When Len opens his eyes, fear hit him with full force- along with the mental image of Rin dying, still vivid in his mind. Unlike the last time he had said nightmare, he can also remember the dark intentions in the crimson irises of that strange man.

Without any hesitation, he rose from his bed to rush about his room and repeat the same actions once more. His mind whirls endlessly in thought.

Everything's the same. The nightmare, this reality- it's all the exact same. Down to the time he woke up this morning- 12:30- to the yellow shirt he threw on, to the demonic chihuahua screeching at him. Detail after detail matches up- and it's impossible.

Len's positive now- it wasn't just any nightmare. No, it has to be something else entirely, a vision. How can he relive the same day, over and over again? Not only did he have the nightmare of Rin being impaled, he also had seen her crushed by the grill of a semi-truck. They were two far-too-similar dreams.

Something is seriously wrong. I don't know how to explain it, but something's gone screwy, and it's messing with my mind. Unfortunately, Len's starting to think he's going insane. How else could I have seen Rin die twice like that? And today, specifically. She can't die two different ways in one day.

Even though he hopes it was all just some horrible illusion his subconscious conjured up for him, Len can't be sure. However, he won't make the same mistake again. He'll prevent Rin's death no matter what. He has to. He might truly go crazy if he has to see her die like that again. If I see that silver-haired whackjob there, I'll throttle him. He must have been on some obscure drugs or something, the way he was going on about her. I don't think it's possible for me to imagine a guy as creepy and disturbing as him.

If he'd been in a better mood, and less in a panic, he would have noted that he most likely broke his speed record for reaching the park. This time, though, he peers around and catches sight of Rin standing near a bench, brushing down the light fabric of her dress.

When she meets his gaze, the frustrated smile on her face fades a bit. "Uh, hey, Len-" she says, a little confused by his serious expression. "Are you okay?"

"Come on. I don't want to hang out here today- let's go for a walk or something instead," Len tells her, his fingers wrapping around her wrist to tug her along.

Her confusion grows. "What? But Len, I brought Leonia. I can't just leave her-"

"We won't go far, Rin, but I want to talk to you for awhile," he insists, stubborn. Maybe, just maybe, if he gets her away from the park- from that godforsaken intersection and the possibilities of death that coincide there- he'll prove that all of his worrying is for no reason.

"What? W-wait a-" she tries to protest, but he has none of it, dragging her off at a hasty pace. He's not exactly sure where he's taking her, but he feels anywhere is safer than here.

His mind goes on autopilot a moment, and before he knows it, he's a small way into the park and climbing the wooden, creaky stairs of a tower-like, railed structure that has been around almost forever. It's a strange place that's been all but forgotten, and he and Rin often climb up to the top for no reason other than to people-watch, and camp out to witness the sunset. It's not exactly the sturdiest place, but it gives him a strange sense of security.

Once they're up there, Rin yanks her hand from his. "Len, what's gotten into you?" she finally demands, her blue eyes full of concern for him. A gentle wind blows over them, sending tendrils of gold into her face that he has the sudden, unexplainable urge to brush away.

"Look, I just- I have this really, really bad feeling," he starts, taking a step back and running a hand through his messy bangs. "I can't really explain it well, but I had this nightmare last night where you were killed after Leonia ran away and I tried to save you, but even though I did you still died-"

"Whoa, there." She holds up her hands, trying to take in his jumbled words. "Hold on a second, Len, I can't understand you."

Leaning back against the rail, she frowns at him, her dress fluttering around her legs. "So, you're- I think I got this right, you're saying you're all weird and panicked right now 'cause of a- a nightmare you had?"

The way she says it makes him doubt everything he'd been worried about to this point, but he nods anyway. "Yeah. Dumb, isn't it?" He lets out an empty laugh. Great. Even Rin probably thinks he's losing his mind.

"Len, it was- you know, just a dream. Don't you think you're overreacting a little?" she insists, tilting her head.

Damn. Though he knows she's probably right, it still stings a bit. "Well… maybe a little. Sorry, it kind of got to me," he admits. He shakes his head and rubs his hand over his face, sighing deeply.

I can be calm now. I've gotten her away from the 'disaster area', so it's okay.

Rin gazes at him. "Nah, it's okay. I'm glad you worry so much about me, though," she says cheerfully. "I'd be kind of concerned if you'd brushed it off easily, you know?'

His cheeks flush at that. "Well, um-"

C-creeeaaaaaaak-

-crack.

"H-Aaaaahhhhhh!"

It happens so fast, he isn't sure what to make of it.

One second, he's trying to choke out a flustered response, and the next a loud breaking sound shocks them both. Rin's expression goes pale so fast, it appears as if someone has drained the blood from her body.

Without warning, the entire rail gives way, snapping apart. She can't catch her balance fast enough, and she flails, screaming, her support gone.

"Rin!" He lunges forward to catch her, but he's unable to reach her in time, his hand outstretched and barely missing her own.

"L-Leeeeeeeeeeeen!" Rin shrieks in terror, falling backwards and, to Len's absolute horror, off the top of the tower, disappearing from view.

He runs to the edge, just in time to watch her body make sickening contact with the ground below, her arms and legs bent and unnatural, freakish angles amidst the remains of the rail.

What?!

What the hell?!

Didn't he prevent this?! Didn't he make sure that she'd be safe?

How can this have happened again?!

"Tsk. You've failed her again? Pathetic. Honestly, I'm really beginning to enjoy this- watching you squirm with hatred for yourself," that silver-haired psycho's voice says from behind, his frame just visible in his peripheral.

Len whips to face him, his eyes steely with anger. "Who the hell are you?! Why do you keep showing up?" This mysterious guy- every time Rin has died, he's been there.

"Who am I?"

The silveret's face darkens, and it's as if his red eyes grow more vibrant, almost- glowing?

Suddenly he's standing in front of Len, his face mere inches from him. The blonde tries to take a step back, to get away, but barely any space lies between him and the same drop where Rin met her fate.

"To you, I am everything," the male says, his voice chilling to the blond. There's almost no emotion detected, yet he can almost feel some kind of malice radiating from the stranger.

"I am the reason for your existence, the cause of your pain and sorrow. I am the darkness that feeds off every tear you shed, that relishes the sight of you beaten and bloody. I am the fear curling in your chest, the pain you endure; I am the black evil in your heart. I endlessly continue this dark cycle of despair. I am nothing, yet for you, I mean everything."

Before Len can think through everything that has been said, a small, psychotic smile twists the stranger's face.

"I am your nightmare."

A harsh shove, and Len's voice tears its way from his throat as he is knocked off his feet, his arms waving frantically to grip anything, but finding purchase with nothing. Sent reeling backwards, he free falls off the tower.

His screaming and the silveret's laughter are the only things he hears when the darkness swallows him whole.

.X.

After that, time continued to repeat itself.

Len's nightmares also continued- much to his horror. No matter what he tried, there was no way to rid himself of them- or that day.

The same day that, over and over again, tore his best friend away from him.

Each time he woke, the day progressed in a similar fashion- he would run to find Rin, to save her. Yet, if he saved her from one fate, another took its place just as easily to end her life. The deaths were each gruesome and heart-rending, from being mugged on the street, to being kidnapped, shot, beaten. Somehow death found her each time, despite Len's best efforts to keep her safe. Once he tried staying in his house the entire day, but when he received the dreaded call from her mother that she'd been hit, it proved that whether he was there or not, Rin was doomed.

It was like unleashed torture, watching her die again and again, helpless and afraid. The feeling of not being able to do anything, of being completely useless when it came to making sure Rin stayed alive, drove Len insane. The mental images kept adding up, her deaths replaying like bad movies in his mind. They haunted him, his nightmares growing worse and worse, the relief of waking short-lived with each realization that it was real. The differences between reality and illusion, the fine line between the truth and deceit, blurred until he couldn't tell if he was going crazy anymore.

And always, always, without fail, the silveret would be there the moment Rin died. Laughing, mocking, enjoying it. He never flinched at the sight of blood, never seemed anything less than entertained while Len's heart was ripped in half. A demon wearing human skin, surely, there to shove his failure in his face repeatedly without mercy. A shimmering mass of hatred who loved each moment of the blonde's inability to stop his most precious person from dying.

Len learned to hate seeing 12:30 on his bedside clock, to hate the sunshine coming through his windows, signs that nothing had changed and that it never would. Most of all, though, nothing matched his hatred for the boy in black, who desired nothing more than his own suffering.

"Len? You okay?"

He looks over at Rin, sitting on the bench beside him. He must've drifted off into his thoughts. "Huh? Me?" he asks, his voice void of emotion.

The girl nods, tilting her head and letting her blonde strands fall into her face, almost hiding her cerulean blue eyes from his. "Yeah. You seem really weird today, like something's bothering you. And, I hate to say it, Len, but you look terrible. You've got huge bags under your eyes- have you not been sleeping well?"

Sleeping? He can't remember the last time he actually slept. Every time Rin dies, he blacks out and returns to the beginning of the day, waking up from 'the nightmare' that isn't really a nightmare anymore- more so a living catastrophe.

"Sorry," he says simply.

Rin frowns deeply at him, readjusting Leonia on her lap. The cat glances at Len, as if it's been witness to the same things he has. Maybe she has.

"Ah- ow!" she curses under her breath as her pet jumps up, clawing, and runs away from them. "Leonia! Come back here! Come on, Len, we have to go get her!"

Rising mechanically, as he knows exactly where this is leading and how it ends, Len runs after his best friend.

Just like before, just like with every other time- she's going to die.

I… I can't watch her die again. I can't.

There, the backed up intersection, where Rin races to catch up to her flighty cat. Len halfheartedly keeps pace; but even though he feels hopeless, he still wants to try to save her.

He's so sick of not being able to stop it.

His heart hurts, throbbing painfully in his chest with the familiar dread he's felt so many times before.

No more… I can't do this anymore.

Maybe he's finally lost all sanity, but suddenly he realizes he'd much rather die himself than see Rin go through death one more time.

If, one time, I could successfully change fate so that she would be the one safe, I would take it without any hesitation.

"Leonia!" Her voice brings him back to the present, the here and now, and he focuses. Without really giving it any more thought, his decision is already made for him.

Rin has taken a single step onto the sidewalk when Len grips her arm, pulling from a well of strength and stamina he didn't know he had. Jerking her backward and earning a confused "Hey- Len?!", he throws himself out into the street and into the path of the oncoming semi-truck.

Just as the first nightmare had felt when he had witnessed Rin dying the first time, everything becomes crystal clear, every detail defined.

The shining glint of the metal grill of the huge vehicle, racing toward him too fast to possibly slow down in time.

Rin, yelling his name off to the side and reaching for him, far too late, her expression one he's all-too familiar with, having worn it countless times; terror, shock, horror, despair.

The silver-haired heat haze, laughing at him.

A bone-crushing moment of impact is all it takes, the strongest bout of pain he'd ever felt racing through him only a second before blissful white is all that remains.

No more. Let it finally be over.

Let her live.

"And so he chose death in order to end their suffering."

Raising an ornately decorated teacup to his lips, the silveret takes a small sip of the steaming liquid. His servant waits nearby, a tray in her hands holding a teapot and a small, crystalline glass vial.

"Would it be considered honorable in some way, to have faced death so bravely? ...Or reckless?" he continues, musing to himself. "If he had been wrong in his blind grasping for solutions, he would have scarred himself further. How unfortunate he discovered the answer to the end of that small cycle. At least now they've had a taste of the eternity of despair awaiting them.

"In a way, I'm almost glad. It was becoming a bit boring, rewatching the same deaths and day repeat itself. That really isn't to my taste."

When the girl attempts to refill his cup, he raises a hand to halt her, shaking his head. Glancing at his reflection in the amber surface, his bloodred eyes narrow.

"Take that," he gestures to the vial on the tray, "and prepare yourself. I need you to set off the key elements of the next life for me."

Without replying, the servant nods her head and departs quickly, disappearing out the door with the grace of a shadow. Still staring into the eyes of his image, he chuckles softly.

"I have never been fond of tea."

A/N: And the Kagerou Daze arc comes to a close.

As of 03-29-16, this has been beta'd by Piriluk. :D

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. The next chapter is considerably longer, and I hope you're all ready for what comes next. :D And yes, the bit at the end is, indeed, a hint of what arc I'm doing next. If you guess correctly by next update, virtual cookies!

I had fun writing this as well as ripping out my own heart. (This fic has consumed my soul, guys. It really has.) So I hope you have fun and I'll see you all next update.

Read on~.

~Disclaimer~ I own only visuals of a rickety wooden tower and the despair of helplessness, nothing more.