First of all, I would like to thank the guest that wrote the lovely review. I also thank everyone who is reading this story. I hope you enjoy the second chapter.
Best wishes and stay safe.
Warning: Canon-typical violence. Hints of suggestive themes.
Some may know of the Truth on the underside of a certain truth.
Some may yell that a certain truth they were given is the Truth.
Theme of Akise Aru.
2. Change
Akise said he was going to fight for her. He is true to his word. He tells Yuki to his face. He accepts and respects Yuno's (loathing) rejection, but he doesn't give up. He stays closer than she would like to. She is usually suspicious of the albino; now, she is verging on paranoia. What new trick is this? She watches him as he watches her for different reasons apparently. What is he scheming? That declaration is false; it is a ruse to catch her off guard. How does he dare to mock at true love?
At least, she thinks this charade may make Yukiteru jealous, rekindle the spark between them. Wishful thinking—he doesn't fulfil her hopes. He becomes even more passive. She is so vexed that she doesn't press him too much. The mellow bond continues up to the breakdown of the game. When Deus appears, Yuki holds on to her for dear life as he always does. She accepts it in an absent-minded manner, for she must track Akise's movements. She must admit he is doing some good for her, investigating her foes however redundant it is. She alternatively ignores him or spies him; somewhere along the way, Yuki's parents are killed again, and he walks the path of snapping. Although she feeds him the usual lies and bears his laments, she is so tired of the situation. Who needs annoying relatives when they can make beautiful skulls, unable to harm you?
When they confront Seventh, Yuno regards their phones—two halves of the same whole. They show the strong bond between their owners. If Yuki and she have always been meant to get married, why haven't they received a similar diary? Is Marco and Ai's love more real than theirs?
These questions are uncomfortable, so she puts them aside and focuses on the daily grind: battle, survival, uplifting Yuki, avoiding Akise's manoeuvres.
Nearly at the end, Yuki wakes up. He takes some initiative. They spend the night together. She has to keep in mind her love for him, because she doesn't get much actual pleasure. Slobbery kisses, clumsy hands, awkward gestures; too slow when she needs swiftness, too quick when she needs an easy pace. Nonetheless, she has chosen this. Therefore, she sighs and fakes. Afterwards, the accumulated tiredness makes her fall asleep.
Her dreams are shaky and foreboding. She awakens all of a sudden to a crackling noise. She startles out of bed, naked, stares at the window. It is ajar, wind blowing the old curtains. Purple shades hint at the break of dawn. Something is out of place. Then, Yuki's shriek shatters the room, and an energy pulse beams and faints. Yuno turns around, her heart racing.
"Yuki!" she shouts, alarmed.
She expects some threat accosting him; the scene that unfolds before her is pretty different.
Yuki has got dressed. He stands nursing his left hand, which is burnt and swollen. His blue eyes denote dread, his lips are contorted in an expression of shock. At his feet, the remnants of Yuno's expendable mobile phone have turned into a wreckage of metal and plastic. Next to it, the main diary, the one protected against her foes, sears with otherworldly light, its energetic shield sizzling unblemished, unbroken.
Yuno's mind is mighty; her strategic skills are impressive. Nonetheless, her mind betrays her for a second, and she cannot make sense of what she is witnessing, even when every atom in her body irradiates a red flag of warning.
"You have two diaries. Why? You got an Apprentice Diary from Eighth? You want to sell me?" Yuki babbles. Spite and spit sully his face. "And this... I can't break this phone. I can't even touch it!"
"I love you. I never—"
A gunshot stops her speech. Pain. Searing pain in her shoulder. A second shot, pain in her thigh. Her legs fail.
"Yuki?!"
His good hand holds a gun from which smoke is still coming. He shoots one bullet after another until the chamber is almost empty. One bullet misses its target; two find Yuno's stomach and chest. She falls to the floor in a pool of her own blood.
"I have to be Deus, bring my parents back to life. I don't think you ever cared for them. You... have been useful... but I have to win."
"You can't bring them back." Yuno's voice is feeble and her breath is thin. It hurts a lot, everything hurts.
She tries to lift her head and not see Yuki's feet nearing. She feels the hot, cold metal against her temple.
"I'll be Deus," he insists, and Yuno senses the other boy moving before Yukiteru can realise what is happening.
He doesn't have the chance to pull the trigger, for he is a bundle rolling on the floor with Akise manhandling him. They roll and roll, and the gun shoots again. Only the white-haired boy stands up. He strides toward Yuno and kneels beside her. He observes her wounds, attempts to get her comfortable, puts some medical training to the test.
"I tried to warn you, but you never listened to me. I'm sorry for being so late. I was dealing with Eleventh. I should have been here with you." Akise's hands are cool on her skin; his grief is hot against her visage. "Hold on. Eleventh and First are history. It's over, you are the winner. You'll be Dea, you will heal. Hold on, keep on breathing."
He's killed Yukiteru, she thinks, fog clouding her consciousness.
The ceiling and the walls burst into pieces. Tendrils of time and space dance around. Her life is bleeding out, vital organs damaged beyond remedy. I'm not going to make it. Her sight darkens. I must live. I must prevail!
Suddenly, an event that never happened explodes behind her eyes: she is committing suicide in order to let Yuki win; she dies by her own hands.
She is the key.
With effort, she opens her eyes. Muru Muru is in front of her, donning a tattered black cloak, handing the core of Deus. Uncertainty mars her ageless countenance.
"Dea? Are you alive? You beat the game. Are you gonna move?"
The gentlest touch alights on Yuno's head. It is Akise, who is also holding her hand. He smiles gently. He stops looking at her to measure the ruin that is unfolding everywhere, colours and shapes fading away, sounds slowly perishing. Akise looks exhausted, too.
"You can heal yourself and rebuild the world. You can maintain causality, keep everyone and everything alive," he says.
Yuno remains silent. Her servant glares at Akise.
"Not the dead," Muru Muru groans. "Why did you lie about me? I've never hung around with low lives like you! Well, not you technically. Perhaps—" She hesitates, grounds her teeth. Then she addresses Yuno: "Anyway, why is he even here? This is a first."
Akise's mouth tightens up. Quick analyses and deductions cross his expression. His gaze hardens as his body weakens.
"You are talking about an iteration. Have there been other successions before? Other Dei?"
Muru Muru opens her eyes so wide they seem boiled eggs nesting sharp-edged amethysts.
"The late Deus liked this brat. Shall I kill him for you, Dea?" Her voice spills bloodlust, her teeth are bare.
He killed Yuki, she thinks. However, the idea of the demon-thing slaughtering Akise is not as pleasing as it should. Besides, he is losing his strength by the minute, his life force vanishing on a par with the universe around them.
"His world is doomed... I won't remake it... All... will disappear... forever... We... we leap again," she rasps.
Muru Muru shrugs. She ducks the fallen shape of Akise (his limbs can't hold him anymore, his heartbeat is slowing) and floats towards Yuno. She takes her Dea and starts flying up to the chasm in the sky. Yuno looks down at the albino. He is dying like everything else around him. The scarlet is as stern as sad.
"I should have never loved you," she thinks he says with his last breath.
"No one asked you to," she replies to the ruin.
...
She nurses her injuries and rests for a while in the Cathedral of Causality, more an ossuary than a temple. She wonders and ponders.
"I was never in real danger after I became a goddess unless I got so entangled in my human disguise that I couldn't tell it apart from my true self. I can only die by my hand or my will, conscious or not."
"Ha-ha, godly means," Muru Muru agrees, or sort of. She is fidgeting and can't stop moving on and about.
"Nonetheless, in the second world and in the fourth one—was it number four? Whatever. It's happened more times... Akise overpowered me. He wounded me seriously. I mean, my own ignorance could have made him murder me. I never really dreaded death by anyone, save him."
"Dea, I don't see where you're going with this rant."
Yuno raises her brows and clenches her fists.
"Who is Akise? Deus must have chosen him, but to which end? Why doesn't he appear every time?"
"I heard Deus muttering about the brat once; I couldn't figure out his words. I saw the fossil watch him, I don't know why. I remember a blinding light burning me long ago. The latest Deus was quite interested in him, but he didn't elaborate. The dinosaur has never been less sharing than in his final age."
Yuno's face darkens.
"Are you still my Muru Muru?"
"I am my Dea's servant."
Yuno looks at the seal in her forehead and thinks of making her show her number. Then she notices the glint of madness in the purple eyes, a madness Yuno knows well—it dwells within herself day by day.
That suffices. She stops asking.
...
Again in the loop. She doesn't miss a second. She is still enraged by Yuki's former treason. She will fix it.
She gains nearly two years. She plots a whole web of lies and proxies. She cleans her house of its undesired inhabitants; next thing, she cleans Yukiteru's house. Yuki is left an orphan or a leftover, and Yuno is there to comfort him and take him to hers. They will be living together and Yuki will not need anyone else. She will be his guardian, his only friend, his girlfriend, his everything. Her plan works. Yuki doesn't know how to give a step without her, doesn't relate to other people. It is time for the culmination of her dream. She tweaks law and they got married even if they (he) are (is) (a) teenager. He is her husband, she owns him in body and soul. Yuno's pride swells while her discontentment swells as well. The peak moment of her life has turned out quite empty. Routine and stagnation are a mean price for her reward, she must assume. If only Yuki could mature.
She makes some preparations for the impending struggle. Everything will go on smoothly. When Deus makes himself known, wife and husband have already dropped school so that Yuki never encounters Third and they can keep a low profile. They move to an abandoned building Yuno has chosen in advance, and Yuki is (trapped) sheltered there. It is fine. Yuno has errands to run and goals to reach.
Akise meets her. He confesses his interest in her, although he doesn't push after learning she is married. Anyway, which partner has ever stopped the weird boy from lusting after one or another? So he applies to the task of being a faithful friend, willing to help her. She accepts his help and treats him amiably, aiming to suck out his secrets. He is of use, but he doesn't reveals his origins or background—absent parents have become such a commonplace. He just grins and remains a mystery. His secrecy is a nuisance, but she does with what she has and exploits his allegiance to her, taking advantage of the spare time to try to figure out a permanent solution to her dilemma. Battles go on without much noise; she is an expert, and odds seem to favour her. As for the rest, she lets Akise take the reins. She ruminates about how to change the outcome and observes him at work: he is smart, determined and diligent. She surprises herself genuinely enjoying him bluffing others with his fake diary.
One after another, the players lose. When the full machinery behind Bacchus grounds into action, Yuno lets Akise play the hero and walks over his corpse to check Eleventh is gone.
Afterwards, she returns to the storehouse where Yuki has been hiding and breaks the news. He is a trembling mess.
"So, we-e are the l-last?" He has begun stuttering out of late. He is less of a man, more of a kid. She has not let him touch her since their wedding night, devoid of desire for him.
"Yes, we are," she says. Her mood is terrible today. She has not found a solution—again—and some odd feelings of guilt have accompanied her all the way long from where she left Akise's body.
"What-what do we do now, Y-u-no? What do-o I do?"
Yuno's patience reaches its limit.
"Stop stammering!" she shouts. He shuts his mouth.
She frowns. This Yuki is a shadow of the one she knew.
"You'll do better next time," she says, and she finishes the game at once.
...
She leaps, and the loop loops. She fails in her purpose over and over. Every new Yuki disappoints her in a different way.
The albino appears more often than not. Every new Akise says he loves her and, though secretive and unreachable, remains loyal to her until the bitter end.
...
This world could be any other. Yuno and Yuki are fighting against Seventh. Yuno has been performing by rote, her thoughts far and beyond in time and space. They are at the top of Sakurami Tower. They have split: Marco is hunting Yuki on the furthest side of the platform, screaming his theories of partnership and manliness. Yuno is facing Ai—a pitiful thing universe after universe. Half-heartedly, she repeats the sequence that always leads to Ai's downfall. One, two, three, and then she throws a final, mortal slash to Seventh's throat.
This time, Ai's body reacts as it should. She moves backwards in the last second and the blade misses its target—Yuno lives the inversion of a dejà-vu. She cannot dwell in the fact too much, for Ai's dagger does what Yuno's could not. It finds its enemy's throat and cuts it. Pain delays its presence for a moment; it strikes with a vengeance immediately. Yuno's neck is white hot; blood gushes out from the severed carotid. She bites the dust; her voice has abandoned her. She summons her willpower to avoid a panic attack.
Stay calm, this is only a human costume. I'm a goddess, my body will heal itself. I can only die if I allow it, only by my hands or will, only by godly means.
She focuses and touches the energy within. However, flesh is flesh. She looks like she lies dying; it almost seems true. Ai considers her done and walks away to meet Marco.
Before she can make a move, an explosion sounds near the place where Yuki and Marco are. From the smoke, guns appear, and people's shapes follow them.
"Son! Come with me. Let's get away from here."
One of the shapes belongs to Yukiteru's fraud of a father, who wears a parachute. Yukiteru doesn't think twice. He runs to her mother's murderer. Both jump from the tower; Yuno can imagine their descent and Yuki's horror when his father kills him or hands him to Bacchus. She sneers.
Ungrateful fool.
"Bloody coward, leaving your woman behind!" Marco screams to the fleeing First. Yuno agrees with him.
Ai reaches him, and they face the other people who are coming, soldiers or Eleventh's minions or who knows who. There are other explosions on lower floors; the tower stumbles. All hell is loosed, and no one remembers Yuno.
Except for a shape that bows and carries her to a safe place.
"I apologise. It's bad to move an injured person, but I had no option. You need to hide, and we need to run away." Akise's voice pours down on her.
She feels his fingers tentatively assessing the damage in her throat. Although it is healing swiftly, Akise looks terrified. He removes his hand and touches his own neck. He is livid, lost in some private dark place.
She knows what is crossing his mind all too well.
"I had a nightmare." His voice is breathy, as if he is reliving the way Yuno twice murdered him. "Against a god's will, I chose to live, only to be killed soon afterwards."
He remembers me. He remembers. She frets. She must recover faster, escape from him.
The grim shadow fades away; he returns from his nightmare. He refocuses on her, and his features soften. He puts off his jacket and covers Yuno with it. She notices the blood—he has been hit by the bullets.
"You are going to survive this. The gash is shallow, and the rest of your wounds are not too worrying. You are in shock. Stay awake, stay warm. I'm going to take you out of here. They must have a parachute, for they prepared this trap before it backfired."
He leaves her hidden and goes to meet Seventh. Yuno feels a lot better, but stays where she is and witnesses the scene. The lovebirds have put down the minions; they seem to be alright.
"And who called you? This was a Battle of Love, and First and Second lost it, period," Marco shouts at Akise.
"They lost that battle from the start. Both are players; even if they survive, one of them will disappear and the other will suffer. It's cruel you are mocking at them."
Both Seventh guffaw.
"First was not too affected. He chose his own skin quite quickly," Ai remarks in between giggles.
"Enough talk. You don't have the right to be here. You don't own a diary, are no one's mate. You mean nothing. Stay away," Marco says.
"You haven't understood it yet," Akise replies. "This war is for the world and its continuity. I have the same rights as any of you. Besides, unrequited love is also love."
Seventh see they cannot avoid the confrontation. Therefore, they fight. Yuno watches them. It is a hard battle.
In the end, Akise wins. He takes the parachute and comes back to Yuno. He manages the device. He is seriously wounded; the fight has taken its toll on him on top of the bullet injuries. He stays silent while he carries her to the safest place to jump. The wind brings Marco's weak voice:
"You were a fool in your choice, Second. This man is the one who would jump into the fire for you... not... First..."
"I researched their background. They were decent. It's cruel, but you are my priority," Akise says.
They leap together. Akise's breath is heavy beside her ear. He keeps telling her things he found, sounds fainting.
"I trust you. You will live and beat the game. Listen: the mayor of Sakurami is Eleventh. He has joined forces with Fourth, whose son died... Nothing to lose. They murdered Nishijima, tricked Ninth into bombing Eighth's orphanage... A pity... So unfair. Stop that power-hungered dictator. I believe in you."
He stops talking. They reach the ground. Yuno has recovered her strength almost to the full. She has healed.
Akise has not made it. His body slides away from Yuno once she opens the belts. His expression is peaceful, loving.
With the strangest knot in her heart, he buries him in a quiet place, near a lake. Then she blazes her trail towards victory.
...
"Akise remembered his death."
Dea is pacing her hall, bones rattling under her feet. Tiny tornados mirror her agitation, and two dozen skulls—she has been storing souvenirs from different universes—have dropped from their pedestals. Muru Muru kicks them playfully.
"Which death? Actually, I wouldn't call him a survivor." She laughs at her own joke.
Yuno doesn't find the issue funny at all.
"At my hands. His head. For a moment, he looked at me as if he knew me. And his words were so strange—" She shivers.
"What did he say?"
"Against a god's will, I chose to live, only to be killed soon afterwards."
"Nonsense! Anyway, you are no god, so—"
"The point is that he remembered. It doesn't happen to anyone in any world—no diary owner; not even Deus."
"It's remarkable," Muru Muru agrees. "However, memories are a treacherous thing. He mentioned a link with me that never was, didn't he? Maybe it was a stillborn reality, an erased mistake that doesn't count as a timeline. So what?"
The albino theme or that mistake Muru Muru made that she has never recalled completely are sore spots for the servant. Yuno ceases her march and sits down on her throne, ragged robes and cloak spreading like waves from a gray ocean.
"You're going to investigate him next time. Ask Deus, look for clues in the archives of the Cathedral, whatever. I want answers. I need to know his role in all this."
The servant ducks flying bones. A twisted grin lights up her face, little fangs showing.
"A challenge! That sounds great. It will be amusing after acting out the same screenplay for so long."
Dea nods. With a flick of her wrist, the tornados stop. The air becomes still and thick with promise.
...
This time, Yuki doesn't trust her. Neither he accepts her counsel nor he follows her directions. He mingles with the wrong people and is eliminated mid game. She pays him not much attention. She is eager for this world to finish so that she can know what Muru Muru has learnt about Akise.
The very Akise is on her side again. She gets involved with unexpected allies in the endgame to boot. The final showdown will be played against Eleventh. Seriously, she must remind herself of preventing the predictable confrontation to happen every time.
Now she is running towards the Gasai vault, followed by Akise and Minene. Nishijima has just left them to face some enemies. Yuno is surprised at the grief in Ninth's expression. They come into a new corridor and hear the sounds of the soldiers in adjacent places.
Minene looks pensive. Abruptly, she holds Yuno's right hand and Akise's left one.
"I wanted to be a goddess. I wanted to create a world where wars never happen and children are always safe. So many young lives lost. What happened at Eighth's orphanage—" She shudders, removes her hands, picks up her diary and shows them the screen. A Dead End flag glitters ominously. "I won't reach my goal, but I can give you the chance. Second, stop that megalomaniac." She pats Yuno's shoulder, whips around and crosses one of the doors where soldiers wait for them. She closes it after her. Akise pulls Yuno away from it and they run along the corridor. The sound of bombs blowing up reverberates.
"Her past was a tragedy. I wish she could have had a better life. We must hurry; causality is falling apart. We've almost made it." Akise says.
They stop near the vault's gate. They know Bacchus hides inside. On the right side, a new corridor opens. The stomping of boots and the clacking of guns from the last vanguard come marching to finish them off. Let them try, Yuno thinks. I'm untouchable.
Out of a sudden, she is touched—her lips are covered by Akise's mouth in a full kiss. Her nerves spark; for a split second, thoughts let her down. His mouth withdraws and moves to her ear.
"Some players were beyond redemption, but there were good people, too. And all the collateral damage should have never happened. This battle royale is a cruel entertainment for a ruthless deity. Win the game, become Dea, give the world a better future," he whispers.
He kisses her one more time. Then he turns right and runs towards his fate to allow her to reach the vault and the foe within.
She opens the gate and stabs Bacchus to death.
She is the winner, again.
She comes back and summons energies that disintegrate the few enemies that still remain. Not so many; Akise has stood his ground proudly. She kneels to touch his fine white hair, sullied with blood. She caresses his eyelids, closes them. There is an odd sting in her eyes.
"I can't grant you your third wish, sorry," she mutters.
Vortexes explode, the building crumbles. Beside Akise's body, she waits for Muru Muru's arrival. The servant makes a grand entrance.
"Congratulations. The core of Deus is yours, Second." She fakes ceremony and stops at Yuno's glare. "Not in the mood, maybe? Dea, are you crying?"
Wiping angry tears away, she straightens up.
"I haven't found a solution yet. And you? What have you learnt?"
"Oh! You were the favourite of this version of Deus Ex Machina. Good news, but I'm not stupid. I pretended disinterest in you. You'll never guess who I put my bet on!"
Yuno's patience wavers.
"What have you learnt about him?"
"The brat." The servant's good humour evaporates. "I researched the archives, but Deus saw me there, and he was quite adamant about me leaving the place alone. I asked Deus about him. He said, "It is another pawn, a mere ant in an anthill." I didn't push because he became suspicious, and really, have you forgotten I have been retiring my counterparts and I am a cuckoo in Deus' nest? I have to be careful for both of us, Dea."
Yuno starts, hands the core and calls for the fabric of reality. Transcendence answers. Before she embraces it, she puts off her dress and covers Akise's body with it. Then she enwraps herself in Dea's robes.
"Which is the same as saying you failed your mission."
Muru Muru lifts her eyebrows. It says, "As you failed yours." However, she controls the words before she utters them and gives a different reply:
"I have a theory, nonetheless. Let's go home."
They part from the earthly plane to the astral hall. Dark red shadows welcome them.
"I hear you."
"I think he is a replacement in case a contestant is not available. Let me explain. Blinks of the mistake I made came to me. I think he was impersonating another contestant. Well, I told you there were issues with Third in different worlds, he's too paranoid. Akise may have been chosen by Deus as his replacement."
Yuno's laughter is sour.
"Akise with the Killer Diary? You must be kidding."
"Well, maybe he was thought of as your counterpart's substitute? He drools after First, doesn't he?"
"That changed long ago." Yuno's tone is sharp and dangerous.
"Ummm... First's substitute? That would make some kind of sense."
"Then, my diary would be useless," Yuno remarks. As she realises how her phone chains her to Yukiteru and how useless it is without him, her fury grows. What a foolish thing of a diary.
"I'm just trying to help, Dea. No need to be so harsh."
"Leave me alone for a while. I need to rest and weight my next steps."
The servant obeys, and she muses.
She must uncover his secret. She puts her index finger on her bottom lip, draws its frame, recalls tingling sensations. She will know the truth at any cost.
...
She arrives with enough time to make the necessary arrangements. After dealing with the usual hindrances, she wanders around the city's streets, looking for her target.
She finds Akise in this reality. That is enough for her.
She must use different arms to win this battle, so she concentrates on her human side instead of on her supernatural traits. She pays attention to the clothes she is wearing, grooms herself, combs her hair until its pink colour glimmers healthily. She wears some delicate gloss and her most charming smile.
She meets him in a park. She asks him a harmless question and watches his reaction. There is a bout of anxiety twisting her guts. Has he changed his mind about her in this particular timeline? That would be ill luck.
The scarlet eyes beam with warmth; his voice is as kind as it can be. Yuno's luck has not abandoned her.
They make some small talk. Yuno pretends she has been abroad and she has just returned to Sakurami City.
"You should be careful, Gasai-san. There is a serial killer off the leash," he warns.
Third, of course, not Third yet. Yuno laughs girlishly.
"Oh, you sound so creepy. You can make a girl be afraid of you. I've just met you, and that's some weird advice to give, don't you think? I could think you are a weird guy," she flirts.
Akise doesn't lose his composure. "You don't have anything to fear of me. You have been abroad; there have been changes here. I just wanted you to stay safe. This killer is still unknown, and he chooses young women, beautiful females—"
"Are you telling me I am beautiful?"
His voice doesn't tremble when he answers: "Yes, I am. I think you're gorgeous."
Yuno blushes, or tries to blush. "So I am a pretty girl. That makes me the perfect victim for that murderer."
"You are not a victim," Akise says with a thoughtful voice. "I can feel your strength."
Yuno giggles. "Don't get so serious, Akise-san. Thanks for your warning and for your compliments. I hope to see you again."
"So do I," he says.
You bet, she thinks.
She also meets Yuki soon after the diaries are given. She greets him without much enthusiasm; he approaches her. She makes some comment about the diary. Yuki is surprisingly cheerful.
"So you're playing as well? Isn't it a big adventure? Wow, like a videogame or an anime come true," he chirps, a goofy smile accompanying his words. "If I am Deus—"
She doesn't really listen to the rest of his babbling. Such stupid, childish kid. He cannot foresee the bloodshed and the impending deaths, the sacrifices or the tragedy.
She says farewell and walks along.
When the contestants are summoned to Deus' hall, they learn that Third has shed the first blood, and First has become the first casualty in the game. For once, he respects his number. The other players make Third their main adversary. Yuno's mind is somewhere else.
As she thinks of a certain albino and the truth he hides, her fingers brush her lips, and she smiles.
The mistake or erased timeline that either Akise or Muru Muru mention belongs to the reality that appears in the spin-off "Paradox".
The verses at the beginning of the chapters come from the lyrics of the theme songs in the Mirai Nikki Inspiration Album. If you like music, there are several songs which are really good.