Midnight, Wakaba Residence.
Sheer curtains blocked out the cool tones in the room, and fluffy, soft bedding gently enveloped the girl's slender body, guiding her into a warm dream.
However, the girl's tightly furrowed brows indicated that this night's dream was not peaceful.
"Mutsumi-chan! Mutsumi-chan!"
"Who?"
"It's me, Mutsumi-chan, open your eyes, open your eyes and look at me!"
"So noisy."
In the dream world, the girl sat on a lonely wooden chair, holding a glittery seven-string guitar.
Her pale fingers soothed the strings, leaning to the side as if listening to the guitar's words.
But it was impossible; even in her dream, the girl couldn't make the guitar [speak.]
"Ugh—, really, I've been with you all this time."
Pitter-patter.
Accompanied by cute footsteps, a soft plush doll emerged from the shadows and huffily approached Wakaba Mutsumi.
The doll's appearance was identical to Mutsumi's, dressed in an indigo Victorian coat dress, with delicate cucumber flowers subtly embroidered on the white cinched waist and skirt.
"Hmph hmph, how about it? I designed this look myself, you know." The doll spun around, proudly displaying its cute figure.
"Mortis...?"
Mutsumi's tone clearly revealed surprise; it seemed that the other party's appearance before her was itself an impossibility.
============
From the day Wakaba Mutsumi was born, she was destined to be overshadowed by the brilliant glow of her celebrity parents.
Light, an all-encompassing light that overshadowed everything around her.
The world was a vast stage, but no matter where Mutsumi went, the light shone there, leaving her no chance to escape into the shadows.
Her cute face and talent for performance all became accessories to her parents.
Flowers and applause were constant, but their ultimate destination was always the never-extinguishing spotlight above her head.
At the age of three, the first 'shadow' formed in the heart of the girl enveloped by light.
As if to vent long-suppressed emotions, this shadow grew at an astonishing speed, devouring everything it saw, giving birth to a new [Wakaba Mutsumi.]
The innocent and cute neighborhood Mutsumi, the gentle and intellectual older sister Mutsumi, the strict and diligent honor student Mutsumi, the mournful and lonely vegetarian Mutsumi... This 'shadow' seemed to adapt to everything around it, growing wantonly in the dark places where light could not reach.
That monstrous [performing talent] even made her mother, a famous actress, feel fear.
But in fact, these were all [other people's things]; no matter how realistic the imitation, they still did not belong to her.
Until one day, she met the guitar.
The guitar was singing happily.
As long as she played it, both light and darkness would dissipate, and only the song would flow joyfully.
Wakaba Mutsumi found something that belonged to her, and at the same time, she became herself.
The guitar's playing seemed to possess magic; with each pluck of the strings, the restless monster gradually fell into slumber.
The girl played the guitar for a long time every day, always accompanied by it.
Fewer and fewer things in her heart did not belong to her, and the melodies she played also garnered genuine praise.
If I keep playing like this, I will also be able to make the guitar sing...
My own [heart's voice] will surely be conveyed well then.
Regrettably, the girl forgot an important matter.
Although the monster in her heart had fallen asleep, it was only sleeping.
============
"Hmph ↑ hmph ↑ ha ↓ ha ↑ ha ↓! How about it, how about it, surprised, unexpected!"
The doll leaped onto the girl's head, flaunting its power as if showing off.
"I'm not like the 'Eggplant Mutsumi' or 'Banana Mutsumi' who disappeared after a few years; I'm Mortis, who has been acting for over ten years!"
"Through fire and water, conquering the Mutsumi battlefield, a tough guy, a hard man!"
"You are clearly a girl..."
"That's not important!"
Mortis waved her egg-sized fists, gritting her teeth and pounding Wakaba Mutsumi's head.
"You actually, you actually gave away the treasures I collected to someone else!"
"And to a stinky man!"
"Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy, bad guy!"
"I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"
Facing the crying girl doll's cotton-fisted punches and tearful accusations, Mutsumi felt a pang of grievance.
"That crystal, it suddenly appeared in my pocket..."
"I thought, you also wanted to give a gift..."
Hearing this, she felt the doll on her head visibly pause, but then it was followed by a childish wail.
"I don't care, I don't care!"
"Who knew that as soon as it got close to that dark-skinned boy, the 'meteorite fragment' was immediately sucked away, like a widow meeting a handsome young man!"
"It was hidden deep in my memories, and it actually materialized... That's a plot device even science fiction writers wouldn't easily use!"
"Waaah— my little shooting star baby that I painstakingly raised for two whole years, there's only a little bit left..."
Listening to Mortis's wails gradually turn into sobs, a question arose in Wakaba Mutsumi's heart.
"Mortis, what exactly was that...?"
Tired of crying and tired of fighting, Miss Doll slid from the girl's forehead to her cheek, standing on the guitar's headstock and began to recount her tale.
"It was an evening two years ago, Mutsumi-chan was enjoying the moon in the courtyard with Sakiko-chan."
"It was a full moon that day, but the sky was always overcast, making it hard to see the moon."
"Mutsumi-chan and Sakiko-chan were talking about traveling abroad, until..."
"Uncle Kiyotsugu received a phone call..."
"Auntie Mizuho's flight that night had crashed."
Upon hearing this, Mutsumi's thoughts abruptly froze, and she stared at the doll's eyes in astonishment, as if confirming whether she was talking nonsense again.
And Miss Mortis continued to describe that grand 'death'.
"Shortly after takeoff, the plane disintegrated in mid-air, and all 134 crew members and passengers perished."
"Uncle Kiyotsugu collapsed to his knees, and Sakiko-chan slumped in her chair as if her soul had left her."
"The dark clouds split open, the moon shattered, and a flood of light poured from the depths of the sky."
"The flood was full of suffering people, suffering souls..."
"A dark angel rode a white horse, galloping upon the torrent."
"He said, 'The time of Heaven' has come."
"Another plane crashed, then three, four..."
Miss Doll fell into a strange state, uttering incoherent words.
Something about [forming a band,] [bitter suffering,] [disbanded,] [it's all my fault]... until finally, Mortis, as if a string had snapped, slid to the ground.
Mutsumi tremblingly picked her up, and found that a terrifying gash had opened at the connection between the doll's head and body, and amidst the unknown stuffing, a familiar object was faintly glowing.
That was a tiny [meteorite fragment.]
The girl reached out to touch it, and just as she pinched the rice-grain-sized crystal between her fingers, hundreds of television sets suddenly lit up in the surrounding darkness. Each screen displayed images she had never seen but felt familiar.
Auntie Mizuho was very lucky; she didn't get on the plane.
The family reunited and embraced, crying.
Auntie Mizuho said she was saved; a young man had stopped her.
The young man's name was Enrico Pucci; his family had all died in the accident.
Auntie and Uncle both agreed to bring him to the Togawa Family, and Sakiko also said she wanted to thank this older brother properly.
"But why did everyone forget about this...?"
Whether it was the global catastrophe that occurred simultaneously, or the strange phenomena appearing in the sky.
And what role did Enrico Pucci, that young man, play in this event?
The television screen suddenly turned to static, flickered a few times, and then displayed an image of the night sky.
In the deep blue, a meteor shower fell from the shattered moonlight.
============
On a quiet street, a strange figure carrying a plastic bucket looked at the houses on both sides under the dim yellow streetlights.
"How troublesome, the reaction was quite obvious just now."
Saying this, he shook the strange, clearly crudely made device in his hand, staring at the pointer made of some kind of crystal spinning wildly within it.
"Tonight will probably be another fruitless effort; it'll be hard to report back~."
Although he said this, his tone was filled with joy.
Finally, he stood in front of a high-class residence, weighing the liquid in the bucket.
"Since I'm already here, just let me have a little fun~"
A faint orange-red phantom condensed at the man's feet, coiling around his body like a worm.
============
The next morning, Wakaba Mutsumi woke up to a clamor.
Last night, she seemed to have a long and chaotic dream, but when she woke up, she found that she couldn't remember its contents at all.
She slowly got out of bed and left her room, only to find the house eerily silent.
A strange atmosphere permeated the air, and a bad premonition welled up in her heart.
She immediately ran up to the attic, followed the clamor, and opened the tightly closed window.
A scorched, pitch-black tall tower stood before the girl's eyes.
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