The rooftop was quiet again. Too quiet. The kind of silence that pressed down on your chest until it felt like you couldn't breathe. The storm was gone, the chains had vanished, and Saki's final embrace still burned faintly against my skin.
But now she was gone.
Rika knelt where Saki had disappeared, her hand frozen mid-air as if she could still touch the girl. Reina hugged herself, pale, her lips trembling. Even Mayumi, usually steel was pale beneath the moonlight, her jaw tight with barely contained fury.
And then there was Nakamura.
He sagged against the wall, his glasses cracked, blood staining the corner of his mouth. His eyes weren't wild anymore. No madness, no curse. Just a man broken down to the bone.
