Some things are destined. No one can change them.
Even with all the formidable abilities she'd accumulated — even with "King Crimson is invincible" practically a standing refrain — Inori Yuzuriha still worried that she might not be able to change the ending. The futures Epitaph showed her would happen. The path they took to get there — that she could not foresee.
But she refused to accept it. She would change her fate. Whatever it took.
—Inori… let him go.
Mana couldn't watch anymore. She understood entirely why Inori had done this — but she couldn't just stand by and observe her little brother suffering while she did nothing.
Inori said nothing. But slowly, she eased her grip and released Shu.
"Think carefully about what you say when you go back out there."
Shu's hair was a disheveled mess from where Inori had seized it. He struggled to his feet looking thoroughly wretched — disoriented, mind still scrambled. Inori had no time to manage his feelings right now. She'd made herself plain enough. Even for Haruka's sake, he wouldn't do anything as stupid as making a suicide-bomb move.
"…Yes. I understand, Miss Inori."
The light had gone out of Shu's eyes.
"Ugh, I'm freezing."
Inori rubbed her arms.
To make a proper entrance just now, she'd abandoned her jacket in that locked room — and going back for it felt distinctly wrong at this point.
"Let me borrow your jacket."
She glanced back at him, impatient.
"…"
Shu stared at her with something close to alarm, then slowly, mechanically, shrugged off his jacket and held it out.
She didn't like wearing other people's clothes — but she still had to show her face in front of the Funeral Parlor members, and appearing half-dressed seemed wrong, especially when she got cold this easily.
"What in the world is going on?!"
Down at the base of the island, the core members of Funeral Parlor had gathered — and were completely at a loss.
Just moments ago, the GHQ's Sixth Fleet had moved in and surrounded Ōshima entirely. The ground forces that had been pre-positioned inside the island's military facilities were now deploying, landing teams beginning a large-scale sweep of the entire island. It wouldn't be long before they were found.
"Tsugumi, still no contact with Gai?"
Shibungi, seeing the situation deteriorate, had led them into hiding at the Kuhouin family's villa — where Hare Menjou and the others were staying — buying whatever time they could. The military search teams wouldn't reach this area for a while yet, but it was only a delay.
"I keep trying — nothing's going through…"
The cat-eared girl bit her lip, troubled.
The immediate priority was reaching Gai — but he had cut off communications himself the moment he'd gone in, and there had been nothing since.
"Gai must be in trouble! We should go reinforce them!"
Argo Tsukishima stepped forward, jaw set.
"Inori is with him — the woman who pushed the Leukocyte into the Sea of Japan single-handedly. Do you honestly think GHQ can handle her?"
Ayase Shinomiya spoke up sharply from her wheelchair to shoot him down.
In truth, she was the most anxious one of them all — though something in the back of her mind kept insisting that Gai was the sharpest man she had ever met, that whatever he was doing had its reasons, that there was probably trouble but there was also Inori — the girl with the Void power — and she wouldn't let anything happen to him.
The room fell silent again.
"Actually — has anyone seen Shu?"
Ayase suddenly realized Shu Ouma wasn't among them and asked aloud.
"That kid said he was going to use the bathroom and never came back. He probably ran into the enemy…" Argo clenched his jaw, frustration and dread flashing across his face. "I actually liked that clumsy, trying-hard idiot. I never thought he'd—"
"This whole operation was a trap from the start."
Oogumo — a man of few words — let one slip.
Anxiety and dread hung over everyone in the room like a blade suspended above their heads. They all knew Gai was in trouble — but they couldn't act rashly. In the interest of staying covert, the heaviest firepower any of them had brought was Oogumo's portable rocket launcher. What could they do against a GHQ military deployment with that?
If they all died here, Funeral Parlor was finished.
At that critical moment, Tsugumi let out a startled cry of relief — she'd finally gotten through to Gai.
"Gai!"
"…E-everyone… listen carefully."
"Gai's" voice crackled through the comms — faint and broken, as though the next breath might be his last. Everyone in the room went rigid.
Gai's hurt. Badly.
"We walked into a trap. The intelligence was fabricated — it was meant to lead us here."
"Gai? What happened? Is Inori there? Is she with you?"
Ayase went white. She already knew — the thing she most didn't want to happen was becoming real.
"She's here… but I don't have much time. I've sustained a fatal wound… I'm coughing… There's no way I can continue forward with all of you."
The voice through the comms grew weaker with every word, punctuated by wet, wracking coughs — and by the sound of coughing up blood. Argo drove his fist into the table. Furious, helpless tears streaked down his face.
"I know… the enemy has surrounded this area. But… trust Inori… As long as she's there, things will work out…"
"Gai! Stop talking! Tell me where you are — I'm coming for you right now!" Ayase's voice dissolved into sobs as she spun her wheelchair and tried to push past toward the exit, only for Oogumo's broad frame to step into her path.
The man who almost never spoke said nothing now either. But his trembling eyes and the grief written across his face said everything.
"Ayase… thank you. You were always… the one I could count on most… cough."
"But don't do anything foolish. As long as you're all alive, Funeral Parlor will not die. As long as you keep moving forward… I will be there ahead of you…"
Another sound of blood on the comms — everyone listening felt it like a knife. But there was a truth none of them could avoid: they were about to lose Gai. The worst defeat since the organization's founding. Gai was the beating heart of the team — without him, what would become of Funeral Parlor?
"Inori… from here on, let Inori take my place. I know you may not understand this yet, but — this is my final order. With her there, everyone will be safe…"
"Gai!" Ayase wept, completely undone.
The announcement of a change in leadership gave many of them pause — by any measure, Shibungi would have been the natural successor. But this was Gai's final communication. His final order. And no one could dispute Inori's capability. One by one, in silence, they accepted it.
"Inori, you need to go now… if you wait any longer it'll be too late…"
"Gai — why are you making me—"
A different voice came through the comms: a girl's voice, thick with tears, broken, as though she'd just cried her eyes out.
"You are the only one who can fulfill my wish… I trust you. Inori — live. Take everyone and get out of here. Go."
"Gai—!!"
"Good grief. Did I get too into character? Even I got swept up in it."
Inori wiped her eyes, composed her expression, and let the smile of someone who had just executed a perfect scheme spread across her face.
Behind her, Shu Ouma stood unable to utter a single syllable. He had watched every second of it.
What kind of demonic, terrifying woman was this? She had mimicked Gai's voice perfectly to deceive every member of Funeral Parlor — and shifted between the two roles without a single seam — even though Gai was dead by her hand.
"What are you staring at?"
Inori caught Shu's gaze and leveled a cold look at him.
"N-nothing."
The boy dropped his eyes and mumbled an answer.