The scenery around them suddenly disappeared. It was dark. Just pure darkness, with no left nor right, no up nor down. And in the darkness, Kaguya, Sakura, and Kaguya’s brother. Just the three of them floating, with nothing visible beyond each other.
Kaguya spoke sharply, almost as if she was speaking for her own benefit.
“I’ll decide how I end. I’m not going to become someone’s hero. I will become human again. And also…”
As she spoke, she remembered her reasons for originally wanting to become a scientist. That same passion now sparked to fiery life inside her chest. She had come this far and had fought for so long, all in order to turn heroes back into humans.
In the end, she had been wrong about her brother turning, but she still remembered how she had felt at that time. That feeling had only been strengthened and solidified when Sakura had turned.
There had been enough grief already.
“And also, Azuma and the others are still out there, fighting. I can’t take hope away from them.”
Somewhere the darkness cracked. A decisive fissure opened up in the blackness between Kaguya and her brother.
“But what about me?” Kaguya’s brother’s face contorted. “What about the people who died? Do you even care about them? Don’t you remember, Kaguya? We got along pretty well back in the day. Didn’t we?”
“We did. But that was the brother in my memory.”
Kaguya’s brother glared at her hard from across the fissure. She felt a little sad, but she was okay with that.
Her brother was already dead. She had to focus on the living now.
She was pretty sure that Azuma would tell her the same.
“I’m sorry, Ren,” Kaguya said, rejecting this ideal world, “but I’m going back. To where everyone is waiting. To Captain Azuma and the others. Before I become a monster. Back into the light.”
Just then—
The world shuddered, gently collapsing around the edges. She could catch glimpses of something through the gaps. The light from beyond grew brighter. Something was beginning to break.
A shard of darkness tumbled away, blotting out the sight of her brother, who had been standing directly beneath it. She could only hear its voice now, an insectile screech, bitter and tremendous.
In contrast, Sakura sounded overjoyed. She glanced up, a smile peeking out from the corners of her mouth.
“The captain is so impatient. He’s never going to get a girlfriend if he can’t learn to give us ladies our time.”
“Sakura, does this mean…?”
“Don’t worry, Kaguya. We won’t be late. There’s only a moment, but time flows differently here than it does in that world.”
Azuma must have been trying to break the egg. She could feel it.
Earlier, Kaguya said that she was going to return to reality. But that wasn’t actually possible anymore—she had already fully turned. All she could do now was wait for Azuma to deliver final mercy.
But her mind continued to race. There had to be some other way. Even if coming back now would be like the equivalent of unboiling an egg, that was still no reason to give up.
Why did humans become heroes?
What was the catalyst? What actually happened when a person died?
There were three types of death—physical death, the second death that came from being forgotten, and spiritual or psychic death. This had to be a matter of either physical or psychic death.
But everyone who has come back just before turning into a hero, so far, has had their physical body restored.
People became heroes after being lured away by the Goddess while on the verge of death. That meant the young men and women were already mortally wounded by the time they began to turn. Even after becoming human again, they should have died in a matter of seconds.
But they didn’t. Meaning the trigger must not have been physical death.
Spiritual death, then. Humans become heroes when their psyches die.
So perhaps, by dying a psychic death, humans attain the right to become a hero. Taking the Goddess’s hand allows their spirits to reach true death in the end, and thus they are no longer able to come back.
Meaning I’m already immersed. My soul has fully crossed over to the other side.
Kaguya was no different from one of the dead now. Bringing back the dead was impossible, but what if that death was spiritual rather than physical? What about the soul?
“It’s…worth a shot.”
She could think of just one possible way.
The transformation from human into hero was caused by psychic death. In this case, all that needed to be done was to revive the deceased spirit. And if something that had died could not be brought back…
…then why not just reconstruct it?
Reconstruct the psyche. If her old psyche was dead, why not just remake it?
“Sakura, can I borrow your katana?”
Sakura wasn’t supposed to be wielding a sword, of course.
“My katana? For what…?”
“I’m going to try rebuilding myself. But in order to do that, some destruction will have to occur. That means I’ll destroy myself by my own hands.”
“…?! But Kaguya, that’s…”
The method, which Kaguya had come up with on the fly, was to die within her mental world—in other words, mental suicide.
It was a shocking idea, but Sakura said no more. She simply handed over the katana that she was in fact carrying.
It was very heavy. Far too heavy for Kaguya to swing.
With a fair amount of difficulty, Kaguya managed to draw the sword and place it against her throat. Even now, her throat burned with fiery heat.
“I can’t believe it. Aren’t you scared?”
“I’m very scared.”
Seeing how difficult it was to pierce her own throat made Kaguya realize once again that the Director definitely had not committed suicide.
“I could be wrong. The very thought makes my skin crawl. And even if my hypothesis is correct, I will still be dying in here along the way. The next time I open my eyes, I might not even be me anymore. If I choose to erase my internal self, the next time I wake up, I might be a completely different entity that looks exactly like me. But I have to do this, all the same.”
She was the one who had created this world. She was the only one who could end it.
And so…
Kaguya could not reach the hilt with her hand, so she gripped the blade directly. She felt sharp pain as the blood began to flow. A drop of it reached her neck after trickling down along the blade.
“Thank you, Sakura.” Before she pushed in the blade, Kaguya glanced toward Sakura and smiled at her. “You were able to come here because Captain Azuma used his Chronos, weren’t you? That’s the only reason I’m able to leave.”
“That’s the Kaguya I remember. Smart as a whip.”
Sakura flashed a bright, sisterly smile. Kaguya moved a little closer to her.
“I’m sorry…that I didn’t notice sooner.”
“That’s okay. I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. It seems I left a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.”
“No. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t know if I would have been able to keep going all this time. I’m glad I got to see you again. Thank you, Sakura.”
“I’m glad I got to see you again, too, Kaguya. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be able to become human again. As long as you want to go back, you can.”
“Hngh…”
“Don’t cry. You’re going home!”
Kaguya could only smile in response.
“Go be happy enough for the both of us out there, Kaguya.”
“You’ve been so kind, Sakura, right up to the end…”
“Why wouldn’t I be kind when we’re such good friends and comrades? And besides, I was watching you all this time while you worked so hard. So—”
Farewell, this time forever.
“—go be happy, Kaguya. Farewell.”
“Farewell,” Kaguya whispered back.
What followed was a sickening crunch as Kaguya thrust the blade into her own pale throat.