~.One Week Later.~
Yuri and Shing pile into the car while Kari takes the driver's seat and Haru takes the passenger seat. Both spellcasters decide to ride with the humans so they can continue to pour over the book, the page turns to one of the numerous pages of the Heart Broken curse. There is a lot of information to absorb, and they would spend the rise pouring over the pages to learn as much as possible. Astral, needing time to mentally prepare for the funeral, decides to fly alongside the car with Dark. Once everyone is strapped in and ready, the car lurches to a start.
The ride is silent and thoughtful. Astral and Dark hardly say anything to each other, not even mentally, but there is a comforting and thoughtful silence between them. Their emotions mingle as usual, it is a mix of sadness for Yuma untimely demise, soft pleasant feelings towards Shing and dread at forgetting all of this. After today, everything would be wiped from both of their memories, and the mission would start over, more urgently of course. And they wouldn't remember what happened previous to the wipe.
Once at the funeral home, they enter the building and find Yuma's friends waiting there, taking one last look at the boy. Astral, invisible to everyone but Shing now, approaches the casket and glances at the boy's face.
Yuma's face is deathly white, his eyes closed, and his hand clasped on his chest. Somehow, he is dressed in a black suit with a white shirt underneath. It seemed so unlike Yuma that Astral nearly laughs in surprise. Surely, if he was alive, Astral would unknowingly make fun of him for finally looking cleaned up instead of a child who spent all his time running around. This only makes him sadder though, and those tears he's tried so hard to hold back threaten to spill over. He has to turn his back on Yuma and regain his composure.
"I will never forget you," he whispers, but he knows deep down that it's a lie. He will soon forget all about this wild boy, but for now it feels right to say it. "And even if I do, you will always be deep in my being. I promise you that." Turning back around, he tries to touch his cheek, but tragically, his hand passes straight through. Holding back tears, he backs away and goes back to Shing, who is debating on whether she should see him at all.
The spellcasters meanwhile, are pouring over their book as usual. There is a surprising amount of information, including what would happen if the cursed person touches a special belonging of their target (which is instant death to anyone who touches the cursed object) and alternate ways of curing the Heart Broken curse. Unfortunately, those alternate cures still involved sacrifices, but such is life.
Out of the corner of his eyes, the spellcaster Astral notices Shing walking up to the casket. She is quite out of character today, wearing a black dress for the occasion, and she seems to hesitate on approaching the casket. The spellcaster looks up from his book and watches her every move, knowing full well that she could easily slip back into hysteria with a single glance at her lost love.
Shing approaches the casket, hands trembling as she grips the edge. She doesn't know what to expect when she approaches, but it definitely isn't this well-dressed boy she doesn't know. The Yuma she knew would never wear a suit unless he was forced to, and he would let nothing get him down. Still, even in death, he doesn't look sad. Just… at peace. Unlike Astral, she can't hold back her tears.
Silently crying, she touches his cold white cheek. Her hands trail up to his closed eyes and slightly parted lips. Seeing him like this is painful, even if he does look at peace. Her hand trails down his neck and to his chest, her hand hovering over his heart.
"What's she doing?" Dark Mist hisses.
"She's looking at Yuma, why?"
"Is she touching his chest?"
"What?"
"Is she touching his chest?!"
The spellcaster Astral hurriedly looks over and sees her hand inching closer to his chest, seeming to hesitate. "No, why?"
"Hurry over and make sure she doesn't! If she does, she'll regain the curse and Yuma's sacrifice was for nothing!"
Overhearing this, Astral perks up. "I'll make sure she doesn't." Without waiting for a response, he zips over to Shing and the casket.
Unfortunately, her hand makes soft contact with Yuma's chest. Much to everyone's shock and surprise, her skin turns sickly and gray, she sways on her feet, and cracks form on her skin. Astral halts in his tracks, too afraid to even touch her. To his horror, she grabs the key with her cursed hands, but relief floods him when it rejects her touch. Instead, she snaps the rope that holds it to her neck and drops it. The ping sound of it hitting the floor is loud against the silence.
She looks down at her hands. That same painful sorrow burning in her chest, and tears flow freely from her dead eyes. Shing looks at Yuma with a pained expression and whispers, "I'm sorry my love, your sacrifice was for nothing…" And with that she runs off.
~.~.~
The funeral passes by like a blur for Astral. Holding the pure key tightly to his chest, he watches in a haze as Yuma's body is lowered into the ground. He doesn't belong there, not six feet under. He is suppose to be alive and kicking, daring anyone to take him on no matter how many times he fails. And suddenly, anger boils up in his chest again. Anger he thought he buried when he and Shing worked together.
But he can't find the energy in him to be angry at her. All he feels is tiredness. He just wants to go back to the house and sleep all day, doing nothing, not even caring about whatever mission he is on in the first place. He wants nothing more than to be left alone. Eliphas can look for someone else to do whatever is needed to be done.
When he is suddenly back in the Tsukumo house, laying on his on the hammock, curled up with the key clutching it to his chest, holding it so tightly that it hurts. Dark is trying to get him to move, to do something, anything, but Astral refuses to do anything. He just lays there, wallowing in self-pity.
Dark is fed up with Astral's behavior, is once again forced to cut their emotional connection or else he'd be crying a river for no reason. Looking down, he can see Eliphas waiting for them with a grim expression. With a groan, he can tell that the news he is about to hear isn't going to be good. Even so, he flies down to the room under the attic to talk.
"What's up?" He greets the guardian of Astral World. "I'm guessing that whatever you're about to tell me isn't going to be good…"
"No it's not," Eliphas confirms with a shake of his head. "Astral is broken. Broken beyond even our repair. The memory wipe can't erase the intense sorrow within him. We must purge you from our world; you both will not be allowed to contaminate our perfect word with your chaos. I'm sure you and Astral will understand." With that he disappears.
Dark gulps, he has a feeling that Astral will take this very badly…
