The Breaking of the World

The wicked man's words struck Kureha with the force of a freight train and her stomach began to spasm. Something in her told her he was being honest.

“No. No, that can’t be,” was all she could say.

“Go to Shibuya Crossing and watch for yourselves. On the positive side, this means we will have enough supplies around the world to not see the world devolve into primitive chaos. People like me, and the people who are committed to keeping this world in order until the very end, will work with the machines and the algorithms to make sure we do not collapse before our end arrives. Goodbye,” he said with a subtle bow.

Unrelenting finality hung in every word. Kureha knew he was telling the truth.

“Why are you doing this? You spent your whole life doing terrible things, now you are helping at the end?” Kureha asked.

He shook his head and chuckled.

“You are simplifying the world into black and white. I was only ever a tool to be used in whatever manner the universe needed to maintain its balance. Here at the end, it needed me for this,” he sighed.

“...Thank you…” Kureha replied in sincerity.

His head tilted in slight surprise.

“Leave now, rage-filled girl. Go to Shibuya Crossing and see the truth with your own eyes. Then leave for Fukuoka if you want to see it yourself. You do not have the time you think, and the scientists fear that the Shards and Shimmers were only the beginning. Good luck.”

With that, he stood and left. The accountant bowed to Kureha and followed the man away. Flight reactions kicked in and Kureha began to break her gear down as quickly as possible. Rin and Shiona rushed to help her. Everything was packed away in seconds and the doctor accepted that the boys could leave. Hands clasped together as the six of them fled that wretched house and sped to Shibuya’s glow.

Arata pulled his phone from his pocket as tears ran down his cheeks. His brother picked up the call almost instantly.

“Yuki?! Is it true?” Arata cried out as he gasped against the rushing walk’s pain that was piercing his cracked rib.

“You know?” was all Yuki could respond.

“We… we just found out. We’re going to Shibuya now to see the broadcast. Is it true?!” Arata repeated.

“...It is. I just found out earlier and called as soon as I could. When you didn’t pick up… I feared…” Yuki’s voice shook and trailed off.

“No… no no no” was all Arata could say.

“Arata. I love you. I don’t think I’m going to be able to see you. But I’m so proud of you. All of you. You were great kids, and great friends. I love you all. Please stay together until the very end. Goodbye…” said Yuki.

“Goodbye, Yuki,” replied Arata as the ground saw the glow of Shibuya’s billboards up ahead.

It was the darkest hour of the night now. The broadcast would start at the top of the hour. They only had a few minutes. Arata wept as he gasped for air, but he did not stop. Shiona and Rin clung to his side to help carry him as the group continued forward. Shibuya Crossing was ahead of them now. Even in the collapse, even at that hour, it was crowded with hordes of people crossing its famous intersection beneath the glow of hundreds of displays.

They reached the crossing and stopped at an intersection. One minute remained. No one spoke. Weeping, gasping, and labored breathing were all that could be mustered. Still, their hands all stayed connected. Then the displays cut off. Shiona’s hand unwittingly tensed as it held Kureha’s.

An official video appeared, with the seal of the World Scientific Alliance. That group had become a familiar screen guest by now, and Kureha immediately recognized the physicists, astronomers, economists, and more who hailed from countries around the world. An elderly Japanese mathematician began to speak. All across the globe, the world froze to hear the dark proclamation. There in Shibuya, it felt as though time froze the moment his tragic voice began to speak. Where once the crossing was a hive of thousands of busy pedestrians ever moving, now the entire area was still and silent, save for the glow of the screens and the damning words of the scientist.

He confirmed what the wicked man had already revealed. They were wrong. They were wrong all along. It was far worse than they feared, and as the friends stood there in the rising heat of mid-June, they were told that at best the universe had maybe ninety days. Existence would end with the summer. Around the world, all those who still remained finally broke. Though it couldn’t be heard there in Shibuya, Kureha could sense that hundreds upon hundreds of millions of souls shattered in that moment, and wails of sorrow were pouring out of windows as the sun rose on the beginning of the end.

No one panicked there at the crossing. The proclamation ended with logistical explanations of food and supply management updates, which no one paid attention to. The crowds of people quietly shuffled from the crosswalks. Vehicles idled but didn’t move as their drivers evacuated their seats and stood sobbing in the street. A flicker clicked in the air, and dozens of Shimmers of crowds from decades past drifted through the frozen scene of the present. It lasted only a moment, and no one even reacted anymore. The friends all stood there, statuesque and broken as they observed the ghostlike figures fade through the corporeal living. Riku finally came to his senses, and his eyes sharpened.

“We need to leave. We need to leave now. Rin, Arata, we need to get to a station and fill up the van immediately, and we need to leave Tokyo,” he said.

The group shook from its spiral and nodded in agreement. Their locked hands set off for the station entrance to find their way back to the hotel.

On the train, not a single word was spoken by any of the hundreds of passengers. The six friends huddled in a corner and held one another with their eyes clenched shut. Then, a young teenage girl began to cry. Her friends tried to calm her, but soon they were weeping with her. The four of them began to sob as their hands fell from each other’s backs and into the seats. No one moved or acknowledged them. Except Shiona. Something instinctual pulled her from her friends and to the crying children. Even though she was only a few years older, as she looked down to them, she felt as though she was viewing a defenseless baby deer.

Others began to sob. Soon the train car was full of the sounds of broken wails from passengers of all ages. No one was moving yet except Shiona.

As the girls wept without seeing her, Shiona knelt down to them and embraced the one who had started first. Her hand rested on the young girl’s shoulder, who looked up at the sympathetic stranger with confusion first, then acceptance and appreciation. Shiona nodded and the young girl fell into her arms and allowed herself to fully collapse. Then Kureha was beside her, holding the other girls. Then Rin was embracing an older man who was clinging to his umbrella as though it was the only thing tethering him to the earth. Kai embraced two women in the corner who had nearly fallen to the ground. Arata held three teenage boys as their fingers dug into his back in rage-filled howls of sorrow. Riku sat beside an elderly man and held his hand as the man closed his eyes and prayed while tears ran down his weathered cheeks.

Even though the six friends were no longer holding one another’s hands, their connection flowed between them and into those strangers, as The Bitter End’s beginning arrived and devoured the last scraps of hope that had managed to survive. All was lost, and now the collapse was truly here.