Chapter 26

For the past fifteen minutes, all Caleb could hear was gunfire and the sounds of people shouting. During which time, he opened and read Akane's letter to him. It started out innocently enough, with her proclaiming her eternal love for him. But things quickly went downhill from there.

His admirer had been quite busy, keeping tabs on his every move, cataloging his every activity from who all he was talking to throughout the day to how many times a day he would talk to them. She had his exact route home mapped out to the most minute detail. She even had his frequent trips to Mr. Sojiro's store perfectly detailed out.

From there the letter essentially devolved into nonsensical gibberish, after which she just wrote I love you over and over again on at least three separate sheets of paper. To think, out of everything this girl could have ended up being it was the one thing Caleb never thought to consider.

He had a stalker, an honest to God stalker.

Caleb was at a complete loss for words. It was clear his kouhai was completely obsessed with him. A total infatuation that went beyond the norm into the psychopathic. As if nothing else in the world mattered to her but his love and acceptance. She was deranged. She was as mad as an Insombrian, madder even. She was...she was...

She was so incredibly sweet!

Never in his life had anyone shown such willful devotion or thoughtfulness to him. These words, batshit as they were, conveyed a depth of emotion and deep longing no one had ever shown him before. And that lipstick print seal? This immaculate cursive in perfect English? How long had she worked on this?

Caleb began rereading the note over and over again. It wasn't just that her words fed his ravenous ego, they nourished his soul in ways he didn't realize he so desperately needed. He found himself counting the amount of times she wrote I love you down on these pages for him.

One-hundred-and-seventy-three. That's how many times she said I love you to him in this note. Who else had ever done something like that for him before? No one he could think of. There was no one in Caleb's life who had shown him such dedication, such commitment. And they weren't even in a relationship yet!

Yet...had that thought really crossed his mind? It must have at some point. He was worried he might have done something to upset her, which...generally didn't happen. In fact, Caleb couldn't remember the last time he had genuine concern for anyone else's opinion beyond his mother's and maybe to an extent Mr. Sojiro when it came to cooking. Yet here he was, all the same.

Caleb was suddenly very aware of the lack of gunfire he was hearing upstairs.

"Oh crap, she's still up there by herself!"

He quickly pocketed the note and ran up the stairs. Upon opening the door and getting blasted with UV light, however, Caleb immediately changed his mind about checking on her and slammed the door shut, bracing against it with his back. They weren't turned off yet!

His mind began to race. Poke his head out and check on her? Or stay here and not risk getting shot again? She was doing all of this for his sake, after all. It would be terribly inconsiderate of him to get himself killed after all her hard work. And while he certainly didn't fear death in of itself, he did have a rather deep seated dread of dying in a stupid or otherwise completely avoidable way.

The moment that thought crossed his mind however, he sighed and shook his head. No...this wasn't stupid. It wasn't the same thing. These strange feelings he was having were worth it. If for no other reason than he had never felt them before and likely never would again.

"Okay. No more cowardice, Caleb," he spoke quietly to himself.

He slowly reopened the door and stepped out into the hall. Everything seemed to check out so far. No signs of any Hunters prowling about. There was however, a whole lot of blood and other fluids on the walls which had already begun to fluoresce as they dried.

"Akane?" he quietly called out despite his better judgment. "Are you..."

Caleb stopped dead in his tracks. She was there in the living room, surrounded by bodies, gazing around the walls, the ceiling, at the light show she had helped create, a look of wonderment on her face.

For the longest time he just stood there in complete silence, too dumbstruck to say a word.

"It's beautiful," she quietly observed. "Like looking up into a galaxy."

He wasn't looking at the walls. All of Caleb's attention was solely on her. The blood of his most hated enemies had begun to dry on her skin, same as with the walls, mixing with other fluids and microbes and fluorescing into beautiful patterns on her body.

The only thing he cared to see at that moment.

"I never used to notice color like this before," she admitted before smiling brightly at her Senpai. "Not before I met you anyway."

Again he just stared at her longingly, unable to form a coherent thought at that moment. The sound of someone gurgling and choking caught his ear. He looked to his left to see Ryuji's father futilely crawling towards a gun. Akane casually raised her own weapon and fired, nailing him in the back of the head while gazing into Caleb's eyes.

"Thirteen," she quietly counted.

Having finally been broken from his spell, Caleb looked around, admiring her work. "It's a masterpiece. It truly is."

She smiled lovingly, joining him in her appreciation. "I've always admired your hobbies, Senpai. Your cooking, your music...it made me think I should find a hobby of my own."

"You'd make a wonderful painter," he observed.

Heat rose in her cheeks and her heart skipped at his words. "This one will always be special to me." Akane turned back towards him. "Because we made it together."

He took her hands in his.

"We did..."

They gazed into each other's eyes, neither one quite able to say what was on their minds.

"You're glowing..." he observed bashfully.

She giggled sweetly at him. "So are you..."

Silence permeated the room once more. Caleb gingerly brushed a strand of blood caked hair out of her eyes and she glowed for him in a different way.

"My mother once told me, if the mind stops working, it's often to give the heart a chance to speak uninterrupted. I've never understood what she meant by that...until just now, I think."

They closed their eyes, leaned in, and shared their first kiss together. Their own personal stars hanging in the sky.

The taste of copper hanging on their tongues.