Yoku almost fell asleep, a half-finished bottle of alcohol slipping from his fingers.The tavern roared with laughter and groaning—another drinking competition, another pile of defeated challengers.
He leaned heavily on the wooden table, miserable. His head throbbed painfully."Ugh... it's always like this when I drink."
He glanced up through blurry eyes.
Yuri stood proudly over a mess of unconscious people, hands on her hips, victorious, laughing like a conqueror."Haha! Victory!!" she beamed, flashing a grin at Yoku.
But then she softened, walking over to him."Come on, Yoku. Let's get the kids and go home. It's already midnight."
The kids were slumped against the wall, fast asleep from exhaustion.With a grunt, Yoku picked them up—one in each arm—and they began their slow walk home under the tired neon haze of the broken town.
Yoku's mind churned with heavy thoughts as they walked.
"I'm so tired.If I keep doing this... it'll be my fault if I drag my friends toward the Final Destination...And also, I already... nevermind..."
A shadow of malice flickered across his heart, but he shoved it down.He mumbled under his breath:"At least... there aren't any people threatening my friends anymore..."
When they reached the house, Yuri tucked the kids into bed.She looked at Yoku with a tilt of her head. "You coming inside?"
Exhausted, Yoku shook his head."Nah... I'll just walk for a bit."
"…Oh."She hesitated."See you, Yoku," she said softly, sadness faint in her eyes.
He wandered off alone, into the flickering streets.
"I'm so tired...Why am I the only one?Why does it feel like my friends and I are the only ones who even care...?I just want to rest..."
He stumbled like a drunk, nearly falling over as he turned a corner.The sour burn of nausea hit him and he vomited into a dark alley, the acidic taste biting at his throat.
Still... he wiped his mouth, and kept going.
He found himself sitting on a cold concrete bench.Even though the town around him was still alive with noise, it all seemed to fade into a low, dull hum.
He muttered to himself:"Sigh... I'm just a fool with a heart, thinking I can change this world alone..."
And even if, by some miracle, they did survive this journey... what then?What would even be left?
He lay down, staring up at the cracked ceiling of the dying sky.A dark thought crept into him, sinking deep, branding itself into his heart:"I'd rather sacrifice this world...than let my friends die.I don't care if everyone else dies—as long as they're safe."
Wandering aimlessly, Yoku eventually reached the outer westward edge of the city.
He gazed out over the endless miles below him—sprawling buildings, broken hills, tangled veins of concrete and steel.A hollow world kept barely alive by machines, by ghosts.
Farther out was the sea:Flat, still, and endless.A mirror for darkness.
Then—a voice beside him:
"You're here too, Yoku?"
He startled slightly, looking to his right.
There she was.
Rya.
He almost forgot her name.
Her hair had grown longer, wild in the soft breeze.She wore a torn-up suit, trying her best to mimic her late father, Elben—the original mayor.
She stared out over the city, tears gathering in her eyes, sparkling like falling crystals.
"It's dumb, isn't it?" she whispered, her voice breaking.
Yoku stayed quiet, watching.
She continued, voice trembling:"When the soldiers came to the settlement... I realized.This town is doomed.There's no way out.And I don't know what to do anymore...I just want to rest."
She tilted her head back, gazing at the star-smeared sky—a swirling galaxy smeared across the heavens.
Yoku's heart ached. His eyelids felt heavy.He rasped out, in a groan:
"Do you think... life is suffering?"
There was a long silence.
Then Rya smiled—soft, broken.
"I don't think so," she whispered."The fact that I'm still fighting… that I'm still crying…It proves there's still happiness in life, even if it's small."
She pulled out an old pocketwatch.Inside, a faded picture of her father smiled back at her.
"Thank you, Yoku," she said."You helped me prolong this town's life... even if it was just for a little while.But I'm not strong enough to keep it alive.I was never meant to be the one..."
Yoku looked at her.
He thought about the Facility.
He thought about what he should say.
But he stayed silent.
He hated betrayal more than anything.
Then—a grinding sound.
The wind carried the smell of burning steel.
He turned—
A massive, rusted Mettaton unit collapsed from the northern sky, slamming into the city with the force of a god.The ground shook.A thunderous roar split the night.Explosions bloomed like dying flowers, swallowing the north side of the city whole.
A broken radio transmission played, crackling:
[Radio: This is the mayor of Engalf... My message from Stadth... is... Goodbye... Hope you find li—]
Static swallowed the rest.
Rya laughed softly—not out of happiness, but from pure, exhausted misery.
"We were lucky the northside was still fighting back," she said, wiping her tears away with shaking hands."If they hadn't... we would've been the ones crushed.It was all just... coincidence."
She paused.
"
It really is a coincidence, if the water had shut off...If the machines maintaining this city had stopped...If the lightbulbs had gone dark...We'd already be dead.All of us."
Just... coincidence.
Nothing more.
Yoku sighed, realising deep from his soul.If this was his life...he would accept it.And he would turn it around.
"But that doesn't mean we should give up," he said, smiling despite the weight in his chest.
Rya looked at him.
And smiled back.
"Yeah."
Looking at his stomach and wrist, which is scarring... just as it was, there is really nothing he can do but move foward, but i still have ideals after all