4 - Blindfold

“Three little ducklings,

Sitting on a fence.

One was shot,

Two were sad.”

“Two little ducklings,

Running from a fence.

One forgot,

One left mad.”

“One little duckling,

Dying all alone...

Deep in the abyss,

Following its call.”

He laid idle on the ground. His determination kept him alive, for just a little longer, but even that was starting to fade away.

“I’ve seen only the contours of the world. Most of my life was forcefully ripped away from me. And now, the only person left that I cared about is a zombie. And I can’t do anything about it.”

“If I get up and go to the Heisei, their hounds will massacre me for getting their own friend turned into a Nachtvessel. If I get up and try fighting Aizawa, I’ll end up dead or another Nachtvessel.”

“If I get up and run away, I’ll get to live out the rest of my life.”

“But...”

“What even is my life?”

“When I think about how even all of this could be a lie...”

“I don’t even want to get up.”

“Nighty, get up.” Katya said, extending her hand. Nightseer found himself laying in a peaceful patch of grass, under the gentle rain, staring at the clouds.

“I can’t.”

“You can, because we’re here.” Katya said. “Can’t you see my hand? Come on, grab onto it. Let’s go.”

“What even is the point? You don’t even remember who I am. You don’t even remember who you are. What do you want?”

“I want you to get up.” Katya said, walking around. “Oh, come on, Nighty! Don’t be a wuss!” She complained in her usual annoyed voice. “You know better than anyone what to do.”

“I don’t.”

“I haven’t the slightest clue on what to do. Better yet, I don’t even know who I am.”

“I’ve probably had people like you in my past life, right? People that treated me well, and I treated them even better. People who would spend time with me. From their perspective, I disappeared, and if they ever saw me again they’d think I’d forgotten them. And they’d be right.”

“Or maybe I was an outcast. Life was cruel to me and I hated everything and everyone and everything and everyone hated me. Maybe getting all of that removed from my brain was actually the sign of salvation.”

“But even then, why does it matter? I just ended up being a pawn. A pawn with no identity.”

“You know who you are right now, right?” Katya asked, sitting down beside him. “Do you like who you are?”

“What’s there to like or dislike? I’m me. That’s just who I am. Or, more specifically, I might not even be me. I’ve changed so much I might not be me. How many times have my memories been wiped? How many times have I become someone else while remaining the same person?”

“Who am I?”

“You’re Katya. You’re someone I always wanted to protect, but ultimately failed to do so. You’re someone I love spending time with, you’re someone I trust to have my back, you’re someone I’d want to spend my entire life with, honestly. And now you’re gone.”

“Who is Reiner?”

“Reiner was our friend. He was a super solid guy, he was a great fighter, great company, just...everything about him was awesome. He was needed to make our little group function. And now he’s dead.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m Nightseer. I’m a soulful who sees only half of the world. I’m someone who wanted to spend the rest of his life with the people he’s closest to, but ended up dying on a pile of garbage after having everything taken away from him. I watched the person I cared the most about have her entire mind and personality irreversibly modified with my very own eyes. I was dead the moment we woke up that day in that cursed hospital bed. That person is me. I am a dead person.”

“What a sob story...” Katya grunted. “Nighty, do you think we’re gone?”

“You’re not here anymore.”

“But I’m right here.” Katya said. “Hey, don’t you see me? Are you making fun of me?! Quit it already! I’m trying to have a moment with you!”

“Reiner’s not here anymore.”

“Reiner’s in the living room, he said he’d rather go inside.” Katya said. “He likes being under the rain because you showed him how nice it feels, but sometimes he just wants to be on his own.”

“Katya, what do you want from me?”

“I want you to stop pretending that we’re not here.” Katya said. The cloudy sky started fading away, with a piercing ray of darkness seeping through. “You’re pretending that we’re gone, but we’re all right here.”

“Nighty...”

“I’m right here.”

Nightseer woke up. He found himself elevated, and whatever grabbed him was pretty cold. He was in LV3’s palms.

He stared at LV3’s head. It was the exact same as the old LV1 design, albeit the rest of the body was much stronger, the head remained the same as before, still with those spraypainted parts and those little special features. LV3 didn’t say anything, nor did it make any movements. It just stared at Nightseer in its palms. Nightseer stared back at it.

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“You’re...”

“Here?”

He got the framed photograph out of his clothes and looked at it. And he looked back at LV3. It still remained frozen, not communicating at all.

When Katya’s memories were wiped and modified by Aizawa, she already had LV3 summoned. Since the LV3 was imbued with her soul, the soul itself used the LV3 as a safe place to transfer itself to. It hosted Katya’s soul itself, and it wanted only one thing - to help Nightseer.

LV3 gently raised him and placed him on the back of its head. There, a small entrance opened, revealing the cockpit.

“Right, LV3 was designed to be a manually piloted mech.”

Nightseer asked himself. “But why are you doing this?”

Nightseer slowly climbed in, familiarizing himself with its interior and appearance. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but he didn’t have the luxury of choosing a custom-tailored environment. He didn’t understand anything regarding the piloting interface, at times, he even felt ashamed that he didn’t. If this was Katya’s last wind of soul determination, he wouldn’t want it to be wasted due to his incompetence.

“So...what do I do now?” Nightseer asked. “Katya, you’re here, right? What should I do? What’s the meaning behind this?”

The cockpit shut down behind him, and he felt something strange. He felt something stab his heart. He zoned out again and found himself in the same patch of grass. But the rain had stopped.

“Katya, what should I do?”

“You should do what comes natural, Nighty. What do you want to do at this moment?”

“I want to...I...I don’t know. What do you want? This is your last effort at saving me, right? This is so you can carry out some type of final request, right?!”

“Hehe, no, Nighty. That stuff only happens in movies. I just want you to do what we all want to do.”

“And what is it?”

“Nighty, remember how back then the evil bitch appointed you as our leader? I got kinda angry at it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how good that call was. You were smarter than us, you were probably stronger than us, and most importantly, you cared about us the most.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“You were the one who was Aizawa’s natural enemy. You were the one who she would never manage to fool. That means you’ll be the only one that will truly never forget us. You are the only one who can see the truth.”

Katya smiled. “Nighty, when the war outside ends, the world will be a different place. Be it for the better, be it for the worse, who cares. But you’ll still be there, and you’ll always remain yourself. And as long as that’s true, we will never die. We will all remain right here, next to you. We won’t go anywhere."

“But...I...”

“Oh come on, what’s gotten into you?” Reiner asked, sitting down next to him. “The Night I know would’ve made up his mind already.”

“Reiner...?”

“What? I got bored over there, being all alone. I don’t really know what you’re still doing here, or how you manage to stay here for so long, but hey, I’m not complaining.” Reiner explained.

“So what do you wanna do?” Katya asked.

“...”

“I get it.”

“It’s pitiful, isn’t it?”

“All three of us are pitiful creatures.”

“We knew about each other thanks to her, and we died and forgot about each other because of her...”

“What is there left to do?”

“Well, you can be the one in control of LV3 now.” Katya said. “There’s only one thing I’m asking you to do.”

“And that is...?”

“Don’t forget about me.” Katya said, gently placing her hand on his forehead.

Nightseer gasped.

“Katya...you’re still in that castle, aren’t you?”

“Nighty, you know the truth. Even if it’s a lie, you know what the truth is. You know who you truly are.” Katya said, leaning a little closer to him. “I’m giving you the strength to act.”

“You still...have faith in me?”

“Of course.” Katya smiled so dearly that it looked like everything she’s ever said up to that point had been a sorrowful confession. “I trust you, Nighty.”

“I trust you not to forget us.”

Nightseer slowly escaped the daydream.

“That Aizawa...”

“Even if my life is a lie, at least I’m glad I could see that it is. This life as Nightseer, and not the nameless person I was before, allowed me to be immune to the lie and see the truth. In exchange for losing myself once, I would never let that happen to me again.”

“How dare she...”

“The truth I see is a gray landscape, with nothing in it. Empty people, hateful and disgusting motives, a collapsing world and an unstable future. And then, there was Katya. There was Reiner. There was my bond with them. It singlehandedly made life so beautiful...”

“How dare she do that to her...”

“Until it was taken away from me.”

“I see the truth. I see the perpetrator who destroyed so much. I remember the people she took away from me. I remember the people she tried to erase. I remember the people she enslaved. I see the truth.”

“How dare she do that to people...”

“The truth is, this is me. This is the version of myself that I wouldn’t trade for any other version. And Katya is right. Limping away into nowhere is not like me. It’s not what Nightseer would do. What Nightseer would really do is make sure Katya didn’t have to suffer.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Since I’m the only one who won’t forget...”

“I’ll be the one to save you, Katya.”

“Whatever happens later...I’ll never let go of you. You’ll always be in my heart.”

“I’ll fucking kill you...”

“Because without you...I don’t know what life is.”

“AIZAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Nightseer, for the first time in his life, felt a surge of an emotion that was so genuine it felt like everything he had experienced before was a mask. LV3’s presence flared powerfully enough to stun and break the focus of every soulful in not just Prague, but all of Europe. This version of LV3 had a blindfold on, and had far surpassed any version of the LV series before.

“Haah, I can feel it...I can see through LV3, I can control it like its limbs are my own, I can feel everything that LV3 feels...I am LV3 itself.”

“Katya, are you hanging in there? Do you feel our souls touching, interacting with one another and working in perfect synergy?”

“Because I do. And I’m not letting it go to waste.”

Immediately after its triumphant awakening, LV3 was confronted by an NV approaching it from a distance. It coldly began closing the distance, pushing forward as if it didn’t know what type of power LV3 had. Nightseer looked around and saw multiple other NVs approaching him from a distance.

“So this is what they turned you to?”

“A remote operator for this cheap crap?”

He took a deep breath, and took a stance. LV3 had the same weaponry as the LV2, albeit much stronger. LV3, Nightseer, same thing. They were completely one at that point, Nightseer even saw the world from LV3’s perspective, but in the way he sees the world.

The NV swung its arm at Nightseer, but he managed to catch it. He took a step towards the NV, and with his sheer force, managed to push it back and even into the ground. The buildings around him shook, the ground quaked, and Nightseer’s half-monstrous growls that played through the LV3’s speaker system would have terrified the NVs had they known what emotions are.

Nightseer pulled back and punched the life out of the NV, He struck it in its head, almost breaking it in half. He grabbed onto the NV’s left arm and pulled it closer, shoving his fist into its abdomen. There was enough force to pierce and bend its armor completely. Nightseer, swinging his hand again and again, eventually broke through the NV’s armor. He kicked the NV away, dropping it down.

Nightseer leaned down and grabbed the NV’s head while stomping on its chest. With a majestic gesture, he ripped it off and tossed it aside, throwing it into a building like a bowling ball would be thrown at a set of kegs.

He looked around, and he was already surrounded by the NVs. But he did not have dealing with the NVs in mind, his main objective was the castle where he suspected Katya was being kept. The mech’s soul presence flared.

“Now then...”

“Let’s do this, Katya.”