They walked in silence through the long, bustling corridors of the academy, the noise and chaotic energy once again seeping into Kira's senses. She glanced at Hoshimi, trying to gauge his reaction, but his face remained an unreadable mask.
The walk back to his dorm was a blur. Kira kept muttering under her breath, a stream of anxious, disconnected thoughts about Sophia's power, the silent council, and the sheer overwhelming presence of Hex Academy. Hoshimi, however, was deaf to her anxieties, his mind a whirlwind of speculation, his focus entirely on the two items hidden in his pockets. The black box in particular seemed to radiate a faint, almost irresistible pull, a silent siren call.
"Are sure you're okay, Hoshimi?" she whispered as they reached the relative quiet of their dorm hallway. "It's like, something's up with you today."
"I'm fine," Hoshimi replied, his voice flat. "Go to your room, Kira. I need to be alone." There was an urgency in his tone.
Kira nodded, her shoulders still hunched. "Okay I understand, come call me if you… if you need anything." She didn't press, didn't pry. She simply vanished into her room, leaving Hoshimi alone in the empty hallway.
He walked into his own room, the sterile white walls and minimalist furniture a stark contrast to the grandiosity of the student council chambers. It was stark and minimalist. A single bed, a desk with a lot of unorganized books sprawled across, and a window overlooking the campus. He closed the door behind them, the click of the lock echoing with a strange sense of finality.
The door hissed shut behind him, sealing him in. He didn't bother turning on the lights, the muted afternoon glow filtering through the window enough to illuminate the space.
He stood in the middle of the room, the carpet rustling beneath his feet, as he turned on the air conditioner, the sound of the mechanical hum filled the room. He pulled the document from Reina out of his coat, glancing at the official Hex Academy seal. "Assignment." He scoffed, tossing it carelessly onto his desk, where it landed with a soft, ignored thud amongst some scattered textbooks. It was a chore, a meaningless task in the grand scheme of things.
[That probably has to do with the murders, I'll take care of that later. I doubt that revenge will solve anything.]
His gaze returned to the black box still clutched in his hand. This was different. This was her last message.
"Fuck."
"I was terrible to Audrey, wasn't I?"
He retrieved it from his coat, its matte black surface feeling colder now, heavier. He turned it over in his hands, searching for a seam, a switch, any indication of how it operated. There was nothing. It was perfectly smooth, an impenetrable enigma.
From Reina. She insists you deal with it. Privately. Sophia's words echoed in his mind.
"The patriarch used the same thing to relay messages, these things must've been lying around the place for her to get her hands on one of these."
He sat on the edge of his bed, the cool air brushed past him, his forearms were freezing. His violet eyes focused on the tiny speaker. There was no button, no discernible switch. He ran his thumb over its smooth surface, a subtle mana signature tracing its edge. He found a faint depression, almost invisible, at one corner. He pressed it.
Audrey's final message.
He held the box up, close to his ear, his violet eyes narrowing. And then, as if sensing his intent, a faint, almost imperceptible glow emanated from the box, a soft, ethereal green that pulsed with a gentle rhythm, mirroring the deep mana within him. A voice, soft and clear, yet tinged with a delicate tremor, filled the silence of the room. It was Audrey's voice.
"Hoshimi," the voice began, so real, so immediate, that Hoshimi flinched, a raw, involuntary tremor running through him. He recognized it instantly.
It was the voice he had heard countless times in his mind, replaying her laughter, her questions, her earnest whispers.
"If you're hearing this," Audrey's voice continued, a dry chuckle, weak but undeniably her, "then... well, then I guess I didn't make it, did I?" A pause, filled with the static of unspoken grief. "Funny, isn't it? I always wanted a high school romance. Someone to hold my hand, open doors for me. I always hoped that I would live long enough to get married, have kids and get a good job. Domino has taken over hasn't she?"
Static. A faint scrape, like the microphone had brushed against fabric.
"No… Domino is gone as well, I couldn't save the two of you. I'm sorry." Hoshimi replied to the air, the box in his hands shaking.
"I... I know you probably don't feel things the way I do," her voice, tinged with a heartbreaking understanding, continued. "You were always my anchor, Hoshimi. My strange, weird and sometimes emotionless anchor, you always used to spout some philosophical bullshit that pissed me off. But you promised you'd keep me on that ledge. You promised you wouldn't let me go."
"I know I'm being selfish," she said. "I hope you're crying right now, or at the very least, you're sad."
His fingers tightened around the box.
"I know you don't really… react the way people expect you to." A pause. Careful. Gentle. "That's not a bad thing. It's just how you survive."
The AC hummed. Too loud. Too close.
"I used to think," she continued, voice wavering now, "that if I stayed long enough, you'd look at me the way you look at problems you can't solve. Like you wanted to.
His hands, usually so steady, trembled violently, the black box almost slipping from his grasp. The scar on his cheek, the one from Audrey's bite, pulsed with an agonizing phantom ache. He held his head down, his fingers rubbing his temples as the grip on the corner of the table tightened.
"I know you were just doing your job," Audrey's voice, now laced with a profound, almost unbearable tenderness, whispered from the box. "Thank you so much, you helped me change, you had more impact on what was left of my pitiful life than anyone else did, I really did feel like I wanted to spend my life with you, if I got another chance I would try, try and try again to reach out to you."
His shoulders, usually ramrod straight, slumped, a sudden, crushing weight descending upon him. The heaviness on the bottom of his stomach tightened even more, like an anvil pulling him down to the deepest, darkest parts of hell.
"I've known since back then, that nothing lasts forever," her voice came out in gasps, she was clearly crying through the message. "In the end, I knew that my life would leave me, even then. It still hurts so goddamn much."
"I just wanted to tell you...I probably have already told you this haven't I? I would've at least told you this before I went," Her voice faltered, replaced by a soft, almost inaudible sigh, a whisper of a breath that seemed to evaporate into the air. "I... I really liked you, Hoshimi. More than just a bodyguard. More than just a friend."
"But I'm…I'm just so tired of this. If there truly is a next life, I want to be beside you, right by your side."
"In my next life, I promise… I promise that I'll become the most beautiful flower you've ever seen."
The silence that followed was absolute, deafening. The box emitted a faint, final pulse of violet light, then went dark. Audrey's voice, her essence, her fragile hope, vanished, leaving only an echoing void.
Click.
Silence rushed in like water.
The box slipped from his fingers and struck the floor. The sound was dull. Unimportant. Everything was dull now.
Hoshimi stayed there, kneeling, his hands pressed into the carpet so hard his fingers went numb.
His chest burned. Not heartbreak. Like something inside him had finally stopped holding itself together.
"…Fuck."
The heaviness had disappeared, only leaving a large gaping hole in its wake.