Her hair was loose, catching soft light like strands of night spun from silver. Her eyes, twin storms, deep and unreadable, watched him with the same calm certainty he had always felt before waking.
Ren's voice cracked as it escaped him.
"...Airi…?"
Then she spoke, plain and still.
"Trickstarr's telling the truth."
Ren flinched. Took a step back.
"What…? Why are you… What is—Airi, you were that woman? The one I kept hearing in my dreams? The one who always…?"
Airi's face remained calm.
Only her smile shifted.
And when she spoke again, her voice changed.
It flowed like silk and smoke, the same low, sultry whisper that had haunted the edges of Ren's sleep—the voice that called to him when his world crumbled.
"Yes, Ren," she said, her tone smooth as velvet and just as dark. "That was me."
Ren staggered. The breath left his lungs.
Everything inside him felt like it cracked down the center—memories, moments, laughter, pain—his entire timeline with her warped in an instant.
His knees threatened to give way.
"No. No, that doesn't make sense," he said hoarsely. "You—You were real. We went to school. You fought with me. You helped me. You were there when my parents—"
Airi's eyes softened with something too perfect. Too smooth.
She stepped forward through the field, the flowers parting like water.
"I was always there," Airi said, stepping forward gently, her voice flowing like silk. "Every time you broke. Every time you were about to die. I came to you. I was your strength."
Ren's grip loosened slightly. His knees wobbled.
The sword dipped, its tip scraping against the card-floor hidden beneath the illusion.
"No," he muttered. "That's not—You were real."
"I existed," Airi said, "but not the way you believed."
Her voice didn't carry venom. It was patient. Gentle. Like the hush of a memory trying not to wake you.
"When Kaito nearly killed you… when your life was about to fade…" Airi's eyes flicked up—clear and sad, shimmering like a mirage about to collapse.
"I panicked. I forced myself into form. I made myself visible. I made you believe I existed. Because I didn't want you to die."
She stepped forward, her bare feet barely stirring the lycoris.
"And after that…" Her voice trembled, but only for a moment.
"I made you see that I was helping you fight. But it was actually you."
She looked at him fully now.
"Whatever you saw me doing... it was just you. It has always been you."
The words wrapped around Ren like a noose.
Airi grinning beside him in drama club—gone. He was alone.
The arcade—no laughter, no teasing, just him.
The café window—no hand over his. Just a cooling cup and silence.
The Kaito battle—her place replaced by his own.…
Her tears. Her smile. Her presence were never real.
"I…" Airi looked down. Her next words barely passed her lips.
"…I overstayed my welcome."
Ren's mouth opened, but nothing came out.
He took a half-step back, the sword lowering at his side.
His lips trembled.
"But… even Andre… He said your name. You were with us. You were there."
Airi nodded.
Her smile now held something gentle—almost grief.
"I made you hear what I needed you to. Made you see what I needed you to. Just enough to keep the lie going."
"Then why—" his voice cracked. "Why? I just… I don't understand…"
He looked up at her, eyes red, breath broken.
"Why did I love you…? Who did I love…?"
Airi stopped before him now. Her form radiant against the white sky and red flowers.
Her eyes, for the first time, glistened.
"The heart in your chest," she whispered, "it's mine."
Ren blinked.
He looked down—at the center of his chest. There was nothing visibly strange… yet something felt different. A warmth he had never noticed. A pulse he had taken for granted.
"I died… in Hoshikawa," she said softly. "I don't really know how. But after your heart surgery, I found myself connected to your mind."
Her smile quivered.
"I found your thoughts. Your sorrow. Your stubbornness. Your rage. And I couldn't look away."
She sank slowly to her knees before him, eyes locked to his.
"You were loud. Selfish. A brat. Angry at the world. Always looking for something to fight against, even when you didn't know why."
Ren winced.
"Stop…"
"You were so imperfect," she whispered. "And still, I fell in love with you."
"Stop…" he said louder, head shaking.
"When I made myself visible to you… I lied. I knew I was lying. I knew I was building a fantasy. But I wanted to be loved so badly, I told myself it was okay. That I could pretend a little longer."
Ren clutched his chest. "Please…"
"But then you started smiling," she said, eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "And I wanted to see it more." "And when you said those things to me at the fireworks festival… I realized…"
Her voice broke for the first time.
"This isn't okay. This isn't real. I wasn't helping you anymore—I was hurting you."
She reached forward, slowly, trembling.
Her hand touched his cheek. Warm. Steady. Real.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry, Ren. I made you believe in a lie."
Ren's eyes blurred.
He didn't speak.
He just knelt there, tears streaming down his face—body cracked open like a glass shell, bleeding grief and confusion into a world of impossible color.
And in front of him, Airi—his Airi, and yet not—held him with a sorrow deeper than death, eyes shimmering with the truth that only illusions could carry.
"I didn't want it to end this way," she said gently. "But now… I can finally make it right."
Ren's head lifted, just barely.
Airi knelt down across from him, her hands folded in her lap like someone at prayer.
"I'm going to disappear," she said softly. "Completely. From your mind. No more dreams. No more fragments."
Ren's breath hitched.
"I'll give you everything I have left—the essence stored in my heart. You'll have enough essence to push through, to finish this, to bring Trickstarr down."
His lips trembled. "No," he whispered.
She kept her voice steady. "It's the only way."
"I don't want it," Ren said, louder now, eyes wild with pain. "I don't care about the essence. I don't care about anything else. I don't want to lose you."
Airi's smile was small and aching. "Ren—"
"I love you!" he cried. "I love you! I don't care if you're a lie, or a ghost, or just some voice I made up to stay sane—I don't care! You were real to me. Every moment. Every word. You mattered."
Her eyes shimmered again, but she didn't move. "That's what makes this so hard," she said, voice thick. "But it's not worth believing in a lie, no matter how warm it feels."
Ren shook his head. "Please—don't go. There has to be another way."
But she didn't budge."Ren, Listen to me."
Her hands reached out—slow, reverent—and cupped his face.
"You were never numb," she said. "You were always hurting. You just didn't know how to show it."
Ren stared at her, shaking, tears pouring freely now.
"If you truly didn't feel anything," she continued, "you wouldn't have fought so hard. You wouldn't have come here. You wouldn't have tried to save me."
He collapsed into her arms, clutching her tightly. She held him back, her presence warm and solid—just for a moment.
Then—
She smiled.
"Lead a healthy life, Ren. Save them. All of them. Keep moving forward, like you always have been."
Light began to consume her form, gently unraveling her edges like starlight catching fire.
Ren's grip tightened—"No, no, please—"
But she only whispered one last thing in his ear:
"I was never real… but the way you loved me was. And that's enough."
Her hand brushed over his chest—once, glowing faintly—and vanished into sparks.
She faded.
Like mist in the morning sun.
And Ren was left alone, kneeling in the petals of a dream, her warmth echoing in the hollow her absence left behind.
Then—
"Well?"
Trickstarr's voice slithered through the air like poison. "Finished your little heart-to-heart with your imaginary girlfriend?"
The dream cracked.