Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Seventy One - Byōyomi [秒読み]

3.14am.

Amaya sat, motionless, staring down at the screen of her phone.

Her gaze remained affixed in place, unwavering and yet, taking in nothing.

She couldn't think, couldn't speak.

Couldn't do more than replay that haunting phone call over and over inside her head.

Purging didn't help the anxiety-born nausea that plagued her. There was so little within her stomach to begin with, that all she could do was dry-heave in a basin. What was worse than the nausea was the sheer knowledge that more harm was being issued to the children... wherever the hell it was they were imprisoned.

3.15am.

She had barely done what was instructed of her.

Purchased resources.

Food... water.

Not that she could stomach either.

Not that she even wanted anything.

She was already tucked away in the Shinohara Pond walkway well before the deadline.

Terrified, anxiety-ridden.

And so completely done with everything that the body of water she was within immediate vicinity of didn't even matter to her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew the location was chosen with her emotional peculiarities in mind.

But she certainly didn't care.

Her terror of water meant nothing when disobeying instructions meant she'd be causing harm to her siblings.

3.16am.

She didn't even care how her father was involved in this.

How these people got hold of him when he was an elusive bastard even with half his face sliced to pieces wasn't important.

She didn't even wonder how much more of this ransom breadcrumb situation she had ahead of her.

All she wanted was to get her siblings back.

And then, to disappear.

It was clear the entity known as Katsuragi Amaya, Specimen 10 of the Oceans Project, would continue to cause problems for the people closest to her.

A different name, completely severed from everyone and everything that she knew in this life. Different hair, some permanent physical changes... things could be done. Extreme, but it was entirely possible to look like a completely different person. To be a different person, if the circumstances allowed it.

What new name would she use?

What name reached out to her, what possibility out there could be the start of her second chance?

She had a whole world of names, different languages... different everything.

If... she got a second chance.

What kind of existence could she entertain?

3.17am.

The screen of Amaya's phone flashed twice the very second the clock had updated, barely breaking through the downward spiral she had been descending. As the albino refocused her gaze on the screen, a popup message appeared, in just the same manner that Mitsu had been sending them not half an hour earlier.

[I am sorry to disturb you while you are resting, Amaya-san.]

Resting?

How was she supposed to "rest" while her siblings were in danger of losing more fingers, or having their bones forcibly crushed just to keep her in line?