Dies Irae (Part VI)

[December 25th, 15:15 JST]

Tokyo Prefecture – Meiji Jingu Shrine

The air around the shrine felt heavy.

The fog lingered low, drifting across the ground without moving anywhere in particular. It simply stayed, clinging to the earth.

Reina felt it immediately.

Yuzuriha’s Cantus Veil.

Though invisible to the naked eye, it carried an ancient resonance mixed with something close to silence. Any stray song that surfaced was pulled away the moment it formed, drained until only her frequency remained.

Reina kept walking.

Each step felt slower than it should have been. She forced herself not to dwell on the destruction around them — snapped pillars, ruptured ground, the shrine’s massive offertory box split apart and collapsed. There had been no exchange. No resistance.

Just dominance.

At the edge of the shrine grounds, a resonance generator pulsed steadily.

Reina could almost see it. Yuzuriha’s resonance flowed into the machine and spread outward from there, carried far beyond this place. It wasn’t just amplifying her song.

It was controlling something.

She knew she had to destroy it.

But the girl stood between them.

Long pastel-pink hair fell against the white Tempesta Unit uniform, the contrast almost painful in its familiarity. For a moment, Reina could have mistaken this for another mission — another meeting gone wrong.

Then Yuzuriha turned.

The light in her rose-gold eyes was gone. Runic sigils still flickered there, but they did nothing to bring back her usual warmth. Her expression held no anger. Only exhaustion, guilt... and something close to regret.

A faint pink haze clung unevenly to her body, making her presence feel wrong against drifting fog.

“Reina-senpai...”

It sounded like the only word she had left.

The relic D-Mic was clenched tightly in her hand.

“Yuzu-chan,” Reina said, tightening her grip on her own. “It’s time to stop. This ends here.”

“Yuzu... wishes she could.”

Her gaze lowered, unable to meet Reina’s eyes.

“But Yuzu cannot disobey Papa’s orders.”

Reina sang.

Lightning surged around her as her luminous haze flared into place, sigils igniting in her eyes and musical tattoos spreading across her skin. Her Cantus Veil deployed and pressed forward — colliding with Yuzuriha’s head-on.

The air reacted instantly.

Resonance stalled. Reina felt her own frequency grind against resistance, each note strained as silence pushed back, Silentia clawing at Fulminare’s edge.

Their eyes met for a brief second.

Reina struck first.

Lightning tore outward from her swing, a compressed arc of thunder ripping through the fog toward Yuzuriha.

Yuzuriha snapped her fingers.

The invisible barrier Reina had seen before shimmered briefly, and the attack vanished as it passed through, stripped of resonance before it could reach her.

“Reina-senpai,” Yuzu said quietly. “That won’t reach Yuzu. Silentia won’t allow it.”

Reina didn’t slow.

She surged forward, Cantus driving her body faster as light forming into a blade in her hand. She closed the distance in a blink—

—and her strike cut through.

Not Yuzuriha.

A group of Level 1 CODA burst from the fog between them, the slash tearing straight through their bodies instead. Reina landed and leapt back immediately.

“Senpai...”

Yuzuriha lifted her arm. A faint scar traced along her skin.

“Even healed,” she said. “It proves something only you can do.”

Her gaze met Reina’s.

“The power of Project Harmonia.”

The fog thickened.

Black smoke rolled low across the ground, and this time there was no pause. Packs of Level 3 CODA, controlled by Imperium’s authority, charged at once, claws tearing through the earth as they rushed her.

Reina moved.

Lightning wrapped around her leg, her chainsaw form igniting as she tore through them one by one. As she twisted mid-strike, she released a single compressed bolt.

Yuzu snapped her fingers again.

It weakened, but not enough.

The bolt clipped her shoulder.

Pink haze shuddered. Blood welled from a shallow wound, and she staggered half a step, surprise flickering across her face as paralysis crept through her arm.

Reina landed, breathing sharply.

“Condensed output,” she said, steady despite the strain. “Enough focus gets through.”

The last of the Level 3 dissolved behind her.

Reina straightened.

“...I guess I never said it properly,” she continued. “But you should know.”

Her eyes didn’t leave Yuzuriha.

“I’m Project Harmonia. Subject Zero.”

Yuzuriha didn’t react.

Her gaze lingered on the relic D-Mic in her hand, fingers tightening as the sigils etched along its surface flickered unevenly. The pink haze around her body trembled, thinning at the edges as something darker began to press through it.

Then she looked up.

“Yuzu hates this world.”

The air buckled as her Imperium surged. The fog behind Reina thickened, black smoke boiling outward as CODA shapes tore themselves free and charged. Reina raised her voice instinctively, lightning bursting outward and leaping from one form to the next as they attacked from every direction.

“Yuzu hates Divas.”

The next wave came faster. Level 2s and Level 3s crashed into each other as they charged, uncoordinated and feral, driven by pressure. Reina shifted her footing, trying to pull away. She held her output back, cutting only when they pushed too close.

The chainsaw form screamed to life along her leg.

She leapt, spun and tore through the nearest bodies in a tight arc. A claw slipped past her guard and raked her shoulder as she landed, blood stained the torn fabric of her uniform.

“Yuzu hates Papa.”

Her voice cracked.

The Imperium surged again. CODA behind Yuzuriha lurched forward out of rhythm, some collapsing mid-charge, others screeching as if dragged by invisible strings. Reina felt it — Yuzuriha’s control started to twist.

Reina struck down the last of the immediate horde and braced herself against a shattered wooden pillar, breath coming sharp. Blood dripped from her sleeve.

“Yuzu hates what they turned her into.”

Tears spilled freely now, streaking down her face as the haze around her flared and dimmed in uneven pulses. Her Veil shuddered, swallowing sound in irregular waves.

Even Reina’s song struggled to hold its pitch inside her own Veil.

She straightened.

“You’re not a weapon,” she said, voice steady despite the strain. “And you’re not alone anymore.”

Yuzuriha laughed. A small, broken sound that didn’t match her expression.

“Yuzu... killed everyone,” she said. “Yuzu never had a choice. How is Yuzu not alone?”

Reina stepped forward, slow and deliberate.

“That’s not true.” She paused. “You reached out. You asked to be saved. That was your choice.”

She took another step.

“You still have me.”

Silence settled heavily between them. Yuzuriha’s shoulders shook once before she slowly lifted her head.

“Most people don’t choose evil,” she said, her voice barely above a breath. “They choose what they’re taught will keep them alive.”

The Imperium surged one last time.

The air around them twisted violently, pressure folding inward until something changed.

The haze around Yuzuriha began to pulse unstably, and the tattoos etched across her skin burned brighter, spreading into spaces that had once been bare, crawling as if searching for somewhere to settle.

Reina stepped forward, raising her hand to grab the girl in front of her.

“Yuzu—”

Before she could move another muscle, the space between them hardened without warning. Yuzuriha’s Silentia expanded, no longer absence or denial. A clear, distorted barrier formed, separating them.

The force threw Reina back. Her boots scraped against broken ground as she caught herself.

Yuzuriha remained where she was.

Her body arched slightly as the resonance inside her slipped further out of alignment. The tattoos that had been spreading across her skin began to settle instead, tightening until there was barely any space left untouched.

Yuzuriha lifted her head.

The rose-gold light in her eyes was gone. What remained was a flat, unfocused white that reflected nothing at all.

Reina’s chest tightened.

This was nothing like Nana’s awakening. There was no harmony here, no moment where willpower and intent moved together. Nothing had truly settled into place.

“Yuzu... stop,” Reina said, her voice straining as her own resonance began to waver. “This isn’t—”

Her words broke apart before they could fully form.

The surrounding air stabilized all at once. The ancient presence of Yuzuriha’s Veil vanished, leaving something too clean behind, as if the world itself had been stripped of excess.

Reina felt it.

The Authority.

Resonance across the clearing bent toward a single point at Yuzuriha, the rules of the space shifting subtly around her presence, as if reality itself were adjusting to accommodate her.

The changes weren’t complete. But it was as close as it could get.

Reina drew in a sharp breath.

A near-Symphony Major.

An imitation held together by pain, suppression, and things that should never have been allowed to coexist in one body.

Yuzuriha looked at her with an empty expression.

Only white eyes, and a silence that pressed in from every direction.

Reina steadied her breathing and lowered her hand. Her Cantus wouldn’t reach her like this.

So she sang.

A low, restrained tone flowed from her.

“Keep moving forward—

you have never been alone.

We’ll support you—

I’ll help carry what you cannot.”

The pressure around Yuzuriha shifted.

The white glow around her body flickered, a subtle distortion rippling outward before snapping back into place. The Silentia barrier held, but its surface wavered, no longer perfect.

Reina took a careful step forward, her voice steady despite the weight pressing down on her lungs.

“I want to stand as myself,

with my head held high beside you.

Yes… no matter what came before,

I’ll hold you close.”

For an instant, Reina felt something push back. The tattoos along Yuzuriha’s skin flared again, tightening further as if struggling to keep themselves aligned.

A sharp hiss cut through Reina’s earpiece.

“—Reina—!”

Takeshi’s voice came through broken and distorted, fragments cutting in and out between bursts of static.

“CODA... everywhere... they’re—”

“—losing control... worse—”

“—something’s affecting them—!”

The signal dropped.

But Reina didn’t look away from Yuzuriha.

She swallowed and adjusted her pitch, The Imperium was wreaking havoc outside and only she could stop it from becoming worse.

“So please don’t give up—

never give up.

Gather every spark of passion,

and let’s walk together forever.”

The air rippled, authority surging outward in a blunt wave that forced Reina back a half step. Pain flared behind her eyes as her resonance was threatened by Silentia, but she held it together, teeth clenched.

“You hate what they turned you into,” Reina said quietly. “And I won’t pretend this is okay.”

Yuzuriha’s body shuddered as a thin line of blood traced from the corner of her mouth. The white glow around her dimmed for a fraction of a second before flaring again, harsher this time.

“Now that I’ve been reborn,

as long as I can stand beside you,

I won’t fear even the uncertain tomorrow.”

Her singing continued.

“Papa’s order doesn’t define you,” she said. “And neither does what they did to your body.”

The tattoos along Yuzuriha’s arms burned brighter, then cracked. The haze around her pulsed erratically, struggling to maintain its shape as her Cantus lashed outward in uneven bursts.

“For the sake of tomorrow’s smile to bloom,

even if the sky fractures with darkness,

my soul will not tremble—

our bond will only grow stronger.”

“This song is my response to you. Your feelings are clearly written in it.” Reina said. “This is you.”

Reina felt it. A moment where the rules weren’t fully holding. She reached out, fingers brushing against the distorted barrier.

“And together…

we’ll paint the world,

with the colors of our hearts.”

The final note faded.

For a heartbeat, the clearing held its breath.

Then the Silentia barrier wavered and shattered inward, dissolving like mist. The weight pressing down on the shrine vanished all at once.

Nearby, the resonance generator flickered once, then went dark.

The tattoos across Yuzuriha’s body flared, then dimmed. Lines of light fractured and went dark as her Cantus collapsed.

Her knees gave way.

Reina lunged forward and caught her before she fell, the girl lying in her arms. There was no resistance left. No authority. Only a trembling body as the last traces of resonance bled away.

Reina eased Yuzuriha down onto the broken shrine steps and sat beside her, one arm still around her shoulders.

Yuzuriha coughed weakly. Blood spilled from her lips, thin cracks along her skin seeping darker red as her body gave out.

Reina held her tighter.

“T... thank you,” she whispered. “For reminding Yuzu... who she was.”

Her breath shuddered.

“But... Yuzu’s time is up.”

She leaned lightly against Reina’s shoulder, blood pooling between her fingers as her breathing slowed. For a moment, Reina thought that was it.

Then Yuzuriha’s eyes snapped open.

“—Yuzu?”

She shoved Reina away with what little strength she had left.

The gunshot came a heartbeat later. The impact tore through Yuzuriha’s chest, her body jolting once before collapsing backward, blood spraying across the broken stone.

Two figures stepped out from the trees — an old man in a dark coat, and a girl walking half a step behind him.

Reina tried to rise, but her arms trembled and gave out beneath her, her body refusing to respond.

“Saionji… Kogetsu,” she hissed.

He didn’t look at her.

Yuzuriha stared up at him, disbelief flickering across her face before settling into something quieter.

“So,” she murmured. “This is how it ends.”

Another shot rang out.

Yuzuriha moved again, dragging herself forward just enough to shove Reina toward the cliff’s edge. Reina fell hard, rolling down the slope as the next gunshot echoed above her.

Yuzuriha lay motionless.

“Retrieve her,” Saionji said calmly. “Imperium and Silentia are too valuable to lose.”

Alice approached and lifted Yuzuriha’s body.

“What about the other one?”

Kogetsu turned away.

“We’re done here.”

A sigil circle opened beneath their feet. Light folded inward, and both figures vanished.

Reina was left alone.