The common room was empty, except for her.
Seraphina sat by the window, her pink hair loose, her hands wrapped around a cup of tea that had long gone cold. She was watching the sunrise paint the ruined courtyard in shades of amber and gold, her expression distant, unreadable. She didn't turn when he entered.
"You're up early," she said.
"I didn't really fall asleep."
"I can tell." Her eyes flickered to his face, then away. "You look like shit."
Hoshimi crossed the room, his footsteps silent on the worn carpet. He stopped behind her chair, close enough that she could feel his presence, far enough that she couldn't see what was in his hands.
"Seraphina," he said. "I need you to do something for me."
She stiffened. "What?"
He moved.
One hand closed over her mouth.
"Be quiet."
The other pressed the cold barrel of his gun against her temple. His breathing was close up against her ear, making her shiver.
She jerked, tried to scream, tried to twist away, but his grip was iron, his body braced against the chair, pinning her in place, his eyes glowed violet, his chest heaving.
"Don't move," he murmured against her ear. "And I won't hurt you."
Her heart hammered against his palm. He could feel her pulse racing, could feel the mana surging beneath her skin, desperate, instinctive, ready to defend. But she didn't fight. She didn't scream. She just sat there, trembling, her breath hot and sharp against his fingers.
"Good," he said. "Now we wait."
Dominic found them five minutes later.
He came through the common room door with that easy, unhurried stride, a cup of coffee in one hand, his other hand shoved in his pocket. His crimson eyes swept the room, casual, dismissive.
And froze.
The cup slipped from his fingers. Coffee splashed across the carpet in a dark, spreading stain. His face, that easy, unreadable mask, cracked along fault lines Hoshimi had never seen before.
"What the fuck."
Hoshimi didn't move. Didn't speak. He kept the gun pressed to Seraphina's temple, kept his hand over her mouth, kept his face blank and cold, his eyes burning with an unsettling energy. Seraphina's eyes were wide, terrified, fixed on Dominic with an expression that might have been hope or might have been something else entirely.
"Let her go." Dominic's voice was low, tight, barely controlled. His hands were at his sides, curled into fists. "Hoshimi. Let her go right now."
"You want me to?"
"Yea..what the hell is wrong with you? Are you insane!?"
"Insane? I'm perfectly fine."
"If you were perfectly fine, then why in the fuck are you putting a gun to her head."
"You're not in control, are you?"
Dominic's expression flickered. "What are you talking about?"
"The others said you've been different since the Mirlo estate. Spacing out. Staring at nothing." Hoshimi's thumb found the hammer of the gun, pulled it back. The click was loud in the silence.
"What the hell does that have to do with anything!?"
"Haven't you had random times of the days where you black out?"
"How the hell do you know about that!?"
"It's your reincarnation manifesting. The same symptoms as Audrey."
Dominic's brows furrowed.
"WHat the hell does my reincarnation have to do with Seraphina!!?"
"Despair."
Hoshimi paused.
"The closest emotion that one can get to force a reincarnation to surface, by forcing despair on a person, their soul becomes so weak that the other half can take over the body." He pressed the barrel harder against Seraphina's temple. "I'm going to bring him out of you, by killing her."
"Don't." Dominic took a step forward, stopped himself. His hands were shaking. "Don't do this. She didn't do anything. She's not part of this."
"She's the only thing you care about." Hoshimi's voice was flat, clinical, the voice of someone reading a report. "I thought it might've been Edward that you cared the most about but you didn't move an inch when he got beaten by Adrian, you don't really care about him do you?"
Dominic's jaw clenched. His eyes, those crimson eyes that were always so easy, so warm, had gone hard as stone.
"You're a bastard," he said. "You know that? A goddamn bastard."
"I'm killing her. Right in front of you. I need to bring whoever is inside you out."
"He's not-" Dominic stopped. Swallowed. His hands uncurled, curled again. "There's no one else. It's just me. Just let her go."
"No."
Seraphina's breath came in short, sharp gasps against Hoshimi's palm. Her fingers had curled into her palms. She wasn't fighting anymore, hadn't been for minutes now, but her whole body trembled with a tension that never quite broke.
Dominic's hands were at his sides, fingers curled into fists that never quite clenched, never quite relaxed. His face cracked in ways unfit for his face.
"You're not going to kill her." Dominic's voice was low, steady, but there was something beneath it that hadn't been there before. "You're not a murderer."
"You don't know anything about me, nobody knows anything about me."
"She's your friend."
"Friend? I think you're mistaken." The words came out flat, emotionless, but something in the room shifted. "I barely know Seraphina. And that makes it that much easier for me to pull the trigger. Just like what you did to Audrey, her skull expanded and exploded like blowing up a balloon."
Dominic's eyes flickered to Seraphina, then back to Hoshimi. "You think I did it."
"The mana signature doesn't match, but that's because your reincarnation did it. I have Sophia outside the dorms, one death and everyone else will survive."
"You're crazy!!"
"It isn't the first time I've been called that. Witches are tools, we die every day, no one will care if one dies as long as they aren't a head of a major family like yours."
Dominic's face went pale. "That's insane, you aren't human."
"That's what I'm starting to realize." Hoshimi's voice was calm, almost conversational. "You're running from your responsibilities, as a witch and as a human, sacrifices are needed, a lesser of two evils."
He could feel Seraphina's pulse racing against his palm, could feel the mana building beneath her skin, desperate, instinctive, waiting for an opening she couldn't find. She was stronger than him, technically. Her technique was more refined, her control more precise.
But man made tools will always be more effective than nature.
"You won't do it." Dominic's voice was steadier now, but something in his posture had changed. He'd shifted his weight slightly, his center of gravity lowered, his hands now open at his sides. Ready. "You're not a killer. Not like that. You killed people because they were in your way."
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed. "You're stalling."
Hoshimi pulled the trigger.
Her eyes widened.
Crimson red ripped.
Dominic couldn't move either, but all he could do was just stare at the flesh wound at Seraphina's palm.
The steel barrel was raised back towards her temple.
"You think I'm joking now?"
Dominic was frozen in the center of the room, his arms half-extended, his face a mask of rage and terror and something else.
"You son of a bitch."
Hoshimi watched him. Waited.
"I'm going to shoot her in the head."
"Please." Dominic bit his bottom lip. "Don't do this, I'll tell you everything I know."
Hoshimi raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead."
"Jack…" Dominic's voice was shaky. "That's the only thing I know about my reincarnation, the word that always comes to me during my blackouts, the only thing I can remember."
[Jack? The first person on my mind…Jack the Ripper. Killing people while going unnoticed. It fits, doesn't it?]
"Yeah that's not going to help." He lied through his teeth.
He pulled the trigger once more.
The smell of iron filled the air.
Smoke rose from the tip of the barrel.
Seraphina tried to scream.
But her mouth refused to move.
Her jaw felt too heavy.