She gently clasped Su Yuzu's hand.
Soga Yura sank into memory.
And at the same moment, the world turned upside down before Su Yuzu's eyes.
The faint sound of the tide drifted to her ears — soft, broken, distant.
Through the car window, Su Yuzu could see dark clouds massing on the horizon and wave after wave crashing against the coastal rocks.
The memories sealed deep within Su Yuzu's heart by Soga Yura seemed to stir at last, rising slowly to the surface, overlapping with the images Soga Yura was now passing to her.
It was a day twelve years ago.
Father, as ever, had some matter that would take him away from the Soga clan for several months.
Something had happened that day — something that changed everything.
Soga Iori had gathered the half-asleep Soga Yura into her arms early that morning, pressed one finger to her lips to signal Su Yuzu to stay quiet, then taken Su Yuzu's hand and bundled them both into the car — Soga Yura still held against her chest.
She looked for all the world like an older sister fleeing a war with two little sisters in tow.
Unlike the bewildered, half-dreaming Soga Yura at that age, Su Yuzu — reborn as she was — understood almost immediately: something was about to happen within the Soga clan.
Soga Iori was running away with them.
Back then, Soga Iori wasn't even old enough to hold a driver's license.
But as the personal attendant of both Soga Yura and Su Yuzu, driving was a skill she simply had to learn.
The precocious Su Yuzu turned at once to soothe Soga Yura, doing her best not to add to Soga Iori's burden.
Su Yuzu watched through the car window in front of her. The glass reflected back the young face of a little girl and her short hair, barely reaching her shoulders. She turned her head — and there, sitting right beside her, was another small girl pressing her lips together, expression faintly troubled.
The two girls looked almost identical.
The only difference was that the other girl's hair was a little longer — just grazing her waist.
Both girls had their lips pressed into thin lines.
The world was reflected in the other girl's eyes — like a sea of crimson stars.
"Yu... Yuzu..." A soft, wheedling little voice — the voice of a child — came from 'herself.' Su Yuzu understood at once: this was Soga Yura's perspective.
"Where are we going?"
"To the beach to collect shells." Even knowing danger was close, Su Yuzu still tried to protect the girl's world.
"Yay!!" For Soga Yura, shell-collecting was apparently the happiest thing imaginable.
And of course —
Even happier was getting to collect shells together with Yuzu.
"Yuzu said..."
"You can hear the sound of the sea inside shells."
"I want to find two pretty ones... one for Yuzu and one for me." Soga Yura pressed close to Yuzu's side, held up her soft little hands to show the sizes — then began chewing her lip in thought. "Mm, maybe three would be better."
"Papa needs one too."
"Four, then... and one more for Sister Iori."
Su Yuzu watched herself quietly draw Soga Yura into a hug. The two little girls held each other, and the Yuzu in the memory gently nuzzled her soft cheek against Soga Yura's.
"Sis can find as many as she wants."
"But... today, you have to listen to me, okay?"
"Okay! I'll listen to anything Yuzu says." Soga Yura wrapped her arms tight around Yuzu.
"Silly... would you even listen if I tried to sell you?"
"W-well... would you be the one buying me?"
The black sedan tore through the road beneath the heavy, brooding clouds — Soga Iori driving fast, so fast the scenery outside had blurred into smeared lines.
A bolt of lightning split the sky from within the clouds, blazing light across the distant horizon.
The thunder followed seconds later, a crashing boom that rattled the car windows almost to shattering.
Soga Yura flinched violently.
She had always been easily frightened, ever since she was small.
Su Yuzu saw it reflected in her own eyes — a teary, crumpled little face staring back at her.
Su Yuzu pulled Soga Yura close and held her tight.
Wrapped in Su Yuzu's arms, Soga Yura seemed to draw strength from the embrace and burrowed her small head even deeper into Yuzu's chest.
Su Yuzu watched her younger self tilt her head up and glance at the rearview mirror inside the car.
She could see Soga Iori's tension plainly from there.
The knuckles of the girl's hands on the steering wheel had gone white from the force of her grip. Those crimson eyes — the kind that shimmered faintly like a sea of starlight, just a little dreamlike — looked furious and utterly composed at once.
The Hoshi branch was one of the Soga clan's cadet families.
Their eyes had that quality — as though drenched in starlight, tiny points of radiance drifting through their depths.
It was a mark of a bloodline not pure or powerful enough. And yet, for that very reason, it looked strangely, unexpectedly beautiful.
Along the coastal road stood a weathered wooden shack, half in ruin.
The tidal flats were jagged with black rocks and rows of concrete pilings, left behind from some unfinished coastal construction project.
Waves dyed black by the sullen sky broke against the rocks and left trailing lace of foam.
Soga Iori stopped the car in front of the wooden shack.
But she did not bring Soga Yura and Su Yuzu inside. Instead, she led them away from the tidal flats and into the trees.
She unclasped the necklace from her own neck and pressed it into Su Yuzu's palm.
Then she swapped phones with both of them.
Through Soga Yura's perspective, Su Yuzu watched Soga Iori — her expression grave — press her instructions upon her past self: protect Sis at all costs.
No matter what, do not lose the necklace.
If you see any cars pass by on the road, do not make a sound.
Do not answer any calls — from anyone.
Unless it was Father. Or Uncle from the Ishikawa family.
Even if the head of the Hoshi branch called — Soga Iori's own father — she was not to answer.
Iori pressed her wallet into Su Yuzu's hands as well. After finishing her instructions, she turned and repeated them to Soga Yura: listen to your little sister. Then she got back in the car and drove away quickly.
Even the young Soga Yura could smell something wrong in the air.
She panicked and seized the hand of her past self. "Yu... Yuzu..."
"Did Sister Iori not want us anymore?"
"Of course not~" Su Yuzu gently squeezed Soga Yura's hand. "Sister Iori just..."
"Has something else she has to take care of."
Su Yuzu curled one hand tight around the necklace Soga Iori had left behind, and kept the other hand clasped around Soga Yura's.
The Su Yuzu of the present already understood: that necklace was a Holy Relic in Soga Iori's possession.
「Dreamless Regret」.
An ability that concealed the presence of its holder.
"Let's go find shells, Sis."
"But only around here, okay... we can't let anyone on the road find us." Su Yuzu took Soga Yura's hand.
And led her away from the road.
On the road... car after car rushed past.
Su Yuzu watched her past self cast a worried look in the direction Soga Iori had driven off.
A rebellion...?
But... through Soga Yura's perspective, Su Yuzu noticed something else — something that even now made her stomach turn cold. Something her past self, it seemed, had never registered at all.
There, beneath the sullen dark clouds, out across the black surface of the sea... white fog was rising.
That kind of fog. Slow, breathing. Alive.
— Catastrophe.
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