The sky that day was too clear—so clear it looked fragile, as if it could shatter at any moment like a frozen lake in winter. Silent. Still.

Yet all I could see was red.

A color that should never have been there.

It hurt.

It was suffocating.

Breathing felt impossible. Every inhale dragged against my lungs, as though the air itself had frozen solid.

“Master.”

His voice was gentle. Far too gentle.

In my arms, Kazuki’s body was growing colder.

My hair slowly turned white—an instinctive reaction to my healing power spiraling out of control. Warm snow began to fall around us, glowing flakes that could mend even the deepest wounds.

But this time, they could not warm him.

“Why…?” I whispered, my voice trembling in the wind.

“Your body has reached its limit,” he answered calmly. Too calmly. “You cannot turn back anymore.”

“I don’t care… even if it costs my life—”

“This is my wish.”

Silence swallowed the ruins around us. Among shattered buildings and lifeless bodies, only his weakening breaths remained.

“I don’t want to see you suffer anymore,” he murmured. “It’s enough, Master.”

It’s not enough.

I did all of this because I didn’t want to be left behind again.

So why…?

“This is my fault for failing to see the true mastermind. I am only grateful… that they did not harm you.”

“Please… stop talking.”

“Yuma.”

I froze.

It was the first time he had ever called me by my name.

His trembling hand brushed my head before gently pushing me away. He smiled—a smile far too sincere for a farewell. His crimson eyes, tinted that way because half of my soul was bound to his, shimmered with a foreign light.

—Click.

A clock began to echo.

Not from a wall.

From the air itself.

Its hands were turning backward.

“This…?”

I shook my head in disbelief.

Only my soul held the power to reverse time. There was no way he could—

“Have you forgotten?” His voice grew fainter. “I live with half of your soul.”

A memory surfaced.

Once, when he was on the verge of disappearing, I saved him. A human cannot survive with only half a soul, so I gave him mine. Because I could. Because I was strong enough.

But not for this.

“Don’t, Kazuki… please don’t do this…”

“Will you grant me one final request?”

My vision blurred.

If he used the remaining fragment of my soul as payment to turn back time, he would vanish completely.

There would be nothing left of him.

“Please… live for yourself.”

Don’t.

“Live not for your people.”

Stop.

“Live not for your family.”

Please…

“Have friends. Feel genuine emotions… and become a normal, happy child.”

“Kazuki…”

“I pray for your happiness, Master.”

The world slowly turned white.

Snow, blood, sky—everything was swept away by the current of time reversing.

And within that fading light, for the last time, I lost the one who had always stood by my side.