The world is ending, but not all at once. It's unraveling at the seams—cracks in reality where past and future bleed through, warping everything they touch. Yoiyami Ren wakes in a city of rubble with nothing but his name and a burn scar on his palm. He remembers nothing. Not who he is, not what he's done, not why the people of this broken city flinch away when they see his face.
Then a woman named Hisame Setsuna finds him, carrying a cloth-wrapped staff and a proposition: become the world's las
Waiting for You at the Seam of the End - The torn sky, the vanished name
The flames were still burning.
Yoiyami Ren stood motionless at the heart of the burned-out city, the Seamstaff still gripped in his hand. The cloth wrapped around his right hand had charred away, the shape of his fingers pressed into the blackened fabric. A thin thread of white smoke rose from the tip of the staff.
The sky was splitting open.
A colossal fissure ran across the gray heavens above. It tore through the clouds and stretched to the far edge of the sky. Beyond the crack was neither pitch-black darkness nor burning red — it was the color of nothing. Looking at it sent a tight, aching pressure deep into the skull, a vast void that seemed to pull at the mind.
The world was tearing apart.
Ren looked down at his feet.
The ground of the nameless ruined city had been there just moments ago — gray cobblestones, the wreckage of collapsed buildings, swirling ash. But now it was different.
The ground was curling upward.
Like burning paper curling at the edges, the ashen earth was peeling away in layers, warping back toward the sky. Everywhere, the ground itself was being swallowed by massive fissures and crumbling away. Buildings split from their foundations. Steel frames screamed. Stone walls shattered. Mountains of rubble slid thunderously into the depths below.
The rumbling would not stop.
A heavy, rolling roar shuddered up through the soles of his feet and into his whole body. The air shook. Ash swirled. The thunder of collapse came from far away and up close all at once. It was as if the world itself were screaming.
*Did I do this?*
Ren looked at his right hand.
The Seamstaff. The cloth had burned away, and the exposed surface of the staff was covered in countless fine grooves. They looked like letters. They looked like scars. The staff was searingly hot — just holding it felt like the skin of his palm was being burned through.
*The burn that was supposed to seal the fault—*
*It ran wild.*
Ren dropped to his knees.
His knees hit the cobblestones. The impact traveled through bone all the way to his skull. But he felt no pain. He had no room left to feel it. The scene before him was too vast.
The land of the Regret Zone was splitting apart.
The ruins of the collapsed city cluster — three hundred kilometers east to west, two hundred fifty north to south. Most of it was now about to crumble into the edge of the fault. In the distance, a massive slab of earth was sinking with a roar. That had been a city. A place where people lived. A place where life had happened. And now it was vanishing into the depths of the earth.
"...Ah."
A sound escaped Ren's lips.
It wasn't a word.
He knew he had to say something, but his throat only trembled, and no voice came. Ash clogged the depths of his lungs. Every breath seared his throat with hot air.
*I tore the world apart.*
*With these hands that were supposed to seal it.*
*I burned it again.*
Somewhere deep in his skull, he could hear something smoldering. Memory was burning. Something inside him was turning to ash, soundlessly. He didn't know what he had lost. Without knowing, something was unmistakably disappearing.
"...What..."
Ren pressed a hand to the ground. The old burn scar on his left palm met the hot cobblestones. It hurt. But that pain was just barely keeping him tethered to reality.
"What... did I do?"
His voice was so hoarse it surprised even him.
There was no answer.
Only the sound of a collapsing world.
—That was when it happened.
"Bro!!"
A voice.
Ren raised his head.
Beyond the flames and rubble and collapse. In the shadow of a crumbling building. Tomoshibi Mina stood there. Her brown braid whipped wildly in the ash-laden wind. Her green eyes were fixed straight on Ren. Thin shoes. Dirty cheeks. A small burn mark on her neck.
"Mina...!"
Ren tried to stand. But his knees wouldn't obey. The ground shook, the footing gave way, rubble slid out from under his feet.
"Run! It's not safe there!"
Ren's shout was swallowed by the roar.
Mina was smiling.
In the middle of a collapsing world, she alone stood there with her usual smile. With blazing flames at her back and the shadow of a falling building around her, she slowly waved at Ren.
"Bro, don't go anywhere, okay?"
Her voice reached him with strange clarity.
Through the roar, through the wind, through the flames — it arrived straight at Ren's ears.
"Mina!"
Ren reached out his hand.
But he couldn't reach her.
The distance was too great. The footing was too broken.
The ground beneath Mina's feet cracked with a sound like a gunshot.
The place where she stood was swallowed by a massive fissure. The wreckage of buildings, the mountains of rubble, the ashen ground — all of it slid into the depths. Mina's body tilted.
"Mina—!!"
Ren screamed.
It was a scream that felt like it would tear his throat apart. All the air left his lungs, his voice cracked, and still he couldn't stop screaming.
Mina was smiling to the very end.
Even as the crumbling rubble swallowed her, she gave Ren a small wave. Those green eyes watched him straight on, right up to the final moment.
And then—
A roar.
A massive mountain of rubble covered the place where she had stood.
"Mina... Mina!!"
Ren tried to crawl forward along the ground. His fingertips dug into the rubble. His nails split. Blood seeped out. And still, forward. Toward where Mina had vanished.
But the footing gave way.
Ren's body couldn't fight the tilt of the ground and slid backward. His back slammed against the cobblestones, and his vision flashed white for an instant.
"Mina...!"
All he could do was call her name.
Her smile was seared into his mind.
The girl who had smiled to the very end in a collapsing world. The girl he had burned. The girl who had called him "bro." The girl who had waved and said, *don't go anywhere, okay.*
*I did it again.*
*I erased Mina.*
*This time with my own hands.*
Heat bloomed behind Ren's eyes.
No tears came.
Maybe this body no longer had any tears left to shed. Only the hot air brushed across his ash-stained cheeks.
—Then he heard a sound behind him.
The sound of rubble collapsing. The sound of flames bursting. And the sound of someone running.
"Ren!!"
He had no time to turn.
Something covered Ren's back.
Hot.
Heavy.
And the smell of burning.
"Kana...ta...?"
Ren forced the words out.
It was Haihara Kanata. Short brown hair. Dark brown eyes. The old burn scar running down his right arm. He was draped over Ren, shielding Ren's body with both arms.
"What are you... doing..."
"Don't move!!"
Kanata's voice was full of fury. But there was something mixed in that wasn't anger alone. Desperation. Frantic urgency. And—
"You just — stay right there and don't move!!"
A roar.
Falling rubble and flames poured down on the two of them.
Kanata's back was engulfed in fire.
"—!!"
Kanata gritted his teeth. Suppressed his voice. But his body was honest. The skin of his back burned, his clothes caught fire, the smell of scorching flesh rose into the air.
"Kanata! Get off! You'll burn too!"
Ren struggled. He tried to push Kanata's body away. But Kanata didn't move. He locked his arms, pinned Ren's body to the ground, and took the flames on his back.
"Shut up... just shut up..."
Kanata's voice was trembling.
Not from the pain.
"You... is this really what you want..."
Through the flames, Kanata's voice came in broken fragments.
"Burning yourself... losing your memories... is that really..."
"Kanata..."
"I... I don't want you to lose anything else...!!"
Kanata's scream echoed through the fire.
It was neither anger nor resentment.
Ren looked at Kanata's face then.
Illuminated by the flames, Kanata's expression was twisted with pain. Covered in sweat and soot and ash. But his eyes were looking straight at Ren.
*Those eyes—*
*They're not anger. Not resentment.*
*He's just desperate.*
*Desperate — because he doesn't want me to lose anything else.*
Something tightened deep in Ren's chest.
It hurt.
It was Kanata's back that was burning, and yet Ren's chest hurt far worse.
"...Kanata."
Ren's voice was wet with tears.
No tears came.
But his voice was wet all the same.
"...I'm sorry."
Kanata didn't answer.
Instead, the strength drained from his body.
Kanata's body, which had been covering Ren, slumped sideways. The clothes on his back had burned away, the skin blistered red-black, white smoke rising from it. Fresh burns layered over the old scar on his right arm.
"Kanata...!"
Ren gathered Kanata's body into his arms.
Hot.
The palms that touched him burned. And still, he couldn't let go.
"Hey, Kanata! Open your eyes!"
Kanata's eyes were closed.
His breathing was shallow. But he was definitely breathing.
"...You..."
Kanata's lips moved faintly.
"...Don't... shake me anymore..."
His voice was so small it seemed about to vanish.
"...Absolutely... you hear me..."
And then Kanata lost consciousness.
"Kanata... Kanata!!"
Ren screamed.
Kanata's body in his arms was heavy, and hot, and far too quiet.
—Then came footsteps.
Footsteps approaching slowly from the heart of the collapsing city.
Ren raised his head.
Hisame Setsuna stood there with flames at her back.
Her long red hair swayed like a blazing fire. The ends of it, reaching to her waist, were singed and curled. Her amber eyes gazed down at Ren quietly amid the crumbling world. The old burn scar on her left cheek seemed to twist sharply in the firelight.
She was smiling.
"This is fine now."
Setsuna's voice was clear even through the roar of collapse.
"This is how it should be, Ren."
Setsuna walked slowly toward Ren. Through the blazing flames, as unhurried as if she were out for a stroll.
"You burned the world again. You erased someone again. You lost yourself again."
Setsuna stopped in front of Ren.
Her gaze looked down on him.
"You'll forget again, won't you. What you did, who you erased — all of it, you'll forget."
Setsuna's voice grew gentle.
The more she hid her true feelings, the gentler her voice became.
"So I'll remember for you. Everything you did. Everyone you burned. The face you wore when you tore the world apart — all of it."
Setsuna crouched down.
She brought her face level with Ren's. Her amber eyes peered into his from close range.
"I'll be your memory. Even if you forget, I won't. Even if you erase, I won't disappear. As a survivor of the world you burned, I'll remember every one of your sins."
Setsuna's finger touched Ren's cheek.
It was cold.
In a world engulfed in flames, only her finger was cold as ice.
"That is your punishment."
Something burned deep in Ren's skull.
Memory was burning.
Without sound, without heat — just unmistakably, something inside him was turning to ash.
*What did I lose?*
*What did I just forget?*
*I don't know.*
*Without knowing, it disappears.*
"...Setsuna."
Ren forced the words out.
"...Who am I swinging this staff for?"
Setsuna laughed.
The burn scar on her left cheek twisted sharply.
"How should I know."
She stood up.
"Who you swing your staff for is none of my concern. You decided that yourself. You burned the world yourself. You erased people yourself. You lost yourself — yourself."
Setsuna spread both arms wide in the heart of the collapsing city.
The flames lit her red hair.
"This is fine. Now, at last, you'll know your sins. You'll know what your hands have done. You'll know, and suffer, and then forget again. That cycle is your fate."
Setsuna's laughter overlapped with the roar of collapse.
Inside Ren's head, something burned again.
Memory disappeared.
He didn't know what he had lost.
Without knowing, something inside him unmistakably turned to ash.
*I—*
*For whom—*
*Am I swinging this staff?*
No answer came.
The answer that should have come was burning away with his memories.
—That was when it happened.
Something caught the corner of Ren's vision.
A collapsed mountain of rubble.
From beneath it, a small hand was reaching
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