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Nemesis and Nyoze were both lying on his bed, laughing and sharing short kisses. He caressed her hair and closed his eyes while she kept her eyes open, looking everywhere in the room. Nyoze couldn't blame her. After all, it was the first time she was in his apartment.
"Shakuson" hearing his name from Nemesis' lips was everything he needed to open his eyes.
"What?" He looked at her, waiting for the question. Sometimes she would just ask things he considered silly, and that was incredibly cute for him.
"The title of one of the books you have in that shelf," she sat up on his bed using her elbows "is a word I've never seen before." When she noticed Nyoze was paying all of his attention to her, she pointed at one of the books and asked, "What does "Shinju" mean?"
"It's a pretty old term from Jakoku" he explained and stopped caressed her hair. Nemesis wanted to complain, but she was interested in whatever Nyoze would tell her, so she kept quiet. "It means a pact made between two people who love each other in which they both... commit suicide together."
«Sonezaki Shinjū» was the last book Gammon gifted him before he had to change his identity. Even if they kept contact through letters, it wasn't the same as before. He had hidden the last letter he send him inside that book.
"It happens when they can't be together in this life" he spoke to quiet his mind. "Those kind of stories got so popular, the government had to regulate them"
Nemesis laughed at the last sentence and lay down on the bed again.
"They could be happy together in their afterlife" Nyoze added.
"If we couldn't be together on this life..." she started asking it playfully, but her tone turned serious in the middle of the sentence "would you die with me?"
"Themis Eight, I would die for and with you." He said. He was smiling, but not joking.
"I'd die for and with you too, Shakuson." Nemesis was smiling widely, something Nyoze wasn't used to see. He wished he could remember her face in that instant forever.
She positioned herself on top of him and kissed him passionately.
"There's also a type of shinju called muri-shinju" Nyoze explained after their lips parted. "In those cases, the suicide is decided by only one of them."
"So it's murder" Nemesis stared at his face, still on top of him.
Nyoze found hard to start the next sentence. He could die from her cuteness, despite the serious topic they were talking about.
"Well, you could see it like that."
"That doesn't sound very romantic" Nemesis said right before kissing Nyoze again by surprise.
"I'm not planning on doing it, anyways" He added and then laughed.
"Mhm. That's suspicious" Nemesis declared. She kissed him again.
———
It was cold, but Nemesis didn't care.
She cried while holding Nyoze's dead body. Her face was an absolute mess. Tears kept falling down her cheeks. She wasn't bothered by them.
"Hey, do you remember what you told me about shinju?" She whispered softly at his ear, hoping he could still hear her.
As expected, she received no answer.
"Lovers who could not be happy in this life, were happy in the afterlife." Nemesis nodded to herself as she kept whispering. "I'm not going to let you go alone."
She pressed the gun muzzle against her own head.
"Shakuson. Nyoze." Nemesis said. Her hand wasn't shaking like before. She wasn't nervous.
"If only I could start over"
She shot herself.