1 Final Chapter - Once Upon the Death of Snow White

EXT. NOTHINGNESS - SIX TRILLION YEARS IN THE FUTURE

"Huh, wasn't our story supposed to be finished?"

"When we're kept chained, nothing will ever end."

Snow White and a different Snow White conversed while drifting in limbo─I am the former, the confused one is the latter. Switch them out, and you'll essentially get the same person. Although now, I'm not going to desperately decorate myself as some ingenious narrator. First, let's work out on the arrangement: if the narrative suddenly becomes injurious, then I wouldn't be the one talking anymore.

I, as the dissociated self, huffed a bated breath as I, not the dissociated self, didn't answer.

I opened the console instead and consulted someone suited for the job.

"Magic Mirror!" I called and henceforth commanded, "Please scan through the stories of Amaryllis of Crimson Gables."

<Affirmative: scan is complete. May I ask what do you want to with them?> Magic Mirror replied as soon as it processed the prompt.

I, as the dissociated self, continued embellishing his problem with a sigh.

I proceeded to ask a question, "Now tell me, what's the weirdest one of all?"

<Snow White and the Seven Gods.>

Straight to the point: we both sighed─and if the Magic Mirror was configured for the emotion, it would have imitated us.

"I don't know why she's not giving up writing our stories," I, as the dissociated self, assessed. "Why are we being restarted in a prologue again right after disappearing in limbo?"

Ha-ha, I heard myself chuckle.

Laughable for me to mull over a question supposedly bearing an answer easy enough for fools.

I must be lower than a fool not to understand.

Obviously, the author wants to redeem her position after failing herself more than a total of six trillion and one times.

You can only delight or grimace for the cringeworthy remark.

First of all, I've always thought all the stories out there were inspired. While I feel the emotion scurry under my skin, I don't do well in countering what I believe in. So, I'd definitely defend the thought─out of sheer ignorance to all the criticism.

I have the answer to the questions raised: there's another prologue because we're starting anew.

Welcome to the circus─the other story bearing the same name has been finished.

Even with the line already drawn, the story continued to thrive in its creator's mind. When the creator itself decides to take their thoughts on paper, us, the characters, must pay obedience.

I, the dissociative personality, sighed.

Withal, there's no punchline in existence where we─mere figments of imagination─can truly rebel.

Smash to:

EXT. OUTSIDE THE OTOGIBANASHI MANSION - DAY - SNOWING IN SUMMER - AUGUST 2022

Time has stopped and I was the only one who could move inside the Snow Globe. Regardless of the stagnation, I denounced care away from it. The fabrics of reality behaved in an estranged manner.

You should know, I can troubleshoot the dilemma without lifting a finger.

Hilarious for I know I'd rather run away than tinker the problem. Null of thought to that because I established the snow world. And, who was I to run away from a problem I created?

Alien intone played in an unnerving midriff, an eerie sensation too torturing for the common psychology and overdramatic for romance.

Serene enough for an escapist personality.

Cumbersome for the need to save the world.

Perhaps, I should shift the blame before they realize I was the root of each and everyone's demise.

I let out a sigh when I stepped out of the Otogibanashi Mansion and took off for school.

Home, a side of the world you didn't know existed.

Picturesque scenery upon sight, the statues of living beings.

The woman in the bakery served her customers, bearing an irrevocable scorn on her face. Kids from the neighborhood frolicked around enjoying their last day of summer break, boys and girls my demographic bought their popsicles from a convenience store, and there was the store clerk with his gaping mouth to tend to the customers.

Some others here and there, people I know and don't know were busy with their daily lives.

There's nothing anyone in my position could do other than treat them as exhibits.

I was fine with all of it.

Everything in it.

I didn't mind the setting.

I could live here forever, I thought.

"Eep─!"

Then the contradiction occurred: I wasn't alone, much to an annoyance.

I could have sworn I heard an escaped gremlin, but the disappointment came in such a sorry state of white dish towel. Small dress and a straw hat, then to the flapped down bag and small limbs spread across their expected direction. What showed up was a human. Miles away from being a ghost or a goblin.

The little girl tripped over a rock, a mere pebble─or frankly, she tripped on flat ground. I know it wasn't clumsiness for certain. She was a good tactician to have caught my attention.

"Hey, were you a shovel in your past life?" I joked, notwithstanding the continued chuckle. "And, oh! So you're wearing stripes today, huh?"

The gremlin noticed that I was behind.

"Eep, a pervert! Ah─!" A shoe found itself flying towards my face─which I dodged. "Keep your eyes out where they're locked on right now!"

"So you like cats, dish towel gremlin?"

"Who are you calling a dish towel gremlin, you stupid monkey!?"

"Point taken, I'm a stupid monkey, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a dish towel gremlin."

"I'm the most ladylike of every girl you've met!"

Fiercely declared, she elegantly posed in her one-piece dress and fanciful straw hat.

Lady in the highlands? Not a chance, but it's definitely an amazing afterthought. She looks like she's in middle school. First year, late thirteen or early fourteenth, black long hair aflutter.

Her eyes churned a passionate intention to thrust a knife under someone's collarbone.

And I'm not scared.

"Do I know you?" I asked her, curious hence the nonchalance.

"Huh?!" And like a spark between cosmic stones hitting each other, the girl answered in exasperation. "I swear, I'm going to kill you, Shirayuki!"

Yeah, it was weird as almost nobody calls me by my first name.

"Oh, wait, kill me?"

"Of course, I will kill you!" she insisted, ecstatic in her tone. "Jeez! Since when did you get so low as to become a pervert, Shirayuki?"

"Okay… then, who the hell are you?"

"No, this is a pain in the butt! Would that be your regiment of teasing me for the day, Shirayuki?!"

She stomped her foot wayward, and scandalously stated her precious name─

"Ugh, it's me!"

─Nayami Ayanami, a mere human attracted to Chaos Magic.

"Your hope and savior…!"

"Yeah, whatever you say, Lightning McQueen."

"...What?"

I knew her, after all.

She appeared like a mushroom some days past.

Who knew I could forget someone despite my condition?

Out of character.

"Ugh, more importantly, apologize for seeing my panties!"

I looked sideways, appalled. "Please blame yourself for being a shovel in your past life."

"Gah─! You saw my panties! Unforgivable, unforgivable! Annoyingly unforgivable!"

I didn't say anything back.

"I'm going to alert the patrol!"

She continued to whine, administering her rights as a citizen of Japan and an alleged resident of Nichiyoubi. In her perfect discomfort, she flailed her head as if traumatized. Totally, a cumbersome person to deal with─one amalgamated from both my older sister and our ever annoying little sister.

The bottom line, can someone take her away?

I guess there isn't anyone interested.

"...Ugh, this is the worst. My morning is ruined because of Shirayuki!"

I'm taking all the blame when I should be the victim.

Nonetheless, I just smiled.

"How bad can you be, and how worse can you become for obstructing a little girl's onrush?"

Little kids, especially on her level of precociousness, can only be cumbersome.

I decided to get swayed by the ride.

"Now, why were you in a hurry?"

No matter what I do now, the ritual didn't work and has to be taken down.

When the sole purpose for it was to clear my thoughts away from problems, I'm offered a dysfunctional character instead.

No forgiveness for utter failures: although when the frustration becomes a harmless child, I suppose she shouldn't be yeeted to nonexistence.

"Hmph, I don't think there was even a time that I wasn't rushing off to school!" she replied fast, still in her fastidious demeanor.

"You're doing it despite being aware?"

In any case, since I created the space, she had no school to attend─and it was Sunday, making it a blatant excuse.

Likewise for myself who was only on his way there with an objective: take something out of the classroom before I wake up.

From how it turned out, it's already a gamble to reach the objective─and I failed the spell. Cumbersome to say the least, but it's fair game from a reliance of luck. I know I'd be called Mister Obvious, but chaos is random.

That said, I have no foregoing relationship with urgency that I didn't mind the excursion.

Surely, if something passes by and I'm not involved, I'm entitled to peace of mind.

"Um well, you know… I guess it's a force of habit? Pardon me for being born this way, idiot!"

"I don't know why you're rushing but are you gonna let yourself be late by bantering to an idiot?"

"...Hmm, to be honest, with a world like this, I don't even know why I'm in a hurry."

I don't have the luxury to think why I'm not rushing besides all the points.

Being stuck in a time cage and walking on snow during September is a fairly common occurrence. Like most premonitions, it's nothing grand as to fret about─both in mind and body.

"Such a blunder, makes me wonder, ah─! It rhymes!" Nayami blurted out, thoughts given out loud.

And so, the uninterested contrarian synchronized, "What the heck, Nayami. It really rhymes."

"Hmph! You're not a good person! Okay, let me heal your soul!" She extended her hand, wholly regarding her willingness to console me of my worries. "Is there something that's bugging your mind, Shirayuki?!"

"Yeah. You."

She puffed her cheeks, then yelled in complete dismay, "...My, why are you so mean?!"

"You're the reason why I'm being mean."

I don't know why but she felt joyous with my statement and still posed the same question. "No, I'm not! What's bugging your mind, Shirayuki?!"

I shot her off. "What are you, the devil?"

Stare, and stare back.

"Hey, Shirayuki, would it kill you if you're not gonna be mean to me even for a day?"

I…

It's entirely moronic, the eccentricity to lush out is not even something I can answer by the drop of a hat.

I sighed, and only patted her head.

"Uoh?!" Her shock emerged in utter surprise, and looked up. "What in hell is your objective, rewarding me like that?"

"Yeah, serve you right."

I walked onwards, away from the uneventful barricade set by the dishtowel gremlin. Maybe she was a zombie, but brushing total care onto her existence didn't mean issues would be resolved. Snow White had his time cheaply bought by the goblin─and he hates it.

But time has stopped in the Snow Globe so she exerted an effort too futile, I might as well laugh as the villain.

"Shirayuki! Please come pick us up when you're done, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be," I said, waving a hand. "But I think that's on you."

I huffed a sigh, and looked back. Nayami Ayanami and I, Shirayuki Otogibanashi, stared at each other. I mirrored her chagrin. Which may have said we knew what was going on─we didn't have to spell it out for each other.

"Tomorrow," and yet, I spelled out. "I'll be waiting for my death from your own hands, okay?"