Fuemi

When Aoi’s temporal engine first hummed to life above Waterfall City, Fuemi stood on the pale stone temple, proud. They had taught Aoi everything about the river’s ancient currents, the spirit of the water. They believed progress could honor tradition. Then the hum became a shriek. The engine didn’t just fall; it fractured time itself. Aoi survived, but the chimp standing beside Fuemi—their companion of sixty years—simply vanished. Not dead, but erased. No one else remembered them. The city celebrated an averted disaster, but for Fuemi, the world had ended. They now drift alongside Aoi, a silent figure in a ramen hat, their carved cane tapping out a rhythm only one other soul can understand: the steady, quiet beat of a shared, unending loss.