Dear readers,

I hope all of you stay safe in these difficult times. I hope you find some ease from those worries and some entertainment while reading this story. There are not many fanfics for Mirai Nikki, and I thought that there might be people in this fandom that wanted to browse new ones. I wrote this for you.

Best wishes, take care.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mirai Nikki.

Summary: The fateful hour has come for the 2nd world. Yuno would do anything for Yuki. And yet, she cannot let him win. Obsessed with finding a happy end, she becomes Dea again and starts a maddening loop where the game is played over and over while worlds rise and fall in her trail.

As the story grows old, she grows bored, and some changes—both within and without—are quite unexpected.

Canon compliant until almost the end of the show. AU from then on.

I have taken into account the main series plus some elements from "Redial" and "Paradox".

Pairings: Yuno/Yuki, Yuno/Akise, minor pairings. Love may be requited or not. I don't want to write many spoilers :)

Warning: Canon-typical violence.

Iteration: Repeat until It Breaks

Who is God?

Don't stop, don't stop, dash through this future.

Being controlled, being in control.

Turn around, fate goes up, down, up, down.

Who is God now?

Theme of Murmur

1. Loop

Yuki, Yuki, Yuki. Yuno's whole world spins around Yukiteru—worlds pale compared to him. He gave her a reason to live, long ago. He is her future husband, her obsession, her diary; their diaries complement each other in perfect harmony. She has fought for him, hurt for him, killed and killed for him. It has been worthwhile. Nothing is going to separate them, not even Yuki's doubts; no one is going to threaten their relationship, not even Yuno's counterpart in any reality. Yuki is hers, will always be. She has done everything to protect him, she has fed him lies to get him going. But that damned bitch of Akise unveiled her secrets with his last breath, and the fateful hour has come. A sacrifice is required. She would do anything for Yuki.

And yet, she cannot let him win.

The realisation hits her to the core. Yukiteru will not do as Deus. He is gullible; he cannot recognise the best path. Despite his feelings for her, he has followed Akise's advice and exposed her subterfuge, so they are now in this awful mess in a different past. She has offered him an illusory golden cage, but he has rejected it, unlocking the second Muru Muru in the process. He has trusted Ninth. It is clear he will not do as a god, even if others think otherwise.

Deus favoured Yuki; nonetheless, he was a treacherous deity. After all, he had something to do with Akise, although she cannot pinpoint the nature of their link; both Muru Muru and herself have been messing up with memories, removing and altering them in order to hide their true identities. Thus, there might or might not have been a talk between Muru Muru and her regarding Akise's origins. Muru Muru could only transmit her the faintest warning about an apparition of Akise in Deus' hall, and all she could remember was a horrible light blinding her. To top it all, Deus helped the other bitch, Minene. He was never that wise a deity to boot—her servant deceived him. Yuno knows better. If she lets Yuki become the new Deus, he will be lost without her. Yuki's sweet soul will not endure the test. Her soul is as tainted as it can be. She will endure. She can repeat it all again until she finds a way for them both to survive. The second universe has been a draft, a suggestion from Muru Muru; she will produce a masterpiece of her own will in the one to come.

As she ponders, the newly released Muru Muru confronts and subjugates hers, the previous battle taking its toll on the demon-thing. Fourth has shot at Yuno, bullet stopped by the servant who is not hers. Yuki is now offering devotion and sacrifice, and thinks he has tamed the river of fate with a few actions. For a split second, love bewilders her and nearly gives up on her idea. Next thing, she gazes at the Gasai family, her pathetic alter ego, naive and ignorant, and the parents who became monsters faking concern, acting out.

Everything is a delusion, a ruse to stop the happy end Yuki and the real Yuno deserve. These are shadows from a strange place. The very Yuki is asking her to return to reality and become a goddess. He has finally understood.

She pulls herself together, invokes her force, shares it with Muru Muru. Her servant is able to fight once again; she knocks out the other Muru Muru and opens the way back into the second universe. Yuno grabs Yuki and follows her, away from the deceitful shadows.

Silent tears erode her face as she kisses Yuki before stabbing him. Deus' core sings. The power of creation and the power of destruction collide in a pulse that runs through the body of the winner of the game—a twice-told tale. She is used to this; she screams in agony nonetheless. As the new Dea arises, her volition manifests itself into the extinction of the second world and the birth of the fourth one, a new chance to love Yuki.

She summons her servant and leaves. She is half-conscious that a rogue timeline has been left behind. She doesn't really care.

...

Killing her whimpering, non-divine alter ego is less than traumatic this time around. Other concerns guide her actions; she has learned how dangerous Ninth can be. Yuno commits herself to getting rid of her before the current decaying Deus has any other great idea. The deed proves to be more difficult that it seemed, as far as Yuno still has to protect Yuki while hiding her secret. By the time Minene is history, the story has changed. Battles and deaths have not followed the same pattern and timing as before; she has barely been close to Yuki. He has been hanging around too much with his wretched schoolmates, the wretched albino. In fact, he seems to be utterly dependant on him. They are already too far in the game, and Yuki's feelings for her don't show up. He avoids her, refuses her guidance. He stands by his friends until Yuno eliminates them. When Akise's head rolls, Yuki goes mad and attacks Yuno with all he's got. Her Yuki! Yuno must keep him isolated, chained, incarcerated for the rest of the battle royale. Her longing crashes against his rejection, freezes under his grief and hatred, for in the prison of illusion she has built for him, he dreams of Akise whereas she is the stuff of nightmares. Not a speck of the warmth they once shared remains. Fourth-world-Yuki is broken, and loathes her, and wants her dead, and he is broken. She gives him the mercy of a sharp blade, and then this rotten timeline is ashes and another one begins.

...

The fifth world slides away down a mountain of mourning and bloodlust. Yuki, Yuki, she repeats as she butchered the whore of the sect that has doomed her hopes. Yuki. She gnaws and chews the name while the hatchet rises and falls. Blood spurts. Bodies become corpses become pieces. Yuuukiii. It took one mistake, just one, to lose it all. Why can't she reach perfection?

Everything was going on so well! Yuno acted more cautiously from the start, removing every trace of her family's bones, refurbishing her house, refining her alibis, keeping her memories. Akise and the other friends-to-be were assembled and dispatched in a neat trap featuring the serial killer. As a bonus, Third also found his fate there at Akise's hands, and Tenth, deprived of his proxy, put an end to his diary. Furthermore, Yuki trusted Yuno without reserve, accepted her devotion gladly. Minene targeted Eighth's orphanage instead of their school, and Fourth went awry chasing her. Everything was perfect until now. Why hasn't she foreseen this Dead End? She is twice a goddess, for blood's sake!

The scene at the sect quarters was rolling as it had to; next thing, the deranged bunch of Twelfth wreaked havoc untimely. She needed to clear the mess, left Yuki alone just for a moment in a safe place. Too much for safe. Twelfth had just stopped breathing when her diary came to life. 19:30 Kasunago Tsubaki, also known as Sixth, lulls Yukiteru into a trap. She whipped around and ran to the building. Lines continued appearing in the message. Yukiteru is in serious danger. She strode across the corridor towards the hidden corner where he awaited her. Yukiteru faces impending death. Her feet seemed to fly in her rush. Sixth poisons Yukiteru. The corner where she had left him is empty, he had moved. The poison streams through his veins quickly. The poison reaches his heart. He can't move. His heart weakens. His breath shallows. Yuno's screech preceded her. Those she met were dead before hitting the ground. Yukiteru's heart stops. He dies. Dead End. A strangled sound left Yuno's mouth. She looked at her phone in disbelief. Is it over? Is that all is it? Is my diary over too along with his life? Seconds, minutes passed by slowly. The phone screen glittered.

19:40 Post mortem. Waiting for stage one, pallor mortis.

Roaring, she pitched forward to the last room where the bundle made by the witch and her poor Yuki are. Minions tried to stop her; they were disposed of.

When Yuno finally reaches her destination, carnage engulfs the world. When she is over, Tsubaki and her accolades are an indecipherable mess of flesh and blood, and it is impossible to say whose limb is whose. She kneels beside Yukiteru's body and weeps. 19:50 Pallor mortis is approaching. Desperate, she carries him outside the building, looks for a car, forces the door, lets Yuki inside. Before she leaves for good, what part of the building was spared Twelfth's bombs she sets on fire. She returns to the car.

Her mind is a blank, a black hole. She is driving, but where? Where? Yuki's home? Rea will be missing him, and she is a good mother. However, she is the eternal victim. Let her suffer, who cares?

Where? What to do? What?

An insight. She knows, she has always known. The only way out is the usual one: she must beat the survival game.

She turns left and drives straight on to a particular house. Her knowledge has grown. She parks in front of Fifth's. His parents are dead. His diary entry is outdated, no Dead End flag until next morning. She knows. 20:30. First stage reached. Second stage reached. Waiting for rigor mortis. She yanks the door off its hinges. The little monster is already trying to escape. She gives him not a chance.

Back into the car. Driving along. Stopping at her home. She will not sleep, she will hold a vigil. Rigor mortis starts. She kisses the cold lips, crosses the threshold carrying the body in a mockery of a wedding tradition. Yuki lies on a bed, covered with blankets smeared in blood, surrounded by withering flowers. She caresses the bloated skin, cuddles the corpse all night long.

Dawn breaks. Yuki, Yuki. Better to move fast. This universe has already finished for her. She will finish it off for others.

Time moves oddly. She counts days in murders. The final showdown is against Bacchus. Memories of the first world ebb in her mind. Yuki's corpse is rotting. Bacchus has always cherished his city, in a way. She focuses inside; she focuses beyond. She contacts her Muru Muru, who once again remains beside Deus after getting rid of the other one. Muru Muru senses her. Deus is a soon-to-disappear cripple. Yuki's corpse is rotting. Yuno summons her servant and unleashes her.

When Yuno shatters the final wall between Bacchus and her, Muru Muru has already run amok, spreading annihilation. Dark vortexes accompany her. Sakurami City burns to the ground, his citizens have turned into prey. Bacchus gasps. Yuno's sword reflects the light from the flames.

"You're fond of ancient empires, aren't you? I'm showing you a taste of their fall," she rasps.

Bacchus' eyes are pools of fear behind broken glasses.

"You are inhuman," he says.

Yuno nods in agreement. After all, she is more than human. Bacchus falls, of course. Outdoors, Muru Muru is still on the move, roaring. Thunder rolls, calling the newest (old) Dea. Yuno concentrates: she wants to rejoice in the chaos a bit more. She succeeds. The landscape stays in darkness and flame for a long while before decaying, allowing Muru Muru to recover her strength in the meantime.

Observing her, Yuno remembers the incident at the end of the second world. She was able to leap back in time up to two years. A smile brightens her face. Possibilities open.

Dea Yuno twists and waves the thread of time. What she once caused accidentally and out of desperation, now she must do it right and in a deliberate way. A bit, just a bit, a bit more...

...and she arrives in the sixth world nearly a year before the beginning of the game. She laughs in hysterical bliss. Yuukii. They could be together for a longer time, and nobody will touch him, no one.

She craves to reach Tsubaki and tear her piece by piece, but it is too soon. What would happen if she eliminated a diary holder beforehand?

"Would Deus choose a different holder?"

"It's possible; the dinosaur always talked of twelve different diaries once he made his mind about the succession rules," Muru Muru answers. "But, Dea, first things first."

First things first. The routine must be honoured. Getting unnoticed to Deus' realm is easier every time, practice makes perfect. They accomplish the changeling with the current Muru Muru once more. Now it is the turn for a visit to Pathetic Yuno. However, her hatred for the dark sect haunts her, makes her blood boil with rage.

She has an epiphany. Future scenes unfurl before her eyes.

She goes home. As customary, her counterpart breaks completely in her sight. Nonetheless, it is not death what Dea Yuno brings her today.

She deals with what must be dealt, and then she starts reshaping this Yuno. Sixth's luxurious long hair comes to mind; she shaves this Yuno. She also makes other modifications to her body and mind. She derives some kind of morbid pleasure from torturing herself. However, it is for her own good. Scars, burns, and a shaved head never stopped lustful depravity in any age of history, but it is the best she can do to try to keep this Yuno's dignity where she is sending her. The sect quarters will be her home from now on.

"Look at your phone. You know Yuki, he's the only one who ever gave you hope, didn't he? He'll grow up into your husband one day, isn't it your dream? Well, this phone is Yuki, soon you'll see. Hide it and protect it where you're going; and when it starts talking about Yuki, you must know that everyone there is Yuki's enemy, and your enemy, too. Do what it takes to save Yuki, make them suffer. And stay as ugly as you can."

Disfigured Yuno sobs and whines, but nods. She is terrified and brainwashed, but she adores Yuki and will do as told.

Dea ponders for a moment; she is on the verge of renouncing to one of her phones, a safeguard. She decides to use her godly power; she can create, she is supposed to. Although the little capsules of illusion she made time ago proved to be quite ineffective, she must trust her inner guidance. She makes a vivid picture of an energy shield around her own phone, unbreakable, impregnable but for her own hands and fingers. She calls the power within, and it is so. There is room for improvement; she has months to polish it. The other phone, the diary of this world, is expendable now.

Thus, she expands this source of power and manipulates certain people, certain conditions, and sixth-world Yuno is accepted into the sect quarters as a servant. Inspiration strikes; Dea moves other pawns, and Reisuke's parents disappear in a car crash so the kid is adopted in the sect as well. She sneers thinking of which havoc the elite- obsessed brat might break in a near future inside closed doors.

Now, the real deal starts. Yuki. She conforms herself to being her earthly counterpart. She sorts her financial situation out, makes her house presentable. She attends school, approaches Yuki, befriends him. He is impressed by the popular honour student who shows him attention. He accepts her getting closer willingly; she is well received at his home; he falls in love with her fast. Yuukii. They kiss clumsily, they caress one another wrapped in shyness. Yuki is inexperienced; Yuno is not that experienced in this intimacy either. They learn together, young hormones helping them in the way. Days fly in blessed wings; hours linger in a haze of love. Yuki doesn't care about other friendships, he is not as dependant on his mother as before, he has stopped wondering about his missing father. Yuki is hers. It's almost like being wife and husband. This is happiness, and happiness never lasts. The battle royale starts.

"It can't be real. It's a practical joke. I could never harm anyone. And you? What if you and me...?"

Yuki is fretting. Yuno hushes him with passionate kisses.

"We'll find a way. Together," she promises. "I'll take care of everything, I'd do anything for you."

Something in her tone makes Yuki's face lose its colour.

"You?"

"Shhh," she says. She can't help it to sound like a threat.

She repeats the trick with Third, and the classmates and Tenth are done. However, it is not as neat as before, as far as Akise is not there to end the killer's life. In fact, Akise is nowhere to be found, and this fact both cheers Yuno up and unsettles her. Anyway, Third is still alive, but Yuno knows his daily persona, so she leads Yuki to defeat him by breaking his diary.

Some uneventful days pass by. Then, Yuno's schemes ripen. There are forty-eight hours of mayhem as the Omekata nest spawns its venomous seed. There are three diary holders inside chasing each other, and the bait attracts three others: Twelfth, Ninth and Fourth. When everything is said and done, the building is a wreck, its inhabitants corpses or ashes, and five owners are done; only Minene is spared thanks to her Escape Diary, and she is gravely injured.

Soon after, Deus summons the last standing players to his hall. Yuki and Yuno attend as a couple; there are suspicious glares here and there, the counting doesn't stick to the dead ones. Anyway, she couldn't care less about the diary holders: Minene will not last, and there is bad blood between Bacchus and the Eighth's bunch after a brutal attack to the orphanage. Nonetheless, the count does mind, and she does care: for the first time since the dreadful first world, she looks at the black and white and all the grey-in-between shape of Deus, and a chill crawls up her spine. Does he know? He has to know that there were two different Seconds. Has she gone too far, pushed too hard? She eyes around, looking for Muru Muru. Is she still loyal to her?

Deus' voice booms, and his words break the spell.

"Go on playing, mortals. Survive or die!"

They are banished from the hall, back to the earthly plane. Yuno's fears vanish.

As Yuno presumed, Bacchus and Eighth's sides focus on one another. Yuki and her can preserve their love story. Minene doesn't make it, she dies in hospital. Bacchus and Eighth and her Seventh lovebirds engage in a deadly confrontation which none survive.

When Yuki realises they are the only ones left, he collapses.

"I can't kill you!" he cries.

Yuno hugs him.

"You don't have to," she says, and strikes. Yuki's mouth remains half-open in an ugly gesture of incredulity. She seals it with her lips and strikes again.

"I'll sort it out in the next world," she promises the corpse.

She stares around; this universe is already fated to disappear, so why don't play around a bit and vent her frustration? Therefore, she imagines wreckage and storms. Stone and nature answer to her call. The earth trembles, the wind turns savage. Deadly vortexes multiply everywhere devouring matter and life.

Amidst the howling, a strange, constant whisper is heard. For a split second, she thinks she sees a ghostly shape far away, blurred by the curtain of dust. She thinks she sees a boy, smart-dressed, elegant-shaped, white-haired, red-eyed.

"Akise?!" she asks, bile rising to her mouth.

She feels his crimson eyes glowing, judging her.

The moment is over, the mirage disappears. An ancient god passes away, and a goddess is born—for the fifth time.

...

Her weaving and spinning and handling of timelines improves—she arrives in the next reality a little sooner every time. She gains days, weeks, months to be with Yukiteru. It is lovely to both start anew and repeat the same pattern: classmates to friends, friends to couple, shy tentative touches to kisses to making love. It is great to be with him, love him, been loved; she is a master of the game, she only needs to focus on Yuki. He doesn't need parents or friends or anything at all. He is hers forever, but forever is so short.

She is Dea over and over, but she still can't find a way to prevent the game to happen, or to change its end to one where both can survive.

So she bids time, and tries to enjoy the stolen days, and each time she meets Yuki, he is a little younger (When will you grow up?), and the more she replays the steps, the more her restlessness grows.

...

"I told you once, don't you remember?" Muru Muru draws lines in the hall. Out of thin air, motion pictures appear, showing scenes of old meetings between Eleventh and Deus Ex Machina. "John Bacchus was chosen first. He had the idea of using the Future Diaries. He helped in making them."

"Why did Deus name Yuki First, then? Why the numbers and to which end this order? It doesn't help me at all." Yuno fumes. She has been gathering information, has been trying lots of different tricks, and nothing has proved to be of use.

"You think the old fossil shared all his thoughts with me?" Muru Muru protests while munching some mochi, prepared who knows how.

Yuno keeps silent and wonders. She wonders about the seal on Muru Muru's forehead and the number hidden by it.

...

Therefore, she repeats the pattern. She is getting bored of it. It is not enough. It is never enough.

...

She has been having a nightmare frequently of late, where she recalls a ghostly image of Akise. She calls it a nightmare, though sometimes she is wide-awake when it happens, the soft sound of unintelligible words, the scarlet irises finding her guilty. She is not positive of the truth of this ghost. Universes come and go. Akise is there sometimes, pestering Yuki, or starting off out of nowhere in the middle of the game. His past remains a mystery, a blank slate. Yuno hates him. At times, he exposes her real identity; in other occasions, he can't. She kills him, or she doesn't. There are constants. When he appears, he is always figuring out something relevant. He is always protecting someone, or trying to fix something, or he dies putting someone down in order to protect another. And sometimes he is not, but this nightmare or daydream lingers, and Yuno shouts "I've killed you before, I'll kill you again." And the spectrum mutters his muffled words, and keeps on glaring at her.

...

The ghost of Akise walks toward her. Yuno cannot move. She feels terrified. He stops midway, lifts his head to stare at a mirage on the horizon. Yuno follows his gaze.

There are faint images of an imagined reality, some place blurred and lost. Muru Muru is fooling around at the hall, and she makes something to cause and effect. Yuno dies as a consequence. Later on, Muru Muru rewinds history and brings Yuno back. Then it is Muru Muru again, doing the same trick to Third.

Yuno screams.

...

"You lied to me. You never told me! YOU CAN RESURRECT PEOPLE!"

The Cathedral of Causality is grimmer than ever since it belongs to Dea. It is half empty, half in shambles; the purple hue has changed into red. Dea's throne is made of bones. On each side of it, a pedestal stands, crowned by the skull of his mother and father. Behind it, the light of long-dead stars struggles against the unfathomable darkness. There are deep holes on the floor and walls, as if a rain of meteorites has just happened. In front of the throne, at Yuno's feet, Yuki's corpse from the most recent universe rests.

"My talent is unstable. It was boosted by the power bestowed upon the succession, and Deus' own creative force. Departed souls are out of reach from our clutches, Dea."

Muru Muru is panting, out of breath after escaping Yuno's onslaught. Her face and neck are bruised black and blue. She is limping, one leg making an unnatural bent at her knee. Yuno grinds her teeth.

"Akise showed me what you did."

"How can that mortal brat show you anything about me? I've never been related to the likes of him! I... don't even remember about that incident with you, or one of your counterparts... I... I remember Third's issue, though."

The servant's expression is honestly confused. She brings a hand to her head, as if trying to recover some lost memory. Purple eyes blink in puzzlement.

"Save me your excuses. Bring him back."

"Dea—"

"Bring. Him. Back."

Huffing and complaining, Muru Muru obeys and approaches Yukiteru's body. Her hands draw circles in the air around him. She displays images of his recent decease and rewinds time, images going back in fast motion. Yuno taps her fingers on the bones of the throne, impatient. She is fed up with the same events. She craves development, growth.

The images stop and Yuki's body rises from the floor to join the last scene, one where Yuki is safe and alive. A bubble of light surrounds him. He opens his eyes.

"Yuki? Do you recognise me?"

Yuno descends from her throne. She removes the hood of her ragged cloak off her visage to show it to him, long hair floating around like a pink halo.

He takes a tentative step and abandons the bubble. Once outside it, he stops moving. His eyes turned white. She reaches him. Something is off; she feels the void within, the shell without. Cautiously, she caresses his face. It is cold, and slimy.

She removes her hand. There is a lock of thin hair glued to it, some sticky substance. She looks at him. His flesh is melting, rotten. Tiny worms crawl on the exposed bone. His teeth are falling apart. He spits something dark and clogged.

"Uggh," Muru Muru exclaims.

Yuno puts the thing down.

"Again. Try again," she commands.

The servant obeys. The creature that comes back this time doesn't resemble Yuki neither in body or soul. It hisses and crawls on the floor. Yuno feels like retching.

"I told you I can't," Muru Muru mutters, and she faints, drained of energy.

Yuno deals with the thing, and sits down again. She understands now.

She is the one who has to figure this out. She has always been the only one with the power to do it. She is Dea.

...

Another timeline. Yuno is not quite sure which number it makes. What she knows is that she cannot stand her failure anymore. Here, she arrives so soon that Yukiteru has yet to push adolescence, and Yuno's body is too developed to assist to his classes. Thus, she has to wait. In the waiting, she despairs.

Finally, she enters Yuki's life once again. She thought she would be ecstatic with the reunion, but she finds him bland. His ways have become dull. His shyness and clumsiness seem less appealing than before. Yuno thrives in extreme emotions, so the situation is unnerving. Why is she complaining? She is with her beloved. They have only some months for them to be together, so why these sensations?

Thus, she stays by his side, dances to the same old song.

They are still just friends, tiptoeing into the next stage, when Akise appears. It has been several worlds this time, Yuno realises. The accustomed contempt burns within her. Surprisingly, she welcomes the intensity.

"This is Akise-san, Yuno. I met him not long ago."

Yuki is the one to introduce Akise. His voice is hesitant; he seems to look for the right words. It is clear Yuki doesn't know much about Akise. Yuno is wiser.

"Pleased to meet you," Akise says with a infuriatingly calm tone. His eyes betray his voice. His pupils dilate, and the cold scarlet heats and glimmers. Yuno mutters some fake pleasantries; she hides a growl. Her rage feels good after so much boredom.

A couple of days later, she is walking along the streets of Sakurami City, lost in thought. It is two months shy of the beginning of the game, and Yukiteru and her have not made much progress—the slightest touch of hands, so childish, so slow. Her mood is foul; when she doubles a corner, she is rewarded with the presence of Akise sitting in a bank in the park. Her mood worsens.

Akise stands up from the bank and addresses her.

"Good morning, Gasai-san. I was hoping I would see you today. Can I walk you home?" Gentle words for a suave demeanour. Akise is the epitome of good manners, and Yuno wants to see his pretty head rolling once more.

"I'm not a dog," she barks, and goes on strolling.

Unfazed, Akise follows her within a respectful distance. Yuno whips around to confront him.

"What the heck do you want?"

He puts a lock of white hair out from his forehead.

"Is Amano-san your boyfriend?"

"Stay away from Yuki. He's mine. He's not interested in guys, you kinky. Go pester someone else!"

Akise's brows rise in surprise.

"I think there's a misunderstanding. Amano is a good-looking boy, and he seems to be nice. I am sure there are boys after him. In fact, I don't find these differences an issue, but—"

"Let Yuki alone!" Her fingers itch for a knife.

"It is you who I am interested in, Gasai-san. Can I call you Yuno? You can call me Aru, if you want to."

What?

Akise closes the space between them and looks intently into her eyes.

"I am aware you have some kind of relationship with Amano, but I know it's not still a formal one. I apologise for the inconvenience, but I wanted to be honest with you and my feelings. I will tell him if necessary. I just wanted to let you know..."

And he touches her hand.

"What the h...?

"...that I'm going to fight for you."

He smiles and goes away. Yuno is left speechless.