Her Lie.

The Lie Revealed.

It was a rainy day. The rain in Tokyo didn't just fall, no, it hissed against the neon billboards and pooled in the cracks of the asphalt, heavy with the scent of battle and low-grade ambient mana.
​Nobayushi stood under the awning of a convenience store, his breath fogging in the damp air. His uniform from the mag-tech refinery was soaked through at the shoulders. His hands, calloused and stained with stubborn traces of magic, trembled slightly as he checked his phone. No texts from his girlfriend, Aemerith.

Everyone in the district knew who was Nobayushi. They knew him as the kid who fights the monsters that plague the earth in Tokyo working under the M.E association and, well, also taking extra jobs in his free time to earn money. They knew he took the graveyard shifts at M.E association's refinery just to cover Aemerith's tuition at the prestigious Dawncrest Academy. They knew he had pawned his grandfather's irreplaceable, enchanted catalyst just so she could afford the premium spell-reagents for her finals. He was the guy who routinely skipped meals, walked miles through the freezing rain to save a few coins in bus fare, and wore clothes worn thin at the elbows all so Aemerith could have a future unburdened by the slums. He was hard work incarnate. A fiercely devoted partner. A fool, some would consider, but a loyal one to his absolute core.

​He sighed, and tucked the phone away, stepping back into the downpour, clutching a small, black box under his jacket. Today was the day he was gonna propose to her, after all, life was going well for him-He recently gained a promotion at M.E association for working overtime, taking their extra odds jobs and also risking his life countless times on the frontlines to ensure everyone was safe. He couldn't wait to surprise her and had a very bright expression on his face, a total contrast to the tired and exhausted expression he had on his face after his shift as he continued walking home throughout the downpour.

When he reached their medium-sized apartment on the higher levels, he opened the door and expected to see Aemerith on the couch as usual, normally practicing magic... But this time she wasn't. He wandered the apartment for a moment and then heard a sound inside the bedroom. The sounds he heard weren't the usual whispers of incantations or the crackle of practicing sparks. They were soft, muffled gasps, followed by a quiet, intimate laugh that made his chest tighten instantly.
​His hunter's instincts, honed by surviving the deadliest anomalies in Tokyo, flared a sudden, violent warning. His heart hammered against his ribs, not from the exhaustion of his shift, but from a cold, creeping dread that felt far worse than facing any monster under the M.E. Association.
​He moved down the narrow hallway, his boots leaving faint, wet tracks on the floorboards. The small, black velvet box was still clutched tightly in his hand inside his jacket. His thumb brushed over the smooth fabric of the case-the ring inside had cost him three months of overtime bonuses and countless sleepless nights. He had been smiling just seconds ago. Now, his face was completely blank, frozen in disbelief.
​The bedroom door was slightly ajar, a sliver of warm light spilling out into the dark hallway. But the light was tinted with a faint, violet haze-the telltale residue of high-tier sensory-masking magic, cast to muffle sound and hide presence.
​Nobayushi pushed the door open, the hinges giving a faint, agonizing creak.
​"Aemi?" his voice was barely a whisper, cutting through the heavy air.
​The scene inside shattered everything.
​Aemerith wasn't alone in the bed they shared. She was tangled in the sheets with Byakuya.
​Byakuya, the prodigy from the upper districts who had never known a day of hunger or a night of terror, looked up, her silver hair spilling over Aemerith's shoulders. Her expression shifted from momentary surprise to a cold, mocking indifference.
​But it was Aemerith's face that broke him. As she scrambled backward, tearing the sheets around herself, her eyes widened slightly before she spoke out in a detached, dismissive tone, one that seemed more bored than anything.
​"Noba." she spoke, "You're home early."
​Nobayushi stood frozen in the doorway, the rain still dripping from his hair onto the floor. He looked confused, hurt, and most of all angry at her callous behaviour. How the hell can she look so nonchalant about him walking in with Aemerith cheating on him?! With a woman, no less! He didn't even know she swung that way!

​"Home early?" Nobayushi's voice cracked, sharp and dangerous. "That's all you have to say to me? I walk in here, and you're-you're with her?! With a woman?! I didn't even know you swung that way!"
​He lunged a step forward, his boot slamming heavily against the floor, his chest heaving. "Seven years, Aemerith! Seven years of bleeding for you, working myself to the bone, fighting things that should have killed me just so you could go to your elite academy! And you don't even have the decency to look ashamed?! I thought you loved me!"
​Aemerith didn't flinch. If anything, she looked annoyed by the outburst. She let out a soft, mocking sigh, looking at him with pitying, clinical eyes.
​"Let's not make a scene, Noba. You're smarter than this," she said, her voice dripping with cruel apathy. "Did you really think this was going to last forever? I never "loved" you, Noba. You were just the most convenient choice. Did you really think I was happy, pretending to be someone's perfect girlfriend? How clueless can you be?"

Beside her, Byakuya smirked, leaning back with an arrogant, quiet amusement, watching the common hunter get dismantled by the very girl he worshipped.
​"And as for this?" Aemerith gestured between herself and Byakuya, a cold smirk finally touching her lips. "I never 'swung that way,' Noba. I never liked men. I tolerated you because I had to survive. Byakuya is everything you could never be. She is my reality. You were just a highly functional charity case."

​Nobayushi stood completely paralyzed, the sheer, calculated malice of her words striking deeper than any talon or blade ever could. Every scar on his body felt like a joke. Every skipped meal, every mile walked in the freezing rain, every night spent staring down horror. It wasn't just wasted. It was mocked.
​He didn't look at the monster in front of him anymore. Because the girl he loved had never existed at all.

"But... Aemi..." he whispered, his eyes wide and glassy, searching her face for a single shred of the girl he thought he knew. "I... I gave you everything."
​He took a frail step backward, his hand blindly gripping the doorframe to keep his knees from buckling.
​"I dropped out," he murmured, his voice cracking as tears dripped down his face. "I quit high school the second your acceptance letter came. I worked three jobs. I scrubbed the floors at the refinery, I hauled scrap in the freezing mud, I didn't sleep for days... just so you wouldn't have to worry about a single cent."
​Aemerith watched him, her expression remaining entirely detached, her silence a freezing wall.
​"When that wasn't enough..." Nobayushi's voice dropped even lower, his hand unconsciously drifting to his lower back, where a jagged, faded scar was hidden beneath his tactical gear. "When the tuition doubled and the academy threatened to throw you out... I went to the underground clinics in the lower districts. I sold my kidney on the black market, Aemi. I laid on a filthy cot bleeding out, terrified I wouldn't wake up, just so I could wire money to your account the next morning."
​He pulled the shattered black velvet box out of his pocket, his fingers trembling so violently he nearly dropped it. He didn't open it. He just held it out like a broken offering.
​"I joined the M.E. Association because the hazard pay was the only way to buy your high-grade catalysts," he choked out, a sob finally breaking through his chest. "Every night, I look at monsters born from human terror. Every night, I think I'm going to die. But I fought through the blood, I took the scars, because I told myself... I told myself I was keeping you safe. I was building us a home. I thought that maybe we'd..."
​He looked at the ring box, then up at Aemerith, his eyes begging for a contradiction that was never going to come. He moved out the room, and then rummage through essential items. Once he packed enough stuff, he went out of the apartment wandering through the streets alone. He didn't know where to go. He just felt... lost.