They hit the ground hard, like being spat out of a nightmare. The air shifted, no longer thick and decaying, but sharp and sterile. The school hallway greeted them with its humming fluorescent lights, but it was warped now, surreal in its normalcy.
Yui gasped, her palms scraping the floor. Her body trembled. The warmth of the Jester's world still clung to her skin like static …the ticking, the pressure, the laughter. She turned her head just enough to see the others sprawled out beside her.
Haruka was curled up on her side, wheezing. Her fingers clawed weakly at the floor, like she needed to make sure she was still here. Airi was shaking too, one hand over her chest and the other gripping Kaito's sleeve, her expression ghost-white. Kaito looked like he couldn't breathe. His mouth was slightly open, his glasses hanging lopsided on his nose, and his whole body was frozen.
Yui sat up slowly, her legs numb, her brain spinning.
Haru groaned behind her, pushing himself up. "Everyone…?"
"I'm here," Kaito whispered, but his voice cracked halfway through.
"M-Me too," Haruka choked, her voice tight.
Airi just nodded. Her hands were clenched so tightly her nails dug into her skin.
Haru looked over at Haruka and stumbled toward her, then dropped to his knees. "You're okay. You're okay." His voice broke. "I thought you were—" He couldn't finish the sentence. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight.
"I was," Haruka murmured quietly. "For a second, I think I really was."
No one spoke after that.
The silence pressed down like lead. The hallway buzzed. Somewhere down the corridor, a locker creaked open on its own.
Yui swallowed hard and said, "I think in some kind of twisted way, he was implying we're all going to die soon."
Airi flinched.
Kaito finally pulled his glasses back into place and whispered, "Do you think he meant it literally?"
Yui nodded. "Yeah. I think he did."
"So what?" Airi snapped suddenly, her voice rising. "We're all going to die soon and there's nothing we can do about it?"
"Sakura—" Haru tried.
"Don't Sakura me!" she yelled. "We just watched Haruka die. I—I thought it was just her! I thought she was the only one!"
Yui's eyes filled. "I did too."
Haruka pulled back from Haru slightly, her small hands shaking. "I didn't want any of you to die. This is so confusing..I just..I don't know anymore."
Daichi muttered "This is really bad, we all have limited life spans and we don't even know how we die."
Everyone stared at him.
The silence after that wasn't just sad. It was final.
Something cracked deep in the ceiling. A light flickered. The clock above the classroom door read 4:04 — but the second hand was twitching back and forth, unable to move forward.
"I don't think it's just about dying," Haru finally said. His voice was quiet. "I think he's playing with us. I think he wants us to watch it happen."
Suddenly the bell rang, Daichi glanced at everyone "We have to go to class, or we'll get marked for skipping."
Yui nodded and agreed "if anyone needs anything, just text on mixi "
Haruka nodded "I'll remember that." The rest of the group agreed and went to class, still shaken and scared from what knowledge they've obtained.
Back in class, Yui sat at her desk with her hands folded tightly in her lap. She could hear the teacher talking, could see the chalk moving across the board, but none of it registered. The words were just noise. She couldn't stop thinking about the Jester. The way he had twisted their names. The way he had laughed. The way he had looked right at her and said she'd be next.
She wanted to check on the others, but they weren't in her class. She didn't know if Kaito was okay, or if Airi had actually gone back to her classroom. She didn't know if Haruka had said anything to anyone, or if Haru had made it through the morning without punching someone.
All she had was Ayumi. And Ayumi was sitting two desks away, silent.
Yui kept glancing at her. Ayumi wasn't taking notes. Her pencil just hovered over the page, unmoving. Her face looked blank at first, but then Yui noticed the way her thumb was rubbing anxiously against her other fingers—little circles, over and over.
It wasn't until the bell rang for the end of the day that Ayumi finally spoke.
When Yui and Ayumi made it to the school's gates, the rest of the group wasn't there, this worried Yui but she thought they just needed some space after everything, honestly she needed a break herself.
side by side, the afternoon heat still lingering in the cracks of the pavement. Yui didn't say anything at first. Neither did Ayumi. It felt like if they started talking, they might not be able to stop.
But after a few blocks, Ayumi spoke up.
"Do you think I should have a cake with strawberries or chocolate?"
Yui blinked, thrown off. "Huh?"
"For my birthday," Ayumi said, casually. Too casually. "It's coming up. I haven't really thought about it. But I guess I should, right?"
There was a pause.
Yui adjusted the strap of her bag, trying to catch up to the shift in tone. "I mean… yeah. Definitely. You should get both."
They both smiled, but it was brittle. The weight of what they'd just been through still hung in the air between them.
"I was thinking maybe we could go to the arcade," Ayumi continued. "Like last year. Or maybe karaoke. I could bring that one funny photo of you singing and make everyone recreate it."
Yui looked at her sideways. "Are you seriously thinking about your birthday right now?"
"I have to think about something," Ayumi muttered. "If I don't… I keep seeing that clown. The Jester. His mouth. His eyes. Everything about him felt like it wasn't supposed to exist."
Yui nodded slowly. "I know."
"I keep wondering if he's watching us now. Like if I look in a mirror, he'll be there. Or in a dream. Or…" She trailed off and kicked a loose stone on the sidewalk. "I just needed to think about something else. Even if it's stupid."
"It's not stupid," Yui said. Her voice was soft, but steady. "Thinking about your birthday doesn't mean you're ignoring what happened. It just means… you still have something to look forward to. Besides, it'll be fun spending time with Airi and Daichi! I really want to become close friends with them."
Ayumi didn't respond right away. They walked a little farther, the sound of cicadas buzzing faintly in the background.
"Thanks," she said eventually. "For not making fun of me."
Yui offered her a small smile. "You can still have an amazing cake and a silly karaoke session."
Ayumi laughed—just a little—and for a moment, things felt almost okay.
"But also, I was thinking… can I spend the night? Just us girls. It's been a while since we had one of those."
Yui hesitated. Not because she didn't want to — but because it felt too good. Too normal. Too safe. And that scared her. She swallowed the fear and nodded. "Yeah… I'd like that."
Ayumi pulled out her phone and called her mom right there on the sidewalk. Her voice was light, almost cheerful. "Hey, can I stay at Yui's tonight? We're just gonna watch TV and hang out… yeah, no, no homework. I mean, I'll bring it, but we probably won't… Okay. Thanks, Mom!"
She hung up and turned to Yui with a grin. "She said yes."
Once they arrived at Yui's house, Yui's dad offered to drive them to the nearby corner store. The girls loaded the front seat with snacks — onigiri, soda, those little pink jelly cups with the peel-off lids. Ayumi insisted on getting strawberry Pocky. Yui got melon pan. Her dad didn't ask questions. He never did.
—
That night, they curled up under Yui's blankets in her room. The TV played some early-2000s shōjo anime rerun — bright colors, sparkly eyes, soft background music. Something neither of them had watched in years but suddenly felt comforting in the way only childhood things could.
Yui passed Ayumi a soda and opened a bag of shrimp chips.
Ayumi flopped dramatically onto her side and said, "Your bed is always so comfortable.."
Yui snorted softly. "You always say that, I mean it's alright I guess..."
Ayumi's smile had never been so wide as Yui started taking out clothes Ayumi could wear, it was pink button up pajamas with bears on them.
"These are so cute!"
Yui smiled even harder and giggled "I know right!"
The girls put on their pajamas, Yui let her ponytail out and layed down next to Ayumi in bed.
The night stretched on, gentle and slow. After the snacks were mostly gone and their nail polish had dried into glittery chaos, Yui and Ayumi stayed up whispering under the blankets.
They didn't talk about anything heavy. Just dumb things.
"If you had to marry someone from school," Ayumi whispered, "but only from our school, who would it be?"
Yui groaned. "I hate this game."
"Too bad. You have to answer."
"Fine. Maybe… that boy from Class C. The one with the hair that sticks up like a tree."
Ayumi snorted. "You mean Daisuke? Ew. He eats pencils."
"I think he just does that when he spaces out.."
Ayumi rolled her eyes "You wouldn't catch me dating someone who eats pencils like, all the time…"
They laughed softly for a while, letting their voices trail off into the flickering light of the TV. The anime had long since ended, replaced by some late-night variety show neither of them were really watching. But neither girl moved to turn it off. The sounds were familiar. Normal. It helped.
Eventually, Ayumi sighed and rolled over. "I'm thirsty."
"Then go get water," Yui mumbled, already half-asleep.
Ayumi got up, padded across the hallway to the kitchen, and drank from a cup under the dim glow of the stovetop light. It was quiet. Still. That strange weight from earlier — the way the air had felt inside the Limbo, the way the jester had looked at them — it tried to creep back in.
But she didn't let it.
When she returned to Yui's room, she found her best friend fast asleep, curled on her side, one arm flopped over the pillow. Her chest rose and fell gently with each breath. The TV light made her hair shimmer silver at the ends.
Ayumi stood there for a second, holding the cup, watching her. Something about the moment made her feel small and safe all at once. Like the world might fall apart again tomorrow, but right now, it was still whole. She set the cup down, slid into the bed beside Yui, and pulled the blanket over them both.
Then she looked at her again, face soft, voice just a whisper.
"Goodnight," she said. "I love you."
She reached over and turned off the TV. The room sank into darkness. Only the faint hum of the refrigerator and the crickets outside filled the quiet and Ayumi closed her eyes.