"You know, if anything, I should be thanking you, really!" A benevolent grin crawled onto the middle-aged man's face. "But I suppose we don't all get what we want, do we?" The old man, suited in an unusual attire fit with blacks and grays unfamiliar to Yume, took another step forward through the spacious lobby.
The clicking of overly expensive shoes clacked on the ground as Yoshizawa took one step after another. "Actually, wait, I suppose it isn't too out of the question for me..." An even more triumphant and demented smile than the one before took over his expression. "I mean, I've worked so, so, soooooooo, hard for this... I guess it can't hurt, so..." He turned his eyes down from the hyper modern ceiling stories above him back to the quiet girl in her boringly simple attire. "Thank you."
"You shouldn't be thanking her, you used her!" Kazuki's determined scream came from behind Yume, but she didn't bother to look back.
"Oh, so you're saying it's bad to be grateful?" The man ran a hand through his long and aged hair apathetically. "Some phantom-whatever wannabe you are... You know there are a lot of people worse than me, right? All I'm doing is just playing my part in society, trying to get ahead... Isn't that how anyone survives in this modern world?"
A furious stomp from behind Yume again. "There are way more people better than you though!" This time, it was Yuzu. She still wasn't going to bother checking behind her.
"You haven't seen the shit-for-brains I deal with!" Yoshizawa exploded in a sudden retaliation of anger, turning the ornate light fixture behind him momentarily red from its usual glimmering gold. "I've had to deal with rapists, stuck-up little brats, and assholes that just want to annoy me to make me miserable!" A sly smile this time. "But I won't let them... No, no, no... I always get the upper hand first."
"There are laws against what you're doing!" Kazuki again.
"Oh? Oh really now? Laws? What good are laws if no one follows them? Besides, a few little breaks here and there helps me get ahead, and causes minimal repercussions. Requests bribes for withholding information, selling drugs to some street punks, publishing my own little 'experiments...' Where's the harm in all that? It's not like anyone wants me to spread the truth, so I give them the option!
Another stomping foot. "What you're doing is hurting people! You're just selfish!" Yuzu again.
"Hurting-smurting!" The aged psychiatrist adjusted his blackened tie. "You know, I originally wanted to be a psychologist... Analyze all those anomalies, look deep inside everyone's secrets, find those special patterns and answers... Until I got stuck here." A smile flashed on his face again as excited played in his yellow tinted eyes. "Then I did what any reasonable go-getter should do... I did it anyway! Sure, I had to market them as fiction, but that was a small price to pay, plus the rewards it got me was more than I could ever of hoped for!"
"So..." Yume opened her mouth, it felt drier than it usually did, was that normal? "Those hypothetical situations of abuse..."
"Not hypothetical!"
"And the neglect on the part of the therapist..."
"Not fictional!"
"And that rough draft you mentioned..."
Wickedness beamed on the man's face. "My ticket to the top! With your case, it should be the last little push I need to boost my career up by ten-thousand fold! So, really, I must thank you for giving me the 'inspiration'."
"He neglected you, Yume!" Kazuki, yet again. "You can't let him do whatever he pleases!"
"Why should I care...?" Yume's voice cracked, her facade was worse than it usually was, she was gonna have to psyche herself back into it at some point. "Why should I care, huh!? It's not like it matters whether or not I care anyway!" Her face was wet. Maybe it was tears. Maybe Yoshizawa, or Kazuki, or maybe even Yuzu had spit in her eyes. Either seemed plausible at this point.
"You know... That's a good point." The man crossed his arms with a shark-toothed grin brimming with chaotic desire. "I'm glad you seemed to of learned your lesson well, our sessions always did go far better than I could ever of anticipated."
More stomping behind her. "No, that's just his lies trying to get to you!" Kazuki again, Yume expected it to be Yuzu, odd. "He's just manipulating you for his own gain! You're not as meaningless as you think you are, trust me! Everything in this life of ours has meaning!"
She was trembling, did she usually do that?
"Oh, please..." The man let out a sigh. "She couldn't answer a multiple choice question with only one option even if she tried!"
Her knees hurt, did they usually do that? "No... That's wrong..." It was probably because she was kneeling on the ground, she should probably fix that. "That's... All of it, it's wrong..."
"Can you see it now?" Kazuki supported. "He's just been taking advantage of you all this time! Now you have to strike back yourself!"
She rose to her feet, she was heavier than she had remembered. "Kazuki... You're wrong. All of it's wrong."
She could hear his surprised gasp from behind her. "The two of you... Kazuki and Mr. Yoshizawa, you're both wrong!"
Truth. Truth is a subjective view, is it not?
Ringing. There was a ringing. Where was the ringing? It was inside her head. It was a headache. That made sense.
You can never trust the truth, it bends, alters, and changes to the will of others... Truly, it is ultimately meaningless.
More ringing. There was more ringing. Where was the ringing this time? It was still inside her head. It was still a headache. That still made sense.
Justice, however, cannot be changed by the wills of the evil. What you know to be right in your heart, it is yours and yours alone. You must fight to protect it, or perish trying in a vain attempt.
Sense. Sense. Sense. Sense. What was sense? Was sense a thing? A noun? A concrete noun? She had never seen sense maybe it wasn't a noun. Maybe it was a verb. Maybe it was a feeling.
Sense. Sense. Sense. It began to make sense. The voice. The voice made sense. The voice was her, or it wasn't her? She could already tell it was complicated, but it made sense.
Thou art I.
A surreal blue light glowed around the girl. "The both of you, you're wrong. I am meaningless. I have no pride, no truth, no glory, and no fate."
I am thou.
"You can't give up! That's just-" Kazuki.
"I'm not giving up anymore!" Yume's voice bellowed through the enormous room. "I have nothing to my name, I'm free. I'm free from the shackles of life, I'm free from the judgement of others, I'm free from you!" She locked her eyes directly onto Yoshizawa, her sudden determination meeting with his mild curiosity. "And I always have been."
It's taken you long enough, let us form the contract of old age, and protect that which be both hold so dearly.
Ringing. No, not ringing. Pain? Pain. There was pain. Pain on her face. Was there always pain on her face? Probably, she felt like there was, though maybe not this literally.
A finger touched her face, it felt like her finger. But it didn't touch her face. It touched a mask. There was a mask? There was a mask.
It was roughly oval shape, with a simple white color scheme, but around the edges on on the two small strands attached to her face come from the outside edges was a comforting shade of baby blue.
Come, let us claim our own justice for ourselves.
Sense. It made sense. Pain. She felt pain as her fingers crawled beneath the mask. Blood. Blood covered her thankfully closed eyes, dripping down gruesomely. More pain. She felt more pain and agitation as the mask slowly became detached from her face, dripping out more blood, staining her white dress with a melodious crimson of rebellion.
Was this pain? No. Was this power? Not quite. Was this hope? Far from it. Was this futile? No one can rightfully say.
"Yuki-Onna!" Freedom. Freedom more than Yume ever knew she had. Freedom from herself.
The mask seemed to face away into the mist of blue light, but that paled in comparison to the embodiment of determination behind here. Floating in mid air with no form of leg, was a large and feminine form, black hair flowing wildly like a snow storm behind it, clad in a beautiful white kimono with blue snowflakes covering the design, and with a blank face save for a pair of coldly glowing blue eyes with gray pupils.
Yume herself hadn't noticed for good reason, but her simple white nightgown had evolved into a white and blue bodysuit with an improperly worn kimono jacket loosely fitting over the inside layer. Reaching out her hand into another mist of blue, she instinctively pulled out an intricately carved white spear.
"I don't care if I'm meaningless, I am who I am." She slowly pointed the spear down towards the corrupted man as the entity above her reached out a single hand with pointed icy blue fingers. "I don't care about any of it, and that's what makes me strong." A cold mist blue suddenly into the room. "I fear no loss, no defeat, no death, because I've already found it myself... But I will continue to live, and continue to fight!"