PROLOGUE
BGM : Unmei no orugōru
Heat.
It was the first thing she felt.
Not warmth, not comfort, just heat – so fierce it clawed at her skin, stealing the air from her lungs.
An orange glow swallowed everything.
She blinked through the blur, her vision trembling until the world slowly came into focus. Flames crawled across towering wooden pillars, devouring carved beams that looked centuries old. Embroidered curtains curled into ash. Glass shattered somewhere above her, scattering like faint rain.
And in the middle of the burning hall...
A grand clock.
Its polished face was cracked by the fire, yet the hands continued to move as though nothing had happened.
Tick.
11:50.
Tick.
The second hand dragged itself forward.
The hall groaned around her.
She turned and ran.
Her footsteps echoed frantically against the polished floor, but no matter how desperately she pushed herself forward, the corridor refused to end. The flames chased her from every direction, licking at the hem of her dress until smoke blurred the edges of her vision.
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't think.
Running aimlessly was her only hope to life.
Behind her, wood splintered. Above her, burning fragments crashed to the ground.The fire wasn't simply consuming the building.
It was swallowing time itself.
Her feet stopped when she heard something more than just the growling of the flames.
A melody.
Soft.
Melancholic.
So heartbreakingly familiar that her racing heart slowed for the briefest moment.
She had never heard it before.
She was certain of that, or that's what she thought.
Yet every note wrapped around her like the memory of someone she'd spent a lifetime trying to find.
"..."
Someone was calling.
The voice was distant, carried by the music itself. She turned toward it without thinking.
The flames thickened.
The melody drifted farther away.
"No..."She reached for it.
Faster.
Faster.
The endless corridor twisted into a staircase descending into darkness. She stumbled down the steps, gripping the railing as smoke burned her eyes.
The music grew quieter.
"Wait...no…" She didn't know who she was calling. She only knew she couldn't let that voice disappear.
Not again.
The clock rang.
Once.
Its deep chime echoed through the inferno. The second hand reached twelve.
Everything stopped.
The flames froze.
The air became terrifyingly still.
Then the staircase cracked beneath her feet.
She gasped, throwing herself forward as the steps collapsed one after another. Fire erupted beneath her, swallowing the darkness below.
A hand?
Across the widening gap, someone was reaching for her.
Their silhouette dissolved behind the smoke, impossible to recognize, but that outstretched hand trembled with desperate determination.
As though they had been searching for her. As though they had found her...
Only to lose her again.
She stretched her own hand forward.
Just a little farther.
Please
Their fingertips almost touched.
Almost.
But the floor gave way. Her body plunged into the sea of flames.The last thing she saw was that hand disappearing above her, in the flames.
The last thing she heard......was the melody fading into silence.
And then just …. darkness.
