The Darkness of Silence

News spread quickly.

Headlines bloomed across screens before the bodies - or what little was left of them - had even cooled.

“DEVASTATING MAGIC ATTACK KILLS EIGHT, ONE COLLATERAL.”
“UNKNOWN MAHOTONA UNLEASHES HUGE POWER IN SELF-DEFENCE.”
“VICTIM OF HOTEL MASSACRE UNDER DEBATE.”

It was all anyone talked about.

Who were the Mahotona pair?
Why use such ruthless force?
Where were they now?

But another question burned brighter than the rest - how.

How could a Mahotona wield power like that?

The established meta of Mahotona magic - the humble fireball - was discarded almost overnight. Analysts, hobbyists, and armchair tacticians tore through footage and forensic reports. The damage didn’t match anything previously recorded.

It looked industrial.

Military.

The closest comparison was a one-twenty millimeter armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot tank shell.

No one could explain it.

Then the rumour started.

Witnesses came forward, voices shaking, claiming they’d seen a female humanoid Mahotona - fox-eared - firing bullets. If such a Mahotona existed, why wouldn’t she be able to fire tank shells too?

The public seized on it.

And the hunt began.

Strangely, no images of the pair surfaced. No videos. No stills. Conspiracy theories flourished - government protection, digital erasure, shadow agencies - but no one truly knew.

What they didn’t know was that the very people they were dissecting were walking through the dark streets of Tokyo.

The sky was cloudless, faint stars barely visible through the city’s glow. Yumie kept her hood up, her tail curled tightly beneath a miniskirt, a bag of hastily grabbed clothing hanging from her arm. She clung to Braith as they moved without direction, slipping past crowds of civilians utterly unaware of who walked among them.

Mahotonas stared.

Humans didn’t notice.

No one was suspicious enough to ask why their Mahotona companions were staring.

The darkness helped. It hid the blood still speckling their faces and clothes - dried, smeared, unwashed. There hadn’t been time.

Braith scanned every building they passed, checking his phone again and again until-

There.

A capsule hotel.

He guided Yumie inside. Shoes off at the entrance. Slippers on. The front desk barely looked up. The woman behind it wasn’t paid nearly enough to question trembling guests with haunted eyes and stained clothing.

Payment exchanged. Keycard handed over.

Normality pretended.

Yumie clung tighter as they walked between rows of stacked capsules, the design sleek and futuristic - rounded entrances, strip lighting, smooth white walls. Slippers sat outside occupied pods, neat and orderly.

Theirs was on the bottom row.

Braith was quietly grateful.

He tapped the card. The door slid open soundlessly.

Inside was stark and simple - white walls, soft embedded lighting tracing the ceiling, a bed filling the narrow tube. A small cupboard waited at the far end.

He glanced at Yumie, crouched beside him.

And then - unbidden - he pictured her in black lace, straps criss-crossing her body, sharing his vision so she could see the space too.

She hummed softly as the telepathic spark flickered, a faint smile touching her lips.

“It’s cute.”

He nodded.

“You just like how little space there is to keep us apart.”

She giggled - but the sound was thin. Forced.

The weight was still there. Heavy. Unavoidable.

He crawled in first, guiding her after him as the day finally collapsed on their shoulders. The door slid shut behind them.

Only then did he realize neither of them had removed their slippers.

Neither of them cared.

They didn’t change. Didn’t pull the blanket properly over themselves. They simply collapsed together on the narrow bed, bodies fitting with learned instinct. Braith fumbled for the light controls and switched them off.

Darkness settled.

Complete.

He couldn’t see her - despite how close she was.

And for the first time since everything began, there were no words left to say.

But he couldn’t let it rest.

After a few moments of silence, he whispered.

“Are you okay?”

She shifted beside him.

“I think so.”

“Thinking about the people I killed?”

She shook her head.

“That wasn’t you. I agreed to killing them.” A pause. “It’s not the collectors… it’s that poor person who got hit by accident.”

“You couldn’t control that-”

She grit her teeth.

“But we didn’t have to use something so powerful! If we’d just used normal bullets, that person wouldn’t have lost their life!”

He nodded slowly in the dark.

“But then we might have been killed. Or worse, captured. It was only because we used the tank round that we survived at all.”

She sniffed.

“I suppose… but it still hurts.”

He reached out, fumbling until his hand found her head, fingers brushing gently through her hair.

“It hurts me too.”

“But you’re good at hiding it,” she said quietly. “Or ignoring it. Or maybe you’re just not as sensitive-”

“Hey.” He frowned. “Of course I feel terrible that someone died because of my-”

“Our.”

“Our actions,” he corrected softly. “But I’ve also accepted that it was unavoidable.”

Her voice wavered.

“I’m sorry… I’ll try to get over it.”

He shook his head, even though she couldn’t see it.

“No. Don’t. You’re upset because you couldn’t keep your vow.”

She sniffed again.

“It’s so much harder than I thought…”

He shifted closer, found her body in the narrow dark, and pulled her gently against him.

“Then let’s try again.”

She hesitated.

“Try… again?”

He smiled.

“Restart the vow. From the beginning.” A pause. “But this time, I’ll take it with you.”

She nodded, voice trembling.

“O-okay…”

He squeezed her.

“No more killing.”

She wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly.

“N… no more killing.”

She rubbed at her eyes.

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be,” he murmured. “We’re together. And we’re safe. For now.”

She nodded.

“Okay.”

Something heavy settled across his leg. For a moment he thought it was her tail - but it was too warm, too solid.

Her leg.

She shifted closer, nuzzling into his neck, her ears brushing his cheek as she tucked her head beneath his chin.

“Never let me go, love.”

His heart stuttered - but he smiled.

“Why would I ever do that?”

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “I just felt like saying it.”

He chuckled softly, holding her tighter.

“Well, just so you know, I won’t. You’re my darling wife-to-be.”

She laughed quietly.

“I’m your precious little treasure? Your cute little comforter? Your pretty little fiancée?”

“All of those,” he said, smiling. “And so much more.”

Her tail flicked happily against his leg.

“I love you so much.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re a part of me.”

She giggled.

“Hey! You stole my line!”

“Sorry.”

She hummed contentedly, then shifted her leg higher over his.

“But… I’d like to be one with you again…”

His heart leapt. He squeezed her, wishing - briefly - that he’d misunderstood.

“Not here,” he whispered. “The walls are too thin.”

She sighed.

“Good point.”

Her leg slipped back down.

“Maybe next time.”

His heart pounded hard enough that he knew she could feel it. But in the tight darkness of the capsule, all he could do was hold her as exhaustion slowly claimed him.

The night rolled on.

And none of the sleeping guests around them knew what plans were quietly forming in the shadows.