I shook and noh-cried, filling my cell with tears. The tears were already up to my neck. I knew I wouldn’t drown even if my cell was to fill to the ceiling. A genius plan occured to me then. If I were to fill my cell with tears, under pressure something might give, thus I might be able to escape when a wall exploded or a door crumpled out. Unfortunately, having that great idea still left what I could do about Mitsuhiko. I hoped that I could save everyone somehow before he knew what had happened. I knew that with my noh-face abilities, I could overwhelm him if I gave everything.

My crying stopped. I thought about Reiko-chan’s plight, and yet I couldn’t start the flow of tears again. I stood neck-deep and soggy in my tears.

*DRIP*

*SLOSH*

I was depressed when I couldn’t call forth more noh-tears on command. I waded to the door and fiercely attacked it. The loud slamming noises filled my cell with echoing. The water sloshed and lapped as I attacked furiously, but all my noh-strength meant nothing in the face of a reinforced steel door. I circled around and attacked the walls, looking for any obvious weak points, but all I did was hurt myself.

Eventually I ran out of energy and sank down. I felt miserable. I started crying again to immerse myself entirely. I floated in the darkness, sobbing. The pressure of the water around me increased as I cried. The force of the noh-tears oozing out from my eyes seemed stronger than the building pressure, so more always were forced out to join the sea around me. It reached the point where I started feeling as though I’d be crushed by the sheer water pressure as though I was at the deepest part of the ocean. It was hard to even move. My plan had backfired. The cell wouldn’t break open. Only the sound of soft groaning filled my noh-ears, floating in a salty limbo. I was entirely paralyzed.

I’ll go insane if I’m stuck here, literally. But at least he won’t bother to look into my eyes ever again. I’ll never be able to move again... I’m trapped in a sea of my tears and I will lose my mind.

I curled up with great effort. That too was a mistake. I felt as though I was being compressed into a singularity. All I could do was think.

Celebrate. She’ll be restored...

If my demise meant Reiko-chan would return, I could live with my fate. I continued to cry, though I couldn’t move, yet the tears still were forced out. The pressure only increased and the pain I experienced was no less than the agony I experienced when I transformed both times into a noh-face. I was literally unable to move, the pain was so crippling. I should have been dehydrated from all the crying, but all I felt was crushed.

I passed out from the pressure, and perhaps from boredom. Before, it was hard enough to hold onto my mind after twenty-four hours as a noh-face, but I had fulfilled that bastard’s prophecy.

Oh, I promised you I would break your mind. And I will keep my promise.

Perhaps he’d calculated this might happen, but how could he have known about noh-tears?

*SLAM!!!!*

The sound reverberated through my watery prison.

*KABAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM*

I woke, shaking my head dully.

*WHAM*

The volume of the pounding increased, until I finally heard something else.

*SCREEEEEEEEEEECHHHHH*

*FOOOOOOOMMMM*

The pressure reduced greatly, and the water started flowing. I was swept away with it. I spun as I rocketed out. Suddenly, I slammed hard into something headfirst.

*CLANG!*

I collapsed. Clutching my head, I noh-looked around blearily. I saw it then.

A white blank expression hovered in the darkness just as it had when I’d met noh-face in the train car. It noh-stared at me.

“Su... suuuu... muuuuu...” Its mouth gaped open broadly.

I yelped, flinching away from it. “Oh, Kami! Don’t hurt me, please!”

“Su... SUUUUUMUUUUU!!!” It whaled on me, slamming and kicking me. I was thrown along a hallway. It broke me free just to destroy me? Did he create another one to kill me?!

I slammed up against the wall. Noh-face rushed at me, seizing my costume.

“You... fool..." it yelled. I thought about the man’s cold eyes. He’d called me a fool before. I didn’t struggle, noh-looking away. Reiko-chan will be fine if I die. It’s fine. I had the most fun I ever had in my whole life. If I die now, it’d be fine...

“FOOL!” Noh-face slammed my head repeatedly against the wall. My head rattled. “FIGHT! FIGHT ME! SUSUMUUUUU!”

I gasped and my head continued to crack hard against the wall. It cracked and started to buck under the relentless strikes.

“RUI!” it yelled loudly at me.

I looked at the noh-face and I wondered if this meant he’d turned her into one as well. My noh-eyes widened as sparkles flitted across my noh-vision. “Rui-chan?” I gulped. “I’m so sorry... you were all captured because I was weak! I let everyone down. I’m so sorry this happened to you! Kill me if you wish... I... I had so much--”

My head cracked hard against the wall. Noh-face repeatedly slammed me over and over against it until it finally caved in. “No..." Noh-face whispered.

“Not Rui... not..." it murmured. “Fool. So weak... pathetic! Is this all you are?”

I gasped. My gaze fell on something that made me happy.

“SUSUMU!!!” It was Rui! I gasped again.

“Rui-chan! It’s you! Are you okay?” Rui drew back from the hole that had been knocked open.

“I’m okay, idiot!” Rui laughed softly. “What the heck is going on with you? You’re… did he somehow do that to you again?”

Noh-face came into vision through the hole in the wall as it poked its face inside. Rui’s eyes latched onto it and she swallowed. “Has that horrible man sent an assassin to kill us and bury our bodies after he disposed of us?”

“M-maybe..." I shook my head, uncertain. “He said he would drive me insane before he killed me. He hasn’t done that yet.”

“Ahahahahahaha!” Noh-face laughed and bounded over me over toward Rui as it exclaimed, “A pretty face! I’ll have it!” I gaped and stared. Rui drew away from it. She’d been disarmed when she was captured. I remembered the tunnel and our fight. It had promised it would not steal faces anymore.

“No! You promised!” I yelled.

“Ehehehe... my new treasure..." It ignored me as it stalked closer to Rui, claws extended. I swallowed hard as I scrambled up to my feet and slammed into the creature. The jade bracelet had started shining on my wrist. I hadn’t noticed until the moment we collided that my wrist somehow had been healed, perhaps by my noh-face transformation. While I struggled against Noh-face, something happened. I grew far larger than it. It had happened after twenty-four hours-worth of transformation, but now shadows gathered around my body and cloaked it just like Noh-face’s. This transformation which was triggered somehow was far more profound.

“NOOOOOOOOO! YOU WON’T HURT HER, YOU MONSTER!” I screamed and slammed into it, throwing it into the far wall. I seized it to lift it into the air by its neck. It thrashed and fought, clawing at my wrist. “I’LL KILL YOU! THREATEN HER AND YOU DIE!”

Noh-face laughed and ceased to struggle. “I knew you could do it if you were pushed. You have far more potential than I ever did... Oh, Susumu. Rui-chan, please forgive me for my sins. I..."

I froze, knowing who was speaking. All I could do in response was to shrink. The glowing within the bracelet died out. Rui stood and stumbled forward, sobbing.

“R-Reiko-chan! Reiko!” Rui cried as she threw herself towards Noh-face. She embraced it... No, her. I clutched my face, sobbing.

“I’m not strong. You were always stronger than me. How could you say something like this to me? Don’t be an idiot! You’re worth far more than I am!” I cried. She never was mine and never would be. Seeing her and Rui together filled me with complex emotions. I felt joy, but also loss. The faces of Reiko-chan and Rui-chan flashed through my mind. In my mind, they embraced each other, happily. I backed away into the far corner, clutching my head. I was happy and yet I couldn’t stop crying. Rui... Reiko-chan... please be happy...

“I missed you too,” Reiko-chan murmured softly, stroking Rui’s face as gently as possible. Despite how much I clutched at my face I couldn’t block my vision. I noh-smiled. The agony eased when I realized they’d be happy together. Reiko-chan would be fixed and I would remain a noh-face and be alone forever as destiny had prescribed. Even alone and insane, I knew I’d never become a killer. I thought about what Ume and Natalia-sama had said to me.

We accept you. We accept you. No matter how you look. I would not be entirely alone if only we could save them.

“We need to defeat Mitsuhiko.” Reiko-chan walked over to me, looking as frightening as she ever did.

“We will.” I noh-smiled. “We’ll destroy him for what he did. I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will,” Reiko-chan murmured, sounding halfway as she used to. She touched my noh-face gently. “I’m sorry. I hurt you deeply. I never hated you. I wanted to protect you from Mitsu... But it seems it’s your fate to do what I never could.” She sighed softly.

“Oh, Reiko-chan... I missed you!” I sobbed. I threw myself at her and embraced her tightly. “I never hated you for what you did. I was always a failure.”

“No, you aren’t, and you won’t be. You’ll win tonight. You’ll get your humanity back. I believe in you.” Reiko-chan pressed her noh-lips to my forehead. I looked up into her noh-face, crying.

I realized finally she wasn’t including herself in the happy ending. “We! WE WILL! Of course we’ll all go back to the way things were!”

Reiko-chan laughed softly. “Idiot. No. I’ve committed too many sins. I’ve killed people. I’m no better than Mitsuhiko. I lashed out and it was truly unforgivable that I hurt you so much. In my mind, it was a game just like always, yet something deep inside me was ignited. I tortured you. I remember everything I did. Do you think I can live with what I did? I have no future. I’d turn myself into the closest prison if it would do any good. I’ll just go insane soon enough and return to killing. I’m a murderer.” Reiko-chan touched my noh-face again. I sniffled.

“What are you doing, Reiko-chan! You have to come with us! We can be happy together! All three of us! I love you both dearly!” Rui threw herself at us and hugged us tightly. “Please tell me you’ll try! I’ll be with you every step of it! We both will!”

“We will!” I noh-grinned. “We’ll be together forever.”

“We will.” Reiko-chan noh-smiled. “But not in the way you think. I can never truly be who I was ever again. Alone, neither one of us can defeat Mitsuhiko, and I learned an important lesson when I was turned into a noh-face. I had the strength to defeat the prime noh-face, but in doing so, I did something that irrevocably changed me. It was easy to do because it came from my own imagination and feelings. From my very consciousness. I absorbed its essence.” She leaned down and kissed me on my noh-mouth like she had in the train tunnel.

She could absorb me too, maybe. That would be fine. If she can live, I’m happy to die.

Despite lacking lips, I still felt the kiss. I was creeped out the last time, so I didn’t think about how she looked. It was as though the real Reiko-chan was pressing her lips against mine. It was like a dream come true. I could truly die happy.

She started glowing and the bracelet on my wrist glowed like a newly born sun. The bracelet was a blaze which was wreathed around my wrist.

Fight hard... I love you, Susu. Take care of Rui-chan. I love her too. Cherish her.

Rui’s breath caught as though she’d heard those words which were delivered in the silence of my mind. “N-NOOOOOOO!” Rui screamed, charging at us again. She threw her arms around Reiko-chan and the moment she reached her, she passed through where she once was standing to slam into me instead. The shadows surged around my body like a torrent of flames.

I felt different, no longer human at all. Energy brimmed through my noh-body. Despite feeling so powered up, all I could do was cry. Rui crumpled down upon the floor of her cell.

She’s gone…