"So… you don't remember anything?" Eden asked softly, her voice trembling at the edges. Her eyes drifted downward, shimmering as she bit her lip—trying to keep her composure, trying to hold back the storm inside her chest. She already knew the answer, but hearing it from him made the wound real.
Victor hesitated, a frown tugging at his features as he looked at her. Something within her sorrow struck a chord deep in his soul, like a song he couldn't remember but still knew by heart. A sharp pang of guilt bloomed in his chest, and he nodded slowly, helplessly.
"You made Eden sad, you should hold her hand to cheer her up!" Elysia chirped beside him, her tone light and radiant as always, pumping her fists in the air with a smile that seemed to defy time. Her voice, though cheerful, carried the soft ache of someone who couldn't bear to see her loved ones sad.
"...I am," Victor murmured, reaching for Eden's hand and gently lacing his fingers with hers. As their palms met, her grip tightened slightly, as if afraid he'd let go again. They walked like that—side by side, alone yet together—while the rising sun behind them stretched their shadows across the empty street, casting long silhouettes of what they used to be.
"I might not remember you, or the moments we once shared," Victor said quietly, his gaze lifted toward the morning sky bathed in hues of gold and amber. "But this feeling… this ache of longing and peace at once—it's still here. Like a whisper in my chest. I don't know the memories, but I still feel what you meant to me."
Eden halted, her breath catching in her throat as she turned to him. Hope flickered in her eyes, fragile yet radiant. She raised her hand to touch his lips, a tender motion—half a prayer, half a memory.
But he stopped her gently, his hand wrapping around hers, grounding it between them as he offered a sorrowful smile that mirrored hers.
"But… I can't love you. Not as I did before," he said, his voice barely above the morning wind. He took both her hands into his, holding them close to his chest like an apology. "You are precious to me—more than I can understand. Being near you fills me with warmth… but also with sadness. With guilt. With a weight I can't name. And it's not because of you… or even Elysia. It's because of me."
His eyes darkened, a flicker of anguish flashing behind them. Somewhere within him—beneath the memory loss, beneath the kind smile—lurked something else. A pressure. A haunting.
Anger. Hatred. Despair. Not toward the world. Not toward those he cared for. But toward the man in the mirror.
"There's a part of me that… loathes who I was. And I don't know why. But it's there, clawing inside me."
He paused, breathing deeply, as if the air itself was heavy.
"I know that I love you both. That much, I do know," he said, more firmly now, like an anchor in the storm. "So please… wait for me. Let me find the truth. Let me understand what I lost, what I broke, and why I can't stop feeling like I'm the one who destroyed it all."
Eden said nothing, her throat too tight with emotion. But her hands—still held in his—remained as Elysia could only wear a sorrow filled smile as she softly gazed at the suffering man that she loved.
-
"Why am I the only one who can see you?" Victor asked quietly, glancing sideways at the girl clinging to his arm. Her soft humming blended with the low murmur of distant students, her cheek pressed playfully against his shoulder as they walked through the marble halls of Chiba Academy—a school so prestigious it practically gleamed with exclusivity.
"Huehuehue~ Who knooows?" Elysia sang, eyes sparkling with mischief as she tightened her hold around him.
"Maybe it's because you love me sooo much~" she teased, pressing herself even closer, her laughter light and musical like windchimes dancing in spring air.
Victor let out a breath, a smile tugging at the edge of his lips despite the discomfort stirring in his chest. There was something dissonant about her—something that didn't sit right. He tilted his head down and studied the front of his uniform where her body pressed against him. No wrinkles. No folds.
Nothing disturbed.
And yet… he felt her.
The weight of her leaning against him. The heat of her skin. The soft breath ghosting against his neck, impossibly real. Tangible. Present. So why…?
"...You look so happy," he murmured, eyes softening. It was easier—safer—to focus on the joy she radiated than question what he couldn't yet comprehend. He reached for her—hesitantly, like one might touch a dream.
But his hand froze mid-air.
A sharp pang coiled in his chest, breath catching as his gaze snapped down a hallway just ahead. A pressure, heavy and oppressive, lingered in the air.
Elysia stiffened beside him, her expression dimming, her usual cheerfulness briefly shadowed.
"You feel that too?" he asked.
Elysia's eyes flicked up toward him, her lips curving back into a grin—though it was tighter this time, thinner. "Mmm, I dunno~ But let's find out!"
She took off down the corridor with a skip, cherry hair fluttering like rose-hued silk behind her. Victor sighed, already in motion, trailing after her as they reached a classroom door slightly ajar.
Elysia stood before it, frowning now, her arms crossed tightly as she peered inside. "Ugh. Some things never change…"
Victor stepped up beside her, eyes narrowing as he followed her gaze.
Inside, a group of students stood in a loose, sneering circle around a girl. Her long, violet hair shimmered faintly in the morning light, fading gently at the ends like twilight washing over dusk. A large lavender bow rested neatly atop her head, too soft a detail for the cruelty that surrounded her.
Raiden Mei stood with her shoulders curled inward, silent and still—yet the tension in her frame betrayed the hurt she buried. Her silence wasn't strength. It was armor forged from shame.
Whispers hissed like daggers: "Her dad's a traitor." "She doesn't belong here." "He's probably rotting in a cell right now."
Victor's eyes darkened.
"Hmph. Are you just going to let that happen?" Elysia pouted, puffing her cheeks. But Victor was already walking.
He stepped through the door without hesitation, his voice cutting through the haze of cruelty like a blade. "That's enough."
The room fell silent, confusion rippling through the students as they turned to him.
"What's it to you?" sneered the ringleader, arms crossed. "Who even are you?"
Before Victor could speak, a soft yet authoritative voice rang out from behind. "He's with me."
Gasps swept the classroom as heads snapped around to find Eden standing in the doorway, elegant and yet fierce in equal measure. In an instant, fear replaced mockery as recognition dawned in their eyes.
"Eden?! Like—the Eden?"
The group dispersed in seconds, tripping over themselves to vanish, shame and fear scattering them like leaves in the wind.
Victor didn't watch them go.
He knelt beside Mei, his voice a gentle murmur as he looked her in the eyes. "It's okay now," he said, offering her a smile—not forced, not shallow, but warm like sunlight after a storm.