Hours pass. The house creaks with emptiness.

  Then footsteps downstairs. Soft and deliberate, like someone’s trying not to be heard.

  Niche doesn't move from the tub. He already knows who it is.

  He listens as the intruder climbs the stairs. The floorboard outside his room squeaks, the one that always gives visitors away. Drawers opening. The loose floorboard being pried up.

  Niche stands and wraps a towel around himself. He pads silently down the hall.

  Usui kneels by the bed with his hand in the empty hiding spot, phone pressed to his ear. "Dad, he lied to me. No, I don't know where the real crystal is."

  Niche towers above him. "I know where your loyalty really lies."

  Usui spins and the phone clatters to the floor, ending the call.

  "Niche, I can explain—"

  "Your father sent you to get close to me. How long have you been pretending to be my friend?"

  "It wasn't pretending! Not all of it!" Usui's voice cracks. "I do care about you, but my father... he's not my real father. He has my sister. He'll kill her if I don't help him. I really wanted to be friends with you, Niche."

  The desperation in his voice sounds real. The tears too.

  Niche doesn't care anymore.

  "Tell him his search is futile. I already used the crystal."

  Usui's face drains of color. "What do you mean you used it? No. No, no, no. This can't— my sister, she— he's going to—"

  "Usui."

  Usui looks up, hope flickering in his eyes. Like maybe Niche will help. Like maybe there's still a way out.

  The memory device flashes.

  Usui blinks. He looks around the room, then at Niche. "What am I doing here? Hello, Niche. Why was I here again?"

  "You were telling me something about your ."

  Usui stiffens. "My father?"

  "Yeah, something about a vacation?"

  "I... I don't know why I would talk about him." Usui's face goes tight. He scrambles to his feet, taking a step toward the door. "I should go."

  "Everything okay?"

  "Fine. Everything's fine." He's already halfway out. "I'll see you later, Niche."

  He practically runs out, leaving his phone on the floor.

  Niche picks it up. The last message from "Dad" reads, "Find it. Or she dies tonight."

  He drops the phone.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Let her die. Let everyone die.

  I'm too tired to care.

  Flashback, Usui’s House

  Usui sits at the kitchen table. Neptune stands by the window with his back turned.

  "You'll continue watching the bearer,” Neptune instructs. “I want daily reports."

  "I'm not—"

  Neptune turns, looking at Usui with disgust. "Your sister comes home from school today. No one else will be in the house because I convinced your mother to take you out for a walk. I go up to your sister's room with a knife. I cut off her hands and feet and slice her vocal cords so she can't scream. Then I stab her until she stops moving." He pauses. "Do you want that to be reality? If not, you will listen to my orders."

  Usui goes pale. His hands shake under the table.

  Neptune walks to the door and stops. "You know, I had a real son once. A real family. Before you and your pathetic mother."

  Usui doesn't respond.

  "That son tried to kill me. Shot me. Left me to die."

  Silence.

  "Why?" Usui's voice barely works.

  Neptune's voice stays flat. "I murdered my daughter. My actual daughter." He looks at Usui with contempt. "Not your worthless sister. I have no connection to that brat."

  "So…you just kill children and threaten to kill more?"

  "I do what I have to. My real son didn't understand that. Thought he could stop me with violence." Neptune adjusts his jacket. "Emotional. Weak."

  "Where is he now? What did you do to him?"

  "You think I want to chat with you? Keep stalling and you’ll see what happens to your mother." Neptune opens the door. "Don't make the mistakes others made before you. I used to have a real family. Now I'm stuck with you disgusting replacements. Do your job or they both die. And stop wasting so many crystals on that memory gun. That shit costs more than your worthless life."

  He leaves.

  Usui sits there, understanding exactly what kind of monster entered their lives.

  His phone buzzes. Niche's name on the screen.

  He looks at it. Then at his sister's school schedule on the fridge.

  He picks up the phone.

  Niche’s Bathroom, Present

  Niche lowers himself back into the tub.

  For a while he just sits there. The water is lukewarm now.

  Minutes pass. Maybe longer.

  Eventually, the water starts draining on its own, swirling down through the overflow. He watches it drop. Doesn't move to refill it. Just sits there as the level falls past his chest, his stomach, his hips. Until he's sitting in nothing but the cold porcelain and the last few puddles circling the drain.

  His hand shakes.

  "I wanted to save everyone." His eyes stay fixed on the ceiling. "But I just... I keep destroying them."

  He picks up the memory device and just stares at it.

  A cat jumps onto the ledge of the bathtub. Niche doesn't flinch. It pads along the edge, circling until it settles next to his feet on the dry platform above the drain.

  Niche hasn't seen Raizen in this form in a while. It reminds him of Nira.

  "What are you thinking about?" Raizen asks.

  "How does this thing actually work?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "It's a memory gun. Does it just... erase the memory completely?"

  "No. If it erased memories completely, it would delete parts of who you are. Your personality comes from your childhood, your genetics, the subconscious stuff built up over years. It can't touch that."

  "So what does it do?"

  "It puts up a barrier. Blocks off the recent stuff so you can't access it. The memories are still there underneath, still shaping you. You just can't reach them."

  Niche is quiet for a moment. "So kind of like what happened with this world. The memorial world. When everyone came here and forgot."

  "Yeah. Same concept."

  Niche turns the device over in his hands. "I've never used this on myself."

  Raizen’s ears flatten.

  "What are you planning, Niche?"

  "If I used it...I'd still be me. I'd still be the sun bearer. But I wouldn't be able to feel any of it. I wouldn't remember burning Ryuga. Losing Dad. Maruka running from me."

  Raizen is quiet.

  "Someone else can deal with what comes next. Someone who doesn't have all this weight."

  "Niche—"

  "I'm tired, Raizen." He starts turning the dial. One month. Three months. Six. "I'm so tired."

  "You made a contract—"

  "I know what I promised. But I can't keep watching them die because of me. I'm poison, Raizen. I'm a fucking parasite."

  A year. The dial hits maximum.

  "If I go back to before any of this, they'll be safe. From me."

  "You won't remember to save them—"

  "They won't need saving if I'm not the one making the decisions."

  His finger rests on the trigger.

  "I'm tired of being important. I just want to be nobody again. Someone who forgets homework instead of forgetting how many people he's killed."

  "Niche—"

  He pulls the trigger.

  The beam hits him directly. His eyes go white and he slumps back.

  The bathroom light flickers. Somewhere in the distance, a clock strikes midnight.