The world was breaking.
Golden cracks stretched across the sky like wounds carved into reality itself. The endless banquet halls that had once dominated the horizon were collapsing one after another. Towers of silver plates shattered into storms of glittering fragments. Rivers of golden light flooded through the heavens before dissolving into nothingness.
Mugen Banquet was dying.
And so was its master.
Lady Chõko floated above the center of the ruined feast, her body covered in fractures of stone and gold. Every breath she took seemed heavier than the last. The laughter that had echoed throughout the battlefield for so long had finally disappeared.
No more "YAYAYAYAYA."
No more playful smiles.
No more jokes.
Only silence.
The Dimensional Clan stood below her.
Even Raizen wasn't smiling anymore.
Even Ayame wasn't talking.
Even Hiroshi's chains hung motionless.
Because for the first time, they weren't looking at an enemy.
They were looking at someone carrying a burden far too heavy for one person.
Far away, the source of Mugen Banquet pulsed violently.
The final lock.
The final heart.
The final thing preventing the complete awakening of the Forbidden Energy.
Kaizen stared at it.
Then at Chõko.
Then back at the heart.
He finally understood.
The truth hurt.
The reason she fought.
The reason she laughed.
The reason she never stopped smiling.
Because if she stopped...
She would have to face the fear alone.
A small smile appeared on Chõko's face.
A real smile this time.
Not a crazy one.
Not a mocking one.
Just a tired smile.
"You know..."
Her voice echoed softly through the collapsing world.
"I wasn't always like this."
The Dimensional Clan listened.
The feast continued breaking around them.
Nobody interrupted.
Nobody attacked.
For once...
There was only listening.
"When I was younger..."
She looked toward the dark sky.
"...people called me weak."
A small laugh escaped her lips.
"I cried a lot."
Ayame's eyes widened slightly.
The words felt strange coming from her.
"So I laughed instead."
Another crack spread across her arm.
Golden light leaked from the wound.
"If I laughed..."
She looked down at her trembling hands.
"...nobody noticed I was afraid."
The battlefield fell silent.
Even the feast seemed to stop collapsing for a moment.
Chõko slowly closed her eyes.
"I kept laughing."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"Then one day I forgot how to stop."
Nobody knew what to say.
Not even Raizen.
Because for the first time, Lady Chõko sounded human.
Not like a monster.
Not like a walking catastrophe.
Human.
The sky suddenly shook.
The thing hidden beyond the seal was awakening.
The pressure exploded across reality.
The Dimensional Clan immediately felt it.
The source of Mugen Banquet had become unstable.
Completely unstable.
If it awakened now...
Everything would end.
Kaizen stepped forward.
"Haruto."
Haruto nodded.
Spatial energy erupted around him.
Ayame moved.
Hiroshi moved.
The Dimensional Clan launched themselves toward the heart of the feast.
The final target.
The final chance.
Meanwhile, Chõko remained floating above the battlefield.
Watching.
The smile never left her face.
She already knew what was coming.
The heart pulsed.
The seal cracked further.
The ancient thing hidden within Mugen Banquet pushed against reality.
And then—
Raizen moved.
Faster than anyone.
His dimensional sword ignited with violet energy.
Space itself split apart around the blade.
His eyes locked onto the heart.
For the first time since the battle began...
There was no arrogance.
No pride.
No desire to prove himself.
Only determination.
The sword descended.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The world exploded.
A blinding flash consumed everything.
The heart shattered.
The final lock broke.
And for one terrifying second...
Everyone thought they were too late.
Then something unexpected happened.
Lady Chõko smiled.
A genuine smile.
The kind that reached her eyes.
The kind nobody had seen before.
Golden energy erupted from her body.
Not attacking.
Not destroying.
Containing.
Holding.
Restraining.
The last fragments of Mugen Banquet.
She was using herself as the final seal.
The realization hit everyone simultaneously.
Even after everything...
Even after losing...
Even after suffering...
She was still protecting people.
The feast began disappearing.
The tables vanished.
The plates vanished.
The chandeliers vanished.
The sky slowly returned.
Reality repaired itself.
The catastrophe had been stopped.
But the cost was standing right before them.
Chõko's body began turning into golden fragments.
Starting from her fingertips.
Then her arms.
Then her shoulders.
Ayame's eyes widened.
Haruto remained silent.
Kaizen lowered his head.
Raizen looks calm.
Because they understood.
There was no saving her.
Chõko looked toward them one last time.
Toward the people she had fought.
Toward the people who would survive because of her.
A warm breeze passed through the battlefield.
The first peaceful breeze in what felt like forever.
Then she spoke.
Not about food.
Not about battle.
Not about power.
Just one final truth.
"Don't spend your whole life pretending you're okay."
The battlefield froze.
Those words hit harder than any attack.
The smile remained on her face.
Small.
Peaceful.
Free.
"If you're scared..."
Her voice grew weaker.
"...tell someone."
Golden fragments drifted into the air.
"If you're hurting..."
More fragments disappeared.
"...let someone stay beside you."
The wind carried her voice across the ruined battlefield.
And then came her final words.
The words nobody would forget.
"You don't have to laugh alone."
Silence.
A single tear fell from her eye.
Then Lady Chõko disappeared.
Like golden stardust carried away by the wind.
Gone.
The Feast had ended.
For several minutes, nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The battlefield remained completely silent.
Then—
A faint sound.
Crackling.
Static.
Everyone looked down.
Half-buried beneath broken stone and dust was an old portable radio.
Nobody knew where it came from.
Nobody knew how it survived.
The radio crackled again.
Then music began playing.
A soft melody.
An old song from another era.
The voice echoed across the ruined battlefield.
"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..."
The Dimensional Clan stood silently as the song continued.
The title:
"Yesterday"
By The Beatles.
The wind carried the music through the destroyed landscape.
Golden fragments still floated through the air.
Like the final remnants of a feast.
Like a final goodbye.
And as the song played beneath the evening sky...
The world quietly mourned the woman who never learned how to stop laughing.