The park was quiet, filled with the mundane sounds of distant traffic and birdsong. Konone and Mahiru found Koko there, sitting on the bench with her head bowed. They didn’t need to ask. The hollow look in their eyes mirrored her own. The "tugging" in their souls had led them to the same conclusion: the world was right, but the heart of it was missing.
"They don't remember," Koko said, her voice hollow as she looked up. "Her own parents. It’s like she never existed."
Mahiru sat beside her, clutching a worn, leather-bound book she had retrieved from the school’s archives—the same Chronicles of the Pulse they had used to track the Heart Cards. "I went back to the library. I needed to know why."
She opened the book to the very last page, one that had been blank only days before. Now, it was filled with fresh, golden ink that shimmered in the light.
"The Twelfth Card is the anchor of the scale. To use the full power of the Twelve to rewrite the fabric of reality, a Great Exchange must occur. The wisher does not merely lose their life; they surrender their place in the weave. To grant a world without shadow, the light that requested it must be extinguished from memory."
"It was a trade," Mahiru whispered, her glasses fogging as tears fell onto the page. "The universe couldn't just remove the Void for free. Yui offered herself as the payment. She didn't just die, Konone... she was never here."
Konone slammed her fist against the wooden slat of the bench, her face contorted in a mix of rage and grief. "That’s not fair! We fought together! We were supposed to be a team! How can she just decide to leave us behind in a world where she doesn't exist?"
"Because she loved us more than she loved being remembered," Koko said softly. She looked at her steady hands, then at the bustling street where people walked by, blissfully unaware that their lives had been bought by a girl with a blue ribbon.
The three of them sat in the center of the peaceful world Yui had created, the weight of the secret pressing down on them. They were the only three people in the entire universe who knew that the girl named Yui had ever lived.
"She wanted us to have this," Mahiru said, wiping her eyes. "She wanted you to play the piano, Koko. She wanted me to be free of my past. She wanted Konone to be safe. We can’t let her wish be in vain, even if it hurts."
They sat together as the sun began to set, three broken notes trying to find a way to keep playing the song Yui had started, even if the conductor was gone forever.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBBUsoa9bMh
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