Hikaru Sakurai
Beyond the stars.
Perhaps beyond the abyssal universe itself.
The beauty of the palace and gardens, the glitter itself, will shatter your eyes and devour your mind. No one will be able to bear the beauty and the presence of the exalted.
Elysia.
The Palace of the White Ones.
The Garden.
At times, it has even simply been referred to as just Erisha.
It is said to be a large star, either Betelgeuse, Hyades, or the central core of some galaxy or a cluster of stars. But there is no way for us to know where it is.
Words, thoughts, nothing holds meaning there.
Not before the glimmer of Sanido.
--Yes.
---The Golden Eyes are there.
The Lord of Elysia.
The King and Queen. The Princess and Prince.
The White God. The Burning White Heat.
The Horror.
The Eminence.
The ruler of the abyssal universe, with its many titles of honor, is the ruler of Elysia, of Erisha. The Garden of Radiance, where no dark evil can enter, the farthest point itself, the end of the world, beyond the Wailing Wall, the end of the horizon of causality. Darkness and evil are irrelevant. The queen of existence and nonexistence reigns in the realm of nonexistence where even the existence of all things is not permitted.
Sanido is filled with compassion.
She is the protector of all intelligent beings, spiritual bodies, and all minds in the universe.
However, it is a wonder if the white color of her extreme compassion can be called beneficial to, for example, the human race on Earth. Her extreme beauty is a poison to the fragile and ephemeral.
A beautiful thing.
A horrible thing.
An insane thing.
Sanido. Or perhaps, Kthanid.
---Even now, at this very moment.
---The Golden Eyes of the End are staring.
At the Universe. At Darkness.
At the Stars. At Everything.
At Space. At Time.
At Distortion. At Stagnantation.
At Life. At Destruction.
At Finite. At Infinite.
And at a young, young girl, who may or may not be an egg of her own species about to be born, was not even a life, but a mass of the Formula of all evil.
---It stares at her.
---The Eyes that Sees and Reveals All Things.
~ ~ ~
Gathump, thump.
The Lone Subway made a sound.
Gathump, thump.
The Lone Subway was shaking.
The same as ever.
It should be above the sky, running above the clouds, but just like when it were in the underground world of the purple shadow sky...
--The sounds echoed.
Lily had asked him several times.
Why were they hearing the sound of train tracks?
The first time, the tall conductor had said, with his usual blank expression and stared at her.
"The subway always runs on railroad tracks, Lily the Stranger."
---I see.
---So that's true then?
At that time she merely answered, "I see".
It wasn't until later that night, after she was already in bed, that she realized that he hadn't really answered the question, and had fallen to sleep before she could ask again due to her eyes being heavy.
After that, she asked about it a year later, but never got a satisfactory answer. She wondered if there really was some kind of law that he was referring to, that the existence of the subway was accompanied by sound and vibration, but then she thought of another possibility.
Perhaps.
Maybe he doesn't know either.
The tall man. The conductor. A.
She had always felt as if he knew everything there was to know, but it wasn't surprising that there were things he didn't know or didn't understand.
But there were things he didn't know. And Lily was asking questions in a frenzied manner.
It was a problem that could have been quickly solved by asking, "Is there anything you don't know?" "What don't you know?" but that wouldn't have been much fun.
And so, questions. Questions. Questions.
One after another.
Today, even.
For example.
"Hey, hey, A."
"What is it?"
"What's this creature?"
"It's a stegosaurus.
"This a Dragon?"
"It's a Dinosaur."
"Ah. So, um, who's this Saint Genevieve...that's on this page of the book?"
"She's the patron saint of Paris. She was a woman who became a Catholic under the guidance of St. Germanus, the bishop of Auxerre. She saved the people of Paris from hardship during the attack of Attila the Hun in 451."
"..."
"Lily?"
"..."
"Why are you quiet, Lily?"
"...that's so unfair, A."
"What is?"
And so.
He would always be stuck at a response or so when asked a lot of questions.
Most of the time, it's later in the evening.
This day, however, was a little different.
Today, the sky was clear.
Even though we're under a blue sky.
"Well, well. What time is it here?"
"──"
(Ah. He's stuck again)
For just a moment.
Not even enough to count the time.
He was definitely stuck!
"...The past, present, and future. There is no end to it, and it always takes us along at a certain speed. Irreversible and absolute, it must be."
"Should it be?"
Lily didn't know what to say.
She wasn't sure of what he meant. There was a bit of a contradiction in his words.
"..."
"A?"
A was staring at her.
It was the same as always.
She knew it wasn't anything special, but...
What was it---
"A, what is it?"
There was no doubt--
"What's wrong?"
It was as if time was put to a stop--
"A, come on."
"Yes. I'm sorry, Lily."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable."
I wasn't scared. I was just worried about you."
"...thank you."
He whispered.
If any, he was close to her.
He put his gloved hand on Lily's cheek.
"Lily the Stranger."
"Yes?"
"How do you feel about the time that captures and separates everything? Already you are a witch and yet, at the same time, you can even see the Mega Engine Clock of the sneering Tick-Tock Man who has entangled us in it."
"???"
He knew that she was having difficulty.
He knew that she was confused.
And.
She can see his hand on her cheek.
And being embraced with the other hand.
With A's face coming closer.
"N, no."
"Lily."
"It's too bright today."
"Is time the problem?"
"No, I mean..."
Think.
Think.
Something, anything. There has to be a way!
"You said we were moving, right? You were in the middle of preparing something, were you? I'm sorry for interrupting."
"...of course. Yes."
Watching, watching.
She managed to avoid him.
Lily quickly escaped from his grasp.
"Then proceed with the preparations. Yes, yes."
"As you wish, my Queen."
"You should get to it quickly."
"Yes."
---Time.
---I thought about it a little after saying it myself.
---That's right.
---How long has it been?
---How long ago?
---Since the Violet Shadow has ended?
To Be...
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