Location: Riku's House — Still Night
"I'm going to find it."
"And I'm going to kill it."
He walked past her, his footsteps heavy, deliberate.
Yuki stood frozen for a beat. Then she spun around.
"Wa- Wait—Riku"
He didn't stop.
"You can't just storm out like this!" she shouted. "You don't even know what that thing is!"
"I know enough," he said, hand on the front door.
"No, you don't!" Her voice cracked with frustration. "You think rage is a plan? You've got no weapons. No backup. And it already nearly killed all of you!"
He paused. The doorknob creaked under his grip.
Yuki stepped closer, more quietly now. "You'e not helping anyone if you go out there and die."
Silence...
"I get it," she said. "You're angry. You're scared. So am I. But this thing… it's not like those stories we used to laugh at. It's not something you can just punch in the face and call it a day."
Riku looked over his shoulder, eyes dim but burning.
"And what do you want me to do?" he asked, voice cracking beneath the weight like rusted steel. "Sit here and wait for it to come again? Pretend everything's fine while it kills us off one by one?"
No - Yuki said firmly. "I want you to think. You can't fix this alone."
Fine, he muttered.
They stood in that tense quiet, broken only by the faint hum of a streetlamp outside.
Then—
A low groan echoed from the hallway.
Yuki's head snapped toward it. "Was that—?"
Riku was already moving.
He opened the door to the bedroom slowly.
From the bed, a weak voice: "Where am i…?"
Riku rushed to Mio's side as she blinked slowly, dazed but alive.
"You're awake," he said, a small tremble in his voice.
Mio blinked again, her gaze slowly adjusting to the light, to him. Then—
"Hehe… Riku?" she giggled softly. "You look so old now… like an uncle or something."
Riku froze. "AHH" Buzzzz
She tilted her head, wide-eyed and cheerful, like a kid who didn't know the weight of pain.
"Riku, where are we?" she said, voice light and bubbly. "Did we already go feed the school rabbits? I think I forgot the carrots again…"
Her face was smeared with dried blood. Bandages clung to her arms, half slipping. Purple bruises bloomed along her jaw and temple.
And yet—She smiled.
Riku slowly in disbelief "What is the last thing you remember?"
Mio squinted up at her. "Umm... it was snack time, I think! Oh! And Riku drew a silly cat on the chalkboard. The one with the huge eyes! U drew it like two tennis balls, I was laughing and, and hmmm I forgot"
She grinned with pink-cracked lips. Her hands trembled. One of them still had dried dirt under the fingernails.
Riku stared at her—at this bright, broken version of someone he knew better than himself.
His hands balled into fists.
"Mio," he whispered. "You're… seventeen."
She tilted her head again. "Huh? I'm just eleven!"
The room fell silent.
Her smile stayed.
But Riku's heart shattered.