The entire room suddenly falls silent as everybody shifts their eyes to the door leading out into the hallway, everyone apart from Kana, who is too weak to even cry. Nobody noticed that the door opened and closed again. A familiar person now standing inside the room.
"What did you do to Kana?"
Ruby's eyes wander through the room until they finally settle on Kamiki, who is still holding the knife next to Kana's bloody face.
Ruby takes a single determined step towards him, filled with anger that could make the room shake. Anger which is the only thing keeping her going in the moment.
"Tell me, what did you do to her? You monster."
Another step. But Kamiki, who was startled by the sudden appearance of a second Ruby, quickly regains his composure. He presses the knife to Kana's throat; her limp body doesn't resist even a bit.
"What? Are you scared? Isn't me coming to you exactly what you want? You're pathetic."
A third step.
"STAY BACK, ANOTHER STEP AND SHE GETS IT!"
Aqua has let go of Akane, by now and is standing halfway between Ruby and Akane.
"Ruby, stop right there. He is dangerous."
Ruby turns away from Kamiki to look at Aqua, her eyes filled with disgust and hatred.
"Shut up Aqua. You have no power over what I'm going to do, if I want to walk, I walk."
She points towards Kana while not looking away from Aqua.
"This is what happens when you are the one in control. You have failed, you failed me and Kana... I hope it was worth it."
Ruby turns away from Aqua again, facing Kamiki once more. Akane starts to slowly walk, whispering into Aqua's ear as she goes past him.
"Time to improvise, you have to trust me now. Just pay attention to Kamiki."
Without stopping, she heads towards Ruby.
"STOP IT! STOP WALKING… OR I WILL KILL HER. I MEAN IT!"
Ruby's intrusion earlier was a wonder, the power started to shift. Kamiki is slowly losing his control over the situation, trying to gain it back by using empty threats, but it doesn't work anymore.
That would be extremely dumb, Kamiki.
We both know that you're bluffing.
I'm done playing by your rules.
Akane doesn't stop
Kamiki's hand shakes a lot, a lot more than it should, even now. Akane only stops walking when she is standing right next to Ruby. Her voice is cold and bitter as she speaks.
"How dare you talk to Aqua like that?"
Her hand flashes up, slapping Ruby hard enough to make her stagger to the side.
"What?"
Ruby touches her burning cheek and looks up at Akane, her eyes narrowing in confusion and fury.
"Are you in on this? Do you also want to stand between Kana and me? So be it, bring it on."
Aqua can only watch in awe, frozen in place as Akane and Ruby start to fight, slapping and punching each other. But beneath the chaos, something catches his ear — something faint, almost too faint to notice.
Aqua's gaze shifts a bit to the right. Kamiki is standing about 2 meters closer to Akane and Ruby than he was just a moment ago. His knife is lying next to him on the ground while he is standing leaning against a pillar, breathing heavily.
The haze in Aqua's mind clears just enough. He's not himself again, not fully, but he knows—
This has to be it.
This has to be the moment Akane was talking about
But how, how did she do this?
How did she know?
It does not matter
Not now
Aqua charges at Kamiki, eliminating the distance between them in no time while pulling the knife out of his jacket in a single, swift motion.
The world around Aqua falls silent, a gasp, the sound of metal piercing flesh, and then, nothing. The knife was lodged into Kamiki's abdomen, just below the ribcage.
Aqua's eyes meet Kamiki's, the stars inside them slowly starting to fade away. Kamiki gasps again as Aqua pulls the knife out of his abdomen, releasing him.
"Does that hurt!? Huh!?"
Aqua's voice is calm, almost gentle, as Kamiki's body slumps against the pillar, slowly sliding towards the floor. Aqua kicks the other knife away while putting his own knife back into his jacket, turning away from him.
He looks around the room till his eyes land on Kana's limp body, still tied up in the chair. He crosses the distance between them in no time, starting to slowly cut her ties away, making sure not to injure her.
Ruby is too locked in her fight to notice him; her focus is entirely on Akane. But Akane sees. She catches Ruby's shoulder, tapping lightly with the last of her strength, trying to get her to look.
Ruby resists, then gives in, glancing to the side, then she freezes. Kamiki is slumped down in his own blood. She immediately lets go of Akane, who starts to gasp for air.
After a few seconds of heavy breathing, Akane manages to bring out a few words, still coughing in between them.
"I'm sorry Ruby… I had to make it look… authentic… I didn't mean to… hurt you."
Ruby turns back and scrambles off of Akane. She gets hit by a sudden feeling of regret as she finally fully acknowledges Akane's bruised face.
"I'm… I'm sorry too, I thought-"
…
Aqua cuts Kana's ties and pulls her off the chair. He places her on the ground and kneels next to her, starting to examine her wounds. Her face has stopped bleeding by now. The blood has started to crust. Her skin is looking ghostly white.
She brings her hands to her face, wincing, using the last strength she has left to cover her wound.
"I told you not to look at me, you wouldn't want to see this anyways."
Aqua sighs in relieve, her still being responsive is like a huge weight being lifted from his shoulders. He didn't get a good look at her injury, but he saw enough to know that it's not life-threatening.
"No Kana, Kamiki is wrong. I still want to see every centimeter of your face."
Kana hesitates, not lowering her hands even by a single inch.
"I- I'm sorry. I don't want it. I don't want you seeing me like this."
Aqua quietly sighs, but ultimately accepts her request, calling over Ruby so as not to delay Kana's treatment for even longer.
Ruby hesitates, then moves. Her eyes flick from Akane, to Kamiki, to Aqua, and then finally over to Kana. She rushes over, shoving Aqua aside to kneel by Kana..
"You scared me so much you dummy, I actually thought he would kill you for a second."
She wraps her arms around Kana. Her back is facing towards Aqua; he can only hear quiet sobs coming from Ruby.
"I am so happy that you're alive, it's all going to be okay now, I'll take care of you."
Aqua gets up, his gaze wandering through the room, searching for Akane.
"Aqua… Aqua."
The voice is quiet, empty. Kamiki is looking at him, blood trailing from the corners of his mouth.
Aqua steps over to him, kneeling before him, looking deep into his fading eyes.
"Seems like you lost. How does it feel?"
Kamiki chuckles lightly, coughing up blood. His voice is even fainter as he speaks again.
"How it feels? It feels… neutral, I lost and I will accept it. But how do you feel? Did you really win?"
Kamiki pauses for a moment, looking deep into Aqua's eyes. The sparkle is almost completely gone by now, but a bit of the former beauty of his eyes remains.
"Is this really a win for you? You only had two things in your live, them and me. What will be left once these things aren't there anymore?"
Aqua lowers his gaze.
"I have no answer to this question. But what I know is that my goals were fulfilled, you will never be able to hurt them anymore. If this means that my purpose is gone too now, I am just going to gladly accept it."
Aqua looks over to Ruby and Kana. Ruby is still holding Kana's weak body in a tight hug as if she could disappear any second, while Kana halfheartedly tries to cover her bloody face.
"They are both safe now, both of them have a future ahead of them, either with or without me..."
Aqua's gaze snaps back as Kamiki speaks again. He is clearly at the brink of death.
"Do you really think this was a success? Look at Kana, she can't even look at you without hating herself even more. Or Ruby, she can only look at you with disgust in her eyes. Even your other friend feels this way. You might have saved their lifes, but while doing so you ruined their soul."
With sudden strength, Kamiki grabs Aqua's arm, pulling himself closer.
"Your life serves no purpose anymore. Everything you touch breaks, and the best part is. I am certain that you know it yourself. I got one last thing for you. One last thing that will help along your way. Somebody close to you betrayed you... What will you do now? Believe the me, or your friends?"
Kamiki doesn't speak another word; his grip on Aqua eventually loosens, and his hand falls limp towards the cold ground. Landing with a quiet thump.[1]
[1] Clarification of what exactly Akane's plan was, since the only person who read this text beforehand completely misunderstood it, so if you don't want or need that, feel free to skip this note. Her plan did not involve a fight with Ruby, or Kana being injured. She planned to buy enough time for her poison (Which was foreshadowed multiple times, so it's not an asspull) to take effect on Kamiki. Now you might ask yourself why she didn't tell Aqua this. The reason she didn't tell him is that she needed him to genuinely believe that she was about to walk over to Kamiki and sacrifice herself. Otherwise, if Aqua was just acting, then Kamiki could've maybe seen through the act. Also, Kamiki could not have done anything against any of this, since if he came closer, he would walk away from Kana, leaving him open to being attacked, and he also couldn't kill Kana since that would lead to the same outcome. But as it went down, her plan failed since Ruby showed up. So she had to improvise.