The moment those words fell.
The entire world paused.
It was as though someone had suddenly hit rewind on a machine running at full speed. Its gears caught for a beat, then began turning backward.
The gray slope was shrinking.
Starting from that sun forever suspended at dusk, the light drew back, the colors faded, and the dark yellow sky washed away layer by layer like ink beneath running water.
The dead trees on either side of the slope receded. Their gray branches shrank back, turning into saplings, then seeds, then disappearing.
Time reclaimed Suishi's domain.
The old man's body froze at the top of the slope, his scythe resting on his shoulder, his cloudy eyes suddenly widening.
He felt it. The years were running backward.
"Impossible."
"That's impossible!"
But the truth was right before his eyes.
Maki Zenin's grip on her long blade steadied again. The gray-white brand on the back of her hand rapidly faded, the wrinkles in her skin smoothed out, her atrophied muscles filled out again, and her spine straightened one vertebra at a time.
Maki looked down at her hands. Her knuckles were strong, her skin smooth.
"What happened?"
Their senses had aged so much earlier that they could neither see nor hear what Inumaki had done.
Mai Zenin stood beside her, still holding her gun. The impatience and exhaustion on her face vanished together, and the light returned to her eyes.
She glanced at her older sister.
"You..."
"You're back to normal?"
Panda lay on the ground as his fur grew back, black-and-white fluff covering his dusty gray skin. He sprang up, landed on all fours, and shook his head.
But Panda had clearly seen everything Inumaki had done, and his gaze stayed fixed on him.
"Inumaki..."
Noritoshi Kamo and Kokichi Muta watched everything