Its over.
Janus stood victoriously as the crowd continued to cheer nonstop, but deep down, he knows that Pest will come back a minute or two later, and yet, this still won't change the fact of what she did. It was hard to accept, but the fact remained: Saomi isn't coming back.
Grief began to pile in, wondering of all the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens as well as thinking of the consequences of his own actions. He himself is still flabbergasted by how much the young woman had truly affected him throughout their journey.
Taking a step backwards, the laughter and cheers became more deafening to him as he tried to drown them out. Unfortunately, it was too much for him to care about the overwhelming feelings he was receiving at this exact moment and time.
"Shut up..." Dropping his spear to the ground, he clenched his head together to drown out the noises while trying to maintain a sense of control over this situation. "SHUT UP!!!" No matter how much he tried, they kept on applauding his victory.
He felt his own world was starting to collapse in on itself, with everything falling to pieces around him as the very fabric of reality around him was rapidly distorting itself to the point where it seemed that he would be trapped inside an infinite loop.
The entire world was beginning to fold inward on itself. It was as though everything was truly collapsing everywhere, as reality itself had finally given out on him. He felt dizzy. He couldn't focus. Everything and all of this is too much for him to bear.
So much was happening around him that it was impossible to tell what was real and what wasn't. The only thing he could do now was move forward while holding his entire head tightly with both hands, ignoring the laughter and the roaring of the crowds.
"Janus! Janus!"
They celebrated his name, calling out to him to reach out for what he desired. Despite it all, Janus continues onward for no reason other than preventing himself from losing his sense of self to the madness that is happening all around him.
He's feeling very dizzy now, but he can't stop. He needs to get out of here. He needs to get back home, but where? He definitely doesn't have a place to call him, only somewhere or anywhere to run to and hide in shame for what he had to witness.
Glancing at the distorted crowd sitting comfortably in their seats, he became ever more disgusted at these people who were praising him for something he did not want. And every second he had to look at their smiling, irritable faces, it really began to make him sick to his stomach.
"Janus! Janus! Janus!"
They never stopped; no matter how much he wants it to, they can't or won't stop, "silence!" He said in the top of his lungs, "I said silence!" However, none of them paid any heed to his words and continued their cheering like no tomorrow.
Mentally close to the breaking point. His eyes darted wildly at the distorted images that surrounded him, and the more they kept yelling, the angrier he became. "Quiet." Janus muttered quietly beneath his breath, but as expected, they wouldn't listen. "QUIET!!!!" He screamed again.
His mind and soul are burning hot with anger. He is tired, angry, and exhausted all the same, but no, they won't let him mourn in peace over what he lost. All this time, they had done nothing but scream, yell, and shout at him and no longer.
He was prepared to kill every last one of them for their indifference. If they refuse to listen to his words, then he would gladly cut out their tongues to make them shut up for good. "No more..." Coldness and anger seep into his voice. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he felt like it would burst through the skin. "I said, no."
"JANUS!"
Saomi's sudden embrace from behind brought all of his sanity and reason back in, preventing him from committing unthinkable action. "I'm here. I am here." Her voice is soft and soothing, reminding him that she is still alive.
Letting out the largest cry in his life, Janus leaned his head backward and fell to the floor with her catching him, embracing him closely as the two sat together. "It is okay." She gently cradled him while slowly patting his head.
With tears stung, his throat ached, and the sobs racked through his whole body, he cried uncontrollably while the spectators booed at this boring sight. This time, he didn't care anymore, for all he wanted was to hold Saomi, the real Saomi, in his arms as he let loose a loud sob while crying as hard as he could.
It was a long moment, a moment so precious to him, before he finally managed to compose himself enough to speak, "I can stand." He said it in a low, raspy voice, causing her to retract herself, allowing him to pick himself up before dusting himself off while clearing his throat.
But just as he did, he noticed the sudden small detail that had completely made him realize something: "Your not Saomi." There was a small, present-day visible mole from the side of her face, meaning that she was no other than that court Jester playing the part of his dear friend.
A sly grin appeared on the fake Saomi as she pulled out her tongue in an act of teasing Janus. To which he responded with an extreme furious expression, "hehe, got you~❤" This immediately made him lose all the temper and composure he had left, causing him to thrust out his arm, letting out a bellow of rage.
It all happened so fast. There was no time to react. There was no time to see or say when he acted like this when the fake Saomi laughed when her own entire face was being squeezed like melon with just his tight grip, a deadly mistake that she herself had done.
Bringing her to the spectators, a loud and bellowing crash came and echoed across the Colosseum as she landed into the audience before them, smashing everyone who stood in the way, causing them to all fall like bowling pins.
People ran and screamed for their lives, horror in their faces from having believed they were safe, only to realize the entire crowd in the arena had now come down. This was madness. Fear spread among those who believed they were protected in their seats. Some tried to flee, some did not, instead cowering in terror, while a few gleefully enjoyed the spectacle.
Even though they were just manifestations of her mind, they nonetheless seemingly possessed human feelings that made them react to stimuli accordingly. Whether it was just part that the cruel and sadistic Jester had done to make this more entertaining or was simply created beings capable of true sapience is truly a mystery to solve.
However, Janus cares about nothing anymore. He lost her, and being tricked into believing his invulnerability was the last straw for him to handle. With great bloodlust, he made sure he was going to make her stay on the ground for good without leaving her alive.
Watching her regenerated head, Jolly's own grinning face, and her hat finally coming back on her while still possessing the body of Saomi, she was then grabbed by Janus, who hoisted her into the air, opening a wormhole that will lead them to the conclusion of all realities.
As he watched her flee back into the portal he created, Janus almost wasted no time in avenging Saomi, no matter the cost, but just as he flew up to catch up with the murderer who had cruelly played mind games with him, he heard Schrodinger's voice calling out to him.
"She's alive, Janus!"
Stopping just close to the portal, he turned to see the white feline close to the unconscious young woman whose once gone mouth is now in repaired condition for mysterious reasons that either of them neither understand why nor how.
Part of him wanted to go into the portal and finish her once and for all, entirely making that Jester be forgotten in all of existence. But should his vengeance and emotions cloud his vision of seeking what is most important of all in his pursuit to find the purpose of his own journey?
Soon, he remembered the day they talked about love together back all those days ago and his understanding of humans's own humanity in dealing with the insane and cruel world around them. Putting himself in the position of experiencing and understanding what it was like to feel it for himself in a genuine, heartfelt way through acting at his personal humanity?
Noticing her sudden eye twitches, he became immediately relieved from seeing vital signs of movement. Slowly but surely, she slowly regained consciousness as to what had happened to her, forcing herself to stand up in a trembling effort to look at what was happening around her.
She seemed confused and was trying to wrap her head around what had transpired. Looking around, her gaze met shocked Janus, who was standing where the spectators once sat, "Hey!" She called out, "What happened?! And where did everyone go?!" Glancing around. She noticed the entire crowd vanished out of thin air, as if the people had evacuated to a safer location.
Regardless of her confusion, Janus teleported in front of her, and with tears in his eyes, he said, "I love you," confessing to her that he didn't care if she rejected him; so long as she lives, that's all that matters to him, and the words just came out naturally.
Baffled at this revelation, she was even more astonished by this confession out of the blue as her entire face became red like saucers. "Whaat?! Your confessing to me in time like this?!" Saomi can't understand what is happening other than that there is a crazy Jester in the coliseum, and everyone who attended here mysteriously disappeared out of nowhere.
Grabbing her shoulders firmly, he said with a hint of desperation in his voice, "Human, I truly love you for who you are." His purple eyes locked with hers, and he gazed into them with so much tenderness and passion that it took her breath away. "You make me feel things—things I never thought I could feel again. And I want to know that I deeply love you for the first time in my life."
She had no words for how serious he sounded. Aside from being confused about why he's doing this, she can't help but return the feelings, even though there are still doubts in the deepest corners of her own mind. "Janus, I need to know first what happened, and why are you confessing to me all of a sudden?" Sadly for her, he slowly closed his eyes before dropping to the floor.
Creating a loud thud as his body lay motionless on the ground, Saomi stood there, unsure of how to react. "J-Janus?" She hesitantly approached him, carefully placing her hand on his back. "What's going on? Seriously, stop messing with me like you always do!" She demanded it, shaking him out of shock and worry.
Schrodinger stood in front of her with a raised brow. "His fine, just mentally exhausted from everything that had happened," he reassured her calmly. "We should focus on dealing with that Jester first before anything else," exclaimed the important matters to attend to.
"But—"
A slow, hypnotizing clap began to resonate throughout the empty arena. Schrodinger and Saomi looked around, trying to spot whoever the clapper might be, before their eyes landed on none other than Jolly, who was simply sitting there with the same wide grin on her face. "Ah yes, congrats on passing your trial by fire!" Clapping her hands gleefully, she gave them an amused bow.
The two exchanged confused looks for a moment. "So does that mean we're done?" Saomi asked, stepping closer to the girl while keeping her guard up, "Because if not..." Holding her katana, she then coldly stated, "I'll be ending this now."
Yawning exhaustively, Jolly stretched her arms up in the air and said, "Yep, you're done!" Smiling widely at Saomi, she then proceeded to scratch her chin as she casually added, "In fact, let's have ourselves a small celebration! What do you say? We could watch some funny cartoons together over pizza!"
"No."
Stopping a few miles away from each other, Saomi gripped the hilt of her sword tighter. A low rumble of thunder rolled through the arena. The wind picked up, whipping her hair around wildly. "Give us the component that you took from Lime." Her demand was simple yet effective.
Cocking her head to the side, Jolly's smile remained fixed. "Component?" Her eyebrow lifted curiously, only to realize what she was saying: "Oh, that!" Checking one of her pockets for the missing component, she giggled lightly after having found it: "Okay, okay, here it is, safe and sound," holding the stolen component for them to see.
It was a tiny box, barely larger than a dice and weighing less than a feather. The material was a silvery metal that was dull and lackluster, with a subtle tint of green and violet running through it. It was cold to the touch and had a smooth surface that felt like velvet against the palm of the hand. On the side facing upward, there were six small, almost imperceptible indentations that suggested a design or pattern.
As for the color, it was a deep shade of black, like the depths of the ocean. It seemed to absorb all the light around it and gave the impression that it was pulling things towards it, as if it were a black hole or a gravity well. The strangest thing about it was the fact that it didn't reflect any light. It was completely opaque, and the longer people stared at it, the more it seemed to pull them into its dark abyss.
While the appearance of the small box was intriguing, Saomi went towards her with no fear in her own eyes before rudely snatching it from Jolly. "Consider our conversation done," she said, turning back to Schrodinger, who kept his guard up. "Let's get out of this place; it's finally getting to me." Lowering her weapon, she slowly walked towards them as she lifted Janus by placing his arm over his own shoulders.
Watching the three leave, Jolly pouted slightly. "Awww, but I was planning for this to be a fun moment between the four of us." Watching them leave her sight, a broad smirk began to creep its way onto her face as she whispered into the open air, "I guess the party will just have to wait."
"Especially the day they will meet their destiny, hehe."
