"A Mind Sealed; Dreams of Another World"

Fio, also known as the Girl of Light or simply the Girl, is one of the two protagonists of the first story arc of NieR Reincarnation, The Girl and the Monster, alongside the Dark Monster, Levania.

She is a kind, amnesiac girl who awakens within The Cage. She explores with Mama and suffers from mysterious nightmares every night.

Description

"A girl who awakens on the cold stone floor of The Cage.
Though she is kind and has a bright personality,
she wears a collar and bandages for reasons unknown,
and is plagued each night by horrible dreams."

Appearance

Fio is a young girl with grey eyes who ties her white-blonde hair up in pigtails, along with a pronounced pompadour. She wears a white dress, shorts, and bandages wrapped around her left leg down past her knee. She also wears a black collar and lead around her neck, as well as black manacles on her wrists—this is not by choice, but rather because the place where she lives in the human world demands it.

While in the form of a Dark Monster, her appearance is identical to Levania.

Story

"Nothing will change about the world, even if I'm no longer in it."

— A Note beside the girl

Fio's story is explored in Redemption: White.

NieR Reincarnation

See also: Fio/Character Story, Fio/EX Stories, and Fio/Other Stories

A girl with a cheery demeanor despite her circumstances, Fio is described as being from a small town in a faraway country. Her parents often fought because of her father losing his job, due to the country's strict rules on social class and mobility. Her and her family were considered "Goat People," a class below Commoners created by the country's Nobles to suppress dissent. The Goat People were often ridiculed, harassed, and abused, as well as forced to wear collars and manacles to show their status.

During this time Fio also suffers from recurring nightmares, finding herself in The Cage and meeting Levania. The two make an agreement—in exchange for Levania eating her dreams and getting rid of her nightmares, Levania can become human.

Fio's father is killed when he attempts to get back his job in the town's barracks. Devastated by this, Fio returns to her mother, only to discover that she was having an affair and plans to leave. Alone, Fio slowly goes hungry and laments on how no one will care for her because she is a Goat—eventually being forced to leave her home behind. In time, Fio passes away, starved and alone.

It is discovered that the player character in the first half of The Girl and the Monster arc is not Fio, but actually Levania who acquired Fio's human body after successfully devouring her dreams. During this time Fio takes the form of a Dark Monster, and appears to be exploring on her own throughout The Cage.

In the second half of The Girl and the Monster arc, it shows how Fio and Levania previously met as well as the process of Levania devouring her dreams, which she is grateful for due to her constant nightmares. However, once Levania realizes the dreams are actually Fio's memories, he ends up stealing her body, replacing it with his own. Confused, Fio runs off, leaving Levania to discover that Carrier betrayed him.

In a desperate bid to undo his actions, Levania recovers his memories with Mama and follows Fio, attempting to reach out to her. Fio, wishing to forget the pain of being human, rejects his attempts, before he eventually succeeds and promises to be her friend. She and Levania’s weapon stories are restored and they return to their scarecrows.

Fio and Levania are later seen during The People and the World, where they, along with the rest of the cast, travel with YoRHa No.10 Type H and Pod 006 to Earth. In this time, Levania lost his memories of Fio and Fio becomes friends with him again. Fio encounters Her and attempts to reach out to her, hoping to become friends and lessen Her’s loneliness. Her instead mentally locks Fio in a dark space where she can’t remember anyone and intensifies her loneliness. Levania regains his memories and helps Fio break free, with Fio’s memories of the Cage helping her.

After Her is defeated, Fio, empathizing with Her, asks Mama for a favor and parts ways with Levania, who continues to watch over her as she reincarnates into a physical form and wakes up under a blue sky with Her.

[U]ndecided Option

A short time after awakening, Fio and She wander a desert with long-abandoned buildings and cars. In the distance, the two see what appears to be an enormous, box-like object quickly approaching. Fio and She begin fleeing, though it is clear the object is faster. Attempting to gain more secure footing in the unstable sands, the two run across the body of a worm-like machine lifeform they mistake for a metal pipe. The machine awakens and threatens to attack them, but the box smashes into the machine and saves them.

From the box, actually a vehicle, emerges a much smaller machine who apologizes for startling the girls. He tells them that he meant no harm, and is a collector of relics from the extinct human race. Fio expresses hope that the machine may possess something that could help lead them to Him. She knows that He is gone forever, but She is grateful for Fio's kindness and innocence and cannot bring Herself to tell her.

She and Fio are given a ride to a derelict ship in the middle of the desert. The machine reveals that he has collected countless human artifacts, including exhibits from a science museum. Fio does not recognize many of the objects and asks Her what they are, who knows due to her origin as part of the quantum computer meant to monitor humanity's history. Fio wonders if she technically came from outer space, and She feels immense guilt again for separating Fio and Levania, but Her mood is lifted by Fio's positivity and excitement learning about the artifacts.

The machine shows the girls his favorite exhibit. She recognizes it as a planetarium and explains its function. Fio and Her then notice another machine of the same model in the room, no longer active. The machine explains that this was once his closest friend, and the two often wandered the desert together before finding the planetarium, though it had already broken long ago. Several years prior, the other machine's core failed, leaving Her and Fio's host uncertain of how much time he had left himself, and melancholy that he may not live long enough to fulfill his and his friend's dream of seeing the planetarium projecting the night sky around the dome.

Moved by the machine's story, Fio suggests repairing the planetarium, and She agrees to help. She believes Fio's wish to help the machine fulfill his and his friend's past dream is a way of vicariously reconnecting with her own lost friend, and so She views this as an attempt to atone for Her wrongdoings and separation of Fio and Levania.

The three of them gather materials to repair the planetarium's projector. Fio injures herself falling from a high place to secure a lens for the projector, though she is unharmed, causing She to apologize for making Fio push herself so much, but Fio reassures Her that she is fine.

The projector is completed, and all three observe the mostly functional planetarium in awe. As the narration programmed into the planetarium speaks of the Apollo program, Fio wonders what humans intended to do after reaching space. In response, She considers for a moment the best answer and says that people may have wanted to share their memories of Earth with someone from across the stars.

At last, once the planetarium showing had ended, She encourages Fio to join Her in searching for a way to reunite with Levania. She realizes that Fio did not come with Her in despair but full of hope, and that She also needed to stop dwelling in guilt and look ahead to the future. Fio agrees as she begins to cry, admitting she worried she would never see Levania again, and She realizes that the two of them have been carrying and repressing the very same pain of fear of loneliness. The two embrace in understanding.

Before leaving, the machine thanks the two for helping him realize the dream he shared with his friend, and that by seeing Her and Fio repair the planetarium, his hope for the future had been restored. He gives Her some of his ancient relics as mementos to commemorate their meeting before the two depart.

Back in the desert, She and Fio are determined to make their way to the moon somehow, as the Apollo astronauts once had millennia ago. She retrieves the items given to Her by the machine: a pair of two small star-shaped rings, which were friendship rings from when humans still existed. She offers one to Fio and declares that She wants to be her friend, and Fio enthusiastically accepts. The two continue their trek.

Trivia

• Fio's name is a reference to the character Fiolxhilde from Johannes Kepler's novel Somnium. In this novel, Fiolxhilde summons a dark demon that comes from the island of Levania (an allegory of the Moon).^[2]
• Fio's favorite food is her mother's stew.^[1]
• Fio's hobby is reading.^[1]
• Fio's special skill is being able to twirl without getting dizzy.^[1]
  • Despite this, in chapter 9 of The Girl and the Monster, Fio appears to get dizzy when going down a spiral staircase.
• In the memoir "My Heart" from the memoir series "The Worker's Foundation," Fio can be seen sitting in a bed of Lunar Tears.
• In Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden, Fio's default outfit is available as a DLC costume for Al'e.
• In SINoALICE, Fio was obtainable via gacha during the NieR Reincarnation crossover event.
• Fio's "Mechanical Girl" costume is similar to that of 2B's from NieR:Automata, albeit with a large bow and different hemline on the dress.
  • Notably, this costume is one of two costumes that could still be obtained after the end of its associated crossover event (Rion having the other, which is also from Automata).
• Fio's "Intoner Girl" costume is that of One's from Drakengard 3.
• Fio's "Simulacrum Girl" costume is similar to 2P's, a machine-copy of 2B from Final Fantasy XIV's Dark Apocalypse raid series.
• When Fio's costume "Guardian Girl" was released, Mama's News incorrectly labelled it as a 4-star instead of a 3-star.
  • It also incorrectly listed guns as Fio's preferred weapon.
• The official English NieR Reincarnation Twitter posted Halloween themed icons for some of the Reincarnation characters, including Fio as a cat.^[3]
• Fio and Rion have various similarities:
  • Both mention apples in their stories.
    • In Fio's case, her mother gives her a "slurpy apple" after she requests one while sick. Also, the fruit Fio is tempted to steal while starving is an apple.
    • In Rion's case, Dimos gives him an apple to eat shortly before he dies.
  • Both have an older male companion who is taciturn.
  • Both have one dead parent and another parent who abandons them.
  • Both are ex-royalty who were nearly killed by their corrupt families.
  • Both have biological mothers who died when they were young.

Gallery

Notes

References

Navigation

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