ROSE

  The morning began like any other.

  Ryujin had dropped us off at school, and we followed the same routine as always. Too ordinary. The scratch of chalk against the board. The low murmur of students discussing what they had done the day before. The faint scent of new paper and disinfectant lingering in the air.

  Everything was in its proper place.

  And yet…

  Something in the atmosphere unsettled me.

  Yoshida sat beside me, motionless as always, staring ahead with that serenity that felt more like resignation than peace. I watched him from the corner of my eye.

  It had not been long since what happened with his finger. Since that impossible sign.

  And yet… his expression today was different.

  Duller.

  The teacher was explaining the upcoming midterms when someone knocked on the door.

  An assistant stepped inside.

  “Sensei, the principal’s office is calling for you.”

  The teacher sighed and stepped out. The door closed behind him.

  Silence followed.

  A few minutes passed. Some students checked small, glowing rectangles that reflected moving images. I still did not fully understand those magical-looking devices, though Yoshida called them smartphones.

  Then the murmurs began.

  Quiet at first.

  Then clearer.

  “Hey… did you hear about the accident?”

  “They’re saying a car exploded on the highway.”

  “It happened early this morning…”

  “Not far from here…”

  An uneasy rhythm struck against my chest.

  I did not ask.

  I did not want to know.

  I rose slowly from my seat. That morning, in particular, I felt unwell. Everything Ryujin had told me weighed heavily on my mind.

  “I’m going to get some air,” I murmured.

  No one stopped me.

  “Are you leaving?” Yoshida asked.

  “Yes. I need some fresh air.”

  The whispers around us felt distant. Meaningless.

  The wind struck my face the moment I pushed open the rooftop door. The sky stretched wide above me, a flawless blue.

  Cruelly beautiful.

  I approached the railing and rested my hands against the cold metal.

  Ryujin.

  His farewell that morning. His back as he walked away. The sunlight glinting across the windshield.

  And that feeling…

  That unjustified sensation that something had quietly come to an end.

  I squeezed my eyes shut.

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  No. That was absurd.

  And then, without meaning to, I thought of Nozomi.

  Her gaze the day Yoshida collapsed in the classroom. The way she spoke. Too gentle. Too precise.

  A chill slid down my spine.

  I opened my eyes abruptly.

  “Where is she…?”

  I had not seen her for some time, and suddenly I felt an urgent need to find her.

  I did not reason it.

  I sensed it.

  As I hurried down the stairs to look for her in her usual haunt, she entered the classroom instead.

  Nozomi.

  Silent.

  The teacher had not yet returned. Yoshida was alone. Several classmates were still whispering.

  “They say the driver died instantly…”

  “The car was completely destroyed…”

  Nozomi approached him with a faint smile.

  “Yoshida-kun.”

  He looked up.

  “You’re Nozomi, right? Rose’s friend… what is it?”

  She tilted her head slightly.

  “Rose is waiting for you. On the rooftop.”

  “Come with me.”

  He hesitated only a moment before nodding.

  Nozomi took hold of the wheelchair and began pushing it toward the hallway. The wheels echoed softly against the floor.

  Tac… tac… tac…

  After a short while, once they were alone, the atmosphere shifted.

  The hallway stood empty. Pale light streamed through the windows—cold and distant.

  Nozomi stopped.

  Her voice lost its warmth. Not harsher.

  Clearer.

  “Yoshida-kun… do you know how much time you have left?”

  He blinked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your illness. It’s progressing faster than they’re telling you.”

  Silence.

  His brow furrowed in anger.

  “Your organs are failing. Your body no longer responds as it once did.”

  “You—!” Yoshida snapped.

  She leaned closer.

  “And this morning… Dr. Ryujin is dead.”

  The world stopped.

  “…What?”

  “Car accident. The vehicle exploded.” Her tone remained soft, almost compassionate. “There was nothing left to recover.”

  “You’re lying!” he shouted.

  Without hesitation, Nozomi pulled out one of those glowing devices and showed him an image. The car lay destroyed, consumed by flames, as if it were dry grass devoured by fire.

  There was no doubt.

  It was the same vehicle.

  The color drained from Yoshida’s face.

  “That… that can’t…”

  “You don’t have anyone left who can help you.”

  That was the sentence that shattered him.

  He did not scream. He did not cry.

  He simply stopped breathing for a moment.

  Nozomi watched the emptiness open inside him and whispered,

  “It must be exhausting… to keep fighting when the end has already been decided.”

  The wheels began moving again.

  Tac… tac… tac…

  Toward the rooftop.

  Meanwhile, I searched frantically through the reading club room, feeling as though something was collapsing around me without my understanding why. I ran through the halls, searching for Nozomi.

  Then I heard my name.

  “Rose!”

  Kiyomi.

  She ran toward me and, when she reached me, she wrapped her arms around me tightly. I had never seen her like that before.

  Broken.

  “Rose…” Her voice trembled. “Ryujin… his car exploded… it burned completely… there was nothing left…”

  Those words confirmed it.

  The ground seemed to vanish beneath my feet.

  “No…”

  I could not accept it. Not after that morning.

  “Where is Yoshida?” she asked, her throat tight. “I came for both of you…”

  As I struggled to process everything, a nearby student spoke up.

  “I saw him with Nozomi. They went up to the rooftop.”

  The world turned red.

  I pulled away from Kiyomi and ran.

  Toward the rooftop.

  My heart pounded violently against my ribs, and the air barely reached my lungs as I climbed the stairs in desperation.

  Nozomi. Nozomi. Nozomi.

  Who the hell is that girl?

  The door stood open.

  When I stepped through it, the wind struck harder now.

  Nozomi was gone.

  Only him.

  Yoshida stood at the edge, his wheelchair tilted dangerously forward, his gaze lost in the emptiness below.

  “Yoshida…”

  He did not respond.

  I approached slowly.

  “It’s not true,” he whispered. “Right? About Ryujin…”

  I could not answer.

  And in that silence…

  He understood.

  His hands trembled.

  “I’m dying, Rose.”

  Tears welled in his eyes.

  “My body won’t respond… I can’t walk… I can’t protect anyone… and now… he’s gone too…”

  The wind roared around us.

  “What’s the point of continuing like this?”

  “No,” I answered instinctively.

  I took another step forward.

  The chair creaked.

  And then I saw it.

  The position. The angle. The subtle tilt.

  An invisible trap.

  “Yoshida, don’t move!”

  But it was too late.

  His fingers—the ones that had only just begun to awaken—failed him. The front wheel slipped.

  The chair tipped forward.

  And his body fell.

  The world went silent.

  I ran after him, driven by instinct alone. Without thought. Without calculation.

  I jumped.

  I caught him in midair.

  “Yoshida!” I shouted.

  I held him with all my strength as the building fell away beneath us and the wind roared in our ears.

  His eyes widened in terror.

  “Rose… why…?”

  I pulled him closer and whispered, with a calmness I did not know I possessed,

  “If you fall… you won't fall alone.”

  The ground rushed toward us. The end was inevitable.

  “Then… we will die together.”

  The seconds stretched into eternity.

  I had failed my Queen, my oath, and myself. I had not fulfilled my duty, and I was dying far from the mission entrusted to me.

  Then—

  A white light engulfed us.

  Pressure exploded within my chest.

  The same.

  The same as that battlefield.

  The same force that tore me from my world.

  The light surrounded us. Warm. Violent. Absolute.

  Yoshida noticed it and clung to me. I closed my eyes.

  There was no impact.

  No pain.

  Only light.

  Only the sensation of something tearing through my soul.

  And I understood.

  It was the same power.

  The same force that brought me here.

  This time, it did not take me alone.

  It swallowed us both.

  What followed felt like being hurled violently against an unseen wall.

  And just like that—

  We disappeared from that world