Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ophelia-san's question rang out in the entire area, but all that answered her back was a stone-deep silence and the crying of the young version of herself. "Waaah! I want to die! I want to die!" her younger version screamed, crying even more until she stopped when she heard Ophelia-san's voice. The young Ophelia-san turned her head to look at Ophelia-san, allowing the Arrancar to catch a glimpse of her face back when she was still human. "Could you be the one...who would finally...end my suffering...?" asked the young Ophelia, looking at her older version with empty eyes, longing for death, as she crawled to her, tears running down her cheeks and a smile on her face. "Will you be the one to kill me? Will you? Please, let me die! Free me from this hell! I can't take it anymore! Kill me! Kill me! KILL ME!!!"

Soon, the young version of Ophelia-san was grabbed by the neck by her older counterpart and was lifted up in no time, thanks to her small frame and her older self's honed body, capable of amazing feats of physical exertion. "Yes...that's it. Kill me, kill me, kill me," the young Ophelia-san whispered with a smile on her face. "I don't care what you say to me. Yes, I am weak. I am the lowest scum on this earth -- that's why my parents threw me here. They said I had no hope; that I would never change. I waited for a long time for someone like you to come, someone who understands me and my suffering. Now please, kill me, an insignificant speck of dust."

The older version's words seemed to hit a spot in the younger version's heart, but still, her view of herself remained the same. She was happy deep inside, however, that someone was able to believe in her that much -- something she hadn't experienced ever before since she was who she was, and nobody else, except herself, can change that. "Don't talk to me as if you knew me, miss. My parents told me themselves -- they wish I was never born. I was trash; always has been, always will. How can someone like you, whom I have never seen before, tell me otherwise?" asked the younger Ophelia-san. "But you're right though, I'm not weak, and I will kill thousands...starting with myself!"

In one, fierce heartbeat, the young girl's hands were on her own neck as she tried her hardest to squeeze every inch of life out of her. She cacked, gagged, and gasped for air, but she was determined to kill herself and end her suffering once and for all. She was determined to die. All of a sudden, Ophelia-san, too, felt out of breath. It was as if the young girl's pain and her own pain were linked somehow. If nothing were to stop the young Ophelia-san, it was possible that they would both die.

Young Ophelia-san stared at her older self with an doubting expression on her face. To her eyes, she was just someone who, at first, was supposed to kill her. Now, she was starting to get annoyed of her babbling about how she will become something like this or something like that. "How can you be so sure? Isn't that a lofty claim you have, miss?" she asked. "Me, become something like that? I am weak. I have no future. It's best for me to just die here. How are you so sure? How can you be certain that I can change? Tell me -- what makes you believe in that?!"

The young Ophelia-san looked up to the older one with a look of confusion etched on her face. "Who're you talking to?" she asked innocently, but still retaining her spaced out, soulless gaze and her dark, hopeless tone of voice. "Talking to yourself is unhealthy, says the men in white who were always abusing me...," she explained, a slightly amused smile finally forming across her face.

All of a sudden, the young Ophelia-san pointed at the direction behind the real Ophelia-san as numerous white men appeared behind her, all smiling, with open arms, ready to hug her. "If they're dead, what're those then?" she asked as more of them popped up. It was like Ophelia-san was slowly having a nightmare, but in reality, it was because she continued to deny her true feelings which caused her to have such experiences in this new world. "Those people don't easily fade away, even if you think they had already. Persistence of memories," young Ophelia murmured into her older counterpart's ear.

They came, but they weren't after the older version of Ophelia-san. No, what they were after was the little girl that was with her -- her younger version. "Well, it seems as though I have to go now. I told you I wanted to die, but I guess even you can't give that to me, can you?" the young Ophelia-san sighed, standing up and walked towards the men in white coats who took her into their arms and began to carry her. "Good bye, miss. Thank you for cheering me up, even if it was just for a while. I'll be going back now."