In the corridor, Dania finally passed out from the pain in her chest.
But in the moment before she lost consciousness, she saw her friend's face, beaming with a smile.
She still didn't understand much, but she understood very well what a friend was.
After Napomo had told Dania that they were friends, Dania had begun learning everything she could about the word "friend" through every means available to her.
From the books in the Underground Base and from Napomo herself, she had learned many definitions of "friend."
And the more she learned, the more she treasured Napomo.
But...
Why had her friend been smiling?
That question flashed through Dania's mind a second before she lost consciousness.
While she had been in agony, the look in her friend's eyes had sent a chill down her spine...
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a familiar place.
Glug, glug—
The nutrient solution surrounding her and the tubes attached to her body reminded her of her situation.
She had returned to the Incubation Pod where it had all begun.
The place where she had been "born."
"Ah! My dear Yaya, you're finally awake!"
When Dania opened her eyes, Napomo put on an expression of worry mixed with delight.
To an outsider, Napomo would have looked like someone simply happy that her friend had woken up.
In the past, Dania would surely have been happy to wake and find her friend waiting beside her.
But now, hesitation and confusion filled Dania's eyes.
That strange smile Napomo had worn at the end was still burned deep into her mind.
If only it had been a hallucination...
That was what Dania hoped.
But even now, she needed only to think back a little to see Napomo's strangely smiling face with perfect clarity.