A Farewell to All Futures

Only Know Your Lover

Warning: mentioned illness/abuse/human trafficking/rape/burns/smoke inhalation/suicide, profanity, intentionally triggering trauma, manipulation, PTSD attack

***

Nikei sat at his corner and continued to eat his cheap cup noodles as he typed more onto his 'find Utsuro' document. They hadn't had any luck as they searched throughout the entire duration of the Tragedy, and Nikei doubted that he would have any luck finding him before their time ran out. He shuddered to imagine what would happen to them.

Hajime's illness would return and kill him, Emma would lose either her family, if they were indeed alive, or her affluence, Iroha would either lose all her recognition or her family would drag her back to the room, if they were also alive. Nikei would either be forced back into the Kanzaki Clan or the police would connect the murder of his would-be rapist back to him and lock him away. As for Mikado, he would either die from his burns or smoke inhalation, or he would lose what personality he had left. Or both.

Nikei knew as well as the other three that their luck had faded even more than before, and the thought had kept him up at night on several occasions. He was completely terrified at the idea that he would have to lose his power, but he knew that he had to brace himself in case that outcome actually happened.

Suddenly, a notification on his laptop along with a ringing sound, shocking him out of his thoughts. He looked it over, seeing that it was an unknown caller. Nikei thought it was weird that he got a call in the first place, he had rigged his laptop to not receive any calls from automatic advertisements. He decided that maybe the others should be around to hear this.

"Hey, you fuckers!" Nikei walked over to where the other three were, sitting at a small table and playing go fish with each other. "We've got a call."

"Oh? Who's it from?" Emma asked, putting down a pair of cards and making Hajime groan in frustration. 

"Dunno. It's an unknown caller, but I fixed my laptop to not get any telemarketer ads." Nikei shrugged. He placed his laptop on the table and sat down, letting the rest of the Children of Utsuro drag their chairs over to see the screen. Somehow, the caller had not hung up during that time, and Nikei pressed the answer button, letting the calling app fill the screen.

However, when the person on the other end began to speak, Nikei felt his blood run cold. "Hello again, my dear friends. It's been such a long time, hasn't it?"

"M-Mikado?!" Hajime exclaimed, recoiling in his seat. "Is that you?!"

"There's nobody else that sounds like him..." Emma nervously pointed out.

The journalist felt a sudden rush of anger at hearing the Remnant's voice. "Well, I don't care! G-Get the hell out of here! You're not the Mikado we knew!" He shouted, trying to end the conversation. He tried to end the call and block the number, but Emma grabbed his hand, stopping him from doing such things.

"N-Nikei, maybe we should hear him out...?" Iroha whimpered, putting her hand on his arm in a pleading gesture.

"I see Ms. Nijiue has the right idea. I am merely coming to you for a proposition." Mikado spoke through the blank screen, leaving Nikei wondering where the wizard was and why he wasn't showing his face. "Surely you can feel it, right? Master Utsuro's power is disappearing from our bodies, and if we do nothing, fate will correct itself and dump us back into our personal hells."

The whole group tensed up at his words. "You think we don't know that?" The actress asked. "We've been searching for Him during the whole Tragedy, and we haven't even found a single trace of Him."