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Ringo had come up to the glass when Tomoyo first arrived at the aquarium, beak open like he'd been trying to tell her something.

Tomoyo stared back. The other penguins ignored them both, diving into the pool and preening feathers. Only Ringo remained frozen in that position, black eyes locked onto her face.

She pressed her palm against the glass. "What's wrong?"

Ringo shuffled backward and dove into the water.

Tomoyo shook her head and stepped away from the exhibit. Strange. The whole day had been strange from the moment she woke with a pelican eel attached to her spine by an umbilical cord, discovered the sky vanished into a black void only she could see, and checked her phone to find news of three murders in Adachi.

Even Kuroko had been off at the station, crouching before that vending machine and scraping her fingers through the change slot. When nothing appeared, Kuroko had slammed her palm against the metal hard enough to make an elderly man turn and stare. Tomoyo rarely saw Kuroko angry. She couldn't remember the last time, actually.

But none of that mattered. Raika had texted her to come here after three days of silence, and Tomoyo needed to find her.

She walked through the aquarium's corridors, the eel floating beside her while its cord dragged along the floor. Its bioluminescent glow cast shadows across the walls as she passed the tropical fish displays and spotted eel tanks. The moon jellyfish exhibit appeared ahead, its blue light spilling into the hallway. When Tomoyo slowed her pace, she noticed a girl standing on the opposite side of the tank.

No, the girl wasn't standing. She was leaning against the tank, one palm pressed flat against the glass like she needs it to stay upright. Her silver hair fell across her face in uneven strands, and her skin had that same translucent quality as the jellyfish drifting behind her.

Tomoyo moved closer. "Are you alright…?"

That's when Tomoyo saw it: the girl's white shirt was soaked through with blood. It spread from beneath her palm, dark and wet.

"I-I'll call for help!" Tomoyo reached for her phone.

The girl's hand shot out and grabbed Tomoyo's wrist. Her grip was weak, but insistent.

"Don't."

"But you're bleeding..."

"I said don't."

Tomoyo stared at the blood seeping through the girl's fingers. If she wouldn't let her call 119... 

"Then let me treat it."

She dropped to her knees and dug through her bag. The first aid kit sat where it always did, wedged behind her wallet. Tomoyo pulled out some gauze, antiseptic, and medical tape.

Raika used to get dizzy spells at school. Sometimes she'd fall and there'd be scratches on her hand afterward, and she'd wave Tomoyo off and say it was nothing. But Tomoyo learned to keep supplies ready anyway.

The girl didn't resist when Tomoyo lifted her shirt, but Tomoyo felt the tension in her body, like she may bolt any second. The wound wasn't from a fall. It was too clean, like something had punctured straight through.

Tomoyo pressed gauze against the injury and the girl hissed.

"Sorry."

"You're always-" The girl's light blue eyes fixed on Tomoyo's face. "Why are you always like this?"

Tomoyo paused, tape half-unwound in her hands. Always?  "Like what?"

"Like you care." The girl’s grip tightened around Tomoyo’s wrist. "You don't even know me. So just… leave me. Let me die here."

"I... I can't do that."

"Why?"

For a moment, Tomoyo thought of Raika, those three days without messages, the text that finally came this morning.

"Because someone out there would miss you." 

The girl laughed, but there was nothing behind it. "There isn't." 

"That can't be true..." 

"It is. In fact, I shouldn't even exist." She looked away. "You wouldn't get it."

"I do."

Tomoyo thought about her father, the one whose name she never knew. Her mother had never said why dad was never around outright, but Tomoyo had understood, eventually. She hadn't been made from anything that looked like love. She was what happened after. A consequence, something that shouldn't have been given a life.

"I shouldn't be here either, but I'm here anyway."

The girl studied Tomoyo's face. "What do you live for, then?"

Tomoyo's hands dropped away from the bandage. The question settled uncomfortably. 

"I... there's someone. Someone who makes everything make sense. When she's around, I feel like I'm allowed to exist because she needs me to."

"I don't understand. You're describing dependence, not living. Those aren't the same thing."

Tomoyo's hands clenched around the first aid kit. Something in the girl's tone reminded Tomoyo of how Raika spoke lately.

"I..." She started, stopped. Tried again. "Earlier you said you shouldn't exist. But you're still here, so there must be something. So what keeps you going?"

The girl's gaze fell on Tomoyo's face. This close, Tomoyo could see how pretty her eyes were: light blue bleeding into aquamarine. But something about them felt wrong. They were too perfect, too symmetrical, like a doll's.

The girl's gaze shifted. Not to Tomoyo's face anymore, but behind her. Tomoyo followed the line of sight and realized the girl was staring at the eel.

"I live to kill you."

The aquamarine in the girl's eyes suddenly bled into something darker, something that looked less like the sky and more like the black void that had replaced it.

The spear appeared so fast there was no time to process it. Just the sudden wrongness of bone where bone shouldn't be, the sensation of something foreign punching through Tomoyo's skull.

Then, darkness.