Dear readers,
I hope everyone is fine. I'm finally back with the new chapter. I really hope you have a good time reading it :)
Thanks a lot to those who have bookmarked, reviewed or favourited this story. In particular, I'd like to thank Avedici and SzymonS, who helped me to notice a mistake in the first chapter which I've already sorted out. I love insightful reviews! Nonetheless, I'd like to point out that I never said that Mirai Nikki had not many good fanfiction. I just said that there were not many fanfics, without judging their quality.
To my silent readers: I would be so glad to know your opinions, so let me know.
Best wishes :)
This is the door that tests the present.
Should I break it? Open it? What should I do?
Mirai Nikki Ending 1, Blood Teller.
4. Doubts
Morning is a haze of uncertainties. After a night full of beautiful dreams, daylight wakes her up with a caress, breakfast already prepared—including that foreign porridge—and an invitation to stay in that house for as long as she wishes. Then, without any warning, a myriad of conflicting thoughts and vague fears assails Yuno. There is so much inner noise that she decides that being on her own for a while might be necessary for her mental balance. The way she chooses to express her intentions to Akise sounds like poor excuses about adolescent shyness and social etiquette.
He gives her a look of disappointment, too clever to buy the act. "Etiquette? We're living in odd times, fighting against their end. Besides, I would say both of us are mature beyond our years."
He is right. Her actual teenage years are but a bubble which vanished long ago—what remains is an ageless goddess. Regarding Akise… Well, his real age is a joke, impossible to take seriously. Despite his youthfulness, he hasn't got the appearance of a boy whose body is still shaking and twisting, testing its future shape. He is more of a young adult, untouched by age burdens, but stuck into a definite form. And his personality fits his appearance—he exudes a particular kind of wisdom.
Both of us are young and old, fresh and jaded at the same time.
A new sense of affinity threatens to add up to the turmoil she is experiencing. Before it can affect the scales further, she sighs and tells the truth.
"Okay. I'm confused. I need some time alone to figure this out."
"You mean the game and me. Have I offended you?"
"No! It's just… I think I'm a bit overwhelmed."
His posture loses the previous tension. Although reluctance colours his acceptance, he accepts her motives anyway. "Okay, I'll be waiting for you to make up your mind. I'll find a way to gain your trust."
She nods a quick farewell and wills herself out of his reach and the war fires between her head and her heart that his presence fans.
She spends a day off wandering the outskirts of the city, chasing a way to blend with the shadowy surroundings. She longs for a shelter capable of making her invisible to human eyes—she misses her Hall. For the time being, it is not hers, occupied as it is by Deus Ex Machina. She grimaces and shoos the image of the Cathedral of Causality away. The physical plane must suffice.
Why has she withdrawn? Her plan is a success. Akise has feelings for her, as he has had in other realities, and he is opening up to her. The problem concerns her emotions.
She cannot delude herself: she has been regarding him in a brand-new way for a few universes. However, what she felt last night when he uttered that word, husband...
Bliss. Passion. Hope.
She shivers. She has accepted it might come to this, to her developing some sort of attraction for him, but she has presumed it to be a harmless crush. The plan has always been to seduce him, not to allow herself to be seduced.
The first issue is the most obvious: he is not Yuki. There have been so many versions of Yuki that oftentimes it is difficult to recall the original one, or at least the ones she adored. And yet, there was an original Yuki who was worthy of her obsession. Perhaps she still feels a bit in debt with this idea of him, and it is difficult to let go of this attachment completely, even if it cannot be called love anymore. Anyway, her long-life wish has always been to experiment happiness, everlasting ecstatic love, so she won't deprive herself of feeling even the faintest resemblance to that ideal.
But for the love interest to be Akise…
She sneers at the blatant irony of it all. Her nerves jiggle; she hops from one shadow to another, avoiding the few pedestrians that populate these forgotten backstreets, scaring the stray cats, overhearing the distant cries of the gulls. She searches the darkest corners, escaping from the sunshine, almost as if the light could hurt her as that horrible, bright light that accompanies Muru Muru's first recollections of Akise once hurt her servant. This may be what he means to Yuno, too: a ray of light amidst never-ending bleakness.
While it has meant a conscious choice to attain her goals, it has been alright. Nonetheless, a new emotion has been growing in her heart. In the current reality, their time together has moved her too much, made her recover pieces of her she has thought lost forever, made her feel happy, safe.
That ray of light could grow into a blinding shining if she lets it to, and she cannot afford it. She has a mission to accomplish, a foe to beat, a fate to turn around.
He can survive. We can be happy together.
And that resolution is so simple, so clean, that it must have strings attached to it. Deus' claws might lurk behind. She is not going to fall for his tricks, whichever they are. She has not been replaying a nightmare and tearing apart space and time just to end up being played like a fool. There are several issues she cannot overlook.
The first time Akise appeared, he became her sworn enemy, as if his only reason of being were to expose and destroy her. Was it Deus Ex Machina's plan? Did Deus sense something off in Yuno and thus somehow he used Akise to try to stop her?
It makes sense, and it doesn't, for Akise's vision of Yuno has changed substantively along the loops.
My vision of him has also changed.
Is Deus after these shifts? It seems odd and unlikely, but who knows.
Besides, there are two crucial facts she can neither understand nor explain. One: Akise remembers bits and odds when no one else does. Two: He is the only one out of every person in the game who sometimes appears and sometimes doesn't.
She is not only taking into account the players, who never change from universe to universe. Now she regrets the world where she rejected her impulse to kill Sixth beforehand; she should have done it and found out if the player was replaced and by whom. Would Akise have taken Sixth's place? She feels like retching at the mere thought of it.
No. Akise is a secondary character. There are many people like him: Nishijima, Hinata, Kosaka, Mao; Yukiteru's parents; the Omekata cult followers, including Fifth's parents; Orin and the other orphans… Hell, she even has come to recognise most of Bacchus' soldiers and Tenth's dogs just because she has been encountering them over and over! Each of them may play a larger role or an unimportant one depending on the reality she jumps into, but they always appear. Akise is the only exception, and Yuno cannot puzzle out why.
And another matter remains: the hallucinations she has with the spectral versions of him. May it be her unconscious propelling images thanks to her Dea powers? May it be a warning made up by Deus in order to frighten her?
Enough! I'm overthinking it.
She tosses her head as if the motion could clear her thoughts away, straightens and grounds herself to the here and now, ready to take some action. She puts herself in motion and crosses the city, retracing her path towards the Akises' place. By the time she arrives at the neighbourhood, evening has come and gone, giving way to full-on night, the faint beam of titillating stars struggling to illuminate a blackened, cloudy sky. She settles on a hidden spot not far away from the house, makes herself comfortable and goes inward and beyond to that place where she can connect with her godly energies. Carefully so as not to be noticed by Deus, she plays with the fabric of time and opens a tiny door which shows her a piece of the recent past, less than two months ago. She witnesses how Akise's parents stand formally dressed beside their car as they give him some advice for the time he is going to spend alone. She closes the window. There is no mystery: there were parents gone on a business trip who will not return much soon, as he said.
She rests under the sky until the clouds fade away and the darkest hour announces the impeding break of dawn. She glides across the city, searching for the train station. Following a spark of inspiration, she buys a ticket to Sumire City. After several hours, the train reaches its destination. A kind tourist agent offers her a street map at the station gates. She scans it; Sumire City resembles any other average town in the country. Her intentions don't include sightseeing, so she focuses on the quarter which gathers the corporate and industrial life. Once she has localised it in the map, she starts for it. A couple of bus rides and some strolling later, she finds herself in front of the office building where the Akises worked at before moving places.
She repeats the trick; she zeroes in on her target, opens a window in time and observes. Approximately a year before, Akise's father sits in his office, speaking on the phone: he is talking to his wife, asking her if the house arrangements in Sakurami have been cleared off. Yuno peers around until she finds an envelope with the address in Sumire. She paces across the streets until she finds it. The house is smaller and humbler than the one in Sakurami. She concentrates again. Akise and his mother are loading the car while talking casually about the boy's school reports, which have just been received by his next school in Sakurami. "We will have to work hard and get used to new environs, but this kind of promotion happens once in a lifetime. To think that we had so many doubts at first and nearly rejected this chance!" the mother remarks.
She shuts down the screen. Although the familial ties are not especially affectionate, everyone treats each other with respect, which is more than she can say about families. She thinks of spying a tad more, decides against it. It is not worth the risk. What she has seen is enough. No shocking revelations and no lies: for all she knows, Akise has been telling the truth all the time in every world. She cannot help grinning with pleasure, her heart lighter, troublesome burdens dissolving. On a side note, the mother's comment...
Okham's razor.
The grin becomes a chuckle.
It's time to come back.
The return train doesn't leave until early morning, so she peers down at the map and chooses a large green park which enwraps the suburbs and joins the station at its far east side. There, she spends the remaining hours. At one point, a sudden gale brings with it the scent of a storm. Thunder rolls, the sky opens, and an untimely downpour blurs the landscape. She closes her eyes and gives herself to the flood; she rips off her clothes and shoes and dances naked under the rain like the wild goddess she is, revelling in the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the wet earth under her bare feet. She opens her eyes and sees lightning bolts gleaming on the horizon. The silver-blue radiance and the whiteness of the afterimage reminds her of Akise, and her heart pounds in her chest to the noise of thunder. Lightning is a razor slicing the night: Ockham's razor, the simplest explanation is most likely the right one. She bursts into laughter. In the end, the enigma behind Akise appearing or not in each world may amount to his parents deciding for or against accepting a promotion. The lack of mystique borders on ridiculous.
Rejuvenated, serenity comes upon her at last. Some design from Deus is still conceivable, but it doesn't worry her too much anymore. The truth about Akise can be as simple as that or hide some complexity; the resolution of her happy ending can be easy or not; it doesn't matter. She has made up her mind. She is going to enjoy her time in this reality where she is learning to live again, not only survive and destroy. She can have her romance with the white-haired boy without losing her mind or her heart. After all, there are too many variables involving the albino equation, and she knows she cannot fall madly in love with an unknown—her need for control is too strong. Unlike Yukiteru, Akise will always be a rogue line unable to be caged. In the long run, this fact could drive her crazy. That might mean she is protected against any depth of love for him. She cannot conceive love being so natural, without agony and absolute possession.
There will be time to make a decision when the succession finishes. Meanwhile, she will enjoy the situation, learn as much as she could, and keep a cool head at the same time. She can play with fire without getting burnt.
Lightning shines again; its menacing power never touches the trees.
...
In the afternoon, the train arrives at Sakurami Station. As Yuno heads for her house, the stale air whispers to her core that the Game has moved on. For a split second, the need to know about Akise is overwhelming. Is he safe? Has she been denied the contentment she has just decided upon experiencing? Handling her bag, she opens it and grabs the phone. She growls as she skips the Yukiteru-Corpse Diary messages and browses the Game board. It is silent; everyone may be too busy tracking each other or defending themselves. She will find out later. There: two messages from Akise. The first one has been sent in the morning, Hi, Yuno. Have you made up your mind yet? I have a nice surprise for you. May you see me at home, even for a little while? Don't feel obliged, though. The teasing disappears in the second one, sent an hour ago along with a missed call: Yuno, please tell me you're safe. I don't want to push you, just let me know if you're alright. There has been some news. Take care. She phones him; a sigh of relief leaves her lips when he answers.
"I'm fine, Akise. What about you?"
"Safe and sound, and glad to know you are so."
"Does the offer to stay with you apply yet?"
"Sure."
"I'm going."
Reassured, she has a quick shower, packs the things she needs, leaves the creepy house she once called a home, and moves to his place.
...
Although he is keeping his poise, she notices a heaviness he cannot disguise. While he is showing her to the guest room, she tries to uplift his spirits by reminding him of the surprise he has promised her. For several moments, his face lacks recognition.
"Your first message—" she starts.
"Oh, yes. I texted you before I… OK. Give me ten or twelve minutes."
In the meantime, she unpacks the most essential stuff and ends drying up her hair. She goes downstairs to the dining room and finds the table primly laid with a complete tea set on it. She giggles as she uncovers the surprise: the sweet pastries she fancied at the small café they visited a few days ago, beautiful and luscious over a porcelain plate.
"Do you prefer green or chamomile tea?" he asks as he pours out the boiling liquid.
"Chamomile is fine. This is so nice of you! How did you know the ones I like most?" she asks pointing out at the pastries, unable to conceal her giddiness.
"I saw how you ogled them back in the coffee shop. I'm observant."
She chooses one with a ripe cherry crowning whipped cream and takes a bite before memories of Muru Muru's moshi can spoil the moment. Her taste buds live up to her expectations and allow her to savour the rich flavour of the sweet.
"Wonderful!" She must be grinning like a fool but doesn't care at all.
Her joy seems to catch up with Akise. His features relax, and he also nibbles one pastry and sips his tea.
"After this treat, I presume I've gained your trust," he says, though his smile doesn't reach his eyes.
She frowns. "Don't be a fool. Are you serious?"
"It was a stupid joke indeed."
She selects a second treat—strawberries and chocolate—, searching for the right words. "I didn't want to sound that rude. I've been thinking. I consider you an ally, and more. You're helping me a lot. I'm willing to trust you. However, your knowledge of the Game without being a player is suspicious, understand me."
"I already told you. I was contacted by Deus. Don't think you were the only one in shock. When I realised everything was real, I spent sleepless nights until I made my mind and decided to be of use somehow."
Of use? Come on, tell me something of use. "But why did Deus let you know?"
He leaves a half-eaten pastry on the dish, grabs a teaspoon and swirls the tea in his cup, his eyes cast down. "Why not? Is anything wrong with me?"
His tone hardens and edges on anger, sweeping her off her feet. "I didn't mean that. There are billions of people and—"
"We don't know if those billions know, and you haven't acknowledged the possibility of other intelligent beings somewhere else in the universe."
She fumes. "Oh, stop preaching!" As she says that, an image of Akise vested in some kind of High Priest's robes standing beside her as Dea enthroned flashes in front of her eyes. The image is so enthralling that blood rushes violently to her face and warmth spreads all over her body. She tries to hide her reaction; she goes on talking, irritated at how she is almost stuttering, "I'm not talking about… I didn't mean that… I mean here, at Sakurami! Everything is happening here, why this talk about the rest or the world population or some aliens?" She stops, confused.
He glowers at her. Nonetheless, his gaze softens bit by bit until a half-smile illuminates his countenance. "It's difficult to take your speech seriously when there's chocolate staining your face."
Yuno flushes so badly she may become a tomato. She rises from her seat, runs to the bathroom, and cleans the chocolate away. When she returns, he is laughing quietly.
"Now you're pouting," he says, and waves off her complaints. "Hey, you're cute anyway. Just a bit more sweetness on a sweet face. You blush in a pretty way." He comes close to her, takes her hand, and lets a whisper-like kiss alight on her fingers before returning to his place.
"That was sappy and old-fashioned." Regardless, she is delighted, girlish romances swirling in her head.
The general mood improves a lot after that, and supper goes on. Anyway, she observes he doesn't eat too much. He is still concerned and asks her to unpack her things and accommodate herself while he tidies up the table, biding time. This news might have distressed him.
Eventually, she returns from her bedroom. They sit together in the couch of the living room. Silence precedes their conversation. He starts.
"I arranged an interview with Nishijima this afternoon. I've been pondering what you asked me, about avoiding further involvement with the police, so I told him of my decision. He understood; in fact, he said things were going so ugly and I was too young, and stuff like that."
She encourages him to keep on talking. He follows her lead.
"As you said, everything seems to focus on this city, but how do you know there aren't others like me around other players? You can't know for sure."
Yes, I can. But she lies, as she must. "I can't. However, I'm intuitive. It's difficult to explain."
"It's alright," he says. "I understand both your doubts and your hunches of intuition. It doesn't really matter when we cannot understand Deus Ex Machina's intentions. It's impossible to find any kind of sense—the whole matter of a battle to the death for the succession is outrageous. And after seeing this kind of things… Nishijima showed me this so as to let me know I'd made the right decision in withdrawing and returning to a normal life."
He holds a folder, opens it, picks some photographs and displays them on the desk. She realises he has chosen the less gruesome shots, though Third's handiwork is obvious in the pictures: Sixth and several of her worshippers on the one hand, Fifth and his parents on the other hand. She enjoys the fruit of the seeds she has planted by helping Third, though she hides her satisfaction.
Akise notices her coolness, nonetheless. "You don't look much fazed."
"I'm tough," she says. "And they were two enemies: by their frames, Fifth and Sixth, as Deus called them." She taps their bodies in the different photographs.
There is an unreadable expression on Akise's face. "Yes, you are tough. Tougher than me."
"Don't get me wrong. It's awful, it gives me the chills. Yet, I'm glad it wasn't me and cannot help thinking that they could have done this to me. Mercy doesn't exist in a survival game."
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, I've never been one of the chosen. Yet I'm not that innocent. These pictures made my stomach churn, but I had the presence of mind to mingle with the evidence and snitch these copies. A good detective must be a tad heartless."
She doesn't like seeing him like that, sarcastic and down. If only she could make him understand that everything is an old tale for her, that she alone is more lethal than any wannabe killer out there. She stays silent; that confession will not do. Instead, she asks about Fourth.
"You were right, he is not to be trusted. Because of his diary, he must have known of these crimes. In fact, he made the police got there, but late." His voice lowers, almost as if he is trying too hard to keep his tone under control. "Furthermore, he is covering Third. Haven't you watched the TV special this afternoon? They have censored the footage, made up a new crime scene, and put the blame on the terrorist, Uryuu. As far as Chief Kurusu is involved, Third can go on with their slaughtering."
She pats his arm in a gentle manner as if giving him support. "His son's condition makes him ruthless. He has to win; letting others do the dirty job might help him."
"I see. I'm doing my best to be objective. However, this carnage—"
"Hey, I'm with you. Kurusu could have managed these deaths in a different way, avoiding the gruesome details. He could have gone for the diaries and led Third into a trap." She taps the scroll beside Sixth's corpse and the colouring pad next to Fifth's.
He stares at her with a question flickering in his irises, but lets it pass away. "We cannot trust the police force anymore. I'm sorry for Nishijima. He is a good person; I consider him a friend." His eyes lock in the pictures. "But everything is so muddy. A few survivors of the sect were taken to custody. No one has spoken about Third, presumably, but one said that the leader of the cult had tortured and imprisoned Uryuu in some underground cell. She was not found; she is thought of having escaped."
"Her diary must show possible escape routes," Yuno says.
He nods, absent-minded. "And now they will be chasing her: the terrorist who targets religious authorities after having lived a tragic childhood. Speaking of childhood, we have the kid, who had poison and a gasmask. Fanatic parents, abuse, neglect, domestic violence… A five-year-old, nonetheless."
"I don't follow you."
There is a violent shake as he struggles to stay calm. "The Game is outrageous per se, but the players... Some successor of Deus! A serial killer, a terrorist who would kill her own worshippers, the leader of a repulsive cult, a man who betrays his duty and allows murders even when he can avoid them, a kid, a spineless teenager. What are the others like? Is this what Deus expect for the future of the universe?"
He exudes cold wrath, fists clenched, eyes flaring. She looks at him and is deeply moved. She can relate to his fury. He is indignant with Deus, he is not his sycophant, and that makes him dearer to her—the ultimate enemy in common.
She closes the space that separates them and kisses him. She holds him tight until his stiffness starts to fade away.
"I'm so glad I was drawn to you, Yuno. I swear I will make everything in my hand to protect you and make you win this madness of a game."
His voice is so genuine and sincere that she finds herself telling some truths. "I'm not perfect. I might be as ruthless as them, I will kill if it's necessary."
"Hush. I know. It's clear you're hard; you must be to survive this. Both of us must. We'll be tough, we'll be cautious, and we'll survive together."
...
She wakes up so early that she doesn't get up at once. Instead, she basks in the cleanliness of the bedroom and the bed she occupies now, crisp fresh sheets and all. Lazily, she sees the hours, liquid like drops of a renewing rain, pass by. Near dawn, she decides to prepare for the day: she rises, changes her nightgown for a black T-shirt and a pair of beige shorts, makes the bed, grooms herself in the bathroom. She tries a new hair style. Her creative skills keep recovering, and she nails a beautiful half-braid ponytail.
Tiptoeing so as not to awake Akise, she paces the house. Once in the kitchen, she takes a piece of paper and writes a to-do list. Everything is neat and tidy, but daily grind is always advisory. They can entertain themselves by sweeping and washing the floors, doing the laundry, watering the plants, making a list of groceries. A flash of the decay which reigns in the Cathedral every time it becomes her Hall and the living conditions she has endured in the Gasai place fills her with embarrassment. She doesn't dwell in self-deprecation: those grim places are the reflection of one side of her. Another side is shining here, a self which brings her pride. She scribbles other chores, beaming as she plans such routine tasks; her spirit soars with the expectation of staying aside from the battles. This desire makes her recall Third's chosen preys. When she created the shell for his diary, there were three possible lines of action. Fifth and Sixth were marked as targets in the most beneficial lead for her purposes and the least benevolent one, depending on whom he killed first, Reisuke or Tsubaki. As far as this piece of information wasn't included in Akise's compilation of data, she will have to wait to check Third's next victim to learn about which direction he is heading for. She really hopes it is the one that allows her more peaceful, spare time.
This is a lovely universe. I wish I had come here sooner.
She disregards that wish. It would have only led her into the repeated trap of waiting for a miracle that never manifested. It is far better to experiment growth if just for a short span of time.
Or a long one after a happy end.
Whistling a soft tune, she collects the necessary stuff to cook breakfast. There is enough fruit to make some fresh juice and a fruit salad, milk to accompany the tea—or might they try coffee for a change? She boils eggs and prepares some rice and pickled fish, considers making a couple of sandwiches to take over for lunch. She is seeking a pack of slice bread in the cupboards when she realises with dismay that Third's next prey will be the same (Ninth) in both routes, so she will have to wait longer to uncover the mystery.
So what? I'll be patient. The pack nears three bento boxes. She places it and two of the boxes on the counter. She removes the food from the cooker, considering either a way to keep the meals warm or waking up Akise. Before she can decide, a brisk sound—swift steps, feet running—reverberates somewhere.
"Have you finally got up? Breakfast is ready."
No one replies. The steps change direction; suddenly, the noise seems to come from without the house, the exact location difficult to pinpoint.
"Akise?"
Still there is no answer. Grabbing a sharp knife, she crosses the back door and goes outside. Silence has fallen upon the backyard. She looks from one side to another without finding the source of the previous noises. She walks past the patio and the garden right into the outer grounds: no one, no threat. She shrugs it off; maybe one of those irritating hallucinations. As she spins to return inside, a gust of wind tangles her hair and blows debris into her eyes. Annoyed, she is collecting herself when she senses the attack: someone jumps on her from behind. She starts moving aside; she is not fast enough. The stranger gets her sideways and pushes her to the ground, knife lost in the crash. All her fighting instincts arise at once. She rolls, dodges a blow and kicks hard, crawls along half-blind, avoids another hit on pure instinct, gets back to her feet. She pitches forward headfirst into her enemy's solar plexus, making him withdraw. She wipes her eyes, recovers her knife, weighs the situation. Her foe is running toward her flailing a blunt weapon. As she ducks the attack she slashes with her knife. She cuts through the fabric of a thin blue jacket and draws only a little blood, for he has stepped back and avoided the full damage of the blade. Specks of dust float like inert luminaries in a ray of weak sunshine, making the world stationary and pale, as pale as the hair of her attacker.
"Why?" she asks, her voice an aching whisper.
Akise remains still, his body lean and tense in a defensive stance, right hand gripping a hammer, left arm protected, rags of his jacket dancing in the wind. His eyes dart to her knife, and an impossible blend of incomprehension and understanding darkens his face. Yuno's heart sinks at the sight. He has remembered their ancient enmity again, the blood between them.
She grounds her teeth, fighting back tears. She was so happy, dammit, so hopeful, and now...
Suddenly, his stance changes, and he grins openly. "Wow, you were telling the truth. You really know how to defend yourself, and how to attack others. I'm lucky I'm also trained." He inspects the cut in his left arm. "Well, it's not important, but it could have been if I had not recoiled."
The casual tone enrages Yuno. She shoves him heftily, making him stumble and almost fall.
"Fool! What do you think you're playing at?"
"I needed to assess your skill. Your life and everyone's fate depend on it." His calmness is infuriating.
"I could have fucking killed you!"
Trembling with anger and concern, Yuno drops the knife and kicks it out of the way. She ties her dishevelled hair the best she can in the raging wind and turns to leave.
"I'd rather not flee if I were you," he says. "You know, I've got something of interest for you."
She stops, startled, and whips around. He has moved towards a wooden box hidden between a bench and an old table in the small paved area. He opens it, picks its contents, and shows the object to her.
It is her diary, the expendable one.
"Have you been messing with my luggage?"
Gently, he sets the mobile phone on the tiled top of the table. "I haven't touched your luggage." He faces her. "You left the phone on a table in the living room yesterday evening, forgotten. What you said when you tapped the photographs, He could have gone for the diaries, I found it odd. I've been analysing your wording, and I have reached a conclusion." He lifts the hand that is holding the hammer. "If the diary is destroyed, —"
"—its owner will die," she finishes for him.
"So, I hold your life in my hands, don't I?"
Time seems to stop, hammer lingering in mid-air, scarlet and carnation pink eyes locked on each other. Her real diary is safe and out of his reach; she doesn't give a damn about that useless piece of trash, except that if it breaks and she keeps on living, he will require an explanation.
Thus, she gets aware of how many lies threaten their relationship, how many intruding memories from erased timelines. She must be honest to herself: most of the lies belong to her.
Suddenly, she feels cold and very tired.
"Do as you must, Akise. I trust you."
Without another word, she walks back to the house. She wants to taste the charming normalcy one more time. She tries to hold on to this while in her eye's mind the path to destruction and despair is opening its gates once again, just waiting for the tiniest noise of a mobile phone shattering to break open.
Instead, the sounds that approach her are steps again, this time focused and determined. He hands her the phone.
"I'm sorry, I've overstepped myself," he says. And then, he enwraps her in a desperate hug. "You saw the pictures. I can't afford it to happen to you. I need to know that you can be safe." His grip tightens, as if he is afraid of losing her to some terrible fate if he lets go of her. "You can't be so careless. You must take care of your diary."
His words parallel the conversation she had with Third nights ago, and she has to suffocate a smirk at the messiness of it all.
"Let's have breakfast," she says. "It must be cold now, but it serves you well. And I'm not going to cook anything else today."
...
Her scanned thumbprint glimmers on the digital seal of the safe, and the deal is closed.
"It's you who chooses how to lock and unlock it, young lady," the shop manager explains to them while his assistant is packing the safe. "Your thumbprint seal is the main one; you can allow your boyfriend access to the safe contents or not by permitting or disallowing his seal."
The youngsters exchange a quick glance at the assumption of them being a couple; his satisfied expression mirrors her own. Akise pays (with his parents' money for emergencies) for their purchase.
"It's not heavy," she comments as she holds the bag the assistant gives her.
"Oh! It's made of a great new material, as light as strong. It can stand blows, fire, several kinds of acid and explosives. Everything is listed in the guide and guarantee. High-tech at its finest. It's good the local government supports R&D so much. Mayor Bacchus-sama is a great advocate for new technologies. He has made Sakurami a vibrant place, financially speaking."
"Yes, it is. My parents moved here from another town thanks to that ideology," Akise says graciously before everyone bows and says good-bye.
He offers to carry the bag, and she agrees; she is already occupied with another one wherein it lies a surprise gift for him and the new mobile phone he has suggested her to buy for daily interactions. As far as your phone is going to stay locked inside the safe in the house, you will need another one, he said, and it made sense. She likes her new phone: it is an updated model, cute in design, with a different SIM card and number. Foremost, it doesn't spill messages about Yuki's corpse or holds the message board of the Game. In a way, this mobile phone is as hers as her original diary, and she is glad to lock her counterpart's diary and never see it again.
"You look happy now," Akise says as they ambled along a boulevard. They have travelled by bus to a faraway part of Sakurami which gathers the Tech Quarter, looking for the specific shop where Akise's parents bought their own safe when they first arrived at the city. The shop was close to the shopping centre where she had bought the phone beforehand. "Back in the shop, you were cringing."
"Was I?"
"When the manager mentioned the Mayor. See? You're cringing again."
She makes the most of her disgust for Eleventh and throws out a piece of information to Akise. "It made me think. In the phone shop, there was a huge sale: first-rate phones and tablets at low cost thanks to grants given by Mayor Bacchus. Apparently, mobile technology has been his priority in the last few months to the extent of obsession according to some shop owners. And I had this flash. What if...?"
"...he is another aspirant?" He massages his forehead in his usual pensive way. Yuno feels a pang of tenderness which helps to drown the weird guilt she is feeling at pretending ignorance about the players before him. "It may well be: an ambitious leader, hungry for power. It's logical to think of the Mayor as a candidate for Deus' position: from government to godly power."
She nods. "He makes a dangerous opponent."
"A very dangerous one, holding so much power in this city. He might manage the police force and the military, hire private soldiers. He has money, contacts. Perhaps there is an ongoing alliance with Chief Inspector Kurusu."
"I don't want you to regard me as a coward, but I still think that our standing aside for as long as we can is the best course of action. We wait, we learn, we protect ourselves, and only act if they come to us," she says. It is what she desires most.
"I see the cold logic, and I want you to be as protected as possible. But what about the serial killer, Third?" he insists. "I can make my mind about the necessity of the other players dying, but what about the unnecessary victims? There was a massacre with the people around the kid, Fifth, and Sixth. There were several murders before the game started not related to the succession. Isn't anyone going to stop that murderer? Not the Police; after their move yesterday, it's obvious. Not even the Mayor?"
She brushes his arm. "I understand you. However, I care much about you. Please, don't play the hero."
He nods without conviction. His sense of justice is too strong and stubborn for his own good. She expects his feelings for her are deep enough to stop him from doing something stupid.
"Alright, let's go back. Would you like to see the dojo? It's halfway home."
She agrees and they take the bus. Despite the awkward morning, it has been a great day. After asking her several questions about the diary and receiving the answers he expected—The Game board is quite useless, and Deus prefers direct contact when something is urgent; The phone is not being tracked by GPS or other devices (she didn't mention Bacchus, who will be receiving news about a corpse for the rest of the game)—he has insisted in purchasing a safe for the diary, and an ordinary new phone. She has accepted. Travelling around the city, going shopping, and having an overall good time have followed.
After a thirty minutes' ride, they get off. The dojo is not far away from the bus stop, a traditional large building preceded by a small Japanese garden. On the opposite side of the street, a long row of restaurants, parlours, and coffee shops bloom.
"So, it is here where you train," she says.
"Not anymore. My parents enrolled me; I attended lessons every week in the beginning. Technically, I'm still in, but I dropped after I had acquired enough skill for my needs." He scratches his head, embarrassed. "Nothing to be proud of. Whatever. The fee was already paid for a year, and my parents don't care if I attend or not. Somehow, I had the feeling that I would need hand-to-hand combat skills in a near future for real, without sport or ritual." He eases his posture when Yuno smiles at him sympathetically. "The thing is that we can hire a keikojo in the dojo to practise together; it won't even add to the fee."
They visit the place, and she nods. "It may do it."
They manage to hire it for the day after tomorrow. Afterwards, she says: "Thanks for everything. Let me invite you to some dessert or whatever you fancy, as a token of gratitude."
"Whatever I fancy?" he teases, trying to assume a made-up seductive manner.
"Cut it off. The homme fatale role doesn't suit you." Actually, it is not difficult to imagine him sweet-talking someone. She steels herself against jealously and feels proud of keeping her cool. I was right in my assumption: I can enjoy and control this.
His chuckle shakes her out of her thoughts. "Homme fatale? Well, this is the luxury of being scolded by an honours student."
"Do you know that about me? I think I've never told you."
"I've investigated you a little. Don't hate me: just titbits of casual information. School, year, classroom, grades… I already know that you were great both at grades and sport."
"And that I stalked Amano?"
He stays composed. "Before you approached me in that park, before you travelled abroad, I saw you follow him a few times, unnoticed."
"While you followed us both."
"That was the time when the dreams with Deus made me restless, spying on and about. More red herrings than true leads, to be honest. Do you know Kosaka Ouji, from your classroom? I thought he was a diary holder because he's always writing that funny stuff in his phone. Hey, don't glare at me. He is not an owner."
"Of course he is not. He's just an idiot."
"A bit immature, maybe, but a nice guy. We are sort of friends. In fact, I've received several messages from him asking when I'm going back to school. There's some hot news, he says."
"For him, hot news must mean a new girl."
He grins and shows her a couple of Kosaka' messages. As she has presumed, they talk about that new gal just transferred from a private academy—Hinata. She glowers at the text. She has never been able to bear any of them, Hinata least of all. "Quite suspicious, don't you think? Mysteriously transferred to the classroom which hosted both First and Second? Have we puzzled out another enemy?"
"I don't know. We mustn't surrender to paranoia, or we'll be seeing foes all around us."
"There are foes and people dying all around, Akise."
He shifts the bags he carries from one hand to another, masking his fidgeting. "Unfortunately, it's quite true. I've not forgotten. We'll investigate that Hino Hinata." His confident demeanour comes back to him. "Tomorrow we're going to school. Besides, my classmates have told me about an impending exam this week, and I can use some revising. I can also use some ice-cream now."
"Excellent choice," she points out at a parlour. "This one? By the way, I don't mind if you spied on me: I've also investigated you a bit. I wanted to know about my ally. I intend you to reveal your secrets to me." Her pulse quickens. Someway, this testing each other seems essential.
His reaction pleases her. "Reasonable caution. So, what do you think? Are we similar?"
"In a way. For example, you're good at sports and academics, too," she answers. "In another way, we are opposites."
"Honours students skipping as many lessons as they can. The world must be coming to an end."
She giggles heartily. "Shall we get in?"
"Sure. We enjoy our ice-creams… and we talk and know each other better."
So they do. Yuno finds herself talking about her real yesteryears. Her life before becoming a goddess was quite disastrous overall, but she discovers she can recall several triumphs and good moments. Sharing them with Akise feels so right; that he also shares pieces of his life with her is even better.
It feels as if this reality is the right one, the original one; the sensation is as elating as scary.
It is getting late when they leave the place and walk home. The weather has changed along the day, and what was a fierce wind in the morning is a mild breeze now.
"Can I make a request?" he asks out of a sudden.
"Uh?"
"When you are Dea, can you make exams disappear?"
She laughs so much that her stomach aches.
...
"Have you finished?"
"Just a minute," she answers.
The expendable diary is locked in the safe, the safe has been encoded and stored in a hidden drawer in her wardrobe, the new phone has been charged and checked. She needs the minute to pick up the present she has bought him.
Akise waits for her downstairs. She has considered teasing him, but she is eager to see his reaction, so she stretches her arms in front of him with the heart-shaped box in her hands.
"Not every shop in that shopping centre sold tech gadgets," she says.
He stands motionless with his hands behind his back, staring at her with unbidden surprise, making her feel a little nervous. Is the shape of the box too much?
"What a nice coincidence." He shows her his hands. There is another gift box there: the wrapping paper is lovely, tiny charms and all.
She smiles, her nervousness gone. They exchange presents and open them at the same time. The ribbons for Yuno's hair are gorgeous: the silky fabric gleams subtly, reflecting different shades of carnation pink. The tie for Akise is beautiful and elegant, flaunting the exact hue of scarlet of his eyes. Both gasp in delight.
"This may be a scene from a shoujo romance," Yuno says.
"No. This will be that scene," he replies. He approaches her, offers her the tie and takes the ribbons. "Let me help you; help me."
Deft fingers apply to the task. He plays with strands of her hair as he ties the ribbons whereas she drapes the tie around the collar of his shirt, crosses and loops the ends to make a knot. They work in silence; their intimacy lingers right after they finish. Neither of them moves away. They are breathing hard, breaking the silence.
"I love your hair, Yuno. It's so soft, it smells so well, you smell so well," he whispers.
Yuno's blood runs briskly in her veins, and her fingers caress his neck on their own accord. When she feels him shiver under her touch, she cannot help herself. She kisses him and her heart thuds when he kisses her back passionately. Lips melt into each other, tongues dare to play with one another, turning bolder with each successful encounter. His fingers are entangled in her hair, then run softly across her nape, her back, the small of her back, standing there in a firm grip as her hands trace a similar path on his body. He leaves her lips to nibble her earlobe, inhaling her scent, and she shivers under his hot breath. She licks his neck, savouring his taste, sensing a low growl coming from him which makes her knees wobble. Their mouths join again, relishing in one another. The world has become a blissful and warm place.
An indefinite amount of time later, Yuno notices him pulling off from her, muttering something about the cold. She doesn't want to be cold, so she tries to recover the momentum, but he persists in keeping his distance, though gently.
"I need to do my duty, can't let my mind get cloudy. Both of us need a cold head now."
He keeps mumbling about duty and clarity of mind, about restful sleep and a long day at school, and the battles to come. She is not convinced at all; doubts gnaw at her again. She crushes them before they grow.
This is what I wanted this relationship to be: playful and delicious, but shallow and harmless.
Despite her reasoning, she is grumbling when she sits down on the couch. She switches on the television to distract her from the tingling sensations still running through her body. The news proves to be the best antidote.
"Akise, come here. You must watch this."
They see how Mayor Bacchus and Chief Inspector Kurusu are leading a press conference. They have just announced the demise of the terrorist known as Uryuu Minene. This time they have allowed the footage of the crime scene to be broadcasted: Uryuu's corpse lies on the ground in an alley, right beside a sealed trash bin, an image which carries a great symbolism as the Mayor remarks. She has decided to commit suicide, shooting herself with a gun, after that blood-lusted criminal realised there was no way to escape the brave police force and righteous justice of our City. Our country, no, the whole world is today a safer place thanks to the strength of Sakurami, Bacchus rants on. Yuno grunts quietly and focuses on the crime scene, trying to mute his lies. She notices the diary fast.
"They have taken pains to show everyone else the last entries," she says. "Do you see the screen? Dead End Flag."
"A warning to the other players," he says as he studies the images. "About the cause of death, it could have been suicide by the look of it: only the shot in the mouth can be appreciated, and the angle coincides. On the other hand, it might have been a shot from any police officer, or another player. All in all, we were right in our suspicions: the Mayor seems to be playing the Game, allied with Kurusu."
"Yes, it seems so." She knows it has not been suicide: Ninth has had this bomb connected to her heart in every reality Yuno has visited. If she had killed herself, she would have blown up everything near her.
Unless…
"I'm calling Nishijima." Akise's decision interrupts her musings.
"Why? He is alright and whole." She points out at the screen. Nishijima can be seen in a row of police officers standing behind the dais where Eleventh and Fourth are showing off.
"He must be so sad, grieving."
She reminisces how Ninth and Nishijima shared romantic feelings in former realities and grinds her teeth. No more ghost memories haunting him, please. Her words are slow, deliberate. "Why should Nishijima be grieving, Akise?"
He blinks, his expression blank for several moments. At last, he waves out the confusion. "That was a stupid reaction, wasn't it? I must be really tired. I need some sleeping."
"So do I."
They say good-night and part to different bedrooms. Regardless her statement, she is not sleepy. There is a fact that keeps her awake: Third's craftmanship is not behind Ninth's death. She should have been his prey according to the routes in his diary, the same lines which assured that Akise was not going to be Third's prey. Now, they have been twisted, opened to unknown next steps.
Definitely, she needs to attend school and pay a visit to sensei Hijama.