Chapter 4. Roll a d4

The world is frozen. In front of me, the body of the girl I shared like, 2 hours with. Lying down on the floor. A bunch of people surrounding her like if it was a circus show.

The world is frozen.

Literally.

Hoshino comes to me, she's furious.

"A buddy. I lent you a body, and now she's dead. And she's dead because you couldn't fulfill the only responsibility you had."

"Hoshino, I could-

"No, of course this isn't your fault. What's your excuse, huh? You couldn't predict what would happen?! No one can do it, not even with forbidden items!"

She takes gum from a very, very old package and forces it on her mouth.

"You are in so much of a trouble, Hibana. You don't have any clue."

"What are you-"

"No, you don't get the right of having any questions, you... "

I try to grab her

"Hoshino, I-"

She pushes me.

"No."

She takes out a triangular dice and puts it in her fingers, as if flicking it.

"This was the last time."

She flicks it at me, it hits me hard, and I spit as it lands on my stomach.

I drop to my knees. She picks it up, backs away, and aims at me. 

She flicks the dice, I close my eyes. I can't feel anything.

As I open my eyes, I see Diana, holding the dice with her bare hands. She looks different than before, wearing a colorful dress and holding a card straight up.

"You..."

She tosses the dice to Hoshino.

"Not with my friends."

She gets into a fight pose.

Hoshino picks the dice.

"Good. Now I have a good excuse to finish you."

She flicks the dice, Diana moves swiftly and deflects it, then gets a rod from the card and swings it at Hoshino. Hoshino flies and gets impacted to a wall. She pics up the dice and flings it again, Diana moves methodically, almost if she was following a coreography. Hoshino gets desperate on each attack, flinging with force in each hit.

As Diana deflects the last attack, flinging the dice downwards with her rod creating a small crater on the ground, Uzuki gets angry and stomps on the ground.

"Find- fined- ugh!"

She spits a bit of blood on the ground.

"Fine, you win this time. But this is far from over, Hibana!"

She walks away and disappears. Time flows as normally.

I rush to Akaza. Her body is gone.

"Akaza...no, Akaza!"

"They did it."

I turn around to see her, she sits on a nearby bench, regular clothes, putting her cards back into the box.

"...what?!"

"The Crimson Moon Society. They killed her."

I get close to her and try to punch her. As I raise my arm, she gets me by the wrist.

"Akaza...she didn't deserve it..."

She hugs me as I cry.

"We will get them, just watch..."

After a while, I release her. She grabs her things as if nothing happened, then she hands me a ticket. For a concert, in an avenue near here.

"Don't be late..."

I sit back and fiddle with the ticket.

'The PRISM. Shimo-Kitazawa. Performing ________'

Well....now I don't have anyone anymore. Again. I threw the only chance of having a friend due to my stupid habit of ignoring people. 

I take out my brush and fiddle with it again. Thinking about Akaza.

My fingers move on my one, and before I knew, I drew a line on my face. Now her face. Color bled. Skin, shape, voice, hair. Everything rearranged itself until my face wasn't mine again.

After a while, I sigh

"So this is it..."

"I'm sorry, what did you said?"

I flinch and start looking around. There's no one in sight.

"Wha- who is this?!"

"It's me, Makima. You shouldn't be using that face, Ai."

I notice I'm wearing headphones. From my phone- rather, Akaza's phone. I can see a live stream of her TV.

"How do you...?"

"Well, she's always talking with me through her phone. I don't see anything strange about it. By the way, where is she?"

"She....she's dead."

"...I see... come back home, I want to test something out."

"I just told you she died and the best thing you come up is 'I see'?! What kind of friend are you?!"

She giggles.

"One that knows her a little too much. Besides, you can't kill a performance. She just changed stages."

On my hip, a strange, dumb keychain in the shape of a duck trembled in my mind, like calling me.

"Listen Ai. You got her face now. Use it. Learn her light before it fades, then it will be too late. I'll be expecting you at home.

I run to her home and lock me into her room, the tv is already on, with Makima looking at the screen while sitting on the floor.

"You're late."

I didn't answer, she sighed.

"Look, you're not her. But you will be for now."

She steps on the stage and grabs a microphone.

"Ok, so this time, I want you, the audience, to perform with me. Whenever I dance, you too shall dance. Whenever I sing, you too shall sing. Copy my exact moves and learn to enjoy them, ok?"

This is dumb.

This is really dumb.

A girl I knew too little just died, and now I'm here, posing as her, basically dancing around while she is... gone.

Part of me wants to leave and just forget about all of this. Forget about my mother and everything but.

It calls me.

It keeps pulsating in my heart. I know they're not gone.

I can feel their presence. I can feel a connection.

And if it takes dancing and enjoying something I am clearly not supposed to do right now, then so be it.

I'll get them both.

"Okay. Here we go."

I dance. We finish.

"Well, that felt not so bad"

Makima is looking at me with discontent.

"What's was that supposed to be?"

"What? Well I danced"

"It sucked. Do it again"

"It what?"

"You are awfull. What's up with the timing? the moves? The flashy attituted? You just moved!"

"Excuse me? I danced, call it a day, I can't do more!"

"That's the lamest excuse I've heard."

I'm getting angry. I point at the TV to tell her, but as soon as i point, I feel something. A pulse, just coming from my finger. I don't say anything and I just stare at it.

"Yeah. Now you know why I told you, right?