Chapter Nine: Confrontation in the Depths of the Abyss
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A white room, void of meaning. In its center stands the living corpse—Kyouko, oblivious to what is happening. She wonders as she walks slowly, swaying dizzily left and right: My body is exhausted. My head throbs. My voice is no longer mine... What is happening to me?
Her body shivers as Lynen's furious, sorrow-laced screams pierce the void:
"How weak you've become! Everything fell apart because of you!"
She tries to speak: "Where are you, Lynen? I can't hear well... are you behind the door?... Where is the door?"
Lynen replies: "Nothing will ever return to how it was. Try to imagine it with your mind!"
Kyouko walks slowly toward the door, its features beginning to materialize: "The door was always there... but why are you sad? What is happening around me? Help me—I am so tired!"
Lynen screams in bitter anguish:
"You deserve this! You stole his heart. You stole my existence, my identity, the most precious thing I had... Loken!"
Kyouko tries to run, but it's useless—as if the door itself is retreating from her very existence. She stumbles and falls to the ground, only to find herself fixed in the middle of her own room, as though she had never moved at all. She speaks wearily: "I never meant to hurt you, Lynen. Come, help me—my legs can no longer carry me."
Suddenly, a mournful moan sounds in Kyouko's ear. She raises her head and looks around. There, standing in the corner of the room, facing the wall with his head bowed low, motionless as a statue—is Loken.
Kyouko tries to crawl toward him, until Lynen's anguished scream stops her cold:
"Stay away from him! He will die because of you!"
She tries to advance, calling out to him: "Loken, don't be sad... I'll stand by your side."
She pants heavily, fighting to reach him, only to see herself drifting further away the closer she gets—while he remains frozen, a soulless statue. She thinks: What is wrong with my eyes?
Gathering her remaining strength, she weeps:
"Loken, I can't bear this. Please don't hate me—I can't take it! I tried to save you all this time, and I failed. There's nothing left... nothing else!"
"Come, kill me! I would be happy to die by your hands."
"I'm too weak to kill myself."
She lunges toward him, desperate to touch him—but she hears her own sobs as she cries out: "Don't touch my brother!"
Loken begins to fade, dissolving like scattering dust. He turns his head one last time to cast a gaze at Kyouko—heavy with sorrow, laden with pity for her shattered state—until he vanishes without a trace.
A strange, suffocating silence settles over that bizarre room. Kyouko curls into herself, whispering:
"I want to die. I need to die."
She repeats the words, her face overtaken by a void of emptiness, as though she has lost her mind entirely.
Lynen's voice pierces her skull like an arrow, whispering deeply:
"Because of you, you lost my brother. Every time. Every attempt. You let him die."
Her memory ignites with all the pain she has lived through, flashing before her eyes like a tragic film. Lynen continues:
"You left him alone in the basement. You left him alone to fall from a building. You watched him get struck by lightning—and did nothing. You ran away when he needed you most. All of this—by your disastrous decisions."
Kyouko's red, dry eyes force out tears as she relives each scene.
"You showed no mercy to the twin who loved you."
"I hate you, Kyouko. I hate you and I hate your weakness."
Lynen's voice breaks as she weeps:
"You deserve this pain. Mine is greater. I was his eyes all along—he saw only what I saw. Until he laid eyes on you. You, the worst being in existence. You, the destroyer of Loken. You, whom I despise more than anyone. You, the worst friend I have ever known. It's you, Kyouko—you selfish, wretched soul!"
She screams at the top of her voice, and the echo shatters Kyouko's already fractured soul:
"YOU ARE THE VILLAIN IN THIS MISERABLE STORY, KYOUKO!"
Kyouko clutches her head and screams incomprehensible words, choking on exhaustion and grief—her heart on the verge of bursting.
Lynen falls silent, watching the state Kyouko has reached. She has realized—through the hardest, most painful way—that she is the source of her own suffering, her friend's suffering, and most of all, Loken's suffering. It feels as though her very existence is a curse. Her screams subside into something beyond regret, and she murmurs with closed eyes:
"I never knew peace. I never let anyone else know it either... Everything would be better if I had never existed."
"I am like a poisonous insect... overflowing with misery."
"I wish I had never been born."
Then, a familiar shadow catches her eye. She calms as she witnesses a strange vision:
She is with Loken, together on a hospital bed. His hand reaches toward her trembling fingers. He appears asleep, yet restless—as if trapped in a nightmare. He whispers something faint. She brings her ear close to his lips:
"The best thing that ever happened... in my life... Kyou...ko."
Kyouko opens her eyes. She is standing on her own two feet, steady. She looks around—still in the same distorted room.
She breathes heavily, then speaks:
"Lynen... you are not a sister."
She continues with newfound confidence:
"If you were merely his eyes, then he doesn't need you—he can free himself from you. You know every detail about Loken... but I understood him."
Lynen retorts in blazing fury:
"A murderous criminal, lecturing me on how to care for my brother? Know your place!"
Kyouko raises her voice:
"He loves you. But you are the one who despises yourself. You are nothing without him—and that's why you can't accept that he wants me."
A terrifying silence falls.
Kyouko breaks into a cold sweat, the dizziness in her head intensifying. The room shakes violently, and she loses her balance as Lynen's deep voice cuts through:
"Oh, caring elder sister... do you know where Kyoury is right now?"
Kyouko freezes at the certainty in Lynen's voice.
She tries to remember the last time she saw her sister. Kyoury was always out of sight—she hasn't seen her this entire time.
Her tongue ties. She struggles to speak:
"What have you done to my little sister?!"
Lynen's laughter erupts—hysterical and wild. In the blink of an eye, Kyouko finds herself standing on damp soil. She lifts her pale face to see two graves side by side.
Kyouko gasps, as though her soul is ascending. She covers her mouth and eyes when she glimpses the small tombstone—right beside her mother's distinctive grave:
"13-9 _ KYOURY"
She falls to her knees, whispering in profound sorrow:
"Oh, the gentlest soul my eyes have ever seen... I don't deserve a sister like you."
She bites her lip in heart-wrenching anguish:
"I cannot bear losing you all. Please, let this be an illusion—let everything my tired eyes see be nothing but a hallucination."
She gathers her courage, slowly raising her head, and speaks hesitantly:
"What do you want from me, Lynen? I doubt you are the source of all this illusion."
A chilling smile appears on Lynen's face in the dark room. She speaks in a terrifying tone:
"Choose. Either you live alone with Kyoury—or you live the illusion with Loken."
Kyouko looks around, bewildered, trying to comprehend. She touches her face and asks anxiously:
"What would you choose, if we traded places?"
Lynen laughs a strange, hollow laugh:
"I would kill you. And I would live the illusion I dictate by my own free will—with Loken, forever. Alone in the universe."
Her words strike Kyouko like a thunderbolt, leaving her adrift in the maze of her lost, numbed mind:
Where is the truth? Where am I? Where is Loken? What is the purpose of my existence here in the first place?
Then—Kyouko feels someone touch her shoulder.
She spins around in terror. No one is there—yet she still feels the grip. She freezes, trembling. A cold hand squeezes her tightly, relentlessly. She smells a pungent, sharp scent. Whispers crawl against her skin, making her flesh recoil. It is Lynen, whispering in a cutting, piercing tone:
"You are here... so that I may torture you. You are here... so that I may take my revenge. You are here... so I can watch you cry—crying in agony, weeping... until death."
And Kyouko sinks, drowning in the abyss of illusion.
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The reservoir of her accumulated sorrows—her damp pillow, still not dry—cracks open. It shatters slowly, dissolving into an angelic light. Kyouko's black eyes gleam, illuminating her miserable face. She looks around to see her room beginning to fade away.
She stares with wide, uncomprehending eyes, like a child who has lost her senses.
Then, strange, muffled voices reach her ears—a commotion stirring behind the wall. Something is happening.
Lynen's furious voice rings out:
"Damn it! What is happening?! How did they find out? Damn it!"
Suddenly, Kyouko's head snaps to the side—a violent slap across her face shakes her skull, and a maddening ringing floods her ears. She sees no one. It is as though Lynen's ghost had invaded her space.
Kyouko sits still, devoid of hope. No resistance. No words. She breathes quietly, trying to disappear into the walls that surround her, waiting for someone—anyone—to pull her from the void.
Kyouko had become a dry twig, broken easily by Lynen.
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A deep voice rises. Lynen's screams grow sharper. Kyouko wraps her slender arms around herself to suppress the tremors shaking her exhausted body.
A terrifying scream erupts from Lynen—as though she herself is suffocating:
"I'm not done with her yet! She is not dead yet! My soul will not rest until I see you dead... KYOUKOOOO!"
Horrifying wails rise—a blend of malice, agony, and deep sorrow. Lynen's voice has changed, as if she is crying while choking.
The noise grows louder and louder—like gunfire.
Kyouko's body jolts as she imagines what is happening behind the walls. She bites her lip to silence her breath, whispering to herself:
"Don't hurt me. I surrender. Please... I can't take any more."
Then—she sees something that makes her stop breathing.
Blood.
It pours from the edges of the walls, gushing violently, staining the white room a deep, bloody red. The walls explode with a violent crash, splattering her ragged dress and terrified face with warm blood.
Her throat spasms. She stops breathing—suffocating from fear. Her terrified eyes dart around as she finds herself floating in an endless black void.
A sound from above—she looks up to see a colossal, pitch-black hand descending to seize her. She squeezes her eyes shut tightly:
"Please don't torture me... just let me die quietly..."
She feels a hand grasp her head and pull something away. For a fraction of a second, she sees her own ruined body from afar—as if she were a soul drifting away. She weeps at her own pitiful state and whispers:
"Is this the Angel of Death? Am I dead now? Rest now... Do you hear me, Kyouko?"
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...What is the fate of everyone?
...Did Kyouko die?
...Is Loken still in the hospital since that stabbing incident?
...And what is happening with Lynen?
To be continued in the final chapter...