**

In this world, where death is certain…

The death clock ticks clockwise.

Not in a speed of seconds,

Not in a speed of minutes, but…

In a speed for certain death.

Once the hand turns 360 degrees,

You are now dead.

My clock has once passed the time of death.

You saved my life which was colorless

Filling it with full of darkness.

Now my time won’t come in a mere second.

As your existence cracked my clock,

Slowing it down too much,

A wish of mine that has just been discovered…

Will never be fulfilled in a very fast pace.

My eternal wish called “DEATH”.

Unknowingly, that wish in the near future…

Will not only not be fulfilled in a very fast pace but…

Also it will never be fulfilled forever…

Because of the curse that was inflicted by

“The Cursed Katana”

**

“CLANG!” Two different weapons collide, a dagger and a sword. The dagger is being handled by a girl… an 11-years old girl whose hair which is a bit above the shoulder line and eyes are the darkest shade of black. The sword is being handled by a boy… a 9-years old boy whose short hair and eyes are the lightest shade of brown.

“Is that all you got, Yo-chan?” said the girl sarcastically while grinning.

“DON’T CALL ME YO-CHAN!!! KYOU!!!” shouted the boy as he jumped backward and preparing another full attack again. The boy then attacked and shouted “MY NAME IS YOICHI!!!”

“Whatever ~” said Kyou as she gracefully dodged the full blown attack. “I guess it’s time to end the game… I am getting bored already…” thought Kyou as she dodged Yoichi’s chains of attacks. Then, she made a deadly blow on her first hit towards Yoichi’s chest, piercing his heart.

“Tch!” Yoichi clicked his tongue before he hit the ground. His body first became pixelated as he fell towards ground, and then the background became pixelated as well before everything became pitch black with only the words “GAME OVER” floating in front of Kyou. After a few seconds, the words disappeared leaving the darkness behind.

“Kyou! I’ll defeat you next time!” Yoichi’s voice echoes within Kyou’s head.

“You are always there in front of me after the darkness engulfs me.” Kyou thought as she opened her eyes and looked at Yoichi after she took her virtual reality helmet off. “But… You always say these sad things.” She smiled bitterly as she continued her line of thought. Apparently, they were inside Kyou’s room playing a fighting game.

Nonchalantly Kyou said “Do whatever you want~” still with a bitter smile on her face as she waved her right hand towards Yoichi, who was still sitting not able to stand because of the shock being pierced by a dagger directly towards his heart in the virtual reality game, and her left hand reaching some snacks on the table.

“Anyways, please fix the part where the winner is being left behind after everything is being pixelated. It is becoming creepier and creepier as time goes by...” pleaded Kyou as she shivered remembering the part. “Also change ‘Game Over’ as ‘You Win’.” Kyou added.

“If I win, I’ll change it. If and only if I win that is.” Yoichi wittily answered as he was slowly recovering from the shock.

“Fine I’ll let you win once, if that will let you change the program” Kyou declared. Yoichi is a genius programmer; no… he is a genius inventor who invented the virtual reality game console at the age of 6. Even though he is the one who made the game he still hasn’t won against Kyou. “If that won’t hurt your pride as a man that is” Kyou added.

“Tch!” Yoichi clicked his tongue again as he stood up taking the virtual reality game console with him. “Fine. Fine. I’ll fix it.” Said Yoichi as he reached the door “But don’t forget I’ll definitely win against you one day!” declared Yoichi before he left Kyou’s room.

“Do whatever you want…” said Kyou again with a bitter smile.

“Just don’t leave me behind. I’ll do anything for you even turning myself into an immortal. Though, you may not notice anything.” thought Kyou as she watched Yoichi leaving her house.



It was already November of the year 2011. Yoichi was only wearing a t-shirt under his lab coat and a short going to a convenience store 6 blocks away from his home despite the cold weather. Due to his habit, he was bringing his backpack which is full of tools for inventing stuff and some objects that made him interested.

“I’m bored.” Murmured Yoichi as his face showed a clearly bored face. He always wears a bored face, in exception for Kyou and another person though.

“I was also buying for my own snacks back then when I met that person.” said Yoichi with a large grin on his face as was leaving the convenience store to the snowy road. “It is already been almost 4 years since I met Akaku-sama”



February 29, 2008 was the exact day when Yoichi and this ‘Akaku-sama’ first met. There were some strange incidents happening around that time like the disappearance of more than 600 residences in the country. There were even some rumors about an organization killing some unknown species lurking around that time. The most interesting rumor is the sighting of a child with a pure white hair and a right eye that is bloody red. Not only that, the child was mostly seen covered in blood and disappears the moment you notices him. It was said that that child was part of the organization. That child called himself as ‘Akaku’.

On the snowy road, Yoichi was walking back to his home when a pure black butterfly flew across him and due to his curiosity he followed that butterfly. He then saw Akaku killing one of those ‘unknown species’. Yoichi was really shocked with what he saw. Blood splashed towards the snowy road tainting the pure white snow into bloody red. The head of the ‘unknown species’ was rolling in front of him. Yoichi then couldn’t make any noise and he fell down to the bloody snow. Unfortunately, Akaku noticed Yoichi. Akaku disappeared in front of Yoichi and then suddenly appeared again behind Yoichi aiming a dagger on Yoichi’s throat.

“Why are you here?” asked Akaku.

Yoichi unconsciously answered “I-I was f-following a-a black butterfly.” because he was still shocked from the scene.

“Hmmm… I see.” Akaku unexpectedly believed Yoichi and drew back the dagger. Akaku then helped Yoichi to stand up from his knees.

Yoichi was mesmerized by Akaku. Akaku was not your normal kid. His snow white hair and his right bloody red eye being contradicted by his pure black left eye. Yoichi cannot help but forget the incident that made him too shocked to stand up from the snow. “Are you ok?” asked Akaku as he smiled innocently.

“Cute~” was all Yoichi can think about despite all the blood covering Akaku. As Yoichi was still in this line of thought, Akaku then looked at an abandoned mansion behind them with a very serious eyes contradicting what Yoichi thought about him.

“Go back home. Don’t ever look back. Run as fast as you can.” was all Akaku said before he left towards the abandoned mansion. Then, Yoichi heard a gunfire coming from the mansion.

“Run as fast as you can.” was the words Yoichi suddenly remembered. Then, he ran back home as fast as he can, believing Akaku’s words.



Now, November of the year 2011, in front of the abandoned mansion, “Akaku” muttered Yoichi.

“Missed me already?” a sarcastic voice came from behind him.

Yoichi turned around and he saw the same white hair and the same bloody eye that captivated him. “Master!” Yoichi’s bored expression turned into the one where a child saw his favorite toy. “Please teach me again.” Yoichi smiled sweetly.

Akaku just smiled back and patted Yoichi’s head while thinking “Just don’t leave me behind… Yo-chan. I’ll always protect you. So don’t come to the darkness”.



˜v™

 “Kyou-chan, please take care of Yoichi for a while. I will go look for a doctor to take a look at him.” a mid-twenties woman asked Kyou as she smiled warmly while hiding her worries for her child, Yoichi. Yoichi was having a very high fever on a Saturday, February 28, 2004, which was also the day before Kyou’s 4th birthday, and was lying on the bed.

“Yesh!” Kyou answered cheerfully as she held Yoichi. “Yo-chan-mama!” Kyou suddenly called Yoichi’s mother.

Yoichi’s mother was really confused and asked “Yes? What is it Kyou-chan?”

Kyou answered “Shay ‘I’ll come back’ to Yo-chan.” with the most serious face a three years old child can give.

Yoichi’s mother was pretty shocked with what Kyou said and picked up baby Yoichi. As tears were flowing on her cheeks, she told him “I’ll come back a quickly as possible so please… don’t die.” As she put her forehead towards his, she didn’t feel any fever. “What the?” was the only words that could get out of her mouth. She then took Yoichi’s temperature again and Yoichi’s temperature was a baby’s normal temperature. Then, she hugged Yoichi as she smiled and said “I’m glad.”

“Yo-chan-mama, I’m glad you shmiled again.” said Kyou as if she noticed the worried look of which Yoichi’s mother tried to hide…

˜v™

 “Ngh…” was the sound that came out of Kyou’s mouth as she woke up.

“It seems like you’ve dreamt a very fulfilling dream.” Spoke the voice inside Kyou’s head.

“Sort of…” said Kyou as she smiled remembering the memories of the past “that was a really fulfilling memory.” She continued as she watched the digital clock on the table beside her bed which showed that it was still 3AM and the date was February 28, 2012.

“Anyways, this midnight is the time already, huh?” said the voice.

“Yup, this midnight is the time for me to leave this world. It is almost time for me to fulfill my promise to you. Right, Ryuu?” confirmed Kyou to the voice inside her head of who is named as ‘Ryuu’. “Speaking of which, it is really strange for the ‘dream’ to be one of my memories… Usually… well… it’s your memories, right Ryuu?” Kyou expressed her curiosity.

Ryuu explained “Well, the reason may have been because there are no memories to be shown. I was completely unconscious back then.”

“…” Kyou paused before could find anything to say and the only words that can came out of her mouth are “I see…” and as she said those words she could her a chuckle inside her head and she knew who it was. “WHY YOU?!” Kyou yelled furiously.

Ryuu then laughed hysterically as he half-heartedly apologized. Seeing Kyou was seriously worried about him, Ryuu changed the subject “Anyways, are you really going to leave him behind?”

“Huh?” Kyou was not able to follow Ryuu’s new topic.

“Yoichi” was all Ryuu need to say…

And Kyou understood what he meant “Yeah… I’m going to leave him behind… I can’t let him go with me and risk his light to be dimmed.” answered Kyou as she smiled bitterly.

“I see… Even though he was the main reason why you chose to accept my proposal?” asked Ryuu.

Kyou fell silent as she could not answer his question.

˜v™

It was already noon and Yoichi hasn’t visited Kyou yet. Yoichi has always visited Kyou first thing in the morning. It was then, Kyou’s cellphone rang. It showed an unrecognized number.

“Hello?” answered Kyou to her cellphone.

It was a male voice near his thirties. “Codename ‘Chain’ has finally gone berserk and she targeted your friend’s family after she killed hers. Your friend’s parents are all dead but luckily your friend is still not confirmed dead. This is my gift for you… Advanced Happy Birthday” said the voice on the other side of the cellphone.

“Thanks” was all Kyou could say before she cut the call.

“So… what are you going to do?” asked Ryuu.

“Of course! I’m going to protect him.” answered Kyou with a killer’s look as she took the backpack she prepared the other night for her journey beginning later that night. “Wait for me, Yo-chan.” thought Kyou.

“Codename ‘Chain’ is one of the relatives of Yoichi’s mother. Yoichi’s mother side has some special circumstances where some specific emotions can materialized. Also, not all of them have this so called ‘special circumstances’. Codename ‘Chain’ is a girl who was taught to think about each and every thing she do since it reflects the appearance of their ‘clan’ as she is the one and only child of the main family. As time goes by, she got ‘chained’ by her emotions from her so called ‘relationships’ with other people. As she became closer to someone, that someone will inevitably feel some heavy chains on his/her body. There were no cases where she killed anyone. This incident was the first. The organization had already predicted that something like this was going to happen so they observed every move she did. Each and every relative of hers were on the black list of the organization… with the exception of Yoichi’s family though.” was what the organization wrote in their database as Kyou remembered…

˜v™

Yoichi was running… running for his life. It was when he just went out from a 24-hours convenience store from buying some snacks when a relative of his, a 7-years old girl, covered in blood with a smile on her face. As the girl’s distance from him got shorter and shorter, his body became heavier and heavier. His instinct told him to run… run as fast as he can. He ran into the abandoned mansion he and Akaku always meet. It was still around 3 in the morning.

For around nine hours, he successfully hid himself from the girl. But then, unfortunately nine hours was the limit the girl found him hiding inside a hidden passage inside the mansion. She was running very fast towards him. When he thought he was dead meat, he closed his eyes and was waiting for an impact but did not felt any. When he opened his eyes which were caused by his curiosity, he saw Akaku kissing the lips of the girl and then his body became lighter than usual. When he was about to shout at Akaku, Akaku’s blood ruptured out from his body as if his heart got pierced by a very sharp object.