Chapter 17: Questions of Ashes

Footsteps emerged from the ruins of spirits, heading in an unknown direction, as if the dead surface itself was guiding them.

The ground was growing colder, and the fog was heavier, as if they were stepping into the same dream. The ghosts hadn't disappeared, but they began to slowly move away, one by one, heading west... as if an inaudible call had drawn them in.

Kaito's father stopped suddenly, pointing to a strange circular building, resembling a stone theater sunk into the ground, its entrance open with a dark mouth that swallowed the light.

Hairu Shin looked at it.

"Cool... an underground theater. Are we putting on a show?"

But no one laughed.

The group exchanged glances, then decided to move on.

As they entered, the entrance closed behind them with a muffled thud.

A faint light emanated from the theater walls, as if they were breathing.

They sat spontaneously in circular stone rows. The surrounding wall slowly began to glow, and symbols appeared on the gray surface, shifting and rippling like water.

Then… the wall began to speak.

But not with a voice.

It was written in sentences, each person seeing something different from the other, without the others realizing it.

Kaito saw:

"Are you the human… or the mask?"

Tsuki:

"What are you afraid to find out about him?"

Hairu Shin:

"Why are you always joking? Do you know who you are without laughing?"

Hana:

"Are you afraid of what you could become?"

Saya:

"Who will you choose when the split begins?"

Kaito's father:

"When you stop laughing, who will you be?"

Minamoto:

"Who cast you out of the light?"

A long silence fell.

No one asked the other what they saw.

But they all felt something break inside them.

It was as if an inner wall had shattered… without the sound of an explosion.

Later, as they rested among the ruins of stone columns, Tsuki sat next to Kaito.

She looked at him for a long time, then said:

"Kaito… what did you see?"

He didn't answer.

She looked at him more.

He said, his voice calm and neither sad nor sarcastic:

"Sometimes… I feel like you're all dreaming about me."

Tsuki froze. She didn't understand… or perhaps she understood more than she intended.

At sunset, as the mist slowly began to return, they heard the sound of chains being dragged across stone.

Everyone stopped.

The sound was coming from the opposite corridor, to the south.

They approached cautiously, and there… a short distance away, in a corner illuminated by a dim gray light, they saw a body completely bound in chains, sitting motionless.

But his features were blurred. His head was covered, and shadows obscured him.

Hairu Shin whispered:

"Is... this alive?"

But before anyone could step on him... the body vanished like smoke.

Minamoto muttered:

"I thought he was... finished."

Everyone fell silent.

The air shifted.

They all knew that this stillness... was just the moment before the storm.

Fin chapter