**Volume 2: Upper World**

  **Chapter 116: The End**

  **(Arc: Beginning of the End – Final)**

  July 4th, 8:00 p.m. – Rebuilt Academy (New Beachfront)

  They all survived.

  Not everyone — not even close — but enough. Sky, Taka, Jason. The last three standing. Sky said no max pls come back Sky tried to heal him but Max… Max hadn’t. . They dragged themselves back to the academy over the next weeks — limping, bleeding, carrying each other when they couldn’t walk alone. They buried who they could. They burned what they couldn’t. And somehow — against every rule the world had tried to enforce — they kept going.

  The academy took months to rebuild. They worked every day — Sky hauling bricks with his bare hands, Taka swinging a hammer until his palms bled, Jason quietly lifting beams nobody else could move. No one talked much at first. There wasn’t much to say. But slowly — over shared lunches, late-night fires, quiet moments watching the sun set over the water — they started to speak again. Small things. Jokes that didn’t land right at first. Memories they could actually laugh at without crying. They became friends. Not the loud, unbreakable kind they used to be — but the quiet, scarred kind that knows exactly how fragile everything is.

  They took group photos — awkward at first — standing in front of the half-finished dorm, arms around each other, smiles small but real. Sky in the middle — still 16 forever (until the curse finally broke that fall), Taka on one side with his sword slung over his shoulder, Jason on the other — no grin, just a tired half-smile.

  They thought about the good times. Sky missed the rooftop nights — Max making shadow puppets, Cam’s wolves chasing them, Frosty spiking drinks with ice, Kira sitting silent but close. Taka missed sparring with Mara — the way Mara never held back, never let him win easy. Jason… Jason missed his mom. The way she hummed while cooking, the extra egg in the ramen, the way she called him her little protector even when he felt like anything but. He missed feeling like someone could love him without wanting something in return. He still wanted to be happy. He still didn’t know how.

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  July 4th came again — one year later — but this time they were ready. At eight p.m. they walked down to the new beachfront the academy had helped rebuild — sand still smelling faintly of smoke and salt. They sat on blankets — no fireworks this time, just quiet ones they’d bought from a vendor down the road. Sky sat between Taka and Jason — knees hugged to his chest — watching the sky light up in red, blue, green. The same colors that had almost ended everything.

  They didn’t talk much. Just watched. Remembered. Let the booms fill the silence.

  Three years later — July 4th, 2031

  They’d all graduated 12th grade the month before — a small ceremony in the rebuilt auditorium, no big speeches, just diplomas and quiet handshakes. Sky could age now — the curse had broken that day Ray died — he was 19, taller, voice deeper, but still carried the same tired eyes. Taka had gone into trade school — wanted to build things that lasted. Jason had disappeared for a while — no one knew where — but showed up for graduation in the back row, white socks and sandals, no words, just a nod when Sky looked at him.

  They didn’t all stay together. Life doesn’t work like that. But they still texted. Still sent photos. Still remembered.

  The story ended with Jane’s body — still where Jason had left it three years ago — half-buried under weeds and cracked concrete in a forgotten corner of Shinjuku. No one had moved it. No one had cared to.

  The core scar was long gone — shattered that day — but something remained.

  A small, black-red pulse — faint, barely there — slipped out of the corpse like smoke. It drifted — slow — through the ruins — past burned cars, broken glass, empty streets — until it reached a quiet farm on the edge of the city.

  It found a cow — old, tired — grazing alone in a field.

  The pulse slipped inside — the cow jerked once — eyes glowing faint black-red — then stilled.

  Hours later — the cow was slaughtered — turned into beef — packaged — shipped — sold to a McDonald’s in Tokyo.

  A kid — maybe 10 — ordered a burger — took a bite — smiled — sauce dripping down his chin.

  Somewhere far away — Sky felt it. A small tug. A whisper in his blood. He looked up from the rooftop he still sat on sometimes — older now, but still carrying the same weight — and stared at the horizon.

  He didn’t say anything.

  He just kept watching.

  The end.

  (Thank you for going on this ride with me I've been just thinking how this would end this really may be it I really don't know about book 2 nor a spin-off it'll be a short book for either the main story it'll mostly likely fully end here but 40% chance I'll do book 2 thank you I'd wouldn't like more but you let me know should I? Btw as long as the demon heart has a vesssel sky really cant die)