My heart thundered as I found myself suspended in a space that felt almost inhuman—caught between silence and a breath that didn’t belong to the living world.

Warm, summer-scented air filled my lungs. A faint breeze brushed my skin, and for a heartbeat, everything stood still—balanced between fear and awe.

Then I opened my eyes.

I had crossed the darkness that swallows the dead.

A forest stretched before me, vast and endless, drowned in shadow beneath a sky littered with distant stars. A soft blue glow seeped through the trees, painting the world in an otherworldly light that seemed to pulse in time with my breathing. Fireflies drifted through the gloom like scattered embers, flickering with fragile hope.

A sudden sound—too sharp to be just a noise—made me turn.

I couldn’t tell whether it came from the forest… or from inside my chest.

Before me rose a staircase that seemed to climb straight into the sky. Cold stone steps gleamed faintly, veined like living flesh, pulsing with a rhythm I didn’t recognize. To steady myself, I began counting them under my breath.

Three hundred steps.

At the top stood a tall, slender figure bathed in pale light. Her long hair flowed in an invisible wind, and each step she took echoed like a second heartbeat.

She descended slowly.

When our eyes met, the world seemed to narrow to a single point.

It felt like staring into my own soul.

Her skin was flawless at first glance—but cracks ran beneath the surface, like a porcelain doll on the verge of breaking. Tears trembled in her violet, feline eyes. When she reached for me, it felt as though she had known me long before this moment.

Her voice trembled.

“Please… find Keigo.”