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A penguin. A penguin was talking to Tomoyo.

She glanced around the exhibit. A family with two small children pressed against the glass a few meters away, pointing at the other penguins swimming lazily through the water. An elderly couple stood near the information placard, reading about Magellan penguins. None of them reacted to Ringo's voice. They couldn't hear him, just like they couldn't see the eel or the black void that had swallowed the sky.

Ringo's flipper slapped against the glass with a wet whack.

"Hey! Don't ignore me, Serial Killer-chan!"

Tomoyo looked back to Ringo. His beak was hanging open now.

"Hey, hey, can you cut the fish again? Like before, all messy, bones and everything. That orange-haired lady always does it too cleanly, perfect little cubes and all. It's awful! I don't know how she thinks that's food."

A thousand questions crowded Tomoyo's mind at once. How is Ringo talking? She'd prepped fish for Ringo before? When? And who the other lady… was it a worker? But those weren't the questions that came out.

"Why do you keep calling me a serial killer?"

Ringo tilted his head, oddly human-like despite his penguin body. "Because you are one, duh."

Tomoyo's mind scrambled through the past few days: school, the train rides with Kuroko, home. Nothing. She'd done nothing. She couldn't be one, right? Who could she have possibly killed? 

Then she recalled the news reports: three stabbings, three deaths.

"Are you… are you talking about the three murders in Adachi Ward?"

Ringo's beak clacked shut, then opened again. "Are you stupid? What other three murders would I be referring to?"

"I'm sorry, I thought-"

"Stop apologizing! God, it's a real grating habit of yours."

The words hit her with a strange familiarity, like she'd heard them before. From someone else. Someone who mattered. Tomoyo's mouth opened automatically, another apology forming on her tongue, but she caught herself and swallowed it down.

She tried again, "Am I really the serial killer?"

"Ok fine, more like serial killer by proxy. You know those remora fish, always clinging to sharks? That's you, except the shark's out there doing the murdering and you're just standing here being stupid about it."

Tomoyo turned slowly toward the eel floating behind her, its long body seeming to twist in what looked distinctly like irritation.

"You're talking about the eel." It wasn't a question.

"Who else would I be talking about? Yes, genius, I'm talking about your little parasitic friend there."

Tomoyo turned fully toward the eel. She opened her mouth, forming the question: Did you kill those people?

But the words died in her throat. The pelican eel moved faster than she thought possible, its long body coiling across her face like a gag. The pressure was firm enough to keep her jaw shut but not suffocate her.

"Oho, how precious!" Ringo's voice borderline hysterical now. "What's the matter, you worm? Don't like being called out on your little murder spree? Why don't you just kill her already? You're halfway through the job anyway with those lovely bruises you gave her!"

The eel tightened slightly. Not enough to hurt, but enough that Tomoyo felt what it was trying to say: Shut up. 

"But oh, wait!" Ringo slapped his flipper against the glass again. "You can't kill her, can you? Because she's your only host. The only human desperate enough to form a contract with something like you. Kill her and you're back to square one. Must be real comforting, knowing your survival depends on keeping this pathetic girl alive!"

Contract? Tomoyo's thoughts stumbled over the word. What contract? When had she agreed to anything?

The eel uncoiled slightly from her head, just enough that Tomoyo could see properly now. She watched as its jaw unhinged with a wet sound. The mouth opened wider than should've been possible, wider than Ringo, revealing rows of needle-thin teeth that curved backward into its throat. The creature pressed its gaping jaw against the glass separating it from Ringo. If the glass weren't there, Ringo would've been swallowed whole. The penguin's entire body would've slid past those teeth and vanish into the eel's distended stomach, and there wouldn't even be bones left behind.

Ringo laughed. Not a nervous laugh, but something unhinged that echoed through the exhibit.

"AHAHAHA! What're you gonna do? Eat the glass, you overgrown worm?"

The eel's jaw snapped shut with a click. Its body coiled back from the glass, pulling away from Ringo's taunts. The umbilical cord tugged at Tomoyo's spine, and she stumbled backward a few steps.

"Aw, leaving so soon?" Ringo called after them. "But we were having such a nice chat!"

The eel didn't react. It simply kept moving, dragging Tomoyo along with it. Her feet scraped against the floor as she tried to dig in her heels, but the creature kept pulling regardless.

Why did you kill those people?

The eel didn't respond.

What contract did I agree to?

Still nothing, not even a hint of acknowledgment.

"Come on, you worm!" Ringo's voice echoed from behind. "The poor girl deserves to know why she's dying, doesn't she?"

The eel kept swimming, kept pulling, kept ignoring both of them.

"Tell me."

Tomoyo said it out loud this time, and her hand moved before she second-guess herself. She reached out and grabbed the umbilical cord with both hands, fingers wrapping around the slick, pulsing tissue. The texture made her stomach turn but she held on.

"Tell me, or I'll rip it."

Her hands trembled against the cord. She had no idea what tearing it would do to her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

The eel whipped around. Its jaw gaped with a sound like tearing fabric, opening wider than before. The creature's entire body coiled back then lunged forward, its jaw aimed directly at Tomoyo's head.

That's when Tomoyo saw something black and sleek shot through the air. The eel was still lunging toward Tomoyo's head when it slammed into its side. Blood exploded across Tomoyo's face, and suddenly she could taste copper on her lips.

The eel shrieked, high-pitched and grating. It thrashed violently, and Tomoyo stumbled backward as the umbilical cord yanked at her spine.

An anglerfish had latched onto the eel's body, jaw clamped down hard, teeth buried deep into that translucent flesh. Its lure swung wildly above them, casting blue light across the wound and blood that began leaking from where its teeth punctured the eel's side. The eel twisted, trying to shake the anglerfish loose, but it held on.

Tomoyo's gaze dropped to the anglerfish's body. An umbilical cord trailed from its underside, disappearing into the darkness beyond the eel's light radius.

She followed the cord and found Raika standing a few meters away, hands shoved in her jacket pockets.

Relief flooded through Tomoyo so fast it made her dizzy. Raika was here. Raika was alive. She'd texted her to come to the aquarium and now she was here and everything would be okay because Raika always made things okay.

But then her eyes tracked back to the umbilical cord connecting it to Raika's spine.

Raika has one too…?

"Don't you dare do that again," Raika said, her voice flat. "Not if you still want my help."

The eel froze mid-thrash. Its body went rigid, and the anglerfish finally released its grip. The anglerfish drifted back toward Raika, positioning itself between her and the eel. The eel retreated a couple meters, coiling in on itself, but its jaw remained partially open, aimed at the anglerfish with hostility.

Raika finally walked toward her, stepping over the blood spatters on the floor like they weren't there. She reached out her hand.

"Sorry I'm late, Tomoyo. Now come on, the penguins are waiting."

Tomoyo looked at Raika's hand. Blood covered her palm and fingers, dark red streaks running down to her wrist. Had it sprayed that far when the anglerfish bit the eel? But Raika had been standing meters away, too far for the blood to reach her. Unless…

Unless it was already there.

But Tomoyo's hand had already moved, reaching for Raika's. It always did. Every time Raika reached out, Tomoyo grabbed without thinking. But this time, her fingers curled back before they touched.  

"Why didn't you answer my messages?"

Raika's eyes slid away from hers, focusing somewhere past Tomoyo's shoulder.

"Why do you have an anglerfish? Why are you working with the eel?"

Raika said nothing. Her hand was still outreached between them, frozen where Tomoyo hadn't taken it.

"Raika, answer me. Please."

"Anything I say won't make you happy."

"No, tell me. Anything is better than three days of silence. Three days of thinking you might be dead.  Do you have any idea how scared I was?" 

"I'm sorry I scared you, Tomoyo. Just know everything I've done, it's all been to protect you."

Protect you. Protect her from what? The eel? The murders?

"Stop talking in riddles! Just tell me. Tell me the truth, Raika."

The words came out harsher than Tomoyo intended, but she couldn't take them back now. She didn't want to.

Raika's eyes finally met hers.

"The truth is... you made a wish."

"...a wish?"

"Do you remember May 13th?"

May 13th, May 13th, May... A memory of sitting on the school rooftop with Raika. The taste of karaage. Raika's voice saying she was leaving in a couple days.

Tomorrow. May 13th was tomorrow.

"That's when you're leaving."

Leaving. The word tasted like something rotting in her mouth. Her hands moved before her brain caught up, reaching out to grab Raika's jacket, fingers twisting in it.

"Don't leave me. Please don't leave me. I'll-"

"I won't."

The words stopped Tomoyo mid-sentence. Her grip loosened slightly on Raika's jacket.

"You... won't?"

"You wished for it, so I won't leave."

Wished for it. Tomoyo opened her mouth to say she really doesn't remember wishing for anything, that she didn't understand what Raika meant, but Raika kept talking.

"When I realized what you wished for, I thought, finally. Finally, I have all the time I need to figure out what makes you happy."

The anglerfish drifted closer to Raika, its lure casting dark shadows across her face.

"I thought, isn't it great? We could go to your favorite place every day. Feed the penguins like you always wanted. Get that nori sundae you pretend to like. I kept thinking if I tried enough things, eventually I'd understand. Eventually I'd see you smile the way you did in the hospital. But I can't. No matter what I do, I can't make you smile like that."

Raika's eyes met hers again, and Tomoyo saw something in them she'd never seen before. Something ancient and utterly lost.

"I have infinite time and I still can't understand happiness. Tell me, Tomoyo, what am I doing wrong?"

Tomoyo didn't understand. They'd been going to the aquarium every day? When had they fed the penguins? Did they get ice cream recently? The memories weren't there. Where were they, then?

But above all, why was Raika talking like she wasn't Raika?

The way she spoke about understanding happiness, about not being able to figure something out no matter how many attempts she made. Raika had never talked like that before. Never sounded so lost, so utterly disconnected from the words coming out of her own mouth.

Raika must've noticed the confusion spreading across Tomoyo's face because her expression shifted. The ancient, lost look vanished, replaced by concern.

"Sorry. That must've been a lot to take in."

She pulled her hand back, wiped some of the blood off on her jacket, then reached out again.

"Let me make it up to you. Ice cream, my treat."

Tomoyo stared at Raika's hand. The eel, the murders, the talk of wishes and repeated days- none of it made sense. But deep down, beneath all the confusion and fear, she trusted Raika. She'd always trusted Raika, ever since that hospital room when they were seven. Raika had been the first person to treat her like she mattered, like she wasn't just the failed daughter everyone pitied. And just now, Raika had poured her heart out, hadn't she?

Tomoyo's hand moved slowly toward Raika's outstretched palm. Her fingers were almost touching when she stopped.

Raika's hand was trembling. No, her whole body was trembling. A wet cough suddenly tore from Raika's throat, and blood sprayed across her hand as she tried to cover her mouth. She wiped at it quickly, smearing red across her palm, but more blood leaked between her fingers.

"Raika?"

"I'm fine, just-" Her voice cut off as more blood came up, darker this time, almost black.

"Raika!"

Raika's legs gave out completely. She fell forward, and Tomoyo barely caught her before she hit the ground. The weight of Raika's body pulled them both down, and Tomoyo landed hard on her knees with Raika's head in her lap.

"Sorry..." Raika whispered. Her eyes had lost focus, staring somewhere past Tomoyo's shoulder. "I thought... I had... more time..."

Tomoyo's hands moved frantically over Raika's body, searching for the source of the blood. She found wetness pooling near Raika's left side, soaking through her clothes. She lifted the fabric with shaking hands.

A white object protruded from between Raika's ribs. Not quite a spear, but shaped like one. The skin around it had turned a purple-black, the same kind of bruising that covered Tomoyo's own back where the eel's cord attached.

"Raika, what- what is this? When did this happen?"

"Sorry, Tomoyo... seems like I can't... take you to... Asagiri Milk... this time..."

This time. She kept saying things like that. This time, like there'd been other times. Like they'd done this before.

Tomoyo pressed her hands harder against the wound and tried not to think about it, but Raika's eyes had already closed, her chest barely moving.

Tomoyo blinked back tears, and suddenly everything went dark. The aquarium lights, the exhibit, Raika - all of it vanished. Only the eel remained visible, its translucent body pulsing with white light.

Something snapped inside Tomoyo. She lunged at the eel, hands outstretched to grab its throat, its cord, anything she could reach. She'd tear it apart. Rip it to pieces. Kill the thing that had done this.

But before she could make contact, everything went black.

***

Tomoyo woke to something cold pressed against her back.

Except this time, Tomoyo remembered. She remembered the eel, Ringo's voice, every word Raika had said about wishes and trying to understand happiness, and Raika bleeding out in her lap. 

She remembered all of it.