Chapter 27
Kagami's hair flew up like it had done so on the train, only this time it combusted in a great ball of orange fire. When the blinding light faded, I saw that she was floating and her machete was gone. Instead of sparks like last time, full blasts of lightning were shooting out of Kagami's hair tips. She charged a ball of dark matter and hurled it at me.
I jumped out of the way and looked back at her. She was already directly in front of me. As she lifted her arm above her head to attack, I leaned down and kicked her directly in the stomach.
She didn't even flinch. Instead, she grabbed my leg, spun me around in circles a few times, and threw me about fifty yards away. I landed face first on the ground, and when I looked up she was once again directly over me. She charged another ball of dark matter and threw it into my back.
My body was overloaded with pain. I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes. I felt another blast hit me. I heard Kagami's voice.
"You see? You see why I told you to stop chasing answers?"
She hit me with another shot of energy. I shouted in agony, feeling the blood pouring down my back.
"I was only trying to prevent this! You could have died, or you could have escaped! Why didn't you just trust me!"
Another ball of energy flew into me. My vision was fading. Death wasn't far off. What could I do?
"Find peace in death if you won't take it from anywhere else!"
I opened my eyes and looked at Kagami. She charged the final blow.
In that instant, something in my mind snapped open.
As Kagami threw the ball, I imagined a great shield of matter protecting me. My matter had a colorful spectrum on it, and when the dark matter flew into it, the two merged for a few seconds. Then the energy, both hers and mine, shot back and hit Kagami in the chest. She flew back.
I pictured my wounds closing, and within seconds my body was completely healed. I was free of pain and fatigue. I stood up, my body radiating this colorful energy. All the colors of the rainbow were flowing through this energy mass, each color changing to another and gracefully swapping positions all at once. The only color that was never included was black.
Kagami stood up and shouted in fury. The field we were in began to disintegrate, as though it were paint specks being simultaneously scraped off a wall. Beyond this setting was a new setting, an all-too familiar setting.
We were on Ryouou's school stage. The same stage where I had danced as Konata on my last day in the dream. With all of my friends. With Kagami.
A spotlight shone down on us. This wasn't over yet.
I shot a ball of energy of my own towards Kagami. She dodged to the left, so I extended the energy she dodged out like a spear and swung at her. She ducked and charged at me. As she tried to hit me with her dark matter, I jumped up. In that moment, I charged my hand with rainbow energy and punched her in the head. She fell on her back.
I charged my foot and stomped on the ground, sending the energy pulsating towards her. She rolled out of the way.
"Konata, don't you miss your old life?"
She summoned her dark matter beneath my feet. I jumped back in time to see a column of dark matter flowing up from the ground where I had just stood.
"You know I'm not Konata."
"But I know that you had fun while you were. In fact, I'd say you had the time of your life."
She charged at me, her hands fueled with dark matter. As she punched me, I charged my hands and intercepted her blows. We both stood there, fighting for power. I finally overwhelmed her and sent her back. She tumbled offstage. I jumped down and charge-punched her in the face.
Once I had done so, the world began disintegrating as it had done the first time. We were yet again in another setting.
The Void.
We could see each other clearly, even though there was no light here. There was no gravity this time. There was also no visible floor, but we weren't falling. Just continued fighting.
I charged my punch again, but Kagami knocked me off of her before I could hit her. She was noticeably weaker now, but still potentially deadly.
Kagami screamed in rage once more. Her entire body began to radiate dark matter. Within seconds, she was completely consumed by a bubble of dark energy. This bubble started growing smaller around her, until it made her only a silhouette.
She shot a blast of dark energy at me. I deflected it with a rainbow shield, and they both shot back at her. She jumped over it and ran towards me. She tried to punch me, but I ducked and kicked her. Once I had done so, I looked at Kagami.
She had once again grabbed hold of my leg. She spun me around again, only this time I was ready. I shot energy out of my legs like a laser and directly into Kagami's face.
She let go and held her face in agony. When she took her hands off, I saw that her face was no longer a silhouette. In this moment of her weakness, I shot another blast at her.
My attack hit her in the torso, and light radiated off of her. Now the only part of her that was pitch black was her hair. She fell to her knees in pain. This was my only chance.
I pulled the watch from my pocket and held it to her face. I could see the fear in her eyes.
"No!" she shouted.
In that instant, a bright white light emanated from the watch and covered everything. When the light faded, I saw that we were back in the field we had started in. No longer did either of us radiate energies. She was still on her knees, weak and defeated. She looked up at me. She coughed, and then she spoke.
"Ugh… well… I guess you win…"
I didn't say anything. She coughed some more and continued.
"But you know… I was only trying to help you… because you're my friend. Maybe I'm not your friend anymore… but I still care about you…"
She started crying once more.
"I really do! Ugh… I know that I put you through hell, time and time again… but I only did it because I wanted the best for you! So what happened?"
Tears were silently streaming down my face at this point.
"What happened to all of our good times? Our good memories, our Saturday afternoon laughs… Where did they all go!"
Even then, looking at her, I knew that Kagami was my best friend. My best friend, who hadn't even been real to begin with. My best friend, who I now had to rip out of my life because she had tried to kill me. I felt like I really would be happier dead right then. But I knew I wouldn't think like that later. I had to go through with this.
But she was right. We had shared so many happy memories together. Where did they all go? How was I supposed to answer that? Was I supposed to say something poetic? Nothing came to mind. I had no answer for that one simple question. I wished I knew the answer myself.
"Kagami…"
She looked up at me through the tears.
"You went way out of line. This is my brain, not yours. Maybe you did have noble intentions, but trying to kill me was going too far."
She couldn't look me in the eyes any longer. She only looked at the ground, waiting for me to get it over with already.
"But you know…"
I knelt down and hugged her.
"Even if I have to do this, you're still my best friend no matter what."
She gasped and remained silent. After the shock passed, she started crying. She cried like I've never heard her cry. She just sat there, crying on my shoulder. I was crying, too. Maybe she was a piece of my imagination, but she had human emotions. She could feel sad, too.
Right then, I seriously debated on whether or not to let her stay. Sure, she was too extreme, but we could fix that. Couldn't we? If we both cooperated, surely we could do anything. We could all live happy, and sure we'd have some sad times but we'd help each other through them. Isn't that how it always works? Couldn't I have a happy ending at least once in my life, when it matters the most? Couldn't I keep at least a little bit of happiness with me, even when Ayako cussed me out and kicked me out?
I knew that I could fantasize all I wanted, but it wouldn't change anything.
The fact of the matter was Kagami couldn't stay. She was programmed to bring me happiness at all costs, at first under the assumption that any extreme behavior would be limited to my dreams. She could put me in a different state of mind and make me kill Ayako, and then drive me into blissful insanity once I was arrested. The desire for happiness is what made her. If I changed that to make it less intense, then I would be changing the basis of her existence. It would be impossible for me to keep this Kagami. The closest thing I could do was to make another Kagami, and make her less intense from the start. But after this whole ordeal, my brain would never make something like her again.
My best friend was too extreme to live in this world, and it was all her programmer's fault.
I couldn't take it any longer. I took the pocket watch and touched it to Kagami's forehead. It sank into her head, and in a flash of purple light they both disappeared. I was alone.
I fell to my knees and sobbed.
