The Remainings

She held her head in pain, barely registering of what had just happened in front of her eyes. Everything seemed to be proceeding so quickly. Her mind was struck with so many thoughts and flashbacks. The Kusabi, The Mourners, The spirits that were finally freed from the curse and darkness, the ritual, and finally...

Her sister.

"Mayu..." Mio called out slowly. The tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision of the dark woods slightly. She knelt down, covering her face with her pale hands; hands that she thought were full with burning sins. "Why... why did I even do such a thing...?"

Mio wouldn't stop crying. The crimson butterflies had all flown up to the heaven, but she remained lost in the village. The worst part was that, she didn't have her sister beside her. No, she didn't have anyone beside her, to stay with her, to keep her accompany, or to at least comfort her.

She kept on sobbing for a minute, until she heard a sound of footsteps coming her way. She froze on her spot, not daring to look back at all. She took a glance on the ground below her, and noticed that she had no camera obscura with her; she probably dropped it back at the abyss, before she chased after her sister and all the other butterflies.

The footsteps were coming closer, and finally stopped right behind her. Her breath was caught inside her lungs. She stopped sobbing, although the tears were still dripping onto the ground silently. There was a silence at first, and then suddenly, she felt a hand was placed on her right shoulder, and instinctively, she stood up and quickly ran away from the woods, and toward the All God's Village.

It was night time, and Mio couldn't see things very clearly, plus the fact that she was crying and had no flashlight with her. When she was running through the coarse path, she accidentally tripped on a rock, causing her to fall and rolled down slightly on the ground. She winced slightly before proceeding on standing up and kept running away, but once again, she felt someone placed a hand on her right shoulder, which made her stopped her action and immediately froze on her spot all.

"Yae!" a familiar voice called out from behind her. "Why did you run off like that?"

Mio's eyes widened as she slowly turned her body around, only to find the smiling white-haired boy staring down at her.

Her breath was caught in her lungs. "I-Itsuki...?"

"I've been looking allover for you, Yae." He trailed off. "I just found out that you actually did the ritual with Sae, and both of you had succeeded." By the time he said this, his smile slowly faded. "I thought you already ran out of the village with her, Yae. I can't believe that-"

"Itsuki, please..." Mio cut him off, bowing her head slightly, so her bangs were covering half of her face. "I'm... I'm not Yae..."

Itsuki stared at her confusedly.

"I'm Mio, Amakura Mio. You've been mistaking me as Yae Kurosawa, you and everyone else in this village." She continued. Tears started to well up in her eyes again.

"But I thought you did the ritual with Sa-"

"THAT WAS NOT SAE!" Mio suddenly yelled, rage building up inside her. "That was my sister, Mayu! She was possessed by that-... that hideous monster! She was possessed by Sae!" Mio sobbed, putting both of her palms on her eyes. "I wanted to run away! I really did! But I couldn't just left Mayu behind! I had no other choice than to perform the ritual with my her! And now... now she is gone because of me..."

Itsuki knelt down beside her and slowly stroke her hair. "I'm really sorry, Mio-chan."

"No, no... you shouldn't be. You had been a lot of help to us, Itsuki. I haven't even thanked you properly for that." Mio said, forcing to smile a bit. "But apparently I was too late, and instead of escaping together with my sister, I performed the ritual with her."

"Mio-chan..." he began. "The path toward the exit is now open... if you wish to leave this place." Itsuki suggested.

"It doesn't matter, does it?" she answered. "Whether I leave or not, the condition will still be the same. My life will change forever from now on; I won't have my sister by my side anymore. I'm alone and will always be."

"You're not alone; I'm here with you now." Itsuki said, trying to comfort her a bit.

Mio finally looked up, gazing at the smiling boy in front of her. "Chotto matte, Itsuki... I thought you were supposed to be... um...-"

"Dead?" Itsuki cut her off. "Yes, I know. I don't really understand what happened, when I woke up, I found myself laying on the ground right outside my cell." He explained.

Mio's gaze softened as she placed one of her hands upon Itsuki's pale one. "How come I can touch you? You don't look like nor feel like a dead person at all." She said.

The boy's cheeks suddenly turned pink, realizing that his hand was actually held by Mio. "Em, Maybe I.. Am not... dead?" he asked himself rather than answering her. Suddenly, his blue eyes widened and he grabbed Mio's hand fondly. "If I am half alive and half not, then there is a possibility that Chitose and Mutsuki are too!" he exclaimed and stood up on the ground, pulling Mio with him. "We've got to go and check on them!" he ran off while still holding onto Mio's hand.

She followed him from behind, or was rather dragged by him. He led her toward his house, which reminded her of the ghosts that she had encountered. She immediately stopped on her track, causing the white-haired boy to stumble back slightly.

"I... I don't want to go in there." She whispered lowly.

Itsuki raised an eyebrow at her. "Why not?"

Mio shook her head slowly, taking a step back from the house. "I don't want to go in there..." she repeated. "I don't have the camera with me this time; I don't want to go in there..."

Itsuki walked closer to her and took her hand back in his. "Don't worry, Mio-chan. Nothing will happen to you, I promise. We'll be going there together." He assured, pulling Mio gently toward him. "Now, shall we go inside?"

Mio looked at him, before nodding her head slowly. Itsuki smiled down at her, and proceeded on entering the house. He opened the door slowly, causing it to creaked loudly, making Mio shuddered beside him. She hugged his left arm tightly, eyes wandering around the dark hallway where they were in. Itsuki's pale face once again turned pink, but he tried to ignore it and walked inside the room a little further. They walked upstairs and went through many doors that led to one another. Mio couldn't help but to wonder how Itsuki managed to remember every part of the house.

After walking through so many doors, Itsuki finally stopped in front of one. Mio recognized it as the door of Itsuki's and Mutsuki's room. Itsuki looked back at her and smile. "This is it." He said as he turned the knob slowly, pushing the door open and took a step inside. Mio followed behind him, finally letting go of his arm to let him search inside the room. She walked to the right part of the room while Itsuki examined the left part. Her eyes stopped at the closet in the corner of the room.

There... there is supposed to be a dead body on it... she thought while approaching the closet slowly. When she was about to turned back, suddenly, she felt a cold hand was gripping tightly on her right wrist. She turned her head around and saw a man with a pale and bloody face was standing right in front of her.

"Yae... you have returned..." the man whispered. "I knew you would, I have been waiting for you, Yae..."

Mio's eyes widened in fear as she tried to wriggle out of his grip.

"I've been wanting to tell you how much I love you, Yae..." the man continued while taking a step closer to Mio.

She tried to step back and run away from the man, but she found herself penetrated under the man's gaze. When the man took another step closer to her, suddenly, she felt herself being pulled back out of the man's grip by a pair of gentle hands.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" she heard Itsuki yelled loudly. He stepped in front of her, hiding her behind his tall body, while facing the bloody man with no sign of fear on his face.

The man frowned slightly before floating back to the wall behind him. "I love you, Yae... I always... love you... love you... love you" he said before finally disappeared into the darkness.

Mio whimpered slightly before burying her face into Itsuki's hard chest. Itsuki tensed up at first, before finally putting his arms around her protectively, hoping to calm her down.

"It's okay, Mio-chan. He's gone now." He reassured, stroking Mio's hair slowly.

She looked up, meeting her eyes with his. "Who... who was that...?"

"His name was Itoshi Imamura. All I know that he was Yae's secret admirer, who always sent her love letters and stuffs like that." Itsuki chuckled. "Unfortunately, Yae was oblivious of his feelings, and he was too shy to confess them to Yae." He said. "He must have mistaken you as her somehow."

Mio sighed before pulling away from the embrace. "Do I really look a lot like her?" she asked.

"I think so. You're just like a mirror image of her." Itsuki answered. "The only differences are your hairstyle, and the way you dress."

"I'm guessing you think I look crazy in this outfit." Mio stated bluntly, looking down at her brown uniform.

Itsuki quickly shook his head. "No, not at all! You look rather nice in that." He said. When he realized what he just said to her, he blushed slightly. "Well anyway, let's continue our search for Mutsuki and Chitose!" he said rather nervously, suddenly changing the subject.

"You mean, you haven't found him?" Mio asked and Itsuki quickly shook his head. "Okay then, let's go search for them somewhere else."

Itsuki nodded and walked out of the room together with Mio. When they arrived at the hallway, suddenly, a sound of a bell was heard.

Tring.

Both Mio and Itsuki glanced at one another, before yelling the same word in unison.

"Chitose!"