Liria

Sawtooth Village was nowhere on the map. A town of broken, discarded, and forgotten things. If something was called “useless” even once, it would inevitably fall into this town. Rusty teeth, pencils that have lost their owners, clocks that have stopped working, and sometimes... people. Liria was the only child in the village. No one knew how she was born, or how she fell. But she was here naturally, and so naturally she fixed broken things. When she touched a machine, she could see its memories. “This chair was once my grandfather's, where he sat and read the newspaper every day, This teapot holds memories of my sister and brother sharing tea.” Lilia was a child who could read memories, a repairman who could sew up broken hearts. One day, in the deepest recesses of the dump, she found a strange mechanical bird. Its feathery metal plates were half torn off, and its neck was riddled with broken teeth. Its pupils were broken, and its wings were completely twisted. It was... broken enough that anyone would have said, “It will never fly again.” But Liria said. “Still, you want to fly, don't you?” The mechanical bird didn't answer, but ever so faintly, the tips of its wings trembled. That was enough for Liria. For days and nights, Liria worked on the bird's wings, piece by piece, pulling out broken teeth, and carefully repairing the bird, following the flow of her memories. In the process, Lyria saw the bird's memories.

He had once been a messenger who flew over the city. He used to deliver letters to children, sit on rooftops and watch the stars. Then one day, he was abandoned because he was too slow. His place was taken by a faster drone, and he fell to pieces. Lyria sucked in a breath. “Speed isn't everything. I remember when you used to fly... everyone was happy.” The bird grew more and more animated, and finally opened its eyes. “Child... you understand us, the abandoned.” That night, the town's old clock tower rang its old bell. The mechanical bird soared upward. Instead of the creaking of its wings, only the quiet, steady sound of the wind reached Lyria's ears. A silver trail left in the sky. All the machines in the village lifted their heads and looked to the sky. Since that day, the town has changed a little. The rusty train started rolling again, and the stationary dolls nodded and whispered 'goodbye'. Music even began to play again from the discarded music box. That's how Liria redefined herself. “I'm not... a repairman who fixes machines, I'm someone who turns memories back on.” One day, an old robot asked her. “Why do you fix us like this? No one in this town ever gives back to you.” Liria laughed and replied. “I fix them so I don't lose myself. This village, I... I was abandoned the moment someone told me I was useless.”

And then, in a small voice, he added “But to me... it's all important. It may be broken, but there's still so much left.” And with that, Liria dredged up another memory. Fixing the broken clock, polishing the broken chair, mending herself little by little, very slowly.