The weather today was gloomy, giving off an indescribably eerie feeling. That was especially true now that Cid was standing in a cemetery.
"Waaah..."
The usually lively girl was now collapsed over a coffin, crying her heart out, while white funeral streamers hung between the poles throughout the graveyard.
One middle-aged man after another, all dressed in black suits and looking like people of high status, stood to the side with solemn expressions, heads lowered in silent mourning. Beside them, a man and woman who seemed to be husband and wife stared blankly at the funeral, their faces dazed.
Feeling completely out of place among these people, Cid stared strangely at the black-and-white photo of the young boy displayed in the center of the funeral, above the coffin...
Kojou, how did you die... No, wait. Why are they holding a funeral for you when you're still alive?
Cid, who had begun questioning reality the moment he saw the name on the funeral notice, stood there with his mouth hanging open. He still could not understand why his friend, Kojou Akatsuki, was suddenly having a funeral when he was not even dead.
"Aaaah... Kojou!!!"
The energetic girl who had still been bouncing around a few days ago now had none of her usual cheer. She lay over her brother's coffin, wailing, tears soaking her still somewhat childish face.
"Nagisa, please stop crying..."
The woman from the couple stepped over to Nagisa Akatsuki and gently comforted her. Her almost childlike face was full of exhaustion, and at a glance, it was impossible to tell that she was Kojou Akatsuki's mother.
At those words, the girl stopped crying and slowly raised her head. Her eyes, once so full of life, were now bloodshot. Looking at her mother, she spoke in a low, slightly hoarse voice.
"What... exactly have you been hiding from me? Why did Kojou just die like this?!"
It was rage born from overwhelming grief, the anger of a girl mourning her brother's death.
Just a few days ago, this girl had believed Kojou Akatsuki was nothing more than an ordinary person. She had thought his disappearance simply meant he had gone off somewhere for a few days to take care of something. Now, after suddenly receiving news of his death, she was truly furious at the parents she had not seen in so long.
"Nagisa, this... was our mistake."
A sloppy-looking man walked over. After a moment of silence, he said those words.
"A mistake? Like the mistake back then, when you called me over to decipher the ruins and I ended up possessed by the Fourth Primogenitor?!
Gajou Akatsuki! Have you ever really treated us as your children?!"
As if her final fuse had been lit, Nagisa Akatsuki, driven by unbearable grief and the memories it had stirred up, called her father by his full name without hesitation.
The air was as still as stagnant water. For the still-young Nagisa Akatsuki, being told that her brother had died, then being expected to accept it and move on in just two days, was far too cruel.
"This... Of course I love you both. None of this was supposed to turn out like this!"
The middle-aged man, whose black hair had a streak of white running through it, spoke stiffly, the words coming out broken and halting.
"Haa... haa..."
Her flat chest rose and fell as anger and grief spread through her. Completely unsure how to face her parents, and unable even to throw out any harsh words, Nagisa Akatsuki could only let tears pour from her eyes. She turned away, closed her eyes, and tried to run from the place.
"Thud!"
The emotionally overwhelmed girl slammed into a broad, solid chest. Not only did the high-speed collision fail to knock the person blocking her path down, the force of the rebound sent her falling backward onto the ground instead.
"Na-Nagisa?"
Cid looked awkwardly at the girl sitting on the ground, her eyes blurred with tears, and barely managed to squeeze out a strained smile.
"Cid... Uwaaaaah, Kojou, Kojou is dead!"
Nagisa Akatsuki opened her eyes, intending to avoid whoever was blocking her path, only to realize it was someone she knew. Her emotions broke down at once. She rushed forward, hugged Cid, and cried out loud.
"Don't cry, Nagisa, don't cry. Kojou... he isn't dead!"
Cid spread his hands helplessly as he looked at Nagisa Akatsuki's tear-streaked face. He could only try telling her the truth to comfort her.
"...Really?!"
Her crying stopped abruptly. Nagisa Akatsuki lifted her head and looked at Cid, hope in her voice, as though she wanted him to give her some crucial clue.
"It's true, Nagisa. Look, isn't Kojou still perfectly alive?"
Cid nodded firmly and pointed at Kojou Akatsuki inside the transparent coffin. His body still had a human shape, but his skin was deathly pale, without the slightest trace of life, and the stitching that joined the parts of his body was clearly visible.
Nagisa stared blankly in the direction Cid was pointing, at Kojou Akatsuki, who had no life force or Magical Power and looked nothing like a living person. Then she turned back to Cid, who looked so certain that he seemed mentally unwell. Her lips trembled slightly, and she began crying again.
"No, Nagisa, really, believe me. Kojou really isn't dead!"
Seeing Nagisa Akatsuki cry again, Cid hurriedly continued explaining what he saw, trying to make her believe him.
But who could have known that seeing Cid like that would only make Nagisa Akatsuki cry even harder, almost as if she were breaking down completely.
"Aaaah... Fine. I'll bring him out right now so you can see for yourself. He's obviously not dead, so I really don't understand why you put him in a coffin."
Cid shouted in distress, pulling Nagisa Akatsuki forward as he tried to push open the coffin and bring Kojou Akatsuki out. But Nagisa Akatsuki, who had personally touched Kojou Akatsuki's corpse yesterday and watched his coffin being sealed, stopped him.
"Cid-nii-san, please, wake up. Kojou is really dead..."
Looking at Nagisa Akatsuki's face, marked by two streams of tears, then at the surrounding crowd silently mourning, Cid no longer understood. Was he the one with the problem, or was everyone else?
The life force in Kojou Akatsuki's body, originating from the vampire Fourth Primogenitor, was still there, firmly locking the vital presence within his body. No matter how Cid thought about it, that could not be called dead.
"Haa... You must be Cid, the neighbor and friend Kojou and Nagisa told us about. Hello. I'm Mimori Akatsuki, the mother of Kojou and Nagisa."
The haggard woman, who had followed them out and witnessed everything, walked up to Cid and gave him a small bow in greeting.
"I know it may be very hard for you to accept that Kojou is gone. To be honest, we can hardly believe it ourselves. But it is the truth."
It was clear that saying those words was very difficult for the woman named Mimori Akatsuki, and Cid's mouth opened even wider.
What the hell?
From Cid's perspective, he could say with absolute certainty that Kojou Akatsuki was not dead. That ridiculous life force was still present...
But why were even Kojou's mother and sister saying he was dead? As Kojou Akatsuki's family, they must have checked.
The gloomy atmosphere around him, the attitude of Kojou Akatsuki's family, and Kojou Akatsuki himself, who looked utterly dead, finally made Cid start doubting himself. Could it be that he was the one with the problem?
The hand pointing at Kojou Akatsuki's coffin slowly lowered. His attempt to step forward and rescue Kojou Akatsuki stopped. Cid began thinking, and the light in his eyes gradually faded.
Let's sort this out first. From my perspective, Kojou's body has a special power firmly attached to it, locking in his life force. With life force on this level, even if he were crushed into paste, it should be instantly detectable. That's why I thought Kojou Akatsuki wasn't dead.
And life force is a fundamental power that makes people feel closeness as long as it exists, so other people should be able to sense it too... But vampire life force does seem to be a little special.
I see. My perspective was the one that was off.
"Yes. Kojou... is already dead."
Cid spoke in a hollow, detached voice, without the slightest trace of emotion, as though he were merely stating a fact. At the same time, he nodded as if everything had suddenly made sense.
Cid understood everything. From his perspective, the negative life force Kojou Akatsuki had received from the Fourth Primogenitor was no different from anyone else's life force. Either way, it was still life force.
But that was his perspective, not everyone else's. He thought Kojou Akatsuki's life force was abundant, while everyone else saw Kojou Akatsuki as completely dead, without a trace of life force anywhere in his body.
Yeah, this really was a huge mistake for an Eminence in Shadow. Hahaha... Luckily, all he needed to do now was change his words, then stay silent. No one would care.
"Yes, Kojou... is already gone. But I'm sure he would be happy to have had your friendship. I'm glad Nagisa and Kojou had a friend like you."
Seeing that the boy before her seemed to have recovered from his breakdown, and remembering how she herself had desperately tried to prove her son was still alive when she first saw Kojou Akatsuki's body, Mimori Akatsuki fell silent for a moment. Then she forced a smile, not wanting her daughter or her son's friend to keep drowning in grief.
"Ahaha, yeah. Right. Kojou... is already... dead."
Cid forced the words out with difficulty. He had to admit, knowing perfectly well that his friend was still alive, yet being forced by the atmosphere to say he was dead, was beyond absurd.
"How... did he die?"
It was a clumsy attempt to change the subject, but it was also something Cid was genuinely curious about. Very curious. Truly very curious. This whole situation was just too ridiculous.
"Who... killed Kojou?"
Though she had been shaken again and again, Nagisa Akatsuki still managed to hold back her tears when she heard the question. She silently turned to look at her mother.
"...Give up. There's nothing you can do. That person is an absolute colossus."
Hearing the boy's strained voice, as if the words were stuck in his throat, and meeting Cid's sincere gaze, with Nagisa Akatsuki's sigh sounding beside her, Mimori Akatsuki, who understood exactly what they were thinking, said only that before falling silent.
"Even now, Mimori, you're still trying to hide this from me?!"
After waiting for a moment and understanding what Mimori Akatsuki meant, Cid was just about to stop asking when Nagisa Akatsuki beside him erupted. Without the slightest fear, she stepped forward, confronted her mother, and demanded an answer.
"...It was Shadow. Shadow killed Kojou Akatsuki!"
Under Nagisa Akatsuki's fixed stare, Mimori Akatsuki struggled for a moment before finally revealing the name of the one who had killed Kojou Akatsuki.
The moment those words came out, Cid and Nagisa Akatsuki both widened their eyes at the same time. One from shock and despair, the other from shock and confusion.
What does this have to do with me?!
Cid, who had been confused ever since receiving the notice of Kojou Akatsuki's funeral, was now even more confused. How did he not know he had killed Kojou Akatsuki?
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Perhaps because she knew all too clearly that the killer of her brother was destined to go free, and that there was no way to take revenge, Nagisa Akatsuki backed away a few steps, then silently left the funeral.
Cid watched Nagisa Akatsuki leave. Then he saw Mimori Akatsuki return to the entrance of the funeral, continuing to maintain order while occasionally arguing with her husband. With a sigh, he turned and left as well.
To be honest, Kojou Akatsuki's funeral left him with an indescribable feeling.
He had no idea what was going on. The GPS he had planted earlier clearly showed that Kojou Akatsuki was alive and well, yet now Kojou Akatsuki had been placed in a coffin and was about to be buried.
"Tap!"
Cid stopped and raised his head with a strange expression. Something... seemed off.
He had previously left a drop of blood on Kojou Akatsuki as a GPS tracker, so he could save him if something happened. Through that tracker, he could still sense that Kojou Akatsuki was alive and well. So why... was Kojou Akatsuki's body here, while the signal was somewhere else?
Cid turned to look at the transparent coffin. Threads of Magical Power flowed into his eyes. In his vision, the interior of that powerful body, which possessed the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, was completely empty. There was nothing inside at all.
What the hell? Where was his soul?!
Cid fully released the perception and control he normally kept restrained. Following the mental and spiritual power contained in that drop of blood, he instantly located Kojou Akatsuki's soul. It was in the space between worlds, at the center point of time and space...
This is ridiculous. Kojou, how exactly did you end up in a place like that?
Cid stood there dumbfounded, his small head filled with enormous confusion. Not only had Kojou Akatsuki escaped his notice, he had even ended up in that chaotic place where time and space twisted together. The world really was full of strange things.
It was the equivalent of Kojou Akatsuki voluntarily separating his soul from his body without the slightest will to resist. Then, during the process, a spatial rift suddenly appeared and sucked his soul away. After that, he would have needed to pass a hundred checks, each one a critical success, just to possibly reach that place.
No wonder Kojou Akatsuki's body looked like that despite having such abundant life force. With his soul gone, the power of the Fourth Primogenitor had simply gone on strike.
"This is troublesome..."
With a thought, Cid's drop of blood began carrying Kojou Akatsuki's soul back. But because of the chaos of time, Cid estimated it would take a while before it returned.
Still, it was not a major issue. At most, it would probably take a few months. Once Kojou Akatsuki's soul returned and that power activated, his body would repair itself.
"Hmm?"
His finger twitched slightly. Through the sensation coming from that drop of blood, Cid felt as though there was something behind them. But...
"Must be my imagination..."
Cid muttered under his breath and did not take it to heart. After all, how could life possibly be born in a place like that?
Thinking this, he set the return route, casually took out a white flower, and intended to place it among the flowers at Kojou Akatsuki's funeral.
"Hmm?"
Cid turned and looked at the sorrowful short-haired girl before him, who had a somewhat heroic air about her and had, by complete coincidence, chosen the same spot as him.