This is my second attempt to write a Fatal Frame 2 fanfic. This time I tried to take it seriously, unlike the previous fic, which was more of a workout in English. This time there should be less grammatical errors, but honestly, I probably messed up again.
As you can tell, I'm very much interested in Mayu's character. She is both our dear sister, whom we are trying to protect, and at the same time she has a huge amount of inner darkness, which I personally like already. So here I'm trying to explore the premise of what if THAT HATE ENDING came off at the very last moment and how the sisters are trying to live with what almost happened.
Any feedback would be appreciated and I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fatal Frame or its characters.
Kei Amakura had been standing in front of the hospital room for ten minutes. His nieces had been missing for a week, so why would waiting such a tiny amount of time, knowing that the twins were alive, be any easier than wondering about their fate?
Finally the nurse left the room.
"It's okay, you can go to them," she said, and, to his shame, forgetting to thank her, immediately rushed into the room to see them.
To make sure they were really here.
To make sure he hadn't lost them.
Luckily for him, it really was them.
Mio and Mayu.
Alive. Pale and exhausted, but alive.
"Thank God..." Kei whispered, immediately embracing Mayu as the closest of the sisters to the entrance to the room.
He didn't even notice at the time that the beds where they lay were at different ends of the room with no other patients here. Should he have cared how the staff placed the patients when all that really mattered was right in front of him?
"Oh, Uncle, you'll be strangling..." Mayu muttered. Catching up, Kei awkwardly pulled away, still smiling happily, before he could notice Mio flinch sharply after her words. But after a second, her uncle's attention shifted to his other niece, trying to give her a neater hug. The younger of the sisters, however, only hugged her relative tighter, much to his surprise. Normally, Mio rarely ever allowed Kei to show such closeness to them. But given what they'd been through, it was understandable.
"That's enough, or I feel awkward." Kei said jokingly, causing Mio to reluctantly break the hug, but in return immediately take her uncle's hand. To this, his uncle only sighed, but took his time pulling his hand away. "Look, I really don't want to bring this up now, but there are policemen downstairs and they want to take a statement about your disappearance. They've agreed to wait on it for a while if you'll at least give me a brief description of what happened to you."
"We don't remember." Mayu said. Her tone was uncharacteristically firm for her and implied that other versions were simply unacceptable. "I decided to go for a walk in the woods, Mio followed me, then we got lost and then it was all a blur."
Kei was taken aback by this answer, but decided to check with the other twin. "Is that true, Mio?"
The younger Amakura nodded at this question, and if at first the nods were unsure, then they became quite fierce. Kei could definitely tell something was wrong, but then his gaze went back to the older twin.
"Uncle, honestly, we're not lying to you," Mayu said. Her voice begged to believe her.
Taking a deep breath, Kei began to stand toward the exit. "Okay, I'll try to get the police to wait with the interrogation for a while. Maybe they'll at least let you check out,"
"NO!" yelled Mio sharply, squeezing her uncle's hand even tighter. Now she looked more like a battered puppy than the cheerful girl she had been a week ago. "Please don't go! Don't leave me alone!"
"Mio! I'll just go downstairs, explain everything to the cops, and come back here. It'll only take half an hour at the most. I promise. I'll be back." Kei reassured her niece, forcibly wrenching her hand from her grip. The younger Amakura whimpered softly after that and hid her head under the covers. On his way out of the room, Kei caught a glimpse of Mayu's gaze on his sister, the meaning of which he never understood even when he left the hospital in the late afternoon.
"Well, we're finally going home, huh?" Kei said cheerfully. Surprisingly, everything was resolved rather quickly. And he didn't even mean discharge from the hospital; the treatment took a whole week, though my uncle was sure the sisters had recovered much sooner. What made it much easier was that the police surprisingly did not persist in their questioning. Maybe the detectives didn't want to do business in an area that would flood anyway because of the dam, or maybe the sisters really did manage to convince them. Though Kei himself wasn't so sure, remembering their first day at the hospital.
Mayu snuggled in the right rear seat. Mio, on the other hand...
"I'll sit on the left."
This surprised Kei unexpectedly. "Are you sure? Usually you and Mayu always sit together. And besides, you usually always sit closer to the exit to help her out of..."
"That's okay. I don't mind," the older twin replied, which surprised his uncle even more. After all, he expected her to be the one to express displeasure at such a decision. But she seemed quite calm.
And so the Amakura family drove home, where, for the first time in Kei's memory, the twins sat at different ends of the car as if a wall separated them.
What had happened to them?
Mio watched in shock as her precious sister laughed and cried madly.
Just as Sae had done in the great hall.
Just as Mayu herself had done when she had fallen off the cliff that fateful day.
"Sister..." whispers Mio in shock.
Mayu gently wraps her arms around her sister's neck. "It's okay to suffer forever. It's okay to be in hell forever…"
Mio felt her sister's fingers squeezing her throat.
"Let's stay here. Just the two of us..." whispered Mayu soothingly.
Yes... If that's what her sister wants...
Mio is ready...
To die?
"NO!" shouted the younger twin and pushed Maya away.
The one stood up in a stupor, but tried again to pull her hands to her little sister's neck, but she abruptly began to crawl away from her, scraping her hands against the sharp rocks.
"DON'T COME NEAR! I PLEASE!" screamed Mio.
All the while the expression on Mayu's face changed from shock to anger, until finally the pain of deep grief showed on it.
"Mio... So you're really rejecting me?"
Heat.
Even in the apartment by mid-July it was impossible to escape it. The sun's heat sought to strangle any desire to do anything other than find a place to tolerate it.
Strangle, eh?
Sitting on the couch, Mayu Amakura still couldn't shake the feeling that their entire return was just a lingering dream she'd been having, waiting for her and her sister to perform the ritual.
But she wouldn't wake up, would she?
She is now in a harsh reality where she has never been able to become one with Mio. Even though it had been a week and a half since they returned from Minakami Village, she still couldn't accept it.
Her twin walked out of Kei's room. After what had happened, Mio flatly refused to sleep in the same room with her. Mayu was fine with that. She still couldn't make up her mind about how she felt about her sister after what had happened. So for the first time ever, she felt comfortable that Mio had broken their promise.
Once again.
Things actually got relatively easier when Mio finally realized that Mayu wasn't going to kill her. At the very least they were able to come up with a relatively sane plan of response to the police, because the only thing the sisters agreed on now was that they didn't want to tell outsiders about what had happened.
"Good morning," Mayu greeted the twin.
Mio flinched. "G-good morning, yes," after which she quickly disappeared into the bathroom. At that, the older sister only sighed. She could have realized there was no point in trying to kill her now. The moment for the ritual had already passed, and now they couldn't even stay in the village suffering together. And was it even possible to carry it out? Mio drew a line between them, thereby severing the thread that held them together. She used to fear that life itself would force her to separate from her sister, but Mayu never thought that it would be her twin herself who would decide to separate them so soon. Shouldn't this whole nightmare have made Mio understand her feelings and fears? But instead she betrayed her sister. Deprived her of all hope.
It would have been so easy to start hating her...
Tears slowly rolled down Mayu's cheeks.
So why did she still love Mio so much?
"I'm back!" shouted Kei, crossing the threshold of the door. And he was not back alone, but with a plan. And that plan was wrapped in a blue rag kindly provided to him by Yuu.
Kei had seen enough of the "twins can't communicate with each other" spectacle. He didn't like it, thank you. But the crafty uncle will break that estrangement! He knows the twins love to hear his stories about work. And for once, he really had a terrific find. When people are passionate about the same topic, any barriers between them will crumble! Well, at least that's what he personally believed.
"Uncle, what have you got there?" asked Mayu, who had come out of her room. She always listened so attentively to his stories.
"Oh, well, I wanted to wait and show you this after dinner..." Kei waved it off, but it was obvious he was enjoying the attention he was getting from the twins.
"Kei, don't mock," Mio tried to say in a serious tone, showing that she wasn't interested in his discovery, but her look, burning with impatience, gave her away.
"All right, all right," condescendingly said uncle, who was enjoying their reaction. He unfolded the rag, revealing that it contained a relatively small device.
"It's a Camera Obscura. Rare stuff, but they're pretty famous in my line of work," pronounced Kei proudly. He expected to hear sighs of admiration, but instead the twins froze, as if the mere sight of the camera had startled them. They stared at each other in silence.
"Uncle... Can I hold it?" asked Mio timidly.
"А? Yeah, sure, just gently..." came to Kei's senses, and almost immediately the younger twin snatched the camera out of his hands.
Mio then aimed the camera at her sister, as if she intuitively knew what to do from her, and tried to take a picture of Mayu. However, nothing happened.
"It doesn't work?" the younger of the sisters uttered in shock, alternately glancing from the camera to the older twin.
*SLAP*
Mio's cheek burned sharply with pain. Standing in front of her was Mayu, who, for the first time in Kei's memory, was looking at her sister with unconcealed anger and rage.
It was so wrong.
"You... DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND MY FEELINGS, MIO!" yelled Mayu at her sister, grabbing her by the shoulders.
"I am..." Mio blurted back awkwardly. Unable to withstand the pressure, she broke free of her grip and ran into Kiy's room, slamming the door behind her.
That was it, he was finally sick of it.
"What the hell happened to you then?" shouted Kei in a heartbeat, hoping for an answer now.
But Mayu only stared at her hands in shock, as if she couldn't believe that they really belonged to her.
"I think I've done something unforgivable…"
Mayu did not know how long she devoured the ceiling of her and Mio's room with her eyes (although it was more accurate to call it Mayu's private room now).
It hurt her.
But before that, her sister had hurt her many times more than a simple slap. She was the one who broke their promise. She deserved it!
Then why did it hurt them both so much?
All she wanted was to be one with her...
Mayu needed to get some air.
The older of the Amakura twins left the room and started limping toward the kitchen. Hot tea before she went to bed always helped her gather her thoughts.
However, as she walked past the bathroom, Mayu saw her.
Mio was standing in front of the sink. Her eyes were red with tears, and it was as if she couldn't hear Mayu's footsteps. All she could hear was a low whisper.
"My sister tried to kill me. My sister tried to kill me. My sister tried to kill me. My sister tried to kill me. My sister tried to kill me. My sister tried to kill me…"
Another week had passed since that incident. The vacations were coming to an end. To the delight of their uncle on the outside, their relationship really seemed to be back to normal. Mio stopped avoiding Mayu and moved back into their common room. Even their communication had resumed. It seemed as if they were inseparable again as before.
It seemed.
In fact, their roles were reversed. Mio, who had always tried to lead her sister's way and was the more proactive twin, had actually given control of herself to Mayu. Mio became her older sister's shadow just as she had played this role for her before Minakami Village. Even their conversations were always initiated by Mayu, while Mio only supported them. And always on distracted topics. Not that Mayu herself was so eager to discuss anything important to them.
But the situation itself was hers...
Irritated her.
Yes, that's an apt description of her attitude.
She couldn't see her beloved sister so passive. So submissive. Now Mio was like "dead" to her.
But that was what Mayu wanted, wasn't it? That was exactly what she wanted. A dead sister who would always be subject to her wishes and could never leave her.
Yes, but not like this and not now.
Not after they were separated forever.
But the problems didn't end there.
After becoming the lead twin, Mayu realized that she didn't know what to do next. After all, she had relied on Mio her whole life before. Hobbies, dreams, goals... The older twin had always let her younger sister pave their common path. But now Mayu simply didn't know where to go next. And there were no easy answers in front of her. No hope for Mio either. For sooner or later this pretense would finish them both off, and their roads would diverge for good.
Such were the unhappy thoughts on her mind as she lounged on the park bench with Uncle Kei and Mio.
"Why does summer have to get hotter and hotter every year?" groaned uncle. "Mio, get some ice cream."
"You've got legs, Kei, buy your own," threw Mio irritably. She allowed herself to be held by Mayu's hand, even though it didn't bring them the joy they once had.
"Yeah, but I'm an adult working guardian with no vacation time, which means I have more right to sit here waiting for ice cream. Besides, it's still me who pays."
"Sister?" asked Mio uncertainly, thereby asking permission to leave her sister.
"It's all right," gave Mayu permission, letting go of her twin's hand. With that, Mio took the money Kei had already held out and walked toward the ice cream shop nearby.
"Ugh, I was already afraid I was going to have to get up," Kei laughed, but the girl didn't give it much thought.
While waiting for Mio, Mayu's eyes caught on the way the two girls began to argue over a doll. The most ordinary scene, but there was something about it that caught her attention, making the twin unable to take her eyes off the children.
The argument turned into swearing.
The scolding turned into a fight.
After that, a woman, not much older than her and Mio, came up to the children and separated them. After that, all three of them headed toward the toy stall.
"Is it okay for sisters to fight?" asked Mayu to her uncle. She was rarely alone with him without Mio, but now one of those rare moments fell out.
"Yes, if it doesn't happen too often. Even your mother and I fought a lot in our time, and you know you can't find a woman as forgiving as she is... Well, probably not even in the whole world," her uncle smiled awkwardly. "It's just important to remember that even though we may not understand each other, in a good family no one wants to hurt each other."
Did that mean that she and Mio weren't a family now? It would have been easy to pretend that her sister didn't know what was going on in her soul. But not now. Not after the Lost Village.
With those thoughts in mind, Mayu didn't notice that family coming back again. This time each of the girls had their own doll, which brought them indescribable joy.
To think. So much anger over a doll.
"Honestly, I always wanted to make amends and make up for all the trouble I had caused in our family after such fights. Yeah, I still do, actually," Kei scratched his head. "To act like a good brother... Yeah, that would be fine."
"Are you saying I've been a bad sister to Mio?" asked Mayu thoughtfully.
"No, of course not. It doesn't pay to care. In the family, that's for sure. Oh, and I don't think the same sibling seniority rules that usually apply to the rest of us apply to you as twins," Uncle Kei leaned both arms on the back of the bench. "I realize now that I can't repay your mother the way she did. I am no Shizu. But I can do something that only Kei Amakura can do."
After these words, Kei turned to May and smirked at her.
"You can never be Mio, either. But I believe you can do something for her that only Mayu Amakura can. And that, too, is beautiful in its own way."
Mayu shuddered at these words. Her careless uncle had somehow managed to pick up on a small part of her worries. And though she did not yet know how to respond to his words, the mere fact that they had been spoken already meant a great deal to the older twin.
"Thank you," she whispered softly.
"I'm back!" came the voice of Mio, who was returning with ice cream.
"Well, finally. How many times can you go for three cones?" muttered a disgruntled uncle.
"You keep muttering, you'll be without yours, Kei," returned the younger twin's sneer in response. But Mayu was no longer paying attention to them, and was again watching the family across from her.
Why can't they both get what they want so badly?
They had just returned from their mother's funeral.
Mayu would never forget Kei's face, telling them in a husky voice to go to the hospital. Even so, they couldn't see her alive one last time.
By this time it was time for school again, but the administration was able to step in and give them time off until after the funeral.
Everything seemed so unreal. It was as if they were back in the Lost Village again. It seemed as if they just turned around and their mother would call them to breakfast again.
But that wasn't going to happen, was it?
Shizu Amakura's time was coming to an end for the past two years. That she could give them that time was already a miracle.
Did Mayu then ask to deprive Mio of her remaining time with her sister?
It had been a long time since she had been so sure that her desire to stay in that hell was really what she wished for. But it was still Mio who had drawn the line between the sisters, who had given them no hope of being together, and every day the independent life alone loomed larger and larger over them. And the loss of her mother only underscored the fact that the verdict that they would die apart was inexorable.
But to Mayu's surprise, her sister recovered from the funeral much faster than she and her uncle had expected. Soon Mio was even starting to smile again much sooner than the rest of them. The older of the sisters wasn't sure if Mio was trying out of habit for her or if her experience in the village had really changed anything about her. But for now, she didn't want to ask her twin about it. Not now.
While Mio had gone to bed, Mayu was already used to dealing with the mess in her head just in the kitchen. But now she saw that their uncle was sitting there at the table with a bottle of sake. He nodded at her, inviting her in, and the twin sat down on a chair next to her uncle.
"This is the second funeral this month..." muttered Kei sadly. "First Yuu... Now your mother... Great year, damn it..."
"And that's how you're doing?" asked Mayu, pointing to the bottle.
"It's impossible to get her drunk anyway. I'll hide it in the cellar later," grinned her uncle bitterly. Strangely enough, the sake really didn't take over and Kei was practically sober indeed. "And who says I'm doing all right? You can see for yourself what I've already tried to do. No, it's better to give the bottle to my colleagues after all... They like that sort of thing. "
Then Kei pushed the bottle away from him, protecting himself from unnecessary temptation.
"It would be easy to forget everything and drown my sorrows that way. But they wouldn't want me to ruin myself over their deaths," after these words, uncle rubbed the top of his niece's head as if she were a little girl. "Besides, I have a responsibility to you and Mio. It may not be like before, but I promise I'll take care of you for as long as it takes."
"Doesn't it hurt? To be alone?" the girl asked uncertainly.
"Of course it hurts, but the point is that the people dear to us never leave us altogether. They still live on through us, through the memories we keep. At one time, Yuu even told me that as long as there's one person who remembers you, you'll never really be dead," Kei smiled nostalgically remembering his friend.
"Then do you have to fear the death of your friends?"
*BOOM*
Mayu flinched as Kei struck the table sharply. He was embarrassed by his own actions and took a deep breath.
"Too much after all. No more alcohol in this house," he said firmly, then turned a heavy gaze on the twin. "Mayu, I want you to listen to me carefully now, okay? If anything, I'm not retracting my words. The people dear to us do live through us. But more specifically, through our memories. And that is not the same as living here. We can cherish our memories of them, but only memories. The dead can never share your joy or sorrow, nor can you truly meet them here. Yes, we can remember our best moments with them, but we can never again experience something new together, we can never know that person from a new perspective and rediscover them. All we are left with now is to relive our past. But our loved ones would hardly want us to do that instead of moving on with our lives. Now go to bed before we find out how drunk your uncle really is."
Were the crimson butterflies from the village just memories of their twins?
The day was ending. The sun was setting in the west, giving way to twilight.
Mayu was heading toward the abandoned temple in their city. In her hand was a letter with a destination and a message.
"I'll wait... forever..."
Mio had planned everything in advance. She knew Kei was going away for a while today, so she faked a cold. And while her uncle made Mayu go to school, the younger twin left her behind.
Again.
As she struggled over the fence in front of the toori gate, the older of the sisters couldn't help but think of Minakami Village, wondering if the spirits of those who couldn't rest in peace might be here too, but her sixth sense didn't respond in any way.
She was the only one here...
And Mio.
Finally, after walking into the main temple building, Mayu found herself inside a room that, although it had not been used for its intended purpose for a long time, had been cleaned a little, which made her believe, at least at first glance, that the temple was still working.
There were lighted candles around the altar, and in front of the ceremonial pedestal stood Mio in a white kimono.
Exactly like the one the Kurosawa sisters wore.
"Shall we begin?" asked Mio with a smile. Mayu began to walk slowly toward her sister.
"You were right the other day when you said I didn't understand your feelings. And I really could never hurt you. But I don't want my sister to live with that burden. So now I'm willing to be a part of you. Even if it's only a fruitless attempt," the younger twin explained to the older one, until she was in front of Mio. "I have prepared a hole behind the temple in the woods where you can hide my..."
"Shut up."
The cold tone with which these words were uttered sharply shattered the atmosphere of the impromptu ritual and caused the younger of the sisters to recoil sharply.
Although Mayu tried to appear calm, it was obvious in her eyes that she was experiencing a tangle of different emotions.
Just like back then. The night of the ritual.
"You refused to make me one with you. I forgave you for that. You rejected my desire to stay with you in the village forever. It was painful. But I put up with it. And now you've changed your mind. At the moment when the line between us was drawn for good. By you. It wasn't enough for you to break our promise..." Mayu's voice grew louder and louder, "So you decided to burn the rest of our time together?!"
"Sister..." whispered Mio, trying to put her twin's arms around her neck, but the latter threw them away with annoyance.
"Mio, I really hate you," Mayu said with unexpected, even to herself, venom in her voice, turning to leave. "Stay here, I don't care now."
"Sister!" tried to stop the twin Mio, but she paid no attention to her. Then the younger twin desperately grabbed the girl's arm. "I understand now why you actually jumped off the cliff then!"
This time the older of the twins stopped. In fear that she would continue to walk away again, the younger sister continued.
"I always knew that your fall was no accident. It seemed to me then that it was my fault. That I chose to leave you then. But now... After mom died... You were afraid of losing me, weren't you? You were the first to realize that we couldn't be together forever. You were afraid of being alone." The younger sister pressed her free hand to her heart. "You already imagined then what kind of pain would eat away at our loss, and you wanted to prevent it. But I messed up and now my sister is going to have to suffer for it? I can't let that happen."
Mayu was silent. But she wasn't about to let go of her hand. Finally she uttered.
"And then what? Even if I strangle you, what comes after?"
"But sister, listen..." whispered Mio.
"No, you listen to me!" shouted Mayu back at her, turning sharply and releasing Mio's hand, causing her to sit on the pedestal. Tears glistened in the older girl's eyes.
"All my life, all I wanted was to be together with Mio. But life doesn't work that way. Sooner or later our paths must separate. And all this time I've been trying to fight it, refusing to accept the truth. And you let me build these illusions, reinforcing them with our promise. But when we found ourselves in the Minakami village, I felt for the first time that I could make them true. Only you knew better. It would not have brought us what I had dreamed of. And you rejected my wishes, breaking that thread called "promise" that linked us to our childhood, when there was no "Mayu" and "Mio," but only "We." And you know, I thank you for that, Mio. For after you tore our wings, I had to face the truth without you, and accept it. Before that, my love for you was selfish and I only thought of going back to that carefree time. But now I am ready to accept your feelings and desires, even if they are different from mine! I want to get to know Mio from sides I never noticed before!" Mayu's figure loomed larger and larger over her sister's body.
"WHY WOULD YOU DECIDE TO BELIEVE US WITH THAT NINE!" shouted the older sister to the younger one in an angry voice.
Mio tried to look away. She didn't want the dearest person in her life to see her embarrassing secret.
But Mayu already understood everything.
"No... Are you... Does that fear live in you now, too?"
Mio only lowered her gaze harder to the floor.
Shame.
Shame that she had decided to appropriate her sister's wish after rejecting it herself.
Mayu, ignoring the pain in her right leg, crouched down to Mio, taking her by the shoulders. There was a smile on her lips that was neither sincere nor fake, but rather hysterical.
"To think you had to wait until Mom died to understand me, hee hee," the older twin let out a chuckle.
"Hehehe, it turns out I did. I guess that makes me a bad daughter," Mio smiled back embarrassed.
"Ho-ho, no, I was the bad sister. After all, I was the one who decided to break our promise first by running off into the woods without you, huh" giggled Mayu.
"And then how many times did you run away without me in the village, ha ha ha," laughed Mio, moving Mayu's hands to her neck. "Doesn't your leg hurt?"
"You're asking about your leg right now?" picked up Mayu's laughter.
"Well, according to village lore, I'm supposed to be the older sister, which means I have to take care of my younger sister."
For a moment they froze. Mayu only now realized exactly where Mio had directed her hands. Then both sisters laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AAAAAAAAA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA AAAAAAAAA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE YOU MIO!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA I LIKE YOU TOO, SISTER! HAHAHAHAHAHA "
"HAHAHA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"HAHAHA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Their hysterical laughter turned more and more into sobs and cries of lost innocence. It was now, at the border between childhood and adulthood, that they finally realized that their destinies were not one, and that the path they had followed had begun to branch off into roads too narrow for the two of them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
*CRUNCH*
"Mio... So you're really rejecting me?"
Mayu looked at the hunted look in her sister's eyes as she tried to keep her distance between them.
This was the end.
They were not going to stay together in this hell.
So now they would have to live apart.
Everything made no sense.
But she wouldn't accept it.
If Mayu can't give her life to Mio, and she's not going to keep her promise, she doesn't want that life!
With that thought in mind, the older twin walked to the edge of the Hellish Abyss.
That was it.
All that was left was to jump off.
"NO!"
At that moment Mayu's body was abruptly pulled back and she fell onto the cold rocks.
Behind her back Mio held her and whispered.
"Please don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me..."
So even rejecting her desires...
Drawing that line between them...
Mio still wants Mayu to be a part of her life?
That's so selfish...
But somehow...
Instead of anger...
She was so happy at that moment.
It's raining.
In the abandoned temple, the bodies of the two twins lay on a pedestal.
Under the feet of one of them was a broken tree branch that had been forgotten to be removed.
The arms of one of the girls hugged the body of the other.
The two hearts beat as one as they had done so many years ago.
"Mio... That's enough. Let's go home."
No matter how much time they had left...
No matter how much it hurts later...
Mayu will no longer reject the time they have left for new memories.
