Breathing in the stinking air of the building, Ariyama fixed his gaze ahead, and continued onwards to follow his group.
Since everything looked the damn same, Ariyama only could tell that he was approaching the location of the remaining adventures when he heard their distant voices grow louder and louder.
He turned a corner, narrowly stepping over a section of the floor that just caved into the ground, and then he had finally arrived.
Of course, Jack and Yaranagi were already there, leaning against the far wall. Well, Yaranagi was leaning, but Jack was more along the lines of being pinned against the wall by Yaranagi's toned arm, his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, showing off his muscles.
Ariyama could tell instantly, without even looking at his face, that Yaranagi was angry from their argument. The way his veins pumped along his forearm made him look a hundred times more imposing.
Further left along the wall, Ariyama saw the anxious Takemichi, the quiet Matsune and the flustered Yasami. They must have gotten the news about the division of the group. Now, they were down to only six as opposed to the original ten.
Then Ariyama noticed it.
He was surprised at himself as it took him so long to notice it, but thanks to the patches of darkness covering the interior hallways, his vision hadn't picked up on it.
Between the two groups up against the wall, set into the hard stone like something carved.
A doorway.
Or at least the outline of one.
It looked like a stone elevator door, without any buttons to press. Just incisions into the rock to make out a set of plain doors.
Ariyama walked up to the doors, a bead of nervous sweat rolling down the right side of his face. It tickled and it burned and it made him ever so slightly more unsure if any of this was worth it.
Kazura had gotten hurt, and Koenji – even if Ariyama didn't like him – got hurt much worse.
And would they have ever even gotten inside the place in the first place if he hadn't activated that Shrine Gate? He was the only one who knew about it from the history book he read, as far as he was aware, so no one else would've been able to do it. Was this his fault? Was he the reason that–
"So, are you gonna stare at it or are you actually gonna do something?"
The voice snapped Ariyama back to reality, and he awkwardly tugged at the ends of the zipper of his coat as he looked to his right as Yaranagi acknowledged him. His face was set in a stern mask of stone. His mouth was a straight line and his words were gruff.
Looking over his friend's shoulder, Ariyama saw Jack leaning against the wall on the floor, a new bruise added to his battered face. Seems that Yaranagi had to rough him up a bit more to be confident of him leaving him unguarded.
Yaranagi met his gaze again.
"Well? There doesn't seem to be any other door in this entire damn place. So this thing must be it. It must be the reward we've received for going through all this trouble and causing the injuries of one of our friends and one of… our other classmates."
Ariyama didn't realise how dry his throat had gotten, so he forced himself to swallow his saliva before speaking again.
"I guess so. Well, no one said I'm the leader here, yeah? So I think we should get everyone else's opinions first."
Yaranagi looked inclined to argue, but Matsune interrupted before he could erupt.
"I'm not sure about this anymore. Of course, our friends being hurt isn't a good thing in the slightest, but I'm even more unsure about this doorway here. I… Well, let's just say I don't like any of this."
"Great observation, Matsune."
Yaranagi grumbled under his breath, crossing his arms in annoyance before deciding to busy himself by walking back over to where he left Jack slumped against the wall.
If anything, Ariyama was for sure not going to stop whatever he did to that fool. Jack Hayakawa had to be knocked down a few pegs, and a few hits from Yaranagi Yasuke would surely do the trick.
I looked back at Matsune, my heart drumming in sympathy as I perceived her troubled face.
"Whatever you mean, Matsune, I get it. No wonder you do. So, Yasami? Takemichi? Thoughts?
Yasami stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Screw off, brat."
Takemichi shakes as if drenched in a snowstorm naked.
"I… want to g-go home…"
Ariyama sighed.
What had been expected?
Matsune, who remained by his side, placed a hand delicately on his shoulder, a tight but reassuring smile on her face.
"Look, I know you just said you're not our leader, and you're right. But Ariyama-kun, you are… just one of those people who can always stay calm in moments of panic. I don't exactly have any proof, but I just have this feeling."
Ariyama's throat tightened and his stomach churned with a weird happiness. No matter what happened, how did Matsune manage to always say the right things?
Maybe that's what made her so popular in the first place? Along with her good looks and strengths in sports and academics, of course.
Ariyama had always questioned why there were people like her. People who were above others in social hierarchies, even if they were all humans.
But in moments like these, Ariyama was glad that it was people like Matsune – kind, caring, reassuring – who were popular.
Realizing he hadn't responded to her words of encouragement yet, Ariyama stuttered a little.
"O-oh, thanks Matsune. I know a lot has happened, but… it's nice to have some like you to be some motivation."
Matusne gave him a smile, her full lips glinting slightly, even in the darkness, with the lipstick she applied. Similarly, her silver bracelet seemed to glow too, but in a weird fake light that didn't seem natural.
But then Yasami interrupted them, waving his hands to separate them.
"Alright, alright. Enough flirting, you two idiots. Are we going through the doors or what? Yo, boss, what's the plan?"
He looked over Ariyama's shoulder at Jack, and when Ariyama turned to follow his gaze, he saw Jack try to get up, only to receive a gut punch from Yaranagi. And Yaranagi did not look happy.
"Listen, you dumb bastard. Call Jack 'boss' all you want, but don't believe that he's the one in charge of this little escapade of ours, got it? We're heard as one, and now we're basically stuck in here. Only Matsuragi remembered the way out, and by now he's long gone. Him, Odomura, Koenji, Kazura; all safe and sound outside of this damned place. So I reckon we bust into this doorway and see what's inside. We've come this far, haven't we? Why bother stopping when we're seemingly at the end of the road?"
Yasami scoffed at Yaranagi's words, but as his boss was still curled up in a painful heap on the cold stone floor, he backed off.
Wordlessly, Yaranagi trudged ahead, his eyes dead set on the carved doorway on the wall. He gave everyone a cold glance, and when no one spoke up against him, he continued.
He stopped in front of the door, as if surveying the surface for just a moment, before taking a step back, then rushing forward.
His foot that was behind came in front and his booted heel smashed into the stone of the door. It must have been fairly thin, as dozens of fractures ran across the door like a spiderweb. Ariyama flinched at the sharp sound of his boot cracking the stone.
Yaranagi repeated his action, again and again, his boot making the stone door splinter under its weight. After about ten or so blows, the door finally caved in. Its parts fell in a cloud of dust like a waterfall of pebbles, littering the floor and collecting into a heap at Yaranagi's feet.
Letting out just a low grunt, Yaranagi ducked into the man-sized hole he had put into the doors. Inside, it seemed pitch black, and Ariyama watched as Yaranagi's body slowly lowered further and further until he was out of view. Judging from his movements and the tap of his footsteps, Ariyama expected there to be some sort of stairs leading down.
Just what was this place really?
And sure enough, when Ariyama was the next person to go and he peered through the hole, he saw just darkness, and a set of stone stairs leading down into more darkness, dimly-lit by very faint torches flickering weakly in brackets against the walls.
One thing that came to his attention was how smooth and well-made the stone steps were. While everything else in the building was either rubble or cracked stone, the material here was sharp and professional, like a proper builder had cut and placed these stones by hand.
Not wanting to keep the rest of the group waiting, Ariyama drew in a long breath, the cold air hurting his throat, Ariyama ducked into the space, getting his balance on the small steps before slowly descending down the stairs.
The air down there was even colder than it was upstairs. As the echoing of his footsteps on the stairs sounded out down the path they were taking, Ariyama's chest sank deeper and deeper into uncertainty and slight horror.
Yaranagi was the only one ahead of him, and he was about a dozen steps further down than he was. After Ariyama, Matsune had gone next, her face visibly pale as she went down the steps, as if she was realizing something horrifying.
After her came Takemichi, his knees wobbling so much Ariyama worried he might trip. Finally, Yasami helped his 'boss' down, Jack slinging one of his skinny arms over his goon's shoulders.
He probably recognised the fact that if he tried running, Yaranagi would be sprinting after him with his long, toned legs. No one could ever outrun him.
Ariyama's breath began to explode from his throat in plooms of cold mist, a shiver running through his bones. His body shook and he zipped his coat up as far as it would go, forcing the zipper so much that it would've broken if Yaranagi hadn't suddenly called out.
"Hey! I see something here! Looks like some kind of room. And there's something glowing too…"
Ariyama was just glad to soon be not descending anymore of those damn steps. They were smooth, but so smooth they became unstable to comfortably walk down.
But then he heard someone cry out behind him, and Ariyama half turned as Mastune collided with him. For a moment, he thought she had just accidently fallen down a step or two. He'd just been telling himself about that just now, after all.
But when he saw her face, he knew it was something more.
It wasn't the shocked face of someone who was receiving momentary shock after tripping down some stairs. It was the face of someone who was horrified. Not by something that was happening in front of them, but by something that was about to happen.
"Yaranagi, no! Whatever's in there, don't touch it!"
She outstretched her hand in desperation, and nearly fell again as she hurled herself down the remaining steps, before hitting the ground and chasing Yaranagi into the darkness.
Ariyama was stunned momentarily, his limbs frozen in place.
What had just happened?
Matsune's voice screaming out resonated in his head like a replay from the Devil himself, beckoning him to answer the call.
What 'call' exactly? Ariyama wasn't wasn't, but what he did know is that in that exact moment, his body's functions started up again and he too went flying down the stairs. He did a worse job than Matusne at trying to not trip, and lost his footing on the last few steps. Luckily, the momentum he had built up sent him over the last of the steps, and instead he tumbled to the cold floor of the dark room at the end of the stairs. His body shook with dull pain, especially his knees and elbows, which he felt were cut and bleeding.
But he noticed it right after. That weird thing glowing a faint white in the darkness. More distant cries burning into his mind, Ariyama gritted his teeth and forced himself up, ignoring the stinging pain in his muscles. He didn't know what was going on, but if Yaranagi or Matsune were in trouble, there was no way in hell that he'd let them–
"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"
The roar was from Matsune again, and Ariyama released the distant sounds he was hearing were coming from her as well, probably to stop him from coming down. But his highest adrenaline had boosted every part of him except for his hearing, apparently.
So now that he was here, what was going to happen?
He heard more running footsteps from behind, and he knew Takemichi and the others were probably standing in the darkness with everyone else now too.
He focused his attention back on the thing glowing dimly further in the darkness. It had an odd shape, almost like a long stick or a dagger…
Or even a sword.
But before his mind could wander too much, a painful vibration blasted through Ariyama's whole body, starting at his feet. The room shook and Ariyama felt like he was about to lose his dinner all over the smooth stone floor.
Huh, smooth again.
So this room was similar to the stairwell, in the way it was oddly well-kept, unaffected from the elements like the higher parts of the building were.
The shuddering from the ground suddenly stopped, and there was a horrible screeching sound of stone and stone, as Ariyama watched a wall of hard cement jitter upwards, sealing off the room from the foot of the stairs. Vaguely, he heard the far-away shouts of panic and disbelief from Jack and Yasami and everyone else.
Ariyama began to get queasy again.
No way that just happened.
What is this place?
Even a ghost couldn't do this.
What is this place?
As he pondered the question, the unearthliness of the building didn't end, as a sudden flashbang of blue light filtered into the room and Ariyama's eyes – which had gotten adjusted to the darkness for a long time at this point – watered and squeezed shut.
Ariyama waited a few moments, feeling the sudden influx of coldness on his skin, yet the bright light burning through his eyelids. He forced his eyes open, and stared.
Seven torches on either wall of the room had lit up in their brackets, on full display unlike the ones lining the stairwell. They glowed a bright and deep blue, and yet let off no heat. The chill that flew against Ariyama all of a sudden was definitely from those things.
They lit up the whole room in the strong glow, so Ariyama could see everything now. Takemichi, Jack and Yasami behind him, trying to force the cement seal open to escape up the stairs again, and Yaranagi with Matsune ahead, her hand on his arm, forcefully keeping him from moving any more forward. Yaranagi could've easily broken free and stomped on over to the glowing shard, but maybe the severity of her grip made him hesitant.
As for the glowing shard of a blade, it rested on an ornate pedestal on the top wall of the room, hovering slightly off its surface, bobbing up and down in the air like it was floating on water. Staring at slightly more, Ariyama noted that it was indeed a sword, yet its blade was snapped off halfway up, the severed blade ending in a strip of jagged steel. It looked like it had been blown off or even torn off, as opposed to just cut through.
The hilt was longer than usual, seemingly built for two or even three hands to grasp it. The hilt was spread like a hawk's wings.
He could see everyone now. In the shade of blue that illuminated their faces, he saw the confusion in Yarangi and the look of pure terror in Matsune. Why was she acting so strange? Everything was not normal, of course, but why was she of all people acting so much more intensely?
"Everyone, please! I can't explain right now, but I know what this is now! I had a feeling since the beginning but now I'm sure! We have to run now if we're going to survi–"
Then came Takemichi's meek voice, cutting through Matsune's with a weak scream.
"What the hell is that?!"
Instantly, Ariyama looked over to where Takemichi had been pointing.
The room itself was made of the same smooth grey stone as the stairs, and was relatively tall and wide. And over on the right hand side wall, there was a spot where there were no flickering blue torches. Instead, a large crack split the section of the wall down the middle.
For a moment, Ariyama was confused as to why Takemichi was screaming over a crack in the wall, but then he saw it.
The crack opened just slightly along the fracture, wide enough to see something glinting from the darkness. A flash of something metallic, yet weathered with age, draped in vines and dripping with moss and mud.
There was a loud creaking sound, as a massive figure broke through the crack, opening it open into a large wound in the stone.
And the figure who bled from the wound was a massive creature.
It was like a medieval knight, standing at least ten or more feet, in armor rusted and cracked from either battle or time. In its hand it held a massive saber that was so long it's tip scraped against the adjacent wall, spraying orange sparks that contrasted against the blue filter covering the sealed room.
Ariyama felt his stomach plummet. His knees shuddered and he had to force himself with all his might to stop them from giving out.
"Wh-what is…"
He couldn't even put together words. He was vaguely aware of the explosion of panic around him. Takemichi was screaming, Jack and Yasami and Yaranagi cursing and stumbling back. But once again, Matsune acted differently. Her face was drained of color, but she seemed to steel herself before running forward. That silver bracelet on her right wrist gleamed again, as it always did.
But it was different this time.
It glowed. But it glowed a purple-pink color.
Before Ariyama got a good look at what she was doing, the charging knight reached them.
And zoomed right past Ariyama.
It suddenly got very quiet.
And Takemichi's screaming was cut off.
Ariyama didn't want to look, he wanted to keep staring at Matsune and continue trying to ignore her beauty. Everything would be back to normal, like it always was, but Ariyama knew he had to.
He didn't want to, but he craned his neck around anyways.
Matsune was crying out, and everyone else was swearing, unable to stay standing straight and falling over themselves
When Ariyama saw it, he swallowed the burning bile that rose in his throat. His hands at his sides squeezed so tight it hurt.
The knight had its head ducked, its knees bent. It was facing the wall, its saber extended through the smooth stone.
But pinned against the wall, the sword piercing through his chest, his blood running down his pant leg and pooling at his feet…
Takemichi looked up at Ariyama, open mouth dripping blood. His face was aghast with shock, the rest of his body rigid and unmoving, even as his head swiveled to look at him.
"You… promised me you would…"
But he didn't have enough strength to even finish a single sentence. Takemichi Yuno's slight shoulders slumped and his head lolled forward, his chin touching his chest.
His blood-splattered glasses fell off his nose and cracked against the floor below him.
And then he was dead.
Just like that.
The bile rose in Ariyama's throat again, but he felt too cold and too hot to stop it. He lurched forward onto his hands and knees, vomiting over the floor.
Tears mixed with his snot and vomit, and Ariyama let out an anguished cry. He wanted to die.
Die and wake up. Die and wake up and then everything would be fine because everything was a dream – a nightmare – and nothing was actually real and Takemichi didn't actually just die in front of him.
You promised you would protect me.
Those were the words Takemichi was trying to say in his final moments, the look of shock and betrayal on his face burned into Ariyama's mind.
He had.
He had promised.
And he had failed.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!"
Yaranagi roared at the statue-like knight, thundering forward, fists clenched, tear bared like an animal.
"YOU KILLED HIM! YOU BASTARD, YOU KILLED–"
"Yaranagi-kun, watch out!"
That was Matsune, and she ran after Yaranagi. Her eyes were wild and her cheeks were tear-stained. But somehow she had the resolve to keep going.
Another vibration shook the room, and Ariyama fell on his ass. His breathing was wild and uneven, his fingers dragging painfully against the stone, leaving trials of his blood.
But the stinging in his hands and in his elbows and knees wasn't anything compared to the pure distress he felt when he glanced at Takemichi, the poor boy's corpse pinned against the wall, the knight's sword still running him through.
The world felt like it was about to collapse in on itself. Nothing was real, not the chill that ran down Ariyama's spine, nor the burning heat he felt rising from his core.
Takemichi was dead.
He would never move again.
Ariyama fell to his knees, bile rising in his throat again. He couldn't move, even if he wanted to.
Even as the knight pulled its blood-stained sword free from Takemichi's body, the boy flopping to the ground like a fish, the blood pooling beneath him.
It stood at its full height, nearly twice the size of anyone in the room. As it moved, every crevice in its armor shedded rust and creaked like old furniture.
As it rolled its neck, Ariyama finally felt something in his throat other than bile. It was a scream.
He screamed.
He screamed and fell back onto his hands, scurrying away from the scene, wanting to get away, wanting to leave this place and go home.
"What the hell is happening?!"
Ariyama paused his retreat, looking to his left, and he saw Yasami break away from Jack and begin pounding on the sealed concrete door.
"Let us out! What did we do to deserve this? I SAID LET US–"
Another horrible sound, like shrieking stone.
A section of the ceiling over them opened up, and from it flew a swarm. The members of this massive infestation were like locusts, only with wings much bigger than their whole bodies, not to mention their faces.
Grotesque, misshapen and vaguely human in characteristics. Every one of them let out a withering moan, wheezing like an old person but feral like a beast.
Their disgusting looks made Ariyama's stomach do a flip, and he found himself rooted to the floor again, the blood in his veins freezing like ice water, his whole body rigid like a statue.
As the swarm came down in a horrendous frenzy of buzzing and shrieking, Ariyama watched in silent terror as it charged for Yasami, still pounding away at the seal, his fists bloody. But, seemingly unsatisfied with their victim, the swarm suddenly changed its course and headed directly for Jack instead.
The boy's droopy eyes widened with fear, his irises gleaming purple in light from the blue torches, as he tried to duck.
The locusts seemed to fly harmlessly over him, but then they began exuding a weird yellow gas from their stingers. The spore-like mist descended over Jack, so thick that he was submerged in a sea of yellow.
All Ariyama could hear was his coughing and strangled cries for help.
As the room shook again, again, and again, Ariyama felt like curling up into a ball and letting whatever supernatural creature devour him.
He'd never felt so scared in his life.
Cold sweat ran down his neck, his teeth were chattering and his fingers were shaking so much that he couldn't even close them into fists.
All of a sudden, there was a hand on his shoulder.
Ariyama looked to meet the face beside him.
Pretty. Black hair. Blue eyes.
Matsune.
Her face was twisted into shock, but also with a hint of determination, a trail of sweat down the side of her face, her mouth set in a straight line.
From the start of all this, Ariyama had a gut feeling Matsune wasn't acting right. Like she knew something about this place, and as a result wasn't breaking down in fear due to a lack of knowledge on the situation, like everyone else was.
"Matsune, what are you…"
Ariyama spoke quietly and simply, his throat raw from screaming, his lips dry and cracked.
Matsune only pushed him lightly to his knees.
"It's going to be OK. Just stay there and don't move a muscle–"
As she offered him words in a soothing but strained voice, over to their right, the massive knight moved again. Its joints groaned with age as it turned to face them.
Ariyama's heart sank through the floor.
But it paused there, if only for a moment, as if surveying them. It didn't stop for long, however, as it instantly broke into a quick sprint. Its tree trunk-like legs propelled it across to the middle of the room where the two of them were in just three strides.
It was on them instantly, and Ariyama squeezed his eyes shut, knowing it would all be over soon, in one gruesome swing of that massive sword…
But his thoughts of death vanished as he heard a reverberating clash of stone on metal. A bright spark lit up his eyelids.
The impact made his heart jump so violently he thought it might burst. But it also compelled him to open his eyes, his breathing sharp and panicked.
In that single moment in time, Ariyama took in the many things he saw before him.
Matsune stood in a hunched stance, blocking the massive sword from cutting him open, her arm raised up, the aftermath of having seemingly thrown it up in a sharp arc.
And her silver bracelet.
The bracelet that always gleamed in an unearthly fashion was glowing once more, but know
And that bracelet.
Again, it glowed a brilliant purple hue.
The massive stone knight stumbled slightly, its huge blade somehow parried from some other force.
Then Ariyama saw it.
Snaking out from the bracelet was a long chain that glowed purple, a kunai at its end. Moving to grip the chain in two hands, Matsune cried out with effort as she swung the luminescent chain down.
It descended sharply and clipped against the knight's shoulder, missing its neck as it dogged out of the way.
Ariyama's breath caught in his throat.
It must have been a trick – some sort of illusion. A hallucination conjured up due to his vulnerable current mental state. He was likely just seeing things.
After all, there was no way Matsune was doing something so… supernatural.
But maybe it made sense…
Just a few moments prior, Ariyama had caught a glimpse at her bracelet, as it glowed that same purplish color.
And even before that, Matsune had been acting weirdly the whole night. Almost as if this was something she was as equally unnerved by – like everyone else – but also something she had some sort of advanced knowledge about.
Ariyama had only even figured out that blood-color Shrine Gate from reading that history book. Had she a copy of the same one, and had just read more extensively than he did?
Ariyama's mind was cluttered with way too many thoughts, and so he focused back on what was happening right in front of him, sweat running down his neck.
Matsune had stumbled away from him slightly from the backlash from her magic chain weapon hitting off the stone armor of the knight. She righted herself and when she dashed back in front of him as a shield, she was like a panther, her agility inhuman and yet weirdly graceful.
The sounds of everyone else screaming, of the whole room shuddering, of his own gasping breaths, seemed to fade away as Ariyama was pulled into a tunnel vision of just the battle between Matsune and the stone monster.
The knight righted itself too, its joints groaning along with the spray of dust. From this distance, it looked like it was barely being kept apart, spiderwebs of cracks running up and down its armor.
But from what Ariyama had seen before, that visual weakness meant nothing when it came to how quick and menacing the giant bastard actually was.
Its right leg bent as it hunched over, holding its sword straight out in a two-handed grip.
And, like a huge stone spearman, it charged like a bull towards Matsune, who had her back to Ariyama.
All he could see was her dirtied and ripped coat, so Ariyama could only imagine the expression she was wearing. Was it one of conviction, of confidence, of fear?
He had no way of getting an answer, and could only look on as she moved to meet the dashing form of the stone knight.
For a second, he thought they would collide entirely, expecting to see Matsune erupt in a gorey mist of blood and body parts, dead on impact.
Just like Takemichi.
Just like Takemichi.
No, don't think about him. Not now. Not–
At the last possible moment, right before the impact, Matsune ducked and rolled beneath the tree trunk legs of the beast, her long chain whipping a fifteen feet line behind her as she avoided it.
The knight faltered, skidding to a stop almost instantly. It raised its massive blade and twisted its rock hips sharply, spinning with unnatural speed behind itself, its sword striking down at the space Matsune stood.
No.
The place she had been standing at.
She had miraculously avoided another fatal attack, now rolling to its right. As she got up in a crotch beside its right arm, she came back into full view, and Ariyama could make out her expression now.
Teeth gritted, nostrils flaring, and her eyes…
A mix of pure terror, pure exhilaration, and pure determination, among other things.
Dirt and sweat clung to her but she stayed solid, even as she jumped back three meters with one leap.
The attack the knight had just thrown had left its blade stuck halfway in the ground. Taking this opportunity, Matsune raced forward like a bullet, leaping onto the up-turned blade and running the length of its wide side. Reaching the hilt, she kicked off, twisting in midair, her chain curling and unfurling around her, as she plummeted towards its neck, ready to kill.
But it seemed she wasn't the only one with a knack for miraculous last-second saves, as the monstrous knight let go of its sword handle and threw itself back, narrowly maneuvering past the purple slash that opened up the floor, spewing sparks and chunks of rock.
Then it seemingly canceled all its backwards momentum instantly, and diverted it into forwards momentum, retaking its original spot in a fraction of a second and lashing out with its forearm.
It hit Matsune with a loud crash and threw her off-course, her body flipping through the air before landing painfully on the stone floor about ten or so meters from where Ariyama kneeled, shivering and afraid.
It was over. What little protection he had was gone now, and all he could do was accept his death and let the beast of the earth cut into him.
Just as he was about to die, Ariyama became aware of a great many things.
Of the fact he never got a chance to get a girlfriend – even if it wasn't his top priority –, of the fact his mother would now be alone without him or his father, of the fact he'd promised the meek Takemichi that he would protect him and yet failed spectacularly.
Of the fact all of this was really his fault. If only he hadn't opened that goddamn door–
The knight was there now, standing over him, sword already descending to eviscerate him.
Ariyama closes his eyes as the stone blade reached him and–