He remembered how certain he’d been about all the happy days ahead of them.
Naomi’s imagination pulled him away from reality, made him forget about the masked things hunting for him. He fled into his mind, into his happiest fantasies.
He remembered a few things that didn’t involve Ruri, too. His first encounter with Sensei at Fushimi Inari, and the agreement they’d reached on the rooftop. His training sessions with the magic glove, and their long discussions, planning out his romantic strategy. The help he’d finally given Naomi that night when he replicated the books.
Sensei had taught him so many things and helped him grow like a brother. He’d been a real mentor, a true friend.
Naomi’s face crumpled and bitter tears ran down his face. His hands clawed at the mud as he tried to squeeze them into fists.
It was a lie. It was all one big lie.
All of it was fake—his kindness, his sternness, his concern. There was no hate in Naomi’s heart, only pain and sadness that he’d been deceived, and that Sensei was gone. He was heartbroken.
He’d lost everything he cared about.
A croaking sob forced itself out of his throat, and his tears disappeared into the muddy water.
He could see the legs of the wandering fox-masks reflected in that same puddle. For some reason, they’d stopped moving. Naomi tilted his head to look up from the ground. The countless legs were all frozen in place. He watched them uncertainly.
Without the constant drumming of the masked things’ footsteps, an eerie silence had fallen on the area. In that silence, Naomi could just make out a faint sound from very far away.
Is that a siren?
It sounded a lot like the alarm the local government played over the city’s loudspeakers during emergency evacuations drills or to announce a missing person. Naomi thought he could hear a voice as well, but the words were muffled and hard to hear from underneath this truck.
Listening closely, he managed to pick out a phrase or two. He thought he heard the words “Recovery Mode.”
A bright light flashed, and Naomi covered his face reflexively.
Squinting, he peered out from underneath the truck. One thing’s kitsune mask was shining. In its very center, something round, bright, and yellow had appeared—it almost looked like the warning lights set up near road construction.
It was an eye—a single, shining eye grown in the center of the mask. Or perhaps a third, if you counted the two slender ones on the mask itself.
One by one, the same eyes appeared on every mask Naomi could see, like a chain reaction. Simultaneously, their hands all began to glow.
Naomi had to smile at that. It was a weak, miserable smile, but what else was he supposed to do?
It was the God Hand. The familiar glove had appeared on every one of the fox-masks’ hands.
One of the things knelt down and pressed its hands to the ground. A large section of soil reshaped itself into a neat cube and promptly disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
Naomi understood what had happened. He knew how the God Hand worked inside and out, after all. That thing had just rewritten the world, converting a piece of the ground into pure information. The dirt hadn’t been replaced with air or turned transparent; it had been erased.
That thing had turned something into nothing.
Suddenly, the entire army of masked things erupted into frantic motion. Instead of their slow shuffle, they ran rapidly around the area, slamming themselves at every object in their paths. Some leapt at the ground itself. Others attacked the greenhouses. Some threw their hands at the walls of nearby houses. And with their gloves, they changed all of it to nothing.
They were erasing Kyoto. They were deleting this entire world.
Everything suddenly got much brighter, and Naomi realized that the truck he’d been hiding under had been erased. A three-eyed fox-mask was staring right down at him.
Naomi thrashed frantically into action. Wriggling like a bug on its back, he rolled over and crawled away on all fours through the mud. He slipped on the slick soil but somehow managed to scramble to his feet; an instant later, he was running blindly away, as fast as his legs would carry him. But the fox-masks were running too, moving just as wildly.
There were hundreds of them now, or even thousands. They weren’t pursuing Naomi specifically anymore, though; now, they were after everything that made up this entire world, Naomi included. Sprinting in every direction, they destroyed everything they touched like a rampaging army of bulldozers. Bit by bit, the world was leveled, reduced to nothing.
The all-engulfing wave of masked things was close behind him. Naomi was out of options—all he could do now was run.
Naomi trudged up a gentle slope, walking along a road that led through the mountains surrounding Kyoto. There were fewer houses here, and much more greenery. No one else was on the street, and he hadn’t seen a single car on the road so far.
All alone, Naomi dragged his aching, soaked legs forward. His drenched clothes were heavy with water; they dragged him down like chains.
He wasn’t moving quickly now, too exhausted to force himself to run. Still, the fox-masks hadn’t caught up to him yet.
Most of their army had headed toward the dense city center, rather than spreading out to the fringes. Their goal was to erase everything, so maybe they were drawn to areas crowded with objects and people. If that was true, they’d probably wouldn’t get to the mountains for a bit. If Naomi dragged himself out into the woods, he might be able to hide for a little while.
And after that…
His line of thought ran aground. There was no way to complete that sentence. He knew what was coming in the end...eventually, there’d be nowhere left to run.
Naomi’s legs slowed to a halt. He looked up at the dark, cloudy night sky through half-closed eyes.
In the distance, another siren blared out.
Naomi’s eyes snapped open, and he forced himself to listen closely. This was the second siren of the evening. Once again, it came from somewhere far away; once again, he heard some sort of announcement playing. But he’d put more distance between himself and the city now, so he couldn’t make out a single word. All he could do was wait anxiously, listen to the blaring sound, and see what happened next.