SDR2 SPOILERS. 

Everything's dark when her mind flickers awake.

Something's false inside the enclosed area she's in. Is it the air? The aura? The scent...?

Or maybe it's her.

Everything in her body seems off, incorrect, erroneous, false.

Carefully, she raises a hand to press against the flat surface above her. Her fingernails are coated with the color of blood rather than the black nail polish she remembers.

Her head hurts. Her neck burns, and good grief, does it ache.

Carefully, the woman cranes her neck to the side. There's a glow of blue, a hazy green twirling lazily around the cords of metal that wind down either side. They glint silver, but there's no reflection.

A click. The surface above her disappears, and the woman finds herself squinting, her eyes scrunch up and, for a moment, her head goes blank.

"Ibuki? Ibuki Mioda, can you hear me?"

IBUKI MIODA?

""I," "Buki," "Mio," "Da!" Put it together and what do you get? Ibuki Mioda!"

"Oh no! This present's giving Ibuki a hard case of the feels!"

"No worries! On this stage, what's important is not your performance skill, but your heart!"

"Feeling the rhythm of running is a necessary way of training if you want to learn about the correct music theory. Even music has proper grammar. A song that's made in accordance with music theory will definitely make you feel good when you hear it, so.. It'll be easier to awaken people's emotion!"

"Man, I'm getting hellaaaaaa stoooked! I'm thirty-one flavors of stoked for all of this deliciousness!"

"So...no matter what happens from this point forward, never ever give up. It's a promise!"

What... is this?

What... are those memories?

She's confused, more than ever. Her name? It's probably Ibuki Mioda, but who is she?

Her eyes fall on a pair of eyes- two different colors, but the warmth in them are the same, they're equal to one another. They're laced with a sense of skepticism, but when she looks at him, the eyes lighten.

"Ibuki? Can you hear me?"

The voice pulses in her ears- louder, louder than what she expected. Her throat still hurts.

Lips part, but nothing passes them. When she does, fire seems to leap up her throat, and one hand flies to touch where her neck is, only to meet scarred and torn flesh.

And then the memories start.

"AREN'T YOU A REMNANT OF DESPAIR FULL OF FUN?!"

"Stop this. Pl... please don't hurt... my family... I'm begging you...!"

It's no fun if Ibuki's bored, is it...?

Every blood cell in her body freezes up.

The man in front of her takes a step closer, eyes widening.

"Ibuki, please respond," he says quietly.

Please don't call Ib... me by that name.

She's shaking. Her entire frame is trembling, even the slightest wind could blow her over like a leaf and she would be gone.

A hand runs along her palm, almost out of reassurance. Fingers clutch at the hand, nails of the bloody, goddamn color that disgusted her so much despite only seeing it for several minutes, clawing at the skin.

The man steps closer. A single name burns out in her mind- but it's not a single name.

Hajime Hinata.

Izuru Kamukura.

Almost as if sensing her thoughts, he smiles, but the smile is laced with something uncertain in it's roots.

She runs her fingers across his open palm, done in a way to reassure herself. She's still trembling. Fingers quiver when she lifts them from skin, and she lifts her gaze to meet his.

There's four other people by the door. She recognizes them in a way that she recognizes Hajime Hinata.

Something's running down her cheeks- the print of a cool kiss. She doesn't notice the water until the droplet falls from her cheek.

And the dam that held back all of what's Ibuki Mioda breaks.