The sky vanished above me.Gone. Swallowed by the same darkness I had dared to dive into.
"Shit…" I whispered, tightening my hold on Yumi.
There was no light anymore — only the cold rush of air and the echo of my heartbeat. I wasn't sure if we were falling... or floating.
Then—
"Young one. Repeat after me."
That voice.Ancient. Cold. Inside my bones.
"...You again," I breathed.
"Do it. Or fall forever."
I didn't hesitate. I didn't understand. But I obeyed.
"Polý, polý, polý makriá prépei na eímaste, psilá sto archaío théloyme na vrethoúme."
The words weren't mine. But they felt like they'd always lived in my blood.
And then—ground.
We hit something solid. Hard, but not enough to kill.My knees buckled. I clutched Yumi to me. I was still high on something — heat, pain, the burn of whatever Jinrai had left inside me.
He was inside me now.
The blue spirit.
My right arm wasn't a claw anymore, but it was still glowing faintly — covered in symbols, the ones from the parchment that had burned her.
"Ikiryo?! SINCE WHEN—?! You have tattoos?! And your eyes… they're glowing!!"
I turned to look at her, but the world was already spinning.
Yumi's voice faded.
Fog swallowed my vision.
I collapsed.
✧ Yumi ✧
"Ikiryo?! IKIRYOO!!"He was limp in my arms. Eyes half-shut. Burning up.
"Oh gosh oh gosh—what is happening?"
I shook him. Nothing.Tapped his forehead. Nothing.Pinched his cheek. "Don't you dare die on me, idiot!"
Still nothing.
His back was hot to the touch. Too hot.Blood? Yes — bleeding. I turned him slightly, heart racing.
"I thought I was the one dying today, not you…"
We had landed somewhere deep beneath everything — a space at the bottom of the world. No light. No sound.
His blue-glowing eyes had been our lantern.Now… gone.
Darkness wrapped around us like a blanket of grief.
"Think, Yumi, think—"
But I couldn't.
I didn't know where we were. I didn't know how to save him.So I did the only thing I could.
I screamed.
"HELPPPP!! SOMEBODY!! ANYBODY PLEASE—!!"
No echo.
Just silence.
Tears pricked my eyes.No one answered.And Ikiryo… was slipping away in my arms.
"Please," I whispered to the dark. "Please… not him. Take me if you want — just not him."
Then—
Crack.
A sound.
I froze.
Then—
A voice. A figure approached lighting the darkness with a torch.
"Hey… are you two lost?"
My head snapped up.
That was—a human voice?!
But we were in the void.
Who the hell could be here?