Gold Foil

Chapter Two: An Altar of Chrysanthemums

Silence envelopes the room like a lover's embrace and Satoru worries that everyone can hear the cacophonous beating of his heart. It's too bright in the shrine and Satoru's eyes are hurting, his hand twitches for the broken shades that's stashed away in his pocket. He tries his best to listen to the soft words of the priest but they just sound foreign to him. It's impossible for him to focus outside the fact that he's really getting married.

Satoru is the first to admit that he's not very well versed in how weddings go but he's pretty sure this one is far from normal. He has vague memories of attending one as a child and he remembers a loving and happy couple being married in swaths of brilliant reds and whites and yellows. Smiling faces of their families, proud to be united through such a joyous ceremony. Satoru also remembers the after party with beautiful music and an overabundance of food and his killer dance moves on the floor. He's never figured he'd be the type to get married and never gave it any thought but this is borderline depressing. He wonders if he at least gets an after party.

This wedding is dour and quiet. There's no eye-catching colors or a sea of smiling families, friends and coworkers; rather, Satoru is stranded in the middle of a vast and icy tundra of suffocating silence. Getou is standing next to him, adorned in all white. Every little detail that makes Getou his own person is robbed; there's no half attempted bun or obsidian plugs that decorate his ears. Most of all, the serene smile that usually graces his lips is absent. The man next to Satoru looks more like an uncanny mannequin rather than a living being.

Satoru, himself, is also wearing all white. Pale skin blends into white fabric and ghostly blue eyes are framed by snow white hair. Satoru thinks that if he does end up losing his job after this stunt, he could just audition to be a ghost in a horror film. All he'd have to do is show some big shot director his wedding photo.

Idly, he wonders if this is actually a funeral procession rather than what's supposed to be a wedding. His mind circles back around the thought of his ghostly appearance and finds that the entire atmosphere is oddly, and depressingly, fitting. Before them, a solemn old man is going through some chants and behind them is a grand total of two whole guests. Ieiri and Yaga stand silent and still like statues. Satoru had tried to get Nanami to attend but ever since the death of Haibara, Nanami has become even withdrawn, grim and sullen. His offer was declined before Satoru could even finish inviting him.

He thickly swallows and feels like he's being choked by his clothing; Satoru hates having anything close to his neck, unpleasant memories threaten to come forth and make him relive his nightmares. A bead of sweat drips down between his shoulder blades and Satoru wants nothing more than to loosen the collar and breathe. His outfit is far too stiff and uncomfortable and he feels like a stranger in his own body. He has to close his eyes and tell himself that this will be over soon and that hopefully the worst is past them.

Maybe this really is more like a funeral because he realizes that he's mourning over that they are no longer the carefree youth that they used to be. When had everything become so complicated anyway? Satoru becomes melancholic when he registers that the best part of his life is probably now over. It's sad that just a year and a half prior, he shared high aspirations of changing the world for the better with his two best friends. Now, Satoru can't help but reflect that they couldn't change the world but the world had changed them and it certainly wasn't a change for the better. In fact, Getou slaughtering an entire village proves that. His head begins to hurt from just trying to process it.

Here on out, he'll be viewed as a traitor in the sorcerer world. Marrying on the whim to save a killer of innocent people, Satoru can already imagine what the other sorcerers will say behind their backs. Regardless, he can't bring himself to care about what venomous things everyone will say because if he was given a second chance, he would still make the same decision all over again. He loves Getou far too much to let him go.