Chapter 18. Guess how much you love me

The hallways were empty. Eerily empty. Even the club rooms, classrooms. Everything leading up to the library was...incredibly empty.

I sat down, open a book sitting on the table. Something about rabbits that I have no clue about.

"That's a children’s book, Ai. It's about expressing your feelings"

Uzuki is right next to me, she looks kind of weird like that, I'm honestly still not used to this.

"Say, do you think things are going to be fine?"

"Well, that's the only hope we have."

Houraiji comes into the library and walks up to me. Then it hits me, I forgot a small, little detail on my plan.

Katsuya is with her.

"Houraiji, welcome. And Katsuya too"

She comes straight to me, camera on hand, focused.

"We need to get rid of Hibana. She has proven herself to be a liability"

"Is that so? Then I believe we should take care of that. Akaza, come here."

Uzuki comes in, playing her role.

"Quack. Disposing of Hibana immediately!"

"We will help. Nozomi, set the items in a circle"

"Got it, prez"

Each item is landed on a circle. The lotto ticket, the map with train stations circled, the sand, and the piece of holographic paper. Houraiji stands in the middle.

This isn't good.

"Hibana Ai. I never thought you'd be so eager for me to finish you personally. I don't know how you manipulated all of my friends, but this ends now."

"What are you even talking about?!"

"I've memorized every single pattern and behavior of her. You know why? Because I love my friends. I love each and every one of you."

She grabs the camera and adjusts the lens.

"And I love the world as much to get rid of the scum in it. I love everything and everyone"

I grab the dice inside Uzuki's pocket.

"Now... guess how much I love you"

"P-Pardon?"

I never thought she would look straight through me. But even to this moment, I need to be smart. I need to be perfect at this.

"Guess how much I love you"

I grab a single dice and point it to her.

"Houraiji, I don't need to tell you. But you know this is unacceptable."

She grabs the camera.

"Oh, I know. Terrible news. This is exactly how everything is supposed to be."

*click*

A burst of light goes through the library, pulverizing everything in the way.

I grab a dice and flick it. Surprisingly, it works this time, knocking her back.

Using the brush, I change everyone to normal. Diana and Sayuri step in, managing to push Katsuya off the building while focusing on Hikari.

Diana uses her cards

"As de espadas!"

A single slash cuts through the room, Hikari dodges. As she is about to attack, Uzuki grabs her dictionary, which flips open.

"This is unjustifiable. You're assuming authority of something you can't control"

Houraiji lifts her camera and clicks the shutter a single time, everything flies again, with Uzuki barely blocking the attack.

"I love it even more than any rule!"

Sayuri stands back, she's super serious now.

"Okay, so it's kind of a measuring contest, huh?"

She starts fighting in front of her, two hits land on her, as she's about to land a third strike, Katsuya appears out of nowhere and goes in the middle of them, punching Sayuri. She is going to throw her, but Houraiji activates her camera again, hitting Katsuya head on.

This time, the beam doesn't go through her, rather, she withstand it, with clearly burn marks on her stomach.

"That's definitely not you, Houraiji"

"I know, but I love you as much as the real one"

Diana uses another card

"10 de bastos!"

She tries to hit Houraiji multiple times, but misses on every hit but the last one, erasing a cocky smile on her face. Houraiji uses the camera again, colliding with each hit from Diana.

"Don't make me measure further, I'm warning you"

Sayuri goes in as Diana was about to falter, also helping her into trying to calm Houraiji. Uzuki takes all her dice and flings them into Houraiji.

With a flick, Houraiji slices all 7 of her dice, with them turning into petals.

Uzuki grabs the map on the floor, and as it begins to glow, Houraiji throws the knife, barely missing the map.

Sayuri keeps dancing, smiling and crying at the same time. But Houraiji gets her with her camera, slamming to the ground so hard she bounces.

"5 de co-"

Houraiji points at Diana and pushes her over to me, shattering the window above and knocking all the debris on top of us.

Katsuya tries to hit her from behind, but Houraiji takes a picture from behind, pushing her out of the building.

She comes walking towards me, slowly.

"You don't have to fight anymore. This ends here. No more confusion, no more pain, no more suffering."

She takes the deck of cards from my hand, throws it to the floor right next to the other items

"In case you were wondering, to the moon. That's how much you matter to me"

All items start to glow, emanating a multicolored burst off them, floating all around her. She floats too, embracing all of them.

All but one.

The deck of cards is gone.

"Wait, why?! I just put it there!"

"Looking for this?"

Katsuya grabs the deck and throws it to me, I pull a card. My clothes change, wearing the same magical dress as Diana. She was even kind enough to teach me how it works.

Houraiji reaches her camera, points it at me, then tries to shoot.

I'm faster.

"As de Oros"

The shot bounces off me, hitting her directly. All items glow more, but she's on the ground.

I get right next to Uzuki and try to lift her off. She looks scared and can barely talk.

"The items... use the items..."

I run towards them and manage to grab the map and the lotto ticket, but the rest of the items aren't there anymore.

Houraiji has them now.

"All this love and you want to stop me still?"

"This isn't love anymore, Cuddly. You're delusional and sick. I'm tired of you. I'm tired of the torture you made me go through. I'm tired of everything."

I grab the map and flick it towards her.

Nothing happens. She laughs.

"That was it? You don't even know how to use them. Let me show you how it's done"

She places the paper in front of the shutter, and a single click sounds.

Millions of colors burst towards me. Yet the colors never reach me.

"What? But how?!"

Houraiji tries to run at me, but she stands in place

"Why can't I reach you?!"

"Spatial manipulation"

Uzuki barely stands by me.

"You can't reach her."

"Not now."

She takes a grain of sand and eats it

"But what if I do this?"

She looks at Uzuki, she stands in place and falls

"Uzuki!"

I try not to look at Houraiji.

"Got the trick so quickly? It was starting to get fun..."

Sayuri stands right next to her. Then it hits me.

Her phone.

I grab it and sure enough, Makima is there.

"Sayuri...is down..."

"I'll do it"

Houraiji laughs.

"But you weren't able to do it! It wasn't even an ability of yours!"

"It wasn't hers either, but I got it."

Makima looks decided.

"Okay, let's do this!"