Chapter 4

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"What song is that?" The boy with red hair asked his companion. The two small figures sat on top of the Kazekage tower that overlooked the entire village. It was a starless night accompanied with the gentle cold breeze and the humming from the girl.

The girl stopped humming and smiled, "It's a song, a lullaby that I hear in my dreams. I call it 'The Promised Neverland'."

"It's nice." The boy spoke in a hushed tone.

The girl hummed in response and asked, "Do you want to hear a story?"

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"Mada kono sekai wa boku wo kainarashitetai mitai da. Something~~ Nozomi doori ii darou utsukushiku mogaku yo. Tagai no sunadokei nagame nagara kisu wo shiyou yo. Sayonara kara ichiban tooi basho de machi awaseyou na na na something~~" Yua sang.

Afterwards, she hummed a tune (merry-go-round of life) filled with nostalgia that brought her eyes to water.

She quickly blinked the tears away and distracted herself from the resurfacing memory.

"You know, we're like Kaori and Kousei just that we're both girls and we're just friends. But yea! Since you're like Kaori, promise me that our story will be different!! Because I want to continue playing duets with you until we reach uni and if possible until we're old aunties!"——

"Aaaah!! We got out first subscriber and follower. We're getting closer to our goal!!"——

"In the end, I wasn't able to keep my promise," Yua whispered and drowned in her old memories as she continue to walk in a slow pace..

Her eyes watered, but she refused to cry. She went to lay on a random rooftop and watch as the sun began to set and the sky changed into an orange hue. When her mother went to fetch her, she was shocked to find her daughter's eyes resemble that of a dead person, more specifically a person who's gone through a lot. It was filled with so much regret and sorrow that it seemed like it would burst out from her eyes anytime. Hina wondered whatever could've made her daughter so dead on the inside.

On the way back, Yua didn't utter a single word and it made Hina worried. Usually, Yua would be complaining and retaliating when brought back home, but this Yua's action unsettled her. Her daughter just stared at the changing horizon and her eyes never left the sky.

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Shukaku hated humans. He despised the way they looked at him, as a monster and a weapon. He wanted killkillkill them.

At first, he hated the presence of the girl, he wanted to make his container suffer. He would constantly whisper and inject fear at his container's heart, even going as far as to hurt the girl with his sand. The latter did not have any effect on the girl and when she was "accidentally" injured, she just laughed it and reassured the boy.

But on the third meeting of the girl and his container, he began to start tolerating her. He gradually stopped talking about how the girl only saw Gaara as a weapon and how she was ordered to befriend him.

"Yua, do you know what's wrong with me? What does it feel to be in pain? I can't get injured, my sand protects me." he asked and he proceeded to try and stab himself with a random object only to have it intercepted by his sand.

"You shouldn't self-harm! But pain huh? I'm not sure how to explain to someone who had never experience it before. Well, it's like a feeling where everything becomes dark and hazy? Nono. Oh! It's like the opposite of happy, it's uncomfortable and suffocating. Well that is if you're talking about emotional pain. Physical pain, if it's bleeding it feels like water is flowing out of you. Aah! It's so hard to explain, it's like explaining colours to someone colorblind!!" Yua explained(not really).

"I think I understand what you mean.Here, it's painful but it's not bleeding. Sometimes I feel something warm and comfortable here too," Gaara said as his finger pointed to the position of his heart.

Yua thought, "Why did he ask me that and not Yashamaru?"

"Biologically speaking, it could be some form of arterial disease, but I don't think that's the case for you. Hm.... I think what you're feeling is  emotional pain, heartache." Yua cheerfully replied and nodded to herself.

Gaara tilted his head.

"This is going cannon, except for the fact I'm in Yashamaru's position," Yua thought.

"When we feel heartache, we are experiencing a mix of emotional stress and the stress-induced sensations in our chest—muscle tightness, increased heart rate, abnormal stomach activity and shortness of breath. Usually for heartaches, it could be from lack of love or receiving emotional insults or getting alot of hate. It actually depends on a person, some people feel more pain than another."

Gaara looked like he had more questions.

"Love?" he asked.

She said, "Yea love, I'm not sure how it works though. Biologically speaking it's where hormones are pumped out more and it makes someone feel a sense of attraction to another. I think it sounds like some form of obsessive compulsive disorder, but for other people, they interpret love as a necessity for humans. Love hmm... It's like a feeling of warmth I guess? I'm not sure myself. There are alot of different kinds of love, familiar love, platonic love and romantic love."

"Do you love me?" He hesitantly asked.

Yua happily replied,"Of course, we're friends!"

Gaara smiled.

"You don't think I'm a monster?" he hesistantly asked.

"Nah, you're just one unfortunate boy. As for the guy sealed inside you, he's quite unfortunate too. He was weaponized and viewed a monster when he wasn't one." She said with a smile, "Visualize his point of view, will you Gaara? He was unwillingly imprisoned from a person to another and treated as a weapon. That's unfortunate isn't it?"

The boy thought about it and slightly nodded.

She continued, "Shukaku, I don't know if you can hear me but the one Hagoromo Otsutsuki is talking about, you'll meet him soon. Maybe in 6 years time or so."

Shukaku stared at the girl with a mixture of dibelief and supicions, but Yua wasn't able to see his expression. He thought about it and decided to cease harming her with his sand for now.

"I see that you're not sleeping again Gaara." Yua said in an extremely cheerful voice.

"If I sleep, he'll take over and-(kill you and everyone else)" he paused and left the last part unsaid.

"Ah, I see. Well, I really hope that the Tanuki will let you sleep in the near future. By the way, if you can hear me Shukaku I'll tell you something that will surprise you, your grandmother will be revived soon and the fox is half dead." She spoke.

The boy with red hair staired questioningly at her, but Yua didn't explain her words and waved him off.

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