Chapter 56: The Double Witch's Killing Spree
"Gin?!"
Vermouth's heart lurched as she sensed his familiar magic erupt violently and then instantly vanish. The power in that final burst was immense.
She had just dodged an attack from a wave of Familiars made of broken mirrors. The mirrors had reflected her deepest fears of aging and the truth, leaving her shaken. It was in that moment that a familiar magical signature disappeared.
Gin… was dead?
The Organization's absolute enforcer, the very definition of ruthless cold… was just gone?
Her heart sank. This Labyrinth, after its transformation, was even more terrifying than she had imagined. She glanced at the equally dim silver gem on her own chest.
How much longer could she last?
"Angel…" she couldn't help but think of Ran, the girl she had given that codename. Now, she had become a part of this despair…
What a… sigh…
She tried to use her mimicry ability again, to simulate the aura of the Familiars and blend into the environment. But this time, it failed.
Ran's despair contained an extreme hatred of "secrets" and "lies." Vermouth's power was being suppressed here like never before.
Suddenly, she felt the ground beneath her feet turn soft and viscous. Looking down, she realized she was standing in a bog made of countless broken masks. Each mask was silently weeping or locked in a mocking grin, radiating an aura of hypocrisy and betrayal.
The bog was slowly swallowing her.
"How… pathetic…" Vermouth said with a bitter smile. To spend a lifetime playing with secrets and lies, only to be consumed by a despair that symbolized them?
Perhaps… this is karma?
She gave up the struggle. Her magic was nearly exhausted, the corruption in her Soul Gem spreading to its very edge. Any further resistance was futile.
In the moments before her consciousness was completely devoured, her last thought was of the small figure in glasses.
"Silver Bullet… Cool Guy…"
"The truth of this world… is perhaps… far crueler… than you can imagine…"
Her silver figure sank slowly into the bog of masks and disappeared, not with a violent struggle, but with a quiet peace—a peace mixed with mockery and weariness.
…
Tooru Amuro's situation was just as precarious.
He crashed through endless collapsing bookshelves and scattered law tomes. He seemed to be searching for something, yet also running from it. The golden light of his Soul Gem was almost entirely obscured by darkness.
His identity as a Public Security officer, his cover as Bourbon, his true name of Rei Furuya… the lines between them were blurring in this chaos.
He saw phantoms of his dead colleagues. Matsuda, Date, Hagiwara, and Scotch. They stood in the distance, their faces etched with disappointment and sorrow.
"Rei… you failed…"
"The Organization… still stands…"
"Japan… is weeping…"
Illusions!
He knew they were illusions! It was this damned Labyrinth attacking his will! But he couldn't stop the thoughts from flooding his mind.
That's right… I failed. I couldn't destroy the Organization. I couldn't protect my country. And now… I'm going to die here myself. Was it all… meaningless?
Suddenly, a light appeared ahead. It was an open door, and beyond it seemed to be… the police academy training grounds? The sun was shining. Cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The young versions of his friends were smiling and waving at him.
A trap. It has to be a trap.
But… that light was so warm. Those smiles were so real.
Maybe… just let me… have one last look…
He staggered forward, moving almost on instinct, running toward that door.
The instant he was about to step through, the scene inside changed. The sunlight turned to the color of blood. The cherry blossoms became razor-sharp blades. His friends' smiles twisted into grotesque, demonic grimaces.
Countless chains, symbolizing broken vows and unfulfilled ideals, shot out from the doorway, instantly wrapping around and piercing his body.
"Ugh—!"
Excruciating pain.
His Soul Gem shattered on impact.
"I'm sorry… everyone…"
That was Rei Furuya's final whisper. His golden figure was dragged into the hell-gate named 'Regret.'
…
Shuichi Akai leaned against a broken pillar, gasping for breath. The pillar was engraved with the words, "There is only one truth." His sniper rifle had already reverted to ordinary metal. Darkness had completely consumed the last sliver of emerald green on his Soul Gem.
He could feel his life coming to an end.
His fated duel with Gin? Destroying the core of the Organization? Finding his father? Protecting those who were important? All of them were impossible dreams now. He hadn't even been able to protect his own family.
Shukichi… Mary… Sera… The names flashed through his mind, each one a sharp sting of pain.
And his FBI comrades… James, Camel, and Jodie… He could almost see Jodie's eyes, always so stubborn, always so sad.
I'm sorry… I couldn't keep my promise, and I couldn't give you a clear future. In the end… it still came to this.
And then, there was Akemi. Miyano Akemi. The woman with the gentle smile, whom he had dragged into the abyss. Getting close to her was for the mission, at first. But the feelings that came later were so complex that even he couldn't untangle them.
Use… deception… and finally, her death. Even though she had been revived, the heavy guilt had never truly vanished. Instead, it had dragged her sister… Shiho Miyano… into an even deeper abyss.
Thinking back now, were his own hands any cleaner? The so-called justice, the so-called Silver Bullet… perhaps it had been stained with an indelible shadow from the very beginning.
He closed his eyes, feeling the frenzy and despair churning within his Soul Gem. It was the sign of his impending Witchification.
Fine. Let it end like this. At least… I won't have to carry this burden anymore. I won't have to face these irreparable regrets and sins.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. An extremely dangerous energy signature was approaching at high speed. It was a mixture of two familiar auras of despair.
He looked up.
A massive Familiar was diving down from the labyrinth of case files above. Its form was indescribable. Its silhouette was that of Kogoro Mouri, passed out drunk on a sofa, but it was covered in armor made of shattered orchid petals shaped like angel wings.
In its hand, it held a grotesque weapon—a fusion of a twisted karate black belt and the broken barrel of a sniper rifle.
The final fusion… of both despairing wills?!
True… horror appeared in Shuichi Akai's eyes. And with it… a hint of bitter resignation.
He couldn't dodge. He didn't have the strength to.
"Is this it, then…"
His last thoughts were of them. The people he had sworn to protect, but ultimately couldn't.
"...I'm sorry…"
"...I… couldn't do anything…"
The massive Familiar crashed down, carrying with it Kogoro's chaotic self-destruction and Ran's broken obsession with protection, completely submerging the FBI's last trump card in a shadow of annihilation.
Fragments of an emerald-green Soul Gem mixed with the swirling case files and petals, scattering silently before fading into nothingness.
This corridor, built from the double despair of a father and a daughter, had finally swallowed the last of the light.
All that remained was endless darkness and chaos, and a sorrowful, unending cycle.