Chapter 148: Inside Memories

It was dark…

Suffocatingly dark…

Yuki stood alone in the void, her pink hair hanging limp and dull around her shoulders. There was nothing here… no walls or floor that she could see. Just endless black stretching in every direction, pressing against her mind.

Despite all that her expression remained almost perfect… the expression that she had worn from childhood, the one which was forced on her before she learned about anything else.

It was almost perfect.

… But not quite. Her brows were creased ever so slightly, there was a tiny furrow that betrayed her chance at hiding the exhaustion.

Her Her jaw was set with tension that made her teeth ache. And behind her pink eyes, there lingered something that hadn’t been there before this nightmare began.

Sadness.

She looked around slowly, searching for something in the darkness. But there was nothing. Just like the last time. And the time before that. And the hundred times before that.

How many times had the scene changed now? How many different hells had her brother forced her to experience?

Yuki had lost count.

She tried to fight her brother out of rage after he killed their parent in front of her. But at the end she couldn’t even touch him… instead she was trapped here experiencing the death of her old mother again and again.

She was tired… she was so tired now.

Not physically—whatever this place was, it didn’t seem to affect her body in reality.

Her legs trembled slightly.

Yuki sank to her knees. She drew her legs close to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, making herself as small as possible. Her head lowered until her forehead rested on her knees.

Yuki finally thought that it was enough and it was okay to give up… so, she whispered the words she’d been holding back for what felt like an eternity.

“Please… no more…”

Her voice was barely audible.

“Please…”

But instead of granting her so called wish… the void changed once again. Light bled in from everywhere. The black faded to grey, then to white.

Shapes materialized from nothing, solidifying into walls and floor.

’Here we go again,’ Yuki thought with grim resignation, slowly lifting her head.

The scene had changed. Just like it had changed far too many times to count.

This time… Yuki found herself in a pristine white room. The walls were pure white… the floor too was white. everything was spotless and sterile, like a hospital or laboratory.

She stood slowly, her pink hair shifted with the motion, but the color seemed duller than usual—as if even her hair was exhausted by whatever torment this would bring.

Behind her, she heard soft breathing.

Yuki turned.

There was a single bed in the room… more accurately It was a high tech machine turned into a bed. It was laden with white sheets and positioned near the only window.

And on that bed sat a woman.

The woman’s skin was as pale as moonlight—so pale it seemed almost luminous in the white room. Long snow-white hair fell down over her shoulders in elegant waves, reaching nearly to her waist. She wore a long white gown that matched everything else in this colorless space.

The woman was looking out the window, her posture relaxed, a gentle smile on her lips.

Yuki’s breath caught.

She stared at the woman’s back, at the white hair and the delicate shoulders. Something about the figure was familiar.

She moved closer, her steps hesitant. Her heart had begun to pound in a way it hadn’t for a long time—not from fear, but from something else. Something that hurt worse than fear.

Hope.

Yuki approached the window and looked out.

There was a flying drone outside, hovering just beyond the glass. It was projecting a holographic image—a large screen displaying a man’s face.

The man was maybe in his fifties. He had receding hairlines that left only wisps of black hair mixed with streaks of white across his scalp. His face was weathered but dignified, carrying the weight of authority in every wrinkle.

Yuki’s expression softened instantly.

’Father…’

The man was speaking, his voice muffled through the window but audible. He was giving some kind of speech that he’d given countless times throughout his life.

The kind of speech he gave as the man who ruled the entire country from the shadows.

The Koyo clan’s patriarch. The real power behind Neo-Tokyo’s throne. The man who’d never officially held a title but controlled everything that mattered.

Yuki’s father.

As she watched, the old man finished his speech with a formal bow. The image flickered, transitioning to someone else.

And Yuki’s heart clenched.

The new image showed a young man—maybe fourteen or fifteen years old. He was handsome, beautiful even, with features that seemed almost too perfect.

Long pink hair cascaded down past his shoulders, matching Yuki’s own color exactly.

’Brother…’

It was her older brother, Renji.

It was her first time seeing her brother at such young age… He had always been an adult as far as she remembered because of the 15 year age gap between them.

He began to speak, his voice was clear and confident even at that young age. Giving some kind of presentation or speech. He always had been good at that. Good at saying the right things and making people believe in him.

And as Renji spoke, something changed.

The smile on the face of the woman brightened up, as she leaned closer to the window and her pale hands reaching up to press against the glass as if she could touch the holographic image.

And then she wiped tears from her eyes.

A mother watching her son succeed. Overcome with emotion at seeing him achieve something great.

Yuki stood frozen, watching this scene unfold.

The lady on the bed… the woman with snow-white hair and moonlight skin…

Was none other than her mother. But she was very different from what Yuki had knew and had always believed.

Then suddenly the door on the other side of the room clicked open… Yuki naturally tensed and took a step away from the bed.

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