It's Not Your Fault --- OMORI Suntan

2. A familiar call

...

The gurgling of bubbles could be heard.

Sunny opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness with only tiny beams of really dim light shining from the surface. It was quiet, apart from the bubbles. He could...for some strange reason, still, breathe. But not very well, and for some reason, there was comfort in it.

He was floating, gently hovering... helplessly? Comfortably?

He tried to move, only now to realize he was underwater, unable to see anything else but foggy darkness in his surroundings. Before beginning to panic, he remembered, he wasn't afraid of drowning anymore, was he? He overcame that fear a while ago now, everything was fine, and everything was going to be okay.

He wasn't in danger, there was nothing that could harm him. This couldn't be real anyway, in reality. he was at Kel's house, fast asleep along with everyone else. He knew this. There was nothing to worry about. It was a dream.

A dream.

He lay still, his body slowly sinking further into the deep body of water, he closed his eyes, it didn't make too much of a difference, because he was only sinking deeper, minute by minute, and as he did, it got darker.

Deeper, and darker. Two specific words.

That's what it felt like, back when Sunny was surviving those four years with the trauma and guilt that held him back like prison chains. It was hard to believe Sunny was now living in a different neighborhood, going outside, seeing his friends again and one of them had even become his boyfriend, absolutely bizarre.

His past hikikomori self would never believe it if he was told he had gotten this far at all, if anything , he believed he would've been dead by his 13th birthday, on his own terms.

Now, he'd be turning 17 soon.

He had accepted the truth, accepted the past, accepted his mistakes, and he accepted himself. He forgave himself, and he let Omori go. The one he counted on to keep the horrible truth hidden, was no longer there to hide it. The truth was out in the open now. There was nothing to hide. Everything was okay. He moved on. They moved on.

...

Everything was going to be okay.

Everything was okay.

Everything has been okay.

...right?

A question that popped up in his own head a lot of the time was; did he actually ever forgive himself? Was Omori actually permanently gone? Did his friends even forgive him, was it a facade?

Well, it was complicated. But to Sunny, the simple answer would've been...eh, not really.

Sunny accepted what had happened, but he completely didn't really forgive himself. He could never completely forgive himself for taking the life of his dear sister, accident or not. Or maybe he could, but that would come with time, more than just three days, that's for sure.

And as for Omori? Well, Sunny won the battle, Omori vanished right in front of Sunny's eyes, and he was never seen again, White Space was never seen again, and Headspace was never seen again. The young boy had no use anymore.

But if Sunny were to start struggling again when remembering the truth, would Omori come back?

No, that wouldn't happen.

Sunny didn't need Omori's protection anymore.

Omori's job was to hide the truth, but now, Sunny was already fully aware of the truth, he wanted to be aware of it. He knew he did it, everyone did now. That was set in stone, something that couldn't be changed. But he didn't hate himself as much as he did for it.
Mari told him not to.