<<IF (my everything is ((DESTROY))ed) THEN (I will ((DESTROY)) everything)>>

Beeps bled through the veil of reality and haunted Miu’s dreams. Never ending pings and alerts sounded across the void of unconsciousness, beckoning her back to life. Seconds and or Years. A single breath. Ten thousand dreams. Time was a dead language written by lost scribes.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Voices of unseen faces echoed in the chasms of her hallucinations. It was almost enough to wake her.

Beep.

The fabric that covered her frail body was uncomfortable and thin. Stale air drifted through its thin stitching, biting at her stomach and legs like ravenous hounds. It was almost enough to wake her.

Beep.

She was indoors. This wasn’t Sapporo. What happened in Sapporo? What happened to them? What happened to HIM?

BEEP!

BEEP!

Pressure spiking. Heart rate elevating! Patient destabilizing!!

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

WHERE WAS YUKI?

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP

BEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEEP

Heart rate over two hundred!

Her eye was burning. CLAWITOUTGETITOUTGETITOUTGETITOUT

Two Twenty!!

Fingers dug into her skull and scraped the very walls of her mind. Every cell of her being and fragment of her soul felt on fire.

GET IT OUT!!!

“GET IT OUT!!” Miu screamed as she burst awake with her own hands clawing at her face.

All around her, machines short circuited and smoked as small explosions shattered dials and displays. Every person in the room stopped moving or speaking as they stared in wonder, confusion, and terror.

Miu was sitting up now. What greeted her was unfamiliar. Garish white lights shone overhead. She was in a gown. Needles jutted in her skin and connected her to tubes that now hung limp towards the ground. The beeping had stopped. Opening her eyes felt like welcoming saw dust into her tear ducts.

“Where am I? What’s happening?” Miu flinched as she pulled her eyes shut and covered her ears from the splitting ringing in her head.

“T-This is a military hospital in Tomakomai. You’ve been in a medically induced coma for three weeks…”

The words were unwelcome and confusing.

“We were supposed to be safe in Sapporo. What happened in Sapporo?…” Miu muttered as drool ran from her mouth.

Flashes of the infernos strobed in her mind. Remnant memories of the blast flinging her into the tower beams caused Miu to twitch and grunt. Then she remembered the image of Yuki looking at her just before the detonation consumed him in flames. Fire everywhere. Fires growing and consuming all. Canyoufeelthefiregrowing? Miu’s eyes ripped open.

“Where is Yuki?!”

No one spoke.

“Where is he?!!”

No one canyoufeelthefiregrowing spoke. Nervous eyes canyoufeelthefiregrowing glanced at her then down at the ground. Something in their canyoufeelthefiregrowing nervous presence brought a great wave of unease to Miu’s body.

“I am his legal guardian! TELL ME WHERE HE IS! NOW!!!!”

The room began to glow blue. Strange, alien light painted every wall and edge. The adults all gasped and tensed as they backed away. Miu’s skin felt like it was covered in fire ants. Something canyoufeelthefiregrowing was canyoufeelthefiregrowing wrong.

Heartbeats punched her chest like war drums. Flat, dull pain chipped at the edges of her teeth. Once more, her left eye felt like it was being drilled into with slow, unsteady tools. Tears of confused fear appeared and ran down her cheeks, causing fresh drops of blood to streak her left side.

“T-t-the individual you are referring to-“

“Yuki! His name is Yuki!”

“Dokuyama Yuki passed away on the night of The Fall of Sapporo. He was pronounced dead on December Fourth…” one of the medical workers said through shaking words.

But those words were lies. They were lies. They were lies. They were lies! THEY WERE LIES! PLEASE BE LYING?!

“No… no you’re lying,” Miu whispered.

“He was struck by an attack and died at the scene. He was gone by the time emergency crews found both of you.”

Blue light burned red and pink. Breaths choked and locked in Miu’s throat as blood poured down her face. Trembling hands tensed as fingers begged for guidance from an overwhelmed nervous system.

One of the workers ran out of the room and shouted unheard words to unseen listeners.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

“What do you mean?! Yuki is okay he is okay you have to take me to him!” Miu cried.

Boots clacked on the floor nearby as numerous bodies approached. The room seemed to be bending at its edges. Every wall trembled with Miu’s sobs.

“I am afraid that is impossible. His body was not in condition to be recovered…”

Four more adults, all in military uniforms, entered the room.

“Ms. Moekawa I need you to stay calm!” said one of the military members.

“Your friend was victim of an Arcan attack. He-“

Flashes of the explosions and the hydrogen bomb tore through Miu’s mind and she screamed out a blood curling cry as she clawed her way up from the bed.

“Your bombs killed him!! It wasn’t the Arcan! IT WAS YOU!!!”

Flames erupted across Miu’s body as she screamed. Agony beyond anything she’d ever known consumed her very existence. Everyone in the room screamed in shock and fell backwards as Miu roared in suffering.

“YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED HIM! IT WAS YOU!!!” Miu screamed in between her cries.

Fire engulfed her but she did not burn. Only the world around her burned. And it deserved to burn.

Her eyes opened long enough to look at the military officers still facing her. More memories of their home exploding and their neighborhood collapsing burned through her thoughts. They were happy. For a brief moment, they were happy. But that was gone.

“It was you… all of you… you killed him. You took… everything from us…”

“‘Ms. Moekawa please calm down!”

Calm? Calm? Nothing remained except her. Oh gods everything hurt. Fires spread from her body and began to incinerate the walls. Cracks appeared in the floor. Ceiling tiles shook and fell loose. Sirens began to scream from the hallway. Panicked voices blurred across overhead speakers. Windows cracked in sync with Miu’s voice.

CanYouFeelTheFireGrowing?

For ONE MOMENT they had been happy and together again. ONE. MOMENT. After everything. All they had ever wanted was that. And after a single blip of joy, it was torn away. Wrath beyond hate cracked Miu’s ribs as she faced the ones before her.

“You killed Yuki. You destroyed our home. You took everything. I watched all of it burn away. All of our dreams… gone.”

He was just a boy. A child. A happy, vulnerable, sad, hopeful, complex, forgotten child.

And now he was gone.

Fire

AndNowHeWasGone

Fire everywhere

andnowhewasgone

FireEverywhere

“Wait!”

Miu’s eye flickered then split. Electric blue energy burst forth like lightning as she let out a final roar of absolute pain. Hysteria seized her and reality vanished. Sorrow consumed her as she imagined a world without Yuki.

“GONE!!! GONE GONE GONE!!!!!!!”

If he was gone, she wanted to be gone as well. Heat scorched every atom as Miu begged for the blaze to consume her. But it didn’t. As screams of horror and pain rose all around her to meet her own, she remained alive. Even as the fire spread out in a concussive burst that engulfed the entire facility, Miu remained.

She begged for it to end. She begged for the fire to grow in power and ferocity so that it would devour her and end whatever grief was now breaking every bone in her body. But it didn’t happen. Flames rose and ignited the jeweled snow. Screams of terror filled the air. Everything burned blue and pink.

Except Miu.

She broke, and the blaze ceased as she slumped forward. Blood fell from her radiant eye and swollen lips. Nothing remained around her except for ash and rubble.

Nothing remained.

Sobs shook shattered ribs as Miu’s nails dug into her skin with hateful violence.

“Die! Please die! Please die! I don’t want this! Oh gods I don’t want this! Yuki, please come back. Please come back,” she wept.

But no one came for her, except for frigid winds, isolated flakes of glowing white, and a mysterious shape that glitched into the smoke for a moment before vanishing behind a silver glyph.

Miu saw none of it and she didn’t care. Hearing the crackling embers of ruins around her brought her no remorse or pause. Tears for Yuki were all that mattered. Tears for what they lost. What they had been denied for so long. 

If Yuki was truly dead, then she would soon be as well.