Non-self (after battle)
Now, let me ask you something... do any of you remember who you just fought?
They've both become so faint to me that I can't even recall their names. This can only mean... that her completion is within reach.
All that's left is to wait.
<... My memory's fine.>
<I still remember their names too. Sora and Ren.>
Comparing your perception with mine... I can tell that this is no mere memory wipe procedure, Executive Manager.
What the House of Spiders sought to shape Ryōshū into...
... seems to be some sort of Concept Incinerator.
As you may well know, in the City...
... getting rid of anything is quite a pain.
Tear a piece of napkin into pieces, burn it, swallow it, destroy every evidence of its existence...
But if there is even one person left to remember that it once existed, then there is also a way to dig up whatever's left of it.
If concepts can be destroyed with a simple slash of the sword... it would indeed be a technology of an unprecedented convenience.
A pit that forever buries all that enters it...
... has long been a thing of dreams for many in the City.
That's the reason the House of Spiders has come into being to serve.
A joint enterprise of the Five Fingers... with the Thumb, the Index, the Middle, the Ring, and the Pinky as the stakeholders.
Everything they wish to "forget" can simply be thrown into this pit - to the House of Spiders, located in the heart of the abyss.
Call it a landfill. A bottomless well where secrets can sink for all eternity. A grave where cherry blossoms bury the incidents beyond the veil of oblivion.
People can simply cast whatever ugly secret they want buried, whatever they'd rather forget in here, and it will never resurface - nor can it be made to resurface.
The Nursefathers who have died, those who survived, and the rest of you who've made it all the way here... Marvelous job, everyone.
The objective was to elevate my darling daughter into a state of complete emptiness... and to accomplish that, we had to forge a fetter; for fetters inevitably invite nihility.
Now, the crevice of that void... will be filled with loneliness... and transform into a veritable hell of blades that slashes away at the world until nothing of it remains.
…….
I always told her to quit smoking, you know... but she never listened.
Perhaps my darling daughter has always recognized the aesthetics of beauty, captured within that one last drag of the cigarette.
How beautiful that lone ember is - consuming its own being, cutting itself loose, releasing a speck of light as it fades in self-immolation.
Right then...
A voice called out to me.
Hey, um...
<...?>
Have you ever seen a ball of yarn?
The one with the two ends of the same thread touching each other.
<Araya...?>
... She talked to you, Executive Manager?
I'm afraid I didn't hear a thing. I was on high alert, entirely focused on watching the Index Nursefather and Ryōshū. It's possible I simply missed it due to the heat of the moment.
Mm... I saw her clinging weakly to the Manager's ankle in a near-death state. The Manager did not make a single ticking sound, and...
The moment little Araya approached,
Memories from neither past nor present, but the future, rushed into me for a split second before scattering away.
The more Mom tried to sever away all the threads, the more my yarn puffed up.
<Ryōshū... What's happening to Ryōshū?>
…….
Among the days I had spent with my mother...
... is a day when we went to get a snack called dragon's beard candy.
First, it started off as a single strand of thread, which split into 2, then 4, then 16...
Until it became a roll of tens of thousands of sugary strings.
Mom and I watched it together.
And I'm watching it, even now.
See? I was right. Mommy had three more pieces than me.
And...
Those threads she's cutting off now... may appear severed...
But that's not what it looks like to me. They're only getting longer and longer and silkier and silkier, like that candy.
Slashing away at the threads won't sever it.
Mother and I are tied together on every path. I see it now.
I can also see her whitened knuckles gripping tightly onto the thread, refusing to ever let go.
How could one bear witness to those layers upon layers of time... and dismiss them as mere "fleeting" moments?
That's why...
I'm gonna tell her.
I'm gonna tell her, "Thanks for coming to find me!"
<…….>
It's true that the threads will keep multiplying the more Ryōshū cuts at them...
... But eventually, the strands will be spread so thinly that they'll scatter into the murky void before they can even reach her.
If that's the case... perhaps a chain will work instead. The same chain she already cut off, the same stubborn one that brought her back from death countless times...
Melt down the severed chain and reforge it in the roaring kiln of one's heart.
<The resolve to sever everything, and the blade that cuts through all...>
<They both started from the same wish - the wish to protect.>
<Take this chain and let it guide your way.>
<Go and tell her.>
<Tell her everything you never got to say.>
... This thread just might work.
Araya grabs the red, searing chain.
Ryōshū had already severed the chain once. It was discarded in the throes of her agony, but it is our strand, our own spider's thread, woven by time itself.
I gotta go now. Mommy's waiting for me!
Araya makes her way toward the translucent sphere with perky and light footsteps, as if she's heading out on a picnic.
Araya has entered the fathoms of Ryōshū, and at the same time, she exists outside of her.
Cut and sever.
Everything.
Whatever they are.
Whoever they are.
Mommy,
in the heart of every moment,
I hear you-mom-her-mother-Ryōshū.
Dear lost child of mine, should the way back home elude you...
... why don't we follow the thread back to the very first knot that hurt the most?
So how do you write your name, Mommy?
…….
Go on, read it.
Uh... Ryō... shū...?
No... That's not how you read those letters...
"Yoshihide." That's how you say it.
Ryō-shū! It's prettier and easier!
Mommy, you wouldn't know this, but...
You never once let go of me, no matter which strand of thread I peered into.
That's how I know the ends and the beginnings of all of our journeys.
…….
Can you read the letters properly now?
Mmhmm! Ya bet!
But, you know...
I still like Ryō-shū more!
…….
I'm sorry, Araya.
That's ok.
I... I'm glad I was your daughter. Because...
I got to do everything I wanted to... together with you.
There was this day I totally flubbed my guitar performance, but you were there in the front row, clapping louder than anyone...
And the sausages in the lunchbox didn't look like octopus at all, but they were still really yummy.
From the moment I saw you again, all I really felt...
... was how much I missed you.
Araya.
What do you want to be... when you grow up?
When I grow up, Mommy...
I wanna be Mommy's Mommy.
Because then, it'll be my turn to give you lots and lots of love!
…….
I see.
Not pity... but love.
Mommy, I learned something new at school today.
Just follow after me.
Mommy, ILY so much!
…….
Araya.
I.L.Y.T.
Come on...
That's not it...
That's not how you shorten it...
I'll teach you one last time, okay?
And so, little by little, I forget the smile I can never afford to lose...