?

Curiosity grew the better of him once he returned, asking Nina after she returned with his second cup of coffee, where Meloco and Valedion were.

He could see the angel's wings start to limp, drown in her ocean of sorrow she'd been hiding. Almost all the candles have been put out by the nightly wind, the scent of lilies more prominent than ever, as if to mask her sorrow and distract him from her sadness. He could see her eyes dim in sorrow as she stayed silent. "They're gone, aren't they?" He asked, guessing correctly just by her looks.

"Just like them..."

It made more sense that they've grown closer than before. The daybed was even claimed by him since he came over so much after he found out she was still alive. He thought she was gone too — it was relieving to know that he still had someone left that he was close to. If you can even call it that.

Her greenhouse felt like a second home almost, all his recent experiments were made or first thought of here. Maybe because Ayumi's scent can still be found here very vaguely, even some of Ayumi's more unimportant and most precious belongings were left here. He even pitched the idea of moving his small workshop-laboratory place here or near her greenhouse for "easy access".

"I'm glad I still have you here. It's nice to know I'm not alone after all." Yuki told her softly amidst Nina's silence. Nina nodded and smiled once more, her wings returning to their previous position around her head, Yuki giving Nina a gentle (and to him, embarrassing) headpat. Seeing Ayumi do that certain action when Bina was down, maybe doing it now could calm her down now... and he was right! As silence reigned once more, Nina spoke her thoughts to him, "You know, you remind me a lot of my older brother."

He looked up to her in as he finished his cup of coffee. 'Valedion? I remind you of him?'

"You care for me similar to how he used to care for me. You're like my older brother." Nina laughed softly after she finished, Yuki's lips curling to a barely noticable smile — undetected by Nina and hidden by another sip of coffee.

Of course he'd care for Ayumi's only friend. The last thing he has other than his creations and himself.

He looks forward to seeing Ayumi's smile once he tells her he's been taking care of Bina since her and Cal's absence. He can hear her happy laughter already...