Aqua was on the floor of his cell. "97… 98… 99… 100…" he panted with sweat dropping from his forehead to the rubber floor below. He was doing push-ups right now. If not to kill time, then at least so he could sleep at night.
His attitude towards life over the past weeks fed on him. His once glorious body was no more than a shadow of its former glory. He still wasn't bad-looking by any means. Even while severely underweight, his natural-born Hoshino face card didn't reflect the medical state he found himself in.
He lost so much weight, one could've thought he had an eating disorder for at the very least a year. Though, since this wasn't the case, he concluded Tera must've not only siphoned from his mind but also from his physical body.
"I must get back to my strength. I don't want to worry Ruby and Akane," he mumbled to himself after a short break had passed, and he continued with another set of push-ups.
Today, Ruby didn't visit for the second day in a row, but he wasn't too worried. Akane not visiting either was the reason for why — he gave her a mission and knew she wouldn't disappoint him.
After spending just more than a week in jail, he had mixed feelings. He was fed well, and got enough water to be able to train this extensively in the first place. However, there was also the other side of things. Most officers treated him like scum, his room was still a cell, and the loneliness, the loneliness was what killed him.
He spent most of his life in solitude, but for some reason he couldn't go back. Something deep inside him had changed, and this something craved social contact.
"45… 46… 47," he counted as suddenly a guard opened the small look hole installed in the center of the door.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat to get Aqua's attention. "You have a visitor."
…
"Well, well, well, if that isn't Aqua Hoshino," Gotanda Taishi said, trying to keep a serious expression but unable to avoid smiling as he, after a month without contact and a week without certainty, finally got to see the boy he had helped to raise again.
Aqua had a genuine smile on his face as well. "It took you a whole week to finally visit me?" he asked.
"I think even you know that nothing in Tokyo worked for the first five of those days. And then I just thought that my old face was definitely not the first or second best thing that would come to visit you," he explained, half-joking.
Even though in his current predicament there was nothing to laugh about, Aqua's smile only grew. "I suppose I can't be mad at you for being correct," he said.
"So, who are the two people who you value more than the old man who taught you everything he knows about the industry? I suppose one of them is your sister, but who is the other one… Miyako?" Taishi asked.
"Akane."
"Akane?"
Aqua sighed, "The blue haired girl."
"Ohhhh, I remember her. So you two finally squashed your dispute and are back together?" Taishi smirked. "Congrats, man."
"That's not- She is not my girlfriend," Aqua tried to explain.
Instead of replying to or accepting what he said, Taishi just grinned at him.
"She is not my girlfriend," Aqua repeated, slightly agitated, with his cheeks dipped in a pastel pink shade.
"Oh, I know," Taishi responded matter-of-factly. "But you wouldn't have a problem with it if she were, right?"
"Go to hell," Aqua groaned, letting his head fall back.
"I'm already living in hell," Taishi responded, matching Aqua's over-the-top gesture.
Aqua leaned back forward and buried his face in his hands. "If you hate living with your mother so much, why don't you just move out? You are like 47 years old, it's about time."
"Do you even know how much money an apartment in Tokyo costs, you nepo brat?" Taishi snapped back jokingly. "But you're right," he added with a softer and more serious attitude, temporarily putting the friendly back and forth the two of them often had by side. "The 15-Year-Lie movie about Ai we produced is expected to be a massive success once we finally get cleared to release it, it-"
Aqua couldn't care less about what he was about to say.
Not he too.
First Ruby and now Taishi?
Why is everybody talking about this Ai?
This must be some kind of prank, though it's really not funny.
And Akane also didn't react like it was just a prank.
This is all so confusing to me…
"Taishi?" Aqua said, interrupting him, who still talked about the movie and its expected revenue. "Who is Ai?"
Taishi looked at him as if he just admitted to being caught up with the Rent-A-Girlfriend manga. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"Please tell me," Aqua pleaded, his voice kind of desperate, turning the entire mood upside down in an instant.
"Okay, jeez," Taishi, who hadn't expected the sudden shift in the atmosphere, said. "She is your mom… Happy now?" He was still trying to catch the pun of the joke.
"I am definitely everything but happy," Aqua groaned, more at himself than Taishi.
…
"Aqua sent you, didn't he? Well, I suppose it's okay since he can't come himself, obviously." Ruby sat next to Akane on the couch Miyako had bought aeons ago. At least it was brown. That way the filth that collected on it over the years was not visible.
"Yeah, he told me you two had a small family feud," Akane said.
"'Family feud'..." Ruby repeated. "So that's how he calls it?"
"No, that's what I call it. I think you shouldn't be mad at him for this."
"I'm not mad at him."
"You're not?" Akane looked a bit confused. "What is it then?"
Ruby pondered for a moment before she spoke. "I can't really put it. It confuses me. Why would he act like he doesn't know who Ai is…? How can he do that after everything she did for us? He is-"
"Ruby," Akane interrupted what was bound to turn into a rant before it could actually evolve into one. "I don't believe this is just an act."
"..."
"And I don't think that you believe he's playing a prank on you either," Akane added.
Ruby stayed mum for a moment as her eyes wandered through the decorated living room, eventually coming to meet Akane's. "It just doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't play a joke like that," Ruby agreed. "He was never a big jokester, and I don't think 5 days of prison would turn him into one either."
"But if you know he wasn't lying to you, why didn't you visit him then?" Akane asked curiously.
"Because this is way worse than him lying again…" Ruby murmured. "He loves her so much… and has gone through so much already."
"I believe he might've experienced something traumatic which shut parts of his brain down temporarily. Perhaps his memories come back once we find the trigger for whatever happened to him," Akane proposed as she got up from the couch and positioned herself in front of Ruby. Her hand was reached out for Ruby to take; but she refrained.
"You sound pretty confident in your theory…" Ruby sat perfectly still, her head slightly lowered. "Are you sure you aren't…" Ruby's gaze darted up, stars glowing in both her eyes. "...hiding something from me?"
Akane didn't flinch. Her hand continued to just hover between the both of them. "And what if I have secrets? Would you avoid helping me just because I'm not the open book you want me to be? We all have secrets, some bigger and nastier, others small and insignificant."
"That's not what I'm saying." Ruby's voice sounded calm. However, there was an underlying threat to it; something that made Akane's instincts scream to finally stop pushing it. "I believe your secret would be important for me to know why Aqua behaves the way he does… and by not telling me, you are actually not working with me but against me." Ruby stood up and brushed past Akane. "This conversation is over," she murmured as she passed by her.
"I never believed you would be such a hypocrite." Akane's voice matched Ruby's as she pulled her hand back and turned so her eyes could follow Ruby, who was heading straight for the door. "I almost turned mad trying to figure out what's wrong with Aqua, and this while you had the answer I needed all along," Akane said.
Ruby's hand rested on the door handle, her fingers glid gently around the cold steel it was made out of as the entire rest of her body stood still. Akane began to walk towards her, each step of hers echoing through the small living room. "Or is my assumption wrong and you don't know a certain Gorou Amamiya?"
The room froze, or at least it felt like that for Ruby. She could feel Akane's warm breaths hit her neck; each one of them sent another shock down her spine. Never before had Ruby looked this utterly mortified. "Do you mean-" She gulped. "Do you mean the dead guy we found during our stay in Miyazaki? Why is he important right now?"
"Yes, you do remember him. The dead doctor who disappeared under mysterious circumstances 18 years ago. It's kind of crazy that you still remember his name. I had to spend quite some time to remember it."
"You didn't answer my question. Why is he important right now?" Ruby asked again.
"Oh, you know, because he and Aqua are the same person." Akane's words sounded almost casual.
Ruby had already been an idol for years and in the industry even longer at this point. She knew her way around, and was familiar with the lies, secrets, and poker faces of the people in it. At first, she believed that she wouldn't need those, that she would be the first idol to make it purely with her kind heart and good character. This was a beautiful dream, but nothing more than a dream at last. The deeper she dived into the industry, the more entangled she became with these three concepts.
At first came the secrets. They were a given, to be honest. Nobody was allowed to know where she lived, who she met with, or what she said in her private chats.
After the secrets came the poker face. She was more often than not feeling nearly as cute as she acted. She's just a human after all. Feeling anger, hurt, and disgust is normal, especially for a teenager. However, those feelings were not accepted in showbiz, so she had to adapt even further.
Lastly came the lies. They are really similar to the poker face but also vastly different at heart. For most, the lies would've been the very first step, but Ruby resisted those the most. She saw firsthand how Ai lived and died through lies. Something she wanted to avoid as best she could. This changed when she found Gorou's corpse… He wasn't out there and simply waited for her to make it big… He was dead. The only two people she ever wanted to impress with her genuine purity — Ai and Gorou — were dead. So she had no reason to continue following the light.
As it is though, if you don't cherish what you have, it will be torn out of your arms.
Her poker face broke when she found out Aqua was Gorou.
Her ability to lie was robbed the day Hikaru Kamiki died.
And now, the third and final thing, her biggest secret was known by someone uninvolved.
Her poker face was broken, she was unable to lie, and her biggest secret was exposed.
With all what she had built up over the time stripped away again, Ruby felt naked. As naked as the day she was born, and as aware about it as if she had just eaten the entire tree of knowledge in a single bite.
Who even is Ruby Hoshino?
"I also only found it out halfway through the 15-Year-Lie production…" Ruby muttered as her entire body quivered. "You have to believe me…" Her voice was almost as quiet as the omnipresent wind. "Please believe me," she whispered as she turned her head. Her voice was desperate, but her eyes took the cake. Her glassy eyes shook even more than the rest of her body. They looked like she had just seen the ghost of Ai Hoshino float by behind Akane.
Her knees gave out.
Akane dropped down to the floor alongside Ruby, who really lost all the strength in her legs. She grabbed her before she could hit the floor, thus saving her from the nasty feeling of having your knees blown open. "I believe you," she muttered as she wrapped her arms around Ruby, "I believe you," she said again, just to make sure Ruby would hear it. Sure, all of this could've been some elaborate scheme by Ruby — she was an actress after all — but it felt far too real and desperate for this, even for Ruby. This performance would've seriously blown any of Kana's crying performances out of the water with ease.
Akane held Ruby tight as she sobbed into her shoulder, gently caressing the back of her head. After cracks appeared long ago, now it was final. Ruby the showgirl was gone again. The carefully constructed mask fully fell away, leaving behind not B-Komachi's star idol Ruby, but Ruby Hoshino — the scared girl who likes to cheer for her idols and read romantic shoujo stories.
…
"Follow me."
Ruby decided to take Akane's hand after all, even if it was just metaphorically this time. Ruby led Akane up the stairs and towards Aqua's room, a pretty familiar setting for Akane. This was at least what she believed, since once she actually entered it, confusion crossed her face. "What happened here? Did Aqua start sleeping with plushies? Does he miss me this much?" she joked.
"You're being silly. Right now this is my room," Ruby explained as she strolled to the desk and picked a single piece of paper up from it, handing it to Akane. She was just about to unfold it and read it when Ruby placed her hand over it.
"This is a letter from Aqua… What he wrote is really heavy," Ruby warned her before pulling her hand back again.
Akane hesitated for a moment before she opened it regardless. Ruby certainly didn't exaggerate when she called it heavy. A tear almost escaped Akane's eyes as she read through it; she was just barely able to blink it away again. The letter was the same letter Ruby had found in the closet after Aqua hid there. It was brutal, mentioning rituals and bringing Ai back. Worst of all, though, it had no information about where he was attempting the mentioned ritual whatsoever.
Akane was deeply moved by his letter. Especially the part where, even while writing this, he was still worried about her just touched her in places she never believed possible. Yet, this wasn't what stood out the most to her. The sentences about Ai inhabiting his body scratched her brain. It felt like the piece of paper screamed at her, telling her to remember it. Whatever it was.
She read through it again,
and again,
and again,
and again,
and again,
and then it came back.
Her hand clenched the paper, and her heart rate spiked as the mental image of the house where Aqua attempted the ritual was burned into her retina once more.
"I know where he attempted to perform this ritual," Akane said, letting the piece of paper glide out of her hand as she walked towards the door with quick steps.
"What? How?" Ruby tried to pick the paper up again but realized mid-bow that if she wouldn't follow after Akane right now, she'd definitely just be left behind by her.
"Could you please tell me where we're going?" Ruby asked as they were already pacing down the sidewalk. Akane hadn't even taken her coat off; Ruby was still struggling with her jacket. She was trying to figure out which arm went where and how to close the zipper without getting her hair, which hung down all around her head, caught in its mechanism while still doing her best to keep up with Akane.
"It's just some… house. I can't describe it… Let's hurry up and get there. I wouldn't want to hang out in those parts of town at night."
"What do you mean? Only rich people and grandmas who bought their house a century ago live here." Ruby finally managed to close up the zipper and also put on her pink watchcap. Now that she didn't have to multitask anymore, keeping up with Akane became a not even noteworthy task for her.
"I know that, too," Akane said as she finally slowed her pace down a bit. "I also can't put it, it's just that my gut tells me that nothing good comes from the place I saw."
"What do you mean by 'saw'? I wanted to ask this anyway, how did this piece of paper tell you anything? I looked at it for ages and never came to any conclusion, while you did-" Ruby fell silent for a moment, her voice all quiet when she continued, "Unless… Are you some kind of psychic…? Can you also read tarot cards and such then?"
Akane giggled lightly at the conclusion Ruby had come to. "No, I'm not. I can barely keep track of the rules of Uno. No way I could read tarot cards," she joked.
"Well, what is it then?" Ruby asked.
"That's what I need to find out… And I think this house could have the answers I need."
…
After another 20 minutes of walking, the house finally loomed at the end of the road, which they had just turned into. Ruby had earlier mentioned that in this district of Tokyo only the rich people and old grannies lived. Now, judging from the houses that passed left and right by them, this was definitely more of the part where the grannies, or at least not the rich people, would live.
"Should we just ring the doorbell?" Ruby asked as they stepped onto the desolated porch of the property.
"There's no point in that. Nobody lives here, and there certainly won't be any electricity either."
"What? How do you know that? Don't tell me-" Ruby gasped. "Did your psychic powers tell you that?"
Akane shook her head. "No, but the boards on the windows did… Also, didn't I tell you I'm not a psychic?"
"I'm just making sure," Ruby mumbled. "But if there's nobody there to open the door, then how do we-"
Ruby's question was answered as Akane just tried her luck and pushed the handle down. To both of their surprise, the door actually was unlocked.
"Oh, I suppose that wor-" Ruby was interrupted again; however, this time it wasn't Akane nor was it something as simple as an unlocked door. A putrid smell hit her head on, almost strong enough to make her vomit. "W-W-Wha-" she stammered as she took a step away from the door. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Akane?"
Akane's eyes turned worried. She gazed down the entrance hall of the one-story building. Outside it was the middle of the day — well, actually a bit past — but on the inside it was dark. Perhaps "dim" would've been the better word for it, since one window, overseeing the street they just came from, was actually left unboarded. Regardless, it was too dark to see anything really.
The worries that had built on Akane's face were quickly replaced by determination. She knew the risks that came along with entering an abandoned building alone, especially as a girl, but the yet-to-be-discovered upsides just far outweighed the known downsides for her. "I'm going in," she said as she turned to face Ruby. "I won't force you to follow me, though."
Akane pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned the flashlight on, stepping inside without giving herself the chance to reconsider her choice. Ruby looked around the neighborhood. The once clear sky was now filled by thick rain clouds. Only then did she realize what bugged her the entire time. "Where are all the people?" Back in her neighborhood she had seen dozens of families, children, and teenagers enjoying their Saturday afternoon. "I have a really bad feeling about this," Ruby mumbled to herself as she followed behind Akane.
The few rays of light quickly faded with the darkness. Ruby walked deeper into the dusty building. "Hey, could you at least wait for me?" Ruby hissed as she entered the first room to the right a bit after Akane.
"Shhhh, be quiet," Akane shushed her.
Ruby reluctantly listened. She didn't appreciate being shushed like she was a little kid screaming too loud, but she knew how Akane meant it.
She is just as on the edge as I am… She is just way better at not showing it.
I wonder if we'll find something of use. The first room was just a dud after all. Not even a single thing was in it. Well, I suppose I would also take my stuff with me if I were to move out.
Ruby trailed after Akane. They headed further down the hallway and entered the second door to their right.
'Nothing again? Come on, this house is empty, so why am I almost peeing my pants here?' Ruby thought as they set their sights on the third door — the one parallel to the entrance door — and approached it. Akane tried to open it like the last two, but this one just wouldn't budge no matter how hard she pushed and pulled.
"Let's look at the others first," she mumbled as she let go of the third and instead pushed the 4th door open, this one budging with ease again.
"Bwah," Akane gagged. This room was the source of the foul odor they had almost adapted to by now. It was horrible. It smelled like some animal had died in that room just a day ago and had since then been decomposing right under the sun in 35 degree Celsius weather.
"Follow me," Akane mumbled as she pulled the collar of her coat over her mouth and nose. Ruby did almost the same thing, pulling her scarf over her nose. In combination with the fluffy jacket and big watchcap she was unrecognizable. Only her eyes were still visible while she looked more like an ISIS terrorist than the cute idol she was supposed to depict.
"Akane? Can we please leave? This room is weird," Ruby murmured. She looked around. It looked just as empty as the other two rooms, but something, probably the smell, still threw her off.
"No, not yet," Akane whispered back, tracing along the walls. "I believe I know this room from somewhere."
"But how? I thought you have never been here before." Ruby shone her phone's flashlight right at Akane. This was by far the darkest room in the house, so a flashlight was the only way they could see what was in front of them. Funnily enough, it was also the only room with a window that had glass instead of wood in its frame. The light, which was supposed to make its way in through it, just seemed to not be too fond of the place either.
"How am I supposed to know? I don't-" Akane's voice hitched before it went mute. After nothing but dust and rubbish entered her flashlight's light cone in the first two, as well as a good half of this room, she finally caught something in it. "How is this- I thought I-" she mumbled to herself, thoughts rushing through her mind.
Right before her on the ground was the beautiful brooch Aqua had given her two weeks into their relationship, the one she had almost gotten herself stolen by a crow in Miyazaki. Every ounce of doubt if it really was the same brooch disappeared when she knelt down. She had been looking all over her place for the past week. Each passing day made her hope to find it again dwindle more. There was no physical object she cherished more than this brooch, but from one day to the next it was just gone. And now it was here?
She looked over to Ruby, who was searching the other side of the room to make sure she was still there. When she made sure, she reached out. Her head snapped back as far as it could, and her eyes rolled back into her head the moment her fingers brushed over the brooch.
"Stupid room," Ruby murmured. Normal girls her age would've spent their day off going shopping with their friends or, in her case, rather just at home reading manga. But here she was, searching for some ritual; and then she found the ritual.
"A-Akane," Ruby's voice quivered slightly, and her legs even more. A single second she stopped paying attention, just to have her mind snap back and be in generational debt. The cone of light revealed the name "Kurokawa Akane," written with the cause for the smell — blood… and enough of it to make Ruby want to vomit into her scarf.
"A-Akane," Ruby repeated, "Can we please leave? I'm scared. This place isn't right."
Ruby raised her flashlight away from the letters, searching Akane for a moment before she found her. Akane just stood there. Her face was as pale as a ghost while the brooch was tightly clutched in her hand. "Please tell me what's going on here," Ruby whispered.
"I-I will." Akane took a step forward. "But before that we must leave. Coming here was a terrible mistake…" Akane raised her flashlight to shine at Ruby's face, and her heart almost stopped. Right next to Ruby stood a man, his face so grotesque describing it could never reflect the true horror Akane felt. "RUBY YOU-" she tried to scream, but it was too late as the man put Ruby into a ruthless chokehold.
"Argh, Grah, Harp," she gasped, her phone flying halfway across the room, just to land on the floor, display down, flashlight up.
"Let her go! Please, we'll leave and never come back," Akane bargained, the fear in her voice more than a bit apparent.
"No du wond (No, you won't)," the man growled, barely human. Something evil crossed his eyes as they met with Akane's flashlight. "Du dwu wond evahr dweave (You two won't ever leave)," he added, trying to smirk with his deformed mouth.
"No, you gotta let her go. My dad works for the police… He knows I'm here. He will have you caught in no time." Akane's voice sounded desperate. Yet, met no response. The man stopped talking; instead, he shifted his, and by extension Ruby's, body so he could choke her more easily.
"ARGH, ARGH, ARGH," she gasped, even more pathetically. She tried to claw away at him, but her nails didn't do any damage to the bulky man whatsoever — there was nothing she could do.
Ruby's and Akane's eyes met for just a moment as she tried to shake her head free, but this split second was enough for Akane to catch every single emotion within Ruby's gaze. Fear, desperation, and helplessness, just to name some. But one thing made her soul burn more fiercely than everything else. They looked like Aqua's when he was at rock bottom, just in pink, not blue.
"Then I'll have to kill you." Akane's voice was calm as she took a step towards the man.
"I won't let you kill my boyfriend's sister." Two dark stars formed in her eyes. Their shine was poison green, like your death would be slow and agonizing if you gazed at them for too long.
"And I certainly won't let you kill me either." Her lips contorted into a sinister smile, reaching from one ear to the other.
Her next step placed her face right over the cone of light emitted from Ruby's phone, making the changes in her expression more apparent. Even Ruby's heart sank; she felt like she saw the devil, not in a 'the devil is beautiful' type of manner, but rather as if the devil's soul had taken human shape. The man felt the same way. First his grip loosened, then his arm fell to his side. "D-Drat (W-What)?" he gasped as he backed up a step. Akane took another step, her face disappearing back into omnipresent darkness around them. Seeing her was one thing, but not seeing her was a whole nother.
"Du monster (you monster)," he gasped, turning around and running for his life. At the same time Ruby's legs finally gave out, and she fell back, barely strong enough to not also flee from Akane.
"A-Akane?" Her voice was hesitant. "Is that you?"
*clack* *clack* *clack* Instead of a reply, all Ruby heard were steps on the hardwood. The noise turned louder before it stopped right in front of an utterly mortified Ruby. A hand emerged from the shadows, everything above the elbow still entirely engulfed by them.
Ruby flinched lightly, expecting to be struck, but the hand stopped, waiting to be taken. Her body didn't want to, but after a moment Ruby reached out, letting Akane pull her back onto her feet.
Now that she was closer, she got a good look at Akane's face. Her skin was still ghostly white, and her hair looked really messy for some reason. However, her mouth and eyes were what made Ruby finally let out the massive breath she held back. "Come on, let's get out of here," Akane said with urgency in her voice, her former beauty restored. "This definitely won't work a second time."
On their way out, they noticed that the door, which was locked before, was now fully opened. They could make out two monitors and a PC, yet no desk or chair. Apparently this was actually where this man lived.
"Whaaaa…" Ruby inhaled the outside air as deeply as never before. It felt freeing, as if there were a terrible weight lifted off her shoulders the moment she set foot out of the house. "That was quite something," she panted as just breathing quickly turned boring again. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" Akane gasped back. She was clearly still enjoying just breathing.
"You know… Look so scary… I know this sounds silly, but I actually thought you'd kill me for a moment there. You almost looked like Aqua does when he gets mad."
"Oh, that's what you mean?" Akane laughed softly. "Well, let's say I'm an actress after all."
And it was true. Akane was a genius method actress. With her talent and incredibly hard work, Akane reached a point where only the likes of Heath Ledger's Joker were still beyond her grasp. However, she knew that what she did back in that house was everything but acting.
"You are seriously amazing," Ruby praised. "It's good that I'm an idol and don't have to compete for any roles with you."
A gentle blush ran over Akane's face, seemingly snapping out of a stream of thoughts. "Thanks, but you're good too…" she mumbled.
Ruby quickly noticed how mentally absent Akane appeared. "Soooo, I heard you called my Onii-Chan your boyfriend," said Ruby in the cutest and most innocent voice she could muster up on the spot. Her arm wrapped around Akane's shoulders.
The blush on Akane's face only deepened from this. "That's not- It's not like that."
"Really?" Ruby asked as she pulled away again, her fingertips brushing against Akane's burning cheek. "Once we get him out of jail, you'll go after him, right?"
"Why do you even care?" Akane asked, as her cheeks couldn't physically turn any redder.
"I don't wanna have to keep my eye on him forever. So I thought that you could take this responsibility from now on. Look…" Ruby turned to face Akane. "I'm pretty sure Kana doesn't like him that way anymore, and he definitely likes you too, so there really shouldn't be anything in your way."
Akane smiled; however, her smile didn't reach all the way up to her eyes. Instead, it died somewhere on the way there — a detail Ruby missed. Akane's eyes still rested on the grim-looking house, she just couldn't take them off. It was like the house spoke to her, calling out her name in a strange way… Perhaps it was just the wind.
"Yeah, I suppose there is nothing in my way," Akane mumbled. 'Nothing… Nothing at all,' she thought, her fingers, void of any blood, played with the brooch in her pocket, softly pushing it back and forth.