Akane screams out in shock when she sees the blood on her hand. Where there was once hair, she now feels a warm liquid slowly slide down her scalp.
Her gaze starts to snap around, looking for the culprit. Eventually, her eyes land on a crow, which is just sitting there, five meters in front of her. The brooch Aqua had gifted her just weeks after they first met in its beak.
"Oh, you little shit."
Akane slowly closes in on the bird. She is not planning on letting it keep the brooch or getting away with the attack.
"Come on, I won't hurt you. Just come here, pss pss."
The crow is just leaning its head to the side as Akane comes closer and closer. Eventually, she is so close she could probably jump and catch it. She takes another step…
Suddenly, there's a crack she had accidentally stepped on a stick. She can do nothing but watch in awe as the bird takes off.
"You stupid bird won't take this brooch away from me!"
A single second passes before Akane starts the chase, running down the trail like a maniac while the bird always just barely stays in her line of sight, brooch and strains of her hair still in its beak.
This continues for about 10 minutes. Akane is sprinting through bushes and trees, never once averting her eyes from the bird. She speeds up as she sees a large layer of thicket, raising her arms in the shape of an X up to her face as the bird flies over it.
A sharp pain shoots through her body as she follows. Her arms, as well as parts of her clothes, were ripped open by the sharp twigs.
After opening her eyes again, she finds herself standing on one side of a clearing, in the middle of it a run-down wooden house, the bird sitting on the veranda.
"Got you… finally."
Her breathing is heavy as she steps towards the building.
The bird drops the brooch and flies off into the distance, much faster than before, as Akane approaches. She angrily picks her brooch up, her entire body aching and her clothes torn.
She turns back around, but she isn't leaving just yet. The hair on her neck stands up as she somehow feels like the house is talking to her, telling her to come in.
She hesitantly turns around and takes a step closer. The door isn't locked, all of her senses are screaming for her to run. But she doesn't listen; instead, she pushes the door open and steps inside.
The room she is standing in is dusty; it looks almost frozen in time… But she doesn't register any of that; she has enough on her hands by merely standing upright as the memories flood back into her mind.
I remember.
I was here before.
I remember.
It was with Aqua.
How didn't I notice this sooner?
I remember what he said…
"My friend's house."
"Everybody who used to live here is dead."
"Gorou Amamiya"
"He didn't have a mother."
"She hid her pregnancy from her parents."
"She lost too much blood."
"Since no one knew who his father was, he was given to his grandparents to raise."
"It was pretty awkward."
"He wasn't on bad terms with his grandma, but his grandpa was sort of…"
"He never managed to shake the guilt."
"When he decided to go to med school, he actually wanted to become a surgeon."
"In the end, he lived his life according to others' expectations. It was all he could do."
"Even after he became a doctor."
"He was powerless…"
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Akane screams as she tumbles backwards, knocking over a vase that shatters with a loud thud. A lot of dust is blown into the air, making her cough as she sits on the floor. Lost memories begin to overload her brain. Memories she never understood and discarded shortly after obtaining them because of the trauma that followed her.
"WHY DOES HE KNOW THIS MUCH?"
"THIS DOCTOR WENT MISSING JUST BEFORE AQUA WAS BORN!"
"HE CAN'T KNOW ALL OF THIS!"
"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
"WHY DID AQUA SAY THAT THIS GUY WAS HIS FRIEND?"
"HOW?"
"HOW WOULD AQUA KNOW HOW GOROU AMAMIYA FELT?"
"WHY DOES HE KNOW ALL OF THIS ABOUT HIS BIRTH AND UPBRINGING?"
"ALL OF THIS HAPPENED A GENERATION BEFORE HE WAS BORN."
"NO, NO, NO, NO. THIS IS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE."
Akane continues to ramble on, screaming out her thoughts into the vast forest that surrounds the lonely house. Then she hears it, a quiet voice right behind her sends a jolt through her body.
Akane, who is still on the floor, instinctively jumps forward, wincing in pain as she hits her head on the wall. She whips around, now facing towards the door.
Confusion is mixed into the mash-up of emotions coursing through her mind as she sees the white haired kid in the doorway.
"I'm sorry… for… scaring you..."
Akane says, her voice shaky, and she's still unable to get up.
But the girl just stands there, unmoving, while staring at Akane, her eyes filled with disbelief. Then, she moves.
"You are the person my mother told me about… The person from the tale…"
Suddenly, two crows land on the girl. One on her left shoulder and one on the right. The crow on her left still has strands of Akane's hair in its beak.
"Wait. I know you, you're the girl who played Aqua and Ruby in the movie. Why are you here?"
Akane's expression is one filled by confusion; her pulse begins to sink again as the thoughts about Aqua are pushed to the side.
"Correct, but I am also the reason why Aqua wanders this earth, the few people that know me refer to me as Tsukuyomi…"
Tsukuyomi begins to gently pick the blue strands of hair out of the crow's beak, treating the bird with the utmost care, as she speaks.
"You can be proud of yourself. None before you have achieved what you just did."
Akane points at the grow, stuttering as she speaks, since he knows that it's really unlikely that some kid can train a bird to this extent.
"That crow… you lead me here, you wanted me to see this."
Tsukuyomi stops cleaning the bird; instead, she faces Akane, who is still sitting on the dirty floor, again.
"Yes. But that's not the entire truth. I only led you here because I was the reason you initially lost these memories.
Akane thinks for a moment, then she speaks, her voice sounding confident yet somewhat uncertain.
"These were not my memories. I've never been here before. This must be some weird form of delusion."
"Then why do you know the name Gorou Amamiya?"
Tsukuyomi's expression remains cold as she speaks, but her voice hints at something else.
"I don't know, not from here."
She tries to sound cool while dismissing the contradiction Tsukuyomi had found. But her heart still skips a beat as she's unable to come up with a logical answer.
"You are making this harder for Aqua than it needs to be."
Akane quickly hurries onto her feet, her cheeks flush in a pinkish red at the accusation.
"No, I am logically deducting that the current conclusion that's the most likely is simply impossible."
"But is it really? Didn't Aqua sometimes strike you as a bit old fashioned… Or didn't you at least think of it as a bit weird that he knows so much about medicine?"
Akane suddenly recalls what happened in Kamiki's penthouse. She remembers how Aqua managed to dissect the body within minutes, as well as how clean the cuts appeared to her.
She didn't say anything back then. Aqua has always been interested in this kind of thing. So she didn't think much about it. But now she finally realizes that there is a huge difference between reading about dissecting a body and actually being able to do it under stress.
"No. None of this makes sense."
Tsukuyomi sees how hard her words affect Akane. She can virtually see Akane go through all emotions at once. Her voice is gentler now, kind with a certain urgency behind it.
"You're right, it doesn't, but the truth doesn't always make sense in a world filled with lies."
Akane finally catches herself again.
"Okay, then what is this truth you're speaking of?"
"I know that you know it."
Her heart begins to race at Tsukuyomi's words.
"No I don't."
Her legs turn weak as she speaks.
"Say it."
Her fingertips turn cold as Tsukuyomi responds in quick succession.
"Say what?"
Her forehead begins to sweat as she asks.
"The truth."
Her legs finally give out beneath her weight, sending her down once more.
The room feels heavier, pressing down on Akane like she is the only person left on earth. Then she gulps once, as if to swallow down all the things she believed in prior to this day, and speaks."
"Gorou Amamiya was reborn as Aqua Hoshino."
The world around Akane seems to fall quiet as she finishes uttering the words.
I never believed that stuff like this exists.
But what else could explain all of this?
It makes all sense…
If he wasn't four when Ai died, but in his thirties…
The survivors' guilt…
Why he feels like he is undeserving of his life…
His protectiveness of Ruby…
Why he knows so much about medicine…
It even explains why he sometimes talks like my fucking dad…
Everything makes sense.
Akane begins to uncontrollably shake her head, not stopping even when she feels that she is getting dizzy.
"No. All of this is just a weird dream; it has to be."
Tsukuyomi takes a single step forward, moving for the first time. The crows remain perfectly still on her shoulders.
"Stop lying. You have already found the truth, just make sure not to lose it again. Otherwise, Aqua would carry the consequences."
"You must keep an eye out for Aqua. As for he has returned."
Akane looks up at Tsukuyomi, her eyes teary.
"Do what now? Who is he?"
"I can't answer that question or help, if I would try I'd just make everything far worse… Just know that we are destined to meet again soon. Heed my words, and he shall find the way, walk astray, and the light will dwindle."
With that, Tsukuyomi just disappears alongside the two ravens. One second, she was standing in the doorway; the next, she was just gone.
Minutes pass by in complete silence. During this time, Akane's head is a vast desert, void of any thoughts for the time being. Then she slowly begins to get up again, her pants covered in so much dust she could probably throw them away the second she gets back home, a quick thought shooting through her head.
When all of this is true… Then it is impossible for me to convince Aqua to be happy…