Nana groaned as her knee buckled, forcing her to press a hand against the hospital hallway wall as she was caught by Momo's arm wrapped around her shoulders, her sister laughing as she helped her to her feet again.

"One step at a time. Rito-san and the others do it just fine, you can too!" the third princess stated reassuringly, and Nana grit her teeth, glaring forward at the ground as if her lack of balance was the tiles' fault. "Look on the bright side...We use our tails for balance, but now you don't have the same weakness I do. You can catch mine, but I can't retaliate anymore."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Real helpful." the flat girl said, rolling her eyes at the devious grin on her sister's face. ""How can they move so well without a tail?" she complained, turning her gaze behind her, where Momo's twisted in the air in response to the question. "I've always thought about how strange it was that they didn't need it, but I didn't realize just how hard it really is to stay upright…" Her own tail, or what few inches remained of it, painfully wiggled in the gauze it was wrapped in, in a futile effort to do the job it no longer was capable of.

"Being jealous won't help anything, and the past can't change. Darkness wasn't being very precise, and she knew that our tails can't be reattached even if it is a perfect cut." Momo frowned, her grip on Nana's forearm tightening and alerting her twin to her change in mood. "I don't get why you don't want her punished. This is the second time she's-"

"'The past can't change.' You just said that." came the reply as she forced a smile through the pained expression on her face. "I've always been acting first and thinking later, and if I took a moment to pause, then this wouldn't have happened. I've had time to do the thinking now, and it made me realize that I don't want to fight anymore."

Momo hesitated, looking away for a moment before turning back to face Nana as the girl took another step, this one strong enough that she didn't collapse again. "I would've agreed, but it's the second time Darkness came out. The first time, yeah, she wasn't at fault and it was Nemesis pulling the strings, but this time she willingly believed-" She cut herself off, realizing that saying the name knowing Nana's relationship with the culprit could be bad. "She let herself be controlled, and even looking at her, I could see she was still aware of what she was doing."

Nana laughed hollowly, pushing her hair out of her face as she hadn't yet put it into her usual pigtails. "You don't need to censor yourself, I've already realized Mea doesn't really care about me. I'm not going to beat myself up over it again, it isn't worth the tears anymore. Nothing is, I've pretty much realized that whatever I get involved in ends up worse off than before."

Momo narrowed her eyes, using her grip to shake her sister as she frowned. "Don't talk like that! None of this is your fault, you shouldn't treat yourself like it is."

Nana didn't look at her, keeping her eyes on the ground as she moved to take another step, wobbly but more certain than the last attempt. The stub of her tail twitched again as it reflexively tried to correct her balance, but she was able to successfully not tip over as she planted her weight onto the foot, her hand held out to grab the railing on the hallway wall.

Her knees still shook as she changed position to move forward, but considering that only a few moments ago she couldn't stand up at all, it was significant progress, and she grit her teeth in a pained grin, a determined look crossing her face as she pushed Momo away from her, stumbling before catching herself again. "I didn't say I'm going to let that take me down." she responded. "Even if everything I've done before now was wrong, I'll just have to stop doing it. I don't think it's hard, I doubt I'll ever be able to move like I did anyway."

Her eyes narrowed as she sighed, waving her sister away as she tried to help her stand steady again. "I don't want to blame anyone anymore. You're right, I can't say it's all my fault, but the same applies to Mea, Yami, even Rito. You can't just say one person is to blame and put all your anger towards them. That's the same thing I was doing, and it ended with Rito getting hurt worse than I anticipated."

"Nana…" Momo said, her hand hovering in the air as she debated whether to give up trying to help or fight against Nana's desire to walk on her own. "Do you really not hate Yami-san for this? It's not just you she almost killed, it's Rito-san too-"

"Rito isn't dead, though, is he?" Nana asked, a tired laugh signalling her thoughts on the matter. "If you were telling the truth about him losing his memory of us…" Her smile fell, and she shook her head. "It's better for both of us if I cut ties and stay away from him." She silently thanked her lack of balance for being a legitimate excuse behind her trembling, keeping her face away from Momo's view as she stepped forward again.

"But, this is also a chance for you!" Momo said, grinning as she spoke in a light-hearted tone. "He doesn't remember how you were, so that means you can become a new person in his eyes. If you already are going to change yourself, then-"

"Momo, that's not what I mean. I know you're going to take advantage of him and try for that Harem Plan of yours, but I already lost my chance. Yami confessed first, and she'll probably try again now that she can start over. If I tried to get in the way now, it would just hurt her chances."

Momo frowned, crossing her arms. "What are you talking about? She's just brute forcing her way into his heart after so long doing nothing but attacking him. She'll self-destruct soon."

Nana grit her teeth, turning her head to glower at her sister, who stepped back in surprise at the serious expression on her face. "I'm not getting in Yami's way, or things will end up a bloodbath again." she replied. "And you saw it too, Rito wasn't against it when she kissed him. He made his choice already, losing his memory isn't going to do anything but make him learn about her from scratch. Yeah, we've lived in the same house as him, but he's known her longer and she made the first move. I don't believe in your idea of a harem, he's only going to pick one person, and I'm not going to get in the way and risk getting hurt again." She looked away again, sighing as she tightened her grip on the railing. "I don't want him to be hurt, and I'm done with being betrayed. It's too much for me, I'm not nearly as strong as you and Aneue. I won't stop you anymore with your stupid plan, but I'm not going to be a part of it either."

Momo stood still, debating what to say, before she sighed, moving to pat Nana's back, to the girl's chagrin. "Fine. I'm not going to fight you over this anymore, if you think that's best then I'll accept it. But, I can't let you go through with that without saying that you'll end up regretting that decision. Holding yourself back so that other people get what they want is just going to hurt you, and right now, you have the advantage of being a victim as well. If you pass up the chance now, then you won't be able to get it back later."

"I don't want to share any more than Yami does!" Nana said, in a pained half shout, half whisper as the dryness in her throat made her voice give out. "You're the only person who thinks that's a good solution, everyone else wants to monopolize him! Try all you want, but even he can't make everyone happy. Rito's not some omnipotent being to put on a pedestal, he's just a human. I don't care if I'm just running away, I'd rather save myself the pain now than continue suffering for the tiny chance he'd look at me."

"Nana." A firm tone now, something Momo rarely used and that forced her twin to look at her, making eye contact as she frowned. "You're acting like the Harem Plan is something selfless. It isn't. I'm doing it because I'm the same as you. I know my chances are small, so I'm doing what gives me the best odds of being at least remembered. I'm well aware of how Rito-san sees me, and I'm going to continue acting to convince him that he loves me too, even if it requires deceiving him. The difference between us isn't that you're not willing to share, it's that you don't have a strong enough will to keep fighting for what you want. We're both selfish people, but at least I have the integrity to admit it."

Nana's eyes widened at the statement, and she laughed, a hollow, emotionless noise that echoed in the hall as she turned away, standing straight, and for the first time since leaving her hospital bed, she didn't shake anymore, balanced on her feet and keeping steady.

"I'm done with this farce. Do what you want, I'm dropping out of the race."