"It's Lumina's voice, isn't it?" Kokoa guessed, wandering over to Neo as casually as she could. Neo jerked in surprise, partly because she hadn't expected to be addressed, partly because it was Kokoa, and partly because she was absolutely correct.

"How did you know?" Neo's voice was cold and guarded and she did not turn around to look at Kokoa.

"I think you can guess." Kokoa's eyes flicked to the stage, a giant screen in the back broadcasting Lumina as Michiru DJed in front of her.

It was a little, unofficial thing they were doing for Lumina's V-Tuber fanbase, so it wasn't a Unichord project, per se. Hayate had of course insisted that she and Kokoa go to support Lumina and Michiru anyway, but she'd since excused herself to the bathroom, and possibly snacks on the way back. Kokoa chuckled and shook her head, slapping her forehead. She knew Hayate would be gone for far longer than she originally intended. She was such a scatterbrained thing! But Kokoa was in a good mood that night and allowed her to go without an escort.

Kokoa's eyes wandered after that, and out of the corner of her eye, she happened to notice Neo's face, bathed in the light of the giant screen broadcasting Lumina. Kokoa's heart jumped in her chest, and before she knew what she was doing, she was creeping through the audience to reach the other girl. As soon as Neo realized who she was speaking to, and what was being spoken about, all pretenses were off.

"Michiru had a minor freak-out first time we realized Lumina had your mother's voice." We all did.

To think that Unichord knew something so personal about Neo just because of Lumina made Neo's skin crawl. She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking her head and scoffing coldly. "She claims to feel as an older sister for me; however, just because she has my mother's voice—!"

"No, she means it," Kokoa cut Neo off firmly. "I know, it's weird, and believe me, all of us are still struggling to wrap our heads around it, but I promise that no matter what Lumina was programmed to do, her concern for you was real." Neo hadn't been there, but Kokoa had, and so had Hayate and Michiru. When some of Lumina's memory, her directive, came back to her, it was triggered by the sight of Neo suffering alone onstage.

"Wh-why…? Seeing her like this… Why do I feel like…? Why do I want to…?" Lumina would not understand it at first, but with the help of Unichord, they realized that she was feeling protectiveness for the other girl. "I didn't want to see her alone and hurting like that. She looked so lost and afraid. All I wanted to do was… comfort her. Protect her…"

Knowing Lumina's backstory, it seemed obvious. She was programmed to love Neo because Neo's father created her to save and absolve Neo. But as Lumina had already proven with Unichord, just because a purpose was given to her at birth didn't mean she was totally powerless to ever make her own decisions.

"She found it within herself to love us for us!" Kokoa insisted fiercely. "I know she did the same for you! She wanted to look for you and look after you, and she wanted to take care of you because she genuinely cared for you!" Just as could be said for every unit, their meeting and subsequent relationships were not forced. Perhaps the encounter was fate, but they were the ones who decided how to move forward from there.

"In fact, at one point, Michiru asked if that would make her your stepmother in-law!" Kokoa scoffed and shook her head. While Lumina was breaking down about her relationship with Neo, and what it was supposed to be, Michiru started freaking out too. It wasn't just a façade!

"Stepmother in-law?" Neo echoed with a scoff of her own, recoiling in embarrassment and mild disgust.

"Ah, my bad," Kokoa winced, realizing her mistake too late. If only Hayate was here! She was always a smoother talker. Lucky poet… "Michiru's got a pretty big fangirl crush on Lumina, and ever since they started working together…" It's only gotten grosser and sappier. Kokoa smirked to herself. Synchronicity indeed.

"Ah." Neo winced again, but not solely because she was trying to imagine a dorky little girl even smaller and younger than her being her "mother". In fact, it was hard enough looking at… Lumina…

Kokoa's eyes drifted back to Neo, sensing that Neo wasn't just wincing because of Michiru. "I… think I… understand," she said slowly, carefully. She wasn't worried about offending Neo. She didn't care about that. It was just that, what she was about to say wasn't easy for her either.

Why am I saying it at all? Kokoa berated herself. Neo is still potentially an enemy, even though… Kokoa's face softened again. Unichord's relationship with Abyssmare—heck, the relationship of all the Japanese units with Abyssmare—was… tenuous, to put it lightly. Sometimes it was bad, but sometimes it was… good…?

"My mom… passed away… a while ago," Kokoa said quietly, looking down. "So I… wrote her a song…" Because I missed her… "And then Michiru…" For just a second, anger flashed across Kokoa's face. "Her stupid remix! It was so… good…" Kokoa's face softened for a second time. The story of Unichord: Hayate found her through the song, and Lumina found Michiru through the remix. All of them were destined to meet because of fate, through Kokoa and her mother. But it wasn't easy, at first.

For one, having Michiru somehow be "better than me" at writing a song about my own mother, and then for her to make it so commercial! Kokoa's lip curled and her eyes drifted to Lumina once more. Neo's did as well. Neither of them spoke again for almost an entire song.

But then Neo, still looking dead ahead at Lumina's giant screen, asked another question. "Is your father still alive?"

Kokoa recoiled. How dare you ask that?! But she nodded tightly, eyes narrow, waiting for Neo to explain herself. Neo gave no indication that she even heard Kokoa's answer, and indignation flashed through Kokoa. Neo was completely lost in her own head again. It was a feeling she would not be able to identify, but something powerful washed over her and made her stomach churn as she thought about Kokoa, losing her mother, left alone with only a father for support.

Was he grieving too? Did he ever hurt you? What did you two do without… her… there? And how did it feel when you finally met Michiru? How did you not murder her for what she dared to do? In particular, Neo's imagination ran wild with what Kokoa's home life must've been in the days, months, years following her mother's death, because at least Neo could guess how Kokoa's story with Michiru went.

Did he ever hurt you? Did he ever apologize? Or was he able to escape accountability too…? Now it was Neo's turn to feel the heat of indignation. No matter what anyone else said, she was still angry at her father, had not fully forgiven him for the years of loneliness and shame he put her through. Even though he spent his final years trying to reach out to her, even going so far as to invent Lumina, Neo just couldn't…

Forgive him for pushing me away like that in the first place… And… me… for pushing away… every attempt he ever made… to contact her again.

Neo's stomach and hands clenched. That feeling she couldn't identify, washing over her as she thought of Kokoa, was protectiveness. And Kokoa had taken a huge gamble revealing any side of herself to the other girl. Neo had to respect that. She could easily identify Kokoa as someone else who concealed her true feelings behind a mask, who hated to be truthful about her feelings, especially if they were vulnerable. So Neo answered the kindred spirit in kind and Kokoa's guarded expression slowly melted away again.

"I think… maybe it's not as… uncommon, as it seems," Kokoa murmured when Neo finished recounting her tale. "Hayate had a problem like that too…" Her family loved her, but they argued often, and sometimes she was caught in the crossfire, used as ammunition by both sides. Eventually, she ran away, living alone in a tiny apartment before meeting Kokoa. And then of course, there was Ku… and even Sho… And many, many more. No family was perfect, and some of them had darker, sadder stories than it seemed.

One example outside of Unichord, Abyssmare, and even LMO, was Muni. Her mother was still alive, but sometimes she would become sick, and poor Muni would always fear for the worst. And Muni wasn't even the only one of their friends to fear that a hospitalized relative would never come home. Death and tragedy had touched several of them already, and that meant any of them were capable of doing and becoming people they weren't always proud of. It wasn't just Neo, and it wasn't just Kokoa.

"I have noticed," Kokoa cleared her throat awkwardly, "Abyssmare seems… friendlier with one another, of late."

Now it was Neo's turn to look embarrassed, nodding as her shoulders rose around her ears. After Sho's betrayal and abandonment, it forced all of Abyssmare to reassess their relationships with each other. It was a sink-or-swim trial-by-fire. They could either pack even closer together in the face of adversity, or let the fear and fallout tear them even farther apart, deepening the wounds.

Somehow, against all odds and expectations, they did the former. Perhaps it was the stress of their forced and sudden move to Japan, but they looked after one another, and after Sho's heartlessness was exposed, they decided to band together against him rather than dissolve because of him. But Neo could still see it so clearly in her mind's eye, that despair which settled in when Sho's abandonment, paralleling her father's, finally, truly became a reality to Neo. It was one she could no longer run from, and in that alternate universe, Abyssmare rotted away from the inside out.

Neo could see herself still singing desperately on stage for something that would never come. Sophia would go mad trying to save Neo, driving away everyone else. Who knew? Maybe in that timeline, Sophia became such a loose cannon that even she would finally be forced away from Neo, sent to a mental institution after everything she was willing to do for, and to, Neo just to keep her close. And of course, Elsie would eventually take flight, realizing that Abyssmare had sunk far beneath her lofty level. And even Weronika would be forced to fly the nest, seeking a steady source of income elsewhere for the sake of herself and her siblings.

"Do you ever regret Abyssmare?" Kokoa asked suddenly, as if she'd been able to read Neo's mind. Even though Abyssmare managed to pull through and pass life's "secret test of character", did the fact that they could've gone so wrong ever unsettle Neo? At the very least, it forced her to realize how incohesive and discordant they truly were. No well-put-together band would've ever gotten so close to plunging into an abyss as deep as theirs almost was. Even Unichord's fallouts were never so total. But after giving it some thought, Neo had an answer, for Kokoa and herself.

"Do you ever regret Unichord?" Knowing your grudge against Michiru, your annoyance with Lumina, and perhaps even the dawning realization that you only agreed to join them because Hayate asked. And did you ever get the closure you wanted?

The Kokoa from 10 minutes ago would've reared back at such a personal, touchy question, but the Kokoa of now only nodded sagely. Yes, and no. There are other ways I wish our story could have gone, but looking back from where we are now…

It was kind of like their concerns about their parents. Did they regret the entire relationship just because it didn't end the way they may have wanted? And was their inability to get closure from that relationship hindering them?

Kokoa was at last able to summarize both of their thoughts on the matter. "Yes. There are pieces I regret. And things I wish I could undo… But I know that I cannot, therefore, I cannot truly say that I regret my time with Unichord overall. Who knows? Perhaps all our adversity was worth it." She would never truly know for sure, so she supposed that it was up for her to decide.

"Yes. But let us agree to be careful, so that we never need fear an ending without closure ever again." Neo said, staring straight ahead. Even though they both knew it was impossible to always predict and control the way relationships ended, there were still things they could do to mitigate the risk of a life filled with regret. As Kokoa said at the start of their little chat, fate may have ordained their meeting, but they were the ones who had to choose where and how the story proceeded.

"It is time to begin a new chapter in our story, together, even if we must be rivals." Neo at last turned to Kokoa, meeting her gaze evenly and extending a hand to shake. Kokoa raised her eyebrows, but then she took Neo's hand and grasped it firmly, meeting her gaze unflinchingly and unblinkingly. If the end of their talk seemed abrupt to her, she did not betray her curiosity. The question was answered a moment later either way.

While Neo at last turned away from Kokoa and slunk back slowly into the shadows, Kokoa heard Michiru and Lumina calling her happily.

"Hey! Kokoa! There you are!" Michiru waved her phone and her free hand while Hayate flashed Kokoa two peace signs, drinking from a soda hat.

Where did she even GET that?! Wait a minute. Never mind that! When did the show end?! Kokoa's head became a metronome, whipping back and forth between her three approaching friends and the dark, empty stage ahead. Neo! She distracted me! She—!

Kokoa's head whipped over her shoulder, but already, Neo was gone. Had she seen the others coming and left before they could see her? Then it dawned on Kokoa. Where was the rest of Abyssmare? Neo hadn't just left alone, it appeared as though she'd come alone as well. It was another contrast between Unichord and Abyssmare, as glaring as their colors. Kokoa's three friends raced over to her, and they were bathed in bright, excited light. Neo, meanwhile, exited quietly into the darkness, leaving only the faintest of whispers in her wake.

"It is time to begin a new chapter in our story, together, even if we must be rivals."

Would they really be rivals, though? A part of Kokoa was already in doubt. It sounded more like Neo was giving a last-ditch effort to appear stoic and disconnected, but as someone who was very prone to do likewise, Kokoa only smirked and shook her head.

Attachment and reattachment, that's all this is, for any of us. It's just a question of how easy or difficult the transition. But with Neo long gone, it didn't take Kokoa long to turn back to her bandmates. Her grim, determined frown became a warm, cheerful smile.

AN: I need a mass-D4 event that addresses everyone's parental issues all at once, like a giant support group, LOL!

Or at least give me something between Neo and Kokoa because they've got quite a few parallels! As I hope this fic was able to convey.

As always, thx for reading!

Oh and random trivia fact, I just think it's cool that Neo and Nova both translate to New. So the name of this saga (Side Nova) is literally Side New/Neo.