THE BELLS OF THE SORRY END

A crow, whose body had evolved into a bulkier and more intimidating form compared to its natural state, let out a harsh cry that echoed through the room as it unleashed all its fury. With a threatening lunge, it extended its talons toward Asahi, whose body was now trapped in the form of a mouse. Asahi tried desperately to dodge the claws that reached out to tear him apart, but he couldn’t escape the beast’s violent charge. Suddenly, he found himself snatched up, his feet lifted from the ground as he was swept into the air, caught in the crow’s grip.

He looked toward Mizuki and silently pleaded for help. The girl tried to summon her strength and rise to her feet, but the arrow lodged in her heart made her falter and fall back to where she was. With Mizuki no longer even able to stand, Asahi’s call for help went unanswered. Now dangling from the crow’s talons, he had no choice but to follow wherever the creature led him. His tears, guided by the motion of their flight, streamed down and scattered into the air.

The crow was taking Asahi to the witch’s house. In a tight, iron-wrought cage, twisted from metal, he would wait helplessly—filling his final moments with pain—even as he knew death was near. No power in existence could save him from that fate. Until the curve of the window blocked his view, he stared into Mizuki’s eyes, losing himself in their depths. Only when their eyes finally parted did he come back to his senses.

He tried several times to break free and defeat the crow, but his struggles only caused the talons to dig deeper into his shoulders. There was no escape. He had to accept that. In truth, the idea of his own death didn’t trouble him that much—what hurt was thinking about Mizuki. Even if he hadn’t dragged her into this situation deliberately, he had still been a part of the plan that led her here.

The door burst open with a noise far louder than usual, and the smoke that had been trapped inside began to seep out. The veins on the witch's face were swollen with the intensity of her fury, giving her a terrifying appearance. She was seething with rage, desperately wanting Asahi to just die already. That pathetic creature called Mizuki was doing things outside the witch's plans, further complicating everything.

The crow hurled Asahi violently into the cage, slammed the door shut, and locked it at once. Just then, a commotion erupted outside the door—it was flung wide open and crashed into the wall. The witch, so consumed by anger she didn’t even question the chaos, shouted furiously at the messenger birds who had been knocked to the floor by the sudden force of the door.

The birds cried out their emergency calls, trying to be heard over the witch’s fury. With a tense expression, the witch barked at them to explain themselves immediately. According to what the birds had seen, Mizuki had been repeatedly blowing the whistle Chieko had given her, desperately trying to reach him in order to rescue Asahi.

The moment the witch heard that Mizuki intended to use Chieko for her own ends, she felt a brief surge of old emotions suffocated by hatred. These feelings, now greatly weakened with time, held little meaning—but for a fleeting moment, she hoped nothing bad would happen to Chieko.

Refusing to let Mizuki ruin her plans or drag the man she loved so deeply into darkness with her, the witch knew she had to find something in her book to stop her. But since Chieko had given the girl a protective necklace made of parchment, a simple spell wouldn’t suffice. She had to summon beings who could rip Mizuki apart, who could torment her—she needed their help.

With that resolve, she slammed her dusty, heavy book onto the table and began rapidly flipping through its pages, searching for the spell she needed. As she grew absorbed in her thoughts of what she would do to Mizuki, she suddenly realized she’d forgotten all about Asahi. Glancing at the clock, she sighed in disappointment; it wasn’t time yet. Confident the crow would alert her when it was, she turned back to the cauldron.

She began placing the ingredients listed in the book into the cauldron, one by one, with exact care. Once everything was prepared, she lit a match and set fire to the haphazard pile of branches and logs beneath it. Then, she began stirring carefully, ensuring the ingredients blended perfectly.

A loud crash rang out as something slammed into the window—Chieko hurled herself into Mizuki’s room in a panic. The moment she saw Mizuki lying on the floor, she rushed to her side. Mizuki was sobbing uncontrollably, her words tangled and barely understandable as she tried to explain what had happened and begged Chieko for help.

Chieko kept asking her to repeat, struggling to make sense of the broken sentences. Mizuki, refusing to give up, started from the beginning and explained everything once again. When she finally finished, she asked, with eyes full of resentment, why the witch was doing such things—playing with people’s lives so cruelly.

Trying to stay calm, Chieko explained that the witch was using people’s despair as a source of power, feeding off their hopelessness to stay young and beautiful. To help Mizuki fully grasp what was happening, she carefully laid out the entire situation in detail:

According to Chieko, those who made a deal with the witch would have their souls trapped in the world of darkness while they dreamed. But their bodies, still in the real world, would follow the witch’s commands. When they woke, they either remembered nothing of their actions or believed them to be dreams. Powerless to escape that decaying, desolate realm, they thought their lives would fade away there.

The witch had trapped the mouse and others in a separate realm. While their bodies rotted in another world, their souls drifted closer and closer to an eternal sleep. But when seeds of love were planted again in their fading hearts, the strings tying them down would loosen, and pale light would begin to seep into their darkness. As they neared the end of their lives, their fates were sealed by a sorrowful demise—how long could one live with a frozen heart?

They had to save Asahi before the starlight carrying the warmth in his heart burned out completely. Their hearts were sealed in the pitch blackness of night. In a realm where time’s frequency multiplied and sped forward in chaotic bursts, they were slowly withering, still hoping to find an exit.

Chieko said that, somewhere in a corner of the witch’s house, there should be dozens of snow globes containing clay-like figurines trapped in glass domes—figures that resembled the people the witch had cursed. The witch used these magical globes to maintain the link between soul and body, giving her control over them in both realms.

She told Mizuki that the spell cast on Asahi was even stronger than the one cast on her. To save him, they would have to enter the place called the World of Darkness, retrieve the globe containing Asahi’s soul, and bring it back. But it was incredibly dangerous: anyone who entered that realm without being meant to would be cursed the very instant they set foot there.

They would have to retrieve Asahi’s globe and place it beside its twin in the Land of Light. Once the two globes were side by side, a keyhole would appear. Using a hidden key from the pendant Chieko wore around her neck, they would unlock it. The glass of the globe would open, and the black feathers of life force sealed within would finally be set free.

Mizuki was ready to go there—no matter the cost. She asked Chieko how she could enter that dark realm. Chieko tried to reason with her, telling her it was madness, that even if she managed to get in, there was no guarantee she could ever come back out. And even if she did, she might be cursed for the rest of her life. But Mizuki couldn’t be swayed—her eyes saw nothing but love.

Even if she stood no chance against the beings that lurked in that world, she wanted to try. She couldn’t just leave Asahi to suffer a cursed fate alone. Desperately, she pleaded with Chieko to reveal where the World of Darkness was hidden.

Chieko knew the girl wouldn’t survive there on her own—so she resolved to go with her.

Meanwhile, the mixture the witch had been stirring with violent effort was now ready. Together with the crow, she began chanting incantations. Giant bubbles began to rise from the thick, mud-like purple substance brewing in the cauldron. The bubbles floated around the room, slowly drifting from place to place. After wandering for a while, they burst with ear-splitting pops.

With every burst, misshapen, grotesque creatures—assigned the task of killing Mizuki—materialized from a realm unknown and entered the world.

Asahi, witnessing these abominations appear from mere bubbles, was stunned. He couldn’t comprehend how such a thing was possible—why were they all coming into this room?

When he finally managed to ask the witch why she was summoning such creatures, her lips curled into a cruel smile. She intended to send them after Mizuki, to have her ripped apart before she could do anything. If Asahi was to meet death, he wouldn’t go alone—he’d take Mizuki down with him.

The witch cast one final spell on Asahi, and tears streamed down his face. With a cruel flick of her hand, she erased all his memories. A beam of light, a mixture of pink and purple, surrounded them as it radiated from Chieko’s face, with her hair flying around. As soon as the shield was formed, Chieko launched her attack. After speaking a few words, she clenched her hand into a fist, and as she did, the creatures before her began choking as if they were being strangled. They were gasping for breath. Thanks to Chieko, they had defeated the creatures in no time. Knowing that the creatures sent by the witch wouldn’t be a problem, Chieko moved forward confidently, though she was beginning to feel uneasy as they approached the more dangerous part. While her own fate had already been decided, she wished for Mizuki to be unharmed in the Dark World. They continued on, running. As they moved through the forest, they drew closer to something that shimmered. A tiny glowing orb grew larger and more blinding, dazzling them. When they emerged from the tree-lined area, they found themselves in a place resembling an amusement park. The wooden horses of a carousel were moving on their own. Spirits, granted to the wooden horses, caused them to move as their chests worked in place of hearts. As soon as the horses saw Chieko, they joyfully left their places and gathered around her. When Chieko asked for their help, the horses begged her not to go to the Dark World. But one horse, knowing Mizuki and knowing that Chieko would go there anyway, agreed to take them. They mounted the horse and began to soar through the air. A swarm of flying creatures targeted Mizuki, attacking her relentlessly while she struggled with the agony in her soul. Chieko handled the creatures, protecting Mizuki. Mizuki found it strange how much Chieko was helping her, but she didn’t judge her. She needed Chieko’s help. After battling hundreds of creatures, they reached a mirror, the gateway to the Dark World. Chieko reached into her pocket and pulled out a pouch embroidered with stars. She handed it to Mizuki, who was looking at her with melancholy eyes. She explained that the pouch contained dust that would make her invisible for a few hours, warning her that the dust wouldn’t work in the Dark World, but it would be useful just before leaving. She told Mizuki that once she got the sphere from the Dark World, she should escape without looking back. The horse would wait outside and take Mizuki directly to the witch’s house after she had retrieved the sphere.

Chieko grabbed Mizuki’s hand, and they stepped through the mirror. They found themselves in front of a door, and as soon as they entered, an alarm blared, deafening them. Chieko quickly neutralized the guards and led the way to the spheres. The clouds in the Dark World were slowly and faintly separating from their group like melting wax, and they dodged the bright collisions that illuminated the sky. Chieko, unsure of how much time they had, moved quickly, defending Mizuki and herself, while directing Mizuki to the location of the sphere. Mizuki reached the sphere and grabbed it.

With nothing but bones visible in their hands, the skeletons, with horrifying torsos as long as their bodies, were spraying shards of diamonds in various sizes with an alluring purple hue from their unusually thin rib bones, thanks to the immense power conveyed through the staff they waved. The particles that broke off from the gaps in their bones defied gravity and swiftly flew to the edge of the sky, scattering into every part of the heavens step by step. The sea of pink and purple tones in the air was descending to the ground in droplets, turning every living and non-living thing it touched into a ferocious mass of mud within a time frame that varied according to the durability of the target. Even the irregular, dried-up rivers couldn't withstand the tiny droplets and suddenly turned brown and began to overflow, with the white foam of the waves evolving into animated, ornate statues. Due to the fog that restricted their field of vision, it felt as though every place they passed was identical. It was as if they were doing nothing but consuming time. With each passing minute, the ground beneath their feet struck hard was gradually becoming slippery and cloaked in cruel mud. As if that wasn't enough, the gas cloud enveloping the world began sending hallucinations to those exposed to the mist in the air—hallucinations indistinguishable from reality.

Mizuki reflexively turned his head with a narrow tilt backward upon suddenly hearing the moans of creatures behind him; though he couldn’t fully perceive what he saw, the effect widened his eyes with amazement. A spider-like creature, five times the size of Mizuki, with multiple legs, was tightly weaving a web by rubbing its legs together. Defeating this spider, far larger than him, was out of the question, and he panicked as his hands and feet tangled. Chieko, waving her fingers in the air, drew shapes with glittering dust before her body, creating spells. The dust gathered and grew, forming a ball of magic. With a single finger movement, she flung this magic ball at the spider-like creature. The creature’s legs slid several meters back due to the damage it took. Chieko kept repeating these attacks in succession. Eventually, the spider-like creature collapsed and met its end.

They needed light to descend the stairs. When they looked down through the gaps between the steps, nothing could be seen but a cluster of endless darkness. Chieko waved her hands in the air to turn the situation to their advantage. After this motion, a match suddenly appeared in her hand. She lit it by blowing on it with a breath that filled her lungs. As the flame ignited, the burning tip of the match gradually turned black, and the blackness stretched all the way to the bottom of the matchstick. Before the match went out, they ran down the steps. When they reached the lowest floor, they took a deep breath. It felt like they had made it through the worst of it.

Leaving the corpses of the dead creatures behind, they accelerated and reached the Magic Castle. They scanned the steps at the entrance of the castle to find a way in. Among those they examined, the granite steps seemed to have barely compromised their divinely granted durability. Wishing to free himself from the swamp he was slowly sinking into, he leapt with all his might onto the still relatively intact steps with large strides. As the hallucinations he saw increased to the point of covering all the blurry scenery behind him, the fear inside him involuntarily rose in tandem. His steps began to lose speed and tended toward total stillness. Though he tried to push his limits, he felt the treacherous cold of a spear at the nape of his neck. In mere seconds, one more soul might rot away, left behind with no chance of clinging to life.

The moment he felt the metal beneath his feet, which were about to stop entirely, several unidentifiable loud noises tormented him, only to suddenly be replaced by silence—then flared up again with hesitation. Chieko had helped—she had saved Mizuki. As the young man’s ears approached the brink of deafness, his breath, completely spent, joined his eyes closing into eternity, and he collapsed violently to the ground from the damage he had taken. His crumpled lungs once again met particles of breath. When his dazed senses returned, he realized a pair of curious eyes was looking down at him from behind a line of shining dust. The strange weapon in the girl’s hand, who didn’t appear to be of particularly high status, had saved the Mizuki’s life.

As he opened his mouth to express his gratitude, before the words could come out, Chieko sensed—though it wasn’t entirely clear—that a new wave of savagery was approaching and took Mizuki under her protection once more. Suddenly, the low-pitched cries of a large phoenix were enough to drown out the screams of the creatures chasing Mizuki and Chieko. Though short-lived, the continuous scream signaled that a new death was imminent. After this warning, the downpours from the sky, obeying their leader’s wish to make things even more entertaining rather than seize everything with mud, aimed to turn everything into ashes without a word. The muffled low tones, secretive and deep, locked together with unbreakable force.

Thanks to the pearl necklaces dangling from their small iron-forged bodies, the bats, decorated with needle-sharp wings, flapped like storms and dove from the topmost edge of the sky like shooting stars, threateningly painted to overshadow the plans of the two youths. Flying in crisscross patterns, they tried to destroy the young ones’ attacks. A fearsome bat that barely grazed Chieko’s arm nearly split the young man’s arm in half. His mouth, opened wide from the pain, inhaled the entire smoke-hidden sky, stocking his lungs with bitter oxygen despite the stinging coughs that scratched his throat. As he felt the choking sensation spreading through his soul... lights, rolling and slowly growing from a small point, reached a blinding intensity. When he opened his tightly shut eyes next to the girl... dozens of steps ascending to the sky stood just meters away, watching them. Without wasting time, they stepped on the scales to avoid death. A single mistake could cause them to fall into the massive gaps between the scales; they had no choice but to be careful.

Unfortunately, the girl’s small feet and the protruding stones were quite a challenge for her. At one point, her foot slipped, and she barely avoided being dragged down. Taking this opportunity, the skeleton swung its staff and shot a glowing black, poisonous beam at the young ones. The girl raised the enchanted, inscription-less necklace she wore around her neck into the air, and the beam reflected back toward its sender. The skeleton snapped its fingers and teleported to another dimension—it had escaped Chieko’s grasp.

Fate had declared, with a sealed decree, that the time for this young man’s death had not yet come. They were now in front of the door to the room with the snow globe. The majestic door stubbornly resisted revealing what it concealed behind it, while the timid expressions on their faces were caught on the hook of a hidden power and led them inside. When they scanned the room, where spiderwebs hung from the ceiling, they found what they were looking for. In the center of the room, a gem, considered the heart of the universe, was sealed inside a dome atop a rising column. It did nothing but spin on its axis, with a few messages inscribed in letters from centuries past.

The single step they took toward the seemingly powerless crystal triggered a recorded speech in a radio-like tone from a man’s voice, echoing through the room as the columns began to ignite. Asahi pulled out a small green wand from his pocket and struck the glass cabinet where the spheres were stored. The glass, after crackling with low-pitched sounds, shattered with a loud crash. The sirens echoing throughout every part of the World of Darkness grew even more intense. Asahi sensed that his magical power was nearly depleted. At that moment, Mizuki, without hesitation, reached out toward the orb containing Asahi’s soul. The moment his fingers grasped the orb, he saw purple bruising lightly spreading from his fingertips to his whole hand. Though a dotted numbness began at his fingertips, he ignored it, determined to return to the witch’s home as soon as possible. They needed to go back the way they came—immediately. Mizuki hoped they could get out of here without much trouble.

As soon as Mizuki held the sphere, she saw the day Asahi was deceived, as if she were witnessing it in person. Asahi had many dreams about finding a place in the world but was unable to fit in with his group. He was dying inside. One night, thinking the witch was a good person, he made a deal with her to fulfill his dreams. As he waited for his dreams to come true, he spent his days singing and playing instruments, receiving only a few scraps of talent, but ironically, he still felt alone and miserable. Everything began to lose meaning. When he realized that the witch was only seeking victims, it was too late.

Chieko whispered something to Mizuki, placing her hand on her head as she came back to herself. Mizuki felt as though she had lived this moment before—deja vu. “I might not be able to fully make up for the great mistake of the past, but at least I can try to make you happy. You listened to the cries of the mortals abandoned in this world every night. When I first heard these cries, I was terrified, but you were strong.” She told Mizuki to leave without looking back, warning her that she would die the moment she entered this place and that she would never escape. She reminded her that with the dust Chieko had given her, she could leave the Dark World unseen. Mizuki didn’t want to leave Chieko behind, but she knew she had to hurry. She sprinkled the dust on herself and ran to the mirror. As she passed through, she glanced back for the last time, seeing Chieko smiling painfully and the giant sinister creature standing behind her.

She mounted the waiting horse, which galloped toward the witch’s house. As Mizuki traveled, she remembered a dusty memory of her mother. One night, enormous creatures had broken into their house in the Dark World and tried to take her mother away. Mizuki was just a child then, trying to push the creatures away, but they were unmoved. One of the creatures kicked Mizuki, sending her sprawling. She cried out as her mother was dragged away, but when she tried to chase after them, the distance between them grew. She encountered a wooden horse along the way, which agreed to take her to the Dark World, hoping to see a life destroyed.

Chieko and her father had tried to stop Mizuki, but they were too late. Chieko’s father had failed to save Mizuki’s mother in time, and now he couldn’t prevent her from entering that world either. He had made mistake after mistake. When Mizuki’s mother’s spirit left her body, her body collapsed and began to wither. Mizuki, frozen by the sight of her mother’s death, didn’t notice the creatures around her, only crying helplessly. Chieko, seeing that Mizuki would die, went to her and, with her sealed sword, defeated the enemies like a professional knight. Mizuki, still in shock, tried to comprehend what had happened, staring at Chieko. Chieko placed her hand on Mizuki’s head and tried to calm her down, just like today. This moment had been erased from Mizuki’s memory by Chieko’s father.

Mizuki was speeding along on the horse. The light beams before her eyes spread out like the first light of dawn, filling her vision with white. As everything in her field of view regained its liveliness, a rumble echoed in her ears. The entire universe was aware that a cursed evening was taking place. For the one who would die, tears had already been shed. She, determined to defy fate, was ready to sacrifice everything. She pushed forward, undeterred by the challenges ahead, hoping she could save him. Everywhere she looked, explosions echoed. In the deepest pit of the universe, blood-curdling screams rang out. Mizuki’s skin, clutching the sphere that held Asahi’s soul, began to turn purple, as dark lines branched out from her fingertips. She struggled to breathe, her chest tightening. Despite her attempts to free herself, she couldn’t take in air. Her vision dimmed as she succumbed to the agony. With the sensation of time shattering, she felt the end of her life drawing near.

Mizuki, cloaked in the dust, snuck into the witch’s house. She placed the sphere next to the other one. The keyhole appeared, and she inserted the key from Chieko’s necklace. The glass of the two spheres opened, releasing black feathers. The witch, who had no idea what was happening, was furious. She was going to end Mizuki’s life.

Asahi’s world collapsed in delirium as Mizuki died before he could finish his sentence. While he seethed with frustration at his helplessness, he began to quietly sing a farewell song for Mizuki. With these words of death echoing in his ears, Mizuki severed completely from this world:

the fading glow of the magical farewell had slipped from before my eyes,
while the helmet of stars sparkled for us throughout the night;

for centuries you had felt the soul of lost love with your withering heart.
at that moment, for the last time, love’s bitterness pierced my soul with your poisonous voice.

flames slowly clung to your tears, with the curse of betrayal.
your hands stretched to eternity, with dust particles from the notes.

with your departure, the map of nothingness swelled between my fingers.
when I opened my palms, the continent of the lonely had collapsed.
the reflection of pale cloud matches had risen to the sky.

a July night darkened in your wake, the scepter of farewell.
the echo of exploding pains crushed my soul within me.
the warm melodies I had hidden bowed to death with me

Asahi, overwhelmed by tears, desperately tried to speak, but his words were barely intelligible. He pleaded with the witch to save Mizuki. He said he would give his life for hers, as long as she was okay, but the witch paid no attention. Angrily, she slapped the ground, and Asahi, ready to act, was stopped by the puppet animals holding his arms. Mizuki was dying, her body disintegrating into dust with each piece that fell to the ground. Asahi watched in horror as Mizuki vanished. When the last piece of Mizuki’s body turned to dust, everything fell silent. Only one thing could be heard: "I’ve kept everything you wrote and drew all this time. They kept me alive. Fate dragged me into this, and in doing so, I led you astray. I’m sorry. Even though I never saw you, I always loved you."

What had been told over many pages was actually part of a legend passed down from generation to generation. Whether the events were true or not, no one knew for sure. But it had become a story that captivated everyone. Mizuki was like the moonlight, lost among the stars, her light coming from the sun. Asahi, though he hated people in the world, had a warm heart despite being forced to cool down by fate. The girl, lost among the stars, was the moonlight that came from the sun.