Ah, my loveliest highness…
Dignified in all your nobility, a most wicked flower.
You are truly the fairest of them all.
──Mirror, mirror on the wall, reveal this to me.
Of all this world, who is…
A curl of smoke as thick as storm clouds rose from a mountain of rubble, drowning out the sky.
Everything had either been consumed by fire or had collapsed in the tempest. All that remained amidst the ruins were the iron-framed windows, dangling about lifelessly like withered stems. Countless fine cracks ran from the trees through to the foundation below. For this place no longer held any semblance of its former majesty; anything that had ever been was merely an illusion. In truth, it had been a wasteland from the very start.
The devastation was much easier to accept having said that.
As ash and smoke went roaring past, the wind whipped up pebbles and shards of glass that nicked my skin all over. My eyes tried to shut against it, but I forced them open and looked ahead.
The first thing I saw were those azure flames, scattering sparks and flecks of flaming ash as they swayed and licked at the air.
As I peered deeper into the fire, a pair of flashing eyes stared back at me. A nose jut out and gave a heavy puff before a fang the size of my face appeared. The beast before me was so gigantic that I couldn't take it all in even if I tilted my head back far enough to snap my neck.
That's when my face contorted in horror and I screamed.
"GYAAAAAAAH!"
Something moved in my peripheral vision. A person, but not alone. Several people in black robes stood in every direction upon the scorched earth, hoods covering their faces as they urgently shouted who knows what.
I couldn't hear a single word. The beast opened its gaping maw and my legs threatened to give way once more, but not even its earth-shaking howl could reach me.
Someone was whispering more profoundly in the back of my mind.
For me. For them. For yourself.
We all have very little time left.
So keep that grip steady, and never let go──
"… !"
A robed figure reached towards me.
I had to take their hand. I felt it before I even understood why. So why was it that I couldn't seem to move a single finger?
The beast before me just grinned.
"Nyahah."
Kuroki Yuuya realized right away that something was wrong. What was that noise?
"Nyahah, nyahahaha! Now, eeny, meeny, miny, moe…"
Whoever they were, they sounded merry enough — if not a little dense — with the way they were obviously humming to themself with a smile. Listening to their carefree tune was exhausting. Even worse, Yuuya's whole body felt like death warmed over.
There wasn't a sense of tension whatsoever. Yuuya contemplated how the mood had done a total reversal from earlier, where, you know, just a moment ago— … uh. What had happened again?
Something dreadful. Something miserable. He could remember the sensations, but not quite what all of it meant. The more he tried to trail his fingers through the details, the more everything blurred together like a sand castle crumbling beneath the incoming tide. Everything was forgotten in an instant.
Dreams were usually like that, right? Right. Now and then were both dreams.
The voice drew ever closer.
I got my mind made up. This here's the one!"
"If I'm dreaming," he thought, "then could you keep it down?" He didn't want to get out of bed just yet. Here, in this cozy, warm place, it felt like someone or something was holding him tight. Just keeping his eyes closed brought a certain sense of comfort. He'd never had a chance to get a deep night's sleep like this before, and if he slept now, surely he'd have the most beautiful dreams of all.
As Yuuya began to doze off, a jolt shook him awake.
──What the?!
Opening his eyes brought another surprise—no visibility whatsoever. Though he was looking, he couldn't see.
There was only complete and total darkness; The sort that wouldn't diminish no matter how keen your vision was.
It was impossible to tell whether he was standing, sitting, or even lying down. He couldn't move around to get a better sense of the situation, either. His knees bumped against something even if he only just bent them slightly. Both his head and hands suffered a similar fate.
It seemed he was crammed tight somewhere, and it was a very narrow space at that.
That warm embrace suddenly transformed into a heavy restraint, and grew more and more terrifying by the moment. Yuuya's palms began to sweat. The mysterious voice echoed once more.
"Hnghhh. This lid's so freakin' hard. Maybe it'll crack if I smash it against the wall."
There was clattering all around as the shaking started, and the force of it knocked his head around as it intensified.
What the heck was going on here?
"No good, huh. But I ain't gonna throw in the towel just yet."
What was about to happen to him next?
"Fnyaaah!"
He needed to get out of here now!
Yuuya thrust out his hands at the same moment he heard a shout.
"Ow!"
He slammed into something hard with a grunt—the floor, he realized—sick to his stomach with how his head kept spinning from the inside. Bracing himself with both hands, he staggered to his feet.
Muttering, "Where am I?" out loud was strange in such a wide open space. For now, just being able to move both hands and legs again brought a sense of relief.
From that pitch-black world, he found himself in a place so dim, he could barely see at all. When did it get dark out?.
When Yuuya looked up there were, as he expected, stars. Stars that seemed a little strange in how violently they rocked back and forth. Although upon closer inspection, they were neither stars nor the moon, but the lights from a chandelier. The glow from its tiny candles seemed almost whimsical and made the embellishments shimmer like opals. It was a very subtle glow for a structure so large, and he nearly lost heart at the sight of its dwindling light.
He took a careful look around with help from the lights. It seemed he was standing in a narrow passageway. The darkness made it hard to see what lay ahead further in, but black boxes were lined up against either side. There must've been hundreds of them.
"Are those… coffins?"
The boxes were long and hexagonal, rectangular sides appearing to have been stretched horizontally—exactly what you'd imagine a coffin to be, in other words. The glossy black lacquer of each lid was decorated with a gold keyhole. All of them looked heavy and were definitely big enough to hold a person inside. They all sat neatly together, bordering symmetrically within both sides of the passage.
Was this a cemetery, then? But that would mean… Yuuya twisted his head around. Each and every coffin was gently swaying up and down, as if they were actually enjoying themselves. He could have almost sworn they were dancing as he stared at them. He wasn't sure what kept them floating, but if they contained the necessary "contents," then he could safely call this in poor taste.
Yuuya noticed something odd while he questioned their dubious mobility—one of the coffins had a lid missing.
The container was completely empty, with its black sewn interior looking damp and ever-so-soft. Not that he wanted to touch it or anything. But where had the lid gone, then? Well, straight to the floor at Yuuya's feet.
Did that mean he was the one who'd emerged from this coffin?
He couldn't say for sure, but its interior was completely hollow, as if someone had literally just fallen out. In fact, it was reasonable to assume so given this viewpoint and his current circumstances. But then why in the world had he been inside of it?
Yuuya shuddered. What was this place?
He didn't want to believe this was a cemetery, but he'd never even seen somewhere like this before. Nothing here made sense.
For starters, he'd been at—yes, if memory served him correctly— he'd been at school. Yuuya rubbed his aching head as he traced his blurry memory for the truth. He'd left his sixth-period Japanese literature class as soon as it finished, casting a sidelong glance at his classmates as well as their upperclassmen busy with club work before rushing home like always. Following that, he'd passed through the school's gate, and then—
"Hey, you!"
Right around then, someone shouted at Yuuya.
It was the same voice he'd heard in the dark earlier, but when he looked around in a panic, nobody was there.
"Down here, kid. C'mon!"
He lowered his gaze, following the sound of the voice.
"A... stuffed toy?"
A relatively large ash gray plush sat right in front of him, big enough to reach Yuuya's knees or thighs if it stood on its hind legs; The perfect size to be loved on by a child. Perhaps it belonged to someone, what with the striped ribbon tied around its neck.
Its eyes and the inside of its ears shone with a dull blue light. Its chest, a pure white fluff.
What sort of creature did they model it after? He'd never seen something like this before.
Its face was too round for a dog, and its body too chubby for a cat, which, by process of elimination meant... it was likely—
"A tanuki."