Saint Lycoris Academy — 16:12 hoursLocation: Inner Chapel GardenCondition: Sunlit silence after days of rain
For the first time in weeks, sunlight enters the academy.It pierces through the stained glass like forgiveness that forgot where to land.Everything smells too alive — flowers, dust, even the air feels suspicious.
The chapel garden sits empty, reserved for faith maintenance.Students come here to arrange altar bouquets, recite psalms, and pretend that purity is simple.Mother Violet says flowers never lie.
She forgets they grow best in dirt.
Arranging the Flowers
I kneel beside the altar, pruning lilies and replacing wilted blossoms.My gloves smell faintly of soap and iron.Each stem I touch feels too fragile, as if it might collapse under truth.
Ren appears without warning, carrying a crate of water vials.He looks softer in daylight — less like a secret, more like a memory trying to stay.
REN: "They told me you'd be here."KANA: "You shouldn't believe everything they tell you."REN: "Only when it's about you."
He sets the crate beside me and kneels to help.Our hands brush once — that same accidental contact that always ruins my composure.We both freeze.A single droplet slides from the stem onto my wrist.It feels colder than steel.
Diary Segment (Internal)
[Fragment Log #13 — Maintenance Duty]Observation: Subject Kaido, Ren, in proximity.Emotional interference: active.Physical contact tolerance: +40 seconds.
Handwritten note:He touches flowers like he's afraid they'll bruise.
REN: "It's strange, isn't it?"KANA: "What is?"REN: "That we do all this to make things look perfect — then throw them away the moment they wilt."KANA: "It's easier to love something that can't decay."REN: "That's not love, Kana. That's control."
My fingers tighten around a lily's stem until it snaps.The sound is clean and final, like glass cracking under confession.He looks at me — not afraid, not pitying — just seeing.
REN: "See? Even the perfect ones break."KANA: "Then maybe perfection is the real lie."
Internal Echo — Scarlet Saint (Reawakening)
[SCARLET SAINT]:"He speaks like scripture.""If sin had a voice, it would sound like his.""Bless him. Claim him."
A shiver runs down my spine.The sunlight through the stained glass shifts — pale white turning crimson, as though the chapel itself were bleeding light.
KANA (whisper): "Stop it."REN: "Stop what?"KANA: "Nothing. My head is… loud."REN: "Then let me stay quiet with you."
He sits beside me on the cold marble floor.The lilies tremble in their vases.Neither of us speaks.
The silence between us is heavy, but not empty —the kind that feels like a heartbeat shared between two ghosts.
The Confession
REN: "Do you ever regret it?"KANA: "Regret what?"REN: "Being what they made you."KANA: "I don't know what I'd be without it."REN: "You'd still be you."KANA: "That's the problem."
He turns toward me.Sunlight hits his face through red glass, tinting his eyes to gold.He looks almost divine — beautiful, human, dangerous.
REN: "You look peaceful when you're quiet."KANA: "That's when I'm dangerous."REN: "I don't believe that."KANA: "You should."
A petal falls between us — white at first, crimson when it lands on my hand.Maybe a trick of the light.Maybe not.
Diary Fragment (Later That Evening)
[Fragment Log #13-B]Observation: prolonged proximity (15m 48s).Emotional variance: stable increase.Persona interference: Scarlet Saint — active.
Handwritten addition:He said peace. I heard a promise.If faith is obedience, then he is my heresy.
Internal Echo — Scarlet Saint
"You were made to worship.""Then I'll worship him.""You were made to obey.""Then I'll obey my heart."
The voice no longer sounds like corruption.It sounds like prayer.
That night, I dream of the chapel again.But the altar is empty — its flowers gone, its hymns silent.At the center stands him, bathed in light, smiling as if he's never known fear.
In the dream, I kneel before him.Not as a weapon.Not as a saint.Just as someone learning to pray for the first time.
End of Diary #13 — "The Chapel of Lies."