It happened in a blink.
One moment, I was moving—blade in hand, time pulling like breath through a flute.
The next—
The battlefield was gone.
The thread inside me snapped tight, and the world folded inward.
Not into darkness.
Into a memory.
But not mine.
***
I stood in a sunlit room.
Clocks ticked softly on the walls. The air smelled like lacquered wood and fresh tea. Shuji sat beside the window, muttering at a half-finished timepiece. Rin knelt across from me, smiling faintly. Sayo laughed somewhere behind the curtain.
It was… perfect.
Too perfect.
I knew this wasn't real.
But my hands shook anyway.
The thread behind my ribs was silent.
No pull. No heat.
Just quiet.
Like it had been cut.
***
"Ren," Rin said gently. "Will you stay a while longer?"
I turned.
She looked the same. But her eyes were too bright.
The light coming through the window was too warm.
Something in me screamed.
But I didn't move.
Not yet.
Then Tatsuya entered, nodding once, as if nothing had ever broken between us.
Shuji laughed. A deep, real laugh. One I had never heard.
And I felt it—
The world was holding me still.
Like a hand on my chest.
Like a mother rocking a child to sleep.
***
Outside, the sun never moved.
And I saw my blade resting by the door.
Useless.
Unnecessary.
Because in this place, there was no need to fight.
Only to forget.
***
I nearly let go.
I wanted to.
But then—
I looked down.
My hands were bleeding.
Threads unraveled from my palms, gold streaked with red.
And through it, I saw Genzo.
Collapsed. Reaching for something.
A shikigami tearing into Tatsuya's shoulder.
Rin, struck down mid-prayer.
Sayo—
Sayo screaming my name as I turned my blade toward her.
Not in defense.
In confusion.
Because in that moment, I didn't know who she was.
Or who I was.
I had been made to forget.
***
The illusion broke like paper through fire.
I fell.
Back into the real battlefield.
And the first thing I saw—
Was blood.
Genzo knelt beside me, shoulder torn open, sword fallen from his grip.
Rin crawled through ash, one hand clutching a wound that should've stopped her.
Shuji lay slumped against a crumbled wall, his fingers twitching against a broken clock face.
Tatsuya was on his knees.
And Sayo—
Sayo was still standing.
Facing the woman in indigo.
***
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
Tears rolling down my face.
Genzo grabbed my arm. "Then… get up."
I did.
Together, we ran.
Straight for her.
The woman raised her hand.
Time bent.
Genzo and I moved anyway.
We struck—
She stopped us both with a single breath.
And flung us aside like threads already cut.
***
Shuji rose next.
He limped toward her, arms trembling, gears flickering around his hands.
She cracked them with a thought.
He fell.
Tatsuya roared and leapt, slashing wild and fearless.
She didn't even parry.
She let him reach her—
Then took him apart.
Rin's prayer rang out through the falling ash.
The sky shook.
She charged with light in her hands—
And fell with it still burning.
***
Sayo stepped forward.
Small.
Silent.
Her shadow still moved behind her.
But slower now.
Fractured.
She looked up at the woman.
Didn't speak.
Didn't cry.
Just ran.
The final thread burning through her heels.
She reached her—
And the woman caught her.
Mid-motion.
One hand on her throat.
Lifting.
I screamed.
But no sound came out.
The world held its breath.
And in that moment—
I did the only thing I could.
I reached inside the thread—
And pulled.
Not time.
Not memory.
The truth of them.
***
I gathered what they were—
Rin. Tatsuya. Shuji. Sayo. Genzo.
And folded it into the thread.
Safe.
Sealed.
Not in this world.
But maybe…
In the next.
I didn't know where it would go.
I only knew it had to.
Because someone, somewhere—
Had to remember them.
Even if it wasn't me.
***
The woman stopped.
She looked at me.
Her hand still holding Sayo, suspended.
And then—
She lowered her.
Not in mercy.
In realization.
She saw what I had done.
And her mask began to crack.
Thread by thread.
She didn't speak.
She didn't scream.
She just raised her hand—
And began to unravel the world.
***
One by one—
My companions dissolved.
Not in pain.
But in thread.
Rin faded first—what remained of her.
Then Tatsuya, blade slipping from his fingers.
Shuji's last breath turned into smoke.
Genzo met my eyes—and vanished with a nod.
Sayo—
Was the last.
She didn't fight it.
Just looked at me like she forgave me for something I haven't yet done.
And then she was gone.
***
The sky tore.
The land vanished.
And I was left alone.
Thread unraveling through my chest.
Fingers fading.
Memory flickering.
Then—
Silence.
Only gold lines.
And the scent of pine.
And then—
Nothing.