"Gumi? What happened to you?" Miku asked. "What is going on here?"

Gumi refused to answer, sitting on her heels. "That's it," she sang to herself. "I've gone bonkers insane."

A tiny hand, also soft and sweet and kind, placed itself on Gumi's shoulder. Seemingly by magic, she rose to her feet, with the hand upon her shoulder never leaving. She felt the arm attached to the hand angle up a bit, as if its owner was tall and fey.

As if its owner was Miku.

"Miku!" Gumi lunged blindly in the direction of where the owner of the hand must be. Soon she was hugging someone quite familiar.

And also, quite painfully.

"Ugh," Miku groaned, her voice rasping like Gumi's. "You're squeezing too hard."

"I know!" Gumi cheered, squeezing even harder. She lifted her best friend onto her toes.

Miku groaned some more. "Now you're squishing me!"

"I know, I know, I know!" Gumi sang. Snot and spit flew everywhere as she spun Miku in circles. Through her tears, Gumi kept singing. "I know!"

Miku sounded like she was turning bluer than her hair. "Let… me… go."

Gumi straightened out her arms, setting her best friend free. After a few more gasps, Miku could speak normally.

"It's good to see you, too. Well, it's not like I can see you, cuz it's so darn dark."

Gumi felt herself grinning ear to ear, so much so it hurt. She imagined Miku looking both this way and that, her hands on her hips.

"So what are we doing in this place?" she asked before making a sniffing sound. "And it sure does stink." She sniffed the air again. "Did something die in here?"

"Never mind all that!" Gumi sang, as loud as she could whisper. "Why are you here?"

Gumi now imagined Miku snapping to attention. "What? Huh? Oh yeah, there's that."

An awkward silence followed.

"Miku?" Gumi queried, a tremor in her voice.

"I'm here," Miku said, distracted.

Gumi took a calming breath. "Miku, how can you here? Why aren't you… you know?"

Miku spoke the words that Gumi didn't want to sing. "I'm dead."

"You are," Gumi found blurting from her mouth.

Miku seemed apologetic. "Um… Gumi?"

"Yes?"

Miku spoke her next words quickly, as if she were in trouble and might get scolded at any moment. "I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I really had to come! I have to rescue you! You're such a dear and sweet nice person, and suffering so much, now all on your own!"

"Miku," Gumi interjected, trying to make Miku slow down.

"It's not fair you have to suffer so! It's really not your fault!"

"Miku… "

Miku raised her voice, to speak over Gumi's interruptions. "You're a real good person, and I… and I… "

Before Gumi could sing Miku's name again she found herself being nearly bowled over, as Miku threw herself on her.

"I love you!" Miku declared. "I really really do! I love you very very much!"

Not knowing what to say or do on such a crazy day, Gumi patted Miku on the back. "There, there," she consoled as she sang. "It's all right." Gumi then searched Miku's shoulders, finding two strange lumps.

"What's this?" Gumi sang, poking one with a finger.

"They're my angel wings! Well, they're not exactly wings just yet, but I am earning them!"

"You're an angel?"

"Well, I said I'm not one just yet, but I am working on it! That's why I came to you today!"

Gumi sounded perplexed. "I'm giving you your wings?"

Miku shook her a bit. "No, you silly goat! The Man upstairs gives out the wings. I'm just earning them. With you!"

"How?" Gumi responded, still a bit perplexed.

"Well… " Miku said before clearing her throat. "Like this."

Gumi then felt two hands, whisper-soft and tiny, creeping on her face. They sought out the most disgusting bits of rot and slobber, caressing them and stroking them.

"Miku?" Gumi sang, feeling Miku's touch penetrate her bones. "It's been so long since we've embraced like this."

Miku sang back to Gumi, joining her in a duet.

"As so much more than friends?"

Gumi's breath started coming in pants. Having been trapped in the dark with a damaged brain for so many long and lonely hours, her imagination flew. She dreamt of Miku's perfect body, her ageless skin, her tiny breasts. Despite not knowing at all how Miku was dressed, she became naked in Gumi's mind.

They kissed passionately and with love, until gags and rasps and spit from Miku broke the tender moment. "Ack and hack!" she said. "And phooey!"

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"Miku?" Gumi sang again, realizing that a large part of any conversation with her involved being able to see what she was doing.

Miku hacked again. "How do you put up with this?"

"Put up with what?"

Miku's voice became a garbled whisper. "How can you put up with this shit on your face?"

Gumi clamped her mouth shut as Miku made disgusting sounds. "What did you do?" she finally sang, since Miku wouldn't quit hacking.

"Ack and hack! And urk! And phooey!"

Gumi examined her own face, using both her hands. It was whole and fresh.

Undamaged.

Pure and perfect.

"Ack!" Miku said again. "Phooey!" Gumi reached out for Miku's face. "Don't touch!" she said. "It hurts!"

Gumi now was cross. "Tell me what you did!"

"I took away your sins," Miku replied, her voice a raspy whisper. "Sure, you've done some wrong. We all do wrong from time to time, but you have suffered so. Far too much, I think. You suffer from the sins of others, having seen the worst of them, and doing so all time, without fearing the damage it does to your soul. And apparently also, your face."

Miku seemed unable to speak anymore, gasping and wheezing instead. As she grew silent, Gumi wept sad tears for having caused Miku further suffering. It wasn't bad enough that Miku had let VioLinja obliterate her in order to save Gumi. It wasn't bad enough that Gumi then had to kill Miku in order to escape Hell.

Now Miku was suffering from what was once Gumi's necrosis.

"Miku," Gumi begged, "don't do this to yourself." She reached out blindly in the dark to find the best friend a person could ever hope for, ever in the whole wide world. "I'll be okay. I promise!"

Gumi continued begging as Miku slapped her hands away. "Don't do this for me. Please."

For several seconds lasting hours, Miku wheezed as Gumi cried. "I'm going to see the Big Guy," Miku declared after that. "He has to get this off my face!"

Miku then sounded as if she were floating away. "Goodbye, Gumi! Goodbye!"

Gumi began hyperventilating. "Don't go," she sang, grasping for Miku's presence. "Don't leave me all alone!"

Miku's final words drifted down from high above. "I love y—Ach! I love you, Gumi! Very very much!"

More tears fell from Gumi's eyes as she cried uncontrollably. She sang into an empty room, again all alone. "I love you, too, you skinny Smurf. I love you very much."

Gumi returned to sitting on her crate, hanging her head and sobbing. Tear after tear splashed on the floor, until she could produce no more. She realized as she cried that she was stuck inside an airtight cooler, with no light, no food nor water, and no way to get out.

And soon, she had reason to believe, there would be no air.

There was nothing else for Gumi to do. So, despite the lack of tears from what were now perfectly good tear ducts, she continued crying.

An unknown and long time later, Gumi awoke to find herself moving through fresh air and light. She also found that if she raised her eyes or turned her head, she would begin to retch. After a few seconds, she didn't need to look around to tell what was happening. T.O.P. was carrying her through his ship. He was also speaking to her, forming silken words. She tried to focus, but caught only phrases.

"… been searching for days," he said. "Many thought… but I knew better…"

Having Miku's nose meant Gumi could smell perfectly. And though T.O.P. smelled delicious, she knew she stunk like crap. He seemed not to mind as she stained his clean-pressed uniform with her filth. She stretched and tensed a bit before nestling in his arms.

Taking note of her movement, he clucked like a mother hen. "Everybody thought for sure you'd jumped overboard," he said.

Gumi sang nonsense words before a real sentence came out. "But you kept looking, right?"

"I knew you'd never jump. It's just that no one ever goes down to where you were hiding." Silly lyrics came from Gumi as T.O.P. continued talking. "We had to break down the door. You did something to it."

"I used my guitar," Gumi sang between syllables that meant nothing.

"I see."

"So… I'm sorry… what I did."

After a pause and another cluck, T.O.P. gave an odd compliment. "You sure are good at hiding."

Gumi tried to giggle, but didn't have the strength. "I hid at Club Kocchi Muite for years. Until a nice man found me."

"Hmm. So you did, I suppose."

After burbles and nonsense, Gumi sang, "Where are you taking me?"

"To sick bay. We have to get out the bugs."

Gumi managed a small giggle. "I do got lotsa bugs, don't I? Like, inside me and all?"

"We found something hidden in the ship's systems that activated in your presence."

Gumi sang sounds that were not words. "Mm-hmm."

"You need to stay away from things that are computerized until we figure out what to do."

After a short while, as T.O.P. continued explaining her condition, Gumi sang coherently.

"Sometimes the sun gets lost behind

"The rain inside my head.

"But sun remains.

"Rain goes away.

"And I find you instead."

"That's beautiful." T.O.P said, praising Gumi's odd words.

"Thank you. I wrote it."

"You did?"

Gumi found herself hugging her own shoulders, snug in T.O.P.'s strong arms. She congratulated herself with a happy squeeze.

"Mm-hmm. I did," she sang. "Just now."

"Well, it's nice. It is. It's very very nice."

"It's yours," Gumi sang to her silken savior.

"It is?"

"Mm-hmm. You keep it. That way, you can be the sun that shines behind my rain."

Gumi wished she could see T.O.P.'s face, but she was nestled too deep in his embrace, and too nauseated to look up. She knew he wasn't smiling though. She could hear him choke up through his chest.

"That may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," he said once he'd regained his composure.

Gumi let herself melt into being held by T.O.P. as he carried her to safety. "You're welcome," she sang after singing other things that were nonsense.

The next thing Gumi noticed was they were riding on an elevator. "What happened to your face?" T.O.P. asked as they rode, his curiosity being piqued. "It looks better than before."

"I'm cured!" she sang in triumph. "An angel came and saved me."

His curiosity was piqued further. "You believe in angels?" he asked.

"I do. I'm in love with one."

Gumi heard a gulp occur inside T.O.P. "You are?" he asked after that.

She snuggled him until she found a clean spot on his clothes to wipe her dirty face.

"Hai. And maybe even two." As the elevator slowed to stop, Gumi sang small and weak. "Is everyone okay? That guy I hit with a guitar… I think I broke his teeth."

T.O.P. clucked again while exiting, still carrying his precious cargo. "You broke his arm as well," he said.

Gumi bit her lip, realizing she had a lip to bite for the first time in years. "I'm sorry. I don't know what…" Her voice trailed off, unsure of what to sing. After a pause she sang, "Could you please buy some flowers? Tell him they're from me?"

T.O.P. laughed so quick and loud that he startled Gumi. "Where will I find flowers in the middle of the ocean?"

"Hai," Gumi sang, more with confusion than understanding. "Maybe we can get him a get well teddy bear?"

T.O.P changed the subject, speaking reassuringly. "We're almost to the sick bay. It's just a few seconds away."

As Gumi smelled the antiseptic of the room ahead, she sang, "You know I'm still hacked in the head. I want to kill you now."

If what Gumi sang had registered with T.O.P., he hid his concern well. "You're going to be all right," he said, moving with grace while hurrying. "But you have to stay away from things. The whole ship is infected with a virus made for you."

Gumi curled into a ball, feeling light as a feather. "Perhaps I'll sleep instead."

"That's a good idea. Then let's get out those bugs."

"Hai. I'd like that. Okay."

T.O.P. spoke for a moment to a nurse before following her down a passage, still carrying Gumi with ease.

"You have a nice speaking voice," T.O.P. said to Gumi while following the nurse. "It has a lot of lilt."

"That's because I'm singing."

"You're singing?"

"Hai. It keeps me from killing you."

His response missed not one beat. "Well, that is good, I guess."

"Mm-hmm. I like it. A lot."

After a pause, T.O.P. spoke again. "Still, your speaking voice is nice. It's pretty."

Gumi dozed off, safe in his arms. He shook her a bit to make sure she was okay.

"I know. So is yours," she sang. "But you need to hurry."

He laid her on a bed. "Okay. We are. But why?"

"The more awake I am, the worse the bugs get to me."

The nurse spoke after that. "Are you feeling worse? Are you too awake?"

Before T.O.P. could let Gumi go, she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing with a strength he found to be surprising. She moaned contently and squeezed harder, refusing to release him.

"Mmm. No. Not just yet. But hurry. I really want to kill this guy." She found another clean spot on the ruffles of his shirt to wipe filth from her face.

"Very very much," she added, as he stifled a laugh.