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Darkness.
It wasn't just the absence of light—it was a suffocating, living thing. It pressed against Aiko's chest like an iron weight, whispering things in voices that weren't hers. Time didn't move here. Sound barely existed. She wasn't sure how long she'd been drifting.
She had tried to scream, but the void swallowed it whole.
Tears didn't fall here. They just disappeared into the black.
She hugged her knees to her chest, trying to remember warmth, light…Yuki.
His name felt like a fragile thread keeping her grounded. Even now, she could feel him somewhere—reaching.
"Don't give up," she whispered into the nothing.
Then—something changed.
The void trembled.
Like a distant heartbeat echoing through a cave. Aiko looked up. For the first time since she arrived, the dark wasn't still. Something cut through it—a shimmer, a flicker of light that twisted like smoke.
She stood up slowly, heart pounding.
"Yuki?" she called.
No answer. Just the growing hum of energy. And then—tearing through the void like a blade through silk—a rift opened.
He stumbled out of it, cloak whipping in the windless dark, eyes burning with determination. Void energy still danced around him like shadows loyal to his will.
Aiko gasped.
"Yuki!"
He looked up—and the second their eyes met, the void recoiled. The whispers stopped.
"Aiko," he said breathlessly. "I found you."
She ran to him, nearly collapsing into his arms. The contact shocked them both with warmth neither had felt in what seemed like ages.
"I knew you'd come," she whispered into his chest.
He held her tighter. "I won't leave you behind. Not again."
But even as he spoke, the rift behind them began to close—and something stirred beyond it. A presence. Watching.
Not all things in the void were sleeping.
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