Convergence

Part 2 : chapter 13

September 2007:

Utahime reread the sentence in front of her, but she still couldn't make sense of it.

It was as if the words had lost their meaning, reduced to nothing more than syllables randomly arranged on a sheet of paper.

"Suguru Geto, 18 years old, a third-year student at Jujutsu High in Tokyo, is sentenced by the Supreme Exorcism Court for the following crimes: the massacre of 213 non-exorcists in XX village, the murder of his parents, and non-cooperation with law enforcement. As a result, Suguru Geto is officially sentenced to death by the Supreme Exorcism Court (...)"

This couldn't be real.

It had to be another Suguru Geto... right?

But the age and year matched the Suguru she knew.

One of her colleagues had shown her the report just before their Teaching Pedagogy for Exorcists class.

Everyone had been talking about it since that morning—

about the prodigy who had turned into a monster.

So... was history repeating itself?

Suguru had fallen, just like Kashimo had two years earlier.

Utahime immediately thought of Satoru.

He must be devastated.

Shoko had told her that, in recent years, the two boys had become inseparable. True platonic soulmates. They never went anywhere without each other.

For Satoru, Suguru was like the moon to the sun.
For Suguru, Satoru was like the day to the night.

Together, they were the strongest.
Together, they were invincible.

And now—

that was gone.

Worse still, this news came barely a month after the death of their younger friend, Yu Haibara...

Utahime felt her chest tighten.

She thought of Ryō and Kiko—her own classmates—who had died during her final year of high school. Her life had continued.

Theirs had not.

They would forever be eighteen.

Just like Haibara.

In the days that followed, Utahime couldn't stop thinking about Satoru.

She couldn't imagine the pain he must be going through.

For a year now—since the incident at the Hamamatsu mansion—she hadn't heard from him.

And she hadn't reached out either.

Why would she?

She was the one who had asked for the breakup.

And from what Shoko had told her, Satoru had seemed happy—with Suguru, and with new friends.

That was enough for Utahime.

That had to be enough.

Sometimes, she wondered if he had found someone else.

She never dared to ask Shoko.

It would have meant admitting too much—

that she hadn't forgotten him.

And that was something she refused to face.

She had made the decision.

She had to live with it.