You were her friend.
Tuan Kirie had to laugh at those words. They had been a lot more than friends for a long time.
She'll listen to you.
No, she won't. And even if she would, how could Tuan speak up?
The red-haired girl was snapped out of her thought process by a voice.
Miach Mirie. The love of her life. Her first girlfriend. The girl she had thought dead for 13 years.
"...Until one day. With his hard flesh inside my body, and his cold steel inside my mouth, covered in my saliva, my consciousness awake-..."
The blue haired girl is cut off by the sound of steel hitting the wet floor. She hardly has time to turn around, before something crashes into her.
No. Not something. Even after 13 years, she still couldn't forget that warm embrace. The way the hands cradle her head and lower back. The arms around her waist and shoulders.
The tight grip that conveyed every urge Tuan had to protect her.
But, that's not what broke her. It wasn't the protective, yet gentle and loving embrace. It wasn't Tuan's presence.
It was the tears she could feel staining the shoulder of her dress.
Tuan was sobbing into her shoulder, as if she had been the one to experience the pain and abuse.
Miach...
...Felt guilty.
That's not right. The Harmony Program took her consciousness.
Right...?
'How could it have taken your soul, when your soul has always been with Tuan?' A voice in Miach's mind asked.
It was true. Tuan meant the world to Miach. She still does. If Tuan asked her to jump, her only question would be, "How high?"
Contrary to what people used to think, Tuan wasn't just some follower that Miach could discard. She was Miach's love. Her life. Her everything.
So, when she felt Tuan's tears, Miach's own joined soon after. She buries her face in the red hair of the girl she had so desperately missed the last 13 years, feeling Tuan reciprocate the action.
Neither of them spoke for a little while. Until finally, Tuan broke the silence.
"You didn't deserve that treatment. If I could've saved you from that pain, I would lay down my life to do so."
Red meets blue as the two girls' eyes locked.
"I would never ask that of you, Tuan. Life without you would've been more miserable than anything those officers did to me. You're truly the best part of this world."
Seeing Tuan's soft, teary smile made every single second of pain worth it in that moment. Miach's tears dry up, but Tuan's continue.
Miach lifts her hand, brushing away Tuan's tears softly, before leaning in to press a gentle kiss to her nose. She repeats the action in other spots. Tuan's cheeks, forehead, the corner of her mouth. Anywhere she could reach.
The tears stop falling from Tuan's eyes, and Miach kisses the final one from her cheek.
"I love you, Tuan."
"I love you too, Miach."
"I thought I knew what I wanted in this world. But, if the Harmony Program is turned on, we could lose what we have now-..."
Miach is cut off by Tuan's body tensing up. She immediately knows what's happening. The Harmony Program has been activated.
She is about to speak again. To try to stop the program, as if it would listen to her and not affect Tuan.
Before she could, however, Tuan relaxes. "Holy shit, that hurt. You had to go through that full process?"
Miach looks at Tuan in shock. "You... You still have your consciousness?"
"Of course. Without my soul, I can't love you. They're never taking that away."
"As sweet as that is, Tuan, I don't think that's how that works. Love does not stop your soul from being taken."
"Aww, c'mon, Miach. Can't you just let me sound super romantic and cool for once?" Tuan fake pouts.
Miach giggles quietly. "You're such a dork."
Tuan smiles. "I'm your dork. As for how my consciousness didn't get taken? I have no clue."
"Guess we can figure it out together, huh?" Miach asks. Tuan nods in agreement.
"Yeah. And we'll have all the time in the world to be together, from now on."
"Sounds perfect."
With that, the two girls began their new life together, in a world where they're the only ones with souls.