"Papa! Papa! Next time, can you take me and Mama to the amusement park again?"
"Well… if little Yukari behaves, then Papa will take you and Mama again next time."
"Mm! Yukari will behave! Then, good night, Papa, Mama."
Still carrying the fragrance of bath soap, Hirai Yukari flopped onto her soft bed. Today she had played to her heart's content, and only when she lay down did the fatigue finally rush over her like a tide.
Children seem to have boundless energy when playing—but that's only seeming. Once the excitement fades, the exhaustion catches up all at once.
Soon, Yukari fell into a deep sleep, her face still bright with a satisfied smile.
...
It has been said: people do not dream of things they've never seen in reality.
You may have dreamed of deserts or valleys, but only because you've seen pictures or heard descriptions, forming vague impressions in your mind. If you've never truly set foot in a desert, you cannot, even in dreams, feel the grains of sand beneath your feet. If you've never been in a valley, you cannot smell its hushed freshness—for those sensory memories do not exist in your reality.
And yet, everything in this dream now appeared before Hirai Yukari with crystal clarity.
Above her stretched a starry sky, dazzling with an almost unreal beauty. The constellations glimmered like droplets of water flowing together into a luminous river that reached across infinity.
Beneath her lay soft desert sands—this desert, a resting place for all wandering souls, a final home where the lost find their last sleep. Here, death was not to be feared, but to be accepted, natural and proper.
Both the sky and the desert radiated serenity—an atmosphere that soothed even the soul.
Though Yukari found herself in an unfamiliar land, she felt no confusion, no fear, no disquiet. It was as if she were embraced warmly in her mother's arms.
She didn't know where to go, for there were no landmarks in this desert. Yet within her heart, a voice seemed to guide her steps.
She walked—she did not know for how long—until before her appeared a floating flame.
A grey flame, yet it gave off no heat like normal fire, nor did it devour everything around it indiscriminately. It simply hovered in the air, wavering gently.
Humanity both sought and feared fire: it gives warmth and light, yet also brings destruction. The pain of being burned makes everyone instinctively shy away from it.
And yet, Yukari reached her hand toward the flame. The voice inside told her: this flame alone would never harm her.
At last, her fingertips touched it. In the next instant, the grey flame surged upward. The desert and stars vanished. When Yukari opened her eyes again, she was standing on a street—familiar, yet strange.
Familiar, because it was the shopping district near her home—the very street she'd passed with her parents earlier that day on the way to the amusement park.
Strange, because the entire street had lost its colors. Above loomed a sky, dark crimson like blood, oppressive and terrifying.
"What is… this…"
Before her unfolded a sight that shattered the worldview she had spent her short life building.
A grotesque puppet-like monster walked from the far end of the street. She saw the pedestrians suddenly ignite with white flames. The puppet opened its maw and devoured those flames greedily, like delicacies, until the people themselves disappeared without a trace. Then the creature shambled toward the next crowd.
Among those people—her parents. Herself.
She saw it clearly: her parents swallowed by the monster. Then herself. Disappearing.
But then—after her own disappearance—a white flame remained, and from that flame emerged someone who looked so much like her. Only, that figure was nobler, stronger, holier, more awe-inspiring. With just a single sentence, that figure annihilated the terrifying monster, then used the flames it left behind to restore all the people it had consumed.
After finishing this, the figure turned, casting a glance toward her.
"Having seen the truth of the world, what are your thoughts?"
The sensation was bizarre. Though the other wore her own face, when those golden eyes turned toward her, Yukari instinctively lowered her head—as if to meet that gaze was an act of unforgivable transgression.
Her heart roiled like a storm, yet she still parted her lips. The voice inside told her: to remain silent before this one's question would itself be a sin.
"So… I actually died, didn't I?"
"Not exactly. For I denied your death, and so you yet remain among the living."
Denied… death?
Yukari understood the words, but surely—such a thing was beyond human ability?
This figure who resembled her… could it truly be a god?
Her lips moved. Countless questions piled like mountains within her, but reverence bound her tongue.
"No need to be anxious. No need to rush. This place is woven from your dream. Whatever questions burden you, ask. I will answer them all. Here, time is the one thing we will never lack."
The voice was gentle, like a mountain stream. It washed away the fear and restlessness in her heart with ease.
By accident, she raised her head, meeting that golden gaze—and saw, unmistakably, the warm smile of winter sunlight.
"Relax. Take this as a simple talk between friends. After all, you and I may be together for a very long time to come… pleased to meet you."
...
The next morning, Yukari awoke to the crisp ringing of her alarm.
Her eyes were still hazy, unable to distinguish dream from waking.
"…God…?" she whispered tentatively.
Her hand brushed against something hard.
Looking carefully, she found a necklace. Its pendant, strung on a thin cord, gleamed as though cast from gold—an eye motif carved at its center.
Yukari cupped it carefully in both hands, whispering again:
"God?"
At once, a glimmer of divine gold flickered fleetingly within her dark eyes.
"So… it was all real. Not just a dream…"
Knock knock!
Her mother's voice came through the door.
"Yukari, are you up? I thought I heard you talking just now."
"Ah! It's nothing, Mama! I was just talking to myself…"
"Oh, really? Well, since you're awake, hurry down. Breakfast is ready."
A simple, ordinary exchange. Words spoken every day. But Yukari did not find them nagging—because they were proof of her mother's love.
All the more now, knowing she and her parents had once already "died," she treasured such moments.
Before the mirror, Yukari changed clothes, staring at her own reflection. That face reminded her of the god who now dwelled within her.
A cute face—her parents often praised her as pretty, and Yukari herself agreed. But only now did she know: this same face could carry such dignity, such charisma.
How could the god make it so…
Her hands froze halfway through undressing. Heat rose in her cheeks, reddening them quickly.
She glanced toward the bedside table. The golden necklace lay there quietly.
Would God be watching me while I change…? Just the thought made her burn with embarrassment. And yet she dared not ask directly.
Then she thought again—we're both girls. And she's so beautiful, so captivating… she wouldn't care about my scrawny body, right?
With that, she managed to push down her shyness and dress silently. Soon, with her mother's urging from downstairs, she padded down the stairs.
Only her mother was there, apron just removed after finishing breakfast. Her father had already left for the office—no surprise. After taking an unprecedented day off yesterday, surely much awaited him today.
"Yukari, go wash up, then come eat. I also packed your lunchbox—don't forget it this time! Remember last time you left it, and Mama only noticed while cleaning…"
Her mother's warm, doting smile sent ripples through Yukari's heart.
Without really listening, Yukari suddenly stepped forward and threw her arms around her mother's waist, burying herself in her embrace.
Her mother smelled of cooking oil and other scents Yukari couldn't quite name. After meeting the god, her senses—and even memory—seemed heightened. She noticed things she'd never seen before.
Like the faint strand of white hidden among her mother's black hair. She didn't know when it had appeared.
Like the faint scar on her wrist—burned when trying to cook Chinese food for Yukari once, oil splattering. Not serious, but it left a mark.
She had almost lost all this forever… How could she ever thank the god enough?
"Yukari, you're acting strange today. Don't cling to Mama like that, I smell of the kitchen."
"No you don't—it doesn't smell bad at all… Just let me hold you a little longer."
"My, what a spoiled girl today."
Her mother smiled gently and embraced her back. Yukari wrapped her arms around her mother's neck, nuzzling her cheek again and again, her lips curving slowly into a blissful smile.
The Hirai home was a two-story house in Misaki City's residential district. Most houses here were similar. The puppet monster had appeared yesterday in the commercial district.
Now Yukari walked alone to school. The road was wide, empty but for the occasional car. No pedestrians in sight.
Yet she knew—she wasn't alone.
"God… Yesterday's monster… the Rinne. Are there many in this city?"
Her pendant gleamed softly. A voice, audible only to her, answered:
"At that time, indeed several Rinne presences were within this city. But once I destroyed that puppet-Rinne, the others disappeared. It seems the Crimson Denizen here is quite a cautious one."
In that dream last night, Yukari had already learned much from Nitocris.
The puppet monster that attacked them was a Rinne, created by beings known as Crimson Denizens—the residents of the Crimson Realm.
The white flames bursting from people's bodies were the [Power of Existence], the very energy sustaining everything in this world. Though all matter contained it, human [Power of Existence] was the purest.
Crimson Denizens manifested in this world by manipulating existence, and could alter its properties to command phenomena. [Power of Existence] strengthened them, let them achieve their purposes—hence their devouring of it in such quantities.
[Power of Existence] was the foundation of all reality. Everything existed because of it. Once humans lost it, they ceased to exist—their knowledge, names, records, all erased. Only three exceptions remained: the memory of those who understood "the truth of the world," records left by tracing reality's detour, and media created directly from Jizai-hō (laws of free will).
Which meant—now that Yukari understood the truth of the world, if someone she knew vanished by losing their existence, she would still remember them.
---
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