As Ayanokouji tapped the door assigned to her, he stepped back immediately, his heel sliding lightly against the floor to make his distance clear.
The girl released a quiet breath she had not realized she was holding. Relief softened her shoulders.
"Thank you... for bringing me here," she said gently, turning toward where she sensed him standing.
She was looking to her right when he was standing to her left... But, That's just minor detail.
There was warmth in her voice, but also hesitation, as if she were deciding whether she was allowed to ask what came next.
After a moment, she spoke again, more carefully.
"Is... your Flaw related to speech?"
Ayanokouji remained still for a second before tapping the wall twice.
No.
She tilted her head slightly, confusion touching her expression. Silence stretched between them, not uncomfortable, only uncertain.
"...Then," she asked, her voice lowering, "are you... not talking because of me?"
The question came out quickly at the end, edged with nervousness she tried to hide. Someone accustomed to being an inconvenience learned to assume responsibility for silence.
Ayanokouji tapped twice again.
No.
Her shoulders eased, though embarrassment followed almost immediately. She clasped her hands together lightly.
"Oh... I see. I'm sorry. That was a strange thing to ask."
A brief pause passed before she gathered the courage to continue.
"Is it... something else, then?"
Ayanokouji lifted his hand and tapped the wall seven times, evenly spaced.
She listened closely, counting without meaning to.
One. Two. Three.
Her brows knit faintly as the taps continued.
Seven.
Whether she understood or not remained unclear. She did not ask for clarification. Instead, she nodded slowly, as if accepting an answer she might understand later.
"...I hope it gets easier," she said softly.
The words were simple, spoken without curiosity or intrusion, only quiet kindness.
Ayanokouji turned and began walking away. His footsteps were heavier than before, echoing down the corridor as distance grew between them.
***
Cassie slowly went inside her dorm and closed the door. Her hands glided along the wooden edge, feeling for the hinge to ensure it was completely shut.
Her entire body began to shake. She summoned her wooden staff and pressed its base hard against the ground to keep from falling. A tiny gust of air spilled from the tip, stopping a second later.
She focused on the way that small sound bounced off the walls, trying to build a shape of the room in her head using just the noise and the brush of air against her skin.
Her mouth pressed into a thin line. She bit her lip. She was not good enough at this yet.
She used her left hand to clamp down on her trembling right wrist, forcing the staff forward.
A few steps into the dark room, the wood hit something. She slid the staff up to check the height, until the tip sank into something soft.
With slow, careful steps, she crept toward the bed and crawled up into the furthest corner. She wrapped her arms tight around her legs, burying her face into her knees.
Her heart began to slam against her ribs.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
'What if he changes his mind. What if he came back and is standing just outside the door. listening to my breathe.'
The questions swarmed her mind.
'What if he wants to come inside my room.'
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her shaking fingers crept up to her face. She touched her mouth and flinched. Her lips were curved wide. She was smiling. It felt disgusting, like someone else was pulling the muscles in her face against her will.
She pulled her hand back and took a ragged breath, trying to force her chest to calm down.
Thump. Thump.
She could feel her own mood lightening, warmed by an artificial joy. She only noticed the trick because she was still herself, carrying the memory of a vision that basically called her a dog.
But for how long could she fight it. If a single meeting made her body react like this, it would not take long before she was completely brainwashed. She would truly become a dog.
How could she run from this. She had talked big about wanting to bite the hand that held her, but now that the fear was real, it felt suffocating.
Thump.
This was terrifying. She was certain that guy was going to break her. He was a creature with no real body, just a shape made of eyes looking at her from everywhere.
She would be ruined.
Slowly, she forced herself to take deep, steady breaths. Panic would not save her. She just had to follow the plan she had already made.
She pressed her head deeper against her knees.
'I do not know what the black and white, the flowers, the shapeless creature, the void, and the rusty crown mean yet.'
Out of her six visions, she had only figured out three. But that had to be enough to find a way out.
'Except for the first two, the rest of the visions happened on top of heavy chains. That meant they were all linked. The ghost had used those exact chains to build a cage for the creature.'
She closed her lids for a second before staring back into the dark.
'The dog that lost its freedom by being fed constant food actually knew what was happening. When that vision ended, the dog did not look sad about losing its master. Its eyes went completely cold. It went cold because it knew the trap was working.'
Cassie sat perfectly still in the quiet.
'The ghost made a deal with the creature that made him invisible for a second. Then, when the creature threw the dog into the cage, the ghost appeared and used the chains to build another cage. Then the dog vanished.'
'The dog knew what was coming, yet it let the cage close.'
She was deep in the riddle when a sound broke the quiet.
Knock.
Cassie jumped. Her eyes strained in the dark.
'What if he is back.'
Knock.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She swallowed and tried again.
"Who is there."
"Lady Cassie, I would like to apologize for being late. I am the social worker assigned to you, Gene."
Cassie let out a long shake of air. She used her staff to find her way back to the entrance.
They had told her before that the academy would send a helper because of her blindness. The woman was just late.
She pulled the door open. A blurry shape of light welcomed her. Looking at the outline of the core, the person was just a little taller than her.
"Lady Cassie, I am sorry for being late and making you find your way back to the dorm alone. I am here to take you to the cafeteria."
The feelings around the woman glowed. 'A flash of orange. She thinks I am wasting her time.'
A polite smile moved onto Cassie's face, but it felt hollow and fake.
"I am truly grateful for your help."
The words were nice, but her voice was flat and dead. She felt like a broken object, a complete liability.
'A flash of blue. Pity.'
Gene stood there without speaking. She was looking at a girl who was barely older than her little sister, yet talked like someone who was already waiting to die.
The woman reached out and grabbed Cassie's hand.
Cassie pulled back a tiny bit.
'I would have preferred her tapping the wall to guide me instead.'
'If she keeps treating me like a child, my chances of surviving the dream realm are gone. I will just become totally dependent on her.'
Not that it mattered. She felt like she was meant to die anyway.
They started walking. Cassie and Gene moved past the stares of the other sleepers, heading down the stairs in total silence until the noise of the cafeteria hit them.
Cassie's eyes burned. The bright glare of dozens of glowing cores poked at her sight like needles, making her dizzy. Her hand started to tremble, but she forced her fingers to lock tight.
They reached a table. Cassie sat down and began to eat from the tray Gene had picked out. It was a messy, unbalanced meal.
For a second, Cassie wanted to speak up and complain, but the words stuck in her throat. She just kept chewing.
Nothing was working out. She had so many things to prepare for, yet she could not even tell off a worker.
She stared down at her plate, feeling smaller by the second.
'I have to prepare for him, too.'
Cassie tried to open her mouth again, but doubt choked her. She looked toward Gene's outline.
'Gray. Total detachment.'
She looked back down, fumbling with her spoon. Her fingers slipped, digging straight into the wet food.
'It is already a lot that the academy gave me an awakened helper. If I ask for too much, she might just leave me alone. I do not have a clan backing me. If she gets mean, no one will protect me.'
Cassie felt the sticky food on her skin. Her face shook as she swallowed the hot shame of how low she had fallen. And she knew she was supposed to sink even lower.
The memories of her visions rushed back, reminding her of the times she had sobbed alone in the dark, begging for the spell to disappear, wishing she could turn back the clock to a time before she was broken.
She bit her lip until the shaking stopped, forcing her usual smile back onto her face.
"Gene... can I ask you something."
"Sure, go ahead."
'I have no other choice.'
Cassie took another slow bite of the food.
"Why is an awakened doing social work instead of preparing for her second nightmare."
Cassie turned her face toward the outline of the woman's shoulder-length hair.
The core shifted. 'The gray turned into a sharp blue flash... a heavy disappointment in herself.'
When the answer came, the voice had lost its soft tone, turning cold.
"Lady Cassie, I would really appreciate it if you did not ask about such matters."
Cassie went quiet.
'She did not even ask how I knew she was an awakened. The orange glow of annoyance is back.'
Cassie's heart began to hammer hard again, but her smile stayed glued to her face.
"I am sorry for crossing the line."
"As long as you understand. Is there something else you need?"
"Yes. Can you get me a notebook and a pencil?"
***
They reached the dorms. Cassie opened the door, holding the pencil and notebook tight in her hand. Gene turned back without a word and walked away toward the staff room.
Cassie went inside. Once again, she glided her hand along the wood, feeling the metal lock until she clicked it shut. She summoned her staff, pressing its base hard against the floor.
After her hand met the soft mattress, she did not sit down. Instead, she gripped the edge of the bed and pushed her stick around the rest of the room. She found a chair and a table, carefully moving over to sit down.
She opened the empty notebook on the desk and pressed the pencil against the paper, beginning to write.
Once again, her heart began to thump hard against her ribs, sounding loud in the empty room. Her blue eyes became completely unfocused, staring blankly into the pitch black as she searched for a purpose.
'Even now, most of the time, I just wake up mid-vision because of how scary they can be. More often than not, I was not able to see a vision through to its end, but those visions were different. No matter how much I tried, I never woke up until they ended.'
She wrote for almost an hour, but she only filled five pages. She was thinking through every single word, her fingers cramping as she forced the pencil across the pages she could not see.
While writing, she suddenly stopped. She had reached the part where she was supposed to predict when she was going to lose herself.
She put the pencil down and began to shiver. She knew she was close to discovering the truth. If she could predict the exact time she would lose herself, she could finally begin writing down the final plan to fight back.
'Man falling down, flowers, dog, ghost, cage, crown, and... void...'
She sat there in the quiet for a long time, reviewing everything that had happened today.
There was a bottle of water she had brought back with her from the cafeteria. She reached for it with a trembling hand, taking a slow drink to clear the thick dread in her throat.
'When I asked him why he wasn't talking despite knowing the reason... he tapped the wall seven times...'
She felt like she had found the exact day she would lose herself. Or, to be honest, maybe she had not.
She had just found a common link that could push her off the edge and make her completely lose herself, and it was entirely related to the number seven.
It was not just the taps on the wall.
'The visions. They were a total of seven, and when you mix them with the taps... can it be a coincidence, or is it another clue?'
Her hand moved back toward the notebook, fingers wrapping tightly around the pencil, but she did not write yet. Sweat broke out on her skin. She was not sure if she was correct.
She was taking a massive gamble if she wrote down something she was not sure about....
She swallowed hard.
Can she really write something down just because she feels it in her gut.
If she was wrong, she would completely lose herself to the dark, and there would be no turning back.
She forced her hand down and wrote it anyway. The pencil dropped onto the table, rolling away as she pushed all her weight back into the chair, covering her face with both her hands.
She had taken a massive gamble.
But she could not stop now.
She had come far too deep into the dark to stop.
'The man fell down continuously, the flowers grew in the night continuously, the dog ate the food continuously, the creature found the ghost by walking on the chains continuously even if he melted, the creature looked at the crown and void continuously.'
She gripped her face tight, her nails digging hard into her skin until it hurt, trying to feel real.
'When the man stopped falling down continuously and made a choice, he was dissolved into black. When the flowers stopped growing continuously, they either closed or withered away... When the creature stopped his walk while carrying the unconscious dog and made the decision to throw it into the cage... the chains around the creature trapped it.'
...
..
.
Cassie finally knew how she could bite the hand that held her. She had to do exactly what was currently happening in the loops.
To win, she had to lose herself. To win, she had to make sure she was not the one breaking the cycle of continuity. She had to force the creature to be the one to break the cycle.
To win meant she had to let herself be broken first.
'But... it is borderline impossible.'
That was the terrifying truth. If Cassie lost herself and became a loyal dog, what was stopping her from telling the creature about all the visions she had. If the creature found out about her visions, he would surely know how to avoid losing.
And that was exactly why she was writing this notebook. She was writing it directly to the dog that was going to take her place, probably seven days from now.
'Please let the seven days gamble be successful.'
She began writing again, her hand moving for hours straight until she was finally done, pouring her last bits of sanity into the paper.
Now, she tore one page out of the notebook and began writing a letter.
She stopped for a second before biting her lips and writing.
[I don't want anyone to read these ones I just wanted a place to vent my feelings without being pitied or judged at]
She did not care about using commas or periods, nor did she care about keeping her words clean. The lines were scrambled, rough, and desperate, like someone scratching at a wall trying to find air.
She could not see, so she did not know that everything in the notebook and on this page was written crookedly, overlapping over the lines. She would not care even if she knew.
[I had many dreams , let's not talk about that .]
She tried to make her words sound professional for a moment, but her mind was too broken and tired right now.
[why am i even saying lets not talk about that ? who even is here to help me ? Who is here to listen to my cries? / w/shed thet i culd actually talk this rebilious to some1 but I dont hav the guts to no no no I am not scared . just saying that theres no one to rad the cris of a blnd girl who vvill jst b a libility]
She did not care how bad the grammar looked or how messed up the spellings came to be. If she wanted to, she could throw away the paper and write it perfectly.
But she wanted her words to show exactly what she was feeling inside, the raw pain she had to hide from everyone else. She was not sure how much longer she could remain herself. In her final moments, she wanted her words to show exactly how messy and scared she was right now, not a sweet girl who just smiles at everything. She wanted to bleed onto the page, just for herself.
[I jst wish no1 is reading this if you are rding please stop please throw this away i dont want you to read it]
She left a few blank lines on the paper, staring blindly at the space.
[you are nolnger rding right? yes / beliv tht you r not i doubt a human would be heartless enough to read even after a blind girl begged them not to.]
[_]
[_]
[if you are still rding i wantd to sk a qstiong]
[what kind of creature are you?]
The page grew wet as her tears finally broke, dropping heavily onto the paper and smudging the lead.
[What am I doing? There is no one here. Who am I acting tough for? Do I want someone to tell me that I exist? That I am me? That I am not some dog for others to read and laugh at?]
She kept writing through the tears, her breath coming in small, broken gasps.
[To the one who will read this, I hope that you are the future me. If you truly are the future me, tell me that you did it. Tell me that you bit the hand. Tell me you made him bleed.]
[Did you?]
'Please... The me of tommorow don't get too influenced.'
After finishing that page, she finally let go of the pencil and just sat in the chair for hours, staring nowhere in particular.
Soon she stood up, slowly walked toward the door, opened it, and went outside.
Only for her to come back in, lock the door, and sit at the table.
She did it again, went outside, came back, and sat at the table.
She did it once.
She did it twice.
She did it the whole night.
***
It was the second night, and Cassie was asleep. On the table, there was a page. It read:
[Today was quite interesting. Luck seems to be on my side. The boy, his name is Kiyotaka, and he somehow is labeled the strongest in the academy.]
[But he even stood up for me against Gene. It was quite the sight.]
[When she tried to grab my hand, growing impatient with the taps, Kiyotaka stopped her and called her out directly. If what Gene said is correct, he wrote, "Are you going to guide her through the Dream Realm like that too?" I can't express how shocked I was. I even felt myself blushing, but I somehow kept it under control.]
[Gene started acting more respectfully with me too, as the supposed strongest was with me most of the time. Funny, right? Everyone bows in front of power.]
[Now... that I had enough power over Gene, I actually set the plans into motion. I gave her the page and notebook and told her not to look at it and put it back in the room on the seventh night. I don't know if she will follow it or not, but that's the best choice we have.]
[Kiyotaka was so good today. He doesn't even seem frustrated by me and answers everything I ask by tapping.]
[You know, there's a problem that he has lost his senses, but it's just temporary. It actually aligns with our theory that he will get his features back on the seventh day. That's probably when I become the dog for him. It makes sense. I would probably be thinking that he no longer has any reason to be with me any longer, just for him to appear and push me over the edge.]
[Hey, I have been wondering if what we are doing is correct? Is it really that bad to be a dog if you are happy, or be a human and remain sad?]
***
Third night, she had given the second page to Gene.
[I don't know how to say this, but I might have figured out the first and second visions. I don't really know what the dog and ghost visions refer to, though. I will probably need just a little bit more time to figure out what the ghost and dog tried to convey. I actually doubt it's about me and Kiyotaka.]
[Do you know the gazania flowers don't bloom at night? But in the first vision Kiyotaka was falling down, and in the second vision all the flowers withered or closed away, and only one remained open... What if... I am that flower?]
[Think about it... All the flowers withering away or closing, but only I remained open to catch him. It is fated.]
[You know... I might be lucky for being blind. If I wasn't, he wouldn't have approached me on the first day.]
[I.... want to see his face.]
[I want to look into his eyes and tell him that he doesn't have to carry the weight alone. He is the only thing that makes sense to me now. Everything is so quiet when he is near, like the dark isn't trying to swallow me anymore. It feels so right.]
***
It had become a habit for Cassie to give a page to Gene, even if she did not understand why...
Fourth night.
[What actually is a dog?]
[They say a dog is a creature that lost its freedom. But that is only true if you are forced to obey, right? What if it is your own choice? What if you want to be loyal with all your heart?]
[If a sword pledges itself to a master, people do not call it a slave. They call it a knight. They praise its loyalty. They call it beautiful. If I choose to give everything up to him, if I choose to follow his hand because it makes me feel safe, then I am not a dog at all. I am just a knight protecting her king.]
[It feels so peaceful to think about it that way. The weight in my chest is gone. I do not think I have ever felt this happy before.]
***
Fifth night.
[Hey, this is my secret, so don't tell anyone! I can actually make a mental map of my surroundings based on the sounds now! It's so cool! It isn't perfect, but it is good enough for me to be able to walk alone.]
[Don't tell this to Kiyotaka at all! By the way, do you know I purposl- ignore that. Do you know that I almost fell down the stairs today, but Kiyotaka caught me? His body was so perfectly defined. I felt his muscles against me. I want to try falling again... I want to feel him catch me over and over.]
[Do I sound like a pervert?]
***
Sixth night.
[So... the past me... I have actually decided to tell Kiyotaka about the visions.]
[He has been so good, always helping. It almost feels like I am manipulating him by not telling him about the visions.]
[I feel like I am doing wrong to the only friend I have by not telling him. And besides, the visions were false, right? I have not become a dog! Not even a tail has grown! I still walk on two feet! Yes, becoming a dog is impossible! I wonder who the ghost is, though. Sounds scary.]
[I know the past me so well. I am one hundred percent sure they would agree with me about telling Kiyotaka about the visions.]
[Even though... I don't really remember a lot of stuff about the past. It's like something is stopping me from remembering something important... Well, it can't be more important than Kiyotaka!]
[I knew you would understand, past me! Bye-bye!]
***
Seventh night. Cassie was awake, shaking with tears and anxiety in her eyes as she sat on the corner of the bed.
[I feel so useless kiyotaka fell unconscious while picking me up and when i tried to step up caster stopped me / dont even know how /know his name . I just do]
[i Just heard a sound of him falling over and then gene escorted me away she told me that he got his senses back . so he has a nose ears mouth again while I am still blind]
[over the few days of bliss I had forgotten just how useless I truly am I was foolishly dreaming about my life with him when my life is about to end in just few weeks]
[I am so scared I couldnt even tell him about the visions]
[now that he has his visions back he isnt scary to others . he only came to me because he couldnt talk with others]
[what if he stops considering me his friend ?]
[vvhat should I do ?]
[VVhat should I do ?]
[shuld i beg him please please don t leave me kiyotaka i am sory i am so sory i am useless-]
That was the length that page went to before the rest was written in such a rough language that it was impossible to understand.
That night, Cassie did not sleep.
***
Now Cassie and Kiyotaka stood in front of her dorm room as Cassie looked at how her dorm really looked, a big smile on her face.
She was able to see again thanks to Kiyotaka. She... didn't want him to leave. There was a part of her that wanted to invite him in and make him look at the mirror.
But she didn't have the energy to say it. Her face might have always shown her to be calm within the academy, but every day she burned inside.
But now she didn't have to burn.
Slowly, she took her finger off the [Divine Ledger] as she was surrounded by darkness again, right as Kiyotaka opened the door for her.
Before she stepped in, she stopped and asked Kiyotaka, "Hey... can I touch your face?"
She was sure Kiyotaka liked her too. He copied her mannerisms down to the dot, there wasn't any other way that would have happened.
He just wasn't saying it outright, maybe because she might die...
"Sure. Go ahead."
Cassie spun back and raised her hands toward the sound where the voice came from. Soon, she reached his face as she began touching him all over, ears, eyes, nose, lips, as her expression became more and more unhinged with each passing second.
"Kiyotaka, what's your skin tone?"
"I'd say I am pretty fair."
Cassie went silent for a second.
"You look really good..."
"You could tell?"
"I can feel it... You are a good man, Kiyotaka."
There was one main reason Cassie couldn't invite Kiyotaka to her dorm... Gene was just standing between them making sure a line doesn't get crossed.
***
She had said goodnight to Kiyotaka as she went inside her dorm toward the bed, but just like every day, Her body moved on its own. It led her to the chair and made her sit.
For the past seven days, it had become a routine for her to sit in this chair whenever she came from outside, no matter the time.
First she would sit here, then anywhere else. She couldn't really explain why.
She began getting up, putting her hand on the desk for support, only to stop.
There was an unfamiliar sensation on the desk, and she flinched just a little.
It was a notebook.
'I never had any notebook...'
She waited for a minute before curiosity got the better of her. She opened it. She was blind, so she couldn't really read it with her eyes. Instead, she ran her fingertips across the page.
Her senses had become very sharp, so sharp that she could feel the pencil particles against the paper quite easily. That was how she read now.
The page read:
[It has been quite some time since I last saw you, Cassia.]
The smile that was on Cassie's face slowly began to drop as she tried to think who this person could be. Her mind didn't seem to make any connection.
[What, you can't remember me? Why don't you try to feel the handwriting and compare it to the ones you grew up with... if you can still do it, that is.]
Cassie couldn't understand what the words meant. She could feel the handwriting and form a picture of it in her mind, but comparing it to others was too much for her.
[You can't do it, right? You don't even remember how this notebook was written, do you? Look at how small your world has become. With each passing day, you have just gotten less intelligent.]
Cassie's eyes slowly began to widen as she read more.
This was creepy. There was a notebook in her dorm room from someone she didn't even know, someone who claimed to know her for a very long time, telling her to do tricks she wasn't capable of doing.
She had so many questions. Where did this book even come from?
She tried hard to remember. She really did. She didn't know why, but she tried, and it was all for nothing.
She continued feeling the writing.
[Why is your face so weird right now? You look like you are reading something you shouldn't have. Oh, and why is your boyfriend not here? Did Gene not let him in? I would have preferred if he came and read this with you. Go on, look around the dark room. Turn around. You won't even be able to see my core.]
Cassie's breath slowly hitched in her throat as she read the words, see my core. It was her secret, something she had not even told Kiyotaka yet.
She wanted to surprise him the next time he tried to playfully sneak up on her by not tapping the table when he arrived.
But whoever wrote this notebook knew. The words said she would not be able to see the soul core, meaning that it was somewhere near.
[So even after so much depreciation of your intelligence, you are still capable enough of basic reasoning?]
The pencil particles felt rougher here, forced deep into the paper. Whoever wrote this was angry, or frustrated.
But how was it possible? To write something this accurately, you would have to be able to see into the future.
Cassie did not like this. She was not Kiyotaka. She was not smart enough to solve things like this. She did not know what was happening.
[Come on, Cassia. Try to remember.]
[You haven't forgotten who I am, right?]
[Tonight is the eighth night. Have you forgotten?]
[Cassia, you have seen me exactly two times.]
Cassie's eyes grew unfocused, filled with a dread she could not name. She was terrified, someone whose core she could not see, someone who wanted Kiyotaka to come here.
She could not think straight, yet she was too scared to leave the book alone. She had to read everything. If she put it down, whoever left it here might never let her leave the room.
She was so scared.
Just who had she seen exactly two times?
[I don't expect you to remember anything. You are just a dog who has learned how to wag her tail. I just want you to help me bite. I am pretty sure you couldn't forget the visions.]
Her face went completely blank the moment her fingers touched the word vision. Her mind blurred as the memories came rushing back.
[Remember, Cassie.]
[Remember, Cassie.]
[Remember who I am, not who you are. You are just a dog.]
The visions. The ones where there was a dog. And the only thing she had seen exactly two times, no more and no less, was, the ghost.
[Remember, Cassie.]
[Remember, Cassie.]
[Remember, Cassie.]
[Remember, Cassie.]
The same words were repeated for several lines, filling the page before a new message finally appeared.
[So you remember me now, don't you? So here is what we are going to do. I want you to go to your boyfriend and tell him about your visions. We need to keep the fate going so we can capture him. To put him in a cage, it is important for us to tell him the visions.]
There were pages upon pages of writing left, all instructing her that she had to tell Kiyotaka about the visions.
That she must tell him.
That she was nothing but a dog who had mistaken herself for something more.
[Tell him about the visions, Cassie. Were you not eager to tell him? That's why I am here, to give you one last push. Tell him. Then we can finally end everything.]
Cassie's hand shook violently as she remembered the vision clearly. The creature would be thrown into the cage, and the dog, her, would be killed by the creature.
She finally understood why the creature threw the dog into the cage. It was because the creature had learned about the visions, and it tried to stop them, only for the ghost to use it to its own advantage.
She, the dog, Cassie, was meant to betray the one she loved.
'To think I was going to do something like that to Kiyotaka?'
Cassie understood everything now. If she told Kiyotaka about the visions, what she saw would happen. But what was she supposed to do now?
Her desperate mind searched the visions, trying to find any scrap of hope, until her lips curled up just a little.
She finally figured out what the flowers meant.
The flowers were the chances of defying fate. Out of all those withered flowers, there was one that stayed open. That flower was her. She would defy fate by...
She gripped the notebook and began ripping out the pages, her mind consumed by paranoia. What else could she do?
In a moment of sheer weakness and terror, she opened her mouth. She stuffed the pages inside, biting down on the paper for hours, swallowing them one by one.
She would not be the reason Kiyotaka lost. She would be the flower, and she would take these visions to her grave.
There were many more pages left to read in the notebook, but Cassie was too terrified to care. She just kept eating and eating, non-stop.
Luckily for her, Kiyotaka would not be in the academy for a few hours because Jet had called him outside. She had all the time she needed to digest her feelings.
Her love had defeated fate.
***
Over the next weeks, Cassie was paranoid for a while, but she never let it show. After seeing that nothing was happening, she figured out everything would be alright as long as she did not tell him the visions.
Today was the twenty seventh day.
Cassie was currently hugging Kiyotaka as the sound of chains hitting the ground echoed behind her. She looked toward them for a second as if mesmerized, and then buried her head deeper into Kiyotaka's chest.
"Cassie, these chains will connect us. I do not want you to be startled by the words of the chant. They are a necessity."
"You can walk away whenever you wish. Is that alright?"
Cassie just tightened her hug on Kiyotaka, her nails digging deep into him as she looked toward him with nothing but love in her eyes.
"I would never run away."
Kiyotaka reached out two fingers, and one chain connected to his throat while the other connected to Cassie's.
After a second, Kiyotaka began the chant.
[Oh fate, bind our threads into a single cord.
Let the vow we speak endure as long as time itself.
We are but two stones cast into the same still water.
If you are ready, say: I vow.]
The light had barely finished forming the words before she answered.
"I vow."
She had not even paused to read the content of the chant he offered. She did not care about the terms or the cost. She simply agreed to Kiyotaka.
The runes started to appear.
[Those Who Step Before the Loom]:
Kiyotaka.
Cassia.
Slowly, Cassie's unfocused eyes began to focus as she realized the position she was in. Her eyes widened and began to shake as she slowly gained her wits back.
What she felt for herself was disgust, such a deep, visceral disgust that she wouldn't want to stand in front of her parents this way.
Slowly, she began to pull away from the hug as she remembered exactly how she had acted over the past twenty seven days.
How she had been reduced to nothing but a dog, wagging her tail and begging for scraps of affection. How she had forcefully choked down her own mind and stopped herself from speaking of any vision in front of this creature.
Just how badly she had been taken advantage of, exploited, and hollowed out while smiling through it all.
"Just a few more moments."
She hated just hearing his voice. She was sure her heart hated it, yet her body and muscles still begged her to stay there, to lean back into the warmth.
She had only gotten out of the fog temporarily because Kiyotaka's aspect demanded equality. It wouldn't be equality if she remained entirely under the control of [Embraced by Fate].
Something foul and heavy began to build up inside Cassie's chest, rising up until it reached her mouth, but she forced it down.
[The Measure of the Thread]
Until we return from the Dream Realm.
The boundary was set.
[The Sacred Equilibrium]
Kiyotaka: Cassie shall no longer see any visions of me.
Cassie looked at the equilibrium in front of her, realizing with nothing but disgust and anger what it truly meant. It was a perfect trap, a way to make sure she could never speak anything out loud to warn anyone, even if she wanted to.
They would share the same dream realm, exactly what [Embraced by Fate] wanted.
She tried to push further away from Kiyotaka, but her body still whined and begged to stay. She bit the inside of her own cheek until she tasted blood, her disgust growing with each passing second.
Still, was it really necessary for her to break this?
'If I bite the hand right now, it means I lose the first friend I ever made. I will become completely blind again without the [Divine Ledger] My world will go dark. Can I really afford to throw it all away? Can I really commit to this after fighting so hard to get to the finish line?'
She remembered how she had manipulated herself to get this far and how many corpses of herself she had to step through.
[Hey, I have been wondering if what we are doing is correct? Is it really that bad to be a dog if you are happy, or be a human and remain sad?]
'Yes, what we are doing is the only correct thing. You are just an idiot, a brainless dog under the influence of [Embraced by Fate].'
[You know... I might be lucky for being blind. If I wasn't, he wouldn't have approached me on the first day.]
'You are too far gone for me to even talk to you. You are grateful for your own family's worst nightmare.'
[What actually is a dog?]
'You. That's what a dog is. A pet that licks the hand that chains it.'
Why was she even thinking so deeply?
A smile made its way to her face, spreading slowly across her lips. Hadn't she already made up her mind to bite the hand the very moment she understood what it really meant?
'Why am I hesitating now? Is it the fear of death? No, I already have a plan for that. Is it loneliness? I would rather burn in total loneliness for the rest of my life than live another second as a dog.'
She made up her mind, her smile growing more ominous and sharp as she completely broke her hug with Kiyotaka. They both stepped up to seal the deal.
She still did not know what Kiyotaka looked like, nor did she care. Her muscle memory still craved him... She still remembered all the happy time.
She put forward her wishes, and Kiyotaka's eyes widened in surprise.
.
.
[.],[Arliet3928]
.
.
She was going to live. She would live for a very long time, and she would bite his hand completely off in the process.
***
She hated that she had to give in to the craving of her muscle memory, forced to let him walk her all the way to her dorm.
She hated his very presence, down to her core.
Yet, she forced her face to remain calm.
She had done it. She had bit the hand. She really had done it.
She still had one of her wishes left. Originally, she was going to use it to ask Kiyotaka to protect her, but he had already done that on his own.
She remembered how her dumber self had panicked upon finding the notebook, feeling a cold crawl of creeps over her skin. To be honest, that helpless version of herself had actually given her a perfect assist.
As a seer, Cassie knew that fate was absolute. Getting those visions meant they were always meant to happen, but it was up to her to provide the clear path. If she had just stayed silent, she was not sure how that fate would have even worked out, and that was exactly why the notebook had worked so well.
The dog had panicked and started creating its own little fantasies through the visions just to cope. That was exactly what the past Cassie wanted.
She was sure that the way [Embraced by Fate] worked was to compromise your mind by making you forget the core traits that make you who you are. That was why she knew she would forget writing the book, and forget learning about the curse itself.
So, she had written words that would perfectly fit the scenario, accurately predicting how far she would go as a dog before she finally spilled her vision.
She had actually made sure the dog did not spill anything until the eighth night. And those one page notes she made and gave to Gene?
She never expected Gene to just leave them unread. She wanted Gene to read them, to understand the trap, and then read the notebook. If Gene believed that Cassie never meant to tell, guilt would slowly eat away at her.
Cassie was right. Gene felt pity for her from the very first day they talked. Cassie simply used that pity to make Gene help her, ensuring Gene would step in whenever a line was about to be crossed or whenever the danger of spilling the vision grew too high.
There was another important factor.
[Embraced by Fate] wanted him to lose.
Since the [Embraced by Fate] was a part of fate itself, it was obvious it would help Cassie get things done her way.
That was the main reason the notebook worked so perfectly.
The game was rigged against Kiyotaka from the very beginning. This entire academy was prepared by fate just to give him his first real defeat.
They reached the dorm. Cassie went inside, and Kiyotaka walked away.
The moment Cassie stepped into the dark room, she noticed there was already a soul core waiting for her. It was Gene.
Gene had come there to give her back the ripped pages. Seven pages in total.
Gene walked toward Cassie. Cassie put her hand forward to take the paper, but instead, Gene reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Uh... Gene..."
"It's alright, you can cry."
A whole minute passed just like that, wrapped in the quiet room, but not a single tear escaped Cassie.
Gene pulled back, looking a little embarrassed.
"Guess I just made a fool of myself."
She handed over the pages and turned to walk away.
"Thank you, Gene."
Gene stopped, her head hanging low as she looked at the floor.
"Hey... Cassie, you asked me before why an awakened was looking after you, right?"
"There's... no need for you to tell me if you don't want to."
"It's because I am weak. I am the weakest awakened there is. So please, do me a favor. If I die in my next nightmare, I want you to look after my younger sister. Please."
That was the sole reason Gene had helped Cassie. She just wanted to find a safe place for her sister.
Cassie thought about offering some kind, sweet words, but then she remembered how pathetic and helpless she herself had been on her first day. Just because she had saved her own mind did not mean she was any better than anyone else.
"If anything happens to you, I will treat her like my own family and give her all the happiness I can."
"I am truly grateful, Cassie."
After saying that, Gene finally went out, leaving Cassie alone in the dark.
***
Cassie stood there as she looked down at the pages. Slowly, she went through every single one of them by feeling the words on the paper.
[Do I sound like a pervert?]
A small, tired smile came to Cassie's face.
"Yes. So much that I wish to arrest myself."
She moved her fingers through another one.
[I knew you would understand, past me! Bye-bye!]
Cassie blinked into the darkness for a few seconds.
"No, I don't..."
Finally, she threw away the six pages until only one remained. She looked around the room, trying to sense if any soul core was hiding nearby.
She slowly walked toward the bed. She had the entire shape of the dorm room perfectly understood in her mind by now.
Slowly, her expression began to change.
Water began to appear in her eyes.
Her face became a little ugly as flood of tears came out. This time, it was not because of her panic, her struggle, or [Embraced by Fate].
These were the raw, unfiltered tears of winning her very first fight. The immense pressure inside her finally broke open.
[I don't want anyone to read these ones I just wanted a place to vent my feelings without being pitied or judged at]
[I had many dreams , let's not talk about that .]
She did not try to hide the messy, broken sounds that came when she cried, nor did she bother to wipe the tears away from her cheeks.
[why am i even saying lets not talk about that ? who even is here to help me ? Who is here to listen to my cries? / w/shed thet i culd actually talk this rebilious to some1 but I dont hav the guts to no no no I am not scared . just saying that theres no one to rad the cris of a blnd girl who vvill jst b a libility]
Her hand glided gently through the rough page. She opened her mouth, speaking to no one but everyone.
"You have the guts. You have the guts to talk that way to the worst of them."
[I jst wish no1 is reading this if you are rding please stop please throw this away i dont want you to read it]
[you are nolnger rding right? yes / beliv tht you r not i doubt a human would be heartless enough to read even after a blind girl begged them not to.]
[_]
[_]
[if you are still rding i wantd to sk a qstiong]
[what kind of creature are you?]
"The tired one,"
She whispered into the empty room.
[What am I doing? There is no one here. Who am I acting tough for? Do I want someone to tell me that I exist? That I am me? That I am not some dog for others to read and laugh at?]
"No. You don't need anyone to tell you that anymore. You will show them yourself."
[To the one who will read this, I hope that you are the future me. If you truly are the future me, tell me that you did it. Tell me that you bit the hand. Tell me you made him bleed.]
[Did you?]
Her determination cracked for a moment, and she broke down completely. She pressed the wrinkled page hard against her forehead, sobbing from the bottom of her soul.
"Yes. I bit the hand as hard as I could."
Ugly, painful sounds escaped her throat as she let out all the hidden agony of the past weeks.
"Yes. I will continue to bite it until it ceases to exist."
That night, the blind Seer's tears finally dried away.
******
I don't know about the rest of you, but writing chapters like this really takes a toll on me.
Was it at least a sad chapter? Did I finally manage to write a sad one, or is it just another Eichiro situation from the first nightmare?
If it's not a sad chapter... I just have to try even harder next time.
Exams end this week.
Finally, I have pulled myself away from this romance subplot. We need a creepy story because there are way too many light-hearted ones lately.
As for the page of the fourth night, I am looking right at you, ragebait Sunless.
I guess that's it. Peace.