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Mutsumi has always been surrounded by death.
Not in that way. Her family has been blessed with good genes. Most of her relatives are living long, healthy lives, aside from the few who simply got unlucky. That kind of misfortune belongs to Saki.
If Mutsumi squints, there is something written above everyone's head. A string of numbers, initially undecipherable to a young Mutsumi. She only understood it the first time she saw someone die—a freak accident, where a pedestrian had been hit by a careless driver. The victim's number had counted down for seventy two agonising seconds, before zero. Mutsumi knew he was gone, then.
She has never told anyone. Minami-chan and Ta-kun would never believe her.
Mutsumi used to view it as a curse, but she has since accepted it. Everyone's time will come, there is no fighting the inevitable great unknown. She regrets swearing herself to secrecy only once, when she realises what the numbers above Saki's mother's head say. Three years. She was diagnosed a month later.
Other than that brief guilt, Mutsumi pays her... ability, no mind. There is nothing she can change, anyway. She grew used to seeing her own 70-ish years of remaining time on earth reflected in the mirror long ago.
One day, everything changes.
*
Today, when Mutsumi gets ready to head off to school, she notices something odd. Her number has drastically fallen. If her quick mental calculations are right, she has around another month left. She must have developed some kind of terminal illness overnight. Odd, since her ability doesn't usually work this way, but things happen. It doesn't disturb her—she already feels dead.
What is strange, however, is the number hovering above her family servant who'd come to serve her breakfast. It is the exact same as Mutsumi's.
Things only get stranger when she finishes breakfast and leaves for school. Her driver's number is the same, her faceless schoolmates' numbers are all the same. Everyone she meets is set to die in a month.
Everyone except her.
Saki.
*
Mutsumi does not hate CRYCHIC.
She does not know what she feels towards CRYCHIC.
However, Mutsumi knows that Saki loves CRYCHIC dearly. Knowing that, and Saki's determination to make this band a hit, Mutsumi had been relieved to see everyone's numbers. There will be no early deaths among them.
CRYCHIC is the closest Mutsumi comes to feeling at peace. She even finds herself breaking into a smile once in a while. Her fingers only sometimes shake as she plays her guitar, its sound hollow.
*
Saki is a prodigy. That was one of the things Mutsumi and Saki had in common. Everyone calls Mutsumi an acting prodigy, even a monster, though she only drags her body through the motions. Saki, on the other hand, is a musical genius.
So it makes sense that, even in this extraordinary situation, Saki would stand out.
There are no numbers above Saki's head.
Mutsumi can't focus on practice today. Taki softly scolds her, and Soyo looks at her with concern. However, Mutsumi is too drawn to the blank space above her childhood friend.
Saki seems to be distracted as well.
Saki's playing is just the slightest bit off. Not enough to be noticable, but Mutsumi has been watching Saki play since they were kids, she can always tell when Saki is having a bad day. Her fingers shake just the slightest, and she hits each note a fraction of a second slower.
Saki catches her staring.
Mutsumi follows Saki home afterwards.
"...You know, don't you?" Saki's voice trembles. She won't meet Mutsumi's eyes.
"Saki, why..." Mutsumi trails off as Saki tugs on her arm. She obediently follows Saki back to the Togawa house, like they're children again.
*
The world is going to end, Saki says.
Yesterday, Saki remembered something about her. She is not from this world.
No, Saki is the furthest thing from human. She struggles to explain the nature of her existence, but Mutsumi gets the gist of it.
Togawa Sakiko is cursed.
A cursed, god-like being. As punishment for a long-forgotten sin, Saki is cursed to live. To live an ordinary, human life without memories of her past self, before it all unexpectedly comes back to her. Then, in an unknown amount of time, the world as its humans know will end.
...What a lonely existence.
There is a odd part of Mutsumi that wants to protest this. A childish voice in her heart that wishes to live, to reject the inevitable death of all things. But Mutsumi pushes it down. She takes Saki's hand, "I'll be with you until then, Saki."
God or not, Saki will always be Saki to Mutsumi. From the day Saki saved her by simply inviting her to play tag, Mutsumi has devoted herself to Saki's happiness.
Stealing whatever cash they can from the Togawa house, the unfortunate pair flee into the night.
*
Sakiko hates her curse.
It has been so long that she has already forgotten what her original sin was. Countless timelines, so many different lives—all ending the same. Sakiko will end it with her own hands, then get pulled along to the next world, until it is satisfied.
Sakiko had believed herself to be fine with this. She is used to seeing things start and end and start and end already. Yet this time, something is different.
Sakiko takes in Mutsumi's sleeping form. They found a cheap hotel and booked the cheapest thing available, a single room. Mutsumi curls up by Sakiko's side, in deep sleep. Sakiko does not know how she can still sleep when their time together is limited.
Unable to fight her own drowsiness, Sakiko soon falls asleep too.
*
Tokyo has never been this magical.
It must be the knowledge at the back of Mutsumi's mind that this will be the last time she sees the city she grew up in. Sakiko booked them tickets to another city. They'll be departing in two days to see all the places they haven't yet got to.
They pick a random location of interest and wander around the area. Minimal planning, letting their feet carry them to all the places they've never been to. Mutsumi loves it.
She takes in every sight. Every building, every tree. Mutsumi never noticed these trees flower a beautiful white. Birds that eye the two of them warily, people going about their mundane lives—Mutsumi takes it all in.
The world is beautiful. Mutsumi is glad that it will all end like this, before the inevitable turn for the worst. For death to capture the world at its best—Mutsumi likes it.
*
Sakiko hates it.
Just like Mutsumi, Sakiko takes in every sight. The world is lovely. She lives every life like its her first, her curse dooming every world to never lose its charm.
Flowers bloom a beautiful white. Birds, various shades of monochrome, swarm the floor where someone dropped a chunk of bread. A woman takes a call while shushing her baby. A man does his weekly grocery shopping, but with an extra action figure in his basket. Sakiko hates it.
She wants to see more.
It's ridiculous how she needs to be confronted with the end of all things in order to look at the world as it is.
To think Sakiko used to brush all of this off. She used to think nothing of her day to day life, where she existed as barely more than a doll. How could she have been so blind? To ignore all that is beautiful around her.
Sakiko wishes her heart would quiet down.
With Mutsumi by her side, it's easier.
*
In just two weeks, Mutsumi grows tired.
The initial wonder has worn off. Saki is enjoying herself, which gives Mutsumi the energy to continue wandering, but Mutsumi finds herself longing for the end to come sooner.
Mutsumi and Saki do all sorts of things together. They visit expensive restaurants, run through whole theme parks, even hold hands as they watch a play from the most expensive seats.
One night, the two of them even do something they shouldn't. The kind of thing that is meant for adults in love. Mutsumi sees no problem—she loves Saki, and Saki loves her. They will never be adults. So she savours Saki's warmth, a gentleness Mutsumi is rarely treated with.
The worst days are when Saki cries.
Saki always locks herself in the hotel bathroom when she thinks Mutsumi is sleeping. What she does not know is that Mutsumi cannot sleep without Saki by her side anymore.
So Mutsumi listens to Saki sob from the other side of the bathroom door. She should reach out to Saki, but she doesn't. She can't find the right words.
Saki loves too much, Mutsumi had come to realise.
Saki loves Mutsumi more than she loves herself. She always gives Mutsumi the larger piece when they share food, always picks out Mutsumi's favourite snacks before getting her own. Saki loves and loves and loves, and Mutsumi cannot understand why she has been cursed like this.
Mutsumi has nothing to say to Saki, who has fallen deeply in love with this world. From the small paradise they built within CRYCHIC to how the sun rises every morning, Saki loves. Joy, sadness, the mundane—Saki loves it all as much as she loves Mutsumi, almost.
Mutsumi just can't find the right words, not when she's already silently praying for the end.
She lets Saki cry, and pretends to be asleep.
*
"I should have talked to Tomori."
"...Saki?"
"Soyo is probably worried about us."
"..."
"Taki too. I should have said something."
"..."
"It's too late now, right? Mutsumi."
*
Mutsumi leans into Saki. It has turned into a habit by now. Their bodies slot perfectly together.
Time flies when you're having fun.
Did Mutsumi have fun?
"I'm glad, Saki."
Saki looks at her with wet eyes.
"I'm glad I could spend these last moments with you."
"I'm sorry, Mutsumi. For everything."
Don't be, Mutsumi doesn't say. She wants to sleep.
Mutsumi shakes her head. She can't sleep yet. She checks her reflection in the nearest mirror—six hundred seconds. Mutsumi must spend every last one of those awake and with Saki. She must hold Saki and drown herself in those eyes, so similar to her own, until that timer hits zero.
"Are you sleepy, Mutsumi?"
Stubborn, Mutsumi shakes her head. But it is hard to fight her drowsiness, now.
I don't want to die yet. I want to spend more time with Saki.
Saki, Saki, Saki. Aah, she sounds like a clingy dog.
"Just sleep, Mutsumi."
Unable to resist Saki, Mutsumi's eyes flutter shut.
*
I love you, Sakiko thinks.
There is no need to voice her thoughts. Mutsumi has already grown cold.