青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 32

Summer
Tuesday—1:10PM

"It's healing well, isn't it." The voice came from over her shoulders as she checked her wounds. "It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, I remember you crying your eyes out because of it."

"It still looks awful." Hinata mumbled as she rotated her arm. The blisters were gone, and the wounds itself were cauterized safely enough that she didn't have to worry about them reopening. However, her skin was still uneven and patchy, scars ran along her arm and the pink flesh still seemed sore.

"You shouldn't complain though." Enkai ran her hand across the scarred tissue, her fingers pressing against the raised flesh as she ignored the way Hinata froze. "You need to go to bed tonight."

She raised her head quickly to look at her sister, a question forming and ready to be shared making her lips tingle.

"You're so close to finishing, there's no point in delaying it any further." She answered before the question was asked. "Forget about what those two think, it will be over very quickly if you do the next one."

"Are you sure? I'm still dreaming, aren't I?"

"Do you think you are?" Enkai smiled and tilted her head to the side, she combed through Hinata's hair with her fingers, relishing in the softness of the dark strands.

"Yes." She answered honestly, "I'm hoping to stay here for a while longer before I..."

"Do whatever you like, just remember that you have a task to finish. These dreams will come to an end no matter how much you cling to them; you'll wake up and all of this will disappear. We'd be alone again—how it was originally."

"It's nice here, I don't want to go..."

"You're setting yourself up to get hurt. They don't love you like that, you know that. You're easily replaceable to them, they can always move on if you leave. I won't ever do that to you, Hinata, you're the only one that matters to me. I want you to wake up soon and continue where we left off."

"How do I wake up?"

"Sleep tonight, I will find you once you're awake and show you how to completely get out of this world." Her smile widened as she stared over her shoulder at the hovering figure of the Shinigami. "Perhaps I can find a way to get rid of IT completely if you do as I ask."

Hinata followed her gaze, flinching once she noticed who exactly caught her sister's attention. She inhaled shakily as IT reached down towards her, yet refused to touch her. Its hand hovered in front of her face, its long nail pointed at the middle of her forehead as IT continued to grin at her.

"Soon, it will be able to touch you. Don't linger too long, engaging in false fantasies will be your end. Get the job done, and I will try my best to fix things on the spiritual side of things." Enkai gripped her shoulder tightly as she kissed her cheek and disappeared.

The coldness in the room wasn't lifted for a while before the AC turned back on to accommodate the afternoon heat that rushed through the opened window. Hinata stared at her reflection in the mirror, wiping away the cold sweat on her forehead as she cleaned her arm and wrapped it loosely so it could get some sort of ventilation.

Tying her hair up into a ponytail, Hinata left the bathroom with her lip caught between her teeth as she thought about what Enkai had told her. Consider her selfish now that she's finally managed to calm her anxious thoughts and uncertain mind about her current predicament.

Of course she still believed that what was happening around her wasn't exactly real. To some degree, the details were perfect, and it could easily fool her had it not been for her skepticism in everything. She had to applaud the Shinigami for making her hell feel so real; a place where she has everything she ever wanted, all while taunting her with the nearing end of its existence.