The blank white room pulsed softly, like it was breathing around them. Hinata helped Alya to her feet, both of them unsteady but alive. The air smelled clean—no more ink, no more dust, just a strange stillness that felt like possibility itself.
Alya glanced at the door across the room, her voice small. "Do you think… it's real? That we can… leave?"
Hinata squeezed her hand. "I don't know. But whatever's out there… we're going together."
A low hum filled the air, and the door slowly began to glow, lines of gold tracing its edges. Words appeared on the door, shifting and flickering as though someone was still writing them in real-time:
*Only those who believe in their story may pass.*
Alya clutched Hinata's arm. "What if… I disappear when we step through?"
Hinata shook her head. "You won't. We rewrote the ending, Alya. You're real because I believe you are. That's stronger than anything the Writer could do."
For a moment, they just held each other, silent in the glow. Then Hinata stepped forward, reaching out to touch the door. Warmth flooded her fingers, and the door swung open, revealing a blinding white light beyond.
They stepped through together.
—
The world on the other side was… blank. An endless white expanse stretching in every direction. No buildings, no sky, no ground—just light. But slowly, shapes began to appear: a tree here, a path there, a gentle blue sky forming overhead.
Alya gasped, clinging to Hinata's arm. "We're… writing this as we go…"
Hinata nodded, tears in her eyes. "Yeah. We're free. No one else controlling us. No more endings forced on us…"
She looked at Alya, brushing her hair back gently. "What do you want to write first?"
Alya blinked, a smile breaking through her exhaustion. "A home… with you. Somewhere safe… where no one can erase us again."
Hinata nodded. "Then let's make it."
She lifted the pen in her hand, and as she wrote in the air, words bloomed into shapes. A house appeared, warm and welcoming, surrounded by flowers. A gentle breeze rustled the trees that sprouted beside it. A sun rose over the horizon, bright and soft.
Alya laughed, hugging Hinata tight. "It's beautiful…"
"It's ours," Hinata whispered.
But deep beneath the new world, a faint tremor rippled through the light. Unseen, a crack opened in the white void, black ink seeping out, curling upward like smoke.
The Writer might be gone… but the story was never truly over. And something old and angry still waited, lurking beneath the words they wrote.
Hinata pulled Alya close, not seeing the creeping ink in the distance.
"Let's write our forever," Hinata whispered.
Alya nodded, resting her head on Hinata's shoulder. "Together…"
And for now, that was enough.