In a flurry of bubbles, I fight to break away from Mr. Eto's grasp. I manage it surprisingly easily and we end up facing each other, treading water, me feeling like my heart is about to jump out of my throat and Mr. Eto looking calm and complacent.

The next thing I know, Mr. Eto is no longer Mr. Eto.

I have no idea how that happened, but he just... morphed, out of nowhere. His face is no longer that of the smiley, stubbled thirty-something man, but that of... Shun. A weird inside-his-head version of Shun that looks so inviting yet simultaneously almost repulsive, like he's pushing me away yet pulling me in at the same time.

I'm not sure how to describe this feeling. It's like, well, water bears. Looking at one makes me want to turn away immediately, yet at the same time I feel like stretching out my hand to touch it. Yeah, like water bears. I just compared Shun to water bears. I might be going crazy, but in my defense I've been going through an awful lot.

"Come on, Tomomi, don't you want to enjoy the water?" Shun asks, voice so welcoming. But it doesn't sound like baritones and cellos and English horns and maybe that should have been a warning, it's just that my body doesn't seem to want to register the warning. It's like I'm fated to head towards him; I just can't resist the pull.

I paddle closer to him. And closer. So close I can reach out and touch him, and so I do.

Not in, like, inappropriate places or anything, just taking his hand that's all.

Shun holds my hand, and smiles. But the smile is all wrong.

"Witches need to be drowned, Tomomi."

I look up dumbly at him. "Huh?"

"You need to be drowned."

And the next thing I know I'm pushed under the water. Frustration bubbles up inside me, frustration that despite knowing that joining weird-Shun in the pool is a bad idea I still did it anyway. Frustration that my classmates trusted this important role to me and I managed to mess it up already. Frustration that this is how I'm going to die—in the mind of a twisted Shun, of my crush since second grade, of the person that I am supposed to save but am unable to because I happen to be a failure at everything.

I struggle and flail, managing to surface for a brief gasp, yet I know it is not because I'm good at getting out of Shun's death grip but because he's prolonging my torture for fun. Why should he not? He has all the time in the world. All my classmates are out there fighting their own battles; they won't be rescuing me any time soon. Also, the darkness wants negative emotions, which include pain, panic, and weakness. And the longer I fight to stay alive, there will be more pain and panic and weakness to feed it.

It's toying with me now, I know that. I know that as my last bit of air floats away in a stream towards the surface, as my arms and legs weaken, as my lungs contract, my diaphragm spasms, and my vision darkens. It's useless, I tell myself. My end has been predetermined since I entered this mind. Sort of like how the real Ririka blended with the one inside Yukiya's mind, because his fear is losing her to water. Shun's fear is being unable to help others, so in his mind there is a repeatedly dying Jin, Hiroki being tormented by snakes, and me, whom Shun could not save from a terrible fate. The darkness feeds off the guilt built up inside him, and since Shun happens to feel guilty a lot (what a saint) the darkness is now thriving more than ever.

And it will drown me. Like the water tornadoes killing Ririka—

But they didn't kill Ririka. In fact, ferocious as they were, they did literally nothing to Ririka. She gave zero fucks and soared through the whole thing to look for the one guy she cared about.

So why couldn't I?

"You don't care about Yukiya like I do," Ririka had explained. "But I bet if it were Shun you would—"

Would I? But how? I can't fly like Ririka, I'm inside a swimming pool and my whole body is screaming for oxygen, there's no way—

Of course. My elega. My lovely waterproof elega.

I play blindly, fingers flying across the slippery surface. The melody sounds distorted underwater, but I hear it and I know the whole world inside Shun's mind hears it too. Not a vicious song that would knock Killer-Shun dead; I don't want him dead. Just a simple tune, so that I can call him to me, call the real one that I know still lives on somewhere in this mind to me. A simple tune with an English horn and some cellos plus a dose of sunshine.

Actually I have no idea where the sunshine part came from; I'm too oxygen-deprived to think. It's a miracle I still know how to play the elega, but then according Ikoma-san, after all, I don't need to think to use this ability. Playing music is something I have always known, something as natural to me as breathing.

Which I kind of really need to do now. Breathe, I mean. And I do, suddenly, surprising even myself as dark-Shun appears to have let go for a brief second, flinching as he hears my instrument played. I break through the surface instinctively, shoving wet hair out of my face and gulping desperately, hoarsely for air. I blink open my eyes before I am pulled under again and see Shun standing at the side of the pool, eyes wide and mad, but not the psychopath kind of mad. The normal Shun kind of mad.

Normal. I have apparently summoned a normal Shun with my elega. It's kind of weird now that there's two of them, but after the hordes of Ikoma-sans I'm not complaining.

"Oh I'm going to fucking kill you," normal-Shun says, and I somehow know this isn't directed towards me. Dark-Shun who is pushing me underwater again knows too, and he simply laughs. His laughter sounds like lots of chords that don't work together being played at the same time. Ew.

"Come on, how are you going to kill me? You can't even swim. Besides, I'm stronger. You have no idea how strong your guilt made me." As abruptly as he had shoved me down, he yanks my head out of the water and I let out a helpless squeal. He continues. "And this girl, this little witch—you won't be able to save her, like the time you let her be raped by a teacher. You will watch her die. And you will feel guilty, yes, how delicious, I can taste your guilt now—"

Abruptly, normal-Shun leaps into the water, and dark-Shun lets go of me, happily embracing the new opportunity for a fight. I quickly paddle with what's left of my strength to the side of the pool, and cling to it pathetically as I try to catch my breath while watching the strange event in front of me unfold, unsure what to do.

Like, what do you do when two versions of the same person are fighting in his own mind? I certainly won't mind killing the evil one, but wouldn't that just kill Shun altogether?

In fact, I probably could kill him right now by smashing the elega over his head. Now that the other Shun is distracting him, I don't think dark-Shun would have time to dodge my weapon. But, still, I don't want to kill him. Crush thing aside, I'm inside Shun's head, after all, and if one of the versions of him dies while I'm inside his head it's anyone's guess what's going to happen to me. I don't really like the prospects.

But I know I have to do something, and soon. Normal-Shun can't swim, despite his jumping into the pool in a moment of bravado, and is quite obviously no match for dark-Shun who is indeed much stronger. I can't let him die just because he somehow thought it was a good idea to jump into a 10-foot deep pool to save me from a psycho version of himself.

Yes, I have to do something. But I can't kill either of the Shuns. I also can't fly like Ririka. What do I do then?

Suddenly, I remember how dark-Shun flinched away at the sound of my instrument. When I stopped playing, he dunked me under again.

He's afraid. Afraid of my elega. Because he thinks I'm a witch, and it's why I need to be drowned. He thinks I'll bewitch him with my elega by playing the song I'd played in front of my class in third grade. Because it was when it started, wasn't it? The teacher called me a witch after I played that song, and now this witch-hating version of Shun exists inside his head.

It kind of hurts to think that apparently at least part of Shun thinks I'm a witch, but I suppose my hurt feelings can wait till later. What's important now is that dark-Shun is afraid that I will bewitch him.

Oh, I'll bewitch the hell out of him.