—When asked what part of him she loved, Renko Hikawa had answered without hesitation, “All of him.”

She loved his gentleness, she loved how he was awkward but honest, she loved how even though he seemed strong and masculine, he was actually fairly pure and sweet and therefore, she felt as if she had value by protecting him. And though she normally couldn’t stand idiots, she even loved how he was a little dumb and charmingly pathetic. She loved all of him.

Even so, if she had to name just one quality…?

Finally, after puzzling it over, Renko gave this answer:

“I love the murderous melody that plays for him.”

Renko’s brain was somewhat unusual. Every single one of her emotions was somehow tied to the act of murder. Happiness and sadness and anger and distress, fear and impatience and longing and jealousy…

All of them mixed together into something confusing and bizarre, jumbled together in infinite variety to play the many diverse sounds of her murderous melody. Death metal, brutal death metal, techno death metal, melodic death metal, hardcore, metalcore, deathcore, mathcore, chaotic hardcore…though it was always a “murderous melody,” there was some deviation in the genre. It was rough and violent, beastly music, and depending on the person, she couldn’t suppress her emotions when she heard it. It stopped if she was wearing her limiter, the thing shaped like a black gas mask, but from the moment she had been born, she couldn’t find even a moment’s calm without the echo of background music, so even with her limiter on, she also always wore headphones that played the music that most closely resembled her murderous melody. No music, no life. To Renko, living was playing music, and playing music was killing.

So what Renko had initially been drawn to was not Kyousuke himself but the murderous melody that flowed through her head whenever she thought of him.

And she could never forget what had happened the night after she first exchanged words with him—what had happened when Renko took her limiter off in her room in the student dorms. Renko’s whole world was shattered in one instant by the melody that filled her then. It was a magnificent tune, enough to make all the music she had listened to before seem like nothing more than annoying noise. And the more she thought of him, the more the melody grew deep and clear, and her emotional reaction to the music only made it even more powerful—on and on in a dreamlike spiral. The rushing torrent swallowed Renko up in the blink of an eye…

—and dropped her into love.

Well, she had probably fallen in love on her own first. It was the first time she had ever experienced love, and she had not been able to recognize her own feelings without the tune of her murderous melody playing. But why…why was it that she felt such love for him…? She had wandering thoughts like this every night. As she contemplated her love, the marvelous tune would play, and Renko would transcribe the score in a trance. She wrote lyrics for that tune, gave voice to them, and sang a song that contained her true feelings. She forgot time; she forgot herself and wallowed in her love.

And so it came as a terrible shock when he rejected her love, and she was assaulted by an overwhelming sense of loss and the feeling that her whole world had been swallowed up, even more so than when she had first fallen in love. The magnificent murderous melody ground to a stop, leaving her in anguish, struggling to breathe. For the first time since her birth, she knew the saltiness of flowing tears.

Because of the pain she had felt in the past, Renko was all the more insanely happy when she unexpectedly heard his words:

“Who the hell would go with you?! I’m going back, back to my world—or if not, Renko will send me to the other side. There are no other options.”

This, however, had come after she’d been knocked comatose by a surprise attack at the conclusion of the Deadly Exit Exam, the conclusion of which would determine her future with him.

And those words had pulled her back from the brink. And even if she had imagined them, even if she was his lowest priority, she didn’t mind at all. Renko was simply happy happy happy happy happy happy happy…

She was so happy, she had already stopped caring about what happened to her.

Caring about her own life.

Caring about her own happiness.

That was why—

“I’m entrusting Kyousuke to you.”

Renko had said that to her—to the girl who was her foremost rival in love and also her best friend. She decided to entrust everything to her. Entrust his life. Entrust his happiness. She would ask that girl to handle everything.

If it was her, she could without a doubt protect his life in broken-down Renko’s place.

If it was her, she could without a doubt carry the burden of his happiness in worn-out Renko’s place.

“……Huh? Ah, don’t tell me, you’re—”

The girl’s eyes had opened wide.

Oh good, she understands perfectly—that’s right, I’m planning to throw it all away. My own life and my own happiness, I’m planning to give it up for the sake of his life and happiness. Please help me. Please support me. Make up for my loss after I’m gone, Eiri…

She had tried to make these thoughts come through in her words.

But he probably won’t understand, so…

“I won’t die.”

Renko had decided to lie.

“I will absolutely come to kill you,” she had said. “No matter how many days pass, no matter how many months pass, no matter how many years pass. No matter where you are, no matter where I am, no matter how far apart we are, I will come to you.”

Since it seemed as if her lie would be laid bare if she met his eyes, she had spoken those words in a strong voice, keeping her back turned to him.

I’m the worst. I’m a cruel woman.

No matter how often she repeated to herself that she didn’t care what happened, the truth was that she was slowly filling with regret after throwing everything away several seconds earlier. The reason that Renko had lied was not to persuade him. It was to persuade herself.

There was not much left of Renko’s life. That was a matter of course, since she had unleashed her Over Drive for the second time. She would die. She would certainly die. But there was no helping it. If Renko hadn’t done it, Eiri would have been killed, Ayaka would have been killed, Renji would have been killed (perhaps he already had been?), and Kyousuke would have been turned into mad little Origa’s plaything… That was no good. No good at all!

And although she had given up her own life, she had not quite given up all happiness, it seemed. The lie that Renko had told him was not entirely meant as a vow. It was also a curse.

The curse of the seed of promise planted in his heart, the promise that “Renko will come and reap me.” The curse of fleeting hope had taken root. Even after she herself had passed away, he would continue to think about her. As long as he believed her promise and longed for her without giving up… If she had just this one small happiness, Renko could finish out her life with a clear heart.

Just the tiniest glimmers of painful regret remained, but that was fine as long as he had his life and happiness, she thought. She tried to think.

—And then it happened.

“Renkooooooooo!”

“……?!”

As she was leaving, he cried out to her. Thinking that her lie had been exposed, Renko trembled and shook. However—

“—I’ll be looking forward to it, okay?! Some day, some month, some year—I’ll be waiting always for you to come and kill me!”

In that moment, as he made that declaration, everything fell into place.

“…………Eh?”

The tune of the murderous melody that was reverberating around inside of Renko changed. It didn’t lapse into irregular meter or shift keys. The music itself transformed. It evolved from melancholic progressive death metal full of pathos to sublime symphonic black metal full of hope and majesty—

“……Kyou…suke……?”

Despite herself, Renko had looked back, but he had already turned away and was running from that place. The elegant tone of the music, weaving together stringed instruments and harps, tore through the clouds that hung thickly over Renko’s heart, allowing radiant light to stream in. It was more dazzling and filled her with more complex feelings than any murderous melody she had ever heard before. She was absolutely overwhelmed. It took her breath away and engulfed her heart, and the next thing she knew, Renko was—

“……Heh…heh-heh…ah-ha…ah-ha-ha-ha…ah-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

—laughing. The obstacle in front of her had said something or other, but it had been completely drowned out by the fierce roar of music, and she hadn’t heard a word of it. Layered on top of the savage riffs and harmonics of the guitar was a magnificent keyboard harmony, and a ferocious drumming kept the beat. That tune—rapture that was almost like fear—gripped Renko as she realized that this was the song of true love.

And while she felt joy and regret and heartache and sorrow and fear and despair and remorse and disbelief, one harsh and vivid emotion dominated all the others:

I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill I want to kill—

I want to kill him.

“………Ah, I’m sorry, Eiri! My murderous melody has changed, and I’ve changed my mind.”

As she apologized, she gathered strength in all four limbs. Her blurred vision cleared, and the silhouette in front of her turned into a distinct figure. Trumpets played valiantly, as if they were signaling the start of a great battle.

“I’m going to keep my promise. He’ll be waiting for me. To think, he feels that strongly for me…heh-heh… There’s no way he would betray me, right?”

Renko clenched her fists, grabbing hold of a future that she had once thrown away and crushing the small happiness that she felt in her last moments.

Listening to the lovely murderous melody playing for her beloved, she thought—I won’t die. I absolutely will not die. And even if I do die, I’ll come back. Even if I have to crawl up from the depths of hell, I’ll open my eyes, and without fail……