Pitch black. Not even the stars dared to exist here.
FA stood still—alone in the dark. No light. No sound. No weight beneath his feet. Just endless nothingness.
But he didn't fall. He didn't float. He just… stood there. Like a corpse that forgot to die.
His eyes were open—but it felt like he hadn't seen in centuries.
"Wake up, Asahi… Wake the hell up…" he whispered, his voice hoarse and broken, like it had been buried under a thousand years of silence. "You have to find him… the one who killed me…"
No answer. Only silence. It choked everything. It was the kind of silence that stole breath, that drowned out thought, that smothered even the echo of despair. He didn't move. Didn't breathe right. Just stared up into the void—like he was begging it to blink.
"Why… why am I not moving…?" His voice cracked, trembling like glass about to shatter. "Move. MOVE. Just this once… MOVE!!"
But his body didn't listen. His arms stayed limp. His legs felt like stone carved into despair.
He collapsed. Onto nothing. Onto everything. His knees hit the black like they were breaking the only rule in this place: Don't feel.
He exhaled, laughing bitterly. "Looks like I'm fed up, huh…? This bullshit… all of it…"
He stared into the dark with eyes that had seen too much pain and not enough peace.
"Looping… Saving Anari… Reviewing Asahi's fucking memories… over and over…"
His hands curled into fists. His breath hitched. And he screamed:
"IT'S ALL BULLSHIT!!!"
His voice echoed, finally. But not like a call. Like a wound.
A tear slid down his face. He didn't wipe it away. No one would ever see it anyway. "Even after dying… I'm still stuck here… Still searching… For the one who fucking killed me…"
And then—he roared.
A raw, guttural cry that clawed through the black like it wanted to tear a hole in reality itself.
"ARARARARAAAAA!!!!"
His scream didn't ask for help. It demanded revenge. And in that moment—the black space felt colder than death. Because FA wasn't trying to escape anymore. He was waiting. Waiting for Asahi to remember. Waiting for justice. Waiting for his goddamn killer.
And maybe… just maybe—he wasn't entirely dead yet.
He was just on hold.
A screen. It appeared without warning. Flickering. Glitching. Floating mid-air like it had always been there—just waiting to be noticed.
A soft white glow surrounded it. No border. No wires. No frame. Just light. And pain.
FA stopped breathing. His scream—the one that had been building up inside him—died in his throat.
His chest rose. Fell. Rose again.
FA's eyes narrowed. Locked onto the screen like it was his reflection.
He saw himself. But not the broken, ghostly version he was now—not the exhausted soul stuck guiding timelines after death. But the version of himself that was still alive. Still breathing. Still fighting.
This version—the one on the screen—was FA before he died. Before the glitch. Before the final memory broke him. It was a recording, a message from his past self, who knew he was going to die and left one final message for the version that would survive in this void.
On the screen, FA smiled. Soft. Dark. Like he already knew this moment would come.
FA flinched. His entire body stiffened like lightning had kissed his spine.
"Why…? WHY did you bring me here even after death!? WHY!?" he screamed, eyes wild, fists clenched.
The man in the video didn't answer. He just… smiled. Like a man watching his own fate play out exactly as planned.
"You don't remember anything, right? Just floating around. Guiding the past version of us. Now you're stuck here." He snickered softly. "In the dimensional hole."
FA blinked. Shaking. "Dimensional… hole…?"
"A space with no walls. No ceiling. No time. No god. Just black. Just silence. Just… you." He leaned in, eyes gleaming. "A place where echoes die before they begin."
FA swallowed dry air. "Then how… how am I seeing memories? How did I see Anari…? How did I… feel that again?"
The video version laughed bitterly. "That's the curse. You're trapped in a dimensional hole… but from this place, you can peek. Not live. Not remember. Peek. Into other timelines. Other Asahis. Other regrets."
FA's legs trembled. He didn't want to know this. He didn't want it to be real.
"You saw your own memory. That version of you that still had her. That night. That confession. That moment you ruined… and forgot."
FA bit his lip. Hard.
"And now, here you are. Trapped. Alone. Guiding a version of us that doesn't even know the truth."
FA stared blankly. "…So you recorded this before you died?"
The video version smiled again. "Yeah. I don't even know how I die. But I knew… I would." He chuckled dryly. "And I knew what had to come after."
"Let him kill all the Asahis."
FA flinched. Like the air itself had betrayed him.
"…What…?"
"You'll understand. I've run the numbers. All of them. Every loop. Every death. Every path. All to save Anari."
FA looked up slowly, pain carving his face. "You… sacrificed yourself… for just one possibility?"
The screen flickered. Once. Twice.
"No. For the only one. The one where she lives. The one where we don't break. And now… you're living that possibility, Asahi."
FA blinked. Tears fell—but he didn't notice.
"Just kill everything. Destroy every lie, every rule, every limit. And don't look back."
The screen flickered one last time.
"Hey… When this is all over… Don't forget to take a long nap, okay?"
FA's lips parted. His chest ached. He didn't even realize he was smiling.
"Sayonara, handsome."
And the screen vanished.
Gone. Just like her. Just like him. Just like every version of hope FA had been clinging to.
He laughed. Bitter. Broken.
"Yeah. I'm an idiot."
And that laughter…
It was the only thing that kept the darkness from swallowing him whole.