The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 6: Chapter 13

95. BACKGROUND – BLUE

KOKONE (VO)

Please, I’m begging you.

96. BACKGROUND – WHITE

KOKONE (VO)

Grant Daiya a happy future.

97. BACKGROUND – ALL BLACK

98. BACKGROUND – ALL RED

My thoughts are slipping away.

The imagery unfolding on the screen before me peels away at my very mind, taking me back in time. I fall into sync with the middle school me on-screen. My thoughts have become as they were back then. I can’t tell where I am. Am I in my seat in the audience, on the screen, or in the past? The distinction doesn’t mean much anymore.

My middle school self is cradling his head on the screen.

There are no lines spoken, but I know what my middle school self is saying over and over in his head. Now that I’ve gone back in time, I’m thinking the same thing.

—What could I have done?

—What could I have done?

—What could I have done?

But even though I’m about to break, I still haven’t lost sight of what needs to be done. No matter how chaotic my mind is, I’m still holding a powerful sense of purpose that lets me act on autopilot.

Kazuki Hoshino is coming here.

I will take Kazu down and free Aya from his clutches.

And when I do, I will change the world.

Eventually, the door to the theater opens.

I turn my unfocused gaze to concentrate on a single point.

“Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Kazuki Hoshino is there.

Straining against the sluggishness of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, I get to my feet. It might have been difficult for me to stand even without the resistance at this point. I touch my earrings and turn around, trying to hide the strain even a little.

“Yeah. I feel that way, too,” Kazu replies with a weak smile.

A plain plastic case is dangling from his hand. Did he make preparations or something before coming here? Now that he wields the ultimate weapon that is the power to crush Boxes, I can’t see the point of anything extra. I decide not to worry about it.

That’s why I’m even more interested in the state of his right hand and the weapon it holds than I am in the case.

“Kazu, what’s up with your hand?”

It’s wrapped in bandages. They’re stained with blood, suggesting that the injury happened just recently.

“…This is my line in the sand.”

That’s all he says. Not a word more.

“He took a knife to his hand all of a sudden. A cut like that is gonna leave a scar for the rest of his life… I haven’t got a clue why he did it, honestly…,” Haruaki explains instead.

Instead of bothering to reply, I shift my gaze.

Over there is—Kokone Kirino.

—Shunk.

Seeing her is like a blade in my heart. I can’t help it, but it’s what I expected. Even having that fake, doll-like Kiri sitting next to me made a mess of my mind, so of course I’m going to react this way when I see the real thing.

My emotions don’t matter, though.

“You’re awfully bold showing up here. What do you plan to do, Kazu? You’ve gotta know you don’t have a chance in hell. I’ve made Aya Otonashi my Subject.”

I’m assuming Yanagi and Mogi leaked that part to him, too.

His expression unchanging, Kazu retorts, “Bold words from someone who looks so pale, Daiya.”

The reply could be taken as a challenge, but Kazu is speaking with sympathy.

He takes a step forward.

Kazuki Hoshino and I are confronting each other.

Yeah—

Not a shred of doubt about it.

My face-off with Kazu began in the Game of Indolence, and now it ends here.

“Let’s lay our plans out on the table, shall we?”

Kazu looks at me in silence.

“I will obliterate the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes. Then I will make Aya use the Misbegotten Happiness, doing away with her memories of you and leaving you broken.” The first part of my approach is to destroy Kiri’s Silver Screen of Broken Wishes with Kazu’s Box-crushing power. My next move will be to have the Misbegotten Happiness used on Kiri. “What do you have in store for me?”

“I’m going to destroy your Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime, whether by using my hand or by waiting out the twenty-four hours it takes for the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes to run its course. After that, I’ll get rid of the Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime you gave to Maria, too.”

Aya’s eyebrows twitch when she hears that.

“Then I’ll take Maria back.”

Aya cuts in, her expression unchanged. “It’ll be for nothing. I’m never going back to you, no matter what happens.”

Kazu briefly worries his lip, but the light in his eyes as he glares at me remains the same.

“I—”

He bites down on those blood-soaked bandages.

“I won’t turn back.”

I notice something odd in his behavior that throws me off slightly. Undaunted, I’m about to open my mouth and put Kazu on the ropes—but then someone moves unexpectedly.

“Kazuki!” Yanagi rushes forward, toward Kazu, shouting as she leaps over the seats. “Destroy my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime!”

Given how abruptly it happens, Kazu is almost frighteningly unperturbed. He holds out his bandaged hand to Yanagi’s chest as she runs up to him.

And then it plunges into her.

“Nn…ah…ahhh!”

Yanagi gasps, impaled on his arm.

Kazu pulls a black Box out of her chest, small enough to fit comfortably in his hand. It’s shaped like a piece of konpeito candy, all spiny and painful-looking to hold.

Not even glancing at the Box, Kazu obliterates it without a second thought.

“Ahhh…”

Yanagi loses consciousness and collapses on the spot.

Kazu’s eyes shift down to look at her on the ground.

The series of actions is so smooth, it’s as if he’s a programmed machine.

A momentary hush falls.

Eventually, I realize Yanagi’s intent. She had her Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime neutralized as quickly as possible, thinking I might try to exploit her with an Order. She moved so quickly to give Kazu the slightest bit of an advantage.

There’s no way I could have foreseen her actions; I didn’t think Yanagi knew he had the ability to destroy Boxes. She must have listened in on my conversation with O and kept that knowledge hidden until this very moment.

While she did manage to pull one over on me, I never had any intention of using her to begin with. This doesn’t affect my plan at all.

Still, I’ve broken out in a mild sweat.

I did just witness it, after all.

“The power to crush Boxes…”

Yes, his overwhelming ability that breaks all the rules.

Actually seeing it feels so different from just hearing about it. It’s like having a machine gun pointed in my face and someone’s finger on the trigger.

One misstep, and Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime is history.

And then there’s his complete lack of hesitation. His expression didn’t change when his power was put to use.

I’m reminded of something. Kazu isn’t the same person he was back when we were on friendly terms. This Kazu does crazy things like scarring his own right hand; he’s been completely reborn.

As a being meant to destroy Boxes.

As a being meant to oppose O.

And that’s why his smile can be so similar to O’s.

That expression didn’t change even when he destroyed the Box, but it twitches when someone else speaks.

“What is that power?” Aya asks, and his face goes stiff. “Kazuki Hoshino. Why do you have this ability? …No, that doesn’t matter. Now that I’ve seen what you can do, I’m certain.”

It seems painful for her to say it.

“You are my enemy.”

Kazu bites down on his lip.

Of course, hostility from the one he’s trying to win back, the one he wants to save more than anyone else, is going to sting.

“Aya, I’m sure you know this, but keep your distance from Kazu. I’m sure he’ll crush your Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime without batting an eye.”

“…Good call. That ability lets him destroy Boxes with just a touch to the chest. Even the Misbegotten Happiness is in danger.”

“No, he won’t do away with the Misbegotten Happiness. I think he knows that would result in the fracturing of your entire personality from the foundations up.”

A look at Kazu’s expression confirms I’m correct.

“Naturally, I’m not going anywhere near him, either.”

Now that we’ve reached this point, I must act with complete precision.

“So here are my demands. Destroy Kiri’s Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.”

“Daiya…” Kokone calls my name.

Before that voice can stir up any emotion within me, I push on with instructions for Kazu.

“You know what happens if you don’t do what I tell you, right? Let me remind you: Aya Otonashi is a Subject. I can make her do whatever I want. I’m not letting you try anything funny, either, Kazu. Okay, let’s set a time limit. It’s forty minutes past the hour, right? Destroy Kiri’s Silver Screen of Broken Wishes by eleven forty-five.”

“……”

Kazu goes quiet.

He can try to search for, or perhaps create, an opening in my defenses to smash Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime.

I know he brought Haruaki and Kokone here to help him find such an opportunity.

Kazu will do everything he can to strike at a chink in my armor, while I won’t let him find a single tiny one. This is the kind of battle we’re fighting.

Now, time for Kazu’s offensive to begin.

“Daiyan, just give it up already. I can’t stand to see this.”

As I suspected, his attack kicks off with Haruaki’s attempts to reason with me.

“What’s the point? Who is this helping? Not you. Not Kiri. You’d know that if you could see yourself now, right? At this rate, nobody’s going to be happy. This is just going to end badly for both of you.”

Still, just because I expected it and mentally prepared myself doesn’t mean he didn’t get to me. Haruaki is so honest and straightforward.

“Please. Stop this, for Kiri’s sake, too.”

I don’t make any response.

“Please… Please…”

Haruaki is crying now. This entreaty is from the heart.

I start thinking to myself.

Haruaki is like a brilliantly shining light; he is and always has been. I’ve got nothing on him.

He’s the first person in my life who I’ve ever felt has me beat, and not just in his talent for baseball. It’s his candor. His lack of hypocrisy. His steadfast determination to do what he thinks is right that allowed him to throw away his inherent gift for baseball and feelings for the girl he loves. Haruaki has a charisma I could never have no matter how much I may want it.

That’s why the idea of making him into a Subject never entered my mind.

You know, Haruaki? I respect you more than you can imagine.

“Quit sitting there all quiet and answer me, Daiyan!”

Regardless.

I’m not going to give up on this wish.

“Okay, then who’s going to do it if not me?” I have no doubts. “Whose fault is it that Kiri ended up this way? Mine? Kiri’s? Rino’s? Yeah, it’s probably on all of us. That’s not what this is about, though. That isn’t the underlying problem. Which is why I’m going to make changes at the roots. That’s what I’m saying.”

Haruaki appears to struggle a little finding the words, but he retorts, “That’s reckless. There’s no way you can pull it off, even with a Box.”

“It’s not a matter of whether I can or can’t. I am doing it.”

“But why does it need to be you? You’re already in pain; why should you have to suffer more?”

“I’ve decided to sacrifice myself.”

“What about how I feel?! I don’t want to see you and Kiri on this crash course! Are you ready to sacrifice my feelings, too?!”

I answer immediately. “Yes.”

Haruaki’s eyes go wide.

“That’s what it means to sacrifice myself.”

Haruaki is rendered speechless.

Yes, that’s what it means to sacrifice myself. I understand this full well.

I will sacrifice the feelings of those who care for me, too.

That’s why I cut them off. Both Kiri and Haruaki.

“Don’t be stupid…” He’s shaking, his fists clenched. “Don’t be stupid…Daiyan…”

It would seem Haruaki’s offensive is at an end. I look away from him and back to Kazu, with more hostility.

“Kazu, get on with it. Hurry up and crush the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.”

I casually wipe away the thick sweat covering my forehead. I’m playing it cool, and inside, I’m calm, but I’m taking damage here.

After Haruaki’s forthright emotions, the shadows of crime are on the verge of running wild. I can’t take much more. The shadows of crime could split my body open and come gushing out at any moment.

My mind is done for. A word might make me want to just end it all, though I don’t know what it would be.

Will abandoning everything release me?

But I—

I look at Aya Otonashi.

But I—I will die embracing all these crimes.

I press down hard on my hammering chest.

All right, I need to get ready.

I’m awaiting the next assault. One screwup, and I’ll be down for the count.

Next is a surefire attack.

“Daiya, thank you for the message.”

Kokone Kirino.

Kiri is walking toward me.

Still pressing my chest, I say with some effort, “It was a trap to lure you here. Looks like you took the bait.”

“Oh, I knew it was a trap.”

“I’m sure you did.”

Kiri is still coming closer.

The one who cares for me more than anyone else is still coming my way.

One step at a time, Kokone Kirino draws near.

The expression may seem a little trite, but with every step, the distance between us shrinks, and memories of our past flash before my eyes, like the beam of a lighthouse.

Age four—I make her cry when the two of us are squabbling over some candy at preschool, so the teacher scolds me. I cry, too.

Age seven—I help Kiri grab on to a life preserver when she almost drowns at the beach, then try to calm her down as I bring her to shore.

Age nine—After Kiri and I get separated at a festival, I find her in her yukata, sitting by the side of the road in tears, and I lead her home by the hand.

Age eleven—Our classmates have started giving me the cold shoulder because of our relationship. Upset, I tell Kiri I hate her and other awful things, making her cry. I go to her house and apologize.

Age twelve—Kiri stays home from school when I tell her I got accepted to an elite private middle school. The next time she comes to school, I tell her I’m not going to enroll. She, of course, starts bawling.

Age fourteen—Our first kiss. She starts crying afterward. Unsure of what to do, I just keep rubbing her head until the tears stop.

For some reason, Kiri is crying in all my memories. It’s probably because the most powerful image I have of her is her leaning on me.

Yeah, but this is still hard on me.

Every one of those memories is a blow, an attempt to keep me locked into normality. Every one is like a heavy mass hanging around my shoulders.

As she tortures me with my own past, Kokone Kirino reaches me. The husk of her created by the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes is there, too.

One Kiri’s face is right above the other’s.

Standing in front of me, she lifts her chin slightly and gazes into my eyes.

“Daiya, about that message you sent me—this is my reply.”

And then—

“I love you, too.”

—she embraces me.

“Wha…?!”

This shouldn’t be possible.

It shouldn’t be possible for her to take me in her arms anymore.

Whenever she does, she remembers everything that happened, the pain of her back, and throws up.

And yet, here she is with her arms around me now.

Don’t tell me she’s overcome the horrors of what she’s experienced?

But she tells me, “Hey, Daiya. I still can’t get over it. I’m still as broken as ever, and I don’t know what to do.”

Then—why you are able to put your arms around me?

“But there is something I do know.”

Kiri tells me.

“You’re all I have.”

Kiri is trembling. As she says, it’s not that she’s moved on. She’s simply fighting back the feelings tormenting her so she can embrace me.

That’s all she can do.

“I love you. I love you… I love you.”

Yeah, I can’t help but think, the two of us really do hurt each other when we’re together.

And yet, what if we could triumph over everything if we both felt the same way?

It goes without saying, but…that’s something I had wanted to believe all along.

“Urgh.”

I remember something else.

The day when I tried to change the world.

“It’s cold.”

Kiri rejected me in that cold red water lit by the setting sun. Unable to embrace her, all I could do was feel the growing chill in my body and hers. I was utterly powerless.

Still, if we can embrace as we are now…

If I can still bring warmth to Kiri’s body now, even when I was so cold back then…

“Ungh—”

Kokone.

Hey, I want to rest, too.

If I’m really all you need, it would be so easy. I’d do anything for you, Kokone. It wouldn’t hurt at all.

“I would do anything for you, Daiya.”

Those words snap me back to my senses.

I push against Kiri’s shoulders with my arms to separate myself from her embrace.

“Daiya?”

Kiri would do anything for me?

I would do anything for her?

We would.

That’s why it’s wrong.

It’s not healthy. Not normal. It’s aberrant.

It wasn’t like that. We used to be a much more average couple. A pair of typical lovers—we wouldn’t think of throwing away our own lives and acting only for each other’s sake.

We’ve changed to become that way, and that’s the greatest proof that we can’t make it in the normal world. We tear each other apart with our mutual self-sacrifice, and that’s the reality. This is even truer if Kiri says I’m all she has.

Yeah, there really is no going back for us.

No going back to those days of innocence.

Do you have a wish?

I do.

I have one, all right.

I want to annihilate the world that transformed all our memories into pain.

I swore it on that day, in that red, red water.

“I will change the world.”

I won’t cast aside that part of me. I won’t remove the earrings I’ve put in.

And that’s why I abandon these sentiments, these memories, these recollections.

“You…” Harshly, I tell Kiri, “You need to be able to live in a world without me.”

That is my answer.

Tears stream from Kiri’s wide eyes.

I look away from her and toward Kazu instead.

Sure enough, I weathered that attack, too. Kazu can’t have anything more potent lined up.

I look at my watch. It’s forty-four minutes after the hour.

“Time’s up. Crush Kiri’s Silver Screen of Broken Wishes now. You know what’s going to happen to Aya Otonashi if you don’t, right?”

“It’s too bad,” Kazu replies softly. “I wished it wouldn’t come to this.”

Kazu begins crying again and falls to his knees.

“Nh… Nh…”

Kiri moves away, realizing there is no more getting through to me, and totters over toward a spot directly beneath the center of the screen.

Kazu gets to his feet and moves in that direction, too.

My line of sight naturally follows them toward the screen.

“I would give my all for your happiness.”

The Kiri on the screen says her lines with empty eyes.

“If I ever stand in the way, I’ll make it easy to get rid of me.”

“Daiya.”

Kiri says my name. She’s standing in front of the center of the screen, cutting off the light from the projector.

“You expect this to destroy you, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” I reply matter-of-factly.

“Do you think I’d let that happen?”

“And why would I need your permission to—?”

“I won’t let you do it.”

Then Kiri—

—stabs herself in the stomach with the knife she’d hidden on her.

Blood spatters across the screen.

A dumbfounded “Wha—?” escapes my mouth before I can think.

I’m left in a pathetic state of uncomprehending shock. All I can do is watch the bloodstains spread on the screen.

It’s Kazu who springs to action and runs to Kiri’s side.

I take it for granted that he intends to help her.

But he doesn’t.

“I really hate that I have to resort to this, Daiya.”

Kazu plants himself in front of Kiri as if to prevent me from reaching her.

“I did what you said. The Silver Screen of Broken Wishes will still be destroyed this way, right?”

Instead of helping her, he steps in the blood pouring out of her.

“What…are you saying?”

“All right, Daiya.” Kazu ignores my question and glares at me, angrily wiping away his tears. “If you come anywhere near Kiri, I’ll crush your Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime.”

He then sets down the plastic case in his hand.

“This is a first aid kit. Kokone won’t die right away with where she stabbed herself, but she will for sure if nothing is done in ten minutes or so. On the other hand, if I stop the bleeding and give her first aid, there’s a good chance she’ll pull through. I told her to stab herself there. Kokone will die if you just wait there like an idiot, though. She’ll probably be gone by the time midnight rolls around, and so will the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes. You’ll get your way out with Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime still in hand. Once you escape, you can use the Misbegotten Happiness on whoever’s around and get rid of Maria’s memory, too. But Kokone will die.”

Beneath that screen drenched in blood, Kazuki Hoshino makes his demand.

“If you want to help Kokone, then get over here and let me crush Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime.”

He may not realize it himself.

But it’s right there on Kazuki Hoshino’s face.

Right there on the face of the Box destroyer.

An enchanting smile, just like O’s.

“To be honest, I have my doubts.”

Kazu’s tone is dispassionate.

“You said you chose to abandon Kokone and change the world, but do you really mean it?”

He looks at the blood soaked into his bandages as he speaks.

“I want you to show that you actually do.”

“...”

I’m speechless.

I can parse what Kazu is saying. But I don’t get his line of thinking. None of the pieces fit.

I’ve misjudged him.

Kazu’s bizarre nature is something I’ve always known. I had even observed that his abnormality is getting worse.

I never expected it had come this far, though.

Yeah, it’s just as Aya said. As long as his objective is intact, he has no concept of giving up. He’ll take measures to achieve it that no normal person would ever consider.

He’s even capable of doing away with his own will once his target is in sight. It’s almost as if he’s acting on autopilot.

That, in a certain sense, is how I should strive to be. It’s an ideal character trait for making my wish come true.

Still—

Seeing Kazu’s smile makes me think.

—I may want to become Aya Otonashi, but I don’t want to become this.

Nobody says a word. The only sounds come from the audio of the movie playing on indifferently, and Kokone’s moans.

It’s Haruaki who breaks the silence.

“Hosshi, you…didn’t tell me about this! I had no idea this is how you were going to do it!”

“Sorry, but I had to keep you in the dark. I knew you would try to stop me otherwise.”

“Of course I would! You’re…insane! Even if Daiya doesn’t step up, you know I’m going to help Kiri!”

“If you try anything, I’ll finish her off.”

“What?!”

“I mean it, okay?”

I’m sure he does mean it. If he can follow through with a plan this thoroughly twisted already, then he really must. Cutting his own hand was crazy enough; he wasn’t lying when he called it “a line in the sand.”

Haruaki seems to have caught on to that as well, because he doesn’t say anything more. He just stares, his shoulders trembling.

A question slips out of my mouth.

“Kazu, are you going to be okay with it if Kokone dies like this?”

“What a weird question,” Kazu replies. “Obviously not.”

The answer is remarkably similar to a certain girl’s, one who spent a lifetime becoming someone else.

“I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. The guilt will constantly weigh on my mind, maybe enough to break me.”

There’s something different about it, though.

“I know that, but I’m still doing it.”

Unlike Aya, Kazu isn’t even making a choice.

Maybe—he doesn’t have one.

The actions he’s taking might confuse him, too, but he can’t do anything else. That’s the nature of his madness.

“Kazuki Hoshino…,” mutters Aya. “You have lost your mind!” She bites down on her lip for a moment, then launches into a rant. “This isn’t even a means to an end. An idea like this would never occur to an ordinary person. This… This is taking advantage of Kirino because you know she can’t keep her head straight when it comes to Oomine. You go through with this, and that normal life you supposedly love will be shattered once and for all. You knew that before, right? ‘Insane’ is the only word for it.”

She’s exactly right.

“You really aren’t the Kazuki Hoshino I know anymore. What the hell have you become? A hungry spirit? A demon?”

Kazu seems saddened, but he answers without missing a beat. “I’m a knight.”

“A knight?”

“I will rescue Maria, even if it means fighting all of humanity. To that end, I will defeat, slay, and make corpses of anyone who would stand in my way.”

“I never asked for that! Especially not from a fiend like you!”

“Nothing you say will deter me.” Still sorrowful, Kazu says, “My only course leads to you.”

Stunned, Aya falls silent.

Kazu looks away from her and speaks to me. “By the way, Daiya—aren’t you going to help Kokone?” he asks so easily.

“I can’t make up my mind.”

His reply is unbelievable.

“Okay, then forget about it.”

“Huh?” I can’t hide my shock at his reaction. “Forget about it? You’ve gotta be kidding. You’re saying you’re okay with letting Kokone die because I can’t make up my mind? You just want me to decide to save Kokone, right?”

“Daiya. You of all people should know who I’m doing all this for,” Kazu retorts, brushing aside my question.

I, of course, know the answer. First, last, and always, he is working for Aya.

“Maria has Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime, right? She’s going to try to use it to save the world, or at least make it a little better. Right?”

Kazu opens and closes his bandaged right hand in front of his face. It’s as if he’s making certain of something.

“Nobody needs a Box that does that. Which is why I’ll crush it.”

That’s when I finally understand.

“—Don’t tell me,” I whisper.

The corners of Kazu’s mouth twitch. “So you’ve put two and two together. I told you earlier that I had my doubts. When it comes to Maria, though, I’m certain. I spent an entire life’s worth of time with her. I’d never get it wrong.”

Aya Otonashi lives for the happiness of others.

Which means she can’t let others give their lives for her.

And there’s someone bleeding out right in front of her now.

If so—

“Aya will go help her even if I don’t.”

Yeah, I had thought this trap was meant for me.

But not exactly.

It’s both a trap for me and one for Aya.

“Yeah.” I can hear her pain. “I’ll help Kirino. I’ll have to go near Kazuki Hoshino and his power.”

“Aya…! Isn’t this the Box you’ve been searching for all this time?!”

“It is. It’s the Box I spent an entire lifetime trying to find. It could have given me everything I wanted. I may never get this opportunity again. I know… I know—but.”

Aya clenches her fists.

“But I still have to.”

Yeah. That’s the way “Aya Otonashi” is.

Kazuki Hoshino is fighting so dirty, he’d even use her nature against us.

In a moment, Aya will go in front of the screen to save Kiri, and Kazu will annihilate Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime. Kiri will survive thanks to Aya’s first aid. The screening of 15 Years Old and Earrings will end, and then the final stage of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes will run its course. And thus, my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime will be destroyed.

All our wishes will be completely finished.

There’s a way to stop this.

Aya is my Subject. I could Order her not to move.

But…

But that would be…

“Daiya.” Kazu says what I’m thinking aloud. “Don’t tell me you’d stoop to using an Order to leave Kokone to her fate?”

Yes. He’s right.

I thought I had decided to put a stop to this, no matter what it takes.

I thought my heart was sure all this time.

If so—then will I go to such lengths as using an Order to stop Aya and let Kiri die? Will I end her life myself?

What the hell?

What the hell?

What the goddamn hell?!

“A…agh.”

Blood trickles from Kiri’s mouth.

She tilts her head, turning her face my way.

Weakly, she whispers:

“Please, I’m begging you.

“I don’t care if I die, so…

“…grant Daiya a happy future.”

She starts to cry.

It’s exactly like in all those memories of her depending on me.

“Kokone.”

All of them.

All the movies of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes play through my head once more in a flash.

Kokone Kirino. Haruaki Usui. Aya Otonashi. Miyuki Karino. Koudai Kamiuchi. Each and every one of them a tragedy, meant to make me suffer. The images line up like a series of file folders, binding my body and burning themselves in my mind one by one. The denial, the denial, the denial—I can’t accept it. Nothing is ever kind. My vision goes black and white, then color, then sepia, then black and white again. The emotions in these images force their way into me, painting me over. I’m pushed out of my own body, and all that’s left is Kokone Kirino. I wanted to destroy the world, but I was thinking only of you. Only of you. Only of you.

Yes, that’s how the shadows of crime devour me. Consume me. Swallow me down. The pack of wild beasts has caught me at last and begins to devour all of who I am. There is no pain. Black blood wells up from beneath the fangs piercing my body and covers the world. My form vanishes as every last bit of it is eaten. I am a swamp of black blood. The swamp cannot think.

The swamp ruminates on a memory.

The sunset has taken over this cold red world. In the middle of the cold red light is a girl standing there all by herself. She enters the cold red water, her back turned the entire time. It makes a sound. I want her to turn back turn back turn back turn back turn back. I reach out—and take the girl’s hand.

Then I tell her:

“—I will change the world. I will change the world for you.”

Time is running out. Not until the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes reaches its end—but until Kokone dies.

Time is running out.

“...Yeah.”

I had intended to change the world. I had intended to create swarms of dog-people, making everyone keenly aware of right and wrong and thus enhancing their moral perspective. I had intended to do away with anyone who shut their mind off. I didn’t care if I rotted away as long as there was someone to take up my cause after me. I had believed Iroha Shindo might be up to the task. I had been certain Aya Otonashi could do it. I would create a kind world free of tragedy where anyone could stand firm with confidence. I would create a world where the things that happened to us would never happen again. I was willing to make the sacrifices needed. I would even give up my own soul.

A kind world.

A just world.

Yes, I long for it, deeply. More, more, more than anyone. There’s nothing false about my earnest wish.

But…

…despite that…

…the pool of blood before my eyes is just too much.

...I know.

I’ve always known.

Yes,

The truth is,

When I grabbed your hand

In that red world,

All I needed

Was for you

To turn back.

Where am I?

It’s a red movie theater. Right, a theater.

That’s why a movie is playing.

My actions and the images in front of me are in perfect sync.

“I…”

“I…”

I fall to my knees.

So does the boy in middle school.

“I couldn’t care less what happens to me.”

“I couldn’t care less what happens to me.”

I cover my tears with both hands.

So does the boy in middle school.

“All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy.”

“All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy.”

“Kokone.”

And thus, I—

“I’ll save you.”

—am defeated.

My eyes open.

They were never closed, but now they are truly open.

Aya is reaching for the first aid kit.

Without a moment’s delay, Kazu reaches for her chest and removes the Box. The Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime I gave to her.

Hers is a clean cube-shaped Box.

And Kazu obliterates it.

Though her Box is destroyed, Aya stays conscious and continues tending to Kokone.

I can’t do anything anymore.

I can’t move. I can’t even resist the lethargy of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes anymore.

So I just watch the last moments of 15 Years Old and Earrings.

The final scene is in a hallway at a middle school.

Looking at my right ear, Kokone asks me sadly, “You…got an earring?”

Now with silver hair, I answer. “Yeah, because I hate earrings.”

“Is that…” Kokone continues, her expression still sorrowful. “…your way of asking for help?”

Someone’s alarm goes off.

“It’s midnight,” Haruaki says quietly.

In the same instant, the abyss, the pitch-black hole that’s finally made its way to me, attacks. The abyss penetrates my chest, gnaws into me, and forces its way into my body. The theater converges into the abyss, shrinking into a round shape.

As absolute nothingness overtakes me, I feel something.

Loss.

And then I know.

My Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime is gone.

The movie theater begins to lose its form until it is nothing more than a red orb. The abyss grows equally massive in inverse proportion, absorbing me more and more.

Once I’m completely drawn into the abyss, what spreads through me is not darkness, but light.

Light.

And as the light fills every corner of me, someone taps me on the shoulder.

Kazuki Hoshino 09/12 SAT 12:00 AM

We’re in front of the cinema complex on the third floor of the shopping mall. We’ve been transported here with our relative positions from within the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes intact.

An ambulance wails nearby. We had contacted them earlier, so it should be here soon. The spot where I instructed Kokone to stab herself is less lethal than I told Daiya. At the very least, she won’t be dying in ten minutes. There’s also the fact that Maria is applying first aid, and she has medical knowledge. Unless we’re extremely unlucky, Kokone will make it. If she recovers without any major complications, then everything will have gone as I planned. Still, even if the plan goes off without a hitch—

I’m sorry, Kokone. I’m truly sorry.

I gaze into the distance, not looking at her where she lies. The mall is empty. There really is something unnerving about this aspect of the place, since you normally never see it. I remember the four of us, including Maria, shopping here at some point. She did dress me up like a girl, but it was a fun page of my normal life. But my memories of this building are tainted with blood, and that won’t ever change.

That is how my normal life crumbles away.

I lower my gaze. There are six people here. Me. Haruaki, clenching his fists. Kokone, collapsed and bleeding. Maria treating her. And then—

Daiya looks at the owner of the hand on his shoulder, his eyes wide.

“That’s right, Daiya,” I tell him. “You had it wrong. You were going to lose from the very beginning.”

I glance at my accomplice’s face and then continue.

“Yes, the owner of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes…is Miyuki Karino.”

Miyuki Karino.

In her high school uniform, she gazes sadly into Daiya’s face.

Everything started when I learned she had obtained a new Box. Just as owners can sense the Boxes of others, I gained the ability to sense them once I started coming under a Box’s powerful influence.

Hers was devoted entirely to Daiya Oomine. Knowing this, I gave up on becoming an owner myself and decided to use her.

“You would have been able to see her, if only you could have faced yourself. You even would have realized she’s the owner. But you couldn’t see any of it.”

Daiya stares at me in silence.

“Because you were avoiding confronting her.”

Karino wordlessly moves away from Daiya.

Even though she went to such lengths and created this Box, she has nothing to say to him.

“Karino’s wish was to have you all to herself. But the Box would grant that wish along with her negative feelings. While she does love you, she still holds on to a hatred for you and how you still bring her pain. She also knows it’s impossible for you to be hers alone.”

That’s why the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes tortured Daiya by showing him the past. Why it tried to rob him of his precious wish. And…why it was effective for only a single day.

“It’s not me, and it’s not Kokone. Karino is the only one who could possess such a distorted Box. You would have known that, if only your eyes were open to it. But this is what it came to.”

Positive that the owner was Kokone Kirino, Daiya hadn’t considered anyone else.

Because he needed to blind himself in order to work toward his wish.

“Since I knew the truth, I could tell that your inability to see yourself was why you asked me so much about my conviction and my resolve. But you still kept walking toward your own downfall, so for me, it always……”

My voice suddenly quavers here.

The emotions I had kept bottled up during my face-off with Daiya come pouring out.

I look at Kokone all covered in blood.

Why did I ever do this?

My normal life will likely never return. I’ve hurt Kokone so much. I put this plan into action without telling Haruaki, and that rift between us won’t just disappear. My friendship with him will never go back to what it once was.

How did I get here?

I had no choice but to do what I did, though.

Now that I have the Empty Box.

“For me, it always…”

The emotions well up, and tears stream from my eyes.

“…just looked like you were crying out.”

That’s right—in the end…

…I had no choice but to take down a friend who was screaming in pain.

“Enough,” Daiya mutters, his head still lowered. “Enough about all that.”

He limps slowly over to the bloodstained girl on the ground.

“Kokone.”

She’s breathing painfully as he looks down at her and calls her name.

Daiya touches one of the earrings in his right ear. It’s the first earring he ever got.

He rips it out.

Blood drips from his ear, but Daiya just grips Kokone’s hand with an expression so gentle, it’s as if he doesn’t even feel the pain.

“Kokone.”

He says her name again, then adds:

“I love you.”

His expression is a smile from some other time, the kind of smile no one ever would have seen outside of those movies.