OKOSHI | JOJOLION

024 | poised to shatter.

★ . . . YOU DIDN'T GET BACK TO the villa until the sun was already sinking below the horizon. Honestly, you hadn't planned on coming back at all, but your heart had needled too painfully at the thought of that.

Rai had brought you back down the mountain without incident. If he was confused by your lack of disappointment over not meeting the mountain gods, he didn't show it. You paid him the amount you had agreed on, and he wished you good luck before you parted ways.

You boarded the bus back to Morioh. Once you were within reception range, you received a flurry of texts from practically everyone. The thought of answering them all exhausted you, so you shut off your phone and didn't turn it back on for the rest of the day.

You felt numb. Maybe it was your body's way of protecting you. You could feel your emotions just out of reach, lapping against your mind like waves.

Despair. Disappointment. Fear. Anguish. They would crush you if you let them, so you allowed your mind to go blank. You would feel nothing at all.

Nothing seemed to matter anymore. There was no sense in struggling for anything when it would all end soon. In a way, the thought was freeing. For the first time since you had arrived in Morioh, you felt light. There was nothing to work towards anymore. You could spend your time however you liked. You could almost pretend that you really had beaten the curse. Strangely enough, your brand had disappeared from your hand. The absence of it made your hand look naked.

The remainder of the day passed in a bleak, formless blur. Maybe you went to eat something. Maybe you went somewhere after that. Sightseeing?

An appropriate response might have been to splurge and use your fortune while you could, but the thought of getting more things only made you feel emptier. That you would die was gut-wrenching, but that you might live didn't seem worth the effort.

How ironic.

Every person you passed, you asked them to roll your bone dice. Most declined, but a few humoured you. The numbers were always low.

Which one of you is supposed to be my true love? Would it even matter anymore if I found you?

When you couldn't bear the crowds anymore, you stumbled back to your villa. The light was fading by now.

Three days from now, when you died, the sun would still set. These villas would still be here. Morioh would still be here. And it would keep being here until whichever unlucky member of your family came here next.

For a brief moment the Wall Eyes flashed in your mind. In a few places, they had risen quite high, a few stories at least. If you happened to throw yourself off one of those ledges, would you die? It might turn out to be the only thing under your control, but maybe the mountain gods wouldn't let you die unless it was on their terms.

You found your villa. Went up the front steps and fumbled around for your key. You wondered how Sasame Ojiro was doing. Did he regret breaking into your villa? What if he had been your true love and you'd ended up throwing him in jail?

You finally got the door open. It was dark inside; Karera was probably still out.

You slipped off your shoes. Plodded inside. You thought about eating, but decided to go upstairs instead. How to spend your last days on earth? Maybe in bed.

A creak from the kitchen made you pause. You changed course and went there instead. You hesitated by the lightswitch, but didn't turn it on.

"Karera?"

She made a stifled sound. She was sitting at the kitchen table with her back to you.

"What are you doing in the dark?"