"How were you able to kill that Fragmentum Creature with a knife, Miss? Is it really sharp, or are you just really strong?"

"The knife isn't a knife. My fists aren't fists either. Nor are my legs... well, legs. They can be a polearm when I want them to be a polearm, and they can be a sword when I want them to be a sword." y/n replied with a shrug, "Make sense?"

"Not really..." Clara murmured.

"Mm..." y/n pondered before sighing, "Ugh, sorry, I'm no good at explaining stuff. Too much work."

Clara gave her a blank look.

"You could call it mimicking, I suppose."

"I... kind of get it now." Clara murmured, "Actually, I meant to ask, I saw a group of people by here before. A lady with very big earrings, Miss Seele, and a strange man I've never met before. He was very nice."

Mm...

'Doesn't sound like anyone I know.'

Y/n smiled, "So! Who is this Mr. Svarog? You said this Robot Settlement didn't have doctor but this Svarog dude might be able to help me, so is he some kind of... I dunno, doctor without all the college certifications and stuff?"

"No... Mr. Svarog isn't exactly a doctor, but I'm sure he'll have an idea on how to help you!" Clara replied, "He'd be able to decide whether or not you actually have brain damage, and if you're in need of serious help or not."

"Mm, are you two related?"

"No, but he is my family."

"Ah, I'll be sure to treat him with respect, then."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that, Miss Y/n."

Clara guided y/n by the sleeve of her clothing to the Robot Settlement, GAH DAYUM WHY WAS THERE SO MUCH SNOW??? UNDERGROUND??? HOW—

Ahem, anyways.

Clara guided y/n through a camp, across a bridge, and to a gate where a little box-shaped robotic sat.

"Welcome back, Miss Clara." the robot greeted, "Is this person with a you a guest?"

"Mhm, I think she might be hurt, so I wanted to ask Mr. Svarog for help." Clara explained before glancing back up at Y/n, "This is Perkins. Perkins, this is y/n."

"Hi!" y/n greeted, 'Why am I saying hi to a robot...?'

"Hello, Miss Clara's Guest: Y/n!" Perkins exclaimed as the gates opened up, y/n unable to do much else then stare blankly at the little thing.

Clara began to guide her along again, y/n unable to do much aside from follow along like a little duckling as they made their way through the gates and into the courtyard. As they approached a building, her eyes fellow upon to a rather large robot.

Very imposing robot... but super cool!

Was that some sort of guard or...?

"Mr. Svarog!" Clara called out and y/n did a double take, her eyes going wide, "I brought a guest who seems to have amnesia. I'm not sure if it's from a head injury because she doesn't look injured, so can you check?"

'Th-That's Svarog?!' y/n thought in disbelief as the two of them came to a halt before the giant robot.

"Analyzing..."

Good lord.

"Analysis result: Target does not belong to Wildfire."

Why is that relevant? Who tf is Wildfire?

"Background: Unknown. Classification: Unknown. Target does not appear to have any serious injuries that have been inflicted recently, and there is no evidence of any traumatic brain injuries." Svarog concluded before looking down at the little girl who had dragged y/n there, "Would you like me to conduct an assessment?"

"Mm... only if Miss Y/n is okay with it." Clara decided, giving y/n a little glance, "Is it alright?"

"Sure, why not." y/n hummed with a shrug, 'Let's just consider it a game of doctor. Yeah, a game of doctor.'

First they checked her ability to see, which should've been obvious. Regardless, y/n patiently sat on the stairs while Clara asked her to count the number of fingers she was holding up.

They tossed a ball back and forth to make sure y/n's reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and motor functions were all in order, and they had her run around in circles to double check.

Y/n took a bit of a tumble only to roll and land upright on her hands with her feet in the air: a flawless handstand, which Clara somehow found interesting.

Ten more hand stands and crazy stunts per Clara's request later, Svarog instructed y/n to sit so it— ah, whatever, he could do a scan of her brain to check for internal bleeding.

And, obviously, there was no evidence of that brain (brian 💀) trauma Clara had guessed y/n might've had.

"Huh, so there really is nothing wrong with you..." Clara murmured before pausing, "Aside from your missing memories."

"Eh, it's perfectly fine, not upset about it in the slightest!" y/n chirped before showing off her bicep, "They've been coming back slowly recently, so I'm perfectly content!"

"Well... we still can't be sure that nothing is wrong." Clara pointed out before deciding, "Just to be safe, you should stay here so Mr. Svarog can make sure that you're a hundred percent okay!"

Y/n's face went blank, "E-Excuse me?"

"Wait here." Clara instructed, "I'll be right back!"

"Wait, Clara-!" y/n began to protest but the little girl was already scampering away into the house, leaving y/n alone with the giant robot.

"Clara's Guest: Miss Y/n." the woman blinked and glanced back over to the massive robot, damn it was kinda hard to tell what he was thinking without tone indicators or facial expressions, "When conducting a scan to identify your bio information, there were a couple of anomalies that I came across."

Y/n paused, a frown settling on her face.

"Your cells exhibit some abnormal behavior in their ability to differentiate, which appears to be more beneficial than harmful however, I must examine further to understand it fully." the robots explained

'This new information is somehow not all that surprising to me...' "Should I be concerned?"

"Negative. This abnormality in your body is actively working for your benefit; with my current understanding, it is likely that this unusual trait will lengthen your lifespan considerably." the robot told her and she let out a breath of relief, "I cannot be entirely sure that it is 100% of no risk to you unless I am permitted further investigation."

"Oh, well, I'm completely fine with it! Sounds interesting." y/n chirped, "Do you need blood or anything? If you need to do a blood draw, please make it quick. I don't like needles. Not one bit."

"Very well, I will make it quick and painless."

"Wait, are you killing me or doing a blood draw???"

Clara returned shortly after Svarog took some of y/n's blood and gave her a little bandaid decked out with the classic bright colors that made any kid who got one feel like they just won the 🚚ing lottery.

It was rather odd.

Receiving a painless blood draw and a colorful bandaid from a giant, imposing mech that could probably crush y/n's head in his hand.

Y/n had no idea why, but Clara was practically attached to her by the hip as she showed her around the Vagrant Camp, the Robot Settlement as a whole, and even introduced her to some of her robot friends.

They were very... uh... interesting.

Y/n stared blankly up at the giant robot that resembled the one she beheaded back at the fight club, while the giant metal beast stared back down at her in silence.

"...hello."

"*robot noises*"

Hmm... wasn't y/n supposed to be doing something?

...well, if she didn't remember it, it probably wasn't all that important. She'd probably remember it later. At the moment, there were far more important things to do.

Clara had called for y/n, Svarog, and Perkins to all gather together for a seemingly very important meeting. She set them all up around a little stone table with itty bitty stone chairs that Perkins was unable to get seated on without y/n's assistance.

She took a seat after helping out the little robot, Svarog taking a seat as well; y/n found the size difference between him and his tiny seat absolutely hilarious but didn't make a peep about it. Clara was speaking.

"Alright, I'll now be assigning roles." Clara spoke carefully, her voice soft and barely audible even in the complete silence her listeners had granted her.

'Roles?'

Clara cleared her throat before pulling out a piece of paper, "Perkins will be the baby."

Huh.

"I'll be the daughter."

Huh?

"Miss Y/n will be the Mom."

Huh???

"And... Mr. Svarog will be..."

"I can be a rock." Svarog decided and Clara gave him a little frown while y/n choked on air with a, pfft

"But Mr. Svarog, I already picked a role for you."

"It would be better if I were a rock. Or, if you'd prefer something different, I could be a tree this time."

"Hehe, telling from the look on your face, this happens often." y/n chuckled upon seeing the little look of disappointment on Clara's face.

"Mr. Svarog always wants to be stuff life rocks and trees, and as much as I want to assign him a different role..." the girl cut off with a little sigh.

"He's good at it?"

"Mm..."

"Ah, then, why not let him be a tree or a rock."

Clara gestured for y/n to come closer and the woman obeyed, wandering over to the little girl and listening closely as she whispered in her ear.

"Ohhh, so that's it, huh?"

"Mhm."

"I see now."

"Well, we can play house another time." Clara sighed heavily, "There's actually something else I need to do, so you stay right here. I'll be back soon."

"What? But I—!" Clara was already scurrying away.

"Mm... hopefully she isn't going to do something dangerous." y/n murmured with a little frown as Perkins scuttled after her with a little wait for me, Miss Clara!

Y/n didn't understand kids.

Whatever happened in their itty bitty brains was a mystery to her, and she didn't really want to know either.

"Yeesh, if feels like she's running off for something every five minutes. Should I go after her?" y/n inquired with a little frown, "Whatever she's up to night be boring, but I'd hate it if anything were to happen to her."

"Clara knows when to run away, and if she were to find herself in a situation where she's unable to, Perkins would be there to ensure her safety." Svarog assured the woman as she plopped back into her seat.

"Hm..." y/n nodded carefully, "I... still think I should go after her. I'm feeling a little antsy about this..."

"I have come to a couple of conclusions regarding your conditions after further blood tests. Would you like to hear the results?"

Y/n perked up, "Hell yeah, tell me everything!"

Ah, the simple mind of y/n.

The more information Svarog shared, the more and more weirded out she got. Cell differentiation... long life... stem cells? The hell? She felt like she should know what half of these things were, but she didn't.

'As soon as he finishes, I'll ask him to dumb it down.'

Now, y/n's lack of some memories didn't mean she had no clue what she was. She knew she was a long-life species, most if not all inhabitants of Xianzhou ships were, and she knew that her cells would behave differently from those of who inhabited Jarilo-VI.

But cells that didn't belong, cells that were different from her own... stem cells that didn't originate in her own body. Did she have some type of transplant or something? Svarog told her that only a few of these cells remained, as her system had eradicated most of them, but it was still pretty odd...

The more y/n thought about it, the more anxious she became. There was nothing wrong with a transplant, those could be life saving, but something told y/n that her little cell situation had nothing to do with a transplant.

Just thinking about it made her body hurt.

No, wait, her body did hurt.

A lot, actually—

. 　。　　⋆　　•　 　ﾟ　　。 .　.　.　。 .　。
⋆　　　。　　 ⋆。　 ඞ 。　 . • . . ⁎ 。　. 　。　.　　⋆. 　　。 .　 .　　 . ⋆. 。. ⁎ 。•　 　ﾟ　　。

Y/n has been right to worry about Clara, as the first thing she did was run into trouble. Poor Perkins was nearly destroyed, and Clara could've been seriously hurt had it not been for the arrival of Seele, that lady with the big earrings, and the weird man *Caelus*.

They'd actually been at the Robot Settlement not too long ago with the intention to go see Svarog, but the little robot at the entrance wouldn't let them through without Clara's permission.

So, off to Rivet Town they went to go find Clara.

Five minutes of Caelus getting smacked around by monsters later, Clara basically said "thanks for the help but y'all can go somewhere else" and dipped.

Back to the robot settlement, they found Clara, offered to help her repair something. Caelus showed off his awesome repairing skills and...

"If there's any other way I can help you, I'll do my best! But this..." Clara seemed hesitant.

'Well. At least it wasn't the answer y/n would typically give.' Caelus thought as he remembered the various times in the last few days y/n refused to help him gather materials.

She just sat back and watched him fight monsters.
Occasionally cheered him on, and shoved food in his mouth when he was at low health, but otherwise... no.

March let out a heavy sigh, "Well how are we supposed to convince her now, huh?"

Caelus pondered for a moment before offering, "Why don't we point out the variable? You know..."

March 7th perked up, "Oh, yeah! The variable is our arrival! No outsider's set foot in the underground for over a decade!" she immediately turned her attention back to the little girl with a, "Clara, you're observant, right? Take a look at us. Do we look like Underworlders?"

The little girl looked from one to the other with uncertainty, "Well, uhh... you do look very different from other people... unlike anyone I've seen before."

"Right! That's because we're not from here." March chirped, "We've never been a factor in Svarog's calculations. And if those calculations are based solely on the strength of the Underworlders, then the results don't apply to the present situation."

Shoot, what were they talking about again?

It was then that Dan Heng decided to speak, "When did Svarog start doing his calculations, Clara?"

"It was... a long time ago." the little girl murmured, "When the Underworld was sealed off, I think..."

"Things have changed since then — there's a Silvermane Guard down here now!" March chimed in, "Is that part of Svarog's calculation? Not to mention, we're—"

There was a pause and March smacked Caelus who snapped out of his daze, looking around in confusion before remembering what he was supposed to say.

"—not even from this planet!" Caelus finished.

"Yeah! There's just no way that Svarog's calculations would have included variables like us, y'know?" March agreed.

"Different planet...?" Clara echoed before shaking her head fiercely, "D—Don't treat me like a child! Those are just made-up stories that grown-ups like to tell. I don't..."

Caelus's face went blank, "But you are a child..."

"Hey. Caelus and March aren't lying, Clara. I believe them." Bronya chimed in, damn, Caelus forgot she was there.

"Clara still seemed hesitant, "Bronya, do you really..."

The woman nodded with a solemn look, "I know how you feel, Clara. You want new hope for the underground, but you don't want anyone to get hurt in the process, right? I... also have some doubts, but my gut tells me that March, Dan Heng, and Caelus are the new hope this world has been waiting for."

Clara observed them all carefully, considering.

"Let them meet Svarog, and let's see if his calculation result is any different. For you, for him... there's no harm in trying, right?"

The girl didn't say a word. Then, she thought of y/n. Maybe they could help her recover her memories.

If only she knew—

"I... okay." Clara nodded, "I'll take you to see Mr. Svarog. Trying to change Mr. Svarog's mind on my own would take forever. Even if I kept trying until I was all grown up, I don't think I could do it. And all the while, people would be getting sick, losing their homes, and fighting... just like in the mine."

Caelus was trying so hard not to look irritated, but he was tired of all the chatting, 'Hurry up, kid, I have jade crystals to spend and gambling to do-!'

"Everyone, follow me." Clara instructed.

She led them all back to the big gates where they were greeted by the little robot once more who met them inside this time.

As expected, Svarog and y/n were no longer where Clara remembered them being. Y/n was missing.

"I'm back, Mr. Svarog." Clara announced, "I finished what I had to do, but... where's Miss Y/n?"

March immediately perked up, "Y/n? She's here?"

Clara paused to give the group a little frown, "You all... you know Miss Y/n? Is she a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, she's a trailblazer too." Caelus confirmed with a frown, "But March and I haven't seen her since we first got to the Underground."

"She ran off a while ago, likely to look for her lion plush, and she hasn't been back since." Dan Heng added, "She's here? Is she alright?"

"Well, yeah, she saved me from a Fragmentum monster..." Clara murmured, "You sound very worried about her, so..." she glanced at Svarog, "Mr. Svarog? Is Miss Y/n still here?"

"Your guest is currently resting, Clara. She was in poor condition, so I took her inside to get some rest." the robot assured her before his attention turned to the little group, "But... why have you brought them?"

Caelus glanced at the house behind the giant robot, 'Y/n is... in there? Why? What happened to her?'

"Mr. Svarog, they want to talk to you about going to the surface." Clara explained as she turned back to the group.

"Analyzing... Analysis Result: Target does not belong to Wildfire. Background: Unknown. Classification: Unknown." Svarog concluded, "You have arrived on Clara's recommendation a I will give you the opportunity to speak."

"Hey, hey, it sounds like he's willing to communicate!" March exclaimed, "Quick! Do your thing!"

Caelus gave her an anxious look, "What thing???"

She gave him a sharp glare.

"We're here about the future of the underground!" Caelus said quickly, onto for Svarog to interrupt.

"An inadequate pretext. You are not from the underground. You have no right to represent Underworld humanity." such attitude... "Proceed with your central point. Do not waste this world's valuable time."

"He cut you off completely!" March complained with a little scowl on her face, "This guy... I ought to-!"

"Stay focused. Remember, we have to make him see that we're a variable in the calculation." Dan Heng reminded her.

"We're here about the Stellaron." Caelus tried again.

"Stellaron... Searching database... Access denied." oh boy, "Discussing Stellaron with unauthorized targets: Prohibited. You are broaching a secret that lies at the heart of this world. A secret that should remain unknown to humanity."

Caelus paused, "Uh—!"

"Reassessing targets... threat index raised." somehow, the massive robot was even more intimidating than he was three seconds ago, "I demand that you reveal your true intention."

Dan Heng's frown deepened,As expected... he knows of the Stellaron, but it's a restricted topic."

We've come this far. Out with it already!" Seele snapped before giving Caelus a rough shake, "Caelus, just be straight with him! Everything depends on it!"

'Alright, alright!' "We have to find the Stellaron to bring this world's