The fold between worlds was endless.Each step Akuzai took echoed like a heartbeat — his, or the world's, he couldn't tell. The ground beneath his feet wasn't stone or earth but shards of memory — moments frozen in light and shadow.
Tanishk followed close behind, his aura dim but steady. "These aren't illusions," he said quietly. "They're echoes of what once was… or what could've been."
They passed a fragment of a village frozen mid-laughter. A child chasing a kite that never moved. A mother calling from a window that never answered. The silence felt wrong — too heavy, too human.
Akuzai's eyes flickered gold. "She's here somewhere. I can feel her soul. It's warm… but faint."
Tanishk's expression darkened. "And something else is with her."
They came upon a small bridge stretching over a river of mist. On the other side stood Yukiko, or what looked like her. She was dressed in white, her hair flowing, eyes distant — like she was listening to voices only she could hear.
Akuzai froze. "Yukiko…"
She turned slowly, her gaze soft but… hollow. "You came."
He took a cautious step forward. "Of course I did. I told you—no one takes you from me."
Her smile was gentle, almost too perfect. "Then why can't I remember your face?"
The words cut through him like a blade.
Tanishk moved forward, eyes narrowing. "That's not her memory. That's Veyrix's doing."
Akuzai's heart ached. "Yukiko, listen to me. We met in Aoritsu — near the shrine, remember? You threw flowers into the wind because you said petals always find the sun."
For a second, something flickered in her eyes — recognition. Then pain.
The world around them rippled, dark veins spreading through the mist.
"I… remember the petals," she whispered. "But when I look at you, all I see is fire. So much fire…"
Akuzai stepped closer, his voice breaking. "Because I burned the world to find you."
A sudden scream tore through the air — not Yukiko's, but Veyrix's, echoing from above. The ground shook, splitting into fragments of glass and shadow.
"Do you think love can rewrite death?" Veyrix's voice thundered through the realm. "Even now, she clings to me — because I am the pain she could never escape!"
Yukiko fell to her knees, clutching her head. Her aura flickered between light and darkness. "Make it stop… please…"
Akuzai rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders. "Fight it! You're stronger than this, Yukiko!"
She looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks. "If I'm gone when you wake up… remember that I wanted to stay."
Then her body pulsed with blinding light, and both Akuzai and Tanishk were thrown back.
When the light faded, Yukiko was gone — again.
But this time, the fold began collapsing, as if her disappearance had broken its center.
Tanishk pulled Akuzai to his feet. "She's not dead. He's moving her — across folds. He's scattering her memories."
Akuzai's hands shook, anger rising like a storm. "Then I'll find every piece of her. Even if it means tearing apart the void itself."
The mist shuddered around them, and Veyrix's whisper came again, soft and venomous:
"Every love story becomes a tragedy when gods remember their flaws."