The picnic area rested near the edge of the artificial sea, where pale sunlight from the dome ceiling shimmered across the water like fractured glass. Soft mechanical humming echoed in the distance as maintenance drones drifted silently overhead.
Yuruki sat on the blanket with her legs crossed, carefully tying knots through soft cotton strands produced by automated fabricators nearby. Small bundles of processed animal fiber floated down conveyor arms before being neatly sorted by AI-controlled machines.
Adam tried his best to follow along.
Unfortunately, the only thing he managed to create was a lopsided black cotton ball.
"…This looks terrible."
He stared at it in defeat.
Across from him, Yuruki quietly held up several finished plushies with visible pride.
Berto the cat.
Kineki.
Mino.
And Yuko.
Each one was stitched with surprising care, their tiny features uneven yet strangely alive.
Adam carefully took them into his hands.
For a moment, his expression softened.
Melancholy settled quietly in his chest, mixed with nostalgia so deep it almost hurt.
It felt like holding fragments of distant memories.
Yuruki noticed his expression but said nothing.
Instead, she adjusted herself on the blanket as a delivery robot approached from behind, carrying a polished acoustic guitar inside its storage compartment. The machine extended it toward her politely.
Adam blinked.
"Wait… you know how to play guitar?"
Yuruki smirked proudly and gave a small thumbs-up.
"Of course. The knowledge I learned in the past is still here."
She rested the guitar gently against herself and tested the strings.
A soft chord drifted into the artificial wind.
Then another.
Time passed strangely after that.
Or perhaps… it stopped entirely.
The distant city noises faded.
The moving structures, the machines, the endless systems of civilization—all of it became background static.
Yuruki looked down at the guitar quietly as her fingers moved across the strings.
And then she began to sing.
Her voice was flowing, soft as ever can be...
"Yet there's something deep inside"
" That leaves me teary-eyed"
"A longing for a world"
"Left on the other side"
"Across the great divide"
...
"So...Can we... Wander for a spell"
"Living in parralel"
"I wanted it to be true, to be with you"
"But it seems a chorus out of tuned... But there is nothing could conceal the things that I loved."
"A senseless devotion, drive and attention..."
"But when I think of these principles as they are, I am greeted with a senseless logic in my head"
"Oh undefined I seem to be defeated... Oh what a sublime"
"But knot inside my logic in my head, I'll trace it to the end... Tie my tongue and follow love instead?"
"I could leave it at shelf or keep it to myself, but nothing could conceal the things I loved... Can you let me by your side forever?"
"Through I tried I can't reply, it hurts in an endless world's"
"Cause we wandered in parralel, loving for a spell, I'll give you my grand reveal!"
"Can you feel the things I feel? It is definite and real... As long as your alive I will always be in love"