Chapter 6 – A Glimmer of Tomorrow
1. Reika
The world was quieter after that night.Not peaceful — just still. Like the universe itself was holding its breath, waiting to see if I would break.
I almost did.
The words Harbinger spoke haunted me. They slipped into my mind during class, echoed in the silence of my room, bled into my dreams until they were all I could hear.
Your suffering has meaning.Your death is necessary.
How do you live knowing that? How do you breathe when every inhale feels like a crime against the stars?
"Reika?"
I blinked. Marino was standing in front of me, holding out a can of iced coffee with that soft, worried smile I was starting to recognize as his default expression.
"You've been zoning out again," he said gently.
I took the can but didn't drink it. "I was just thinking."
"About what?"
I almost laughed. What wasn't I thinking about?
"About… everything," I said finally. "About you. About what he said. About whether I'm supposed to be here at all."
His smile faltered. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't talk like that." His voice was barely above a whisper. "You're supposed to be here. You're meant to be here."
I stared down at my shoes. "But if my death saves others—"
"Then they'll have to find another way."
My breath caught. He said it so simply, like it wasn't the most impossible sentence in the world. Like it wasn't defiance against the entire universe.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why risk everything for someone like me?"
He took a step closer, so close I could feel the warmth radiating off him.
"Because you're not 'someone like you,'" he said softly. "You're you. And that's enough."
2. Marino
She didn't see how much she'd changed.
The girl I'd found on that rooftop weeks ago had been ready to disappear. But now, even as she wrestled with despair, she was still here. Still questioning. Still searching.
And every breath she took felt like a small victory.
But I couldn't let her see the cracks forming inside me. The Harbinger's warning wasn't just a threat — it was a countdown. My strength was fading. The longer I remained in this realm, the more I unraveled. I could feel pieces of myself slipping away — memory, power, identity.
Still, I didn't regret a thing.
"Do you want to go somewhere?" I asked suddenly.
She blinked. "Somewhere?"
"Anywhere. Just… away from all this. For a little while."
She hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."
3. Reika
We ended up by the river, just as the sun began to set. The city's noise faded into a distant hum, and the sky burned with streaks of gold and violet. It was beautiful in a way that made my chest ache.
Marino sat beside me on the embankment, close enough that our shoulders brushed. We didn't speak for a long time — we didn't need to. The silence between us was softer now. Safe.
"Do you ever miss it?" I asked suddenly. "Your… other world?"
He was quiet for a moment. "Sometimes."
"What was it like?"
"Endless," he said. "Cold. Orderly. No pain, no chaos. Just… balance."
"That sounds peaceful."
"It was," he admitted. "But it was also empty. We watched life bloom and die, rise and fall. But we never felt it. We were never part of it."
I turned to look at him. "And now?"
He smiled faintly. "Now I understand why mortals fight so hard to live."
4. Marino
She didn't realize that this moment — sitting beside her, watching the sky — was the closest thing to eternity I'd ever known.
For so long, I had believed my purpose was to watch without interference. To keep the balance, no matter the cost. But now… I wasn't sure.
Was balance worth a universe without this?Without laughter? Without tears? Without the warmth of a hand brushing against yours beneath a fading sun?
Maybe not.
"Reika," I said quietly, "if you could choose — even if it meant defying everything — would you still want to live?"
She looked at me, startled by the question. "I… I don't know."
"That's okay," I said. "You don't have to know yet. Just promise me one thing."
"What?"
"Promise me you'll try."
She stared at me for a long moment, and then — slowly, hesitantly — she nodded.
"I'll try."
5. Reika
I didn't know why those words felt so heavy. I'll try. It sounded small, almost insignificant. But when I said them, I felt something shift inside me — something that had been dormant for years.
Maybe it was hope.
Not the bright, blinding kind people talk about in books. Mine was quieter, shakier — like a flickering candle in a storm. But it was there.
And when Marino smiled — that rare, unguarded smile that reached his eyes — I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time.
I wanted tomorrow.
6. Harbinger
Far beyond the mortal plane, I watched.
The threads of fate trembled violently now. Each moment the girl chose to live sent new fractures spiderwebbing through the fabric of existence. The balance screamed in protest.
And yet… I hesitated.
For countless eons, I had been the enforcer of the Law. The Watchers observed. The Harbingers corrected. It was how the universe endured.
But something unprecedented was happening. Against all logic, against every law written into the stars — despair was beginning to falter.
And all because one soul refused to let go.
"Foolish boy," I whispered into the dark. "Do you really believe love can stand against eternity?"
But even as I said it, a sliver of doubt — faint and dangerous — stirred within me.
7. Reika
We stayed by the river until the stars came out.
It was late, and the city lights flickered to life one by one, but neither of us moved. I didn't want the night to end. I didn't want to go back to a world where the universe had already decided my story for me.
"Marino," I said softly. "Do you ever regret it?"
"Regret what?"
"Choosing me."
His answer was immediate. "Never."
"But if everything ends because of me—"
"Then I'll face the end with you."
The words left me breathless. There was no hesitation, no fear. Just truth.
And for the first time since Harbinger's words, the voice inside me — the one that told me I was worthless, broken, unneeded — went silent.
Maybe, just maybe, I wasn't meant to be an anchor for despair.
Maybe I was meant to be a choice.
8. Marino
The night deepened, and the stars burned brighter. A new chapter of fate was writing itself above us — one that no Watcher or Harbinger could predict.
Reika turned her face to the sky, and in that moment, I saw it: not the broken girl fate had condemned, but the spark that could reshape the universe.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"For what?"
"For staying. For not giving up on me."
I looked at her, my heart full of everything I couldn't say.
"I couldn't," I whispered. "Not anymore."
9. Epilogue – The Loom Trembles
Somewhere beyond the stars, the Loom of Fate groaned.
It had never bent. It had never wavered. Until now.
Threads began to snarl and twist, colliding in ways they never had before. New paths formed — strange, impossible, beautiful — and at the center of them all burned two names.
Marino.Reika.
The universe itself shivered.
Tomorrow was coming.
[End of Chapter 6 – A Glimmer of Tomorrow]