Warning: Gore. Just... gore. And maybe minor spoilers to those who haven't watched anime/PVs/novels etc? And maybe a bit off characters, I dunno.

Shintaro's state of the worlds

No matter how large the ground area was, it was filled with red liquid. It was almost if the whole atmosphere has darkened as the usual light blue sky would have been huge contrast to the darkness that had befallen.

My legs had given away in an instant that Momo had been shot. I had tried to protect her with my whole body but I didn't make in time in front of her when the gun was shot. And just like Momo, everyone else had frozen to the darkness, not moving at all; At first it was Kano, who had ran to the unfamiliar man. Then it was Kido and Seto who tried to protect others. One by one, everyone died in front of me.

The dark red colour... It reminded me of something... Who? Who was it...? It's almost if I had lived this situation once before...

The small shadow was in front of me. I recognized it was a female but I wouldn't have recognized her if she wasn't wearing that red piece of cloth. That scarf was lightly dancing with the wind.

"I hate the colour of red," I said to the girl. "Ayano." The girl turned to look at me, and at that instant, I saw her face. "Why?" she asked. "Red is the colour of a hero, you know. The colour you should be wearing."

I shook my head. "I hate it because it reminds me of things I rather forget... But I can't..." The crimson which had taken her away. The colour which had been reminding me of the "tragedy".

"I don't want to remember..." I spoke those words once more. "Shintaro... You're the only one who can do it." Ayano took a hold of her scarf and took it slowly off. "You're the only one who can help them to find the true end."

I didn't want to remember the previous routes. Wasn't it enough for me to not forget Ayano, but to remember and relive those wrong presents where the tomorrow would never come? Why was I the one to take this burden?

"What could I do...? No matter how much we repeat, the future will never come!" I had been trying this for so long yet it always ended with two choices; either we all died by that man or I committed suicide when I realized that it would once again come to that.

Ayano smiled that bright smile she had always smiled and tied the scarf around my neck that had been too many times bled because of the red, sharp tools. "You're the only one that can. I believe in you, Shintaro. You have always managed so many great things!" I never got it. I never understood why you could smile so brightly even when you said that you weren't good enough. But there was always one thing I knew: that wasn't true.

"I..." I can't let her sacrifice go in vain because that would make her "useless". Everyone trusted me. Ayano who had always been watching us, the queen who had given me this power and the others that, no matter what loop it was, never gave up.

As I suddenly was brought back to the grim reality, I remembered everything. The girl weeping in the corner, Mary, and her snake had put all their trust in me, even if she couldn't remember it yet. I looked at the dark-haired man with pale skin once more. He was laughing insanely, cutting up everyone... No, everyone had just died, just like always. As I tried to stand up, the man seemed to wake up in his trans and stared at me.

"Let's continue this never-ending tragedy, queen!" she laughed as he slowly walked to me. I once again tried to stand up but just like previously, my feet were asleep. The shock had made me immobile.

"Now, let's begin from the scratch, once more! Ah, but it won't make any difference now, will it? You will just see everyone die again and again, as long as you try to cling on that stupid friendship!" Even if he talked to Mary, he never took his eyes from me. It was pathetic attempt to try and fight but I couldn't just sit there and wait to be killed.

"You, too. Even if you have your eyes..." he spoke to me. I guess my red eyes were activated now. "It won't make a single difference! You can only remember the times you have died! Doesn't it hurt? What an useless ability! It can only make you suffer, no more!"

"S-stop it... Pl-please..." the curled-up girl in the corner wept. This sentence only seem to make the man snark more. " 'Stop it'? You know this is the destiny! This is how it should and will always be!" As he broke to laugh again, I felt like losing it. The only way to bring everyone back was to restart and try to not fail again but that meant that I should die this time as well. Now it would have been good to have those scissors because it was lasting painfully long. I just wanted it to be over with and meet other members in our secret base.

The man walked to me, having his gun in his left hand. "So, should we continue? Should we prolong this tragedy!?" The gun pointed the floor which meant he wasn't going to kill me anytime soon. I was getting more and more annoyed, my fear being put aside. "C-can you just get it over with!" I was embarrassed of my words faltering in the beginning but it couldn't be helped. "The scum like you... We will beat the scum like you next time! All you do is to act so big when you're nothing more than parasite!" The anger gave me strength once again to voice words that I'd never say normally. The man's expression twitched.

"You... A little bug like you can never understand how superior being I am!" Then came the kick in my face. Unlike the normal kick in the face, it was trice as powerful, even if I don't really have any experience of getting kick in the face. After the sudden pain, I felt the sting and ache especially on my nose as the warm liquid dripped out of it.

"What? Are you wordless now? Does it hurt so much? Oh, believe me, it's only just beginning." My plan to finish it quicker by provoking him to pull the trigger failed as my words backfired, unfortunately not literatelly. I really wasn't good with the pain. On the other hand, I don't think anyone is.

"Here, let me help you up," the man "offered" as he lifted me up, high in the air. Being above, I saw his insane expression even clearer. With this position, he strangled me as his hand had made it to my throat. I tried to kick him but it didn't really reach – beside, it was Konoha's body. I'm pretty sure not even a tank could make a scratch on him.

As he held me, I felt like losing my consciousness. At the last second, the man let go and I fell on the ground. I couldn't see well since I was suffering of asphyxia so I was just lying there, my eyes staring at the sky. Even if I got up, I would fall clumsily on the ground because of it. I felt the hand touching my arm now. I tried to focus my gaze to see that the man was now on top of me, pulling my arm. His grip was getting more firm and he added more force to the pulling, which made me scream. It was unbelievable pain, I have never even imagined that such pain could exist. With nasty cracking sound of my bone, he removed my arm- My arm...? Did I just... lose my arm...? It hurt so much yet I couldn't feel one of my limbs go of... Is this shock? I have heard that this kind of shock, when my heart is beating faster and my breath gets more and more intense, it can kill you any time... No, I have to calm myself... But wait, wasn't I supposed to die? Why am I trying this bad to survive?

"M... my arm... My AAAAARM!" I screamed, out of control. The shriek didn't sound like human as it was filled with pain and fear. I can't die... I can't die like this! Why can't you just shoot me instead... Or to strangle me to death? I don't want this pain!

The man on top of me was cracking up, his yellow eyes focused on my face. I tried my best to focus on his face and ignore the pain but that wasn't going to work... In fact, his insane smirk was the one that woke me up for the kind of slumber I was suffering and that aggravated the pain once more. I don't think it could get any worse than that.

Yet the man thought otherwise as he sat me up while trying to hold his laughter. The man then forcefully pressured my stomach, making me hit my head to the concrete. At that moment, all I saw was white as my ears caught unpleasant noise of my skull cracking. The white then cycled in every colour, lastly all I saw was red.

"You do remember these? You have been using them so much so I'm sure you do," the man said as my eyes were unfocused once more. It felt like forever for me to see again yet it probably was just a few minutes. After seeing the thing he pointed me with, I felt like my heart was stopping. Why would he have my scissors? How did he have them...? And the biggest question was, what was he going to do with them?

The scissors were sharp enough to cut my throat open, so it was better than dull ones... Wait, why am I even thinking this? But even if I try to fight, it's impossible for me to move a muscle, I have only control over my face, and I could not even control the expressions I make.

The scissors closed the distance with the skin as the man stabbed my shoulder with it. The pain felt even more unreal than before, probably because there was nerve system there. It was mixed with the pain I was still feeling, and for the short period, the previous pain went away before it all radiated all over my body. I can't take this anymore... It's so... I can't even think properly... I can't get my mind off of this... Help... Someone, kill me... Take this pain away...!

After he had stabbed me once, he pulled the scissors away and reached for my face. No, he's not... Right?

My assumption, however, was correct as he carefully put the scissors in my eye. The nerve system had luckily still aching, so the pain wasn't as bad, but the disgusting noise, like someone was forcefully spinning the pudding with the spoon, was making it all worse... And what was more, the fact that I couldn't see what he was doing in my eye made me feel nauseous. The taste of vomit and blood that I didn't remember even having – it even seemed that I had thrown up before from the pain – was making its return. Still, I couldn't really feel what was happening since the nerves were signalling and directing the pain elsewhere.

Please... Just make a mistake and stab me forcefully in the eye so that it can all end... Please...!

Yet it didn't happen since the scissors were withdrawn. The red scissors were nothing more than crimson red, there wasn't any spot to detect that there had been other colours. The man was laughing maniacally in the silence, I couldn't even hear Mary anymore. He was just waiting there, watching me struggle in pain. After what felt like forever, the man finally said something: "Let's end it this time here, okay?" he said and took a proper hold of the scissors. "Till the next time," he said as he swung the scissors right into my eye.

Next time, I'll-

…

I woke up in a trans-like feeling as I had been staring the computer screen forever. What was I doing?

"Geez, master! When are you going to go out! I wanna go out!" The annoying girl in my screen said. I shut my eyes. What did I just think about...? Red... What about red? Was I thinking about her again...?

I sighed. I don't think it was quite right but there was nothing to be done. Once you space out like that, it's impossible to remember what was it about...

So I just continued surfing on the Net, doing nothing else. This anxious feeling I felt was going slowly away as I forgot about it and continued my day.