Ren took a step closer to the edge and stared out toward the next platform. It was maybe just two strides away, waiting for him to make the move.
"What does that one mean?" he asked, pointing subtly toward the glyph on the second platform.
Kagami curled her tail but didn't budge from her spot where she was observing it all. She smiled in a way that made it clear she was expecting this question sooner rather than later.
"You really are a masochist," she reinforced her observation of it.
But for Ren, the weight of all this was already starting to get to him, so he wasn't really in the mood to indulge her mockery. He just fixed her with his eyes and waited for the reply. He wasn't even considering not getting one, and Kagami knew that. But she also knew how to play with it in a way that kept things balanced and still nudge them slightly toward something interesting.
"It says: the price of a mistake is never yours alone," she said, making sure it was sharp enough for him to take it in fully. Just as he wanted.
This time, he was more prepared for the blow, and even though it touched him on the same deep personal level, he was starting to see it as a challenge. This place was challenging him, and he was not about to give in to it anytime soon.
He stepped back, then launched forward. The second glyph activated beneath him as lines of violet light spilled upward until his vision went completely blank.
There was no transition this time. No fading to some soft soundscape or gentle sunset falling in on some balcony. No. This time, the atmosphere was harder to swallow. He was older, barely a teenager. He stood near a broken fence with his hands scraped and his jacket torn at the shoulder. Haruki was there too, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, staring at a photograph Ren was holding like his very life depended on it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Haruki said, stepping forward. "You snuck back for this?"
Ren held it tighter, not saying anything.
"It took us two years of pain and suffering to get out of that hell-hole."
"I just..."
"No," Haruki snapped, grabbing the photo from his hand, almost tearing it if Ren hadn't been careful to let it go just in time. "You need to grow up and understand that not all mistakes are for free."
"It was mine to begin with, it didn't cost anyone anything..." Ren replied with his gaze lost somewhere on the ground, unable to fully face his brother.
Haruki's jaw clenched, angry, but then the pressure dropped and his voice lowered.
"It costs me, Ren. I couldn't bear to have you lost in the underworld for a trinket... Do you understand?"
Ren nodded a few times with his guilt rising in his throat. He had never meant to worry Haruki... he just wanted to smuggle out the last physical remnant of a good memory they once shared a long time ago, when neither of them had yet known what it meant to suffer.
The return to the platform was harsh. Ren's body dropped back to the ground like it was heavier than it truly was.
"Fuck," he went, stumbling to stay upright. "Is this going to happen every time I land on one of these things?"
Kagami smiled, tilting her head slightly.
"Memory is truly our biggest adversary," Kagami replied, almost looking right through him, towards truths he couldn't even begin to understand.
"So that's a yes."
Kagami only smiled another cryptic little smile toward him, so Ren knew better than to waste time on it.
Instead, he turned back toward the next platform. Its glyph was already beginning to stir in anticipation. So he drew in a breath then let it out slowly, getting ready for the jump.
"Ren," Kagami called out, just as he leaned forward into a run.
He stopped and looked over his shoulder, toward where she was.
"Don't let it drag you down," she said, and it was almost as if she was aware of something that he was not. Something that involved him directly. "Find an anchor. Use it as soon as you can."
Ren nodded as if he understood just because he wasn't in the mood for another lecture. But he, of course, didn't. He had no idea what an anchor was supposed to be in a place like this, or what he was even meant to look for.
He stepped back, and this time, he went and launched forward.
For a second, it felt like landing on shattered glass. The surface was a bit different on this one. It had a few cracks here and there around the glyph as if it had been struck before by something. Then the same flash of light burst in, just like with the previous two platforms, rippling around him and engulfing all his senses in a blinding violet light.
When he could open his eyes again, Ren found himself in a white and clean corridor. It was the corridor of a hospital wing, and he was still wearing the same old jacket he had worn months before. His fists were clenched, and he felt something weighing on him in the chest.
A nurse stood before him, letting him know the facts.
"You can't go in," she said.
"I need to see him."
"I'm sorry. He left instructions."
Ren's heart slammed in his chest.
"Instructions? He's... he's not dead. He can't be..."
But there was no more reply from the nurse. Her silence was experienced, calm. She knew exactly how many moments to give him before gently touching his shoulder and letting him know she was there to offer some support. Even as vague as a touch.
But Ren wouldn't have it. He tried to push past the closed doors when two guards pushed him back out.
"You don't understand. I didn't... he wouldn't just..." His voice broke, and he couldn't finish the sentence.
"He said not to let you see him. That it would only make things worse," the nurse continued.
That was the last thing he remembered from that day. No goodbye. No last words. Just someone telling him how Haruki wouldn't be anymore in his life.
Ren fell to his knees hard against the stone platform as his senses snapped back in a rush. His body just couldn't hold the weight. It took him a few moments even to register where he truly was. Then, as he looked down, he realized the glyph had started disintegrating into particles that kept vanishing in the air one by one.