"KENTO!!!"
Yuna screamed out loud, her voice completely breaking as she tried to burst forward across the stone floor, her legs driving her straight toward the burning crimson spiral. "Stop it! Stop the ritual right now! Let my baby go!"
But before her feet could even cross into the light, a pair of strong, trembling arms locked tightly around her body. Ayato caught her by the arm, his fingers digging into her skin as he dragged her backward into the dark shadows by force.
"Yuna, no! Don't go to him!" Ayato screamed against her ear, his own voice cracking with a raw, desperate agony as he held her back with everything he had. "You can't cross the line! You can't!"
"LET ME GO!!!" Yuna spun around violently, facing him with a face completely ruined by hot, bitter tears and pure, raging madness.
She struck his chest with her fists, screaming straight into his face. "Why?! Why are you doing this, Ayato?! He is my son! He is our son! I told you I would never let anything bad touch him! Let me go! Kento! KENTO!!!"
She struggled a lot, trying to rip his tight grip away from her wrists, her continuous screams echoing wildly against the dark stone walls.
"Ayato, let go of me! Let me go!" Yuna screamed frantically, her fingers scratching wildly at the fabric of his sleeves as she tried to release herself out of his iron grip.
She slammed her fists against his chest, her voice breaking into a breathless, sobbing scream. "Do something! You're his father—order him to stop! Tell that psycho to step away from our son right now! Ayato, move!!!"
But Ayato remained entirely motionless. His arms only tightened around her waist like stone pillars. He didn't take a single step forward. He didn't utter a word to stop the old man. He just stared ahead with hollow, bleeding defeat, squeezing his eyes shut as he let the ritual continue.
The basement turned into a complete chaos of overlapping chaos. There were three continuous sounds tearing the heavy air apart all at once—His Beautiful Wife screaming the name of their child in pure hatred, His Innocent Son crying loudly in the center of the silver flames, and the Priest heavily chanting that jagged, terrifying tongue.
"...Tenebris... Spirale... Cruor..."[1]
"Vaelis... Serath... Aetharis..."[2]
"Thae Vorthael awakens..."[3]
"By the covenant of Aethelgard and Elysia..."[4]
"By the eternal light of Astraeos..."[5]
"By the will of Luminas, the Guardian of Light..."[6]
"May the Hollowbound rise once more."[7]
"May the Spiral of Elyr carve its sacred path."[8]
"May the Golden Chains bind what must be bound."[9]
"May the bridge between the Abyss and Aeterna endure."[10]
"May the Seventh Cycle be remembered..."[11]
"May the stars bear witness..."[12]
"...THE DAWN IS COMING!!!"[13]
And right there, stuck dead in the center of the brutal crossfire, a sudden, terrifying unease crashed into Ayato's heart.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
His heart began to beat at an impossible, frantic speed, hammering violently against his ribs.
A sharp, heavy knot of physical pain bloomed deep inside his chest, making his breath hitch as his vision blurred.
But it wasn't just the physical strain; a single, deep, tragic voice from the past suddenly began to ring clearly inside his mind, cutting through the loud screams of the room.
It was the voice of his grandmother from when he was just a young boy.
'Ayato, my boy... your uncle died young...' her weathered, serious whisper echoed behind his eyes, recalling the heavy, dark truth she had dropped onto his shoulders years ago.
"The officers called it an accident. But I never believed it, Ayato. People like us carry strange blood. Ever since our ancestors, tragedy has followed this family. Your uncle's mark vanished, but I always felt the heavens had brushed his life with their fingers. Perhaps it was only an old woman's fear… but I never forgot."
The memory sent an absolute, cold shock through his veins. Standing there in the dark, watching his own five-year-old boy get consumed by the glowing spiral mark below the rib, the heavy reality settled deep into his soul.
Was Kento truly safe? Or was he holding a child who belonged to the sky?
But the heavy secrets of the cosmos were slowly buried under the weight of passing decades, hidden away beneath the quiet, normal routines of everyday life.
Sixteen long years melted away like morning mist, washing over the dark stone basement and replacing the echoes of ancient chants with the warm, ordinary sounds of a family kitchen.
The smell of burning oil lamps faded into the fresh aroma of breakfast, and the terrifying silver flames became nothing more than a half-forgotten nightmare, locked deep within the shadows of the past.
Yet, some marks were too deep for time to ever truly erase.
_SEPTEMBER 29th, 2016. TOKYO. 7:09 A.M._
The lighthearted energy of the morning quickly evaporated the moment Shido's footsteps finally disappeared back into the upper hallway. In the sudden quiet, the gentle hum of the refrigerator felt overwhelmingly loud.
Mr. Kamitani turned slowly toward his wife, the playful expression completely vanishing from his face as a sudden, pale concern took over his features.
"Alright, he's gone..." Mr. Kamitani spoke softly, his voice dropping as he stepped closer to her. "What's going on, honey? You looked... scared when I mentioned Kento."
Mrs. Kamitani didn't look up. She stared continuously at the wooden table, her fingers trembling slightly as they traced the faint lines of the wood.
When she finally spoke, her voice was nothing more than a fragile, broken whisper that made Mr. Kamitani's blood run completely cold.
"I didn't want to say it in front of Shido..." Mrs. Kamitani breathed out, her eyes wide with a lingering terror. "...but I saw it this morning. Something is happening to Kento. Something... that shouldn't be possible."
Mr. Kamitani instantly saw the deep, unsettling unease stretching across his wife's face. The sudden silence that followed her words was heavy and suffocating, filling the space between them.
He noticed that Mrs. Kamitani was staring continuously down into the dark wood of the table, completely motionless, completely refusing to say another word.
Her fingers, usually so confident and sharp, were nervously twitching against the wood, trembling with a frantic, silent panic.
'She is completely lost in her own world... ' Mr. Kamitani thought to himself, a cold, heavy knot tightening deep inside his chest as his legal brain desperately tried to read her posture. 'Something is terribly wrong. She's not alright.'
"Yuna?" he called out softly, his voice dropping into an incredibly gentle, reassuring tone as he watched her face, desperately waiting for any kind of response.
But Mrs. Kamitani didn't move. She just kept staring blindly at the wood, lost inside her own terrifying thoughts.
"Yuna." he called her name a second time, leaning in closer, his pale concern turning into a sharp, pressing anxiety. Still, the silence remained unbroken. Her breath was coming out in shallow, shaky gasps.
Finally, unable to bear the silence, Mr. Kamitani reached across the wooden surface.
He gently placed his large, warm hand directly over her trembling fingers, squeezing softly to pull her back to reality. "Yuna... look at me."
Mrs. Kamitani sharply flinched, her shoulders jumping as if she had just been snapped out of a deep thought. "Yeah—!" her voice came out in a broken, startled gasp, her sentences completely fragmented and messy as her eyes darted here and there, wildly looking around the kitchen.
She blinked rapidly, finally realizing that her husband was staring directly into her watery green eyes with absolute intensity.
A forced, trembling little smile quickly crawled onto her pale lips as she desperately tried to patch up her cracked composure. "Yeah... Ayato? What... what is it, honey?"
"I called your name three times, Yuna." Mr. Kamitani murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly as he refused to let go of her hand.
"You weren't listening to me at all."
Mrs. Kamitani let out a small, breathless chuckle, her broken smile widening slightly as she quickly shook her head in an apologetic hurry.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, honey. I really didn't mean to ignore you, it's... it's just that my mind was somewhere else for a second, and I—"
"It's not just that, Yuna." Mr. Kamitani quickly cut her off, his deep voice carrying a strict, undeniable finality that left no room for legal controversy.
"Stop hiding it from me. What exactly is wrong? You said something about Kento... you said something was happening to him this morning. What happened?"
The moment the word 'Kento' left his lips, Mrs. Kamitani's breath completely caught inside her throat. The heavy, impossible truth pressed against her chest so hard she felt like she was suffocating.
If she spoke it out loud, if she confirmed that the ancient, terrifying curse had finally caught up to her innocent boy after eleven years of safety, her heart would completely snap into pieces.
SMACK!
With a sudden, complete burst of pure adrenaline, she lifted her free arm and sharply slapped his hand away, the heavy sound echoing loudly through the quiet kitchen.
"Ouch! Ow—!" Mr. Kamitani yelped out loud, quickly pulling his hand back and rubbing his stinging knuckles in total, wide-eyed confusion.
He stared at his wife, a breathless, nervous laugh escaping his lips as he tried to defuse the sudden whiplash. "Honey! Honey, please... why did you hit me out of nowhere?! What on earth did I even do wrong this time, huh?"
But Mrs. Kamitani wasn't laughing at all.
A loud, painful sob suddenly burst from her throat. Before he could even move, she slammed both of her trembling hands straight over her mouth, desperately trying to cover her tear-stained face as the bitter, hot tears completely exploded down her cheeks.
Her shoulders shook violently from pure, overwhelming madness and emotional exhaustion.
"What sort of a father are you?!" Yuna screamed through her fingers, her muffled voice breaking into a breathless, raw sob as she showed all her hidden terror onto him.
"Do you have any idea what I have to endure?!" Mrs. Kamitani suddenly cried out, her muffled voice breaking into a sharp, breathless sob as she fiercely wiped at her eyes.
"Yuna, please, just calm down for a second—" Mr. Kamitani started, reaching his hands out in a panic to calm her down.
"Calm down?!" she shot back, her green eyes flashing with a raw, defensive fury as she stepped back, completely cutting him off.
"I am drowning in my own world of corporate cases at the Firm all week long, Ayato! I prepare Memos until my eyes bleed, and what happens the moment my weekend starts? Do I get a single second of peace in this house?!"
Mr. Kamitani opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't give him a single millisecond to breathe.
"No!" she shouted, her voice cracking with pure emotional exhaustion as she began looking hurriedly across the kitchen tile.
"The absolute second I step through that door on my day off, Kento and Shido have already formed a total alliance against me! They are a complete nightmare together! Just yesterday, Shido convinced Kento to sneak into the upper study, and they completely ruined the fabric layout I was examining!"
"Honey, they're just boys, they were probably just playing—"
"They threw ink on the embroidery base, Ayato! The whole black fabric layout is completely stained!" she screamed through her fingers, her shoulders shaking violently as she used the complaint to block out the image of the burning mark she had seen that morning.
"And don't even get me started on how they drag Hori and Shiyi into their little schemes! They never listen to a single word I say! They run around creating absolute chaos until my head completely spins, and you are always stuck at the Tokyo High Court, completely unknown to it all!"
"Yuna, that's unfair, my schedule this term has been—"
"I don't care about the court's schedule right now!" she interrupted, slamming her hands back over her mouth as fresh tears spilled over her knuckles.
"You always leave the heavy lifting to me! You completely ignore how wild they're getting! I am ordering you right now—you need to stay home more often! You need to look after your own sons instead of leaving me alone to break down in this kitchen!"
Mr. Kamitani didn't argue. He didn't defend his High Court schedule or point out the flaws in her logic. Instead, a soft, incredibly warm expression appeared across his face as he silently pushed his chair back.
He stood up from his seat, his long steps taking him across the kitchen tile until he appeared directly behind the chair in which she sat.
Leaning down slightly, he brought his face closer to hers, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he quickly tried to break through her thick wall of panic.
"My, my..." Mr. Kamitani teased softly, his voice dropping into a playful tone right next to her ear. "Has my brilliant, top-tier Corporate Lawyer wife finally grown so old that she can't even handle the little yapping of her two favorite sons anymore? Where is that fierce woman who terrifies the entire Firm, hm?"
Mrs. Kamitani's breath caught, her hands still resting over her mouth as she shot a sharp, watery glare sideways at him. "Ayato, I am being serious—"
"I am being completely serious too, darling." he interrupted smoothly, his eyes glowing with absolute fondness.
He tilted his head, inspecting her tense posture with an exaggerated, dramatic look of concern. "Let me guess... your back hurts from carrying the weight of this entire household, doesn't it? Tell me, where exactly does it hurt? Is it right here?"
Before she could even process his words, Mr. Kamitani reached down. His large, warm hands settled firmly onto her rigid shoulders, and he playfully began to massage the tight muscles of her upper back, using just the right amount of gentle pressure to force her body to loosen up.
"Ayato! Ah—stop it!" Mrs. Kamitani instantly gasped, a bright, sudden blush rapidly spreading across her cheeks as the pure embarrassment overtook her heavy tears.
She moved slightly in her seat, trying to remove his hands away without any real force behind her movements. "Stop doing this right now! What if Shido or Hori walks back in here, or Kento wakes up? Don't do this, it's embarrassing! And I am absolutely not old enough to be needing a back massage from you!"
"Hush now, Counselor..." Mr. Kamitani laughed softly, his deep chest vibrating against the back of her chair as he completely ignored her weak protests.
His thumbs traced soothing circles along her collarbone, his touch turning incredibly tender, warm, and soft. "Just relax, Yuna. Take a deep breath and leave everything to the Lawyer."
Hearing that familiar, reassuring words, Mrs. Kamitani's defenses finally crumbled. The rough, suffocating tension left her body all at once.
She stopped moving, letting out a long, quiet sigh—a soft, involuntary "Haaah..." that breathed out all the exhaustion hidden under her collarbones.
She allowed herself to sink completely back into the safety of his touch, her eyes closing softly as his hands began to gently knead the heavy stress right out of her shoulders.
But then, right in the middle of the soothing warmth, the peaceful atmosphere suddenly fractured. Mrs. Kamitani's eyes slowly opened, the relaxation draining from her face as a quiet, heavy thought gripped her mind.
"Why?" she asked out loud, her voice dropping into a flat, unsettling whisper.
Mr. Kamitani's hands instantly stopped their continuous movement. He paused, leaning his upper body forward until he was resting his chin gently on her right shoulder, his breath warm against her skin. "Did you say something, honey?" he asked softly, a trace of his earlier playful tone still lingering in his voice.
Mrs. Kamitani slowly turned her head toward the right, her gaze shifting until her eyes locked directly onto where her husband's chin rested against her shoulder. She looked at him with an intense, quiet seriousness, her voice dropping to a very low murmur.
"You didn't ask about it, Ayato." she whispered, her green eyes piercing straight into his. "In every single matter, whether it's a minor fight at the Firm or a tiny issue with the kids, you are always the most curious person in the room. Your instincts never switch off. But why not today? Why didn't you ask me what happened to Kento?"
Mr. Kamitani immediately pulled his chin back, lifting his head as he let out a short, forced laugh. He waved his hand dismissively, trying to force a confused, easygoing smile back onto his face.
"What do you even mean by that, Yuna? I'm completely lost. I just thought you were overwhelmed by the boys' usual morning behaviour—"
"The mark."
The two words left her lips like a cold, heavy stone dropping into a glass of ice.
Mr. Kamitani froze entirely. The fake smile instantly shattered, his hands completely locking in mid-air as the air in the kitchen went entirely dead. His chest tightened painfully.
"What...?" he breathed out, his voice suddenly losing all of its warmth.
"This morning, when I went up to Kento's room to check on him, he wasn't well." Mrs. Kamitani continued, her voice trembling slightly as she recalled the moment.
"He looked incredibly pale, and the second he saw me, he tried to hide it. He told me that his stomach ached."
She let out a fragile, humorless breath, her lawyer instincts mixing with a mother's terrifying intuition.
"But I know my son, Ayato. Kento has never been interested in Human Anatomy. To a boy like him, any pain in his midsection is just a generic stomachache. He didn't know how to tell me properly."
Mr. Kamitani's heart began to hammer frantically against his ribs, a sickening wave of panic rushing through his veins as he stared at the back of her head.
"He said his stomach was hurting..." Mrs. Kamitani whispered, her fingers clenching into tight knots against her lap. "...but when I actually noticed where his hand was pressing, he wasn't holding his stomach at all. He was tightly clutching the left side of his body."
Mr. Kamitani's eyes widened in pure, raw terror, his breath completely catching in his throat as the dark, bloody memories of the ancient basement rushed to the surface of his mind. The panic completely paralyzed his limbs.
"Right below the rib...." she said.
The specific, forbidden location left her mouth, and the psychological weight of the truth became too heavy for the quiet room to hold.
CLATTER!
---
✦ 🔮 A GLIMPSE INTO THE NEXT CHAPTER 🔮 ✦
"What awaits beyond this page...?" 🌙
(灬･◡･灬)♡
"GOD DAMMIT!!!"
"Come out from the shadows, it's your time..."
---
🌙 The stars may fade, and memories may sleep...
But the Spiral continues to turn.
Until we meet again beneath the same forgotten sky.
ミ●﹏☉ミ
— SakuraShinomiya
[1] Darkness...Spiral ...Blood.
[2] Heaven...Faith...Light.
[3] A long-forgotten destiny has begun to awaken once more.
[4] By the sacred promise made through Aethelgard and Elysia, the first ancestors of Aeterna and the founders of the light-born bloodlines.
[5] By the power of Astraeos, the ancient creator and source of all existence.
[6] By the authority and purpose entrusted to Luminas, the protector chosen to safeguard Aeterna.
[7] May Hollowbound awaken again and continue the purpose for which it was created.
[8] May the flow of Elyr guide destiny along the path it was always meant to follow.
[9] May the burden and duty of the Chosen Ones be fulfilled, and may fate restrain what cannot be allowed to roam free.
[10] May the connection between Earth and Aeterna remain intact.
[11] May this final generation of Chosen Ones never be forgotten.
[12] May the heavens watch and remember what happens here today.
[13] THE LONG-AWAITED MOMENT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!