Nier- Sexy Training -v1.0- -zhulust- Direct

Instructor: Kainé (Observer)

Romance in this world is often tethered to the horror of being forgotten. Zhulust undergoes "Memory Wipe Training."

When Nier first meets Kainé, she is petrified in stone, a testament to her battle with the Shade inside her. He frees her out of desperation, not love. Immediately, she calls him a fool. She spits venom. She is clad in revealing attire not for fan service, but to emphasize her lack of shame for a body society rejected. Nier’s initial "training" is learning to endure her abuse. Nier- Sexy Training -v1.0- -Zhulust-

While Automata is more polished, its romance falls squarely under the training/Zhulust umbrella, albeit in a different flavor. 2B is not a cruel woman; she is a soldier forced to kill 9S over and over again.

Here is where Nier shatters the romance trope. In subsequent playthroughs, you learn that the "monsters" you’ve been slaughtering are the original humans (Gestalts). You learn that Kainé knows this. She is a "Replicant" with a Gestalt trapped inside her. Instructor: Kainé (Observer) Romance in this world is

The romantic storyline peaks when Kainé begins to lose control to Tyrann. Nier faces an impossible choice: Kill the woman he loves to save humanity, or doom the world to keep her.

The "training" concludes in the Ending E (the true ending). Kainé, believing Nier is dead (sacrificed himself to save her), wages a solo war against time and space. She enters a literal narrative void. Nier, in turn, deletes his own existence from the universe's memory to bring her back. Immediately, she calls him a fool

The romantic payoff: They wake up alone, in a reconstructed world, with no memory of the horror they endured. But their bodies remember the fight. Yoko Taro leaves them walking hand-in-hand out of a Lunar Tear field. No kiss. No "I love you." Just the training paying off: survival.