Chapter 9: No Escape
The city was silent.
No traffic.
No voices.
No life.
Tokyo—the city that never truly slept—had become a corpse. Streetlights were still on, but their light was useless. Everything was covered in a single color—black. Dried blood had turned the footpaths into patterns. Broken building windows were silent too, as if even the right to scream had been taken away.
Akari was walking.
Alone.
The sound of her footsteps was the last sound left in the city. At every turn, she felt like someone would be there—but no. Only shadows. Long, twisted, following her.
“Hello?” she called once.
Not even an echo returned.
The curse did not need sound.
The black line on her lips was no longer a line. It had become a seal—as if she had been chosen. The cold no longer hurt. It felt normal now. Comforting.
Akari entered an abandoned apartment. The lift was not working. As she climbed the stairs, memories appeared—Ren’s ego-filled face, Yui’s calm smile, Kaito’s shaking hands, and Mika…
Mika’s smile.
“Everything was meant to come here,” Akari whispered.
Inside the flat was a mirror—broken, but usable. Akari stood in front of it. For the first time, she really looked at herself.
Her eyes were not tired.
Her face was not afraid.
She was calm.
Her eyes shone in the mirror—and in that shine, there was love. Not guilt. Not regret. Only acceptance.
She smiled.
And in that moment, she realized—
the curse had not left her.
The curse had entered her.
“You can’t run from me,” Akari said to the mirror.
“Because you are me.”
Somewhere in a far corner of the city, a shadow moved. Then another. Then thousands. The curse could not exist without a host—and now it had found a new one.
Akari closed her eyes—then opened them.
And the city breathed.
No escape does not mean running away.
No escape means—
accepting.
Akari turned and walked toward the door.
The world was over.
But the Black Kiss was alive.
And now—
it had Akari’s face.
Next Chapter....
The world had ended.
But the Black Kiss had not.
Akari stood in the middle of the city—at the same place where crowds once gathered, where voices lived, where life existed. Now there was only air. Cold. Heavy. And familiar.
The buildings stood straight, but their shadows were twisted—as if the difference between truth and lies had been erased. The sky was not fully black, not white either. Something in between—sickly.
Akari began to walk.
Wherever she went, shadows moved. As if the city was watching her. Or maybe—following her.
She remembered the first kiss.
The first look.
The first blood.
Everything was part of a chain. Logical. Inevitable.
“People misunderstand,” Akari said to herself.
“They think the curse spread through a kiss.”
She stopped and looked into a broken piece of glass. The reflection was not perfect, but it was enough.
“The truth is,” she continued,
“it always spread through love.”
The kiss was .......
