I followed her.

I didn’t know why, but my feet began to move before my mind had made the decision. I left the square behind, Hikari’s soft voice calling out to me… and plunged into the narrow streets where the light barely reached.

Kuro was walking fast. She didn’t look back.

"If you're going to follow me," she said without stopping. "Do it without hesitation. I hate indecisive people."

"Then stop," I replied. "Because I don't know anything about you."

That made her stop.

She turned slowly, her gaze locking onto mine with an intensity that forced me to take a deep breath.

"That's a lie," she said. "You know more than you think."

Their closeness was uncomfortable. Not because of any threat, but because I felt he could see right through me. She wasn’t smiling. She didn’t soften her words. Each sentence was direct, almost curt.

"Why do you hate Hikari?" I asked.

Kuro’s eyes darkened.

"Because he's pretending," he replied. "Because he smiles while stepping on things he doesn't want to see."

We walked together in silence until we reached an alley where the city seemed to hold its breath. Kuro sat on a metal staircase, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Don't try to fix me," she said. "I don't want any comfort."

"I won't do it."

That seemed to surprise her.

The following days were unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Kuro didn’t appear often, but when she did, it was as if the world became sharper. She would talk to me about things that hurt: anger, fear, incomplete memories. She never cried. She never asked for anything.

"The light lies." She told me one night. "People smile so they don't fall apart."

"And you?" I asked. "What are you doing?"

"I remember," she replied. "Someone has to do it."

One afternoon I saw Hikari from afar. She was laughing, surrounded by light, as if nothing bad could touch her. Kuro tensed up beside me.

"If you stay with her," she said, "I'll disappear."

"Why do you say that?"

Kuro looked at me. For the first time, her voice trembled.

"Because she doesn’t need me. And you... you still don’t know if you do."

My chest hurt in a strange way.

That night I dreamed of a mirror.
In it, Kuro looked at me in silence.
Behind her, a blinding light was trying to erase her.

Upon waking, I knew something with unsettling certainty:

The darkness wasn’t empty.
It was full of things someone had decided not to look at.

(Go to 2B - Shadows Also Hurt)