There was a girl in the room when Haseo arrived, sitting in a wooden chair.
She was young – very young, with light blue hair and far-away eyes. Her white, layered dress swayed slightly, as if in an invisible wind. Her body was encased in Ovan's shadow. Haseo couldn't see his face, but for one fleeting moment, he imagined the look in his eyes – missing, strange, and desperate. He never thought he'd see Ovan in such a light, and yet here they were, two characters under a bluish hue, and Haseo, watching.
Ovan said, "Her name is Aina. It's a good name, isn't it, Haseo?"
He dropped his gaze, his brain a whirl of white static. I hate you, he wanted to say. I love you. I wish you'd go away, I wish you'd never leave. Why are you doing this to me? Why are you trying to drive me insane?
His words came distantly, as if he were hearing himself from a filter, miles and miles away. "I can't marry you."
Ovan didn't flinch, didn't move, didn't say a word. Aina's hands sat on the armrests of her chair, like twin ghosts. Haseo traced the patterns of her fingers with his eyes, trying to collect himself. "Weddings are supposed to be happy." he forced himself to continue, heart beating madly in his chest. "We're not happy, Ovan—"
"Masato."
Haseo closed his eyes. "Is that your real name?" he whispered. When Ovan didn't answer, he felt his lips twitch in the barest of smiles. "I'm Ryou."
Ovan's head bowed slightly in a nod. "It's strange, isn't it, Haseo?" his voice was light, almost whimsical, out of place in the strange environment. "How the tides turn. . .isn't it unusual, how people change? Suddenly, who you think they are isn't who they are at all."
He turned to face him, a blank smile on his face.
"I deceived you." He said.
"Why?" Haseo breathed.
"I'm selfish." Ovan replied gently. "I've always been selfish." His hand found the young girl's – Aina's – and closed over it with care. As Haseo watched, he kneeled down and grasped her shoulders tightly, but with amazing grace and love.
"Aina." he said softly, "Now is the time for you to finally be set free."
Haseo tried to watch. His eyes fixed on their bodies, on their rapidly paling forms, even as a phantom wind filled the room, even as he felt his hair whipping around him and Ovan's clothes fanning out behind him and Aina's long locks whirling around her face and over her blank, golden eyes. But soon it was almost as if someone had pressed their hand over his face and the blackness was steadily swallowing him, pulling him away into another land, a place where Ovan no longer existed.
When he opened his eyes again, he didn't know where he was, or any of the details he should have been given. All that existed at the girl within the at-home, a shadow of the man he loved, looking up at them with wide, frightened eyes and blue hair that was far too close to Ovan's.
---
Haseo heard many new things in the hours following, things explained to him by Yata and Pai and Atoli and Kuhn. "His sister," Kuhn had said, "Ovan's little sister. He's revived her. He fought for her."
He learned the word 'cubia gomora', which seemed alien to him, distant and unimportant. According to Yata, it was their new enemy, and something that had to be destroyed as soon as possible. He learned that, as Pai put it, 'he would want you to fight.' He learned that the others had immediately lapsed into talking about Ovan as if he were dead.
As time passed, Aina found him alone and sat before him with a look of intelligence in her eyes that far surpassed his expectations.
"I need to talk to you." she said in a soft voice. "I want to know what happened."
So he told her. As his voice washed over her, her hand found his without the slightest flickering of her eyes, but rather than closing over the back of his palm as Ovan always did, she brushed her fingertips against the metallic edge of his wedding ring.
"This." she said. "My brother's?"
When Haseo said nothing, she smiled and dipped her head a little, blue hair swaying. "He always acts so tough." she whispered, more to herself than to Haseo. "I knew he'd fall in love someday, though."
Looking down at her little white hand against the band around his finger, his heart seemed to rise into his throat.
Everything's moving too fast, he wanted to say. It's not fair. He hated himself immediately for thinking like that, like a child, like someone who had already given in. Aina's close-lipped smile seemed to make her face glow gently, but beneath it was a pain that made his head spin.
"Masato." he muttered. Aina's shoulders hunched slightly, but this time, he didn't notice.
---
When the hunt in the outer dungeon began, it was as if his body was moving of it's own accord.
"We have to do this." Atoli said, standing close to him, her presence an unspoken comfort. "This is the last step. We can do this!"
They moved past the doppelgangers, past the smaller battles, and somehow nothing seemed to take a toll on him. His HP dropped occasional, and Atoli's determined 'repth!' restored it in an instant. Beside him, the other's eyes burned with a new kind of life and maturity, a battle aura and combined unity that kept their forms tall and proud.
Cubia was waiting. He could sense it's form in the distance.
"This is the final summoning." Silabus said as they climbed the last stair. "Haseo, it's up to you." Somehow, he had expected those words to eat at him, the phrase 'lean on me' echoing in his head, but looking into their eyes, he could see their respect, their bravery and independence. "Yes." he said. "Let's go."
As their wave symbols began to shine around him, his hand rose to his chest.
"Skeith." he said, and voices of his friends echoed alongside him. The pulsing of his heart seemed to magnify in his head. Far away, he imagined Ovan's strange smile, and he thought, Masato, Masato. The name was like a good luck chant.
Atoli's breathing and clicking heels filled the air, along with Pai's determined voice and the shirt whirling of her fists. His scythe slashed at Cubia's belly, and with every cut, another scene seemed to flash through his vision, Ovan in the cathedral, Ovan with the rain sliding past him, Ovan whispering 'let me remember you. . ."
Cubia's scream was unearthly, but it rang emptily in his ears. He heard his own ragged breaths and curses swimming around him. Atoli was shouting 'repth!' in her high, soft voice. Her white body flashed from the corner of his eye, along with Pai's shock of pink. His HP drained slowly.
"We can't!" Pai said. "We need all the epitaphs!"
"Need you." came a voice, and it took him a moment to realize it was his own. "Need you, Ovan!" The attack was breaking, his avatar was shattering along his fist, jagged spider-webs of light that shone against the back of his hand.
And a gloved hand enveloped his fingers.
"Haseo." said a very familiar voice, and in the moment, everything seemed predictable and right. "Can we do it?"
It clicked. The last puzzle piece slid into place. Beneath them, Cubia seemed suddenly small.
Are you dead? he almost asked, is this an illusion? Am I dreaming, Ovan, or are you just a ghost?
"Haseo." his calm tone seemed to wrap him up, making the colors twist and blur until they were brighter and clearer and perfectly true. There was no time to question anymore. There was no time to think.
"Yeah." he said. "Of course we can."