Schwarzschild Radius

by solopy567

The physical limit of all objects before they collapse under their own gravity. A barrier that, for the overwhelming majority of entities that reside in the universe, is an impossibility to ever reach. But for the most massive stars, it is far more feasible. So what happens when one such star passes that threshold?

She sat at the roof of the hospital, gazing up at the stars and the clouds floating carelessly through the sky. The moon shone brightly upon her, and a slight breeze ruffled her hair and the treetops in the distance. The isolation from the rest of the world calmed her, taking away her worries, leaving behind just herself and the new lives growing within her. She gently caressed her stomach, thinking to herself, contemplating her own emotions.

The door to the roof opened, and a man in a doctor's garb stepped out to join her. She heard his footsteps as he approached. He leaned on the railing, and she glanced at him, thinking that he'd have looked cool if he had a smoke in hand.

He briefly turned to her.

"How are you feeling, Hoshino-san?" he said, his voice slightly shaky.

Ai smiled at him. The rumor mill in the hospital said he was a fan of hers, and she found it both encouraging and adorable. "I'm well, sensei. Just getting some fresh air."

He nodded. "Very good. It is important you stay relaxed; stress is not good for fetal development. I want you to take care of yourself."

"I will sensei, thank you," she replied calmly. "And if anything happens, I can count on you, right?"

"Of course. I will make sure you deliver your babies safely and that you will be able to live with them peacefully. No matter what happens, I will be there for you."

She felt relief behind her smile. Fan or not, he was a genuine person. She had missed being around someone like him. She caressed her stomach again, wishing for the two's well being.

Twins, he had said. She didn't think that was possible, but it happened to her of all people. She knew how the world perceived people her age bearing kids; a mistake, they'd call it. A sign of delinquency and degeneracy, of a failed upbringing and morality. But she never faced those derisions directly. Ichigo and Miyako did everything in their power to hide it, knowing it'd ruin her career if it came out, but never chastised her for getting to this point. They only cared that she was well, that she was healthy, and that her children would be too. Their promise to help her take care of the kids touched her in a spot in her heart she didn't know she had anymore.

Sincerity felt alien to her. Ai knew nobody more insincere and deceptive than herself, and in some weird space in the back of her head, she felt that about others as well. Who doesn't hide reality behind sweet words and soothings? Yet, more than anyone else, Hoshino Ai was—

"Sensei."

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you something?" Something shifted, a curiosity.

"What is it?"

She turned her gaze up to the night sky. "How are stars made? Like, what're they made of? How does it happen?"

He scratched his neck as he contemplated his wording. "Well, when there is enough material in space in one place, it clumps together and becomes heavier. Gravity then pulls everything closer and closer, to the point it can no longer flow freely, and so it collapses into a big ball of material so hot that we call it a star."

His explanation was super simple, as if he knew she wouldn't get it if he tried to explain it any other way. Still, she appreciated it. It made sense to her.

"Do they live forever?"

He sighed. "They do not. Even after forming, they are so heavy, gravity causes the elements that make them up to change so much they can't change anymore. Eventually, the star cannot maintain its shape any longer, and collapses into itself. It then explodes, throwing the material that made it back into space. That material then travels the universe until it joins a new clump that will form a new star. That process repeats again and again for a very long time."

Ai mused in slight melancholy. "I see. That's a little sad, I think. But at least, even though they're gone, they're able to bring new life to the universe. Although I guess stars aren't really alive," she said, giggling minutely at her own words. "Thank you sensei, you're so smart."

"It's nothing," he replied with a small smile of his own. Then, "but some stars meet a different fate."

"Oh?" Her curiosity peaked again.

"Some stars are so large and so massive, the gravity that works on them is many times stronger than other stars. When they collapse, the gravity causes their core to itself collapse into an infinitely small yet massive point, with a gravity so powerful that nothing can escape it. Rather than leaving behind new life, they leave behind a black hole."

"And what is that?"

"As the name suggests, it is a completely dark hole in space, as if reality itself is distorted. Its gravity is so powerful, not even light can escape its pull. That is why they're called black holes; you can't see them, but they continue feeding themselves on other material in space. If one forms close enough to another star, over time it would consume that star until nothing is left."

Ai looked down to the floor. "That's terrifying. It's so strange that the biggest stars that were made from the most life end up as the biggest destroyers in the universe. I think I've seen an anime with a plot like that once; something about magical girls turning into monsters when they give into despair."

The doctor laughed. Did he understand what she meant? "They are pretty terrifying, yes. But even they don't live forever," he said with a tinge of wistfulness. "Black holes, despite their powerful pull, cannot maintain their form all the time. Just a tiny bit of material manages to escape them every so often. Because of that, after a very long time, enough material will escape to the point that the black hole cannot sustain itself anymore, and it dissipates."

Ai tilted her head. "So they get their own ending, after all."

"Yes. Once they're left alone and have nothing left to feed on. It's a miserable existence. But at least they can't destroy anything else once that happens."

They fell into silence. The wind howled softly in her ears, and she gazed up at the sky once more. All of the lights in the sky are stars, she figured, and if she understood what he meant, between all of those bright dots could be black holes that consume the rest. Does that mean that one day, far into the future, there won't be any stars anymore? The sky will be just pitch black?

She chastised herself for her thoughts; of course that's not true, he just said so after all. All material in space eventually forms new stars, even from black holes. A cycle of creation and destruction repeating eternally beyond what she could ever see or experience.

It was lonely in one way, yet wonderful in another.

"It is a bit of an elementary explanation, and it does not cover everything about stars, but it should give you a general idea of how they work. I do not suppose you care for the science behind it all that much."

"Not at all!" Ai said enthusiastically. "I mean, I do care, I guess. It's interesting, and weird, and a little scary, but interesting! Maybe I should go learn that instead of being an idol."

He laughed for a bit. "If you feel like you can handle it, then do so. But if you ask me, I think the work you do is fine enough. You touch plenty of people without having to look up all the time."

"I guess I'm just too dumb for it. I was never very good at studying."

"As someone who has gone through medical school, I can tell you that being good at studying is not what they look for. They look for someone who feels confident enough to learn, someone confident enough to dedicate themselves to knowledge, to practice, to the people that knowledge may help, and to the truth beyond themselves."

Truth. What did that word mean anymore, she wondered. She had none of the things he said he had. After all, she was...

"Do you feel that way, sensei?" she asked innocently.

"It brought me to the position where I can help you right now, so I would say it has been worth every minute."

Had he been anyone else, she'd have found those words romantic. Or at least, she thought so. She didn't know what that really meant anymore either.

"Then I'm glad too."

-!-

"Ai."

She blinked. Her name being called tore her out of her trip down memory lane. As she focused on the world around her again, her eyes fell upon the mirror in front of her, and her reflection that stared back at her. In her daydreaming, she had unintentionally dropped her facade: the smile that was like a suit of armor that she wore when faced with others.

She took a moment to scrutinize herself. She already knew that she was not the same as she was back then. The nuclear fusion that powered her radiance was reaching its zenith. The elements that made up her core were slowly spent to maintain that bright star that shone brightly over everyone. Expending energy to keep on going, to keep a measure of her fabricated normalcy.

The doctor vanished not long after that final conversation. When her two little white dwarves were born, he wasn't there to greet them with her. No matter how much she waited, he never appeared again. In the middle of painful labor, the only thought in her mind was resentment towards the man who had promised to be by her side.

She forced herself not to think on the subject further. It had already swirled in her mind aplenty in the few years that followed. A lot has changed yet nothing has changed — she was the same, but also somewhat different. She couldn't put her finger on why.

"Sorry," she said with a small smile. She rose from her seat in the dressing room, straightened out her show skirt, and stepped towards the door. "I'm ready."

Her stylist looked at her sadly, but said nothing.

The lie had to be maintained. No matter what roiled under the surface, no matter what reactions occurred within her core, Hoshino Ai had to present the most impeccable of performances. The most exquisite of lies, the most perfect of facades, and the most elaborate mask. The existence of her two children was still unknown to the world at large, and everything related to them was handled by Ichigo and his wife.

It filled her with both relief and annoyance. She wanted to be able to show them off, but couldn't. The lie had to be maintained. The better liar she was, the more brilliantly she can shine.

And of course, the more she lied, the more she'd be able to maintain the lifestyle she had gotten with her two little white dwarves.

The tiniest speck of a genuine smile rose to Ai's lips as she went up the steps towards the stage. The artificial lights above already blinded her, but she was used to it. Used to the deception, the artificiality, the carefully calculated manipulation of a rabid fandom for profit. They were all things she was keenly aware of.

The two stars flared as the lie was prepared.

"The way Ai smiles is neither good nor bad, ya know. It's one of those typical 'pro' smiles. She's kinda fake..."

"Who do you think made me that way?"

Who do you think forced me to be that way?

-!-

"I think my kids might be geniuses."

"Huh?" Miyako stared at Ai with a comically bewildered expression.

A couple of months had passed. The kids were growing steadily; so much so, in fact, that they managed to capture the attention and hearts of thousands when they performed an exceptional dance in one of her concerts. It was so weird and funny and cute, Ai had cracked a real happy smile. That too was all over the internet. Like her genuine happiness was part of the show.

Ai reached over and lifted Ruby up high high. The toddler cooed and laughed like a baby should, and Ai smiled at her child's adorable innocence.

"It's like, how did they even do that, you know? How many babies can do a perfect idol dance like that? I bet they're secretly government experiments to make genius babies."

Miyako sighed exasperatedly. "Two hundred and ten thousand likes is insane. I guess things like that become trendy super quickly considering how weird it is. I think I've even seen those huh, memes? Of them already made."

Ai raised Ruby up and down, making the baby laugh more. Aqua crawled over to them, as if seeking her attention. Miyako put on another one of her weirded out stares. Aqua climbed onto the sofa with his little chubby hands, and Ai was quick to wrap them both in an embrace. Ruby laughed and Aqua looked uncomfortable like always. Despite their weirdness, Ai couldn't help but smile again. Even after seeing their video a hundred times, she couldn't help but think they were the cutest things in the world.

"I want the best for them," she said softly. "To go to a good school, find a good job, find good partners, and all that. It's not so strange to want that, right? To wish for their happiness."

She wanted her two little white dwarves to become real stars. To shine in ways she never could.

"I'd say that's pretty normal," Miyako said as she stood up and went to the kitchen. "You're even starting to think like a mother now."

"Really?"

That was hard for her to really understand. The only example of motherhood she ever had was not a particularly great example, as some therapist had once said to her. She didn't think of her mother too much nowadays, but she didn't care to anyway.

"I guess if you say so, then it's true."

Ai looked at her two chubby bundles again. So small, so strange, and growing so quickly. Just yesterday they were freshly born, and she found herself so attached to them.

"I mean you do love them, right?" Miyako asked as she washed the dishes.

The two toddlers looked up at her, as if perfectly grasping what Miyako said. Ai couldn't really understand their stares, each one bearing a star of their own. But...

"I guess if you say so, then it's true."

The capacity to love was not something that Ai believed she had. What manner of feeling was it? What sort of nuclear reactions did it cause in the body? Did love truly make one shine? All she knew was a fake love; the kind that was expected of her to show in order to earn money. When she stood on the stage and smiled, and met the gaze of her loyal and rabid fans, she knew for a fact that she did not love them. Or she did love them, but not in the kind that society expects one to love. Love is an emotion that can be faked, can be used to deceive, to deprive others of something that they hold dear or need to survive so others can thrive. She faked love, thereby turning their love into something that was used to keep herself alive.

That was all there really was to it. Only fakery, only lies, only pretending. Just like how the sun is described as being nature's warm and loving embrace, anyone who looked it up on the internet would find out within five minutes that the sun was nothing of the sort. It was a ball of pure flames, hot enough to vaporize anything that got close to it. Large enough to be unmissable, and massive enough to trap other planets in its orbit.

Only Earth was lucky enough to be in the sweet spot, she found out. A search she had conducted on a whim revealed that much to her. All the planets too close to the sun were scorched and rendered a blazing hellscape; all planets too far were frozen deserts.

Also skin cancer. She found out that the sun did that too. All the historical worship of that bright star in the sky revealed as nothing but fakery.

The sun could not love. It never gave the impression that it did, as it was humanity that had decided that it loved them, that it gave them the means to live. It was a mistaken belief, broken by the harsh truth of science, just like how the mind that makes up a person was revealed to be nothing more than electrical signals and chemical reactions within a carapace of meat and bone.

The more she immersed herself in deception, the more she realized the nastiness of the deceivers, and the more she divorced herself from the pain of the deceived.

Had anyone else been that way, she knew they would be considered the scum of the earth. Yet she, Hoshino Ai, was loved and nurtured in turn. A liar made to lie more, to perpetuate the cycle of lies that make up the backbone of the industry she had simply been lucky enough to come across.

The sweet spot in the sun's orbit.

But even the sun would one day be extinguished. One day even the brightest stars would burn out, and leave behind the seeds for new stars.

Then it only makes sense that even her own brilliance would one day wane. And she, in turn, hoped to be the reason for her twins to bloom and shine.

A sacrifice of the self without caring for something in return. Not done out of deception, or out of fear, or out of a desire for profit. All she had taken from others through lies, she found herself genuinely wishing would become the stepping stone for the two she selfishly brought into the world.

"I guess if you say so, then it must be true."

-!-

Time passed. The Earth completed more passes around the Sun. The world moved on. Yet Hoshino Ai still took to the stage, the center of the system around which many nameless planets and asteroids circled around - satellites utterly dependent on it in order to not be led astray.

Her heart had remained the same as well. Yet, her two tiny stars were not so little anymore. Now four years old, they grew rapidly, standing on two legs and bearing expressions that were far beyond their years.

Well, maybe mostly Aqua; he seemed to maintain a constant face of indifference to the world around him. Miyako told her that he was 'bizarre', and the director of the movie that he was featured in even told him he was 'creepy'.

Ai pouted. Aqua was not creepy! He was cute and chubby and a little weird, but he was just like his mother! At least where he didn't seem to have the energy to care about the world, Ruby more than made up for it.

"Mama mama mama!" The little red one chirped as she ran up to her mother.

"Hahahahahahaha, what is it, Ruby!"

"Gimme a pat!"

Ai chuckled again, and patted the excitable child on the head. Ruby cooed and smiled with a blush on her face. "Haaaaah, the blissful pure land of Amitabha~"

Ai blinked. "Ruby, where did you learn such a difficult term?"

The siblings looked scandalized. Ai looked at them suspiciously. She brought a hand to her chin in thought. "That must mean..."

The twins looked panicked.

"That's a whole new level of genius right there. Must be genetics."

Both children sighed, and Ai laughed again. She beckoned the two of them over, and reluctantly they stood in front of her, as if they had been caught red handed.

She looked at her two children. Two stars, one on the right and one on the left. They looked identical despite being different genders; only their eye colors were different. Miyako always told her off for mistaking the two when they were toddlers, but even now at four years old she still sometimes struggled. They even barely looked like her. She could tell they mostly took after—

Oh, that's right. She hadn't talked to him in a while. In a small corner of her heart, Ai didn't really want to let him see the kids. She had already cut herself away from him after that. There was truly no point in bringing him into their lives in any capacity. She had once believed that he understood her, that he knew what the lie was like. But even though they had become involved, she realized she could not give him what he wanted.

Because Hoshino Ai was a liar. She lied to fans, to managers, and even to the man who had fathered her children. No one could escape that lie, that wide orbit of the skin-searing star that pretended it was there to give warmth.

So she had cut him away and left him to his own devices. It was better than way; better for him, better for her, and better for the kids. That is what she believed.

But maybe...

There was still a part of herself that wanted to give him some peace of mind. Looking at her kids like so, she could not help but be reminded of him.

The turmoil made her hug her kids tightly. Ruby giggled, Aqua groaned, and she felt the reactions within her core swivel just a bit. She briefly wondered if stars understood and felt the nuclear fusion that took place within their core; whether they could feel that warmth rise to the surface.

She hoped they did.

So she made a decision. Releasing her tight grip on her two kids, she looked at them again and smiled.

"How about I make us some food?"

"Yayyy!" Ruby blurted.

Aqua nodded awkwardly, but still cracked a tiny smile.

-!-

What eventually pushed Ai to make that fateful call was actually a comment by Aqua.

"I try not to think about it too much, but I wonder who our father is. Ugh, my heart sinks just thinking about it."

"Idiot," Ruby said uncharacteristically, and Ai looked at her curiously. "You're getting depressed over such a shallow thing?"

Oh, so Ruby didn't really—

"She obviously had us through virgin conception. There was never any man from the start."

The look on Ruby's face as she said something so ridiculous made Ai secretly worry about how her children looked at the world. They were both super spoiled, and sought her attention often, and were geniuses, but they had their moments of ludicrous insight.

It was at that moment she realized they had to meet their father, even if only once. Just to understand who they came from, so they wouldn't fall into such impossible thought processes.

She also did it, she reckoned, out of "love."

That one phrase she was afraid of saying more than anything else. The phrase that Ichigo immediately realized she could not say. He read her like an open book, and she, unable to say the words, found solace in lying them to an audience. They meant everything and absolutely nothing at the same time, but to her, that's what made them special.

She wanted to say them genuinely. And if getting the kids to meet him, even just once, maybe she would be able to understand when and how to say them.

And so, she made the fateful call.

One day, in total secrecy, away from the kids and any prying eyes and ears, she gave him a call at a public phone booth. She wore sunglasses and a simple set of clothes to blend in with the crowd. She almost felt like a spy doing so, as if she was doing something forbidden.

"Hey, the kids have grown a lot." She twirled her hair. "Why don't you come see them once?"

"..."

"No, I'm not trying to get back together or anything, I'm just—"

She stopped herself from continuing. She couldn't really tell him the truth behind her reasoning. It'd shatter him, give him unneeded expectations. She had no intention of doing so.

So she lied. She deflected.

"Anyway, the kids are super smart, so I'm sure they'll understand our situation."

"..."

"Yeah. In any case, my new address is—"

The words got caught in her throat. The world seemed to freeze entirely. It phased out, sucked into a black vortex, and reformed into two paths she felt she could not decide between. Should she tell him? Should she divulge? Should she tell the truth after the lie? What good would it do? What benefit would it give them? She could shut the phone off now, give no explanations, and cut him off forever. That would be the best thing to do, she knew so. She knew so. She was even told to never tell anyone ever where she lived, not even her closest relatives. Not her mother, not the father of her children. Neither Ichigo nor Miyako even knew who he was, but they were adamant she shouldn't.

But her kids came up in her mind. She wanted to tell them how much she loved them, and she felt she couldn't do so without closing this book once and for all. Not leave the story unfinished. It would be necessary for them, important for their closure right there and then.

She swallowed. The world regained its proper form, and said the words. She told him her goodbyes, and shut off the call. As she put the receiver back in its place, she let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the glass of the phone booth.

She stared at the claustrophobic ceiling in deep thought, her core once again pulsing as it continuously fed the reactions. It was like a heavy thump, a weight on her heart. She slid down to the floor, uncaring for the puzzled gazes she was getting from the outside, and stared at her feet. She had a distinct feeling of running out of air, as if all the oxygen atoms in her blood had fused together. The foundation that made up her being became pure iron, heavier and heavier than she could handle. The pit in her stomach refused to fill. She felt as though she no longer had any energy to fight it, and curled up into a ball as her thoughts swam and stormed and cracked and erupted.

Someone tapped on the glass outside.

"Are you okay?" the stranger asked innocently.

He cared, or at least, pretended to. She heard him, but didn't want to look at him. The more she thought about her own deception, the more she felt it from the outside. Stares that pretended to hold warmth, but were as indifferent as the pitch black sky. Pure empty space between small twinkles of nameless light. She learned that space was so big that the actual distance between planets is larger than any one person could ever realistically cross. One could travel in a straight line, and the chances that they'd encounter any sort of celestial body was lower than the chances for an asteroid to crash into the earth.

How she'd give everything for that to happen right now.

The stranger opened the booth to check up on her. "Ma'am, are you all righ—"

He stopped. She knew why.

"Wait, aren't you—"

She shot to her feet, pushing him aside violently. He groaned as he fell to the ground, and she ignored the murmurs and whispers of the tiny objects orbiting her. She didn't need them. She only needed...

Her two tiny white dwarves to give her any meaning.

-!-

She should've never made that call.

It was one day like most was a B-Komachi concert coming up at Dome, and Ichigo couldn't be more excited. She had brought her kids with her, and listened half-attentively as he went on and on about the overwhelming success it'd bring.

She didn't really care. It was simply another opportunity to swindle more people with her fake love. It all became pure gray, no matter how colorfully they all tried to present it. There was no meaning, no definition, no actual purpose behind it all. Just a cycle that repeatedly fed into itself, creating more delusions and draining more wallets than ever necessary.

She knew this. She knew from the get-go that the idol industry was like this. In fact, she knew she was one of the lucky ones. One of the few who wasn't embroiled in some sort of black company in which novice idols sell their bodies to managers for stardom. She wasn't one of the ones who had their entire existence controlled by others, wasn't one of the ones whose dreams were shattered by a reality that obfuscated itself as the greatest achievement directionless teenage girls could take.

At least, she thought she wasn't one of those.

It was a quiet day. It was just her, Aqua, and Ruby. Dinnertime was approaching, and Ai, ever the studious mother that she was, had gone out of her way to learn how to cook for her children. Simple kid stuff, nothing too fancy, but the sort of food that even they could enjoy. She placed a kettle on the stove and turned on the gas, then turned back to stir the pan.

"Mamaaaaaaa! Is it ready yet!" Ruby cried like a total child.

"Not yet, just a bit more," Ai answered without looking back. She needed to concentrate on this.

"Waaaaaaaahhh but I want now!"

Ruby could sometimes throw temper tantrums at the darnest things.

"How about you be quiet for just a second," Aqua quipped. Even as a small child, he had the voice of a total stud. Or at least, Ai thought so. Is that what mothers feel when their child is ugly as hell yet still claim they have charm? Couldn't be. Aqua was her kid after all. Born from her materials, and so was Ruby.

And his .

"Waaaaaaaaah!"

As Ruby yelled for no reason, Ai heard the knock on the door. She was at a critical point in the cooking, and so she couldn't stop halfway. The only visitors who'd ever knock on her door were Ichigo and Miyako, so she didn't worry about leaving them hanging for another minute.

But instead...

"Aqua, Ruby, how about you check who's at the door? Mama will be right with you," she said, looking at her two kids with a smile.

"Okay!" Ruby chirped. Aqua nodded his head, and the two of them headed towards the front door.

Ai sighed, turning back to the pot. She heard the front door open, but concentrated on the cooking. She looked at the recipe she had written down and advanced to the next step. She reached for the salt, poured some in, and stirred again. Now, all she had to do was add the potatoes, and then let it simmer for a little bit more.

Then the scream came.

The kettle shrieked.

Ai's heart seized. The pit in her stomach grew infinitely large. She dropped everything and bolted towards the source, throwing open the hallway door that the kids had closed behind them.

And what she saw...

Was enough to cause her core to collapse.

There was a man at the door.

He was holding a knife. The knife had blood on it, and the man was heaving and panting like a madman. She looked down, and saw them there. Ruby wasn't moving. Blood was pooling under her. Aqua was crawling towards his sister, his back perforated by the blade. His movements were slow, his fingernails scraping against the wooden floor. His head turned slightly upwards, his dwindling light meeting Ai's eyes with a resignation she had never seen in him.

She didn't even see the perpetrator. She just looked at her kids, her face like granite, frozen as she failed to process what she was seeing. Her feet dragged behind her as she took burning, iron steps towards what remained of them. She paid no attention to the blood, and leaned down to reach for her two fleeting stars.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

She didn't hear him. She didn't even blink. Like a puppet controlled by strings, her thoughts felt as though they were pulled away. She reached for them, cradling them in her embrace. She cared not for the blood that stained her. The blood that was once hers and had run in their veins was spilling back onto her.

"D-DOES IT HURT! WELL IT WAS MORE PAINFUL FOR ME! I SUFFERED MORE!"

She didn't hear him. She felt Aqua feebly cling to life. She couldn't feel anything from Ruby. She remained still, her arms like a statue, holding them close. She couldn't feel her own heart anymore, just vast emptiness.

"Y-YOU HAD KIDS EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE AN IDOL! YOU BETRAYED US FANS!"

She looked up at him. She showed nothing, for there was nothing left. She only looked at him, and his crazed, murderous, unhinged eyes met hers. There was nothing in there either, just madness.

"YOU DAMNED LIAR!"

He panted again, and he looked at her. She looked at him, without anything. He looked back, with all of his hatred. With all of his insanity. She felt insane too, for having nothing to show back. Her total silence angered him further, and he took a step forward, brandishing his knife.

"YOU KEPT SPOUTING ALL THAT CRAP ABOUT LIKING US! ALL OF THOSE WERE LIES!"

He raised the knife to finish the job. Still, she looked at him. She felt them, and looked at him. Her body and arms were bloodied, but she looked at him. The roiling stars looked at him. He looked back, and she looked at him.

And he saw...

He froze. He couldn't bring his arm down. There was no space in her mind to question it. He stood there, she looked at him. Something in her gaze caught his attention. His madness was washed away, and she looked at him. The insanity was slowly replaced by fear, as she looked at him.

The two stars flickered.

The knife dropped from his hand, and he stepped back in horror. For what reason, she didn't know, but she looked at him. She had no words to give, for there was nothing of her being that remained to give.

There were no lies left. No love left. No last rites. She simply looked at him, and the twin stars twisted. There was nothing but silence, for even her own heart had stopped beating. The white dwarves in her arms had fallen away, for theirs would cease forever.

He screamed, and he ran like a coward fleeing from a terrible monstrosity. But she had nothing to say, no will to chase, no ability to even consider anything else. Only ice, only iron, only the meaningless attempts of the outer layer to remain in control.

The balance was breaking, for she herself had broken. Silence descended that she had never wished for. The warmth that she had once believed in, and had embraced just minutes before, was nowhere to be found, like the remnants of a flame as it took its final breath.

And that was what she heard. That was the one sound she had taken into her head. The only electrical signal that made its way into her cortex. Discommunication between two halves of her brain. She couldn't move, couldn't blink, couldn't even make a sound.

She just laid there, meaningless. The grim reaper itself came, swung his scythe, and vanished like the wind. It all took place in just a few seconds. Any sane person, any functional, any living human being would try, however pointlessly, to call help. They would cling to hope, to desire, to the possibility of reclaiming what was lost.

But Hoshino Ai was far from such a being.

So she sat there. She didn't need a doctor to tell her the verdict. She didn't need anyone to tell her what was already obvious to her. The very notion of hope did not exist within her, so she didn't even bother.

So she just laid there. Her vision clouded with tears, yet she could barely feel their painful sting. What was once her flesh and blood no longer held any meaning. It was gone forever, and the once two tiny souls in her hands had become lumps of still flesh that only held their form.

Tiny stars that petered out and faded into darkness forever.

So she just laid there.

Just laid there.

Just laid there.

-!-

'Idol attacked in her home by fan; perpetrator found dead hours later.'

A lie.

Always, always lies. Nothing but more and more lies, more fabrications, more deceptions, more putrid honeyed words to hide an uncomfortable truth beneath it.

Yet, there was nothing she could do against it.

It was a small, restricted ceremony. In fact, only three people attended it. Ichigo, Miyako, and Ai herself.

The only three people allowed to attend it at all.

They sat on the only three chairs in the small room. Miyako was crying profusely, and Ichigo bore a grief-stricken expression that nobody had ever seen on him. Before them there were two tiny coffins, with a single picture to commemorate the fact that they ever existed. A picture of the two stars together with their mother, smiling happily in her arms.

Ai, sitting right next to Miyako, was dead silent. Time had become a fleeting thing, twisted and turned and losing any definition. It was the next door neighbor who just happened upon the gruesome scene, and it was they who had called the ambulance and took care of everything.

Ai had no reaction.

When the paramedics and the police arrived, they had swiftly and professionally taken care of the clean up. Ai only vaguely remembered what happened then; there was a police officer, asking her questions. She didn't recall what he asked, nor what she had told him. She vaguely remembered getting onto the ambulance and driving to the hospital with her impromptu entourage.

Ai had no reaction.

Ichigo and Miyako arrived shortly afterwards. As Ai sat on the side, saying and doing nothing, they had fussed over her. But she didn't respond to them. No more tears, no shock, no delusional mumbling came. She had sat by the bodies, the remains, the carapraces of meat that no longer held a soul. She had stayed with them for hours, responding to no stimuli and giving no answers to anyone curious enough to ask her. She had sat there, day after day after night after night, doing nothing but looking at them. She ate nothing, drank nothing, moved nothing, blinked nothing, slept nothing. She was there beside them, and only moved when she was told she had to clear the premises.

Just like she was doing now. Not even a priest or a monk or anyone else was allowed to come to even give a meaningless obituary. What would they even say? It was just two kids. Two kids whose lives were shorter than the most virgin of flames.

They were here one moment ago, and a few seconds later they were gone.

The silver glint of a knife had cut away the lines of their life. The oxygen that was needed to breathe. The elements that were needed to stay strong and bright. They did not go out like the magnificent stars she believed them to be. They simply dissipated and disappeared with nobody but herself to mourn them.

Yet all ceremonies came to an end eventually.

"Ai."

Miyako whispered softly in her ear.

"Hm?"

As Ai gazed up at her, Miyako paused with an intake of breath. She looked and looked, and Ai could not help but remember that man . Someone looking at her and feeling nothing but fear she could not understand, yet did not question. Why would they be afraid? After all, nobody terrified her more than herself.

"Ai, I—"

"Miyako," Ai stopped her.

Miyako swallowed down her nervousness. "What is it?"

Ai's eyes looked back to the twin coffins. The remnants of stardust that had lost their purpose. "I think I'm a monster."

"Huh?" Perplexion. Even President Saitou looked at her in confusion.

"I don't understand what I'm supposed to feel. I don't know what I'm feeling. What is it called?" Ai spoke like a child whose goldfish had died overnight. "President Saitou, remember when I asked you if it was okay to tell my fans I love them even if it was a lie?"

The man didn't answer her.

"Am I supposed to do the same here? I don't know what I should do."

The two Saitous looked at each other with alarm. Yet Ai did not register them. She only looked at what was once her kids and was now no longer.

"People believe that the sun loves them, that it gives them warmth willingly. But it doesn't. It's just a ball of fire in space that we just lucked into living in the best spot around. The sun obviously can't love anyone and anything. So I guess it doesn't feel anything else either, right?"

She didn't even need to look at the couple to understand the sort of expression that adorned their faces with her question. What was the point in doing so? It's not like they had the answer. Not like they could tell her why the heavier elements in her were growing all the more heavier, and that her brightness was dimming as her outer shell inflated.

"Oh huh," she said with a tilt of her head, her purple-dyed hair (a fakery ) cascading down the side of her face, obscuring one of her eyes. Her voice was almost whimsical, akin to a fairy jumping between flower petals in a dark forest about to be devoured by beasts. "So that's what they meant by the hydrostatic equilibrium breaking. It's so simple once you think about it."

Miyako retreated from her side. She whispered something to her husband, and the two of them stood from the chairs to leave. She didn't understand their actions, but she didn't care. As the door to the lonely room shut behind them, her one exposed eye looked at Aqua's coffin.

The star bulged.

She tilted her head to the other side, and her second eye replaced the first. She looked at Ruby's coffin this time. A small chuckle left her lips.

The star bulged.

Return to the ashes from whence they came. That was a phrase she heard once on television. Something about when a person dies, they break down and become nothing but dust that is used to feed the vegetation around it. A simple concept of organic matter whose biological functions had ceased becoming the nutrients for the world.

But Ai knew that's not really where it ended. No, it was much deeper than that. After all, all matter essentially came from the same place: the swirl of space dust that traveled the cosmos, was pulled together by gravity, and formed a sphere upon which everything took place. Therefore, she realized, there's no actual difference between herself, her two dead children, the Earth, and the Sun. They were all made out of the same elements after all. They are born, they grow, and then they die, and their remains are used to make something new, or to feed something that already exists.

"When massive enough stars explode, they do not simply dissipate into nothingness. What's left behind can be one of a few things, all of which are widely different from each other."

On some rainy day years after the doctor vanished, her curiosity led her to watch some science show on some science channel whose name she couldn't remember. The man there spoke as if he was trying to teach toddlers how to fly a plane, but she keenly remembered the words the doctor had told her.

His simplification for her sake in order to make her understand. A soft, meaningless lie so she wouldn't be overcome by knowledge she had no ability to comprehend. She was an idol after all; they are not meant to be anything other than a reason for rabid fans to jack off to and waste all of their life savings on.

She giggled at the obscene notion. It felt liberating.

A lie to hide, a lie to obscure the cracks, a lie to make the truth of the world seem impossible to grasp so she could maintain a facade that was needed in order to make more money.

She and the distant stars were made of the exact same materials.

So it would be okay if she broke like one too, right?

-!-

"But Ai, it's too soon, don't you think it'd be better if—"

"It's okay Miyako, we already canceled the first Dome appearance, and we can't do that again, right?" Ai spoke logically, catching Miyako off guard.

"Still, are you sure you'll be okay? You haven't really practiced the routine, and the other members of B-Komachi have also expressed their worries."

Ai smiled. "It's okay, I can handle it. After all, I'm supposed to pretend like it never happened, right?"

A few days after the funeral, Ai had essentially moved in with the Saitous for the time being. Her apartment was sealed by the police for the sake of their investigation, and there was nowhere else she could go. She didn't feel comfortable rooming with the other members of the group despite their well wishes. It's not like they knew exactly what happened as they were not told. Nobody was told, barely even the police. So much so that the agency had pulled several strings with the police department to make sure that they wouldn't leak any information regarding the victims and their relation to Ai.

As expected, Aqua and Ruby were utterly erased from the world, with barely anyone left to remember them.

Yet, the hollowness inside her was—

"Ai..."

The once-mother's words hadn't helped soothe Miyako's nervousness. The spacious couple's apartment was deathly still, as President Saitou had gone out earlier, leaving only the two women alone.

Or at least, that's what should have been. Miyako could tell something very simple: Ai was haunted. She was unaware of it, or perhaps she was. All the older woman could tell was that there was something about Ai that had changed. Something that was once there had vanished, and instead was replaced by something she could not explain. Something that unnerved her, scared her. The star in Hoshino Ai was altered. Her gaze was as vibrant as always, yet hid something she had never seen in her before.

That's why she knew the two of them were not alone. There was herself, Ai, and another, imperceptible thing with them. Ai carried it with her, and clutched it tightly, akin to a lifeline.

"I think I'm going to head home for a bit," Ai said out of nowhere. Without even waiting for any input, she turned around to the door to put on her shoes.

"Wait!" Miyako shouted after her. "You can't! It's still—!"

"I know, but I left something behind, so I'm going to go get it real quick. I'll be back later."

Just like that, she got up and left the house. This time, Miyako was alone.

-!-

It was evening by the time Ai made it back to her apartment in that shithole neighborhood. It was supposed to be 'low-key' as she had been told by President Saitou. It would keep eyes off of her, he said. It would keep her hidden, he said.

Fat load of good that did, right?

She once had a dream of living in an opulent mansion, surrounded by butlers and maids who were at her every beck and call, and could wear any beautiful dress she wanted, eat luxurious food, and go on worldwide trips on a ship she reserved entirely for herself. Instead, she got this teeny tiny three and a half room apartment, completely indistinguishable from the others, in a part of town she wouldn't step in even if someone paid her. Well, technically she was paid to live there, but now there was absolutely no way she ever could.

The steps creaked as she walked up to the second floor. She passed by the rows of similar looking doors, and stopped by the one she knew was hers. After all, she could still smell the stench of blood in the air. She could still hear the screams, and the gaze of that man that arrested her being right in that doorway. Anyone else would've been simply too traumatized to ever return to the scene of the crime, that's something she knew very well, but she was not just anyone else.

She was Hoshino Ai after all, the massive star.

Or at least, what was left of it.

She withdrew her key, placed it in the lock, and turned. The door opened with a creak, and what met her eyes was exactly what she had expected. Police tape, those little yellow triangles with numbers where they marked their evidence, and the blood on the walls and the floor that had already long dried.

She ignored it all. She took off her shoes as if it was just a regular day and stepped into the hallway. She stepped on the evidence and the dried blood as if it wasn't there. As if her mind was seeking a time rewound, and the expectation that as soon as she stepped into the living room, she'd hear them there.

She didn't.

Only deathly silence met her ears. The kettle on the stove had long gone cold, and a couple of items had been moved from their resting spot. Other than that, everything was immaculate; as if nothing had ever happened. She could see it in her mind's eyes - Ruby and Aqua scuttling about in the living room, being the two little geniuses they were. Watching TV together, and seeing Ruby do her best in learning dance. The strange techniques she'd sometimes use, as if she knew them ahead of time. How Aqua read difficult books and solved equations that no child his age should've ever been able to even read.

This tiny abode, which she despised to her core, was still the place where she had raised her children. The two bundles that she had inadvertently given birth to and decided to keep.

The sun's orange glow was ethereal. The leaves of the tree that the three of them had watched grow from a little sapling made the sunlight flicker every so often, casting shadows on the contents of the apartment. Items, memories, bygone days that no longer meant anything.

She had told Miyako that she came here to pick up something she forgot. The truth was, she lied. She lied as she always did. After all, what was the point of taking anything from here? If she took anything, even something as innocuous as a spoon, she'd be constantly reminded of them and that day .

It was better to lie. It was better to pretend that nothing of the sort had ever happened. That's right, Ai thought to herself. Leave it all behind. Pretend this house never existed, that the material goods inside it never existed, and to pretend that the two of them never—

"But you can't exactly do that, can you?"

A sudden voice from behind her shook Ai out of her reminiscing. The cracked stars swiveled, and Ai swiftly turned to confront the intruder.

Black feathers. The eerie growl of a crow accompanied her gaze falling upon an unlikely figure. It was a young girl, with long silver hair and bewitching red eyes, standing in the darkening sunlight that peeked through the half-opened window. The girl with features like a doll looked at her with an amused smile.

Ai tilted her head in confusion. "Um..."

The girl chuckled. "It's okay, you don't need to know my name. All you need to know is that I know."

Cryptic words along with an inexplicable appearance. For a moment, Ai thought that she was looking upon something that should not be . Her black clothes that absorbed every bit of light that fell upon them, together with her extraordinary form, reminded her both of the dreams and nightmares she had when she was younger.

But above all that, the girl reminded her of the two suns that no longer existed.

"I-I don't really understand what you mean."

"Of course you know what I mean, Hoshino Ai." The girl remained still as a statue, the same smile plastered on her face. Her crimson gaze was akin to a magic spell, freezing Ai in place. "You are the perfect liar after all."

Liar. The words that Ai lived with and hated the most. The words she depended on like a drug addict, the words that kept her being in one piece.

"You're so good at lying, in fact, that you almost managed to lie to yourself," the girl continued. A crow landed on the kitchen table, its beady eyes seeking Ai out. "Or at least, that's what you used to be. You were able to deceive so perfectly, you would even have been able to commit atrocities and no one would ever know."

The crow growled. The sunlight flickered. The black feathers dotted the dusty floor of the abandoned apartment.

"But even the brightest stars have spots of imperfection on their surface. The parts that are a bit colder than all the rest, yet brutally hot all the same," the crow girl savagely pointed out. "If only you hadn't given birth to those little white dwarves of yours, you would've been able to keep up the charade forever."

Ai wanted to open her mouth to speak. She felt an uncharacteristic bubble of anger rise to the surface, as if to vehemently deny what she was told.

"You never once told them that you loved them, did you?"

But she couldn't. This girl, person, being, this inexplicable wraith that had figured her out was laying it out on her without a shred of mercy. She bit her lower lip. She felt the blood trickle down the side of her chin.

"Yet you never really understood why you didn't. You lied so much that the very word lost all semblance of meaning. Because of that, you were afraid that if you said it to them, just like you said it to all your loyal fans, it would be a lie all the same."

Another crow appeared out of nowhere, this time landing on the living room table. It pressed down on the remote control, turning on the television. By some twisted cosmic joke, the first channel it fell upon was a rerun of an old interview of Ai's—an interview which all her fans watched, and in which she spread more and more lies about love like it was a matter of course.

"And only now, after they're gone, did you start to realize that it was real. That not even you could lie to yourself about what you felt about them. Yet because you didn't say those simple words to them, you now feel something that you've never felt before: regret."

The Ai in the television laughed at an inane question. Ai remembered now when this interview took place—It was the very first one she had after she had recovered from childbirth. The childbirth that took place without the doctor who had told her so much about stars and who made a promise to be by her side.

"You're angry, aren't you? That I speak of them in this manner," the unknown girl said wistfully. "Anger is something that you're not used to. In fact, you know it so little, you couldn't even feel it towards the man who had killed your children."

Whereas Ai was the epitome of lies, this girl was the epitome of the truth. It wasn't even a battle; it was a slaughter, for a lie can never defeat the truth, no matter how powerful it was. It would always be unraveled, and it is why it is so difficult for humans to accept. To accept the wrong, the mistake, the secret being revealed for all to see. It was uncomfortable, for it changed the internal narrative by which all people ascribe themselves to. Without that narrative, they cannot maintain themselves—their humanity, their morality, their beliefs and ideologies.

"A person like that can only be called a monster, do you not agree?"

And Ai was just another one of the many before that reality. From the brightest star ever known to something no different than the legion of fans who took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

"I'm... I'm not. I just..." Her core was breaking. The multiple layers of armor she had erected around herself over many years was starting to crumble.

The star was reaching its apex. Soon, it would—

"It is time to finally be honest with yourself, Hoshino Ai." Another crow landed, this time on the framed photo of the family together. Its talons gripped the frame right above Ruby and Aqua, who appeared blissfully unaware.

The pit in her stomach returned. A massive stone settled in the bottom of her guts. She felt like throwing up. The girl seemed to enjoy it, happy enough to break into a waltz.

"You can no longer pretend. You are no longer able to lie, for believing that you can means you'd have to throw away the one thing that you knew was real. To deny them would be to deny yourself. There would no longer be Hoshino Ai, the person. Just Hoshino Ai, the machine that spews lies, and like all machines, eventually it would break down and be tossed away."

The stars were roiling in a storm. The six points broke apart, scattering into the void. All that was left was an amorphous dot, vainly trying to maintain its shape. For one small moment, it almost appeared to be natural; like a human being who does not lie.

"And if that happened, who would remember them? Only the Saitous are aware of their existence. But they'd sooner file it all the way in the back of their minds and let their memory fade away into obscurity forever. Is that what you want, Ai?"

Ai's mouth opened and closed, yet words did not escape her lips.

"Unless, of course, you want him to be the last to remember."

Ai froze once more. The girl had given her a hint she hadn't thought about before.

No, she had thought about it. She just chose to ignore it, knowing that if she tried to follow that line of thought, she'd lose the last bit of sanity she'd have left. For if she followed it, she'd realize that the reason they were gone was because—

"That was your sin, Hoshino Ai."

Ai tried to deny it with all her might.

The girl's smile turned into a demonic smirk. "I think you can figure it out now, Ai. The why, and most importantly, the who."

It was the tiny spark that was needed to reignite her thoughts. Their existence was a secret after all. President Saitou and Miyako would never sell them out. They told nobody, so the only way someone could've figured it out was because of her.

It was because she told him.

"It's quite simple once you think about it, isn't it?" the girl said. Another crow landed on her shoulder. "But it wasn't meant to be them. No, you know exactly who it was he meant to eliminate, and for what reason."

Of course she knew. It was because she had lied to him. Just like everyone else she had lied to, she had turned him into an addict who could not live without her. Because she had lied to him, he had descended into a spiral at the end of which he became just like her .

A contagious insanity for which she was specimen zero.

They died because of a pure coincidence. She had defied the Grim Reaper, and so he had claimed two souls instead of hers.

There was no longer anything to hold the star together. The balance had been broken, and now, its final chain reactions had begun.

Her legs lost strength, and she fell to her knees.

"But you survived."

Ai looked up. The crow girl was looking down at her. The shadows framed her face in unspeakable darkness. The features on her face vanished in a momentary illusion, and the blood red eyes bore into her soul.

"Then there's only one path left, isn't there?"

A murder of crows circled the pair of them. They were silent. They both existed and did not. They locked her in, forcing her to consider an idea she never could.

"I—I can't."

"Of course you can. You are the ultimate idol, Hoshino Ai. You are the ultimate star, Hoshino Ai. And you are the ultimate liar, Hoshino Ai. What do you think would happen if you began to wield the truth instead?"

And that was it. That was the catalyst. The stars exploded in a massive supernova. The layers upon layers of space dust—of lies—were catapulted into outer space.

"You stand at the pinnacle, after all. So it only makes sense that you would bare your anger freely. The lies deprived you of them. So you know what it is you should do now, don't you?"

The girl's voice was almost like a whisper, a temptation that she could not reject. The core lost to its own gravity. It collapsed into itself. At nearly the speed of light, all of its mass merged into a single point. Ai looked back at the floor.

She could deny it no longer. The girl only spoke the truth after all. All she ever did was hide, fearful of what would happen to her if she didn't lie. She wanted the acceptance, the reassurances that came with their fanaticism. But even their love for her was a facade, because they never truly felt love for her; all they felt was obsession and lust. She benefited from their insanity while lying to herself that they were simply devoted.

A toxic relationship that she had endorsed, because it was the only way for someone unworthy like herself to survive in an unjust world.

But she wanted it now. She wanted it oh so badly. She was sick of these putrid lies, unrealistic expectations, and false reassurances.

She wanted something that was real, and was true. And she had it, yet took it for granted, and never let her own truth guide her. All she did was lie more and hide until it was too late.

There was only one way she was going to let it end now.

She slowly raised her gaze up back to the thing in the form of a little girl. All the fear in her heart turned into the blackest of voids. The emptiness inside of her could never be filled again, but at least, but at least...

She could fill it with something else. She could take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take—

The girl giggled.

"I like that look in your eyes."

Ai couldn't bring herself to bother with what she meant. She stood up. The crows and the black feathers vanished. She headed to the living room door, and as she opened it...

She turned back. The sun had sunk below the horizon, and together with it, the girl had vanished without a trace. Not a single reminder was left as to her existence. One moment she was there, and the next she was gone.

Ai would never see that girl again.

But she didn't need to. Because now...

-!-

Miyako was home alone when Ai returned.

The door closed with an unsettling creak. From her vantage point in the kitchen, where she was cooking a somewhat late dinner, the older woman looked up to see the idol step softly into the living room.

Her head was covered by the hoodie of her sweatshirt, and her purple hair descended like a dark waterfall over her face, completely hiding her eyes.

"Welcome back," Miyako said worriedly. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Ai said, not even turning to her. "I'm going to my room. I don't need dinner."

Miyako wanted to argue, but chose to remain silent. Ai's way of coping with the loss seemed unhealthy at best, but she didn't dare tell her what she should do or how she should feel. Ai entered the room that the couple had loaned to her for the week and shut the door behind her.

Over the next few days, Ai's appearances in the house were sporadic to say the least. She had isolated herself in her room for hours on end, and many times did not even respond to Miyako or Ichigo calling out to her. Eventually, the older woman had resigned to leaving food outside her door, not wanting to disturb her. At times, she spoke to Ichigo about perhaps getting Ai some professional grief counseling, but without the girl's input, they surmised it would be a bad idea in poor taste. The concept of hikikomori came to Miyako's mind, but she had never heard of one being a young mother who had lost both of her children to murder.

And so, time passed, and six days later, Miyako decided to take the plunge.

She was once again alone at home. Standing outside of Ai's door, she took a deep breath and softly knocked.

"Ai, may I please talk to you?"

No response. She knocked again.

"Ai, I'm worried about you."

No answer. Frowning, Miyako put her hand on the door handle.

"Ai, I'm coming in."

She gently opened the door.

What met her gaze was pure darkness. With the curtains sealed shut, not even a tiny bit of light made it in. Concerned, Miyako flicked on the light switch by the entrance.

The sight that met her eyes puzzled her to no end.

Ai wasn't in her room. Instead, what she came upon was like a scene out of a horror movie. All over the floor, the bed, the small table in the corner, and even on the walls, countless upon countless pieces of paper were strewn about haphazardly. Perturbed, Miyako moved closer, darting her eyes to and fro, trying to reach an understanding of how widespread this bizarre phenomenon was.

She stopped when she accidentally stepped on one of the papers. moving her foot away, she kneeled down and picked up the wrinkled piece. She scrutinized it deeply, and found herself bewildered.

'I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find himI'll find him I'll find him I'll find him I'll find him i'Ll fInD hiM I'LL FIND HIM 'LL FIND HIM I'LL FIND HIM I'LL FIND HIM I'LL FIND HIM'

Miyako dropped it in fright. Swallowing nervously, she reached over to pick another piece of paper.

This time, she couldn't understand even one bit of it. Rather than words, there were equations. High-level, impossible to decipher mathematical formulas, constants, and calculations that boggled the mind; the sort she only saw in movies when the actors pretended to write letters and numbers on a board to pretend they knew the physics behind them. But this was no movie, this was reality, and to her shock, in Ai's handwriting. The cutesy handwriting she had seen many times before, the one Ai had practiced day and night so she could perfect her signature to write on the cum-stained CD covers her rabid fans came with to sign on.

Every piece of paper was the same. Words, letters, numbers. Images, locations, names, anything she could think of was documented upon those white sheets Ai had obtained from god knows where - she never left her room, and when she did, she never returned with anything.

Miyako spent the better part of an hour looking through the papers. Afraid to even touch them, she mentally decided that she'd push ahead with getting Ai some help, regardless of what she actually wanted. She felt a danger, a sense of extreme unease that threatened to overwhelm her, and kept her focus and her back unguarded.

"Miyako?"

She jumped out of her skin. Miyako held back the urge to scream as a voice came up behind her. She swiftly turned around, and her gaze fell upon none other than Ai herself, who was watching her from the threshold of the door.

She hadn't even heard her approach. She didn't even notice that she was at the house at all. One moment she was gone, and the next she was behind her. Or had she simply missed her entirely?

An object in space that could not be seen without observing the phenomena around it. A distortion of spacetime that twisted the senses and questioned the comprehension of the mind.

"A-Ai," the older woman let out nervously. "Sorry, I didn't mean to barge in, I was just worried about you and—"

She couldn't continue speaking. Despite the more than adequate amount of light that filtered from the living room, Miyako felt as though she had plunged into total blackness. The way Ai stood at the door, like a motionless doll. The way the shadows fell on her body and face, hiding her eyes behind a veil of purple hair. Miyako felt that stare in her soul, arresting her movements. A sense of utter wrongness, like straight out of a psychological horror, pervaded the couple's apartment. No matter how much light filled it, that nexus of darkness that had settled on Hoshino Ai stood out like a terrifying nightmare.

The lights flickered.

"Oh, sorry about the mess," Ai said with a whimsical tone. "I was just so focused I didn't notice."

As Ai approached to tear down the first piece of paper stuck to a wall, Miyako gathered her nerves to speak again.

"Ai, what is all this?"

It took the better part of five minutes for her to even get a response. As she waited, she felt a shift in the air, like something had come in after the girl.

"Just some research I'm doing."

She left it at that. Miyako didn't have the courage to push it further. Scared out of her wits, Miyako stood back up again and made her way out. "I'll huh, leave you to it."

"Thanks."

As the woman was about to leave the room, Ai spoke up again.

"Oh, and can you please turn off the light?"

"Y-yeah, sure."

Miyako turned around slightly and reached for the switch, and turned off the lights. She glimpsed back into the room one last time, then quickly shut the door behind her.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose. At that last moment, she swore she could see a tiny source of dark light, coming from Ai's hidden eyes, staring back at her.

-!-

A week later, It was time for Ai's return to the stage.

And Miyako couldn't help but feel like something was amiss.

Yet nobody questioned it. Everyone perceived Ai as the bright star that she always was. The makeup artists, hair stylists, and clothes designers all fussed over her and treated her as they always had. No matter whom Ai interacted with, Miyako saw her act entirely normally, as if—

—Nothing—

—had happened at all.

A few minutes before Ai's return to the stage, by some twist of fate, Miyako found herself alone with the idol in the dressing room.

Ai was calm. Unexpectedly so, as despite the fact she was probably out of practice, she carried herself with an air of unsettling confidence. It was like the the past two weeks were mere fabrications. Miyako couldn't stop thinking about Aqua and Ruby the entire time, yet Ai—

"Hey, Miyako."

She was torn from her thoughts when Ai suddenly spoke. Caught off guard, she replied hesitantly. "W-what is it?"

Miyako found herself fearful of being in Ai's presence. She had confided her worries with Ichigo, who had said that she was probably right in her worries, but felt unsure if to go ahead with her suggestion. The event never repeated itself, and she never again found even another piece of paper in Ai's room.

"What do you know about stars?"

"Huh?"

The question came out of nowhere. She was looking at Ai's back, and the girl was putting the finishing touches on her hair and makeup in front of the long mirror in the dressing room. When Miyako tried to catch a glimpse of Ai's expression through the mirror, she realized she couldn't make out anything. There was only darkness where Ai's features should've been; the previous shine she had been so proud of was nowhere to be found.

"They're actually quite fascinating. You see, stars are formed within areas of dense molecular clouds. Through a concept called Jeans mass, wherein the mass of the cloud breaks the equilibrium between the potential energy of the gas cloud and the gravitational pressure. Thus, in a gargantuan implosion of matter, the core of the star is formed at the densest point, with the rest of its matter forming the outer layers."

Miyako froze. Where had that come from? No, even more importantly than that, what was Ai talking about?

"From then on, you can say that the star is always at war with itself. Gravity causes the elements in the core to undergo nuclear fusion, starting with hydrogen, to helium, all the way up to iron. This fusion of hydrogen atoms then creates outwards pressure that pushes against the star's mantle, thus causing the star to enter what is called the hydrostatic equilibrium. This is the phase where most main sequence stars are located."

She picked up a brush and gently tapped on her cheeks. Miyako felt a chill run down her spine.

"However, the fusion of iron atoms consumes more energy than the reaction actually generates. As the core further contracts and heats up, it then heats up the outer layers, causing the star to expand. This is the red giant phase, whereas the star can grow up to hundreds of times bigger than its original size. Interestingly enough, a red giant's temperature is slightly lower in this phase. If we take the Sun as an example, whereas currently it has a surface temperature of around six thousand Kelvin, as a red giant it'd have between three thousand to four thousand Kelvin."

She stopped for a moment, took on a pose of deep consideration, then put down the brush.

"Actually, that's not right. It's only once the star enters the red giant phase that the core becomes hot enough to begin fusing helium atoms. I'm so silly, how did I forget something so simple?"

"Ai, what're you talking about?" Miyako said almost in a scream.

The idol ignored her and picked up a tube of lipstick. She twisted it open, applied the light strawberry color to her lips, then closed it again.

"Regardless, eventually, that equilibrium breaks. In most regular sized stars like the Sun, this eventual breakdown of the equilibrium will cause its outer layers to be expelled into space, while the remaining core is reborn as a white dwarf. But no nuclear fusion occurs in the core of white dwarves; their luminosity comes from the residual thermal emissions. Ultimately, they too will fade away as they release all of their heat and die as a black dwarf, forever unable to generate any sort of energy to the outside. But it's theorized no black dwarves currently exist, as the length of time it takes for a white dwarf to radiate its heat is longer than the theorized age of the universe."

She straightened the bow on her head. Miyako's eyes betrayed her, as she swore she saw the idol's purple hair twinkle slightly. Yet despite the older woman's feeling of intense unease, Ai went on, unchallenged and undisturbed.

"But for particularly massive stars, their end could be different. It is only in these stars that atomic fusion could lead it all the way to iron. It is at this point that fusion stops, and the gravitational pull of the core is so powerful, it causes an almost instantaneous collapse that results in the star's outer layers to be catapulted in an explosion known as a supernova. But the core still remains. In some stars, the gravity would be strong enough to just cause the protons and electrons to fuse into neutrons, forming a neutron star. It is a highly luminous stellar object with an immensely powerful gravitational pull. However, stars even more massive than that form something else, something far more sinister and terrifying."

She suddenly stood up, and Miyako had to stop herself from reacting in fright. Every word Ai was saying was indecipherable. Not because she couldn't understand what she was saying, but because she couldn't believe it was Ai saying it. Ai was never that smart, never like—

"The core collapses into an infinitely small point. in which all of the core's mass is located. The gravitational pull becomes so obscenely strong that not even light can escape its pull. The newly formed anomaly is called a black hole."

She straightened out her dress and headed for the door.

"Black holes deform the very fabric of spacetime, and anything that drifts too close to a black hole will be torn to shreds. That diffuse material will then begin to orbit the black hole in a structure called an accretion disk. Did you know that this is why they appear to be so incredibly bright, despite being tears in reality? The velocity of their orbit causes the immense friction in the material to brighten almost like a star, despite not being a star at all. And anything that's unlucky enough to fall into the black hole?"

She opened the door and began to step out, then put her hand on the frame.

"Ai, I'm not sure what you're getting at. What happened to you?" Miyako pleaded helplessly.

Ai stopped still like a statue. "Oh, sorry Miyako, I tried to say it in ways you could understand, but I guess it's a little too complicated for you right now. It's okay, maybe next time, I'll give you the more complex version. It's actually really simple once you get the hang of it."

She turned, and for the first time in a week, their gazes met. Ai's eyes were no longer hidden by her hair.

Miyako froze in horror. She felt fear on an instinctual level, that touched upon the primal terror of the unknown, of the things that lay beyond the boundary of comprehension. She saw something that should not have been, worse than all her imaginations and nightmares and more inexplicable than the very depths of the universe.

"Anything unlucky enough to fall into a black hole and cross the event horizon disappears without a trace, never to be seen again."

Leaving the stunned woman behind, Ai passed the threshold and headed towards the stage.

-!-

Every step she took was calculated. Every move she made was planned ahead of time. Every breath she took was done with explicit purpose.

Hoshino Ai strode up the steps to the stage, where the other members of B-Komachi awaited her. Just a few weeks ago, she'd have remembered their names, faces, likes, dislikes, and personal quirks.

Now, she had no mind to give a damn about them. She had no place in her heart for anything other than that . She could hear the demented shouting of the fans that were waiting for her, yet all she felt in response was unbridled revulsion. Still, the lie had to be maintained, at least for now.

She plastered the fakest, most deceptive smile on her face she could. Yes, the lie was once her friend, her comrade, her reason to be. But now, it was but a tool, a weapon, an expendable slave that she'd abuse until it shattered and was tossed aside.

Ai strode to the center of the stage, and with the same radiant smile she was known for, spoke to the audience.

"Everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'm back now and better than ever!"

They cheered louder and more vigorously than ever before. Within her singularity, where all of her being was now concentrated, a visceral destructive happiness bloomed like the most hideous of flowers.

They were all fooled. They thought they were the ones on her mind, the ones she truly loved.

But they weren't, not even a little bit. No, now there was only one. One man, one target, one object of her loathing and utter hatred that she was obsessed with to the point of insanity.

No, she'd already crossed that point. She'd fallen through the event horizon and was consumed, and now, stood as part of the nightmare that gorged and tore apart until it was satisfied.

It was him, after all.

"Kamiki Hikaru."

For in place of the bright star that was once Hoshino Ai—

"I love you!"

—stood the black hole that would swallow the earth whole.

"I will kill you."

-!-

High above on top of the Dome's convex roof, and unperceived by anyone, a single silver haired girl danced like a ballerina. She hopped and waltzed with the music that blasted from below her, a symphony of cutesy beats and a corrupted cacophony that was like the most exquisite of classical tunes.

"Now go, Hoshino Ai."

The crows growled and flew around her in a spiral, a vortex, a swirl of unreality that felt joy for the events that were about to take place.

The dark sky was the perfect spotlight. From within this core of unrelenting fury and deception, she was ready to witness the grandest of tragedies from the front seat.

"The stage for your revenge play has been set."

-!-

Ten years later...

Winter.

It was snowing. The soft flakes fell to the ground gently, coloring the city white. The suburbs of Tokyo were unusually quiet at this time of year, with nary a single person trudging through the streets at this time of day. The sun could not be seen beyond the veil of gray clouds in the sky, and the chill permeated the air, suffocating anyone who was foolish enough to brace it.

But one girl was.

Clad in a puffy armor of jackets and coats, she strode through the night towards the cafe where she'd set up her meeting. She shook, yet braved onwards to her destination. As soon as she laid eyes upon her destination, she sighed and entered. The bell indicating the arrival of a new guest alerted a waiter, who approached her diligently.

"How may I help you, ma'am?" the young man asked.

"I'm here to meet someone," she answered. She scanned the nearly empty establishment. After a second, she noticed the man she had come to meet. "Over there."

"Very well, enjoy your stay," the waiter said, and stepped aside.

She nodded in thanks, and walked to the table at the far end of the cafe. There, sitting in the booth opposite to her, and looking out the window, was a middle-aged man with blonde unkempt hair and beard. Unlike her, he didn't seem to be wearing anything too fancy to combat the cold. He seemed content, or rather, resigned in a way she didn't understand yet.

Her approach alerted him, and he turned to face her.

"Kurokawa Akane, I assume?" he asked.

Akane nodded and began to take the layers of coats off. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Mr. Saitou Ichigo."

"Don't mention it. It's not like I have anything new to tell you either way."

She sat down as soon as she took off her scarf. The waiter from before approached the table as soon as she was ready.

"Anything you'd like to order?"

Akane looked up at him. "A cappuccino, please."

"Espresso for me," Ichigo said wearily.

Akane eyed him with scrutiny. The waiter wrote down their orders, took their menus, and left. Akane took the opportunity to withdraw a large notebook and a pen from her bag, placing them on the table so Ichigo could plainly see them.

She waited a minute for him to say anything. When he remained silent, she was about to speak when he suddenly interrupted her.

"I've heard of you, Kurokawa Akane," he said as met her gaze. "Up-and-coming actress, said to be one of the most talented of our time."

"I was, once," Akane replied evenly. "But now I'm a journalist."

"I figured. After that , nobody would be able to make a career in the entertainment industry," Ichigo said with a sarcastic chuckle.

"Which is why I'm here to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind," Akane said, clicking the tip of her pen and opening her notebook. Tons of notes and writing and observations were meticulously written within, each detail expanded upon and connected to others.

Ichigo saw the contents of the notebook and sighed. "It's about Hoshino Ai, isn't it." Akane nodded, and Ichigo leaned back in his seat. "What is there even for me to add that isn't already out there? Ai made sure of that herself. Not a single secret remained unearthed. All the lies that had built the entertainment industry were upturned."

Akane was already scribbling in her notebook as he spoke. Raising her eyes as soon as he finished, she pushed onwards. "What's important for me are less the details we already know, but the things that you know. You knew Hoshino Ai better than anyone, so I'd like to know what your thoughts were."

They were momentarily interrupted by the waiter returning with their coffees. The pair thanked him, and he left them to their devices.

Ichigo took a sip of his coffee before he answered. "I think you already know when things started," he said as he leaned forward, putting an arm on the table. "The death of her kids, Aqua and Ruby. Ai was already struggling with regret and a lack of motivation even before that, and even though she shone brightly, no star lasts forever. It was her kids that gave her any sort of meaning. From one moment to the next, she actually had a reason to look forward to the next day."

Akane put down her pen to take a sip of her own coffee, then went back to writing. Ichigo continued as he stared down into his already half-empty cup. "You and I both know that lies make up the backbone of the entertainment industry. From movies, to wrestling, to theater, everything uses lies to sell an idea, a story that viewers will like and be drawn into. Not one of these is better than the other at this—it's a simple truth that everyone in the world agrees to share. Agreeing that the truth is that it's a lie."

Akane nodded as she wrote. "Yes, and it comes with its own advantages and disadvantages."

"Exactly. But idols are different; they were forced to sell the lie all the time, even in their personal lives, because it wasn't their talent that made them shine—it was their image, their purity in the eyes of the fandom. They have to sell the idea that they belong to everyone equally, yet at the same time that their love is exclusive to the fans. I think we both know the sort of things that idols went through in this sort of environment."

He sighed, and took another sip.

"And as much as we love to romanticize her stardom, Ai was no different. So when it came to the point that she wanted something for herself, she had to hide it. She had to keep on lying, denying herself all the more. Things got worse when her kids were born after that mistake she made with Kamiki Hikaru, but she embraced them all the same."

"Because they were something real," Akane whispered empathically.

"Yeah. They were the only thing that was genuine, that she truly wanted and cared for even though she never truly understood it herself. But then she lost them. Going back to how she was before was simply impossible."

Akane flipped through a few pages in her notebook. "I see. I know Kamiki Hikaru was the mastermind behind the murder, even if his actual target was Ai herself. It seems that he didn't account for Sugano murdering a pair of children."

"Yeah, that was his mistake, I suppose," Ichigo said halfheartedly. "But nothing changes the fact that both of her children died. Something changed in her, and the star that was Hoshino Ai became something completely different."

"Like what?"

Ichigo stared out the window of the cafe, looking at the snow fall. "Tell me, Ms. Kurokawa; what do you know about black holes?"

The question caught her completely off guard. "Uh, not an awful lot, I'm afraid. Only what I sometimes catch on TV and wikipedia."

Ichigo took another sip of his coffee."Black holes are the most extreme objects in the universe. Their gravity is so immense that not even light can escape them, and even time and space work differently around them. They are formed from the collapse of very massive stars, or rather, only very massive stars can become black holes. They're the only objects whose mass is large enough so that its collapse would pass its Schwarzschild radius."

"Schwarzschild radius?"

"It's a property that exists in all objects. In essence, everything in the universe can become a black hole if all of its mass is compressed into a point small enough that it would collapse under its own gravity. The Schwarzschild radius is, basically, the structural limit of everything in existence. The threshold of breaking down entirely. But us normal folks are simply not big enough for such a thing to happen naturally. Or rather, we don't matter enough for it to make the big enough splash that it would be seen by anyone."

His gaze drifted off again, into space.

"Yeah, we're simply not massive enough stars for that to be possible."

Akane regarded him for a moment. "And Hoshino Ai was?"

"Like no other," he replied.

Akane took a moment to contemplate his words, but something was amiss for her. She was confused by his focus. "With all due respect, I still fail to see what black holes have to do with this."

Ichigo looked back at her. "You see, a new theory has been circulating around the scientific community regarding black holes. Apparently, they believe that black holes have the unique ability to destroy information."

Akane tilted her head. "Information?"

"Not like the information you know. Information in the physical sense means the properties and history of an object; the matter that makes it up, the energy that was used to create it, and the arrangement of atoms that once built it. In essence, a black hole violates the principles of conservation of matter and energy. Something that should not have been destructible is now permanently erased. Taken from the universe forever with no way to get it back in any form."

Akane was just confused now. "Sir, I still don't really understand—"

And then he slammed his hands on the table and shot to his feet, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Because that's exactly what Ai did! She left no stone unturned, no loophole, no way to get anything back! She permanently altered the very manner the entertainment industry operates! Ai made sure of that! Movies, theater, television, video games, and even fucking kabuki have been irreparably destroyed! The idol industry has died forever! Nobody has the guts, the will, the desire to even try anymore! No girl in her right mind would even try to sell the lie to fans, now that they themselves have entirely lost the ability to even believe in them!"

Akane's eyes widened at the sudden outburst. The few other guests, and even the cafe's staff stared in his direction in shock. He ignored everything and sat back down violently, holding his head in his hands. "You saw, no, you felt what happened! How many companies, corporations had to close down in the aftermath. How many people lost their jobs permanently, with no way to get it back. How many people, fans and workers alive, lost their will to live and died as a result!"

Akane sighed heavily. "More than I dared count."

"Hundreds," Ichigo finished for her with a demented chuckle. "Just like that. Ai showed no mercy, and she didn't even have to dirty her own hands to do it. She schemed, lied, planned, and thought of absolutely everything. She blackmailed, she coerced, she threatened, and she manipulated anything and anyone she got her hands on; once she had her hands on something, there was no way for it to ever escape her grasp. But more than anything, she told the truth. And the more truth she told, the more damage she did, the more pain she caused, the more she disregarded everything and everyone for the sake of taking the whole system down. And nobody could do anything about it, because once you cross the event horizon, there's no direction for you to go but down and into obliteration."

"How," Akane scratched her head with her free hand. "How was she able to do this?"

"Because we underestimated her. We thought she was just a dumb idol, but she wasn't. She had us all fooled. We believed she was a sun, because we could only observe her from very far away. But the closer you got, the more clearly you discerned her true nature, but by that point it would've been too late to get away. You would be trapped by her gravity, and either you were torn to shreds and made to feed her deception or you fell and vanished and let her gorge on vengeance. And it wasn't like it was easy to figure out, because she had changed as quickly as the speed of light. One day she came back, and she was different. She was overtaken by an obsession we had never believed she could ever have. And after the dust settled, and she had meticulously made sure nothing was left, only then did she finally disappear."

"And dragged Kamiki Hikaru down to the void with her."

"When a black hole dies, it fades away in a titanic explosion, and everything it has swallowed up never comes back to the universe," Ichigo said in despair. "There never was and there never will be again a star like Ai. She made sure of that. Nino tried to be, and look what happened to her."

Silence fell between the two of them. Akane finished writing in her notebook and closed it. It was like witnessing a tragedy of Hamletian proportions. Not even Shakespeare could have come up with something so twisted.

Akane gulped down the last bit of her coffee and once again looked towards Ichigo.

"I see. Thank you again, Mr. Saitou, I'm quite satisfied for now," she said professionally, trying to disconnect her own thoughts from the matter.

He slumped in his seat and finished his own coffee as well. "I guess you're welcome, Ms. Kurokawa. Not that I know what you intend to do with this information."

She began to pack up her things, and started to put her layers of coats on again. "I'm not quite sure myself, but I know I'll have use for this. The more information I have, the more I will be able to understand her mindset. She quite intrigues me, you see."

"Just don't stray too close to the sun," Ichigo warned. "Lest you'll find that it's not a sun at all."

"I'll be careful." Akane bowed to the man. "Thank you again for your help. Coffee is on me."

He huffed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, if you say so."

Akane turned and walked away. She made sure to pay for their drinks at the cashier, thanked the server, and left the cafe. The snow continued falling softly upon her, and she looked up at the overcast skies as her warm breath froze in the air.

The reverberations of Ai's revenge echoed throughout the white-covered city. Sticking her hands into her pockets to warm them up, she left to continue her curious investigation.

Unbeknownst to her, high above beyond the reach of her gaze, a single girl with silver hair looked down at her retreating form.

And smiled.