Rainy Night

We departed from the forest island and headed for the saddle maker Haruki knew from our grandfather.

We arrived at our saddler, who is apparently a family friend of ours and worked on my family's dragon saddles. The saddler swiftly measured Pluto and asked us a few questions about him. Soon after, the saddler began crafting a suitable saddle for us and told us to come back in six weeks.

“Does it usually take that long to make a saddle?”

“Well yeah,” Haruki responded. “He usually makes special features for the saddle, like for weapons holders and compartments. Plus Pluto is still a young dragon and still has space for growth, so the saddlers need to take that into account as well.”

“I see, so that’s why He asked me what weapon I use, I said I haven’t decided. Will that be okay?”

“It’s fine, they can add it later on when you pick a weapon that needs specific storage.”

Our conversation continued until we reached home and had lunch. Haruki’s face seemed strange for some reason. His face that was usually painted with a blank expression looks excited.

When we reached our home I saw Old man Chron waving at us from the entrance with a rather ecstatic look from his face like Haruki.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Old man Chron directed us inside the house where the place was decluttered; all the mechanical equipment was hauled in the storage.

I wandered into the rooms and noticed red balloons and rainbow ruffles were floating around.

“Happy Birthday Yuko!!” Haruki and Old man Chron cheered with big smiles on their faces.

I was taken aback. My birthday was a week ago, so I didn’t expect anything like this. I couldn't control my smile. My vision blurred with tears as Haruki and Old man Chron continued with their greetings.

“We know it’s way past your birthday but we thought that we should at least celebrate your 18th birthday with you as a family because we missed so much of it.”

They’re right. When my parents died I never had a chance to celebrate my birthday with an actual family member. I only celebrated with my friends.

“A mango cake!!”

Haruki brought out a delicious looking mango cake frosted with vanilla icing and garnished with mangoes on the top.

“Yup, when you were a kid, Aunt Thalia told us you liked mango cake so I thought you still might like them. Am I wrong?”

“Are you kidding? I love mango cake, thank you so much!!”

We celebrated my birthday, although it was late, I had so much fun. Pluto and Heather were enjoying their time together frolicking in the garden. We watched them on the windows while stuffing our mouths with food and of course my delicious mango cake.

The cream was so decadent I could melt with happiness with every bite!!

After eating, Old man Chron, Haruki, and I talked for a bit while watching the love story of our two dragons blossom. Old man Chron told me stories about my parents and Haruki’s father. Time passed and it was already noon, so we prepared to depart to Tokyo in hopes of finding the person in my prophecy.

“I'm still sad that we couldn’t take Pluto with us.” I broke the silence while maintaining a tight grip on Heather’s saddle.

“Pluto is not trained to fly around in the human plane. It could be dangerous for people and the rider.”

“Well I understand that, but when I see those adorable eyes, it felt criminal to turn him down. I just feel bad, you know?”

“Don’t worry, Old man Chron will be teaching him, Pluto will be joining us in no time.”

The sunset beamed with a gold and rosy hue as we swifty descended back to Tokyo. The city was bustling as usual with lights and billboards in all directions, we carefully navigated our way in hopes to find the shrine the address was taking us.

We flew over traffic. It felt a bit strange that a dragon was flying over the busy road and people did not notice anything. Even when a strong gust of wind blew through people because of Heather’s wings, it didn’t faze anyone and just continued with their day.

On the way we saw a fellow soldier patrolling the streets and waved at us.

“What is he holding?” I asked.

“Oh that is a tracking gem.”

“It shows people who have been corrupted by shadows?” I asked.

“Not really, It's hard to differentiate between people who have been consumed by rouge shadows and people who are not, afterall, everyone who lives in the human plane has a shadow of their own and some rouge shadows hide their traces well. You can’t tell before it's too late. We can track the people who are fully consumed by a rogue shadow, but that’s not good right? Rescuing them will be too late. So we made a device that measures a person’s emotions.”

“How can you measure everyone’s emotions? That sounds a bit far-fetched.”

“Well, I understand your confusion but let me explain. Everyone in the human plane has a shadow, and sensing a rogue shadow on someone who already has a shadow proved to be impossible, so the mages decided to trace their emotions by using our goddess’s power of sight.”

“Using the power of sight for emotions. So it’s like you can “see” their emotions?”

“I guess you can call it like that. You see, a long time ago the Goddess herself casted a spell on the gems to help us track people who are experiencing surges of negative emotions. Since those are the biggest signs of a person who is being corrupted by rogue shadows, that was the only way the goddess could help us. By giving us a way to see negative emotions”

“It wasn’t perfect of course, since not everyone who is experiencing negative emotions is currently experiencing corruption. But we can’t take risks because people will get hurt if we don’t follow through.”

“Look.”

Haruki shifted his hand towards his pocket and brought a round cut gemstone the size of a hand. It had a prominent green glow with different sized spots of pink that blinked around the edges. The top of the gemstone had a working compass carved onto it. ”

“This gem tracks everyone’s emotions around me within a 500 metre radius. As you can see there’s a lot of pink dots around it. That’s the people who're experiencing negative emotions or sadness around us.”

The gem looks pretty but knowing what the pink spots mean leaves a bad feeling within me. We pass by people who are having trouble all the time without us knowing, and when you see them all in perspective, you really don’t know what a person keeps under their smiles.

“The pink signifies negative emotions, and the redder it gets, the stronger that person’s negative emotions are. And the size of the dots varies on the distance of that person. Smaller means farther and the bigger the dot is the closer we are to the person. The patrol soldiers will follow the red ones if we get them and the darker the red is the more likely a shadow is starting to take over the person.”

Whilst Haruki explained to me how the tracking gem works, a small black dot appeared on the gem.

“What’s that?” I pointed and looked towards Haruki who had a grim expression on his face.

“We have to follow it right now.” Haruki spoke in a hurry and redirected Heather’s flight path.

“What does black mean?” I asked.

“Black means that the emotion is undetectable. Either that person has lost all emotions or that person has lost its shadow. In other words, dead.”

We hurried towards the black dot where it blinked profusely and was getting bigger signifying that we’re getting closer to the person.

We soon reached an abandoned playground where someone was sitting on a swing. It was dark and we couldn't see if the person was alive or not.

Thunder was rumbling in the distance and a flash of lightning allowed us to see the person for a split second.

“Stay back.” Haruki ordered and walked towards the figure.

“Did we find a dead body?” I thought to myself.

My heart pounded, nervous of what’s to come. An image of that person suddenly jumping to attack Haruki repeatedly played in my mind.

Whilst Haruki strode closer to the person, he decisively placed his hands on the person’s neck to check their pulse.

“He’s dead, come here.”

I hurried to Haruki’s side and tried to get a glance of the person’s face. He looked like a middle aged man who had a sickly look on his face. He had deep dark bags under his eyes and was skinny like a skeleton. I took a glance at his neck and noticed a purplish bruise around it. He was choked to death by the looks of it.

Haruki took out what seemed to look like a flashlight. He removed the lid and a bright glow from a gem radiated. He directed the light towards the body where no shadow could be seen.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. The man has no shadow despite a flashlight shining directly towards it. It was logic defying but it’s there, right in front of my eyes and I have no choice but to believe what I see.

Haruki contacted what seemed to be their patrol headquarters and told me to stand in a lookout while we waited for backup.

“It was the work of an Entity.” Haruki’s eyes darkened with anger. “They took his soul and drove his shadow away.”

This is my first encounter with an Entity. If he was killed by one, then it means the enemy was close by.

For a moment I remembered when I had a dream with my mom, she told me that shadows are not the enemies. There are thieves out there who stole lives of the living. My parents might have known something. Entities are the enemies my people fought for years but she never blamed all of them. My mom was always direct with her words. The Entity we’re supposed to meet might’ve known my parents.

I told Haruki what I knew that would help us in our search and soon after the backup arrived, we left to continue our journey.

While on our way thunder rumbled in the distance and soon after rain started pouring. We found the shrine in the address and immediately took shelter at the nearest bus stop shed across the shrine.

It was dark out with no street light in sight except for light coming out from the buildings nearby.

“Do you smell that?” I asked Haruki, who still has a serious look on his face. I guess he is still bothered about what happened.

“That sweet smell you mean? Haruki replied, his face angled towards me. He looked visibly upset.

“Yes, do you think there’s a park nearby? They must have lots of flowers.” I tried to direct Haruki’s attention to something else. He seemed so caught up about the dead body that we found. Well, I was no different, the sight of the dead man is still lingering in my mind. We remained at the bus stop where we had to take refuge from the heavy rain.

It’s my first time encountering a dead body, let alone a victim of an Entity. Still distraught by what happened I tried to talk to Haruki who was still staring off into the distance and looked like he’s thinking deeply about something.

“Is it about the body?” I started.

“Sorry, that was just the first time I’ve encountered a victim of an Entity.”

“Normally I would encounter victims of rouge shadows who are crazed and are driven by madness. He was killed by an outside force-” Haruki paused. And looked up.

“Someone is approaching us! No one should be able to see us, we're invisible!” Haruki, in a panic, places his hand on his katana ready to fight in case of the worst case scenario.

A slender figure holding an umbrella and a lamp was slowly approaching us.

“Can she see us?” I asked Haruki whose eyes are fixated on the figure who’s approaching us trying to get a glance at their face.

“I don’t know, she could either see us or she just came here to take shelter from the rain.”

“She?” I thought to myself and tried to look at the figure closely.

There I saw a beautiful lady who was in her prime years. She had shiny straight black hair and wore thick makeup with dark red lips. She was dressed elegantly with traditional shrine maiden clothing.

Haruki stood right in front of me with his fighting stance ready and eyed the lady who was slowly approaching.

“Are you boys okay?” started the lady with a worried tone. “The rain is getting heavier, you boys might want to take shelter in the shrine.”

As soon as the lady entered the shed Haruki drew out his katana and formed a blade out of light and pointed it at the lady’s face revealing her pupils that were dark as void.

“We’re invisible to normal humans right now but you still can see us. You’re definitely an Entity so speak! What is your motive for approaching us?” Haruki exclaimed whilst aiming his katana on the lady’s pale neck.

The lady jerked out of her place and distanced herself from Haruki.

“I have no intention of harming you.” Pleaded the lady while she put down both her lamp and umbrella on the damp floor, and gently raised her hands to show she’s without harm.

Her void-like black eyes stared deeply into Haruki’s cold glare, even though there was no shine on her eyes, they beamed with innocence and did not waver.

“The rain is pouring and I worry that you two boys might catch a cold, I simply went here to offer you two shelter.” The lady spoke with determination in her eyes that eerily reminded me of my mother.

“Yes, I am an Entity, but I have no malicious or harmful intentions towards you two. I am simply a shrine maiden offering a helping hand.” The lady continued to speak with eloquence. She bravely faced Haruki’s hostility with elegance and grace.

“Haruki put your weapon down. I believe her.”

Haruki, although reluctantly, drew down his weapon, he remained his cold gaze on the lady without rest as if in any moment she’ll jump to attack him.

I’m sorry about my cousin here, we were actually on our way to visit the shrine but the rain just suddenly poured. Thank you for inviting us.” I smiled and picked up her umbrella and her lamp.

“It’s fine dear, don’t worry about it. Come use this umbrella, follow me inside.”

The lady drew out a smaller umbrella from her pocket which made Haruki jerked his hand to his katana.

The lady saw Haruki and gave a cheerful smile.

“Don’t be so tense dear, I don’t bite.”

The lady gestured us to follow her with a smile. Haruki was still hesitant but still followed through.

We entered the front gate of the shrine where we were greeted with lamps that glowed in the rainy night. Even though there were lights on the outside, the buildings are completely dark inside. “Maybe they’re all asleep.” I thought to myself.

The lady directed us towards the building located beside the shrine. The only building with lights on.

“We don’t normally receive guests at this hour but this is an exception. By the way, my name is Irene. What should I call you too?”

“Oh right! My name is Yuko and…,” I nudged Haruki’s shoulder urging him to cooperate.

“Hakuri” Haruki introduced himself with his ever so cold attitude. I guess he really doesn't trust anyone so easily.

We entered a small room with an open balcony overlooking a garden filled with bonsai trees. Beyond the pots of bonsai trees are cactuses that are blooming spectacularly under the moonlight glaze.

I nudged Haruki again and let him know about the blooming flower.

“The gekka bijin!” Haruki’s eyes widened with surprise.

“This is it. The place my prophecy was pointing out.” I thought to myself.

We were served tea and a couple of biscuits to fill our stomach. We were also given towels to dry ourselves from the rain. I looked at Haruki, who is still sceptical about Miss Irene.

“This is too suspicious.” Haruki started “We just got here and an Entity immediately showed up and invited us. Isn’t this just too convenient.”

I understand Haruki’s scepticism, Miss Irene immediately welcomed us with open arms even though she’s basically an Enemy to us.

“Have you noticed this is the only building with lights?” Haruki added.

“Yeah, but still. We can’t draw out conclusions just yet, she might really just be helping us. And look at the gekka bijin, the prophecy led us here. Let’s hear her out first before deciding.”

Haruki crossed his arms and sighed. He held his tea cup and sniffed it and decided to not drink it. I could tell Haruki doesn’t trust Miss Irene one bit but I decided to have the benefit of the doubt and hear what Miss Irene has to say.

Miss Irene returned with more biscuits and sat down to chat with us.

“So, what brings you two here at the shrine this hour?” Asked Miss Irene whilst sipping her tea.

“Well…..” I don’t know how to answer. I accidentally told her we were on our way here. Should I tell her the truth? But I don’t know if we can trust her yet.

Haruki is no help. He’s back to being completely silent. Like the first time I met Haruki he wasn’t talkative and didn’t converse much. He’s just staring blankly at Miss Irene, eyeing her every movement.

“Well we’re just here to visit the shines around the city. We thought It's a great place to.. uh go sightseeing.” I grinned hoping she’ll take my excuse.”

Haruki looked at me with disappointment. He wasn’t saying anything but his expressions were speaking louder than his words. “Really?” Is what his face is saying.

“You’re no help either Haruki!!” Is what i thought if i could speak.

“Well I see, thank you for visiting our shrine then.” Miss Irene smiled back.

I looked at Haruki with a triumphant smile, and he gave me a dumbfounded look in return.

“By the way Miss Irene, If you don’t mind me asking. What made you decide to work here?”

“Hmm.. I've never thought of that. Well I understand why you’d ask that given I’m an Entity. Why would I be here? Right?”

“No, Miss Irene, I didn't mean it like that.”

“No, no, dear. I don’t mind. If I were to give you a reason. Well, I just love seeing people have faith in something. They’d pray, dance, and pay respect for their god. When I saw that, It made me want to protect them, protect their beliefs.” Miss Irene replied whilst having the most gentle smile.

My heart fluttered when she smiled so serenely, even though her eyes were void-like her demeanour were reflecting her every word. Meanwhile Haruki was just silently listening to our conversation. I know Haruki is the type of person who doesn’t talk much with people he just met. I have a friend just like him. I tried to get Haruki into our conversation but he made it clear that he didn’t want to talk much.

Talking with Miss Irene made me think of my mother, her gentle smile is the same as her. And her stories that are full of kindness and care for serving the people on the shrine resonated with me. We talked for a while until the heavy rain calmed down for a bit.

When the rain calmed down, the sweet-smelling fragrance that we smelled when we first got here came back. I remembered that scent from my childhood but I didn’t know what flower it was.

I asked Miss Irene if she knew what flower was emitting such aroma, but she didn’t know. My urge to follow the scent was getting stronger by the second, but I held back and carried on with our conversation.

Surprisingly Haruki started talking. Well he’s mostly questioning Miss Irene about what she does and her likes. I think Haruki’s slowly accepting her.

“Miss Irene, did you go to college?” Haruki asked.

“No my dear I didn’t, but I joined a program for shrine maiden training and took an exam.” Miss Irene replied.

While they were talking, the sweet scent grew stronger and stronger that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to get my mind off the scent so I asked Miss Irene to show me where the bathroom was.

The bathroom was outside the building so I had to quickly run in the drizzling rain. While I was outside I heard a familiar sound echoing through the night. It was a familiar lullaby that my mother used to sing for me.

It was too late, my feet were already moving on their own and my curiosity once again got the better of me.

I followed the familiar sound that was carrying the scent of sweet flowers in the air. The rain dampened my shirt but it didn’t bother me, the only thought that was going through my head was to follow the familiar sound.

When I got back to my own thoughts, I was already at the park right beside the shrine. It was night time and there wasn’t much light around me. There were a few street lights dotted around the park but it wasn’t really giving the park justice.

The park was covered with hydrangeas, I know them because my mom would always plant them in our mini garden. Although there wasn’t much light, you could see all the hydrangeas blooming under the moonlight. Their sweet scent was all over the place. The familiar sound continued to echo throughout the place and I could help myself to follow it.

The sound led me to the middle of the park, where a giant oak tree was standing and surrounded by bushes of lively flowering hydrangeas. The tree was gently illuminated by a single street lamp and the sound grew closer and closer as I continued to approach the tree. I tried to look closer and saw something glowing inside the bushes.

There was a subtle glow inside the bushes; it seemed like there was something holding it. I edged closer to inspect what it was but the singing stopped.

I was stuck on my foot, unable to move. “What was I doing? This could’ve been so dangerous!” As I realised what situation I was in, a slender figure jumped out the bushes and pushed me down the concrete road.

“Ahhhh!! I’m not dangerous, it hurts!” I yelped in pain.

As I pleaded for mercy the person that just plunged me down slowly backed up and helped me get up.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else. I mean, you were slowly creeping up on me, I thought you were going to attack me.” Replied the figure with a deep girl's voice.

When I got myself back together, my blurry vision regained its focus, I was able to take a look at the person’s face. It was a girl, probably older than me. I noticed that she had a gemstone pendant that was glowing in the darkness. The same glowing object I was mesmerised by.

Her pale skin glimmered under the moonlight, and her black wavy hair brushed against her face as the cold spring night wind blew across the isolated park. She was wearing a plain shirt and black jeans with a jacket covering her mismatched-coloured arms. She has sharp almond eyes that are deep and dark as if there's a void inside them, like what Miss Irene had.

“You’re an Entity!”

“Yeah I am, what are you doing here?” She replied with a constrained tone.

“Well I was following the smell of these flowers and um… that lullaby you were singing. How did you know that song?”

“Oh…” the girl was silent for a few seconds before continuing.

“I just heard it somewhere and I have loved it ever since.” Replied the girl with a sparkle in her eyes. I thought Entity’s eyes are just voids of darkness, I didn't know then I could emit such a glimmer.

“I see, my mother used to sing it to me when I was little, I just thought no one knew about the lullaby except for her.”

I tried to change the topic to at least redirect the awkwardness.

“My name is Yuko by the way, Katsuragi Yuko.”

“My name is Amane.”

“So Yuko, let me ask you again, what are you doing in the middle of the night on a rainy day?”

“I should ask you the same question Miss Amane, what are you doing by singing in the middle of an empty park on a rainy night?”

“Hey! I asked you first!” Miss Amane replied whilst starting to raise her voice.

“Nu uh, you’re more suspicious! Any person would’ve followed a singing voice if they heard it at night.”

“Why would any person follow a singing voice in the middle of the night? Have you watched any movies? Following unknown sounds leads you to death! Any normal person would ignore that sound.”

“Yeah? Then- well!” I stuttered after that line. What am I supposed to say to justify myself?

“Well, who would sing such an enticing song and expect no one to come up to you and ask you about it!”

“Yeah? So you admit you’re the one who’s wrong and should answer my question first?” Amane replied with a cocky tone, with a triumphant grin.

Yeah you win this time—is what I thought in my head. I can’t say it loudly.

“Fine…” I answered with a dejected tone.

“Good,” Miss Amane replied with satisfaction.

She invited me to sit under the tree to shield us from the drizzling rain.

“This is way better than the benches over there. Now tell me, what really brings you here in this place.”

“Well, truth to be told, I had this prophecy you see, and it led me to the shrine over there. And we were talking to this kind lady who is also an Entity. She reminded me so much of my mother, so when I went outside and heard your lullaby, I was immediately reminded of her so I followed it. I’m just really missing her I guess.”

I don’t think I'm supposed to tell Miss Amane about the prophecy, given she’s also an Entity. But I couldn't stop myself from telling her the truth.

“Well, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, that’s why I’m also here. I was also missing someone important to me.” Miss Amane replied with a comforting tone.

“I see, what are they like? You seemed to really miss them.”

“They took me in when I had nothing. They even raised me as their own. I just wished I could've helped them more when they’re about to die.”

Miss Amane grabbed her chest where her glowing pendant was located. She squeezed it tight as if her heart was aching.

“You know Miss Amane. I don’t know if it helps but last week I had a dream about my late mother. She said when they died someone was there with them. She said she was happy she was by her side during her last moments and she hoped she didn’t blame herself for what happened… Miss Amane, whoever that person may be, I’m sure that you did everything you could at the time. And even though they died I’m sure that they wouldn’t blame you for what happened because I know that just by you being there is enough to make them happy.”

Miss Amane’s face turned feverishly red and her eyes started to swell up with tears..

“M-miss Amane?? I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

“No Yuko, thank you. That means a lot. By the way, just call me Amane.”

Miss Amane, no, Amane wiped her tears and gave out a cheerful smile.

“It’s alright Yuko, just call me Amane. Enough about me, what about this prophecy thing? Tell me about it.”

I began talking about my prophecy, even though Amane is an Entity, it felt easy to talk to her, my gut was telling me that it’s fine to trust her.

I told Amane that according to my prophecy I’ll be the one to unite both the light and dark. Signifying Euryphaessa and the shadows. This part was worrying me when I first heard it.

“First,” I began listing my doubts. “Besides teaming up with an Entity, I have no idea how the shadows will trust me to be on their side. Second, the prophecy calling me “child of darkness” is a bit worrying. Both my parents are Euryphaessans, and if I learn how to use magic it’ll be light magic. So why darkness??”

Amane was smiling and giggling under her breath. She looked happy whilst I was having a mental crisis.

“Amane!”

“What, I'm just listening!” Amane replied whilst smiling cheerfully.

“You’re having fun while I’m telling you my problems!!”

“No I'm not, I'm just happy!”

Amane pondered for a second and then had an idea.

“Since the prophecy called you a child of darkness, then it means something about you is connected to shadows, correct?”

“Yes I guess?”

“Well how about talking to shadows? If you’re taking the shadow’s side you need to understand them right?”

“Can shadows speak?”

“Yes dummy, they don’t speak out loud but you’ll hear them in your head… Come here.”

Amane dragged me out of the bushes. The drizzle stopped but we were both a bit damp because of the rain. The cold windy night was digging through my bones. Making my whole body shake. Amane began waving at something in the distance.

A few seconds went by and two shadows on the ground appeared in the distance. They slowly slithered their way towards us that made me step back a little.

I remembered my past encounters with shadows and that didn’t go well. The first shadows killed someone, then another tried to consume my childhood friend's soul. Then another tried to kill me. There’s more incidents that I could list off the top of my head but besides me, Amane seemed to have noticed me shaking furiously through the cold and handed me her jacket.

I looked at her dazed yet a bit surprised she noticed and handed me the jacket.

“You look like a wet chick shivering in the cold, wear that jacket and calm down, they sense fear..”

I don’t know if Amane was joking when she said they could sense fear so I ignored it. I wore the jacket that felt like I was being hugged in a tight warm grip and followed Amane.

Amane urged me to get closer at the shadows and told me to be calm and open my mind.

“Open what? How?”

Amane rolled her eyes and told me to just focus and think about the shadows speaking.

I cleared all my thoughts and just followed Amane’s instructions… yet it wasn’t working.

“Amane it’s no good, I can’t hear anything.”

“Hmm, how about connecting with them. Try touching the shadow.”

Amane asked the shadow to hold their hand and the shadow’s vivid hand appeared on the ground waiting for me to touch it.

I reluctantly placed my hand onto the shadows and cleared my mind. I began thinking about what the shadow will tell me. “Hi” or “Hello”. I closed my eyes and focused.

“You look stupid.”

A deep and manly voice echoed in my head.

“Hey!” I jerked, feeling insulted.

“What- What did she say?” Amane started, concerned with my sudden outburst.

“She? He sounded like a guy!” I snapped.

“The shadow you held is a girl!”

Confused by what was going on, I took a deep breath and I placed my hand towards the shadow’s hand again and exhaled… Suddenly, my very own shadow moved by itself and consumed the shadow I was touching.

Just then, excruciating pain immediately shot up through my spine. I felt as if my whole body was being burned from the outside and slowly eating out my sensations. The terrifying heat creeped up to my whole body in a sizzling pain.

I screamed through the never ending torture. My eyes swelled up in tears and my throat tasted like blood and was starting to give up.

My consciousness was slowly fading and I could barely see Amane crying out in a panic above me.