SimoneVaira
"In Tokyo, if you don't mesh perfectly with the gears, you're just scrap metal. And I've never been an easy replacement part."
Clio Miran is seventeen, with faded blue hair and knuckles scarred by one too many fights. While her sister Rui is the "perfect daughter"-the one who always knows what to say and how to look-Clio is the glitch in the system. An outsider in a family struggling to stay afloat between their Thai roots and the frantic pace of Japan.
But when a tragic accident severs the only bond holding them together, Clio's world shatters. In an instant, words become hollow, and the silence of their home grows as heavy as wet concrete. Between school expulsions, nights spent wandering through the Shinjuku rain, and a void in her chest that refuses to close, Clio decides to disappear.
Her only sanctuary is the family garage, a world of cold metal and the scent of gasoline. There, she finds an old, abandoned car-a wreck forgotten by everyone. Restoring it isn't just a project; it's the only way she can stop herself from breaking into pieces.
In a world that demands conformity, Clio will learn that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to the bone to feel like you still have a heart.