>"The memories you stole, you stupid hag! Give them back!"
> Yukari stands up and turns to face you. She looms over you, her usual self-assured smirk gone.
> "As you wish," she says, and puts a finger to your forehead.
> Where she touches you, you feel burst into flames. You get the sensation of plunging from a great height as thousands of sensations flood you at once. Yukari's touch pierces you like a needle, transporting you back until you feel smaller and more vulnerable, to the deepest, most secret places of your memory. Locks snap like bones, and pain rocks your body. And then, everything floods in at once.
> You remember the cavern ceiling, as high above your small self as the blue, blue sky in your picture books. You remember the gentle snow that fell most of the year, and the smell of cold wind. You remember the feeling of your cheek against the coarse carpet as you ran a crayon over paper, teaching yourself how to draw. You remember your favorite favorite foods, and how the kitchen always smelled like ginger when your mother cooked them for you. You remember looking up at night and seeing a skull floating in the air, and the sharp wince of fear you felt as it passed through the other wall. You remember your mother picking you up and holding you as easily as ever, no matter how much you grew, and how warm her arms were. You remember the Yin Yang Orb, small enough to fit in your palm and toss through a makeshift hoop. You remember being in a fever, floating in and out of consciousness as you listened to footsteps and distant voices. You remember trying and failing to learn danmaku. You remember trying and failing to learn how to fly. You remember hanging over your mother's shoulder as she sewed a new dress for you. You remember her winding up your music box when you awoke from nightmares or struggled to fall asleep. You remember your friends, but not their faces. You remember Kikuri, aloft and always far away. You remember Mima, drifting in and out of existence like the ghost she was.
> There are too many memories. You struggle to sort through them all, but each new one appears in your mind and you feel yourself drowning in them. One memory comes back to you: a memory of you reaching out to take your mother's hand. You like to think you looked like her when she smiled. Ah, that's right, your mother was Konngara.
> Along with these memories come all the emotions you felt during them, and you feel like you're going to explode.
> There's hardly a bad memory in here, but you are overloaded. You feel like you want to scream, cry, and laugh at the same time.
> _
