Prologue - Midnight and Those That Bloom Within

Red sun. Red sun. Red sun.

The Government of Japan has been rendered ineffective, yet we shall not fall.

Our sanctioned officials have been mobilized alongside ordained members of the unified clergies to ensure humanity’s continued existence.

Beware what your mind can now bring forth.

Red sun. Red sun. Red—

Last Broadcast of the NHK. 
2091, January 03—
D+1.

—◃⬥花⬥▹—

D+1301.
“I hope you’ll be able to hate me someday.”

She won’t ever be able to take back those words. And so, Ayame Takeuchi continues down the darkened river bank.

She won’t have much time. And so, the youth swipes her graying hair aside.

She knows that there are those who will still forgive her. And so, she tightens bloodstained hands.

Her steps stutter. Roused, luminescent wings spread from the tall reeds on which they roost.

Rippling alongside each step she takes down the footpath, the fireflies take to the air. Maybe the rare presence of a human in this time has disturbed their peace. Maybe her arrival here simply coincided with the decisive hours of their existence. Whatever it is, Ayame shows no care for the reason for their flight.

For in this strangling dark of night, the girl only sees a final mockery in their fleeting light.

How can they ever understand?

To only know and give light for but a mere fraction of the life one suffers in the dark—to simply accept it before nonexistence follows as a guarantee?

“How can she accept a life like that?”

Her answers to the questions come with the sway of her form in motion.

“I refuse”, says the rigid stop of her arm that follows its forward swing.

“Never forgive me”, says the stiffness of her outstretched hands.

“Just let me go”, says the unyielding smile behind her clawing fingers.

Her heart finds no need to accept the way fireflies live their life. She does not need to understand them, nor imagine what it’s like to live a life so short and futile.

She tried to understand, yet she never could.

Despite common sense, it’s easier to impose the opposite: to force, not accept.

Then again, common sense finds no relevance since that day she was reborn.

If she’s hurt someone before, then there’s no point in stopping now, right?

With a whisper beneath the breath she draws, the fireflies freeze—hundreds of them. Each and every insect in the swarm, all at once. All powerless as they are contorted into torch-edged needles with her wish—thoughts, given formulae. The air shifts and distorts with every insect’s demise. A violent correction against her violation of laws once thought rigid.

Her wrist turns, and the darts turn their lights against their planned flightpath.

“Please, help me reach them.” Ayame begs, and the glowing husks obey.

The nearest stabs itself to the grass to her left, and the next follows across the first. The third, fourth, and so on weave themselves to lighten the path ahead of her.

Once a silhouette, the footbridge ahead becomes visible with the dim lights that run parallel. And with a few needles of light still to spare, the familiar grounds across the bridge reveal itself to the girl.

Ayame hastens her pace. There’s no need to look back on the desolate neighborhood behind her, nor to her home just a few blocks downstream—where the end had begun for her, tonight and three years ago.

There’s plenty of proof that she can do things once thought to be impossible. On the other hand, there’s yet to be proof that there’s an impossibility she can’t overcome. She can do anything with enough preparation—courage; sacrifice, if need be.

The questions beginning with “should”, however, have long left her resolute heart. All for the sake of tonight. All for the sake of love, even if she has to lose it first.

And so Ayame Takeuchi enters the grounds, where altars and crosses abound. Her tender smile remains—there’s no doubt in her heart that she will be proven true—that, tonight, her wish will come true.

To reject death and all kinds of endings.

Even if she has to end everything to do so.

To bring them home.

Even if it means she’ll lose the only home she knows.

For once, and forevermore.

For everything else ends tonight.