“Argh. . .” Asukai turned his gaze to Aya.
✦ ✦ ✦
She shook off her fear, and looked back at him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Then closed her eyes. “Eep!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai reached for the flower on her chest.
✦ ✦ ✦
But his hand passed right through it.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............?"
✦ ✦ ✦
He tried again, not believing his eyes.
✦ ✦ ✦
But again, his hand passed right through the vision, unable to grab hold of anything.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what? Why?”Asukai panicked.
✦ ✦ ✦
He had done this so many times, so easily, but he couldn’t do it with hers...!
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why can’t I touch it?!” he exclaimed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya opened her eyes.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her expression was tinged with loneliness.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...I thought this might happen,” she said, softly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What? What do you mean?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You wanted to do something to humans, right? That’s why you needed me...but that won’t work.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why not?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Because I’m not human,” she said, her voice filled with deep resignation.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............!" Asukai’s face twitched.
✦ ✦ ✦
The shadow spoke. “See? Either way, you had already lost.”
✦ ✦ ✦
It moved towards him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah...” Asukai staggered back, away from Aya. “H-how can. . .that be?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The moment you first met this girl, your loss was already decided. I may not be Sun Tzu, but clearly, ‘Everything is already decided befOre the battle even begins.”’
✦ ✦ ✦
“B-but this is...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You and this girl-whatever brought you together, whatever inexplicable, ironic twist of fate that was, I do not know, but you had already lost to it,” the shadow delcared, his voice as cold as ice.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai tried to remember when and how he had met Orihata Aya...but he couldn’t.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Th-that’s just...”
✦ ✦ ✦
He reeled backwards.
✦ ✦ ✦
The shadow followed. It passed in front of Orihata Aya, chasing the retreating Asukai.
✦ ✦ ✦
“If you only look to the future, things like this happen. . .Imaginator! If you believe yourself to be the only possibility, then some other possibility will arise when you least expect it, and sweep your feet out from under you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
But the shadow’s eyes were not looking at Asukai Jin, but something behind him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Aaaaah...!” Scrambling backwards, Asukai felt his back come up against something hard.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seven canisters with a sinister gleam.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai’s eyes widened.
✦ ✦ ✦
He reached a hand towards the valve. “In that case..."
✦ ✦ ✦
he screamed, and tried to release the vial of death containe'
✦ ✦ ✦
within...
✦ ✦ ✦
But his hand would not do it.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Ah!"
✦ ✦ ✦
It was shaking like a leaf.
✦ ✦ ✦
He couldn’t do it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s impossible, Imaginator,” the shadow said, quietly. “Completely impossible. He can never break through.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Whoever the shadow was talking to, his voice sounded, for: the first time, a little sad.
✦ ✦ ✦
“All you can do is fall. No other possibility remains before; you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Even if snow does fall in April, Imaginator, it will only melt in the warmth of spring. It will never accumulate.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Aaaahh. . .” Asukai’s feet buckled under him.
✦ ✦ ✦
A huge gust of wind swept across the rooftop.
✦ ✦ ✦
"......!"
✦ ✦ ✦
The wind was so strong, even Aya, tied to a pillar, had to fight against it.
✦ ✦ ✦
The shadow was unaffected, but Asukai was knocked clean off his feet.
✦ ✦ ✦
He rolled, headed towards the tower’s edge-
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah. . . !” His expression was completely vacant...
✦ ✦ ✦
As if he had given up on everything.
✦ ✦ ✦
The tower was incomplete, and there was no fence for safety.
✦ ✦ ✦
liven as he tumbled over the edge, Asukai reached his hands towards thin air. Even he had no idea who he was reaching for......
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. A great empti-ness opened beneath him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Several strands hurtled through the air, wrapping around the falling object before it was even out of sight.
✦ ✦ ✦
They took the object’s weight and stopped it. It hung suspended in the air...
✦ ✦ ✦
Unmoving.
✦ ✦ ✦
“And...”
✦ ✦ ✦
The cloaked figure, which had hurled the wires, tied them to a nearby pipe. That was all-it made no move to lift him.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya’s eyes widened. “Wh-what did you do?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mm?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Did he. . .die? Did you kill him?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh, let’s see. . .well, he may have a little whiplash.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why did you save him?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“He was not worth killing,” the cloaked figure said.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........." Aya was astonished. She couldn’t think of what?
✦ ✦ ✦
else to say.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Without the Imaginator, how much power does he really have? He has simply returned to his former self. He is no longer my enemy.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya caught her breath.
✦ ✦ ✦
The cloaked figure’s enemy...
✦ ✦ ✦
“So. . .” Aya said, voice trembling. “So you. . .would not hold back, if there was a clear enemy?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Exactly.” The cloaked figure briefly put his hand inside the cloak.
✦ ✦ ✦
When it emerged again, it held a knife.
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya gulped.
✦ ✦ ✦
The cloaked figure came towards her.
✦ ✦ ✦
This time, Aya didn’t close her eyes. She couldn’t close them.
✦ ✦ ✦
The figure’s eyes were staring directly into hers, pinning her in place. She couldn’t even think...
✦ ✦ ✦
He stood before her now.
✦ ✦ ✦
And swung the knife.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............!"
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya saw the blade catch the last rays of light from the setting sun.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah.........!” she almost screamed. . .but the sound was drowned out by the snapping sound a moment later.
✦ ✦ ✦
The knife had sliced through both the chain on her handcuffs and the rope tying her to the pillar.
✦ ✦ ✦
“......Eh?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Ignoring Aya’s confusion, the cloaked figure looked towards the seven canisters.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I guess I can leave those. In the next couple of days, the Towa Organization is sure to be by to pick them up. Best to leave it to the experts,” he said, innocently.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-why?” Aya asked, looking at her newly freed hands, then at the cloaked figure.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mm?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“A-aren’t I your enemy? Why did you help me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“How are you my enemy?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“B-but. . .I. . .I’m not human, and...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, you mentioned that. But that has nothing to do with anything,” the cloaked figure said, decisively.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Nothing?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The reason Asukai J in was unable to harm you has nothing to do with your physical nature. After all, he had already defeated Spooky E. His corpse is over there. If it came down to physicality, that monster would have posed a far greater problem than you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"B-but..."
✦ ✦ ✦
“Asukai Jin seems to have fatally misunderstood his own ability. I do not know exactly what that power was, but it seems to have been something to do with seeing people’s hearts. However the human heart is not complete in and of itself, and it is not easily understood. The heart is purely a product of communication with others, and is not to be mistaken for the true self, the ego, Asukai Jin failed to grasp this. No matter how much you change a person’s heart, it will only be fleeting, and eventually, it will return to its original form.”