Except a woman’s scream echoed across in the empty counselling room.
“TAKUTO!”
The counselling room shifts violently. The fluorescent hum grows louder—almost unbearable—until suddenly, the noise cuts off.
Rumi’s cognition appears, seated across from Kou on one of the leather chairs. Her expression is distant, empty—but her voice is razor-sharp, drenched in cold accusation.
“It’s your fault.”
The words hit like a physical blow.
Maruki’s faint voice echoes somewhere in the space, frantic and pleading. “Rumi! It’s me! Please—please stop screaming. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry—”
Rumi’s cognition doesn’t flinch. Her eyes bore into Kou, but it feels like she’s looking through him.
“You let them die. You let me get hurt.”
Maruki’s voice breaks again, distant and desperate: “I didn’t want this! I tried—I tried to stop it! I didn’t—”
Rumi rises to her feet now, her figure shimmering as if she could vanish at any moment.
“You could’ve stopped it.”
“You were right there.”
Her voice echoes around the room as the walls pulse faintly, the illusion threatening to shatter entirely.
Maruki’s broken whispers bleed into the room: “I can’t face her. I can’t... I didn’t save anyone...”
The counselling room—its strange, homely presence—feels crushing now. The light dims to a cold grey.
Rumi’s last words ring through the air like a final nail in the coffin:
“You were supposed to protect us.”
The room begins to flicker.
The maze shifts again.
A single cognition sits across Kou. One that the brunette might find very much familiar.
….
“You betrayed me.” Akira speaks. “And now you dare to forget?”
3/3
Kou was left all alone again.
Except a woman’s scream echoed across in the empty counselling room.
The counselling room shifts violently. The fluorescent hum grows louder—almost unbearable—until suddenly, the noise cuts off.
Rumi’s cognition appears, seated across from Kou on one of the leather chairs. Her expression is distant, empty—but her voice is razor-sharp, drenched in cold accusation.
The words hit like a physical blow.
Maruki’s faint voice echoes somewhere in the space, frantic and pleading. “Rumi! It’s me! Please—please stop screaming. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry—”
Rumi’s cognition doesn’t flinch. Her eyes bore into Kou, but it feels like she’s looking through him.
Maruki’s voice breaks again, distant and desperate: “I didn’t want this! I tried—I tried to stop it! I didn’t—”
Rumi rises to her feet now, her figure shimmering as if she could vanish at any moment.
Her voice echoes around the room as the walls pulse faintly, the illusion threatening to shatter entirely.
Maruki’s broken whispers bleed into the room: “I can’t face her. I can’t... I didn’t save anyone...”
The counselling room—its strange, homely presence—feels crushing now. The light dims to a cold grey.
Rumi’s last words ring through the air like a final nail in the coffin:
The room begins to flicker.
The maze shifts again.
A single cognition sits across Kou. One that the brunette might find very much familiar.
….