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"I'm the lingering sin."
…
The world seemed to stop—Akito could vaguely make out Nene and Emu's gasps from behind, but the ringing in his ears were louder.
"What…?"
The lingering sin—?
The lingering sin, the vessel holding the origin of the curse. What must be destroyed in order to destroy the curse—
Is also Aoyagi Toya. His partner.
"…What are you saying?" is the only thing he managed to get out. "You're not the type to make jokes. Don't say something so stupid—"
"I'm not joking."
To destroy the curse laid unto the demons, he was going to have to kill Toya.
He ran.
Ran away as fast as he could—ignoring the shouting from his friends(?) groupmates.
How was he supposed to kill Toya?
He had gone through this entire adventure expecting to beat up some grossly anatomically accurate, gooping with black unknown liquid, horrendous demon heart thing to lift the curse.
And now—only now, that he had barely 24 hours to fulfill the prophecy—Toya tells him that he is the lingering sin?
He finally stopped after running for who knows how long or how far, but he deemed it enough to stop for a breather.
With the way his heart is beating right now, he wasn't even sure if it was from the news or from running so much.
"Akito!"
…Well, guess it wasn't as long as he thought.
He turned around and saw Toya, panting arguably harder than him, considering how unfit he was compared to Akito.
Toya stared at him, trying to find the words. "Akito, I'm… I'm sorry." he said.
He didn't respond, just staring at him wordlessly.
"A-Akito—?" Toya reached his hand out, trying to hold his partner's hand.
Akito's eyes widened, he pulled out his gun from its holster.
"Don't fucking touch me!" he yelled, turning his body around abruptly and pointing the gun right at the bluenette.
Akito's finger tightened around the trigger.
The barrel of the gun remained perfectly steady, aimed directly between Toya's eyes. His breathing came in ragged bursts, shoulders rising and falling so violently it almost hurt, but his hands—his stupid, traitorous hands—refused to shake.
Toya didn't move. He didn't flinch, didn't even seem surprised.
Instead, something soft settled over his expression.
A smile.
Not a triumphant one, not a relieved one. Just... painfully, painfully gentle. Apologetic, even.
It made Akito's chest tighten far more than if Toya had looked terrified Akito was going to kill him earlier than the prophecy.
"Toya..." his voice cracked under the weight of everything. "Don't—"
"Akito," Toya said, meeting his gaze without the slightest trace of fear, "Please."
The single word hit him harder than anything this world had ever thrown at him and the group.
Not because Toya was begging for his life. He wasn't pleading for himself at all.
"Why?" Akito demanded, the word bursting out before he could stop it. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me from the start!?"
His voice echoed through the empty valley, startling birds from the trees surrounding them.
"You knew, didn't you?" he continued, each sentence coming out louder than the last. "You knew this whole damn time!"
Toya lowered his eyes.
"Yes."
"You knew I was gonna have to kill you!"
Another silence.
Akito laughed bitterly. "You seriously..." he dragged a trembling hand through his hair without lowering the gun. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."
Ever since he'd been thrown into this stupid world—
Ever since he'd fallen from the sky without warning—
He'd only wanted one thing.
Get home. That was a he asked for.
He cared about the prophecy just at the straws of hope that he could get back to his mundane normal life.
He hadn't cared about some world he knew was a game—fictional.
He certainly hadn't cared for any of the charactrts.
It was all just...
A game.
A bizarre, hyper-realistic game he hadn't asked to play.
He had never expected to grow attached to any of these people.
Never expected Emu's relentless optimism to become oddly comforting.
Never expected Nene's dry remarks to make him snort when he was exhausted.
Never expected himself to start looking forward to setting up camp with them after every battle.
And he definitely—
Definitely—
Hadn't expected to fall in love with someone who wasn't even supposed to exist.
Someone he'd spent months telling himself was fictional. Someone whose hand fit perfectly in his. Someone who he got to watch learn how to smile.
Someone currently standing in front of the barrel of his gun.
"...Akito."
His head snapped back up.
Toya's smile hadn't disappeared. If anything, it had grown sadder.
"I know."
Akito frowned. "Know what?"
"I know you aren't from this world."
Everything inside him froze.
"You..." Toya spoke carefully, as though piecing together a puzzle he'd spent months solving. "You and Otori aren't from this world, aren't you?"
Akito's lips parted.
"...Huh?"
"I had a feeling ever since you fell from the sky," Toya admitted. "And that you were human."
A tiny, almost satisfied smile crossed his face. "I was right, wasn't I?"
For the briefest moment—
Against every ounce of common sense—
Akito felt his heart skip.
That stupid smile. The one Toya always wore whenever one of his theories turned out to be correct.
It was so... so unbearably him.
"Akito?"
"...Hm?"
"...Do you think there's another world? Another one beyond this one?"
Akito had glanced sideways at him before snorting.
"...I dunno, man. You're so fucking philosophical."
The memory disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Akito stared, his throat feeling impossibly dry. "How did you...?"
Toya's gaze drifted toward the mountains beyond them.
"...I knew from Otori," he answered quietly. "She said something along the lines of... coming from elsewhere."
He smiled faintly. "It was vague, but..."
"Toya." Akito's voice shook. "I'm gonna kill you—I don't—"
"You've said it yourself," Toya interrupted gently. "You weren't going to do any of this half-heartedly."
Something inside Akito finally snapped.
"Have Kusanagi kill you!" he shouted, taking an angry step forward. "Or Otori! Why me!?"
Toya's smile faltered.
"...Because the prophecy—"
"Fuck the prophecy!"
The words tore themselves from Akito's throat.
His fingers suddenly gave out, and the gun slipped from his grasp.
It hit the ground with a dull metallic clang before skidding across the stone, forgotten almost immediately. Yet, Akito didn't even look at it.
Instead, both hands shot up to grab fistfuls of his own hair.
"Toya," he rasped, his voice breaking completely. "I don't want to kill you."
He squeezed his eyes shut. "Get that in your thick skull, damn it!"
Silence answered him. Only the wind moved between them.
After what felt like forever, Toya spoke.
"...Don't you want to get home?"
Akito blinked. "Huh—?"
Toya stepped forward just once. His voice remained impossibly calm. "Please, Akito."
His brows were furrowed, the determination behind them almost unbearable to see at a time like this.
"If not for my sake—"
"Don't you fucking say it."
"Then do it for Otori. Do it for Kusanagi. Do it for yourself, Akito!" he said, uncharacteristically loud. "I don't want to hold you down just because I'm still alive."
Akito stared. "I..." The words refused to come. "...Why?"
Toya's gaze drifted toward the horizon, following the orange light spilling across the mountains.
The wind gently stirred his hair, carrying with it the lingering scent of frost from the magic he'd been unconsciously leaking ever since the truth came out.
"...The three of you... are amazing."
A small smile returned to his face as he closed his eyes, almost as though picturing them together.
"I'm nowhere close to being worthy of standing next to any of you," he admitted quietly.
His shoulders relaxed, the tension slowly leaving his body. "And you all deserve to live beyond the curse set on this world and its inhabitants."
Akito could only stare at him.
"You..."
The word died halfway out of his mouth.
Then, against all reason, he laughed.
It escaped him in a short, breathless puff before another followed. The sound was hollow, somewhere between amusement and despair, carrying none of the confidence his laughter usually had.
God, why wasn't Otori and Kusanagi here… maybe they would've done a better job convincing him.
"You're unbelievable."
Toya's eyes widened.
Akito shook his head, another disbelieving chuckle slipping out before it vanished just as quickly.
He dragged a hand over his face, fingers catching in his bangs, trying and failing to gather his thoughts.
"When you talk about everyone else," he said, looking back at Toya with reddened eyes, "They're amazing."
"But when it comes to talking about yourself..." His jaw tightened so hard it almost hurt. "Suddenly you're a fucking curse."
For just a moment, something flickered across Toya's expression.
"It's because I am one." he said flatly. There wasn't even the slightest hesitation in his answer.
The certainty behind those five words twisted something deep inside Akito's chest.
"I was born one, Akito," Toya continued softly. "There's nothing you can do about it besides fulfill the prophecy."
"Toya—"
Akito instinctively stepped forward.
He never reached him.
The ground beneath their feet erupted with an ear-splitting crack.
Towering pillars of ice burst from the earth between them, each crystal forcing another higher into the sky before branching outward into countless jagged formations.
Frost raced across the newly formed wall like veins spreading beneath glass, filling every opening until not even the smallest gap remained.
Within seconds, an enormous barrier of shimmering crystal stretched in both directions farther than Akito could see.
"Toya!"
Akito broke into a sprint.
He slammed both hands against the wall, the freezing surface biting painfully into his palms. The impact echoed through the valley, but the barrier itself remained perfectly still.
And to add onto his nightmare, his own two feet were incased in ice.
"No—!"
He struck it again. A dull thud. The ice didn't so much as tremble.
"Toya!"
His fist collided with the crystal hard enough to scrape skin away.
Tiny streaks of red smeared across the translucent surface, disappearing beneath a fresh layer of frost almost immediately.
Nothing—not even a crack.
His breathing became ragged as he pressed both hands against the wall, desperately searching for some weakness, some opening, anything.
There wasn't one.
"These should thaw out before sunrise tomorrow."
Akito froze.
Toya's voice reached him only as a muffled echo, softened by the immense wall separating them.
This was the last time he was going to hear Toya's voice.
"...Please." Toya said. It hurt so bad. "Just let me be selfish this once."
Akito rested both palms against the freezing crystal, his forehead following a moment later. The cold seeped straight through his skin, yet he barely noticed.
"Toya..." His voice came out as little more than a whisper, almost choked. "I don't want to do this—"
The only answer was Toya's own voice, barely audible through the ice.
"Neither of us have a choice."
He heard footsteps, going further away from the wall.
"I'm sorry." was the last thing Akito heard from Aoyagi Toya.
"Toya—!" Akito banged on the crystals, ignoring how the frost made his wounds burn from how cold it was.
And it that wasn't bad enough—
He was going to have to kill Toya tomorrow.
"Fuck…"