eien no owari ni
cw: hallucinations (audio and visual), body horror and insect horror at the end
[ scene: nighttime. Miyuki is out again, having left her room after Bria went to sleep, searching for her bat. she has symptoms of what might be a fever, and visions of her dead best friend follow behind her.
"Miyuki... Aoi thinks you should go back to bed." ]
Shut up... why would I listen to you? You're not even actually here...
[ "Boop boop... Aoi just thinks... you'll be safer with Bria..." ]
I'll be safer once I find out who took my fucking bat--!
[ another Aoi appears, this time without the kitty hairpin.
"Boop boop... this Aoi believes in you! Miyuki... you're so cool."
"Miyuki... please..." ]
Ugh, just stop it, both of you...
[ holds her head, as if having a headache. a thought occurs to her.
she heads to the infirmary.
"Miyuki! Wait!" ]
[ scene: nighttime. Miyuki is out again, having left her room after Bria went to sleep, searching for her bat. she has symptoms of what might be a fever, and visions of her dead best friend follow behind her.
"Miyuki... Aoi thinks you should go back to bed." ]
Shut up... why would I listen to you? You're not even actually here...
[ "Boop boop... Aoi just thinks... you'll be safer with Bria..." ]
I'll be safer once I find out who took my fucking bat--!
[ another Aoi appears, this time without the kitty hairpin.
"Boop boop... this Aoi believes in you! Miyuki... you're so cool."
"Miyuki... please..." ]
Ugh, just stop it, both of you...
[ holds her head, as if having a headache. a thought occurs to her.
she heads to the infirmary.
"Miyuki! Wait!" ]
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It's also why she feels safe being out and alone late Thursday night, though she probably would have been regardless--she didn't get to be the person she is today by ignoring people's suffering.
Her decision is validated when the door opens, and she looks up from typing something on her ID.]
Oh! Sone-san.
["Good evening," her instincts tell her to say, but Miyuki is probably here because it isn't.]
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"Oh... there's already someone here."
"Boop boop... the doctor's a safe one though! This isn't that kind of visual novel." ]
...Minazuki-sensei.
[ "Boop boop... but what's she doing out right now...?" ]
You're up late.
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For a brief moment that will haunt her for the rest of her life, before it occurs to her what the implications of being out and about at this time could be, Karen thinks Miyuki is just calling her out on her sleep schedule.
]
--yes, well, I wanted to make sure I was available while... everything is still going on.
[She puts her ID away.]
What can I do for you?
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[ "Liar." ]
I... haven't been feeling too great with all of... this, so I haven't slept yet.
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[Maybe Karen should doubt this... but Miyuki is obviously telling the truth about how she's feeling.
She gets up to look over the shelf of pain relievers, not that she really needs to when she has their contents memorized. The stronger painkillers she gave Ai back then seems excessive for a headache, so probably best to go with something like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. As for the other problem...]
I could get you some tea if you'd like. It might help you get to sleep a little more easily.
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[ "Boop boop... but didn't someone poison the tea last week...?"
"It's fine! That CG has already been used. And if Miyuki dies, we'll just save and reload, boop boop!" ]
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[Karen settles on ibuprofen, handing a bottle to Miyuki.]
You can take it with water, or you can wait until I come back with the tea, if you'd like.
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O... Okay.
...Thank you, Minazuki-sensei.
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1/
"Miyuki... are you nervous, boop boop?"
"It's okay, Miyuki. Remember, Aoi thinks you're invincible!" ]
I told the both of you to shut up already, geez...
[ her hands are shaky. the bottle slips and is knocked under the bed. ]
Crap--
[ quickly she moves to the floor, getting on her knees to grab the pill bottle-- ]
2/
...!
[ time stops. ]
3/
"It must have rolled under there when we came here before, boop boop."
"Oh yeah! Because of your headache! Aoi forgot."
"Hey... Miyuki... now that you have the bat back..."
"There's something else you want back too, right...?" ]
4/
"You're a mess without THEM."
"Aoi's here but Aoi isn't real... Aoi was never real. And Aoi was never a true friend to you."
"But Aoi still sees you as her best friend anyway. Aoi just wants you to be happy."
she cradles the bat in both hands
"Boop boop... Aoi knows how you feel."
"Aoi also loves THEM."
"Aoi would also go crazy like this, boop boop."
"But it's YOUR fate to be with THEM. Not Aoi's. We know that now." ]
5/6
"You're so close to being able to finally be with THEM."
"Hey Miyuki?"
"It was really easy to kill Aoi, wasn't it?"
"It'd be just as easy to do it again you know."
"And if you get away with it, your dream will come true. Your TRUE ENDING. Aoi knows it, boop boop!"
"Aoi's sure the doctor will be happier too. You'll both be reunited with your loves."
"Boop boop... and after all..."
"Love is eternal."
"Love is eternal... boop boop."
slowly she moves to the door, hiding next to it carefully out of sight
love is eternal
love is eternal
love is eternal
love is eternal
love is eternal
love is eternal
love is ]
6/6
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The route from the mess hall to the infirmary is a familiar one for Karen, and it doesn't take her long, even with the cup in her hand.
She opens the door.]
I'm back, Sone-san.
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"Do it quickly!"
You don't need to tell me twice.
as soon as Karen enters, Miyuki strikes. a quick, powerful blow right right on the skull. the kind of force intended to end a life in one blow.
The kind I'm familiar with. ]
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It all happens too quickly for anything else. The force of the blow knocks her over. She falls. Her arm falls. The teacup calls. But she isn't aware of any of it.
Minazuki Karen is no longer aware of anything.]
1/
"Good job, Miyuki!"
"Not as messy as when you killed Aoi... but just as quick, boop boop."
"Now Miyuki will be--"
"Miyuki--"
silence. they're gone. ]
2/
3/
4/
5/
[ she drops the bat ]
6/
[ the word dies in her throat. she looks down. fully takes in what she's seeing. what she's done. ]
7/8
[ tears sting at the corner of her eyes as the full weight of what happened sinks in.
it hits different when it's a real person. ]
M-Minazuki-sensei, I... I...
[ "Did this for nothing." ]
8/8
1/3
Which is why waking up is so distressing. Her head is quiet, she’s still cut off from the lace—- and she’s alone.]
… Miyuki? [She begins to tear apart the blankets. Like she can materialize her missing friend out of nowhere, all the time, she’s painfully aware that it’s Thursday night. They know what happens on Thursdays.
She doesn’t even waste time with her shoes. She just moves. To the bathroom, first, the most logical place—- but it’s while she’s opening the door and peering in that two things happen.
Her nerves scream back to life as she returns to the living—- the lace looking in the distance once more.
And she hears something. Bria bolts.]
2/3
When she finds Miyuki, standing there, she feels relief. She even sighs happily, as she puts her hand on Miyuki’s shoulder.
Then she sees Karen. Horror. And she knows, without asking, or checking. She knows because she can tell the lace exists again—- frustratingly out of reach—— she’s too late.]
Miyuki.
3/3
Over the weeks, Bria’s taken the despair that Mimi left her with, and combined with Bria’s determination, she’s made her own safety nets. Backup plans, for when things go wrong. After last week, especially, Bria’s been thinking about what she might do in hundreds of different scenarios.
She has one for this. A plan. A way to fix things. To save her friend.
Bria’s fingers are digging into Miyuki’s shoulder now.]
Miyuki.
Don’t be afraid. I’ve got this.
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I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!! I didn't want this, I was losing my fucking mind, I just wanted it to stop, I wanted--!!
[ she jolts as fingers dig into her shoulder. none of Bria's words are registering to her. she tilts her head sharply up, looking at nothing ]
Won't YOU help me?! Please--!
[ Please just come back to me! ]
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Shh. Shh, Miyuki, it’s going to be fine.
I’m here. I’m going to help.
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she just cries. and cries.
she’s going to die without ever being held like this by YOU. or hearing YOU again. ]
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Her other hand? Tapping away at her ID.]
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and that’s when she feels it. The power that saves desperate girls. She has it in her still. Just a little. Just enough to—- she pockets her ID, mission complete.]
Stay here, okay? I’ll be right back. I’m… getting help. [And she hops up and races out of there.]
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she wishes the two Aois were back. ]
1/2
Please. Please, you have to help me. You have to help me purge her.
[and for the first time since she arrived here, her bee sisters respond. They buzz to life, swarming about her head and hands.]
2/2
Miyuki. I know this is—- terrifying and awful. But I need you to trust me.
We’re friends, right?
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but there’s enough of her pieced back together now that for the first time since this started she finally realizes Bria is here. ]
Bria…?
[ the bees, the buzzing… she’s too broken to put it together right now. ]
Yes?
[ and then like a line she’d practiced so long ago, on complete auto pilot without realizing what she was doing: ]
We’re besties.
cw body horror, insects
Three girls had once said the same thing to her.
Three girls who were now dead.
The bees buzz louder, seemingly reacting to Bria’s mood shift, the energy in the infirmary turning increasingly hostile.]
That’s right. Besties. [And she snaps on it. The instant she snaps, chaos begins.
Bees rush into Miyuki, right through her ears. It doesn’t hurt, and even if she should feel them in her head, she can’t. Their humming encourage her as they ease her mind. Why don’t you take a rest? they seem to ask. Images flash through Miyuki’s mind—- a candle, with Mars’ name on it, held by a hand with blue nail polish. A girl running through the forest, being hunted. Caroline, frozen in beauty in her coffin. Rows and rows and rows of reddened honey. Three girls in a bathtub, taking off their clothes to dress up another teen, and applying makeup to their new sibling’s face. A face looking in a vanity mirror. Sierra’s body on the forest floor, crooked and broken. A girl in an old fashioned swimsuit poolside, while a man watches her. A girl exploding into a frantic despair inspired dance on an outdoor stage. Brilliant shining smiles as the lottery numbers are called off the radio. A boy screaming “Don't you know who I am?!” in a prison of honey. A meadow with pink flowers. A swarm of bees lifting Mimi off the ground, while a circle of girls stand below her, holding hands, steam rising from the lake they stand in. A cavern of honey. Mimi’s screams, before Bria turns and looks at the Miyuki in the memory, or whoever’s eyes Miyuki’s seeing all this in, and says “Run.” A group of adults in wicker hats with veils, shouting “THE HIVE IS HIGHER!” Bria shouting at a woman with a pinched face, screaming that it’ll kill them all, kill them just like it killed Caroline when they forced her to be Queen. “Secure your rule.” the same woman says, in another flash. “Kill her.” and Bria, on the ground, glaring defiantly up at whoever Miyuki’s seeing through-
Canoes. Crystal Goblets with lemonade. Laughter. A field of flowers, and a buzzing bee.
Let us keep your secrets the bees seem to say.
Go to sleep, and forget this ever happened.
Bria lets her hand fall.]
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and soon enough it’s over, her eyes feeling heavy. she slumps, before eventually falling to the side, passing out. ]