"Gah!" A Mirillian woke up, putting his hand over his mohair jacket, feeling his beating heart.

He breathed in and out, rhythmically, looking around with his big and tired eyes, gazing at the empty table and a chair that wasn't in its place and then turned to the open window, feeling a cold breeze surrounding his arm.

"Phew," he muttered, before sitting up. A melody travelled into his ears, a song he knew was sung. A female voice hummed, while a deeper one spewed out words.

"From the cold basin doors to the warm blue fronts! From the sunny boars to the great sandy shores! Come on and back it up, time to travel!"

The Mirillian started swinging his finger back and forth, joining in.

"From one end of the world to the beginning of sound! Come on and back it up, time to travel!"

Suddenly, the circular, blue door swung open, and a blue-haired, short Mirillian woman stood covered by the dim candlelights from the other room.

"What were ya yelling for, Chui?" Laila asked, smirking a little, brushing the excess dirt of the small elshuim in her other hand.

"Ah." Chui scratched his head, opening his mouth a little. "Had a bad dream, mama." he shook his head. "I fell into a void and there was no end to it!"

"Voids don't tend to have ends." Mani's voice sounded from the other room, and Chui quickly stood up, peeking out of the doorway, and finding his father sitting in a chair and knitting something. Not for himself, though. "Unless it's not necessarily a void yer talking about." he finished his sentence, before continuing to sing the same song.

"I don't know what it was, papa. Same dream, all the freaking time." Chui walked out of the room and stormed into what resembled a kitchen, snacking on a small Mirillian fruit and closing his eyes, sighing out. He leaned against the counter, and looked out the window, raising an eyebrow. "Where's Lussi?" he asked.

"Oh, I asked her to go to the gardens for more of the fruits ya keep eating!" Laila uttered, disappearing behind the corner of yet another room, with comfy clothes serving as the big bed for the parents.

"Can't help it." Chui shrugged, smiling, and his gaze quickly met Mani's. The young Mirillian looked away, gulping. "Ya... um..."

"Yeah." Mani nodded. "Whaddya think?" he stood up, revealing a navy blue vest and a very long white scarf.

"C-Cool." Chui scratched his lips, uttering.

"Ah, come on, Chui." Mani waddled over, putting his hand over his son's shoulder. "It's nothing to be stressin' about."

"I'm not sure if I'm strong enough, papa." Chui frowned.

"Oh, of course, ya are!" Mani patted his back. "Yer going to become the amazing Demonear, ya've always wanted to be!" he shook his head, blinking a few times.

"What if I fail?" Chui asked.

"Ya can always come home, then." Mani smiled. "We won't judge ya. We like the Chui we already have. At the same time, it'd be a feat to make those Mirillians proud!"

Chui sighed, looking up at the rocky ceiling of their room, and thought for a few seconds.

"Chui?" Laila peeked her head out, and Mani immediately jumped away, suggesting that Laila wasn't on the same page with Chui's father.

"Yeah?" Chui tilted his head.

"We're gonna have dinner soon, would ya mind going out and getting Lussi home?"

And out he was, the young Mirillian, strolling through the streets of Soban, brushing through his hair with his hand and constantly fixing the oversized clothes Mani made for him. Many notions stormed in and out of his mind, almost as if someone was putting pressure on the back of his neck.

He passed crowds of Mirillians heading in the opposite direction or simply minding their own business with his hands in his pockets, sometimes sighing out. In the moments of silence, he hummed the same tune his father did, recalling the words and tapping his fingers against the stone environment. Later on, the 'Travelling Song' changed into a different tune.

"Hills and gorges, valleys, mounts..." he sang, melodically, as if to get himself excited for the upcoming travels. "Etched into the rocky grounds..." Chui couldn't recall the other lyrics, but it was both that and an overwhelming feeling of anxiety pulsating through his body. He stared at the ground.

"Yo!" Nion waved, patting Chui's shoulder.

"Huh?" Chui turned left, but no one was there. Then, he turned right, no signs of life there either. "Nion-"

"Here!" Nion jumped out from behind, and onto Chui's back, sitting and steering him for a moment, pushing the Mirillian forward.

"Gaah!" Chui threw Nion off, and he crashed into the rocks, before brushing off the excess dust and smiling.

"What are ya up to?"

"Just... ya know." Chui immediately put his hand on the rope hanging off the side of his pants. "Training for the Demonear test." he lied, forcing a smirk.

"Maan!" Nion slapped his shoulder. "Ya are going to do all that, eh? Leaving Soban and heading to Shimori just to prove to everyone how weak ya are, man!"

"I-I'm not weak!" Chui yelled out.

"Ya got that rope since I had to lift ya out!" Nion pointed.

"E-Either way, ya weren't much stronger than me back then." Chui furrowed his eyebrows. "Yer gonna see, Nion! I'll settle the score!"

"Hey, I'm not trying to push ya down! It's just how we Mirillians are! Ya don't see any of us becoming Demonears!"

"I'm going to bend the curve!" Chui clenched his fist.

Nion chuckled and quickly ran behind him. "Then, I'm not inclined to interrupt yer training. Go, little buddy, keep going!" he started running off. "And wipe that frown off yer face!" he waved, before fully turning around and disappearing in the crowd.

Chui put his hand over his lips, forcing an unhealthy grin before it broke into anger, then the frown Nion mentioned. He squinted his eyes, before heading forwards, his hand now clenching the rope.

***

Chui found himself in the middle of a quiet, small street behind Mother Pen, with the five-tailed weapon in his hand, constantly striking against a boulder that blocked his path between two buildings.

He kept hitting its surface with full force, yet, to no avail. The ends of the rope left black marks on the light grey stone and dug into the wounds and scars that were already on Chui's palm, a testament to his earlier attempts.

No matter how hard he tried, no force in his hand or mind would allow him to dig out a path to follow. A few minutes passed, and as he noticed sweat rolling off his forehead and dripping to the ground, he stopped, putting the weapon back in its place. He closed his eyes, and breathed in, before kicking the stone with his leg.

"Gah!" Chyuuichi fell to the ground, putting both hands over his foot and making strange noises, rolling around. "Damn it, damn it all!" he kept yelling and cursing, before standing up in anger. He kept punching the rock, despite his bleeding knuckles, he kept kicking, despite the immense pain in both feet.

Nothing happened.

"D-Demonears need to be strong!" Chui thought, kicking again, grinding his teeth in agony. "Mirillians... they live for physical strength! And where am I, who am I? A weakling!" he yelled out the last word, and unsurprisingly, his voice echoed around the buildings and up to the glowing ceiling.

He kept gazing, and quickly, something surprised him. No voice answered his yells.

Nothing did. Despite that already being strange, the only thing it managed to stop was Chui's futile attempts at overcoming the obstacle.

"Man." he thought, putting his bloodied hands into his pockets. "How could I ever face them again? Nion, Mama, Papa... Lussi. They wouldn't want to see a failure come home." he started treading forward, making it out to the main, empty street. "Maybe it would be better if I never came back. That way they would never know if they should be disappointed or happy. Maybe they'd forget me." Chui breathed in. "Forget."

Suddenly, the Mirillian felt something wet and cold, landing on the top of his head. He looked up, in wonder, before seeing thousands of small white snowflakes floating through the damp Soban air. He stuck his hands out, feeling more of the same, and a light wind picked up, going through his clothes and hair.

More kept appearing, and Chui opened his mouth, in wonder.

Suddenly, a scream sounded, followed by a large groan and the sound of something snapping, crashing or... freezing. His eyes widened, as he looked to the left, spotting hundreds of distressed Mirillians running in the opposite direction of whatever was creating that noise.

"Lussi..." he muttered. "Lussi!" Chui reminded himself of his mother's request, and yelled out, headed right, pushing himself through the crowds which hastily and desperately tried to head as far as they humanly could from whatever was waiting behind the palaces of Soban.

The streets quickly emptied, but Chui kept running, swinging his fists, as all the snow that gathered above blasted into his face, obscuring his vision and tremendously slowing everything down, seldom pushing him to the ground.

He clenched his jaw and kept going. He kept running, and running before everything seemed as clear as beforehand.

There she was, standing in the middle of two streets. A young Mirillian girl, reaching her hand up towards something.

"L-Lussi!" Chui uttered, halfway through his heavy breathing and tired eyes. "Lussi..." he added before his gaze landed on his sister again.

The girl wasn't moving.

His eyes shrunk as he made it through the last rocky street and essentially slid on the ground towards her.

His hands immediately landed on her shoulders, cold as the frosty ice and the snow that kept hailing just a few seconds ago. "Lussi?" he asked, weakly, shaking her, his fingers moving towards her pale, light blue-tinted face and open mouth, which was just as cold as everything else in her body.

Her hair didn't sway in the light wind like Chui's did.

Her open eyes didn't move a single millimetre.

Lussi was frozen, but Chui tried denying it.

He kept calling her name, and she didn't reply.

"Seems you Mirillians have suffered an unfortunate fate." A voice spoke from above, and the snowflakes landed on Chui once more. "I'm wondering. Why didn't you two run away like everyone else? Maybe, then, you'd find a chance for survival. A very weak light that would gleam in the darkest of caves." it smiled. "Yet... you've chosen-"

"Life! I've chosen life!" Chui backed out, sliding Lussi along the ground, tears pouring down his face and freezing halfway. "We're not going to die! I'm not going to let you!"

Yanma smiled, his slick and sharp red eyes turning smaller, matching his thin mouth that stood amongst the tentacles that were his head, two turning into horns above his pale, white body.

As Chui said, he leapt into the action, despite having virtually no chance against the wretched demon that froze everything before his eyes.

Yanma kept striking, be it with his suddenly sharp nails swiping through Chui's delicate features or the rest of his powerful attacks that kept freezing his legs or frostbiting his fingers, which later snapped in a bloody mess, tumbling to the rocky ground.

Chui jumped, attacking with his rope, which the demon kept grabbing and pulling the Mirillian closer, to push his hand into his big, orange eyes.

The Mirillian gritted his teeth, despite all the pain he suffered, he kept pushing on, just like earlier. Through his heart almost pumping out of his chest, memories stormed in, much like in the last moments of his life.

He thought about Laila, waking him up and teasing a few playful jokes.

He thought about Mani, who motivated him to follow through with his dreams.

The songs his family sang all played in his head at once, jumbling into a cacophony of familiar noises.

He thought about his little sister... so... cold, and... pale. So scared, and alone.

He wished he had the strength in himself to shield her, no, to shield everybody from that pain. He wasn't going to accept a dark future where his efforts were for nothing. His frown and the frustration, fury, and anger written all over his face denied the smile that Yanma constantly wore, and with one final strike, he kept kicking and kicking, before pushing his last two remaining fingers into his eyes.

Suddenly, Yanma fell to the ground, as opposed to his normal float, and Chui immediately latched onto his body, pushing as hard as he humanly could. The demon didn't budge. His eyes were missing, but they were still piercing through Chui's as if they were the sharpest scythes one would use.

All these efforts... they weren't to be for nought.

The demon's energy seemed to fade with every second that passed. Every frozen light unearthed from its icy core and gleamed once again, as a sign of hope for Chui.

But, the Mirillian himself never grew warmer. His arms were freezing, turning blue, frostbite coated his entire body, and the whiteness of the demon turned into an unsettling grey.

The chimes of nothing, the melodies of instruments that weren't there played in both of their minds, much as if someone were creating a mysterious, hopeful melody simply by tapping away at the icicles that grew beneath their bodies.

There was no one else at the moment.

So cold, so quiet.

The ice reached into Chui's heart, right when Yanma pulled his hand up, desperately grinning with his sharp teeth.

The orange eyes turned dull and glassy, and it seemed everything the Mirillian once was turned into ice.

Cold, dead ice.

But, not before a 'miracle' happened, perhaps spearheaded by all the frozen sounds surrounding the Mirillian, which Yanma just couldn't hear.

It was a rhapsody, a lullaby, which he knew so, so well. A song that calmed him and Lussi in the scariest, darkest of nights, hummed by Laila and sometimes tapped out on the small bells and xylophones they kept in the closets.

That song... it shielded them, covering their frozen bodies in warmth.

Despite being dead, Chui smiled.

The icicle from his cold, dark, twisted heart shot out towards Yanma, piercing through his skin, and then his body.

Snow hailed above their bodies.