"Where... Where is this?"
Kagerou slowly opened his eyes.
Darkness.
Nothing but endless darkness stretched in every direction.
"...Am I still inside that demon's Domain?" he muttered. "...Didn't I already kill him?"
Instinctively, Kagerou reached for his waist.
His hand found nothing.
His ninjato was gone.
"..."
A familiar sensation slowly crept through his chest.
Regret.
Sadness.
An unbearable sense of loss.
His entire body suddenly felt heavy.
"...Am... am I dead again?"
"...Fuck"
He brought a hand to his face.
A suffocating feeling of unwillingness welled up inside him, tightening around his heart until it became painful to breathe.
"How did it end up like this?"
*Thud*
In the endless void, Kagerou dropped to his knees.
"...Damn it!"
Frustration swallowed him.
It turned into anger.
Anger became regret.
And regret slowly gave way to disappointment in himself.
"DAMN IT!!"
He slammed both fists against the dark ground beneath him.
The impact echoed through the empty void.
Panting heavily, Kagerou lowered his head and stared at the darkness below.
"...Where exactly did it all go wrong?"
"...Did I die after the fight?"
His breathing slowed.
Then another thought struck him.
"...Kanae..."
His fingers tightened into fists.
"Is she..."
"...Is she alive?"
Silence answered him.
"...Shit"
Then...
A faint sound.
*Crack...*
Kagerou's head snapped upward.
The void above him fractured.
Hairline cracks spread through the darkness like broken glass, and within those cracks... light seeped through.
"...What?"
The light flickered.
Not sunlight.
Not moonlight.
Images.
Broken.
Incomplete.
As though someone had shattered a mirror and scattered its pieces across the sky.
One fragment slowly drifted downward.
The moment Kagerou reached toward it... The world changed.
---
White.
A world bathed in warm sunlight.
Butterflies drifted lazily through the air, their wings dancing in the gentle breeze.
A familiar woman lay weakly upon the ground.
Kanae.
She smiled exactly as he remembered.
Gentle.
Kind.
Beautiful.
But something was wrong.
Her white Butterfly Haori was torn in several places.
Crimson stains spread across the once-pristine fabric.
Blood trickled steadily from the corners of her lips.
Deep gashes covered her body, as though she had been cut down by countless blades.
She could barely keep her eyes open.
"...Kanae?"
She looked toward someone.
Not him.
Shinobu.
The younger girl desperately supported her sister, tears pouring endlessly down her cheeks.
"Sister...! Please... don't leave me...!"
Kanae gently raised a trembling hand and cupped Shinobu's cheek.
Despite the unbearable pain...
She smiled.
Warmly.
"Shinobu..."
"Live on..."
"Promise me... you'll keep smiling..."
Her voice grew weaker with every word.
"I'm sorry..."
"I couldn't defeat... the demon..."
Shinobu broke down completely, clutching Kanae's body tighter as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
"No...! Sister...!"
Kanae's smile never disappeared.
Even as the light slowly faded from her eyes...
She smiled.
The image trembled.
Cracks spread across the memory.
Kagerou took a step forward.
"Wait!"
His hand reached out.
The fragment shattered.
---
Darkness returned.
Kagerou stumbled backward, breathing heavily.
"...What..."
His heartbeat thundered inside his chest.
"...What was that?"
He knew that smile.
He knew that voice.
But... Why had Kanae been covered in blood?
Why had Shinobu been crying?
"...No..."
His fingers slowly clenched.
"...That wasn't real..."
He repeated the words.
Again.
And again.
As though saying them enough times would make them true.
"...It couldn't have been..."
High above him...
Another crack spread through the darkness.
Another memory waited beyond it.
---
Inside the Rengoku residence, Kagerou lay unconscious on his bed.
His entire body was wrapped in bandages, leaving only his head uncovered.
Several people surrounded him.
On either side of the bed, Kyojuro and Senjuro had fallen asleep, exhausted from keeping watch over him. Meanwhile, Obanai, who had awakened long before the two brothers, quietly sat beside the bed, carefully peeling an apple.
It had become part of his daily routine.
Every morning, he peeled an apple for Kagerou.
And every morning, because Kagerou never woke up, the apple eventually ended up in Kyojuro's stomach instead.
Even so, Obanai continued doing it.
Perhaps...
In the small corner of his heart, he still hoped that one morning, Kagerou would suddenly open his eyes.
Then-
Obanai froze.
His hand stopped moving.
His eyes immediately turned toward the bed.
"...!"
Kagerou's body twitched.
A moment later...
Tears slowly streamed down his unconscious face.
Obanai's eyes widened.
The knife slipped from his hand.
*Clink*
It struck the wooden floor with a sharp sound.
Without another thought, Obanai sprang to his feet and rushed out of the room.
The sliding door flew open.
He hurried into the hallway, frantically looking in both directions.
Then he spotted Shinjuro walking down the corridor.
Without noticing the two figures accompanying him, Obanai ran straight toward him.
Seeing the usually composed boy rushing toward him in panic, Shinjuro immediately stopped. Kneeling to Obanai's height, he placed both hands on the boy's shoulders.
"Obanai, what happened?" he asked.
Obanai couldn't answer immediately.
Still trying to catch his breath, he raised a trembling hand and pointed toward Kagerou's room.
"...Nii-san..."
His voice quivered.
"...Kagerou-nii-san..."
"...He's... he's crying"
Shinjuro's expression changed instantly.
Without asking another question, he sprinted toward Kagerou's room.
By the time he arrived, the room had already descended into chaos.
Kyojuro and Senjuro had been awakened by the noise Obanai made.
They had also seen it.
Kagerou's body trembled.
Tears continued to stream down his face, even though he remained unconscious.
"Kage-nii!"
"Nii-san!"
The two brothers instinctively wanted to shake him awake.
But the moment they remembered the countless injuries covering his body, they stopped themselves.
Afraid of worsening his condition, they could only remain at his bedside, calling his name over and over again, hoping their voices would somehow reach him.
Seeing this, Shinjuro wasted no time. He hurried to Kagerou's side and immediately began examining his eldest son's condition.
Only then did Obanai notice the two figures who had arrived with Shinjuro.
Kanae.
And Shinobu.
The two Kocho sisters quickly approached the bedside.
Without hesitation, Kanae knelt beside Kagerou. Thanks to the medical knowledge she had learned from her pharmacist parents, she instinctively reached out and placed the back of her hand against his forehead.
Her expression changed immediately.
"...He's burning up"
His skin was unnaturally hot.
A fever.
And a severe one at that.
Kanae gently brushed aside a few damp strands of hair clinging to his forehead before checking his breathing.
It was steady...
But much faster than normal.
As if his body were fighting something invisible.
Meanwhile, Shinjuro carefully inspected the bandages wrapped around Kagerou's body. None of them showed signs of fresh bleeding, and the wounds beneath remained closed.
His injuries hadn't reopened.
That only deepened the mystery.
"If it isn't his wounds..." Shinjuro muttered, his brow furrowing. "...then why is he like this?"
No one answered.
Kagerou continued to tremble.
Tears silently streamed from the corners of his closed eyes, and his lips moved faintly, as though he were trying to say something trapped within a dream.
"Kagerou..."
Kanae leaned in closer, hoping to catch his words.
But what escaped his lips was nothing more than a broken whisper.