The light paused for one beat... but did not fade.
It 'held'.
The cold prison, the soulless sin, the system — even those three charges — had all shattered apart along with the sound of that white porcelain.
Jade eyes locked onto the calloused hand.
The hand on that side drifted upward as though caught in the same spell — pale, soft fingers reaching higher, slowly.
Only to touch it.
The tips of her fingers drew closer, and closer — before that unmoving figure.
And then —
*Snap —!*
Two fingertips met. The sound cut through everything like a static shock.
Uzuki flinched. He pulled his hand straight back, restoring the rigid posture — and the expression blanker than metal — to what they had been before.
He stared into his own palm. An unfamiliar feeling flickered through him, like a breath of something new breaking apart in the air.
*Rustle.*
Uzuki looked up. The slender girl, draped in a simple sheet of white cloth, had curled into herself like a cat caught in the rain.
His gaze landed directly on her.
"Don't —"
"you —"
"Don't come near me."
She seemed to shrink on instinct, both hands dragging her body backward along the ground.
Her bright jade eyes held equal parts panic and confusion — unreadable, unsteady — refusing to leave the figure before her, as though a single second of inattention would be enough to be devoured.
Uzuki's face remained cold and still. He did not react.
Instead his eyes swept the surroundings, scanning the environment without pause.
"Space?"
He spoke. His body seemed to be holding itself upright through sheer force — trembling, faintly, in a way that made no sense.
She still couldn't shake her confusion. Something about Uzuki seemed slightly blurred...
Wait.
As though only now realizing it, her eyes swept the surroundings the same way he had.
It wasn't Uzuki. It wasn't her eyes either. It was the environment itself.
Or more precisely —
The space was destabilizing.
Subtle enough to miss entirely.
She drove her foot hard into the ground. Her body launched upward, scrambling to stand — and swayed, unsteady.
The trembling grew clearer, building slowly, one wave after the next.
Then suddenly, a stream of warmth passed straight through her shoulder from somewhere —
Her entire body went still. Her footing held. Her eyes snapped sideways.
Her shoulder jerked up instinctively, trying to throw off whatever had touched it.
And behind her — no one else but Uzuki.
She had no idea when he had moved to stand there.
His hand had already slipped back into his pocket after what she had done.
"It was you —?!"
Uzuki didn't spare her a glance. He turned quietly away and resumed his survey of the surroundings, leaving behind only two words:
"Reflex."
"You —!"
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean —?"
She furrowed her brow. Her breath grew heavier — carrying the weight of frustration at his indifference.
But it was the same as always.
Anything that didn't register inside Uzuki's processor would never reach him.
Heat spread through every cell. Her brow pulled tight, her lips pressed together.
Pure irritation flooded across her expression.
She turned away, trying to put distance between herself and Uzuki — because there was still a larger problem at hand. The discomfort was unbearable.
And that feeling —
— Everything feels strange. Nothing has stopped shaking.
— Why is the space behaving like this?
— What is about to happen?
— Is it... coming??
— But... why can't I sense it?
Her hand pressed against her chest. Hard enough to feel the pulse beneath — as though something had just gone missing from inside.
"Hey."
A voice cut through suddenly, pulling her out of the endless current of thought.
"Hm?"
"Are you calling me?"
She turned, slightly startled, toward the sound.
Uzuki stood not far off, leaning forward slightly, one hand barely grazing the rough ground left behind by the earlier explosion.
Somehow, even while crouching, he had been holding every muscle rigid since the beginning.
"This yours?"
Another incomprehensible question.
She followed his arm — down to his hand — then to his fingers.
*...*
"Water?"
Beneath Uzuki's feet sat a small pool. It was no longer rippling — it had become something like a shattered mirror, broken into millions of tiny fragments of light.
Reflecting a body cut into a thousand pieces.
She glanced around.
Only now noticing — scattered all around were puddles of varying sizes, each reacting the same way.
Uzuki stared, expression blank. Her reaction seemed rather different from what he had expected.
She looked at him directly.
"Do you mean to ask if it's mine?"
Uzuki gave a faint nod.
Stranger and stranger.
She crouched down.
Her hand touched the surface of the strange water trembling endlessly beneath her feet.
Her eyes fell shut — as though reaching for something.
Only a few brief seconds. But it felt stretched thin.
Then suddenly —!
Her hand recoiled. Her pupils contracted sharply. Her body shuddered once, strangely.
*Thud.*
She stamped her foot hard into the ground.
Her whole body launched into the air, dissolving piece by piece into tiny snowflakes.
No warning. She shot forward at once.
Leaving Uzuki standing alone.
He didn't hesitate — but rather than moving through any ability, he simply walked after her. Step by step. Heavy. Slightly off-balance.
*...*
But before he had taken more than a few steps — a cold sensation crept in from behind.
Uzuki turned back, only to find something resembling a pillar of ice — or perhaps a colossal frozen worm.
Far too obvious whose it was and where it had come from.
It swayed from side to side.
From its flank, a spike of ice slowly protruded from the body.
Uzuki reached out and gripped the swaying ice column firmly. Instantly, as though receiving a command, the entire column launched forward with terrifying speed.
*Fwt —!*
Cold wind shrieked past his ears. In only a few seconds, kilometers collapsed into meters, and Uzuki arrived at the edge of the enormous pit.
He leapt clear of the 'ice worm,' spinning in midair, landing lightly beside the girl.
She was standing there, gaze directed out toward the distant void.
He asked nothing — only turned his eyes to follow hers.
Surrounding them was what looked like an enormous shattered mirror — or more precisely, a space blanketed by that endlessly destabilizing water.
It reflected the images of everything above with perfect clarity, yet broken — shifting, churning harder than before.
As though whoever was looking into it was fracturing from the inside out.
Uzuki turned to look at the girl.
"Is this?"
Her expression had grown calmer — but still weighted with thought.
"This is the water of the snow in this place."
Uzuki stayed quiet and did not cut in.
She continued.
"It existed here already. I did not create it."
"It Doesn't affect?"
"Mm."
"More precisely — it has no direct link to me."
"So it cannot become water like this on its own."
She pressed her fingers to her chin, thoughts turning without stopping — pulling at them, unraveling them, only for everything to tangle further the more she tried.
She murmured, barely above a whisper.
"I wish I could speak to her right now —"
In the middle of that cascade of anxiety —
Her foot caught without warning.
The ground beneath her suddenly gave like liquid.
Her step fell through. She slipped straight off the edge of the pit.
Her whole body dropped — then stopped.
Uzuki had already closed his hand around her wrist. Their eyes met again, despite the full length of an arm between them.
His hand held without letting go — pulling her steadily upward. Warm. And strangely familiar —
Wait.
In the moment she was pulled back up, a strange beam of light from somewhere behind Uzuki's head shot directly into her eyes.
*...?*
He drew her up fully.
Without a word of thanks, she stared straight past him — into that dark expanse ahead.
Uzuki blinked faintly. He followed her gaze upward.
From the peak of the endless night — a hairline thread of light had broken free, falling down onto the only two figures left in this place.
*Crack. Crack.*
From the center of that light, fractures began to form. They spread outward in every direction, branching into the surrounding dark, creating a white pattern against the black — like the roots of a tree — endlessly dividing, endlessly widening.
The space around them shook with every new fracture.
The girl reacted first.
Both arms swung sharply outward, whipping around to face Uzuki.
From all around, snowflakes began to form — not only around her, but around Uzuki as well. They pressed inward, layering tight against both of them, the structure hardening into a small dome of ice that fit them closely.
Immediately — the entire space convulsed.
It was genuinely shaking now. Larger with every passing second.
The small dome could not hold against the reality threatening to collapse inward on itself.
It rattled violently. Her muscles went numb under the relentless trembling.
Her body registered every collision of bone against flesh with precise, unmerciful clarity.
Her eyes squeezed shut. Both hands pressed hard against the structure. The panic she could no longer fully conceal had become something real — something she could no longer steady.
Only a single thought remained:
— Stop. Please. Just stop —
Her eyes stayed shut. She didn't notice the shaking had already ended.
Part of the structure began to dissolve. She peeked outside — cautious, hesitant.
"Ah —!!!"
She flinched back. Perhaps staying inside was still safer. At least it was warm —
Wait —
"Warm?"
Something registered.
Without hesitation — she pushed herself outside.
The dark shape from the dome beside hers stepped out as well, unhurried and silent.
She ran.
She ran forward on both feet —
Throwing every last fragment of strength into moving ahead.
Shafts of light struck across her body. Her eyes shut tight against them. But still she drove forward.
Her right foot lunged out ahead — her momentum cut sharply, the motion braking — but her whole body continued to plow forward into the ground.
She came to a full stop, nearly toppling, teeth grinding into her lip hard enough to draw blood.
"Haa — haa —"
Her breath came in heavy bursts. She was nearly spent.
She forced herself to settle. Her posture slowly returned. She pushed herself to stand straight.
Her face carried unmistakable discomfort — and, strangely, a quiet calm alongside it.
"No —..."
Her fist tightened.
But she only stood there. Her eyes squeezed shut, then released.
She wanted to turn away — and yet she stayed facing forward.
Half wanting. Half not.
After a few seconds of hesitation, those windows finally opened — slowly, carefully.
Before her:
'Ruin'
'Everything in rubble'
'It's all over'
'It has arrived —'
None of it.
Not one.
Before her eyes —
Canopies of trees stretched upward, draping everything beneath them in a shade of green she had nearly forgotten how to name.
Not the cold green.
Not the hollow green.
But green… that was alive — like the color of it.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, scattering across the layer of dead leaves below in uneven, drifting patches of gold.
Not blinding.
But enough to make her eyes sting —
as though it had been far too long... since she had last seen anything this clearly.
Wind moved through.
It did not cut.
It did not freeze.
It only touched her — barely — so faint it was almost nothing, carrying the faint smell of damp earth, unpleasant in a way that was somehow gentle enough to be almost unbearable —
She stood there, motionless.
Only stood there, letting it pass through her — like something... familiar, made strange by distance.
Everything... was truly there before her eyes.
The grass beneath her feet grew wet.
Wetter, still.
Two streams of tears fell without stopping from those eyes, soaking through the cloth wrapped around her body — then falling to the small lives below.
"Hff —!"
She couldn't shape a single word. The sob broke free beyond any control.
The corners of her eyes began to swell. They reddened.
Because —
Those jade eyes had gone too long now...
...far too long without seeing a warmth like this.