26th of December, right after the call 1:30 pm, Kamiki's penthouse
Kamiki's penthouse was unrecognizable. The matte-black walls of his living room were now plastered with protective plastic sheeting, every piece of furniture was pushed from the center of the room against the walls, the blinds of his balcony door were almost completely closed, creating an eerie, dim setting that looked like a combination of a crime scene and a person moving out.
Kana sat in the center of the room on a wooden chair. Her arms and legs were bound to the chair, while her eyes were covered with a makeshift blindfold, made out of an old scarf.
I have to get out of here fast. I know Aqua... He'll definitely come. But he can't, I need to do this on my own.
These ropes... they are just so tight, I can't move. I gotta do something, anything.
Aqua... don't.
Just sitting here won't get me anywhere. I have to try something. Anything. Even if that means…
Kana's body began to ache from sitting in such a hard chair for so long.
"H-Hey you, let me go blondie, Aqua and Ruby won't show up because of me anyways. You should've gone after Mem or Akane, then your odds would look much better." Kana's voice was slightly raised so it wouldn't get swallowed by the huge room.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Don't ignore me, I said you should let me go." She added that when she didn't hear anything coming back.
Kana, once again, listened silently. At first, the room remained quiet apart from the ticking of the large grandfather clock. But after a moment, there's something else, goosebumps formed on Kana's entire body as slow steps started to approach from behind.
"Finally, I thought you left me all alone, are you here to let me g-" Kana fell silent, just as abruptly as she had begun to speak, as she felt something cold pressing against her throat.
"You... you wouldn't kill me anyway…" she stammered out,
Kana cleared her throat to sound just as confident as before. Yet, her plan failed, and small cracks had begun to appear in her voice, which she just couldn't overcome. "You need me for your plan, you're all bark and no bite, that's how things are."
"Interesting. How can you continue to be this cocky, even when you are in such a situation. Tell me, why are you not fearing me?" Kamiki said with the knife still pressed to Kana's throat.
Kamiki's eyes wandered down, away from Kana's face, inspecting her body, eventually landing on her arms, where they rested for a moment as he took a closer look.
Kana tried to sit as still as possible, but it was no use; he still noticed the way she was shaking ever so slightly. "No, that is not it. You do fear me. More than you would like to admit. But you still want Aqua to stay away from here... It is because you love him, right? Love is a beautiful thing, isn't it?"
Kamiki's reply sounded gentle and almost caring. The moments of silence that Kamiki had intended for Kana to fill remained still, so he continued. "What? Cat got your tongue?" He said, mocking her earlier selection of words, "You can't hide it from me. You secretly want Aqua to come and save you. How very selfish of you. You want him to risk his life and even his sister's life for yours."
Kamiki released the pressure from Kana's throat just in time before she began to fight her restraints. The ropes that held her in place were bruising her wrists and ankles, as a few droplets of blood flowed down her throat and left small stains on her shirt.
"THAT'S NOT TRUE, IT'S JUST NOT, I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS. I DON'T NEED HIM, I DON'T LOVE HIM AND I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM," Kana shouted.
When the shouting didn't end, Kamiki began to pace around Kana. His slow steps echoed through the room alongside her screams. He only stopped right in front of her, minutes later, once the sound of his steps was the only sound left to echo.
"Is this supposed to convince me or yourself?" Kamiki asked, more so Kana understands the answer than himself.
"Let me give you a piece of advice, as a little apology." Kamiki reached out his hand and gently untied the blindfold, pulling it off of Kana's face, exposing her eyes to the dim light. It was not bright, but enough for Kana to have to blink a few times before finally adapting.
"Fuck off, I don't need your advice." Kana's harsh words did not affect Kamiki whatsoever; he just continued as if she hadn't said anything to begin with. His voice is still just as gentle as it was when he first spoke.
"You want to be happy with Aqua. But you feel like you don't deserve it. And you are correct, you don't. You do not deserve anything. But neither do Aqua, Ruby, or I. Nobody deserves anything. Humans are all the same, we are greedy, envious, selfish, and lie to each other. Stop being so obsessed with whether you deserve it or not; instead, you should just take it, because if you don't, somebody else will."
The room stayed quiet as Kana sat unmoving once more, attempting to grasp the full meaning behind what Kamiki told her.
"What are you tr-" She began.
Kana's gagging reflex was activated midway through her sentence as the makeshift blindfold was forced into her mouth, used as a gag now.
Nothing but a few muffled sounds, then Kamiki spoke, "I would love to talk more with you. Sadly, I do have a few more things to take care of for now. But I have to admit, you are a highly interesting person, Kana Arima. Although you should stop belittling yourself, people like that are usually the worst."
26th of December, right after the call, 1:30 pm, Gotanda Taishi's house
Ruby jumped towards the door as the initial shock began to subside within her. She was almost at the door already, but Aqua was faster. His hand wrapped around her wrist tighter than ever before. "LET GO OF ME!" she screamed, whipping her head around, tears in her eyes. She did her best to escape Aqua's merciless grip. But it was no use, not this time.
"You know that she was only dragged into this because of us... BECAUSE OF YOU!" Ruby was by now pulling back with all her might while Aqua stood there unmoving, holding her wrist in one hand.
I just can't let this happen… I can't put Ruby into harm's way; I just can't let her die again.
Why did I listen… Why did I listen to Akane? I should've just done it last night. That way, it would've at least only been me.
What should I do?
Ruby or Kana?
...
Ruby is the sole purpose of my life… I can't risk her, not for anyone.
I'm sorry, Kana...
A surge of pain, strong enough to make his head recoil to the side, shot through every fiber of Aqua; primarily his jaw, as he was pulled out of his thoughts.
"Where's Ruby," was the only thing that went through his head after the world had stopped spinning. Then he heard it, loud steps on the stairs.
Without waiting even another second, he bolted out of the room, crashing into the wall opposite the door before he continued to run down the hallway.
Ruby's steps came closer with each step he took. Or did they gain more distance from him? As he reached the top of the stairs, Ruby was already not in sight anymore.
Two, three, once even four steps at once. It was a wonder he didn't break his ankle or neck the way he almost flew down the stairs.
*THUD* "LET GO OF ME!" Ruby screamed as Aqua crashed into her. He didn't care a single bit about the possibility of being seriously hurt as he grabbed Ruby just a second before she could reach the front door.
"C-Calm down, Ruby," Aqua groaned while he tried to restrain all her limbs, which was certainly not an easy task when considering her massive adrenaline rush. She punched, she kicked, she screamed, she scratched, she spat, and she even tried to bite him. It's a wonder nobody called the police with all the commotion the two of them must've been causing.
"Please don't just rush there without a plan, please snap out of it, I won't let Kana die... Let us think about this carefully, otherwise both you and Kana just end up dead." Aqua said as he finally managed to hold Ruby down and restrain all her movements completely.
Ruby's attempts at freeing herself turned more desperate at first, and for a moment, it actually looked like she might manage to. Then her arms and legs turned completely limp.
Aqua let out a big sigh of relief. "Thank you for listening to me," he said as he loosened his grip slightly, not willing to cause any unnecessary pain to Ruby.
"Please go back upstairs now. I'll make us something to drink, and then we can think together." Aqua groaned out as his heart was still racing, his grip on Ruby loosening even further, enough for her to stand back up.
"We don't have time for thi-" Ruby started to argue, yet Aqua raised his voice before she could even think about ending her sentence.
"No. We don't have time to argue, so get up there now and give me 5 minutes." His voice firm.
Aqua pointed towards the stairs; his tone was commanding, even more so than before. "How are we supposed to take care of Kana when we can not even take care of ourselves?"
Ruby wanted to respond, but reluctantly headed up the stairs so as not to waste any more time. Aqua only started to prepare the tea when he heard the door close and was sure that Ruby was back in the room.
The kettle was already whistling by the time Aqua found the tea in Taishi's mess of a kitchen. He poured equal amounts of water into the two cups and placed the tea bags in them.
What should I do? I don't want to put Kana in any more danger by keeping Ruby here. But I also need to keep Ruby safe at any cost.
I have to make a choice; I either have to risk Ruby's life to save Kana, or I have to risk Kana's life but keep Ruby safe.
Objectively speaking, saving Kana would morally be the right thing to do. She has absolutely nothing to do with all of this and is only a means for Kamiki to get to Ruby…
In that case, I should just go there with Ruby, I mean, it is a two versus one, our chance of just killing him is probably higher than him killing Ruby anyways.
No… It is impossible… I just cannot do it… I am physically unable to do it. I will not even think about risking Ruby's life for anybody else. Keeping Sarina safe is the reason why I got this second life to begin with. I will not stray any further.
But how? I can't be in two places at the same time. If I went, then Ruby too would go. Maybe Akane… Maybe I can convince her to keep Ruby restrained. Definitely not, she would look at this and think it is another suicide mission.
But would she be wrong about it, though? I mean- Doesn't matter… How can I keep Ruby here while I can go out and end this once and for all?
Aqua's thoughts circled back and forth for a few more moments about whether he could convince Ruby to stay or if he might be able to trick her. Yet, he concluded that none of it would work. Reluctantly, he pulled a small plastic vial out of his pocket and looked at it long and hard. The white powder inside of it shifted around as his inspection wore on.
I still have this, it's safe if I don't use too much… I initially planned to use it for Kamiki when I see a chance… But maybe I should just. It would keep her safe until all of this is over.
It feels so wrong… even thinking about this. What kind of brother drugs his sister? Taking away her autonomy while she trusts me...
But it needs to be done… Even if she hates me for it. I can deal with that. I don't need her love… I can do this… I don't need anybody… I just need to do everything in my power to keep her safe.
Aqua slowly removed the lid from the small vial as the water in the cups started to change color. He raised his shaking hand to Ruby's cup, gripping his arm with his other hand for stabilization. "Why am I shaking this much? It is the right thing to do. I shouldn't feel this way."
"I'm sorry, Ruby." he whispered as a minuscule amount of the white powder fell into her drink and submerged beneath the surface.
...
"Took you long enough Aqua, I almost came looking for you," Ruby said, upon seeing Aqua enter the room again, two cups in hand.
"I thought you just left without me, but I'm so happy that you've proven me wrong." She said as she eagerly began to sip on her steaming tea.
"Now, what's your plan? How do we save Kana? We don't have much time, we only have..." Ruby pulled out her phone. "...One and a half hours left."
Aqua remained silent for a long moment before he also started drinking from his cup. His hand was shaking so badly, a bit of tea spilled from his cup onto his pants, but he didn't even seem to notice it.
"Hello? Aqua? Are you there?" Ruby asked with a hint of concern in her voice.
Ruby took another long sip from her cup, fishing her tea and placing it back down, before getting up and walking over to Aqua, waving her hand right in front of his face. "We have no time for this, we need to come up with a plan." Ruby's voice was gentle, but there was a bit of urgency hidden behind it, regardless.
"I'm sorry, Ruby," Aqua said as he looked up his voice was so quiet that any ambient sound would tone over it.
"For earlier? No need to be, it almost doesn't hurt anymore already. I was acting out of my mind. Now we can plan with a clear mind. So come on, plan something, like you always do." Ruby said.
For a short moment, Ruby had one of her hands placed on Aqua's cheek, but she had to pull it away again as she grabbed the nearby office desk.
"Can- Can you give me a hand? I'm feeling a bit light headed. I'm sure it will be over in just a minute, so don't worry," she whimpered out, a hint of sudden confusion in her voice.
Then Ruby lost her balance fully and fell towards the ground. Her fall was broken in the very last moment before she could make impact with the hardwood floor by Aqua's soft hands.
"Once you wake u,p it will hopefully all be over..." He said as he pulled her almost completely limp body closer against his.
Ruby's demeanor fell slightly as her fading mind began to place the pieces together. She tried to turn around to look at Aqua's face, but the way he held her didn't allow her to see him.
"No… The tea… don't tell me…" Ruby whispered, it was all she could muster up, "You wouldn't do that… Please tell me you wouldn't do that."
Aqua didn't reply; instead, he pulled the fading Ruby closer to himself. Every moment of silence confirmed Ruby's suspicion more.
Ruby couldn't even move as her whole world shattered right before her into a quadrillion pieces. Her sight slowly faded into utter darkness; the sensations she felt all over her body a moment ago were numb by now, and even the strong smell of the tea was gone. The very same person whom she loved the most in the whole wide world had just taken away the very thing she wanted the most in the whole wide world. Still, she managed to stutter out one more sentence before her body went completely limp. A sentence that added +1 to the count of worlds that had been shattered that day.
"Aqua, I hate you."