Yuki's eyes shut tight as the Loyalty Test took hold. The world around her darkened, then dissolved into swirling shadows. Her heartbeat slowed, echoing in her ears like she had fallen underwater.
A flash of white light.
Then—
Everything rewound.
---
The First Betrayal — Age 7
Yuki blinked. Her eyelashes felt wet, like she had been crying. She was small again—no taller than a doorknob. Her legs dangled from the edge of her childhood bed in her old lavender-painted room.
Her blue curtains fluttered gently, even though the window was closed.
That's when she saw her.
A figure with bright pink hair, long enough to touch the floor, and red burning eyes that glowed like embers. The girl looked about Yuki's age—no older than 7—but her smile was too calm, too knowing.
She stood in the corner of Yuki's room, fingers clasped behind her back as if she were waiting patiently.
Yuki shivered. "W-who are you?"
The pink-haired girl stepped forward. Her voice was soft, like a lullaby.
"Hi, Yuki. I'm Rosie. Do you… wanna play a game?"
Yuki nodded shyly. "Okay."
Rosie grinned, her red eyes gleaming brighter. "Good. Come on! Follow me."
Yuki slid off the bed and followed her new friend. She didn't think about how Rosie had gotten inside her house… or why her eyes glowed like fire.
She just didn't want to be lonely anymore.
---
Shadow Friend
Rosie followed Yuki everywhere.
To the kitchen.
To the backyard.
To her room.
Even to the bathtub.
But every time Yuki's mom or dad entered the room, Rosie vanished in a flash—like she had never been there.
One afternoon, Yuki was coloring pictures of princesses when Rosie reappeared next to her.
Rosie whispered, "Your parents don't understand you. Only I do."
Yuki tilted her head. "Mom and dad love me."
Rosie's smile dropped. "They want to separate us."
"No they don't!"
"They do," Rosie hissed. "And if you don't stay with me… bad things will happen."
She leaned closer, her red eyes glowing hotter. "Do you trust me, Yuki?"
Yuki hesitated.
"I think so…"
Rosie grabbed her small hand. "Then come to the rooftop with me. I want to show you something cool."
---
On the Rooftop
They climbed the stairs to the top of the apartment building. The wind pushed against Yuki's face. Rosie stepped onto the ledge effortlessly, like she was weightless.
"Yuki," Rosie said, turning with a smile too wide for her face. "If you come with me… we can fly."
Yuki blinked in awe. "Fly? Really?"
"Yes. Just step forward."
Yuki lifted her foot, wobbling.
But she never made the jump.
---
Parents' Worst Nightmare
"YUKI!"
Her father grabbed her first, yanking her away from the edge as her mother screamed in terror.
Yuki kicked and cried.
"No! Let me go! Rosie wants me!"
Her mother held her tight, shaking. "Baby, there's no one here! Who is Rosie?!"
"MY FRIEND!" Yuki sobbed. "She's waiting for me! You're ruining everything!"
Her father carried her downstairs as she screamed and thrashed, tears streaming down her face.
Yuki remembered all of it.
Every scream.
Every tear.
Every desperate call for Rosie.
---
The Psych Ward
Three days later, her parents took her to a children's psychiatric hospital.
Bright white walls.
Cold floors.
Locked doors.
Doctors who spoke barely above a whisper, like she was fragile glass.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Henrick, sighed heavily after hearing the story.
"Hallucinations. Delusions. Possible psychosis onset."
He scribbled on his clipboard.
"We're diagnosing her with F25, a disorder related to schizophrenia."
Yuki didn't understand the word. She only understood one thing:
They thought she was broken.
They thought Rosie wasn't real.
The doctors put needles in her arms, pills in her mouth, drugs in her bloodstream. Heavy medication weighed down her body. Her limbs felt like wet sandbags. Her tongue felt too large to fit in her mouth. Her thoughts slowed into fog.
The girl who once ran outside, laughed loudly, climbed trees, and danced in the kitchen… was gone.
Now she could hardly walk.
Hardly talk.
Hardly think.
Rosie never appeared again.
And slowly, painfully, Yuki convinced herself—
Rosie wasn't real.
Her parents visited whenever they could. They made scrapbooks. Brought her stuffed animals. Told her they loved her and wanted her to get better.
But all Yuki could feel was betrayal.
"You sent me here," she whispered one night, staring at the ceiling. "You didn't believe me. You took Rosie away from me."
She stopped talking to them.
Stopped trusting them.
Stopped loving them the same way.
That day was the first time she ever tasted the feeling of being abandoned.
Of being betrayed.
---
The Present — Loyalty Test Continues
Yuki gasped awake, her heart pounding as the memory faded. The floating red petals beneath her trembled, responding to her distress.
Sakura appeared again, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"That was your first betrayal," Sakura said. "Before ghouls, before death, before pain—you learned what it felt like for the people you loved to treat you like a problem."
Yuki shook her head. "They… they didn't know. They were scared. They didn't understand."
"But it shaped you," Sakura said.
"It made you afraid of trusting people. Afraid of losing control. Afraid of being seen as 'broken.' You buried that pain so deep… even you forgot it."
Yuki stared at the petals swirling around her. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because the Loyalty Test does not care about who you pretend to be," Sakura whispered.
"It cares about who you really are."
Sakura stepped closer.
"And who you really are, Yuki… is someone who has been betrayed again and again. Someone who fears abandonment more than death."
Yuki's hands trembled.
"I don't want to be like that," she said.
"You already are," Sakura answered.
The world flickered.
Darkness rushed in.
---
Memory Two — The School Lies
Yuki was older now—around eleven. She sat alone in her school cafeteria, reading Zombie Die Days while chewing on an apple, just as she remembered.
But this time, she saw what she had never seen before.
Rosie's reflection staring at her from the window behind her.
Watching.
Smirking.
Waiting.
Then Zero walked in with his friends, smiling, offering friendship.
But behind him, Rosie whispered in Yuki's ear:
"Don't trust him. He'll leave you too."
That was the moment Yuki learned to smile with her lips while hiding her heart.
---
Memory Three — The Boyfriend
Yuki aged again—now seventeen.
She stood outside the school gates with her first boyfriend, Kai. The same Kai who later betrayed Sakura. He kissed her cheek, promised he'd stay, promised he'd never hurt her.
But behind him, Rosie glared.
"He will break you," Rosie warned.
And he did.
He cheated on Yuki with one of her classmates, leaving her heart in pieces. Leaving her lonelier than ever.
Another betrayal.
Another crack.
Another ghost for Rosie to feed on.
---
Memory Four — The Ghoul World
Now twenty, with Seven, Pen, Sakura, and the ghouls of 678 surrounding her.
Yuki watched herself in real-time—broken, confused, torn between worlds.
"Everything you've loved," Sakura said, standing beside her,
"has betrayed you."
"My parents… didn't mean to—"
"They still did."
"Kai—"
"He used you."
"Zero—"
"He will discover what you are," Sakura said softly. "And humans fear what they cannot understand."
Yuki's knees buckled.
She sank to the floor of her mind.
"Stop," she whispered. "Please… stop."
Sakura knelt in front of her, lifting Yuki's chin gently.
"I am not hurting you, Yuki. I am preparing you. You cannot be loyal to Ghoul City… until you accept that humans were never loyal to you."
Yuki felt her heart crack.
"What am I supposed to do?" she whispered.
Sakura's red eyes softened.
"Let go. Cut the ties. You must abandon your human attachments—before they become weapons used against you."
Yuki covered her face, sobbing.
"But I don't want to forget them…"
"You don't have to forget them," Sakura whispered. "Just stop belonging to them."
The petals swirled upward around Yuki, lifting her gently from the ground like she was being reborn.
Sakura wrapped her arms around her.
"You're not alone, Yuki," she whispered. "Not anymore. I'm here. I always have been."
The petals glowed brighter.
The test sealed itself.
Yuki's human past cracked apart like shattered glass.
And she finally whispered the words the Loyalty Test needed to hear—
"I… choose the ghouls."
The petals exploded into blinding light.