Ren flinched as if struck. He took a stumbling step back, the sword in his hand feeling impossibly heavy. "What…? Why are you… Airi, you were that woman? The one in my dreams? The one who always—?"
Airi's face remained a mask of calm, but her smile shifted, twisting into something ancient and sorrowful. When she spoke again, her voice was no longer the one he knew. It was a current of silk and smoke, the same low, sultry whisper that had haunted the edges of his sleep—the voice that called him back from the brink.
"Yeah, Ren," she said, her new voice as smooth as velvet and just as dark. "That was me. The real me... The me that was never really here at all."
Ren staggered. The breath tore from his lungs. Everything inside him—memories, moments, laughter, pain—shattered down the center. His entire timeline with her warped in an instant, twisting into a question mark. His knees threatened to buckle.
"No. No, that's impossible," he choked out, his voice raw. "You were real. We went to school. You fought beside me. You were there when my parents—Andre, he knew you! He said your name!"
Her eyes, too perfect and too smooth, softened with a sympathy that felt cosmic in scale. She stepped toward him through the field of crimson flowers, and they parted for her as if for a phantom. "I was always there," she said, her voice a gentle, devastating caress. "Every time you broke. Every time you were about to die. I was your strength."
His mind reeled, a chaotic storm of denial. "What…? How…? But if you—then how did Andre… How did we…?" He couldn't form a complete thought, his voice cracking under the weight of a world turning to sand. "No. You were real."
"I existed," Airi corrected softly, her words patient, like the hush of a memory trying not to wake you. "But not in the way you believed." She paused, her gaze locking with his. "The heart in your chest," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "It's mine. The one they transplanted into you when yours gave out... they gave you me."
Ren stared, his hand flying to his chest, fingers tracing the faint, jagged line of his operation scar. He could feel the steady, familiar beat beneath it. Her beat.
"I died in Hoshikawa," she continued, her voice a distant echo. "But my consciousness lingered in my heart. And through it, I found you."
"I saw everything, Ren. Every memory, every stupid thought, every time you were a jerk to someone for no reason. I saw the anger you tried to hide, the loneliness you pretended wasn't there. I saw all the worst parts of you... And I still fell in love with you. So, so stupidly in love with you."
Her form flickered for a moment, like a projection struggling to hold. "When Kaito nearly killed you… when your Essence was fading… I panicked. I used what little will I had and combined it with the Essence leaking from your own wounds. I pushed myself into the world. I manifested."
She took another step, her presence both undeniable and utterly ethereal. "Using your Essence, I managed to temporarily... physically bleed into the world. I don't fully understand how it worked, only that it did. It was enough to project a form, enough to interact, to be seen, to fight. It was enough to fool the world, and to enjoy those moments with you. Enough to fool you. Because I was so desperate for you to live."
The words wrapped around him like a noose. The lie wasn't that she didn't exist; the lie was that she was human.
Airi grinning beside him in drama club—a ghost fueled by his own life force. The arcade—no teasing rival, just a projection born of a dying girl's wish. The Kaito battle—her place beside him, a temporary miracle. Her tears. Her smile. Her warmth. All borrowed.
"I… I got greedy," she whispered, her gaze falling. "It started as a way to save you, but then… I didn't want to go back to being nothing. I wanted to laugh with you, to fight with you, to eat lunch on the roof. I wanted to live. I built this whole fantasy, this whole lie, because I was so selfish. I'm sorry, Ren. I'm so, so sorry."
"Then why—" his voice cracked. "Why? Who did I love…?"
Airi stopped before him now, her form radiant against the impossible landscape. For the first time, her perfect eyes glistened with unshed tears. "You loved the me before I died. A dream. And when you said those things to me at the festival… I finally woke up. I realized this wasn't fair. I wasn't helping you anymore. I was a parasite, feeding on your life just to feel whole."
She reached out, her hand trembling as it touched his cheek. It was warm. Steady. Real. "And now… I can finally make it right."
Ren's head lifted. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm revealing this now because... you can't win this fight, Ren. Not as you are," she said, her voice gaining a new, solemn strength, the words cutting through his grief. "He's too strong, and I'm still just... borrowing your power. The only way for you to win... is if I disappear and give all of my essence to you."
"I'm going to give you everything," she continued, overriding his unspoken protest. "I will pour all of my remaining essence, my entire consciousness, fully into you. No more dreams. No more echoes. It will be yours. Enough to end this. Enough to win."
His lips trembled. "No," he whispered.
"But to do that," she continued, her eyes pleading with him to understand, "I have to sever my connection to this world. The energy I used to manifest, to make people see me, to hold my place in time… it will all return to you. The paradox of my existence will be corrected."
A horrifying realization dawned in Ren's eyes. "Corrected…?"
Airi's smile was the most tragic thing he had ever seen. "They will forget me, Ren. Andre. Your friends. Everyone."
"No..."
"Their minds will heal over the wound I created. The world will remember you at the arcade, alone."
"No, please..." He grasped her arms. "Why? Why them and not me?"
"Because my heart exists in you," she said, her voice breaking. "Because I used your powers to create the paradox. You are the anchor. When I'm gone, the paradox will resolve for everyone else, but you... you will be the only one who remembers."
"It will be as if I was never here at all."
"No," he said, louder now, his eyes wild with a pain beyond grief. "I don't want it! I don't care about anything else!"
"It won't matter what you tell them, Ren. To them, I'll just be a story you made up—"
"I LOVE YOU!" he screamed, the sound ripping from his soul. "I don't care if you're a ghost or a dream or a lie! You were real to me! Every moment. You mattered!"
He collapsed forward, clutching her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder as sobs wracked his body. She held him back, her form warm and solid, a beautiful, final deception.
"That's what makes this so hard," she murmured into his hair. "But it's not worth believing in a lie, no matter how much it feels like home."
Light began to bloom from her form, unraveling her edges like a star catching fire. As the light grew, his mind fractured.
Flash—He's at the arcade, laughing, but the seat beside him is empty. The second joystick moves on its own. Flash—He's by the café window, his own hand resting on the table, a cooling cup opposite him. There is no hand covering his. Flash—The battle with Kaito. He sees himself, alone, a desperate warrior fighting with the strength of two.
"NO!" he screamed, clutching his head as the memories tore themselves apart. "STOP! YOU WERE THERE! YOU WERE REAL!"
Airi's voice cut through the chaos, the last anchor in his storm. "Lead a healthy life, Ren. Save them. All of them. Keep moving forward."
The light was blinding now. He could barely feel her in his arms. Her final whisper was not for his ears, but for his soul. "I was never real… but the love was. And that was enough for a lifetime."
Her hand, now pure energy, brushed over his chest one last time. "Remember for me, Ren. Remember for both of us."
Then, she was gone.
An agonizing, brilliant power surged into him, searing his veins and rewiring his soul. It was her essence, her consciousness, her love—a final, eternal gift.
When the light faded, Ren was left alone, kneeling in a field of crimson petals. The warmth in his chest was a roaring fire. The hollow in his heart was the size of the universe. And the world around him was silent, colder, and utterly, completely, ignorant of the girl he had just lost forever.
Then— "Well?" Trickstarr's voice slithered through the air like poison. "Finished your little heart-to-heart with your imaginary girlfriend?"