Hayato's heart clenched tighter with every word she spoke. This wasn't the girl he had grown up with, the one he had shared his dreams and fears with. This was someone else entirely—someone broken, lost in a sea of darkness. He couldn't—wouldn't—accept that she was beyond saving.
"Kurai," he whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion. "You're not lost. You're not gone. You're just... broken. But you can heal. I know you can."
She looked up at him, her tear-filled eyes glowing with the faintest spark of recognition, but that spark quickly faded into cold emptiness. "You don't get it, Hayato. You don't understand what it means to lose everything. To have your soul torn apart and sold to the demons. You haven't seen what I've seen. You haven't become what I've become."
Her voice wavered, but her resolve remained. The darkness swirled around her like a living thing, almost as if it was feeding off her despair. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were empty—like two hollow pits of despair.
"I've killed people, Hayato," she said quietly, the words cutting through him like a blade. "Innocent people. People who never deserved this fate. And every time I take a life, a piece of me dies with them. I'm... a monster."
The darkness shifted around her, echoing her words, amplifying the agony within her. It was as though the world itself mourned her pain.
Hayato shook his head, a tear slipping down his face. "You're not a monster. You're Kurai. The girl I... the girl I've always known."
She stood up abruptly, her hair swirling around her like a storm. "You don't know what it's like to live with the weight of all the souls I've stolen. They haunt me, Hayato. They scream for vengeance. And every time I close my eyes, I see their faces. Their pain. It never stops. I can't stop it. I can't... go on."
Her hand trembled as she wiped away a tear, her face twisted with anguish. The shadows wrapped tighter around her, as if they were binding her to this fate, trapping her in a cycle of torment. She took a step back, her voice cold, distant. "I've seen things, Hayato. Things I wish I could forget. I've been made into something that isn't even human anymore. I can't undo the damage. I can't stop the hunger."
Hayato took another step forward, his breath shallow, heart pounding. "That's not true. You still have a choice. You can choose to fight it. You can choose to come back. Please, Kurai, don't do this."
She looked at him, her eyes empty but filled with unbearable sorrow. "You don't understand. I am the darkness now. It's part of me. The things I've done—they're in me. You can't take that away."
Her voice cracked, and for a fleeting moment, the cold shell around her seemed to crack just a little. She reached out, as if she wanted to touch him, but instead, she dropped her hand in defeat. "I remember the day they sold me, Hayato. I remember the look in my parents' eyes. I remember the fear and the agony... when they handed me over to the demons. I remember every moment of that torture, every experiment, every horrible thing they did to me."
Her breath came faster, and she collapsed to her knees. "They used me. They twisted me into something I could never recognize. I'm a weapon, Hayato. A tool for destruction. I was never meant to be anything more."
Hayato dropped to his knees beside her, his chest tight, his fingers trembling as he reached for her. He placed his hand gently on her shoulder, as if holding on to the last thread of hope. "You're still you. I know you're still in there. I refuse to believe you're gone. The Kurai I knew—the Kurai I loved—she's still alive."
She turned her face away, the shadows thickening around her as if they were a physical barrier. "I killed her, Hayato. I killed her. Every time I killed someone... every time I let the darkness consume me, she died a little more. And now there's nothing left but this... this thing."
Hayato's heart cracked, but he didn't look away. He held her tighter, pulling her into his embrace despite the shadows trying to push him away. "No, no, Kurai. You're not a monster. You're not what you've become. You're my friend. My family."
She choked on a sob, but it was as if the tears wouldn't come anymore. The darkness around her pulsed, a living thing, and she fought against it with every ounce of her being. "I don't know how to stop it. I don't know how to stop me. I've done too many terrible things, Hayato. I've killed so many innocent people... I'm beyond redemption. There's no coming back from this."
Hayato's grip on her tightened, his heart breaking into a thousand pieces. "Stop. You have to stop thinking like that. I won't let you give up. We'll fight this together. You don't have to be alone. You'll never be alone again."
But her eyes, hollow and desperate, met his again, and in that moment, it felt like she was looking at him from a distance—like he wasn't even there.
"I remember everything, Hayato," she said quietly, almost to herself. "I remember us. I remember our childhood. I remember how we used to talk about our dreams and how we promised that no matter what, we'd never leave each other. But that was before everything... before I became this." She looked at her hands, as if they were foreign to her. "I remember how I felt when I was first sold. The rage, the betrayal. The hatred I carried in my heart. But I never thought I'd become... this."
The weight of her words hit Hayato like a ton of bricks. The darkness swirled around her as she spoke, feeding on her pain, her regrets. It was a visceral reminder of what she had become—and what she thought she could never escape.
"I've done so much wrong, Hayato," she whispered, her voice barely audible, barely even hers. "I don't know how to make it right. I don't even know if it's possible."
"Please, Kurai," Hayato begged, his voice raw with desperation. "Don't say that. Don't give up. You're still here. You're still you."
But the darkness around her began to push him away, the shadows writhing like serpents, pushing him back with an invisible force. She was pulling herself further into the depths.
"I'm not her anymore," she said, her voice cold and distant, as she looked down at the sigil on her chest—the mark of her soul's corruption. "And you can't save me. I don't want to be saved. I don't want you to save me. Not anymore."
The words were like daggers in his chest, and for the first time, Hayato realized how far gone she truly was.
"I can't let you do this," he whispered fiercely, tears falling from his eyes as he reached for her one last time. "Please, Kurai, don't ask me to kill you."
She trembled, her hands shaking as she reached up to touch the sigil on her chest. The shadows around her pulsed again, swirling with growing intensity. "Please, Hayato... please. I can't live with this anymore. I can't live with the weight of all the lives I've destroyed. End it. End my suffering. I don't want to hurt anyone else."
Hayato's breath caught in his throat, the words slicing through his soul. His hands were trembling uncontrollably, and his chest felt as if it might collapse in on itself. "I won't... I can't... I refuse to believe you're gone, Kurai."
But she smiled a bitter, hollow smile, her eyes filled with sorrow and resignation. "I don't want to fight anymore, Hayato. I'm too tired... too broken. Please, end it."
For a long, terrible moment, Hayato stood frozen in place, his heart torn in two. The shadows around her grew thicker, more suffocating. And as the darkness consumed her, Hayato realized that he was losing her—not to the demons, not to the shadows, but to her own pain.
"I'm sorry, Hayato," she whispered one last time, before the darkness fully engulfed her, and her voice was swallowed by the void.