Nothing to indicate Kozorog was there. Just an empty space.

Are stands stoic still for a long moment, staring down at her feet.

The ram pads closer. “The school of Isonade will give him a hard time for a while,” it says. Asorotany nods, distracted. A few shards of stray light skew through its body and he notices the animal is translucent, not a vivid colour like it was in the ritual.

Are moves. Swiftly, she crosses the street to where Emi’s sprawling.

“Your Majesty,” Emi groans, hoisting herself up her elbow. Her voice cracking. She reaches a long, willowy arm up as if to wrap around Are’s leg when Are’s near. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Highness. I didn’t know I would mess things this badly.”

Are makes a disgusted noise and kicks Emi, full-forced. A loud, audible crack comes where Are’s foot connects with Emi’s jaw.

“I’m sick of cleaning up after you,” Are kicks Emi down again. She presses a heel onto Emi’s groin, watching as Emi’s face crinkles in pain. “I’m not one of your character that you can set and pull me up whenever you need and then throw me away once you’re done with the scene.”

“I didn’t know it would turn out like this,” Emi coughs as she tries to sit up, hands easing Are’s foot off her. Tears and snots and blood bleed all over her face. She whimpering, quivering under Are.

“If God can kill one another, I’d have let Carion kill you. Non. I’ll kill you myself. Drown you in Seven Seas and let the Isonade eats you whole.”

“Your Majesty, please, have mercy.” Emi pleads. “I’ll stop. I’ll stop from now on.”

“You’ve never heard the souls screeching at you for decades for breaking their promise.” Are whispers. She bends and yanks Emi’s head in her fist. Emi whines. Are barks out a dry laugh, clamping Emi’s chin with her fingers so that their eyes meet. “You’ve always love story twists. Here’s one for you:—” Her dialogue switches to the ancient language.

Next by Asorotany, the ram perks up.

Emi’s eyes largen, a beg already spilling out of her dainty lips.

Are leans away, a smile lit her voice. Her nonchalant sent a chill down Asorotany’s back. “Farewell, Emi Sutori.”

Wind whirls around her. The light flickers. A narrow slit agapes, faint ribbons of black light gleaming out. Are takes a step back and glances at Asorotany’s body. Her eyes trail to his soul standing.

“You should have the Kanhizakura branch.” She says.

“Not like it’s something significant for you to take, though.” He answers.

“Tarrow didn’t tell you all, right? Kanhizakura represents a Death’s Courtesy Gift. It means you respect me had you keep it. And that’s all I asked for.” She says quietly.

He opens his mouth but couldn’t find himself to come up with a proper response.

“Fische will forgive me for being cruel to you.” She says and disappears through the space slit.

Silence descends over the ground.

Emi leans back on a wall and stares blankly in front of her. Her face drained of emotion, pale and bare. Her cheeks and eyes carve inward into the hollow of her skull. Her lips quiver.

A single tear rolls down her cheekbone. Then another, and another, and another. A river flows out of her.

Asorotany slumps his shoulders, sighing. Guilt worms into his stomach, sicken him. Her last clearly-enunciated words sink into his heart, haunting, echoing.

The sound of siren whoops, disrupts his thought. He turns, craning his neck.

The two emergency vehicles emerge. The cop car pulls into a stop first. A young officer that Asorotany recognizes as the rookie that just the force a few months back rushes out. Ruki Keikan. Keikan’s hand dart to his gun, scanning the scene and narrows his eyes at Emi. He rushes to check on Asorotany’s state, tentatively probs Asorotany’s elbow and promptly reports into the radio.

Critical condition, Asorotany overhears.

“What now?” Asorotany asks aloud as he watches Keikan makes a beeline to Emi. “Are you going to perform that weird thing and send me to the Otherworld?”

“No. I’m here as anchor your soul to your body.”

“So I’m not dead yet?”

The ram turns to him. Its black, beady orbs take a while to focus. “You’re in a coma, so to speak. Until Are-Jitsubutsu decided on what to take from you, we’re stuck together. You’ve beg for a chance to live and offer yourself as an exchange. You better have something to offer other than your body. I hope it wouldn’t take years for you.”

Asorotany pales at the last sentence.

Keikan kneels in front of Emi and lightly touches her shoulder. “Hello, Miss. Are you okay?” Keikan asks the same question Asorotany had. Asorotany wants to tell that young man to back off. That he might get lure into another game of Gods.

But, unlike to Asorotany, this time Emi didn’t latch on Keikan or act timidly. Emi continues to weep. Her cry echoing into the silence, rising of the periodical notes of police siren. The red and blue stripes wash over her feeble form, running down her matted, stringy brown hair, and battered body. Her clothes hangs limply off her frame, sticking to her skin, black and brown spots tainted the vivid blue. Asorotany’s bomber jacket weighs down on her, emphasizes her smallness.

The streetlight shed a weak circle on her. An actress that no longer valid, a clown that no one remembers afterward.

“Don’t worry. The medical team will arrive shortly and patch you up.” Keikan carries on the mandatory reassuring-script as his gaze averts to Asorotany’s body.

The ambulance comes up moments later. Medics stream out, quickly swarm the area. Keikan flags them over to Emi, pointing to Asorotany a few feet away. Stretcher-bearers, a pair of doctor and nurse hurry over. The stretcher-bearer lifts the rapist man off Asorotany first. They grimaces as they wrap their hands around Asorotany’s wrists and ankles and swing him onto the stretcher.

“Both of ‘em are breathing,” The nurse says, passing her fingers on the veins on their necks. Asorotany looks away, unconsciously touch of his stomach. The solidness underneath his fingertips feels frightening real. Bile climbs up his esophagus.

“How deep is the stabs?” The doctor replies as he follows the stretcher-bearers into the back of the ambulance.

“A miracle to be alive.” She swiftly cut his bloodstained shirt and peels it back, revealing a tattered torso. “A few more inches and he’s dead."

“Come, now. We’ve to follow your body.” The ram says, nudging his arm with its nose as the ambulance sputters to life and moving away. The ram tramps a hoof down and jerks its chin, lowers its body. “Climb on. The bond will break if the body and the soul are separated too far.” He raises an eyebrow and grabs its horns, swinging onto its back. It takes him a few tries to finally settle in a comfortable, awkward position behind its neck, between its shoulder blade. The jeans stretch over his kneecaps, short of his ankles.

The ram nods and starts trotting. “Hold on tight.”

As it gains speed forward, Asorotany glances over his shoulders. Keikan is helping Emi into the car’s backseat. She turns her head just before she ducks inside.

Their eyes meet in a cursory look, and licking away a tear, she mouths, I’m sorry.

The hair along his arms stand.

Her black eyes are like holes, rotating and collapsing into its infinity. Her shape flickers and eventually merges as one of the threads that sewn out the world.