Despairful Music

Even

Emptiness.

Mafuyu was enveloped in a cold emptiness, but it somehow felt warm and familiar. She glanced around as she slowly began to recognize her surroundings. It was her Sekai. Their Sekai. But it didn't hold any evidence of the warm memories that had been made here. She couldn't see Kanade's music box or Ena's paintings or Mizuki's clothes. The box full of games and toys they had collected for Miku was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Miku wasn't there. None of the Vocaloids were. It was just like when she had first stepped foot into her Sekai. A blank, empty, nothingness.

"Look what you've done to it."

Mafuyu turned to see Kanade standing behind her, bruised and bloody, red liquid pouring at her feet.

"You're still alive?" Mafuyu asked. "I thought I killed you."

"You did," Kanade replied. "You killed me, and you killed our Sekai. There's nothing left of either of us anymore. You're alone."

"That's fine," Mafuyu replied, "I didn't need you or our Sekai anyway. If presented the opportunity to go back, I would do it all again. You got what you deserved."

"After all I did for you?" Kanade asked.

Mafuyu nodded. "You were the one who cursed yourself with that burden. It wasn't me."

"After all I did for you?" she asked again. "I did nothing but help you. I was trying my best to save you! All of you! I wanted to save you, I wanted to save Ena, I wanted to save Mizuki, I wanted to save Kohane and Ms. Mochizuki, and all those people still trapped in that game. I was going to help them! And you just ruined it all..."

"I never asked to be saved."

"I know you didn't Mafuyu, but when someone reaches a hand out to you it's only logical to take it."

"Is it? I told you I wanted to die."

"You never wanted to die Mafuyu, you wanted purpose. We could have still found it together."

"My purpose was to die. I realized as soon as we entered this game that this would be where it ends. I'm not a good person. This was a game designed to bring out the worst people in the room, and I was one of them."

"You're not one of them, Mafuyu. You're worse."

"Hm?"

"YOU'RE WORSE THAN THEM!" She suddenly shouted, "Airi, Shizuku, Shiho, Akito, Kohane... They were all much better people than you ever could be. They killed on impulse and accident. Kohane went as far as to try to kill herself over another being. Even Shizuku ended up regretting her actions in the end. She wanted to start a new path toward a life where she could make up for her mistakes. Then there's you. You called me a bitch. I was the only person who was trying to make a difference in your life and you told me I deserved it. Told me you would do it again. You couldn't give a damn about me. Couldn't give a damn about those you traumatized."

Kanade took a few steps forward.

"I hate you," she snarled, "And I can't wait for you to get what you deserve."

Mafuyu simply stared at her, wide eyed. She was surprised Kanade would have it in her to say such things.

"I-" she started, but couldn't find the words in her to respond.

Then there was a whisk of wind and Mafuyu suddenly felt a stinging on her cheek. She reached a hand up to feel the cut and winced as she came into contact. When she pulled back she could see a faint smudge of red across her fingers.

"What-"

There was another one, this time it hit her leg. The stinging sensation felt familiar. They almost felt like... paper cuts. No, they were paper cuts.

She noticed a stack of sheet music that Kanade held in her hands. So that was why the pain felt so familiar. She was no stranger to the feeling of sliding her fingers along the edges of her sheet music in just the wrong way, watching the red color seep across the pages. Kanade threw another page at her, harder this time, it hurt just a little bit more.

"While we're at it," Kanade started with another toss, "I never really did like you." Another throw.

The stinging pains were beginning to add up, and Mafuyu found herself rather uncomfortable.

"I always just hung around because I pitied you."

Mafuyu gasped as she instinctively tried to dodge one heading straight of her eye. She wasn't quick enough.

She doubled over in pain, now sporting a wound that matched Kanade's own.

Kanade chuckled lightly. "We're still not even yet."

"You aren't the real Kanade," she choked out. "I killed the real Kanade. You said it yourself."

"You're right, I'm not," the Kanade replica replied lazily, still tossing sheets of music over her shoulder that managed to hit Mafuyu every single time without fail. "But I might as well be the same."

"The real Kanade wouldn't say she pitied me."

"Wouldn't she? How do you know? You called her bitch who got what she deserved, obviously you don't think very highly of her."

Mafuyu faltered. Was that true? Why was she so sure that Kanade wouldn't say that if she was so sure that Kanade wasn't a good person either.

"She was a better person than you." The fake Kanade said, almost like she read her mind. "She didn't deserve it the way you claimed she did. I'm made out of her emotions in her final moments. Rage, protectiveness, sadness, pity, and hate. She hated you, Mafuyu."

Mafuyu felt a slight relief as the pain of sheet after sheet of music being relentlessly flung at her finally ceased, but that relief was short lived. Kanade still had an entire, heavy, stack of music left.

"I may not be Kanade, but my purpose is to deliver Kanade's final words to you before you go."

She slowly walked toward the pitiful Mafuyu, crumpled on the floor and covered in blood, and lifted her chin with one hand so that Mafuyu was forced to look into her eyes. Mafuyu's eyes were dark and teary, a very telling sign of someone who'd realized they fucked up. Someone who was given hope, only to have it ripped away. Kanade smirked at her. "We're almost even, but not quite yet. I'm not sure we can ever be even."

Kanade gripped the music sheets tightly with both of her hands and raised it above her head.

"But I can try. I hate you, Mafuyu. Burn in hell."

She swung.

Then everything went dark.