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In the end, only what lingered behind remained.
A stain of sin that could never be forgotten.
If the kami still show mercy,
please look after and protect us.
Please… lead us toward the light.
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Edogawa City
May 14, 2069 — 10:41 PM
♫♫ One day, we'll finally see… (See… see…) ♫♫
As the karaoke song ended, the sound of tires followed, rolling out of the parking lot. Seto flung his fox mask toward the back of the car and reclined his seat.
"Damn it! Robbing those old yakuza geezers is way harder than it should be. And we still can't trace anything back to that bastard Oni. Ever since three years ago, there's been almost nothing—either he's laying low or the Oniwaban already took him out." Seto picked up the stolen drive and examined it. "Looks like there's transaction data with the Oniwaban gang too."
"Miss is busy with work lately. You guys need to wake up early tomorrow to help out here," Dango said through the earpiece, before Majima's voice cut in.
"Today @#@%#^$^ must $^#%#%$@$ three places #%$^$^&#! you guys #%$#^—" The signal crackled violently, drowning everything out.
Dango replied, "My god~ I'll buy you a new one. Just use your phone for now."
Seto ran a hand through his hair. "Gah~ Morning, guitar and drums. Evening, mafia work. What kind of multitasking hell is this? And tomorrow night we've got a concert—what band was it again? T-Rex? The X? 8XOS?"
"D8, South Korean" I corrected him, turning on D\8/'s new album as background music. "White's my favorite."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm not into boyband crap. You speak Korean anyway, so deal with it yourself. Me? I'll speak—Ingurish!" Seto stared at the MV playing beside White singing. "Whoa! Come to think of it, that guy kinda looks like you. Definitely copy-paste!"
I flinched. "Who copied whom, him or me?"
"Hey, don't argue," Dango cut in. "I'm the original."
Seto slapped his knee. Smack! "Oh please~ If you're the original, then I'm the limited edition! Get outta here! Hey, by the way, you've been taking jobs way more often lately. Miss Bito pulling you in, huh?"
"Biz has been going well. A lot of money coming in. Miss wants to stockpile enough to pay everyone properly," I said.
"At the cost of your health. What'll you and I have left, huh, Seoki?" Seto asked.
"If you had someone to take care of, you wouldn't say that," I shot back.
"And if your dad died right in front of you, you wouldn't be this chill either," Seto retorted. "We have to help Miss get free from that bastard who's holding a grudge against us. You and I—we're almost thirty now. We—we have to do something. You get that, right?"
I glanced at Seto while driving up the bridge into Koto Ward. "Then are you ready to trade your life for it?"
"I…" Seto closed his eyes and sighed. "Man~ answering like some cheesy protagonist feels kinda wrong."
"Of course. We'll find a way—but it has to be a way Miss Bito agrees with. I'm trying to contact someone we can trust."
"Let's hope it's not too late… like last time." After that, no one spoke. Silence filled the car for a while.
"@$#%#^#^ Hello! Can you hear me old man?" Majima shouted so loudly our ears nearly burst, and the three of us yelled back in unison, "Yeah!!"
The azure butterfly flew out of the car and spotted a gray moth heading toward the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper in Tokyo. There, it found a young woman with pale green-and-red hair standing in a white cloak. She looked down at the ground below, her expression heavy with sorrow. The butterfly noticed the moth clinging to her back, allowing wings to unfurl from her body.
"Father… Brother… I've done something no one expected, and I succeeded. Seoki and Seto helped me so much. I wouldn't be where I am now if you hadn't sent them to me." Yurei gazed at the flow of car lights, moving like a river. "I feel like I've become a part of Tokyo—like an icon of this new world. But the dream isn't over yet. The whole world shall see me too. I want to say it: sometimes, forcing myself to live in reality is painful. Especially now that you're not here anymore. Yurei is the only place I can escape to…"
She looked at the LED billboards displaying her image across Tokyo. Then, the sound of heavy boots echoed behind her. When the miraculous girl turned around, her smile faded.
The butterfly circled her and caught the reflection in her green-and-red eyes.
Standing before her was a man wearing an oni mask, breathing out orange mist.
"At last… I've finally found you." She said calmly.