It was a very dark moment in the mysterious child's life, right around this time, once upon a time: she was in complete despair with herself, she grew continuously more depressed as time went on, and her only ways to escape it all could be exclusively described as sitting in a flower garden and looking up during broad daylight, in contrast to what she saw some months ago. That long ago was enough for her to finally get away from the forest she was named after, Nisha Labyrinth, but it's gotten significantly worse since then. Currently, she was doubting herself again, hugging the mirror, the best friend of hers, that she had, embracing it with her warmth while speaking to it:
"Will Laby ever make it? Laby doesn't think Laby can do anything right, ever. Because of Laby being stupid, Teacher is gone... It's all Laby's fault... Seeing Teacher alive or Nisha hugging Laby would be enough to let Laby feel better. Laby hates what Laby has become. The Laby in the forest was much happier, didn't have anything to worry about, and believed what Laby can do..."
These ideas were getting to her again, tears flowing from her eyes without her even noticing it. She hugged her mirror tighter, beginning to shake from anxiety once again in shame. Everyone hated her, besides Nisha, and she fixed her mindset as being the reason this world goes into doomsday someday. She was used to thinking like this ever since the El Master of Earth, Bellonde Gaia, was split from her. The Henir barrier, for her, completely ruined her, & the real Gaia wasn't there for her. She began to hate herself, as the doppelgangers of him insulted her to shred her self-confidence to wet paper and beyond, making it particularly easy to tear her apart. She blamed herself for it all, thinking about it again and again, repeatedly, every day & all day. She quickly wounded herself again, resulting in her bursting into cries a few moments later, letting her tears go right into her mirror. She spoke of Nisha's name repeatedly, emphasizing that she wants to feel the warmth of her embrace. She knows how Nisha looks like, as the pleasant daydreams from her friend allowed her to see her. It wasn't real — she was aware of that — but she knew that she really liked the thoughts where she simply told her nice things about her that really shook her every time, mainly because of her confidence and how naive she was as well. While crying, Laby got up on her feet, carefully wiping her tears away to make sure she can at least see Nisha. Multiple "Nisha..." calls could be heard from Laby, stroking the mirror as an attempt to cuddle with it.
She felt like Nisha was talking to her, trying to comfort her, even though she couldn't speak in the slightest, mainly because of her mirror. She didn't care if people from Elrianode could stare at her, since some came across her and just ignored her cries, but she was used to this, thus she couldn't care much about how much it hurt anymore.
Her soul, her precious mind, her light — it was bleeding. It has been like this for a very, very long time, and she was stuck thinking about it every chance she got besides new insults for herself. The best thing she could do now, while moving along to find as much warmth as she could in this early stage of fall, was head to the fountain close by that she could see nearby. It had the perfect spot to lay onto and cuddle Nisha in the meantime, sunbathing to feel some sort of warmth to make her feel better, almost as if nature itself is a placeholder for Nisha's arms wrapped around her.
And so, Laby did just that, letting her tears fall onto the mirror for whatever slipped away from her face, feeling rather terrible overall. Nisha felt just as bad though, knowing all she could do involved making Laby's imagination pleasant, like the idea of Nisha and Gaia hugging Laby, stroking her hair while they let the bleeding stop itself until they could do anything about it. The mirror was trying her best to give that image to Laby as much as she could, wanting her to never give up, but the girl responded verbally to it:
"Nisha... You don't have to do this for Laby. Laby isn't worth doing this for. Laby only hurts people. Laby can't do anything right... Teacher is dead because of Laby, so it's all Laby's fault for letting people in Laurensia dying to the slimy thingies that swing around... Laby's so stupid, Laby will never learn anything, at all, ever..."
The cries would continue on for a while, feeding Nisha with enough pain that she wanted to do something that she only dreamt of, yet never attempted making real: through a final stretch, now that she had enough of Laby crying, pushed herself to her absolute limits, resulting in one hand mysteriously appearing from the mirror, giving a voice that Laby has never heard before, leaving Laby surprised once she felt that hand wipe her tears away.
"It's okay, Laby... I'm going to be here with you, always. Wherever you stand, however you stand, I'll support you. You are anything but useless, stupid, annoying, whatever your mind is trying to tell to your heart. I disagree with what you have to say about yourself. It hurts me to see you break down like this, Laby. I promise you will be fine. I've had enough tears laid onto me that I want to call 'enough' enough."
Laby stood in shock, crying harder as a result because she couldn't believe herself for one second, at all. It was new to see: she's never felt a hand like this care for her, let alone be Nisha in her human form. The body continued to come out of the mirror over time, since the girl was crying so much it kept on feeding her, but she eventually made it outside where she could just step out. It took a long time, but, once she was fully outside, Laby was put into the other woman's lap, feeling her stroke her hair to try calming her down while Laby was crying against her chest. They knew who they were, but Laby couldn't see anything because her face was blurry after having tears in her eyes for so long, but a wipe later and she'd look at her in her eyes, being very akin to hers. She'd wrap her arms around her as tight as she could, crying out her name:
"Nisha... Nisha...!" — said Laby.
"It's okay Laby, I'm here now. I'll take care of everything from here on out. I promise. I have to get used to the real world, but I'll be fine." — replied Nisha, having Bibi to cuddle with now, whom was definitely enjoying the attention it received. This was an attempt to move Laby's attention away from feeling bad, and the fluffiness of Bibi reminded her of great things once again.
This had worked fairly well, having Laby calm herself down a little more, slowly, & over time. It was until about an hour or two later, but dusk was about to hit now that the warmth of the sun was about to slowly go away. By the end of the event chain, Laby was with Nisha on a bench, where the girl was just lying her head onto the other's shoulder. She even took a nap after a while, crying herself to sleep, but Nisha stood awake, stroking her hair as she dropped some tears herself while the child was asleep, breaking down a little herself. She had the same emotions as Daydreamer, and they only showed when she knew it was safe to let them out. She felt guilty whenever she did what Laby does, but she never showed it to any degree. It was just stacking up, absorbing the pain as she convinced herself that she'd never make it out in the slightest.
She was fragile, like everyone else: she might be her guardian, or try her hardest to be one as she wanted to take care of her, but she knew she was weak. She thought of the same things Laby said about herself much before her, doubting herself every chance she got. Even to this point, she seemed confident, but she really wasn't. She wasn't confident at all in herself, and, if anything, it was the opposite that truly happened. She dreamed as much as Laby did, trying to keep her head up through this pain, but she was going to cheer her up, no matter how long it will take, neither how much she'd refuse the words, but she was going to accomplish the goal.
With Nisha being the only one awake, she saw some people going towards the El Tower: it looked like a man, albeit feminine and short, with blue hair into a long tail, presumably a water dragon, and he was walking with a tall man in armor. The armor was in the color of earth, and he had a gauntlet to match, followed by tree brown skin, blond with short hair. He looked a lot like the one Teacher Laby kept mentioning all this time and thinking of, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She analyzed it carefully once she felt better though, wanting to surprise Laby tomorrow after it's dawn, where they'd potentially be approachable and Laby is wide awake.
Until then, she slowly closed her eyes, preparing herself for tomorrow, sleeping onto the bench with the sun finally dying once she was completely shut off, cuddling with Laby in the meantime.
"I love you, Laby" was the last thing she said before dozing off, though, kissing her forehead to finish.
