⏳ Goddess of Victory: Nikke x Reader

[Liter] Someday 🏙

Do you really think...
one day we'll be able to
live up here again?

You kick away a few chunks of dusty rubble with the toe of your boot, your eyes fishing through the dirt below. As expected, what you are looking for is not here.

"Rapi, Neon, search the debris in the area. The signal is too broad. We won't find the component in one specific area." You point your eyes at the two alert members of your team. Neon nods to your command and goes walking off down the path of debris, while Rapi gives you a stern salute and a "yes, Commander" before doing the same.

You yourself go digging through some more heaps of wreckage, careful as to not cut yourself with the shards of glass and rusted metal jutting out of the piles. As you crouch and dig, you think to yourself — this used to be an office building. And over there, that must have been a restaurant.

It's a sad sight. You even begin to feel a wave of bitter nostalgia and longing as your eyes scan over this wasteland that used to be home to thousands of humans. Now it's been reduced to broken chunks and dusty memories.

Before that pang of sadness can burrow deeper into you, a small hand tugs on your shoulder. You look over swiftly to find Liter standing behind you, her eyes flicking to the field around you.

"Hey, Greenhorn?"

You dust off your pants and clap your hands together before standing and facing the girl. She does not look up at you yet, her eyes much too focused on the barren earth.

"What's up?" you ask. Liter is silent a moment before tipping her hat from her head and glancing up at your eyes.

"It's a silly question, but since everyone is fighting so hard to bring the surface back, do you really think it's possible?"

Liter's eyes glimmer with a determination and yet a curiosity that you would never find in her otherwise. Right now, she even seems more firm and aware than when she's instructing you and the others to tidy up at the Outpost. It's odd.

You look her in the eye and offer a halfhearted nod. "As long as we keep fighting, it's possible."

"And what if we give up?" Liter's response is quick, doesn't give you much time to think. You can tell this has been weighing on her mind ever since she agreed to come up to the surface with you.

"We won't give up," you say. "Giving up is not an option."

To this, Liter's eyes begin to wander off into the distance again. She takes her hardhat, looks into the rim, then sets it back on her head.

"Everything's destroyed." Her voice is barely above a whisper. "The air is unclean. The buildings are gone. Even if we do reclaim this place, the work that will have to be done—"

You reach out and place a hand on the girl's hat, cutting her off. Liter meets your eyes again, that flicker of cold determination and stress gone from her face.

"We'll do it," you tell her. "All the work. All the cleaning. All the building. And you... you'll be a key factor in that restoration, you know that?"

Liter's mouth hangs open slightly in awe as she considers your words of encouragement. Suddenly this girl who appeared to have a sad burden weighing heavy on her mind was swept away by a comforting breeze whispered through your words. Everything you say is true. Losing hope isn't an option, especially when you've got such important figures working alongside you.

In this case, that important figure happens to be Liter.

She does not even speak. She just opens her arms and wraps them around you, hugging your side. You let a little smile slip, gently patting her hat, though you'd much rather be caressing her hair.

"I look forward to that day," she says quietly, letting out a content sigh, "even if it's so far off."

So far off indeed, you think. Hell, you might not even live long enough to see that day come. But regardless of life or death in the wake of a reborn surface world, you want Liter to see that day.

After all, building cities from the ground-up is going to call for a good construction leader.