I don’t want to disappear.
I want more time.
To keep living.
I’m afraid to die.
I want to live.
I want to live.
I want to live.
More…
“So do I!” I shout at the chair in my hands. “I want more time, too! I want to hear your voice. I’m scared to be alone. Death is a scary thing… Souta…!”
Please wake up. I move my frozen body and press my face against the chair’s backrest, my eyes still sealed shut. Behind my eyelids, I tenderly trace these glimpses of Souta’s memories. He was paying attention the whole time. He truly saw me from the start and heard my voice. Tears burn my eyes. “Souta,” I whisper so that only he can hear. “I’m so scared of a world without you. Wake up. Please open your eyes.”
As I make this fervent wish, I press my lips to the cold chair.
At that moment, Souta is far below Ever-After, on the shoreline of Limbo.
Seated on the chair, he is covered in thick ice. There is no sound, no color, no warmth. He is enveloped in perfect stillness. There is only a strangely sweet absence of sensation.
……
Something that shouldn’t be here suddenly materializes. Heat. Behind his eyelids—the heat of his tears.
……
A sound. His ears begin to warm. From a place far away, someone’s voice brings meaning to his ears.
……
Lips. The faint warmth of someone’s body is trying to bring color back to his lips. It is like someone is retying the threads connecting him to the world one by one—the threads he thought had been cut.
Slowly, he opens his eyes.
In front of him stands an old door.
A sigh escapes his lips. His breath is hot.
The door swings open. He squints at the bright light. Someone is there, reaching a hand toward him. They enter his world. He stretches out his arm. The ice cracks, and their fingers touch. They grasp each other’s hands. Heat flows into him. The person’s fine-boned hands pull him strongly. Hot tears overflow his eyes. The ice melts and shatters.
His body rises from the chair, and he passes through the door.
With a blast of blue light, the chair comes loose.
I’m thrown backward, still holding it, and I roll down the hillside. As the world spins, I glimpse Daijin with its mouth still around the chair leg. As I tumble helplessly down, I sense the cold air that had been freezing my body flow out of me. A powerful blow to my back knocks me unconscious.
But only for a second.
Sensing that I’ve stopped moving, I open my eyes.
He’s right in front of me.
Souta is lying on his side with his eyes closed. Souta, in his human form. His long eyelashes cast pale shadows over his chiseled cheeks. In the perfect spot beneath his left eye, I can see the small birthmark. His smooth white skin is flushed with the warm color of blood. He is breathing steadily. Experiencing the return of warmth to our bodies feels like watching the sun rise. He cracks open his eyes and looks at me.
“…Suzume?”
“Souta—”
He slowly sits up. I do, too.
“I…”
He’s looking at me like he’s just woken from a dream. I smile. Just then, I notice white fur behind Souta’s shoulder.
“Daijin?!”
I run to the white kitten, collapsed in the mud. I scoop up its little body in my hands. It’s still as cold as ice.
“What’s wrong—are you okay?!”
Panting shallowly, Daijin weakly opens its eyes.
“Suzume,” the kitten says, its voice hoarse. “I—I couldn’t become your cat, Suzume.”
“Huh?”
My cat? All of a sudden, I remember my careless words from the other day. Daijin had answered “Yes.” The cat’s eyes close again. Its light body grows heavy as stone and increasingly cold.
“…Daijin?”
“Suzume, put me back.”
“—!”
In my hands is a stone statue—the same stone statue I pulled up in Kyushu, shaped like a short staff. Daijin has turned back into a cold Keystone. I stifle my sobs as tears pour down my cheeks. I’ve been wanting this to happen the whole time—but now I’m crying.
Just then I hear what sounds like a wild animal shrieking in pain. It’s coming from overhead. I look up and see the worm twisted around Sadaijin, lifting the cat into the sky.
“Is that…the second Keystone?!” Souta shouts, staring at me in shock. “You brought it here?!”
The ground rumbles behind us, and we both turn around. The black hill that was solid a minute ago is slowly beginning to move.
“The worm’s tail is free. The whole thing is going to escape through the Gate!” Souta shouts.
I realize he’s right. There are no Keystones holding down the worm right now. I hug the stone statue in my hands tight against my chest.
Overhead, Sadaijin howls again, opens its mouth wide, and bites down on the glowing mass of reddish black. High in the air, what could be either blood or lava erupts from its body. The worm writhes furiously, and the black hill unwinds, flailing against the ground. Beneath us, the earth is shaking so hard I can’t stand.
“Aaaah!”
I scream as the worm’s black tail regains its red hue before my eyes, mowing down rubble as it sweeps across the ground. Cars, houses, and utility poles dance in the air like leaves, then tumble down around us. I reflexively grip my head and huddle in the mud.
“—Huh?”
Big hands are lifting my body lightly upward. It’s Souta. Holding me in his arms, he begins to run. Enormous hunks of rubble are falling next to him, behind him, in front of him. He darts around them. Mud and fragments of wreckage swirl dizzyingly before my eyes. For a brief moment, his power enchants me. I feel dizzy at the sight of him in his human form, the certainty of his body, his strength. Just then, a slab of concrete falls right in front of us and throws Souta off-balance. He almost falls. I jump out of his arms, plant one hand in the mud, and start running.
“Suzume?” he asks as he runs alongside me. He sounds worried.
“I’m fine!” I shout back. We’re fighting this battle as a team, after all. Together we’re unbeatable. Even here in this world.